It is no longer possible to verify which staff member came up with the idea. The attack launched on December 3 is called the "Blizzard".

This is indeed a snowstorm.

If the first seven days were a blizzard caused by nature, then starting from December 3, it was a "blizzard" created by the Chinese army. A blizzard targeting more than 6 million US-Russian coalition forces lasted for several months, sweeping across the entire Ural region.

At that time, I didn’t expect that the Chinese army would launch a strategic offensive at this time.[..com]

You should know that the worst weather has just passed, which does not mean that the weather has improved. On December 3, the average temperature in the southern Urals was still around minus forty degrees, and some areas reached minus fifty degrees, and the average wind speed was above level 6.

In the eyes of any general, this is not a good time to launch an attack.

This is indeed the case.

On the day of the attack, the combat efficiency of Chinese artillery was reduced by 40%, mainly because the excessive wind speed seriously affected the strike accuracy of long-range electromagnetic guns. In addition, excessive snow also had an impact on the shells. Twenty percent of the shells hitting Akto did not explode. The main reason was that the snow was too thick, resulting in the failure of the high fuse on the shells installed. Even if the shells using the bumped fuze were not affected too much, because the ground under the snow was completely frozen and harder than the rocks, the shelling effect was greatly reduced.

The progress of the Chinese military was not very ideal in the first three days.

Most of the time, only reconnaissance units equipped with polar ground warfare platforms can fight, while the main force only advances in the ice and snow. What's more, in order to camp before sunset and build barracks in time, the daily advancement distance of the main force will not exceed twenty kilometers.

By the standards of the mid-21st century, this speed of advancement is simply like a turtle climbing.

Fortunately, the situation of the Russian army stationed on the front line is even worse. The bad weather makes most of the Russian army's main combat equipment unavailable. More importantly, the Russian officers and soldiers who have suffered enough are simply unwilling to fight and have no ability to fight.

After three days, the Chinese army did not advance much, but instead collected many prisoners of war, almost all of which were the credit of the reconnaissance forces.

For example, on December 5, a company-level reconnaissance unit advanced to other 138th Army in Akto was captured by a whole Russian infantry regiment without any resistance. About 2,000 Russian officers and soldiers were very consciously putting down their frozen guns.

The next day, a reconnaissance battalion of the First 39th Army even captured a Russian infantry division in its entirety.

However, when the division surrendered, there were only less than 6,000 officers and soldiers left. More than 3,000 officers and soldiers were frozen to death in the cold past few days, or after frostbite, they went to the battlefield hospital in the rear. The 6,000 Russian officers and soldiers who remained were only left with the food for the day and burned everything that could be burned. To be honest, if the Chinese army came two days later, these Russian officers and soldiers would be frozen to death.

Such a situation obviously exceeded Qi Kaiwei and Wei Chenglong's expectations.

By December 5, the Chinese army had more than 200,000 prisoners of war, and most of them were cold and hungry Russian officers and soldiers.

How to deal with so many prisoners of war?

That night, Wei Chenglong had to order the troops to stop advancing, and then dispatch the second echelon to send the contained prisoners of war back to the concentration camp in the rear.

As a result, on December 6, the weather miraculously improved.

Fortunately, the front-line troops had already prepared, and Wei Chenglong also obtained the weather forecast provided by experts, otherwise the second echelon would not have been allowed to escort prisoners of war.

In the afternoon of the same day, the First 38th Army captured Aktobe, and another 150,000 were added to the list of prisoners of war.

The Russian army still surrendered, and the cold and hungry Russian officers and soldiers were still there.

Although the weather improved and the Russian army was able to use the main combat equipment, at least the guns would not be frozen and unusable, the Russian army no longer had the courage to fight because the severe cold that lasted for ten days had exhausted their survival supplies and the rear could not send the supplies to the front line.

For Russian officers and soldiers, the biggest enemy is the severe cold.

Faced with Chinese soldiers who don’t have to worry about keeping warm or having a stomach full of warmth, Russian officers and soldiers would have to surrender unless they wanted to die in the snow and ice.

You should know that if the Russian army did not surrender, the First 38th Army would not enter Aktobe.

The best way to deal with the Russian army that was stubbornly resisting is to encircle and blockade. This move played a very significant role in the subsequent battle.

For other defenders in Akto, as long as the siege lasts for a week, there may be a tragedy of cannibalism.

You should know that the severe cold has only weakened. The average temperature on December 6th was still around minus 20 degrees Celsius, and the minimum temperature at night was below minus 35 degrees Celsius. The Russian army has used up all supplies and even demolished the wooden houses to obtain wood for heating. In such a cold environment, without food supply, even the most cold-resistant Russians can only last for two to three days.

