readx; The Kopet Mountains are a large mountain range on the border between northeastern Iran and Turkmenistan, and the natural dividing line between the two is the natural dividing line between Iran and China after Central Asia was occupied by China. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

In order to connect with the railway traffic with Iran, China's army and a large number of materials can directly reach the Persian Gulf region through the railway, so that this has just occupied Central Asia, China is eager to build a railway connecting the Central Asian railway and the Iranian railway network.

The railway, which is dubbed the 'China-Iraq Railway' by the Central Asia Kazakh branch of China Railway, will be China's best land access to Iran and the Middle East.

The military significance of this planned railway is far greater than its economic significance, and the State Military Commission has even raised the importance of the Sino-Iranian railway project above the Siberian defense line project, while the China-Burma Railway and the Thai-Burma Railway, which were also built as war-ready railways, have not received such attention.

Because once this railway is successfully built, it means that China's troops and a large number of military supplies can be continuously transported to Iran through the Central Asian Railway, the China-Iran Railway, and then use Iran as an advance base to attack the entire Middle East region. Although such a land transportation line is not as convenient as sea transportation in terms of convenience and throughput, it is safe enough for land transportation. Maritime transport is facing too many uncertainties, such as the Strait of Malacca, the British-occupied Ceylon and the coast of India, and the Red Sea and Persian Gulf regions under the full control of the British. These are very serious challenges for the Chinese navy, and as long as it does not completely control the Indian Ocean for a day, then large-scale military transportation by sea is unrealistic.

In this case, rail transport became the only reliable way for China to move westward, although it was possible to transport supplies from China's domestic industrial base, via the Northwest Railway or the Trans-Siberian Railway, and then along the Central Asian Railway. It's a long way to go. Moreover, most of these railways are also single-track railways, and the overall throughput is not high, but only for the perspective of combat readiness, it is enough.

Such a supply line would be enough for China to deploy more than half a million or more troops in the Middle East, which would be enough for China to defend its special interests in the region.

The construction of the Sino-Iranian railway is related to China's future Middle East policy and the question of how many troops China can deploy in the Middle East in the future. Even in order to open the Sino-Iranian railway more quickly, the military ordered the troops in Central Asia to carry out a comprehensive sweeping strike against the remnants of the Russian army, guerrillas and other illegal forces on the Sino-Iranian border, so as to prevent them from sabotaging the construction of the Sino-Iranian railway.

The Kopet Mountains have not only become the biggest obstacle to the Sino-Iranian Railway, but also the best base for the remnants of the Russian army and various guerrilla groups, which have taken advantage of the mountainous areas of the Kopet Mountains as their bases, hid in them and then plundered the surrounding areas, and even dared to rob the trains on the Central Asian Railway.

In the face of these guerrillas, which have developed towards terrorists and the increasingly serious threat of terrorist attacks on the Central Asian Railway, members of the Chinese state military rank have for the first time set up a garrison command in a non-core local area, namely the Turkmenbashi Garrison Command, which is fully responsible for the defense affairs of the southern region of Central Asia. In addition, the units under the jurisdiction of the Fourth Army stationed along the Central Asian Railway will also cooperate with the local garrison to launch a clearance attack against the guerrillas.

The commander of the first Turkmenbashi Garrison Command was not a general transferred from the country, but Lieutenant General Cheng Zixian, the former commander of the Fifth Army.

Speaking of Cheng Zixian, he was relatively unlucky, his Fifth Army was blocked in Ares for many days, and then finally conquered Ares, but this credit was robbed by Li Yuting of the Third Division, which made Lieutenant General Cheng Zixian face an extremely embarrassing situation, that is, everyone else thought that if Li Yuting's Third Division had not taken Turkestan and blocked the reinforcements of several divisions of the Russian army, then the Fifth Army would not have been able to take Ares.

In the Chinese Army, a huge military group, it is a situation where if you don't advance, you will retreat, and if everything goes well, you will be able to slowly get up, and once you have made a meritorious service, you will immediately soar up like a rocket. But once you make a mistake, even if you don't make a mistake with Cheng Zixian, if you don't perform well, you will immediately be thrown into the cold palace.

