After ceding the city to the Soviet army, the squadron gave up the inside and outside and completed the outer encirclement of the Soviet Russian army, but the resistance of the Soviet army, which owned the entire city in the last battle, became even stronger. The Chinese artillery group, as well as the Soviet Russian Imperial Allied Army, and the Li Pinxian Division of the 1st Chinese Infantry Division also arrived on the periphery of Berkrovsk to complete the encirclement. Several attacks by the Imperial Allied Army were beaten by wolves, and Krastov jumped and screamed in anger.

Wang Maoru appointed Ren Yuanxing as the commander-in-chief of the front, and he sent the 11th Cavalry Division, the 7th Division, and the 9th Cavalry Brigade south to block the Kursk Infantry Division and the 29th Infantry Division of the 8th Army of the Soviet Southern Front Army that were advancing north from Tsarizingrad to support. After the enemy Volsk Infantry Division merged with the two armies, it once again turned back and attacked the squadron. In the face of this unit that could not be killed, Ren Yuanxing was so angry that he scolded the unit for being a nasty cockroach that could not be killed. After this battle, because of Ren Yuanxing's abuse, the Russian Volsk Infantry Division got a glorious nickname Cockroach Infantry Division, and the Russians were very proud of this nickname and were triumphant.

Under the combined attack of the 7th and 11th Cavalry Divisions of the Army, the 9th Cavalry Brigade of Zhang Baowu, the Soviet support unit to the north had to stop at a distance of 200 kilometers south of Berkrovsk. The two sides did not dare to attack each other lightly, the Soviet army had the protection of the river fleet, while the Chinese side had the advantage of cavalry, of course, the purpose of the Soviet army was only to create time for the withdrawal of the 1st Army, and the Longqing Division was only to contain the enemy, and the two sides invariably confronted each other.

In a small mountain village east of Berkrovsk, in the newly built Volga Army headquarters, staff officers were constantly running around, and the Russians were also talking in foreign languages, looking chaotic, but everyone's faces were full of confidence that they were about to win.

"They're all in Berkrovsk, right?" Wang Maoru asked.

Xiong Bingtao nodded, and said with some hesitation on his face: "Yes, it's just...... Xiu Shuai, isn't it a bit of a gas bomb...... Too inhumane? It's—it's kind of cruel. ”

Wang Maoru laughed and said, "Deputy Chief of Staff Xiong, do you still want to follow Song Xianggong as a teacher of benevolence and righteousness?" War means destroying the opponent at all costs, and our advantage over the Soviet army is the advanced nature of our weapons. Rather than the number of soldiers and military supplies, know that we are at a disadvantage in both respects. The so-called attacking the shortcomings of the other with one's own strengths is the key point of the soldiers. ”

Xiong Bingtao nodded and reported: "Our army's ammunition has been insufficient, and the military supplies have been consumed in the past twelve days...... It's consumed too fast. Especially shells. More strict zhòng insufficient. ”

Wang Maoru knew this well, sighed and smacked his lips: "It's difficult!" This is the disadvantage of our war in a foreign country, and if it were not for the supply of other armaments from Tsarist Russia, I am afraid that our hundreds of thousands of troops would have been trapped here. That's right. Pay attention to informing all armies to store supplies. ”

"Stockpiling supplies?" Xiong Bingtao said in surprise, "Do you want to hit ......?"

Wang Maoru shook his head and said: "Just in case, if our battle continues until winter, it will be too difficult for our army to supply, and we will have to fight with bayonets after we don't save some now." ”

On May 15, 1919, the new political commissar of the 1st Army, Zinoviev, led 6,000 reinforcements to Saratov. With the help of Saratov's shore defense artillery and the river flotilla, Zinoviev led 6,000 Soviet Russian ** to cross the Volga River to the opposite bank of Berkrovsk and took over the command of the 1st Army.

Now the shape shì was very unfavorable for the Soviet 1st Army, and its Volsk Infantry Division broke out and joined up with the Kursk Infantry Division and the 29th Infantry Division to start a confrontation in the south. The 49th Infantry Division was completely destroyed, the Berkrovsk Armed Workers' Brigade was destroyed, the Saratov Armed Workers' Brigade was destroyed, and the 1st and 5th Turkestan Cavalry Divisions were destroyed. The rest of the army was ambushed and fled to Central Asia, and it can be said that the 1st Soviet Russian Army was greatly damaged. Acting Commander Gay was already ready for the next military trial, and his excuse was that neither of these defeats was my responsibility, but due to Tukhachevsky's rashness in the early stage and Zinoviev's escapism in the later period, and it was not my fault. I hope Trotsky will understand.

After occupying Berkrovsk in its entirety, Gay ordered the troops to retreat across the river to the west, but because the Chinese burned almost all the wood during the withdrawal, it was extremely difficult to guide the Soviet troops to cross the river. In three days, only most of the 31st Division and two battalions of the 24th Division of the Simbirsk Iron Army and several thousand wounded soldiers crossed the river inland.

Also remaining in the city of Berkrovsk are the 24th Division of the Simbirsk Iron Army and the 15th Infantry Division. The 1st Infantry Division of Turkestan, the Turkestan Militia Division, and the 4th Division of the Moscow Armed Workers totaled more than 57,000 people, plus the 6,000 Soviet Russian Central ** Regiment that had just arrived, totaling 63,000 people.

