The Ming army started from Turpan and divided its troops into two routes again, the north road launched an attack on the Dihua Pass in the north, and the south road went west into southern Xinjiang, along the southern foot of the Tianshan Mountains and the north of the Taklamakan Desert, and drove straight into the Bayingolin area. 8

In front of the South Road is the Oasis Belt of the Ichoma Pingchuan. From here, a thousand kilometers to the west, there is basically a large plain with a flat river, which is very suitable for the rapid advance of the mechanized army. Moreover, the width of the battlefield is also very large, from the Tianshan Mountains in the north to the great desert in the south, about 120-150 kilometers wide in the middle, are all oasis areas with abundant water and grass, that is, the most important residential areas in southern Xinjiang. This area of more than 100 kilometers wide is suitable for the army to advance. In Xiang Xiaoqiang's view, the battlefield environment in southern Xinjiang is very similar to the North African battlefield in World War II, where they are all fighting along the edge of the vast desert. Moreover, the southern frontier battlefield has more benefits for the attacker than the North African battlefield - in the North African battlefield, the northern edge of the Sahara Desert is only a few dozen kilometers wide for war, while the northern edge of the desert here is more than 100 kilometers wide, easy to attack and difficult to defend.

Facts have proved that the northern Xinjiang is much more difficult to fight than the southern Xinjiang. First of all, it is difficult to break into northern Xinjiang. Because if you want to enter northern Xinjiang from Turpan, you must first break through the Tianshan Pass in Dihua. Historically, Dihua has become the capital of Xinjiang and Xinjiang, and its strategic location as a major transportation route between the north and south is a decisive factor. After the Soviet army occupied the two frontiers, it was natural that they were very concerned about the defense construction here. They built a defensive belt and poured large and small concrete fortifications in the Tianshan Pass as a permanent strategic military project. The Ming army's northern offensive was directly stuck here, and it couldn't be hit at all for a while.

Of course, the Ming High Command also took this situation into account when formulating the spring general offensive. At that time, a backup plan was formulated, which was to attack the northern frontier in two ways.

Entering northern Xinjiang is not only to take the road of Dihua, but also to the east. The passage to the east is to enter the northern frontier from the north of Hami. To the north of Hami is a small mountain range: Balikun Mountain. This mountain range is an easternmost extension of the Tien Shan mountain range. To the north, there are about 130 kilometers of plains on the northern side of the Balikun Mountains, and further north are the Altai Mountains. The administrative dividing line between Northern Xinjiang and Outer Mongolia is also crossed here. The 130-kilometer-wide plain between the two mountain ranges is another passage into northern Xinjiang, which can enter northern Xinjiang all the way to the Jungar Basin without any obstacles.

But there are no roads in this passage. The only road into northern Xinjiang is the road that passes through the Tianshan Mountains and takes Dihua. The Ming army attacked the Tianshan Pass for three days, and found that it was really not something that could be fought in a period of time, so it did not delay too much, and immediately activated the backup plan, and dispatched five divisions from the north of Hami to go around the northern frontier.

At this point, the offensive to recover the two frontiers became three routes: the southern, middle, and northern routes. The southern route attacked southern Xinjiang, and the middle and northern routes attacked northern Xinjiang.

……

The Soviet Union clearly paid more attention to the north. The northern frontier is not only richer, but also closer to the Great Russian-Trans-Siberian Railway to the north, which is easier to control. Therefore, the main force of the Soviet troops stationed in Xinjiang was in northern Xinjiang. Of the five divisions of the Ming Army's North Road Offensive, three were People's Guard armored divisions. As soon as the three armored divisions circled to the north of Mount Balikun, they were ambushed by four Soviet armored divisions. The Soviets adopted the usual tactics of the Ming army, attacking from the left and right flanks in a pincer formation, and almost surrounded the division that served as the vanguard. In this battle, the Ming army suffered heavy losses, losing almost 300 tanks, and was defeated and retreated to Hami.

