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Text Chapter 1032 Fierce Battle in July

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    On July 15, across the turbulent Tobol River, Army Chief of Staff General Liu Mingzhao, who arrived at the front line, took a bird's-eye view of the distant city of Kostanay from a periscope.

    Unlike the historic fortress cities in Central Asia and Siberia, Kostanai was not established as a city until 1893 and became the trading center of the steppe.  As coal, iron, aluminum and other resources were discovered nearby, the Soviet government established it as a state capital in 1933.  Due to its short time and its deep location in the hinterland, there were no military facilities here before. It was not until the failure of the Petropavlovsk Battle last year that the Soviet army began to build permanent fortifications here.  But no matter how it was repaired, the continuous flat grasslands and farmland destined it not to have the potential to become a fortress.

    Petropavlovsk is still in hand, Aktobeinsk has been occupied, and the pincer situation in the Ural region has taken shape. Kostanai has become the last obstacle blocking the Wehrmacht from entering the Urals.  Whether you can enter the Eurasian dividing line and take the initiative before winter comes, the answer lies in this city.  In order to compete for this place, the two sides launched a battle to increase their troops.  Just as the Wehrmacht broke through the Turgai Plateau and used transport planes to increase troops here at the rate of one division per day, the Soviet army was not idle either. Although the rear railway lines and transportation supplies were frantically damaged by Chinese bombers, Timoshin  In order to prevent China from entering the Eurasian dividing line, Brother let all 430,000 troops of Lukin's Siberian Front shrink here, and also transferred 50,000 reinforcements from Ufa, Yekaterinaburg and other places.  At the same time, he also asked Kilponos to abandon the original plan and try his best to block the passage from Lake Sarekopa to the plateau.  Trying to cut off Sun Liren's supply channels.

    Through the telescope, the railway bridge across the Tobol River has been blown apart.  There is also a swaying pontoon next to the bridge pier, which should be the remains of the pontoon bridge troops who failed to build the bridge.  "We have set up pontoon bridges at Alexander Drokav in the upper reaches and Rudne in the lower reaches. According to the method of surrounding three buildings and one, the northeast and south sides have been completely surrounded." Gong Chu stood beside him and softly introduced the situation.  In order to unify command, at Liu Mingzhao's suggestion, the troops attacking Kostanai have been temporarily organized into the Central Army Group.  He will take charge personally.  Du Zishan and Li Yuguo formed the southern group army, while Sun Chuanfang, Fan Shisheng and Le Shiwen formed the northern group army.

    "Where's the front?"

    "The Zhouqiao Battalion attacked twice, but was destroyed by artillery fire. The Soviets followed suit and dispersed the artillery in hidden woods, houses and bunkers. There are at least 5 to 6 thousand guns, many of which are 152 and  There are many 203mm heavy artillery and anti-aircraft guns. The Air Force has lost 70 bombers this week, and there are about 10 to 20 rocket launchers deployed somewhere in the city." Gong Chu continued: "The people who deploy the defense are veterans. You  Look, there seems to be nothing unusual on the surface. In fact, there are many foxholes and tank trenches in the fields. We tried it several times, and every time we entered, we were attacked from all directions. The infantry losses were not small." Zhukov in Gore  After suffering enough in front of the Lan trench, the Soviet army also studied many obstacle trenches to deal with tanks, the most famous of which were wide-mouth tank trenches and foxholes.  Hence the name, wide-mouth trench means that it is wide and narrow at the top and is V-shaped.  The tank is stuck in and there is no way to get out.  Foxholes are a tactic specially designed by the Soviet Army for tank ambush teams, which involves digging a large number of short tunnels along the enemy's attack route.  Cover it with camouflage, use various weapons to destroy it at close range after the tank approaches, and cooperate with the fortification area. If you are not careful, you can easily suffer big losses.

    "Lu Jin, I know this person." Liu Mingzhao naturally knew who was defending Kostanay.  The siege of Donsak and the Battle of Petropavlovsk were slipped away by him twice, and even Yang Qiu was very sorry.  In fact, in Yang Qiu's eyes, Lu Jin, who is good at defense, is far more of a headache for him than Zhukov.

    Liu Mingzhao still had the same expression as before. He handed the binoculars to the guard and asked about the reorganization of the army.  After 10 days of continuous air transportation, Army Group Center now has 6 armored divisions, 3 infantry divisions, 16 infantry divisions and 1 cavalry division.  But the problem also lies in the infantry divisions. Limited by the loading capacity and speed of transport aircraft, the later infantry divisions can only be regarded as light divisions. The number of artillery in each division is only one-third of the normal number. Many troops have to  Captured Soviet artillery was pushed to the front line to make up for the firepower gap.  Therefore, Liu Mingzhao simply separated the armored division and incorporated it into the infantry division in regimental units, which was equivalent to a hybrid mechanized infantry division.  However, in order to prevent the Soviet army from breaking through, he also left two armored divisions.  In this way, Army Group Center became 2 armored divisions, 11 mixed mechanized infantry divisions, 8 infantry divisions and 1 cavalry division, which greatly improved the combat capabilities of light infantry.

