Episode 208 Recover Hami

More than a dozen Soviet tanks in Hami City turned into scrap iron under the bombs of dive bombers. Without the deterrence of the tanks, people hidden in the houses and on the roof rushed out and occupied those important streets again. Ming army planes kept passing by above their heads, and found that there were Soviet troops gathering, so they dived down and fired. The spies lurking in the city were also putting life and death outside, and they openly carried the radio station they usually hid, climbed onto the roof and called, reporting the shooting coordinates for the Ming army artillery outside.

The telephone line in the city has not been intact. Now, even in the same city, the Soviet units can only rely on commanders. Radio, which is only equipped with a higher-level unit, and it is easy to be listened to by the Ming army. In an environment where planes run around in the sky and cold guns and hidden swords are everywhere on the ground, the Soviet troops everywhere in the city feel isolated. They are surrounded by fear and nervousness, and they almost shoot when they see someone running away. Some Soviet trucks are equipped with Maxim heavy machine guns behind them, and they are driving rapidly on the streets. The Soviet machine gunners are like crazy, regardless of whether they are attacked or not, but just shoot at the houses on both sides and chase after them when they see people. Bullet holes are everywhere on the walls of houses on both sides, and there are almost no intact windows. There are corpses of civilians who are shot and fall to the ground, and blood is splattered on the east and west of the walls.

Now the Soviet army has no longer "suppressed" and has been upgraded to an indiscriminate massacre. The people in the city are no longer rioting, but are fighting for life. No matter who originally supported or not, they are now participating.

...

The five divisions of the Soviet army were not short, but they defended a narrow and long area with a small area, but a large circumference. More than 100 kilometers long, but more than ten kilometers wide, basically defending along the oasis and residential areas around Hami. This is equivalent to dispersing the troops very wide, and not much depth. At first, the Ming army didn't quite understand what the Soviet commander thought, why the defense line should be set up completely according to the shape of the oasis, and the defense line should be lengthened as long as the oasis is. If the oasis was 1,000 kilometers long, would it be necessary to spread these five divisions to the defense line of 1,000 kilometers? If the Ming army commander came to set up defense, the troops would have been shrinking long ago, and the length and width ratio of the entire defense area would be roughly equivalent, with an area larger and a circumference reduced, so that the forces were concentrated and the depth was large. This is the way to defend.

However, as the Ming army successively captured some villages around Hami, they gradually understood. In these villages, almost every household had people starved to death. Many of them had corpses, which looked like bones. Previously, the Soviet army sent people to steal the bodies and transported them to the depths of the desert in the distance and buried them in a concentrated manner. However, in recent days, the Ming army attacked tightly, and the Soviet army only cared for defense and did not care about robbing the bodies, which allowed some newly starved bodies to stay.

From Hami, he entered an area where people had starved to death on a large scale. The Soviet army defended along the oasis, which was equivalent to defending along the residential gathering area, in order to cover up the evidence of their great famine. Stalin forced the Hami defenders not to retreat at all, and did not hesitate to put 150,000 troops into a siege. It was not a military consideration, but a political consideration.

He did not expect that the Ming army's attack was so smooth that it could approach the Hami area. More importantly, the Hami area was just the beginning, and when it went westward, the famine became more serious. Once the Ming army occupied Hami, the next target would definitely be Turpan and Dihua. And there was already a hell on earth. Stalin knew what the Ming army invaded the Soviet-controlled area. It meant that it would cover up many years of tragic truths and exposed it to the flash of the whole world without any obscurity. Last autumn, the Ming army did this after the Siberian Far East. Stalin was deeply stimulated at the time. The Soviet Union had worked hard to create a righteous image for many years and collapsed at a faster speed. The Bolsheviks' organizations around the world even had a wave of withdrawal from the party. The more free the media and open the information, the larger the scale of the withdrawal from the party.

Therefore, this time he was determined to cover the lid at all costs. There was no such famine last time, so it would have been like this. If the Ming army uncovered this time, the consequences would be unimaginable.

But he did not expect that the riot would have been so effective. The main reason was that the timing was very good, which was just stuck with the time of the Ming army's fierce attack, which made it impossible for the Soviet army to take into account both inside and outside. Moreover, the Soviet defense zone was basically not deep and played a great role. When a village rioted, it could almost cut off the entire defense zone in half. Moreover, the telephone line was artificially destroyed, and the Soviet command had no idea what was going on everywhere. This was something Stalin had expected to stay in the Kremlin.

...

From the battle to attack the outskirts of Hami at around 9 a.m. on the 23rd, the Soviet army's narrow position of more than 100 kilometers had been divided into six sections by the Ming army. Moreover, the interval between several sections was more than ten kilometers, because the middle area had been occupied by the Ming army. At 4 a.m., the battle to attack Hami County began. The city wall of Hami City was not high and not thick. Although it was located in the Western Regions, it was managed by the Ming and Qing dynasties for many years, and the city wall was also built in the traditional style of the mainland. That is, the bricks outside, the rammed earth in the middle, and the battlements above.

The Ming army transferred eight 150mm heavy howitzers and sixteen 105mm heavy cannons. Under the cover of dozens of tanks and assault guns, they began to demolish the city walls. 24 heavy cannons lowered the muzzles and directly bombarded the city walls. On the top of the city, the Soviet army was carrying machine guns, mortars, and anti-tank guns to fight back desperately, but soon, the city was submerged in a sea of ​​small and medium-caliber shells and machine gun bullets. The locations directly bombarded by the 24 heavy cannons were not called to fight back or fight back. They were directly swallowed up by the big explosion like a landslide and cracked.

In just ten minutes, the four walls of Hami County almost collapsed and became a hill mixed with bricks and soil. With the order of the "cease-fire", all the light and heavy artillery stopped firing, and the world seemed to be still. A few minutes later, the thick smoke and dust became thinner. At this time, sharp whistles sounded one after another on the Ming army's positions. Dozens of tanks and armored vehicles roared at the same time, rushing over with blue smoke, climbed up the ruins of the city wall, and drove directly.

Behind, more Ming soldiers jumped off the armored vehicles, held automatic rifles, and rushed into Hami County with shouts.

Suddenly, there were gunfire everywhere in the city and shouts of killing. The shouts of "Chonga" and "Wu La" were intertwined. Gradually, the latter's voice became less and less and less and less and less energy.

At 5:30 pm, the main battle in the city ended, and only a few sporadic clearances were still in progress. The sickle and hammer flag above the mosque was rolled down, and a bright yellow dragon flag was raised.

On May 23, Hami, an important town in eastern Xinjiang, was recovered by the Ming army.
Chapter completed!