Chapter 419 Caucasus (7)

Zhukov did not get angry at Rokossovsky's sudden request to withdraw. He only asked calmly: "Where do you want to withdraw? How many troops can you withdraw?"

"Cross the Don River and retreat to Stalingrad. At least one of the three armies can withdraw." Rokossovsky thought for a while, "If possible, I plan to withdraw the 63rd Army, which has a relatively stronger combat effectiveness. , it’s more valuable to keep it.”

Zhukov did not directly say whether it was good or not, but asked other topics: "Do you think the Germans will take the opportunity to cross the bend of the Don River and attack Stalingrad?"

If it had been in the past, Rokossovsky would have said yes without hesitation, but after experiencing the scene in September and October last year when the German army clearly had the advantage but suddenly retreated in large strides, he replied hesitantly: "This is not necessarily true, it depends. What did Hitler and Manstein think? You see, the Germans crossed the Don River half a year ago, but didn’t they retreat again?

"Will they go back this time?"

"It is possible, depending on how much pressure we put on the Germans. If we put enough pressure on Army Group South in all aspects, Manstein may not be able to go straight into Stalingrad alone, but if we cannot put enough pressure on the With this kind of pressure, the enemy may rush over. After all, they currently have the upper hand." Rokossovsky added, "It is not particularly difficult to contain the enemy from attacking Stalingrad. The key is to suppress the two wings. The enemy, if the Germans cannot defeat the Holt cluster on the left and the Kleist cluster on the right, and only the Manstein cluster in the center can cross the Don River, then it will actually become a lone advance and a larger enemy will be formed. We can mobilize our troops and deal with the enemy calmly, but look at it now. The Bryansk and Southwestern Front troops clearly have more troops than Huth, but they keep complaining about being violently attacked by the enemy. Yereomenko and Comrade Tyulenev's combined strength is greater than that of Kleist, and they say they can't get away - it means that I am the only one who can deal with Manstein. How can I have such great strength and ability?"

Rokossovsky talked a lot, and Zhukov understood the other party's complaints - he was implying that the other four fronts did not use their full strength to help him relieve the siege and allowed him to bear too many enemy troops. , the latter’s brows were frowned at first, but then slowly relaxed, and even occasionally nodded in agreement.

Rokossovsky breathed a sigh of relief: Comrade Zhukov just listened. He didn't want to shirk responsibility. He just felt that it was originally agreed that three front armies would jointly suppress Manstein, but now he was asked to bear the responsibility of the Germans alone. The pressure of the entire offensive is too great, and it would be unfair if I had to be held accountable and punished for this.

But Zhukov's next sentence made him dumbfounded: "You think, if I create a situation for the Germans with no worries on the wings and weak resistance in the middle, will Manstein really attack Stalingrad?"

"This..." Rokossovsky was dumbfounded: He was talking about retreat and interception, why did the topic suddenly jump to this? But looking at Zhukov's inquiring gaze, he had to express his position, and finally had to answer hesitantly: "This is not necessarily true. If it were me, I would think this is a good opportunity. After all, our defense strength in Stalingrad is not strong. Strong, but since the Germans retreated to the Don River last year with a huge advantage, their thinking has become very weird and elusive. I can’t keep up and can’t figure out their routines.”

"You are very honest. Not only can you not understand it, I can't understand it either." Zhukov sighed, "But now I understand a little bit - the Germans are not trying to occupy here or there, and they are not even interested in occupying Baku. ”

"This is impossible!" Rokossovsky blurted out the doubtful words, "Only a ghost believes this. The Germans want our oil in their dreams. Otherwise, why would they launch 'Operation Blue' last summer and target the Caucasus?" ? Without oil, the German planes and tanks are just a pile of scrap metal!"

"Really! If they want Baku, they shouldn't attack slowly as they did a few days ago. Instead, they should seize it as quickly as possible, even if they pay a little more for it."

"Didn't you say that before the Baku defenders surrendered, we blew them all up?"

"If the Germans are fast enough, they can actually stay a little bit."

Rokossovsky opened his mouth in surprise, and suddenly felt that his brain was running out: What was Comrade Zhukov thinking? Do you think the Germans are not playing fast enough? Could it be that he was a lurking German spy like Marshal Tukhachevsky? Wait, what am I thinking about? How could Comrade Zhukov be a spy! Moreover, as a lucky man who escaped death three times during the Great Purge era, Rokossovsky did not believe Tukhachevsky's guilt at all. He was thinking whether Comrade Zhukov had other ideas? ...could it be?

