"What! It's only been four days, and the Baikal Front can't stand it ?! Has Comrade Khalepsky forgotten how to fight? ”

As soon as he heard Khalepsky's request, Kamenev, a former colonel of the Tsarist Russian Army who had always had a hot temper, and now a general of the Red Army, was angry. This great retreat is not a one-time walk and never to come back. Rather, it is to lure the enemy deeper, since it is necessary to lure the enemy, it is not possible to flash as fast as possible, but to fight and retreat, so the original plan was to abandon the Far East in half a month, the Baikal region in a month, and safely transfer the army to the Yenisei River basin within two months, with Krasnoyarsk as the core to carry out defense...... But how long has it been now? After only four days, the Baikal Front will be almost unable to carry it? At this rate, the Far East and the Baikal region will be lost in twenty days at most! Can the Chinese not be suspicious?

The Chief of Staff of the Far Eastern Front, Meretskov, was transferred from the Baikal Front and was well aware of the situation facing the Baikal Front. He picked up the baton, walked to the map table rather helplessly, pointed to Mongolia south of the Baikal region, and said to Ennev: "Comrade commander, the enemy situation faced by the Baikal Front has always been very serious, and the Chinese have deployed a large number of mechanized troops in Mongolia, and there are 6 armored corps/armored cavalry corps with the number of the Giana alone. And these armored units were strengthened in 1933, and each army had at least 700 tanks and assault artillery!

However, the Baikal Front does not even have a single tank, and its total strength is only more than 500,000 men in seven armies, three of which have been secretly withdrawn to Krasnoyarsk. 1 cavalry army group was deployed in the area of Tangnu-Ulianghai, 1 army group defended Irkutsk and Ulan-Ude, and only 2 army groups could be used to garrison the area around the city of Bumao. Moreover, there are 2 infantry divisions trapped in Darkhan, which have lost contact, and it is estimated that the whole army has been wiped out.

Judging from the current battle situation, the combat effectiveness of the squadron is even stronger than imagined, and if it were not for the high command's plan to lure the enemy into depth, it is very likely that we and the Baikal Front will be completely wiped out this spring! In the face of such a ferocious enemy, the first thing to ensure now is the safety of the main forces. It doesn't matter if you retreat a little faster. ”

Kamenev nodded, it is indeed the most important thing to preserve strength, otherwise the troops will be exhausted. What can the enemy do further into the Red Army? However, Tomsky, the first secretary of the Far Eastern Bureau of the United Nations, said with a solemn expression: "Comrade Kamenev, the retreat of the Far Eastern Republic and the future struggle behind enemy lines will take time to deploy. This time the order came down in such a hurry that the local comrades were caught off guard! If ......"

Kamenev glanced at Tomsky, a veteran Soviet revolutionary, in embarrassment. In 1904 he joined the Russian Socialist-Revolutionary Party. He participated in the 1905 Revolution, and after the victory of the Revolution in October, he was engaged in trade union work for a long time, and before that, he was also an alternate member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the United States. Originally, he had a good relationship with the revolutionary prophet, but later because of his disagreement with Trotsky on the trivial matter of whether the trade unions represented the interests of the workers or the party, he was sent to the Far East to become first secretary, but the status of a member of the Central Committee was still there, which showed that Trotsky could recall him to Moscow at any time and reuse him.

So Kamenev was not too embarrassed, so he had to patiently explain: "Comrade Tomsky. I am also aware of the difficulties of the comrades in the Far East, but this time the High Command has a big plan that will reverse the passive situation on the Eastern Front. It can be said that it is foolproof and the probability of success is extremely high, but it is necessary to pay attention to confidentiality. If we let the enemy know that we are deliberately leading them into a trap, the whole campaign will be lost. Therefore, the transfer of local comrades cannot be arranged in advance...... You know better than we do the special situation here in the Far East. As for the High Command and Comrade Trotsky, I will certainly do my best to explain it to you, and I trust that Comrade Lotsky will understand your difficulties. ”

Speaking of which, what else can Tomsky do? According to the plan, he, the first secretary of the Far East Bureau, was to stay in the Far East and persist in the struggle, and the People's Commissars of the Far Eastern Soviet Socialist Republic and the Supreme Soviet could not leave the Far East, they all had to pack up and move to Yakutsk, which is located on the banks of the Lena River, which is more than a thousand kilometers away from the Trans-Siberian Railway, and is also blocked by the Trans-Khingan Mountains and a large area of primeval forest.

