Middle Kingdom Chronicles: Timeline Page

My old thread got de-railed here, so I started a new one. Without further ado, I present to you...

New and Revised, A Brief Timeline of China from the First United Front to the 1st Sino-Soviet War:

Early 1920s: Shanxi Warlord Yan Xishan decides to violate more American intellectual property rights than in OTL and begins to manufacture knockoffs of the Six Ton Tank, M1917. The copies are absolute crap. However, they're definitely faster and more heavily armed than horses, even if they do tend to fall apart. Warlord Ma Hongbin of the Ma Clique contacts Yan about these new tanks and orders several dozen of them.

1922: A clump of defective cells in Sun Zhongshan's liver is destroyed by his immune system. Sun forms the First United Front and demands CPC/GMD cooperation. Sun is widely revered in China and is famed for his skills as a negotiator.

1924: Sun establishes the Huangpu Military Academy to train the next generation of military leaders in China. Soviet instructors are highly popular there. Sun himself travels up north to negotiate with Beiyang warlord Wu Peifu. Wu hates foreigners and foreign involvement in China, but Sun notes that foreign presence in China will be temporary at best. In the end Sun is not able to convince Wu to join the United Front. However, he is able to convince Feng Yuxiang to backstab Wu.

1925: Sun does not die and instead begins to sort out the situation up north. Much of the Zhili Clique, with exception of the Xinjiang clique, is brought into Sun's United Front. This greatly increases the size of the GMD and reduces the number of independent warlords. Zhang Zuolin's Fengtian, Yan Xishan's Shanxi clique and Sun Chuanfang's now independent League of Five Provinces are some of the few which remain.

Sun also begins negotiations with the West to ensure that their commercial interests in China will not be harmed.

Ma Hongbin understands what sort of potential a tank can have, but he is decidedly unsatisfied with Yan Xishan's poor tank design, sends a letter to American designer Walter Christie requesting his assistance at the Ma Clique's new tank factory at Lanzhou. At minimum, a tank needed some kind of suspension system in order to traverse Northwest China's extremely harsh terrain. Zhang Zuolin begins to manufacture tanks as well, ordering his factories to make some sort of modifications to the FT-17 to simplify production and to allow it to traverse the Manchurian Plain at high speed.

1926: In the Northern Expeditions, the former elements of the Zhili Clique manage to hold off Zhang Zuolin's Fengtian forces. Meanwhile, forces under Jiang Jieshi heavily defeat Sun Chuanfang's forces. A young commander named Peng Dehuai distinguishes himself in these battles and manages to recruit bandit leaders and some minor warlords into his army at the same time.

Jiang expresses the need to purge the Communists from the Chinese government but Sun absolutely forbids such an action. Jiang decides to resign from command instead intending to leave for the United States after plans for a coup against Sun fail to materialize. Sun accepts Jiang's resignation. Wang Jingwei cleans up against Sun Chuanfang's forces. The capital is temporarily moved up to Nanjing, although Feng Yuxiang wants it moved to Beijing in order to strengthen the position of the northerners.

1927: The Fengtian Clique, due to its use of advanced weapons imported from France, performs well against the infantry based armies of the United Front. Yan Xishan forms a coalition with the Fengtian Clique in order to roll back some of the United Front's gains. Their tanks, airplanes and artillery make a mess of the United China Forces. However, the United Front Forces are better lead and more popular amongst the people of China. As such, guerrilla warfare and pro-Sun revolts break out across Northern China, forcing Zhang Zuolin to stop his advance in order to take care of affairs at home.

1928: Yang Zengxin, governor of Xinjiang is assassinated by Jin Shuren, who takes over as military governor of Xinjiang. The Xibei San Ma declare jihad upon the Xinjiang clique. Their new tanks designed by Walter Christie are immensely mobile and prove to be worth their weight in gold. The Xinjiang Clique is defeated and the area is awarded to the Ma Clique by Sun's government.

Japanese advisors to Fengtian Warlord Zhang Zuolin decide that Zhang is too independent and decide to blow up his train, killing him. Zhang Zuolin's son Zhang Xueliang thus ends the war with the United Front and declares his loyalty to Sun's government in exchange for the capital of China being moved up to Beijing. Yan Xishan, now isolated, is forced to negotiate.

Japan's assassination of Zhang Zuolin is probably one of the most idiotic moves of the 20th Century since it all but ensured that China would unify instead of remaining in a state of civil war.

China, at the behest of its Soviet advisors, begins a Five Year Plan for industrialization.

1929: A misunderstanding in Manchuria between Zhang Xueliang's forces and a Soviet Army under Vasily Blyukher leads to a battle. 2000 Russian soldiers and 700 Chinese soldiers are killed and Zhang seizes control of the Manchurian Chinese Eastern Railway. Sun's Soviet advisors leave in protest after Sun refuses to discipline the Little Marshal. Staling does nothing for the time being, but Sun, knowing that Stalin will not be placated, begins to prepare China for war and places political officer Zhou Enlai in charge of organizing preparations for the upcoming war and given carte blanche power to do whatever he needs. Sun launches a diplomatic and propaganda campaign to make the Soviet threat clear to the warlords, so that they will back him.

The skirmish between Zhang Xueliang's forces and the Russians is closely examined by both sides as Zhang's forces launched an armored assault closely coordinated with infantry, artillery and aerial assets in order to dislodge Blyukher's dug in forces. The action along the Amur seriously discredits Alexander Svechin's theory of attrition in favor of Vladimir Triandafillov's theories of mobile and mechanized war. Svechin is therefore taken out and shot by the NKVD as is Blyukher.

On October 10th, 1929, Sun Zhongshan declares the formation of the United Republic of China with himself as President for Life. However, free and fair elections are to be scheduled after his death.

1930: Due to the fact that Xinjiang only has two easily blocked paths of entry from the West, Minister of War Li Zongren and Chief of Staff Zhu De determine that the most likely point of Soviet invasion would be Manchuria. Construction begins on additional railroads to Harbin, Changchun and Jilin and of concrete fortifications in multiple areas along the Sino-Soviet Border regions and around major cities.

Also, due to the large distances involved in Manchuria, the procurement and manufacture of trucks is increased. New synthetic fuel plants are built in Shanxi, Hebei, Manchuria and Qinghai with help from the Germans as well as new plants for construction machinery, much of which is immediately put to use building up hydraulic works for flood control. The Japanese are becoming increasingly worried about China's power and begin plotting a casus belli for war. During this time period, many White Russians living in Central Asia are recruited into the Chinese Army.

Due to the influence of Communist thought in Sun's government, there is a move to form large, well-armed civilian militias.

1931: A few insubordinate colonels in the Imperial Japanese Army are caught placing explosives on railroad tracks and are imprisoned by Zhang Xueliang's forces. This prompts the Japanese to invade Manchuria. Zhang's forces in Manchuria are reinforced by the 38th Army, led by Peng Dehuai.

Peng fights a brilliant campaign to delay the advance of the Imperial Japanese Army before counterattacking in force at Changchun. The entire Kwantung Army is captured by Chinese forces, which precipitates a power struggle in Tokyo between various Army and Navy factions. The captured Japanese soldiers are graciously returned (minus their equipment) on Sun's orders as he wishes to prevent the Japanese from losing too much face.

1932: New US President Huey Long decides to send perpetual annoyance Douglas MacArthur to China as a military advisor (since obviously those filthy Asiatics know nothing about modern warfare). MacArthur, who is posted with Ma Bufang's 17th Army near Chifeng, Inner Mongolia, is widely disliked. MacArthur disrespects the cultural and religious beliefs of the mostly Hui and Mongol troops he is supposed to "train" and claims that he alone could understand the "Oriental Mind."

However, the Chinese assume that the Americans consider the deployment of a highly ranked general such as MacArthur to be a gift on their part and fear offending the Americans by sending him back. Thus, they decide to put up with the annoyance for the time being.