No, as soon as the Sino-Russian War ended, Cheng Zixian was transferred from the position of commander of the Fifth Army, and then transferred to the Turkmenistan Garrison Command as the commander.

The number of generals in the Chinese Army is still relatively large in the world, and those who have retired are not counted; if we only count the active service, the army has a total of 19 generals and 152 lieutenant generals, a decrease of nearly 900 people, and a total of about 1,200 people. Although this number is relatively large in the world, if we take into account China's huge army strength, then we will find that the number of generals and officers in the Chinese army is still at a relatively low level.

This is mainly due to the fact that China has always strictly controlled the relationship between military ranks and positions, and there is only one major general and division commander in an infantry division of 18,000 men. There will never be such a thing as a major general, deputy division commander or major general's chief of staff, these positions are all colonels' positions.

And even if it is an army that also adopts the master establishment, he is also a lieutenant general, a division commander, and there are several major generals and brigade commanders below. Needless to say, the Russians will not be able to, their division is only a few thousand people.

Most of the more than 1,000 generals are in civilian positions, and only a relatively small number are actually serving in field units. For example, among the more than 150 lieutenant generals, the real core positions are the positions of the commanders of the 20 or so lieutenant generals and the deputy chief of operations of the General Staff, and the other positions of commanders of the garrison headquarters can only be said to be transitional or pension positions.

Although the position of the Turkmenbashi Garrison Command is located in Central Asia and is not as completely old as those garrison commanders in China, it is difficult for an ambitious general who is moving towards the rank of general or even marshal.

When he learned that he had been transferred from the position of commander of the Fifth Army to the commander of the Turkmenbashi garrison, Cheng Zixian even had a disheartened desire to retire, but the ambition in his heart finally made him endure it, after all, the Turkmenbashi garrison command is different from those garrison commands in China, this position is due to the fact that Central Asia is a newly occupied area, and at the same time, there are a large number of remnant resistance forces active on the Sino-Iranian and China-Afghanistan borders, which are all used to accumulate military merits.

In the current situation where the domestic war has stopped for a while and there is no large-scale foreign war, this is not an opportunity for Cheng Zixian to rise again, as long as he can make achievements in Central Asia, let the boss pay attention to and restore confidence in himself, then he will not have the day of re-rise.

With this in mind, Cheng Zixian made up his mind to eradicate the guerrillas and other illegal armed forces near the Central Asian Railway and in the entire southern part of Central Asia.

Turkmenbashi City, this small coastal city on the Caspian Sea has developed rapidly since it became the starting point of the Central Asian Railway, not only the commercial economy has developed rapidly, but also has a lot of industrial facilities, but like other cities in Central Asia, when Soviet Russia took the initiative to retreat from Central Asia last year, it took almost all the industrial facilities away, and half of the screw could not be left, and China's control of Central Asia is relatively short, and now the situation in Central Asia and Siberia and other newly occupied areas is not stable, Although China encourages domestic immigrants to come here, it does not encourage domestic industrial and commercial enterprises to invest here, after all, the risk is still relatively high.

However, due to the abundant resources in Central Asia, in addition to a large number of agricultural and animal husbandry resources, there are also a lot of mineral resources, but then again, China is not short of too many mineral resources, only some rare minerals and copper ore and the like are resumed and developed.

In order to increase the self-sufficiency of the armed forces in Central Asia and Siberia and avoid relying entirely on the domestic material assistance of the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Northwest Railway, the State Military Commission took the lead and invited some domestic defense contractors to build factories in Central Asia, and these factories are only limited to arsenals, and there are still relatively few other livelihood enterprises.

Under the influence of China's overall strategy towards Central Asia, Turkmenbashi has gradually regained its former economic vitality and used its special military and political position to enhance its status in Central Asian cities.

