Chapter 115: The clear sky in Vladivostok

Artem, the command post of the Eastern Front rear.

This place is about 30 kilometers northeast of Vladivostok city, about 15 kilometers away from the first main defense line of the e-E Army. New field airports and airship tethering facilities are built nearby.

On the watchtower of Artem Town Office, a general with a pretty female appearance but full of military vitality was standing, holding a black high-power binocular, observing the frequent take-off and landing of planes and airships around the airport.

"Commander Liu, I'm so interested, I ran here to see the plane."

The speaker had just revealed half of his body from under the ladder, with a thin melon-shaped face, plus the sharp-shot eyes and medium-sized figure, and a slightly Sichuan accent in his speech. He was General Wang Zhi, the chief of staff of the Eastern Front Army.

The person who was called "Commander Liu" was of course General Liu Bailiang, the commander of the Eastern Front Army. At this time, he put down his telescope and smiled a self-deprecatingly on the corner of his mouth: "It's not a big deal. He just wanted to relax. Seeing those things flying around, he felt that he was going to float away from the ground and soar in the sky with them."

Wang Zhi stepped onto the floor of the watchtower, and his shiny black leather boots rubbed unconsciously on the guard wall, and his understanding eyes flew towards Liu Bailiang.

"Is it very depressed? I'll smash the Pacific Fleet before June 1st. Otherwise, I'm also very worried about it if you ask - Duke Wuwei's death order, but I think it's time to make up my mind. Even if you fill it with flesh and blood, you have to fill the fortress in front of me - the Chief of Staff told me that this is what Duke Wuwei said."

Liu Bailiang turned his back, held the guardrail wall of the watchtower with his hands back, and shook his eyes slightly, "I also want to complete the task earlier, but the casualties are getting worse and worse, and morale is getting worse. Some companies and even teams collectively disobey and are unwilling to continue to launch an attack. Can I eliminate the disobedient troops? The Bushido spirit on the Japanese side has also been exerted to the end, and war-weariness spreads everywhere, and disobedience and violent incidents against officers are on the rise one after another. It is impossible to continue to attack strongly under such circumstances."

Wang Zhi pulled out a bag of Had Gate and handed it to Liu Bailiang two of them: "Don't worry, I will definitely succeed this time. The surrounding area of ​​Mount Kimir has been blown up so badly. We will work harder to continue the central breakthrough, rush through this ridge, and occupy their defensive core Trudovoye, and the entire first defense line will naturally collapse."

Liu Bailiang took the cigarette, clamped one on his ear, and held the other in his mouth for Wang Zhi to lit it.

Liu Bailiang doesn’t smoke often, so he has to smoke more than two shots.

The smoke blurred Liu Bailiang's expression.

"That's right, but there is still a line of defense behind it. Even if you successfully break through the first line of defense, you must immediately repair the road, lay a small railway, move heavy artillery and build heavy artillery positions, launch frontier battles, dig parallel trenches and extend traffic trenches in front of enemy fortresses, these actions will take a lot of time..."

"I will resume the general offensive in the past two days. If you want to attack continuously, the opponent will not receive any supplementary reinforcements and cannot withstand the consumption at all. I think the opponent's morale is not much better now."

Liu Bailiang blew up the ashes, ashes were like smoke, and smoke was like ashes.

"Anyway, I have to do my best to complete the task. I understand the reason very well, but I feel a little depressed, so I come up and check the plane. It's okay now, let's hold a combat meeting."

"yes."

On the arched roof of the lookout stand, the sky was as clear as a whole piece of clear blue crystal.

With the Slavic town of Artem as the background, a large "strong cloud" attack airship with a length of more than 200 meters dragged its huge body, painted with dazzling golden dragons, through the air, oppressing the already devastated ridges in the south.

Vladivostok (Vladivostok), Fortress Defense Zone Command.

Since the Pacific Fleet failed to break through in early winter last year, the Far East Governor Alekseyev, who attempted to take the opportunity to run back to his hometown but had to flee back to Vladivostok, has never taken a step out of the Governor's Office. The military and political power of the fortress defense zone was replaced by Lieutenant General Stexel, the commander of the Far East First Army.

It was April 5th. The weather was terrifyingly clear. More than ten large and medium-sized airships attacked the Vladivostok military port in succession. Dozens of other aircraft bombed and swept the city. The newly repaired armored warships "Dawn" were severely damaged by heavy bombs from Chinese airships. The armored warships "Letvizhan" and "Victory" were damaged to varying degrees. The gunboats of the "Ruby" were sunk. More than 200 naval and army officers and hundreds of civilians died in the bombing, and the city's houses and facilities were seriously damaged.

