Chapter 532 Castle (9)

Ps: When I saw some readers complaining, let me tell you a joke: I have watched "Tiger Tiger" many times. When I was a child, I only liked to watch the air raid that started after an hour and a half. After all the troublesome background introduction and decision-making process, I always thought Bored, complaining every time "Why don't you fight?" I'll watch it after I'm in high school. I only watched the first hour and a half, thinking that the rest is boring...

Although Zhukov did not tell Vasilevsky about his idea of ​​a strategic decisive battle, he could feel that the other party had the same understanding and attitude as him: the war could not continue like this, it would be the ultimate destruction of the entire Russia, and he could not wait to look forward to it. If you win a decisive battle, this war will achieve the long-awaited turning point; if you lose, it will be over completely, and the final outcome will be whatever it is, saving you unnecessary struggle.

He vaguely felt that for the people, it would not be a particularly difficult fact to accept if they were defeated and surrendered in the end. Although the peace plan proposed by the Germans was harsh, it was not unbearable. It was nothing more than asking the Bolsheviks to surrender. out of the territory and handed over central control to the Russian Liberation Army. No matter how bad the Russian Liberation Army is, they are still Russians. He even believes that the status of the Party and Comrade Stalin can continue to be maintained...

While he was thinking wildly, Stalin unexpectedly called his name: "Comrade Constantine, what do you think of this matter?"

"I... tend to agree with Comrade Vasilevsky's plan to lure the enemy deeper. We..." Zhukov, who was completely unprepared, quickly stood up to answer. Unexpectedly, in the middle of speaking, he was interrupted by Kuznetsov next to him. The husband stepped on her hard and signaled him not to talk nonsense.

Sure enough, Stalin's brows couldn't help but frowned, but he soon relaxed and said in a pleasant tone: "You may be too focused on the plan itself and did not hear the new situation we just discussed. Let me repeat it again: Comrade Molotov had just received news that the Americans had been completely defeated in Africa. Except for a small number of defeated soldiers who had fled by plane, the tens of thousands of troops they had left had declared their surrender. The Germans had won the African battlefield. The news was not only clearly announced on the radio, but also verified through secret channels. What do you think about this?”

Zhukov suddenly felt cold sweat break out on his back - Oh my god, he was distracted in the base camp meeting just now! Moreover, for the first time, Comrade Stalin did not get angry? No wonder Comrade Kuznetsov wants to step on himself!

"This is very troublesome..." He considered the words and said, "That means that except for South Africa, Britain and the United States have completely lost their foothold on the African continent. South Africa may not be able to keep it in the end, and the Americans may shrink back—— Their optimistic idea of ​​using military means to solve European problems has obviously come to naught. In view of the fact that there is no deep hatred between Americans and Germans, if a new US president is willing to let Americans live back on the American continent, what if "If Germany and the United States can agree on the America-Pacific and Europe-Africa spheres of influence, it will be easy for them to form a final understanding with the Germans, which is very dangerous and fatal for us."

Stalin raised his eyebrows and asked: "You mean you think Germany and the United States will make secret peace?"

As soon as these words came out, the atmosphere suddenly became tense.

Zhukov did not directly say yes or no, but only said: "Unless Hitler goes crazy, he will not attack the United States, and the Americans will not be able to attack the European continent in the short term. If two important countries have nothing to do with each other, a war will It will be difficult to continue, and there will generally be a stable state... This means that we are likely to be alone in the future! Of course, Britain and the United States are not helping us now, and they are doing the opposite - if they had not retreated so quickly in the Middle East, the Caucasus would have been destroyed. The flanks would not have been exposed."

"This is what I'm worried about." Molotov said worriedly. "Imperialist countries usually fight for colonies and spheres of influence, but once they reach some kind of spoils-sharing agreement, they will collude with each other to work together. To deal with us, I personally think that Germany and the United States can easily reach a compromise on the basis of jointly dividing the British colonies - the colonies in Africa and the Middle East will be given to Germany, and Australia and New Zealand in the Far East and Canada in North America will be controlled by the United States. If the Germans are smarter, they can say that they can If we recognize some of America’s commercial interests in the African colonies, I’m afraid the big American capitalists will applaud!”

"Will there be such a policy change in Germany?"

"I think it's very possible." Molotov added, "I don't know if you comrades have paid attention to the fact that the Germans are sparing no effort to promote the propaganda of the European Union, which is very deceptive. In addition to handing over some warships, the French Apart from giving , merchant ships and supplies to Germany, not much else was lost - Alsace and Lorraine were originally ceded to France by Germany after its defeat in the last war. Even the French working class admitted that Germany's attitude towards France was worse than France's at the time. The attitude towards Germany is much better! In addition, capitalists such as France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands are producing goods and supplying materials according to Germany's requirements. Germany uses part of its Mark national debt and precious metals to pay, which objectively stabilizes society and solves problems. The effect of unemployment was very deceptive to the people, although the Bolshevik Party there carried out propaganda and exposure, but the effect was not very good.”