    Such temporary pre-war adaptations are also risky because not all infantrymen have received infantry tank training.  So during this period, Gong Chu and the others gave up on large-scale attacks, and adopted the method of testing and training at the same time to run in a few hybrid mechanized infantry divisions.  "Everything is ready. We have also conducted several synthesis drills in rotation and can start at any time."

    With Gong Chu¡¯s war-seeking eyes, the Battle of Kostanay began.  Afterwards, military experts described the Battle of the Bulge, Kos.The Battle of Nainai and the later Battle of Kurgan-Tyumen were combined into three major assault battles.  It was the three assault battles that completely disintegrated the major counteroffensive launched by the Soviet army in 1941, and also helped the Central Asian Allied Forces to enter the Eurasian dividing line for the first time and seize the initiative in the war.

    At exactly 12 noon, the bombers took the lead in launching the Battle of Kostanay towards the Eurasian dividing line.  After many previous trials, the Air Force gave up heavy bombs and adopted all intensive destruction cluster bombs.  During the three-hour bombing, a total of more than 10,000 cluster bombs were dropped.  Subsequently, 1,200 barrel artillery took over the suppression work. The artillerymen, sweating like rain, sprinkled artillery shells on the Soviet positions.

    Faced with the ferocious suppression of the Allied forces in Central Asia, the Soviet army, which has always been famous for its artillery tactics, bizarrely only invested a few hundred artillery pieces in the counterattack. Although the attack aircraft groups that arrived later quickly destroyed these artillery positions, but in the  Although Lu Jin deliberately concealed himself, a large number of artillery units survived.

    At the same time as Kostanay started, Li Yuguo on the other side of the battle also launched a general offensive.  Under the cover of 616 tanks, the Southern Front Army quickly captured the Soviet front-line positions.  But in the battle to open the gap on the plateau.  However, they were desperately defended by the Soviet 5th Army.  Since the area is full of forests and highlands, the troops need to attack from above.  Therefore, the losses were heavy. Li Yuguo, who had been unable to break through after two days of back and forth, had to suspend the attack and turn around to deal with Kilponos's main force first.

    Because the expected destruction effect was not achieved, Liu Mingzhao did not deploy ground troops until 4 a.m. on July 16.  Under the cover of 778 tanks and 467 armored vehicles, the 8 mixed machine infantry divisions and 10 infantry divisions of Army Group Center began to compress the encirclement.  The "Manchurian Tiger Scare" exposed the weakness of Soviet armor and also promoted research on anti-tank tactics.  Although he has an overwhelming armor advantage, Lukin is worthy of being the number one defensive warfare master in the Soviet army.  Under his clever deployment, the Soviet army used a combination of anti-tank foxholes, trenches and fortified areas to resist tenaciously.  At the same time, while marveling at his opponent's air transportation capabilities, he also knew the limitations of heavy equipment air transportation and was even more aware of the threat posed by bombers to artillery. Therefore, he took full advantage of his five-to-one artillery numerical advantage and deliberately used his own artillery clusters separately.  And only a small part is invested at a time, so that even if it is destroyed by the Chinese Air Force, the foundation will not be damaged.  But even if only a small part was invested, the Soviet artillery power still gave Liu Mingzhao a deep headache. As soon as many troops occupied a certain position, they were hit by the sudden appearance of Soviet artillery fire, causing heavy casualties.  Especially in night battles, dense foxholes and artillery fire made it difficult for the attacking troops to move forward.

    Not only that, with the repeated dispatches of tactical bombers, several field airports on the front line have also become saturated.  Even with a huge fleet of transport aircraft.  The number of transport aircraft has also plummeted from the peak of 900 daily sorties to 500, and the number of airlifts of ammunition and equipment to the front line has been reduced by half.  However, the unfavorable conditions did not shake Liu Mingzhao's determination to attack Kostanay.  He took advantage of his armor and repeatedly conducted shallow impact tactics.  This is a new armor tactic. To put it simply, it is like peeling an apple. The armored troops are allowed to penetrate shallowly, encircle a period of time and then throw in infantry to annihilate them. Repeat this to kill the enemy's effective strength.

