Kazan was built on the left bank of the Volga River, about 500 kilometers from Moscow, and is a transportation hub from the Far East to Moscow, an eastern barrier to Moscow, and its geographical location is extremely important. Moscow and Petersburg were the two main bases of the Brucellos d'Azzova, and after Trotsky was ordered to form the Red Army, his Fifth Army was formed in Kazan, and the officers and men were basically from the units of the Russian Western Front, but about a quarter of them were recruited locally - workers and peasants, and after sending in a large number of political workers, the Eighth Army became one of Trotsky's most trusted troops. When Denikin's troops frantically marched east to occupy Kursk after receiving a large number of weapons and ammunition from the Chinese army, the Red Army in the direction of Moscow was transferred to the south to deal with the crisis, but the 5th Army was still stationed in Kazan, as a force to guard the east, not a single soldier was transferred, but was strengthened - a militia division formed in Moscow was officially incorporated into the army, so that the number of divisions under the jurisdiction of the 8th Army increased to four.

In command of the 5th Army was Colonel Vatsettis, who was one of the few people in the Red Army who was born in the old Russian army and served as a corps commander in the Red Army, who had commanded Latvian infantry divisions in the past, and Vatsettis's division, the only remaining division in the young Red Army, was currently fighting against Yudenich's army in the direction of Petersburg, and was firm and reliable. Probably thanks to the division's cousin, Colonel Vazetis, trusted by Trotsky, was promoted to take charge of the Eastern Front. The Red Army did not yet have the strength to advance eastward, and Kazan was their easternmost territory.

The presence of political workers in the military and the final say was an invention of the Cloth Party, which would later prove to be of great significance. Of course. The 5th Army stationed in Kazan to guard the eastern gate of Moscow sent a political commissar, a man named Sergei. Ivanovich. Gusev, a long party member, took part in the 1905 movement against the Tsar, but Trotsky did not trust him very much.

When it was discovered that Kolchak's troops had arrived in Simbirsk, Gusev and Vatsettis had a conflict. Vassetis thought that Kazan should be held, but Gusev asked to take the initiative to attack Simbirsk, and when Gusev accused Vatedis of his attitude, Vatedis did not dare to insist on his opinion. The Red Army, which has been formally established, has stricter military discipline than the old Russian army, and there is only one way to deal with the "imperialist spies, bourgeois spokesmen, and wavering elements" who "break into" the Red Army -- shooting! Vatsetis's background meant that he did not have the capital to compete with Gusev. Although he was the commander of the Eastern Front, appointed by Commander-in-Chief Trotsky. Thereupon. Gusev commanded the militia division from Moscow to stay in Kazan, and the main forces moved south to meet the Kolchak "bandits".

What Vasetis did not expect was that he was not confronted by the Kolchak army, but by the 4th Army of the Chinese Army.

Battles and encounters erupt in the form of battles. The 4th Army organized a defense on the spot with the 11th Division. The remaining two divisions made a detour from both flanks. This was a tactic that had already been developed by the Chinese army, and when the 10th Division, which was responsible for the detour on the left, was inserted into the rear of the Red Army, Vazedis's 5th Army collapsed. Soldiers fled en masse, and officers joined the fledgling. The battle lasted only 30 hours before it was almost over, and the remnants of Commander Vatsettis broke through the encirclement of the Chinese army, which was full of loopholes, and fled back to Kazan. The 4th rank pursued at the end, capturing a large number of weapons and capturing a large number of prisoners. The three divisions of Vatsetis to the north consisted of 42,000 men, and less than 20,000 fled back to Kazan. All the prisoners captured by the 4th Army were immediately handed over to Kolchak, who was following behind, and after screening, the members of the Party and political workers were shot, and the ordinary officers and soldiers were incorporated into Kolchak's Eastern Army.

Colonel Vatsettis, who had returned to Kazan, was arrested by Gusev, and if it had not been for the arrival of Trotsky's urgent telegram, Vatsettis' head would have been dropped. Trotsky, who had already hurried to Kazan, grabbed Vatedis's head, ordered Gusev not to interfere with Vatedis's military command, and ordered Vatedis to hold on to Kazan by one means and wait for reinforcements to arrive.

But Vatsettis still lived up to Trotsky's trust. The Battle of Simbirsk completely demoralized the 8th Army. When the Chinese 4th Army launched the siege of the city, the determination of the Kazan defenders to resist was extremely low, and almost all the locally recruited recruits fled.

