Li Xiao stepped off the airship, and when his feet stepped on the ground, his body was crooked.

The sky was overcast, and the snow particles blown by the strong wind hurt on the face.

Strangely, when these snow particles fall to the ground, they turn into water, or ice-water mixture.

The ground is full of water, and it is soft as if it were spring. Not far away, is the fast-flowing Dnieper.

I don't believe that I killed Li Xiao, this is actually Russia in November.

Water with ice in it, ice with water in it. The mud-covered ground enveloped the shiny leather shoes in an instant.

Li Xiao shook his head helplessly, and a thunderous sound came from the distance.

Extensive military experience told him that it was the sound of shells exploding. At least one hundred and five mm guns!

The battalion artillery of the Ming Dynasty is the artillery of this caliber. This thing can perform most of the battalion-level tactical tasks.

Smolensk, a fortress built purely for military purposes.

The Dnieper River made a big bend here, and Smolensk was stuck in the middle of this bend.

It was also decided that only by capturing Smolensk could the Dnieper be successfully crossed.

And only by crossing the Dnieper can you attack Moscow.

For a whole week, the coalition forces attacked the city as if they were crazy.

The Norwegians, the Danes, the Swedes, the Prussians attacked in turn. It is said that wild dogs are tired of eating the carcasses in the city.

Groups of recruits, walking on swampy roads towards Smolensk.

From time to time, there are smoking tractors, rumbling across mud-laden roads.

"At the forefront is the Temporary Ninth Division, and the division commander is Geng Jingzhong." Li Dingguo stood beside Li Xiao and reported to Li Xiao on the battle of Smolensk.

Li Dingguo is now the commander of the Second Army of the Ming Expeditionary Force, responsible for directing the entire defensive operations on the northern front.

Geng Jingzhong and Heiyunlong's cavalry fled back from Minsk, and after supplementation, they were formed into the Temporary Ninth Division.

As the name suggests, this is a temporarily organized unit.

"Geng Jingzhong?

was beaten very badly in Guangxi, do you rest assured to hand over Smolensk to him? Li Xiao glanced back at Li Dingguo.

Li Dingguo swallowed a mouthful of saliva, he also knew how badly Geng Jingzhong had been defeated in Guangxi at the beginning.

But there was no way, he and the Black Cloud Dragon retreated to Smolensk. They were the biggest force in Smolensk, and at that time Li Dingguo was still waiting in Zhangwu to get on the train.

For nearly a month, Geng Jingzhong and his men were the only defense force in Smolensk.

Especially after the Black Cloud Dragon was wounded and evacuated, the defense of Smolensk could only count on him to be loyal.

When the time came to test his character, Li Dingguo took a deep breath.

"Geng Jingzhong fought well, the coalition forces have been attacking frantically in Smolensk for eleven days.

The strength of the coalition army is more than five times that of Geng Jingzhong.

Even so, Geng Jingzhong still held Smolensk with his men. Although it was ......, it was occupied by the coalition forces, but it was also more difficult for the coalition artillery to play a role. ”

"You mean to say that Geng Jingzhong fought well?"

"Dashuai, Geng Jingzhong didn't play well in Guangxi.

But here, he's really doing a good job. Even if it is a subordinate to command defensive operations, the best case scenario is the way it is now. ”

"What about troop casualties?" Li Xiao has always paid great attention to casualties.

His motto is: Minimum sacrifice, maximum victory.

“……！” Li Dingguo was afraid that Li Xiao would ask this.

Now Smolensk can be called a meat grinder, and the eleven days of siege have been filled with 15,000 additional troops.

In Smolensk City, how many people are left now, Geng Jingzhong may not have counted.

"What's wrong? The report says that 20,000 men have been added to you, but you are still asking for reinforcements.

The soldiers in the rear are not able to blow bubbles out.

From conscription to training, it takes three months.

The soldiers of the Xi'an Recruit Training Center have almost all been deployed to you. ”

"Handsome!

The battle of Smolensk was also fought like this.

The 20,000 people who were added have already been allocated to Geng Jingzhong 15,000 people. Now, it's almost gone.

However, they have eliminated at least twice as many coalition forces.

If you want to blame, blame the lowly duty. Li Dingguo's heart was crossed, and at this time he could only stand on his side.

"Fifteen thousand people, you will be defeated in eleven days?" Li Xiao's eyes widened, he thought that the battle of Smolensk would be cruel, but he did not think that it would be cruel to such an extent.

"Ten days, ten days, it's gone.

Now, I've filled in the last 5,000 men. Li Dingguo actually has the face to correct it.

"Loser!" Li Xiao gritted his teeth in anger.

Some people say that soldiers should die, but soldiers are not fools. Their lives are fate, they may not be good-looking, they may have one kind or another.

But they are people, not chopping wood!