Another American advisor, Billy Mitchell, had been forced to resign from the US Army Air Force previously. However, Zhang Xueliang, a fan of airpower, was willing to listen to Mitchell. Mitchell worked closely with Ding Chao, Zhang Xueliang's Chief of Staff and General Li Du in order to create viable air defenses for Manchuria.

1933: The first Five Year Plan is complete. Under Zhou Enlai's leadership, there is food security in China for the first time since the reign of the Qianlong Emperor. This is in stark contrast to Stalin's Holodomor, which resulted in millions of people starving to death. At this point in time, the Chinese Army has 9 armored divisions totaling over 1,800 tanks and over 2,000 planes of all types in the Republic of China Air Force. More tanks, trucks, artillery pieces and airplanes are being built daily. Additionally, production rights for new and interesting weapons have been purchased from the Germans, including the 88mm AA gun, which Rheinmetall excitedly touts as being highly lethal to aircraft.

Many of China's tanks are Type 28s, which use Walter Christie's suspension. They are equipped with a German made 37mm anti-tank gun, although some infantry support variants are given a 75mm field gun of French design instead.

1934: Mao Zedong, head of the State Intelligence Directorate, obtains sources of information which indicate that the Russians have spent the last five years expanding the Trans-Siberian Railroad and have been running over 60 trains per day towards Vladivostok for the last 6 months in preparation for a massive offensive into Manchuria. Reconnaissance flights into Mongolia confirm a massive buildup on the other side of the Gobi Desert. Mao correctly calculates that the bulk of the Soviet armored thrust will be through the Gobi Desert and suggests that Zhang Xueliang place his mobile forces on the gap between the Yin and Khingan mountains.

The Soviets plan to invade in June 1934, as soon as the Spring sandstorms end.

On June 2nd, 1934, the Red Army Far Eastern Command, with 4 fronts, invades China with 2.6 million men, over 9,000 tanks, 40,000 guns and 7,000 aircraft.

At the time of invasion, there are 14 Chinese armored divisions with a total of more than 3,000 tanks, as well as another 20-30 tank battalions dispersed around 16 motorized infantry divisions and 6 mechanized cavalry divisions. Total Chinese tank strength in Manchuria is around 5,500 and represents about 90% of all active Chinese tank strength. The RoC Air Force in Manchuria consisted of 2,500 aircraft of all types. The Chinese also had 50,000 pieces of artillery, most of it surplus World War I stock purchased by from the French and Germans.

Including civilian militias and laborers, the Chinese have more than 8 million men and women under arms in the Manchuria AO.

There are another 9 Chinese armored divisions currently in assembly south of the Great Wall as well as more motorized and mechanized divisions. Aircraft were being built and pilots were being trained at a frantic rate.

The stage was set for the largest conflict since World War I.

~*~*~*~

Manchurian War: Map of the AO.





Timeline and Background of the Manchurian War:

Soviet Forces Committed:

Soviet Far Eastern Command: Field Marshal Vladimir Triandafillov. (*****)
Staff Advisor: Grigory Kulik (****)
Chief of Staff: Semyon Budyonny (****)
Commissar: Lev Mekhlis (Lol, not a soldier)

-Transbaikal Front: General Mikhail Tukhachevsky (****)
-Siberian Front: General Kliment Voroshilov (****)
-Amur Front: General Alexander Yegorov (****)
-Far Eastern Front: General Boris Shaposhnikov (****)

Theater Reserve:
-Steppe Front: General Semyon Timoshenko (****)

Total Forces: 2.6-3.4 million men.

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Chinese Forces Committed:

Shenyang Military Region: Field Marshal Zhang Xueliang (*****)
Chief of Staff: Ding Chao (****)
Air Force: Li Du (****)

Harbin Area Group Army:
38th Army: Peng Dehuai (****)
40th Army: Ye Ting (****)
6th Army: Mao Zejian (****)

Gobi Area Group Army:
Mobile Reserve: Ma Hongkui (*****)
54th Army: Ma Hushan (****)
17th Army: Ma Bufang (****)
2nd Cavalry Army: Ma Buqing (****)

Tangshan Corridor Group Army:
4th Army: Lin Biao (****)

Liaodong Area Group Army:
22nd Army: He Zizhen (****)
39th Army: Su Yu (****)

Mudanjiang Sector:
18th Army: Chen Cheng (****)
20th Army: Tang Enbo (****)
24th Army: Liu Xiang (****)

Theater Reserve:
Beijing Military Region: Field Marshal Feng Yuxiang (*****)
-33rd Army: Liu Bocheng (****)
-15th Army: Sun Liren (****)
-2nd Army: Liang Huazhi (****)
-14th Army: Zhang Guotao (****)

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Unlike the Soviet chain of command, Chinese forces are not only far less organized at the Army level, but also segregated along political lines. The Communists and Nationalists might be cooperating in a United Front, but political ideology influences whose army you'd be joing and why. CPC and GMD troops are generally kept separate, even if they use the same type of equipment, due to their different command structures, training and political ideology.

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The subtext of using all of these generals is that China's army got huge really quickly and a lot of these generals were either warlords or guerrilla leaders leading largely fresh recruits from their home provinces. Unlike OTL, the morale and loyalty of the men are not suspect but a lot of them are fairly raw. Although there is overall command unity for the most part, a lack of coordination and low emotional quotients would further complicate things (Lin Biao and He Zizhen for example were manic depressives, Zhang Guotao and Tang Enbo were downright unreliable and it's unlikely Ma Hongkui would deign to listen to the Little Marshal).

This is Soviet Russia's first attempt at modern warfare. Stalin will doubtlessly attempt to micromanage the war from Moscow as well. Also, the Soviet dual-command structure with commissars having precedence over military leaders is going to be troublesome.

China has very few professional soldiers and even fewer who understand the need for modern war, most of whom are going to be younger. The more experienced soldiers, of which there are not many, are on staff duty in the government to keep the war machine running (Amateurs think about tactics, Professionals think about logistics).

Needless to say, this is going to be an extremely messy conflict.

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Timeline of the First Sino-Soviet War (June 1934-March 1935), First Stage (June 1934-August 1934), Pt. 1

Author's Note: Refer to the AO map and force dispositions posted earlier.

Siberian Front: The Chita Operation

2 a.m, June 2nd, 1934: The war opens with Kliment Voroshilov's Siberian Front charging pell mell from Chita on the Trans-Siberian Railway towards Manzhouli. 850,000 Soviet troops surge forwards towards Qiqihar, blissfully unaware of the fact that the area will soon become heavily mountainous and has essentially no roads west of Haliar.

Pre-war photoreconnaissance analysis by 38th Army commander Peng Dehuai indicate that the Siberian Front has been poorly organized, with its logistical assets and reserve troops scattered across the steppe. Its main combat elements are widely dispersed. Although Peng's initial orders from Zhang Xueliang are to mount a static defense at Hulunbuir to block off the main road leading to Qiqihar, he has a better idea. Prior to the start of the invasion, he has requisitioned every truck, tank and airplane in the Harbin Area Group Army as well as half the fuel and ammunition reserves available in Manchuria. Most importantly, he "requisitioned" a large shipment of radio sets originally meant for the Xibei San Ma troops in the Inner Mongolian theater, which will have severe consequences later.

8 a.m, June 4th, 1934: The 38th Army fights a small skirmish with troops of the Siberian Front at the town of Manzhouli before retreating towards Haliar.

Due to the presence of large Chinese armored formations in the area, Voroshilov believes that the main Chinese concentration of armor in Manchuria is with Peng's 38th Army and uses his pull with Stalin to divert fuel and ammunition shipments meant for Mikhail Tukhachevsky's Trans-Baikal Front. Voroshilov continues to charge forward.

