The War of Resistance: My Expedition, My Country

Chapter 177 Arrival in the Urals

Urals, a crucial transportation hub in western Kazakhstan, was home to numerous Soviet arsenals that retreated westward from southern Russia and served as the headquarters of the Soviet Southern Front. Southeast of Urals, at Palarovka, a strike group consisting of the 115st Far Eastern Army (codenamed the 129th Army of the Chinese Expeditionary Force), the 2nd Far Eastern Army (codenamed the 2th Army), and the 11nd Far Eastern Cavalry Corps (codenamed the 16nd Cavalry Army) had entered the area and was engaged in fierce fighting with the retreating German th and th Armies of Army Group South.

By this time, the Germans knew that it was Chinese forces that repelled their advance toward the Ural Mountains. They kept this secret, clearly intent on not revealing their involvement in a war with the Chinese on the Soviet front. This was similar to the Soviet Union's reluctance to acknowledge the presence of the Chinese Expeditionary Force in the Soviet Union, aiding it in the war. This was also the reason why the "leftist" troops had previously been directly incorporated into the Soviet Army, designated the 33rd Communist Volunteer Army.

Today, the Ural Station is extremely tense. A large number of Soviet Guards have imposed martial law on the station and its surroundings early in the morning. Several trains have arrived from the Far East, and all the people getting off the trains are non-Soviet uniformed troops, all with yellow faces, and all weapons are non-Soviet. Among them, there are a large number of armors, tanks and artillery. Anyone with a discerning eye can see that these are all American weapons.

A young general with three golden triangular stars on his collar badge walked down from the VIP carriage accompanied by a group of officers wearing similar badges but with different ranks. Waiting at the station were Marshal Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Southern Front, General Vatutin, Chief of Staff of the Southern Army, General Wei, Commander-in-Chief of the Chinese Third Expeditionary Army (Front), and General Zhu, First Deputy Commander-in-Chief.

At this time, the Chinese military ranks were a bit strange. Generals were divided into four levels: Special General, First-Class General, General, and Lieutenant General + General. In order to distinguish them and allow the Allies to distinguish them equally, the above general ranks had different representations. Special General was easy to say, and for the commander-in-chief, no special representation was needed. Others included: First-Class General had a red frame around the original three-star collar badge of General; General remained unchanged; Lieutenant General + General only wore the General collar badge on one side and the national emblem collar badge on the other. According to the principle of reciprocity, First-Class General corresponds to the US five-star general, General corresponds to the four-star general, Lieutenant General + General, Lieutenant General corresponds to the three-star lieutenant general, Major General + Lieutenant General, Major General corresponds to the two-star major general, and Colonel + Major General corresponds to the one-star brigadier general. Of course, the US military and its allies also have their own corresponding strategies. Previously, they generally lowered the ranks of Chinese generals by one level. That is to say, they believed that a first-level general was barely equivalent to a US four-star general, a general was equivalent to a US three-star general, a lieutenant general was equivalent to a two-star major general, and a major general was equivalent to a brigadier general.

As the Chinese Expeditionary Force played a significant role on various battlefields, especially the younger generation of generals, they gained increasing recognition from the Allies. Britain and the United States gradually accepted the principle of rank parity in China. However, this only applied to skilled Chinese soldiers in frontline combat. The Allies remained skeptical of the more inept Chinese generals. Of course, the Chinese military was also frustrated; they couldn't simply dismiss them all. Due to the ongoing reforms in the Chinese military, which involved new integration and adjustments to the positions of senior military officers, they had no choice but to adopt a system of adding ranks, such as colonel + major general, major general + lieutenant general, and lieutenant general + general. This made the Chinese military rank system the most complex at the time.

According to the principle of rank equivalence agreed upon with the Soviet Union, a Chinese general was equivalent to a Soviet marshal of the same branch of the military, while a general was equivalent to a Soviet general or general, depending on their rank. Similarly, the Soviet Army did not recognize Chinese rank increases. Lieutenant generals were considered lieutenant generals, major generals were considered major generals, and colonels were considered colonels and major generals, depending on their rank. Therefore, the troops deployed to the Soviet Union this time did not receive rank increases, but instead all ranked higher. Former lieutenant generals and generals, such as Huang Wei, were also promoted to general. This could also mark the beginning of a return to orthodoxy in the ranks of the Chinese military.

Without further ado, this young general was none other than the newly promoted Huang Wei, Chief of Staff of the Third Expeditionary Force and Commander of the 200th Group Army. As soon as Huang Wei stepped out of the car, he saluted the two generals before him and reported, "Commander-in-Chief, Deputy Commander-in-Chief, Huang Wei reports for duty!"

The middle-aged general standing in front was none other than General Wei, the commander-in-chief. He returned the greeting with a smile and said, "Brother Guowei, you're finally here. Brother Zhu and I have been exhausted these past few days. Now that you're here, we can finally breathe a sigh of relief."

The slightly older General Zhu next to him also said with a smile: "As soon as Chief of Staff Huang arrived, even the heavy snow in the Ural Mountains stopped. It seems that spring is not far away!" Everyone laughed after hearing this.

Wei then introduced Huang Wei to Marshal Malinovsky, the deputy commander and chief of staff of the front, and General Vatutin. They weren't surprised by such a young general. All sorts of situations had occurred in the Soviet Union; due to the war, a major had even been promoted to general in less than a year. After receiving information from the Chinese troops and various supervisors, they had conducted a detailed investigation and were well aware that this young general was undoubtedly the core commander of the Chinese Expeditionary Force. The Soviet Union was studying the battle records and examples of his 200th Group Army, including his combat style and command strategies. This would determine the ultimate deployment of the Chinese Expeditionary Force and how to provide support.

After a brief meeting at the train station, the group rushed to the Southern Front Headquarters, where Marshal Timoshenko and Marshal Zhukov, the representative of the headquarters, were waiting. They wanted to discuss the combat direction of the second batch of expeditionary forces that had arrived with General Huang and other senior expeditionary force leaders.

In an inconspicuous corner of the Urals, a soldier dressed as a low-level Soviet officer appeared outside a relatively quaint house. After looking around, he pulled his right hand out of the thick leather sheath, blew a few breaths of hot air on his hand, and then knocked on the area in front of him.

After a while, a young Kazakh girl opened half of the door, saw who was coming, stepped aside to let the person in, and quickly closed the door.

After they entered the house, they did not speak, but walked to the fireplace. The girl added some dry wood to the fireplace to make the fire burn more vigorously. After the two sat quietly for about a few minutes, the girl signaled the Soviet officer to go upstairs.

Upstairs, a seemingly elderly Kazakh man nodded to the officer. The officer handed a paper to the old man. The old man opened the paper, carefully examined it under the dim light, and said to the officer, "Masillevich, are you sure this is Chinese?"

Masilevich nodded. "They have a lot of tanks, armored vehicles, and artillery. More than a dozen trains have arrived, at least the size of an army group."

The old man murmured, "Chinese, all American weapons, an army. I have to send the information out immediately!"

The two of them quickly left the room, and soon after, a secret radio wave flew to the German intelligence agency hundreds of kilometers away...