The general can't use the soldiers as chopping wood!

"Marshal, in the city of Smolensk, there are battles all the time.

The artillery fire was useless, and both sides had to rely on machine guns, grenades, and mortars to fight.

The place was full of landmines, and one accidentally either lost his foot or his leg.

Many times, our soldiers had to fight hand-to-hand with the tall coalition soldiers.

Marshal, if we don't have a pistol, we will suffer a lot in white-knuckle combat.

On such a battlefield, you can survive more than two days to be a veteran.

If you can survive for three days, you can be a squad leader, you can be a platoon commander in five days, and you can live from the beginning of the battle to today, and the worst is a company commander.

Handsome!

It's not that we're ruthless!

Because we do not want to let the enemy cross the Dnieper, to block the enemy troops in Smolensk until at least mid-November, this is the order of you and the General Staff.

Geng Jingzhong tried his best, and he vomited blood three times in ten days.

Handsome!

If there is a way, who will send the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty into the meat grinder. Those are all our Ming people! ”

When it came to the end, Li Dingguo was already crying.

Li Xiao took a deep breath, and although he couldn't smell anything, he still felt the smell of blood coming to his face.

Although Ci is not in charge of the army and does not gather wealth, Li Xiao always wants to bring as many soldiers home as possible.

That's what he did when he ran to Phi Island with a group of people.

He never thought that he would order batch after batch of Ming soldiers to die.

Smolensk is the place of death, a meat grinder similar to Verdun.

In that battle, more than 600,000 people were killed and wounded on both sides.

Li Xiao didn't have so many lives to fill in Smolensk, and he didn't want to fill it in.

One will become famous!

Li Xiao has become famous, but he has never thought of letting his subordinates wither.

In the distance, several airships are wreaking havoc over Smolensk.

There were constant explosions, and even though they were very far away, Li Xiao felt the tremors of the earth.

It's a thousand-kilogram bomb, the kind that explodes like a mushroom cloud.

Daming did not have large-caliber anti-aircraft guns, and the ground forces had no way to take airships with high-altitude bombs.

You can only bite the bullet!

That thing, it can easily kill dozens or even hundreds of people.

Every time the ground trembled, Li Xiao's heart fell a little.

The soldiers of the Ming Dynasty are really smelted in iron and blood now.

But they are still recruits who have only been in the army for a few months.

In the face of such a battlefield, no one retreated, and no one fled.

It is enough to see that the morale of the Ming warriors is high.

The original intention of the General Staff was to hold out in Smolensk until mid-November.

By the time the coalition forces continue their offensive, it will be early December.

By then, the ground must have frozen. The Dnieper will also freeze, and this is the time to give full play to the advantages of armored forces.

Man Ye took the northern route, and Ao Ye took the southern route.

Two armored armies, in a pincer offensive. Directly encircled the coalition forces of the Northern Front on the outskirts of Moscow in the freezing weather.

The Russian December winds, are a nightmare for any five supply troops.

Napoleon, the Prussian army, and the Wehrmacht suffered heavy losses in this bitter cold.

But Li Xiao didn't expect that the coalition army would be so iron-headed and slammed into Smolensk.

"How many people are there in the city?" Li Xiao asked, looking at the troops that were constantly walking towards Smolensk.

"Eight thousand at most, or less. The current defense is centered on the bank building.

That position changes hands once or twice a day. Inside and out, it was strewn with the corpses of us and the enemy. ”

Li Dingguo was talking when he suddenly saw a Stuka coming out of the dark clouds.

The black-winged Stuka resembles a raging falcon.

It swooped down on the airship that kept dropping bombs, and the scorching bullets fired from the plane seemed to be two flames made up of a long whip.

The airship that was hit first burst into a huge firelight, then burned into a large fireball, and quickly fell to the ground.

One!

Two ships!

Three ......!

Da Ming's fighters, like predatory eagles, shot down those coalition airships to the ground one by one.

"Well done! Give credit to that pilot! ”

This kind of weather is not suitable for aircraft to take off and land, but it does not have such a big impact on the huge airship.

The pilot, however, took a risk.

"No!" Li Dingguo hurriedly bowed down and agreed.

"Inform Geng Jingzhong that the evacuation will begin at midnight today.

Be sure to organize well and not leave a single fighter behind. ”

"Dashuai!" Li Dingguo's eyes widened, he didn't expect that after holding on for so long and paying such a big price, Li Xiao changed the order of the General Staff with a word.

"Go for it!

Even if the battle is fought in the Russian capital, it is really nothing.

The lives of the Ming warriors are not so bad.

They are all young, they are the backbone and hope of the future of this country, and the future of the Ming Empire depends on them. ”

After Li Xiao finished speaking, he turned around and got on the airship.

Li Dingguo watched the airship rise into the air, solemnly raised his right hand and saluted.

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