Despite the huge losses suffered by the Soviets on the side of the second company, Г. Compared with several other military districts in the country, the Far Eastern Front can be said to be the smallest military region under the purge, because in the eyes of many people, the Soviet Union is not a superpower across the Eurasian continent, but a European country in the traditional sense, and this understanding is also prevalent in the Soviet Union, so the entire Soviet top is not very concerned about the Far East, which also makes the Far Eastern Military District's losses in the Great Purge far less than other military districts.

In addition, with the existence of Japan, a strong enemy, the Soviet Union's top leadership still made great efforts to support the Far Eastern Military District. At this time, the Far Eastern Military District was expanded on the basis of the Soviet Campaign Corps deployed in the Far East of the former Soviet Far East Special Army. This unit was formed in August 1929 and was led by the 18th and 19th Infantry Corps of the Siberian Military District, with the garrisons of the Far Eastern Territory, the Buryatia-Mongolian Autonomous Republic and the Irkutsk Oblast of the Siberian Territory, as well as the 21st and 35th Infantry Divisions transferred from the Central Region, and the command of the Far Eastern Flotilla under the command of V.K. Blyukher.

In the Middle East Road Incident, the group army invaded Northeast China in September ~ December 1929 and defeated the Northeast Chinese Army in Tongjiang, Fujin, Manzhouli, Zhalainauer, Mishan and other places. Since then, the number of troops has been continuously strengthened. In May 1935, the Far Eastern Military District and the Transbaikal Military District were formed on its basis. On June 2 of the same year, the Far Eastern Military District was reorganized into the Far Eastern Special Army. In order to ensure the supply of troops, the group army formed a special agricultural reclamation army. There are dozens of collective farms under its jurisdiction. In response to the Japanese threat, on June 28, 1938, the army group was expanded into the Far Eastern Front.

The Far Eastern Front consisted of the 1st and 2nd armies and the Khabarovsk army cluster. In 1938, the troops of the Front gained combat experience in the area of Lake Hassan against the invasion of Soviet territory by Japanese militarist troops. After the end of the fighting in the area of Lake Hassan, in accordance with the decision of the General Military Council of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army of August 31, 1938, the leading organs of the Far Eastern Front were abolished. On the basis of the Front, the 1st and 2nd armies of the Red Banner Independence were formed.

In 1940, as a result of Japan's intensified preparations for war and the provocations carried out by the Japanese army in the border areas of the Soviet Union, the leading organs of the Far Eastern Front were reorganized on the basis of the leading organs of the Chita Front, and the 1st and 2nd Independent Armies of the Red Banner, the 15th Army and the Northern Army Group were under its jurisdiction. There are 21 infantry divisions, 2 cavalry divisions, 4 tank divisions, 5 artillery divisions, 2 motorized divisions, 3 infantry brigades, 3 airborne brigades, and 8 artillery brigades. The total strength is about 350,000 troops, about 5,300 artillery pieces and mortars, about 1,450 tanks and other technical equipment. In addition, there are more than 100,000 additional troops and about 1,700 combat aircraft.

G.M. Šteln, after giving the order for reinforcements, sent another telegram to Major General Isov, inquiring in detail about the battle of the previous night. After knowing the details of last night's battle. G.M. Šteln attributed the reasons for the defeat to Khacherov's command mistakes and the shameless sneak attack of the Chinese troops. Follow Г. M. Steln estimated that if the Chinese army had taken up a position and engaged in a face-to-face battle with the great Soviet Red Army, the great Soviet Red Army would have annihilated the hateful Chinese army.

But Г. M. Šteln did not know what to say. Just when he was sitting in the headquarters of the Far Eastern Military District, on the Sino-Mongolian border, General Chen's big slap was raised again, and he was going to slap the Soviet Union in the face.

At half past eight o'clock in the morning of June 1, after a four-hour rest, the Eighth Theater of Operations, which had been cleaned up, moved forward again, preparing to annihilate the Soviet-Mongolian forces in the encirclement in one fell swoop.

At the same time, having received an order from the command of the Far Eastern Military District for air reinforcements, Major General Isov also planned to use the troops in his hands to break through to the encirclement in order to plot a plan for the future.

In order to be able to successfully break through, Major General Isov formulated a detailed plan for the breakout, he organized more than 5,000 Mongolian Defense Forces into a reinforced brigade, and then transferred an infantry regiment with strong combat effectiveness from the Soviet army, which was also incorporated into this reinforced brigade, and he ordered this reinforced brigade to take over the main positions on the southern front, and at the same time issued a death order, without his own order, no one was allowed to retreat, otherwise it would be a betrayal of the great Soviet Union.

Then he organized the remaining troops into a reinforced division and an infantry brigade, and then organized the remaining 270 tanks into an armored group, only to break through as soon as the air force arrived.

However, China. The army would not give them time to wait for reinforcements, and without waiting for the arrival of Soviet reinforcements, the 222nd Division, which was in charge of the southern front, was the first to attack the Soviet army.

