In the commander's headquarters in the camp of the Russian army, hundreds of senior officers of the First Siberian Front Army did not feel excited at all when they heard the commander of the theater of operations, Kuropatkin, mention the addition of officials to the knighthood, they are not confident at all that they can capture the city of Lower Darkhan, after all, they have only captured half of the mountain fortifications outside the city of Darkhan, and their First Siberian Front has already lost 280,000 people, of which 260,000 were killed, and the remaining 370,000 people can still be after capturing the remaining half of the mountain fortifications. How can you conquer the city of Darkhan, and how can you attack the hinterland of the four northeastern provinces.

Commander Kuropatkin saw that the officers present did not react to his words, and he also understood what these officers were worried about, but he had already expected this, so the corners of his mouth rose slightly and continued: "You may be worried that we have only captured half of the mountain fortifications, and we have lost 280,000 officers and soldiers of the empire, so after we capture the remaining mountain fortifications, we will not be able to launch an attack on Darkhan City, or even capture Darkhan City, There is no strength to continue to attack the hinterland of the four northeastern provinces through the Mongolian steppe, are you worried about this problem? ”

The officers in the command headquarters nodded one after another, they were indeed worried about this problem, but in the face of the commander Kuropatkin, who was bent on capturing the city of Darkhan, no one raised it, after all, Kuropatkin knew better than them the current situation of the First Siberian Front Army in his heart, and in the face of the commander who did not hesitate to pay a price, there was no need to show that he was afraid of launching an attack on the Dingbei Army and touched the spearhead of the commander.

A smug smile appeared on Kuropatkin's somewhat pale face, "Officers of the Empire, I have good news for you, our reinforcements are about to arrive. ”

"Reinforcements? Where did the reinforcements come from? ”

"Could it be the troops of Irkutsk? We really still have a few hundred thousand troops in Irkutsk. ”

"Maybe it's the troops of the two armies in the city of buying and selling and the city of Haktu, right?"

"There are only those 2 places that can send us reinforcements, I don't know how many troops can come this time?"

"No matter how many troops can come, it will be good news for our 1st Siberian Front."

Hearing that the commander Kuropatkin said that there would be reinforcements, the officers of the command began to talk about it, and the officers all thought that the reinforcements that Kuropatkin was talking about should be from Irkutsk, or from the cities of Yaktu and Trading.

Kuropatkin pressed his hands down, and the chatter of the command immediately stopped, and the officers looked at Kuropatkin with their eyes, waiting for him to speak.

Kuropatkin said with a smile: "You have only guessed part of it correctly, our reinforcements not only come from Irkutsk, Haktu City, and Buying and Selling City, but also part of the reinforcements of the Second Front Army in the theater, part of the reinforcements of the Third Front Army in the theater, and even some reinforcements from Europe!" ”

In the surprised eyes of the officers of the command, Kuropatkin explained the reinforcement plan he had arranged long ago, it turned out that at the beginning of the war in Darkhan, after the end of the pre-war military meeting, Kuropatkin believed that after the original Siberian Second Front Army was surrounded and annihilated 720,000 troops, and the surrender of the Russian army in Vladivostok, the strength of the Dingbei Army was liberated by hundreds of thousands, and most of these forces were likely to be strengthened to Outer Mongolia and even Darkhan.

As a result, the forces of the 1st Siberian Front became somewhat weak, and Kuropatkin did not make a mere quantitative comparison, but also took into account the situation of the combat effectiveness of both sides.

Coupled with the fact that Kuropatkin saw the mountain fortifications outside Darkhan with his own eyes, he knew that Darkhan was definitely a tough bone to gnaw.

So Kuropatkin decided to strengthen the strength of the First Siberian Front, and he ordered the newly formed Second Front Army to shrink the defensive line, so that 1 corps in Tegda City, and 1 corps guarding the railway line from Tegda City to Chita City, retreat to Chita City, strengthen the defense force of Chita City, and as for the area east of Chita, all the Russian army abandoned it. Of the 2 corps in Chita City, 1 remained in Chita City, and the other 1 corps immediately withdrew to Ulan-Ude by train.

In addition to the original 2 armies, Ulan-Ude now has the 3rd Army, the main corps of the Russian Army, which Antonovich, commander of the 3rd Siberian Front, has just brought to the Siberian theater. Kuropatkin ordered Antonovich to lead the 3rd Army, as well as 1 corps of Ulan-Ude, 1 corps withdrawn from Chita, to advance in the direction of the city of Darkhan to support the 1st Front of the Darkhan front.

In order to achieve victory, Kuropatkin was determined to shrink the defensive line, abandoned the area east of Chita, and mobilized more than half of the troops of the newly formed Second Front Army to support the Darkhan front.

At the same time, Kuropatkin ordered Ivanov, the commander of the Third Front in Bodaibo, to completely abandon the attack on the Russian area occupied by the Dingbei Army east of the Lena River, as long as he held the current defensive line and did not allow the Dingbei Army to continue to expand the occupied area west of the Lena River, so that Ivanov could secretly lead the remaining army to support the Darkhan front after leaving enough defensive troops in Bodaibo City.

