Countless mortar shells rained down, hitting the water of the Sejingge River like a boiling pot of boiling water, and the unlucky Soviet soldiers, their covering fire on the north bank did not pose any threat to the mortars of the independent division hiding in the trenches on the south bank.

The mortar units of the independent division shelled for more than 20 minutes, causing great casualties to the attacking 12 regiments of Soviet troops, and the remaining Soviet soldiers, braving the flying mortar shells, finally approached the beachhead on the south bank, and at this time, the shelling of the independent division's troops came to an abrupt end.

Then, there were countless light and heavy machine guns, submachine guns erupted tongues of fire, when the hood came, like a three-dimensional metal wall, when the head hit, the Soviet soldier who was still trudging in the river water below his knees, suddenly hit the bullet, seven or eight blood holes appeared on his body, and the huge kinetic energy of the bullet carried the corpse of the Soviet soldier upside down, and the blood that "gurgled" out of the river stained the river red.

The Soviet soldiers were rained down by bullets, pressed on the river beach, unable to raise their heads, the dense gunfire suddenly became sparse, only the roar of light and heavy machine guns, just when the Soviet soldiers thought they could breathe a sigh of relief, the disaster was not over, one by one grenades, black old eagles flew in, the smart independent division soldiers, learned the way of mortar artillery, under the orders of the squad and platoon commanders, after the grenades were fired, they were thrown out with a delay of three seconds.

Countless grenades exploded in the air, shrapnel whistled down, and the Soviet soldiers lying on the wet and muddy river beach ushered in a burst of fear of death, and after the grenades, dense gunfire rang out again.

Sun Zhenbang is in the command headquarters. Seeing the whole process of the battle, he laughed happily and said to the staff officers: "See, the blocking war is such a way of playing, I still learned from our division commander with this hand, and when I was fighting devils in China, I didn't use this trick less!" ”

General Kulygin, who was standing on the high platform, naturally saw this qiē, and he put down the telescope weakly with both hands. Somewhat tired, he said to the chief of staff, Lieutenant General Zirnenko: "Chief of staff, order the troops to stop the offensive and withdraw it, such an attack is futile and can only increase the casualties of the troops." Our opponent is a difficult commander. Mortar. It is incredible that with mortars, we were able to repel the attack of our twelve infantry regiments! ”

It is no wonder that General Kurygin could not believe that on the battlefield, it is tanks, armored vehicles and large-caliber artillery that sing the leading role. There are also aircraft, and mortars in the troops of the Transcaucasian Military District can only be used for supporting firepower, and even artillery cannot be called. Each battalion is not bad to be equipped with a platoon of a dozen guns, in the mechanized troops, mortars are not equipped at all, and in his impression, mortars belong to equipment that can be eliminated.

In today's offensive and defensive battles, General Kurygin had a new understanding of mortars that he looked down on, and the commander of the independent division on the other side actually took out mortars with more than three regiments, and blew up his own soldiers, whose flesh and blood flew everywhere, and the corpses were stunned on the surface of the river.

In fact, General Kurygin overestimated the role of the mortar units of the Outer Mongolian border guards, and in any case, mortars cannot replace the role of large-caliber artillery, but in terms of explosive power, it is not the same.

Sun Zhenbang also has no way, the Outer Mongolian border guards belong to the second-line garrison force, and it is impossible to prepare large-caliber heavy artillery brigades and regiments like several other main field regiments, but he does not want to reduce the heavy firepower of the troops, so he will pay attention to the mortars that the main force does not want, and in each infantry battalion, there is a mortar company, and in each cavalry regiment, there is also a mortar company.

In this way, in the event of a small-scale attack, the role of artillery fire support can be brought into play, but he did not expect that in today's blocking battle, he gave himself an unexpected surprise, which made the supreme commander of the Soviet army, General Kulygin, depressed.

The first attack of the Soviet army was repulsed cleanly, and the two banks of the Sejingge River were calm again, and the Soviet engineering units, naturally, did nothing, except for a few lonely wooden piles, and pontoon bridges built for tanks. There was no shadow at all.

General Kurygin returned to the tent and drank a few sips of strong vodka before suppressing the anger in his heart, and the chief of staff, Lieutenant General Zirnenko, was reporting on the attack, "Comrade commander, from 7:40 a.m., 12 infantry regiments began to attack, and at about 9 o'clock, the first attack failed, and in an hour and a half of fighting, our attacking troops suffered more than 4,600 casualties, of which more than 3,800 were killed, and the casualty ratio reached about one-fifth of the attacking troops. ”

Zirnenko's chief of staff paused and added, "All the casualties were after the crossing of the river began, which shows that our artillery bombardment did not destroy the defensive positions of the troops of the independent division, and afterwards, they were killed and wounded by mortar fire, and the commander, I Jianyi, should stop the offensive and seek a safe way, otherwise, if this continues, the casualties of the troops will be too great!" ”

General Kurygin gasped, the battle lasted only an hour and a half, and more than two main regiments were disabled, and he asked: "What are the enemy's casualties?" He still has a glimmer of hope, that is, to fight for the attrition of troops, even if it is fought in three to five days according to the casualty ratio of two to one, there will not be many people left in the independent division of defense.