The Ming army's northern offensive was also advanced more rapidly this time, and it had not been defeated since the beginning of the offensive, and it had advanced triumphantly all the way to Turpan, especially after Hami, it was almost overwhelming, and almost the whole army had become arrogant generals, and even the division commander did not take the Soviet army very seriously. This time, the five division commanders drove straight in, but they did not cover the two flanks well, committed a big taboo, and were beaten hard by the Soviet commander.

This was the first major defeat suffered by the Ming army since its spring offensive. The whole army was forced to take a cold head and suddenly woke up. The previous arrogance suddenly reined in.

Soon, the People's Guard received information that the commander of the Soviet side in this battle was none other than Tukhachevsky. This is under the direct command of the commander-in-chief of the Soviet troops stationed in Xinjiang.

After a series of crushing defeats by the generals below, the period of the Soviet army almost fell to a low point. This time, Marshal Tukhachevsky personally took charge and won a big victory over the Ming army. The morale of the Soviet army suddenly doubled, especially the armored forces, and the love and adoration of Tukhachevsky was simply at its peak. As soon as Tukhachevsky inspected the front line and showed up, the Soviet officers and men immediately cheered like a tsunami, and even worse, many officers and men of the unit shouted "Long live Comrade Tukhachevsky."

Previously, Comrade Tukhachevsky led them to liberate northern Xinjiang and expel Ming imperialism in a lightning lightning, and now he has led them again to repel the counterattack of Ming imperialism. Tukhachevsky became the god of war in the minds of Soviet officers and soldiers. At least in the troops, now apart from Stalin, Tukhachevsky is going to be the second most admired man. - In the armored forces, Tukhachevsky's position in the minds of officers and soldiers was already even above Stalin.

……

In southern Xinjiang, the Ming army's offensive on the southern road was triumphant, and the attack went smoothly as before, winning one after another. The flat and open terrain, roads, continuous oases, and the Soviet garrison in southern Xinjiang were not very numerous, mainly for suppressing the resistance, and there were not many armored troops. This became a good condition for the Ming army to attack.

There is another important difference between southern Xinjiang and northern Xinjiang. In the basic pastoral areas of northern Xinjiang, the main ethnic group is Kazakh, who lives a nomadic life of chasing water and grass, and the grassroots social structure is relatively loose. However, southern Xinjiang is basically an agricultural area, and the main ethnic group is Uyghur, most of whom live a settled life of farming, and the social structure at the grassroots level is relatively stable. Whether it is the policy of collective communes before the Soviet Union, or the current "weapons of hunger", the destructive power is much greater in agricultural areas than in pastoral areas. Therefore, the resistance in southern Xinjiang has always been more fierce than that in northern Xinjiang.

Now that the Ming army is attacking, large-scale riots are also taking place one after another. Wherever the Ming army fought, the first thing the local Soviet army had to deal with was not to resist the Ming army in advance, but to suppress the riot. Of course, the Soviet army had guns and artillery, and the common people were not their opponents. However, in this way, the Soviet army basically did not have the opportunity to wait for the battle, and at least it could not transfer troops according to military defense, but had to transfer troops according to the areas of insurrection. The defensive plan was all disrupted.

Northern Xinjiang and southern Xinjiang are separated by the high Tianshan Mountains, and it is difficult to transfer troops to each other. The Soviet army could only transfer troops from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan in the rear of the country, and it had to cross the entire southern Xinjiang, the road was far away, and there was no railway. Using the road to transport troops, the Soviet army's automobile capacity is far from being comparable with the current Ming army. Therefore, in the short term, the Soviet army in southern Xinjiang was in a very isolated situation.

From June 7 to June 19, the Ming army's southern offensive advanced 600 kilometers in 12 days, from Turpan across Bayingolin to Aksu. The Oasis Corridor north of the Taklamakan Desert has been reclaimed by nearly half.

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