Morning of June 6th, 1934: As expected, the Siberian Front runs into extremely heavy resistance from General Ye Ting's 40th Army at Hulunbuir. Dug in German made 88mm AA guns, doubling as anti-tank guns, make a horrific mess of Voroshilov's already disorganized spearhead formations. Voroshilov's artillery train, strung out along the steppe and still mostly in limber, is essentially a non-factor. Other elements of the Siberian Front manage to take Mordaga and Mohe. Still, Voroshilov presses on, undaunted by the losses. Repeated massed infantry assaults on Hulunbuir are cut down by pre-sighted Chinese artillery concentrations. Russian artillery pieces are for the most part, entirely without ammunition and basically useless as the bulk of Voroshilov's trucks are still being unloaded from the railhead at Chita.

Evening of June 13th, 1934: After a week of heavy fighting at Hulunbuir, the Siberian Front is forced to withdraw, having taken over 35,000 casualties. Peng's 38th Army immediately counterattacks as the sun sets. In a sporadic and confused night action, 20 years prior to the invention of image intensifying devices, the 38th Army manages to scatter the Soviet rearguard and by morning has recaptured Manzhouli.

Morning of June 14th, 1934: Voroshilov initially planned to retreat back to Manzhouli and wait for his artillery train before continuing. Voroshilov himself is safely ensconced at Chita, largely unaware of what's happening on the front. In the meantime, panic sets in on the Siberian Front as division and corps commanders are scattered by the 38th Army's well organized troops. The 38th Army is quickly moving to capture the Siberian Front's scattered supply trains and surrounding large numbers of enemy troops who are often carted off to the Chinese rear in their own trucks.

June 16th-17th: Konstantin Rokossovsky, one of Voroshilov's army commanders, attempts to rally the flagging Soviet forces, who are now in full rout. Commissar Lev Mekhlis sees this as insubordination and immediately orders Rokossovsky's arrest and summary execution, however, the NKVD troops supposed to carry out the order are in Chita at the moment. Rokossovsky and his staff are captured outside of Mohe by 38th Army troops. As such, Rokossovsky's formal sentence is Death in Absentia.

Voroshilov tells Mekhlis to go fuck himself and that he will not allow such an order to be carried out. Rokossovsky wasn't exactly trying to defect to the enemy after all.

June 18th-June 25th: The 38th Army destroys much of the Siberian Front's supplies and manages to capture over 300,000 Soviet troops strung out along the steppe between Hulubuir and Chita. General Voroshilov is hastily trying to organize a relief column with fresh troops and tanks as they get off the Trans-Siberian Railway, but he has trouble organizing the troops into a proper relief force. When they are finally organized, the relief force is surrounded and cut apart

June 28th: Chinese troops surround Chita. However, defenses around the city have been dug in pretty solidly and the 38th Army is running out of ammunition and aviation fuel. Voroshilov informs Peng that he is willing to fight to the death. Peng, although able to use captured Russian fuel supplies, is running out of artillery shells. He decides to retreat eastwards along the Trans Siberian Railway, ripping up as much track as possible before moving south by mid-July.

In addition to the troops. Peng has captured over 10,000 Soviet trucks and a huge amount of fuel. This will come in handy later.

Peng wins an overwhelmingly lopsided victory against the Soviets and cements his reputation as a fearsome commander, but down south, things aren't looking so great.

Even still, this frees up significant mobile forces for operations on the Manchurian plain as the Siberian front is rendered combat ineffective for a good deal of time.

Timeline of the First Sino-Soviet War (June 1934-March 1935), First Stage (June 1934-August 1934), Pt. 2

The Gobi Operation:

Inner Mongolia, Mid-July, 1934: That absolute clusterfuck with the Siberian Front and Peng Dehuai's aggressive raid on the Trans-Siberian Railway means that until the torn up sections of track are replaced, Yegorov and Shaposhnikov's fronts cannot proceed due to a lack of fuel and ammunition. Also, Voroshilov, having diverted most of Tukachevsky's fuel supplies, results in the Trans-Baikal front's offensive being delayed by over a month.

On the Chinese side, Zhang Xueliang and Intelligence Director Mao Zedong both rip Peng a new asshole (verbally), as Peng's raid, although productive and aggressive, tipped off the Russians as to where the main Chinese concentration of armored units was. Peng however, displayed excellent strategic thinking and excellent initiative in his attack, qualities which Zhang respects. Thanks to Tukhachevsky's delay, many of the radios which previously had been missing from the Ma Clique's inventories had been re-installed in the time being. Also, the fuel captured by the 38th Army meant that Ma Hongkui's mobile group would be able to remain fully mobile for some time.

Tukhachevsky, although a far more capable commander than Voroshilov, has made the same mistake and has spread his forces out too widely along the 600km wide gap between the Yin and Khinggan Mountains. The Transbaikal Cavalry Mechanized Group, a mixed cavalry/armor formation commanded by Georgy Zhukov, is smashed by Sun Liren's 15th Army outside of Jining in Central Inner Mongolia. Tukhachevsky owns up to the mistake though, as he was the one who ordered Zhukov too far to the Southwest. Zhukov is therefore not relieved of his command, especially since, despite the magnitude of his defeat, he managed to withdraw in a semi-orderly fashion after breaking out of a Chinese encirclement.

Meanwhile, Ma Buqing's 2nd Cavalry Army fights a holding action at Xilinhot. The 2nd Cavalry, which was entirely mechanized, proves itself to be more than a match for the elements of Trans-Baikal Front that it encounters. However, supply lines to Xilinhot are tenuous and Ma Hongkui does not wish to risk getting cut off and orders the 2nd Cavalry to retreat to Shenyang to refit. The Russians halt a week to refit the gutted 6th Tank Army, which has taken 75% casualties in the engagement with the 2nd Cavalry Army.

In the air, the Chinese Air Force, although smaller, has a much clearer command structure and is far more coordinated. Due to the extensive presence of Chinese fighter cover and anti-aircraft artillery, Russian close air support is ineffective and results in heavy airframe losses. Fortunately for the Russians, the Chinese Air Force lacks the ability to conduct interdiction operations in Russian airspace.

Tukhachevsky has a problem though. Due to General Voroshilov's defeat, Peng Dehuai's powerful 38th Army sits on the flank of the Trans-Baikal Front and an offensive by the 38th would cut off the Trans-Baikal's rear areas.

Tukhachevsky immediately begins to attack Peng's forces, requisitioning supplies initially intended for Voroshilov's men. Peng decides to preserve his strength and retreats from Manzhouli to Hulunbuir. However, forces from the Trans-Baikal front decide to encircle and lay siege to the city. Unlike the first attack, the Russians have an organized artillery train this time and Peng is forced to break out and retreat towards Qiqihar, pursued closely by the Russians. This movement will secure Tukhachevsky's northern edge for the time being as the Chinese 38th and 40th Armies have taken heavy losses.

Tukhachevsky needs to take the main Chinese railhub at Shenyang, which means that he needs to now secure his southern flank by cutting off the coastal road to the Liaoyang Area.

That starts at a small town in Inner Mongolia called Chifeng.

Timeline of the First Sino-Soviet War (June 1934-March 1935), First Stage (June 1934-August 1934), Pt. 2 (Cont.)

Meanwhile in Siberia: While the Gobi Operation is going on, Lev Mehklis is responsible for rounding up enough labor to replace the railroad track on the Transiberian Railway destroyed by the Chinese 38th Army. Upon reading Mekhlis' communique, Stalin has hundreds of thousands of criminals, idle laborers, dissidents, spare soldiers and Young Communists rounded up and shipped east along with sections of pre-fabricated track. They are ordered to lay track as quickly as possible. Anyone not working quickly enough is summarily executed.

They have 261 kilometers of double track to lay over some of the harshest terrain in the world. Stalin gives them a deadline of 2 months or every single laborer and their families will be shot.

