July 15th. Kazakh steppe.

The northern cluster was divided into two routes into the Kazakh region. All the way out of Alashankou along the Sino-Russian trade railway, all the way to occupy Akdouka and Semiy in the Alash Autonomous Republic, and then pushed all the way west along the Russian-Argentine border.

The other road is the Tongguò-Ita railway (Yining to Tashkent) from the Ili River, first sent 1 division along the railway line to occupy Almaty and other lost territories east of Lake Balkhash in the late Qing Dynasty, and then continued to advance, detached a division to occupy Tashkent, and then the main force pushed all the way to the west.

The Autonomous Republic of Arash is a new State that was established only in November last year. At that time, the White Guards, feudal aristocrats, religious elites and bourgeois national intellectuals in the Kazakh region took advantage of the collapse of the Tsarist Russian Empire and the great chaos between the Red and White to declare independence in Orenburg. The territorial extent of Arash is roughly the same as that of "poster" Kazakhstan, including the three yuz of the Kazakh region, as well as Nogai, Karakali Pak, and part of the Kyrgyz region.

However, the gang did not have long to be complacent, and in January of this year the Red Army crossed the Volga. The combat effectiveness of these guys is even more scum than that of the White Army, where do the magnates dare to stay in Orenburg, they are still very self-aware, knowing that if they fall into the hands of the Red Army, they will be forced to kill the whole family. So these people ran away with oil on the soles of their feet, moved thousands of miles, and moved their capital to Semiy, that is, Semipalatinsk, in East Kazakhstan, in an attempt to obtain the protection of White Russia.

But the White Russians did not like them either, although they seemed to be pro-Belarusian, but that was only in relation to the Red Russia, which did not share the sky. If they really support White Russia, will they still pull the pole for independence? The White Russian government did not have the slightest favorable impression of this kind of two-faced and three-pronged people, so after reaching an agreement with China, it sold these people backhandedly.

On the afternoon of the day of the war, these people were killed by the 113th Division that carried out the "decapitation operation", and all the old and young became prisoners of the People's Liberation Army. Yes, the city, located on the banks of the Irtysh, did not hold even a day.

Yes, the old man Zhao Erfeng actually played an extremely bold "air jump" operation, and took out the capital and high-level of Arash one day after the start of the war. When he was thinking about the battle plan earlier, he found that Semiy, the capital of the Arash Autonomous Republic, was only 450 kilometers away from the Sino-Russian border in a straight line, and such a close distance was completely within the strike range of air power.

So Lao Zhao opened his mind and came up with a plan to use the giant airship to perform the "air jump" tactic and carry out the "decapitation operation" on Semiyi. It is not surprising that he can come up with this method, because he is the first general in the world to enjoy airship services in his own plane, and as early as when he entered Tibet to quell the chaos, he received the airship transportation service of Xingke Group, and at that time, President Wen had not rebelled. Moreover, the PLA also used airships to transport troops many times later, and there was no problem at all in terms of technology. His idea was soon further analyzed and refined by the General Staff, and soon a bold "decapitation operation" was released.

In the early morning of the day of the Northern Cluster attack, 12 Whale-class super-giant airships and 26 Snake-class giant airships carried all the supplies and ammunition of the 113th Division that could be used for one month, as well as 300 tons of aviation gasoline, machine gun bullets, radio stations, and other air force supplies, and flew across the border to a pre-selected location 40 kilometers southeast of Semiy.

This place was determined by the intelligence department in advance, and there is relatively dry and hard flat land, far away from the personnel area. It is about 420 kilometers from the Sino-Russian border and is a four-hour flight by airship. The airship group set off just five hours before dawn, and 38 huge airships, escorted by the fighters of the two groups, crossed the border in a mighty way.

After dawn, the airships, under the guidance of the intelligence officers who had infiltrated Kazakhstan in advance, landed at their selected locations, unloaded the infantry and supplies of the 113th Division, and sent a telegram to inform the rear that the airborne landing had been successful. And immediately began to tidy up the ground, lay signal boards and build temporary towers, and set up temporary field air bases. Three hours later, 160 planes (80 fighters, 40 attack planes, and 40 attack planes) of four brigades of the Army Air Force arrived at the base.

