General Zhukov, commander of the Soviet Far Eastern Front, and Lieutenant General Taiichi Haruhiko, commander of the rear guard group of the Japanese Far East Campaign, can be described as two wise commanders.

Unlike Zhukov, who built ice and snow fortifications due to the limitations of the terrain, Lieutenant General Haruhiko not only made the defensive position unusually strong, but also used explosives to blow up several anti-tank trenches in several main directions that the Soviet army would inevitably attack, and then poured water on them.

The tank group of the Soviet army is getting closer and closer, and Lieutenant General Haruhiko said to a staff officer: "Order, small and medium-caliber artillery groups, mainly to block Soviet infantry, large-caliber artillery groups, mainly to destroy Soviet tanks, death squads to prepare, enter forward positions, and attack at any time to blow up Soviet tanks!" ”

This is another hole card of Lieutenant General Haruhiko, in terms of firepower intensity, his own Far East campaign rearguard cluster is definitely not as good as the two field fronts of the Soviet army, those few slippery trenches, can not block all the Soviet tanks, if these steel monsters rush to the position, as long as they tear a hole, their own defense line will be declared finished immediately, and they will not be able to stop the assault of more than two million Soviet troops at all.

The only way is to give full play to the bushido spirit of the Great Japanese Empire, recruit soldiers who volunteer to serve as demomen in all the troops, and when the Soviet tanks rush to the position, the soldiers covered in explosives pounce on them, blow them up, and knock out the main equipment that the Soviet army relies on for assault.

Initially. Lieutenant General Haruhiko is also worried that there will not be enough daredevils to recruit, after all, as long as the soldiers who have fought on the battlefield once, they will understand that this is a character to die, however, after the order to recruit reaches the troops, the soldiers' frenzy. Far beyond his expectations, in one day, more than 10,000 soldiers volunteered to serve as daredevils.

Lieutenant General Haruhiko was deeply moved by the samurai of the Imperial Japan and their willingness to sacrifice themselves for His Majesty the Emperor. I have more confidence in completing the task of blocking the Soviet reinforcements. Right now. The more than 10,000 daredevils, more than 3,000 of them, were in the first anti-tank trench, which, in the opinion of Lieutenant General Haruhiko, was a weapon more powerful than thousands of artillery pieces.

Soviet tanks and infantry had advanced to a distance of several thousand meters from the Japanese positions. The muzzles of the black holes of the tank guns were clearly visible, and there was a tense atmosphere in the headquarters. Lieutenant General Haruhiko said coldly: "Let's start!" ”

Behind the Japanese position, there was a sudden thunderous sound, countless shells whistled, in the Soviet army's offensive formation, a cloud of black smoke exploded, the Japanese artillery was quite good, the artillery accurately covered the Soviet attacking troops, for a while, the severed limbs and stumps flew all over the sky, and the tanks hit by the shells emitted black smoke mixed with dark red flames.

General Kirganin's eyebrows couldn't help but tremble, "The Japanese army's defensive counterattack is exactly the same, the Japanese commander on the opposite side is a master, and the artillery fire is quite accurate!" He thought to himself, "Order, the artillery group belonging to the Front Army, comprehensively suppress and destroy the Japanese artillery fire, and cover the tank and infantry assault!" He then gave the order.

As a veteran of the battlefield, General Kilganin is quite experienced, from the intensity of the Japanese artillery fire, and the power of the explosion, there is still a big gap with his own artillery group, although the sudden shelling, brought a lot of losses to the attacking troops, but also exposed the position of the Japanese artillery position, next, it is time for their own artillery, it is time to exert power!

General Kilganin's confidence was justified in the fact that less than 20 minutes after the artillery battle began, the density of Japanese artillery fire was lowered, and the threat to the attacking troops was greatly reduced.

"Your Excellency Commander, I received a report from the artillery commander that the Soviet artillery fire was very fierce, and we squeezed out the artillery position, which has been destroyed and suffered heavy losses!" A staff officer, after putting down the phone, reported to Lieutenant General Haruhiko.

"Expected!" Lieutenant General Haruhiko was not surprised at all, "Order the artillery group, transfer positions!" He ordered, enough, the first round of artillery bombardment, achieved the expected results, from the position of his own command, the Soviet tanks were hit by a certain distance, compared with the Soviet artillery firepower, he did not have so much capital.

Without the attack of Japanese artillery, the speed of the Soviet army's attack was significantly accelerated, in front, there was a sudden appearance of an ice-covered trench, the Soviet tanks drove to the front of the trench, the width and depth, all made the Soviet tanks with strong cross-country ability, at a loss, for a while, a large number of Soviet tanks were turning around on the edge of the trench, trying to find a passage, General Kirganin put down the binoculars, frowned and asked: "What's the matter with the tank troops, why did they stop attacking, and they are still gathered together!" ”

A staff officer answered the phone and reported: "Comrade commander, the commander of the tank unit reports that the anti-tank trenches dug in advance by the Japanese troops have been encountered, and they are preparing for blasting!" ”

As soon as the staff officer's words fell, a violent explosion sounded, and General Kirganin raised the telescope in confusion, "It won't be so fast, right?" He secretly thought to himself, and then, his face changed greatly, and what he saw was not his tank unit blasting the trench, but from the trench, as if thousands of Japanese soldiers suddenly appeared, and they rushed to the tank desperately, and then pulled the explosives on their bodies.