Gobi Operation: Tukhachevsky doesn't actually have the manpower to take Shenyang, which has become one of the most heavily fortified cities in the world, with miles and miles of trenches, sheltered artillery positions and concrete dugouts. The Transbaikal Front is spread thin trying to cover sectors that would otherwise have been the responsibility of Voroshilov's forces.

The biggest complicating factor is that the Area of Operations is larger than Western Europe and has about the same population. Tukhachevsky orders Semyon Timoshenko, whose front is in reserve, to make ready. At the same time, he sends a message to Marshal Triandafillov stating that it would be impossible to win the war without the deployment of another 2 Fronts at minimum.

While Triandafillov concurs with Tukhachevsky's assessment, Stalin had calculated that 5 Fronts would be sufficient for an attack on Manchuria and therefore, the war must be won with 5 Fronts or otherwise, there would be Consequences. Unfortunately, Stalin's assessment was based on information provided to him by the NKVD, which in retrospect, had fucked up spectacularly with regards to assessing the operational capabilities of the Chinese Army.

Stalin sends a message to Triandafillov stating that 5 Fronts are sufficient and that the only reinforcements he would be getting would be to bring Voroshilov's Siberian Front back up to strength again.

Outside of Chifeng, Ma Bufang's 17th Army is massing for a counterattack.

Timeline of the First Sino-Soviet War (June 1934-March 1935), First Stage (June 1934-August 1934), Pt. 3 (Battle of Chifeng, Qiqihar-Harbin Operation)

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Siberia: The destroyed sections of the Trans-Siberian Railway can only be patched with 700mm narrow gauge rail, this will slow down supplies to the Amur and Far Eastern Fronts considerably. Despite this, General Alexander Yegorov is sick of waiting and attacks in force. However, Mao Zejian's 6th Army is waiting for him and ambushes troops of the Amur Front between the towns of Heihe and Sunwu. Despite taking heavy casualties, Yegorov pushes on and forces the 6th Army back towards the city of Suihua.

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Hulunbuir: Marshal Triandafillov transfers operational command of Kliment Voroshilov's Siberian Front to Colonel-General Grigori Shtern. Shtern is a far more capable and organized commander than Voroshilov and immediately begins concentrating his mobile forces and artillery into coherent units. Shtern attacks towards Qiqihar, forcing back the Chinese 38th, 40th and 54th Armies, which take heavy casualties from Russian artillery, which is being deployed in increasing numbers. Qiqihar is abandoned by the Chinese as they retreat towards Harbin.

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Chifeng: Ivan Konev's army detachments move south towards Chifeng. He expects Ma Bufang to conduct a static defense of the city. However, in a move foreshadowing the German doctrine of Bewegungskrieg in World War II, the 17th Army instead attacks Konev's forces aggressively and manages to bypass Konev's combat elements in order to strike at his artillery and logistics. The southern sector of the Transbaikal Front is utterly routed and General Konev is captured along with another 250,000 Soviet troops. The problem is that Ma Bufang is unable to coordinate with his corps commanders, which are strung out as far Ulanhot in Northwest Manchuria. This makes it easy for Semyon Timoshenko's Steppe Front, which had been held in reserve, to destroy the 17th Army's exhausted formations in detail. The remains of the 17th Army flee back towards Chifeng, which is taken by the troops of the Steppe Front.

To complicate matters, Ma Bufang is wounded in a Soviet air attack and has to be evacuated from the front for treatment in Beijing. The temporary loss of their leader causes the 17th Army's morale to plummet. Ma Bufang's subordinate Ma Dunjing (no relation) manages to stabilize the situation at Chengde before pushing Timoshenko's forces back to Chifeng.

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Mudanjiang Sector: The Soviets finally launch their offensive from the East. The terrain in Eastern Manchuria is mountainous, forested and swampy, making mobile operations nearly impossible. Massed infantry assaults with some infiltration thrown in for flavor are the order of the day. Soviet progress is agonizingly slow against the dug-in Chinese troops and casualties are (predictably) extremely high. Still, the Soviet attack prevents the troops from the Mudanjiang Sector from relieving the embattled Chinese forces in Western Manchuria and Inner Mongolia.

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Harbin: Harbin is a very heavily defended city and the Russians have no choice but to launch a direct assault on the city as it cannot be bypassed. By the time they reach Harbin at the beginning of September, Chinese forces have already dug in deeply. Russian guns begin firing upon the city, but despite the number guns available, Soviet Artillery relies too heavily on pre-planned fires, which makes their artillery inefficient. Chinese artillery on the other hand, is extremely accurate and responsive. Unfortunately, the Chinese artillery arm is spread out over Manchuria and at the moment, it is very difficult to move heavy guns around.

The Harbin city militia are being equipped with a new weapon, the Fire Lance. Like its namesake, the Fire Lance is an infantry portable rocket with an explosive warhead. It is fueled by a mix of a nitrogenous compound suspended in paraffin wax. The warhead, a one kilogram shaped charge lined with copper, is able to penetrate the armor of any in the Soviet arsenal. Range is about 250 meters in direct fire and the device seems absurdly cheap to construct.

The Russians begin their assault by moving their tanks into Harbin's streets.

I will note that driving tanks first into cities is a mistake the Russians will make again and again. They made such mistakes in OTL in Chechnya, despite it being the mid-1990s and despite having a great deal of experience in urban combat. They should have known better, but they didn't.

The Chinese fire lance is absurdly easy to manufacture to the point where even peasant farmers can fabricate them, given the correct equipment. The single use tubes are made out of fiberglass, which although a new substance at this time, is still cheap and easy to manufacture and the rockets can be made in a backyard lathe.

Also, what I haven't mentioned so far is that Chinese infantry squads carry significantly more semi-automatic and automatic weapons than their Russian counterparts and are deployed in a much more flexible fashion. This alone makes Russian attacks on Chinese positions very difficult, especially if things get to close combat, which the Chinese have a huge advantage in.

YLi said:

I will note that driving tanks first into cities is a mistake the Russians will make again and again. They made such mistakes in OTL in Chechnya, despite it being the mid-1990s and despite having a great deal of experience in urban combat. They should have known better, but they didn't.

Click to expand...

I am not disputing that they would have done that. I have made them do it in the initial battle of Cernauti in my timeline. It was just a sort of observation that it is a bad move to attack a city by tanks.

Just as a quick reference:

Soviet Rifle Squad in the First Sino-Soviet War

Authorized Strength of 10 men:

-Squad leader armed with Mosin-Nagant 1891/30
-2 submachine gunners armed with a PPD-40
-6 Riflemen, distribution of rifle grenades may vary
-1 Machine Gunner (DP-28)
-One assistant, armed with a rifle and spare machine gun barrel.

This organization does not really make any distinctions for fireteams, although General Tukhachevsky and General Stern generally made the SMG gunners lead a team of 3 riflemen each. Other Russian commanders did not make such a distinction.

After the War: More formal fireteam structures would be utilized. Additionally, some sort of belt-fed machine gun would be adopted. Unlike the Chinese, who are obsessed with rocketry, Fire Lances and/or other shoulder fired anti-tank weapons would probably be kept in reserve at the platoon or company level. Soviet anti-tank rockets however, are generally reusable.

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Chinese Rifle Squad, Post 1930 Reorganization, Frontline Squad:

Authorized Strength of 12-13 men:

Squad Leader armed with Type 21 SMG (M1 Thompson clone in .45 Remington Super)

Squad Assistant: ZH-29 semi-automatic rifle, possibly with 4x or 8x scope.

2x Fireteams:

Fireteam Leader: ZH-29 semi-automatic rifle. Comes with rifle grenades as well.
Squad Automatic Weapon: Type 22 (Browning Automatic Rifle clone with quick change barrel).
Rifleman: ZH-29 semi-automatic rifle, usually has a spare barrel for BAR gunner as well as more BAR magazines.
Gunner: Either a Type 21 SMG and a bag of Fire Lances or another rifle with rifle grenades.

