Seeing this, the rest of the tanks and armored vehicles of the Northeast Army retreated to a farther place, while the fire of the machine-gun company tightly blocked the direction of the breakthrough.

As soon as Kazuo Miyamoto saw that the "meat bullet" worked, he hurriedly gathered all the grenades to organize the second batch of death squads. At this time, the Northeast Army's "Walker" flamethrower tank company drove down from the upwind, a row of 12 vehicles, pulled into a ring and sprayed flames, the grass and bushes in front of the position all burned, and the thick smoke and fire and dense machine gun shells made the "meat bullets" unable to approach. In desperation, Kazuo Miyamoto ordered the wounded comptroller to lead a few wounded soldiers to rush back the letter desperately under the cover of thick smoke, and he and the remaining officers and soldiers were ready to wait for reinforcements until "the whole army was shattered".

At this time, what Kazuo Miyamoto occupied was no longer a position, just a small sand dune, and the fate of the army being completely annihilated was already doomed, and it was impossible to break through. The horses have all been killed, and it is impossible to outrun the mechanized vehicles to break through on foot, and the reinforcements are also 10 kilometers away from the nearest mountain mountain troops, not to mention that the opposite side of the mountain county is also blocked by the Northeast Army, and the situation must be difficult. However, Shan County has no worries, and if it is not good to fight, it can retreat back to the national border. And he, Kazuo Miyamoto, is already on all sides, and there are casualties every minute. In desperation, a surge of reinforcements suddenly appeared in the thick smoke, as if falling from the sky, this was Sato's squad of the 64th Infantry Wing. It turned out that Second Lieutenant Sato was ordered to lead his squad to make a surprise attack to occupy the second pontoon bridge of the Northeast Army, a mission that was supposed to go and never return, but when Sato's team set off, they lost their way. Later, when I heard the rumbling of cannons in the west and the black smoke rising into the sky, I rushed towards the cannons and the black smoke. On the way, he encountered the wounded soldiers who broke through Miyamoto's detachment, and heard that Miyamoto Kazuo was in danger. As a result, Second Lieutenant Sato took it upon himself to lead his squad of 600 soldiers and rushed into the dunes under the cover of thick smoke. It was 7 p.m. on July 8.

Kazuo Miyamoto was really overjoyed and surprised to see the arrival of Sato's team. But Sato's squad is infantry, and they have no weapons to deal with the steel chariots of the Chinese army, and they are not their own subordinates, and they came to the rescue on their own initiative, so there is no need to sacrifice in vain, and the arrival of Asama is just to prolong the time of "jade shattering". Kazuo Miyamoto advised Second Lieutenant Sato to return to his team. But the young lieutenant was eager to fight, fantasizing that he would be able to do a great job if he could keep Miyamoto back to the army, and that the emperor's samurai were not afraid of sacrifice, and they fought hard until they died in the face of an enemy with superior equipment, which was something to be proud of. Moreover, the task of blowing up the bridge that he received when he set off had already made it clear in advance that he was "going and not returning". Thinking of this, Second Lieutenant Sato rejected Kazuo Miyamoto's advice and insisted on waiting for help. Due to the increase in fresh troops, it was also dark, and Kazuo Miyamoto reorganized the remnants of the army and dug trenches to strengthen the fortifications. The Northeast Army used searchlights to illuminate Kazuo Miyamoto's position, directing the artillery on the west bank to fire, and the shells exploded in and around the position, detonating the mines in front of the Japanese army's position and the explosives buried in the formation, igniting the transport cars, and the fire burned all night.

On the afternoon of July 9, Lieutenant Batel of the 17th Mongolian Cavalry Regiment of the Northeast Army led the whole regiment to charge on horseback. There was a scuffle of knives and guns, and the second lieutenant Sato and his squad at the front were all cut and annihilated. Only Kazuo Miyamoto and 79 soldiers were left to resist in a bushy sand ditch, so that the exposed Chinese cavalry did not dare to rush closer. At this time, the tanks of the Northeast Army rushed up, and the "Walker" flamethrower tanks rushed forward from a slope, and the circular position of the army was instantly enveloped in flames and smoke. After a while, the gunfire thinned out. Eventually, it all stopped. I saw dozens of cavalry staggering out of the bunker, brandishing sabers and shouting "Hurray!" "Break forward. The tanks and armored vehicles of the Northeast Army swarmed up, crushing and pressing, and cleaned them up.

