Beiyang 1917

"Comrade Budyonny, I fell into the trap of the opponent. I chased the enemy's battalion too hard, and lost a company's strength during the charge..." Rybalco blushed and rode his horse to Budyonny's side reported.

"Ha, Rebalco, you are very courageous now. Let me see, you have lost a company? Then I have to congratulate you on your command. If you hesitate a little bit and retreat, you can look back and see the enemy. How many? You can fight enough!" Budyonny laughed and teased his favorite general, while looking at the position of the coalition forces 1500 meters away with binoculars.

"I can see clearly that the opponent is a battalion of more than 500 troops. I used 250 people to pretend to be at least a regiment. The opponent ran away when he saw that the situation was not good. If I didn't chase after him, wouldn't it be a show of cowardice for us? , so I chased after... I didn't expect the opponent to set up positions very quickly, there are two light and heavy machine guns! There are also five or six mortars, and we have suffered a disadvantage!"

Pavel Semyonovich Rybalko, the Second Regiment of the First Cavalry Brigade of the Special Cavalry Division of the Soviet Red Army, explained to the division commander Budyonny why the battle just started, and turned around. I was really dumbfounded at this sight, Nima, at least one regiment of cavalry from the coalition army was crowded behind the camp of the coalition army on the opposite side. The other party is all glorious in one volume.

"This battle is not easy to fight...Rebarco, what did you just say, the opponent has two heavy machine guns and six mortars in one battalion? Now the opposing coalition forces have at least four battalions, and so on. They have 2 There are 8 heavy machine guns and more than 10 mortars. This is a conservative estimate. It is said that a battalion of the coalition army also has an 20-gun 8mm large-caliber mortar. I just don’t know if the cavalry regiment on the opposite side is equipped with it! "

Semyon Mikhailovich Budyonny muttered to himself while looking at the enemy on the opposite side with a telescope.

"It's not easy to fight, Commander. In positional warfare, our firepower is definitely not as good as that of our opponents. Unless we fight hand-to-hand with sabers, otherwise this battle...we can't fight!" Rebarco had calmed down at this time, carefully Using a telescope to observe the situation of the coalition cavalry on the opposite side, he couldn't help saying.

Budyonny grinned, and laughed loudly, "That's right, positional warfare is not an option. The coalition forces only use a few tricks. They are nothing more than avoiding field battles. They always rely on positions, relying on their denser machine gun firepower and Mortars are taking advantage of us, and this battle must not follow their path!"

Comrade Budyonny's heroic laughter made the cavalry division soldiers surrounded by tense expressions relax a little bit. Following the brave Budyonny on the battlefield, the cavalry division will be invincible. This is almost special cavalry The firm belief of all the soldiers in the division is no exception at this moment.

Budyonny's heart was far less relaxed than he seemed on the surface. The enemy in front of him did not know where reinforcements came from, most of them came from Neftegorsk, and he did not know if there was any brigade behind him. The enemy has only one regiment of troops, but according to the opponent's firepower equipment, fighting positional warfare is not something that a brigade of 3000 cavalry can eat in one go.

Using my own cavalry brigade to hit the opponent's machine gun muzzle is by no means Budyonny's style of play. Thinking of this, Budyonny ordered the messengers to recruit Timoshenko and Tyurenev from the two wings, plus Ray Bakker gave some instructions in a low voice, and explained his style of play. When Timoshenko and Tyurenev heard this, their eyes lit up, and their dignified faces relaxed.

Obviously, the shock and pressure brought by the over 2000 cavalry from the coalition forces on the opposite side is also a lot of pressure for these two young Red Army generals, especially the nearly three cavalry companies of Rebalco were released by the firepower of a battalion. More than 100 people fell down, which made Timoshenko, the brigade commander, and Tyurenev, the head of the regiment, stunned.

Timoshenko and Tyurenev, who understood Budyonny's intentions, quickly returned to the left and right flanks, turned their horses with a whistle, and scattered away with teams of cavalry. More than 1000 cavalry Saya rushed west and retreated, while the head of a regiment, Tyurenev, led more than 1000 cavalry, and retreated south along the river.

