13,000 km north-northwest of Port Vila, the railway town of Throstan in the mountains of the Urals,

In a smoky ruin, Wang, who was holding a telescope, was expressionless, with eagle eyebrows and short hair dotted with gunpowder.

In the front of the view, in the narrow valley leading to the Zlatoust Pass, accompanied by the sporadic sound of gunfire, the marching column of the 7th Division, like a few long, dead green worms, stagnated among the sparse bushes on both sides of the railway, and a few war horses carrying heralds or officers patrolled back and forth, still unable to wake up these sleeping long worms.

On the left, on the steep slope towards the main peak of Mount Zlatoo, more than 10,000 infantry of the 10th Division spread out like overturned beans, but had long since ceased to roll. There was no smoke, no battle flags, no bayonets, and the infantry crouched behind the broken rocks, cowered in shallow foxholes, and lay among the broken tree trunks. Behind them, a team of mules was struggling to climb up the hill, a team of stretchers was staggering down, and scattered officers or heralds were climbing up and down in vain.

On the right, on the winding mountain road to the main peak of Mount Kruglitsa, the battle flag of the 12th Division hung lifelessly, and in the coniferous forest below the mountain, like drops of water leaking from the fingers, stretchers and wounded soldiers with rifles continued to pour out.

Today is 25 June, the fourth day of the "Bear Slaughter" operation, and after a morning of fighting, Wang Zhi, who is the commander of the Northern Front, has seen with his own eyes in the area of the central cluster attack, which is such a decadent trend.

This is the case for the middle road, but what about the two roads in the north and the north?

Although the two divisions of Zhao Feixue on the South Road captured the outpost position of the Russian army in the village of Ustinovo as early as the 23rd, they began to march to the main position of the Russian army in the Kruglaya Mountains yesterday, and after half a day of climbing, the two regiments of the 20th Division, supported by two companies and twelve 75-mm mountain guns, stormed the core support point of the Russian army in the village of Arkhangelstile "jī fought until night, and the attacking troops ran out of ammunition and were forced to retreat.

Today, Zhao Feixue attacked Arhangelstye head-on with two other regiments of the 20th Division, and one regiment of the 22nd Division made a detour on the flank and received air support from more than 10 aircraft, but only three hours after the offensive began, the attacking troops withdrew from the battle due to insufficient ammunition and excessive casualties.

The two divisions of Chuqing on the North Road even began to attack the main position of the Russian army on Yurma Mountain as early as the 23rd, "due to the rapid advance of the North Road cluster, coupled with the treacherous terrain, the artillery and the heavy team failed to follow up in time, and the attacking troops, with the support of more than 20 sorties, launched an attack with only infantry weapons (including light mortars and flat-fire infantry guns) carried by manpower" Under the suppression of the Russian army's machine guns and artillery fire, it ran out of sharp energy in only one morning, and was forced to retreat, digging trenches and waiting for reinforcements.

After a day and two nights of rectification and replenishment, on the 25th, Chu Qing was frontally pinned down by the second division, and the 14th division made a detour from the north of the main peak of Yurma Mountain, trying to take the main peak position in one fell swoop, but the 14th Division's attacking troops were attacked by Russian fire when crossing a dangerous mountain pass north of the main peak.

"Commander, call from the base camp." ”

The person who appeared behind Wang Zhi with a telegram in his hand was none other than General Xiang Lan, chief of staff of the Front Army.

Wang Zhi turned around and glanced at him, "Why are you here?" Didn't I leave you at the headquarters in the city? ”

"Where the commander is, where is the headquarters." Besides, there is no difference between the city and here, either ruins or dead horses, and there are many wounded soldiers in the past few days. ”

As he spoke, he presented a telegram to Lan Zhengjing, Wang glanced at it, shook his head and smiled bitterly: "The Central Runner-up Army is not angry, but our Northern Army has to be whipped, what the hell is this?" ”

Xiang Lan sighed: "Commander Liang may not have been whipped, but the base camp knows the difficulties of our northern army, but it is too harsh to still urge us to do so. ”

Wang Zhi sneered, "No matter how much you brag about B, this battle can't be fought, tens of thousands of mules and horses will be exhausted on the front line alone in a few days, and the trucks that can still go on the road in the rear are only enough to transport rations."

If we don't build roads honestly, planes, combat vehicles, and heavy artillery are all ineffective, the infantry is short of food and ammunition, and they have to fight to save face and attack on all fronts, and if we continue like this, I really can't figure out whether we are holding back the enemy, or the enemy is holding us back, maybe the old opponent of the Asian-Russian war on the other side has long regarded us as a joke. ”

"Commander, in fact, our army has completed its task. ”

Hearing Xiang Lan's assertion, Wang Zhi's eyes suddenly lit up.

Xiang Lan raised three fingers: "Even if the Russian army in front of you sends troops to reinforce the Orenburg side from today, it will take at least three days from assembly, loading, unloading to redeployment, not to mention the bombing of our aviation unit and the destruction of the special forces, and the actual time may be longer." According to the plan, the Central Marathon Army has only three days left to complete the scheduled tasks, so even if our army stops the offensive now, it will not bring any pressure to the Central Runner's Army. ”

Wang Zhi squinted his eyes and thought about it, shook his head and sighed, "I'm afraid that the base camp has additional expectations for the Central Runner-up...... That guy from Liang Tianhe won't admit defeat easily. ”

Xiang Lan calmly analyzed: "According to the plan, the Central Asian Army should have broken through the Oren River yesterday and captured the railway junction behind the enemy, but it was still nested in the bridgehead at noon today, and it seems that the situation is not going well." If we can't break the deadlock tomorrow night, I'm afraid this operation will end here, and there is not much surplus food on the commander's side, and the tired mules and horses and scrapped trucks of the Central Second Army are no less than ours. ”

Wang Zhien sighed, just nodded, and couldn't help but hesitate, "But I have promised the base camp at the beginning that I will fully cooperate, and now I can't fight, so why don't I go back on my word, what will the emperor and the ministers think of me......

