Mikhail. Nikolayevich was in a very depressed mood, and these days he locked himself in his house and did not want to see anyone. is the favorite beautiful woman in the past, and His Royal Highness the Grand Duke is not interested in it at all. Fine, Mikhail. Nikolayevich's decadence did not reach the point of alcoholism, otherwise Mikhail . Grand Duke Nikolayevich could not bear the blow, and the news of daily drunkenness and complete decadence had probably reached Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Of course, Mikhail . Nikolayevich was removed from the post of commander-in-chief of the Western Front of the Russian army by Alexander III. The Tsar replaced the current Governor-General of Turkestan - Infantry General Prozorovsky as the new commander-in-chief of the Russian army.

But it didn't work. Prozorovsky had no more war wisdom, he had no troops in his hands, no artillery, just like a clever woman who could not cook without rice, and he was still beaten by the Wehrmacht who were rapidly rolling westward.

In order to make up for the disadvantage of the Russian army in the Kazakh region, Prozorovsky directly stopped the offensive of the Russian army in the Ili River valley, drew troops from it, and rushed reinforcements north. But it doesn't help at all!

In particular, after the cavalry unit led by Liu Jintang captured a number of trains, and cooperated with the capture of Balkhash City, the speed of the Wehrmach's march increased greatly, and the tight logistics finally had a hint of relaxation.

The bullets and shells of the Russian army are not common to the Wehrmacht, but the necessary supplies such as grain, sugar, salt, cattle and sheep are absolutely universal. This puts too much pressure on the logistics of the Defence Force. Moreover, after the capture of Balkhash, the Wehrmacht had railways, and trains were owned. As long as the railroad tracks deliberately destroyed by the Russian army are repaired, the railway is the most reliable blood supply artery for the Wehrmacht.

This. Liu Xian wanted to thank the Russian army for only pulling out the rails of the railway, instead of blowing up the roadbed.

Today, the Wehrmacht is divided into two lines. All the way was swept straight to the west, and this road was the main force of the Wehrmacht, with two-thirds and more than 60,000 troops. It is possible to keep up with Ren Huabang, who seized Ust-Kamenogorsk, whose task is to make persistent efforts to take Semipalatinsk. The commander-in-chief is Zhang Zhongkui!

The second way is the rest of the troops, with a strength of more than 30,000 troops, mainly the Fourth Integrated Division and the Xinjiang Independent Brigade, and the commander-in-chief in front of the enemy is naturally Shi Donglai, the commander of the Fourth Division.

Wu Jinzhu was in charge of the aftermath, the wounded and sick in the Battle of Tacheng and the wounded and sick in the Battle of Lake Balkhash. But that's a huge number. These people are all staying in Tacheng now, and Wu Jinzhu wants to stay to calm the army. Moreover, with so many wounded, the daily supplies and wounded medicine, food, and meat are astronomical, and there can be no mistakes.

And this is still the lifeblood of maintaining the logistics supply of the 100,000 army, and there is no one who can control the overall situation, and Liu Xian is not at ease.

The Zhou army rushed back to Ili. Liu Xian's next target was Almaty, and he would lead the Second Route Army south to take the Chu River Plain. The Chu River Plain? Doesn't it feel like it's a very Chinese name?

In fact, there is not a single Han Chinese living here, although the river did have a long history with China more than 1,000 years ago. The Chu River Plain is in the northern foothills of the Kyrgyz Mountains. In ancient times, the Chu River was called Broken Leaf Water. And Broken Leaf refers to Broken Leaf City, an important town in the Western Regions during the Tang Dynasty, more than 1,200 years ago, the birthplace of Li Bai.

The northern part of the Chu River Plain is an endless flat field. To the south of it is the huge Moinkum Desert, where there is little annual precipitation, with cold winters and hot summers. The temperature varies greatly from year to year, and there is the Chu River on the northern edge of the desert. Whereas, internal rivers are scarce and have little runoff. The vegetation is scarce and has low coverage, which is very unsuitable for human economic activities.

Therefore, when Liu Xian took the Chu River Plain, it was equivalent to completely cutting off the Russian army in part of Almaty, that is, in the entire Ili River valley, from the vast Central Asia behind them.

Because Almaty is surrounded by the Tien Shan and Kyrgyz Mountains to the south, the huge desert embraced by Lake Balkhash to the north, the strong defense line of Alatau and a series of defense lines on the Ili River to the east, and once the west is cut off, it will be fatal to the small 20,000 Russian troops who have remained in the Almaty region to this day.

In the Alatau Mountains, on the Ili River, the Russian army had one position, one fortification, one defense line after another to face the Wehrmacht. But behind them, there is no piece of armor, and the Wehrmacht can kill all the way to Almaty.

More than 30,000 Wehrma-Tledges rushed in, and Almaty was in chaos.

Zhambyl Mountain, where the Wehrmacht moved south to the Second Army.

Liu Xian commanded the troops to stay here and did not continue eastward, because further east was the Chu-Ili Mountains. Liu Xian only needs the Second Army to be stationed in Jiangbul Mountain, so that the Russian army can be on the back.

Almaty's response to this change of situation has been slow and inconsistent. Liu Xian led his troops south from Balkhash to the Jhambyl Mountains, and it took six days for Almaty to form a large-scale change. Look at the difference between the military arrangement of the Russian army in Almaty now and the military arrangement of seven days ago?

