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

The northwest of Port Vila is 13,000 kilometers northwest of Port Vila. In the ruins of the Ural Mountains, the King holding a telescope faces the expressionless, above the eagle eyebrows, between the short hair, and embellished with a slight gray.

From the front of the view, in the narrow valley leading to the Zlatoust Pass, accompanied by sporadic gunfire, the marching column of the Seventh Division seemed to be several long, dead green worms, stagnating among the sparse bushes on both sides of the railway, carrying several war horses from commanders or officers, but still could not awaken these sleeping worms.

On the left, on the steep slope towards the main peak of Zlatou Mountain, more than 10,000 infantrymen from the 10th Division spread far away like overturned beans, but had already stopped rolling. There was no smoke, no battle flags, and no bayonets. The infantry squatted behind broken rocks, crouched in shallow fox pits, and lay among broken tree trunks. Behind them, a team of mules were climbing up hard, a stretcher team was staggering down, and scattered officers or messengers were climbing up and down in vain.

On the right side, on the winding mountain road towards the main peak of Mount Kruglica, the battle flag of the 12th Division drooped lifelessly. In the coniferous forest at the foot of the mountain, like water droplets leaking between fingers, stretchers and wounded soldiers with rifles continued to gush out.

Today is June 25, the fourth day of the "Bear Slaughter" battle. After a morning of battle, Wang Zhi, the commander-in-chief of the Northern Front Army, saw with his own eyes the attacking area of ​​the middle lane cluster.

This is the case with the middle road, so what about the north and south roads?

Although Zhao Feixue's two divisions on the southern road captured the Russian outpost position in Ustinovo village as early as the 23rd, they had already begun to march towards the main position of the Kruglaya Mountains. After half a day of climbing, the two regiments of the 20th Division, with the support of twelve 75mm mountain artillery of two companies, attacked the Russian army at the core support point of the village of Arhan Gelstey. They fought fiercely until nightfall, and the attacking troops were exhausted and forced to retreat.

Early this morning, Zhao Feixue attacked Arhan Gelstey with two other regiments of the 20th Division, and one regiment of the 22nd Division deviated from the side and received air support from more than ten aircraft. However, only three hours after the attack began, the attacking troops withdrew from the battle due to insufficient ammunition and excessive casualties.

The two divisions of Chu Qing from the North Road even began to attack the Russian main position in Yurma Mountain as early as the 23rd. Due to the rapid advance of the North Road cluster and the dangerous terrain, the artillery and baggage teams failed to follow up in time. With the support of more than 20 aircraft, the attacking troops launched an attack with only human-carrying infantry weapons (including light mortars, flat-fired infantry artillery). Under the suppression of Russian machine guns and artillery fire, they exhausted their spirits in just one morning and were forced to retreat and dig trenches to wait for assistance.

After one day and two nights of rectification and supplementation, early on the 25th, Chu Qing constrained the Second Division head-on, and the 14th Division detoured from the north of the main peak of Yurma Mountain, trying to take down the main peak position in one fell swoop. However, the attacking troops of the 14th Division were attacked by Russian firepower when crossing a nearly mountain pass north of the main peak. The chief of staff of the Fourth Army led the team was killed, and more than half of the four mountain artillery companies were lost. Due to the exposure of the roundabout attack, and the difficulty of supply, the middle lane cluster also suspended its attack before noon.

"Commander, call from the base camp."

The person who appeared behind Wang Zhi with a telegram in his hand was nothing but General Xiang Lan, the chief of staff of the Front Army.

Wang Zhi turned around and glanced at him: "Why are you here? Didn't I let you guard the headquarters in the city?"

"Where is the commander, the commander is the command. Besides, there is no difference between the city and here. It is either a ruin or a dead horse. There are many more wounded soldiers these days."

While speaking, Xiang Lan had already submitted a telegram. Wang Zhi glanced at him and shook his head and smiled bitterly: "The runner-up in the middle is not good, but our northern army is going to be whipped. What kind of world is this?"

Xiang Lan sighed: "Commander Liang may not have been whipped. It's just that the base camp still has to urge and force it so much, even though it knows the difficulties of our Northern Army, it still has to urge it so much."

Wang Zhi sneered: "No matter how bragging, this battle cannot be fought. In a few days, tens of thousands of mules and horses were exhausted on the front line alone. Trucks that could still be on the road in the rear were only enough to transport rations. If you don't work hard on roads, planes, tanks, and heavy artillery, the infantry lacked food and bullets, and you still have to keep your face and attack the whole line. If you continue like this, you really can't figure out whether we have restrained the enemy or the enemy has restrained us... Maybe the old opponent of the Asian-Russian War on the opposite side has long regarded us as a joke."

"Commander, our army has actually completed the mission."

When Wang Zhi heard Xiang Lan's assertion, his eyes lit up.

He raised three fingers to Lan: "Even if the Russian army in front of him draws troops to reinforce Orenburg from today, it will take at least three days from assembly, loading, unloading to redeployment. Moreover, there is also bombing of our aviation troops and destruction of the spy forces, the actual time may take longer. According to the plan, the runner-up will only have three days left to complete the scheduled task. In this way, even if our army stops the offensive now, it will not put any pressure on the runner-up."

Wang Zhi narrowed his eyes and thought for a while, shook his head and sighed: "I'm afraid the base camp will have additional expectations for the runner-up... that guy Liang Tianhe will not give up easily."