However, in just a few seconds, countless scenes flashed through his mind, and in the end, he did not say a smart word. He only took a deep breath and followed Zhukov's words and simply asked: "Why is this? "

"Because they have taken over the Middle East, there are large oil fields with large reserves and very shallow burials. The Germans are mobilizing the power of the entire European oil industry to prepare for development. All the oil companies and exploration teams with high rankings are in it. Including the Germans, Italians, French, Belgians, Dutch, etc., the oil wells there only need to be drilled a few hundred meters to produce a steady stream of oil, which is much better and even faster than the painstaking efforts to repair the Baku oil field. Much more, and it's safer. We are currently about 1,200 kilometers away from the Proshtina oil field in Romania, which would be difficult for bombers to destroy. We are more than 2,000 kilometers away from the oil fields in the Middle East, and it is almost impossible to pose a threat, and Baku is only that far away. Less than 300 kilometers away, I can send a plane to bomb it tomorrow!”

Rokossovsky has been leading troops on the front line and does not know much about the international situation, especially the international situation that has nothing to do with the Soviet Union. He is far inferior to Zhukov who is sitting in the center. He asked: "The Germans have found a large oil field in the Middle East. "

"Actually, it was not the Germans who found it, but the British. They discovered the blocks where several shallow oil fields were located. Just because there was not much demand for oil before the war, the capitalists were afraid of impacting the market price and did not exploit it. As a result, it is now all cheaper. The Germans. The Kuwaitis crawled at the feet of the Germans and willingly became a protectorate; Saudi Arabia was dismantled by Germany into the Kingdom of Najd and a bunch of emirates. Even Iraq was given a piece of territory, and now it is following the Germans... "Zhukov said, "The Germans are resuming production in several large oil fields in Iran and Iraq, increasing the scale of oil production, and at the same time building oil pipelines to transport millions or even tens of millions of crude oil back to the country. You know who is doing the hard work. ?”

"who?"

"Poles, Jews, and our comrades." Zhukov said sadly, "Iranians and Iraqis are accomplices of the Germans. They served as overseers and security forces. Oh, and now we have to add the Turks."

"Are there any of our comrades in there?"

"Prisoners of war - those who belong to the Russian ethnic group and refuse to join the puppet army."

Although Rokossovsky is a Pole, he did not show much indignation at the fact that the Poles were doing hard labor - this is perfectly justified, and it would certainly be the same if Russia occupied enemy territory. As for the prisoners of war, if they had not refused to How could he be a prisoner when he tried his best on the battlefield? This end is not worthy of sympathy at all! So he was only slightly shocked and asked: "When did this happen?"

"It started more than a month ago. We have sympathizers among the French working class, and an engineer predicts that crude oil production in the Middle East will continue to rise - the oil that the region can provide to Germany this year is about 10-15 million tons, and next year it will be about 10-15 million tons. It is 20-25 million tons, and it is expected to exceed 30 million tons in the third year, and may reach 40 million tons in the fourth year.”

"What about 4 years from now?"

"Four years from now?" Zhukov showed a bitter smile, "Do you think there will still be a war in four years?"

Rokossovsky was choked and speechless.

"Let's talk about Baku - the Germans will basically have enough oil in the future. The occupation of Baku is not to seize oil. The only purpose is to cut off our oil supply. Originally, we had more than 30 million tons of oil a year, and Germany only had More than 10 million tons, now the status is reversed. We have only more than 10 million tons, while Germany will reach or even exceed 30 million tons. As time goes by, the gap will become wider and wider. " Zhukov sighed. " Many of our comrades have not realized this and simply do not understand that a lack of fuel is more terrible than a lack of tanks."

"If you think about it this way, I judge that it is very likely that the Germans will rush to Stalingrad. It is not only the core hub of the Don-Volga basin, but also the gathering place of a series of defense industries, and the Volga-Ural oil field area ( "The gateway to Second Baku," Rokossovsky said with a sad face, "If the Germans capture Stalingrad and then rush into Second Baku, we will really be out of gas."

"This alone is not enough. The Germans are basically satisfied with maintaining the current front." Zhukov shook his head, "Intelligence agents just obtained relevant information not long ago. Do you want to hear it?"

"certainly."

"The Germans' war guiding ideology underwent major changes in 1943: basically stick to the existing defense lines and achieve a high exchange ratio! This order is not top secret. It has been issued to the group army and even the division level. Hitler clearly requested that there is no guarantee of playing 1: I would rather not fight a battle with an exchange ratio above 4.”

"What?" Rokossovsky was shocked after hearing this, "What does this mean? Doesn't tactics serve strategy? What kind of tactics is this? What about the enemy's strategic goals? Even if there is a staged goal."