For Leg Infantry Squads: MG team, gunner and assistant (MG-34 or later on, Type 40 GPMG). After the Manchurian War, each squad will have an additional Fire Lance gunner, usually for ad-hoc demolition work.

For Motorized Infantry: Vehicle driver and vehicle commander. Third crewman specific to vehicle optional, depending on the vehicle.

For Mechanized Infantry Squads: Vehicle gunner, commander and driver.

Platoon Level: All Chinese infantry platoons will have a two-man Radio-Telephone team after the Manchurian Conflict. This will prove hilarious when the Japanese try to invade again in 1937. At times, some warlords, especially in the more mountainous south, stripped out the Fire Lance gunners in their squads to form a platoon level mortar squad equipped with 3x 60mm mortars. Since tanks were unlikely to be encountered in mountainous areas, generally, the squad leader's assistant would be tasked with using Fire Lances against enemy vehicles.

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Note that the Chinese squad is far more modern and flexible than the Soviet one and that the Soviets generally took absolutely horrifying casualties in Manchuria, especially when forced to launch an unsupported infantry assault. However, the Soviets were able to push the Chinese back due to their ability to concentrate artillery fire, which the Chinese were less able to do.

The Social Transformation Movement (1925-1933), Pt. 1:

Before I start with the next stage of the conflict, I should probably let the reader know that there was a reason for the NKVD's inability to assess the Chinese military's combat ability, a mistake on the Soviet Union's part which cost it north of a million soldiers killed in action in the Manchurian Conflict.

Stalin, normally a cautious man, was not the sort to throw away so many men. But Stalin was getting his getting his information from the NKVD. By the 1930s, the usually formidable NKVD was nearly blind to the Chinese military and political situation and the heads of the NKVD, fearful of Stalin's wrath, pretty much told Stalin what he wanted to hear, despite the fact that anyone thousands of potential Soviet loyalists were being executed in China, depriving the NKVD of information.

In 1925, Sun Zhongshan met in private with a young, charismatic firebrand named Mao Zedong. Mao had a huge deal of success organizing Marxist literacy campaigns in his home province of Hunan and was especially talented at organizing mass movements and inspiring loyalty in his followers.

Sun knew that in order to counteract the Soviet Union, he had to get everyone in China on his side. Sun knew that Mao revered him and the ideals of the Xinhai Revolution. China had an ample supply of men like Sun, people who were nationalists at heart and would look out for Chinese interests first. However, various parties in China were significantly more self-serving or worse yet, served foreign masters such as the Politburo in Moscow. Mao was the sort of backstabbing, double-dealing asshole that simultaneously inspired fanatical loyalty in his followers and fear in his enemies. Despite his persuasive charm and skill at diplomacy, he possessed a machine like focus, a startling lack of empathy and a total disregard for human life. In short, he was exactly the sort of man Sun needed to ensure China stayed unified.

In secret, Mao located and formed a cadre of operatives known as the Republican Guard who would identify and infiltrate the armies and peasantry under various warlords and Communist Party members. Their primary goal was to determine who was reliable, or at least patriotic so that support could be diverted towards them and away from. Spies, saboteurs and those loyal to the ideals of a foreign government would be identified, arrested and shot without trial.

Sun prohibited the "shot without trial" part, noting that such an act would be particularly brutal and that he would personally like China to be somewhat distinct from the arbitrary and random brutality which characterized Soviet politics of the time. Mao was first supposed to be Sun's watchdog, not an attack dog. Sun, a widely beloved figure in China, would first attempt to negotiate with important individuals perceived to be disloyal to China's interests. This, combined with pro-Sun, pro-Nationalist grassroots pressure from the public, would likely sway leaders in Sun's favor. After that, there would be media campaigns to shame less loyal individuals. Only after that failed, could less reliable.

Those who were spying directly for the Soviet NKVD or British MI6 however, would be immediately detained and possibly sentenced to hard labor in Qinghai or Xinjiang. Sun was vehemently against summary execution, as he believed such acts would cheapen the ideals upon which China was built. Reconciliation was to be attempted in 100% of cases and everyone would get a trial.

Recruiting a mass movement would be easy. The huge number of peasants in the Chinese countryside were quite receptive to a dumbed down version of Sun's message. The same peasants made up the majority of every warlord's armies, making it simple for the Nanjing Government to subvert the armies of any given warlord.

But first, Mao would have to turn his attentions to his own party. Without a solid base, he would have nothing with which to build his mass movement.

That would have to start with Wang Ming. He was pro-Moscow and that meant that he had to be disposed of.

The Social Transformation Movement (1925-1933), Pt. 2:

Fortunately for Mao, Sun had arranged for Wang Ming and 28 of his followers to go study in Moscow while Mao turned his attentions towards the Communists. Wang Ming and his 28 friends are quietly kidnapped and shot in Moscow on order of Mao. Sun is displeased with this, but cannot prove Mao had much to do with the killings.

There were already professional soldiers like Zhu De and Nie Rongzhen who were willing to listen to Mao's message, as well as capable administrators like Zhou Enlai, who was teaching political theory at Huangpu Military Academy at the moment.

Chen Duxiu, founder of the Communist Party, disagreed with Mao on his stance that the peasantry was the key to reform in China. According to Chen, only an enlightened group of knowledgeable individuals would be able to lead a select group of urban workers in a revolt against the bourgeoisie.

According to most of the sensible people in the CPC, this view was really, really fucking stupid. Numbers counted. Men counted. Space and time counted.

Sun was going to have trouble speaking directly to Chen Duxiu, due to the presence of conservatives in his coalition and due to the presence of American and British influence in China. Mao needed time and space to build his movement and get Republican Guard infiltrators and spies into the armies of every major warlord.

Thus, while publicly appearing to engage in debates with Chen about the necessity of peasant movements in the Communist press, Mao continued with his mass movements in various provinces, promoting literacy and revolutionary ideology amongst largely landless peasants and those without means. Chen is slowly marginalized by what he sees as the Lumpenproletariat, being increasingly isolated to a specific group of leftist individuals who possess lofty rhetoric and little else.

One of those influenced by Mao's propaganda campaigns was warlord Feng Yuxiang. Feng and many of his men overthrew Beiyang warlord Wu Peifu and defected to the left wing of the Guomindang in 1925.

Another one of Mao's victories was placing infiltrators in Jiang Jieshi's rightist clique. Although Jiang is able to defeat the remnants of the Zhili Clique, he is unable to find any support for his anti-Communist campaigns, even amongst his own men. Being rabidly anti-Communist, Jiang and his closest supporters decide to exile themselves to the United States rather than live in a China which tolerates Communism.

The Fengtian Clique in Manchuria possesses a large number of tanks and modern artillery. The Republican Guard has infiltrators and spies all across Northern China, quietly spreading propaganda amongst the locals. A direct attack on Fengtian held areas, led by prominent right-wing generals Li Zongren and He Yingqin, fails miserably due to Zhang Zuolin's use of tanks, airplanes and artillery in close coordination. Fengtian proceeds to push south, but Zhang's plans are derailed by carefully coordinated mass-revolts in Zhili and Manchuria.

The GMD right wing is hugely embarrassed and discredited by its defeat at the hands of a smaller, better equipped army, which permits Mao to place his own men in China's Ministry of War, further reducing the right-wing hold on China's government. Men like Zhu De, Liu Bocheng and Nie Rongzhen tended to have more forward thinking views with regards to war, including a doctrine which called for massed mobile warfare.

