Lieutenant General Bamiyanov, commander of the 43rd Soviet Army, was about to go crazy by the order of the Front Command.

What kind of situation the group army is in now is very clear in several urgent telegrams to the front army headquarters, "The second and third armies to which they belong have been completely annihilated, and only the troops directly under the first army and the group army headquarters are entangled in the area of Barekcha by the superior independent division units, and every step back will have to pay a great price, and the corpses of the soldiers are paved with the road to retreat!" ”

As far as the troops directly under the First Army and the Group Army, with a strength of no more than 60,000 people, can finally break through the encirclement, that is God forbid, and they want to entangle the main force of the independent division in turn, isn't it crazy?

The results of the Second and Third Armies are easy to judge: at the beginning of the campaign, the independent division besieged the troops of the headquarters of the first army and the group army, and although the offensive was fierce, it was not enough to completely drag down its own retreat, and at dawn, the situation on the battlefield changed heavily, and the attack of the independent division was not only more violent, but also gradually compressed its own living space, and it was clear that it was a tendency to encircle itself!

If the Second Army and the Third Army were still fighting, and that Chinese Tang Qiuli was not able to take out all his strength, the first and second divisions of the First Army of the Group Army, desperately opening a gap for the Group Army Headquarters and the Third Division, paying a huge price for casualties every minute, in this case, let the 43rd Group Army drag the pace of the main forces of the independent division, either wishful thinking or the guys in the front army headquarters, lost their minds!

Lieutenant General Bamiyanov was so angry that he was about to faint, but he didn't know who to vent his inner anger to, and the sound of gunfire outside was as tight as a burst. The dawn of dawn was obscured by the smoke of war everywhere, and there was a desperate and tense atmosphere in the temporary headquarters, and the shells that flew from time to time shook the dilapidated stone house, and all the staff officers looked at the commander like a wooden man.

Lieutenant General Bamiyanov, sighed. Asked: "Comrade Chief of Staff, how long will it take for the troops of the four group armies to rescue us to reach the battlefield at the earliest?" ”

Chief of Staff Khabarovsky, looking at the telegram in his hand, replied: "Comrade commander." Tomorrow before 7 a.m. ”

Lieutenant General Bamiyanov's face was ashen and he shook his head. "Before seven o'clock tomorrow morning?" Joke. It is not yet six o'clock in the morning, that is to say, with the strength of a broken and incomplete army, it is possible to resist the siege of more than 200,000 men of the independent division for more than 24 hours?

Even the 3rd Division of the 1st Army, which did not suffer much losses, was able to hold out until before 3 o'clock this afternoon. is already a rare master, this is still in constant retreat, and now, it is a race with the troops of the independent division. As soon as it stopped, it would be surrounded on all sides, and it had been reported that on the left and right flanks, there were independent divisions moving rapidly towards the front of the troops' breakthrough.

"Order the troops, immediately stop the breakout, shrink the defensive line, and build a defensive position on the spot, and we will be in the area of Barekcha, holding on and waiting for reinforcements!" Lieutenant General Bamiyanov's eyes were filled with a gambler-like gray light, and he ordered unquestionably.

Chief of Staff Khabarovsky was stunned, hesitated, and said: "Comrade commander, if we hold on and wait for help, we will immediately fall into the encirclement of the troops of the independent division on all sides, and now, relying on our constant movement and breakthrough, the Chinese have never formed a situation of encirclement on all sides, once we stop, the consequences are unimaginable, please think twice!" ”

Lieutenant General Bamiyanov, with a blank face, asked rhetorically: "My comrade chief of staff, even if we don't stick to the same place and wait for reinforcements, continue to retreat like this, and wait until the reinforcements arrive, do you think the group army will be able to hold out until that time?" I'm afraid that before the reinforcements arrive, we will be eaten by Tang Qiuli's troops. ”

Lieutenant General Bamiyanov's tone was full of helplessness and resignation, "Even if we are lucky enough to break through and send out part of the troops, but we have not fulfilled the order of the front command, do you think that Commander Vasilevsky can spare us?" Hold on to help, there is still a glimmer of hope! He said.

Chief of Staff Khabarovsky's expression was sluggish, and the commander was telling the truth, now, all the troops of the front army are rushing to the Minusinsk battlefield in a hurry, which means that the main force of the southern front, commanded by General Vasilevsky, has to give up the campaign plan to take Kulen directly, which means that the campaign plan of the Outer Mongolian Front is completely disrupted.

If by then, the 43rd Army had only one breath left and survived, and the main force of more than one million fronts, exhausted and tired to the battlefield, was empty-handed, took advantage of the troops of the Soviet Independent Division, and went away victorious, and the always short-tempered General Vasilevsky could spare the survivors?

Comrade commander and his own life, not taken by the Chinese, will also be taken by the commander of the front, the general of the defeated army, a charge of not completing the task, it is enough!