This is because Turkmenbashi is not only the terminus of the Central Asian Railway, but also the Turkmenbashi Garrison Command, one of the two major garrison commands set up by the Chinese side in Central Asia, the division headquarters of the 21st Division, the headquarters of the 16th Air Force Wing, and the Seventh Coastal Defense Fleet of the Navy, that is, the headquarters of the Caspian Sea Fleet.

Since the Caspian Sea is an inland lake, the Chinese Navy cannot directly enter the Caspian Sea with warships, but the Caspian Sea is such a large saltwater lake, and it is opposite and the territory of Soviet Russia in the north, so the Chinese Navy cannot ignore it. Since it is impossible to mobilize warships from the sea or rivers, the Chinese Navy can only use railways to transport some small ships, such as patrol boats, torpedo boats, and other small boats, to the Caspian Sea to carry out some regular patrol tasks, and at the same time intends to build a medium-sized shipyard in Turkmenbashi, not seeking how big warships can be built, but those patrol ships and frigates of several hundred tons must be able to be built, otherwise how to threaten the Soviet Union and Baku on the other side of the Caspian Sea!

Turkmenbashi has become an important Chinese garrison in Central Asia due to its geographical location, and the presence of a large number of military personnel has further enlivened the commercial economy of Turkmenbashi, and tens of thousands of Chinese soldiers have come to this Caspian coastal city from far away country, bringing not only guns and bullets, but also Chinese dollars and huge consumer demand.

In a small castle in Turkmenbashi, with a distinctly Orthodox style, Cheng Zixian and several of his generals discussed a plan to eliminate the guerrillas.

"Yesterday's aerial reconnaissance has proved that there is at least a guerrilla force of more than 500 people in the direction of Bugdere, and these people are different from the guerrillas we have found in the past, they are not only poorly equipped guerrillas, but a cavalry, and it is believed that there are quite a few machine guns, mortars and even bazookas." Lieutenant Colonel An Yuanwei, commander of the Turkmenbashi garrison, pointed to the map on the table.

At this time, Colonel Bai Shiyong of the Central Asian Railway Garrison Regiment on the other side said: "If it is really a cavalry, and the equipment is not bad, it should be the remnants of the Russian army!" ”

"It can't be said for sure that they are remnants of the Russian army, and it may also be remnants of the Soviet army!" Cheng Zixian next to him said: "When the Russians attacked Soviet Russia before, Soviet Russia also scattered a lot of remnants in this area, they used to fight against the Russian army in the situation of guerrilla warfare, but now they are just fighting against us!" ”

"Russians? Do they still have the energy to fight us? Lieutenant Colonel An Yuanwei said: "Now that the Russians are too busy to take care of themselves, it is unlikely that they will still send personnel to carry out activities in this area!" ”

"Whoever they are, they must be wiped out!" Cheng Zixian said: "The troops of the two of you are ready, Lieutenant Colonel An, draw a battalion from your regiment, and then Colonel Bai draw a company from your regiment to form a reinforced battalion and prepare to attack!" ”

At this time, Bai Shiyong said: "Commander, this enemy is cavalry, although we also have some trucks, but I am afraid that this mobile surname will not be able to keep up!" ”

Cheng Zixian said: "It's okay, I have already greeted the 21st Division, and they will send a reconnaissance battalion to cooperate with the operation at that time!" ”

An Yuanwei heard that the 21st Division would send a reconnaissance battalion to help in the battle, and immediately put a smile on his face: "If there is a reconnaissance battalion of the 21st Division to help in the battle, then naturally there will be no problem!" ”

In a division, the strongest combat effectiveness is not those formal infantry battalions, but the divisional reconnaissance battalions. The reconnaissance battalion in the infantry division of the Chinese Army was reorganized from the original cavalry battalion, and later gradually changed to a reconnaissance battalion equipped with armored vehicles, trucks, jeeps, and motorcycles. Since the equipment is much better than that of ordinary infantry battalions, the combat effectiveness of reconnaissance battalions is also stronger than that of ordinary infantry battalions.

The next day, two Chinese troops left the city one after the other, and then headed directly to the south. Before they set off, a number of F5 fighters of the 16th Wing had already taken to the south to reconnoitre.