    Lu Jin felt deeply pressured by the new tactics, and had to use the reserve force many times to make up for the outer loopholes that had been "emptied" by the enemy's armored groups, resulting in a price of 50,000 casualties in just three days.  Moreover, the artillery in his hands is not unlimited. Even if only part of it is used at a time, it will still be continuously weakened by the attacks of the Chinese Air Force.  "We must retreat! If we don't deal with the transport planes, the enemy opposite us will be getting stronger every day! You see, they use tanks on the periphery every time just to consume our troops." Vlasov shook his head in frustration.  After escaping from death in East Kazakhstan, he led the remaining troops and was incorporated into the Siberian Front Army.  After a year of replenishment, his 24th Army now has one tank corps and two infantry corps, which is the main force of the Siberian Front.  "We cannot defend this place, let alone sacrifice our precious troops here in vain. Before the enemy encircles the west, we should immediately retreat to the Trans-Ural Plateau to preserve our strength."

    "Where can we retreat? The general secretary's order is for us to hold the last barrier in the Urals! Use up the enemy's blood here to buy time for the mobilization in the Urals!"

    "Draining the enemy's blood? No! On the contrary, it is our blood that is being consumed. Malinovsky's troops have been completely wiped out, and General Kilponos is also surrounded on the plateau passage. I am not afraid of sacrifice  , but the sacrifice must be valuable! Once we fail, only Rokossovsky and Vasilevsky will be left in the Urals, and the troops are simply not enough!"

    "The headquarters is mobilizing many troops, 300,000 Cossack cavalry are gathering, and Vatutin of Belarus is also coming. What the motherland needs is time, not troops!"

    "Cossacks? Do you want to use cavalry to fight on the Ural Plateau? Enemy aircraft and tanks will tear them to pieces."

    ¡°¡­¡­.¡±In the Soviet headquarters located in the cellar, the officers were arguing fiercely about whether to break out of the encirclement.  The sight full of gunpowder made Timoshenko, who was personally in charge, restless and pacing and thinking.  Beside the narrow ventilation window behind them, Lu Jin stood quietly, looking through the iron fence and looking at the collapsed statue of Lenin in silence.  The mottled red brick wall in the distance is covered with bullet holes, and the desolate and dilapidated scene vaguely makes people feel that the Soviet Union is suffering from internal and external troubles at the moment.

    The debate over whether to break out made Timoshenko increasingly irritated, and his eyes turned to Lukin: "Comrade Lukin, what's your opinion?"

    "You can't break out to the west!" Lu Jin broke the silence and said he would never retreat.  This statement made Vlasov and others who supported the breakout very angry, and said, "Why? Did the soldiers die here in vain?"

    Lu Jin shook his head vigorously: "I don't want the troops to die in vain, but don't forget, there is a saying in the Chinese art of war, 'Surrounding Three Ques and One', which exactly describes our current situation. I don't believe that the enemy will make mistakes.  To the west of Forget, there must be an ambush there. So I think we should go north! To join Comrade Rokossovsky."

    "To the north? Impossible!" Vlasov jumped up and denied the plan: "There are 12 enemy divisions in the north, including 3 tank divisions. If we leave this fortification area, we will all be killed.  In the wilderness!" The emergence of the third plan made Timoshenko increasingly undecided.  You must know that voluntarily giving up Kostanai would be an extremely important political responsibility. He did not dare to bear such a heavy responsibility, so after thinking twice, he had to kick the ball to Moscow.  Waved to the correspondent: "Send the plan to Moscow and request instructions from the high command."

    "No!" As soon as he finished speaking, Lu Jin blocked the correspondent.  After nearly two years of fighting, the reality that the Soviet army had repeatedly encountered obstacles made him suspect that there might have been a problem with the army's communication code. Otherwise, how could he explain that his opponent could always anticipate his enemy's opportunities?  Although there is no evidence, and the troops change passwords every other week, the lives and deaths of hundreds of thousands of soldiers are involved and must not be taken.  Therefore, regardless of the attention of everyone, he stopped and said: "We must continue to implement radio silence and terminate all external communications to prevent the enemy from discovering it in advance."

    The idea was right, but Timoshenko, who was working for Stalin, turned a blind eye.  This is understandable, after all, after withdrawing from Kostanai, the Ural region will completely open the door.  However, Timoshenko also knew that radio could be dangerous for leaking secrets, so he asked his correspondents to use primitive wired telegraphs.  Cable telegraphy required contact via telephone lines, and calls to the west remained open at this time.

    After the telegram was sent to Moscow, Stalin initially did not agree to withdraw.  But at this time, news came that the Central Asian Allied Northern Front Army took advantage of the start of the Battle of Kostanai to dispatch 20 divisions to launch an attack on the 150,000 Soviet troops surrounded in Yavlenka, south of Petropavlovsk.  General attack.  Although the troops resisted vigorously, contact was lost after seven hours.  The failure of Yavlenka means that the major counterattack plan has been completely ruined. Continuing to defend Kostanay and the Turgai Plateau will only waste troops. Even if Stalin persists, he has to consider what if Lukin and Kirponos  The emptiness of the Urals after the siege.

    In the early morning of July 20, Stalin signed the retreat order after careful consideration
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