In addition, the Far Eastern Front will not be withdrawn nominally, the command of the 55th Army will be upgraded to the new command of the Far Eastern Front, and the former commander of the 55th Army, Tyulenev, will be the new commander of the Far Eastern Front. As for Kamenev, the main forces of the Far Eastern Front and the Baikal Front will be combined, and then the two sides will be merged into the Eastern Front, Kamenev will be the commander, and Khalepsky will be reappointed as a commissar. At the same time, the Soviet High Command also mobilized at least 10 armies and 10 tank armies from the Central Asian Front, the West Siberian Front, and the western region of the Soviet Union to be transferred to the Eastern Front for the future Battle of Krasnoyarsk, which is said to be able to turn the tide.

……

On March 16, 1934, in Central Asia, at the northern foot of the Kyrgyz Mountains, torrential rain poured down. The cold and humid air from the south and the cold air that refused to retreat north around the Kyrgyz Mountains finally came to a jīliè collision, which also announced the early arrival of the rainy season in Central Asia. At the same time, the temperature is still gradually rising, and the melting snow and ice in the Kyrgyz Mountains and Tianshan Mountains flow into the Chu River, Ili River and other large and small rivers, causing the water level of the originally calm river to suddenly rise sharply, overflowing the river, turning into a flood that washes away many roads and bridges, and almost paralyzing the traffic in the southern part of northern Xinjiang. On a muddy road west of the Chu River, a large group of Chinese soldiers were shouting the trumpet of labor, helping the Ili horses, who were not very suitable for pulling carts, to pull a door of 105mm/155mm heavy artillery forward. On a high ground not far away, Wu Peifu and Zhu D, wearing duct raincoats, stood side by side, holding binoculars to observe the Soviet positions in front. In front of them and around them, tens of thousands of Chinese officers and soldiers were sweating and digging fortifications and building starting positions. In the open space on the north side of the heights, hundreds of cannons wrapped in artillery jackets were already lined up. There are also horse-drawn wagons in sight carrying cartloads of shells, and a battle seems to be about to happen!

"Yu Shuai, Mr. Zhu. Chief White is here. ”

In the reminder of the staff officer, Wu Peifu and Zhu D turned their heads at the same time, and saw Bai Chongxi climbing up from the foot of the mountain on the muddy road. Is the enemy on the west bank of the Talas the main forces? ”

The Northwest Front and the Northern Front under the command of Bai Chongxi launched an offensive on the same day, and the offensive was divided into two routes: north and south. The northern route was the main attack, with the 2nd Panzer Army as the main force, plus the 3rd and 4th armies, the 11th army, and the 15th army. With Xia Wei, deputy commander-in-chief of the Northwest Front, as the commander-in-chief, he attacked from the east of the Ayaguz River, and his troops were divided into two routes, all the way to Karaganda, the capital of Kazakhstan; All the way to the Irtysh. Cut off communication between the Soviet West Siberian Front and the Kazakh Front.

Originally. Bai Chongxi and Xia Wei both believed that this attack would encounter stubborn resistance from the Soviet Red Army, and they were also ready for a decisive battle with the Soviet tank units in the Kazakh steppe, and for this reason they specifically requested the Air Force to replace all the Attack 2 light dive bombers belonging to the 1st Air Force of the Northwest Front with the Ju.87 Stuka type, so as to enhance the power of the air strike. However, after the offensive began, it was surprisingly smooth, and the hundreds of thousands of troops commanded by Xia Wei did not encounter decent resistance at all, and the only difficulty was that the roads, bridges, villages and towns along the way were all destroyed by the Soviet army, resulting in the army without good conditions for marching and resting......

