On April 20, the battle of Tarbagatai had been going on for almost a month, and the encircled Russian army had eaten up the grain, beans, horses, and livestock they were carrying. They had no wood to start a fire, and the Russian soldiers dismantled the transporters, ammunition boxes, gun butts, and everything that could be used to make a fire. They ate raw horse meat and drank raw water, and diseases spread among the Russian army.

Shi Donglai has never launched a strong attack on the Russian army. When the victory is in hand, how to reduce your casualties and increase your results is the first thing that needs to be put in the first place. Moreover, the use of the besieged Russian army in Tacheng to 'encircle the point to send reinforcements' has also been truly successful!

Mikhail. Nikolayevich led the forces of eleven divisions gathered to Alahu. Liu Xian took the soldiers of the Praetorian Guard Division and the 9th and 15th integrated infantry divisions, two integrated infantry brigades, an artillery regiment and a cavalry brigade, and 100,000 people to stand in Mikhail. Opposite Nikolaevich.

The main forces of the Russian army are all gathered in front of us.

Liu Xian can still roughly grasp the strength of the Russian army. 250,000 exceeded, but definitely less than 300,000.

In terms of troops, there are 30,000 or 40,000 more troops than the Wehrmacht. The National Defense Forces assisting Xinjiang, together with the local troops of the Xinjiang Military Region, have a total of 2.23 million people. But this figure does not include the militia and all potential sources of troops.

2230,000 horses, the main force is deployed in northern Xinjiang, Nanyang Dong Fuxiang has only more than 10,000 troops in his hands, plus Li Tao and Xu Dongshan, and Nie Shicheng and Ma Yukun two local garrison regiments, a total of more than 40,000 troops. However, relying on the defensive lines and groups of permanent fortifications that China has built on the Green Ridge Plateau over the years, the threat to the Russian army is very small.

The main forces gathered in northern Xinjiang were in addition to some troops of the Xinjiang Military Region in the Ili River valley and Ren Huabang and Kong Cai in the Sari Mountains. The rest of the troops have all converged on Tarbahatai.

"Your Majesty, there is no need to worry here. It only took 20,000 men to get Skobelev firmly in his sights. "Shi Donglai was meeting with Liu Xian alone. The tone is very categorical and reassuring.

It's not that he's arrogant, it's that the Russian army on the other side is in a really bad situation right now. In the past few days, Shi Donglai asked the troops to bury pots and cook on the front line. The aroma was sent far away, and by this trick, five or six hundred prisoners of war were lured in two days. How could such an army make Shi Dong look up to it.

However, the besieged Russian army still has a certain amount of ammunition in its hands, and there is a price to pay for the assault.

Three days passed quickly.

For three days, both sides were adjusting their troops and arranging fire. The decisive battle is about to begin, and it is still on the territory of Russia.

Liu Jintang led the cavalry to sweep the area around Alahu, and with the arrival of the Russian army, the cavalry left Alahu. But it doesn't mean that they have returned directly to the border. The front line of the Wehrmacht was placed directly at the intersection of the two avenues between the two lakes in the north and the south of Alahu.

When Alahu Lake was not ceded to the Russians, the indigenous herdsmen in the Tacheng area drove their cattle and sheep to the south and north of Alahu, and after the Russians occupied Alahu, they repaired the two roads and built two military stations along the way.

Now Liu Xian has put the battle line directly here, not worrying that the Russians will not take the initiative to come to the door. Because if the Russian army wants to deviate from the main road to march, it will deviate from the Ernen River, and the first major trouble is the supply of water along the way. It is also difficult to move even if there is transportation.

In the early morning of April 24.

Gunfire rang out sporadically on the battlefield of Alahu, and the vanguard of the Russian army began to make contact with the alert units on the positions of the Wehrmacht.

This is a blocking position with the military station as the core, and it is not a predetermined decisive battlefield for the Wehrmacht.

Occupying this place was a battalion of the Ninth Division of the Wehrmacht Army, with the battalion commander Li Zuochang. It is Li Shien's eldest son, Zi Pingshan, who is thirty-three years old at the age of Chinese New Year's Eve. It is an authentic military cadet background. And like most of the middle and upper-level officers in the Wehrmacht today. Experienced the founding battle. He has some combat experience, but he does not have too much outstanding military talent. Otherwise, he would have been a general a long time ago!

Although the Ninth Division of the Army in which he belongs is not one of the six main divisions of the Army. But it is also an old-timer in the Wehrmacht, which was separated from the Fifth Division of Hongji City. Division Commander Wu Jinzhu. The subordinate brigade and battalion commanders are all actual combat generals who are both civil and military.

It has been 11 days since Li Zuochang's battalion arrived at the military station. These days, under the leadership of Li Zuochang, the whole battalion is working like crazy. Everyone slept only three or four hours a day, and the rest of the time was spent digging trenches, building fortifications, and rushing all kinds of supplies. Because they know that this precious time will never be available again after the war has actually begun. No matter how much they despise the Russian army, the Russian army of more than 100,000 people is not something that one of their battalions can call. At that time, they must have fought very hard.