In fact, the severe cold helped the Chinese army a lot.

Of course, this also brings some objective problems. For example, when advancing, less than one-tenth of the front-line troops are used for combat, and other officers and soldiers are doing another thing: sending materials to the front-line. In other words, the main task of the front-line troops has become logistics support.

This is also impossible, because the severe cold has caused the air transport to be almost paralyzed.

At that time, the front line had to transport supplies through the road, and the front line troops were not equipped with enough transport vehicles, so they could only use ground war platforms to transport supplies.

As it turns out, ground warfare platforms are a good means of transportation in themselves.

For example, a multi-purpose platform can carry five tons of supplies in the crew compartment and ten tons of supplies in the vehicle body by plug-in. Because it is replaced with a soft wide track suitable for combat in the snow field, after loading 15 tons of supplies, the multi-purpose platform's ability to pass through exceeds that of wheeled vehicles, and can even leave the road and send the supplies to some battlefields that have not arrived on the road. When returning, the multi-purpose platform can also transport prisoners of war. That is, after closing the passage between the crew compartment and the crew compartment, nearly ten or even twelve prisoners of war can be stuffed into the crew compartment without arranging escort personnel. It is impossible for prisoners of war to rebel in the closed compartment.

At that time, the biggest problem for the Chinese army was to ensure the pace of the front-line offensive troops.

It can be said that this is a serious problem that has caused commanders at all levels to be very worried.

The main reason is that the northwest region of Kazakhstan is relatively remote. Except for the three big cities of Aklau, Ural and Aktobe, the rest are small towns. In Aktobe Prefecture, many small towns are more than 100 kilometers apart.

You should know that this was the main direction of the Chinese army's offensive and the main battlefield at that time.

Now, the problem arises.

On the white snowfield, the advancing troops easily lost their direction. There was no satellite navigation system at that time, and the blizzards that blew from time to time made the compass a decoration. As for radio positioning, it was even more unreliable, because the blizzards caused serious interference to the radio signals.

The result is that many troops have no idea which direction to move forward, so they can only push forward with their heads covered.

Sometimes, you even go wherever there are enemies.

Of course, the problems arising from this are endless.

For example, on December 7, an assault cluster of the First 39th Army covered its head and walked west for most of the day. When they stopped, they found that there was a Russian defensive position nearby. They immediately launched an attack. When they annihilated the Russian army, they found that they had arrived at Uyr, less than 200 kilometers from the Volga River. The Russian Third Guard Armored Division was defeated by them, and they occupied the division headquarters of the division! In other words, the unit went west more than originally planned.

He advanced nearly two hundred kilometers, and unconsciously broke through the three lines of defense of the Russian army. There were at least eight Russian military divisions nearby, and the closest Russian armored unit was less than ten kilometers north. Fortunately, the commander of the assault cluster was very calm and calm. After ordering the blow-up of the Russian military division, he released thousands of prisoners of war on the spot, and then with more than one hundred Russian officers retreated and met with another unit that night.

However, not all troops have such good luck.

On December 8, an assault cluster responsible for transporting materials to the front line lost its direction, and went more than 100 kilometers westwards and drilled into the defense line guarded by four Russian divisions, one of which was a Russian guard armored division, fighting fiercely with the Russian army near the New Najjjkinka. Fortunately, this was an assault cluster, not a logistics transport force, with dozens of anti-armor platforms and hundreds of multi-purpose platforms. In addition to the fact that the infantry did not accompany them, the rest were all combat-provisioned and carried sufficient ammunition. More importantly, there were dozens of barrels of lubricant in the materials transported at that time. After being besieged by the Russian army, the commander of the assault cluster organized defense while calling for the rear support. Because the radio station

It could not work properly, so the commander ordered the lubricant to ignite the lubricant and sought help from nearby friendly forces in the most primitive way. In fact, the closest friendly forces to them were almost two hundred kilometers away, and there was no black smoke produced when the lubricant burned. Fortunately, an air force reconnaissance plane flew over the battlefield and the infrared camera captured the fire source. According to the principle of going wherever there was a battle, the First 38th Army sent two assault clusters to find out in the evening of the day, and met with the besieged troops at night to rescue the friendly troops who had been trapped for fourteen hours. During the retreat, the assault cluster abandoned all the supplies it carried, and more than 100 officers and soldiers were killed in the battle.

It can be said that similar things happen every day.
Chapter completed!