Age of Conquest Reborn

Zhukov's caution was derived from his own personal experience and lessons. For more than two years, he had personally witnessed the combat effectiveness of the Kwantung Army soldiers. The ferocity and bravery hidden in the short body could threaten him at any time.

Opponents who explode and don't take their own lives seriously are often the most terrifying!

The cunning and ruthlessness of General Nanjiro, the commander-in-chief of the Kwantung Army, and his scheming Eastern wisdom also gave Zhukov a headache and fear. During his more than two years in the Far East Front, Zhukov himself often summarized and reflected.

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In Outer Mongolia and the Far East, at different times and places, I fought against generals from two Asian countries. One was during the First Outer Mongolia War, with Tang Qiuli, commander of the Reading Division, and the other was in the current Far East region.

The commander-in-chief of the Kwantung Army, General Nanjiro.

The first time he fought against the Orientals, Zhukov was defeated and he became a prisoner. He was defeated unwillingly and inexplicably. The second time, it was a draw and an undefeated stalemate. In his heart, Zhukov separated Tang Qiuli and Nan.

Jiro made a comparison and came to the conclusion that the Chinese Tang Qiuli was a thousand times more difficult to deal with than the Japanese Nan Jiro. Fighting against him was definitely the most terrifying nightmare.

The second conclusion drawn is that Nanjiro is not Tang Qiuli's opponent, and the Kwantung Army is not the opponent of the force-reading division. Therefore, at the beginning of the Third Outer Mongolia Campaign, Zhukov was appointed by the General Staff to lead the Soviet Union in the Far East.

When he took command of the army, he felt inexplicably relieved in his heart. It seemed that subconsciously, it was a happy thing not to face the terrible Chinese Tang Qiuli.

Paying attention to Tang Qiuli does not mean despising Nanjiro. In Zhukov's eyes, the more than one million Kwantung Army soldiers who were blocked and chased were a monster that could still hurt people. Although they were in a desperate situation, their destructive power was still there.

, when you have absolute advantages in all aspects, you still have to deploy carefully, otherwise, even if you win and eat the Kwantung Army, the Soviet troops in the Far East will be covered with bruises, and it will end in a tragic victory.

It is inconsistent with my original intention!

Therefore, when he learned that the troops commanded by General Gregariv had occupied Birobidzhan and Khabarovsk and blocked the Kwantung Army's retreat, Zhukov immediately took action and ordered the pursuing troops to slow down the pursuit and steadily

To advance, the Soviet Kwantung Army's blocking troops must be discovered and annihilated on the spot. The tanks and artillery units that have fallen behind because they have entered the swamp must catch up as quickly as possible.

As for the suggestion put forward by the staff that it would be safer to send some troops to the left and right wings of the Kwantung Army to form an encirclement situation, Zhukov rejected it without hesitation, just talking on paper!

This move was both unnecessary and a waste of time. They had to cross the Bureya Mountains and the Kukan Mountains. Without twenty days, it was impossible for the roundabout troops to reach the designated position, and within these twenty days, the Far East Campaign had ended.

The time Zhukov set for himself to end the Far East Campaign was ten days. Within ten days, the Kwantung Army troops in the encirclement must be completely annihilated. Comrade Stalin did not want to delay the war, and he was also afraid of other changes.

As for the Lieutenant General Director of the Political Department of the Front Army with a Cheka background, he was worried about whether the Kwantung Army would bypass the blocking line of General Gregariff's troops and cross the Breya Mountains and the Brya Mountains from both sides or one side.

Zhukov could only respond with a wry smile to the suggestion of escaping from the Kukan Mountains, and then shook his head secretly. It was just a common sense question raised by an idiot.

Not to mention the insurmountable difficulties faced by crossing the Bureya Mountains and the Kukan Mountains. The snow-covered mountains stretch for hundreds of kilometers. Without logistical supplies, the Kwantung Army can be defeated without troops chasing and fighting.

, not to mention, General Gregariff

The troops can make lateral maneuvers at any time and can intercept and kill the Kwantung Army troops at any point on the Manchurian border. Even the exhausted Kwantung Army troops withdrew to the Manchurian border. What awaited them were the Soviet Red Army soldiers who were ready.

This is why Zhukov is not afraid of the Kwantung Army breaking out from both wings. On the contrary, he also hopes that Nanjiro will do this, and the troops in the Far East will reduce a lot of casualties.

After adjusting his deployment, Zhukov sent a telegram to Stalin, carefully reporting the situation on the Far East battlefield, giving his timetable for annihilating the entire Kwantung Army, and explaining the reasons.

Stalin's reply was quick, "Comrade Zhukov, regarding the campaign to encircle and annihilate the Kwantung Army in the Far East, I don't have too many instructions. Everything is decided by you based on the actual situation on the battlefield. I only make one request: it must be clean and thorough.

Completely destroy the Japanese Kwantung Army, and then march into Manchuria!"