On April 5, in a sudden spring rain, the coalition forces captured Kazan. In this not very fierce battle, the 4th Army of the Chinese Expeditionary Force was the absolute main force, and Kolchak's troops were led behind by the 4th Army due to lack of vehicles and did not catch up with the attack. Seeing that the tide was turning, the remnants of the 5th Army crossed the wide Volga with the help of about 13,000 urgently arrived naval vessels, including Gusev and Colonel Vatsettis.

Trotsky, who had marched east by command train from Moscow, could only establish a command post in Siyazhsk, which was closest to Kazan, and gathered the routed troops.

Gusev blamed the defeat on Vatsettis, who believed that the participation of the Chinese army in the war was the main factor in the defeat.

"We did not anticipate Chinese's direct involvement in the war, and it was always said that they would not fight us directly...... "Colonel Vatsedis reported to Trotsky, "and they were naked accomplices of Kolchak...... We didn't expect them to be bold at all, and the troops lost control of their ......"

"It's stupid to attack! Comrade Gusev, you are committing a crime! Trotsky's face turned pale, and he dismissed Gusev from his post and demoted Vatsettis to division commander. He personally served as the commander of the Eastern Front, seizing the time to mobilize a force to organize a defensive line, the first step was to stop the enemy from crossing the Volga River and assault westward, and then to recapture Kazan by one means.

In his report to Ulyanov, Trotsky said, "...... Hoping for Chinese neutrality is a completely unrealistic dream. China has thrown itself into the arms of British, French, and American imperialism and is willing to act as its thug...... In the present situation, the crisis in the East is better than in the South, and I must remain in command of Siyazhsk for the time being......" However, Trotsky was worried about the war in the south, and was more comfortable with the military talent of Frunze, who had succeeded him in charge of the war in the south, but with Voroshilov and Budyonny frankly talked about his worries. In particular, Voroshilov, who was a good friend of Joseph and was currently serving as the political commissar of the 1st Cavalry Army, was very much looked down upon by Trotsky.

Ulyanov telegraphed back to Trotsky, Joseph had been assigned to inspect the southern front, the military deployment in the Kursk direction would be carried out in accordance with the operational principles previously determined by you (referring to Trotsky), and Trotsky was asked to abandon the south and concentrate on resolving the crisis in the east, "Moscow is more important than Petersburg, and when the time is ripe, we will move the capital to Moscow, which is more suitable for the capital...... for the Chinese expeditionary force. Ulyanov wrote. "I basically agree with your judgment of the Chinese government, but I should not give up my efforts. In the present situation, we are powerless to deal with the coalition of the White Guards and the Chinese Army. Based on the intelligence analysis gathered, I believe that the current Chinese government has been engaged in shameful speculation. Of course, it cannot be denied that their speculation was successful. They shamelessly repatriated a large number of industrial facilities in Poland and Ukraine. Greatly destroyed the industrial base of South Russia. It also destroyed the foundation of the White Guards in South Russia, which is enough to prove that they did not really support the White Guards. In addition, reliable information has been obtained. The main forces of its expeditionary force have begun to return home, proving that they have no intention of completely intervening in the internal affairs of our country. Molotov has not yet arrived in Beijing, and perhaps there will be a situation that we hope for, and please pay special attention to this with regard to the military operations for which you are responsible. ”

Trotsky was fully aware of Ulyanov's strategy, and in fact he was one of the formulators of the basic strategy of the Party. The first task at the moment was to eliminate the White Guards and consolidate the new regime, and the Brest Treaty sacrificed great interests and was purely to buy time. Of course, a direct confrontation with the Chinese army is something he does not want to see. But if the Chinese army continued to act as Kolchak's accomplice and forcibly crossed the Volga River to attack Moscow, the Red Army could only respond. Fortunately, after Trotsky arrived in Sinyarisk, there was no sign of the enemy crossing the river to the west.

This gave him time to reorganize his troops to plan a counteroffensive, and a very important weight was in Trotsky's hands, that is, the navy, the imperial Russian navy was basically absorbed by the Bolsheviks, although Kolchak was the admiral of the imperial Russian navy, and the Volga fleet that came down the river to support showed the loyalty and bravery that Trotsky hoped for, they bombarded the coalition forces occupying Kazan with naval guns, blocked the coastal crossings, and as long as this detachment of gunboats squatted on the river, the enemy could not fly the Volga.

