the world is at stake

Since the establishment of the 'Northern Xinjiang Construction Corps', thousands of Han Chinese have brazenly crossed the border, and they did not hesitate to fight for land with the Russian border guards.

Those were not Han Chinese who came with a few rifles on their backs, but those who came in armored vehicles and brought mortars. They should be called armed infiltrators.Tsarist Russian border guards couldn't beat it at all.

Tsarist Russian diplomats did not know how many times they protested to China.But the Chinese side expressed regret at most, and pointed out that many places in the Far East have been settled by the Han people since ancient times, and now they are just returning to normal.

After a long time, the aborigines in the Far East found that working for the Russians was not as good as working for the Chinese.The Russians also found that it is better to ask the Chinese for a land transfer fee than to fight and kill.

As long as the situation can be settled, the Chinese reclamation group will usually give money, and by the way, expand the scope of cultivation by ten times, and lead more compatriots to farm the land, build houses and build bunkers.

As for the Chinese working on the Siberian Railway, there are also many Chinese, and they even become an indispensable backbone.As an important railway town, Chita is inseparable from Chinese laborers.

"I'm a little uneasy. Chinese workers rarely absent from work, and it's the first time that collective absenteeism is the first time." The Russian station manager at the station murmured worriedly, "This must indicate something."

The train dispatcher next to him was even more frowning, "Don't talk about the workers, our communication with Ulan-Ude in the west has also been interrupted. There has been no train since yesterday, and the telegram contact has also disappeared."

The Siberian Railway is the only road that connects the Far East with the outside world, and the telegraph line also follows the railway.Snow in winter will indeed cause obstacles to railway transportation, but the railway has special snow removal vehicles to ensure the smooth flow of the line.

Chita is [-] kilometers away from Ulan-Ude in the west and nearly [-] kilometers away from Manzhouli in the east.Among them are large tracts of primeval forest and no-man's land.

Now... without the railway and telegraph, this small town is like an isolated island, and it doesn't know what's going on outside.

"Could it be that the Chinese are calling?" the dispatcher made a hypothesis.

"This kind of weather?" The station master pointed to the snowy sky. "Blizzard days are not suitable for large-scale wars."

"What if it's along the railway line?" The dispatcher pointed towards the railway tracks outside the glass window, "The Chinese can come from Manzhouli by train. They don't even need to fight, because we can't resist at all.

Around Chita, there are many lands reclaimed and villages built by the Chinese armed forces, and supplies can be easily obtained.The aborigines are not disgusted with the Chinese, and even have internal support. "

The station master was amazed, and the Chinese army used snow plows to open the way in his mind, followed by thousands of soldiers swarming in.Chita, with a population of only 8 to [-], is simply unstoppable.

The Russian garrison in Chita is less than [-], and they cannot be stationed in the wild, basically staying in the barracks.Its equipment is not much better, and one shelling will cause heavy casualties.

Although Siberia is vast, except for the scattered indigenous settlements, the Russians basically stay in the cities strung together by railway lines.There are not many of these cities, often only three to four hundred kilometers away, and it is difficult to support each other.

The Chinese really don't need to care about the wind and snow, just come by train.The stations along the line are assisted by a large number of Chinese laborers, who are familiar with the geographical environment at least, so it is really not difficult to capture them.

The telegraph operator at the station came over sullenly and said in a low voice, "Gentlemen, there is a big trouble."

The station master and the dispatcher were discussing the worst situation. Hearing this, he was startled and asked anxiously, "What's the matter?"

"I can say with certainty that the telegraph line was sabotaged." The operator continued to lower his voice, "I guess it was cut by the Chinese. This may be some kind of bad omen, and we must be mentally prepared. "

'Psychological preparation' is a good word to use.

The operator didn't say any crap about resisting to the end.The station master and the dispatcher also became silent. They looked at each other, and then sent someone to contact the officials and garrison in Chita City, hoping that others could 'prepare'.

The mayor and other officials and the garrison generals were taken aback. They tried to contact the surrounding cities by radio, but were told that the radio was broken and could not be repaired.

One bad news after another, the city became restless.The officials and the garrison were discussing how to resist, but they had been discussing for a whole day to no avail.

The time dragged on to the daytime on the 2nd, the snowstorm stopped and the sky cleared.

An old biplane reconnaissance plane appeared over Chita and circled the city for half a day.The Russians in the city looked up, more disturbed.

Because this kind of aircraft can fly very slowly, it is unique to the cultivated Chinese farms. It is used for aerial seeding or spraying pesticides, and it is also used for field rescue, transportation and reconnaissance.

Siberia is too big, and Tsarist Russia's control ability is limited. The Northern Xinjiang Construction Corps repurposed domestically obsolete aircraft, which is very useful.

