The offensive and defensive battle around Astana has been going on for more than two days, and the Russians have paid heavy sacrifices, but they still fight to the death, especially after entering the city, these people used the ruins as a cover to launch attacks on Chinese tanks, and in many cases they were completely unguardable.

The Chinese side also had to use all their tricks, and the air force kept throwing leaflets, telling these Russians that they had become turtles in an urn, that reinforcements had disappeared, and that there was only a dead end to continue to resist. And he kept shouting to the Russian army with a loudspeaker, demanding that they surrender.

Attack the city for the bottom, attack the heart for the top. These moves also quickly paid off. Rong Zhen summed up the results of the battle and introduced to Zhang Henian with a smile: "So far, a total of more than 2,000 Russian troops have surrendered, and the number of surrenders is increasing day by day, which is a very haode phenomenon. However, there is only one problem, and that is that most of these surrenderers are militiamen, and the real main force is still quite tenacious. ”

"No matter how tenacious we are, we can't drag it out, we must take Astana as soon as possible, otherwise there won't be enough oil."

Before the war, Zhang Tinglan set up several large oil storage warehouses in Xinjiang and hoarded 100,000 tons of oil. Now more than half of it has been consumed, and as the battle line is lengthened, the supply line is getting longer and longer, and if it drags on, there will be problems with the oil supply.

Ma Zhanshan said with a smile: "It's better for our cavalry, although the tanks are good, but they are all oil tigers, no matter what time it is, we must hold this string." ”

Zhang Henian also smiled bitterly: "Starting from tomorrow, launch a general offensive on Zuihou, and within two days, we must take Astana." ”

Just when everyone made up their minds and was about to attack, suddenly Huang Xiansheng walked in from outside with a smile. said to everyone: "Good news, great news, our self-propelled guns have been refitted, and now there is another sharp weapon." ”

When everyone heard this, their eyes lit up, and Zhang Henian was even hahadaxiao: "Let's go, let's go and see." ”

When they all arrived at the camp where the maintenance unit was located, they saw a row of self-propelled guns, fifty or sixty of them, in a makeshift shed. The long black body tube has a powerful lethality, which makes people love it when they see it.

Both tanks and self-propelled guns are weapons of blitzkrieg, a charge. One fire support, both are indispensable. The Guards Division was also armed with self-propelled guns. But when it comes to the battlefield. Only then did it turn out that the number of self-propelled guns was somewhat insufficient.

A U.S. armored division in World War II, for example, would be accompanied by a three-battalion artillery regiment with 18 105mm M7 self-propelled howitzers, 36 57mm anti-tank guns, 12 155mm towed howitzers, and 6 8-inch and 240mm howitzers. 60 anti-aircraft guns.

Although the battlefield situation was not so complicated at this time, and there was not so much anti-aircraft artillery, in comparison, an artillery battalion in China was equipped with only 12 76 self-propelled guns. As well as a small number of howitzers and anti-tank guns, the number is still seriously insufficient, and when it comes to fire support, some are not enough.

However, we can't be helpless when we encounter a situation, we can only use our brains to solve the problem as much as possible. When he was in Kreku, Wu Kaijie took advantage of the powerful maintenance liliang to rush to repair more than a dozen Russian-made tanks.

After discussing with Rong Zhen, Zhang Henian immediately ordered that the damaged and captured tanks should be repaired immediately and converted into self-propelled guns. In particular, those whose turrets were damaged and could not take on the charge mission were all changed to self-propelled guns to enhance fire support capabilities.

During World War II, Germany often used this method, using old, captured, and damaged tanks to convert them into self-propelled guns on the basis of the original territory. This is a huge cost saving, and because of the use of tank territory, it can also ensure that the self-propelled gun and the tank can march synchronously, which is a good thing to kill two birds with one stone.

The battlefield is a place that stimulates people's creative ability, and when forced into desperation, the Chinese army has no choice but to adopt this method. Fortunately, Zhang Tinglan knew that this was the first experimental blitzkrieg, so he arranged sufficient maintenance manpower in order to prevent accidents.

After receiving the task, they carried out the modification work as quickly as possible, and the original 37 main guns of the light tank were replaced with 47 guns with long barrels, which increased the power a lot. As for the damage to the turret, it was also simpler, because the self-propelled guns did not have to rush to the front, so it was enough to weld steel plates on three sides to act as armor.

On the battlefield, it is necessary to learn to be simple, and the Snow Leopard tank is the focus of this modification, and a total of more than 40 vehicles have been modified. Most of them were replaced with 46 times caliber 76 guns, and eight were replaced with 88-mm guns that were urgently transferred from the rear.

