One second the two sides were evenly matched, and the next second it was a matter of life and death. Because they knew the technical level of Ivan Hinkel, when he and his golden eagle were blown up by Gao Changcun, all the Soviet pilots were shocked. arrive.
"Ivan, how is it possible?" Shetulev shouted, almost unable to believe his eyes. Yes, he and Ivan were competitors in the team, and because of this, he knew Ivan better than others. Wan's technical and tactical level, and he also knew that even though Ivan Hinkel always tried his best to slander the Golden Eagle in public, secretly, he invested far more time in the Golden Eagle than Ishi.
The death of Ivan Hinkel had a huge blow to the morale of the Soviet Russians. Seizing this opportunity, Gao Changcun once again issued a retreat order. Taking advantage of the moment when the Soviet pilots were only in shock, Lin Yongjian and the others finally had an escape. Opportunities for enemy planes. This time, Lin Yongjian and the others stopped being pretentious. They pulled up the fighter planes one after another, then turned their noses and flew directly to the east.
"If the Chinese want to escape, we must not let them go."
"Avenge Ivan, comrades, chase after me." Seeing that the Chinese were about to flee, the Soviets were no longer shocked. They shouted and chased after them one after another.
"Lin Yongjian, you go first, Zhang Han, Chang Yishui, Dai Lan, let's play with the Soviets." Among the Chinese surviving fighter planes, Lin Yongjian's Chinese Sturgeon is the slowest and the one most likely to be left behind by the Soviets. Upon seeing this, Gao Changcun changed his order and asked the other three surviving Golden Eagle pilots with higher tactical skills to join him in blocking the Soviet pursuit.
An air battle that Vatutin regarded as inevitable, ended up with more than half of the Chinese fighter planes escaping. When the news came back to Irkutsk, both Shevakovsky and Vatutin looked sad. Among them, Shevakovsky even scolded Ivan Hinkel as a man who cannot hold up the wall, making him the scapegoat for this failure.
A perfect ambush actually returned without success, which also made Vatutin more wary of the air power of the Chinese Far East Army. At this time, Kurtuk, because Vaka Mountain was captured by the Chinese army, the Seventh Army was actually in a Being surrounded, the survival of an army group was at stake, and Vatutin could no longer remain calm.
The special political system of Soviet Russia determines that the commander-in-chief of a front army such as Vatutin can certainly choose to abandon some defense areas or even troops due to tactical needs, but this definitely does not mean that he can sit back and watch a group army be completely annihilated by the enemy. If something like this really happened, no matter how much he had contributed to Soviet Russia, Stalin would definitely hold him accountable and even send him to a military court.
The person who reported the crisis of the Seventh Army to Vatutin was the pilot of a Soviet reconnaissance plane. Because the Chinese army implemented electronic signal shielding in Kurtuk, Lankovsky and Irkutsk had lost contact. In a state of war, it was abnormal to lose contact. Coupled with the report from the frontline reconnaissance plane, Vatutin immediately became anxious, fearing that Lankovsky and the others would be swallowed up by the Far Eastern Army if they did not hold out until nightfall.
"The strength of two entire divisions is three or even four times that of the Chinese. It should be no problem to hold on for a whole day," Vatutin convinced himself and at the same time gave an order to Tie Anshan to speed up. Marching speed, we must reach the battlefield before Kurtuk falls.
"I think we should report to Moscow immediately. The Chinese fighter planes are equipped with rockets, and their performance has completely surpassed our Yi-style. With the Yi-style alone, we simply cannot compete with the Chinese for air supremacy. Without air supremacy, our tanks The troops have no advantage at all." Chief of Staff Lapniv said on the side.
Vatutin thought for a while and said: "Of course we have to report, but not now. The most urgent thing now is to rescue the Seventh Army. Otherwise, Moscow will definitely think that we are looking for results for failure. By the way, this report You can hand it over to Marshal Zhukov first. If the issue of air supremacy cannot be solved, the next battle will be very difficult. By the way, are the locomotives ready? Have people been sent to inspect along the railway line? Tie Anshan and the others were exposed in advance. Maybe It will make the Chinese people alert, and I am very worried that the Chinese people will guess our actions in advance."
"Everything is ready. Chinese fighter planes cannot be dispatched at night. Our armored trains have been patrolling and guarding the railway line. There must be no problem."
Kurtuk, as the Chinese army captured Waka Mountain, the Seventh Army had actually fallen into the siege of the Chinese army, and lost contact due to radio. At this time, the Soviet Union, including Lankovsky, The Russians were all in panic all day long, and their morale dropped to the extreme.
"Where are the reinforcements, where are our reinforcements, Comrade Chief of Staff, without reinforcements, we can't hold on for long." The officers on the front line of the Seventh Army called back to Lankovsky one after another to request reinforcements. However, Lankovsky The security forces directly under the command of Skilian Group Army have been deployed to the front line, so where can we provide them with support?
A feeling of uneasiness permeated the troops, fearing that the troops were out of control. Gaglin, the political commissar of the Seventh Army, found Lankovsky and suggested to him: "Comrade Lankovsky, this won't work. The soldiers no longer have much fighting spirit." Now, I suggest that the news be released immediately, saying that Commander Vatutin has sent reinforcements, and that the reinforcements are not far away from us. In addition, I suggest that some elite soldiers and generals be selected to form a commando team to launch one or two counterattacks against the Chinese. .”
The radio signal was blocked, which was a fatal blow to the morale of a lonely army. As a political worker, Gaglin obviously knew the importance of morale better than Lankovsky, so he put forward these suggestions in such a hurry.
Lankovsky had no choice but to lose contact with the front army headquarters. In order to stabilize the morale of the army, he could only adopt Gaglin's suggestion and personally selected more than 300 people to form a commando team and let them report to China. The army launched a counterattack, and at the same time, he spread the word that reinforcements were on their way and would arrive on the battlefield in two hours at the latest.
Of course, the counterattack organized by more than 300 Soviet Russian soldiers could not shake the Far East Army's front. However, because Jiang Tieyao already knew that the air force failed to severely damage the Soviet Russian tank troops that came to the rescue, for the sake of safety, he removed them from the east. A brigade was strengthened to the Vaka Mountain to prevent the Soviets from attacking from two sides and breaking through the "gate" of the Vaka Mountain. Also because a brigade was removed from the frontal battlefield, the offensive intensity of the Far East Army was temporarily weakened. It also gave the besieged Soviet Russians a glimmer of hope for survival.