The anti-aircraft fire of the Soviet army was fast and effective, threatened by the anti-aircraft fire of the ground, the bombers had to climb to a higher altitude, and the bombing accuracy of the Soviet troops was immediately lowered, and, in a situation of being caught off guard, more than a dozen bombers were shot and wounded, four of them flew in the direction of Kulen with thick smoke, and the experienced pilots knew that the fate of the crash of these four bombers could not be avoided.

Colonel Meng Qingpeng, commander of the Outer Mongolia Patrol Area of the Northern Flight Group of the Air Force, is an old pilot who has followed Le Yiqin and Liu Cuigang to participate in the air defense battle of Dingbian, the campaign to recover North China, the battle of Pingjin, the battle of ambushing the southward corps of the Kwantung Army in Niuxinshan in western Liaoning, and the battle of conquering Jinzhou.

At that time, Meng Qingpeng held the post of commander of the First Fighter Regiment of the Air Force, and had repeatedly commanded mixed aircraft groups to bomb the Japanese army, and he made an intuitive comparison of the anti-aircraft firepower of the Soviet army and the Japanese army in his heart; compared with the air defense capability of the Soviet army, the Japanese army was simply like an undefended army, or in other words, there was no decent anti-aircraft firepower at all, and most of them were ground offensive weapons, temporarily acting as anti-aircraft firepower, which should be related to the strength of the opponents faced by the armies of the two countries.

It was getting late, and the Soviet army's anti-aircraft fire was very fierce, and the task given by the division commander to the Outer Mongolia patrol area was to cover the safe evacuation of the Tong Batu Brigade and Li Changjiang's Brigade from Irkutsk and Ulan-Ude from the pursuit of the Soviet army.

After observing the situation on the ground, Meng Qingpeng ordered: "The bomber formation will return immediately, and the fighter formation will return." Follow me, give the Soviets a little color to the ground anti-aircraft fire, Cullen ground air command, immediately contact the 2nd Brigade and the 5th Brigade, and ask if the two divisions have withdrawn to a safe area. ”

More than a hundred fighters, whizzing down from the sky, in the twilight, a little spark on the ground, is the best target, the ground anti-aircraft fire of the Soviet army. For bombers, it is a huge threat, but for fast, light fighters, the threat range is extremely low.

A group of fighters in the Outer Mongolian patrol area flew over the Soviet troops. Deftly shuttled through the net of fire, putting a shuttle, a shuttle bullet. Poured on the heads of the Soviet anti-aircraft fire group. Although there was no spectacular scene of fireworks and flames, flames soaring and earth-shattering when the heavy aerial bomb exploded, the pouring of machine-gun bullets also made the Soviet soldiers suffer a lot, and the Soviet soldiers were beaten on their backs.

More than twenty minutes later. Meng Qingpeng gave the order for all the fighter groups to return to the airspace, waiting for a fighter division of the Air Force of the Transcaucasian Military District of the Soviet Union to rush to the airspace of Irkutsk. The fighter group of the independent division has long disappeared, and the Soviet pilots only see burning trucks, artillery, and tanks on the ground, as well as the corpses of Soviet soldiers everywhere, and the wounded who are wailing in pain.

Major General Sergeyev, commander of the Third Army, had a big quarrel with the commander of the fighter division who came to support him in the ground-to-air intercom, and it is no wonder that Commander Sergeyev lost his temper, more than three hours have passed since he requested air support, and according to the flight speed of the Soviet fighters, he could have arrived in the airspace dozens of minutes ahead of schedule, and at that time, it was the time when the fighter group of the independent division was raging in the sky above his head.

The commander of the Soviet fighter division, who came to provide air support, was also angry, his division had long been on standby on the runway, and as long as an order was given, more than 200 fighters would be able to take off immediately, but the order to take off was delayed, and he took more than 200 pilots and sat in the cabin for more than an hour, which was more than an hour of suffering.

Finally rushed to the airspace of Irkutsk desperately, but was met with a lot of complaints and accusations, and the commander of the fighter division, who was full of anger, couldn't help but shout: "Enough, comrade commander, if you think that our support is late, you can report to the military region that we have delayed the fighters, that is your right, I'm sorry, because the enemy aircraft group has already withdrawn from the battlefield, and my troops are going to return, goodbye!" ”

After speaking, this air force division commander, who was also hot-tempered, unceremoniously cut off contact, on the ground, the angry face of Sergeyev, fiercely dropped the intercom, looked at the twilight, the battlefield everywhere, blocked in his chest, this day, for himself, although without a battle, he occupied Irkutsk, but ran away from the Chinese cavalry units that should have been surrounded, and was beaten by Chinese bombers and fighters.