At best, it is only 50,000 or 60,000 troops, can it withstand such attrition? With a defensive front more than 20 kilometers wide, as long as there are not many troops per kilometer to defend, as long as we are not afraid of casualties and maintain the frequency and density of attacks, in a few days, we will be able to make the cunning independent division commander on the opposite bank overstretched and the position undefended!

This is the most brutal way of fighting, although in doing so, the troops of the Transcaucasian Military District will pay a great price for casualties, but in order not to be cut off by Comrade Stalin, General Kulygin has not taken much care.

Zirnenko, the chief of staff, hesitated and replied: "According to the reports of the generals in the front-line command, the casualties of the enemy army are no more than five hundred at most!" In order to take care of the mood of the comrade commander, in fact, the number of enemy annihilated according to statistics is definitely not more than 300 people.

General Kulygin's face was extremely ugly, and he choked on his chest in one breath, and the casualty ratio exceeded ten to one, and it was not a way to fight for attrition.

In the next battle, how should it be fought, the safe method has been tested, the air force has failed to bomb twice in succession, and the rest is to let the troops detour to both flanks of the Sejingge River and avoid the defensive positions of the independent division in front of them.

General Kurygin was an experienced commander, so naturally he would not fight the defending troops of the independent division in one place, repeatedly ramming the iron plate without turning back, and before heading south, the reconnaissance unit had already collected the terrain conditions in the area around the north bank of the Sesagoge River in great detail.

From the ferry in front of you, within more than 300 kilometers up and down, there is no place suitable for the large corps to enter, either the water is turbulent, the river is wide, the bottom of the river is full of silt, it is difficult to erect pontoon bridges, or both banks are steep river banks, but more than 100 kilometers away from here, there is a place suitable for troops to cross the river, but it has to pass through a swamp dozens of kilometers wide, if the infantry is on foot, it can reach there.

Mechanized vehicles are difficult to move an inch, as far as the mechanized equipment of the Transcaucasian Military District is not enough to fill the swamp, what role can the remaining pure infantry play, the troops of the Outer Mongolian Border Guards of the Independent Division are not only a few divisions in front of them, but also more than 100,000 troops, if the infantry only crosses the river, and the troops from other parts of the independent division surround it, will the prospects be wonderful? The answer is clearly not.

Moreover, such an obviously suitable location for crossing the river, those cunning Chinese, can ignore it, take advantage of the time when the troops cross the river, come to a half-crossing attack, then the loss is not today, if you don't get it right, the whole army will be annihilated, therefore, limited by the terrain conditions of the Sejingge River, the nearly 300,000 troops of the Transcaucasian Military District can only fight here with the Outer Mongolian border guards, that is to say, Sun Zhenbang's troops control zhì is the only passage through the Guò Se Ge River south to Kulun, there is no other way, a natural barrier that cannot be bypassed.

Of course, if you wait for a month and a half to two months, everything will be easy, and the grasslands of Outer Mongolia will be snowy and frozen, although it will cause considerable difficulties for the mechanized troops to march, but the Sejingge River has lost its role as a natural barrier, and the frozen river surface can be passed everywhere with mechanized troops, but can General Kuregin afford to wait?

The answer is still no, the General Staff will not give himself time, Comrade Stalin will not give himself time, hoping that the weather will cool down a little bit, even if he allows himself to wait for the opportunity, then the situation of the war will become even worse.

In a month-and-a-half to two months' time, the main forces of the independent division will continue to drive over from China, and at that time, the troops of the Transcaucasian Military District, let alone attacking, should consider the question of how not to be surrounded and annihilated by the main forces of the independent division that swarmed in.

So General Kurygin didn't dare to wait, and he couldn't afford to wait, he frowned, thought for a while, and said to the chief of staff, Lieutenant General Zirnenko: "Convey my order, replace the troops of the first round of attack, transfer to the rear to rest, transfer to the new troops, or the size of twelve regiments, and launch a second attack in an hour and a half!" In addition, the duration of the shelling was extended to an hour, and the main target of the shelling was the direction of our scheduled breakthrough! ”

(To be continued)(To be continued......