Ili City is located more than 60 kilometers north of Almaty and on the south bank of the Ili River. It was once an important city on the ancient Silk Road. In the Tang Dynasty, when Su Dingfang was appointed as the general manager of Yili Road, Ili City was used as his administrative seat.
It governs the Ili River Basin and the vast area east and south of Lake Balkhash. During the Tsarist Russia period, most of Ili was occupied by the Russian Empire. If history does not change, this thousand-year-old city will continue to grow with the construction of the reservoir in the 1960s.
After being completely submerged by the Ili River, a city called Kapchagai will appear to the west of the reservoir.
Because the railway bridge spanning the north and south of the Ili River was blown up by the Soviet army, at 8 a.m. on August 11, Hu Jiyang led the Eastern Front Corps to launch a battle to forcefully cross the Ili River.
Following Hu Jiyang's order, the artillerymen who had been eager to try began to show off their skills. The three artillery regiments of the direct artillery brigade totaled 144 120mm howitzers and 36 150mm howitzers, two kilometers and one kilometer long across the Ili River.
An artillery bombardment was launched over a wide area, with the air defense brigade, three rocket launcher battalions and a combat defense battalion equipped with cannon serving as reserves.
Hu Jiyang stood on a hill in the southern foothills of Jungar Mountain, 300 meters away from the north bank of the Ili River. Through his telescope, he could clearly see the scene on the other side of the river.
Along the two-kilometer-long section of the river where the landing was planned, the ground had been shrouded in white smoke produced by the explosion of the artillery shells, and the miniature mushroom clouds looked particularly pleasing to the eye.
After a quarter of an hour of saturation bombardment, Hu Jiyang looked at his watch and said to Chief of Staff Liu Yu who was standing aside: "Give the order for the infantry to attack!"
Liu Yu quickly picked up the phone. After receiving the instruction, Major General Wang Yu, the commander of the directly subordinate Guard Army, immediately ordered the Guard Infantry Brigade and the Engineer Brigade 1st Regiment responsible for the first wave of forced crossings to attack.
The troops crossing the river were in small groups, with the most being a group of ten people. They carried assault boats and rubber boats and rushed towards the river. As they launched their charge, the artillery extended fire deep into the river defense positions on the other side.
"Get aboard!"
After throwing the assault boat into the river, Major Jiang Zhekai, commander of the 1st Engineer Brigade, gave the order. Seven engineers, including him, jumped into the boat. Four engineers picked up the short oars and started rowing. Two engineers
A general-purpose machine gun was set up on the sandbags at the bow of the ship. Jiang Zhekai, carrying an automatic rifle, lay down behind the sandbags.
Jiang Zhekai turned his head and looked left and right, and found that dozens of ships were rushing in front of him. He immediately said to the machine gunner: "Shoot! Use machine gun firepower to suppress the opponent!"
"Yes, leader!"
The machine gunner responded and immediately started shooting, while the ammunition hand next to him was nervously feeding bullets.
Jiang Zhekai lay on the sandbag, picked up his telescope and looked towards the other side. Suddenly he found a bunker that had not been destroyed by artillery fire. It was half buried underground, with only a small part of it exposed above the ground. It was shooting at an assault boat in front of it on the right.
However, because the assault boat moved so fast, it only caused a large amount of water splash to appear on the nearby water surface.
After observing for a while, Jiang Zhekai found that no artillery had ever attacked the bunker, so he probably didn't find it.
"There is a bunker there, have you seen it? Use tracer bullets instead to indicate the target for the artillery!" Jiang Zhekai gave the machine gunner the direction.
"I saw it, commander! Change bullets!"
After the machine gunner finished firing fifty bullets from the magazine chain, the ammunition hand immediately took the initiative to replace the tracer bullets.
Turning the muzzle, the machine gunner immediately fired at the target. With the sound of tearing rags, the tracer bullets formed a very conspicuous "electric whip" on the river. This electric whip instantly attracted the attention of everyone on both sides of the Ili River.
.
The officers and soldiers of the air defense brigade waiting on the north bank of the Ili River lived up to the kindness of the engineer regiment commander. After seeing the "electric whip", in the blink of an eye, several 88mm anti-aircraft guns were aimed at the unlucky bunker.