In terms of the purpose of the campaign, the Third Army was victorious, and according to the expected purpose, it occupied the city of Irkutsk, but from the perspective of combat, the Third Army suffered a small loss, not only did not kill a single Chinese soldier, but suffered losses on the contrary, and, by the fanatical Nikolagsky, coerced, Commander Sergeyev, looking at the steppe of Outer Mongolia, the night was getting thicker, and ordered weakly: "The army headquarters enters the city!" ”

Suddenly, he remembered that the Chinese planes, such a wild bombardment, were going to pursue the retreating armored brigade of the Chinese cavalry unit, I don't know how the losses were, but don't die that Nikolagsky, otherwise, I can't explain to the above, Commander Sergeyev, ordered the staff officers around him, "Immediately contact the commander of the armored brigade, Comrade Nikolagsky, and ask about the current location of the brigade, as well as the losses?" ”

After a while, I got a reply, "Comrade Army Commander, the current position of our armored brigade, more than fifty kilometers south of Irkutsk, is searching for traces of the retreat of the Chinese cavalry units and pursuing them, and the troops have not suffered any losses!" If there is a new situation, report it at any time, the brigade commander and commissar of the political zhì colonel Nikolagsky. ”

Major General Sergeyev was speechless, he could only shake his head with a wry smile, and secretly thought to himself: "What the fuck, almost all the units of the Third Army were bombed by the Air Force of the Independent Division at different times, why didn't that guy have anything to do, shouldn't it, an armored brigade is not a small target, how can there be no losses at all?" ”

Nikolagsky was indeed lucky, when he commanded the armored brigade to pursue to the south, the bomber group in the Outer Mongolia patrol area had already returned, and Meng Qingpeng's fighter group, because he saw the report from the ground radar station, there were a large number of Soviet fighters, and they were rushing to the airspace of Irkutsk, and he didn't want to fight, just such a small target, and he didn't know that he risked being entangled by the Soviet fighter group that caught up.

Moreover, the fuel and ammunition of the fighter group were not much left, which was not enough to support an air battle, and by mistake, Nikolagsky's armored brigade escaped a catastrophe, and the Nikolagsky brigade commander, who did not know that death passed by, put down the binoculars in high spirits and ordered: "The troops immediately advance, camp in two hours, tell the soldiers, don't be afraid of fatigue, we are great Soviet Red Army soldiers, have the confidence and courage to defeat a qiē enemy, turn on the headlights of all armored vehicles, search and advance!" ”

The brigade chief of staff and several battalion commanders beside him glanced at each other, and felt helpless at the blind command of this brigade commander and political commissar, and in the dark night, all the armored vehicles turned on their headlights, which was tantamount to sending a signal to the retreating Chinese cavalry troops, we are pursuing you, and besides, the terrain is unknown, the enemy situation is unknown, so what if you are ambushed?

But looking at the posture of the brigade commander, it must be anyone's words, and I can't hear it, a bad, comrade brigade commander who was born as a political work cadre, gave a certain unlucky person, buttoned a big hat of fear of the enemy and cowardice, and was approached by Cheka agents, which one can bear it?

In the dark night, the Soviet armored brigade, all the vehicle headlights were turned on, and on the steppe dirt road, a column was lined up, like a snake swimming in a winding direction, swimming due south.

Just south of Irkutsk, about 70 kilometers away, in a low and sparse woods, the troops of the Second Cavalry Brigade are resting here, running non-stop for dozens of kilometers, Xiao is growing up on horseback, the Mongolian men who can eat, drink and sleep on horseback are also sleepy and tired, after receiving the order to rest in place, the soldiers looked at the sweaty war horses, and felt distressed.

I didn't care about myself, first took the saddle and all the weight off the horse's back, and carefully wiped the sweat of the war horse, led to the fat place of the pasture, while looking at the beloved war horse, chewing the grass sweetly, while sitting together in twos and threes, taking out the kettle and dry food, filling the stomach, and whispering from time to time about the thrilling process of today's retreat.

The brigade commander, Major General Tong Batu, sat alone in front of a small tree, motionless, like a statue, staring at the direction of Irkutsk with blood-red eyes, beside him, there were dry rations and water bottles brought by the guards, but he had no appetite at all, and his heart was burning like pain.

Originally, the retreat of the Second Brigade should have been in danger, the Soviet encirclement had not yet been formed, and a battalion serving as the retreating vanguard was on both sides of the encirclement that the Soviet troops were about to close, closely monitoring the movements of the Soviet troops, and constantly reporting the width of the opening to the brigade headquarters, and when the Second Brigade withdrew from the city of Irkutsk, according to Tong Batu's calculations, the cavalry would be at full speed, and it would take less than 30 minutes to reach the opening that had not yet been encircled.

The opening of more than 20 kilometers wide was enough for the Second Brigade to safely withdraw from the encirclement of the Soviet army, and more than 5,000 horses and horses could disappear into the depths of the vast Outer Mongolian steppe in less than half an hour.

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