The Soviet counteroffensive gradually entered the first **, and with the support of artillery and tanks, a million Soviet troops launched a crazy attack on the Central Asian defense line. Under the command of Timoshenko, Lukin and Rokossovsky led the Central Front, the Siberian Front, and the 1st Ural Front, respectively, to simultaneously attack Petropavlovsk from Kurgan and Kostanay. Kirponos and Malinovsky led the 2nd Ural Front, the Western Kazakh Front, attacking Lake Salykopa and Irgiz. In order to open up the situation as soon as possible, the Khanty-Mansiysk Front, led by Vasilevsky, assembled in Khanty-Mansiysk in the north, quickly moved south along the Irtysh River, and advanced to Omsk, a strategic town in Western Siberia.

Like a competitive stallion, Timoshenko put on standard cavalry tactics as soon as he came up, attacking on multiple fronts and multiple heads at the same time, trying to crush the defense line in one fell swoop with a quick charge. Mei Sheng, who was also born in cavalry, was not to be outdone, first let Sun Chuanfang and Fan Shisheng lead 12 armies to personally sit on the defense line of Petropavlovsk and the Ishim River, and then formed a right wing cluster with the 102nd Armored Division, the 4th Armored Division, the 77th Motorized Infantry Division, the Polish 1st Army and 4 Kazakh Cavalry Divisions, and appointed the former commander of the 1st Armored Division, Le Shiwen, as the commander to block Vasilevsky head-on. Dai Jintang and Li Yuguo were ordered to be the center of the cluster, led four corps to defend the Sarekopa Lake area, and also transferred a total of two armies from Karaganda, Kyzylorda and other places to gallop to the Duzi Mountain Division of the Irgiz salient in the starry night.

On June 12, with the 102nd Panzer Division and the 1st Polish Panzer Division as arrows, Lesven crossed the Irtysh River from Tara and, in two days, bypassed the Imgt swamp and suddenly appeared in Nizhnevartovsk. Although the Soviet troops stationed here put up stubborn resistance, under the onslaught of two armored divisions and two cavalry divisions, they could only hurriedly drop thousands of corpses and retreat to Surgut in the northwest. Faced with a precarious situation on the flanks, Vasilevsky tried to disagree. Also in a detour, with the main force of eight divisions, the capture of Zajevozkino on the border of Tyumen and Omsk regions. Lesven immediately responded with the 77th Motorized Infantry Division and the Polish First Army, quickly taking the strategic town of Ishim, and letting the 4th Panzer Division move west towards Tyumen! Vasilevsky did not give up, but simply took advantage of the complex terrain and dense forests in the cold region to break up his troops and try to continue to advance towards Omsk. This tactic worked, and Le Shiwen had to pause the pincer offensive. Disassemble the troops and disperse the attack. A total of more than 30 divisions on both sides launched a thrilling strangulation battle in the cold zone.

With the right flank in a stalemate, Mei Sheng, who had never liked to be bound by positions, used Xu Xiangqian as an arrow, mobilized three armored divisions, two motorized infantry divisions, and three Kazakh Turkmen infantry divisions to break through from Nikolaev in the middle of the Ishim River, seize Troyevlatsky with lightning speed, and cut off the eastern railway connection between Kurgan and Kostanay in one fell swoop. Timoshenko was shocked when he heard the news, but Rokossovsky, who commanded the Central Front, was unmoved, and instead let the Ukrainian Third Army carry out counter-penetration along the gap opened by Xu Xiangqian's department. Successfully crossed the Ishim River in one fell swoop.

After Xu Xiangqian heard the news, he immediately turned around, preparing to cut off the connection between the Ukrainian Third Army and Kurgan, and cooperate with the main force to eat the enemy. However, at this time, Lukin's army group on the Don River quickly approached Leninskye from south to north, causing him to miss a good opportunity. However, he did not sit still, and immediately divided five divisions, pretending to be afraid of being flanked. A quick retreat to the east. The meritorious Soviet troops did not realize the danger, and when Kurochkin led 330 tanks of the 3rd Tank Army to Sergeyevka, they were immediately ambushed by the 101st Panzer Division and the 17th Panzer Division. With the cooperation of more than a hundred aircraft, attack aircraft. More than 500 tanks on both sides fought fiercely for a day and a night. In the end, Soviet Lieutenant General Kurochkin was killed on the spot, and 273 of the latest T34/85 and KV100 tanks were destroyed, while Xu Xiangqian only lost 47 Type 36 'Siberian Tiger' main battle tanks.

