The War of Resistance: My Expedition, My Country

Chapter 195 The Influence of the War

As soon as the Battle of Rostov concluded on the southern front, Lao Peng immediately issued orders, urging the 1st and 2nd Cavalry Armies, supported by the Soviet 55th Army, to cross the Don River and gallop towards the vast Ukrainian plains. Simultaneously, the Caucasus Corps, formed with the Soviet 47th and 116th Armies, launched a fierce offensive into the Caucasus, aiming to annihilate the remaining German forces in the region and seize the Caucasus' oil fields.

Huang Wei led the 200th Army and part of the Soviet 58th Panzer Group to form a northward column. Their goal was very clear, which was to move north along the railway line, rescue the 35th Army trapped in Kotelnikovo, and join forces with the 4th Army in the west to jointly form the Stalingrad Southern Line Corps, posing a fatal threat to Stalingrad.

The main forces of the 115th and 200th Armies, as well as the Soviet 58th Army, took advantage of this rare opportunity to rest and regroup on the Rostov front. US and Soviet Air Force transport aircraft and Soviet railway troops would work tirelessly to continuously deliver new batches of supplies to the Rostov and Salsk fronts for the Chinese Expeditionary Force. The Chinese Expeditionary Force would re-equip itself in this area. The 115th Army would be fully reorganized into a heavy tank army, primarily equipped with Soviet tanks, while the 200th Army would be reorganized into a heavy tank army, primarily equipped with American tanks.

Next, once the fighting on the Stalingrad front subsided, the 4th Infantry Army could be reorganized into a motorized army, the 35th Army into an armored army, and the 129th Army into an armored army. Zhukov, acting under the direction of the Soviet Union's Soviet Socialist Democratic Party (SDP), generously provided the Third Expeditionary Army with the tanks/tank destroyers and other weapons required by a tank army, as well as other standard Soviet light weapons, including the Popov submachine gun.

Wei, commander of the Third Expeditionary Force, was in the Urals with Marshal Malinovsky, deputy commander-in-chief of the Soviet Southern Front. During a casual conversation, Wei jokingly remarked that, like Zhu, he had become the expeditionary force's two logistics stewards, leaving all combat missions to Peng and Huang. Marshal Malinovsky lamented, "If the Soviet frontline commanders had the abilities of Peng, Yang, Lin, and Liu, I, as deputy commander-in-chief, would rather be a logistics steward!"

Northeast of Stalingrad, Liu commanded the 129th, 4th, and parts of the 200th Armies, along with components of the Soviet 17th and 23rd Armies. They faced off against the German 8th Army along the Volga River near Stalingrad. Supported by their respective air forces, both sides engaged in a primarily artillery-based artillery barrage and assaults involving smaller units. Each side held small forces on opposing riverbanks, creating a situation of intertwined forces. Meanwhile, components of the German 11th and 17th Armies, which had been preparing to encircle Liu, were ordered to withdraw. Both sides retreated to the Kamyshin line, facing off along the Volga River. The Soviet Southern Front seized significant territory on the eastern bank of the Volga River, further favoring the Soviets. Following orders from the Third Expeditionary Force's headquarters, Liu began reorganizing his forces while fighting. Using the divisions of the 200th Army as a foundation, he formed the 129th Army's tank and armored divisions. The infantry divisions also began to be gradually motorized.

On the southern front, just as Lin had predicted, Fu and the 35th Army held the core areas of Kotelnikovo, including the railway hub and the railroad line. With news of Rostov's fall to the south, the German 6th Army immediately retreated to Stalingrad. By then, the Führer had recognized his mistake. Although he denied it, he acquiesced to the General Staff's proposal to retract the defense of Stalingrad, reorganize Army Group South, and wait for reinforcements before engaging the Chinese and Soviet armies in a large-scale decisive battle south of Stalingrad.

The German army has realized that the plan to break through the Soviet armored cluster with only the Panther and a small number of Tiger tanks is unlikely to succeed. Factories in Europe have increased the production of reactive armor, and new tanks are being manufactured continuously. The improved version of the Panther Ausf.D Panzer V tank based on the Panther is being accelerated, and the new Panther V tank destroyer based on the Panther is also being developed simultaneously. The latest improved version of the Tiger VI, the King Tiger, has begun mass production. Some elite armored personnel of the German army on the Eastern Front are rushing to the country. They will form a new ace tank division and will soon be deployed to the Soviet battlefield.

New uncertainties now loomed for the Germans. In North Africa, Rommel's Afrika Korps was further squeezed. In Egypt, the Second Army of the First Expeditionary Force, led by Kuang Zhengqi, had advanced to Beni Suef, less than 300 kilometers from Rome. Montgomery's Afrika Korps had already captured Benghazi, posing a deadly threat to the Germans' most important port on the Western Front, Bayda. The British Mediterranean Fleet pinned the Italian Navy against the Italian coastline. Rommel's supplies dwindled, and the situation in Italy grew increasingly chaotic. On the bright side, Ukraine's bumper harvest of 1943 resolved the food shortage for Germany and its European Axis powers. The oil fields of southern Soviet Russia and Romania ensured the Axis's oil supply. Germany's plundering of resources in southern Europe ensured a steady supply of steel and other materials. At this point, Germany remained even more formidable than at its peak in the alternate universe. However, its enemies were no longer limited to the Soviet Union, the United States, and Britain; they also included the rising power of the flower-growing nations. This meant the subsequent war would be even more brutal, plunging Europe further into the flames of war.

In terms of flower planting, according to the agreement reached between China, the United States and the Soviet Union, the third batch of the Chinese Expeditionary Force's Third Front Army, the Fifth Army (Central Army), the 11th Army (Shanxi Army), the 17th Army (Guizhou Army), and supplementary troops totaling 40 people are about to set out to attack the Soviet Union. In this way, the Chinese Expeditionary Force's force to attack the Soviet Union will exceed 100 million, meeting the requirements of the agreement. The newly established Second Front Army, including the 2nd Army (Kuang Zhengqi's unit), the 6th Army, and the 74th Army, will enter India for training and be ready to depart for Africa at any time. However, differences arose between Britain and the United States. They saw the wonderful changes in the Soviet-German battlefield after the Chinese Expeditionary Force joined the Soviet battlefield. Churchill and Roosevelt had the same idea. They decided to delay the fighting in North Africa, using the excuse of postponing the opening of a second battlefield on the Western Front. In order to make this action more realistic, the British Navy did not hesitate to expose its whereabouts, allowing the Italian Navy to attack itself and give up part of its sea control in the Mediterranean, allowing Rommel to get assistance again. In this way, Rommel used the new support to drive the British army back to Tripoli again; the United States acted simultaneously, using the excuse of being attacked by German submarines to reduce supplies to Kuang Zhengqi's 2nd Army, forcing Kuang Zhengqi's 2nd Army to retreat to Minya and Mailevi.