"Dong dong——"
The iconic sound of the 88mm anti-aircraft gun rang out, and several shells hit the bunker. The dust and smoke raised by the explosion instantly engulfed the bunker.
The Soviet troops on the other side instantly understood the intention of Jiang Zhekai's assault boat to use tracer bullets. They immediately organized firepower and strafed the assault boat. They only heard a burst of "crack, crackle" sounds, and the machine gun bullets made sawdust fly from the assault boat.
Jiang Zhekai had already hid behind the sandbags of the assault boat and signaled everyone to take cover. The unmanned assault boat stopped on the river and floated downstream like a dead ship. The Soviet machine guns dug into the assault boat.
After a row of holes appeared, the shooting stopped. I don't know whether it was killed by gunfire or because it was thought that the enemies on the ship had been eliminated.
"Escape and continue rowing." Jiang Zhekai raised his head and observed vigilantly, and then gave the order.
The engineers started rowing again, and the machine gunners also set up their machine guns again.
Under the suppression of the 88mm artillery on the river bank, all the Soviet machine gun positions on the other side were muted. Only the mortars hidden somewhere were still firing. The mortar shells set off white waves in the river. The Soviet army
The heavy artillery never appeared.
Seeing that the opponent's firepower was very weak, the assault troops speeded up their rowing, and soon an assault boat rushed up to the south bank.
"Hurry up, hurry up, someone is already ashore ahead." Jiang Zhekai shouted loudly. Seeing that an assault boat had already rushed up to the other side of the river, the engineer regiment leader became a little anxious.
About four or five minutes later, Major Jiang Zhekai's assault boat finally arrived at the south bank of the Ili River. He immediately jumped out of the assault boat with an automatic rifle. Jiang Zhekai rushed into a bomb crater and hid in a few steps, and began to observe the enemy's situation. Soon,
Other engineers on the assault boat rushed to his side.
"Follow me!"
Jiang Zhekai waved his hand, jumped out of the crater, and rushed to the left, followed by six engineers.
The ground on the south bank of the Ili River is full of craters left by shelling. Jiang Zhekai's team used these craters as cover to move forward quickly. Their target was a bunker that was being fired at. The bunker was almost integrated with the ground.
, leaving only a shooting hole on the ground, surrounded by grass and soil. If the flames erupted from the shooting hole had not exposed the target, there would be no way to spot this bunker from the outside.
After hiding in a bomb crater and observing for a few seconds, Jiang Zhekai discovered that the bodies of two Anjia Army infantrymen were lying on the ground not far from the bunker. Next to the bodies, there was a rocket launcher. It seemed that it had suddenly appeared during the attack.
The firepower knocked them to the ground. Farther away, there were more than ten infantrymen hiding in craters, avoiding machine gun bullets.
Since the infantry successfully landed on the south bank of the Ili River, the anti-aircraft artillery on the north bank has stopped firing in order not to accidentally injure our own people. Now the only way to take out this bunker is to rely on infantry assault.
Jiang Zhekai turned around and looked around to see that there were no other Soviet positions around that could form crossfire with the bunker. After careful observation, he found that his position was just in the blind spot of the bunker, so he turned around and faced the people behind him.
One engineer said:
"Xiao Dao, have you seen that bunker? Kill it!"
"Yes, leader."
The engineer named Xiao Dao carried the rocket launcher, jumped out of the crater, and rushed past the left front of the bunker. He rushed to the edge of the bunker in a few steps, raised the rocket launcher, and aimed it at the bunker.
"call--"
A rocket flew over and shot straight into the firing hole. With a "boom", after a violent explosion, the bunker flew into the sky. At this moment, the knife carrying the rocket launcher shook violently.
He trembled for a moment and then fell to the ground.
"No, it's a sniper!"
Jiang Zhekai secretly screamed in his heart, but before he could react, an engineer rushed out from behind him, leaped to the knife, and tried to drag the knife back into the crater.
"Put him down and come back!"
Jiang Zhekai knew something was wrong and hurriedly shouted to the engineer. But by then it was too late. With the sound of gunfire, the rescue engineer had been shot in the forehead and fell in a pool of blood.
After solving the bunker, the dozen or so suppressed infantry resumed the attack, and the subsequent infantry also followed. A team of about a hundred people made full use of bomb craters and various obstacles as cover, and gradually moved deeper into the Soviet army.