The "Sergeyevka Steel Battle" was another tank battle between China and the Soviet Union after the Battle of the Kurgarsen Tank. This battle once again exposed the inferior disadvantages of the Soviet army's new army, which had poor experience and obvious equipment gaps. The steel wreckage that covered the Sergeyevka Valley completely chilled the Soviet tank troops, and until the end of the war, the Soviet command did not put more than 100 tanks into armored battles.

The destruction of the Third Tank Army forced Lukin to withdraw his fist. Li Yuguo saw the opportunity and used Jiang Xianyun's 76th Mechanized Infantry Division and Qiu Qingquan's 63rd Motorized Infantry Division as arrows to organize four divisions to capture Kushmulun, facing Xu Xiangqian's troops from a distance, forming two prominent arrows against Kostanay.

Le Shiwen, Xu Xiangqian, Jiang Xianyun, Qiu Qingquan, as well as Vasilevsky, Lukin, Rokossovsky, and so on, these commanders have demonstrated their outstanding military command ability with what can be called classic interspersing and counter-interspersing again and again, and with almost the same thinking of large-depth operations. In the face of the absolute superiority of the Central Asian coalition forces, the Soviet army soon lost air supremacy, and the endless bombs and locust-like fighters swept across the sky made many Soviet officers not even dare to look at the casualty figures sent every day! Mei Sheng and Sun Chuanfang were also uncomfortable, even if the Air Force worked hard, but Lukin and Rokossovsky were perfectly matched, except for the accident of the Third Tank Army, the attack and defense of the two were very balanced, so that they could not find a gap in the counterattack.

When the war in Central Asia was in full swing, the Persian Gulf was also thunderous. As early as April 3, when the British-hating Rashed Ali Agrani came to power, MI5 warned Churchill that the Soviet Union had intensified its activities in Iraq and that Soviet soldiers had entered Mosul disguised as guerrillas. However, because Spain and North Africa were tight at that time, and Churchill believed that the Iraqi army was ineffective, almost all the Middle East troops were transferred to the Mediterranean to participate in the war. This serious miscalculation led to the rapid fall of the Habbaniah Air Base and the capture of more than 4,000 British troops. In order to make up for the mistake, Churchill attracted the attention of the Chinese Persian Army in the absence of troops, but Bai Chongxi rejected the proposal to send troops from Kuwait under the pretext of attacking Tehran.

While Churchill was trying to retake Iraq, Hitler was in a state of excitement. On the day the Iraqi army captured Habaniyah, he consulted with Goering to form a 'Middle East Army'. Of course, Goering immediately applauded, and overnight called Air Force Colonel Werner Junker and authorized him to form a special air force to act as the vanguard. In his order to Werner, Goering said: "The Führer hoped that the action would provoke the Arabs against the British holy war". Colonel Werner also lived up to the Führer's trust, just as the British ambassador to Iraq, Sir Cornwallis, left Ahvaz. Twenty-four BF110C fighters, seven HE111H bombers, 30 JU52s and seven JU90 transport planes, painted with the Iraqi Air Force logo, arrived at Baghdad airport via Yugoslavia and Vichy French-controlled Syria, bringing with them 340 elite paratroopers.

On June 15, Mussolini also suddenly intervened, and 16 CR42 fighters and 20 JU52 transport planes of the 155th Squadron of the Italian Army flew to Kirkuk, and the first 277 Italian paratroopers joined the 'jihad' program.

The Soviet Union, Germany and Italy intervened one after another, and Bai Chongxi had no troops to send, so Churchill had no choice but to ask the United States for help. Roosevelt, who was immersed in the Siberian referendum, also did not want Iraq to fall into the hands of Yang Qiu, so he immediately asked Eisenhower to find a way. Eisenhower, who had been defeated by the Germans, had no choice but to use the defeated soldiers of Algiers overnight. Assemble three infantry regiments, send them to Alexandria by transport plane, and then have them work with more than a thousand local Marines to help the British attack Iraq. Churchill also gritted his teeth and transferred the 10th British and Indian Division of Egypt to Jordan.