In 1928, as Zhang Zuolin struggles to put down pro-Sun and pro-GMD rebellions in Manchuria, the Japanese Army, in what is possibly the dumbest foreign policy move of the 20th Century, decides to get rid of him by blowing up his train. Zhang Zuolin's son Zhang Xueliang, sides with the GMD. This persuades warlord Yan Xishan of Shanxi to abandon the fragile Shanxi-Fengtian coalition and throw in with the Nationalists as well.

Not many of the major warlords are actually sympathetic to foreign causes. In fact, one of the main reasons why many warlords are anti-Communist in the first place, besides for reason of personal power, was because they were afraid that the Communists would be puppets of the Soviet Union. Sun reassures many of them that he would eventually seek to distance himself from the Soviet Union. Zhang Xueliang doesn't believe Sun and seeks to test this theory by seizing the assets of the Manchurian Eastern Railway, then using his tanks and air force to demolish a Russian army sent to take it back. Sun cannot discipline Zhang without losing face, since it was Sun who promised to back away from the Soviet Union. Sun instead expels Soviet advisors in China and invites in American ones.

The US at this point is at the height of the Roaring Twenties and in exchange for acting as a counterweight to the Soviet Union, the Chinese manage to secure some large, low-interests loans from Herbert Hoover's administration, managing to secure a significant sum of money just prior to the Stock Market crash in October, 1929. The Chinese use this money to pay for their Five Year Plan. The ability to attract a significant amount of foreign capital makes it far easier to pay wages to landless peasants to work newly built factories and public works projects. This in turn also creates the beginnings of a consumer economy in China. Zhou Enlai, the main planner for the Chinese Five-Year plan, sees Communism primarily as a method by which market capitalism can be achieved. Similarly, there is a consensus amongst the left and moderate GMD as to the role of the state in the economy which reaches the same conclusions that Zhou does.

In the meantime, the Republican Guard, which now has tens of thousands of members, begins ruthlessly purging the Chinese Communist Party, as well as the ranks of the Guomindang. Utilizing mass action and public shame, the Republican Guard exposes many potential pro-Soviet members of Chinese society. Goaded by the Republican Guard, many peasants, low-ranking soldiers and urban workers accuse their neighbors of pro-Soviet or pro-foreign behavior and force them to "self-criticize" in "struggle sessions".

Although the Republic of China will likely never release the files, it is estimated that upwards of 3 million people are either tortured to death in struggle sessions or shot after a show-trial by the Republican Guard. Many foreign influences, with the exception of American influences, are purged from China. This prompts the UK to send additional armed guards to Hong Kong and its concessions in Shanghai. Even still, angry Chinese mobs manage to storm the concessions and lynch people like Gu Shunzhang and Du Yuesheng, offenses which are only smoothed over with payments of reparations to the British. There are some attacks on Christians, but these are usually restrained in nature as Mao fears alienating the conservatives in the United States. The Republican Guard washes its hands of the atrocities claiming that anyone involved in mob justice did so on their own volition. Still, Mao considers the Social Transformation Movement a success because despite huge number of innocent people killed, almost every agent Stalin has in China is either dead or doing hard labor in Qinghai. Surprisingly, the White Russian communities in Manchuria remain relatively untouched, although is because the members of those communities are known to be enemies of Stalin.

Still, unlike Stalin's Five Year Plan, Zhou Enlai's Five Year Plan is hugely successful. New crops like quinoa, introduced from Peru, help to stabilize crop outputs in marginal areas, while new fertilizers and crop varieties imported from the United States result in bumper crops and food security throughout China. This frees up a great deal of labor for work in new factories. Public health initiatives, assisted by the American Red Cross, help reduce the burden of disease on the Chinese populace, while (Communist) literacy initiatives spring out all across the countryside.

However, at some point, Mao has to put up or shut up, as the large numbers of young men and women in the Republican Guard claim to be defenders of China. There is a war coming up with the Soviet Union. The Republican Guard must take up arms against the hated enemy. Various members of the Republican Guard are used to form the nucleus of new military new units which are to be deployed to Manchuria.

The most of famous is these units is founded by He Zizhen, a 21 year old member of the Republican Guard and veteran of Jiang Jieshi's Northern Expeditions, who raises her own private army out of members of the Jiangxi Republican Guard and from peasants and bandits all across Southern China.

As 1934 rolls around, these new armies are fanatically training for the largest military conflict since World War I.

Timeline of the First Sino-Soviet War (June 1934-March 1935), Second Stage (September 1934-December 1934), Pt. 1

Battle of Harbin: The Russians cross the Songhua River and take Harbin, their armored spearheads driving into the city's streets with little more than sporadic resistance from local militias.

As the Russians are celebrating their victory, the citizens of the city suddenly rise up. Using their new fire lances, they ambush the Soviet armored columns and destroy them in the city's narrow streets. Expertly camouflaged gun positions open up on the Russians, who are forced to retreat across the Songhua River under a torrent of artillery shells. Chinese assault engineering units, having previously infiltrated Russian lines, blow up the bridges used by Russian troops.

Due to its status as a supply hub, Harbin absolutely has to be taken. An enraged Tukhachevsky launches a series of massive assaults on the city. Unfortunately, the defenses are dug in deeply and several attempts to cross the Songhua River are repelled by the Chinese.

Tukhachevsky begins looking for an indirect method of taking Harbin, but the muddy swamps to the East and West of the city are totally impassable to vehicles. Soviet forces look to Songyuan, a small town about 100 kilometers to the west.

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Jiamusi: General Shaposhnikov's forces have still made absolutely no progress in the Eastern portion of the theater. Eastern Manchuria's rugged terrain forces the Russians into launching unsupported infantry assaults which are cut down by the Chinese, who have more automatic weapons and better light mortars than the Russians do. Stalin, not having a clue what's going on, continually orders Shaposhnikov to advance. Due to the heavy forests and mountains, combat in this area of the theater occurs at close range and hand to hand combat is frequent.

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Chifeng: General Timoshenko, now with several armies added to his front, launches another assault on Chengde. The newly reinforced 17th Army repels the assault. Increasing numbers of Chinese airplanes means that Timoshenko cannot maneuver very easily and his artillery batteries are getting destroyed from the air. However, Russian airpower and Russian artillery is increasing in strength as well.

Beijing: General Sun Liren, assessing the situation, suggests to Marshal Feng Yuxiang that the Chinese reserve formations be used to destroy the Steppe Front, which is far to the south and isolated from the other Soviet formations. Marshal Feng is hesitant to commit the whole reserve, but agrees, as if Chengde falls, the Steppe Front could race quickly to Shanhaiguan and cut off access to Manchurian from the North China Plain. Plans are drawn up and preparations for an offensive are made.

By this point, further armies have been moving in Southern and Western China, so Beijing will remain well defended.

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Beijing Military Region: Field Marshal Feng Yuxiang (*****)

Yinshan Mobile Group:
-33rd Army: Liu Bocheng (****)
-15th Army: Sun Liren (****)
-2nd Army: Liang Huazhi (****)
-14th Army: Zhang Guotao (****)

Chengde:
-17th Army: Ma Dunjing (***)(*)
-4th Army: Lin Biao (****)

New Theater Reserves in Transit:

Southern Command: Field Marshal Bai Chongxi (*****)
-1st Army: Chen Jitang (****)
-11th Army: Rao Guohua (****)
-13th Army: Wei Lihuang (****)
-64th Army: Li Jiayu (****)
-23rd Army: Long Yun (****)
-49th Army: Chen Yi (****)

Western Armies (1):
-1st Cavalry Army: Ma Zhanshan (****)
-34th Army: Han Youwen (****)

(1): It should be noted that although the core of the Ma Clique armies were made up mostly of Muslims, much of their enlisted manpower came from Han Chinese living in the Western regions of China. Due to the Ma Clique's pioneering use of tanks and mechanized infantry, the consumption of pork by members of the military serving in armored divisions is considered inauspicious to this day.

