For the Red Army, the next task was to liberate Mudanjiang. Its strategic position was very important and was the only way for the 5th Army, which was retreating in a hurry at the location of the Japanese First Front Army headquarters and the front line, to retreat. It must be taken down as soon as possible.

The Japanese army also realized the importance of Mudanjiang and relied on the third line of defense of the 5th Army, namely the Laoyeling line to the east, to launch defense. The 135, 126, and 124th Divisions hurriedly built fortifications.

At that time, the Fifth Army of the Japanese Army ordered the divisions to "act as planned", and this so-called plan made people laugh and cry. Why? Because the so-called plan of the Fifth Army was the one before the war broke out, which was the defensive fortifications on the front line of Suifenhe to kill and injure the Soviet army in large quantities, weaken the Soviet army's spirit, and then rely on the third line of defense to fight the blocking war until the full counterattack.

But as mentioned earlier, the Red Army's armored troops quickly crossed the first line of defense of the Japanese army and did not give the Japanese army any chance to be delayed. So the third line of defense built by the main force of the Fifth Army was very imperfect and almost rushed into battle. Moreover, due to the rapid advance of the Red Army, the Japanese inside line was upside down, and the command relationship was once chaotic. The time for the main forces of the three divisions of the Fifth Army to enter the defensive position was extremely inconsistent, leaving a lot of gaps.

This is simply too simple for the Red Army's old fox with rich combat experience. Starting from July 22, the Red Army first launched an attack on the 124th and 126th Divisions of the Japanese army.

The situation of the Japanese army at that time was as follows: the 370th Regiment and the puppet Mongolian army each left a battalion to defend on the highway east of Linkou, while a battalion of the 369th Regiment stayed in Dong'an to cover the main force's retreat. Another battalion of the 368th and 370th Regiment were stationed in the east of Mudanjiang City. In the following period, the main force of the 135th Division also arrived at the scene one after another, and two of the battalions strengthened the 124th Division. The 126th Division only left the 1st Battalion of the 279th Regiment, a squadron of the 31st Anti-tank Brigade and a surprise attack squadron behind the hall, and the main force continued to retreat to the predetermined defensive positions indicated to the military headquarters.

As of the early morning of July, the 124th Division arrived west of Muling to launch defense. At this time, some defeated soldiers who escaped from the Soviet-controlled area also arrived at the defense area of ​​the 124th Division. When they saw these soldiers who were not as determined as a dog with a broken family, the officers of the 124th Division were quite angry. They believed that these bastards were not as good as men who were completely unworthy of wearing the battle robe of the Imperial Army.

Of course, the officers of the 124th Division will soon find that they will not be much stronger than these defeated soldiers. Because the Soviet army has already followed!

The battle between the two sides also broke out. It must be said that the 124th Division was full of confidence at first. They thought their fortifications were still very good, at least according to the standards of the Japanese army, which was very complete field fortifications. The officers and soldiers of the 124th Division, who had worked hard all night, were still a little proud and prepared to give Lucia a little color to see.

The development of the matter was completely beyond their expectations. The Red Army gave them a warning from the beginning, and the attack began with su-122 and su-152. During the firepower that lasted for half an hour, the so-called field fortifications of the Japanese army were plowed by artillery shells. It can be seen that their positions were covered with bullet craters, and a few civil fortifications made of logs were directly blasted open to the skylight by large-caliber grenades. The Japanese soldiers hiding there were either dead or injured.

This is just the beginning. After the Red Army's attack officially started, the 124th Division was shocked, and the aggressive armored groups lined up and pressed over. The world is in a conscience, the Japanese really have never seen so many tanks!

"Baga, what happened? Fire the cannon! Fire the cannon!"

The Japanese commander had to use his boots to wake up the frightened gunners and ordered them to fire at the Red Army tank group that was charging.

Speaking of the Japanese anti-armor ability, it is really called "bad". There are only two types of anti-tank guns. One is the Type 94 anti-tank gun copying the German KK36 37mm war defense gun. The other is the pirated Soviet 45mm anti-tank gun Lu Yi 47mm anti-tank gun. These two things may be used to deal with the t-26s imported by the Democratic Party from the Soviet Union, but when dealing with the t-34 and the t-35, it can only be heard.

