The armored division of the Dingbei Army sent half of its troops, 100 heavy Panther tanks, 150 Black Wolf tanks and 200 Z1 armored vehicles, together with the 38th Division, which was a type B division, after capturing the cities of Maidu and Haktu, crossed the border between Outer Mongolia and Russia, and attacked Irkutsk, the base camp of the Siberian theater of operations.

Although Irkutsk has a lot of criss-crossing rivers, and the terrain is not conducive to the offensive of tanks and armored vehicles of the armored division, it is not conducive to only weakening, and with half an armored division and a division of 20,000 people, it is still possible to capture the base camp of the Siberian theater of operations, which is only guarded by 45,000 Russian troops.

It is a pity that it is very unfortunate that the reinforcements of the 6 armies from Russia and Europe arrived in Irkutsk at this time, and after preparing to replenish supplies in Irkutsk, they rushed to the front line of Darkhan City.

In this way, the six armies from the European region of Russia, who dared to support the front line of Darkhan, immediately entered the fortifications built inside and outside Irkutsk, preparing to resist the attack of the Dingbei army, so that the defenders of Irkutsk suddenly reached 225,000 men.

The half of the armored division and the 38th division of the Dingbei Army did not know that the Russian army had increased several times at first, and rushed to the outside of Irkutsk without resting, so they launched an attack on the fortifications outside Irkutsk, but they were met with stubborn resistance from the Russian army, and the Russian artillery units almost covered the tanks and armored vehicles charged by the Dingbei Army with artillery fire, so that the combat vehicles and personnel of the Dingbei Army suffered considerable losses.

Half of the Panzer Division and the 38th Division attacked Irkutsk 1 day later. He even captured some Russian fortifications on the outskirts of Irkutsk, and only then did he send a letter from Lin Daxin about the intelligence agency's intelligence in Irkutsk. Figuring out that the strength of the Russian army in Irkutsk has reached 225,000, Lin Daxin ordered the commander of the 1st armored division led by Lin Daxin and the commander of the 38th division, Fu Qiang, to suspend the attack on the city of Irkutsk. Units of the Panzer Division and the 38th Division withdrew to Outer Mongolia.

Half of the armored division and the 38th division add up to more than 30,000 people, although there are tanks and armored vehicles these weapons of war, but the gap in numbers is not so easy to make up, with these more than 30,000 people to attack the city of Irkutsk, which has perfect fortifications and a strength of 225,000 troops, it is definitely the rhythm of looking for death.

In this way, knowing that there was no chance to capture Irkutsk, half of the armored division and the 38th division were ready to withdraw to Outer Mongolia according to Lin Daxin's order, but suddenly received a telegram from Zhang Daxiong, the commander of the armored division, in which Zhang Daxiong said that after the Russian army attacking Darkhan City was attacked by tanks and armored vehicles led by him, a large number of Russian troops chose to flee into the mountains near the city. Then they returned to Russia from the mountain road, hoping that the troops attacking Irkutsk would take advantage of their opportunity outside Irkutsk to eliminate as many Russian troops as possible who had fled back to Irkutsk from Outer Mongolia.

So the Russian army, which finally fled from the mountain road to Irkutsk, was attacked by the armored forces of the Dingbei Army and the infantry of the 38th Division.

These Russian troops knew that although Irkutsk was still in the hands of their own people, there were a large number of tanks, armored vehicles and infantry of the Dingbei Army outside the city. Now it is definitely the most unwise choice to go to Irkutsk, hundreds of thousands of Russian troops who lack supplies, so they have to retreat to small towns and villages a little further away from the city of Irkutsk.

The city of Irkutsk is close at hand, because part of the armored division of the Dingbei Army and the 38th division. Let the Russian army have a feeling of being far away from the world.

In a farm about 7 or 8 kilometers away from the city of Irkutsk, Antonovich, commander of the Second Siberian Front, said to Ivanov, the commander of the Third Front, with a haggard face: "Fortunately, the city of Irkutsk was not captured by the Dingbei Army, but now there are tanks and armored vehicles of the Dingbei Army outside the city. We can't get into the city to get supplies, especially food. After a long time, the troops will definitely come up with the problem of insufficient food! ”

Although these Russian troops withdrawn from Outer Mongolia entered Russian territory, the food of hundreds of thousands of people had to be fed by Russian civilians in small towns and villages far from Irkutsk. It is really a drop in the bucket, and only a large amount of food hoarded in Irkutsk can solve the problem of feeding these hundreds of thousands of Russian troops.

Ivanov's face was also haggard at this time, and he said with a wry smile: "Now we can only hope that the Dingbei Army outside Irkutsk will retreat by itself, and we have too few ways to deal with the tanks of the Dingbei Army." ”

The commander of the Third Front Army of the Russian Siberian Theater of Operations, who used poison tactics to cause tens of thousands of casualties on the Dingbei Army at once, was helpless in the face of the Dingbei Army outside Irkutsk.

