Dominate the Country

The sky gradually darkened, and thick, black clouds, like an endless gray iron curtain, pressed low over the head! The howling wind blew fiercely, rolling up large pieces of dust.

Anyone facing the wind directly would not only be unable to open his eyes, but also find it difficult to breathe.

In the gently undulating hilly area, the visibility was only three or four hundred meters. In a very short time, a Russian vanguard brigade (plus a regiment of militia) was surrounded by the Wehrmacht with a mixed brigade, a regular cavalry regiment and two or three thousand vassal cavalry. The latter had nearly 20,000 infantry and cavalry, with an absolute advantage in manpower.

…

It was already April of the sixteenth year of Chengtian.

The West Siberian Plain had just been blown by the warm wind of early spring. The Wehrmacht's attack really began. And at the beginning, while encircling the fortress cities, it dispatched mobile troops to actively seek out the Russian mobile troops for a decisive battle.

The battlefield is in the middle reaches of the Kama River, a tributary of the Volga River on the western slope of the Ural Mountains. It is also more than 100 miles southeast of Izhevsk.

This is a contest of equal forces. After encircling one fortress city after another, many cavalry units have to be left behind to guard the rear. The total force of the Wehrmacht that attacked was only about 30,000 people, including 4,000 to 5,000 vassal cavalry.

As for the Russian vanguard brigade that was surrounded and the 20,000 infantry and cavalry of the Wehrmacht, these are all strategies.

The Russian strategy is to attract the large Chinese forces with small forces, exhaust their energy, frustrate their fighting spirit, and then the decisive battle will come. The Wehrmacht is to first cripple part of the Russian army, so that the main force of the Russian mobile forces has to come to rescue. Then the two sides will have a final decisive battle!

Both sides are well aware of the tricks.

Before the two troops appeared on the banks of the Kama River, they had already circled hundreds of miles in the tail of the cold winter and spent half a month.

This also made both sides clear about a "fact" - this is a fair contest, and neither side will have reinforcements in the short term.

It can also be said that both sides are tired.

And Rumyantsev, who had been avoiding fighting with the Wehrmacht, suddenly became tough. Why? That is because the opportunity is rare.

The Chinese also know that when their own troops are strong, Rumyantsev will not fight hard. Only when the strength of both sides is brought close to a comparable level, Rumyantsev may be tempted. And this is the fact!

Rumyantsev is also under great pressure. He has been losing battles all the way since the war began. The reputation accumulated in the past wars has been almost ruined. He also wants to win a decisive battle as soon as possible to boost the morale of the Russian army and make his reputation in St. Petersburg better.

Moreover, the war in the rocket era has fully demonstrated the longevity of each other in the past. For the besieged Russian fortress, the importance of mobile forces outside is beyond doubt. For the Wehrmacht that surrounded the Russian fortress, blocking the Russian mobile forces outside the encirclement was also a top priority.

This was due to many internal and external factors.

So, Rumyantsev came.

"General, should we send a signal for help to the main force immediately?" The "sloppy" adjutant had forgotten to maintain his noble image as an officer. His brand-new uniform was covered with a layer of loess, and it was already sloppy.

While speaking, his eyes kept observing the surroundings, because the position of the major general was too close to the front line, and the shouts of Russian soldiers on the position could be clearly heard here.

Under the cover of this strong wind, the Wehrmacht quickly surrounded and filled the junction! The Russian army fell into a relatively passive situation at the beginning. The visibility of the field of vision was too low, which reduced their real police line by more than half. At the beginning of the battle, it seemed as if they had fallen into an encirclement. The Wehrmacht was everywhere, and small-scale exchanges of fire broke out on the front and flanks, and they were almost all suppressed by the Wehrmacht!

"Be careful and alert. If you encounter a large enemy force, immediately defend and build fortifications on the spot!" This was the instruction Rumyantsev gave to the vanguard brigade early on.

There is no difference between the strategies of the two sides. Who wins and who loses depends on the execution of the two armies. No matter how good the strategy is, if it falls on an army that moves slowly, the result will only be a missed opportunity.

The strategy between China and Russia is already very clear. The gap now lies in the execution of the two armies. At that time, there was a difference between high and low.

The relatively powerful cavalry of the National Defense Army was still hovering around. If the Russian army was opened up at this time, and then the cavalry of the National Defense Army took the opportunity to enter, it would definitely be a disaster! On the contrary, if the Russian army can stabilize its position, if the cavalry of the National Defense Army dares to charge on a large scale, what awaits them will definitely be a devastating blow!

Twenty minutes later, Boltavchenko's temporary command post was set up. Under a huge yellow canvas, in a headquarters that was mostly hidden under the ground, Boltavchenko and other vanguard brigade commanders were lying on a map, dirty and studying the nearby terrain!

