@@@@@@@@@

"We are surrounded!"

The news of the defeat, faster than the Siberian north winds, swept across the entire eastern part of Kazakhstan in just one day. Whether it was the northern front, which was scattered by tanks, or the southern front, which was struggling to defend on Mount Aitaau, every trench, every bunker, and every headquarters was spreading the news wildly. To confirm this, hundreds of radio stations sent inquiries to Karaganda, but they were responded to with nothing but silence or silence.

Food is close to running out, ammunition is running out, and fuel for heating is more precious than gold. Faced with such a situation, the front-line commanders and fighters had to inquire about several other material hoarding points and send electricity to distant Omsk or even Chelyabinsk, but the results were very disappointing to the front-line commanders and fighters. The second largest warehouse of supplies, Shakhtinsk Silence, just thirty kilometers from Karaganda, and Pavlodar, one of the logistics general hospitals and distribution centers for supplies. Aksu Ayurey was silent, Taraz did not know the truth, and Chelyabinsk and Omsk answered only a short sentence.

"Don't believe the rumors, just wait."

Wait, how long do you have to wait? Even Moscow does not know. From the rapid deepening of the territory of 60,000 square kilometers in a few days, to the loss of Pavlodar and Karaganda one after another, and the encirclement of a million troops, in just 25 days, Moscow's mood was faster than the plane diving down!

Legend has it that Comrade Stalin had smashed several teacups and knocked his beloved pipe to pieces. Chairman Kalinin and Zhdanov went to the East for the first time, and even Motolov is said to have gone to Germany again to seek advanced weapons to restrain the Chinese Air Force.

Support, we must support as soon as possible!

The Kremlin's orders were clear, but the General Staff of the Soviet Army and the Eastern General Command in Chelyabinsk were in a hurry. From the Urals to Kazakhstan, heavy snow has fallen. Many roads are impassable. And there are only two railways from Europe to Central Asia, the first is a branch of the Trans-Siberian Railway, Omsk - Pavlodar - Karaganda - and finally to Rezkazgan. The second is for South Kazakhstan to enter Uzbekistan via the Caspian coast, and then extend to Turkmenistan, Dushanbe, Tashkent and Turkestan, respectively. As for the railway that flows along the Syr Darya River through the Aral Sea to the main line of Orenburg in the Second Five-Year Plan, only the section of the Syr Darya River in South Kazakhstan was repaired as a result of defections.

It seems that there are a lot of railway miles, but in fact there are many problems. The southward route to Omsk was cut off at Pavlodar, and the southern section of Tashkent and Turkestan was not connected by 200 km, that is, even if there were enough troops. After arriving in Omsk and Tashkent, they also had to walk hundreds of kilometers into the battlefield.

Moreover, the USSR was seriously short of trucks, and the second five-year plan stumbled and has not achieved its goals so far, so many truck factories that came to the reservation are only half completed, and how many military trucks are used? Let alone. Moscow has raised 50,000 trucks for the Kazakh Front, which has led to a shortage of trucks in other parts of Central Asia, and all the current factories have been prioritized for the production of T-34 tanks, airplanes and artillery, and there is no production capacity at all.

Since it is difficult to support in the European direction, it can only be transferred to the nearest place.

Chief of Staff Voroshilov quickly figured out a way to move the 200,000 Soviet troops in Herat, Afghanistan, north, and mobilize another 200,000 troops along the way. In this way, 400,000 men were raised, and then the 400,000 Soviet troops from Taraz broke through to join the Aitau Mountains, and finally opened a gap in Balkhash for the East Kazakh troops to break through from here.

But as soon as this plan was proposed. was slapped on the table by Budyonny and Timoshenko, who had long been unaccustomed to him. "When the Red Army is one of those imperialist losers who dispatch hundreds of transport planes at every turn? A 1,500-kilometer long-distance expedition would take seven or eight days even if it could be reached. What's more, don't say seven or eight days now, three or four days won't work! The front-line soldiers are already killing horses to fill their hunger, and many troops even have only a few bullets left! ”

Voroshilov's face was gloomy. Yes, you are cowardly. Then I'll go to the daring, put away the plan, and prepare to go to the Kremlin with the public bag in my pocket. But just got to the door. Bad news again. At eight o'clock in the morning of November 14, Isfahan and Arak were simultaneously captured by the Chinese Persian Gulf Army, 50,000 Soviet troops were annihilated, and the forward of the Chinese Defense Forces was already less than 40 kilometers away from Qom, known as the southern gate of Tehran. At the same time, three infantry divisions came out of nowhere in the mountains of northern Iran and, with the help of tens of thousands of guerrillas and pack horses, suddenly launched a surprise attack on Mashhad. A Soviet infantry division stationed there resisted hard, but was outnumbered and gradually lost control and had to withdraw to Herat to join the Albanian army.

