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December 8, 1937, evening.

The Afghan plateau at sunset is no longer warm, and the mercury thermometer shows that the temperature outside has dropped to minus 17 degrees. As soon as he got out of the command tent, Zhuo Fan felt that his skin was as uncomfortable as being cut, so he tightened his cotton coat before walking towards the temporary airport. The makeshift airfield was built on a flat plot of land 13 kilometers east of Kunduz City, and two flipped T26 light tanks of the Soviet Army could be seen on the road. The turret of the tank was skewed, the tracks were broken in two, the 45-mm rifled gun was bent, and two DP machine guns were also removed by Afghan soldiers. The number on the body showed that they were from the 6th Tank Brigade of the Soviet Army, but unfortunately this tank brigade, which Zhukov and Kozilov had high hopes for, was beaten 11-0 by the sharp knives that opened the way before it could play its role, and had to retreat to the city in disgrace.

Behind the wreckage was the field airfield that the sappers had spent half a day clearing. Half-tracked anti-aircraft vehicles were laid around the airfield, with 40-mm and double-barreled 25-mm anti-aircraft guns pointed straight into the sky. Under their protection, four Y-10s, rushed from the Tajik base, were unloading two 711-mm towed howitzers and shells from the 1 battalion of the 155 heavy artillery regiment. Although this is already the lightest 1935 155 mm towed howitzer of the Hanyang company, it uses a 24 times body barrel, the total weight is only 3.6 tons, and the maximum range is 13 kilometers. But it is still too heavy for ordinary transport aircraft, even the largest domestic load capacity of the twin shipping ten can only be carried one at a time, and the gun carriage and gun body need to be separated before transportation. As for the larger Yun-8 and Yun-9, they can carry three doors, but their take-off and landing conditions are relatively harsh, and they cannot land at such temporary field airfields.

The units starting with the word 7 in the Wehrmacht are all heavy artillery, such as the 711 Regiment, which is an independent formation, which is mainly used to strengthen the suppressive firepower of the division/army. A regiment of three battalions, each with 12 155 mm guns (or 210 mm suppressed heavy guns). Zhuo Fan roughly calculated. With the simplest of artillery, shells and artillery, it would take 101 sorties for a regiment to transport ten. Fortunately, the isthmus has been opened, and although the road is difficult to walk, it can at least ensure that it is unblocked, otherwise it would be possible to form two tank battalions at the cost of half a year just by relying on the logistics maintained by the air force.

Heavy artillery was unloaded here, and the Kunduz in front of it was also roaring.

Immediately after breaking through the Khan Balad Pass, the 10th Panzer Division divided its forces in two directions, with a tank battalion and an Asian brigade quickly interspersing with Aliabad, 35 kilometers away, blocking the retreat route of the Soviet army in Baghlan. The main force, together with the 23rd Infantry Regiment and the 3rd Division of the Afghan Army, continued to advance towards Kunduz. Although it is only 30 kilometers, this is Afghanistan after all. Even though Kunduz is an oasis basin, it is still hilly and full of obstacles. Moreover, after learning of the loss of the isthmus, the Soviet commander took the initiative to abandon the outskirts and retreat to the city, and deliberately attacked and delayed the farms and settlements scattered around the small anti-tank units and scattered machine gun points, so it was very time-consuming to clear up.

By the afternoon. The armored division had basically cleared the area north of Kunduz, and Du Yuming was originally ready to attack Kunduz at night, but after seeing the photos of the city taken by the reconnaissance plane, he endured it. Kunduz, like most Afghan cities, is a mud building, with low houses and narrow streets, which severely obstructs the view of tanks once they enter. During the Army's Tiger Roar exercise, an armored division was simulated attacking such a city. As a result, the 200-odd tanks of the 2nd Armored Division, which was responsible for the attack at that time, were defeated by the dense crowd of grenades and other small arms that came out from all directions, and only after losing half of them did they win a crushing victory.

