For the Red Army, the next task was to liberate the Mudanjiang River, its strategic position was very important, it was the location of the headquarters of the Japanese First Front Army and the only way for the retreat of the 5th Army in a hurry at the front, and it must be taken as soon as possible.

The Japanese army also realized the importance of the Mudanjiang River and relied on the third line of defense of the 5th Army, that is, the Laoyeling line in the east. The 135th, 126th, and 124th divisions hastily erected fortifications.

At that time, the Fifth Army of the Japanese Army ordered all divisions to "act according to the plan", and this so-called plan made people laugh and cry, why? Because the so-called plan of the Fifth Army is still the same as before the outbreak of the war, that is, the fortifications on the first line of Suifenhe will kill and injure a large number of Soviet troops, weaken the Soviet army's spirit, and then rely on the third line of defense to fight a blocking battle until a full-scale counterattack.

However, as mentioned earlier, the armored units of the Red Army quickly crossed the first line of defense of the Japanese army, and did not give the Japanese any chance to delay at all. So much so that the third line of defense constructed by the main forces of the Fifth Army was very imperfect, and it was almost rushed into battle. Moreover, due to the rapid advance of the Red Army, the inner line of the Japanese army was turned upside down, and the command relationship was chaotic for a time, and the time when the main forces of the three divisions of the Fifth Army entered the defensive position was extremely uneven, leaving quite a lot of gaps.

And this is simply too simple for the old fritters of the Red Army, who have quite a lot of combat experience. From July 22, the Red Army first launched an offensive against the Japanese 124th and 126th divisions.

At that time, the situation of the Japanese army was as follows: the 370th Wing and the puppet Mongolian army each left a brigade to defend on the road east of Linkou, and a brigade of the 369th Wing stayed in Dong'an to cover the retreat of the main force. In addition, one brigade of the 368th and 370th Wings was stationed in the east of Mudanjiang City. In the following period, the main forces of the 135th Division also arrived at the scene one after another. Two of the brigades were reinforced to the 124th Division. The 126th Division left only the 1st Brigade of the 279th Wing, a squadron of the 31st Anti-Tank Brigade and the Surprise Squadron. The main forces continued to retreat to the predetermined defensive positions indicated by the military headquarters.

Until the early morning of July 23. The 124th Division arrived west of Muling to defend itself, and at this time, some of the routed soldiers who had escaped from the Soviet-controlled area also arrived at the 124th Division's defense area.

Of course, these officers of the 124th Division will soon find out that they will not be much stronger than these routs, because the Soviets have already followed!

Fighting broke out between the two sides, and it must be said that the 124th Division was initially confident. They thought that their fortifications were still very good, at least by the standards of the Japanese army. For this reason, the officers and soldiers of the 124th Division, who had worked all night, were still a little proud, and they were ready to give Lucia a little color to see.

EVENTS TURNED OUT COMPLETELY UNEXPECTEDLY, THE RED ARMY GAVE THEM A DISMOUNT AT THE VERY BEGINNING, AND THE OFFENSIVE WAS FIRST STARTED BY THE SU-122 AND SU-152. During the fire attack that lasted for half an hour, the so-called field fortifications of the Japanese army were plowed by shells, and it could be seen that their positions were full of craters, and a small number of civil fortifications made of logs were directly opened by large-caliber grenades, and the devil soldiers hiding in them were either killed or wounded.

This was only the beginning, after the Red Army's offensive had officially begun. The 124th Division was stunned, and the menacing armored group pressed over in a line. The conscience of heaven and earth, the devils really have never seen so many tanks!

"Baga, what's going on, fire! Hurry up! ”

The Japanese commander had to wake up the stunned gunners with his boots and order them to hurry up and fire at the charging Red Army tank group.

Speaking of which, the devil's anti-armor ability is really called rotten, there are two kinds of anti-tank guns, one is the Type 36 anti-tank gun that copies the German KWK37-mm anti-tank gun, and the other is the Lu-1 47-mm anti-tank gun that pirates the Soviet Union's 45-mm anti-tank gun. These two things may be useful against the T-26s imported from the Soviet Union by the Scraping People's Party, but against the T-34 and T-35, they can only be heard.