However, Bai Chongxi, who got the news, was not happy at all, he didn't dare to trust Lotsky really didn't want the land in Central Asia. Now the Soviet army in Central Asia seems to have evaporated from the world. It must be a trap for the Soviet army! Either to lure the enemy deeper, ready to strike hard at the Chinese army deep under the city of Karaganda or by the Irtysh River. Either the main forces of the Soviet army in Central Asia were secretly transferred to the southern front. Prepare for a decisive battle with the Chinese army at the foot of the Kyrgyz Mountains. And Bai Chongxi is most worried about the latter possibility, because the five group armies on the northern front are all elite main forces, and there are more than 300 Ju.87 Stuka to provide air support, even if the Soviet army takes out 20 tank armies, Xia Wei and Liao Lei (commander of the 2nd Armored Army) have an eighty percent chance of winning.

However, the troops commanded by Wu Peifu and Zhu D on the southern front are a little out of hand, except for the eighteenth group army of which Zhu D himself is the commander, it is four reserve group armies, although there are a lot of people, but the real combat power is not necessarily even one-fifth of the army on the northern route, and if it encounters the main force of the Soviet army in Central Asia, most of them will have no good results. And Wu Peifu and Zhu D obviously had the same idea, Mr. Zhu's face was solemn, and he shook his head and said: "Reconnaissance shows that the Soviet army on the west bank of the Talas River does not have more than 1 division, guarding Talas City. But...... The reason for this is that it is even more worrying. ”

Wu Peifu on the side also looked solemn and agreed: "The situation was not right when the troops crossed the Chu River, there was obviously half of the Soviet army group army defending, but when we passed, there was not even a ghost!" Jian Shuai, I don't think this battle is easy to fight, no matter how you look at it, it looks like a trap waiting for us to drill into it. ”

Unlike most ordinary Chinese army officers who are optimistic about the war situation, the three Chinese army generals here are all those who have seventeen or eight thoughts in their stomachs, and this kind of people have a characteristic, often the bolder the officer, the smaller the child, and now the war situation of 2.4 million people and the entire northwest is pressing on their shoulders, and the battle situation is a bit too smooth, so I think how I think it is a trap of the Soviets.

met the "bosom friend", Generalissimo Bai also had more words, nodded and said: "What the two of you said is true, I also think that the battle in the northwest is not easy to fight. Moreover, now the situation on the European side is also confusing, the crisis in Spain is escalating, and it is not clear that there will be a conflict between France and Germany, and then it is possible for the Soviet army to concentrate its main forces against us. ”

Wu Peifu and Zhu D were taken aback when they heard this, and looked at each other. They don't know "Max. Hoffman Plan", especially the part about the Franco-German war, is not known. Although I also know the news that the left and right factions in Spain are standing up, and the two factions are going to Paris and Rome to find the backstage to hug their thighs. But it never occurred to me that France and Germany would fight because of this, and if the Germans were really trapped in France, it would mean that the Soviet Union could mobilize millions of elite troops from Europe to Central Asia and the Far East. On the Far East side, it is better to say that Central Asia is already an evenly matched figure, and the opponent will suddenly have more than 1.8 million. There's no way to fight this battle.

"I'm here to discuss this with you." Bai Chongxi beckoned to a staff officer who came with him, asked him to spread out the map, and the three of them found a leeward corner on this hillside to study. "According to the latest battle report of the Northern Front. Their progress is also unusually smooth, and the trading city can be taken in a maximum of 3 days, and Chita can be conquered in 5 days. Moreover, they encountered surprisingly few Soviet troops during the offensive, with only one Guards 220 Division defending the Olovyannaya Fortress and only 2 divisions defending the Darkhan Fortress...... This is clearly not to defend, but to delay our offensive and buy time for the main forces to retreat.

All indications point to it. The Soviet Red Army was already preparing to abandon the Far East and the Northern Gard region, possibly retreating to the Yenisei Valley. But where did their main forces go in the Far Eastern Baikal region? Last year, the Soviets deployed about 1.5 million troops in those two theaters. If they had reduced their line to the Yenisei River, they would have saved at least 500,000 to 800,000 troops. The most likely destination for these forces is Central Asia. In case something happens on the Western Front, the Soviet army can send millions of people to Central Asia, so that the total strength of the Soviet army in Central Asia will exceed 2.5 million! And all of them are regular troops that have been tested by war! This is a great crisis for us.