There is one thing Molotov said vaguely. In fact, the reason why industrial giants and consortiums in Western European countries are willing to accept Mark treasury bonds as a means of payment is that, on the one hand, Germany has won consecutive battles on the battlefield, and Mark treasury bonds are very credible and have a strong trend. On the one hand, Germany proposed to transfer oil supplies and some shares in the Middle East, and said that it could pay with Mark treasury bonds, which was very attractive to capitalists. In recent times, oil exploration companies have drilled many new oil wells in the Middle East, and prospective supply The production volume exceeds 100 million tons per year. Everyone hopes to get a share of the large-scale development of oil fields and has no worries about the paying ability of the Germans.

What's more, Germany has also hinted that it will restart the construction of the 3B railway in the future (the German version of One Belt and One Road, if you are interested, you can Baidu), which will extend the Baghdad railway to Egypt and deep into the Arabian Peninsula. By then, the connection between Europe and the Middle East will be very close, and the food and grain in Eastern Europe will be very close. Minerals, oil from the Middle East, and industrial products from Western Europe can be shuttled back and forth by rail. Coupled with some developed North African territories, a common market encompassing 500-600 million people and covering an area of ​​15-20 million square kilometers can easily be formed. Thinking of such a broad market prospect, far-sighted capitalists trembled with excitement - whoever produces military products for Germany now will have the opportunity to gain a share in railway projects and even the entire common market in the future.

The atmosphere of the meeting suddenly became awkward. Only Vasilevsky vaguely felt that something was wrong: Zhukov ignored good military issues and insisted on gesticulating on political matters, and continued to spread "imperialist collusion conclusions", "The Soviets alone cannot support themselves." If he said this wrongly, it would be an outright wrong approach - he felt very worried for his old partner.

However, Comrade Stalin seemed unaware. After a moment, he stood up and said: "Comrade Constantine looks at problems from a very high level. He truly looks at military issues from an overall and strategic perspective. This upcoming attack, This is a crucial battle for German fascism to establish victory and dominate the world. If we lose, not only half-hearted countries like Britain and the United States will completely lose their fighting spirit, but the people all over the world who love peace, support justice, and resist fascist rule will be discouraged. The party and the Red Army have different missions - we are fighting for the tomorrow and future of all mankind. This requires the entire party and the entire army to unify their ideological understanding to this level, avoid all noise interference, and fight back with maximum strength. Completely defeat the fascist dream! This crucial battle can only be won, not lost.”

"So, I decided..." He glanced majestically at the venue, "We must deal a heavy blow to the enemy. No matter they attack Moscow or Stalingrad, we must resolutely repel them. Any abandonment, compromise, wavering All ideas are unacceptable! We must fully demonstrate the indomitable and fine style of the Soviet people and the Bolshevik Party, and let the people of the world know that when the United Kingdom and the United States and other countries failed, compromised, and gave in, only the Soviet Union played a mainstay role. Changing the war situation is useful and will also be of great benefit to the future world pattern.

As for the specific campaign layout and tactical direction, I hope that the General Staff can have a better response plan, fully consider various factors of change, and have diverse emergency plans. I agree in principle with the current troop dispatch and campaign deployment - if the enemy mainly attacks in the direction of Moscow, the Central Front Army will join the Moscow battlefield; if the enemy mainly attacks in the direction of Stalingrad, the Bryansk Front Army will reinforce the southern battlefield. The frontline commander may use any tactics he deems necessary to attack the enemy. "

The meeting ended quickly. Although Stalin did not issue guidance on specific campaign guidelines this time, both Zhukov and Vasilevsky understood his thoughts: neither Moscow nor Stalingrad was acceptable - the former undermined political stability. , the latter undermines military stability.

As for why they did not express their opinions on the specific command policy, they can also guess the reason: Comrade General Secretary directly intervened in the battle many times, but the effect was not good. Last time, he listened to Rokossovsky's statement and lost an extra group army. Shilov's opinion that he needed oil production equipment intervened in Grozny's retreat, which resulted in the loss of more than half of the army group. Earlier, he forced the troops to cross the river and attack before the Don River completely froze, resulting in the loss of two army groups in vain.

Although this kind of intervention did not reverse the situation of the war, if it were not for this kind of random command and interference, the Red Army would now have at least 4-5 more group armies, and almost one front army would be squeezed out. Stalin himself may have realized this, so he decided not to interfere with the frontline command this time and let them fight. He also had a particularly gentle attitude towards Zhukov and Vasilevsky.