The 1st Mechanized Infantry Army was in terrible condition, at least rather bad for the acting army commander Rokossovsky.

Before the final outcome of the "Leningrad case", Rokossovsky was neither the commander, deputy commander, nor political commissar of the 1st Mechanized Infantry Army. At that time, he was the commander of the 1st Motorized Infantry Division under the 1st Mechanized Infantry Army.

At that time, under the establishment of the First Mechanized Infantry Army, there were three divisions and two artillery brigades. In addition to the 1st Motorized Rifle Division of Kossovsky in Cairo, the other units were: the 1st Tank Division, the 2nd Tank Division, and the 1st and 2nd Artillery Brigades.

From the establishment of the First Mechanized Infantry Army, we can see that this is a composite unit with a high mechanized or tank-like process. Tank units used for battlefield assaults accounted for more than two-thirds of the total strength. The two artillery brigades are subordinate to four artillery regiments, one heavy artillery regiment, one howitzer regiment, one cannon regiment and one rocket artillery regiment. It is especially noteworthy that all of these artillery regiments were motorized!

It should be said that the First Mechanized Infantry Army was still very strong in terms of establishment, at least Tukhachevsky and Khalepsky were relatively satisfied at that time. And in the Northern 1934 exercise in July 1934, the 1st Mechanized Infantry Corps showed a strong battlefield breakthrough capability (at least during the exercise).

Just when Tukhachevsky and Khalepsky were preparing to further adjust and strengthen the combat effectiveness of the First Mechanized Infantry Army, the Leningrad case broke out, Tukhachevsky stepped down, and Khalepsky, who was in charge of the armored corps, was finished. The former was forced to go to the reserves to make a living. The latter was transferred to the Kiev Military District as a commander.

And it's not just Tukhachevsky and Khalepsky who have been adjusted. Also ousted were the commander, deputy commander and commissar of the First Mechanized Infantry Army, as well as the chief of staff. Let's put it this way, all the upper echelons of the First Army of the Mechanized Infantry have been taken down, and the leadership team has been wiped out!

The completion of the leadership at the corps level was only the first blow to the First Army of the Mechanized Infantry, and what was even worse was the grassroots officers who had previously participated in the Leningrad case, and a large part of the commanders of this group of battalion and company commanders were involved in that unfortunate brawl. Among them, all the battalion-level cadres who were "bad" in nature were dismissed, and some of them were forced to retire, be transferred from their posts, or enter the reserve service.

Let's just say that this incident swept away the top and middle ranks of the First Mechanized Infantry Army, and even those officers who survived were demoralized and panicked.

In 1934, so to speak. The First Mechanized Infantry Army was driving high and going low, and it was smooth sailing before July, but after July it was chaos. This terrible chaos continued until the beginning of 1935 and showed no signs of stopping.

In other words, from August 1934, the First Mechanized Infantry Army was in a state of turmoil, the officers were panicked and had no intention of engaging in any military training, and the combat effectiveness of the troops plummeted. Even Rokossovsky's best efforts to boost morale and maintain normal training will not help.

"The training of the troops was almost completely suspended, the morale of the soldiers was low and they were not motivated, the officers were worried more about the future, and some officers were even dissatisfied with the decisions of the Military Commission and the Supreme Military Court. It is believed that Comrade Mikhail and other comrades of the officers involved have suffered unjustly ......"

Every time Rokossovsky said a word, Li Xiaofeng's face became ugly. He had thought that the First Army of Mechanized Infantry would be affected, but he definitely did not expect that the impact would be so great, judging from Rokossovsky's report, the soul of this army is scattered!

The war is about to start, and the troops are in a state of decay, which is really not a good phenomenon. After a moment of contemplation, he asked, "How long will it take you to turn things around?" ”

Rokossovsky smiled bitterly: "I'm afraid it will take a long time, and the shortest will take half a year!" ”

Li Xiaofeng shook his head and said decisively: "There is no half a year, you only have two months to reverse this qiē!" ”

"Two months?" Rokossovsky was dumbfounded, he did not understand why there was so little time, "Comrade Andrey, time is too short!" ”

"You've only got two months!"