Not to mention the fact that the number of these two anti-tank guns is not too much, and to tell the truth it is basically impossible to pose much threat to the armored forces of the Soviet Red Army. This is also the case, even if the troops of the Soviet Red Army in the Far East had a low priority in equipment, and could only be equipped with the T-34-76, which had been eliminated from the European theater, and even the T-35 was rare. But the T-34-76 is a nightmare for the devil's anti-tank artillery, and the armor-piercing shells fired by the devil are almost invariably ejected, even if they are close enough to almost greet face-to-face, the devil's anti-tank guns can't help those steel behemoths.

This is still the T-34-76, a heavy tank equipped by the Red Army in the Far East, for example, the ВИ-2, which was not used at all in the European theater, this iron turtle caused great panic in the Japanese army, not to mention the 47-mm anti-tank gun, and the devils in the despair for a time even took out the 150-mm howitzer and fired it flat, but it still could not stop the advance of the ВИ-2.

Let's put it this way, only a handful of T-34s were injured by the devil's anti-tank mines and withdrew from the battle, and in the head-to-head confrontation almost not a single Red Army tank was destroyed by Japanese tank guns. So much so that the collapsed devil had to use **** tactics again, using human explosives to block the Red Army's torrent of steel, of course, its losses and effectiveness are comparable or something.

All in all, the front-line troops of the 124th Division were quickly urinated by the Red Army, and the devils who were chased by the Red Army tanks and armored vehicles had no way to enter the sky and the ground for a time.

Fierce fighting (to be honest, it was not very fierce) until late that night, the vanguard of the 97th and 144th Infantry Divisions of the Red Army, under the guidance of their respective tank brigades, forcibly crossed the Muling River and liberated Muling. The 215th, 190th, and 371st Infantry Divisions followed, while the 363rd Infantry Division approached Muling from the southwest. The remnants of the Red Army's Fifth Army began to advance towards Suiyang.

Meretskov, who was closely following the situation of the battle, immediately instructed Krylov to form a powerful advance detachment of the army group in order to quickly advance in depth. So Krylov rushed forward in rapid clusters with the 76th Tank Brigade, the 478th Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment and two infantry battalions.

By this time, the Soviet Red Army had advanced eighty kilometers. Took control of the important towns of Bamiantong, Lishu Town, and Muling on the Muling River. And quickly isolate Mishan. According to the special care of Beloborodov. The Red Army began to take care to prevent some Japanese troops who were running particularly slowly from retreating in this direction towards the Mudanjiang.

In the great strides of the Red Army, it was not without the Japanese army that tried to resist and tried to resist stubbornly, but these struggles were crushed by the Red Army one by one with unreasonable tactics. For example, the Red Army's 257th Tank Brigade was advancing westward through the eight-sided road when it encountered a brigade of the Japanese 279th Wing, which reinforced an anti-tank gun squadron and occupied a high ground next to the road to build pillboxes, trenches, and artillery fire points.

However, the 257th Tank Brigade was too lazy to entangle with the Japanese army, and it only took half an hour to disengage while fighting. At first, the commander of the Japanese wing thought that the Soviet army was a fool and had no military common sense, so how could such a critical highway move forward without control? Isn't this looking for death?

The 257th Tank Brigade, of course, is not looking for death, let alone stupid. Rather, there was no need for them to entangle with the small Japanese blocking forces, and these stumbling blocks were the work of the infantry behind. Sure enough, after another hour or so, the 300th Infantry Division of the Red Army arrived at the scene. From noon, the Red Army first bombarded with artillery fire, and then the vanguard regiment prepared to eat the 279th Wing in one go.

At this time, the Japanese army resorted to its usual counter-charge tactics, preparing to use hand-to-hand combat with the Soviet army to offset the Soviet army's firepower advantage. But what the Japanese army did not expect was that they did not use this trick at all, and the vanguard regiment of the 300th Infantry Division immediately called for artillery support after discovering the Japanese attempt, and the Japanese anti-charge group was stunned by a platoon of artillery before they could break out of the trenches. Then immediately after the air support of the Red Army also arrived, and the Il-2 continued to dive and strafe and deliver bombs. Turn the Japanese trenches into a sea of fire.

Under the powerful firepower of the Red Army, the Japanese army could only retreat to the anti-slope of the hillside for temporary refuge, according to the idea of its wing commander: it was a big deal to regain the position lost during the day through night fighting.