What's more, the number of these two types of anti-tank guns is not large. To be honest, it is basically impossible to pose any threat to the armored forces of the Soviet Red Army. This is the case. Even the equipment priority of the Soviet Red Army's Far East troops is very low, and they can only be equipped with the T-34-76, which was eliminated from the European battlefield, and even the T-35 is rare. However, the T-34-76 is a nightmare for the Japanese anti-tank artillery. The armor-piercing shells fired by the Japanese were almost completely bounced away. Even if they were close enough to say hello to each other face to face, the Japanese anti-tank guns could not do anything to those steel giant beasts.

This is still the heavy tanks equipped by the Far Eastern Red Army, such as the Вn-2 that are not used in the European battlefield. This iron turtle caused great panic among the Japanese army, let alone 47mm anti-tank guns. The Japanese in despair even took out 150mm howitzers to fire flat, but they still could not stop the Вn-2's advance.

Let me put it this way, only a few T-34s were injured by the anti-tank mines of the Japanese and withdrew from the battle, and in the frontal confrontation, almost no Red Army tank was destroyed by the Japanese tank guns. So much so that the collapsed Japanese had to use **** tactics again to use human explosives to block the steel torrent of the Red Army. Of course, its losses and effectiveness are comparable.

In short, the front-line troops of the 124th Division were soon urinated by the Red Army, and the Japanese, who were chased by Red Army tanks and armored vehicles, had no way to go to the sky and the ground, had to commit suicide for a time.

The fierce battle (to be honest, it is not very intense) By late that night, the vanguard of the 97th and 144th Infantry Division of the Red Army, under the guidance of their respective tank brigades, forced the Muling River to liberate Muling. The 215th, 190, 371st Infantry Division followed closely, while the 363rd Infantry Division approached Muling from the southwest. The remaining units of the Fifth Army of the Red Army began to advance towards Suiyang.

Meletskov, who was closely following the battle situation, immediately instructed Krelov to form a powerful army advance detachment to develop rapidly in depth. So Krelov formed a rapid cluster with the 76th Tank Brigade, the 478th Heavy Propelled Artillery Regiment and two infantry battalions to rush forward.

At this time, the Soviet Red Army had advanced eighty kilometers, controlling the important towns of Muling River, Lishu Town and Muling, and quickly isolated Mishan. According to Beloborodov's special care, the Red Army began to pay attention to preventing some Japanese troops who ran away very slowly from retreating towards Mudanjiang from this direction.

As the Red Army advanced rapidly, it was not without the Japanese army trying to resist and resist stubbornly, but these resistances were shattered one by one by the Red Army with unreasonable tactics. For example, when the Red Army's 257th Tank Brigade advanced westward through eight sides, it encountered a brigade of the 279th Regiment of the Japanese army. This brigade strengthened an anti-tank artillery squadron and occupied a high ground next to the highway to build bunkers, trenches and artillery firepower points.

But the 257th Tank Brigade was too lazy to get involved with the Japanese army. It took only half an hour to fight and circulate. At first, the Japanese corps captain thought the Soviet army was a fool. He had no military knowledge at all. How could such an important road move forward without controlling it? Isn’t this seeking death?

Of course, the 257th Tank Brigade was not seeking death or stupidity, but they had no need to entangle with the Japanese small blocking forces. These stumbling blocks were the work of the infantry behind. As expected, more than an hour later, the 300th Infantry Division of the Red Army arrived at the scene. From noon, the Red Army first bombed with artillery fire, and then the vanguard regiment surrounded the back to eat the 279th Regiment in one breath.

At this time, the Japanese army used their usual counter-charge tricks, preparing to fight with the Soviet army in a melee way in a close manner to offset the Soviet army's firepower advantage. But what the Japanese army did not expect was that their move was useless at all. The vanguard of the 300th Infantry Division immediately called for artillery support after discovering the Japanese attempt. The Japanese counter-charge group was stunned by a row of artillery before they even rushed out of the trenches. Then the Red Army's air support also arrived. Il-2 kept diving and strafing bombs, turning the Japanese trenches into a sea of ​​fire.

