Chapter 211: Reversal! Churchill's Tears (Sixth)

On June 23, 1916, the day after the Chinese army's "bear slaughter" offensive began, the railway town of Mias on the eastern foot of the Ural Mountain had already turned into ruins in yesterday's artillery fire. A convertible "shanma" tactical off-road vehicle broke out from the broken eaves and walls, and suddenly stopped in front of a tent full of iron wires on its top.

Wang Zhi, wearing a short-brimmed bear and military casual clothes, jumped out of the car with only one guard, and walked into the tent with a big stroll. He saw Zhao Minhe at the map table. Before he could get up and salute, he asked, "Why are you still here? Where are your troops?"

Zhao Minhe looked tired and stood attentive, saying, "Report to the commander, the enemy secretly withdrew from the position last night, and the Throstan line 15 kilometers west of this place was re-arranged. Our vanguard has advanced to the front of the enemy and is waiting for artillery to follow up."

Wang Zhi frowned: "What are you waiting for? Just hit me tightly, don't give the enemy a chance to breathe!"

"Sir, our army will pay a lot without artillery support."

"Then you can find a way for me. Chu Qing has attacked Mount Yurma in the north, and Zhao Feixue in the south has also taken Ustinovo. You are good, and you haven't even touched the side of the main defense line. If this continues, Chu Qing and Zhao Feixue's flanks will be exposed to the enemy. The entire offensive may collapse - can you afford this responsibility?"

Zhao Minhe endured his grievances and defended as calmly as possible: "Sir, my central army has the longest front line and faces the most enemies. His troops only have one more division than the other two armies, but he still took down Mias half a day in advance. However, the units fought overnight, with scattered and chaotic, and poor supply. If the artillery support is lost, forcibly attacking will make the enemy realize the weakness of our army and have an adverse impact on the general combat intention of our army."

Wang Zhi raised his chin unhappily: "What do you want?"

"Now there are two and a half days left before the attack on Throstel. The artillery will be redeployed tonight. Please allow our army to attack Throstel with all its strength tomorrow."

Wang Zhi didn't say anything after hearing this. He glanced at Zhao Minhe for a long time, then suddenly sighed and patted him on the shoulder.

"Am I too strict with you?"

"Sir..."

Zhao Minhe was stunned and didn't know how to respond for a moment.

Wang Zhi smiled bitterly: "Why can't I know your difficulties? But who knows the difficulties of me, the commander... Forget it, just do as you say, fight hard, and don't let the Maozi on the other side look at us."

Zhao Minhe hurriedly saluted: "Yes! Thank you for understanding, sir!"

"I'll contact those dogs from Luhang tonight to see if they can send more planes tomorrow... Alas, I'm crying everywhere, and the landlords can only eat bran."

Wang Zhi shook his head and walked out with his hands on his back. Zhao Minhe led a group of small staff members who had not yet woken up to the tent, standing attentively saluting, until the "sweat" cart disappeared at the end of the smoke and dust that was gone...

35 kilometers west of Mias, the main peak of Kruglica Mountain on the north side of the Zlatoust Passage. From here, you can not only clearly overlook the Southern Ural Railway passing through the pass, but also vaguely identify the Chinese marching column between Mias and Serostan from the high-power telescope.

Contrachenko put down his telescope and turned to Lieutenant General Hoflin, the commander of the 51st Army beside him: "Mias gave up too early, just hold on for another day."

Hoflin had no choice but to spread his hands: "Last night, the enemy had surrounded Mias on three sides. If he continued to hold on, the defenders would be surrounded and annihilated today."

Contrachenkorn said, and thought it would not be pursued.

"How long can Throstine stay?"

Hoflin hesitated for a while and replied reluctantly: "Two days at most."

Contrachenko changed his magnanimous look this time: "If not, withdraw, don't force it, preserve your strength for the guardian of the main defense line - how did you fight yesterday?"

"The enemy's offensive was still fierce, with a considerable number of tanks and aircraft support, and poisonous gas bombs were fired in some areas. However, compared with a front line of defense, it was a bit of a big deal. It actually used three whole divisions to attack the front line of our army's three regiments...."

"It seems that the enemy is in a hurry. They don't want to waste time on outposts, so they can invest excessive forces and weapons." Chief of staff Colonel Tukhanov keenly grabbed the key points.

"Why are they in a hurry? We are not running away." Hoflin was puzzled.

Tukhanov shook his head: "This is not clear, but since they want to hurry up, we should delay them in turn."

"How to delay? Block them in front of the main defense?"

"No, that will quickly consume our troops. It is best to let them attack our main defense line as soon as possible. According to the report of the 27th Army stationed at Mount Yurma, the two enemy divisions quickly seized the front stronghold of Kalabash, but they quickly used up their energy in the subsequent attack on the main position of Mount Yurma. By noon today, the attack had completely stopped."