"Boom Boom"

It's the roar of cannons! As the main position of the offensive, Chen Feng concentrated half of the artillery fire on the southern front, and he wanted to show the Soviet army that believed in artillery doctrine what the real god of war was. The huge roar of hundreds of cannons instantly annihilated the Soviet positions several kilometers away.

At the same time as the artillery roared, an infantry battalion of the 222nd Division launched an attack on the Soviet positions in the countryside under the cover of dozens of tanks.

The number of Chinese troops used for the attack was not large, but the firepower was extremely strong, and the Soviet troops after the improvised fortifications were surprised to find that the Chinese soldiers on the opposite side seemed to be fighting with a light machine gun on their shoulders, and the firepower was extremely fierce, and what was even more terrifying was that the Chinese army's infantry and tank coordination tactics were extremely proficient, and their counterattacks caused very few casualties to others, while their own casualties were extremely heavy.

This was only a tentative attack by the 222nd Division, so Zhang Zhigang did not let the troops hold out for long, and after the Soviets exposed all the firing points, Zhang Zhigang ordered the infantry to withdraw, and then asked the artillery to focus on those permanent firing points of the Soviet army.

I have to say that the performance of the Soviet army is really unsatisfactory, watching the 222nd Division withdraw, the Soviet army actually cheered in the trenches, and did not hide in the air-raid shelter for the first time, and even those exposed firepower points were not hidden, it really made Zhang Zhigang, who commanded the operation on the front line, not know what to say, is this the Soviet Red Army that beat the most elite Kwantung Army of the Japanese army?

It's not a joke, it's nonsense that such an army can also ascend to the hall of elegance. In fact, Zhang Zhigang didn't know anything at all, this was not the real Soviet Red Army at all, let alone the army created by Lenin. As a result of Stalin's purge, a large number of cadres lacking military theoretical attainment and practical experience were promoted, and some even took up leading positions in military regions and general headquarters. According to statistics, in 1940, the proportion of highly educated cadres in the Soviet army decreased by more than 1/2 compared with 1936. Not long ago, during the autumn review of the Red Army's infantry director, it was discovered that among the 225 regiment commanders who participated in the intensive training, not a single one had ever entered a military academy, only 25 had graduated from an intermediate military academy, and the remaining 200 had only entered a second lieutenant training class.

In addition, the 35th Mechanized Army and the 59th Tank Division of the Soviet Army that participated in this battle were all new units newly formed by the Soviet Red Army, and the soldiers were all newly recruited newcomers, and their combat effectiveness was already very scummy. It is conceivable that under the command of these recruits, under the command of these officers, how much more combat effectiveness of the Soviet army can be exerted?

"Boom, boom!"

The cheering Soviet troops became live targets for artillery, and those exposed firing points and heavy weapons also became targets for Chinese artillery, and the continuous shelling for ten minutes turned the Soviet positions into a sea of fire.

After the shelling, it was still the tanks covering the infantry charge, but this time Zhang Zhigang did not order the battalion-level combat unit to charge, but directly threw in two infantry regiments and attacked the Soviet army on a three-kilometer-long front.

"Da Da Da!"

"Da Da Da!"

Second Lieutenant Mihanovich could not imagine the opposite side of China. Why is the vitality of the army so ferocious, what the hell is that machine-gun-like weapon? Seeing the soldiers around him constantly falling, Mihanovic's mood sank to a low point, and he was afraid.

In fact, he was not a strictly trained Soviet officer, three months ago he was only a Red Army private who had been in the army for less than two years, but because of his good marksmanship, he was appreciated by the regiment commander, and three months ago he was promoted to the commander of the first company of the 2nd Battalion of the 576th Regiment of the 28th Division of the 35th Mechanized Army.

Mihanovich was about to let the Mongolian Wehrmacht soldiers next to him go up, but when he looked back, he found that there were still shadows of those guys in the trenches, except for the wounded and dead who had their legs blown off, there were less than fifty Soviet soldiers left, and the infantry company of the Mongolian Wehrmacht who was fighting with them had already retreated.

Seeing the Chinese tanks and troops getting closer and closer, Mihanovich knew that this line of defense could not be defended, so he hurriedly retreated with the remaining soldiers.

At 222 hours, only two regiments of troops were used to make two charges, and the forward positions of the Soviet troops were occupied, and the battle went unexpectedly smoothly.

At this time, even Zhang Zhigang and others saw the reality of the Soviet Union, and immediately understood why Chen Feng had the audacity to start a war against the Soviet Union.

With this understanding, Zhang Zhigang no longer flinched, and directly ordered the entire 222nd Division to press up, but he wanted to see how far these Soviet troops were.

After the Soviets withdrew to the second line of defense, they stopped again, not because they didn't want to run, but because this was their last line of defense, and this line of defense was urgently built by tens of thousands of Soviet-Mongolian troops last night, and they ran out of the position if they ran any further.

Isov was furious, he didn't expect that the first line of defense he had painstakingly managed would collapse like this, looking at the Soviet-Mongolian coalition troops who fled back, Isov knew that the three or four thousand troops arranged on the first line of defense had lost at least half of them, and if he continued to fight like this, before he could break through, the thousands of troops left behind the back hall would be all finished. (To be continued......)