Chapter 786

For the first time, the tiger king tank appeared on a large scale on the front battlefield, which became the enemy's nightmare. This kind of steel monster with low shape, strong power, amazing protection and superior firepower, easily tore up the Soviet defense line, and even more than a dozen Soviet tanks that came to support, were simply destroyed.

The appearance of these tiger king tanks made the German army once again surpass the Soviet Union in terms of the quality of its armored forces. Even the Stalin tanks that the Soviet Union barely produced with the effort of nine oxen and two tigers were proved unable to cope. The Soviet line was broken through again, and the German group a army was closer to Minsk.

When Zhukov received that the new German tanks appeared on the battlefield, broke through the line of defense arranged by konev, commander of the first front army of the close guard, and pushed forward 20 kilometers at one go, he just waved his hand and asked the reporter not to say any more. Now he has enough troubles, and one more can't make him despair any more.

The news just came that hundreds of thousands of the Red Army of the Soviet Union in the direction of Donetsk gave up their resistance, lost their weapons and surrendered to the German army. For the Soviet Union, this intelligence was a disaster. The vulnerable Caucasus region was so exposed to the German army. There were important oil fields for the Soviet Union, producing oil and various chemical products needed by the Soviet Union's counterattack.

Once the Caucasus is lost, the Soviet Union, even if it can remain invincible on other fronts, will be dragged down by Germany one day and fall into the abyss of eternal doom. For the Soviet army or the Soviet Union as a whole, the importance of Caucasus is no less than that of Moscow.

Zhukov turned his back and went to the front of the map, carefully staring at the front of his defense line. The actual control line between the two sides, which is closer and closer to Minsk, sighed helplessly. At this time, general rokosovsky, commander of the second front army of the Soviet guards, walked into Zhukov's office.

He is here to report his work. Now his second front guards are in urgent need of recuperation and have lost the need to stay in the front line. The battle on the front line has little influence on him. After all, he has little to do with the appearance of the war.

"Ah, comrade rokosovsky, here you are. Sit down. I don't have vodka here. I can only give you some water. It's a pity. " Zhukov pointed to the seat not far away, motioned rokosovsky to sit down, and then continued to speak slowly: "do you know why I found you?"

"Comrade Zhukov, I've heard that our army has been defeated on a large scale in the southern region. At this time, you came to me in the hope that I would rush to the South and help the army there stabilize their positions?" Rokosovsky thought for a moment and replied, "anyway, my front army also needs to rest. It's time to retreat to the Caucasus, right?"

"If we can't hold on there, we won't have to fight any more, so I sent you there. I hope you can hold on there until we defeat the German attack from the front." Zhukov sighed and said, "I can't give you much, but you are closer to Chelyabinsk there. I will give you as much priority as possible to supply heavy weapons such as tanks."

As everyone knows, going to the Caucasus is not an easy job. Most of the soldiers there are new recruits with no combat experience. It is absolutely a very difficult task to use these soldiers to stop the advance of the German army.

"The second front army of Jinwei also let me take it? In addition to the troops mobilized from other directions, I can still defend the Caucasus if I don't have to fight back. But... No matter how to insist, there must be a time limit. If I can survive this time limit, I'm sorry I can't help it. " Rokosovsky said confidently.

Zhukov shook his head, looked at the huge map of the Soviet Union hanging on the wall, and said with some sadness: "this war is now a consumption of losing both sides. In fact, there is no possibility for us to win any more. No matter what we do, it is estimated that the losses of the Soviet Union will not recover in 50 years."

