There is still half a year to go from November to the beginning of spring next year, and more than 200,000 troops of the Democratic League are stationed in Hami, and they can continuously transport grain and materials from the rear.

Russia is located in the high cold, the economy is backward, and the agricultural output is far from China, not to mention the consumption of grain from Russia to Xinjiang, even if it is changed to developed countries such as Britain and France.

There is no need to count on Xinjiang itself, the real large-scale development of Xinjiang was still after the Red Dynasty Xinjiang Construction Corps was stationed, at that time, Xinjiang could only barely feed nearly one million people in peacetime, and now a huge number of foreign populations have poured in, and they have been beaten to pieces by the chaos of all sides, and agricultural and animal husbandry production has almost come to a standstill.

This determines that the Russian army's grain can only come from the three Central Asian countries, but the problem is that the production level of the three Central Asian countries is not high, and seeing that winter is approaching, cattle and sheep are losing fat, and they will not be able to harvest winter wheat until May next year, which means that before May next year, hundreds of thousands of Russian troops will live on grain stocks.

Whether the cannon fodder army and the servant army, including the large and small local armed forces in Xinjiang, will starve to death is not within the scope of Kaufman's consideration, but the food and drink of hundreds of thousands of Russian troops is a big problem, if it is not solved well, the army will become unmotivated, and even the serf army may be scattered in a hurry.

In addition, if there is extremely cold weather, heavy snow will cover the mountains, and the transportation of food and materials for the Chinese army will be blocked. But the impact on the Russian army will be even more serious, don't want to get any supplies from the three Central Asian countries. It will be even more difficult, but the Chinese army has already shown a hint of boiling.

Kaufman smoked his pipe. Standing at the head of Urumqi and looking at the east.

The secretary could probably guess Kaufman's worries, and couldn't help but say, "Your Excellency, it seems that the Chinese are planning to spend the winter in Hami, should we take the initiative?" ”

"This" Kaufman hesitated for a moment, then puffed out a cigarette and said: "Although the Chinese army has only more than 200,000 people, and its strength is only half of ours, his combat effectiveness is very strong, we can't attack hastily, let's wait." ”

The secretary added, "Your Excellency, the Governor. In ancient China, the army always likes to cut off the other side's grain routes, I think this is a very good strategy, the Chinese army to transport grain to the front line, need to go through the long Hexi corridor, which has many places that can be used to block, you can send an army, the number of people is not much, twenty or thirty thousand is enough. Using those Chinese who surrendered as guides and lurking into the Hexi Corridor should have a great deal of confidence in destroying the Chinese material transport team. ”

"Huh?" Kaufman's eyes lit up, but then dimmed. This can't be helped, it's good to cut off China's grain route by surprise, and China wants to lurk into the Hexi Corridor. There are only two roads, the first of which is eastward. After passing through Jiuquan in Hami, China has now deployed heavy troops in Hami. This is obviously impossible.

The second road is to go back, out of the Alashankou to the north, through the Mongolian Plateau to the south, this is nothing more than a detour, but the problem is that the Alashankou in winter is extremely terrifying, because of the special terrain and climatic conditions, the natural formation of extreme wind area, eight or nine winds are every day, ten to twelve winds are not uncommon, thirteen or more storms are not uncommon, in the wind through the mountain pass, even in the Red Dynasty, there is a record of the train being blown over by the wind, if a single soldier crosses the mountain pass in the wind, the result can only be the annihilation of the whole army.

Kaufman, of course, understood the horror of the strong winds in the mountain pass area, and couldn't help but curse: "Where are so many mountains in this damn place?" You are too, why not mention it earlier? How did our soldiers pass through the mountain pass in the cold winter? Forget it, General Igchenav has experienced a hundred battles, he will see the importance of cutting off the grain routes of the Chinese army, and he should lead the Mongol cavalry to surprise the Chinese grain transport team, God forbid, I hope there will be good news. ”

Kaufman closed his eyes and prayed sincerely.

The secretary shrugged helplessly, obviously aggrieved by the blame from Kaufman.

On this very day, the two armies of the Democratic Alliance Army also climbed the Aksai Chin Heights, looking at the surrounding snow-capped mountains, the surface rocks of the fruit, and the flags that were almost torn apart by the strong wind, which can be said to be a forbidden area for human existence.

Aksai Chin in the narrow sense refers to a basin surrounded by mountains, with an area of only 21 square kilometers, located between the Kunlun Mountains and the Karakoram Mountains in the south of Khotan, although the average sea level is more than 4,000 meters, but the terrain is flat, there are several mountain passes up to Kashmir, since ancient times it has been a shortcut from Xinjiang to the Indian subcontinent, and from the Tarim Basin through Kashmir to the countries of the Middle East, and there are many saltwater lakes and runoff in the mountain depressions, and there are also snow-covered mountains, which means that there is no shortage of water to garrison here.

