Episode 143 Siege of Vladivostok

"I don't send when the flowers are hairy! I'm scared to death if I do! There's a battle against Zephyr! Covered in golden armor! ”

On the loudspeaker on the roof of the armored car, an impassioned military song was played, and the surrounding Ming army engineers rolled up their sleeves, some bare-chested, and sang loudly while carrying sandbags, transporting equipment, erecting pontoon bridges, . The surging waters of the Ussuri River rush north in song.

Hundreds of Soviet prisoners of war were disgraced and depressed, and they were also under the watchful eye of machine guns: digging earth, carrying dirt, carrying wood...... Originally, he wanted to take the Soviet prisoners of war back to China for detention immediately, but he didn't expect to catch so many, and secondly, these prisoners of war were much more obedient than he imagined. As a result, several engineer battalion commanders unanimously made a decision: to detain some prisoners of war and use them as coarse laborers first. There is no need to waste so many people. Now, at least, the pontoons and fortifications are progressing much faster than expected.

On the other side of the river, another class of prisoners of war was concentrated in a clearing. The prisoners of war were also squatting on the ground in patches, surrounded by improvised barbed wire and guarded by machine guns. These people were officers of the Soviet army, as well as commissars. The Ming army practiced the method of "separating officers and soldiers" from detaining them, and in particular, political commissars must be specially singled out and detained to prevent them from inciting prisoners of war to riot. At this time, the political commissars of the Soviet army were generally more firm in their beliefs, and they were more loyal to Stalin and the Bolsheviks.

Before the pontoon bridge was erected, Ming soldiers and heavy equipment were still crossing the river in various boats. Now we can only transport as many light tanks, cars and light artillery as possible, and more fire support will have to rely on aircraft. But fortunately, at the same time as the offensive, most of the planes of the Soviet Far East Army were blown up on the runway. A small number of flying planes were also shot down by superior Ming aircraft. Now in the Far East, the Ming army has mastered air supremacy as it wishes.

This is very important, it can be said that the air supremacy is mastered, and the next offensive can continue. What is possible to break through and close the encirclement.

Vladivostok. The sky here has become a curtain of blood and fire.

Hundreds of vulture dive bombers, with a fierce roar, swooped down one after another, dropping bombs like raindrops. The Vladivostok fortress below was like a boiling pot, with smoke billowing and blazing fire. But Rao was like this, and the dense tongues of fire were still spraying from the ground into the sky, and large black clouds continued to explode in the air. From time to time, a bomber dragged black smoke and planted it.

As the largest port in the Soviet Far East, Vladivostok has now become the top priority of the Far Eastern theater and is the target of the Ming army. At the same time, in the north, the "Eastern Army Group South Offensive", the armored army was advancing from the ground towards Vladivostok. But the defense here can be said to be the strongest in the entire Far Eastern Army, and the Ming army faced the most stubborn resistance at every step of its advance.

To the south of Xingkai Lake, there are mountains on both sides, and only a few dozen kilometers in the middle are intermittent and narrow plains. The fortifications of Vladivostok were built on the mountains, overlooking the plains in the middle, and the artillery fire was intensive, which caused huge losses to the Ming army.

In the sky, the Ming army's dive bombers also swooped down in the air like a swarm of hornets, trying to throw incendiary bombs on the fortifications. However, because it is a mountainous area, it is difficult for aerial bombs to work. It is not a plain area, and when the bomb explodes, whether it hits directly or not, it is at least on the same plane as the target. That way, at least the shock wave would be able to knock over a lot of small fortifications. But now it's a slope, and the bomb explodes either above the target, or below it. Some of the bombs didn't explode at all, and when they landed, they just slid down the steep slope.

At this time, the effect of incendiary bombs is greater. Now in the mountains and forests north of Vladivostok, there are large areas of wildfires and black smoke. At this time, it is still the wettest time of the climate, and the mountain fires are also directly ignited by incendiary bombs, and they will not spread in a large area. Otherwise, this mountain fire can burn all the way to Changbai Mountain.

At this time, the Nanjing Command was also busy like a big beehive. Telephones rang one after another, officers ran back and forth, and the radio system kept broadcasting the latest developments of various units. On the large map board of the Central Command Hall, a large "close-up" of Northeast Asia has been replaced. Several female officers climbed the scaffolding, using long poles to constantly put on and remove various small markers. The situation in Northeast Asia is clear at a glance.

