ps: These chapters seem dull, but they are the foreplay of the big ** that comes later, and they must be explained, so you are a little patient.

Seishiro Itagaki has never been entangled with a strong negative emotion all day long, like in the past half month, and cannot eat or sleep. Opening his eyes is an irritating messy situation, and dreaming of a horrible scene of defeat and the collapse of the empire.

He lay on the combat situation chart in the front headquarters all day long, thinking hard to find a way to break the deadlock, but after a few days and nights passed, his eyes were so bloody and red as if the Rabbit Master, and his eyebrows were half white, but he was still as helpless as Kenji Doihara, who was temporarily the chief of staff.

The unprecedented formation that Zhukov put forward made it useless for Seishiro Itagaki's military theory for most of his life. His fierce, decisive, wild, rude but extremely effective strategy almost destroyed the offensive routines that the Kwantung Army had planned for many years from the root. Now, he must be freed from the passive situation as soon as possible and find the most advantageous way to turn the situation around, otherwise his lifelong dream will be shattered, and his military career will end here.

The late spring rain poured out the window, and occasionally a muffled thunder rolled across the sky, which made Itagaki Seishiro's forehead wrinkle a deeper. He raised his eyes worriedly and looked at the ancient hexagonal lattice glass window, and lamented in his heart: "Does even heaven want to see the rise of the Japanese Empire, but he wants to create so many troubles to stop us from moving forward?"

Kenji Doihara looked even worse than him, and his skin was as loose as a Shapi dog's face and neck. The skin was almost impossible to hang on and off. The deep bags in his eyes could hold a jujube. He had been used to looking at people from a low place for many years in intelligence work, which made the light emitted from his squinting eyes even more and more cold.

In the last war, Seishiro Itagaki at least retained most of his troops to withdraw from the pass, and the entire division he led was almost lost, which directly led to him being unable to serve as division commander or front commander. If there is no special record, he will never stand out in the army.

If he is withdrawn into the reserve and eats all over and waits to die, he is worse than to have a septum. In any case, he can't afford to lose this time.

Unfortunately, God does not follow people's wishes. Several consecutive accidents, the pressure from the base camp, the cabinet and the emperor is unprecedentedly great, and the support obtained by the Kwantung Army is also unprecedented. When they should have achieved great results, they suddenly killed more than 200 precious chariots and more than 100 fighter jets. Such losses have made many people unable to sleep with pain.

Especially now, a heavy rain filled the battlefield without warning, turning the deserted plateau hills into dangerous places full of mud and traps. On both sides of the Halaha River, large pits that can trap tanks and tanks are everywhere, and the speed of reinforcements and troops has been greatly reduced. Compared with the Soviet Union, which can directly transmit thousands of miles through railways, the speed is three times slower!

Kenji Doihara could even imagine what a bad look the next battle would be. Japanese soldiers have never encountered such a thing before. What should I do?

Sitting in the Sleeping City, the General Staff of the Kanto Army did not have a good solution. The stoic general of Ishihara Kan's name is said to be crazy, and for the sake of the present, he can only rely on his own strength!

Seishiro Itagaki withdrew his gaze from outside the window, read the telegram in his hand carefully again from beginning to end, looked at Doihara for a long time for more than ten seconds, and spread his five fingers and gently pressed it on the table: "That's all, let's do it!"

On the night of April 22, the 4th Japanese Division suddenly broke through the border from Manzhouli. With the strong military force of a chariot corps and a mechanized infantry corps as the vanguard, it took less than 2 hours to completely occupy the area. Then it sent a gang infantry to continue attacking the Soviet Union along the railway line. The main force turned west overnight and went straight to the transit station on the Russian major transportation route of the Russian army. By the early morning, the vanguard troops had already appeared in front of the Soviet defense line stationed here. After only the supply was repaired, they launched a fierce attack!

At the same time, on the south side of the Halaha River, most of the Japanese 2nd Division decisively abandoned the heavy medium-distance chariots, and used only a small number of semi-track trucks and Toyota trucks that could run in muddy terrain to send the elite troops of a whole regiment for 100 kilometers. Then, these strong soldiers, filled with weapons and ammunition, faced the wind and rain, stepped on mud, and rushed to the south side of the Soviet encirclement at dawn!

More than a month after the war broke out, the Japanese army finally sent all the four carefully prepared divisions to the battlefield, causing a total of 100,000 troops to accumulate along the Halaha River!

In the early morning of April 23, when the infantry corps in Manzhouli fired the first shot across the Sino-Soviet border, the two major offensive forces in the north and south decisively launched a decisive and forcibly attacked. The light troops advanced rapidly and suddenly attacked, catching the Soviet army, which was seriously insufficient in preparation, off guard!