Kazuo Miyamoto drove the remnants of a dozen soldiers forward to divert the attention of the Northeast Army, and he himself fled into a depression. Battle immediately led the two warriors to crawl forward from the oblique thorns, and found a chubby officer in the grass in front of him, peeking forward with a telescope. Kazuo Miyamoto didn't notice that Battle was approaching him from behind. Lieutenant Battle took off his boots, jumped up and jumped close to hold the fat officer under him. But the fat officer was very strong, and the two rolled for a while, and Battle had to pull out his pistol and shoot the other party twice in the abdomen, and the fat officer did not move. Two soldiers also ran over, and when they checked, it was Kazuo Miyamoto, but unfortunately he was dead. Battle brought back the officer's epaulettes, picture bags, pistols and other items back to the troops, which was regarded as revenge for the division commander Tang Yulin.

In this battle, only 4 of the comptroller and wounded soldiers of Miyamoto's commando team survived, and the rest were all killed.

The other two attacks in Shanxian County also did not go well, and under the counterattack of the Northeast Army, they suffered heavy casualties and fled. The entire battlefield was full of traces of tank tracks, charred corpses of Japanese soldiers, destroyed armored vehicles, and the aftermath of smoke. The air is foul-smelling and dead. The soldiers were silent one by one, and their hearts trembled when they saw the rotten bones of the chariot run into the sand. Officers and soldiers, regardless of whether they were officers, carried a skeleton between them and quietly withdrew to the position of the headquarters of the Shan County Wing.

In front of the military flag, the county federation and 1,700 remnant soldiers mourned for three minutes in silence for more than 800 corpses that emitted a stench, and then the corpses were loaded into more than a dozen cars and transported back to Xinjing, where they will be burned as the first batch of ashes of this war, and transported back to their hometown to listen to the cries of their relatives. But those soldiers, who were crushed back and forth by Chinese tanks to the ground, along with the "Yamato Soul", will never go back.

In the battles of July 8 and 9, the infantry of the 64th Wing of the Chinese Army suffered a total of 4,368 casualties and missing personnel, which can be said to have been a great defeat.

In the first battle, the army suffered a heavy loss, so it quickly increased its troops in order to win the initiative before the Chinese [***] team attacked in a big way.

The General Staff Headquarters and the Ministry of War fully supported the Siberian garrison, transporting more than 50,000 troops from the mainland into the Eastern Siberian region and sending additional air force units. The war of the General Staff Headquarters and the Siberian garrison on the Sino-Chinese border was no longer aimed at occupying the east bank of the Sangye River, but about crossing the Sangye River on all fronts and attacking China in depth.

In the face of the escalation of the war, China's political axe decided to transfer Zhong Liwei to the post of commander of the 37th Armored Army to meet this modern war on a scale unprecedented in human history.

At the end of July 1942, Zhong Liwei, deputy commander of the Northwest Military Region of China's political axe, was conducting exercises with several assistants in the urban area of Harbin. Participating in the exercise were commanders, chiefs of staff, and operational staff officers of several tank corps of the cavalry regiment.

After the exercise, on 1 August, Zhong Liwei was giving a lecture at the headquarters of the 3rd Cavalry Corps of the Northwest Army. Suddenly, Yan Jing called: he ordered Zhong Liwei to leave immediately and report to the Supreme Command the next day.

Zhongli Health in 1899. In 1917, he was drafted into the [***] team, participated in the First World War and the Second War of Resistance against Japan, and has been the commander of the armored corps since 1925. The 39th Tank Regiment under his command was later reorganized into the first batch of high-speed tank regiments of the Chinese Political Axe, and Zhong Liwei served as the regiment commander for seven years, thus establishing his tank combat theory.

In 1931, Zhong Liwei served as the commander of the 2nd Brigade of the Armored Corps, commanding the 39th and 40th tank regiments. In 1934, he was the commander of the 5th Armored Division, in 1937 he was the commander of the 2nd Armored Corps, and then the 7th Corps of the Armored Corps.

During the Spanish Civil War, as a senior observer, Zhong Liwei went to the front line of the Spanish Civil War to inspect the ability and role of the Chinese political axe to support the Spanish Franco army's battle tanks.

