The soldiers on both sides fought fiercely in the Russian positions. The bayonet rifles were used to stab, chop, block, dodge and other actions in the hands of the soldiers, and even punched, hit, hit the head and bite, rolled, wrestled and wandered on the edge of life and death. Countless soldiers fell down and could no longer stand up, but more soldiers still joined the battlefield without hesitation.

In fact, after the early war, the People's Army's hand-to-hand combat capabilities have been greatly improved. Because it has accumulated a lot of hand-to-hand combat experience, and during the truce period, the training of hand-to-hand combat has also been strengthened. Therefore, the current hand-to-hand combat capabilities are not inferior to the Russian army in terms of technology and experience. It is just that due to the different races, it is not as tall and strength as Russian soldiers.

However, the People's Army also has its own advantages. First, the People's Army's support firepower is strong. Although the role of supporting firepower has been greatly weakened after entering hand-to-hand combat, it can still play a certain role in some local battlefields. In this regard, the People's Army has advantages over the Russian army; second, the People's Army still has some weapons that can be used in hand-to-hand combat, such as Type 96 pistols and hand-**, which can play a greater role in hand-to-hand combat and make up for the lack of height and strength of the People's Army soldiers; third, the People's Army originally had an advantage in number, but the Russian reinforcements were separated by the People's Army's artillery fire. Therefore, the People's Army's reinforcements were constantly put into the battlefield, causing the imbalance of the forces between the two sides to gradually expand.

As the war progressed, the People's Army became more and more braver in the war, gradually advancing and expanding the captured territory, while the Russian army retreated step by step and constantly giving up positions. Although the change of advance and retreat was not fast, the trend was irreversible.

After more than an hour of fierce fighting, the Russian army had lost most of its positions, and some of its Russian army had been driven out of its positions. Although some of its Russian army were fighting to the death, the general situation was gone at this time and it was irreversible. Soon after, all of the Russian army withdrew from the battlefield, and the Russian army also declared all lost in Hulunbuir's first line of defense.

Although the capture of the first line of defense caused a certain loss to the People's Army, within an acceptable range, after all, fighting will kill people. However, the People's Army did not immediately take advantage of the situation to launch an attack on the Russian army's second line of defense, because the combat effectiveness of the Russian army showed on the first line of defense still surprised the People's Army. This also shows that although the Russian army was defeated in previous battles, it should not be underestimated. Therefore, it is necessary to make sufficient preparations to attack the Russian army's second line of defense, because it is two armored trains that must participate in the attack on the second line of defense, which requires the paving of the railway overnight.

So the People's Army rested overnight, and the engineers worked overnight to lay the railway line for about 5 kilometers so that the armored train could leave. Therefore, the next day, the People's Army launched an attack on the Russian army's second line of defense.

The result of this attack was somewhat beyond the expectations of the People's Army. The Russian army's resistance was obviously much weaker than the first line of defense. After only two hours of resistance, the Russian army could not resist and retreated from the second line of defense. Then the People's Army dispatched two armored trains, together with the forces of the two divisions, and marched along the railway line towards Manzhouli.

But the Russian army made an unexpected move again, voluntarily abandoning Manzhouli, and the entire army retreated to Chita. After the Russian army retreated to Chita, it exploded part of the railway line from Chita to Manzhouli.

It turned out that after the Russian cavalry was defeated, the Russian commander Linevic knew that Hulunbuir could not defend the defense line in Manzhouli because the Russian army was insufficient and the number of artillery was far less than that of the People's Army. Therefore, once the cavalry had no restraint on the People's Army, they could not defend the People's Army's attack at all. Linevic also knew that if he suffered another great defeat, he would wait to go to the military court after returning to China. So Linevic also decided that regardless of domestic requirements, he would not destroy the orders of the Middle East Railway and chose to blow up the railway line. Only in this way could the People's Army's attack be blocked.

Although it was said that blowing up the railway was a violation of the order of the Tsar, there was room for debate, and there were two bottom lines that I needed to defend. First, I could not cause great damage to the troops, because in the previous battle, the Russian army suffered heavy losses, with a total loss of about 600,000 troops, resulting in more than 100,000 troops left in the Far East. Therefore, no matter how Xiang's army is, there must be no big losses; second, Chita must not be lost, because Harbin, Hulunbuir, Manzhouli, etc.

Although the territory was occupied by the Russian army before the war started, it was legally still the territory of the Qing court, so it was lost. However, Chita had long been the Russian Far East corps and a node on the Siberia Railway. Once Chita was occupied by the People's Army, it means that the Far East territories east of Chita were difficult to preserve from Chita. Then, Russia's efforts to expand eastward for nearly a hundred years since the 19th century will be wasted, so Chita must never lose any more.