In the past few days, the modifications have been completed one after another, and they are all placed in front of everyone, Zhang Henian and they nodded frequently around these self-propelled guns.

"How's it going, has Shiyan ever done it?"

"I can fire it, and I can fire it, but how it is, I'm afraid it's only shiyan on the battlefield, after all, we don't have enough time."

Listening to the explanation of the person in charge of maintenance, Zhang Henian couldn't help but laugh and said: "Okay, let the battlefield verify how these weapons are!" ”

Soon all these improvised self-propelled guns were added to the troops, and everyone was preparing for tomorrow's offensive. After leaving the maintenance office, everyone was full of ambition, and Rong Zhen said to Zhang Henian: "Commander-in-chief, I guess that tomorrow the Russians may escape, Trotsky is a big fish, and holding him in his hand can play a very great role." Therefore I propose to send out paratroopers and set up an ambush northwest of Astana, and capture Trotsky as soon as he escapes from here! ”

"Well, that's a good idea, so that's it."

At dawn the next day, the general offensive began, and the Chinese army concentrated artillery fire on the front of the Russian army, and the ruins on the ground were all plowed by artillery again. However, the Russian army also has a lot of experience, and they can even judge the landing point of the cannon from the sound, so the losses in this round of shelling are not very large.

But then the official attack began, with the Snow Leopard tanks at the forefront, and the Russians focused on the big guys. Although tanks have amazing combat effectiveness in field battles, they are tied up in street battles. In the past few days of fighting, the Russians used anti-tank fire to destroy many Snow Leopard tanks.

But this time they miscalculated, and just as their fire was aiming, the self-propelled guns following the tanks were launched in advance. Unlike the artillery in the rear, which could only be felt by, these self-propelled guns fired more accurately.

As long as they see the Russians' firepower outcropping, they will immediately send a cannon, especially the big guy equipped with an 88-mm main gun, which is a super killer, and a cannon can create a no-man's land of more than ten meters.

In the face of the attack of these self-propelled guns, they had nothing to do, after all, there were still so many tanks in the way, and their losses skyrocketed.

After all, Astana is only a Central Asian city, far from being an industrial center like Stalingrad, which can be covered by a large amount of reinforced concrete. Therefore, the Chinese army can easily destroy all the buildings, and the army pushes forward frantically.

Zhang Henian also put all his skills to use, and also sent a large number of special operations troops to infiltrate in advance to provide guidance for the artillery, and in this way, before noon, the Russians paid more than 3,000 lives, and the positions on the southeast side were completely destroyed.

The army has driven straight in, and half of Astana has already fallen into the hands of China. Moreover, at this time, rumors were rife in the city, and all kinds of voices that had been forcibly suppressed by Trotsky's powerful ability to control in the past broke out, and a considerable number of Russian troops deserted.

Especially the militias, who are not all Russians, most of them are Central Asian natives, who are just close to the majority party, and now at this life-and-death juncture, they have also become unreliable, and they have broken up and even surrendered.

Trotsky, who had been in command, also got the news, and Astana could no longer hold on. At this time, Trotsky's greatest resentment was Stalin, a guy who could do anything for the sake of power.

Didn't he think about the impact that allowing the Chinese army to occupy the whole of Central Asia would have on Russia's strategic situation, and it would be absolutely a great misfortune for such a profit-hungry person to control Russia.

Walk! It is necessary to return to Moscow to expose Stalin and tell everyone the true situation in Central Asia. In terms of time, Voroshilov's reinforcements should have arrived three days earlier. Allowing tens of thousands of soldiers to fight bloody battles under extremely unfavorable circumstances is simply to see death and not save them, and treat state affairs as child's play.

When Trotsky thought of this, he was also furious, and hurriedly retreated with his henchmen. As soon as he left, the entire Russian army in Astana completely collapsed. The rebels retreated in all directions, and Shijie was full of hasty figures.

The Chinese army rushed the prisoners in droves like chickens and ducks, and took them to the prisoner of war camp outside the city. The crowd of black oppression, dense turns, and people with dense phobia are afraid of it.

One of the most important strongholds in Central Asia finally fell into the hands of China, and the entire war situation was completely developed in favor of China.

Not long ago, the Russian army also broke through the Slyudyanka line and killed Ulan-Ude, but these were of no value, the soft belly of the Russians was torn open, and everything was exposed to the Chinese soldiers.

After Zhang Tinglan received the report, he was also overjoyed, and he immediately issued two orders: First, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs contacted Russia through Switzerland, a permanently neutral country, to seek peace talks.

In addition, Zhang Tinglan also ordered the Chinese Air Force to carry out the first large-scale bombing of the Trans-Siberian Railway, which is the lifeblood of the Russians. (To be continued......)