First, the northern transportation supply line was determined by the Japanese armored forces. No Soviet reinforcements could be smoothly advanced on the front, which was 50 kilometers wide. Two crucial transportation lines in the southeast were cut off, and then the mechanized troops began to advance south along the highway, reaching the base camp of the Soviet-Mongolian army in the Nomenkan War Zone - Kluren!

This is a desperate gambling! The Japanese army's mechanized equipment has fatal shortcomings in engines and performance. Even the most powerful Type 97 medium chariot, its poor 240 horsepower, carries more than 18 tons of shells, and the theoretical action distance is only 210 kilometers. With combat and detours, it is already the limit to running from Manzhouli to Ukrtu!

Logistical supply is far from keeping up, and we cannot expect other armored troops to follow up. It can be said that if the Soviet army had made accurate judgments and prepared in advance, the consumption could also consume this force on the vast Mongolian Plateau. Armored vehicles without fuel and ammunition were simply iron coffins!

The 4th Division attack troops carried all the materials that could be obtained and could only support a smooth attack. If you were to stay in stalemate for more than one day and you could not grab the fuel, these precious chariots would have to settle down!

The 2nd Division on the southern line is also not much better. Because of the huge impact caused by the rain, without the support of heavy artillery and chariots, and even the air force cannot provide assistance, it is hard to say how dangerous it is to fight against the Soviet tanks and cannons. And what's so bad is that the muddy roads also make it difficult for them to get supplies and reinforcements. Once the sneak attack is not successful, it is impossible for both legs to run past the Soviet and Mongolian army's cavalry and armored soldiers. The consequences are... unimaginable.

It's no wonder that Seishiro Itagaki and Doihara would consider it for so long and have made up their minds for so much difficulty, because once the decision is made, these two divisions will become meat buns that can beat dogs and will not be able to come back! At that time, except for self-destruction and apologies, they will have no face to face the questioning of the Chinese people and the military!

The raids of the two divisions even determined the success or failure of the northward combat plan. Life and death are here!

Perhaps their prayers really touched the great god Amaterasu who was squatting in which plane, or the eight hundred gods of Takahara. In short, at 10 o'clock the next morning, the telegram from Gao Jie from the two divisions reached the headquarters. The two lieutenant generals who stood for a whole night without any seats could not help but burst into tears. Then they found that their legs were already tired and could not take a step, and they collapsed on the chair shakingly.

After Kluren and Zhukov ordered the removal of two brigade commanders who made serious mistakes one after another, they frowned and stood in front of the sand table without saying a word for a long time. Even the anxious calls of Soviet artillery commander Voronov, armored soldiers commander Pavlov, and acting air force commander Borjikin did not respond to the anxious calls, and asked the generals who personally sent the weapons troops to the front line and inspected the combat situation to jump straight away!

The trouble is so big! The troops of more than 50,000 people were surrounded in a huge battlefield space of 100 kilometers wide, and faced the harsh situation of attacking from three sides. What's worse is that the serious lack of qualified middle and lower-level officers caused by the Great Purge. The grassroots troops who had generally weakened their fighting will and beliefs were outrageously weak!

A brigade stationed in Rikultu had more than 30 cannons, more than 50 tanks, armored vehicles, and a large area of ​​fortifications to rely on, and only under the responsibility of alert and road protection tasks. It collapsed immediately after being raided by the Japanese army, with more than 60% of the casualties!

The brigade commander who escaped was not shot, was already a blessing from the law. What's so bad is that their mistakes directly exposed the important supply lines and flanks, and Cluron could be crushed by the rushing tanks at any time!

The southern line was even worse. They thought it was raining heavily, and all the surrounding soil pits became water bubble swamps. The Japanese troops could not drive them at all, and the alert was very unrestrained. However, they did not expect that the Japanese would be so tenacious, using only light weapons and a few heavy machine guns, 92 infantry artillery and mortars, grenade launchers, and a scale of thousands of people. They attacked the heavy artillery positions and flanks guarded by a brigade, and shot them in less than two hours!

The two lines suffered losses, soldiers alone lost more than 5,000 people, more than 60 cannons were lost, more than 80 tanks and armored vehicles were destroyed, and tens of thousands of tons of trucks and ammunition and medicine were worth more than the total consumed by the Japanese army in the previous month!

Now, the Japanese army can fully lay up the captured cannons on the ground and fire from behind the Soviet-Meng Army's defense line. It's really a fight, and I don't know how big it will be!

Zhukov saw all the anxious expressions of the three generals, but did not give any explanation or rescue. He knew very well how bad the combat effectiveness of these troops under his command were. If it weren't for his commanding ability and nearly unlimited supply of heavy weapons, the battle would have been a mess and would have never had the chance to turn the tables!
Chapter completed!