Soon it was the midsummer of 1938. Starting from the spring, the Republican Army was retreating steadily in the face of the Soviet Red Army's offensive. In mid-May, the Red Russian Army captured the city of Bukhara, and King Haliyad and his cabinet withdrew to the Pamirs.
Tashkent, the provincial capital, formed a government-in-exile there. After the Russians occupied these countries in Central Asia, they quickly supported two puppet governments in Ashgabat and Bukhara.
At the end of June, the 30th and 32nd Army Groups transferred from China arrived in Zhambul. Due to the tremendous pressure placed on the Russian logistical supplies by the dominant Republican Army Air Force, the war situation in Central Asia gradually stabilized. It had long been continued.
The 60th Army, exhausted from the battle, was finally able to retreat to Tashkent for a short rest and replenishment.
It was already dark, and the lights were brightly lit in the three-story building of the Northwest Theater Provisional Headquarters located on the banks of the Chirchik River. In this era, it was still difficult for aircraft to carry out night bombing missions. Even in such an important military location, they still would not
Enforcing so-called wartime blackouts.
The street lights were also on outside the gate. There were four well-dressed sentries on both sides of the gate. Patrols passed by on the surrounding streets from time to time. The entire headquarters was heavily guarded, and ordinary people could not get close to the surrounding streets.
The war in Central Asia has been going on for three months. The officers in the headquarters have long been accustomed to the wartime atmosphere. Instead, they are not as busy as they were in the early days of the war. There are many officers walking on the grass in the courtyard, and there are many rooms upstairs.
The windows were all open, and people standing downstairs could hear the music coming from the radio in the room.
Jiang Chengyue has been the top military commander in the Northwest Theater of Operations for many years. The wind and sand of the Gobi Desert have etched the wind and frost on his face. Years of hard work have made the 52-year-old Republican Army general's hair already gray.
Compared with the unexpected success in the battlefields of Southeast Asia, the Republican Army has been in a passive position of being beaten in the battlefields of Central Asia and Siberia. The victory of the Soviet Red Army has made Zhuyashvili's ambitions continue to expand, and a steady stream of Soviet troops are crossing the Ural.
River, what was originally a tentative attack gradually evolved into a full-scale war.
"Although the intelligence is not very detailed, it can be roughly judged that the next target of the Red Russian Army is to turn to Siberia." In the operations room, the theater chief of staff Zhou Yawei was introducing the situation of the enemy and ourselves on the battlefield to the senior generals attending the meeting, "
Red Russian
In this war of aggression, five major military districts were mobilized: the North Caucasus Military District, the Steppe Military District, the Lower Volga River Coastal Military District, the South Ural Military District and the Ural Military District. A total of five troops including the 1st, 2nd, 15th, 16th and 17th were dispatched on the Ural line.
group
Army, with a total strength of about 350,000 people. In Central Asia, the main forces of the Red Russian Army include the 9th, 18th, 19th, 23rd, and 24th Group Armies and the 1st Mechanized Army, with a total strength of about 450,000. In the direction of Orenburg, the Red Russian Army
Now concentrated on the 7th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 2nd
5 and the newly formed 31st, 32nd, 33rd Group Armies and the 5th Mechanized Army in Moscow, with a total strength of more than 750,000 people. From this, it can be concluded that the Red Army chose the direction of the main attack in the South Ural direction, intending to annex Siberia in one fell swoop
Republic."
The intelligence sent back by the Republic's intelligence department in Soviet Russia is not the Soviet army's combat plan, but based on information such as troop concentration locations, troop mobilization, and logistics transportation, a rough combat plan can also be analyzed.
Jiang Chengyue, who was sitting in the leader's position, was a little distracted. The Republican Army's military operations in Central Asia were largely restricted by logistics. The combat plan formulated by the General Staff also required all group armies under the jurisdiction of the Northwest Theater to retreat in a step-by-step manner. To shorten the distance for transporting supplies and reduce logistical pressure.
The battle was very depressing, which made General Chiang, who had a strong personality, very unhappy.
"Transfer the 32nd Army and the 23rd Army to the Turgai River line to prevent the Red Army from breaking through from the flanks." Jiang Chengyue thought for a moment and then said, which means that there is only one 13th Army of the Republican Army on the southern line of Afghanistan to deal with nearly two One hundred thousand British and Indian troops.
"Isn't this too risky?" said Zheng Yijing, deputy commander of the Northwest Theater Command.
