Episode 200 July Storm

The Empress train turned west from Xuzhou, all the way to visit the ancient capital, stopped in Kaifeng on April 30 for two days, and stopped in Luoyang on May 2 for two days. On May 4, the train stopped at Lingbao County Station in western Henan, but it was stopped at the request of Xiang Xiaoqiang. Xiang Xiaoqiang took Zhu Yourong and his party off the train and took a car to the nearby Hangu Pass to visit the Hangu Pass fortification group. Xiang Xiaoqiang is not like Zhu Yourong, a "cultural person", his concept of tourism in the ancient capital of culture is "to see the temple during the day and sleep at night", I don't know what to see. But he had a keen interest in military zones such as Hanguguan. At that time, the Ming army attacked Luoyang and Hangu Pass, and he also participated in the command, but it was in the rear, and he never had the opportunity to go to the scene to see how awesome the permanent fortifications built by the Qing army were.

Xiang Xiaoqiang took Zhu Yourong and a group of guard officers to visit the Hanguguan fortification group, and then drove back to the train and continued westward. didn't drive far, stopped at Tongguan Station again, and Xiang Xiaoqiang took a group of people to visit the Tongguan fortification group...... Of course, Tongguan is not as interesting as Hangu Pass. The group looked at it hastily for a long time, then returned to the train and continued westward and entered Guanzhong.

Next is Zhu Yourong's favorite program - visiting Xi'an. Zhu Yourong toured the ancient capital of the Thirteen Dynasties for three days before reluctantly letting the train continue westward. The train passed through the Guanzhong Basin, exited "Guanzhong" from Xiaoguan in the northwest, and headed west into Gansu, where it entered Lanzhou on May 9.

Lanzhou is the location of the general headquarters of the Ming army's Western Front battlefield, and it is also the established destination of this "honeymoon trip" of the empress and prince. Before the general attack of the Ming army, Zhu Yourong and Xiang Xiaoqiang sat in Lanzhou. After that, depending on the smooth progress of the Ming army, it was decided whether to continue westward.

The commander of the Western Front of the People's Guard turned out to be Zhao Cunnian. Now that Zhao Cunnian has been arrested as a Japanese spy, it is the new commander who welcomes Xiang Xiaoqiang and the empress.

When Xiang Xiaoqiang and Zhu Yourong arrived in Lanzhou, Lanzhou was already a logistics base camp. Everywhere there were warehouses requisitioned or rented by the army, thousands of tons and thousands of tons of war materials were piled up, military vehicles drove through the streets from time to time, and gendarmes patrolled the streets and alleys. The arrival of the empress and Xiang Xiaoqiang really boosted the morale of the officers and soldiers on the entire Western Front. A large number of reporters also flocked to chase Her Majesty the Empress and Her Royal Highness.

The most asked by reporters is, of course, that the empress and prince chose Gansu for their honeymoon trip, does it mean that the Ming army is about to launch a major offensive on the Western Front? Whether Zhu Yourong or Xiang Xiaoqiang, they either laughed and didn't answer, or they downplayed it, saying that they were just here for their honeymoon and had nothing to do with military operations.

The report was immediately picked up by Soviet intelligence. In Moscow, Stalin was even more skeptical in the face of the specious and understated answers of the Empress of the Ming Dynasty and the Commander of the People's Guard. He smoked his pipe all night, pacing back and forth. In the end, after thinking about it, I always feel that they are not only a scam, but they will never be so simple. The more they say this, the more they show that they are creating fog, and the more likely it is that the main direction of attack is on the Eastern Front.

However, Stalin did not dare to transfer the troops of Central Asia to Siberia, nor to the Central Asian. The more suspicious he became, the more undecided.

At the same time, the Ming army began to use a code name for the upcoming military operation, called "July Storm". Whether it was Nanjing or Lanzhou, the Ming army was using this codename. The term "July Storm" frequently appeared in documents, telegrams, and letters within the Ming army. Soon, this code name was again received by Soviet intelligence.

As a result, Moscow's intelligence officers and Stalin strengthened their judgment. Because July is very unsuitable for an offensive in Central Asia. In the north and south of Xinjiang, except for winter, summer is the harshest season. The temperature difference between day and night is huge, and the scorching sun during the day is like a flowing fire, which can fry eggs on the steel plate of the tank. If a person stands on the Gobi Desert for several hours without drinking water, he will become a dehydrated specimen. At night, it becomes like an ice cellar again, and it is cold to the bone. It would be absolutely unwise to launch a large-scale offensive during this season.

And in Siberia on the Eastern Front, the situation is the opposite. In Siberia in summer, the climate is warm and pleasant, as long as you wear single clothes, you can easily camp at night, even without tents. Whether it is clothing or fuel, the demand is reduced a lot, and it is most suitable for troops to advance lightly. And there is also a great benefit, the days become very long, the nights become very short, and the time of day that can be used for combat advance is very long, which is very suitable for launching large-scale military operations.

The only downside is that Siberia in summer is muddy and not very suitable for the advance of armored corps or mechanized corps. But this is a double-edged sword, the Ming army cannot use armored corps, and the Soviet army obviously cannot use it. The two sides could only rely on the air force and artillery to cover the infantry and advance each other. However, the results of infantry battles were already evident on the Siberian battlefield in the previous stage. The Soviet infantry was clearly no match for the Ming infantry. As for the Air Force, now the advantage has also shifted to the side of the Ming Army. The Soviet army only had artillery left, and it was not lost to the Ming army.

In addition to military considerations, there are also political factors. After all, the Ming State spent so much effort to prop up the White Russian regime, not because it was fun. The main battlefield is in Siberia, and the Belarusian regime can clearly play a greater role.

After such an analysis, Stalin was even more convinced that the main direction of attack of the Ming army was Siberia.

Stalin made his opinion clear, so naturally there was only a voice to follow him. Even those who disagree with him are wise to keep their mouths shut and dare not speak. Shut up and don't speak, this is already a very principled and courageous person. More people originally thought that the main battlefield would be in Central Asia, but seeing that Stalin had already said so, they immediately fell to Stalin's side and insisted that the main battlefield would be in Siberia. After so many years of brutal intra-party struggles and purges, everyone who survived was well aware of the true meaning of self-preservation.

Thus, Moscow's huge Red Army command system began to function, again transferring troops from several military districts in the European part and moving east along the Trans-Siberian Railway to reinforce the Trans-Baikal border zone. The Central Asian Frontier Military District, on the other hand, has not been strengthened by a single soldier, although it has not been withdrawn from troops. Many of the troops that had been scarred, exhausted, and seriously dissatisfied with the long tug-of-war and the encirclement and suppression of the guerrillas had not been replaced, recuperated, or replenished. Not only that, but what Moscow conveyed to the Central Asian border military district was only a routine order to "strengthen the alert", and there was no more detailed and severe order. The Soviet troops stationed in the north and south of Xinjiang, as before, conveyed the "spirit of the document" to the troops below in an official and bureaucratic manner, and there was no other action.