Chapter 157: Raid

Both sides have bad intentions, both feel that they can win, and both have made a lot of preparations. Under this premise, the straw that broke the camel of peace appeared. Gu Weijun, Premier of the Cabinet of the Republic of China, met with the Soviet ambassador to China and pointed out that the clashes near Yanki Kurgan were entirely caused by the unilateral sabotage of the peace agreement by the Soviet army. In response, the Chinese government demanded that the Soviet side withdraw its armed forces from the former demilitarized zone. In order to show good faith, the Chinese [***] team can also withdraw to Ferghana. The deadline for this note is 24 hours, after which the Soviet side is fully responsible for the consequences.

According to the Chinese side, this is a last resort to save peace! According to the Soviet side, this was an ultimatum under Chinese imperialism. Think about it, what did Stalin do when it was too late for Finland and the Baltic countries to hide from him. It is not difficult to imagine how Stalin would have reacted under such a note.

Thus, a major war was inevitable, and Stalin decided on the implementation of the Central Asian operational plan. The main core of the plan was to encircle and annihilate the main forces of Chinese imperialism in Central Asia. In order to achieve the purpose of this campaign, the Soviet army gathered five mechanized corps, five cavalry corps, and 70 infantry divisions in Central Asia. The total strength is 1.5 million, 4,300 artillery pieces, 1,500 tanks, and 2,800 aircraft. Commanding the campaign was the commander of the Central Asian Front, Pavlov.

The plan was drawn up by the Central Asian Front of the Soviet Army, and after being reported to the General Staff, it was approved by Stalin. In fact, in the discussion of this plan, there are still opposing voices, and this voice comes from Zhukov. Because in Zhukov's eyes, the plan made a big mistake, that is, it failed to concentrate the use of troops. Pavlov's plan was for the Soviets to split into four routes, the first of which was to set out from Khujand to contain the defenders threatening Ferghana and Andijan. The second route starts from Tashkent, aiming at Bishkek, and the third route starts from Balkhash, echoing the second route from Tashkent, flanking Bishkek and cutting off the connection between the Chinese side in the entire Central Asian war situation in one fell swoop. The fourth route starts from East Kazakhstan and takes the barrier of the Andy Railway, Tardy Kurgan, and then cuts off the railway supply line of the entire Central [***] fleet in Central Asia. The first stage of the campaign had two key points, the first was whether Lì could capture Bishkek, and the second was whether Lì could take Bardikurgan.

Zhukov briefly served as commander of the Fourth Army, but this did not prevent him from having a comprehensive understanding of the situation in Central Asia. At the meeting, Zhukov stressed the air superiority of Chinese imperialism. If this problem cannot be solved, then the third and fourth routes will be bombarded indiscriminately by the Chinese imperialist air force during the long march. If these two roads do not achieve the goal of the campaign, then the outcome of the campaign is worrying.

Zhukov's correct opinion did not attract enough attention from Stalin, or Stalin had been holding back such a breath of resentment for a long time. Attack the enemy with twice as many troops, and listen to any talk of possible defeat.

The decision was made, and Soviet Foreign Commissar Molotov sent a note to the Chinese ambassador, saying that the demands made by the Chinese side were crude and unreasonable, and that the Soviet political axe had the determination and ability to defend the country's interests from being violated. The Soviet Red Army was confident of destroying an enemy who dared to attack. The meaning of this wording, the Soviet army is not afraid of your attack, it is not a small smoke bomb. In fact, before this note, the Soviet army's war planes had already been activated, and all parts of Central Asia had begun to assemble. Because it has been preparing for a long time, the preparation period for this campaign is one week, which seems to be very short.

In order to achieve the sudden surname of the attack, the Soviet ambassador to China also asked to see Fang Jianxiong many times, but was refused. This move was regarded by the Soviet Union as closing the door to foreign countries, and Stalin's determination to fight this battle was even stronger.

When the Soviet army was preparing for the campaign, the Chinese side did not think much about taking the initiative to attack. The reason is very simple, Fang Jianxiong has always believed that the focus of the Sino-Soviet war should be the Far East, and that place is good for cooperating with the Soviet Union to attack China. Therefore, the Central Asian side has always been prepared to focus on defense, if the Soviet army fights, let the Soviet army shed blood in front of the strong fortifications, and when the Soviet army is exhausted, the second-line troops stationed in Ili and Dihua will be put into a counterattack.

Fang Jianxiong's wishful thinking is that it is better to fight in the Siberian region, all the way up from Uriya Sutai, all the way from Irkutsk to the west, and it is not too difficult to meet Novosibirsk before winter comes. When winter comes, there will be a truce, waiting for the next spring to continue fighting, the reason why Fang Jianxiong's ambition is in Siberia is very simple, because in that place in Central Asia, Fang Jianxiong wants to support the national reading power. A bunch of stans, all of them have to let their national reading ability, anyway, if they don't do this, the United States will also propose this in the future, it is better to start first, and at the same time liberate the various stans in Central Asia, and at the same time, let a bunch of small pro-China countries come out.

