In the early summer of 1941, the war entered its most critical half-year.

In Europe, the United States is still mobilizing rapidly, and the August line of life and death is testing the nerves of Roosevelt and the generals. England could no longer find safe land, the British Empire squeezed the last copper plate of the treasury, and Churchill put all his bets on the Iberian Peninsula. Under his leadership, thousands of Allied pilots fought bloody battles in the British Channel, in the south of France, and over Madrid. In the face of the obvious superiority of the Allied air power, Goering, who was fighting alone, finally remembered that there was another ally, Mussolini, who was clamoring to defeat Britain and the United States and use the Mediterranean Sea as a footbasin, finally had the opportunity to penetrate his claws deep into Spain again. Sent a pilot to the front line to join forces with the Germans, trying to seize air supremacy, and at the same time, he also organized 200,000 Italian divisions to follow the Germans into the peninsula. Nearly four million troops from Britain, the United States, Germany, Italy and Spain fought each other in the Castilian region centered on Madrid, and tens of thousands of chariots crawled between the plateaus and mountains with difficulty. Whether Gibraltar can be held, whether it can support the second increase of American troops in August, and whether it can deplete the German army on the peninsula are all pinned on this battle. At the same time, in the Balkan Peninsula in the second battlefield, Greece was still indomitable, and 300,000 Anglo-American-Greek troops retreated to Thermopylae Pass and continued to fight bloodily. The Yugoslav guerrillas led by Tito were still active, cooperating with the Allies to attack the German-Italian logistics line from all sides, causing millions of German troops to be trapped in the Balkans. Enraged, Hitler launched a brutal manhunt that filled the camps with bones.

In Africa, while Zhu Jiande broke through Mogadishu on June 5 and routed 50,000 Italian East African Corps, Rommel also led 200,000 German-Italian troops and hundreds of tanks to the Suez Canal in Egypt. And this time, it is no longer an attack, Hitler has vowed to seize this choke point, cooperate with Guderian, and completely close the Mediterranean! His old rival, the British Royal Navy, was unwilling to rest on his laurels, and the reinvigorated Cunningham led the Royal Navy, with the cooperation of the United States Navy, to wage a battle for sea power with the Italian Navy. Hundreds of U.S. ships and convoys made a detour from South Africa to send supplies and soldiers to Alexandria. The British General Staff also hurriedly transferred Wavell back to Egypt to lead the US-Australia-Canada Five-Nation Coalition of nearly 500,000 troops, and waited solemnly on the Tubrug Line. The Middle East region on the other side of the canal is also turbulent, Iraq's Golden Phalanx bloc, Turkey's pro-German forces, and Pavlov's Soviet Iranian Front are ready to move, and a desert storm is about to form.

In Asia, the frenzied Chinese navy continues its rapid offensive. Only one month after the Ryukyu landing, the 12th Aircraft Carrier Battle Group attacked again, Zhang Zhaoyang led the just-delivered Shanxi battleship (Shandong-class No. 2 ship), sister ship Shandong, as well as four Beijing-class battleships and six aircraft carriers, and cooperated with the three aircraft carriers and seven cruisers of the 22nd Aircraft Carrier Battle Group to launch the Crossroads Campaign. The two fleets swept through the volcanic archipelago and the Ogasawara Islands to the east of Japan, sending the 5th Marine Division and 3 Infantry Divisions to the critically located Iwo Jima, cutting off Japan's sea route to the east in one fell swoop. Finally, it also covered the detachment composed of two Beijing-class battleships, four cruisers, and two escort aircraft carriers, and made a detour all the way to the north, and finally under the assistance of one escort aircraft carrier of the Vladivostok Fleet (the third batch of escort aircraft carriers converted from the Vladivostok shipyard) and four cruisers, it crossed the Kuril Islands for the first time and entered the Sea of Okhotsk, which not only enabled the navy to support Sakhalin and the north in the vicinity, but also successfully blocked all the sea lanes of the main Japanese island.

However, the most severe is still the hinterland of Central Asia, which is known as the Eurasian land bridge, when the decisive Ryukyu Campaign and the Korean Campaign were fought one after another, thunder was heard again in the hinterland of Central Asia, which had been truce for half a year. The news that the regrouped 3 million Soviet troops swooped down to the east from the 600-kilometer front swept across the north and south of the river in an instant. The General Staff in Beijing responded actively, a large number of flying wings were transferred to the western front, the intensity of the bombing against Japan began to weaken, the Burma offensive was temporarily stopped, and the railway line to Central Asia was once again operating at full capacity. One by one, the troops who returned home for leave embarked on the journey again. With a war budget of 12 billion yuan, a total mobilization of more than 20 million people, 7 million front-line soldiers, and 3 million Asian allies, how to get out of the predicament and lay the foundation for victory? It tested Yang Qiu's conducting art.

June 9, Irgiz, north of the Aral Sea. Shells rained down on the Wehrmacht's trenches and the 16th and 33rd armies, both veterans of the battles in Europe and Central Asia. But even so, the fierce and continuous shelling of the Soviet army still made the veterans feel that the sky was falling. All huddled in trenches and bunkers, enduring the toxic smoke and the violent and constant shaking of the ground. Under the cover of artillery fire, gray-brown Soviet tanks appeared on the horizon, cold tracks, rolling up billowing dust, and swooped down on the defensive line.