The change is only that Almaty has more than 3,000 more Russian troops and more than 2,000 more militiamen. Throughout the front, the Russian army was reduced by a company to a battalion. The Russians' response was simply amused by Liu Xian. Moreover, one or two days, Liu Xian stopped troops in Jiangbul Mountain for three days, and the military arrangement of the Russian army has not changed at all.

Liu Xian knew that he could not afford to spend it with the Russians in the Zhambyl Mountains. Almaty's military reserves can support at least 20,000 Russian troops in the first half of the year, and his mobilization of troops to occupy the Chu River Plain and reach the Jiangbul Mountains is more of a spiritual blow to the Russians. Any army in the world, when the rear road is cut off, will also panic and fear.

Liu Xian is not willing to wait for the first half of the year in Jiangbur Shanbai. Especially in such a stupid situation as the Russians in Almaty. So he needs to push his troops further to the Kurtu River. There is a tributary of the Ili River, no more than a hundred miles from Almaty.

However, the distance between the Jiangbul Mountains and Almaty is 600 miles, and there is a 450-mile Chu-Ili Mountain in between.

On the fourth day, Liu Xian led the Xinjiang Independent Brigade and a brigade of the Fourth Division to advance from the northern foot of the Chu-Ili Mountains to the Kurtu River; Shi Donglai led the rest of the Fourth Division and advanced from the southern foot of the Chu-Ili Mountains to the Kurtu River.

If the commander of the Russian army in Almaty is a general with a certain military level, Liu Xian will also worry that he can quickly gather all the Russian troops and launch a fierce attack on any road in the north and south. In that case, even if Liu Xian can take the Almaty region and completely recover the land lost by the former Qing Dynasty, he will definitely pay a heavy price.

After all, the Ili River basin is the focus of the Russian army's layout, and there are many artillery fires in the positions everywhere, and some of them are large-caliber heavy artillery. If the Russians were to 'give up their lives', the Wehrmacht would have to pay the price in blood.

But Almaty's response in the previous ten days allowed Liu Xian to completely eliminate this concern.

In the Chu-Ili Mountains of 500 miles, even if Liu Xian's troops on the north and south routes walked for ten days, with the level of the Russian commander, it would be impossible for him to gather all the Russian troops on the defensive lines of each position. The Wehrmacht opposite them is not a fool either, it is impossible to watch the empty shell of the Russian army.

So the idea was certain, and Liu Xian boldly divided his troops into two routes and advanced towards the Kurtu River. As for when the Almaty side will get the news, when they will take countermeasures, and what kind of countermeasures they will make, Liu Xian does not care.

You can't fight a war without 'initiative'. If you think about your opponent's reaction in everything, you will become dancing to the opponent's baton if you are not careful. Now the initiative is in Liu Xian's hands, and only the Russians can respond according to his arrangement, and there is no reason for him to rack his brains to think about how to deal with the Russians' measures.

And the result of the facts is just as Liu Xian expected. His troops marched eastward in two directions, and it took three days for Almaty to begin to react, and they frantically transferred troops from the front, abandoning their positions and defensive lines in great strides, blasting fortresses and arsenals everywhere, and damaging artillery and water sources. But all this did not go smoothly under the Wehrmacht offensive after the reaction.

The Almaty side also tried to send troops to the north and south of the Chu-Ili Mountains to block the attack, but the troops did not reach the Kurtu River before they went home. When the northern and southern armies of the Wehrmacht met at the Kurtu River, the 10,000-strong army of Almaty set up defensive positions on both sides of the Hashkolen River.

Almaty is located in the upper reaches of the Hashkolen River, which is also a tributary of the lower Ili River.

"First destroy one of the forward positions of the Russian army, and then send people to Almaty, meet the commander-in-chief of the Russian army, and ask them to surrender on the spot. I can guarantee their lives. ”

Liu Xian put down the binoculars and pointed to the front and ordered. In the telescope, the defensive positions of the Russian army were set up quite quickly, and in a few days the defensive positions were set up, machine guns were erected, sandbags were erated, barricades were added, and barbed wire was also pulled. All military deployments are fairly standard.

Liu's order was quickly implemented.

At this time, the Russian army is continuing to strengthen its positions. Defensive positions do not require so many troops, and to fight positional warfare, it is even more necessary for the commander to have enough reserves in his hands. The tactic of refueling is the truth of positional defensive warfare.

At this moment, strange flames suddenly appeared in the sky.

A Russian major general couldn't catch up with the trajectory of the flying object with a telescope, so he simply put down the telescope and looked at it with his eyes. Something of indescribable color flew in the air, and at the tail of those things, bright flames were spewed. This is by no means a shell.

As soon as he made such a judgment, the Russian major general noticed these strange things, drew a beautiful curve in the air, and then fell to the ground. Then there was a loud explosion from the landing site.

Shocked by the sound of the explosion, the Russian major general realized that this fall point was a forward position in their Hexi defense line.

He hurriedly used his binoculars to observe, and saw that Fangcai's defensive position had turned into a sea of fire. The explosion of fireworks completely enveloped the defensive position. The figure of a company of Russian soldiers completely disappeared in the violent flash and smoke of the explosion. (To be continued......)