It must be said that Fang Jianxiong is a human being, not an immortal, and his determination to estimate the determination of the Soviet army has certain deficiencies. However, the Chinese side has done a very good job in terms of defense, and it is somewhat emboldened.

At five o'clock in the morning on 31 August, from Kanibadam to Kokand and Yanki Kurgan, and then to Talas and Taldi Kurgan, the entire Central Asian theater suddenly resounded with the heaviest shelling of the Wehrmacht since its creation. It cannot but be said here that the Soviet army's pre-war preparations and concealment were very good, especially on the lines of Kanibadam, Kokand, and Yanki Kurgan, and the Soviet army's preparations were not detected by the defenders on the opposite side in the slightest.

A full 4,300 artillery pieces bombarded the positions of the Chinese defenders at the same time. Kanibadam had only a small cavalry garrison, and was not able to organize resistance after being attacked. More than 30 pieces of Soviet artillery bombarded, and a cavalry battalion was disabled, leaving dozens of people, almost all of whom were wounded, and retreated in the direction of Kokand on horseback. In the direction of Kokand, the Soviets concentrated more than 500 artillery pieces, and the Kokand and Yanki Kurgans were the core centers of the Fergana Valley, in which the [***] team had a small field airfield and a defensive unit of an infantry division and a cavalry division.

Almost as soon as the war began, the Soviet artillery destroyed the airfield, and at the same time as the cannon sounded, the Soviet fighters appeared in Wuyang. Despite the early and thorough preparations, at the very beginning of the war, the Chinese side was dealt a heavy blow, especially the troops deployed on the front line, which suffered heavy losses in the shelling.

The fiercest part of the Soviet attack was the Taras Line. There were five fortified batteries here, two infantry divisions defended here, and more than n mines were planted at the front of the positions. In order to break through this defensive line, the Soviet army concentrated a full 1,500 artillery pieces, and instantly blew up the garrisons of the [***] teams in Taras, Bodgornoye, and Akor Tobe, which were in a sea of fire. In Aksu and Prague Veschenka, the Soviet troops concentrated a thousand artillery pieces and bombarded our lines. This line was defended by two infantry divisions and was the only way for the Soviet troops to move south to Bishkek.

In TaldiKurgan, the Soviets concentrated a thousand artillery pieces and bombarded our defensive lines.

The first battlefield of the face-to-face confrontation between the Chinese and Soviet armies was in the air, and the radar stations deployed in various parts of the front line caught the Soviet fighters almost immediately. There are more than 100 large and small airfields in Fergana, Andijan, Bishkek, Almaty, and other places, and 15 fighter wings and five bomber wings are deployed. After receiving the radar warning, the Air Force did not wait for the upper hand to give the order and immediately issued the order to take off for operation.

While the Soviet army's artillery preparations were still continuing, the first wing in the air to discover Soviet fighters was 100 new Mustang B fighters from Gao Zhihang's 20th Fighter Wing, and it cannot but be said that the fate of the Soviet Air Force was doomed to tragedy from the beginning. Gao Zhihang, who personally piloted the fighter planes to attack, found that the Soviet fighter group consisted of about 100 fighters and 150 bombers. It's like a pervert encountering a large number of beauties, and his eyes were red at that time.

Gao Zhihang, who was very experienced in dealing with the old biplane fighters of the Soviet army, commanded the Mustang fighter group to climb and then dive rapidly. In the first dive, 88 Soviet planes were knocked out, and then the process of chasing and killing in the sky followed. However, the other fighter wings did not have such good luck, because of the misjudgment of the strategic direction, the Air Force also had only one wing of Mustang B in Central Asia, and one wing of Mustang A, and the other fighters were all old-fashioned Eagle Three. The advanced fighters are mainly placed in the Far East, staring at the Siberian battlefield. Unexpectedly, the Soviet army concentrated its forces to attack Central Asia first, which made China suffer a lot of losses at the beginning.

The Soviets prepared for two hours of artillery fire, during which most of the Soviet bombers were not intercepted, and many military targets were bombed by Soviet planes. The fierce fighting in the air did not stop on this day, and 1,500 Chinese fighters fought to the death with more than 2,000 Soviet fighters of the Soviet army. From dawn onwards, they began to fight in the air until it was dark. During the daytime air battles, the Soviet Air Force suffered the heaviest blow since its formation, with more than 1,200 aircraft shot down. On the Chinese side, on the other hand, more than 600 planes were shot down, including less than 20 of the Mustang A and B models.

The ground battles, the Soviet troops did not go very smoothly, first of all, on the Kokand and Yanki Kurgan lines, during the two-hour artillery fire, the artillery battles of both sides were very happy, and each suffered a lot of losses. In comparison, the ratio of battle losses between the two armies was about 1.5:1. In other words, the losses of the Soviet side were greater, and the problem was that the garrison on this line of defense was not the main force. Rather, there are two new local reading divisions, and the artillery is still the old 155 and 105. The Soviet army's 122 howitzers had a long range, and the guns of the medium [***] team could not reach them, but the Soviet army's 76 caliber guns were not so lucky. Fatally, most of the four artillery regiments of the [***] squadron were hidden in strong fortifications. The 122 howitzer cannot hit directly, then there is not much practical significance.