Saiyinshanda, located more than 800 kilometers south of Kulen, is the only gateway to the Inner Mongolia region of China in Outer Mongolia, there is a railway and a highway to communicate with Kulen, and it is also the only area that the Soviet army has not occupied at present, from Seyinshanda to the south, is the border city of Erenhot in Inner Mongolia, the distance between the two, less than 300 kilometers, the commander of the Soviet Outer Mongolian Front in Kulen, Vasilevsky, the next target of action, must be Seyinshanda.

The problem in front of Tang Qiuli was to make a decision to stick to Saiyinshanda, keep the Soviet army out of the gate of Saiyinshanda, and fight several battles with the Soviet army in Saiyinshanda to curb the Soviet army's continued southward movement.

In the face of the Soviet army's attack, the Soviet army abandoned Seyinshanda and continued to retreat and retreated to the border line, but from the Seyinshan to Erenhot, there is only less than 300 kilometers away, and the maneuver space of the battle is extremely small, and the Soviet army will occupy the Seyinshanda area, and it will take a few days to deploy troops along the border line.

Faced with the two choices, Tang Qiuli was quite hesitant, repeatedly weighing the pros and cons, and it was difficult to make a decision for a while, from the bottom of his heart, the situation in the Far East was about to undergo serious changes, and Tang Qiuli was unwilling to confront more than one million Soviet troops at such a moment, there was no need for this.

But the strategic maneuver space in the southern region of Outer Mongolia is so large, if the strategic space is sufficient, Tang Qiuli will definitely keep retreating, luring the Soviet army to continue to go deeper, and when the time comes, once the Germans make a move, it will be too late to turn back.

I racked my brains and thought about it for two days. Tang Qiuli was still hesitating, unable to make up his mind to choose a combat method, during this period, he also consulted the deputy division commander Liu Tiehan's opinion, Liu Tiehan's answer was very simple, "Division commander, from the south of Kulun, there is only a line of Saiyin Shanda." It can be used as a line of defense to block the Soviet army, if it is abandoned, it may not be known whether the Soviet army will enter the Inner Mongolia region, therefore. My opinion is that Seyinsanda must be kept! Liu Tiehan in the telegram. So said.

Chief of Staff Zhao Yuhe's Jianyì. is another way of thinking, "Division commander, our strength in Outer Mongolia is only more than 200,000 people, and the Soviet army, although there is only one Outer Mongolian front. There are also more than a million troops, and there is a huge disparity in strength, our weapons and equipment, the combat effectiveness of the troops. It can make up for some of the shortcomings, but it cannot change the disadvantage of the comparison of the enemy's forces. ”

"On the front line of Seyinshanda, blocking the Soviet army, the troops will definitely pay a great price for casualties, if we stick to the Seyinshanda defense line, the Soviet army will definitely not be able to move an inch, but are the casualties we can afford?"

"Didn't you say that in another ten days, the Soviet Union and Germany will inevitably go to war, my personal opinion is that we try to avoid hard resistance with the superior Soviet army, and deal with it, ten days will soon pass, don't you also warn the troops, do not confront the Soviet army head-on."

"However, if the division commander misjudged and the Germans did not attack the Soviet Union on time, and more than one million Soviet troops Chen soldiers bordered the border, next, our troops in the Outer Mongolia region will be in a very difficult situation, from this point of view, Seyinshanda must be defended!" Zhao Yuhe said with a rare half-joking, of course he didn't doubt the judgment of the division commander, but felt that after ten days, Su De would start a war, which was a little unbelievable!

Tang Qiuli also smiled, although he knew that Hitler would definitely attack the Soviet Union, whether it was the history in the memory brought by later generations, or the real world, there was no reason why the homework he had done to Hitler should not happen, this major event that shocked the world, changed the final result of World War II, and the new pattern of the world after the war.

There is no doubt that Hitler will definitely make a move against the Soviet Union, but there is an accident in everything, if Hitler postpones the attack on the Soviet Union, even if it is delayed for half a month, it will have a heavy impact on the situation in Outer Mongolia, not that Hitler did not want to fight, but that he was not prepared enough and had to postpone it, which was not what Hitler wanted, but he had to do so.

Among them, the most obvious is the war of the Soviet army against the Japanese Kwantung Army, there is no doubt that in about a month of transmission, the Japanese Kwantung Army will definitely not be able to withstand the attack of more than 4 million Soviet troops, and the only way to retreat is to spit out the Far East of the Soviet Union and retreat to the hinterland of the Northeast.

The Soviet troops that had defeated the Kwantung Army had enough troops to attack the Northeast, and if they drew out the strength of a front army to participate in the attack on themselves, I am afraid that they would have to mobilize all the troops in the north to be able to contend with the Soviet Army.

After careful weighing, Tang Qiuli finally made up his mind to stick to the front line of Saiyin Shanda and block the Soviet army from continuing to move south, making this determination is undoubtedly a heavy decision for Tang Qiuli, which means that the troops used to attack the Japanese Kwantung Army will consume a large part of it in the battle with the Soviet army, and they have to do it as a last resort, which can explain Tang Qiuli's mood at the moment.