The most effective way for the Russian army to deal with the tanks of the Dingbei Army now is to organize a death squad, take an explosive package to blow up the tracks of heavy tanks, or directly use an explosive package to blow up the armor of light tanks and armored vehicles, but the Russian soldiers of the death squad must face the machine gun shooting on the tanks and armored vehicles, and God forbids that 1 out of 10 daredevils can succeed. As for the current anti-aircraft artillery of the Russian army, it can only pose a threat to light tanks and armored vehicles, and cannot penetrate the thick armor of heavy tanks at all.

When the two commanders of the Russian Front were sad and relatively speechless, at this time, one of the staff officers of the Russian army quickly ran into the room and shouted: "His Excellency Kuropatkin, commander of the theater of operations, is sober!" ”

The unconscious Kuropatkin, who was under the strictest protection, had been carried by the soldiers to the left and right of the two front commanders, and was now in another house on the farmstead.

When Antonovich and Ivanov heard this, they immediately got up and hurried towards Kuropatkin's room.

The two of them ran into the room and saw that Kuropatkin had indeed woken up and was leaning against the head of the bed. A Russian staff officer is spooning fresh milk from the farm's cows.

Kuropatkin saw Antonovich and Ivanov almost running in. waved his hand and signaled to the staff officer next to him not to feed him milk for the first time. Although he was in a coma for a few days, it was probably because he drank some fresh milk, and in addition to being very hungry for a few days of lethargy, Kuropatkin was mentally rested, so that his face did not look very bad.

Kuropatkin's voice was weak and slightly hoarse and asked, "How's the situation?" ”

Antonovich and Ivanov looked at each other, hoping that each other would explain to Kuropatkin the difficulties encountered in the current Siberian theater of operations, and in the end Antonovich gave him a general explanation of the situation after Kuropatkin fell into a coma.

After Antonovich finished speaking, he looked nervously at Kuropatkin. I am afraid that His Excellency the commander will faint again because of his excitement, after all, none of the situations he told are good news, and even Ivanov used a poisonous trick to use more than 40,000 wounded soldiers as bait to kill and wound tens of thousands of officers and soldiers in Dingbei, and now the Russians have not received accurate information, so Antonovich did not say this good news that can be called a great victory for the Russians.

After listening to Kuropatkin, he was speechless for a long time, and Ivanov said cautiously: "Your Excellency, Commander, the situation was critical. In order to prevent the hundreds of thousands of troops attacking Darkhan City from being surrounded and annihilated by the Dingbei Army because of the cut off of supplies, Antonovich and I had to lead our troops to abandon the occupied mountain fortifications outside Darkhan. ”

Kuropatkin shook his head slowly, and said hoarsely: "You are doing the right thing, if the army continues to stay in Darkhan City. It is very likely that it will fall into the point of running out of ammunition and food, and at that time, it will be impossible to withdraw to the country, and the Dingbei army will pounce like a wolf. It is not impossible for the whole army to be annihilated, ahem! ”

Coughed. Kuropatkin continued: "So we retreated to the country, but because of the tanks and armored vehicles of the Dingbei Army outside Irkutsk. So our hundreds of thousands of troops had to stay in villages and towns far from Irkutsk, so what about the situation in Irkutsk? ”

Ivanov said: "We have made contact with the city of Irkutsk, and the reinforcements of the six armies from Russia and Europe are now in the city of Irkutsk, if it were not for these six corps, Irkutsk might also be in danger." ”

Kuropatkin sighed softly and said: "I really have some recklessness in order to capture Darkhan City, if I can leave some more troops on the back road, it will not be occupied by the Dingbei Army on our back road, so that our 500,000 imperial soldiers will die in vain in the mountain fortifications outside Darkhan City!" ”

Antonovich and Ivanov couldn't help but smile wryly.

Kuropatkin asked: "Has the strength of the Dingbei Army outside Irkutsk increased?" ”

Antonovich shook his head and said: "We have been retreating to the vicinity of Irkutsk for 2 days, and the strength of the Dingbei Army outside Irkutsk has not changed, and there is still an armored force composed of tanks and armored vehicles, as well as about 20,000 infantry. ”

Ivanov continued: "Before retreating from Darkhan City, I ordered a large amount of explosives to be buried in the camp we left, and when the Dingbei Army entered our camp, there will be imperial warriors to detonate these explosives, I believe that it will bring a lot of casualties to the Northern Army, maybe the Dingbei Army did not continue to send troops for this reason to launch an attack on our base camp in the Siberian Theater." Moreover, in the battle of the mountain fortifications outside Darkhan, although we lost 500,000 troops, the losses of the Dingbei Army cannot be less, they also need to rest, I think the Dingbei Army will not launch a large-scale attack on us next! ”

After listening to Ivanov's words, Kuropatkin said approvingly: "What Ivanov said makes sense, both sides have to rest after the war, as for the troops of the Dingbei Army outside Irkutsk, I think they are also about to retreat, after all, Irkutsk is still some distance from Outer Mongolia, if the Dingbei Army does not launch a large-scale attack, it is meaningless for them to stay here, and they also have to consider the problem of supply." ”

Kuropatkin and Ivanov did guess part of the analysis correctly, and the troops of the Dingbei Army outside Irkutsk withdrew from Irkutsk the day after Kuropatkin, the commander of the Siberian theater of operations, sobered up, and directly withdrew to the cities of Khaktu and the cities of Maiye.

