Beiyang 1917

1918年7月14ri11:00布祖卢克镇联军乌拉尔第三骑兵师指挥部

"Master, Commander, the enemy's trench has advanced to 800 meters in front of our position, fight! If you don't fight again, Yegorov should repair his trench with ours!" Chief of Staff of the Division and Commander of the Sixth Brigade* *vsky was really impatient this time. The battalion and company commanders on the field called back to ask for a battle. The phone rang all over the place, and the staff officers in the division headquarters were busy answering the phone.

"There are more than 30000 Soviet Red Army on the opposite side. How many people are digging trenches at this moment? 3000 people were killed. The old mortar shells are reserved for Yegorov's large army. It’s too wasteful to use our shells on them!” Nerikov shook his head, still refusing to order an attack.

"Master, the enemy's cavalry may have turned to the south to take our back route. Why don't we take advantage of the opponent's time to attack from the north and the south, first defeat the infantry in the north, and then turn around to deal with the cavalry who turned around in the south? How about it? Otherwise, wait for the opponent to attack from the north and the south, and this battle will be difficult to fight!" Daveski said unwillingly.

Nerikov frowned when he heard the words, and said lightly, "Originally, we were prepared for the enemy to attack from the north and the south, but the Buzuluk River and the Domashika River formed a figure-of-eight and the Buzuluk The town is in the middle, haven't we surveyed the terrain along the river from Buzuluk to the south, and there is no suitable river section within 20 kilometers to cross the river again!"

"But if the other party is not afraid to take a long detour and come back across the river from [-] kilometers away, then we still have to face the enemy?" Mr. Vowski is obviously also a persistent master.

"The enemy? Well, if it wasn't for the enemy, would Yegorov stay in Buzuluk so obediently? If he wasn't afraid of going back, four hours from morning to now would be enough for him to go back. The other side of the Buzuluk River is gone, this guy just wants to take the shortcut of Buzuluk Town to go south, and liberate his hometown by the way!" Nerikov said disapprovingly.

"Master, when will the Fifth Brigade arrive for reinforcements? It will be almost three hours before they set off?" Kavsky turned his eyes and focused on the Fifth Brigade of the Third Cavalry Division.

"Nedev's Fifth Brigade and the First Regiment set off from Neftersk in the west three hours ago. The journey is about 70 kilometers. If everything is normal, they should have reached the position of ten to fifteen kilometers to the west, but Since the radio has not been turned on, it is estimated that it has not arrived at the designated location." Nerikov calculated the time and said.

"Report to the division commander! The commander of the fifth brigade, Negev, has called. The first regiment of the fifth brigade has all arrived at the position opposite the Domashika River, ten kilometers northwest of Buzuluk Town. Please ask the division commander for instructions on the next step!" A communication staff officer He hurried in to report.

It should be said that the largest crossing of the Domashika River is here in the town of Buzuluk, and the ferry of the Buzuluk River is also the first, so the location of the town of Buzuluk is so critical and important, but since the third cavalry division of the coalition army The sixth brigade, the main force, occupied the town, which prevented the retreating Soviet Red Army from using the two ferries to cross the river under the cover of coalition fire.

That's why Yegorov's main force had to cross the river at the lower reaches of the Buzuluk River. It is also because the Domashika River and the Buzuluk River form a big figure-of-eight, so if you don't cross the river and go south along the Buzuluk River, then It will be farther and farther away from the Volga River in the west.

As for continuing to cross the Domashika River westward, Budyonny's Special Cavalry Division Cavalry 7st Brigade finally had to choose the crossing point, which was actually the only suitable place for crossing the river in the lower reaches of Buzuluk Town, and this place It is less than [-] kilometers away from the town of Buzuluk, and almost all of them are exposed to the artillery range of the coalition artillery.

The 4500 cavalry crossed the river at that position and suffered one-third of the casualties. Yegorov couldn't imagine what it would be like if more than 32000 infantry at a slower speed crowded to cross the river. The five infantry divisions of the Ninth Army were sent to be beaten under the enemy's artillery, and the casualties would be unimaginable.

In fact, for Yegorov, it is not too late to review and retreat now. He withdrew the entire army from the north of Buzuluk Town, returned to the mouth of the downstream river, and tried to build a pontoon bridge to cross the Buzuluk River. , and retreated south along the circuitous route taken by Xia Jianke, the political commissar of the cavalry division, leading the second cavalry brigade.