Tang Qiuli walked back to the headquarters located in the city of Saiyin Shanda, and said to the chief of staff, Zhao Yuhe: "Yuhe, record the following order, Feng Jiwu's Niangziguan garrison corps, leaving four brigades of troops, commanded by the corps commander Feng Jiwu, to hold the Jinzhou defense line in western Liaoning, and the rest of the troops, under the command of Chief of Staff Zhang Hansheng, immediately rushed to Saiyin Shanda in Outer Mongolia, and the battle sequence was assigned to the command of the directly subordinate corps. ”

"Sun Zhenbang's Outer Mongolia Field Corps immediately went to the Saiyinshanda area to participate in the operation against the Soviet army, and the above two divisions must arrive at the designated position as quickly as possible and wait for the next order from the division headquarters!"

Zhao Yuhe said with a calm face: "Division commander, you are going to have a big fight with the Soviet army in Saiyin Shanda!" ”

Tang Qiuli smiled and said: "It's not that I want to fight, but Vasilevsky refuses to give up, it won't take three days, the vanguard of the Soviet army will be under the city of Seyinshanda, if possible, I don't want to fight this battle, the two corps plus most of the Niangziguan garrison corps, more than 700,000 troops, enough to compete with the Soviet Outer Mongolian Front, Yuhe, and then send a telegram to Liu Cuigang, the Northern Flying Group, participate in the Battle of Seyinshanda, Batel immediately commanded the armored forces in the Pingjin area, Go to Seyin Shanda, since you want to fight, take out all your family funds! ”

On the steppes of Inner Mongolia in winter, the noise boiled, and on the highways and dirt roads of the grasslands, you can see everywhere the convoys and infantry marching columns of the independent division's troops rushing in, and from time to time in the sky, you can see the fighters and bombers of the formations, rumbling by, and landing at the field airfields around Erenhot.

According to Tang Qiuli's judgment, Vasilevsky's vanguard troops, in no more than three days, will arrive at the foot of the city of Seyinshanda, that is, the beginning of the battle.

However, on 3 April, the Soviet army still did not make any moves, and the reconnaissance unit sent out to send back the information, the content was basically the same: "Our reconnaissance detachment has arrived at the periphery of Kulun, and after reconnaissance, it has been found that the Soviet army has not shown any signs of moving south, but is resting at the current station!" ”

Tang Qiuli was confused, he couldn't figure it out, what was Vasilevsky doing, why had he not taken action after five days, and what was he waiting for?

On the battlefield in southern Outer Mongolia, there was an abnormal silence, the Soviet army was holding its ground in the Kulen area, and Tang Qiuli was waiting for the front line of Saiyinshanda, but the battle did not happen as expected.

But in the Far East, there were fireworks everywhere, flesh and blood flew everywhere, and gunpowder smoke was everywhere.

On 31 March, the Soviet Union Baikal Front arrived at the Chita front line and joined up with the Soviet Outer Khingan Mountains Front that had arrived in advance, and then the troops were divided into two routes to form the Eastern Attack Group.

Four hours later, when Senior General Minamijiro, commander-in-chief of the Japanese Kwantung Army, was hurriedly mobilizing troops and arranging for a counterattack against the attack from the flank, four hours later, General Zhukov commanded more than 2 million troops of the Soviet Far Eastern Front to launch an offensive on the entire front of the Japanese Kwantung Army, which had been confronted for two years, and more than 1.8 million troops of the Japanese Kwantung Army immediately fell into the dangerous situation of attacking on three fronts and being attacked by the enemy on their backs.

General Minamijiro, commander-in-chief of the Kwantung Army, this time is really in a hurry, more than 4.5 million Soviet troops, attacking from three directions, the pressure on themselves, is not ordinarily large, if there is no external reinforcements, the Kwantung Army will not be able to hold out for a week on the front line of the Outer Khingan Mountains, this is still without being cut off by the Soviet army to retreat to Manchuria, if the Soviet army divides its troops all the way and goes straight to Khabarovsk, even if the Kwantung Army wants to return to Manchuria, it will not be able to do it.

In the face of 2 million Soviet troops, with the well-trained Kwantung Army and the bushido spirit of the Imperial soldiers who are not afraid of death, General Minamijiro is fearless and confident that he will win the battle, if the Soviet army has about 3 million troops, with his own command ability, the elite of the Kwantung Army, General Minamijiro will also dare to face the battle, blocking the Soviet army north of the Outer Khingan Mountains, and it will be difficult to move an inch.

However, in the face of more than 4.5 million Soviet troops, the soldiers were divided into three routes, and the tide was coming, and the comparison of troops had more than doubled, and no matter how good General Minamijiro's command art was, it could not make up for the disadvantage in troops, so an urgent telegram from the General Headquarters of the Kwantung Army flew to the Japanese mainland in a hurry.

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