At the beginning of November, the temperature at noon was already about minus 5 degrees, and the two group armies, 150,000 soldiers and nearly 160,000 auxiliary combatants, tens of thousands of horses and camels, and tens of thousands of vehicles of all kinds were filling the narrow basin with water, and there were horses neighing and camels crowing everywhere.

Li Xiucheng took off his mask, exhaled his white breath fiercely, and shouted in the wind: "Okay, it's really a good place, if it wasn't for the commander-in-chief to draw a map, who would have thought that there would be such a place of four battles between the mountains, and if it was choked, the Russians would not want to cross half a step." ”

Li Erhu nodded and said: "Our time is very tight, at least before December, we must take Tashkent, stay here for a day today, and leave early tomorrow morning." As he spoke, he instructed Wang Haiyang, the commander of the 29th Army and who was originally subordinate to Shi Dakai's department: "You take the brothers of the 29th Army to stay, do you know what to do?" ”

Wang Haiyang saluted the military salute and said: "Hold the mountain pass, never teach irrelevant people to step into the Aksai Chin Basin for half a step, and tomorrow we will send people south to India via Kashmir to try to obtain food supplies from the northwestern states of India, and maintain light activities, pay attention to heat preservation, and prevent altitude sickness." ”

Altitude sickness is actually not as serious as most people think, old and frail or industrious, at first encountering altitude sickness, may be very uncomfortable, but for young men, especially strong soldiers, most of them are not a thing, even if there is, it is only a mild reaction.

Moreover, before boarding Aksai Chin, the whole army crossed the northern side of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, with an average sea level of two to three thousand meters, and gradually completed the physiological adjustment of the hypoxic environment from the plain to the plateau.

Li Erhu waved his hand violently: "The whole army is camped and cooked." ”

"Yes!"

With the military order, a tent was erected in the valley, and the tents were made of thickened canvas, plus sleeping bags, which could play a good role in keeping warm at night, but eating was a problem.

Every 1,000 meters the terrain rises, the boiling point of water drops by three degrees, and the boiling point of water is only 88 degrees Celsius in the Aksai Chin Sea, and the boiling point of water is only 88 degrees.

Fresh meat was also inedible, boiled meat was not cooked, and even if it was barbecued, there was not so much firewood to be found in Aksai Chin, and the only firewood had to be used to boil water, at this time, cans of luncheon meat became a favorite of the soldiers.

There are people who make fires, there are people who fetch water, there are people who cook noodles, and there are people who heat canned food, and everyone sits on the ground, drinking two or two small wines, shouting happily, but they don't notice that in a hole not far to the west, some figures appeared.

"Lord Ayub, stop!"

Bai Huyan was about to turn a corner and enter the Aksai Chin Valley when a frightened voice in front of him stopped him in time.

"What's wrong?" Bai Huyan paused and said unhappily.

"The People's Democratic Alliance!" The man stammered.

Bai Huyan tightened his body, and hurriedly looked out of the hole, and suddenly his heart shook wildly, and his face instantly turned pale, which was comparable to the snow on the surrounding mountains.

In the entire valley, all the dense grass green figures, you can't see the end at a glance, and a rough estimate shows that there are more than 100,000 people.

"This" Bai Huyan was stunned, he didn't expect that the Democratic Alliance Army would deploy the main force in Aksai Chin.

The dozens of entourages behind him looked out cautiously against the mountain wall, and their faces were also as earthy as they were.

After being ordered by Kaufman, Bai Huyan decided to go in person, after all, Agubai has a violent personality, and he is always not at ease when he only passes through his territory with his subordinates, he feels that it is better for him to contact Aguba, how to say, he is also the leader of the Yellow Russians, and with the word Russia, Aguba should give some thin noodles in his feelings.

Bai Huyan took dozens of elite tribesmen and left Urumqi the next day, passing through Turpan and Aksu, and arrived in Kashgar.

Say that the yellow-skinned and black-eyed Bai Bailin is inferior to the white-skinned Bai Bailin, it is a slave given by the true god to the white-skinned Bai Bailin, although Bai Huyan is angry, but the situation is stronger than people, he can only swallow his anger, and accompany the smiling face, after paying a lot of tolls, he was allowed to pass through Kashgar and continue south.

"Lord Ayub, Aksai Chin can't get through, let's go back."

"Yes, let's leave quickly, in case we are discovered by the Democratic Alliance Army, we can't leave if we want to."

"We have found out the news that the NLD army is stationed in Aksaichin, and the Russians can explain the past, and it is expected that His Excellency the Governor will not trouble us again."

The retinue came back to their senses and gossiped and persuaded them to retreat.

Aksai Chin is different from other mountainous areas, mountain after mountain, many of which are high and steep, and the top of the mountain is covered with snow, so it is impossible to climb over it, so you can only choose to retreat except for hard rushing.

Bai Huyan suppressed his horror and gritted his teeth: "Let's go, move lightly, don't alarm the Democratic Alliance." ”

The attendants immediately led the horses and turned their heads, tiptoeing for fear of making the slightest noise. (To be continued.) )