Chapter 195: Killing the Bear! Encircling thousands of miles! (Twenty-two)

The relative calm on the front between Acheng and Saicheng lasted only less than twenty-four hours.

Early in the morning of August 6, after the sparse and short preparation of artillery fire, the bitter-faced e-soldier soldiers once again entered this or that wilderness covered with silences of human and horses, walking between the ruthless artillery fire and bullets with their thin and fragile flesh and blood.

This was not Brusilov's original intention, however, he could not disobey the command of the base camp.

His Majesty, who was personally the Supreme Commander, severely rebuked his request for the suspension of the war the day before, and ordered him to "must carry out this great battle that determines the fate of the Eastern Front to the end as planned", otherwise "I do not mind that another more loyal and responsible general will take over your command."

Between the shame of dismissal and the fate of the officers and soldiers under his command, Brusilov made a choice that was no different from most generals with full self-esteem.

The so-called success of a general is to achieve success and thousands of bones are undone. However, many times, even if all the bones are undone, the success may not be achieved.

The loss of e-army air supremacy allowed the defenders of Acheng to receive airdrops in time for ammunition and supplies. On August 5 alone, the Chinese air transport troops dropped nearly 100 tons of various materials into the encirclement and transported more than 100 seriously injured people in small aircraft shifts.

On August 6th, the Second Air Group of China's Army dispatched more than 100 light and heavy bombers in succession, focusing on raiding the e-army airports, artillery positions and logistics stations around Acheng, destroying more than ten enemy planes on the ground, injuring dozens of heavy artillery gates, including train guns, and blowing up hundreds of locomotives and train wands, further weakening the opponent's continuous combat capabilities. More than 200 fighter jets and reconnaissance attack aircraft were dispatched, and some carried small bombs were carried out to perform air closure missions, finding and firing the e-army columns in the march. It effectively disturbed the e-army's combat deployment.

Under the continuous and dense artillery fire of the defenders, the e-army offensive forces lacked air support and artillery fire support, and even failed to obtain timely reinforcements from the follow-up troops either crossing the corpses in front of the Chinese army's front, or died in vain under the machine gun shooting of the rear supervision team. After paying the high price of more than 5,000 casualties, the only commendable result of the e-army was to seize a narrow protrusion of 500 meters in front and 300 meters in depth on the north defense line...

On that day, the e-E Army 53 Group Army, which was forced to resume attacking the defense line west of Saicheng.

It was also backlashed by the elite armored troops of the Chinese army for the first time: the 40 "Iron Leopard" chariots of the 1st Chariot Battalion of the 2nd Brigade of the Imperial Guard Armored Cavalry, with the support of 18 self-propelled artillery guns of the brigade, suddenly attacked in the Chagan area, intercepting from the side attempt to bypass the Chagan defense line and detour to the south of the city of Saicheng (at this time only 40% of the armored vehicles were left) and the 15th Cavalry Division. The two sides launched the most intense armored battle in the entire Hejian battle. The thin-skin armored cars of the e-armor were vulnerable in front of the 57mm medium-speed artillery of the "Iron Leopard", while the 30-mm thick and tilted 30-degree front main armor was enough to withstand the most powerful 47mm low-speed artillery fire attack on the e-armor armored vehicles.

During the "one-sided target shooting" that lasted for an hour, most of the e-E Army was wiped out, and 37 armored vehicles and three chariots were destroyed. Six armored vehicles, two chariots were abandoned, nearly 100 trucks, more than 30 artillery pieces, and nearly 1,000 officers and soldiers were captured. The Chinese army lost only three chariots, one self-propelled artillery piece, four people were killed and five injured.

The black smoke rising from the south of Chagan declared the destruction of the last armored assault force of the e-army.

Both sides were defeated, and Brusilov had no choice but to do anything. On this day, the vanguard of the Krasnoyarsk Group advanced westward and the cavalry reconnaissance team of the 18th Army heading north successfully met at the city of Krasnoyarsk. It was guarded by only three second-rate infantry divisions. The city with weak defense facilities was already in danger!

On August 7th, Brusilov's most worried thing finally happened.

On this day, with the continuous support of hundreds of combat aircraft, General Lu Kaiping's armored army, which was strengthened, deployed seven armored brigades, six cavalry brigades, five infantry divisions, two mixed infantry brigades and one infantry regiment on the front of the attack of 100 kilometers, with a total of 200,000 men, 600 cannons and self-propelled artillery, more than 700 chariots and armored vehicles, and more than 3,000 semi-track transport vehicles and trucks, which are "the only mobile synthetic corps on the earth that has unparalleled combat power."

The day before, Lu Kaiping received an order from Commander Liang Tianhe: "The entire army attacked in three groups. Quickly defeat and annihilate the enemy's heavy army group around Acheng..."

According to the commander's order, Lu Kaiping divided the entire army into three left, middle and right assault troops, with the left assault troops as the main attack. He detoured from the west of Acheng and blocked the subway railway line to Barnaur, and blocked the main force of the e-armor in the triangle between the Alei River and the Obi River. To this end, the left assault troops gathered most of the combat vehicles and other motor vehicles in the army, including the new 1st Brigade of the Imperial Guard Armored Cavalry, the 3rd and 9th Brigades of the Imperial Guards - the equipment level and personnel quality are the highest in the empire. It also directly under the jurisdiction of the 15th Brigade. It has an armored 6th Army (the 18th, 19th, 20th Brigades), the 5th Army (the 5th, 8th, 9th Brigades), and the 4th Army (the 8th and 9th Divisions of the Imperial Guards).

The right assault troops directly under the 13th and 16th Armored Brigades (each lacks a chariot battalion), the 16th and 27th Cavalry Brigades, and the new 23rd Infantry Division were tasked with detours from the east of Acheng and intercepting the e-army's way to cross the Alei River to escape east.

The central assault force used the 6th Army (the 11th and 13th Divisions) from the Fifth Army as the foundation to strengthen the newly launched 95th Infantry Regiment. The main task was to restrain the main force of the e-army from the south of Acheng and create conditions for the roundabout encirclement of the left and right assault forces.
Chapter completed!