By noon on the 2nd, the telegraph line between Chita and Manchuria was connected, informing the Russians in the city that the Chinese government had declared war on the Russian Empire twelve hours earlier in order to hold the Russian Empire accountable for its occupation of Chinese territory in the past century.

Surrender or be bombed and shelled.

"It really is a declaration of war."

"It's bullying us alone."

"The ones flying in the sky should be artillery calibration planes."

"The message requires us to reply before 14:[-] p.m., and now there are less than two hours left."

In the Chita City Hall, officials, businessmen, and military officers wearing mink coats or leather military uniforms huddled together to discuss countermeasures.Discussions quickly turned into quarrels. Military officers did not want to surrender, businessmen did not want to be damaged, and officials refused to take responsibility.

The time dragged on until 13:30, when more than a dozen monoplane fighter jets appeared over Chita, accompanied by the 'H-1' which was two or three times larger.

On the ground, the railway station sent people to rush open the door of the meeting room of the city hall, and shouted manically at the officials who had not yet discussed the results: "The train gun, we found the Chinese train gun."

China has imported many train guns with a caliber of 305 mm from Germany, all of which were refitted with old naval guns.The air power of the National Defense Forces is world-class, and they don't care much about the range of heavy artillery, but they have high requirements for accuracy and response speed.

Staying in the city hall, you can't see the bombardment positions more than ten kilometers away, but just think about the heavy artillery and bombs that have been aimed at you, and the 'big shots' in Chita can't calm down.

The Kuban Cossack troops stationed in Chita, the main force is the expanded "His Majesty's Pride Anastasia Mikhailovna Grand Duchess" regiment-yes, that's what they call it.

After the whole regiment was strengthened, there were only about a hundred machine guns and twenty light artillery pieces.The Russians feel that this is already a great firepower, because in the past only the first-level troops could have such a luxury.

The Cossack officer was very confident in his own military force, and said that he would never surrender, and ordered the troops to take over the train station immediately, and replied to the Chinese side with a message of "fight to the end".

The officials and businessmen looked ashamed, and they were scattered like snakes and rats, eager to leave the city.

By 14 o'clock, the train artillery from Manzhouli failed to complete the layout of the circular shooting rails, but still chose to adjust the muzzle to fire into Chita City.

The 305 mm caliber naval gun blasted the earth-shattering sound, and the small half-ton shell flew out with a high trajectory. Under the guidance of the artillery observation plane, it landed in the Cossack barracks in the east of the city.

The Cossack cavalry in the barracks had already received combat orders.Thousands of people mounted their horses, put on carts, and were gathering.The officers gave lectures, the soldiers drew their knives, and shouted 'Ula' loudly, and the scene was very exciting.

The first 305mm shell was not very accurate and landed on the training ground a full 300 meters away from the gate of the barracks.The ground covered by heavy snow was like a drum being struck, and there was a violent explosion.

The flat land was blasted into a big hole, and the hard frozen soil was like crisp stones, flying all over the sky.The forage room near the training ground was affected, and the simple wooden shed seemed to be blown by a hurricane, and it was blown away, and the forage piled up like a hill disappeared.

The shouts of thousands of cavalry were instantly suppressed by the shelling, and the expressions of the brave Cossacks changed drastically.The horse under his crotch neighed wildly, hooved and galloped, and it was difficult to control.

Even the officer leading the team felt sideways stares and tongue tingling, feeling that he was contending with the power of heaven and earth and could not match.

At an altitude of 4000 meters, several 'H-1's that entered the bombing orbit have just completed bombing.

The heavy bombs were roaring and falling, but the crew members were joking, "The accuracy of the army's artillery is really poor. If we miss the bomb by 300 meters, we will be named and criticized."

Chapter 42 'Rule the East'

December 12, at 2:14, Vladivostok.

Affected by the cold current of the Thousand Islands, the sea surface of Peter the Great Bay in the outer port has been frozen, and ships cannot sail.The Golden Horn Bay in the inner harbor has not yet frozen due to the surrounding mountains blocking the cold current and the high salinity of the seawater in the harbor.

Beside the pier in the inner harbor, the cruiser 'Reckless' of the Tsarist Russian Pacific Fleet fell sideways in the water. The hull of more than 2000 tons was hit by a 30mm artillery shell flying more than 356 kilometers away, and it exploded on the spot.

As the ship was in the harbor, the "Reckless" was not sunk, which gave the surviving sailors a chance to escape.Like ants escaping from an ant nest, they landed in disorder.

A sailor jumped off the crooked cruiser deck and sprained his ankle when he landed on the jetty.He cried out in pain, gritted his teeth and got up, limping and running along with the fleeing crowd.

"Novikov, help me."

When someone fled, he failed to land on the trestle bridge accurately, but jumped into the icy sea water.The thick winter clothes were soaked in sea water and became lifeless, even a good swimmer could easily drown.

