There was a steady sound of footsteps at the door of the headquarters, and then Su Tong's voice also sounded in front of the door.
"Hahahaha, Mr. Jiang, I've finally waited for you, and you make me look forward to seeing you."
A middle-aged man's steady voice came: "I have met Mr. Su in this humble position."
"Haha, you're still so polite. You've had a hard journey, please come in."
The door of the office opened, and Su Tong and a middle-aged general in his forties walked in. The three golden general stars on the shoulders of this general clearly indicated his status as a second-level general. He was the third-level general of the Gui family.
Number two, Bai Chongxi.
As early as the Chahar military parade, Su Tong had secret talks with Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi. Su Tong sold a batch of arms to the Guangxi clique at a low price. In addition, he gave more than 20 P26 fighter planes as gifts, and was responsible for helping the Guangxi clique.
Training pilots. As a sign of sincerity to deepen cooperation between the two parties, Bai Chongxi will go to Siberia to serve as Su Tong's chief of staff for a period of time.
After both of them sat down on the same sofa, Bai Chongxi said sternly to Su Tong: "Sir, please don't call me Jiancong from now on. I can't bear the low position. The chief is the son-in-law of Principal Baili, and I am the principal of Baili."
As a student, you and I are our equals. If you call me Jiangong again, I will be speechless in front of the principal."
Su Tong was a little helpless after hearing this. Originally, if he had called Bai Chongxi this way before, there would have been no problem. But the problem was that his godfather-in-law, Jiang Baili, was too senior. Even Bai Chongxi was his student. It would not be right if he called him Jiangong.
Does it mean that Bai Chongxi is placed in the same generation as Jiang Baili? This is unacceptable to Bai Chongxi who has been influenced by Confucian etiquette since childhood.
"Okay then, I'll call you Brother Jiansheng. That's okay." Meeting such a stubborn master, Chief Su had no choice but to surrender.
"Well, that's right." Bai Chongxi smiled and nodded to Su Tong.
Su Tong stood up first and gave Bai Chongxi a glass of water and placed it in front of Bai Chongxi before continuing: "Brother Jiansheng, you can temporarily serve as the deputy chief of staff of our Thirty-seventh Group Army this time. What do you think?"
Bai Chongxi smiled: "These positions are all fictitious. Since the humble position is now served under you, it is natural to let the superior arrange it." Now Bai Chongxi does not dare to underestimate the superior in front of him who is more than ten years younger than him. If he wants to say something
More than a few years ago, when Su Tong clamored to take over Chahar's defense, Bai Chongxi could have laughed twice. But now, to put it bluntly, Bai Chongxi has to look up at him.
Su Tong was overjoyed when he heard this: "You don't know, I've been looking forward to the stars and the moon, and I've been waiting for you to come for a long time. Now that you're here, I feel much more relaxed. Don't worry, I will convene a military meeting soon."
Pass on your appointment. Just feel free to perform your duties here without any worries. If anyone dares not to listen to your greetings, just deal with them."
Seeing that Su Tong gave him the answer, Bai Chongxi secretly breathed a sigh of relief. What he was most afraid of before coming was that these arrogant generals could not command the 37th Army. You must know that these people have followed Su Tong all the way from Mongolia.
Those who fought in Siberia would not even believe in ghosts if they were not arrogant. Now that Su Tong has said so, although there will definitely be some moisture in it, I believe that future work will be easier to carry out.
"Haha, that's it. My deputy chief of staff, I wish us a happy cooperation." Su Tong smiled and stretched out his hand towards Bai Chongxi. Bai Chongxi was stunned for a moment, then he also smiled and stretched out his hand, holding his two big hands tightly.
Together.
The pouring rain not only troubled Su Tong, but also gave Major General Rubievich, the commander of the 13th Tank Brigade that arrived in Selenginsk first, a headache. Looking at the heavy rain in the sky that showed no signs of stopping, I thought about yesterday.
The reconnaissance team lost contact in the afternoon, and Major General Rubievich's head hurt even more.
"Report" The arrival of the communications staff interrupted Major General Rubievich's contemplation.
"Speak," Rubievich said without even scratching his head.
"General Zhukov called and ordered our troops to speed up and rush to Ulan-Ude quickly to prepare for the arrival of the large troops."
Major General Rubievich thought for a moment, and then ordered the staff to reply word by word: "You call back to the Army Group Headquarters. The railway ahead was destroyed by enemy bombers in many places. Now our army is organizing engineers to step up emergency repairs, and is already in Selenkin.
An enemy reconnaissance detachment was found 200 kilometers ahead of Sksk. We do not rule out the possibility that Ulan-Ude has been occupied by the enemy. Please make a collective decision." After finishing speaking, he ordered: "You order a tank regiment, and then
Send a reconnaissance team to the place where the reconnaissance team happened yesterday to find their whereabouts. And request the Air Force to provide aerial reconnaissance support as soon as the rain stops."