It was already night now, and Stexel got out of the basement of his narrow command and ordered the senior generals of the Army and Navy to meet for a meeting.

At a moment, the generals rushed to the headquarters one after another.

Major General Witgeft, the commander of the Pacific Fleet, arrived at the earliest, and sat there in a slump waiting for others. He hurried in the cellar of the Fleet Command throughout the day, and did not dare or did not want to see the scene of his fleet being slaughtered by the opponent's perverted aerial weapons.

Stexel's chief of staff, Rees, then arrived. He was a "smart like a fox" guy who was very good at paying attention to the chief's intentions and handled everything in an orderly manner, which made Stexel feel satisfied.

Major General Contrachenko, the commander of the land defense line on the fortress, strode in with dust on his face. He spent the whole day inspecting the middle section of the first defense line centered on Mount Kimir. During this period, he was bombarded by heavy artillery of the coalition forces. Two of the ten guards and guards were killed and three injured. Fortunately, Contrachenko himself was safe and sound. However, on Contrachenko's face, the serious expression of ice seemed to show that his soul could not accommodate toxins such as fear and cowardice.

Accompanying Kantrachenko was Lieutenant General Zarubayev, the commander of the middle section of the first defense line. He almost died in the sudden burst of fire, and he still looked in a terrifying look.

Next came Lieutenant General Fuke, the commander of the Western Defense Zone, was very tall, strong and slightly obese, with a black beard, and his lips were smooth. His two small green eyes were shining in his eyebrow hair with sparse and slightly red eyeliner, showing a bit of cunning. His unrestrained luxury was long known to everyone. Even at the most critical moment of the first two general attacks of the Chinese army, he never gave up the habit of having two exquisite meals a day and spending half an hour to taste afternoon tea. It is no secret that the most beautiful prostitute in the city often went in and out of his official residence, which was this Fuke. When the second general attack of the coalition army reached its climax in mid-March, he made a suggestion of surrender to Stexel without any shame. Now his face was still filled with the vulgar happiness after enjoying the delicious meal.

Major General Bowlerman, the commander of the eastern section defense zone, walked in with concern. The defense facilities he was responsible for seemed the weakest compared to the other two defense zones. Although it was more favorable in terms of terrain, he was once in a dangerous situation of collapse under the crazy repeated attacks of the Japanese army.

The last one to arrive was Major General Bere, the artillery commander of the fortress defense zone. This was a neat, gray-haired and combed little old man. His face was very thin, but he had big rabbit-like ears. His low long nose was covered with a grey beard with a trimmed gray beard. His two slightly thick lips were slightly forward, but his chin was closed back. He always had a diligent smile floating on the corners of his mouth. At first glance, he looked a bit like an alcoholic, but he rarely drank, which was really rare among the e-Chinese people who advocated liquorism. In fact, many officers secretly thought he was

He is a "Yinyang Man". Many people have also witnessed Bere's wife Nadasha frequently entering and leaving the residence of Fok's "this male dog with a sexual desire". The legend that he lost his sexual function due to an artillery accident in a certain exercise is not empty and wind... Despite this, Berere, who is extremely strong in military appearance, always dressed neatly, did things in a straightforward manner, paid attention to order in everything, and was always serious in front of his subordinates. In addition, his deep professional artillery knowledge has enabled him to gain universal respect and obedience in the fortress artillery units.

At the beginning of the meeting, the fleet commander Witgeft first informed the decision of the meeting of the entire fleet captains.

"...We unanimously agree that the squadron no longer has the conditions for breaking through the entire siege, and most people are also negative about the possibility of dispersing the breakthrough. Therefore, the meeting decided to start today to use all the personnel of the squadron, naval guns and bullets, to support the land front, and ships will directly shell the enemy's positions from the port or with small teams from the sea, and continue to lay out mines in the sea areas where the enemy blocked ships, and send destroyers to reconnaise and attack small enemy ships at any time."

"We intend to dismantle a total of 130 artillery pieces, including six-inch secondary guns, and hand them over to the land defense line, and draw some crew members from the warships to operate these artillery. We are also preparing to draw personnel from the officers and soldiers of each ship and the shore facilities to form a land combat company, so as to be ready to go to various parts of the land defense line at any time."

"We will also send our school's 'fire' personnel to the front line to correct the bombardment of our warship's naval guns on enemy land positions..."

Stexel of course welcomes this: "...Thanks to the fleet for its full help. With your support, we can use more powerful forces to deal with the evil East Asian yellow dogs. The latest news shows that the main force of the Second Pacific Squadron has sailed to the Gulf of Guinea. In addition to the time of mooring and resting and training, the squadron should be able to sail to the South China Sea in three months. At that time, as long as the powerful Second Squadron defeats the East Asian Joint Fleet, the enemy's siege on us will naturally be lifted. We must persist... It is related to the honor of Russian soldiers and the territorial integrity of the motherland. I hope everyone will work together, and history will give us the due evaluation - the heroic and victorious Vladivostok defense battle!"