"As expected," Tang Yunsheng looked at the map, nodded, and said with satisfaction, "After the offensive begins, the fastest advance is the southern road of the Eastern Army Group. It was only one morning, and they had advanced as far as Dubki. It's already close to fifty kilometers. ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang next to him smiled:

"Of course, south of Xingkai Lake, it's all land borders. There are also more plains, which are definitely the most suitable for the advance of armored forces. ”

Tang Yunsheng also nodded, smiled, and looked at the map. After a while, he said:

"That's right...... Vladivostok is harder to bite than expected......"

Xiang Xiaoqiang was stunned and said with a smile:

"No, it's only been morning. To fight Vladivostok, we have to do a good job of taking the 'month' as a unit. ”

Tang Yunsheng shook his head and smiled bitterly:

"It's not...... I mean, the strength of the Vladivostok fortress and the tenacity of its resistance exceeded our expectations. Fear...... It's not just a matter of time. I'm afraid that in terms of the number of casualties, we still have to be mentally prepared. ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang thought for a moment and said:

"Tang Gong, why don't you still do it according to the method I said?"

Tang Yunsheng turned his head to look at him:

"You mean, or is it a siege?"

Xiang Xiaoqiang nodded:

"yes. Tang Gong, at the military meeting before the attack, I always advocated that we should not be too lucky with Vladivostok and should be prepared for a long-term siege...... First, the casualties of the hard attack are too large, and second, we don't need to get it so quickly. Isn't the greatest value of Vladivostok that it is a big port? If we take Vladivostok, we will be able to transport a large amount of supplies from the sea directly into the Russian territory. ”

"Yes......" Tang Yunsheng sighed, "Vladivostok is still the last station of the Trans-Siberian Railway, and when the goods are transported to Vladivostok, they can be directly loaded onto the train and transported all the way to the north along our offensive route...... When we fight the Soviet Union, the offensive route will definitely be along the Trans-Siberian Railway, and if we occupy Vladivostok, we will be able to ensure logistics wherever we go, and there is no need to switch from the Manchurian railway network to the Soviet Far Eastern railway network......"

Saying this, Tang Yunsheng sighed more and more, and he couldn't wait to take down Vladivostok tomorrow.

Xiang Xiaoqiang also sighed:

"But Tang Gong, didn't we also say at the meeting, to use the port of Vladivostok, at least we have to wait until we overwhelm Japan at sea...... Vladivostok is a port in the Sea of Japan, and now not to mention the Sea of Japan, even the control of the East China Sea is not in our hands. So, in my opinion, since we won't need Vladivostok for a while, why rush to take it down? Wouldn't it be nice to be besieged? We can besiege Vladivostok on the one hand, and vigorously promote submarine warfare at sea on the other hand, and besiege Japan...... As long as we have more and more submarines at sea, little Japan will not be able to hold up one day at a time...... There is no oil, no steel, no food in the country, not to mention any sea power, even if he still has an invincible fleet and 10,000 battleships at sea, it is useless! Sooner or later, we will not have to bend our knees to make peace. ”

Tang Yunsheng pondered for a while and asked:

"Well, what you say makes sense. However, whether Vladivostok is a port fortress, whether it is a siege or a storm, involves not only the army, but also the navy. Quite right, you go and talk to Chief of Staff Xiong, have a lunch meeting at noon, and we will discuss this issue. If Vladivostok were to be besieged, submarines would have to be pumped into the Sea of Japan in large quantities. It is necessary to cut off the sea transportation lines between Vladivostok and Japan and North Korea. Otherwise, with Japan, an ally, providing continuous support from the sea, we might not be able to take it after a year or two of siege. ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang's heart sank, nodded and said:

"Yes."

He hadn't really thought about it before. Vladivostok is a seaport and is close to Japan, so it is really necessary to draw submarines and cut off sea transportation lines. Otherwise, if you really surround it for a year and a half, you will hate it.

However, in this way, the intensity of submarine warfare against the "Western Pacific Theater" to the south of Japan will inevitably be greatly reduced. So trapped in Japan, I don't know what year and month it will be.