"That's a ...... to ask,

……，

Xiang Lan smacked his lips, folded his arms and pondered, only half a cigarette of effort, and suddenly a flash of inspiration.

"Commander, it is better to do this, you personally propose to the base camp: even if the Central Asian Army succeeds in breaking through the Orenburg front, with the extremely bad traffic situation of the entire front against Russia at present, it will inevitably be unable to keep up in time because of the supply, so that the enemy's heavy army group can preserve most of its vital strength, and have the opportunity to completely destroy the transportation facilities as before while retreating.

Not only that, "the rapidly lengthening of the supply line will also further increase the logistical burden of the entire theater, and then reduce the combat efficiency of the front-line troops." ”

"And then?" "Wang Zhi also came to Xingchu.

"Next, put forward your own new plan: turn the whole line into defense, make every effort to improve the traffic situation in the rear, replenish and retrain the troops on the premise of carrying out a large-depth breakthrough operation, adjust and improve equipment, reserve sufficient combat materials, and make thorough preparations before launching an offensive on the whole front" In this way, it is possible to destroy the main forces of the Russian army on the entire Sino-Russian front in one fell swoop with a powerful general assault before the onset of winter, and promote the surrender or collapse of Russia. ”

Wang Zhi blinked, looking a little disappointed: "I have long had this idea, and I have been angry with the people above" but the above just don't eat this set. ”

Xiang Lan smiled slightly, "Obviously, I left a hand."

"The most important thing is this: You take the initiative to transfer the main force of the First Armored Army to the Central Armored Army, and in exchange, transfer the light infantry divisions rich in mountain combat experience in the Central Armored Army and other front armies to our Northern Army, so that the in-depth assault capability of the Central Armored Army and the mountain offensive capability of our army will be enhanced, and it can be said that each has its own place."

, "in the future general assault", the Central Runner-up Army will quickly assault Samara with two armored armies, cutting off the entire rear route of the heavy Russian army group east of the Volga. Our Northern Army, with the elite light infantry division as the vanguard and the main heavy infantry division as the backing, infiltrated and broke through the enemy's defense line in the Ural Mountains, and joined forces with the Central Asian Army to encircle, divide, and annihilate the entire Russian army in the Ural Mountains, Volga, and Ural River triangles. ”

Wang Zhi listened silently, rubbing the slag that had not been shaved for a few days, squinting and sneering: "Give a set to the surname Liang?" It's better to give him my life......"

Xiang Lan arched his hand and smiled: "It's useless to stay, it's blessed to send it, as soon as this move comes out, the emperor and the ministers will definitely treat the commander differently, how can Commander Liang not have feelings for the commander?" From now on, there will be a good story of the chief who will live forever. Wang Zhi slapped his high-five: "It is worthy of being the first wise general among the six tiger generals appointed by the first emperor" With you, the chief of staff, I really save a lot of worry, okay, this telegram is up to you to draft" Hurry up and write, I will sign it after writing "I must send a ...... before dinner"

Xiang Lan smiled bitterly in his heart: What is it for me again, sir, you will also use your own pen.

Wang Zhi saw through Xiang Lan's thoughts at a glance, but he didn't make a sound, thinking: If the article was well written and, I would have already mixed into the central government to give orders, and I was still here to toss a fart with you......

……，

20 km west of Therostan, the town of Zlatoust, the forward command of the Russian Ural Front.

"The situation is already clear that the main purpose of the enemy's offensive is not to break through our front, but to contain our troops as much as possible, so that we have no time to reinforce our friendly forces on the Orenburg side. ”

Facing the commander of the 51st Army, Lieutenant General Hovlin, who was in a daze with a telegram in his hand, the chief of staff, Colonel Tukhanov, did not hesitate to assert.

The commander of the front, General Kontrachenko, who was pressing the map on the side, looked helpless: "Even so, what else can we do?" Yesterday, as soon as I received the news of the appearance of the enemy's sabotage units in Sorochinsk, I loaded the 12th Armored Vehicle Brigade and the rest of the two cavalry divisions into trucks. The enemy has only just suspended the offensive, and no one can be sure whether they will launch a new offensive, in which case I cannot immediately send all the available reserves to Orenburg, and we cannot risk anything is possible for the Chinese. ”

Tukhanov snatched the telegram from Khovrin's hand and raised it to the sky: "But the order of the Moscow base camp ......"

Hovrin tilted his head::, "It's not the first time we've discounted the order of the base camp...... Besides, isn't the Orenburg side already resisting? "Temporary."

Tukhanov stressed.

"We ...... too"

Hovrin shrugged.

Tukhanov turned to Kontrachenko angrily: "Even if it is discounted, at least one division must be taken out, commander, if the Ural front is lost, if we do not want to be cut off, we can only obediently retreat, and the glorious history of our desperate defense against the enemy here for four days will become worthless!" The entire hinterland of Europe and Russia will open its doors to the enemy unsuspectingly! Commander, I don't think that's what you want to see, right? ”

Kontrachenko furrowed his eyebrows, and his raised fist almost slammed into the map table, but the moment it touched the table, the fist was released, and his fingertips brushed over the long mountain range separating Eurasia on the map.

"Order the 24th Army to transfer a division, transport it to Sorochinsk overnight, transfer it to the command of the Volga Front, and telegraph Nakasidze to execute it immediately!" @。