Age of Rebirth

Chapter 810 Timoshenko's Situation

Facing the grim situation in the Far East of the Soviet Union, Stalin, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Soviet Union and Chairman of the Council of Ministers, could only choose a direction in the Outer Russia and the Far East. Molotov, the People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs, led a team to the foreign military area to negotiate with Tang Qiuli, who surrounded Zhukov and 10,000+ Soviet troops.

This was Stalin's last choice. The bottom line he handed over to Molotov was, "give that damned Chinese what he wants." How reluctant they are, they all have to face this reality, and if they continue to delay with Tang Qiuli, not only will they lose the outer regions, but the Far East will also fall into the hands of the Japanese.

Therefore, negotiating with Tang Qiuli was Stalin's choice, and it was undoubtedly the most correct choice. Although he paid a corresponding price for this choice, perhaps this was the cost Stalin had to pay for occupying the foreign territories.

After Molotov left, Stalin called a meeting of members of the Politburo of the CPSU to study the increasingly critical situation in the Far East. Timoshenko sent several telegrams a day asking for help, and the Second Far East Army was almost unable to hold on. [

The situation in the Far East dealt heavy blows to Stalin one after another. The Kwantung Army was in full swing and conquered the city. The Soviet Union’s largest military port in the Far East, Haishanwei, also fell into the hands of the Japanese army. Vice Admiral Liu Jin shot himself when the Japanese army captured Haishanwei.

Before they died, the two jointly sent a farewell telegram to the General Staff and Stalin. The content of the telegram made Stalin sad every time he read it.

"The General Staff was transferred to Comrade Stalin. On September [-], the Kwantung Army of the Communist Party of China launched a large-scale attack on Haishanwei. The fighting was fierce. By noon, our Red Army guards were defeated and most of the soldiers were killed. All officers and soldiers of the Pacific Fleet , was intercepted by the Japanese army during the emergency boarding process, and fought fiercely with the Japanese army in the urban area, causing most of the casualties."

"And the first, second and most of the fourth fleet of the Japanese Navy have approached Haishan Weijun Port. From the position of the fleet headquarters, looking at Haishan Weijun Port, the Japanese warships have entered the waterway leaving the port. So far, The Pacific Fleet has lost its ability to resist, and it is almost a foregone conclusion that all warships will fall into the enemy's hands. As the military and political supreme commander of the fleet, the two of us bear an inescapable responsibility. We have failed the great trust of the motherland and Comrade Stalin. The only thing we can do is die. Swear not to be a prisoner of the Communists, Bernizov and Koryukin never write."

Stalin read this telegram with tears in his eyes. The suicide of two senior navy generals certainly made him sad, and the loss of the Pacific Fleet to the Japanese made Stalin feel so distressed that he almost fainted. It was built with a lot of painstaking efforts, and the capital to compete with the Americans and British for hegemony in the Pacific was lost overnight.

Is the dream of the Soviet Union going to the Pacific Ocean cut off?Stalin kept asking himself, who is the culprit for the current situation in the Far East where the Soviet Union suffered heavy losses?The instigator must have been Tang Qiuli, and the perpetrator was the Communists. Stalin was so ruthless about these two robbers that he must avenge them in his lifetime.

It is useless to grit your teeth. The urgent problem to be solved now is to rescue Timoshenko and his Second Army troops from the siege of the Kwantung Army.

The Politburo meeting of the CPSU, according to Stalin’s opinion, quickly formed the combat deployment of the Soviet army in the Far East. First, Timoshenko’s Second Far East Army troops will stick to the Arsenyev area for at least two weeks In about time, the troops transferred to the Far East can go to the battlefield.

Second, the troops of the Far Eastern Military Region in the Kamchatka Peninsula currently have six infantry divisions, three motorized brigades, one tank brigade, and two air force fighter regiments, with a total strength of about 7. The First Group Army of Kamchatka, with Major General Shirnenko as the commander and political commissar, deputy director of the Operations Bureau of the Red Army General Staff, immediately went south to reinforce Timoshenko after repelling the Kwantung Army troops attacking the Kamchatka Peninsula area. Second Army.

Thirdly, the troops of the Transcaucasian Front gave up their mission to fight against the Squadron, and immediately marched eastward through the Lake Baikal area to join the battlefield in the Far East. In this way, in the Far East, they will gather three group armies with a size of about 43 Although the troops around people are still at a disadvantage in terms of strength, they can handle it for a while.

In addition, Stalin also made a top-secret deployment. Once the negotiations with Tang Qiuli were successful, Zhukov's troops would immediately rearm in the Transcaucasus Military Region and march to the Far East battlefield. Moreover, all Soviet troops in the Far East would be reorganized into the Far East Front Army. Unification under the command of Zhukov.

This is not the main task. The main task that Stalin entrusted to the future Far Eastern Front Army was to completely repel the Kwantung Army back to Northeast China, and immediately attack the Central Army commanded by Tang Qiuli from all directions in the eastern region from the outside. The team launched a comprehensive counterattack and recovered the outer Taiwan area.