Zhong Liwei was already a well-known tank expert in China at that time, and one of the advocates in China who advocated the large-scale use of tank reading power in combat. He advocated a combination of tanks, artillery, and motorized infantry, believing that this was the most effective means of warfare in terms of marching time and consolidating the results of the rapid mechanized troops.

It can be said that Zhong Liwei is a commander with a wealth of practical experience as an officer and a tank combat expert.

On August 2, Zhong Liwei, who was urgently summoned to Yanjing, walked into the office of War Minister Cai Yi in the early morning. Cai Yi raised his head from the map table, and after greeting Zhong Liwei, he said, "The army suddenly violated our borders, disrupting our advance attack plan. This is a map of the situation in the invasion area on July 28. ”

Cai pointed to the map and said: "In this area, the army has carried out small-scale provocative attacks on our border guards for a long time; In this area, the troops of the 23rd Division of the Chinese Army invaded on a large scale and attacked the border guards of our army defending the area east of the Sangye River. In my opinion, there may be serious military adventures in both the offensive and defensive strategies of the Northeast Army. In any case, it didn't end there...... Can you take off to that side at once, and, if you need to, take command of the army and take over the command of the troops? ”

Zhong Liwei suddenly realized that after careful selection, the Supreme Command arranged himself to fight on the chessboard of the East Siberian steppe. What kind of fate awaits him? He glanced at the map on the conference table and saw that a route of invasion had begun to be drawn east of the Mulberry River. Although he did not know what kind of army he would command at this time, and he did not know the details of his own army, he did not have any choice, and he was willing to take this opportunity to try his skills to meet difficulties and dangers. He immediately replied:

"Rest assured, minister! I can go over now! ”

"That's great!" Cai Ye said appreciatively: "The plane you take can be ready within 8 hours, at the central airport. You go to the General Staff, where you can get the necessary materials and at the same time discuss future contacts with the General Staff. Send you a couple of professional officers to wait for you on the plane. I wish you success! ”

After breaking up with Cai Yi, Zhong Liwei came to the General Staff Headquarters and met with Zhang Xiaozhun, Chief of the General Staff. Zhang Xiaozhun said: "I have nothing more to add, please find out the local situation as soon as you arrive at your destination, and then, frankly tell us your opinion." Immediately, the two arranged for future contact.

This summons did not sit down to study the map, nor did it study the strategy and tactics of the army. For such a big event, President Wu Peifu, who is the supreme commander, did not summon him. But in any case, this trip to the Far East will affect the fate of his entire life. In that case, he will fight this battle against all odds. You have to fight, you have to win, he realized that.

The plane flew in the direction of Eastern Siberia. Before reaching its destination, the plane landed in Chita and stopped for a while. Yang Yuting, commander of the Chita Military Region, and Zhang Wenhui, chief of staff, briefed Zhong Liwei on the new situation: The warplanes of the Chinese army penetrated deep into Central Siberia, chasing and strafing the cars and horses of the local people, and disrupting the army's supply lines.

On the morning of August 5, Zhong Liwei arrived at the front line and listened to the commander Guo Songling and the chief of staff Sun Liechen at the headquarters of the 37th Panzer Army about the battle east of the Sangye River, and did not take active military action. Zhong Liwei asked Commander Guo Songling: "Do you think that you can command troops from a place 120 kilometers away from the battlefield?" Guo Songling replied: "We are sitting here, of course, a little farther away. However, in the areas where there is conflict, we are not ready for operations. The front telephone and telegraph lines were not laid even for a kilometer, there were no ready-made command posts and landing sites, and drinking water was the biggest difficulty. ”

"What are you going to do in this situation?" Zhong Liwei asked.

"We sent people to get timber, and then we started building the command post."

Zhong Liwei learned that only Ma Zhanshan, the senior commander of the Northeast Army, had been to the battle area, so he asked Ma Zhanshan to accompany him to the east bank of the Sangye River to inspect the deployment of the positions of the enemy and us. Through the observation of the forward positions, Zhong Liwei believes that up to now, various circumstances have shown that the Yue army has not given up its attempt to invade Central Siberia and the Far East of China. It is estimated that the army will soon launch a large-scale military operation. At that time, the cavalry of the 37th Armored Corps and the Northeast Army of the Chinese Political Axe would be powerless to stop the military offensive of the Yue Army, if the enemy attacked simultaneously from Krashan, Chenjiakou, Alan Mountain, and other aspects.

