Steel Soviet Union

Changchun, Jilin, where the Kwantung Army headquarters is located.

Yamada Otsuzo, the commander of the Kwantung Army who was almost turning himself into a god, had not had a decent sleep for three days and three nights.

In addition to the corruption, rout, and tragic defeat of the battle, there was also the anger and helplessness that followed the loss of Harbin in a humiliating and humiliating way.

"Your Excellency, Commander, we have just collected another group of defeated troops, and they were withdrawn from the direction of Harbin in the north."

Hearing the word "Harbin", Yamada Otozo suddenly felt his heart tremble, as if he was being held tightly by someone and felt out of breath. After thinking that it would be useless to talk nonsense, he simply spoke calmly.

"Are there still no people from the Second Division and Harbin City?"

Yamada Otsuzo subconsciously wanted to "escape" to describe it, and the literal meaning is indeed more accurate.

However, due to human feelings, Yamada Otozo finally took the words back, and the chief of staff who had no time to think about it immediately replied.

"Not yet, Your Excellency Commander. There is another thing that needs to be reported to you, which is the latest news."

"Um?"

He turned around and glanced at the chief of staff beside him, and found that there was no joy in his face.

Yamada Otsuzo, who had already guessed that the news would probably not be good, had already been overwhelmed by all the bad news in the past few days, and now even two more bad news would not be a big deal. ˜”*°•.˜˜.•°*”˜

"Tell me, what kind of news."

"Our intelligence system left in Harbin has been completely out of contact, and the Super High School and the consulate have all lost contact. We don't even know what the Russians are doing in the city now. The last time the Super High School sent a telegram, all the news in it was "

"Go on, what is it all about?"

"Hi, Commander."

As he said this, he had to watch his words to see if the commander could bear the news. Don't be so upset that the chief of staff sincerely lamented that his job was difficult, and then continued to add. said.

"It's all chaos, all kinds of chaos."

"The last message mentioned that the Russians were arresting people all over the city. They mobilized civilians in the city to search for the whereabouts of our personnel. The Russian search team was extremely large. The Special High School said that the Russians invested at least four Five thousand troops searched the whole city and sealed off the entire city. It is estimated that the total number of troops invested must be at least tens of thousands. "

"And this group of Russians claims to be the leading army, with the dual honorary titles of "Stalin" and "Guards". The number of heavy weapons is completely beyond imagination. The Russian tanks are so numerous that they are spread throughout the entire city of Harbin, almost at every intersection. There are tanks parked in open areas that the Russians use as mobile checkpoints.

"As expected, this group of Russians should be"

The chief of staff was hesitant to speak and couldn't continue. Finally, Yamada Otsuzo, with his eyes slightly closed, spoke for him.

"You want to say that it was these Russians who defeated the Second Division, right?"

"Hey, all the known intelligence currently points to this. This is my personal analysis."

""

Yamada Otozo opened his eyes and looked at the battle zone map in front of him and sighed again.

Thinking back to the fact that the Russians captured Harbin yesterday morning, I looked at the distance on the map and thought about the troops I had available.

Although he was extremely reluctant and didn't want to do this, he finally blurted out the helpless words.

"Retreat. Organize the evacuation of all troops and agency personnel in Changchun City. The headquarters will also withdraw and move to Fengtian as planned. If it's too late, I'm afraid it will be too late. The Third Front Army can still resist for a while, and we will wait until we get there. Think about the next step.”

"Fengtian? Commander, I thought you would"

The chief of staff, who had prepared more than one evacuation and relocation plan in advance, looked surprised, as if he had not expected that Yamada Otsuzo would order an evacuation to Fengtian. Yamada Otsuzo, who could guess the reason, said immediately.

"Are you thinking why I didn't order an evacuation to North Korea?"

Yamada Otosan's words hit home the truth, and the chief of staff, who didn't try to hide anything, replied directly.

"Hi! Your Excellency Commander, there are more troops in the direction of North Korea, and the terrain there is difficult, easy to defend and difficult to attack, which can delay and block the offensive of the Russian tank troops to the maximum extent. If we can organize a strong force to withdraw to North Korea, Combined with the existing local forces, I believe we will be able to repel the Russian attack."

""

Yamada Otozo, who was silent for a moment, thought for a moment, then pointed at the map and continued speaking.

"It's too late, it's too late now."

"You can analyze the characteristics of the Russian troops. The battle offensive relies heavily on tank troops, and you want to rely on mountainous terrain to block the Russian offensive. This is good, but the problem lies precisely here."

"The defense line of the 34th Army has been penetrated by the Russians, and the Russian tanks are now heading south to Bichuan."

"The strategic intention is very obvious. The Russians want to cut off our retreat to North Korea. The Russians operating in this direction were the first batch of troops to start the southward attack. At that time, our situation was far from being as bad as it is today. The prediction of the war situation was The judgment was also more optimistic, and it was far from the point where we needed to evacuate to North Korea, but I didn’t expect it to happen now.”

The phrase "If I had known this, why bother in the first place" is undoubtedly the most appropriate way to describe Yamada Otozo's state of mind at this moment.

After seeing the power of the Russian tanks, Yamada Otsuzo no longer had any hope that the remaining defeated troops of the Kwantung Army could break through the blockade of the Red Army heading south.

His family knows his own affairs. As the commander, Yamada Otsuzo knows very well how much capability the Kwantung Army has left and what kind of work it can do after the war.

In fact, there is another sentence that Yamada Otozo didn't say to the chief of staff but knew it in his heart.

If they were to encounter a Russian attack on their way to North Korea, the Kwantung Army headquarters, which had no way out, would most likely be blocked by the Russians and wiped out halfway.

The situation at that time will be that there are wolves in front and tigers in the back. They will not be able to defeat the Russian troops in the front, nor can they get rid of the Russians chasing behind them. They will be completely unable to advance or retreat.

At least there is a way out to retreat to Fengtian, which is a narrow escape.

Evacuating to North Korea is really akin to committing suicide, it is a complete and utter failure to survive.

In the battle reports received so far, there has been no case of one's own troops defeating the Russians in a field environment.

Even the Second Division, which had the strongest field strength, was killed and annihilated by the Russians in just one day, becoming a laughing stock that would die on the same day it went into battle.

He really didn't dare to think about what would happen if he was blocked by the Russians in the middle of the field. Yamada Otsuzo, who was determined, made the decision without waiting for the chief of staff to speak again.

"That's it, evacuate to Fengtian, do it immediately!"