This is another advantage that the Russians have over the Chinese.

To a certain extent, it can also offset the Wehrmacht's "approaching".

"Report! General!" A Russian staff saluted and said loudly: "The troops of the Oganesyan Regiment and the Popov Regiment have already engaged in a full-scale firefight with the Chinese. The Chinese army's rocket launches are very dense and very scattered. In addition, they also deployed a lot of hunters, and many of our rocket soldiers have been shot dead."

Poltavchenko turned around and looked at the staff, and looked at the staff and guards of the headquarters with the corner of his eyes. He couldn't help but glared at them fiercely, because he saw fear and worry in the tone of the staff and the expressions of the people around him.

But what is there for the vanguard brigade to worry about?

Yes, the Chinese have much more troops than the vanguard brigade. But before the rockets in the hands of the vanguard brigade are completely consumed, no matter how many Chinese troops they have, they dare not attack the vanguard brigade.

What is there for the vanguard brigade to worry about now? They also have six or seven thousand people. There are as many as two thousand rockets carried with them. If they are used sparingly, they can at least support for three to five days.

However, Boltavchenko, who knows both sides "knows himself and the enemy", is still very surprised by the enthusiasm of the Wehrmacht.

Their two troops have been wandering around for half a month, and they are all exhausted. The main forces of each other are infantry rather than cavalry. Why are the Chinese so powerful today?

The sound of the whirring wind and rain was so frightening that even though Poltavchenko was used to it, he still felt it was thrilling. The ground beneath him was shaking slightly, and the sky seemed to dim all of a sudden. Countless smoke and dust rose into the sky, as if the sky was collapsing and the earth was cracking. The rockets flying all over the sky were like fireworks at a festival, with brilliant flames streaking across the sky.

The earth-shaking explosions, countless black and red pillars of fire and flames soared into the sky. In this era, this kind of bug-like weapon is indeed a force that human power cannot resist!

The "yellow" wind was "polluted" by the black gunpowder. The dark clouds in the sky seemed to fall thousands of feet at once, and they were right next to the heads of countless people. The black smoke and dust made it impossible to see the situation two hundred meters away.

This also gave a special force an opportunity to move easily.

No one would use precious rockets to play carpet bombing. Although the cost of a single rocket is not high, it is in great demand. In this era, only snipers can deal with snipers. But the Russian hunters are like amateurs compared to Chinese snipers.

Now even if Poltavchenko sends out a distress signal, it is impossible for the Russian follow-up troops to see it.

An hour later, the main forces of the two follow-up Russian divisions arrived and tried to move closer to the surrounded Russian army. Even if both sides knew each other's intentions, some tricks should be used. The main force of the Russian army was "deadly" blocked by a regiment of the Wehrmacht two miles away from Poltavchenko's brigade.

The two Russian troops were really "chicken and dog heard each other". How far is two miles? Just a little more than two kilometers. It can almost be said that this blocking regiment is connected to the main force of the Wehrmacht that surrounded the vanguard brigade. The main force of the Russian army wanted to play anti-encirclement/anti-division, but that was impossible.

The main force of the follow-up Russian army arrived one day after the first shot of the battle.

Compared with the positions of the Russian vanguard brigade in the encirclement, the intensity of the battle in the blocking position can be said to be very low. Both sides rarely took out rockets, which were big killers, and more often used small artillery with the army to bombard each other.

The number of artillery on both sides was not large, and the caliber of the muzzles was generally small. If this were to be put in a hundred years, there would be dozens of artillery, and the bombardment would be a bit interesting, but what about now? 70% to 80% of the shells were solid bullets. The scene was very lively, but it couldn't kill many people.

The real battle occurred two days later. The main force of the National Defense Army, which had been in a mess for three days, felt that it had consumed a lot of rockets from the Russian vanguard brigade, so it decided to fight and give it a try. They first concentrated their firepower - rockets and artillery bombarded the Russian army for half an hour, and then a group of elite soldiers of the National Defense Army, with bayonets, pulled scattered queues, and rushed towards the Russian positions frantically!

In front of the Russian positions, rockets exploded like firecrackers. The shouts and screams were accompanied by artillery fire and gunshots, and limbs, rain, blood, and mud flew into the air...

Half an hour later, the Wehrmacht stopped its fierce attack. The losses were not small, but the progress was still limited. It could only continue to confront Poltavchenko.

But this confrontation did not last long, less than an hour. A wave of Japanese soldiers with their heads covered with yellow cloth and two eyes exposed quietly moved from the Wehrmacht position to the Russian position.

