Chapter 778: Soldiers are coming to the city

On August 12, the battle of Helenboburg, which lasted 21 hours, ended with the capture of the fortress by the directly subordinate corps, which completely annihilated about 56,000 ancient defenders, of which more than 32,000 were killed, more than 20,000 were captured, and more than 3,000 were missing.

Lieutenant General Subart, commander of the defenders of Helenboburg and commander and political commissar of the Second Army of the Outer Méng Army, committed suicide, and of the four infantry divisions to which he belonged, three division commanders were captured, one was killed, one of the four political commissars was captured, and the others were killed in battle, including Major General Handa Dorji, who commanded the 1st Guards Division to besiege Duan Shude's troops, and other regimental and battalion-level officers, all but those who were killed, were captured.

At this point, there was no decent military group in the ancient territory of Wai Méng, and the battle of Helian Bobao initially achieved the goal of Tang Qiu to gather and annihilate the main force of the ancient army of Wai Méng, and the casualties of the directly subordinate corps also exceeded more than 5,000 people, of which the vast majority were troops who broke into the fort, and the name of the temporary commander, Major Duan Shude, also became a heroic figure in the minds of the soldiers and officers of the directly subordinate corps.

Tang Qiuli, commander of the independent division and commander of the directly subordinate corps, immediately issued an order to award Duan Shude the second-class warrior medal, and informed the whole army that his family members enjoy the treatment of martyrs, only in the battle of Helenboburg, the officers and soldiers of the direct corps who won the medal of bravery or warrior amounted to more than 100 people, this is a heroic combat group, and it is also the soil for cultivating heroes, and the medal represents the power of the god level, jīli all the soldiers of the directly subordinate corps, more brave and tenacious, officers and soldiers wearing medals, has become the object of envy of everyone.

On August 13, the whole corps rested for a day at Helenburg, because the battle ended at an extraordinary speed, Tang Qiuli had plenty of time to adjust the deployment, and what he had always kept in mind was not the ancient army of Waiméng, or even the ancient army of Kulen, but the movement of the Soviet army, even if Kulen was conquered, the Soviets would accumulate forces and fight to the death with themselves in Wai Ménggu, Stalin cared not about Choibalshan, but about the geographical position occupied by Waiménggu.

He did not know that in the rapid formation of the First Army of the Soviet Far East, the famous Soviet general Zhukov would become his opponent, but the commander of the group army, Lieutenant General Zhukov, asked Choibalsan to hold on to the hope of at least 15 to 20 days to give the group army a buffer time.

In the battle of Helenboburg, the Soviet army did not see a shadow, and even the planes of the Soviet army did not come, which in itself was a very abnormal thing, and at the same time, Tong Guò contacted Feng Jiwu who divided his troops to attack other areas of Wai Méng, and the troops progressed smoothly, and the resistance encountered was extremely weak, most of them were some poorly equipped local guards, and rarely encountered the regular army of Wai Ménggu.

He ordered all detachments of the special operations detachment to disperse their troops again, pay close attention to the periphery of the Soviet army, expand the scope of reconnaissance, and establish an impermeable surveillance network on the border between the Soviet Union and the Soviet Union, keep in touch with the division commander 24 hours a day, and report all information on the movement of the Soviet troops directly to the division commander.

On August 14, the troops that had recovered their combat effectiveness, after replenishing their supplies and ammunition, waved their troops straight out of Helenbo Fort, towards the last and biggest target of attack, Kulun, and rushed straight over, Tang Qiuli, who was sitting in the command car, still had the shadow of the Soviet troops lingering in his mind, and Kulen was the last battle to recover the ancient land of Waiméng, but it was the focus area of the Soviet army, and the Soviet army did not move for a long time, was there another plan or other reasons, this time, what kind of opponent came?

At about 4 o'clock in the morning of 15 August, the corps directly under the independent division under the command of Tang Qiuli approached the city of Kulun, which is located on the ancient grassland of Méng outside the Pingchuan River.

Such a city, in addition to a large number of human resources, does not even have decent tall buildings, does not have the minimum conditions for street fighting, I don't know how Qiaobalshan can hold the city, and the whole people are soldiers can not withstand the destruction of the artillery group of the independent division, Tang Qiuli has every reason to believe that the artillery group only needs two hours, and Kulen will become a ruin and be wiped off the map.

But this is not the result he wants, a Kulen who has become a ruin, has no value to Tang Qiuli, he wants to recover the country, not destroy it, and the troops quickly take an all-round encirclement of Kulen according to the order of the corps headquarters.