So the original plan had to change. It is no longer possible to attack westward. I intend to let the Northern Route Army return to its original defenses. Wait for the main forces of the Soviet army to come to the decisive battle. At the same time, one more infantry army group was transferred, and another two reserve army groups were transferred to the southern route. However, the objective of the Southern Route Army also had to change, not to go to the Aral Sea, but to attack south after capturing the city of Talas, and cooperate with the 36th Army to seize control of the entire Kyrgyz Mountains, the Alai Mountains and the Western Pamirs, and at the same time seize the Ferghana Basin. It is the richest region in the whole of Central Asia, not only the land is fertile, but also there are a series of oil fields such as the Chimiurn oil field, the Nevteabad oil field, the Andijan oil field, and the Joel oil field. There are also several oil processing plants, which can produce and process hundreds of thousands of tons of oil every year. With oil there. Our tanks and trucks will not have to worry about running out of fuel, and the pressure on logistics will be greatly reduced. ”

Bai Chongxi's finger drew a circle around the Fergana Basin at the southern foot of the Kyrgyz Mountains, and then slapped it again, saying: "As long as the Ferghana Basin is captured, the Northwest Front can be equipped with two more armored armies, so that we will not be afraid of anything!" ”

Wu Peifu and Zhu D also felt that their eyes lit up, according to Bai Chongxi's vision, the southern road cluster, which was originally a diversionary attack, would become the main attack. Moreover, it is necessary to put in a huge force of more than 1 million troops in seven reserve armies and three group armies at one time. This is a rare opportunity for the two of them to make a difference. So they immediately dragged Bai Chongxi back to the headquarters to continue the discussion, and after taking the information of the Soviet Army's Tianshan Front and the Ferghana Basin in the headquarters to study it. Wu Peifu and Zhu D both believed that it should be quite certain to use more than 1 million troops to capture the Ferghana Basin. The only concern is that the main forces of the Soviet army in Central Asia are very likely to reinforce the Ferghana Basin, after all, that territory is also very important to the Soviet Union.

However, Bai Chongxi was not worried about a decisive battle with the Soviet army around the Fergana Basin, he said: "Yushuai, Brother Yujie, now we are worried that it is not the main force of the Soviet army in Central Asia that will take the lead, but that they will not be hidden, and only if they dare to take the lead, we will have a way to defeat them, whether it is in the Kyrgyz Mountains or in the steppes of Central Asia." ”

However, the decisive battle in the Ferghana Basin, surrounded by lofty mountains and mountains, and the decisive battle in the Central Asian steppes are completely different things, and the most effective tactics of the Chinese National Defense Forces at present are infantry-tank coordination and air-ground coordination; although this tactical coordination is still a little rough because the officers and soldiers are not very high, it is more than enough to deal with the Soviet army, which does not have many armored troops. It was a decisive battle with the Soviet armored forces, and with the sharp attack power of the Chaser tank destroyers and the strong combat power of the Wehrmacht Air Force, the 2nd Panzer Army was sure to win even if it encountered an opponent with more than twice the number of tanks.

But after all, tanks are not a sharp weapon for fighting mountain warfare, if the main direction of attack is shifted to the Kyrgyz Mountains, then the 2nd Panzer Army will not be useful, and even the air force will not have much room to play, and it can really only rely on infantry to win. Moreover, according to intelligence, the Soviet army has always been worried that the Chinese army will occupy the Ferghana Basin, so they have deployed heavy troops at the northern and eastern entrances of the basin, and the terrain there is dangerous and difficult to break.

Wu Peifu had led troops in the outer frontier for many years and was very familiar with the situation in Central Asia, and when he heard this, he pondered for a while, and immediately proposed a solution: "The best route to fight Ferghana is to take Khujand in the west, which is the gate of the entire basin, and the terrain is relatively open, at least it is easier than hitting it from the Kyrgyz Mountains." So I built the southern route army to take Talas and continue to advance, all the way to Tashkent, Sirdaria, so that the gates of the Fergana basin would be closed. In addition, at least one armored army should be attached to the Southern Route Army in case of the main forces of the Soviet army that may appear at any time. ”