"Why?" Rokossovsky did not understand it very much.

Li Xiaofeng frowned, thought for a moment, took out a top-secret document and handed it to him, Rokossovsky took it and looked at it suspiciously, and suddenly his face changed greatly: "This is the real reason for transferring us to the Far East?" ”

Rokossovsky did not know that the First Mechanized Infantry Army was transferred to the Far East to fight the Japanese, and he had the same opinion as most of the middle-ranking officers, thinking that this was the Military Commission's punishment of Tukhachevsky's descendants and a disguised retaliation.

Yes, when the Military Commissar ordered the 1st Mechanized Infantry Army to move eastward, the morale and morale of the troops fell further, and it was generally believed that the Military Commissar was going to give them a color to see, and this was a preparation to completely remove traces of Tukhachevsky in the army. There are even rumors that the CMC will soon abolish the armored corps and disperse all tanks and armored vehicles to the infantry.

Obviously, this speculation is unfounded, and it cannot even be ruled out that Tukhachevsky's descendants deliberately released it. However, even Rokossovsky had some faith before, and now this top-secret document is a reassuring pill for Rokossovsky.

Rokossovsky immediately said: "If this news can be conveyed to the comrades at the grassroots level, I am sure that the stability of the troops will be restored within two months!" ”

Li Xiaofeng pouted, this is a top-secret text, that is, Rokossovsky is his confidant, so that this thing knows the reason. As for the downward communication, what should I do if the secret is leaked? After all, it is necessary to paralyze the Japanese in the past month or two.

"Comrade Konstantin, it is a pity that this is a top-secret document and cannot be conveyed immediately. You don't even have the qualifications to read it. ”

Tut...... Rokossovsky pouted, he originally wanted to use the news of the war to boost morale, but it seemed that this road would not work. And the current situation of the army is like this, how do you say this is done?

"So be it!" Li Xiaofeng came up with a solution for him, "The news of the war cannot be leaked." But the morale of the troops was also important. You convey it to the troops. You went to the Far East to participate in long-distance raid exercises. The main thing is to test the long-distance running combat capability of mechanized troops. Well, I'll ask the Military Commission to give you a code name for the exercise, and I'll make this qiē look like that! ”

Without waiting for Rokossovsky to nod, Li Xiaofeng said again: "I'm afraid this is not enough, add some more material, didn't you say that rumors and gossip are spreading?" Then we might as well take advantage of this sense of crisis. You tell the troops that this exercise will decide the fate of the First Army of Mechanized Infantry, if the table is not good. The Military Commission will directly dismiss you, all regiment-level cadres will be retired, all battalion-level cadres will go to the reserves, and all ordinary soldiers will remain in Siberia to open up wasteland......"

Rokossovsky was a little dumbfounded, is it okay to do this? After thinking about it, he had to admit that under the current shape, this was the best way. The news of the war cannot be leaked, but it is imperative to go to the Far East, and if you don't give some explanation, the people below will simply use their sense of crisis. Scare them and make them go out and fight for their future.

Rokossovsky was really relieved at this point. Feeling that his old superiors had really solved a big problem for him, just as he was about to express his sincere thanks to Li Xiaofeng and immediately rush back to the stationing of the army to announce this important news, Li Xiaofeng stopped him.

"Comrade Konstantin, do you think that the problem of the 1st Mechanized Infantry Army is simply as simple as morale and unstable morale?"

Rokossovsky was stunned for a moment when this question was asked, because he really felt that the problems of the troops were completely psychological, that it was the struggle at the top that had disrupted the normal work of the troops, and that as long as these human interferences were excluded, they would return to normal.

Li Xiaofeng looked at Rokossovsky with deep meaning, and asked unhurriedly: "What was the situation of the previous Northern 1934 exercises?" ”

Rokossovsky was stunned again, because the Northern 1934 exercise was the beginning of a nightmare for the First Army of the Mechanized Infantry, and as soon as the big guy thought of this exercise, he could immediately remember the misfortune that followed, and no one wanted to mention it.