In order to achieve good reconnaissance results, this group of four F5 fighters did not fly very high, and the speed was relatively slow. In accordance with the usual tactical requirements for reconnaissance, these four planes were grouped in groups of two, with the long plane in each group carrying out ground reconnaissance at medium and low altitudes, and the wingman carrying out air alert at medium altitudes.

However, in this airspace, except for the planes of the Chinese Air Force, there are no planes from the air forces of other countries, so the pilots of this squad are also a little relaxed, and the pilots laugh and curse through the radio from time to time.

After an hour of reconnaissance flight, the long plane in front of him said: "It's strange, where did these Russians go, you can't run too far this night!" ”

The wingman in the rear said: "Lieutenant, look at the front left, there seems to be something wrong with it!" ”

The pilot of the long plane in front turned his gaze to the left front, and then found a small black dot on the ground in front of the left, and when he saw this small black spot, he shouted happily: "Found it, it's them, quickly send a telegram to the ground troops, and tell the enemy where the enemy is located!" ”

But soon the wingman in the back shouted again: "Be careful, they have anti-aircraft machine guns!" ”

At this time, the pilot of the long plane saw that several machine guns in the Russian army on the ground were strafing at him, at this time, because his altitude was relatively low, and the original speed was not very fast, so the Russian anti-aircraft machine gun swept over, and several bullets were hit on the wing.

Hurriedly increased the speed, and then climbed in a left circle, which was to get rid of the strafing fire of the Russian anti-aircraft machine guns below.

"It's so dangerous, I almost fell on the road without paying attention just now!" The pilot breathed a sigh of relief, and then after pulling up the height, he made another disc turn, and muttered: "Damn, you still dare to resist, people who don't know still think that your grandfather didn't go out with a bullet!" ”

Immediately after circling to the right, it went straight into a dive state, and a few seconds later the F5 fighter threw four 50-kilogram aerial bombs under the wings. After the aerial bomb was dropped, the F5 fighter did not pull up the fuselage, but continued to approach the Russian guerrillas on the ground at high speed in a dive state, and a few seconds later, the four 12.7 mm aviation machine guns of the F5 fighter were already firing, and the bullets were sprinkled on the ground like a rain curtain in a storm, tearing apart the human body and the body of the horse.

After this F5 fighter, several other F5 fighters have also entered the attack state one after another, and after just ten minutes, these four F5 fighters have almost run out of ammunition, leaving more than a dozen corpses of Russian guerrillas on the ground.

However, the terrain here is somewhat complicated, and it is not very conducive to bombing by Air Force aircraft.

After finding the enemy and carrying out the first wave of air strikes, two of the four F5 fighters first returned home, at the same time they also reported in the direction of Turkmenbashi: "The enemy was found at 16 o'clock in Turkmenbashi, at a distance of 300 ......."

After discovering the enemy, the 16th Wing in Turkmenbashi quickly took off a mixed bombing formation composed of more than 20 B12 bombers and F5 fighters, preparing to carry out a large-scale air attack on this group of Russian guerrillas. The infantry battalion sent by the Turkmenbashi garrison was also ordered to reinforce the area where the incident occurred, and to cooperate with the reconnaissance battalion on the 21st in order to completely annihilate this guerrilla force.

A skirmish is about to break out on the Sino-Iranian border, and similar skirmishes are happening almost every day, and the various rebels in China's newly occupied territory will not be cleaned up for a while, but Chen Jingyun believes that as long as he is given enough time, it will not be too much of a problem to completely control the newly occupied areas.

The guerrillas and other resistance forces did not worry Chen Jingyun too much, what really worried Chen Jingyun was that the British and the Soviet Russians showed fierce opposition to their move into the Middle East, and when China proposed to build the Sino-Iranian railway, Britain could not wait to jump out and directly say that it was opposed, and even strengthened its forces in Iraq and northwest India despite the crisis in India and Australia.

China's big move into Iran, into the Middle East, is not so easy and calm.