In the commander's headquarters in the Russian camp, hundreds of senior officers of the First Siberian Front heard that 520,000 reinforcements were coming, and they all showed excited looks, and swept away the gloomy expressions just now, if there is another 520,000 troops, it will not be impossible to capture Darkhan City, and after capturing Darkhan City, the remaining troops of the Russian army should also have the strength to attack the hinterland of the four northeastern provinces.

In order to strengthen the confidence of the officers present in victory, the commander of the theater of operations, Kuropatkin, continued: "And the second phase of the empire's wartime mobilization has begun, this time the six armies from Europe, three of which are the second phase of wartime mobilization and expansion of the troops, these 1 million new troops will be sent to our Siberian theater, and after we capture the city of Darkhan, after these newly expanded troops come to the front line, we can pass through the Mongolian steppe and attack the four northeastern provinces from many places, By that time, victory in the war would not be far from us. So don't dwell on the casualties of the attacking forces now, we have to pay no price for the final victory of the Russian Empire, do you understand? ”

"Understood! Your Excellency, Commander! This time, the voices in the command were unanimous, and the confidence of these high-ranking officers of the 1st Siberian Front in victory returned.

Kuropatkin saw the loud and neat answers of the officers in the headquarters, and nodded with satisfaction, "You go back and sort out your troops, and when the supplies arrive, we will continue to attack the remaining mountain fortifications outside Darkhan." ”

After all the officers left the headquarters, Kuropatkin, who was already very tired, immediately walked to a compartment in the headquarters, which was his rest room, and walked into the lounge, Kuropatkin fell on the wooden bed inside, closed his eyes and prepared to sleep well, but soon after, he opened his eyes again, stared at the wooden roof and said to himself: "I hope the Dingbei Army will not know that I have transferred troops from Irkutsk, as well as the city of Haktu and the city of Maiye!" ”

Kuropatkin, who was originally very tired, tossed and turned for a long time and couldn't sleep, and then he really fell asleep.

Among the commanders of the third division in Darkhan City, Ni Fan frowned and said to Hu Desheng, the commander of the seventh division: "The casualties of each division have been counted, adding up to a total of 23,000 officers and soldiers killed in the past few days, and the number of wounded has also reached 7,000, which is equivalent to 30,000 casualties at once, the casualties are too great, this is still our continuous active retreat, otherwise the number of casualties may increase a lot." ”

Hu Desheng nodded and said: "The mountain fortifications outside our city are like the mountain fortifications outside the inner city of Bisvobod, the gap in the steepness of the terrain is not small, in the face of the Russian army's non-stop attack around the clock, regardless of casualties, losses are inevitable, fortunately, the losses of the Russian army are ten times that of mine, and now the Russian army can not continue, and after occupying half of the mountain fortifications outside our city, it has also stopped." ”

Ni Fan continued: "The Russian army should be waiting for supplies from the rear, and as soon as their supplies arrive, such a fierce offensive may start again." ”

Hu Desheng pouted and said: "The Russian army has suffered a very large loss in such an attack, and our divisions are hard to wear down with them, and they can almost fight them out, and when the time comes, without the other troops sent by the principal, this Darkhan battle will make the Russian army bleed, and then the victory of the entire war will fall into the pocket of our Dingbei Army." ”

The Russians knew the importance of the battle of Darkhan, and Lin Daxin was not stupid, he also knew what the battle of Darkhan meant, so Lin Daxin had already brought the 4th Division, the 11th Division, most of the Guards Division and the newly formed 40th Division from Vladivostok back to Shenyang, and rushed to Darkhan City, and the armored division and the 38th and 39th divisions in Manchuria, Inner Mongolia, had also rushed out of Manchuria to the front line.

Behind Darkhan City, Kulun, the 19th and 20th Divisions, as well as a 30,000 cavalry of the Dingbei Army Cavalry Division, had also moved forward to Darkhan City according to Lin Daxin's order.

Ni Fan and Hu Desheng had already received a telegram from Lin Daxin, knowing that the hundreds of thousands of troops of the Dingbei Army were converging on the city of Darkhan, and the battle of Darkhan City would determine the outcome of the entire war with the Russians.

Ni Fan thought about it for a while and said: "If the Russian army continues to attack the remaining mountain fortifications with the same intensity as before, we still don't need to fight hard with the Russian army, just fight like those mountain fortifications lost in front, after all, the armies sent by the principal are about to arrive, and our task now only needs to drag the armies to Darkhan City." ”

Hu Desheng thought about it and nodded in agreement with Ni Fan's tactics, now it really has not reached the point of fighting to the death with the Russian army attacking Darkhan City.

There is no impermeable wall in the world, Lin Daxin was on the way to Darkhan City with his troops, and he received information from the Military Intelligence Bureau on the radio, which said that the Russian army in Irkutsk, Haktu City, and Buying and Selling City will mobilize 5 armies to support the front line of Darkhan City, and the intelligence also said that the Russian army may continue to mobilize troops from Europe to support Darkhan City.

The intelligence did not say that the newly formed Siberian Second Front Army and the Third Front Army would also send troops to support Darkhan's front line, but Lin Daxin knew that the other two fronts would also send reinforcements to Darkhan City and would not care, anyway, Darkhan City is blocked by strong fortifications, Lin Daxin hopes that the more Russian troops attracted outside Darkhan City, the better, the armored division and 2 B divisions have set off from Manchuria, ready to detour behind the Russian army attacking Darkhan City, and give full play to the surprise advantage of the armored division, you can defeat these Russian troops in one fell swoop, laying the foundation for victory in the war.