So that more than 300,000 Russian troops near the city of Irkutsk can withdraw to the city of Irkutsk and get the supplies they need.

However, the offensive of the Dingbei Army did not stop, but instead of attacking the area west of Lake Baikal, it launched a large-scale offensive against the Russian defenders east of Lake Baikal.

Because Ivanov unknowingly withdrew from Bodaibo City with the troops of the 2th Army to support the front line of Darkhan City, Lin Daxin sent a harshly worded telegram to Zhang Zuolin, the commander of the 12th Division, and Zhang Limin, the commander of the 5th Division, asking them to capture Bodaibo City immediately.

Zhang Zuolin and Zhang Limin were shocked when they received the telegram, Ivanov actually withdrew from Bodaibo City with the troops of the two armies under their noses, and also planted a poison plan in the camp of the Russian army outside Darkhan, so that the Dingbei Army suffered tens of thousands of casualties at once, and the two division commanders couldn't help but be angry and ordered the troops to immediately launch an attack on Bodaibo City.

The defenders of Bodaibo City still have the strength of 2 armies, and there are also 2 heavy artillery divisions, but in the harassment operations during this time, the losses of the 2 armies of the Russian army are not small, and the casualties have reached 20,000.

The 12th Division and the 5th Division, under the leadership of 2 division commanders, launched a fierce attack on the city of Bodaibo, which suddenly made the Russian army in Bodaibo City unable to withstand it, and it did not take 3 days for the city of Bodaibo to fall into the hands of the Dingbei Army, and the remaining more than 10,000 Russian troops were defeated and retreated to the west of the Lena River, and the 12th and 5th Divisions stopped the pursuit.

However, the price paid by the Dingbei Army in order to take Bodaibo City was not small, and the 12th and 5th Divisions combined had more than 8,000 killed, and nearly 10,000 officers and soldiers were wounded.

In addition, the 30,000 cavalrymen of the 4th, 11th, 38th, 39th, 40th and 40th divisions and cavalry divisions of the Russian army, adding up to 160,000 troops, arrived at the city of Maimai, knowing that the Russian army had entered the nearby mountains, so they stopped the pursuit of the Russian army attacking the city of Darkhan and turned to the city of Ulan-Ude in Russia.

160,000 Dingbei officers and soldiers swept the Russian army in Ulan-Ude City and Chita City in succession with the overwhelming momentum of Mount Tai, and the Russian army in these two cities only had the strength of one army each, and one army in Tegeda City and one army guarding the railway line from Tegeda City to Chita City had not yet withdrawn to Chita City.

The commander of the Russian army knew that they could not get any support, and he already knew that after the heavy losses of the Russian army attacking Darkhan City, he had retreated to the vicinity of Irkutsk, so after a little consideration, he ordered the defenders of Ulan-Ude City to lay down their arms and choose to surrender to the Dingbei Army.

The resistance of the Russian army in Chita City was fierce, but after several divisions of the Dingbei Army attacked for 2 days, the commander of the Russian infantry corps led the defenders of less than 10,000 people to lay down their arms and chose to surrender to the Dingbei Army.

After that, several divisions of the Dingbei Army, which attacked the cities of Ulan-Ude and Chita, together with the 14th and 18th divisions of the Russian army, which pursued the city of Teghda along the railway line from the inner city of Svobod, surrounded and annihilated the two corps of the Russian army retreating to Chita City 30 kilometers east of Chita City.

These two Russian infantry corps were ordered to withdraw to Chita City to strengthen the defense of Chita City, but because of the long distance, Chita City was captured by the Dingbei Army, and their two armies had not yet reached Chita City.

After being surrounded by nearly 200,000 troops of the Dingbei Army 30 kilometers east of Chita City, the two Russian infantry corps and the Dingbei Army fought bloodily for two days, and saw that there was no hope of breaking through, so they also laid down their arms under the leadership of the two army commanders.

So at the end of May 1899, starting from Lake Baikal and the area east of the Lena River, it was in the hands of the Dingbei Army, and the military power of the Russian army in millions of square kilometers of land was swept away, and the balance of victory in the war was completely tilted in favor of Lin Daxin. (To be continued......)