Hoflin blinked, making him even more suspicious: "Since that's the case, we shouldn't have allowed us to defend those outposts from the beginning. Yesterday's battle had costed more than half of my two regiments, and the other regiment was also destroyed by two battalions. Isn't the sacrifice of these thousands of people in vain?"

Tukhanov seemed helpless: "Without these outposts, we would not be able to "get" the scale and strength of the enemy's attack, and their sacrifice was worth it."

Hoflin was obviously not satisfied with Tukhanov's cold answer, but could not refute it, so he could only sigh in disappointment: "I hope so..."

"Report! Call from Moscow Base Camp!"

Tukhanov turned around and saw a young lieutenant with goggles hanging on his military cap being busy taking out documents from his bag, his face covered in dust, and a motorcycle was lying not far away.

"Lt. Vasilevsky, what good news is there to see if you are anxious?"

"Sir, I can't watch it according to regulations."

The lieutenant handed the message to Tukhanov very quickly.

"Yeah, let me see..."

Tukhanov opened the seal and browsed it quickly. The god's color suddenly became nervous, turned around and presented the telegram to Contrachenko.

After reading the telegram, Contrachenko shook his head and smiled: "I don't know what kind of wind this Nakasze has blown to the base camp. As soon as the battle started, I came to steal my honey."

Hoflin was unforgiving: "The old bear who only fiddled with strange toys? What did he want to steal from us?"

Tukhanov shrugged: "What else can be there? The only armored brigade we have, plus two cavalry divisions."

"He already has two tank brigades, an armored brigade and five cavalry divisions. He is still here to ask us for it. We also need armored brigades and cavalry - God knows where the Chinese will get behind us."

Tukhanov handed the telegram in his hand to Hofflin: "The telegram does not require us to hand over these troops today. In fact, it is too late today. It will take at least three days for the troops to assemble and load them. During this period, we have time to bargain with the base camp."

Contrachenko sang half a cigarette with his back and shook his head, "Nakasize's desire for these troops must have his own reason. We should not make things difficult for him, but the situation here is still unclear. It is better to do this: Let's send an armored car battalion and a cavalry regiment stationed in Ufa to Orenburg first, and then decide whether or when to send the remaining troops according to the development of the situation."

Tukhanov clapped his hands: "It's better for the commander to think carefully, just use this meaning to reply to the base camp, how about it?"

"That's it."

Contrachenko nodded and raised the telescope again.

Tukhanov turned around and waved to Huasilevsky who was waiting by the motorcycle: "Lieutenant, come here with paper and pen, and prepare for recording."

...

At dusk, 50 kilometers east of Orenburg, Viazovka, a small village on the north bank of the Ural River, Liang Tianhe, wearing a full marshal's uniform, stood next to his "shanma" carriage with his back, silently staring at the six pontoon bridges upstream.

These pontoon bridges were built overnight by more than 80% of the engineering troops of the entire front army. Each pontoon bridge was enough to pass through the 20-ton "Iron Leopard" chariot. From 8 o'clock in the morning, General Lu Kaiping's assault cluster, General Yan Meng's right-wing cluster and Lieutenant General Wang Tao's cover cluster began to cross the river one after another. There were six elite infantry divisions, eight cavalry brigades, six armored brigades and a brigade-level armored cavalry detachment, and an army of 200,000 people were still slowly crossing the river at this time.

The wheels rolled on the bridge, the horse's hooves stepped on, and the steps were rushing. The marching column that could not be seen at a glance was like a tributary forked from the Ural River, connecting the Asia continent on the south bank with the Europa field on the north bank.

"After crossing the bridge, it's Europe."

An unknown pride surged in Liang Tianhe's heart.

However, before he could find a way to express this emotion, General Yan Canglong, the chief of staff who had just received the message from a motorcyclist, walked quickly to him.

"News are coming from Lu Kaiping."

Liang Tianhe quickly packed up his interrupted thoughts, turned around and nodded: "What's going on?"

Yan Canglong submitted a message and briefly stated: "The advance detachment of the assault cluster arrived at the south bank of the Oren River opposite Sakmara at about 3 pm. He was violently bombarded by the north bank and retreated. The first echelon of the main force of the cluster is expected to advance to the predetermined crossing point at night."

Liang Tianhe took the message and glanced at it and handed it back.

"What do you think?"

Yan Canglong read the telegram again and looked up and said, "It seems that there is no big problem. According to the plan, the mobile engineer troops assigned to the assault cluster will start to build a floating bridge tonight. Tomorrow morning, the assault cluster will cross the Oren River in one breath, and there will be nothing else that can stop the iron flow of our army's armor."

Liangtianhe looked at the north bank from afar, and his eyes were "difficult".

"I also hope everything goes so well, but I always feel that the enemy seems to be ready this time, and we will come from the right after we have calculated it."

"How do you say this?" Yan Canglong was confused for a moment.

"Think about it, in the past, the enemy would always fight back against our bridgehead, or try to encircle my deep assault troops from the side and back. This time, it was so... cooperation, don't you think it's a bit strange?"
Chapter completed!