The Third Reich in Desperation

Pu'erkayev's words stopped here, and he couldn't and dared not say the rest.However, Kirponos was good enough to hear what he said.

"Do you still remember what happened to Marshal Tukhachevsky?" Finally, Pu'erkayev reminded in a deep voice.

The "Red Napoleon" Tukhachevsky, who fought against Stalin on the Warsaw front, ended up there for everyone to learn from.

The chief of staff's words caused Kirponos to think deeply.

Sometimes, the correct command is one thing, but more often, making the correct judgment does not mean that you will be rewarded and understood by the leader.In the eyes of a leader, generals who obey his orders are "much more loyal" than smart generals who rebel.

After a long silence, Kirponos finally withdrew his outstretched hand from the direction of the telephone: "Hey...Then let's wait for Comrade Zhukov to speak to the Supreme Commander."

Stalin will definitely investigate the defection of the seven Ukrainian divisions.The reason why he didn't pursue it immediately was that Kirponos needed to command the troops to fight for him on the front line.

If Kirponos disobeyed his orders and violated Stalin's will, then Stalin would have no need to keep him, and it's almost time to settle accounts after the fall.

"Yeah, let's wait here for news from Zhukov."

Chief of Staff Pu'erkayev played a trick here: "However, it is really impossible to continue blindly launching offensives. I think we can let some troops with weak combat effectiveness continue to maintain feint attacks. On the one hand, this can be done Show the idiot member of the Military Council who knows nothing but shouting slogans. On the other hand, it can also confuse the German army and conceal our intention to start preparing for the defense."

"Okay, let's do it this way." Hearing the chief of staff mention the military commissar who was like a military idiot, Kirponos felt another headache.He couldn't figure out why he always arranged for some such retarded military blinds to guide his regular professional soldiers.

Sometimes, Kirponos really envied those German colleagues on the opposite side.At least their heads of state never let laymen directly call experts to fight.

Just when the two generals were in a state of desperation, the correspondent suddenly rushed in: "Comrade Commander, Comrade Chief of Staff, urgent call from Moscow!"

......

Zhukov is also having a hard time at this time.

His most important general, General Kirponos, has called him many times, urging him to arrange for all fronts to carry out defensive operations.

And Kirponos' chief of staff, General Puerkayev, is also Zhukov's old comrade-in-arms.Similarly, he also emphasized to Zhukov the harshness of the frontline battle.

Regarding these, Zhukov himself did not know.

Although he was the first to put forward the idea of ​​a preemptive thunderstorm plan, too many accidents and unexpected factors made his plan come to nothing.

For example, the once invincible British Empire collapsed so quickly.

For another example, it was discovered after the Soviet army launched the offensive that the Germans had obviously prepared for the defense of the Eastern Front earlier before landing in the UK.

For example, the Germans were able to pull together so many allies, fight side by side with them, and willingly formed a coalition to fight against the Soviet army, offsetting a large part of the Soviet army's original strength advantage.

The most irritating thing is that that idiot Pavlov is still stumbling in the rear, setting himself up, making things difficult for the key troops mobilized by Zhukov several times, and withholding front-line supplies.

There were no less than ten times Pavlov's slander against Zhukov in front of people just because it was passed into Zhukov's ears.

In fact, without Kirponos' reminder, Zhukov had already planned to call Stalin again, asking the other party to abandon the previous order and let the troops rest and deploy immediately.

However, when he thought that there was still Pavlov, who was trusted by Stalin, in the rear, framing him.Zhukov was worried that if Pavlov knew the content of his dissuasion by calling Stalin, he would then sing the opposite and slander his well-intentioned suggestions.

Then, his phone call is likely to irritate Stalin and have a counterproductive effect.

After thinking about it, Zhukov finally picked up the phone and made a call.

However, he did not call Stalin directly.

"Hey, pick me up Marshal Timoshenko from the National Defense People's Committee. Yes, I have something important to discuss with him!" Zhukov decided to reach an agreement with Timoshenko first, and then jointly persuade him.In this case, the effect will probably be much better.

Text 715 Let Zhukov go

Timoshenko, a contemporary Soviet general who was specially awarded the title of "Hero of the Soviet Union" and the title of Marshal of the Soviet Union by the Soviet government.

It stands to reason that he was considered an important figure in the Soviet Union, and his words carried a lot of weight.However, even if it was his advice, Stalin did not listen to him.