After receiving the telegram from Kuropatkin, Ivanov looked at the map and thought about it, and ordered several corps of the cities of Yakutsk, Zhigansk and Oryokminsk to hold their respective cities, and then sent troops of 1 division of Bodaibo to encircle and suppress the small forces of the Dingbei Army outside the city.

Ivanov sent this division to draw the attention of the Northern Army, so that he could secretly withdraw from Bodaibo City with his troops, so that the Dingbei Army mistakenly thought that the Russian army in Bodaibo City had not decreased, and did not dare to attack Bodaibo City lightly.

Although the last division that went out of the city to encircle and suppress entered the ambush circle set by the Dingbei Army, and the number of people who finally fled back to Bodaibo City was less than 1,000 people, Ivanov used this division to attract the attention of the Dingbei Army, and secretly took his 6th Army and the troops of another 1 army out of Bodaibo City to rush to the front line of Darkhan, and also took away 2 heavy artillery divisions in Bodaibo City.

The 5th and 12th Divisions of the Dingbei Army, which had just encircled and annihilated 1 division of the Russian army, not far from Bodaibo City, did not know that the Russian army in Bodaibo City had been reduced by half, and it was not until after the end of the Battle of Darhan that the 2 divisions knew that they were responsible for containing the Russian army in Bodaibo City, and secretly withdrew 2 infantry corps and 2 heavy artillery divisions under their noses, although it did not have much impact on the entire war, Bodaibo City finally fell into the hands of the Dingbei Army, But it made Zhang Zuolin and Zhang Limin, the two division commanders, linger for a long time, and also made the two remember Ivanov, the commander of the Russian army.

Irkutsk, as the most important material hoarding place in the Siberian theater, has always been heavily guarded, and the troops who came by train from Europe arrived in Irkutsk first, and then were sent to various places by the commander Kuropatkin, before the railway line was blown up, the last troops sent by Europe stayed in Irkutsk, which made the base camp of the Siberian theater have more than 100,000 Russian troops, and there are 5 infantry regiments in full formation.

Originally, the commander Kuropatkin had always regarded the Russian army in Irkutsk as the general reserve of the Siberian theater of operations, but now in order to determine the direction of this war, Kuropatkin transferred all four armies of Irkutsk and ordered them to rush to the city of Haktu and the city of Buying, and join the other army there, a total of nearly 150,000 troops of five armies, to support the Darkhan front.

In this way, on the rear road of the First Siberian Front, only one infantry corps was left to guard the city of Haktu and the city of Buying, and even Irkutsk, the base camp of the Siberian theater of operations, was only one fully equipped infantry corps, plus miscellaneous troops, the defenders of Irkutsk were less than 45,000 people.

In addition, Kuropatkin also sent a telegram to Tsar Nicholas II, although the special forces brigade of the Dingbei Army blew up the railway line to the Siberian theater by airship, but because of the distance, the sections blown up by the special forces brigade were on the railway line between Krasnoyarsk, a city built on the Yenisei River, and Irkutsk.

Tsar Nicholas II knew the outcome of the Battle of Darkhan and the impact on the entire war, so he agreed to Kuropatkin's request without hesitation, and asked the Chief of the Army General Staff Gorrosky to draw as many troops as possible and do what Kuropatkin asked.

Goerros was based on the maximum number of infantry of 6 armies, of which 3 corps were mobilized and expanded by Russia in the second phase of the war, these 3 corps were not even equipped with 1 artillery, only 1 single-shot rifle and 5 rounds of ammunition were issued to each soldier, and he and other 3 Russian original standing infantry regiments with strong combat effectiveness rushed to Krasnoyarsk on the Yenisei River by train, and then the 6 corps had to walk more than 1,000 kilometers to the front line of Darkhan City.

In this way, Kuropatkin mobilized a total of 4 reinforcements, and nearly 520,000 troops rushed to the city of Darkhan. Among them, there are 3 armies of the Second Front, and because one of them is the main army of Russia's newly formed army with 70,000 troops, the reinforcements along the way have reached 130,000.

The Third Front Army had 2 armies and 60,000 troops. Five armies were transferred from Irkutsk on the back road, as well as from the cities of Haktu and Buying, with a strength of 150,000. Six armies rushed from Europe, with a strength of 180,000.

After explaining the reinforcement plan that he had arranged long ago to the hundreds of officers of the First Siberian Front in the headquarters, Kuropatkin said with a slight expression: "Officers of the empire, although we Russia have suffered successive setbacks in this war, and we have suffered heavy losses in the current attack on the city of Darkhan, but! Officers of the Empire, you must listen clearly, but the strength of our Russia is still unquestionable, 520,000 reinforcements are coming from all directions, and the city of Darkhan will definitely be conquered by us, as the commander, I am full of confidence! ”R1152