"it! Is this the end? Have the ability to go to the Ishim River to toss! What about the Air Force? How come it's not yet! In the hidden command post, after seeing the Soviet tank cluster through the periscope, Du Zishan, who was full of flashy hair, was extremely angry and kept asking where the air force was. He is a native of Heze, Shandong, and the former commander of the 49th Mobu Division. In the counterattack of Rzezikazgan, it was he who ignored the officers' obstruction and personally went into battle to encourage the soldiers, and broke through the Algarbas defense line left by Zhukov in just one night, helping the pursuing main force to open the passage. In the end, Liu Mingzhao not only ate Zhukov's main force, but also surrounded Lukin in one fell swoop. If Zhuo Fan is the sharpest knife in Liu Mingzhao's hands, then he is the hammer that smashes everything. It was their excellence that allowed Liu Mingzhao to realize his pre-war vision and complete the epic Zhezkazgan counterattack and the Petropavlovsk Campaign. At the beginning of the year, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general, transferred to the deputy commander of the South Kazakh Army Group, and two months ago, led two corps to take over the first army that had been stationed to defend the strategic town.

It is said to be a strategic town because it is located at the confluence of the Turkai and Irgiz rivers. To the north is the Kostanay and Trans-Urals plateau, to the south is the Aral Sea, and to the east is Alkarek. Judging from the map, it happens to be the most prominent part of the entire Central Asian defense line. Du Zishan, who participated in the Battle of Rainivale that year, knew very well that no matter who commanded the Soviet army on the opposite side, and no matter where the main attack point of the counterattack was, he must send heavy troops to deal with his salient. What's more, the benefits of attacking here are also obvious, as long as it is captured, it can directly threaten Alkarek south of Petropavlovsk, forming a large semi-encirclement. So after he took over the defense here, he immediately improved the defense deployment again according to his own experience. In addition to using tens of thousands of earth-filled containers, a large number of triangular fortifications were built with anti-tank guns and hunting tanks as the core. Each of these fortifications resembles a large triangle, and within the large triangle there are numerous small triangles, all of which are based on the natural saline-alkali valley of the Irguz River, forming a defensive line 40 kilometers wide from north to south.

The battle situation was also as he expected, in order to eliminate the Irguz salient and flatten the offensive line to ensure the safety of the flanks, from the beginning of the counterattack, Timoshenko mobilized a total of 370,000 soldiers of the Ukrainian 1st Army, the 13th Army in the Southwest, the 48th Army of Moscow, and the 5th Tank Army, and launched a continuous fierce attack on this salient with the support of more than 700 tanks and thousands of artillery. "The Air Force, the Air Force is coming!" Anxiously waiting, the long-awaited Air Force finally appeared overhead. The black-pressed swarm, locust-like attack planes and dive bombers, quickly skimmed over the town and flew towards the Soviet artillery cluster. Guided by ground guides, they quickly found their targets and launched a heavy bombardment of the slow-moving Soviet artillery positions. One bomb after another bombs and rockets instantly disintegrated the offensive of the artillery cluster, and shells were constantly detonated, forming huge mushroom balls. Dozens of Soviet Il-2 and Lag-1 fighters rushed to try to dislodge the attack group, but were strangled by the joint efforts of the J-8 Tianquan and the Thunderbolt group that swooped down from a high altitude.

After suppressing the artillery, the second group of attack aircraft began to carry out a rotational attack on the Soviet tanks. In particular, the H-10 'bomb truck' and the Snake B attack aircraft in the group constantly used large-caliber aircraft guns and newly developed small-caliber tungsten alloy armor-piercing shells to attack the fragile top armor. When the attack aircraft group finally dispersed, the charging Soviet tanks were no longer in formation and had to retreat and regroup.

Taking advantage of this gap, Du Zishan immediately asked the officers to call the various battle positions and inquire about the injuries of the troops. This is a must-do job between attacks and helps him understand the situation at various defensive points. Each defense area and high ground woke up during the call, but only the 412 high ground in front of the most sudden attack, no matter how it called, there was no response.

"Who's on the high ground?" After hearing the news, Du Zishan suddenly rose.

"1633rd Regiment and 122nd Anti-Tank Battalion." The staff officer raised his voice: "I don't think it can be eaten by the Soviets all, it should be a broken line." ”

Du Zishan frowned, he admitted that what the staff officer said made sense. No matter how strong the Soviet army is, it is extremely difficult to quietly eat one of its own regiments and an anti-tank battalion. But he was still not at ease, and immediately shouted: "Zhao Siyuan! ”

"Here!" A young soldier stepped forward. His name is Zhao Siyuan (book friend: Chendong Guard), he is Du Zishan's guard, and his mind is flexible and highly valued. "You personally take a communications class up, remember, bring the radio. Find out the situation in 412 Heights for me as soon as possible, there must be no mistakes! ”。