Piston aircraft, especially light aircraft, of this era did not take off and land at a high speed, as long as they were not too soft on turf, so it was easy to build field airfields. If it was a jet in the future, it wouldn't be able to play like that.

In addition, the Kazakh region is vast and sparsely populated, with an area of more than 2.7 million square kilometers, but the population is less than 5 million, most of whom are concentrated in cities, and the distance between cities is also very long. At the same time, Arash's forces were extremely weak, most of the main forces were in the west to guard against the Red Russians, and the remaining local garrisons were either not in the cities, or they were assembled at several border junctions, and the hinterland was very empty. Therefore, if you choose a good location, this forward base is very safe.

And at this time, except for China, no other power has radar, let alone a small country like Arash. As long as the airships are allowed to avoid the city on the route, and perhaps even the airship brigade crosses the border and establishes a forward base in its hinterland, Arash is still in the dark.

The carrying capacity of the Whale-class airship is 240 tons, the carrying capacity of the Snake-class airship is 150 tons, and the 12 Whale-class and 26 Snake-class can transport 6,780 tons of materials at a time. Of course, armored divisions, mechanized divisions, and other units with too much heavy equipment will not work.

This time, in order to carry out the "air jumping" tactic, the 113th Division, a light infantry division, was specially selected. At 9 a.m., a reinforced battalion of the division's vanguard struck Seminia, 40 kilometres away, in 50 vehicles, while the rest of the troops also advanced at a rapid pace. At 10:30 a.m., the Pioneer Battalion arrived at Semiyi, and before the attack, 120 planes of the Army Air Force stepped on the spot, and they first carried out air strikes on the defenders of the city.

Although the Arash authorities also knew that Belarus had sold the entire Kazakh package to China, and they were very nervous for a while, China did not move afterwards, so they took the opportunity to transfer a large number of troops to the border, and the defense of the capital was very empty. After receiving the news that the Chinese army had begun to attack in the early hours of this morning, the upper echelons of Arash panicked. On the one hand, they mobilized troops to support the defenders on the border, on the other hand, they sent personnel to negotiate with China, and on the other hand, they were preparing to run away.

Yes, they themselves know very well that they will never be able to stop China on their own, anyway, this country is just a product of playing tickets, where is it worth taking their own lives, it is strange if they don't run. The heads and brains are busy packing up and running away, the defense of the capital, then naturally haha......

When the 113th Division attacked, Arash was taken by surprise, and in their minds, the Chinese army should still be on the border, no matter how fast it is, it will never be possible to hit the door now. Then, they were taken away by a litter, and none of them ran away.

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And the fighting on the border is also good, Arash this country has only a dozen planes to support the façade, and there is a lack of anti-aircraft artillery, Chinese fighters here are more comfortable than exercises, and before the army can come up, the defenders of Arash were blown up and scattered. They even ran faster than the train, and the northern cluster followed them all the way to receive the territory, which was like an armed parade, and those who really couldn't run away were also very single, and directly surrendered to the Chinese.

By July 6, the entire former Qing lost territory east of Lake Balkhash had been recovered, during which there were less than ten ground battles, the largest of which was a Kazakh cavalry regiment, which encountered the armored reconnaissance battalion of Wu Peifu's 122nd Division.

The officers and men of the armored reconnaissance battalion were stunned for a moment, and then they were overjoyed. Under the fire of hundreds of machine guns and more than 20 machine guns, the fate of the more than 1,000 cavalry who launched the charge was completely conceivable, and the battle ended in 15 minutes. This brave cavalry regiment was completely annihilated, and only 2 seriously wounded were left of the more than 1,300 people in the entire cavalry regiment, and the rest were all turned into meat sieves, and the brave regiment commander could not even find the corpse. And their opponents have zero casualties.

By 10 July, the entire southern and eastern parts of the Kazakh region and Tashkent had fallen into Chinese hands, and dozens of divisions and brigades of the northern cluster were raging and aggressive in the vast Kazakh steppe, especially those armored divisions, mechanized infantry divisions, and motorized infantry divisions, which were even more suffocating and rushing forward.