"Yes" The communications officer who recorded the message immediately handed the original text of the recorded message to Major General Rubievich for signature, then turned around and walked quickly to the confidential location.
At this time, in Uginskri, a small town more than 600 kilometers away from Selenginsk, the commander of the eastward group, General Zhukov, was discussing the situation ahead with his staff.
"Comrade Zhukov, our staff office unanimously believes that after the traitor Timoshenko surrendered, the Chinese army has been freed up. However, due to the huge disparity in military strength with ours, they will definitely stick to Chita and fight a long-term war of attrition with us.
." General Pralyuvich, Chief of Staff of the Eastward Group, said in a positive tone.
"No, you don't understand the commander of Chahar in front of you." Zhukov shook his head: "Looking at his tactics of using troops, this person advocates offense, and he will never confine himself to one place.
, he will never flinch even if there is a huge disparity in strength between him and his opponent."
After a pause, Zhukov asked again: "Is there any new news from the 13th Tank Brigade?"
"Report, there is a call from the Thirteenth Tank Brigade." A female confidential officer with blond hair, blue eyes and a slim waist walked up to Zhukov and handed him a message.
After reading the message, Zhukov sullenly handed the message to the chief of staff, General Pralyuvich, and said sullenly: "It seems that Ulan-Ude has been lost, otherwise the Chinese reconnaissance team would not be able to reach Lise."
A place so close to Lenginsk.”
"Now that Ulan-Ude has been lost, we must quickly order the 13th Tank Brigade to build a defense line in Selenginsk and wait for the arrival of the large forces." Chief of Staff General Pralyuvich suggested after reading the cable.
road.
"Yes." Zhukov nodded, "Also, order Major General Rubievich to try to capture a Siberian Tiger tank of the Chinese army if possible. Our tanks are already too far behind theirs. According to Timoshenko's previous
The news sent back by the marshal and others said that the caliber of the Chinese army's tanks and artillery actually reached 100 millimeters, and it is estimated that the armor thickness of this tank is also more than 100 millimeters. Our existing tanks are already far behind the opponent. If we don't continue
The battle to catch up will become increasingly difficult."
After hearing that Zhukov was still calling Timoshenko marshal, General Pralyuvich seemed to want to say something, but he twitched the corners of his mouth and swallowed his words. He just nodded and ordered the woman beside him
The confidential officer drafted the message, signed it, and sent everyone in the command room out.
After everyone had left, General Pralyuvich said sternly to Zhukov: "Zhukov lives with me, and I have to remind you that your attitude towards Timoshenko, a capitulationist, is very dangerous.
I know that you have a good personal relationship with Timoshenko, but this cannot be used as a reason for you to sympathize with him. It’s not that you don’t understand the current domestic situation, so I must remind you to be careful when you speak in the future. Chinese people have
There is an old saying that misfortune comes from the mouth. I think it still makes sense. As your chief of staff and close comrade-in-arms, I know how outstanding and amazing your talent is, so I don’t want you to ruin yourself because of this kind of thing.
Do you understand what I mean?"
"Thank you very much, my dear Comrade Pralyuvich, I will remember your kindness." Zhukov knew his fault, so he was also very grateful to this good friend who, although he had just partnered with him, had a close relationship with him.
subordinate.
Seeing that Zhukov understood what he meant, General Plalivich smiled kindly and said: "Okay, Comrade Zhukov, don't forget that we are comrades in the trenches now, so don't say such sour words.
Let's take a look. Several sections of the railway to Selenginsk have been blown up or washed away by rain. Let's see how we can restore the railway to traffic as soon as possible. Otherwise, if we just rely on trucks,
Troops cannot be mobilized normally in this kind of weather. I don’t know how many more days this damn heavy rain will continue to fall. We still have to discuss how to deal with the trouble caused by this heavy rain."
The torrential rain that had been falling for three consecutive days finally stopped, and the sun finally showed its figure lazily. For the farmers, this meant the beginning of another year of hard work, but for the Soviet Union's Eastward Group, which was at war with the Soviet Union,
For Su Tong's Thirty-seventh Army, it meant that a big war was about to come.
As soon as the heavy rain stopped, the ground staff began to get busy at the temporarily built field airport on the outskirts of Ulan-Ude. Some were busy cleaning up the water on the ground, and some were removing the raincloths from the aircraft and returning them.
Some are refueling the plane.
Since humans invented airplanes, they have been given many functions. Aerial reconnaissance is one of the oldest functions of airplanes.
On the runway of the field airport, two F5e Lightning reconnaissance aircraft were being towed to the runway by the ground staff using trailers. Following the instructions of the ground staff and the orders of the ground tower, the two reconnaissance aircraft flew into the blue sky one after another.
, their target is Selenginsk, hundreds of kilometers away.