From then on, armored divisions, lacking the protection of large numbers of infantry, were considered unsuitable for attacking cities, especially in front of them, where there were two infantry divisions and cramped and crowded. Zhuo Fan looked at Kunduz. sighed secretly in his heart, if it weren't for the terrain restrictions and poor logistics, and the fact that the headquarters couldn't take out many follow-up infantry to implement the siege in a short period of time, otherwise the 10th Armored Division could have handed over the encirclement work to the infantry. Bypass this big nail and stick it straight into Termez.

Pity!

When Zhuo Fan was secretly cursing the weather and terrain, a small Yun-7 special combat liaison plane appeared in the sky. There are many types of aircraft in the country. There are also dozens of types of equipment, and ordinary soldiers can't count them at all. Although there are many models, it also proves that the domestic aviation industry has been among the world's first-class in the blooming of a hundred flowers. For example, the Yun-7 in front of you is a new product of the Northern Raytheon Company, which looks like the Swiss PC-6 special combat aircraft of later generations. It adopts an 850 horsepower 12-cylinder water-cooled engine, a sturdy non-retractable landing gear, an upper wing, a large sliding hatch that can be opened, and can carry 8 heavily armed mountain infantry at a time, and can take off and land on flat ground the size of a tennis court.

Like a light petrel, Yunqi only took less than twenty-five meters to stop steadily. As soon as the plane stopped, Zhuo Fan saw Long Yun and an Afghan lieutenant general in his thirties come out, the latter seemed to be still in a state of praising Yun Qi, and after coming down, he repeatedly looked back. "Zhuo Fan, the staff officer of the 10th Armored Division, has met the chief of staff and the general."

"Oh? You just came up with Zhuo Fan, who broke through the isthmus under the cover of gray sand? Good job! This is Lieutenant General Chahatu. Long Yun didn't expect to see Zhuo Fan at the first sight of his inspection. His tactics of using gray sand to cover the breakthrough of the isthmus were praised even by the chief of the general staff of Yue and the president when they learned about it, so they praised it twice before asking: "What about Du Yuming?" Take me to him. ”

"Report to the chief of staff, the division commander is in front, you wait a minute."

Since there was still fighting in front, Zhuo Fan not only found a big jeep, but also brought two tanks. This meticulousness made Long Yun very satisfied, and he asked about the details of the battle on the Isthmus along the way. When he arrived at the front line, Du Yuming was lying in the command post observing the city with an artillery periscope, and when he saw Long Yun and Chahatu, he hurriedly saluted and said hello.

"Alright. When the army is outside, the false courtesy is exempted. This is Lieutenant General Hachatu of the Afghan Army, how is the situation on the other side? After Long Yun introduced Chahatu, he walked towards the observation window of the bunker. Most of the veteran officers in Xinhai have withdrawn from the front line, and in addition to more than a dozen generals such as Yue Peng and Zhang Xiaozhun, the lieutenant general is already the backbone of the national defense force, so when he saw him coming, the guards saluted again and brought binoculars to him.

In the footage, an infantry company of the 10th Panzer Division is attacking a farm near the city under the cover of a tank platoon. It can be seen that the firepower of the Soviet troops was clearly insufficient, facing the encirclement of four tanks. There were hardly any decent anti-tank weapons, but they did a good job in fortifications, and a few logs in two deep trenches limited the attack of the tank squad, and they could only rely on vehicle-mounted machine guns to cover the infantry advance. Long Yun was not interested in it after looking at it for a while, this kind of small battle of peripheral clearance is a necessary work before the big war, and the grassroots commanders will handle it by themselves, in addition to inspecting the troops and encouraging the soldiers, he mainly deploys the battle of the two encirclements of Baghlan and Kunduz.