Gay reported his intentions to Zinoviev, who was noncommittal and immediately sent Gay back to Saratov on the west bank of the Volga River to take charge of the army and take command of the army himself. Gay left Berkrovsk full of regret, and he said to Zinoviev: "The siege of the city can effectively prevent the enemy's heavy artillery from striking our army, and now we have sufficient supplies and the fire support of the river fleet behind us, which is enough to fight a war of annihilation in this city." Although Zinoviev did not say whether he would follow his plan, he stopped the plan to withdraw his troops from Saratov and demanded that the army build fortifications and provide as much support as possible after Gay returned to Saratov. Gay was very glad that Zinoviev was able to listen to him, and after returning to Hexi, he mobilized two divisions and 200 machine guns to Berkrovsk to strengthen their defense.

However, to Zinoviev's embarrassment, because the Russians of the 1st Army were hostile to the yellow-skinned Chinese, dozens of Soviet soldiers attacked and beat the ** regiment that day, and several incidents of soldiers of the ** regiment being assassinated by the Russians on the street. This made Zinoviev furious, and he immediately issued a notice saying that the ** regiment was different from the Chinese intervention army, and that they were international fighters who supported the Soviets. The soldiers of the ** regiment also felt that they were deeply wronged, and everyone complained to the regiment commander Zhang Furong, who could only order that the Chinese soldiers should not fight with the Russians, and finally let them stay in the barracks honestly and not go out. Although they did not go out, what made it even more unbearable for the Chinese was that the food provided to them by the 1st Army was extremely poor, and they were reprimanded by them for treating them as pig food.

Zhang Furong couldn't bear to find Zinoviev on behalf of the Central ** Regiment to complain and protest, Zinoviev comforted him, and admitted that he had insufficient investigation and did not expect that the Russians had such a great hatred for the Chinese. In the past half a month of fighting, what kind of tragic battles took place between China and the Soviet Union -- the Soviet 1st Army was reduced by almost half of its troops, how could this not make them hold grudges.

Zinoviev had just presided over a meeting of the 1st Soviet Army, emphasizing the need to hold Berkrovsk, and before he even had time to inspect each unit, he was bombarded by the squadron's long-planned poison gas bombs.

In order to cooperate with the release of poison gas bombs, at 0:00, 1 o'clock and 2 o'clock in the morning on May 18, the Volga Army carried out shelling and harassment, and finally officially released poison gas to the rest of the Soviet 1st Army at 3 o'clock in the morning. The encirclement of the squadron retreated three kilometers outward, and the few gas masks were distributed to the front-line sentinels. In fact, after the poison gas bomb arrived in China with the Fourth Division of the participating army, Wang Maoru had already densely transported it to Manchuria, and the poison gas bomb production plant was located in Gannan County, Heilongjiang Province.

At three o'clock in the morning on May 17, 1919, under the cover of artillery fire, all the heavy artillery of the Volga Army simultaneously fired poison gas shells at Berkrovsk, and 3,000 rounds of 122-mm grenades and gas shells landed on the city of Berkrovsk on the east bank of the Volga River.

The night sky of the Tatar steppes is shining, although there is no moon tonight, but the stars are shining all around, and Berkrovsk is close to the Volga River, and although it is in May, the temperature here can drop to fifteen or sixteen degrees at night. The Russian soldiers, who were hiding in the trenches, simply wrapped their quilts around themselves and leaned against the side of the trenches and fell asleep exhaustedly. The Chinese changed their mode of warfare, using fast-moving rocket launchers and sharpshooters to harass Soviet Russian soldiers, and changed the compression of the enemy's living space to killing and injuring the living forces of Soviet Russia.

Tonight, the Chinese are still so annoying, they are not afraid of the Chinese's heavy artillery, but they are afraid of the Chinese's infantry. The artillery was just a cover for the infantry charge, and the Chinese's artillery fire gradually became less sharp, maybe they didn't have shells.

Sentinel Ivan. Petrovich. Nikolov listened attentively with his ears sticking out, he hung a lot of canned boxes on the barbed wire, and whenever the Chinese touched these canned boxes, they would definitely make a noise. It was a different sound than when the wind was blowing, and Nikolov's ears were so sensitive that he could hear it.

"This damn night, and the damn yellow pig!" He said to himself, not long after they had just finished shelling, everyone waited nervously for a while, the Chinese did not attack, well, everyone sleep.

However, as a sentry, Nikolov had to lie on the roof of the building to observe the distance, and he felt a little cold, so he tugged at his clothes, and felt as if the wind was blowing.

Feeling that there was no movement, he squatted aside with a gun, and thought of being bullied by the police when he was in the countryside, but that policeman Mazarov should be rotten by now, damn the old Russian policeman, call you to bully me, call you to rape my sister, revolution together, you were killed by me, right? Your sister was raped by me, right? You brought it all upon yourself. Thinking of the white and tender body of the eighth-grade middle school girl, Nikolov couldn't help but feel a flutter in his heart, sure enough, the fourteen-year-old girl tasted good. Compared to Isha, a thirty-year-old cook with whom he cheated, Mazarov's sister had the aroma of a virgin. I don't know whose hands she is now, if she hadn't been pulled to the front by conscription, he would have wanted to keep her imprisoned in his cowshed.