Under the attack of the Red Army's powerful firepower, the Japanese army could only retreat in a hurry to hide on the back slope of the hillside for a while, according to the idea of ​​its corps leader: at most, they could regain the lost position during the day through night battles.

However, the Japanese did not expect that the Red Army would not be afraid of night battles and would not give the Japanese a chance to fight at night. Throughout the afternoon, with the support of tanks and cannons, the 300th Infantry Division launched wave after wave of fierce offensives, annihilated the enemy before sunset.

The battle continued. The 257th Tank Brigade mentioned above. On the morning of July 24, they collided with the 370th Regiment and the 20th Heavy Field Artillery Wing, which belonged to the 135th Division of the Japanese, and the 20th Heavy Field Artillery Wing, and the Hualin area.

After the battle began, the Japanese army immediately blew up the bridge, then fired artillery from the high ground and even launched counterattacks from time to time. The Japanese army defended and fought back stubbornly. Especially after nightfall, the Japanese army received artillery support and launched a fierce night attack. However, the 257th Tank Brigade was unwavering, holding its position on the other side and fully leveraging its own armor advantages, constantly using tanks as mobile turrets to block the Japanese counterattack. The fierce battle lasted overnight. The next morning, when the Red Army cleaned the battlefield, it found that more than 900 people were killed. Six locomotives, 24 field artillery and 30 trucks were destroyed, and 30 trucks of leather ammunition, 800 rifles and 100 machine guns were seized.

It is worth mentioning that this batch of weapons and ammunition was quickly handed over to ****. Compared with the unusable Mosinna dry rifle, **** still prefers the 38-large cover suitable for Asian physiques. Of course, it is a different story to buy those crooked machine guns.

Let me put it this way, as of the morning of July 25, the Red Army's various troops had gathered on the Mudanjiang front line, and an encirclement and annihilation was imminent. This situation made the Japanese lackeys think of scattering their heads. For example, Jia Shouren, the battalion commander of the Mudanjiang Garrison Battalion of the Puppet Manchukuo Army, wrote in his diary: "The situation is critical. I got a report that morning on the seventh day of the lunar month (July 26) and learned that the Russians had completely broken through the Suifen River.

The fortress group in the area, its vanguard had arrived on the banks of Mudanjiang... The situation on the eighth day of the lunar month was even worse. The messenger told me that last night, the infantry of the Russians had already penetrated into many places in our defense zone, and the general attack was about to come... On the nineth day of the lunar month, the Russians had forced their way across Mudanjiang, and the Japanese defense line had collapsed and collapsed. I could only lead my troops to move in. At this time, our army suffered heavy casualties, ammunition and guns were also scarce, and the friendly troops around were also in panic all day long. In this situation, we need to make plans early..."

Jia Shouren's early plan was quite simple. In the early morning of the tenth day of the lunar month, he rode a few confidants and fled. On the way, he was caught by the guerrillas in the South Manchuria. After a burst of gunfire and cannons, the traitor was beaten to death on the spot.

It was not only the puppet army of the puppet Manchukuo who collapsed, but the situation of the Kwantung Army was not much better. After the Red Army forced its crossing of Mudanjiang, it immediately launched a fierce attack on the city area, accompanied by fierce shelling and bombing. The First Front Army and the Fifth Army headquarters of the Japanese fled in a panic and escaped from the encirclement before the encirclement.

In the next two days, the Red Army launched a round of attacks on Mudanjiang city. The Japanese resistance in the city was very fierce, but it was not very meaningful. In the face of absolute military strength and firepower advantages, their resistance was only a dead end.

On July 30, when the last stronghold of the Japanese in the city was flattened, the Secretary of the **** South Manchu officially began to accept the work, which also means that Mudanjiang returned to the embrace of the motherland after 13 years of separation from the motherland.

Not only Mudanjiang, but to the north, the Red Flag Second Army and the 15th Army of the Red Army quickly advanced towards Harbin and Qiqihar. The Fourth Independence Army of the Japanese Army in this area was no match for the Red Army and was blown up in person. To the west, the 90th Infantry Army of the Soviet Red Army went south together with the Northeast Anti-Japanese Allied Forces, and went out of Xing'an North Province and launched a fierce attack towards Qiqihar.