"Kunduz has two divisions of the Soviet army and a tank brigade. as well as a number of machine-gun, anti-tank and anti-aircraft battalions. We have eaten more than 4,000 men in the day's fighting, and I estimate that there are less than 20,000 horses left in the city. Termez still has two divisions and several separate brigades, but they have to divide their forces to save two divisions in Baghlan, so they should not be all pressed. I have here more than three thousand people in addition to the armored division, the 23 Infantry Regiment. The 3rd Afghan Division is 7,000, and the total number of troops is not much different. However, judging from the reconnaissance situation, the Soviet officers under command had good experience, and took advantage of the narrow buildings and streets to disperse their troops in pieces. Apparently ready to use the narrow streets and houses to block my tank. This is much the case on this side of the city, where the Kunduz River is to the west. The Soviets deployed heavy forces here to protect it. Originally, I wanted to bypass and outflank from the rear, but the boat bridge battalion had not yet arrived, and the Soviets had blown up the ice, so tanks and heavy weapons could not pass for the time being. ”

After listening to Du Yuming's introduction. Long Yun twisted towards Zhuo Fan and asked in a thoughtful tone, "Major Zhuo, tell me your opinion." ”

Zhuo Fan knew this and replied: "There are many houses in Kunduz City. The city is narrow and the terrain is uneven. Not the best tank advance terrain. However, the problems mentioned by the division commander are not big, as long as you are patient, advance layer by layer and slowly clear up. I think the biggest question now is whether to fight Baghlan or here. If we attack Baghlan first, then we might as well send a battalion to continue to the north and cut off the support route of Termez. If you hit here first, you can intersperse it two days later, because the bombing of the air force has destroyed a lot of supplies, and the more reinforcements they come, the greater the consumption, just to clean up together. ”

"I'm not old, but I don't have a small appetite." Long Yun's words caused the surrounding officers to laugh, and then he continued to ask, "Then where do you think it's good to fight?" ”

"If it's safe, I'll definitely hit Baghlan first. The two divisions of the Soviet army there have been completely surrounded, and such cold weather will definitely not last long. As long as Baghlan is solved, three infantry regiments and the Asian brigade can quickly pounce on them to form a superiority in strength. But if you want to win quickly, you should fight Kunduz first! Because Kunduz is the transit point between Termez and Baghlan, cutting off this place is equivalent to closing the northern gate of Afghanistan, and no matter how much the Soviet army in Baghlan tosses, it will be a turtle in an urn. It's just that Kunduz is a large city with complex streets, and a large number of infantry needs to be put in, so at least two more infantry battalions need to be added. ”

The armored division had two battalions and a thousand infantry. The 23rd Infantry Regiment used to be the 23rd Brigade, although after the new military reform in 1922, each division was withdrawn and reorganized into a smaller regiment, but it was still a large regiment, with six battalions totaling more than 3,000 people. Coupled with the miscellaneous sappers and other combatants, they could only gather 6,000 infantry. If the terrain is open, then one armored division with 6,000 infantry is enough to deal with three infantry divisions of the Soviet army, but in the face of a chaotic city that needs to be cleared layer by layer, and has to guard against the Soviet army's counter-encirclement, there are at least 100,000 people living in the chaotic city.

Of course, Zhuo Fan did not count the Third Division of the Afghan Army, because in his opinion, the Afghan soldiers were not as strong as the National Guard, and they could only serve as guides or pacify local citizens and other logistical work.

"Well said."

"Ladies and gentlemen! Whether this war can be carried out quickly and smoothly is not only related to whether our allies can recover our land as soon as possible, but also related to the aspirations of the people in Central Asia and even the Persian Gulf region! So the president has asked us to take Kunduz as soon as possible, and the chief of the general staff and the commander have also discussed and decided to leave Baghlan and fight Kunduz first! Long Yun patted Zhuo Fan on the shoulder, turned around and said, "The General Staff has ordered the mobilization of 300 long-range transport planes to transfer the 16th Plateau Brigade to help, and it is expected that at least one regiment will arrive here within two days." From tomorrow, the Air Force will change its bombing targets and carry out tactical bombing of Termez and the Soviet railway lines, disrupting the Soviet army's build-up capacity and cutting off their support channels! ”