Li Xiaofeng snorted and asked very sternly: "Could it be that the troops have not summarized and analyzed the results of the exercise?" ”

Rokossovsky's face turned red, and it was really true, because since July, as the Leningrad case has continued to ferment, the question of who cares about the previous exercises has focused on the future, especially after the fall of Tukhachevsky and Khalepsky.

Li Xiaofeng shook his head slightly, and took out another document: "Judging from the summary of this exercise, this exercise has exposed quite a lot of problems, and at the macro level, the performance of both BT-2 and T-26 is not ideal, especially the BT-2 fast tank, and the dual-purpose design is not practical from the exercise......"

Rokossovsky interjected: "Yes, judging by the feedback of the tank comrades, most of the time they fought on the march using tracks, the main thing is that it is troublesome to switch between wheels and shoes, and the walking system is not so reliable. ”

Li Xiaofeng nodded and continued: "BT-2 and T-26 still have enough protection? Weak firepower? ”

"Yes, both the BT-2 and the T-26 have slightly thin armor and look ...... in front of a new generation of anti-tank weapons They are fragile, and their firepower is not strong enough to destroy strong fortifications, and our judgment is that their survival is very problematic. ”

Li Xiaofeng asked again: "I also heard that the logistics support of mechanized troops is under great pressure?" ”

Rokossovsky immediately poured bitter water: "The pressure on logistics is too great, and the consumption of oil is completely beyond our estimates. As for the consumption of spare parts for tanks and armored vehicles, it is even more ...... Let's put it this way, in order to ensure that the exercise can be carried out normally, all the spare parts in our logistics warehouse have been consumed, and even at the end of the exercise, in order to allow the tanks to be dispatched normally, we had to tear down the east wall and make up the west wall, and judging from the experience of the exercise, the attendance rate of the tank units was only 30%. ”

This is indeed embarrassing, because Li Xiaofeng is very clear that an important reason for this phenomenon is that during the Tukhachevsky era, he only focused on the number of equipment and ignored logistics support. The total number of tanks and armored vehicles purchased is indeed quite large, but there are not many spare parts, and once there is a mechanical failure, it is necessary to dismantle the east wall and make up the west wall, as Rokossovsky said, and at one time every three to five tanks can "guarantee" that one tank can perform the task normally.

Of course. This is not all Tukhachevsky's responsibility either. Because the Red Army at that time had this problem up and down. Management is too bureaucratic and too rough. In addition, the industrial base and industrial capacity of the Soviet Union at that time were not very good, and the products produced were some distance from the design requirements on paper, which means that the life of the Soviet Union's mechanized equipment was relatively low.

This was reflected in the Great Patriotic War, when the Soviet Union had the most powerful armored forces in the world on paper, but at the beginning of the war it was vulnerable. In addition to the German blitzkrieg attack, a very important reason is that after several years of consumption (fighting Poland and Finland), the mechanical life of this huge number of tanks and armored vehicles is almost exhausted, and a considerable part of them can only pretend to make up the numbers.

"I will order the Kharkiv side to provide you with urgent support and try to ensure your normal consumption in the future." Li Xiaofeng sighed. He asked, "Are there any other questions besides these?" ”

Rokossovsky replied embarrassedly: "There is also the problem of artillery, they generally report that the performance of the towing vehicles equipped is not ideal, and the one-and-a-half-ton Gis 5 car towing 76-mm field guns is okay, which is really inadequate for 107-mm cannons and 122-mm and 152-mm howitzers." Comrades generally expressed a desire to equip more tracked tractors, they are better to use. ”

Li Xiaofeng smiled, because of this problem, he knew that for the Russian automobile industry, which had just begun to develop, the only thing that was convenient and cheap to produce was the Giss 5 one-and-a-half-ton truck. And the performance of this car is really enough for an artillery towing vehicle. In particular, this car is really a civilian truck, and the military is really reluctant, for mechanized infantry that needs strong cross-country ability. Crawler tractors are their favorite.