It's just that the devil didn't expect it at all, and the Red Army was not afraid of night battles and would not give the devils a chance to fight at night at all. Throughout the afternoon, with the support of tanks and artillery, the 300th Infantry Division launched wave after wave of fierce offensives, annihilating the enemy before sunset.

The battle continued, and it was the 257th Tank Brigade mentioned above, and on the morning of July 24, they collided with the 370th Wing and the 1st Heavy Field Artillery Wing of the 135th Division of the Devil's Division in the Birch Forest area.

As soon as the battle began, the Japanese blew up the bridge, and then bombarded the 257th Tank Brigade from the heights, and even launched counterattacks from time to time. The Japanese army held on to the end and stubbornly resisted to the end. Especially after nightfall, the Japanese launched a fierce night attack after receiving artillery support. However, the 257th Tank Brigade was unwavering, holding its position on the one hand, and giving full play to its armor advantages on the other side, constantly using tanks as mobile turrets to block the Japanese counter-charge. Fierce fighting lasted all night, and the next morning, when the Red Army cleaned up the battlefield, it was discovered that more than 900 people had been killed, 6 locomotives, 24 field guns and 30 trucks had been destroyed, and 30 wagons of ammunition, 800 rifles and 100 machine guns had been captured.

It is worth mentioning that this batch of weapons and ammunition was quickly transferred to the ****, compared to the not very easy to use Mosin Nagan rifle, **** still prefers the 38 big cover suitable for Asian physique, of course, buying those crooked machine guns has to be said separately.

Let's put it this way, as of the morning of July 25, the Red Army's troops from all walks of life had converged on the front line of the Mudanjiang River, and a battle of encirclement and annihilation was already imminent. This situation made the lackeys of the Japanese army also think of falling into disarray, such as Jia Shouren, the battalion commander of the Mudanjiang garrison battalion of the puppet Manchurian Army, this traitor wrote in his diary: "The situation is critical, I received a report early in the morning of the seventh day of the first lunar month (July 26), and learned that Maozi had completely broken through the fortress group in the area of the Suifen River, and its vanguard had reached the bank of the Mudanjiang River...... The situation was even worse on the eighth day of the first month, and the herald told me that Maozi's infantry had infiltrated many parts of our defense area last night, and that the general attack was about to come...... On the ninth day of the first month, Maozi had already crossed the Mudanjiang River, the Japanese defense line had collapsed and collapsed, and I could only lead my troops to move in, at this time, our army suffered heavy casualties, ammunition and guns were also in short supply, and the friendly forces around were also panicking, so we needed to plan for this situation in advance......"

Jia Shouren's early plan is quite simple. In the early morning of the tenth day of the new year. He fled on horseback with a few of his henchmen. On the way, he was caught by the guerrillas of Nanman, and after a burst of gunfire, the traitor was killed on the spot.

It was not only the puppet army of the puppet state of Manchukuo that collapsed, but the situation of the Kwantung Army was not much better. After the Red Army forcibly crossed the Mudanjiang River, it immediately launched a fierce attack on the urban area, and with the heavy artillery bombardment and bombardment, the headquarters of the First Front Army and the Fifth Army of the devils fled in confusion and escaped from the encirclement before closing the encirclement.

For the next two days. The Red Army launched rounds of attacks on the urban area of Mudanjiang, and the resistance of the devils in the city was very fierce, but it was of little significance, and in the face of absolute superiority in strength and firepower, their resistance was only a dead end.

On July 30, when the last stronghold of the devils in the city was blown up, the **** secretary of Nanman officially began to receive the work, which also means that Mudanjiang returned to the embrace of the motherland after 13 years of absence.

Not only on the Mudanjiang River, but in the north, the Red Army's Red Banner Second Army and the Fifteenth Army rapidly advanced towards Harbin and Qiqihar. The Fourth Independent Army of the Japanese Army in this area was no match for the Red Army at all, and was blown up in person. And to the west. The 90th Infantry Corps of the Soviet Red Army, together with the Northeast Anti-Japanese Allied Army, moved south, and launched a fierce attack in the direction of Qiqihar out of the northern province of Khingan.