Chief of Staff Reis quickly applauded, but the applause followed was sparse, as if he was booing.

The commander of the land defense line of the fortress, Kantrachenko, pressed his hand on the table and glanced at Reis disdainfully: "The situation on the land defense line is already very critical. We must mobilize all our forces to fight the increasingly fierce attacks of the enemy. Since the fortress was surrounded in mid-October last year, our garrison troops have died and disappeared one after another. More than 10,000 seriously injured people were unable to return to the battlefield... What's more serious is that the enemy has occupied some dead ends of artillery fire in front of the main fortress of the first main defense line. Parallel trenches and traffic trenches are being dug in large quantities, and attempts to extend tunnels below the fortress. Although our army has noticed and launched anti-tunnel operations, if we are not careful, the enemy will exploit loopholes... The power of the enemy's heavy artillery should not be underestimated. Today, the enemy shelled our position on Mount Kimir. General Zarubayev and I have witnessed the huge destructive power of heavy artillery shells..."

"It turns out that General Contrachenko would be afraid too."

The commander of the Western Defense Zone, Fok, spoke with a thorn in his words.

Contrachenko was not outdone: "Is General Fok hiding in the official residence to accompany women at the most tense time of the war, is it a brave way to express himself?"

Fok's beard shook: "What did you say?"

Contrachenko raised his chin: "I understand in my heart, what do I do? I don't have time to record boring trivial matters other than combat."

"Enough, now is not the time to attack each other, everyone should work together..."

Stexel shook his hand in the air, his tone seemed very tired. For several months, he had been vigorously supporting the land battlefield of the entire coastal area. At first, he believed that domestic reinforcements would arrive soon. However, with the fall of Hailanpao and Bolizhu fortress, the Amur River Basin was completely shattered by the Chinese army, and the Onen River frequently lost. Stexel's confidence continued to fall rapidly to the bottom of a black hole.

Recently, the Chinese aircraft dispersed flyers, claiming that the main force of the Russian Far East Army was destroyed from the front line of the Onen River to Yinda River, and at least 150,000 people became prisoners. Stexel only thought it was a deceptive propaganda to destroy the morale of his own army, and ordered the gendarmerie to collect and destroy these flyers. However, the fortress has been surrounded for nearly half a year. Although the country repeatedly claimed that it had sent a large number of troops to the Far East and achieved a "glorious victory", it has not yet explained where the reinforcements were driven. Stexel subconsciously felt that probably could not wait for reinforcements on land before the fortress was exhausted. Now Stexel's only hope is on the Second Pacific Fleet. Hold on for another three months, and when the Second Pacific Fleet arrives, everything will end decently - in fact, this is also the beautiful expectation of most e-army officers and soldiers at present.

After calming down the slight friction between Contrachenko and Fok, Stexel cleared his throat and spoke out his thoughts.

"As we all know, the situation is very serious now. The enemy has been 'enforcing' to the front of the main fortresses of the first main defense line, and has started extensive tunnel operations. The first main defense line gathers our most complete fortification group and most technical weapons, and is the most important link in the fortress land defense circle. Without the first main defense line, although we can retreat to the second main defense line, in this way, the fortress is in a very dangerous situation. The second main defense line is one.

If we lose, we will only have the city wall. We no longer have the manpower and material resources to build the third line of defense. Therefore, defending the first main line of defense is our current central problem. I think that under the current situation, continuing to defend will only be waiting for death. We should use the reserve team to launch a full-line counterattack on the enemy. At the critical moment, we must regain the frontier positions of each fortress, drive the enemy far away from the dead end of the fortress artillery fire, and break the enemy's attempt to dig tunnels and blast the fortress."

Contrachenko immediately stated: "I agree with the commander's idea. We cannot continue to sit and wait for death. We must use the reserve team to drive the enemy out of the foot of the mountain."

But Fuke shook his head repeatedly: "I think that given the enemy's troops are far superior in firepower, the first main defense line will be broken sooner or later, and counterattack is just a strategy of rights and interests. The reclaimed position will soon be taken away by the enemy again. The result of such repeated battles can only be to continuously consume our few reserve teams, which will bring difficulties to continue to stick to the fortress in the future."

Stexel glanced at Fok unhappily: "So what good is there for you?"

"I think that we should secretly withdraw the troops and artillery to the second line of defense with a shorter front of the defense while the enemy has not launched a large-scale attack. This will enhance the firepower density of the defense line and strengthen the saved troops to the reserve team. In addition, since the second main line of defense is close to the military port, it is also convenient for naval naval guns to support land operations."