Today's Supreme Command of the Soviet Army, headed by Stalin, has Molotov, Timoshenko, Voroshilov, Budyonny, Shaposhnikov, Zhukov and Kuznetsov among others. .The Supreme Command decided to divide the front into three theaters. Voroshilov was the commander of the Northwest Theater, Budyonny was the commander of the Southwest Theater, and Timoshenko was the commander of the Western Theater.

However, even his order to command the troops in the armored theater to retreat and build a defense line could only be successful after Stalin's approval and nod.

But the point is that it is impossible for Stalin to nod to such orders. All he thinks about is to continue to attack until Berlin is taken!

In the famous episode of the Soviet Army, there were three marshals, namely Budyonny, Voroshilov, and Timoshenko.During the Soviet Civil War, the three were the commander, political commissar and commander of the main division of the prestigious First Cavalry Army.At the beginning of the Soviet-German War, there were three giants of the Red Army.

Compared with the other two theater commanders, Timoshenko can be said to be the most adapted to contemporary warfare, and he is not out of date.

Timoshenko, who had experienced the Polish campaign, clearly understood the gap between the Soviet army and the German army.Facing the same standard of measurement—the Polish army, the German army advanced all the way and fought the largest encirclement and annihilation battle so far, while the Soviet army under his command, tried their best, but only managed to advance slowly.

In the end, if it weren't for the Germans taking Warsaw, Timoshenko's troops would have taken another week to achieve a breakthrough.

Today, Timoshenko has been appointed commander-in-chief of the Western Theater.But the big problem he faces is that it is very likely that the Western Front will be surrounded by the German army before he has time to take office!

This is definitely not an alarmist!

Germany's Northern Army Group and Southern Army Group have advanced to a very terrifying distance with the Allied forces of the Allied Powers.At this time, as long as the German Central Army Group cooperates with the other two major army groups, especially the Southern Army Group, it will be easy to eat the 50 Soviet troops of the Western Front Army in one go!

"I can't wait any longer!" So, when Timoshenko answered a phone call from Zhukov and heard that Zhukov said that he would join him in suggesting to Stalin to end the attack and quickly build a defense line, he agreed without hesitation.

"Come on, go to the Kremlin with me. I must persuade General Secretary Stalin to stop this senseless attack." Timoshenko grabbed his military jacket and said to his two confidant generals , while walking out the door.

But just before he was about to open the door of his office, one of the two confidant generals, a tall and thin lieutenant general, took two steps up and grabbed Timoshenko's hand.

"Comrade Commander, you absolutely must not speak to the General Secretary like that!" The general close to Timoshenko said with a sincere face: "This will suffer a lot!"

"Before I took office, my front army was about to be surrounded by the enemy! At this time, I can no longer remain silent!" Timoshenko, who was being held back, turned his head abruptly, and faced the dragger. His confidant roared.

"But you can't question Comrade Stalin's order!" Although the confidant was yelled at a few times, he still didn't let go of Timoshenko's hand.

As a member of Timoshenko, he knew very well that his fate had long been tied to Timoshenko.Once the opponent offends his superiors and is randomly charged with a crime, then as Timoshenko's close general, he cannot have good fruit.

In this case, standing on the wrong team is always fatal!

Therefore, what the confidant can do at this time is to try his best to keep Timoshenko from angering Stalin.

It doesn't matter if you lose the battle, the worst is to lose a piece of ground and retreat a little.But if you violated Stalin's order and showed your side of disobedience to Stalin's command, it would be a more serious crime than losing a battle.

"Then tell me, what can I do at this time!" Timoshenko's tone was still full of anger.But his hand was no longer trying to break free from the obstruction of his confidant as before.

Seeing that Timoshenge was relieved, his confidant general also knew that he had persuaded Timoshenge, so he breathed a sigh of relief.

"It doesn't matter. Didn't General Zhukov say that we will dissuade Comrade Stalin together? We can agree, but only wait for him to offend others." Another Timoshenko's confidant general didn't stay still when he saw this, and immediately told him A proposal was made.

After hearing this suggestion, the general who only wanted to hold Timoshenko nodded quickly and said: "That's right, Comrade Zhukov, as the chief of the general staff, can't just sit idly by. And I believe that Zhukov Comrade must be able to see the key to this, and put forward his views to Comrade Stalin responsibly.”

"That's right, I also believe that Comrade Zhukov will do the same." Another confidant added with a nod.

Under the advice of the two confidants in turn, Timoshenko struggled painfully.

Zhukov won't sit idly by, can Timoshenko pretend he doesn't know the urgency of the situation with peace of mind?