"The British are not terrible. The combat effectiveness of these colonial armies is very limited, and the combat effectiveness displayed by the Soviet Russian army is by no means worse than ours, although their tactics are somewhat backward. The president has always warned us that this is our biggest enemy. , the real trouble in his heart!" Jiang Chengyue said with a livid face. The Soviet army was even more numerous than the Northwest Theater Command with 1.1 million soldiers, which made him feel unprecedented pressure.
However, after strengthening the defenses on the northern front, the Republican Army's counterattack plan on the southern front will come to nothing.
"The three newly formed armies of the 52nd, 56th and 60th armies need to be re-equipped. The light weapons are okay, but the armored units and heavy artillery will not be equipped until at least the end of October. The combat capabilities of these three armies will not be substantially improved until at least next spring. Improvement. The Military Commission decided to prioritize the distribution of the latest Type 35C tanks to the northwest theater. However, due to production limitations, the General Armament Department can only allocate equipment to us for one armored division per month. It is expected that this type of tank will be available in two months. The situation will be greatly improved." Zhou Yawei continued, "The 12 group armies in this theater plus the 1st, 3rd, and 6th Cavalry Divisions, a total of 15 armored divisions, new tanks and armored vehicles will be equipped to all units as soon as possible. In January next year, the General Staff Headquarters agrees in principle with our plan to launch a counteroffensive between March and May next year. Before then, this theater will still focus on defensive operations and only conduct some local assault operations."
"Before that, all units must step up their training. Armored units are technical arms. They are not like infantry who can be deployed on the battlefield after three months of training. It is impossible to have skilled tactical cooperation in less than a year. This is why all group armies We need to pay great attention to it." Jiang Chengyue lit up a cigarette and took two puffs before continuing: "Especially the 52nd, 56th and 60th armies. These three armies originally did not have armored units. The theater combat training department must learn from other armies. The backbone of the armored divisions will be transferred to speed up the formation of the armored divisions in these three armies. After the meeting, a plan for the deployment of personnel from each group army must be formulated immediately."
Together with the two armies in Siberia, the Republic has assembled one-third of its army in the northwest. Together with the 650,000 National Defense Forces of the Siberian Republic, the total strength in this area exceeds 2 million, and the Soviet Union has also dispatched Nearly half of the Red Army appears to be very calm on the battlefield now, but the senior generals on both sides have a keen intuition about the atmosphere before this storm is coming.
The war is approaching, and both sides are constantly deploying troops and generals. Logistics and transportation have now become the primary issue.
The mainland to Siberia currently only relies on the Siberian Railway and the Xinjiang-Omsk railway. The transportation between the mainland and Xinjiang only relies on the Sui-Xinjiang Railway and the Lanzhou-Xinjiang Railway. In Central Asia, there is currently only one railway from Dihua to
The main railway line from the Ili Valley to Tashkent is still under construction, while the railway from southern Xinjiang to Central Asia is still under construction.
The situation in Soviet Russia is not much better. The Central Asian Railway during the Tsarist Russia period was basically completely destroyed by the Republican Army during its retreat. Even if the amount of work on the roadbed was not large, it would take time to re-lay the rails, and there were still turrets in the sky from time to time.
Republican aircraft with an absolute advantage carried out bombings from time to time.
After two five-year plans, Soviet Russia's heavy industry, especially military industrial production, has developed by leaps and bounds. By 1937, Soviet Russia's steel output reached 17 million tons, surpassing Germany and becoming the third largest industrial country in the world. Machinery manufacturing
The development of the industry has given it a production capacity of nearly 80,000 heavy-duty tractors per year, which during the war can be converted into a manufacturing capacity of nearly 40,000 tanks per year. This is the most terrifying thing about it.
However, after more than thirty years of peaceful development, the Republic of China has already transformed from a backward agricultural country into an industrial powerhouse. The Republic of China has 1.6 million machine tools and more than 30 million tons of steel production. Although the Republic needs to simultaneously develop its army and
Navy, but a population base of more than 600 million is a huge advantage unmatched by any country in the world in war. The Republican Army and its mobilization of more than 20 million troops will not have a great impact on domestic production.
This is something no other country can do.
It was precisely because of fear of the Republic's huge war potential that Soviet Russia did not declare war on the Republic when it sent troops to invade Central Asia and Siberia.
Zhuyashvili even issued an order prohibiting the Soviet Red Army from approaching within 150 kilometers of the interior of the border defined by the Republic. His original intention was to avoid the outbreak of an all-out war between countries as much as possible.