The eastern gate of Iran's Northern Railway was opened!

Before the crippled infantry division could reach Herat, another Wehrmacht outflanking force of 30,000 infantry and an armored regiment emerged from the Kelif Depression in the southeastern corner of Turkmenistan and quickly captured the unsuspecting Mare, cutting off the Afghan Front from Herat back to Turkmenistan.

In just three days in Mashhad, Mare and Badgis and Ghor provinces in Afghanistan, the third encirclement was formed!

By the afternoon, news came from Tashkent. For the first time, the Chinese Andijan Army, which had been relying on the Khujand fortress for defense, broke out of the fortress and, according to reports from the front, at least three or four regiments entered the Gulistan Plain and attacked the troops of the Uzbek Front here, destroying 37 tanks and hundreds of vehicles. The Uzbek Front, in pursuit, had to abandon the pursuit after being shelled from a covering 35 km away by three 305-mm fortified guns.

On the morning of November 15, taking advantage of the snowfall, the Wehrmacht Kazakh Army also dispatched bombers to bomb the Soviet military warehouse in Taraz for the first time using incendiary bombs.

At this time, Voroshilov no longer dared to sell his plan of attack, so he had to return to the original plan, mobilize reinforcements from the Urals and the Don River, and at the same time order the Siberian Army Group to attack Semiy and Pavlov with all its might, trying to open the gap, and strictly ordered the front-line troops to wait for reinforcements.

When Moscow was desperately pumping troops everywhere, Xu Shuzheng and the Kazakh Army were not idle. Due to the gradually bad weather and the fear of a Soviet counteroffensive, the Kazakh Army Group also took out all its funds this time. Even many of the troops who had just been transferred from the interior had not yet adapted to the weather when they were sent to strengthen the encirclement defenses, and at the same time ordered four assault groups to speed up.

"Sir, how far is Akchatau?"

A convoy of Balkhash crossings stopped in front of Zhuo Fan. The convoy crossed from Balkhash, and the warrant officer led the team wore special snow-blind sunglasses and asked for directions in a Jiangnan accent. For southerners, even if they have trained in the north, stay in this vast grassland with continuous snowfall. It's also easy to lose your sense of direction.

"Continue 75 kilometers north, about 3 hours."

"Thank you, sir." The warrant officer was very polite, saluted and thanked him, returned to the car, and left two cigarettes from the escorted supplies.

Zhuo Fan smoked a cigarette and looked at the convoy. This is a standard logistics fleet. At first glance, there are 200 10-wheeled trucks with non-slip chains, 20 tanker trucks, and about 700 pack horses. To prevent attacks, they were also escorted by six support half-track armored vehicles. The trucks were loaded with containers that had only recently been used, and they had been specially modified so that they could not only be reused, but also that they could be converted into makeshift housing in half an hour with just a few soldiers after the contents were removed. Coupled with some oil-burning stoves, it has become the most urgently needed simple wintering housing for front-line soldiers.

Each container can hold eight soldiers. With a standardized design, it can be combined into a restaurant, conference room, etc. In addition to the simple and cramped facilities, the effect of sheltering from the wind and cold is very good, after covering with a white tarpaulin. It can also be protected against aerial reconnaissance.

Before, because it was a defense, the supply pressure was not great, but with the formation of an encirclement, the battle line expanded outward for hundreds of kilometers. Supply became the top priority of the army group. In order to ensure the needs of the troops, the command invested hundreds of such supply convoys. A total of 20,000 containers have been shipped to field forces in the past few days. Fortunately, due to the rapid action, the huge material base of the Soviet army in Karaganda and Pavlodar and other places that had been stored for several years was controlled, which greatly reduced the pressure on the command, otherwise it would probably be worried about delaying for too long and causing poor supply and being surrounded by others. On the contrary, due to the loss of these supplies, the Soviet troops in the encirclement could not hold out for long, and even if they did not fight the few supplies they had left, they would not last until the end of the month. As the weather gets colder, surrender is only a matter of time.

However, there was no happiness on his face, and his eyebrows slowly squeezed together at the thought of the new task of the chief of staff.

"Zhuo Fan!"

When he was worried that the weather would cause the "horse pole" to miscarry, Ye Zishan drove over from the direction of Balkhash with a half-track armored battalion, and immediately jumped out of the car when he saw him: "On a snowy day, what kind of scenery can you see here?" ”

"Yo, our big hero is back, have you received a letter of love from a female reporter? I heard that there are a lot of female college students this time. Zhuo Fan asked with a smile. It turned out that for the sake of propaganda, the Ministry of Defense specially invited reporters and representatives of university students to visit Almaty, and also summoned all the combat heroes who had recently emerged to meet with them face-to-face. Ye Zishan calmly commanded on the night of the airborne, led the troops to stop hundreds of enemy tanks, and avoided major losses of the troops, making him the most important star figure at the meeting.