Budyonny himself led Rebalco and nearly a thousand cavalry from the second cavalry regiment remained in place, but the team obviously spread out to the left and right wings and stretched the front, and there was a strange atmosphere on the battlefield.

On the opposite side of the coalition position, the head of the fifth brigade, the first regiment, who had caught up with the main force, Antonikov, rode up the hillside, watched the movement on the opposite side with a telescope for a long time, and couldn't help asking his brigade commander in a low voice, "Brigade commander , the guy in the black cloak and leather hat opposite is Budyonny? What are we waiting for? Let the artillery fire? If you don’t hit the other side, they will all be withdrawn!"

The distance between the positions of the two sides is 1500 meters. Negev, the commander of the fifth brigade of the third cavalry division of the coalition army, can clearly see the mobilization of the cavalry units of the Soviet Red Army on the opposite side through the binoculars. The Red Army cavalry didn't take it seriously. In the field of vision of his binoculars, the tall cavalry general wearing a black Cossack cloak and a leather cap on the opposite side obviously stood out from the crowd.

"The other side must be that Budyonny. It seems that Egorov is not in the cavalry of the Russian Red Army that detoured this way. The most favored and fastest divisional commander in the Southern Front, and his cavalry is also the number one trump card main force of the Southern Front, if we take him down, it will be better than capturing a few infantry division commanders of the Ninth Army!"

Negev said decisively while watching the other party's movement through the telescope.

Captain Antonikov rolled up his sleeves and said, "Hit the brigade commander, let the battalion's mortars launch an attack, and then cover the heavy machine guns on both wings. I will lead two battalion cavalry to rush up and grab Budyonny for you! Don't hit me again Look at this young man who is about to run away!"

Hearing this, Negev looked back at his own cavalry brigade. The three battalions that had just caught up were sweating like they had been washed, but their morale was still high. After all, there were hundreds of corpses of Red Army cavalry lying 800 meters ahead. Not ours, which means that the mythical Budyonny cavalry division is also flesh and blood, and will also lose battles.

"Order the battalion's mortars to dismount and set up a position. Target the Budyonny cavalry 1500 meters away. Use shells to drive the opponent from the two wings to the middle. Except for Budyonny who wants to live, everyone will be killed! Open fire immediately!" Negev obviously When he came to his senses, Budyonny might have used himself as a bait to make the other two cavalry retreat, so he ordered to fire!

Sure enough, the first wave of mortar shells from the coalition army had just been fired, and the Budyonny cavalry 1500 meters away from the telescope had turned their horses and fled in all directions, thanks to the first round of mortar shells from the coalition battalion. The attack target was the two wings, so 32 3.6mm caliber mortar anti-personnel grenades with a bomb weight of 81 kg fell into the scattered cavalry group of the Soviet Russian cavalry brigade as expected, causing a bloody storm and blowing down a large area of ​​the Red Army cavalry.

Budyonny and his cavalry did not look back, and braved the bombardment of the coalition forces, turned their heads and ran towards the southwest. However, the formation of the opponent's rapid evacuation still minimized the lethality of the coalition mortar grenades.

Although Budyonny paid the price of more than 300 cavalry casualties, he ran out of the range of the mortar attack of the coalition battalion. Seeing that the opponent was leading away with less than 700 cavalry left, Antonikov slapped his thigh He yelled, "Budyonny has run away, Brigadier, hurry up and chase after him! Otherwise, this guy will run away and lose sight!"

Nejev put down the binoculars, nodded lightly, and ordered, "Take a cavalry battalion to follow up. You don't have to get too close, just follow behind. You must avoid hand-to-hand combat with sabers. Just bombard him when the cannon shoots, and continue to follow when he runs far away, and I will lead the brigade to cover the field for you, keep in touch and don't underestimate the enemy!"

"Okay! Brigadier, just watch!" Antonikov turned around and got on his horse, pulled out his saber and swung his head forward, shouting back, "The second battalion comes with me! Catch up with Budyonny! Ula"

The soldiers of the Second Battalion of the Allied Cavalry mounted their horses one after another, waved their cavalry rifles and sabers, shouted "Ula" and rushed out with their regiment commander.