At first, Linievich planned to bomb the railway line from Manzhouli to Hulunbuir, so that Manzhouli could become the front line of Chita's defense to expand Chita's defense depth. Therefore, he deployed heavy troops in Hulunbuir to block the attack of the People's Army and to buy time for himself to set up a bombing railway line. Originally, Linievich hoped that Hulunbuir's defense line could be held for 3-5 days, because it was Hulunbuir's first line of defense, and the Russian army spent a lot of energy to arrange it. Linievich believed that this line of defense should be able to be held for 3 days, at least 2 days.

That's how Hulunbuir's first line of defense only lasted for one day, but in fact, it was less than a day, only half a day, but the People's Army did not immediately launch an attack on the second line of defense. Therefore, Linevich also understood that the time left by the People's Army for the Russian army was not enough to allow the Russian army to calmly arrange the bombing of the railway. After all, it is useless to blow up a few short sections of the railway. At most, it can only be dragged along the People's Army for a few days. Large-scale damage to the railway line must be carried out.

In addition, there is about 170 kilometers from Hulunbuir to Manzhou Rio. Even if there is no railway, it is not too far for the People's Army; and from Manzhouli to Chita, it is about 500 kilometers. If there is no railway, it will cause considerable trouble for the People's Army's offensive. In addition, if you leave Manzhouli, you will enter Russia. The Russian army will have home advantage and will be easier to fight against the people early. Therefore, Linevic also made a quick decision and decided to give up Hulunbuir to Manzhouli, retreat directly to Chita, and then blow up the railway to manage Chita's defense with all his might.

The result was that the People's Army basically occupied Manzhouli without bloodshed. Moreover, because the Russian army retreated in a hurry, it only took away weapons and ammunition, and left a large amount of military supplies in Manzhouli, such as grain, feed, medicinal materials, cloth, wood, tents, etc., which of course became the trophy of the People's Army.

By this time, the Battle of Manzhouli was over, with 3,527 people killed and 5,134 injured; while the Russian army was killed and 11,784 injured, 7,428 injured, and another 2,376 captured. The People's Army also seized more than 3,000 war horses, more than 6,000 rifles, and more than 3,000 tons of various materials. It can be regarded as a great victory and basically achieved the goals set before the war.

However, although the Russian army was defeated, the losses were not large. They basically preserved the main force and weapons and ammunition, and only the cavalry suffered heavy casualties. Moreover, on the way back to Chita, Linevich ordered the destruction of the railway line along the way, basically taking one section of the railway line from Manzhouli to Chita. As a result, the Russian army carried out more than 10 damages on the railway line from Manzhouli to Chita, and the damage distance at each location was more than 5 kilometers, which basically completely paralyzed this railway line.

After escaping to Chita, Linevich received news that after occupying Manzhouli, the People's Army did not take advantage of the situation and sent people to repair the railway. Instead, they stationed on the spot. They also breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that his strategy had been successful and he had saved Chita. So Linevich wrote another detailed report and sent it back to St. Petersburg to inform the war situation on the front line, then arranged Chita's defense, and also waited for his own destiny.

In fact, if Linevic does not destroy the railway, the People's Army will not advance westward. After all, the purpose of the People's Army launching the Manzhouli Battle is just to defeat the Russian army before the Russian army has gathered enough troops, relieve the worries of the East China government, and to fight the expeditionary force composed of Britain and France. Now this goal has basically been achieved, so there is naturally no need to continue advancing westward. Moreover, the Russian army's act of destroying the railway has helped the People's Army a lot of help. In this way, it is almost impossible for the Russian army to make a comeback. The battlefield in the northwest has basically entered a stable period.

After the observation team received this news, Rudendolf's evaluation was: Russia had basically withdrawn from the Far East. Even if the British and French Expeditionary Forces arrived in the Far East to participate in the war, Russia would not be able to return to its pre-war state. Even if the East China government was defeated by the Expeditionary Forces, Japan could still enter Northeast China by relying on the opportunity of joint combat with the Expeditionary Forces to fill the vacuum left by Russia. After many defeats, Russia did not have enough strength to compete with Japan for the Northeast China. On the contrary, if the East China government was not defeated by the Expeditionary Forces, then the East China government would not only gain a foothold in Northeast China, but also continue to expand into Russia's Far East. Therefore, Russia has a high chance of completely losing the Far East.

The result of this inference is of course beneficial to Germany. If Russia wants to completely give up the Far East, its country will inevitably weaken; and if Russia does not want to give up the Far East, it will inevitably invest a lot of energy in the Far East. No matter which result is, it is good news for Germany.
Chapter completed!