The loss of Helenboburg was so fast that Choibalsan was shocked and caught off guard, the city residents of Cullen had just mobilized, and they were still in a state of disorder, and Choibalsan knew in his heart that except for a capital guard division that was the regular army defending Kulun, the other forces were a group of rabble, armed civilians who were temporarily instigated to the front line by the Méng Ancient People's Party, and Choibalsan didn't even want to think about it.

At the critical moment, Choibalsan took ruthless but absolutely necessary measures to block the news of the loss of Helenboburg from everyone, and the two key officers responsible for receiving the news of the Helenboburg front mysteriously disappeared, it is said that they were spies hidden by the Chinese inside the ancient political fǔ, and they had been secretly executed, and even the personal secretary who sent the top-secret telegram to Choibalsan died inexplicably, and only Choibalshan knew the news of the loss of Helenboburg.

He wanted to take advantage of these few days to take a breather and make good arrangements for the defense of Kulen, the main force of the ancient army had been lost, and the only hope for Choibalsan was Zhukov's First Army in the Far East, but Tang Qiuli didn't even give him a chance to breathe, and only rested for one day in Helenboburg, and then the troops came to the city.

It was another dawn, the Kulen people, under the leadership of the Méng ancient ** party cadres, carried tools to the suburbs, continued to dig trenches, and saw the situation, which made them stunned, overnight, the suburbs of Kulen were already full of artillery, and the tanks surrounded the Kulen from all directions.

The Chinese soldiers did not shoot, the crowd dispersed in a hurry, desperately fled back to the city, Helenboburg was lost, and the murderous letter of the squadron soldiers under the city of Kulun was quickly spread throughout the city like wings, and the whole Kulen fell into extreme panic, the lie of Choibalshan went bankrupt, and the hearts of the soldiers and civilians in the city were shaken.

Choibalsan convened an emergency city defense meeting, implemented comprehensive military control and martial law in Kulen, and a temporary court composed of members of the Méng Ancient ** Party adopted brutal suppressive measures against those so-called wavering elements, vain attempts to escape, and distracted military elements.

All day on August 15, Tang Qiuli did not order the troops to attack, he was waiting, waiting for the reaction of the Soviets, and also waiting for Choibalsan to repent at the critical moment and adopt the right way to save Kulen from the flames of war, and also to avoid planting the seeds of hatred in the hearts of the ancients.

In his anxiety, Kulen confronted more than 200,000 squadrons, and Choibalshan sent telegrams several times a day directly to Stalin, and received the reply, "The First Army of the Far East is being formed, and I hope that the great Méng Gu ** party will lead the heroic foreign people to resist the Chinese invading army and hold out until the arrival of the Soviet Red Army." ”

If this is not nutritious, if Choibalsan is sure, can he still be anxious like an ant on a hot pot? Just when Choibalsan was thinking about how to keep Kulun, an undercurrent was quietly surging inside the city of Kulun, and under the rule of the Méng Ancient People's Party, the princes and nobles who had lost their power and status were also brewing great changes.

On 16 August, the squadron still did not launch an attack on Kulen, only a large number of tanks and military vehicles moved back and forth around Kulen, which increased the psychological pressure of the people in the city.

At about 4 o'clock in the morning of 17 August, the roar of tanks broke the pre-dawn silence around the city of Kulen, which had been silent for several days, and after two days of waiting, the corps directly under the independent division finally launched an all-out attack on Kulen, with no gunfire, only the roar of tank engines and groups of silent soldiers under the cover of tanks.

Tang Qiuli's choice of the main direction of attack was very accurate, and it happened to be the only trump card in Choibalshan's hand, the defensive section of the Capital Guard Division, which was the only unit with a certain combat effectiveness, and when it was about two kilometers or so away from the defensive position of the ancient army outside, the artillery of the Capital Guard Division began to shell the tank cluster of the ** team.

The sparse shells fell in the attack column of the tank brigade of the directly subordinate corps, and the small number of light artillery guns had an extremely slight damage effect on the modified "Izu" tank, but in front of an anti-tank trench, the tanks stopped advancing, lined up in a horizontal line, and shelled the defensive positions of the ancient army outside Méng, which was also bullying the ancient army outside Méng that there were no anti-tank weapons.

The positions of the ancient army outside the méng, a cloud of smoke burst out, the hastily built bunkers and bunkers, under the three tank brigades, turned into broken bricks and stones flying in ruins, from the back of the attacking troops, dozens of auxiliary tanks, huge shovels in front of the front of the car, pushing up large balls of soil, the light and heavy machine gun bullets of the ancient army outside méng, hit the armor of the tanks "clang", these bulldozing tanks, did not feel general, still worked.