Chapter 1233: Southern Russia Theater (Part 1) May 16, 1945, eleven o'clock in the morning. (Niu Wen Novel ~ Read Novel Online) South Russia region, Astrakhan City. Astrakhan is located in the estuary area of ??the lower Volga River, just on the northwest coast of the Caspian Sea. It is an industrial city, mainly engaged in metal processing and machinery manufacturing industries, and has oil fields and gas fields. During the Soviet period, it was the Caspian Sea Industrial Belt. It is a relatively important heavy industrial city, but the war turned this city into ruins. During the Soviet-German War, a fierce urban offensive and defensive battle broke out here. When Stalingrad in the upper reaches of the Volga River fell to the Germans, Astrakhan became an important barrier for the Soviet army to defend the Ural Industrial Belt, and it was also the only barrier at that time. The strategic significance of the city brought destruction to the city, and Astrakhan was completely transformed into a Afterwards, the ruined city was also occupied by the German army, and this occupation lasted until May 14, 1945, when it was disintegrated by the offensive of the Asian Alliance Allied Forces. The German army was driven out of the city and divided into north and south. They retreated all the way north to the upper reaches of the Volga River and all the way south to the North Caucasus. Today is the third day since Astrakhan was liberated. The fighting in the city has completely stopped and sporadic gunshots can no longer be heard. However, the fighting in the southwest suburbs continues, and the sound of artillery is sometimes still heard. More violently, the German rearguard troops there are still resisting stubbornly, and the Asian Alliance coalition's clearing operations are continuing. Nowadays, Astrakhan can hardly be called a city. There is almost no complete building in the entire urban area. The ruins and broken walls constitute the basic color of the city. The bodies of the fallen buried under the ruins are difficult to deal with at the moment. , we can only let them rot and stink naturally among the bricks and rubble. The weather is getting hotter and the stench in the city is very strong. The corpses in the rubble must be cleaned up as soon as possible, and the citizens who are still alive in the city have now been killed by the new ones. The occupying forces organized themselves and used various tools to clean out the corpses from the rubble, and used vehicles to pull them to the wilderness outside the city for burial. So far, more than 20,000 corpses have been cleared out, most of which were Among the corpses of the dead German soldiers and their servants, a few were citizens of the city who had not had time to escape. Along with the citizens, there were a large number of German and Italian prisoners of war who were cleaning up the ruins of the city. The only difference was that the citizens worked in exchange for food, while the prisoners of war worked to atone for their sins. If they refused to obey the orders of the occupying forces, they would What awaits these prisoners of war is punishment or even execution. At this time, no one talks to them about international law, especially the Soviet Red Guards, who hate these invaders deeply and will kill them whenever they have the opportunity. A few lone prisoners of war, so almost all German and Italian prisoners of war are willing to stay in prisoner of war camps managed by Chinese military officers, because in their view, the Chinese are more civilized, even if they have to shoot those troublemakers, They will also organize a military court and go through the motions, unlike the Soviets who beat prisoners of war to death with sticks and didn't even bother to bury them. The whole city is busy now. Clearing the ruins is just one job. Another important job is to establish a frontline headquarters in the city and transfer the headquarters from Guryev to Astrakhan. Now, this The work has been basically completed. In fact, General Ji Yulin, commander-in-chief of the South Russian Army of the Asian Alliance Alliance, has now entered the city of Astrakhan. General Ji Yulin entered the city of Astrakhan in a captured German truck. His domestically produced vehicle was attacked by a Luftwaffe attack aircraft on the way from Guryev to Astrakhan. Fortunately, the air defense sentry issued a warning in time, and no personnel in the convoy were lost. However, most of the vehicles were destroyed, and they could only stop a logistics convoy midway and continue to rush to Astrakhan. There are still more sporadic air raids like the one Ji Yulin suffered. The situation in the southern battlefield is different from that in the northern battlefield. Here, the German army still has strong air power, and from time to time they will fly over the front line sporadically under the surveillance of the air defense forces. , carried out attacks on the Asian League positions. Although the losses caused were not great, they were very disturbing. Now, Ji Yulin has issued an order to mobilize more fighter units from the northern battlefield of the South Russian Theater to rush to the southern airspace to encircle and suppress those At the same time, the Astrakhan warning radar station is currently intensifying its construction, and it is believed that it will soon be able to provide effective long-range early warning for the city and its adjacent areas. In order to prevent accidental attacks by friendly forces, all captured vehicles put into use have clear air defense identification marks painted on the roof. The German army truck Ji Yulin was riding in was no exception. In the bumps of the truck, a canvas with air defense identification marks was painted on it. The hood of the truck swayed, and the military supplies packed in the truck compartment also collided with each other, making a crashing sound. This truck was filled with cans, but they were not supplies for the army. Civilians and prisoners of war in the city also needed them. These Chinese-made cans were used to transport large amounts of military supplies to the front line.??The railway network is now operating at full capacity, and air routes also provide necessary assistance to basically meet frontline needs. Fighting means making money. Ji Yulin knew this very well. Not only did direct fighting quickly consume war funds, but post-war aftermath also required a lot of money. Just relieving the hungry was a huge expense. This amount China will not bear the expenses alone. In fact, China has now signed relevant agreements with the United States to provide supplies to the Soviet Union participating in the war in the form of "lend-lease" to relieve the Soviet people. The batch of cans pulled by Ji Yulin's truck It is "Lease Can". The Soviet government leased it from the Chinese government and has to repay it in the future, which can be converted into minerals. The road was full of potholes, and many craters had not yet been filled. The