Hearing the call, the crippled sailor turned around and pulled a gray-haired 'old sea dog' from the sea.The latter suffered severe hypothermia within a few minutes, and his hands and feet trembled from the cold, making it difficult to move.

"Take off your clothes, quickly help me take off my clothes." The old sailor shouted tremblingly.His hair and eyebrows froze in an instant, his face was flushed red from the cold, and his blood vessels were almost transparent.

Novikov moved quickly, but he couldn't even take off the old sailor's coat.The wet navy uniform hardened quickly in the cold wind.He could only gritted his teeth and carried the old sailor up, planning to find a warm place for rescue.

The fleeing people strode forward and were blocked by the big hole in the trestle ahead.The wooden bridge deck of tens of meters was shattered by the shelling, making it impassable.

Fortunately, someone from the shore drove a small boat over so that the survivors could reach the shore.

"Hold on." Novikov carried the old sailor onto the boat.Several other sailors also came up to help, taking out their daggers and trying to cut open the increasingly hard wet clothes.

At this moment, a scream came from the sky, and more than a dozen large-caliber naval artillery shells were fired from outside the port.

These heavy-duty projectiles can fly more than [-] kilometers, and rub against the air at high speed, leaving a conspicuous ballistic trajectory.After it landed, it shook the sky, and its destructive power was astonishing.

"Airport, our airport is finished." A sailor shouted in frustration.

A plume of smoke rose from a few kilometers away, blasting the newly built airport in Vladivostok.Without an airport, fighter jets cannot take off and land, so in the sky...

There are more than [-] fighter planes chasing and fighting over Vladivostok, biting each other's tails.The red-painted Chinese fighter planes are extremely fierce, and the two-plane formation cooperates tacitly, and the tactical movements are simple and smooth.

The performance of the Russian-made or legal-made fighters piloted by Tsarist Russian pilots is not bad.Its style is pungent, it doesn't like formation, and it can always challenge the performance limit of the airframe.

The number of Maozi fighters falling to their own deaths is about the same as the number of being shot down, but they can create miracle results from time to time.

But no matter how hard the pilots try, it's really over without the airport.And if you lose air supremacy, just wait to be bombed to pieces by Chinese bombs.

The old sailor who was suffering from the cold probably knew that he would not survive. He fell into the rescue boat, looked at the fighter planes galloping and fighting in the sky, and murmured with a wry smile: "War, this is war. In the past we slaughtered the Chinese, today they slaughter us .”

The old sailor's clothes were frozen to a crust, and probably a rifle shot would not pierce them.A few young sailors formed a half circle and gave up their efforts.Someone crossed himself and whispered a prayer.

The old sailor laughed, "Ten years ago, the military governor Gribski asked us to deal with the Chinese in Hailanpao. We used bayonets to capture those poor guys from their homes and drove them to Heilongjiang inside.

I saw with my own eyes a mother who left her child on the bank and walked into the river crying.But after walking a few steps, she came back to hug the child and wanted to die together.After a while, she came ashore again and begged us to get around her baby.

We didn't bypass it, neither the child nor the mother.We knocked them over with horses and stabbed them over with bayonets.The crowd was jostling to and fro, trying desperately to escape, but we chopped off their heads one by one.

The driven Chinese huddled on the bank and fell into the river like an avalanche, shouting half-dead, floating up and down like a raft.Afterwards, only some shoes, hats and baggage were left on the shore, which were also burned by us. "

The young sailors including Novikov listened stupidly, not knowing why.

After talking for a long time, the old sailor opened his eyes wide and shouted: "Fight on, don't surrender. The Chinese will not forgive us, only the victor will be forgiven."

A young sailor was grabbed by the collar by an old sailor, and he couldn't break free no matter what.He stood up in a panic, causing the rescue boat to shake, and instead fell himself into the sea.

It took another hasty rescue to pull the unlucky guy up.This time, the experienced sailors on the ship took off his clothes quickly and carried him ashore.

Novikov took off his coat for his companion who fell into the water and sent him to a medical aid facility.Due to multiple rounds of heavy artillery bombardment, the facilities in the port area were severely damaged, and the group stumbled as they walked.

The Chinese sent an ultimatum 24 hours in advance, which seemed very gentlemanly, and gave the Russian army a chance to assemble and fight.But it was this assembly order that brought great trouble to the Russian army of more than a dozen divisions in the Far East.

Poor traffic and chaotic communications are the worst enemies of the Russian army.The assembled troops wantonly used the radio to communicate, but instead exposed their location and attracted bombing and strafing by the Chinese Air Force.

At this moment, the port ambulance station in Vladivostok was overwhelmed with people, and the wounded could no longer be accommodated, and many of them were waiting to die in the howling wind.The doctors and nurses were so busy that they could only find another house to open up a new bed.