At this time, Chen Hao was directing the sappers to blast the bank's sturdy underground vault. When he followed Kondongyuan to Kazan, the battle was not over, and the city was still bursting with gunfire and grenade explosions. The troops of the 10th Division, which had already entered the city, did not cut off the ferry, but let the Red Army cross the river and flee westward. It was not until Major General Kong Dongyuan entered the smoky city of Kazan and met General Zhang Xiaoding, who was walking at their heads, that Chen Hao understood his mission - to find the Tsar's gold. Major General Kong Dongyuan told Chen Hao, Ding Xiaoping, Yang Jisheng and others that according to reliable information, the main gold reserves of the imperial Russian government were hidden in Kazan! Our task is to find the gold as secretly as possible.

The importance of gold didn't need to be explained more to the officers, and Chen Hao understood why several engineer officers had been transferred.

After the capture of Kazan by the 4th Army, the guard battalion of the headquarters of the 3rd Army and an engineer company transferred from the 4th Army were sent under the command of Zhang Xiaoding and Kong Dongyuan to form a special force, which first took over the Kazan Bank, blew up the locked vaults with explosives, but did not find the legendary huge amount of gold. Zhang Xiaoding seemed to be confident, and searched several other places where the gold might be hidden, and finally found the gold ingots in the secret room in the basement of the Kazan University library.

"Oh my God." It was the first time Chen Hao had seen so much gold! Pry open a box, inside is neatly stacked gold ingots, and pry open another one, it is still dazzling!

"Don't pry! Count how many boxes there are. General Zhang Xiaoding's voice also changed.

Chen Hao doesn't like secret service agencies, and he doesn't like big agents who wear generals' badges. However, this General Zhang treated him well, especially after learning that he was from Chenjiaya, he was especially affectionate, and he was much more polite than others. In the past few days, I have been running around under the command of Zhang Xiaoding, and I don't know how many basements and warehouses have been blown up, and finally found the target, until now Chen Hao knew that what the Military Intelligence Bureau was trying so hard to find turned out to be gold!

There is no one who is not interested in gold. There are only two kinds of gold that Chen Hao has come into contact with, one is a ring from his mother, which is said to have been given to his mother by Uncle You, who gave it to Xu Yi before he got married, and the other is Xu Yi's dowry. A pair of red gold earrings. He had never expected to see a mountain of gold with his own eyes!

However, Chen Hao wondered in his heart, how did the Russians put so much gold in Kazan? Moreover, it has not been a day or two since the Red Army occupied Kazan, why didn't they transport the gold?

"Chen Hao, you are responsible for supervising the loading, whoever dares to have unclean hands and feet will be shot on the spot! These gold were all snatched from our country by Lao Maozi, and of course they must be returned to their original owners. Zhang Xiaoding gave an order with a cold face.

"Who dares to hit the idea of gold, don't die?" Chen Hao muttered in his heart, went out to see if the car was coming.

The convoy was quickly brought in. Gold ingots are loaded into prepared chests. Lifted out of the basement. Counting the number is not Chen Hao's business, his task is to supervise the escort and ensure that the convoy is transported to the designated place under the protection of the group army guard battalion.

In the end, about one-sixth of the boxes were left. Chen Hao didn't ask why he left these priceless gold ingots, and Zhang Xiaoding had the final say. Major General Kong Dongyuan has basically become an ornament. Zhang Xiaoding led his people to disguise the vault. didn't hide it from Chen Hao. Chen Hao thought. There's no need to do anything, right? Won't it end with a push on the cloth party?

Kolchak was also in a hurry to find this batch of gold, and he needed hard currency even more. But his troops moved too slowly, and by the time his troops entered the city, it was already dusk the next day. Lieutenant General Wu Nian sent Artemyev to his headquarters at Kazan University, informing him that Kazan had been cleared, and that a large sum of gold, estimated at hundreds of tons, had been found during the search for the remnants of the enemy, and that I would now officially hand over this gold to your army.

Lieutenant General Artemiev was overjoyed and thanked him repeatedly. When he impatiently went to the bank's vault, he counted the gold and found that there were only 103 tons, which was several times different from the amount revealed by Nicholas II! Artemiev suspected that the Chinese had made a move, and without any evidence, he could only suppress his suspicions in his heart. He was anxious to move westward and needed the help of the Chinese, so he came to Wu Nian's headquarters again to discuss plans to cross the river and advance westward. Wu Nian said coldly, "I just received a telegram from Commander Wang Mingyuan, which severely criticized the recklessness of our group army, believing that the battle of Kazan of the 4th Army violated the agreement signed with the alliance before. It seems that my troops will not be able to participate directly in the war...... According to the military order of Commander Wang, the 4th Army, which occupied Kazan, was to withdraw from the city as much as possible. Out of our friendship and good cooperative relations, we will continue to help you as much as possible in terms of intelligence and materials, and the air force and artillery of the expeditionary force will not be withdrawn for the time being, and will provide cover for your army's crossing of the river. ”