Now Lin Daxin saw that the Russian army in Irkutsk only had 1 full infantry corps and some miscellaneous troops, adding up to 4.5 people, and in Haktu City and Buying and Selling City, the Russian army also left 1 infantry corps to guard the back road, and suddenly a glimmer of light flashed in his eyes, didn't he give himself another chance to cut off the back of the Russian army!

So Lin Daxin's eyes rolled, and immediately changed the original plan, and on the way to the march, he issued an order, so that the armored division and the 38th and 39th divisions changed the route of the march, Lin Daxin ordered the armored division and 2 B divisions to directly pounce on the rear road of the Russian army attacking Darkhan City, Haktu City and Maimao City, after defeating the 1 Russian infantry corps of Haktu City and Maimao City, leaving a part of the troops to guard Haktu City and Maimao City, and the other troops directly crossed the border between Outer Mongolia and Russia, Raid on Irkutsk, the stronghold of the Russian Siberian theater of operations.

Lin Daxin thought proudly, not only did I cut off your supply to Kuropatkin, but I also took down your base camp at once, I see how you can fight with my Dingbei Army with hundreds of thousands of Russian troops.

On the afternoon of the 26th of the previous day, five armies were transferred from Irkutsk, Haktu City, and Maimai City, escorting a large amount of supplies and ammunition, to the Russian army camp outside Darkhan City, so that the Russian army had the confidence to continue the attack, so the artillery sound that had just been quelled for two days sounded outside Darkhan City.

The Russian army is still under the order of the commander of the theater of operations, Kuropatkin, as soon as it comes up, it launched a large-scale all-out offensive, and in the first wave of the attack on the 9 mountain fortifications of the fifth platoon, 2 infantry regiments of the original Siberian First Front were invested, although these 2 infantry regiments suffered considerable losses in the previous offensive, but the combined strength of the 2 corps exceeded 35,000 people, which was 5,000 more than the number of a full regiment.

The 35,000 Russian officers and soldiers who attacked still had to withstand the artillery fire of the Dingbei Army and the countless light and heavy machine guns from the pillboxes and bunkers on the mountain fortifications, and the losses were very large for each further step, but the officers and soldiers of the Russian army still shouted Ulla, regardless of casualties, attacking the pillboxes and bunkers on the mountain fortifications, the rows of Russian officers and soldiers in front fell, and the Russian officers and soldiers in the back stepped on the corpses of their comrades and continued to attack.

This kind of indomitable momentum is admired even by the officers and soldiers of Dingbei who guard the mountain fortifications, but the machine guns in the hands of the officers and soldiers of Dingbei do not have the slightest intention of weakening firepower.

Two hours after the attack of the first wave of the Russian army, the second wave of attack troops was dispatched under the order of the commander Kuropatkin, and a full infantry corps that had just arrived at the front line also joined the attack on the 9 mountain fortifications of the fifth platoon, and the troops of the third wave of the Russian attack also joined the attack 2 hours later......

In order to put pressure on the Northern Army and conquer the city of Darkhan as soon as possible, Kuropatkin continued to use a round-the-clock attack on the remaining 4 rows of mountain fortifications, and resolutely treated the retreating Russian soldiers as deserters and executed them, so that the officers and soldiers of the Russian army had to stubbornly ignore the casualties and desperately charge the strong fortifications of the Dingbei Army, almost advancing little by little with human lives, fortunately, the explosives and grenades transported by the Russian army from the rear were relatively sufficient, Let the Russian attacking forces use explosives packs and grenades to clear the countless pillboxes and bunkers on the mountain fortifications.

The Russian army that attacked the mountain fortifications was until May 8, that is, it took 8 days to attack day and night, paying the price of nearly 230,000 people, and finally captured all the mountain fortifications outside Darkhan, of course, this is also because the Dingbei army guarding the mountain fortifications did not work hard, and the Dingbei officers and soldiers who guarded the last row of mountain fortifications on the afternoon of the 8th took the initiative to abandon their positions and retreated to Darkhan City with wounded soldiers, so that the entire mountain fortifications outside Darkhan fell into the hands of the Russian army.

In this 8-day offensive of the Russian army, 130,000 people from the two armies of the Second Siberian Front and nearly 60,000 people from the two armies of the Third Front Army all came to the front line of Darkhan City, so although the Russian army lost 230,000 people to capture the entire mountain fortification group, of which the number of dead reached 210,000, and the other 20,000 were seriously wounded, the Russian army outside Darkhan still reached 480,000, and the reinforcements of 6 armies from Russia and Europe were still rushing to the front line of Darkhan City on the road.

The offensive and defensive battles of the entire mountain fortification group outside Darkhan City are not enough to describe, and this hill outside Darkhan City has been covered with the corpses of Russian officers and soldiers, and it is like catching up with hell, after capturing the entire mountain fortification group, the theater commander Kuropatkin had to specially order the tens of thousands of Russian civilians who accompanied the army to collect the corpses of hundreds of thousands of Russian officers and soldiers who died in battle.

Although the divisions of the Dingbei Army guarding the 4 rows of mountain fortifications behind did not do their best, the casualties were also not small, and the number of dead in the 8-day offensive and defensive battle exceeded 20,000, and more than 6,000 were wounded, but the losses of the Russian army were still insignificant.

Moreover, in this 8-day offensive and defensive battle, Lin Daxin has led the fourth division, the eleventh division, most of the guards division and the newly formed 40th division to Darkhan City, and the 19th and 20th divisions in Kulun, as well as the 30,000 cavalry of the Dingbei Army Cavalry Division, have already arrived at Darkhan City one step earlier, and the Darkhan City at this time and the main force of the Dingbei Army that gathered more than 300,000 are ready to start the final decisive battle with the Russian army outside the city. R1152