After consulting with the commanders of the 37th Panzer Corps at the Returning Corps Headquarters, Zhong Liwei issued his first report to the Supreme Command. The report proposes to increase the number of troops to hold the landing ground on the east bank of the Sangye River, and at the same time prepare an operational plan for counter-assault from the depth. The next day, they received a reply, and the Supreme Command and the Chief of the General Staff fully agreed with Zhong Liwei and others' judgment on the situation and the plan of action for the next step.

On August 8, the Supreme Command ordered Guo Songling to be relieved of his post as commander of the 37th Armored Army and appointed Zhong Liwei as the commander of the army.

After Zhong Liwei assumed the post of commander of the 37th Armored Army, he immediately moved the headquarters of the general to the foot of Kra Mountain near the west bank of the Sangye River. Began to gather troops, store and transport military supplies. Military transport of the Trans-Siberian Railway began to get busy. A large number of military supplies were transported to the east bank of the Mulberry River.

With the arrival of Zhong Liwei, the Air Force was also strengthened: the 12th Fighter Regiment of the Air Force was transferred from the Northeast Military District, together with the former 101st Brigade of the Army Aviation Corps, for a total of 1,125 combat aircraft. A lot of field airfields have been opened in many places. The newly equipped P3M "Woolly Rhino" heavy fighter has already begun to maneuver around the aircraft in the air.

On 17 August, Marshal Zhang Zuolin, supreme commander of the Northeast Army, came to the front line of the Sangye River to inspect the combat units and strengthen the combat units of the Northeast Army.

At the same time as the Northeast Army increased its troops, the Yue Army also increased its troops again.

On 20 August, the Siberian Garrison added the 7th Division, which is the most elite mobile unit of the Siberian Garrison and is directly under the command of the Siberian Garrison. The division was formed in 1894 and has two brigades, four infantry wings, and a total of 25,000 soldiers. During the First Sino-Japanese War, it was subordinate to the 1st Army to attack the Liaodong Peninsula, and during the Russian War, it was subordinate to the 3rd Army and participated in the Battle of Liaoyang. It can be said that since its establishment, the 7th Division has always served as a strategic reserve of the base camp and has carried out the mission of mobile warfare, which is the pride of the army. In particular, the 26th and 28th Wings are well-known in the Army, and most of the students of the Noncommissioned Officer School of the Army are in the two wings of the 7th Division before graduation. They are recognized as the most effective units in Japan. At the end of World War I, when Ben and China jointly intervened in the Soviet Union, the 7th Division went to Siberia and became the main force in the northward march into Soviet Russia. Later, the 7th Division was stationed in Eastern Siberia, which allowed him to take this opportunity to strengthen his forces in the Far East, so the 7th Division was also considered the most suitable main force for fighting against China. Now, the 7th Wing of the 26th Division is on the march under the command of Ichiro Hasegawa Osa. At the same time, the 28th Brigade of the 2nd Wing also assembled at Mount Aran.

It is said that the three tank wings under the 1st Tank Division of the Army are stationed in Wuxingling, near Xinjing. Lieutenant General Masayomi Yasuoka, the commander of the division, was a classmate of Lieutenant General Komatsubara, and with 782 tanks and 537 armored vehicles, the division was the most elite tank unit in the world. After receiving the order, Lieutenant General Yasuoka led the 3rd and 4th tank wings to assemble at the Mount Alan railway station.

The Siberian Cavalry Division is the only field unit in this province and is directly subordinate to the headquarters of the Siberian garrison. Most of the officers of the division are born in the region, and most of them studied at the non-commissioned officer school of the local army. Most of the soldiers were born as farmers and herdsmen, and they were skilled in horsemanship and had good fighting quality, so they could be called "elite" as cavalry troops.

After the two sides make new preparations, a new fight is coming.

On August 21, 1942, Lieutenant General Toru Saga, commander of the 2nd Flying Regiment of the Honpo Air Force, moved his headquarters from Shinkyo, the capital of East Siberia, to Shirakaba.

(To be continued)