"Why?" Artemiev was shocked, "We need the help of your army, we are about to win, as long as we occupy Nizhny Novgorod, Moscow will fall!" ”

"I don't know the specific situation, the order can only be executed." Wu Nian slowed down his tone, "Personally, I am willing to fight side by side with you...... Fortunately, the armed forces of the Burundi Party have collapsed. The soldiers are fast, you should immediately take over the position and organize a forced crossing. ”

"The Bolsheviks had a fleet to blockade the river, and the Baltic Fleet entered the Volga through the Guòmarin water system! There is a naval blockade, how to cross the river? Artemiev was in a hurry, he pointed out the window, "the naval guns of the Red Army are shelling Kazan!" ”

"I built yì your army in the direction of Kazan to attract the attention of the enemy, and the main forces crossed the river from the downstream to avoid their blockade." Wu Nian smiled and said, "How many ships do they have?" Well? And your main force is still south of Kazan. The attacking side can choose the direction of the assault at will, but the defending side is passive. Isn't it? ”

With the withdrawal of the 4th Chinese Army from Kazan, the Battle of Kazan became an arena for the Allied and Red Army forces from mid-March. The Allied Eastern Army, with the support of the Chinese air force and artillery, crossed the Volga at various points on both flanks of Kazan and engaged in fierce battles with the 5th Army of the Red Army, which had been reorganized and gradually regained by Trotsky. For a time, the Allied forces occupied the station of Sinyariysk, where Trotsky's headquarters was located, and Trotsky was forced to move to the fleet on the river. However, with the arrival of the 1st Army led by Tukhachevsky and the 2nd Army led by Azin the Saks, Kolchak's Eastern Army began to decline. In mid-April, the Red and White armies fought a decisive battle west of Siyazhsk, in which the Allied forces were defeated and defeated by Tukhachevsky's reserves at the last moment, and the Allied forces crossing the river were forced to withdraw to the left bank of the river, losing Yan Zòng, and Kolchak and Artemiev's dreams of plotting Moscow were shattered. Subsequently, Tukhachevsky, as Trotsky's appointed commander-in-chief of the former enemy, with the cooperation of the reinforced Volga detachment, began to direct the troops to begin to force the crossing of the river and encircle Kazan. The situation on the Eastern Front in Russia was tilted in favor of the Cloth Party.

The Battle of Siyazhsk may not have been on the scale of a battle, with less than 150,000 troops on both sides. But the meaning is heavy. As a result of the defeat in the Battle of Siyazhsk, the troops of the Union Army, which had crossed the river from downstream, stopped their advance and turned to the defense as a whole. Analyzing the course of the Battle of Yazhsk, in addition to the differences in the suzhì of the senior commanders (Tukhachevsky showed the excellence of the campaign commander in this battle), the appearance of the junior officers was a decisive factor, especially Tukhachevsky's 1st Army. Lieutenant Colonel Xu Kaiming, Wu Nian's military adviser to the Allied Army, reported that he was extremely impressed by the courageous style of some units of the Red Army that were not afraid of death, and that the factor in the defeat of the Allied Army was not a question of command or a problem of weapons supply, but a problem of morale. And morale depends more on the performance of the officers at the company and platoon levels...... I pay tribute to the Red Army's cousin in the Battle of Siyazhsk.

Tukhachevsky was Trotsky's most important general, and his 1st Army was the most elite unit of the Red Army. Ulyanov and Trotsky were completely in agreement with Kazan and that the city must be recaptured, even at the risk of all-out war with China. Molotov, who made a detour to Beijing, also made diplomatic progress, and Long Qian met with the member of the Buenos Buenos Nakano Party Bureau, making it clear that as long as the Red Army did not endanger the security of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, the Expeditionary Force had no intention of intervening in the civil war between the Buenos Aires and the Union. Molotov again demanded a change in China's position in exchange for a number of territories in the Far East, but Long Qian refused. Long Qian was already planning to set up a regime that had long been in opposition to the Buenos Aires, and after a heated debate at the top of the republic, it was in China's interest to split Russia.

Molotov's trip to Beijing yielded limited results, and in order to ensure that the Chinese army would not be directly involved in the civil war, he was forced to accept the termination line drawn by the General Staff of the Chinese army - the Red Army must not cross the Simbirsk line until the Chinese expeditionary force has withdrawn, and must not endanger the safety of the main railway line from the Far East to Ukraine. (To be continued......)