Novikov took off his coat from a dead body and put it on the unlucky man who fell into the water. He was caught by several gendarmes in the blink of an eye.The latter glanced at the uniform he was wearing, and shouted, "Sailor, don't hide in the infirmary, you are healthy, go to the battlefield."

"Where are you going?" Novikov was dizzy.

The military police picked out a few more people from the crowd at the hospital, including two lightly wounded, and roughly pushed them onto a truck, "Go up, go up, go to the front, go to fight."

"Where is the front line?"

"Getting in the car is going to the front line."

Chaos, chaos, chaos.

Novikov was pushed into the carriage and found himself with members of different units.The seven or eight people in the carriage were all empty-handed and looked at each other in blank dismay.

The trucks produced by the Ural Vehicle Plant started, rolled over a pile of shelled ruins and left the port hospital.But before Novikov could figure out where he was going, a red fighter plane swooped down from the sky, and two rockets hit the truck in front of it.

Then, two 12.7 mm caliber aviation machine guns slammed into the ground and hit continuous impact points, passing through the top of the truck.

The [-]-ton light truck crashed into the crater made by the rocket and turned off on the spot.Several large-caliber bullets shot into the truck, pierced the bodies of several people, and burst into clouds of blood.

Novikov only felt his body soar into the air and then fall, hitting the iron plate at the front of the carriage.He had already sprained his ankle, but this was even more severe.When he struggled to get out of the carriage in severe pain...

The truck was a wreck, with the driver hanging halfway through the window.

The cab was a blur like an overturned bolognese bottle.Four of the seven soldiers who were looking at each other in blank dismay just now survived, and the rest were either dead or injured, and could not be saved.

The swooping red fighter plane pulled up at a height of 300 meters from the ground, and the piston engine flew over the road with a roar, and climbed again.

Looking at the sky, the Russian fighter planes that were fighting just now have all disappeared, and it is unknown whether they fled or crashed.Novikov didn't know where to go, so he thought about it and returned to the port area.After all, he is a sailor, so he has to find a navy unit.

The Russian Pacific Fleet Headquarters is near the port area, facing the bay, and is a rectangular multi-storey building.

The fleet suffered heavy losses in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, and the entire army was wiped out.After more than ten years of reconstruction, there are only a few old protected cruisers and destroyers in it.

Novikov limped towards the headquarters building, with hundreds of panicked soldiers running around along the way.From a distance, he saw an officer waving a pistol outside the building, trying to gather the crowd running around, but before he got close...

There was another terrible howling sound in the sky. It was different from the sound of heavy artillery shells piercing the sky and passing by in a single 'swish'. This time the howling sound was very sharp, approaching quickly above the head.

When the people on the ground raised their heads attracted by the howling, a black dot fell from the sky and hit the air defense position behind the headquarters building.Several [-]mm caliber anti-aircraft guns were deployed on the position, which were said to be imported from Europe.

The double-linked gun barrels shot into the sky suddenly, and the rate of fire was extremely fast.But the naked eye seems to be unable to aim at the head, and no results have been seen.Instead, the falling black dots exploded near the air defense positions, blowing up the parapet walls of the positions piled up with sacks until they collapsed.

The anti-aircraft position suddenly misfired, but attracted several fighter jets to straf at low altitude.

The explosion shattered all the windows on the north side of the headquarters building, and shattered glass could be seen falling from the floors in the distance.The officer who was still brandishing a pistol just now was running around, not killed by the bomb, but also killed by the glass.

Novikov, who still wanted to approach, was frightened.He was so panicked that he scrambled and turned around.The soldiers running around near the headquarters building were also fleeing, and even the generals and schools on duty inside the building couldn't stay and fled out one after another.

Vladivostok is too close to the Sino-Russian border, and there are only a hundred old and new fighters at the airport.None of the planes that can still fly into the sky can be seen now.The sky is full of red fuselages, forming formations to attack ground targets.

Without air supremacy, the seaport is almost impossible to fight. 'Boom-1' volleys bombs, like riding on top of a Russian shit.Several companies of small-caliber anti-aircraft guns cannot deal with targets at an altitude of 4000 meters, and can only be bombed.

Throughout the day, the bombers of the Chinese Air Force bombarded the coastal artillery positions in the Hong Kong area.As long as the positions are exposed, they cannot escape the guided bombs falling from the sky, and they are cleared like a roll call.

Novikov followed the fleeing crowd like a headless chicken.Some Russian officers didn't know what to do. They stopped and looked around while running, without organization.

In the afternoon, news came from the north of Vladivostok—the Chinese armored forces quickly captured Shuangchengzi, and they were about to seize this Tsarist Russian military port that 'rules the East'.

Chapter 43 Logistics Comparison