Chapter 209: The Bear of the End? (g)

(g)

The western side of the Ural Mountains is an important town - Ufa, the headquarters of the Ural Front of the Russian Army, the commander of the Front Army who has been in office for less than three months, General Kontrachenko, stands solemnly with his hands behind his back, in front of him is a huge sand table that occupies most of the conference room, and the two ends of the sand table are all large plains crisscrossed by rivers and lakes, separating it from it is a rugged mountain composed of countless small ridgelines, representing the Ural Mountains that divide the two continents of Asia and Europe.

The defense area of Contrachenko is in the middle of this mountain, which stretches for 2,500 kilometers from north to south.

With a width of 40 to 150 kilometers and an average altitude of 500 to 1,200 meters, this mountain stretches from Baidarats Bay in the Kara Sea of the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Kazakh steppe in the south, and is bounded by the West Siberian Plain, the third largest in the world, with an area of 2.6 million square kilometers, and the East European Plain, the second largest in the world, with an area of 4 million square kilometers, in the west.

Once a place for the Cossacks and exiles to conquer and colonize Siberia, it is now an important barrier against the resurgence of the "worst calamity" into Europa eight centuries after the "ancient conquest" of Russia.

At the moment, Kontrachenko had only 16 infantry divisions, 4 cavalry divisions, and an armored vehicle brigade, together with 32 local civilian regiments (battalion size), with a total strength of only 450,000 men, and if they were evenly distributed across the entire front, they would only have 180 men per kilometer - of course, this was a pure numbers game and had no practical significance.

Kontrachenko's gaze wandered between the two concentric circles marked "Chelyabinsk" and "Yekaterinburg" – two of the most important cities in the eastern foothills of the Ural Mountains: the former, located 1,919 km from Moscow, was the Asian part of the Trans-Siberian Railway, which was both a transport hub connecting Europe and Asia, and a gateway and trade center from the eastern part of Russia to Siberia; The latter is located more than 200 kilometers north of Chelyabinsk and 7 kilometers from Moscow, and is the political, economic and cultural center of the entire Ural region, known as the "capital of the Urals".

At the moment, the Kurgan-based squadron is approaching Chelyabinsk from east to west along the Trans-Siberian Railway, and only after occupying it will it be possible to turn north to Yekaterinburg or continue to threaten Samara to the west.

Obviously, the defense of Chelyabinsk was key, however, Kontrachenko did not have much confidence in defending such a city with a lake and marsh in front and a mountain in the back.

In the Asian-Russian War more than ten years ago, Kontrachenko, chief of staff of the First Army in the Far East, had already learned the methods of the Chinese army and came to a conclusion: You must not let the Chinese get behind you.

After the outbreak of the war, although Kontrachenko was the commander of the Caucasian Front, he never relaxed his attention to the battlefields in Siberia and Central Asia. He noted that the operational policy of the Russian army on the Eastern Front, in the final analysis, was to defend the fortressed cities as railway hubs one by one. However, under the powerful detour of the Chinese army's armored mobile units, the Russian troops on the outskirts of the city were quickly divided and surrounded, and the defenders who retreated into the fortress area of the city were finally annihilated in the siege no matter how much they struggled.

In this regard, Kontrachenko wrote many times to remind the base camp, except for the first time when he wrote the book, the former chief of the General Staff Gilinsky called back to accuse him of "meddling in his affairs", and the rest were all lost in the sea and there was no reply.

Finally, when the situation was out of control, under the strong recommendation of his old friend Nakasidze, the director of the Imperial Armored Forces, Kontrachenko finally returned to Siberia after a more than ten years of absence, and took up the post of commander of the Ural Front. Before taking office, Konterachenko had already thought very clearly: he had no power to return to heaven, and he had to delay every day.

"Commander, the commanders of the armies have arrived."

Kontrachenko turned his head and smiled and nodded at Lieutenant General Bolemann, the chief of staff who had come to inform him.

"Come in."

Boleman served as the commander of the eastern sector of the land defense line in the defense of the Vladivok (Vladivostok) fortress, repeatedly inflicted heavy losses on the Sino-Japanese coalition forces in front of him, and was the only general that Kontrachenko admired in that "purgatory-great" iron-blooded battle.

"The commander of the 51st Army, Lieutenant General Hoflin, has come to report."

"The commander of the 52nd Army, Lieutenant General Mikhalin, came to report."

"The commander of the 54th Army, Lieutenant General Balakovov, came to report."

"The commander of the North Ural Group, Lieutenant General Lebezov, came to report."

The four generals entered the door in turn to report for duty, and lined up in front of Kontrachenko with military hats in their hands, waiting for the commander's lecture.

"Hello everyone, I am your new commander, I am not here to take you to Beijing, but I just hope to work with you to protect our motherland, homeland and brothers and sisters."

Kontrachenko's opening remarks lifted the spirits of the crowd, and their eyes were intertwined with astonishment and reverence on the face of the legendary "Vladivotok Hero".

"We lack tanks, planes and heavy artillery, we don't even have rifles, we lack everything, but I hope we don't lose the great spirit of 1812, when Napoleon captured and burned Moscow, and then Kutuzov led our forefathers to crush his army and empire."

Kontrachenko's speech was generous, and the generals in front of him were more straightforward than the other.

"The enemy we face today looks much more vicious than Napoleon's army, but I can tell you that they are almost at the end of the mire of the Western Siberian plain, their wheels and their horses' hooves are so deep in them that they can only rely on a single-track railroad full of holes, and the only territory they actually control is the towns along the railway."

Kontrachenko suddenly turned around, his fingers were on the sand table, his expression was resolute, and his eyes were like swords: "Let me tell you my plan: I will abandon and burn Chelyabinsk, and completely destroy the railway from Chelyabinsk to Yekaterinburg." I will place the main forces of the Front in the foothills west of Chelyabinsk, hold the railway line from Chelyabinsk to Samara, and defend Yekaterinburg only with the Uttar-Ural group. I will also use cavalry, civilian troops, and aviation to do everything possible to harass and sabotage the railways in the enemy's rear. ”

With that, Kontrachenko slowly raised his hands behind his back, facing the generals, and just as the first rays of the morning sun slipped through the window and hit him on the side of his face, "as if the holy light was shining" in Bolemann's opinion.

"Now, tell me what you think of me and my plans—tell me like a man."

……