Xiang Lan Danding analyzed: "According to the plan, the runner-up should have broken through the Oren River yesterday and captured the railway hub behind the enemy. But by noon today, it was still in the bridgehead. It seemed that the situation was not going well. If the deadlock was not broken tomorrow night, this battle would probably end here. Commander Liang's side did not have much surplus food. The runner-up's tired mules and horses were not less than us at all."

Wang Zhien said, and just nodded, he couldn't help but hesitate again, "But I had promised to the base camp to cooperate with all my strength. Now that I can't fight anymore, wouldn't that go back on my word? What will the emperor and the ministers think of me..."

“This is a problem…

Xiang Lan smacked her lips, hugged her arms and began to ponder. After only half a cigarette, a sudden enlightenment suddenly appeared.

"Commander, it's better to do this. You personally asked the base camp: Even if the runner-up successfully breaks through the Orenburg front, with the extremely harsh traffic conditions of the entire Russian front, the supply will inevitably fail to keep up in time due to supply, allowing the enemy's heavy army group to preserve most of its vital forces and have the opportunity to completely destroy the traffic facilities as before while retreating. Not only that, the rapidly elongated supply line will also further increase the logistics burden of the entire war zone, and thus reduce the combat efficiency of the front-line troops."

"What then?" Wang Zhi also became interested.

"Next, propose your own new plan: turn to defense across the board, make every effort to improve the traffic conditions in the rear, and use the premise of conducting large-scale breakthrough operations to supplement and train troops, adjust and improve equipment, reserve sufficient combat materials, and make comprehensive preparations to launch a full-line attack. This will make it possible to destroy the main force of the Russian army on the entire China-Russian front in one fell swoop before winter, and prompt Russia to surrender or collapse."

Wang Zhi blinked and seemed a little disappointed: "I have had this idea for a long time and I am angry with the people above in private, but the above just doesn't take this trick."

Xiang Lan smiled slightly, obviously leaving a hand.

"The most important thing is: you took the initiative to transfer the main force of the First Armored Army to the Central Runner-up. In exchange, the light infantry division with rich mountain combat experience in the Central Runner-up and other front-end army will be transferred to our Northern Army. In this way, the Central Runner-up's deep assault ability and our mountain offensive ability will be enhanced, which can be said to be the only one who can do it."

"In the future total assault, the Central Runner-up will quickly assault to Samara with two armored armies, cutting off the rear route of the Russian heavy army east of the Volga River. Our Northern Army will use the elite light infantry division as the vanguard and the main heavy infantry division as the backing, infiltrate and break through the enemy's Ural Mountain defense line, encircle with the Central Runner-up, divide and annihilate the entire Ural Mountain-Volga River-Ural River triangular zone with the Russian army."

After listening silently, Wang Zhi rubbed the scatter that had not been shaved for several days, squinted his eyes and sneered: "Give me a package to someone named Liang? Why not give me my life..."

He bowed and smiled at Lan and said, "It is useless to keep it, but it is a blessing to send it. Once this move is made, the emperor and all the ministers will treat the commander and the chief officer differently. Why would Commander Liang be grateful to the chief officer? From then on, there will be a good story in history forever."

Wang Zhi slapped his high-high: "It is worthy of being the first wise general of the six Little Tiger Generals. With you, the chief of staff, I have really saved a lot of trouble. Okay, you will write this message quickly. I will sign it after I finish writing it. You must send it out before dinner..."

Xiang Lan smiled bitterly in his heart: Why is it me again? You can write it yourself at least once.

Wang Zhi saw through Xiang Lan's thoughts at first sight, but he didn't say anything. He thought to himself: If I had written the article well and was nonsense, I would have been involved in the central government and issued orders. I'm still here to mess with you...

...

20 kilometers west of Throstan, the town of Zlatoust, the front headquarters of the Russian Ural Front.

"The situation is already very obvious. The main purpose of the enemy's offensive is not to break through our front line, but to restrain our army as much as possible, so that we have no time to reinforce friendly forces in Orenburg."

Facing Lieutenant General Hoflin, the commander of the 51st Army, holding the telegram in his hand, Colonel Tukhanov asserted without hesitation.

Admiral Contrachenko, the commander of the front army who was holding the map, looked helpless: "Even so, what else can we do? Yesterday, when I received the news that the enemy's raiding troops appeared in Sorochinsk, I loaded all the remaining parts of the 12th Armored Vehicle Brigade and the two cavalry divisions. The enemy had just suspended the attack, and no one could determine whether they would launch a new offensive. In this case, I could not send all available reserves to Orenburg immediately. We cannot take risks - for the Chinese, everything is possible."

Tukhanov grabbed the telegram from Hoflin's hand and lit it up: "But the order from the Moscow Base Camp..."

Hoflin wagged his head: "This is the first time we have discounted the orders from the base camp... Besides, hasn't Orenburg already held back?"

“Temporary.”

Tukhanov stressed.

“We are the same…”

Hoflin shrugged.

Tukhanov turned to Contrachenko angrily: "Even if it is a discount, at least one division must be taken out. Commander. If the Ural River front is lost, if we do not want to be cut off, we can only retreat obediently. The glorious history of our fight to fight the enemy here for four days will become worthless! The entire European and Russian hinterland will open the door to the enemy without any defense! Commander, I think this is definitely not what you want to see, right?"

Contrachenko suddenly frowned, and his raised fist almost hit the map table hard. However, the moment he touched the table, his fist loosened and his fingertips brushed across the long mountain range on the map that separated the Eurasian continent.

"Order the 24th Army to call out a division and transport it to Sorochinsk overnight, and transfer it to Volga Front Command, and telegraph Naqasize--execute it immediately!"
Chapter completed!