Khujand, a small city, blocks the exit of the Fergana Valley. After the last conflict between China and the Soviet Union, the theory of the demilitarized zone existed in name only. The two sides, who had no intention of starting a fight at the time, made a tacit agreement not to invade each other based on their respective lines of actual control.
As China continues to add troops to the border, the Soviet Union is not slow to respond. Pavlov was transferred from the European front to Central Asia by Stalin, while Chuikov was transferred to the Far East. After Pavlov took office, Stalin gradually mobilized troops from Europe and established the Central Asian Front, with Pavlov as the commander of the front.
That¡¯s right, this Pavlov was the guy in history who was beaten by the Germans and ran away with his head in his arms. The Soviet General Staff had already formulated a combat plan at the end of 1939, with the purpose of encircling and annihilating the Chinese troops in Central Asia. For the strategic purpose of pre-emptive strike, Stalin mobilized a large number of troops to Central Asia. The Central Asian Front has four group armies and a large number of border defense troops. Its total strength has reached five mechanized corps, 70 infantry divisions, and more than one million troops. In the Far East, the Soviet army planned to focus on defense, but its total strength also reached two mechanized corps and thirty infantry divisions. The Soviet General Staff believes that the Siberian battlefield is large and the strategic depth is sufficient. Even if the Chinese army launches an attack in the Far East, it will be difficult to threaten the core of the Soviet Union in the short term. On the contrary, it is different in Central Asia. As long as the Chinese occupy Tashkent and advance 500 kilometers before the blind date, they can threaten Baku with bombers produced with imported German technology.
The importance of Baku to the Soviet Union cannot be overstated. Militarily, Stalin actively prepared, and diplomatically, he continued to have private contacts with Japan, seeking collaboration between Japan and the Soviet Union to attack China from a flank.
But now Japan¡¯s thoughts are no longer on China. Germany's overwhelming prestige in Europe seriously stimulated the nerves of the Japanese army and navy. Britain and France are completely paper tigers. If we don't fight now, then we will fight. However, the Japanese Navy and Army Ministry unexpectedly reached a consensus on when to go south. That is, China and the Soviet Union started fighting first, and then talked about going south. And once the Japanese army wants to go south. The first thing to solve is not the Chinese Navy, but the US Navy.
At the same time, Hitler's pursuit of the French fleet in Africa was unexpectedly successful. Churchill, a ruthless guy, directly ordered the British Navy to block the French fleet in the port without getting the French fleet. Ordered them all to be sunk. Anyway, Germany cannot be advantaged. This move can be said to have hit Hitler's weakness. Without a navy, what can we do to realize the Sea Lion plan? The British Navy's actions were unexpectedly discovered by German aircraft. On the way to the port of Marseille, they were bombarded by the German Air Force and lost two cruisers before calling it a day. However, in North Africa, British warships operated at night and forcibly disarmed the French fleet in North Africa. However, the French navy refused, and Churchill ordered them all to be sunk.
During the fierce battle between the British and French fleets, British naval artillery hit the oil depot at Mirsk Biel Port, destroying 150,000 tons of light crude oil. This move plunged the French fleet into great anger. Angrily launched a fierce attack on the British fleet. The two navies fought fiercely for a night, and finally the British completed their mission and sank most of the battleships of the French North African Fleet. They also paid the price of two old battleships being sunk. It is worth mentioning that after the French fleet's latest battleship, the Lis¨¦lieu and five other battleships, accidentally escaped into the sky and escaped into the Tyrrhenian Sea, Mussolini sent planes to intercept the British navy out of wishful thinking. And let the remaining French fleet hide in Naples. As a result, people didn't buy it. Fleet commanders Jean and Sur ordered to shoot down the seaplane sent by Mussolini and fled to the neutral country of Greece.
Most of the strength of the French navy was preserved. Under orders from Vichy France, the decision was made to surrender to Germany. This result eclipsed Churchill, and Britain's situation became even more difficult.
Churchill telegraphed an order to Zhuang Sen, the minister to China, to urgently seek an audience with Fang Jianxiong, demanding that Myanmar's interests be exchanged for equipment for four Chinese battleships and ten infantry divisions. When Zhuang Sen hurried to the Presidential Palace. But he was unexpectedly invited to the study. The secretary told him that the president was having an important meeting.
Zhuang Sen casually asked: "Nothing happened, right?" The secretary didn't know if he was unprepared, so he sighed and said: "Something big happened, Central Asia started fighting again."
The incident took place near Khujand. After the last battle, the Soviet army also tore off the mask of the demilitarized zone, began to build fortifications in Khujand, and required the Chinese side that there should be no conflict between the two sides within ten kilometers east of Khujand. military presence. The idea was to leave a buffer zone, and China agreed. However, after the arrival of spring, the Chinese and Soviet armies, which had been living in peace and harmony, had several conflicts between the patrols of the two sides in this small area. It started out as bickering, but later it became physical. Both sides were quite restrained and had no intention of shooting. They were fighting with wooden sticks in their hands.
Entering JulyLater, things took a new turn. Soviet cavalry often appeared in this area. Not to be outdone, China also sent cavalry to patrol the area. Several times the cavalry from both sides encountered each other, and their guns almost went off.