Taking advantage of the British and American intervention in Iraq, Bai Chongxi was not idle, gathered 15 divisions, and spent five days to conquer Qom in one fell swoop, opening the last passage to Tehran. Meantime. Du Yuming led six divisions of the Turkmen Army and four divisions of Afghanistan and Iran to the west along the Caspian Sea. Within seven days, the four cities of Kebekhshahr, Neka, Surrey and Babol forced Pavlov to hold along the Damawad Mountains and Nizwar Mountains, completely losing the initiative in the Iranian theater of operations. After Bai Chongxi conquered Qom. There was no rush to encircle Tehran, but let Li Jin lead three divisions, with the cooperation of the Iraqi army, to move towards Hamadan and Kurdistan provinces. While deterring Baghdad from the flanks, it is also hoped to cut off Tehran and Tabriz.

Although Tehran was in danger of being encircled, the Chinese Turkmen and Persian Gulf armies were both pinned down. It was exactly what Stalin wanted to see, so he personally called Timoshenko at the front and asked him to seize the opportunity of the few Chinese reinforcements, attack with all his might, and recapture Petropavlovsk. Just when he was full of ambition, an important piece of information made the Kremlin experience the bitter cold of winter again!

In the region east of the Yenisei River, a regional referendum on secession from the USSR is about to be held!

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Norilsk, a small border town in the far north of Krasnoyarsk Oblast in the Soviet Union, is famous for its high-grade nickel, copper, platinum group and other non-ferrous metals. Historically, it was one of the most important penal colonies of the Great Purge, but this time and space is different. Since 1920, when China forcibly took control of Krasnoyarsk by force and cut off the main artery of the Trans-Siberian Railway to the east of the Soviet Union, the entire Soviet region east of the Yenisei River has been plunged into long-term guerrilla warfare and turmoil. War and famine caused the departure or death of millions of Soviet immigrants, and the local population fell from 2.7 million in 1918 to less than 330,000! After the outbreak of the economic crisis in 1929, in order to stimulate the economy. Yang Qiu borrowed heavily to revitalize China's infrastructure**. Driven by various engineering and metal and petroleum processing industries, a large number of Han Chinese families began to migrate to the northern provinces of Chita, Beihai (present-day Irkutsk) and Wulianghai, and the population quickly swelled to 3 million. In order to continue to expand northward, Yang Qiu, in spite of the strong protests of the Soviet Union, mobilized the army to build cheap narrow-gauge passages, and penetrated deep into Yakutsk and other areas of the Soviet Union, setting off a gold rush and mining boom in the far north. Guided by newspapers and lured by great wealth, the northern migrants began to move deeper into the Arctic cold. At the beginning of 1933, two Chinese Navy icebreakers successfully crossed the Bering Strait in the summer to the Novosibirsk Islands through the Northeast Passage to conduct a survey of water ripples.

So far, excluding Chita and other northern Chinese provinces, there are about 500,000 Chinese immigrants living in Soviet Eastern Siberia, accounting for 50 percent of the total local population, most of whom are employees and family members of industrial and mining enterprises. Stalin hated this and at one time planned to build an Arctic railway, but it ended because the technology could not make it happen.

After the launch of the 3010 plan, the domestic demand for precious non-ferrous metals began to intensify, which promoted the process of "Northwest Geological Discovery". It was also at that time that Norilsk was discovered to have large quantities of nickel-copper and platinum-group mines, which were eventually taken over by the Northern China Mining Company. After several years of development, not only thermal power plants, smelters and food processing plants were built, but also a large industrial residential area was formed. About 7,000 inhabitants currently live here. Ninety percent are mining company workers and their families, and the rest are nomadic Evenki. It's so remote that it can only be reached from the Yenisei River from May to October, and the rest of the year by regular flights. In order to prevent Soviet attacks, there is also a garrison camp stationed here all year round, and there is a large indoor hangar.

When Karis arrived here on a Chinese Air Force transport plane, there were still small snowflakes in the sky.

"Ahh It's so beautiful here, look, and it's snowing again. A female reporter from China obviously had never seen the snow in June, and couldn't help but cry out.

The reporters were quickly put into a truck by the soldiers. Karis sat in front, his eyes circled around Gu Yuwen who was accompanying them a few times. "Mr. Karis? Is there anything I can help me with? Gu Yuwen's English was very good, and he turned his head and asked.