The position was pushed through. As for the sniper, one person could not prevent the overall defeat. He was soon discovered behind a pile of thatch and was shot to pieces.
"Okay, let's leave the in-depth attack to the infantry. We engineers must seize the time to build the bridge! Come on, give me the signal gun!" Jiang Zhekai suppressed the grief in his heart, turned his head and said to the engineers beside him.
The engineer regiment leader took over the signal gun and fired three red flares into the sky. When he saw the three red flares, behind the hills on the north bank of the river, pontoon vehicles passed through the mountain roads and drove to the river bank.
The pontoon bridge components were assembled, and the bridge-building operation soon began.
Two hours later, four steel pontoon bridges were laid on the fast-flowing Ili River. The 10th Group Army and the armored brigade directly under the Guard Army continuously crossed the river and rapidly advanced towards Ili City in the south.
"Report! Urgent call from the front line!"
The communications soldier came to Hu Jiyang's side with swift steps.
Hu Jiyang was in an unusually relaxed mood. He took it and read it. He smiled and said to Liu Yu: "We have broken through the Soviet defenses on all fronts. The forwards of our infantry brigade have rushed into Ili City and are advancing in depth. The enemy has no intention of street fighting. They will collapse at the first touch and there will be no soldiers."
Fighting spirit, we can spend the night in Ili City!"
Liu Yu took the telegram and read it, and said doubtfully: "The enemy's defense is much weaker than expected. Is it possible that Chuikov has some conspiracy?"
Hu Jiyang was startled for a moment, then said: "Probably not! Now the western and northern fronts have been firmly blocked by us, unless they choose to flee into Xinjiang, but in terms of the overall situation, this is an extremely unwise decision and will put
Xinjiang, which was handed over to the CCP, is involved in the war!"
"They might as well go south!"
After Liu Yu finished speaking, he asked his staff to bring him a map of Central Asia, pointed to the Pamir Plateau and said: "As long as we cross the Pamir Plateau, which is known as the 'Congling' in our country's history, we can enter Afghanistan, and then we can think of a way."
From the upper reaches of the Kara River in Iran to the lowlands on the west coast of the Caspian Sea, you will be back to the Soviet Union!"
Hu Jiyang looked at the map carefully and his expression changed:
"No, according to air force reconnaissance, the Soviet Central Group has joined forces with the Tianshan Corps in the Zalal Abad area. Once the Soviet troops in Almaty move south, the three Soviet troops can join forces at the northern foot of the Pamir Plateau.
Let’s go south together through the Erdyk Pass. Calculated in this way, there are more than 400,000 Soviet troops..."
Liu Yu shook his head decisively: "There is absolutely no 400,000 yuan. Crossing the Turkestan Mountains is not that easy. At least one-third of the troops must be lost. Without food, clothing, and no preparation, they rashly cross 5,000 yuan."
It is estimated that one-third of the snow line above 100 meters will be lost. It will be good to have 200,000 troops in Afghanistan in the end! Now I am worried that the Soviet army has controlled the mountain pass area and will always be a threat to our security. Li Jinlong
Wasn't one of the commander's divisions blocked at the Dalva Pass north of Khorog? They attacked several times in succession to no avail. Finally, they had no choice but to leave one battalion to hold on, and the rest of the troops were transferred back to the Stalinabad area.
Already."
Hu Jiyang thought carefully and suddenly laughed: "There is no need to worry about this! Where is the Pamir Plateau? They are all plateaus above 5,000 meters. The temperature is very cold, breathing is difficult, and supplies are extremely difficult. It is difficult to hold on in such a place.
, easier said than done? It’s better to leave, and save the chairman from having to worry about hundreds of thousands of mouths! However, the specific situation will not be known until we attack Almaty tomorrow!"
Liu Yu suggested: "How about we jointly tell the theater headquarters our thoughts and listen to the opinions of Commander Hu and Commander Ye and Li?"
"Okay! You draft it and I sign it!"
After Liu Yu drafted the telegram, Hu Jiyang signed his name, and Lieutenant Colonel Yang Qiang, the communications director, sent the telegram, the Corps immediately moved forward and stationed in the thousand-year-old city of Yili in the evening.