As mentioned earlier, tractors were in short supply in the USSR at that time. Because of the collective farms, the shortage of tractors is not ordinarily large. Even the Red Army had a hard time getting enough tractors. However, objectively speaking, the tracked tractor is indeed more suitable for artillery use than the Giess 5 car.

After thinking about it, Li Xiaofeng decided to help with this: "I will discuss with the People's Commissariat of Medium Industry and do my best to meet the needs of your troops for tracked tractors." ”

If before coming to Li Xiaofeng's office, Rokossovsky was full of gloom, but now he is so happy that he wants to be happy. The old leader is too powerful, and he has solved most of the problems of the troops casually, and this news can also greatly stabilize the morale of the army!

However, Li Xiaofeng did not make Rokossovsky happy for long, and he said very sternly: "After talking about the equipment, let's talk about tactics and formation. In the course of the exercise, I could see that the 1st and 2nd Tank Divisions were quickly repelled by the 'enemy' counter-charge after breaking through the preset positions several times. ”

Rokossovsky replied: "I think it's still a matter of the performance of the tank, our tank is too ......"

Before he could finish speaking, he was interrupted by Li Xiaofeng: "I don't think it's a problem with the performance of the tank, but a purely tactical problem!" ”

Rokossovsky was taken aback and looked at Li Xiaofeng incredulously, because he felt that his old leader was not a military strategist and did not have a thorough study of the theory of mechanized warfare. Specialists in this area are Tukhachevsky, Ubolevich, Triandafilov. And the tactics and establishment of today's First Mechanized Infantry Army were created by these three experts, aren't they better than you as a layman?

Li Xiaofeng ignored Rokossovsky's surprise, but said to himself: "In my opinion, the reason why it is difficult for the tank unit to hold the breakthrough and quickly develop in depth after breaking through and occupying the enemy's position is as follows: first, the front of the breakthrough is still too wide, second, the tank unit is divided into three batches and put into the battlefield, the guiding force is dispersed, and the combat organization becomes extremely complicated, and the third is that the number of infantry units fighting with the tank unit is too small, after the tank opens the breakthrough, Unable to hold the breach in the face of the enemy's counterattack......"

At first, Rokossovsky was a little unimpressed, but soon his expression became solemn, he carefully recalled the course of the exercise, and had to admit that Li Xiaofeng's three points were all on the point. This made him admire someone so much that he even thought that it was no wonder that Ubolevich and Triandafilov would be on the same side with someone and not with Tukhachevsky.

However, Rokossovsky could never have imagined that Li Xiaofeng was nothing more than a despicable "thief", and he was just repeating the experience summed up by the Soviets later. For Tukhachevsky's mechanized troops, the Red Army found a whole bunch of problems in the actual battle.

For example, the question of the width of the frontal surface of the Red Army's operations later proved to be a mistake in Tukhachevsky's judgment, and he miscalculated the combat effectiveness of the Red Army, and the breakthrough front was set too wide, and the difficulty of guiding the attack became very great.

Another example is the formation of tank units, according to Tukhachevsky's requirements, the tanks of the Red Army were divided into three groups - a group of infantry that directly accompanies the infantry, a group of infantry that supports the infantry from a distance, and a group of targets that eliminate local artillery and targets at a depth of 5 to 7 km.

It seemed that there was a clear division of labor, but in reality coordination on the battlefield was very problematic, and by the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, three clusters were changed to two.

As for the last one, when the Red Army began to mechanize, it really ignored the role of the infantry a little and paid one-sided attention to tanks, and the result! Tank units without infantry cooperation simply cannot complete combat missions!

Of course, there were many problems with the mechanized troops that Tukhachevsky had at that time, such as the insufficient density of artillery firepower, and so on. However, for the time being, Li Xiaofeng feels that the above three can be improved, and even how much these three can be improved is quite difficult to say...... (To be continued......)

PS: Bow and thank you to Comrade hzwangdd and Comrade Juventus!