The tanks were blown up in thick smoke, the flames were flashing, and many Japanese soldiers were beaten into sieve eyes by the infantry behind, and the ammunition on their bodies exploded, and they exploded into a cloud of blood mist, but there were also Japanese soldiers who kept crawling out of the trenches, as if they had been hit, and rushed to the tanks, and more smoke came out.

The sweat on the head of General Kirganin came down, and the Japanese commander actually used this hand, which he never expected, with the lives of soldiers, to do suicide blasting, and only the Japanese could do it, "Order, stop the attack, and the tank troops will withdraw immediately!" He weakly gave the order, if he continued to fight like this, there would be only a few tank units left in the front army, and what could he expect in the subsequent attack?

The remaining Soviet tanks turned their heads and retreated, and the infantry retreated like the ebbing tide of the sea, and the sound of guns and cannons on the battlefield fell down, and Lieutenant General Haruhiko let out a sigh of relief, sweaty and heavy-clothed, and weak.

In the first confrontation between the Soviet Union's Outer Mongolian Front Army and Japan's Far East Campaign Rear Guard Group, they fought a bloody battle, and in more than an hour of offensive and defensive battles, the Soviet Union's Outer Khinganling Front lost more than 300 tanks and more than 10,000 infantry casualties, and the attack was repulsed.

The rear guard group of the Japanese Far East Campaign, more than 3,000 daredevils, none of them survived, more than 100 artillery pieces were lost, and more than 8,000 soldiers were killed or wounded.

In fact, the Soviet Outer Khinganling Front launched an attack with superior forces, but was repulsed and paid a considerable price, the most important thing is that the Japanese army successfully repelled the attack of the Soviet army with superior strength and firepower, and its confidence was greatly increased.

The first attack of the Soviet army failed, the troops who came from a long distance were engaged in the battle without resting, the attack was frustrated, the spirit was lost, the morale of the troops was inevitably greatly affected, and if they wanted to organize an offensive again, I am afraid that two days later, the Japanese army successfully bought time, and in this respect, the Soviet army was a failure.

General Kilganin knew that time was precious to him, but in just one attack, the loss of tank troops was close to one-third, and the tenacity of the Japanese defense and the fortifications were beyond his expectations, so he had to stop the attack, adjust the deployment, and launch another attack, and it would take two days at the earliest, and he was anxious, and the Japanese army in front of him was not the biggest obstacle.

What made General Kirganin worried was that the troops of the Independent Division, which were following behind his own troops, not far away, and not far away, and the ghosts were still lingering, and according to reconnaissance, the Independent Division was following his own troops, with more than 300,000 troops, and they were like a hungry wolf, and they suddenly pounced on them and bit themselves.

In order to guard against hidden arrows from the rear, the more than 1 million troops of the Outer Khinganling Front Army were only about half of the troops put into the attack, and the remaining 500,000 troops were used in the direction of guarding against the troops of the independent division.

If there is no independent division behind them, the Outer Khinganling Front Army will all be engaged in the attack, and the Japanese defense line in front of them is not an obstacle, and they can choose more assault directions, and correspondingly, the Japanese defensive forces of the Japanese army will also be thinned, and the resistance to the attack will also be greatly reduced.

Senior General Kirganin asked himself more than once, "What are the Chinese going to do?" "If he does not fight or withdraw, he hangs behind the Outer Xing'anling Front not far away, he does not dare to guarantee that when he fights with the Japanese in the dark, the Chinese will not pounce and take a bite, and the troops of the independent division are opponents on the battlefield, fighting a hateful enemy, and he does not expect the Chinese to be kind."

In front is a solid defensive line guarded by hundreds of thousands of Japanese troops, lying in front, behind are more than 300,000 Chinese soldiers, with ill intentions and tiger eyes, the Outer Xing'anling Front Army is sandwiched in the middle, the front wolf and the tiger, that is not easy to provoke, General Kilganin is worried, single-minded, wary of front and back, feeling emaciated, Zhukov's troops are in danger again, waiting for themselves to lend a hand, but the current situation, can they quickly reach the Far Eastern battlefield?

Although it was not only the situation of the Trans-Khinganling Front, but also the Soviet Baikal Front, which had encountered a lot of troubles, although it had not yet fought with the Japanese blocking troops because of its relatively slow action, the independent division troops hanging behind not far away made the commander General Gregarif feel uncomfortable as if he was on his back.

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