truck was bumpy all the way, which made Ji Yulin a little overwhelmed. He glanced out of the car window and found that the city center was not far away. So Ji Yulin asked the driver to stop the car. He jumped out of the truck, beckoned all the entourage who were following him to get out of the truck, and followed the army commander on foot to the headquarters. The new headquarters is located in a library in the city center. The library is also the best-preserved and relatively sturdy building in the city. During the battle, both the bombs of the Chinese Air Force and the heavy artillery of the Chinese artillery were destroyed. They failed to destroy the library, so that after entering the city, the Asian League infantry had to engage in a hand-to-hand indoor battle with the German infantry guarding there in the library. In the end, they relied on flamethrowers and tear gas. The battle just ended. When Ji Yulin led the remaining staff of the staff and headquarters to the new headquarters, he could still smell the faint burnt smell inside the library. The walls were all black. The officers and soldiers who came in advance to establish the headquarters They were busy painting the dark walls with lime water, and they had completed the "decoration" work of the commander's office, but the walls were still wet, and there was a strong smell of lime filling the room. Ji Yulin had to temporarily stay at the headquarters He works in a military tent in front of the building. The staff officers who arrived at the headquarters in advance had already completed a summary report on the Astrakhan campaign and an analysis report on the current battle situation. After Ji Yulin arrived at the headquarters, the first thing he did was to review these reports. Judging from the report, the main force of the German army has been pushed back fifty kilometers northwest of Astrakhan, and judging from the air force's reconnaissance report, the German army is likely to be retreating to "Hitlerburg", too. It is the former "Stalingrad". It seems that the German army wants to have another "Battle of Hitlerburg" with the Asian Alliance Allied Forces. It is a pity that today is no longer what it used to be. The German army has no strategic advantage at all. The Volga The city at the confluence of the river and the Don River is destined to become Ji Yulin's next prey, and it can be easily captured. It will definitely not be as difficult as the German army's attack on Stalingrad. "Report that the Soviet Red Guards have sent someone to contact us." While Ji Yulin was carefully studying the battle situation analysis report, a staff officer brought a Soviet officer to the tent. Ji Yulin looked back and saw that the Soviet officer was an old acquaintance. It was Vasily, the Soviet sharpshooter who had caused trouble for the Asian Alliance troops in Guryev City. Now, he is a lieutenant colonel in the "Soviet Red Guards" , specifically responsible for liaison with the South Russian Army of the Asian Alliance Alliance. In order to facilitate communication, he even learned to fly a plane. Vasily handed over several important documents in the briefcase to Ji Yulin, and at the same time told Commander Ji an important news. "Mr. Commander, according to the reliable information we have received, the Beria Group is currently organizing an assassin force to assassinate our important personnel. I hope you will convey this news to the top leaders of the Asian League and remind them to pay attention to this news. We also informed the Caucasus Army. " Ji Yulin was stunned, looked at Vasily and said, "Is your intelligence reliable? Isn't Beria helping the enemy by taking action against you? Ah." Although Ji Yulin looked surprised on the surface, in fact, he was not surprised at all. The "Soviet Red Guards" are not an armed force controlled by the Soviet government. They are an armed force controlled by Beria's political opponents, and this political opponent of Marshal Beria is Commander Malenkov who lives in exile in Iran. "Soviet Red Guards" "It is a regular armed force formed by Malenkov based on the Caucasus guerrillas. It was originally called the "Soviet Red Army", but in order to distinguish it from the Soviet army commanded by the Beria government, in the end, Malenkov's army was formed by the Soviet army. The armed force composed of "escapees" as the backbone was officially named the "Soviet Red Guards", also known as the "Soviet Red Guards". Their slogans are "Defend the Soviet Union" and "Eliminate the Traitors". The "traitors" here of course refer to Beria and his small group, Malenkov accused Beria of murdering Stalin and stealing the Soviet Union's toppower, Beria's government was "illegitimate" and Beria was a German spy. Both the Beria Group and the Malenkov Group claimed that they were legitimate representatives of the Soviet government, and the Allies obviously did not want to waste energy on the issue of who to recognize, so they simply called them the "Beria Government" and "Malinkov" respectively. husband's government", and at the same time, diplomatic representatives were stationed at the government stations of both parties to negotiate military assistance matters. The "Soviet Red Guards" received strong assistance from the Asian League. From personnel to weapons, the Soviet Red Guards could also obtain what the Soviet Red Army obtained, and in larger quantities. It was precisely with the assistance of the Asian League that from the end of 1944 By the summer of 1945, the Soviet Red Guard had developed into a regular army with 400,000 armed personnel. Its combat backbone mainly came from the Soviet Red Army. Many Soviet soldiers who were dissatisfied with Beria's compromising stance towards Germany sneaked into Iran from Central Asia. He joined the Soviet Red Guards in Iran, became a soldier under the command of Malenkov, and vowed to liberate the motherland and fight to the end against the Beria Group. In terms of the combat objectives of the armed forces, the Soviet Red Army and the Soviet Red Guard were actually the same bedfellows. Although with the mediation of the Asian League and the United States, Beria and Malenkov reached an agreement on the surface to resist Germany, but Behind the scenes, both sides have never given up on small tricks, and just last month, the Malenkov government just announced that it had smashed a "premeditated assassination plot to assassinate Comrade Malenkov, the supreme leader of the Soviet Union." Therefore, Ji Yulin is not surprised at all by the emergence of another "Beria conspiracy". This may be true, but it may also be a fabrication by the Malenkov group to discredit political opponents. After all, the Malenkov government is in the Asian League There was also a representative stationed there, and it seemed that there was no need to convey the news through Ji Yulin. The reason why he told Ji Yulin seemed to be to create a certain impression among the Chinese generals, some kind of negative impression of Beria.