The reason why Yegorov did not choose to go directly south along the east of the Buzuluk River was because of the need to detour more than 100 kilometers, the continuous retreat for three days and three nights reduced the physical strength and spirit of the troops to a considerable level. The dangerous trough, due to the continuous march last night, the whole army was exhausted in the early morning. At this time, the town of Houbuzuluk was close at hand. If Yegorov, who is a Buzuluk, led the army, he would not dare to pass through the house And to the south.

Yegorov felt that it was a bit difficult to explain to the folks and elders. Of course, underestimating the enemy is also a key factor. He did not expect that the coalition forces would have a cavalry brigade guarding Buzuluk and built a solid fortification. Moreover, Sure enough, this cavalry brigade is equipped with an artillery company!

From another point of view, Egorov hoped that after he crossed the river, the Buzuluk River would become an obstacle to stop the pursuit of the coalition forces behind him. He even planned to take Budyonny's special cavalry division after he took the town of Buzuluk. Two artillery companies and a heavy machine gun battalion of the Duli Artillery Regiment stayed behind to guard Buzuluk and prevent the coalition forces from crossing the river from Buzuluk town. This would buy the main force of the group army a day or more to retreat.

The fact that Buzuluk Town became such a hard nut exceeded the expectations of all the commanders of the Ninth Army. Although the ground battle has not officially started yet, the atmosphere on the ground is extremely depressing. The Ninth Army of the Soviet Red Army Here, the Inza Division and the engineering battalion of the entire group army have been replaced to rest, and a regiment of the 16th Infantry Division of Kikweize is digging trenches at the moment.

The four longitudinal trenches have advanced from the expected starting trench of the Soviet Red Army attack 1100 meters away to the coalition position to 800 meters, and are still advancing. The advancing trenches of the Soviet Red Army have been marked Set at a distance of 500 meters from the coalition positions.

In this position, except for machine guns and snipers, whether ordinary soldiers use Mosin Nagant rifles or the M1 Garand semi-automatic cavalry rifles equipped by the coalition cavalry squad, they are all on the verge of effective combat range, and only super-class sharpshooters can avoid aiming The mirror only relies on the mechanical sight to hit the target at a distance of 500 meters, and the rest has to be done.

As a Russian unit in the coalition, the 1rd Ural Cavalry Division's sniper rifle equipment was far inferior to Li Mingzhong's mixed cavalry brigade. It was almost a sniper team with a two-person company equipped with an M[-] Garand semi-automatic sniper rifle.

As the Soviet Red Army's trenches dug within 800 meters, Nerikov finally let go, and the sniper team of 32 companies entered the position and began to snipe and kill enemy infantry within 800 meters, but the division commander Nerikov paid special attention In a word, don't aim at the head, one wounded is one, and the opponent's burden is one less if one is killed, and if one is wounded, Yegorov may have to send two people to drag and carry the wounded.

These simple combat principles were all mentioned in the crash training course for battlefield commanders held by the coalition headquarters in the east of the Ural Mountains. It is more beneficial to oneself to increase the enemy's wounded than to increase the enemy's dead body. What's more, regardless of consciousness No matter what the form is, whether it is the Soviet Red Army or the White Guards, they are the people of this fertile land. Sooner or later, when they eat in a pot, there is no need to kill them all. A living enemy is more wounded than a dead enemy Corpses are more valuable!

The successive sniper shots on the coalition positions made the Red Army infantry who were sweating profusely and were still digging into the trenches frightened. Kikweize’s infantry regiment soon suffered hundreds of casualties, most of them were injured, either their ears were knocked off or their buttocks The pouting was too high and a piece of meat was thrown off. The unlucky ones who died in battle were only a dozen, but the number of wounded continued to increase. The screams of the wounded made the excavation work of the entire trench come to a close.

The high morale on the coalition's position was in stark contrast to the gloomy mist on the opposite Soviet Russian Red Army's position.

At this time, Nerikov is worried about whether to let the first regiment of the fifth brigade chase the opponent's Budyonny cavalry brigade south along the Domashika River, or stay in place and wait for Yegorov's call. When the infantry attacked the town of Buzuluk, give the opponent a hard blow from the back of the butt!

At the same time, the [-]nd Regiment of the [-]th Brigade of the [-]rd Cavalry Division of Hashimi has arrived at a position [-] kilometers east of Buzuluk Town after departing from Solochinsk. direction.