His eyes swept Minsk, Kiev and Kharkov. Finally, it stopped at rokosovsky: "we can't end the war because we have to take back all the lost territory before we dare to ask for peace talks. Otherwise, we, including Comrade Stalin, will be the nation's sinners. But now I don't see any hope of getting our land back. I don't see any hope at all. I sent you to the Caucasus because I can't say for myself that after a long time, we will be able to fight back, maybe one year, maybe two years, maybe... Three years or even more. "

He stretched out his hand, stroked the important cities on the map, looked at the control lines representing the forces of both sides, and finally pressed his hand on Minsk: "in order to draw out more troops to give you more support, I even wrote a battle report on abandoning Minsk and sent it to Moscow... This may be the last time I give an order to retreat, Comrade Stalin must find someone to bear the consequences of defeat. I'm in a very suitable position. "

Giving up Minsk is a helpless move to shorten the defense line. The speed of German advance in the south is obviously too fast, which makes the whole North like a huge protruding part of the German semi encirclement. Once goodrian's troops begin to move north along Kursk, all the defenders in Belarus will be in danger of being surrounded and eaten.

In order to avoid this danger, Zhukov decided to give up some areas to consolidate his defense. The first place he wanted to give up was Minsk, the important western town of the Soviet Union. Naturally, it will not be Stalin's turn to shoulder the responsibility of losing the city and land. Then Zhukov, the commander-in-chief of the front line, will become a good choice to bear the blame. However, once the Soviet Union gives up Minsk, it means that it has liberated about 200000 troops. These troops can go south with the second front army of the guards, fill the gap in the Caucasus region, and continue to maintain the current stalemate war situation for the Soviet Union. In other words, the Soviet Union may have to give up not only Minsk, but also a series of areas such as Kharkov, Smolensk and Kursk, and even keep the oil fields in the Caucasus even if Moscow becomes the front line. Only in this way can the Soviet Union have the capital to continue to fight and entangle with Germany. The key now is that these are just a series of military speculations, and whether Stalin, who is far away from Moscow, will buy Zhukov or not. Whether he will accept the plan or not is the key to all the problems. Minsk is OK. Does Stalin have the courage to give up Moscow's gateway such as Smolensk and Kursk, so that the German army can really come to the door, exchange more mobile forces with the loss of strategic space, and delay more time, so as to launch a strategic counterattack in the future. If the plan is carried out smoothly, it depends on whether the German army has the courage to push forward for about 700 kilometers to enter the real compound of the Soviet Union, transport its own logistics materials on the muddy road, and fight to the death with the Soviet army under Moscow city. What Zhukov is waiting for is nothing more than an order from Stalin, and what he can do now is just to draw out the second front army of the guards and head to the Caucasus“ Report At this time, a soldier with a telegram stood at the door and knocked, then respectfully went to Zhukov's back, stood at attention and saluted, handed the document to Zhukov's hand: "Moscow calls, great leader comrade Stalin personally sent the telegram, please have a look."“ Read Zhukov didn't receive the telegram that decided his fate. He just looked at the map and ordered calmly“ Comrade Zhukov, as the marshal of the great Soviet Union, my personal trust in you is beyond doubt. I have announced your appointment to continue as the commander of the front line at the wartime personnel appointment meeting held in Moscow... You should not be responsible for the collapse of the front line. In fact, the main reason for this failure is the incident on the crim peninsula. The culprits of these countries have already paid for what they have done. On our own side, the main responsibility lies with Comrade timoshinger, who is not in good command in the southern front, not you. " When the soldier heard the order, he opened the message and read it solemnly. When Zhukov heard this, he closed his eyes. The result that he was most afraid of leaving the black pot to him did not appear. This time, the scapegoat was the first person in charge of the defeat of the south, marshal timoshinger, who was in charge of the fighting there. It seems that Stalin also saw that the situation in the Caucasus was very dangerous and supported the plan to abandon Minsk. Sure enough, Zhukov's guess was right. The soldier continued: "as for the plan to abandon Minsk, I personally support it. Of course, there will be setbacks and short-term failures in war. But we should firmly believe that the power of revolution is infinite, and we are bound to achieve the greatest victory! "“ It seems that we can compete with the Germans once more! " Zhukov found that unconsciously, the shirt he was wearing had been soaked with sweat. But now his worries have been swept away, and his mood has relaxed more than a little bit. Stalin not only let him still command the troops at the front line, but also replaced timoshinger, so that rokosovsky, who was sent by Zhukov, could take over. This is undoubtedly good news for all Soviet soldiers. Zhukov looked at rokosovsky and whispered, "give up, give us a chance to win."