The Ming army captured the Hami region and achieved results that had not been achieved for a year. They finally obtained a large oasis area outside the east gate of Tianshan in both Xinjiang and Xinjiang, which was regarded as a base for advancing into Xinjiang.
Next, the Ming army concentrated its forces to attack the Turpan area. Compared with the Hami area, the Turpan area is a real strategic location. No matter whether it attacks southern Xinjiang or northern Xinjiang, it cannot bypass Turpan. To the north of Turpan is the majestic Tianshan Mountains, and to the south is Turpan.
The endless Taklimakan Desert is insurmountable for the army. If you capture Turpan, you can attack Dihua to the north, open the Tianshan Pass, and get the key to the northern Xinjiang. If you can't pass the Tianshan Mountains, you can drive all the way to southern Xinjiang directly to the west.
That is to say, attack the series of oasis areas south of the Tianshan Mountains and north of the Taklimakan Desert: the Bayingoleng area, the Aksu area, the Kashgar area, and the Hotan area in the southwest of the desert.
The Ming army did not pause for a moment in Hami. They just left most of the troops who participated in the Hami battle to rest and recuperated, and replaced a large number of fresh troops who had just got off the bus with offensive troops. Tanks and soldiers who were recharging their strength,
They continued to advance westward without stopping and at lightning speed, leaving no time for the Soviet army to breathe.
This also depends on the Ming army's sufficient transportation capacity. While ensuring the logistics supply of the Hami Battle, it can also transport so many rear troops. This was simply unimaginable during last year's tug-of-war. If it had been last year, let alone fighting at all
If Hami is not defeated, even if it is defeated, it will be the end of the war. The Soviet army only needs to counterattack, and the Ming army will be driven back along the desert.
But now, the Ming army is not only firmly entrenched in Hami, but it is still full of stamina and continues to rush forward.
…
The road distance from Hami County to Turpan County is about 400 kilometers, and most of the area in between is still the vast Gobi Desert. This section is not only much shorter than the one from Jiuquan to Hami, but it is also definitely much easier to drive. Because the section from Jiuquan to Hami
, it was the area where the Soviet Army and the Ming Army fought repeatedly and had long-term tug-of-war. Both sides had built relatively complete fixed fortified areas: stretches of trench defense lines, minefields, etc. However, the Ming Army never crossed Hami, and the Soviet Army
No defense line has ever been built west of Hami, nor any minefields laid. This is considered the rear. Just like the Ming army is unlikely to lay minefields east of Jiuquan.
There is another very important reason. It is precisely because the area between Hami and Jiuquan is a "customary war zone". Both sides have become accustomed to attacking and fighting here. No matter which side is Ming or Su, they will consider the victory or defeat in this area.
It didn't look too serious, the commanders were all calm, and their mentality was relatively relaxed. But once they defeated Hami, for the Soviet army, it felt like they had entered their own home, and their mentality suddenly panicked.
There is a feeling of "finished". It's like the mental impact on the Ming army when the Qing army attacked the Yangtze River defense line.
The four armored divisions of the Ming Army marched straight in, chasing the Soviet army twice as fast as Hami before. The Soviet army failed to organize a strong resistance along the way. In several tank battles, the Soviet tanks were like headless flies.
The energy of the desperate struggle that Hami had before was completely gone. With a depth of 400 kilometers, the Ming army only took 5 days to catch up to the foot of Turpan County. Along the way, the Soviet army's 5 armored divisions and 5 infantry divisions were defeated by 4 Ming troops.
The armored divisions were defeated all the way, and the road was full of remnant soldiers who had been disorganized. The large-scale surrender of the Far East Campaign has now reappeared.
Moreover, the wave of Soviet surrenders here is even greater than that in the Far East. Central Asian soldiers account for at least half of the Soviet troops stationed in Central Asia, especially west of Hami. These soldiers were born and raised in several Central Asian republics, and many of them are
They are of the same ethnic group as the local people in the occupied areas and speak the same language. The Soviet rule in several Central Asian countries was inherently unstable, and the ethnic conflicts between the locals and the Russians were quite intense. Those with black hair, black eyes, red
The Central Asian soldiers with thick faces were already unhappy with the Russian cadres with yellow hair, blue eyes, pale skin, and hooked noses sent from afar to ride on their heads. Now they saw with their own eyes that those Russian cadres who came from Moscow spoke Russian.
Under the command of "comrades", a large number of compatriots who spoke their own language were starved to death, and the morale of the military had changed a lot. Now, these half of the Central Asian officers and soldiers have become the main force of the Soviet surrender.
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Xiang Xiaoqiang and his party have just entered the Hami area. He and the reporters were very excited and were frantically taking pictures of the corpses that had been starved to death and massacred. Suddenly, they received a telegram from Lanzhou Fang Dongcheng, asking His Highness the Prince to take the reporters to Hami as soon as possible.
According to the investigation, Turpan will be captured again soon. The situation there is more serious and there are more "sights".
Xiang Xiaoqiang was even more excited and wanted to fly to Turpan right away. He took the convoy and reporters, and first spent two days investigating the situation in Hami City, mainly to collect evidence of the Soviet massacre. Then the next
For several days, from early morning to late at night, he was not idle for a moment and ran non-stop, covering the entire oasis area of more than 100 kilometers east and west of Hami County. The main task outside the city was to collect evidence of famine. They started from
At first, we visited one village a day, then we visited two villages a day. In the end, we just walked around and visited five or six villages a day. Now the corpses in each village are guarded by the Ming Army military police, and they are not allowed to be buried, but are waiting for reporters.
I came with the investigation team to take pictures. But the weather was already very hot during the day in May. Xiang Xiaoqiang and the others had to rush to take as many pictures as possible before the corpses in each village rotted or dried.
At this time, more and more reporters came from the mainland. More international organizations, such as the International Red Cross, and representatives of various associations also came. Journalists and international people from the Hami area gathered more and more.
The more they gathered, the more they formed an investigation team with hundreds of people, and they no longer ran as hard as Xiang Xiaoqiang and the others did in the first few days. The investigation team members were divided into several groups and headed to different areas. In less than half a month, they
All residential areas in the entire Hami area were surveyed. Some local people who knew about it, as well as captured Soviet officers, pointed out several secret burial sites. These large pits where people were buried were also dug by the Ming army.
There are no "mass graves" on the scale, but there are still many large pits with hundreds or thousands of people. There are many corpses in the big pits, and they are still decaying, giving off a stench. There are many small pits.
There are few corpses, and most of the water has been absorbed. It is estimated that after a while, it will become a standard mummy.
Faced with these tragic scenes, the reporters and the investigation team were all shocked. As before, the Ming army provided two radio stations for reporters, and two intelligence officers distributed reports for them. Of course, battlefield reports were required as usual.
Review, any place that may expose military secrets must be revised. The two intelligence officers also serve as reviewers.
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The Battle of Hami went extremely smoothly. From May 24th to June 7th, the entire Turpan area, that is, the area south of the Tianshan Pass and east of Bayingoleng, was captured. Now, the Ming army is far from the north.