In early April 1942, Stalin was in a very happy mood. The war in the Far East was going more smoothly than he expected. More than one million Kwantung Army troops fell into Zhukov's encirclement, and the entire army was annihilated.

It is a matter of time. The rich and vast black land of Manchuria will be transferred to the territory of the Soviet Union, and setting up a Yellow Russian administrative region is not an unattainable dream.

Stalin was in a good mood and was very satisfied with Zhukov. Then, he turned his attention to the southern region of Outer Mongolia. As long as Vasilevsky could capture Saiyinshanda and open the passage to China's Inner Mongolia, he would then use the Chinese to

It is not impossible to cut off a large piece of flesh, but Vasilevsky's actions were too cautious. The advancement speed of more than one million troops was unsatisfactory!

Comrade Stalin was not satisfied. Soon, General Vasilevsky, commander of the Soviet Outer Mongolia Front, who was commanding the troops to cautiously advance towards Seinshanda, received a telegram from the General Staff.

The content was very simple. He urged his troops not to be timid, but to speed up their advance and strive to capture Saiyinshanda as soon as possible and approach the border of Inner Mongolia. The telegram also bluntly stated that this was Comrade Stalin's opinion.

Stalin wanted Vasilevsky's troops to speed up. He himself wanted to speed up, but he could not go faster. Starting from the early morning of April 2, the troops of the Outer Mongolia Front heading south were attacked by the fighter jets of the Northern Flying Group of the Reading Division Aviation Corps.

Formations and bomber formations, strikes from the air.

Nearly a thousand fighter jets and bombers of the Reading Division aviation took turns in the battle, pouring heavy aerial bombs and machine gun bullets on the heads of their own soldiers, blowing up the trucks of the supply troops, and detonating ammunition.

, tore the bodies of soldiers apart, and gun smoke and corpses of soldiers could be seen everywhere on the vast grasslands of southern Outer Mongolia and the Gobi Desert.

Although strict air defense measures were taken, little effect was achieved. More than one million troops marched south together. There were too many air attack targets to choose from. The combat aircraft of the Reading Division can appear anywhere at any time. When the air defense forces are not there,

Before they had time to react, they fired a burst of fire and bombed them indiscriminately, and then quickly escaped. What's even more hateful is that such air strikes penetrated all the troops' marching columns without interruption.

Throughout the day, force-reading planes appeared in the sky above the heads of Soviet soldiers at any time, followed by torrential rains of bullets and bombs falling from the sky. At night, any place with light would attract Chinese fighter jets that appeared like ghosts.

, the bullets fired later made the Soviet soldiers very nervous, and their ears were constantly echoing with the roar of passing combat aircraft.

The air raids of the Northern Flying Group seriously slowed down the Soviet army's marching speed. If this continues, let alone five days, even a month will not be able to reach Saiyin Shanda, and the cost will be unbearable.

of casualties.

General Vasilevsky was furious and furious. To deal with the enemy's aircraft, he only had his own aircraft. A telegram was sent to the air force assigned to him, ordering the air force to send fighter jets to all ground forces on the front.

The marching airspace eliminates the threat of the air force of the reading division and ensures the marching speed of the troops.

The air force commander who received the telegram could only smile bitterly. According to the current marching method of the Outer Mongolia Front, there are more than one million troops distributed over a width of several hundred kilometers. To ensure the safety of all airspace, there are not 1,500 aircraft.

The above fighter jets simply can't do it, and that's where the problem lies.

Fighters and pilots are not a problem. In order to ensure victory in the Eastern War, the Air Force Headquarters can make up for the losses of the Far East Air Force in the shortest possible time. The key to the problem is the airport.

Only five of the airports that were destroyed by a small force of force readers can be used normally after repair. The other field airports are still in a semi-paralyzed state. They will all be put into use within a month at the earliest.

The field airports that can be used are all small airports near the Ural Mountains, including two that have not been attacked. Calculated at full capacity, these five airports can only take off and land more than 300 fighter jets, and

How many fighter jets does the Reading Force Air Force have? Six to seven hundred. If the ratio is more than two to one, wouldn't it mean death if one goes up there?

The air force commander tried his best to use the most tactful tone and the most cooperative attitude to answer the front army commander's order, explaining that his difficulty was not that he did not want to provide air cover for the ground troops, but that he was powerless. This is what the air force does.

, is the Red Army one family, but the difficulties are real. Comrade Commander, please understand the difficulties of the Air Force. I guarantee that in two weeks, the Air Force will be able to dispatch at least a thousand fighter jets.

After General Vasilevsky read the telegram, he was so angry that he flew into a rage and cursed the Air Force bastards. They enjoyed the best treatment and the highest allowances, but at the critical moment, they were of no use at all. In his opinion,

, the Air Force is deliberately disobeying its own orders, which is a typical manifestation of war fear, and the excuse is so poor!

Won't three hundred fighter jets gather together to provide air cover for the four leading armies?

So, a telegram of complaint flew to Moscow and to Stalin's desk.

(To be continued.