On August 20th, a Chinese cavalry squad encountered a Soviet cavalry platoon. The two sides were still hostile to each other as before, preparing to pass each other a few meters away. However, in this solemn atmosphere, suddenly something happened. The Chinese soldier sneezed. Because the atmosphere at the scene was too heavy, the sneeze came too suddenly, and the sound was not quiet. A Soviet soldier subconsciously raised his gun and pointed it at the Chinese soldier.
They were already prepared here. As soon as they saw the gun on the other side raised, the Sten submachine gun in the cavalry's hand fired first. Although this Sten submachine gun is not very powerful, it was also bought by the main force, but it is very powerful against the Soviet army who only has carbine in hand. They fought like this for two seconds. The Soviet troops were outnumbered and the Chinese were small. They had to deceive and retreat at the same time. Six corpses were left behind. The Soviet side suffered greater losses. Eight were killed and wounded. Sixteen or seventeen.
The Chinese cavalry sent out signal flares while running to request reinforcements. After a cavalry company stationed in Kanibadamu discovered the signal flares, they immediately dispatched reinforcements. Not to be outdone, the Soviet army also sent an additional battalion of cavalry reinforcements. After two encounters on the way, the Chinese cavalry company first occupied a high ground, discovered the compatriots that the Soviet army was chasing, and immediately used mortars to cover them.
The use of guns and the use of artillery are completely different in nature, and the Soviet cavalry suffered a big loss. The sound of artillery alerted an artillery company stationed by the Soviet army on the Gavorov line of defense, and it immediately opened fire on the Chinese side with a 122-mm howitzer.
The Soviet 122 howitzer had a long range. This time the Chinese cavalry company suffered a big loss and lost more than a dozen people. While withdrawing, use the walkie-talkies sent down to the company level to report to the higher level. The news reached the Andiyan Fortress. Commander Xu Tingyao was not afraid of the seriousness of the matter and immediately asked the Air Force to dispatch retaliation. The Air Force had a temporary airport in Yangkikorgan with six old-fashioned Eagle IIIs and four Mustangs parked. Normally, the main mission of these aircraft is reconnaissance, but as soon as they heard that there was work to do, the flying group was like a chicken blood, and all the fighter planes took off.
We had already conducted reconnaissance and knew the approximate location of the Soviet artillery positions. After taking off, the flying group rushed in the direction without hesitation. In less than ten minutes, the Soviet artillery position with artillery was discovered, and all six 122 howitzers were wiped out in one dive.
When they discovered that the Chinese fighter planes were coming, the Soviet army did not show weakness and immediately dispatched twenty I-15 fighter planes to meet the enemy. (After summary, the Soviet Army believed that only twice the enemy aircraft could offset the gap in fighter performance) The Yingsan had no advantage over the I-15. After discovering the enemy plane, the Yingsan turned around and ran away, while the Mustang fighter climbed directly. It seemed To run away. Seeing that they could not catch up with the Mustang, the Soviet planes, stimulated by the ground bombing, ran towards the Yingsan and chased them, vowing to destroy these planes. As a result, the climbing Mustang fighter jet dived at high speed, ambushed it at an altitude of 6,000 meters, and shot down four Soviet fighter jets in one breath. Seeing that they were about to catch up with Yankikurgan, the anti-aircraft guns on the ground were not easy to deal with, so the Soviet fighter planes had no choice but to return empty-handed, suffering a heavy loss again.
When the incident reached Beijing, Fang Jianxiong judged that Stalin could not bear it anymore, so he immediately convened an emergency meeting. Under this premise, Zhuang Sen's request for an interview was postponed, and he could only drink tea and wait in the reception room. In fact, Zhuang Sen was in a very complicated mood at this time. Once a large-scale military conflict breaks out between China and the Soviet Union, in a sense, Hitler will no longer have anything to worry about on the Eastern Front. But we can¡¯t persuade China to be patient, right? Then why not push China into the arms of Germany? With the combat power of the Soviet army, it would be damn difficult to defeat Finland. Do you still expect the Soviet army to defeat the Chinese army? This multiple-choice question is easy to answer. At this time, the UK can only stand on the side of China, which has a good relationship with the United States and is supporting the UK.
Both sides have been preparing for a long time, and Fang Jianxiong didn¡¯t think Stalin could endure it this time. Stalin did not think that Fang Jianxiong had worked so hard to deploy so many troops on the Sino-Soviet border to engage in camping activities. The string that was so tight was finally about to break. In fact, at this time, if both China and the Soviet Union responded by taking a step back, this war might not be possible.
At this meeting, Fang Jianxiong made a very arbitrary decision. The Far East and Central Asia front armies immediately entered a state of first-level combat readiness to prepare for a possible large-scale surprise attack by the Soviet Union. At the same time, five more wings were added to the northwest equipped with the new Mustang B-type fighter jets, which amounted to 500 aircraft dispatched.
The same goes for Stalin, who asked the Central Asian Military Region to be prepared to take the initiative, but he also wanted to take a look. Unexpectedly, the Chinese side did not even give an explanation. The minister to Russia even blamed it, saying that the Soviet army took the initiative to shoot and provoke.
So, a sneeze triggered a protracted war! (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to Qidian.com to vote for recommendations and monthly votes. Your supportPerseverance is my biggest motivation. Mobile phone users please go to m. to read. )