Episode 156 The Winter War

Winter War,.

At the beginning of November, the thermometer in Harbin began to frequently read below -10 degrees. On the land of the Northeast, it has also entered the stage of being covered in silver. On both sides of the city's streets, the dirty snow began to appear after being cleared. Outside the city, the vast farmland is already white, and the more remote mountainous areas have become veritable "forest and snow fields".

But further north, in the newly occupied territories, the Far East Siberian region, it was even more icy and snowy. Here, minus 20 degrees Celsius at night is commonplace. At this time, the Ming army had basically built winter barracks, repaired fortifications, and was ready to stabilize the front and survive the winter. In the warm wooden hut, the stove was burning, and these southern soldiers were wrapped in thick winter clothes, and they were still too cold. Fortunately, the Red Banner Corps of the Soviet Far East has been basically wiped out, and the strategic goal of the first phase of the "Autumn Campaign" of the Ming army has been basically achieved, and the battle line has advanced to the front line of the Outer Khingan Mountains.

Now, the best fortification troops and fortress troops of the Ming army have been stationed in the fortifications on the first line of the Outer Xing'an Mountains, garrisoning and reinforcing the fortifications at the same time. Behind them, dozens of front-line airfields were built to maintain air superiority, and thousands of aircraft were stationed in the newly occupied Far East.

By the end of October, the Soviet-fortified area on the Khabarovsk-Komsomolsk line had fallen, and the last tens of thousands of Soviet prisoners of war were put on trains and transported to the rear of the occupied area to serve as laborers for the construction of fortifications.

In the entire area south of the Trans-Khingan Mountains, except for Sakhalin Island, which is still in the hands of the Soviet army, only a small piece of Vladivostok is still holding on to the mainland. And the Soviet troops in Sakhalin did not last long. First, the Soviet troops on Sakhalin were not numerous, at most one division. Second, they are now alone, stranded on the island, with no land connection to Soviet-controlled areas. The reason why the Ming army has not yet attacked Sakhalin Island is simply because there is a strait in the middle, and the sea control of the Sea of Japan is in the hands of the Japanese army, and the Ming army lacks large ships to transport troops and equipment to the island.

But the Ming army was not in a hurry. Soon, the strait will freeze, and by the most December, the strait ice will be thick enough to open tanks. The Ming army would attack again at that time, and many casualties could be avoided. Once Sakhalin was taken, the Ming army had an entrance into the Sea of Japan. This entrance is the strait between Sakhalin and the mainland. — But it doesn't mean much. Because the Ming fleet wanted to enter the Sea of Japan from here, it had to first bypass the entire Japanese archipelago from the Pacific Ocean, and then pass through the Kuril Islands and enter the Sea of Okhotsk, which is cold and foggy all year round.

It is certain that Stalin will definitely try to launch an offensive in the winter and pull back the defeat. He certainly thought that the Ming army was all southerners and could not endure the hard winter war, while his Russian soldiers could. This is exactly what all walks of life in Daming are most worried about. The top brass of the Ming army is considering whether it is necessary to send new troops to the Far East Siberian region to participate in the garrison. Although they are all officers and soldiers of the Yuan Qing Dynasty, they are northerners after all. Many officers and men of the former Eighth Banner Division were originally stationed outside the Northeast Pass for a long time, and they must have been more adapted to the bitter cold climate in the north.

However, being able to adapt to the "northern climate" is one thing, and being able to adapt to the "northern war" is another. Of course, this has a bearing on whether a soldier is hardy to cold, but it is also related to whether the soldier has excellent training, strict discipline, and firm conviction. These things are not lacking in the Ming army in the south, and they are what the new army in the north lacks the most.

The Soviet troops have retreated to a strip about 300 kilometers east of Lake Baikal, temporarily using "Chita" as a supply center in an attempt to gain a foothold. To the south of Lake Baikal is Outer Mongolia, which already belongs to Central Asia. And the Ming army could no longer afford to pursue westward. It is expected that throughout the winter and spring in the future, it will be difficult for anyone to launch a large-depth offensive, and at most there will be a tug-of-war. It is nothing more than a question of who takes advantage of it and who suffers a little. It was impossible for the Ming army to beat the Soviet army across Lake Baikal, and it was impossible for the Soviet army to send the Ming army back to Far Eastern Siberia.

In this climate, the prime time is summer and autumn. Winter is extremely cold, with heavy snow and blizzards blocking all traffic, and only the railway can barely pass. Spring is the snowmelt season, when large amounts of snow and frozen soil melt, turning the plains into swamps and making it difficult for people and vehicles to pass. Here is no more than the European part of Russia. Although it is also cold, at least there is a relatively good transportation network, and there are a large number of cities and villages that can be used as supply points. And here, in the vast expanses of Eastern and Central Siberia, there is basically nothing. Moreover, winter temperatures are even cooler than in the European part, and the mud in the spring is worse than in the European part.

There is no major war in the north for the time being. But in the "south" – or "relative south" – it was the golden season for the siege of Vladivostok.

In the cold and snowy winter, Vladivostok has entered the most difficult stage due to the lack of food and fuel. In addition, Vladivostok generally enters the ice period in early December, and will not thaw until mid to late March of the following year. That is, the supply to Vladivostok by sea was basically interrupted. That is, relying on icebreakers to open the way, only a small number of ships can enter and exit. In the bombing of Vladivostok by Ming aircraft, icebreakers were taken as a priority target. Now in the port of Vladivostok, the Soviet Union does not have a single icebreaker. Unless the Japanese fleet brought icebreakers, it could barely get the fleet into port.

Under these circumstances, the combat pressure of the Ming submarines in the Sea of Japan has been greatly reduced, and more submarines can be dispatched to the Pacific coast.

Now, the Ming army has set a goal: to make Vladivostok not survive this winter.

To this end, the Ming army sent additional bombers to bomb Vladivostok with greater intensity. Because the operations on the northern front were basically stopped, a large number of combat planes of the Ming army were idle, and now a large number of bombing aviation regiments were transferred to the southern front to participate in the bombing of Vladivostok and at the same time to fight for air supremacy in the Sea of Japan. Now that the Ming army has taken control of the west coast of the Sea of Japan, the two countries are already one and a half in the sky over the Sea of Japan.

But Japan's advantage is that, in addition to airfields, it has many ports and controls several straits in the Sea of Japan, allowing its fleet to enter and leave the Sea at will, and firmly control the sea. This is something that the Ming army does not have. On the west coast of the Sea of Japan, the Ming army could only use Vladivostok, which was still a lonely port deep into the enemy's sea. And as long as the Ming army does not take the entire Korean Peninsula and the Tsushima Strait, the Sea of Japan will never be the Ming army's. Even if the Ming planes controlled the sky over the Sea of Japan, they would bomb Japanese warships and merchant ships at most, but it was difficult for the Ming army's own warships to drive in.

The battlefield on the northern front was temporarily silent, but the "political battlefield" between the Ming and Soviet sides was filled with gunsmoke. The Soviet Union constantly accused the Ming army of its "madness" in the League of Nations, accusing the Ming army of deliberately polluting water sources, engaging in unrestricted submarine warfare, "raping and burning" and "mistreating prisoners of war," and committing "heinous crimes" in the occupied areas.

The Ming army's response was much simpler, inviting an international observer group to visit the labor camps and allowing the press corps to interview the political prisoners and their families. Moreover, the peasants, whose families had been destroyed and whose families had starved to death in Lenin's time, not only the middle peasants and kulaks, but also a large number of poor peasants, became the subjects of the reporters accompanying the international observer mission.