Let me put it this way, as of the end of July, the Japanese army had withdrawn from the three northeastern provinces and could only huddle in Qiqihar and Harbin to defend. In order to block the Red Army and the **** army, the Kwantung Army had to urgently transfer the 17th Front Army stationed in North Korea to the north, attempting to defend the Yanji, Dunhua, Jilin, Harbin and Qiqihar. At one time, there was even the idea of ​​drawing troops from Henan and Hubei to the expedition.

However, this idea went bankrupt with the new round of strategic counterattacks of the New Fourth Army and the Eighth Route Army. In early August, the Eighth Route Army conquered Anyang and Puyang. The New Fourth Army captured Jining, Heze and began to siege Laiwu, completely cutting off the traffic ties between Northeast and Henan. It was impossible for the Japanese in the pass to get out of the pass.

Under such a severe situation, the Japanese base camp had to give up the plan to open up mainland transportation lines and turned around to attack the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army with heavy troops. In the Central Plains, a real battle was about to break out.

The commander-in-chief of the Japanese was Okamura Yasuji. The five divisions and two brigades of the 12th Army, which he belonged to, were attacked in two groups with the cooperation of one division of the 11th Army. The main force passed through Zhengzhou and Xinxiang to directly take Anyang, and the other two brigades went out of Shangqiu and directly took Heze. According to Okamura Yasuji's own statement: "We must annihilate the main force of the Eighth Route Army in one battle!"

Yes. Okamura Yasuji did have the idea of ​​achieving his contributions in one battle. In the past, the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army played guerrilla warfare and avoided a head-on decisive battle. He always had the helplessness of shooting mosquitoes with cannons. This time he felt that **** took the initiative to hit the troops in battle, which was equivalent to hitting his muzzle. If he could severely damage the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army in one fell swoop, Shandong would be peaceful, and it would be easier and more comfortable to turn around and scrape the Democratic Party.

In this battle, Okamura Yasuji concentrated about 170,000 troops, which should be said to be relatively powerful. So how many troops did the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army have? Excluding the main forces of the 120th Division, the 115th Division and the 129th Division on the North Line, all the way, the main combat troops of these two divisions alone reached more than 200,000. In addition to the nearly 100,000 combat troops of the New Fourth Army in Shandong, **** invested a total of more than 300,000 troops for this unprecedented battle. If we included the guerrillas, armed forces and other local troops on the second line, the total strength was as high as 600,000, which was unprecedented in scale!

Of course, this does not mean that **** is preparing to fight an annihilation war on both sides of the Yellow River. The reason why he used so many troops was actually to seek stability. According to the decision of the Central Military Commission of ****, this time it was to actively defend, to ensure the security of North China and Shandong's liberated areas, and to block the enemy in Henan.

It should be said that this is quite conservative. The main reason is that the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army have not fought a major battle and lacked experience. The central government still wants to train troops through war and it would be great to be able to repel the Japanese invaders. Next time we have experience, we will fight an annihilation war!

However, human calculations are not as good as God's calculations. As the battle progressed, the initial determination was soon proved to be out of place. With the cooperation of local troops, more than 300,000 main forces not only repelled Okamura's provocation, but also showed a tendency to surround and annihilate the enemy. Therefore, in the later stage of the battle, the Central Committee decisively adjusted its target and decided to fight an annihilation battle.

These are all later stories, so I won't mention it for now. Because before this battle was carried out, in the north, the 120th Division's troops were basically cleaned up with the cooperation of the Outer Mongolian cavalry and the Soviet Red Army, and the Japanese and puppet troops could only shrink in Peiping, Tianjin, and Shijiazhuang. This caused a problem. Should the 120th Division quickly go south to assist the 115th Division and the 129th Division in fighting against Okamura's troops? Or should they try to liberate Peiping and Tianjin?

There are also internal debates around this issue. The final discussion result is that you can give it a try. After all, you have to learn to overcome difficulties even if you have died with Mr. Jiang in the future. It is better to accumulate some experience as soon as possible.

Of course, even if you want to test, you won’t get a hard bone test like Beijing. The goal of this is Shijiazhuang... (To be continued.)

ps: Bow to thank zmyhh, lz880210,zing,, Cavalry King, First Guard Tank Brigade and Comrade Juventus!
Chapter completed!