Now the entire station has changed beyond recognition. The original houses were either demolished and the building materials were used to build the defensive positions outside. Either they were reinforced and reinforced, and they became one firepower point after another.

All the warehouses where ammunition and supplies are stacked or the command headquarters at all levels in Li Zuochang's battalion are a few meters below the surface. Ammunition and supplies are also scattered so that in case they are all gone.

The battalion's artillery unit consisted of only six 75mm guns, all of which were used for direct-aim fire, and were placed in camouflaged and reinforced artillery bunkers behind the first line positions. It's not that there are few cannons, but I really feel that no matter how many cannons are placed here, they can't change the fact that there is a huge disparity in firepower between the enemy and us.

The area of the position of a battalion is not large, and it really can't press no less than sixteen guns.

Because Li Zuochang's battalion has already fought a real tough battle here.

If the Russian army wants to enter Tacheng from the east of Alahu, this is a nail that they must pull out. The Russians are not going to play any siege tactics at this critical juncture. Therefore, the Li Zuochang battalion is destined to face the crazy firepower of the Russian army, and if the artillery positions cannot form a certain security protection, then it is useless to place more.

After being busy these days, Li Zuochang's eyes have been red. He was sitting on a pile of wooden boxes talking to Luo Hu, the deputy battalion commander, who also looked tired.

Luo Hu was the squadron leader of the original guard regiment, and after the establishment of the Praetorian Guard Division, he was promoted to captain, but he lacked combat exploits, and now he is only a deputy battalion commander after many years.

"Lao Maozi is really here. The large number of soldiers poured in from the west like a tidal wave, and only the vanguard troops, at least 10,000 people! ”

"Didn't you prepare for it? Take this task, that is, come and work hard. If people die and don't die, our whole camp will be rich. You and I will be able to cross that hurdle smoothly. ”

Luo Hu took a sip of strong tea. The tone is sparse. Li Zuochang also showed embarrassment on his face. In this line of work, both of them are not going well.

For a moment, neither of them spoke. Until a few muffled explosions came from outside, it was Russian artillery firing!

Luo Hu stood up suddenly, saluted Li Zuochang, and said, "Lao Li, you are staring here, I'll go to the front line." As he spoke, he picked up the binoculars on the table and strode out of his battalion headquarters with a few staff officers and heralds. The shelling just now must have been a harassing firing and test firing by the Russian artillery, and a more violent bombardment and a subsequent infantry attack were already imminent!

……

"Are the 5th Regiment, the 6th Regiment, the 17th Brigade and the 18th Brigade ready for battle? Is there enough ammunition? Is morale high? They have to face a bitter battle, and they are the first stab we have against the Chinese. They must succeed! ”

Fourth Army of the Russian Army, Infantry Lieutenant General Abiyaz. Nemov, waving his arms, made an extremely strong call to his officers. This exaggerated mobilization, which seemed to the implicit Chinese to be completely neurotic, was met with an enthusiastic response from the officers.

"Very good. But the 6th Regiment moved even faster! Grinding around, do you think that this is Central Asia, is it to deal with those barbaric natives? Now it's a contest between the Russian Empire and China! It's a contest between Caucasians and Yellow Races. Send someone to urge. Tomorrow at dawn I must see the 6th Regiment on the battlefield. ”

"Have you made contact with His Royal Highness the Grand Duke? When will Your Excellency the Marshal be able to reach the front? I don't have time to greet them. Tell Grylovsky to greet the honorable marshal on our behalf. ”

Abiaz. Nemov sat upright in his headquarters, his face sinking like water. Without that exaggerated mobilization posture, he was still a calm Russian general. In his mind, he was trying to construct a map of his troops, and an officer, in order to win the battle, must take full control of his troops, and control them to make the most correct actions with brief orders.

It was a battle with 300,000 participants.

While battles of this magnitude were not uncommon in Europe, they were not common. Especially now the troops are armed with small-caliber rifles.

Moreover, this is a battle that will decide the fate of Russia. If it failed, the great Tsarist Russia could only go on the defensive in the east, and little by little it lost the 'empire' that Russia had built in three hundred years under the attack of the Chinese.

And even more, if the door to the East is closed to Russia. Then Russia will have to turn around and look to the west, where the bloody forests are much more brutal than the east.

The Germans, the French, the Austro-Hungarians, the Turks, and the Italians, and the British Empire, which was inescapable of being avoided anywhere else in Europe. If Russia plunged headlong into it, it would be like a flaming torch stuffed under a powder keg.

How many years of Russia's national policy has determined the fact that the West has suffered a loss and the East has made up for it!

But it has never been said that if you suffer in the East, you will make up for it from the West.

After the end of the Second Sino-Russian War, the great assistance of the French and the connivance of the British were also to let Russia rest and recuperate, and it was a good time to break hands with the Chinese.

"God willing, bless the great Russian ......" (to be continued......