Although they spent very little time on the battle, the Kazakh steppes were so large that they spent much more time on the march. Later, Lao Zhao was inspired by his own decapitation operation, so he repeated his old trick and continued to use this "air jumping" tactic in the hinterland of the Kazakh region. "Aerial jumping" was also used in three places: Astana in northern Kazakhstan, Rzhezikazgan in central Kazakhstan, and Alar on the Aral Sea. Three forward bases were set up in one go, three divisions and a mixed brigade were sent to the Kazakh hinterland, and the three bases were not idle, they also attacked outside. Under this tactic of full flowering, the pace of occupation was greatly accelerated.

By 15 July, the entire area east of Mount Mugojar had been liberated by the PLA.

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July 16, Orenburg, command of the Central Asian Front of the Russian Red Army.

"The speed of the Chinese is too fast! The troops in our rear have not yet been reorganized! They already account for most of the Kazakh ......," Mikhail Frunze looked at the map with a gloomy face.

Upon learning of China's entry into Central Asia, Soviet Russia also reacted quickly. They soon mobilized fifteen divisions from the Caucasian and Ural fronts, formed the Central Asian Front, appointed Mikhail Frunze, a famous Red Army general, as commander, and entered Western Kazakhstan. Arash's army barely fought back in the face of the Red Army and fell to its knees after not resisting for several days. Subsequently, the Russian Red Army seized the European part of Arash, including their former capital, Orenburg.

Frunze also knew that the cards in his hand were not good, and he never thought of resisting the Chinese army and competing for the whole of Central Asia. He is just going to eat the West Kazakhs, and if the task is completed if the PLA is blocked in the area of the Emba River, even if the Emba River cannot be stopped, at least they must be blocked east of the Ural River.

But he did not expect that the speed of the PLA was so fast, his side was still cleaning up the counter-revolutionaries in Western Kazakhstan, and the Chinese had already hit Mount Mugojar, and at this time the Red Army did not even see the Emba River, and the fifteen divisions in the rear were still being reorganized.

Frunze gritted his teeth and said: "This will not work, if we wait until the rear troops complete the reorganization, the Chinese will be able to hit Orenburg! There is no time to arrange the Emba River defense line, we can only put the defense line in the area of the Uyr River, and the speed of building fortifications on the Ural River must also be strengthened, the Chinese are moving too fast, and there is not much time left for us!"

"Comrade Commander, I just received news that a vanguard of the Chinese has conquered Aktobe. At this time, the deputy chief of staff hurriedly came in with a telegram.

"What, the Chinese have already arrived in Akto?" everyone was shocked.

Aktobe is just 270 km southeast of Orenburg. At the current speed of the Chinese, I am afraid that it will be able to hit the city of Orenburg in three days. If you use the local railway, you can even reach Orenburg on the same day.

"You have to stop them as much as you can!"

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Aktobe.

The city was founded in 1874 and currently has a population of about 15,000 people, most of whom are Russian immigrants. Although the city is not large, the traffic is good, as early as 1901 the train from Tashkent to Orenburg passed here.

After the Russian Red Army took control of Orenburg, it also sent a regiment here as an outpost. However, before the regiment could establish a defense, it was beaten by a group of planes today, and then the armored vehicles of the brigade rushed into the city, and the regiment was annihilated before it could exert itself.

"Woo......" With a long whistle, a train slowly stopped at Aktobe station. It was a military train, with troop transporters in front of it and armored fighting vehicles with their muzzles high on the flatbed trucks in the back.

"Lao Maozi's railway is really stingy, it is actually built so narrow, if it is in China, one train can transport an entire armored regiment......" Wu Peifu complained dissatisfiedly as he watched the troops get off the train.

"Division commander, we were lucky enough to finally grab a few Russian-style locomotives at Tashkent station. Otherwise, our chariot will have to drive over by itself, and that will be enough to choke......" Wei Changsheng, the head of the first regiment, said with a smile.

The railway from Tashkent to Orenburg is a Russian gauge, which is too different from the Chinese gauge to be universal. China also has Russian-gauge trains, but they are all in the northeast, and they can't be transported in a short time. If you hadn't grabbed some Russian-style trains at Tashkent station, the railway would have been unusable.

At this time, a communications non-commissioned officer ran over: "Report, division commander." The main force of the 123rd Division marched towards Orenburg at 2 p.m., and now only the 21st Mixed Brigade remains......"

"What? He actually ran away!" Wu Peifu was stunned for a moment, and then scolded: "Grandma, this little Xu Zi is running too fast!"