But Ye Zishan was a little shy, and covered his mouth with a red cheek: "Don't talk nonsense, I have a girlfriend." ”

"Okay, okay." The two laughed for a while, and Zhuo Fan turned his head to look at the half-track armored battalion: "How many?" ”

"A reinforced battalion with a total of 72 iron oxen. There are 42 troop carriers, 16 support vehicles, and 14 assault vehicles. You see, each vehicle is also equipped with a towed ammunition and fuel truck, all of which are new goods that have just arrived in Changchun. Ye Zishan introduced his achievements in Almaty.

Changchun L1937 half-track vehicle is an important supplement to the army's armored forces, although the first army and a few other troops have begun to equip full-track armored vehicles, but the price of full-track is expensive, one can purchase three half-tracks, and the technology and maintenance are simpler than full-track, so the troops like it very much, and give it a nickname called "Iron Bull".

The chassis of the Iron Bull is actually enlarged after the ten-wheel heavy truck chassis has been lengthened by two meters, and the rear is suspended by simple and easy-to-build horizontal springs, with two groups on each side. This chassis is the same as the chassis of the earliest T2 armored vehicle (Bren machine gun car) of the Wehrmacht, which has long been thoroughly eaten in China. Because it is two meters longer, the weight of the whole car is increased to 10 tons, and a 250-horsepower six-cylinder diesel engine is used, which has good speed and cross-country ability.

It has many models, the most basic type of troop carrier, which is simple and easy to manufacture, the car is closed, from the tail up and down, the cold area uses engine cooling circulating water to heat the car, and two additional kerosene heating stoves are installed. A 127 mm heavy machine gun on the top, an HJ32 general-purpose machine gun on the left and right, can carry 18 heavily armed soldiers, and can also hang a 2-ton ammunition and fuel trailer.

The fire type was changed to a 25 mm or 40 mm gun, the assault type was equipped with a 105 mm cannon, and the fire suppression type, the 120 mm heavy mortar type, and so on.

Yuan Zhuofan didn't plan to take the iron ox on a mission, and in any case, its speed was not as fast as that of a wheeled hound, but the continuous heavy snow in the past few days made him worry that the wheeled armored vehicles and trucks would not be able to undertake the operation. And whether the Falcon Commando can be dispatched has also become a suspense, so it was decided to add a half-track reinforced battalion, with these big guys, if necessary, they can also attack.

With the completion of the encirclement, the large-scale surrender of the Soviet army was imminent, and the horse-mounted pole operation was urgent, so after listening to it, he immediately asked: "Have you got everything?" ”

"I got it, in addition to the reconnaissance photos, the military intelligence also sent people to help, I heard that they have been on a long-term mission in the local area, they are very familiar with the terrain, and two Kazakh guides also came. By the way, Commander Xu also asked me to remind you that the Military Intelligence Agency is plotting against the local Kazakh cavalry division recently, so let's pay attention when we act and try not to cause too many contradictions. Ye Zishan said as he rummaged through the bag to get a piece, and Zhuo Fan hurriedly interrupted: "Let's see on the road." ”

"On the way? Are you going to leave now? ”

"Yes." Zhuo Fan looked at the sky: "I don't know how long it will take." The snow is getting deeper and deeper, and if you don't go again, the snow will be too thick and you will be in trouble. Besides, once the Soviet army surrenders on a large scale, the main forces will have to penetrate southward, and in case the target is frightened away, it will be more troublesome to clean up in the future. ”

Ye Zishan already knew the full content of the "horse pole" operation, and knew that the president and the chief of staff attached great importance to this operation, after all, the elimination of the Kazakh high-level in one fell swoop would be equivalent to cutting off the political ties between Moscow and Kazakhstan. So he thought about it and agreed to set off: "Okay, I'm just going to gather everyone to prepare." ”

"I'll contact the Falcon Brigade, you remember to bring more food and ammunition and fuel, I'm afraid we'll have to stay on the grassland for a while longer. If the weather improves in a few days, follow the original plan, or find a way to sneak attack. ”

"Okay." Ye Zishan nodded and picked up his things and was just about to leave, when he suddenly remembered something, took out the latest war report from his pocket and handed it over: "This is the war report just sent this morning, last night, the Japanese captured Manila. ”

"So fast?" Zhuo Fan was stunned on the spot