Fortress artillery commander Bere immediately asked this question: "I'm afraid this is difficult to achieve. The enemy's aerial weapons closely monitor our positions during the day, and at night the enemy often sends small teams to carry out night attacks. Even if we can take advantage of the night to withdraw some of the troops and light artillery to the second line of defense, many large and medium-caliber artillery placed in various forts and forts cannot be transferred overnight. Moreover, we cannot predict what time and place the enemy will launch an attack of what scale. If we encounter large-scale attacks from the enemy during the retreat, the situation may be uncontrollable..."

Lieutenant General Zarubayev, the commander of the middle defense zone, agreed with distracted heart: "I agree with General Belei's view. On the one hand, technically, the enemy is too close to us, and it is difficult for a large-scale retreat to avoid being noticed by the other side; on the other hand, giving up the position that he has been holding for a long time without fighting will have a negative impact on the morale of the officers and soldiers..."

"Come on the counterattack quickly. The only fortress in our defense zone will be flooded by those short Japanese who scream at any time..."

The commander of the Eastern Defense Zone, Bowlerman, was obviously stimulated by some kind of scene.

Of course Reis would not forget to flatter the commander: "I think the commander's wise decision is our only choice at present. It turns out that there is no better way to solve the problem except for launching a counterattack."

Stexel was very helpful to Reis, and ignored Fok and followed everyone's comments: "Since it is so unfeasible to retreat to the second main defense line, then start preparing for a counterattack now. General Contrachenko, you can command the counterattack matters in detail and formulate a combat plan with Reis. General Berene commanded the fortress artillery on the defense line, and obeyed General Contrachenko's orders with the commanders of each defense zone. This battle is of great importance. General Contrachenko can arbitrarily dispatch any army unit you think is necessary to use. In addition, please prepare General Vitgeft's fleet so that he can be sent to the depths of Peter the Great Bay to support land operations at any time..."

Stexel made a rough arrangement and left the matter to Contrachenko with full responsibility.

But Contrachenko put forward the conditions: "Commander, I not only need troops, but I also want you to authorize me to call the materials and craftsmen of the armoured arbitrary places."

Stexel was stunned for a moment: "Why?"

Contrachenko curled his lips to Bere: "General Berere told me that his conventional artillery placed in the forts and forts were too large, especially those deployed on the high slopes of the ridge. The enemy was useless as soon as he rushed to the foot of the mountain. The front line urgently needed a trench mortar with large 'fire angles, high ballistics, lightweight' and large shells. We had seized mortars that met this requirement in the hands of the enemy, also known as 'mortars', but due to the lack of combined shells, these weapons could not work. A few days ago, Berere and I found Major Goberia of the Ordnance Repair Institute and explained my thoughts to him. He decided to give it a try and then use 47 millimeters.

The barrel of the Mid-Ship gun was installed on a wheeled gun mount and made several sample guns to demonstrate to us. The super-caliber shell made of small mines has a fifty to four hundred meters and is very useful for defense warfare. I plan to produce this weapon in large quantities, which can be used for defense and short-term counterattacks. In addition, the 75-kg mine-spraying and firing device made by the Navy Ordnance Repair is very useful. The front line welcomes this powerful defensive weapon, which has been widely called a 'thunder cannon'. We hope to get more similar weapons and more mines. Many officers and soldiers believe that even without the lightning cannon, rolling the mines directly from the steep slope can achieve a good effect..."

Stexel nodded repeatedly: "I understand, I agree, and I hope the Navy can cooperate with General Contrachenko in this regard."

"In addition, I hope that an artillery commander can be appointed for each section of the defense zone, which can better adapt to the needs of operations."

"Very good, just arrange it according to your opinion."

Stexel is now obedient to Contrachenko. In this period of depression, there is a talented person who enjoys his worries, which is not a bad thing.

The meeting was chaired by Contrachenko, and the discussion on the counterattack soon entered the details stage.

The counterattack will start from dusk, with fortress artillery bombardment, and bombard the enemy's parallel trenches near their fortresses, and then launch an attack to drive the enemy out of the trenches.

The focus of the counterattack was on the area of ​​Mount Kimir. General Zarubayev, the commander of the middle defense zone, would use the defenders of 42 companies and the reserves of 35 companies to attack the Chinese army entrenched on the hillside of Mount Kimir to the foot of the mountain.

The western and eastern section defense zones will also launch counterattacks of varying sizes.

Finally, the time for a full-line counterattack was set to three days later, that is, April 8th.

After the meeting, everyone walked out of Stexel's official residence.

Contrachenko looked up at the sky and sighed in a low voice: "What a bright sky..."
Chapter completed!