Let's put it this way, by the end of July, the Japanese army had withdrawn from the three eastern provinces, and the northern part could only retreat to Qiqihar and Harbin. In order to block the Red Army and the **** front, the Kwantung Army had to urgently transfer the 17th Front Army stationed in Korea to the north, in an attempt to stick to the line of Yanji, Dunhua, Jilin, Harbin and Qiqihar. At one time, there was even the idea of transferring troops from Henan and Hubei to go out of the customs.

However, this idea was completely bankrupt with the new strategic counteroffensive of the New Fourth Army and the Eighth Route Army. In early August, the Eighth Route Army conquered Anyang and Puyang, and the New Fourth Army took Jining and Heze and began to besiege Laiwu, completely cutting off the communication links between the northeast and Henan.

In this grim situation, the Japanese base camp had to abandon the plan to open up the mainland communication line and turned around to attack the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army with heavy troops. In the Central Plains, a real battle is about to break out.

The commander-in-chief of the devil's side was Okamura Ningji, and the five divisions and two brigades of the 12th Group Army to which he belonged attacked in two directions with the cooperation of one division of the 11th Group Army, with the main force passing through Zhengzhou and Xinxiang to take Anyang, and the other division and two brigades going out of Shangqiu to take Heze directly. In the words of Okamura Ninji himself: "It is bound to annihilate the main force of the Eighth Route in one battle!" ”

Yes, Okamura Ninji did have the idea of finishing his work in one battle, and in the past, the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army played guerrilla warfare and sports warfare to avoid frontal decisive battles, so that he always had a helplessness of fighting mosquitoes with artillery. And this time he felt that **** took the initiative to hit the troops to fight, which was tantamount to hitting the muzzle of his gun. If the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army can be severely damaged in one fell swoop, North China and Shandong will be too peaceful, and it will be easier and more comfortable to turn around and clean up the Kuomintang when the time comes.

In this battle, Okamura Ninji concentrated about 170,000 troops, which should be said to be relatively strong. So how many men and horses are there in the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army? Removing the main force of the 120th Division on the northern front, the 115th Division and the 129th Division were dispatched from the nest, and the main combat troops of these two divisions alone reached more than 200,000, and in addition to the nearly 100,000 combat troops of the New Fourth Army in Shandong, **** invested more than 300,000 troops in this unprecedented general battle. If you include the second-line guerrillas, armed engineering teams and other local troops, the total strength is as high as about 600,000, which can be described as an unprecedented scale!

Of course, this does not mean that **** is preparing to fight a war of annihilation on both sides of the Yellow River, the reason why so many troops are used is actually to seek stability. According to the decision of the Central Military Commission, this time it is an active defense, to ensure the security of the liberated areas of North China and Shandong, and to block the enemy in Henan.

It should be said that this is still relatively conservative, and the main reason is that the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army have not fought major battles and lack experience. Next time, let's fight the war of annihilation after we have experience!

It's just that man is not as good as heaven, and as the campaign progresses, the initial determination soon proves to be out of place. The main force of more than 300,000 troops, with the cooperation of local troops, not only repelled Okamura Ninji's provocation, but also showed a tendency to encircle and annihilate the enemy. Therefore, in the later stage of the campaign, the central government decisively adjusted its objectives and decided to fight a war of annihilation.

These are all later words, so I won't mention them for the time being. Because before this battle, in the north, the headquarters of the 120th Division, with the cooperation of the Outer Mongolian cavalry and the Soviet Red Army, basically swept away the Japanese troops in northern North China, and the devils and puppet troops could only shrink to Beiping, Tianjin, and Shijiazhuang. And this creates a question, is the 120th Division quickly moving south to assist the 115th Division and the 129th Division against Okamura Ninji's troops? Or try to liberate Beiping and Tianjin?

Around this issue, there are also internal debates in ****, and the final result of the discussion is that you can give it a try, after all, you have to learn to tackle tough problems if you die with Jiang in the future, it is better to accumulate a little experience as soon as possible.

Of course, even if you want to test, you won't try it with Beiping and Tianjin, and the **** goal is Shijiazhuang...... (To be continued.) )

PS: Bow and thank you to zmcyhh, lzc880210, xzxing, goldenson, the king of the horsemen, the 1st Guards Tank Brigade and Comrade Juventus!