Timeline of the First Sino-Soviet War (June 1934-March 1935), Second Stage (September 1934-December 1934), Pt. 2

Jining-Chifeng Operation: In the largest armored engagement the world has ever seen, 6 Chinese armies, consisting of over 3 million men, launch a massive attack in order to encircle and destroy the Steppe Front.

Timoshenko attempts a fighting withdrawal but his forces are not able to beat Sun Liren's 15th Army to the critical supply point of Xilinhot. Timoshenko and his deputy, Mikhail Kirponos are killed in the fighting. Lieutenant General Ivan Bagramyan, interim commander of the Steppe Front, is captured by Chinese forces. The destruction of the Steppe Front is the greatest Chinese victory in the Manchurian War and results in 500,000 Soviet KIA and another 800,000 prisoners of war.

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Moscow: The massive Chinese victory in the Jining-Chifeng Operation has Stalin apoplectic with fury. He orders that Genrikh Yagoda, head of the NKVD and Terenty Deribas, head of NKVD operations in the Far East, be taken out and shot. Multiple additional members of the NKVD are taken out and shot, as are members of the GRU.

Stalin orders that 4 more Fronts be formed and sent to Manchuria and also orders the mobilization of the rest of the Red Army. The Caucasian, Trans-Caucasus, Don and Volga fronts are activated. The newly formed 2nd Steppe Front is posted to Kazakhstan in an anticipated invasion of Xinjiang. Stalin also orders that the Soviet Union move to enact general conscription of all able bodied men.

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Nanjing: The Chinese government begins to wonder if the war can be halted. The Chinese economy, although able to keep pace with the Soviet economy in terms of war production, is not necessarily something that Sun wants to sacrifice over what initially was a dispute over ownership of a railroad. Sun orders the Foreign Ministry to explore diplomatic solutions to ending the Manchurian War. Chen Yi, a prominent Communist and disciple of Mao, is tasked with negotiating with Moscow regarding the Manchurian War. Unfortunately, the problem is that Stalin is no mood to talk and wishes to continue fighting.

--------------------------------

Songyuan: It turns out that the Songyuan region is also swampy. Soviet troops are unable to make much progress in the area due to fanatical defense by Peng Dehuai and Ma Hushan's forces. German designed 8.8 and 10.5cm cannon are chewing up attacks by Soviet armor and artillery. The Chinese artillery park is quite numerous and advanced, something which Terenty Deribas, the late head of NKVD Far Eastern Operations did not inform Stalin of. Massed concentrations of Soviet heavy artillery, effective in the mobile stage of the campaign a few months before, is rather ineffective against the deeply dug in Chinese defensive positions. Additionally, Soviet guns are suffering from heavy attrition due to the speed and accuracy of Chinese counterbattery fire.

In the air, increasing numbers of Chinese aircraft are making it difficult for the Soviets to defend their own airspace. The Red Air Force is also finding it difficult to bring fuel to the front from Chita, limiting air support missions against the Chinese.

Out of curiosity, what is the situation on the Russian home front like? The war seems to have some similarities to that of 1905 so I'm wondering how crucial the internal unrest against Stalin will prove to be in the war.

Nassirisimo said:

Out of curiosity, what is the situation on the Russian home front like? The war seems to have some similarities to that of 1905 so I'm wondering how crucial the internal unrest against Stalin will prove to be in the war.

Click to expand...

Would be interesting to know. Though, IMHO, I'd believe the regime would keep a closed lid on the news from the front and, besides, who would revolt and how exactly? Unless it's somebody high enough in the hierarchy (I'd bet on Beria or someone ruthless and sufficiently inside) no one can safely contemplate the conspiracy including anyone but their closest of the closest associates. Any word leaks out and it is a one way ticket to Lubyanka for anyone involved, where a 9mm brain hemorrhage awaits them fairly quickly.

Also, people high enough would probably have too much to lose. Unless threatened directly by the Stalin, they probably would not be really keen to start coup or rebellion. And once Stalin moves on them, it is probably too late to start thinking of overthrowing him.

There aren't many interesting developments on the Russian Home Front. News from the front is carefully filtered of course.

The problem is that wider expansion of the war is going to prove somewhat unpopular. The Soviets can't really hide a couple million (literally) bodies coming back home. Pravda's best bet would be to frame the whole war as a struggle against the perils of the Yellow Horde and to greatly exaggerate Chinese numbers present in theater (this is easy when the Chinese outnumber your forces 5 to 1, although most Chinese troops in theater are militiamen without artillery or mobile assets).

Timeline of the First Sino-Soviet War (June 1934-March 1935), Second Stage (September 1934-December 1934), Pt. 3

Songyuan: The ad-hoc mobile group led by Peng Dehuai, consisting of the 38th, 54th and 2nd Cavalry armies is supplemented by the 22nd and 39th armies, which have moved up from Shenyang.

Unfortunately, the swampy terrain is a double edged sword preventing a Chinese offensive, especially since autumn rains are causing the Songhua to swell, turning the entire area into a sea of impassable mud. Songyuan, a town of around 60,000 souls, is extensively fortified by Zhang Xueliang's engineering units.

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Harbin: The 6th and 40th armies deploy their artillery in such a fashion that Soviet guns can't reach Harbin's main railroad station without being suppressed by Chinese counterbattery fire. This mean steady supplies of men and ammunition are reaching Harbin's defenders. Yegorov and Shtern are forced to institute blocking detachments in order to force their men forward across the Songhua into the city. Their landing boats are especially juicy targets for the defenders' dug in 88mm guns.

Still, the sheer number of guns concentrated in the hands of the Soviets mean that the Amur and Siberian Fronts have a tenuous beachhead on the south side of the Songhua River by the middle of November.

The Soviets, by this time, are beginning to adopt sudden, sharp concentrations of gunfire corrected for by observers in real time, in lieu of their previous doctrine of massive, pre-planned bombardments based on predicted enemy locations. They're also moving their guns more frequently to prevent the Chinese from hammering their guns with counterbattery fire.

Having to take Harbin frontally is exacting a massive toll on the Soviets though. There have been more than 350,000 Soviet soldiers killed in action in the Battle of Harbin so far.

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Jining-Chifeng Operation: From October 14th to November 5th, a period of 22 days, 3 million soldiers of the Republic of China Army in 6 fully mechanized army-sized formations managed to launch a combined arms assault 500 kilometers into enemy held territory across a 700 kilometer wide front, totally destroying the Steppe Front, an enemy formation of over 1.5 million men with an equal, if not superior level of mechanization.

Lord Gort, the highest ranking British military advisor in China, doesn't know what to make of this and dismisses the whole thing as "a ramshackle horde of screaming Chinamen overrunning a group of morally bankrupt Soviet Communists."

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Chita: Marshal Triandafillov is making plans for a massive winter offensive once the mud is frozen enough. As such, he carefully husbands all the reinforcements necessary to conduct such an assault.

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Beijing: The Chinese general staff are planning to launch a massive counter-offensive once the ground in Manchuria freezes enough to permit armored operations. As such, they carefully husband all the reinforcements necessary to conduct such an assault.

Timeline of the First Sino-Soviet War (June 1934-March 1935), Second Stage (September 1934-December 1934), Pt. 4

Beijing: Chen Yi (陈毅) (Fourth Tone), having been given the task of negotiating with the Soviet Union, is removed from command of the 49th Army. He is replaced by the similarly named Chen Yi (陈仪) (Second Tone), who also brings the 19th and 36th armies with him from Fujian.

Chen Yi (Second Tone) is more senior soldier than Chen Yi (Fourth Tone) and as such, immediately begins to clash with the other 3 Field Marshals in the northern theater, especially theater commander Zhang Xueliang, who he sees as an inexperienced interloper and upstart. Second Tone, although an honorable and principled man, is a conservative who is still not entirely convinced of the merits of mobile warfare as outlined by men like Ma Hongbin, Zhang Zuolin, Peng Dehuai and Zhu De.