Karis knew that the young man, like Hopkins, was one of Mr. Yang's most trusted personal advisers and had been involved in many national decisions. So I also want to get a cliché from his mouth: "Mr. Gu, why did your country organize such a vote?" This is the territory of the Soviet Union. ”

"It's true that this is Soviet territory, but that's just in the past. Mr. Carris, have you forgotten? What we do at the moment. Isn't it precisely the blood and sacrifice of the soldiers to break the dictatorship and barbarism? So the president thinks that since we have liberated this place, we should give the people here the right to choose freely. "Gu Yuwen's eloquence is very good. Speak without a drop of water.

"But this is a mining area where your company invests, and the workers are also citizens of your country, and their ministry should be given the right to vote."

"No, no, you're wrong! Since they live and work on this land. Then you should have the same choice as the locals! Every citizen here deserves it. Isn't that the freedom, justice, and democracy that our two countries have been advocating? ”

Karis moved the corners of his mouth, and Gu Yuwen's sharp words. So that he can't find the words to refute for a while, he can't say that the United States is not democratic, right?

Gu Yuwen smiled and pointed to the ballot box placed next to the soldier: "I heard that more than 20 years ago, you witnessed the birth of the "Chengcheng Act" with the president. Then you should be able to feel that this country, too, is not lacking in the right to freedom, there is no lack of justice. Today, you will witness it again. After speaking, the car also arrived at its destination, he took the lead in opening the car door, turned around and beckoned to the reporters, "Come on!" Together, use your cameras and camcorders to record the first right to a just and free choice on the territory of the Soviet Union! Karis smiled helplessly, and had to follow everyone out of the car.

After stepping off the bus, the ballot boxes were already placed at the entrance of the prominent town hall, and thousands of workers and nomads lined up in a long line, one by one, entering the hidden ballot booth and then stepping out to drop the ballot boxes.

"Hurry up, do you see, the foreigners are here. I don't know if it's the Yankees or the British. ”

"How can it be sure that Britain and the United States are the United States? Maybe it's another country. ”

"Stupid death, in the eyes of our president, who else can we see besides Britain and the United States? In my opinion, I'm afraid they were invited to watch the vote. Forget it, don't talk about it, you kid has been sloppy, don't make a mistake later. ”

"Head, don't look down on people. My Kangzi is usually confused, but I have to be taken care of by the president and have studied in middle school! ”

"You kid, it's a mouth. Come, let's sum it up, this is a big deal, and we must not delay the president's big event. "Yes, yes, you have to total, you have to total! Breaking new ground, hehe, a major event that has not been seen for hundreds of years. ”

The arrival of the reporters aroused the curiosity and discussion of the residents, and everyone whispered while repeatedly reminding themselves not to make the wrong choice.

There were no quarrels, no commotions, everything was completely different from what Karis had imagined before he came. Not to mention the excited Chinese immigrants, even the local minorities are happy to enjoy the right to choose for the first time. The open and transparent filling of votes and voting allowed him to find no flaws. Except, of course, the majority of Chinese faces. A few hours later, the voting ended. When he photographed the ticket box being sealed and loaded onto the transport plane by heavily armed soldiers, he remembered the scene more than 20 years ago. On that occasion, he witnessed the birth of the Chengcheng Act, which laid the foundation of modern China, and even a great power. To date, more than 400 million people in China have benefited from the Act. And this time, he witnessed another vote no less than a bill! If, if the Allies can achieve the final victory, if the Central Asian countries move towards independence, this ancient country, which built the Great Wall of World Wonders to resist the northern border troubles, will be able to get rid of thousands of years of hidden dangers!

Where will China go without the northern troubles?

Three days later, in the presence of thousands of university volunteers, representatives of ethnic minorities and journalists, the counting of votes ended in Chita. Of the 910,000 votes cast, 81 percent voted in favor of joining China, 5 percent supported independence, 6 percent abstained, and 8 percent did not vote because they were still under the control of Nazi Japan and Soviet partisans. But it didn't matter anymore, because after checking the ballots, Karis found that even the local minority, most of them, chose to join China.

On the evening of June 18, eleven ethnic minorities and local representatives east of the Yenisei River officially announced their secession from the Soviet Union in front of hundreds of journalists in Chita and their annexation to the Republic of China with about 5.7 million square kilometers of land in a limited autonomy manner!

The world was in an uproar...... (To be continued......)