Stalin also emphasized one point: "Comrades, this plan is classified as top secret. Even for Comrade Zhukov, the Far Eastern Front Army must send someone from the General Staff to issue a special order after the battle with the Japanese Kwantung Army is over and the overall victory is achieved. , Before that, whoever reveals the secret will be punished as treason!" When Stalin said these words, there was obvious murderous intent in his tone, which made the Politburo members tense.

However, they looked at this Georgian who could determine the fate of the Soviets with admiration. Their great leader, the leader of the Soviets, had not yet begun a large-scale decisive battle with the Communist Party. Comrade Stalin had already considered the next step. One-step battle plan, the opponent is the Chinese Tang Qiuli who caused great trouble to the great Soviet Union.

The members of the Politburo of the CPSU present here asked themselves that they could not have thought of this. Maybe this is the thinking of great people different from ordinary people?It can also be seen from this that Tang Qiuli was listed as an object that must be eliminated in Stalin's mind. He hated him so much that he wanted to get rid of it quickly, making Stalin unable to sleep and thinking about it all the time. Tang Qiuli was proud of him. .

In fact, in Arsenyev in the Far East, Timoshenko's Far East Second Army could not withdraw even if it wanted to. In the area of ​​Spassk Dalini, a fierce battle was launched. On September [-], Timoshenko, led by a large-scale armored force, launched a large-scale counterattack against the Second Kwantung Army.

By September 80, the Kwantung Army's Third Army was repelled to the Paspan line west of Spassk Dalini. The Kwantung Army had retreated more than 4 kilometers, with more than [-] casualties, and had retreated to the Sino-Soviet On the border, the Second Far East Army of the Soviet Union regained Ussuriysk, but it also paid a considerable price, with more than [-] casualties. The situation on the battlefield was favorable to the Second Far East Army.

However, the geographical environment in the eastern section of the Soviet Far East allowed Timoshenko's victory to be tactical. The widest part of the long and narrow area bordering the Taiwan Sea on the east and the Sino-Soviet border on the west was only more than 200 meters wide. Kilometers, the narrowest is no more than a hundred kilometers, there is no room for strategic maneuvering at all.

According to Timoshenko's vision, after the Second Army is formed, it will immediately drive to Khabarovsk (Khabarovsk) to get out of such a narrow battlefield environment and obtain the largest maneuvering space on the battlefield. *The eastern region is approaching Kulun, and rescued Zhukov's first army from being surrounded. Going south can attack the Kwantung Army troops who dared to invade the Haishanwei area. In terms of geographical location and strategic layout, they have achieved an extremely favorable situation. [

After Timoshenko submitted his proposal to the General Staff, the reply he received was: "Comrade Timoshenko of the Second Far East Army, new changes are about to take place on the foreign war battlefield, and it is no longer urgent to rescue the First Far East Army." The main task of your department at present is to stay at the original station and pay close attention to the movements of the Kwantung Army."

After Timoshenko saw the order of the General Staff, he was furious. The high-ranking, out-of-touch lords in Moscow put 10,000+ troops on such a narrow battlefield to put the Second Army in danger. The situation, if the Japanese really attack the Far East, it will definitely not be a flat road.

There are at least four to six attack points to choose from, and Khabarovsk will definitely be one of them. From the perspective of the geographical environment here, if the Kwantung Army occupies Khabarovsk, the Second Army will be cut off and fall into a situation of being surrounded. Timoshenko did not understand why the General Staff did not listen to the opinions of the front-line commanders?

The General Staff in Moscow did not understand the situation here. Timoshenko, who was here, saw the murderous intent contained in the dense clouds of war from the frequent mobilization of the Kwantung Army and the large army gathered on the Sino-Soviet border. , He still misunderstood the order of the General Staff.

Keeping the Second Far East Army here can act as a deterrent to the Kwantung Army, preventing the Japanese from acting rashly, and buying time for resolving the war in the foreign military area. Who knows, the Japanese are eye-catching Robbers, daring, greedy and arrogant, simply ignored these things, and Tang Qiuli ignited the restlessness in the bones of the Japanese.

Unfortunately for Timoshenko, on September 23, the Kwantung Army units that had successfully attacked on three fronts turned their attention to Timoshenko's after clearing away other Soviet troops in the Far East. On the Second Far East Army.

Kwantung Army Commander Kenji Ueda adjusted his strategic deployment. Except that the Second Army continued to attack Sakhalin Island and the Kamchatka Peninsula according to the original plan, the other three-way troops immediately encircled Timoshen after completing the established combat tasks. brother troops.

On September 24, the First Army of the Kwantung Army marched south from Khabarovsk, and the Fourth Army marched north from Haishanwei. Together with the Third Army, they pressed up across the board and tightly surrounded Timoshenko's Soviet Far East Second Army in Albania. In the Cheneyev area, Timoshenko was in great trouble.

(To be continued)