We should thank the strong wind that had been blowing for four days and three nights without stopping. Otherwise, the Russians would not have waited until the Japanese camp was only more than 100 meters away from them before discovering it. Then the rockets rang again as densely as the firecrackers during the New Year.

On this day, the Wehrmacht launched five attacks on the Russian positions. Then the sky darkened.

Wei Xiuzhi didn't know whether it was a psychological reason or he really observed it with his naked eyes. The dark clouds in the sky seemed to be thicker. The strong wind had been blowing for so long, but it didn't dissipate at all.

In the night, the Wehrmacht launched another attack on the Russian vanguard battalion. Rumyantsev was no pushover. He judged from the density of attacks on the vanguard battalion today that the Chinese were really ruthless to the vanguard battalion. Then the Russian army also launched a fierce attack on the Wehrmacht's blocking troops.

When fighting bloody battles on the battlefield, waves of Russian and Wehrmacht troops squeezed in from all directions like a tide, and then retreated! In the dark night, the Wehrmacht finally rushed to the position of the Russian vanguard battalion, and the Russians did not show weakness. Soldiers on both sides held rifles with bayonets and launched a charge!

The shock waves and counter-shock waves formed by the scattered formations of both sides, every contact represented a brutal hand-to-hand combat!

Poltavchenko was in a heavy mood.

The Russian army was now also equipped with breastplates, which were made of wood and leather. Many Russian soldiers in the vanguard brigade were equipped with this kind of wooden armor. But when fighting with the Chinese, it seemed that the Russian army was still at a disadvantage.

It was an artillery position. There was only one artillery company with a total of six small cannons.

It was captured by a group of Chinese soldiers.

It was already dawn, and Poltavchenko, who was hiding in the tunnel, watched a brutal hand-to-hand combat with his own eyes through a telescope.

The artillery company belonged to the Oganesyan Regiment, which was the guard force of Moscow and was considered an elite unit in Rumyantsev's hands.

The artillery company was completely destroyed!

The soldiers bravely fought the Chinese who rushed to the position until the last moment. The Russian army that quickly went to reinforce had a battalion of troops. When they arrived at the artillery company's position, although they failed to change the outcome of the artillery company's destruction, they quickly recaptured the six artillery pieces. The small group of Chinese troops that had rushed in had less than one team left, and were easily driven out of the artillery position by a counterattack by the Russian battalion.

But soon, the Chinese gathered a considerable force to counterattack. About two or three hundred Chinese soldiers rushed to the position and launched a fierce hand-to-hand combat with the Russian battalion that had just recaptured the artillery.

With a two-to-one force comparison, Poltavchenko originally thought that the Russian battalion would easily win!

But the final result was completely beyond Poltavchenko's expectations. The Russian battalion had twice the strength of the Chinese, but it couldn't defeat the Chinese soldiers! This was a hand-to-hand combat. The Slavs are obviously much stronger than the Chinese, and the Russian army is well-known in Europe for its bayonet fighting ability, but that battle ended with the Chinese soldiers retreating rhythmically, and the Russian army, which had an advantage in manpower, did not even dare to pursue. Until now, the cold light of the Chinese bayonet seemed to be flashing in front of Poltavchenko's eyes.

Poltavchenko's mood was unprecedentedly heavy. Poltavchenko still firmly believed that victory belonged to Russia, and they would definitely have the last laugh, but the price they would pay would be much more severe than he had expected!

The regiment headquarters of a certain national defense army offensive force, in the tunnel.

The first battalion and the first team have returned. This unit, which has made many contributions in the anti-Qing war, had 88 people when it went out, but only 22 people came back alive!

Those were 22 bloody people, and each of them was almost soaked in blood from head to toe. As if they had just crawled out of a pool of blood, wherever they passed, there would be rows of bloody footprints on the ground, and drops of blood would drip from their bodies or clothes.

Drop by drop, drop by drop...

Under the morning sunlight, the bloodstains reflected a frightening bright red.

The battalion officer leading the team limped to the front of the queue, with a firm expression and a firm gaze.

There was a bayonet wound on his arm and thigh, deep enough to see the bone. There was also a big gash on his cheek, and the flesh was like an open fish mouth, ugly and hideous. His head was like a blood gourd, and his face and body were covered with blood, some of which was his own, but more of it was the enemy's. In this battle at dawn, he stabbed seventeen old Russians to death!

The whole team suffered heavy losses, and the officers died on the battlefield. As the leading battalion officer, the reason why he did not die was not because he was afraid of death, but because of his high martial arts.

Yang Yuchun didn't know if he would have the chance to fight again. He was seriously injured and it might be winter when he recovered. But he felt that he had learned a lesson. The next time he fought hand-to-hand, he should not go forward with a bayonet. He should carry a large blade.