The chief of staff of Khabarovsk, silently turned around, and was about to leave, Lieutenant General Bamiyanov called out to him, "Comrade Chief of Staff, convey to all the officers and then the soldiers of the unit that the reinforcement of our troops, a total of four armies, is still six hours away from the battlefield, as long as we hold on for another six hours, we can wait for reinforcements, and all the surviving fighters of our 43rd Army are the heroes of the great Soviet Red Army!" ”

The dawn of dawn pierced through the dark gray stratus clouds, projecting a little light onto the cold earth, and the morning breeze became more and more cold, and everything around Minusinsk was shrouded in a dark cold.

"Report to the division commander, after receiving a telegram from the attacking troops, the Soviet army suddenly stopped continuing to break through, the forces were shrinking, and the position was built in place, and our offensive slowed down!" Chief of Staff Zhao Yuhe hurriedly walked into the tent and said to Tang Qiuli, who was half-closed in his eyes.

"Huh?" Tang Qiuli opened his eyes suddenly, frowned, and then said with a sneer: "Hmph, that Bamiyanov, it is estimated that he will not be able to run, he wants to hold on and wait for reinforcements, okay, the opportunity has come, order the troops, immediately encircle the Soviet army, and before eleven o'clock at noon today, be sure to end the battle." ”

"Yuhe, you adjust the deployment again, put all your forces into it, and the last blow, we are snatching food from Vasilevsky's mouth! Time, the key is the time to end the battle! ”

Zhao Yuhe said: "It's the division commander, we have ordered the third and fifth brigades to rush to the front of the Soviet army at full speed, plug the only gap, and in another hour, we can form a battlefield situation surrounded on all sides, and the Soviet army will not be able to run!" ”

After a pause, Zhao Yuhe said: "Division commander, in order to end the battle as much as possible, do you order the Northern Flying Group Outer Mongolia patrol area, withdraw the troops in the Pingjin area, and send combat aircraft to participate in the battle, so as to strengthen the attack on the Soviet army?" ”

Tang Qiuli shook his head and said: "No need, time is too tight, in case it is entangled by the Soviet Air Force, with the strength in Meng Qingpeng's hands, it will suffer, Yuhe, the troops must adopt the method of tanks to cover the infantry, attack from all sides, and compress the center, compress the Soviet troops into a narrow area, concentrate all the artillery fire, make the final blow, and completely kill the Soviet 43rd Army, we only have five hours!" ”

"Five hours!" Zhao Yuhe's gaze froze, "Division commander, do you judge that after eleven o'clock at noon today, the reinforcements of the Soviet army can arrive, instead of the original expectation, and it will have to be around six o'clock this evening at the earliest?" He asked.

Tang Qiuli's expression was a little heavy, and he said slowly: "When Bamiyanov was trying his best to break through, he suddenly changed his movements, with the strength of only one army, he dared to hold on and wait for reinforcements, either relying on it, or desperately, if it is the former, it will fall within our expectations, if it is the latter, the Soviet army will inevitably do a death struggle, and the end of the battle will be delayed, which is not good for us!" ”

"Therefore, five hours is our greatest limit, because we must keep a distance of more than a day from the main force of the Soviet army that has come to reinforce, if we can destroy it all within the specified time, it is best, if not, we must also hit as hard as possible!"

The situation on the battlefield changed suddenly, and the only remaining corps of the Soviet 43rd Army, plus the directly subordinate troops, estimated at more than 70,000 troops, surrounded the Barekcha area, shrunk the defense area, established a circular defensive position, and resisted the independent division troops attacking from all directions.

Because of the order of Lieutenant General Bamiyanov, reinforcements were coming, and the Soviet army, which was surrounded in the area of Barekcha, had the desire to survive, and burst out with unprecedented combat effectiveness, holding on to every position, fighting to the death and not retreating, the battle was very fierce, Tang Qiuli invested all his troops, and launched a fierce attack on the Soviet army's ring defense system, but the progress was not as smooth as expected.

In the headquarters of the Outer Mongolian Front of the Soviet Union, west of Ulanguben, the commander and political commissar General Vasilevsky was not even in the mood to be angry, and the first thing he did after receiving the urgent telegram from the 43rd Group Army was to dismiss the head of the intelligence department of the front army, put him in custody, and wait for the trial of the military law.

Yes, the predicament we are facing now is all caused by the mistakes of the intelligence department, and the main force of the Chinese Tang Qiuli, which is simply in Minusinsk and the independent division troops that appeared in the Tangnu Mountains on the southern front, is a suspicious soldier, but from the General Directorate of Military Intelligence of the General Staff to its own intelligence department, they were all fooled!

As for the third thing to be done, that is, the question of how to rescue the 43rd Army, in the mind of General Vasilevsky, it was not just as simple as rescuing, he also thought that he wanted to seize Tang Qiuli's main force in the area of Minusinsk.

(To be continued)(To be continued......