As such, Second Tone begins to scheme with American advisor Douglas MacArthur on how to subvert Zhang's authority.

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Thailand: Fourth Tone arrives in Bangkok to begin negotiations with Soviet Foreign Minister Maxim Litvinov. Litvinov has orders from Stalin to stall the proceedings as long possible. "Negotiations" as such, are mostly lengthy, one-sided speeches by Litvinov extolling the glories of Stalin and Stalinist Thought and of course, of the intellectual inferiority of Confucianism and the racial inferiority of the Chinese people.

Fourth Tone is under orders by Sun Zhongshan not to give up and leave under any circumstance. He does however, order that all the conversations in the room be taped. Leon Theremin, a Russian citizen with a bone to pick against Stalin, helps Chen evade the NKVD counter-intelligence agents accompanying Litvinov by inventing a variety of seemingly innocuous devices which can pick up vibrations and translate them into recordings. Theremin is paid extremely handsomely for his services by both Mao and J. Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI.

Additionally, German scientist Hedwig Kiesler, a young prodigy working for Siemens' Telefunken (Telephone and Radio), had been sent by the Abwehr to Bangkok to assist in monitoring Litvinov's correspondence with Stalin. More specifically, she was sent to monitor Lavrentiy Beria, the head of Litvinov's counter-intelligence team. Beria was close to Stalin and they corresponded frequently through what they thought were securely encrypted phone channels.

Pan Hannian, an associate of Mao and an agent in the State Intelligence Directorate, manages to find Kiesler and threatens to turn her over to the NKVD unless she turns over her information regarding Stalin (1)

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(1): In an alternate history within an alternate history scenario, many in this universe wonder how World War 2 would have turned out if Kiesler had not become the head of Siemens' Radio/Telephone division, which was critical to ensuring German air superiority during the war. Later attempts by British and Soviet intelligence to assassinate Kiesler during the war all failed. Additionally, the information gathered by Kiesler and Theremin all ended up going to good use.

Timeline of the First Sino-Soviet War (June 1934-March 1935), Second Stage (September 1934-December 1934), Pt. 5

Harbin: Soviet casualties begin to get so awful that the Soviets are emptying out the Gulags and throwing the prisoners into the teeth of Chinese anti-tank gun fire, so as to buy Soviet assault engineering teams some time. The NKVD has set up blocking detachments on the north bank of the Songhua so that deserters can be sent forward. Any man caught taking a step backwards was summarily shot. Stalin's orders are clear, Not One Step Backwards.

Soviet KIA at Harbin are north of half a million by the end of November along with at least a quarter of a million Chinese soldiers joining them. Harbin is making Verdun look downright pleasant and there is no end anywhere in sight.

Mao Yixiu, the daughter of Mao Zejian, who was the overall commander at Harbin, noted that her mother would wake up screaming for decades after the battle.

The 1st, 11th and 23rd Armies, as well fresh reinforcements for the 6th and 40th armies are shipped to Harbin. However, the fresh armies can barely stem the Soviet advance.

Finally, Hu Kexian, an artilleryman with the 23rd Army, thinks of an idea. He attaches a tilt switch keyed to the delay fuse of a 15 centimeter shell. Shells would lodge in the bed of the Songhua River and landing craft passing overhead would activate the tilt switch, causing the shell to detonate. These artillery deployed mines are also dropped in the wetlands surrounding the Songhua in preparation for the eventual Soviet winter offensive. The new artillery scattered mines are quickly fabricated in the field and moved up to the front.

The Songhua is temporarily rendered uncrossable, which destroys the Soviet toeholds on the south bank of the Songhua and allows the Chinese to re-fortify the river bank.

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Jiamusi Region: The technique on how to build the new mines spreads to Tang Enbo's sector as well. They prove extremely handy for cutting off retreating Russian troops and blocking off the few roads in the area.

General Shaposhnikov reports back to Marshal Triandafillov that advancing is impossible. Commissar Mekhlis orders Shaposhnikov shot for defeatism. Triandafillov promptly ignores the order. The Jiamusi region is quietly turning into just as brutal an operation as the battles around Harbin.

The brutal hand to hand combat is taking a toll on the Chinese troops as well. Chinese field hospitals note the huge numbers of shell shock cases they are receiving.

Chinese soldiers suffering from combat stress are usually rotated out for leave in Beijing or points further south, while Russian soldiers are simply shot by their commissars for cowardice or given more vodka to quell their nerves. In fact, poor care, whether psychiatric or physical, is causing a high proportion of Soviet casualties. Chinese field hospitals are clean and heated while Russian ones are dank and filthy.

Triandafillov orders something be done about the ghastly state of Russian hospitals. He assigns Dr. Alexander Bogdanov to reorganize the field hospitals in the Manchurian theater.

Bogdanov, an expert in blood transfusion, also takes this opportunity to set up a blood donation service in the rest of the Soviet Union. This manages to save countless lives as fresh plasma from healthy donors begins arriving in volume.

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Beijing:

To get their soldiers back into combat faster and to minimize the impact of combat stress, Chinese doctors start dosing them with methamphetamine. This is done at the suggestion of Air Force advisors Walther Wever and Billy Mitchell.

Field commanders love the new drug, because it makes soldiers less vulnerable to the effects of pain and hunger. Also, it helps soldiers stay awake longer during night operations. The Russians soon begin issuing amphetamines to their men too.

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Shenyang: Second Tone meets with General MacArthur in Shenyang to discuss the situation. The problem is that Second Tone has to admit that Zhang Xueliang's strategy has helped China stay in the war longer than the old strategies would have allowed them to.

MacArthur realizes that nothing speaks better than results and that Zhang's word would be trusted by Sun above Second Tone's word. MacArthur suggests to Second Tone that the only way to get Sun's ear is to get results on the battlefield. Therefore, the 19th, 36th and 49th armies under Second Tone's command should be deployed in a location likely to see heavy fighting.

MacArthur also wants personal glory for himself, so he decides to take command of Second Tone's armies. When Zhang and Second Tone object to this, MacArthur bluffs his way out of it by claiming that he used to lead the entire US Army and was sent over as a representative of President Huey Long. Therefore, to disobey his orders would be to disobey the will of the US President.

In fact, Douglas MacArthur will now be taking overall command of the entire Manchurian Theater, thank you very much.

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Beijing: Sun Zhongshan, Zhou Enlai and Li Zongren fly up to Beijing for an emergency meeting with Zhang, Second Tone, Ma Hongkui and Feng Yuxiang. Second Tone saves his own skin by saying that he was merely in Shenyang to ask for MacArthur's advice on how to proceed.

Sun and Zhou wonder if they can actually stop MacArthur at all. Much of the Chinese war effort is being supported either directly the US through financial aid, or by more indirect forms of economic aid, such as technology transfers and the exports of pesticides and farming machinery. MacArthur might be bluffing, but if what he says is right, then the entire Chinese war effort would collapse if the US President decided to withdraw aid. They would be in a way, causing the United States to lose face if they rebuffed MacArthur's attempts to take control of the Manchurian War.

Zhang, although horrified, is forced to concur with Sun's conclusions. However, he suggests having his marshals and generals file false reports with MacArthur and to of course, heavily credit MacArthur for anything that goes right in the campaign.

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Mongolia: The 4 new fronts assigned to the Far East should be ready by the end of December. The Soviets are working feverishly on building more support infrastructure out west, even during the winter. This kill thousands of workers, but Stalin will not be denied.

In fact, the harvests that autumn had been worse than average. But what did it matter if a few more peasants in the Ukraine went hungry? There was a war to be had.

YLi said:

In fact, Douglas MacArthur will now be taking overall command of the entire Manchurian Theater, thank you very much.

Click to expand...

*spit* That bastard *spit*

Marc A