After listening to Beria, Stalin breathed a long sigh of relief, and what he was most afraid of now was that Khrushchev, Zhukov, and Vasilevsky would unite to form a "** clique", so that with the members of the Politburo as political backers and the two military leaders Zhukov and Vasilevsky outside, the momentum would be too great. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 infoIt's easy to clean them, as long as he moves his mouth now, the Ministry of Internal Affairs can arrest everyone in less than half an hour, but what will happen after they are arrested? Wash it off like before? That's going to make a big mess.

There is nothing wrong with purging Khrushchev, a former first secretary of Ukraine, and his qualifications are not up to the "proletarian revolutionaries of the older generation", but Zhukov and Vasilevsky cannot move lightly, and he cannot find a general who can replace them. He clearly knew that Zhukov had a very high prestige among the commanders of this group of front troops, especially the thorns of the southern front -- Vatutin, Yeremenko, and Rokossovsky, and that no one else was convinced, so only Zhukov was served. What if they messed up after hearing about Zhukov's arrest? If the three armies of the Southern Front also defected to the enemy following the example of the Bryansk Front, the party and the country would really be finished.

Vasilevsky can't move lightly, there is still the old marshal Shaposhnikov standing behind him, what will Shaposhnikov, who has retired but has a large number of subordinates, think if he moves?

He smiled and asked: "Since Comrade Konstantin has such a clear idea, why don't you elaborate it in front of me?" I think that's a good point. ”

"This ......" Beria hesitated for a moment, and finally decided to tell the truth and beautify Zhukov a little more, "He said that because the Bryansk Front defected to the enemy, it is not appropriate to openly discuss this topic in the near future, and it is necessary to leave a little room for Comrade Stalin to think, not to force him, and the whole party and the whole army are still waiting for the general secretary to determine the final direction." He said that the General Staff will only look at problems from a military perspective, and the general secretary will stand tall and see far-sighted, be good at thinking about problems from the perspective of the overall situation and strategy, and be good at making decisions around the fundamental and long-term interests of the people......

"You added the second half of the sentence, right?"

Beria gritted his teeth: "Comrade Zhukov didn't say this, but the meaning was about the same, and there was no trace of him and others in tandem. ”

"Comrade Vasilevsky asked for a meeting, saying that there was an urgent military situation report."

"Ask him to come in." Stalin sighed.

"Early this morning, the enemy launched a fierce offensive on the line from Michurinsk in the north to Mikhaizhovka in the south, this time in the form of a flat push and fan-shaped attack, up to now, the German army has broken through the middle line of defense of our army for 30-40 kilometers, the General Staff believes that we are unable to defend on this continuous front, in order to avoid the loss of living forces, ask the general secretary to agree to the retreat of the troops."

This is also the reason why Stalin thought that Zhukov could not do without it: after the Battle of the Castle, Zhukov thought that the German army would have a gap after the Battle of the Castle for supply and dispatch, and Zhukov originally estimated a 300-kilometer offensive line and a rest period of about 2 weeks, but his judgment proved to be very accurate, and the German offensive stopped at 280 kilometers, and then took 18 days to rest.

The Red Army seized this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to desperately dispatch and replenish.

The only discrepancy was that the base camp thought that this attack was still a pincer offensive, but did not expect the Germans to play a flat push tactic on such a wide front.

"Where else can we retreat?" Stalin asked calmly.

"The central line of defense is 300 kilometers back."

"And then the enemy will rest for a few days and come again in August?" Stalin's tone was very annoyed, "August is over, there is September, September is over, there is October, and we will retreat all the way to Siberia?" ”

Vasilevsky said unhurriedly: "If the forces in the Leningrad direction are transferred back, a pincer offensive can be launched from both Moscow and Stalingrad, but only on the basis of continuing to lure the enemy to attack." ”

"If we retreat easily, will the Germans still be fooled?" Vasilevsky hesitated for a moment, and finally said calmly, "So we think that some sacrifices need to be made to show that we are retreating in a hurry, some of the troops' equipment and materials will be abandoned, and some people may have to live in enemy-occupied areas for the time being......"

"Enemy-occupied areas...... Stalin's mind turned quickly, and he immediately thought of the 2 million plan just now, and immediately said: "Comrade Beria made a proposal to me just now. ”

Beria secretly complained, this was obviously an idea that the general secretary himself came up with, but in a blink of an eye it became his own "suggestion", and he did not dare to deny it in front of Vasilevsky, so he had to re-elaborate his opinion one by one.

Vasilevsky was stunned for a moment and said hesitantly: "This is completely feasible militarily, will it affect the reputation of the party and the general secretary politically?" ”

"An emergency Politburo meeting will be held tonight to discuss this strategy, and if the majority of comrades agree, we can try it." Stalin walked to the map again, "No matter how you retreat, you must give the rear enough time to transfer, and not let the planned transfer really turn into a rout and a rout......

When Vasilevsky returned to the General Staff, another 2 hours had passed, and the situation reported to the side had deteriorated considerably: Barashov, who was deep in the first line of confrontation, fell into the hands of the Germans, and more than 6,000 people from the two divisions left behind surrendered; On the rest of the world, the Germans were relying on their armoured forces to carry out fierce attacks, and there was no continuous front to rely on, and there was no way to stop the German attacking forces that were used like a tide, and the Red Army was pushed out of the line like ducks, and occasionally a few troops found a small area to defend temporarily, and were soon surrounded by the German infantry that followed in, and one small encirclement after another quickly formed and then quickly dissolved.

He conveyed his opinion to Zhukov, who was stunned and asked after a long time: "Is this what Comrade Stalin meant?" ”

"It was Comrade Beria's suggestion, but I feel that it came from Comrade Stalin's suggestion."

"When will we be able to fight back?"

"At least another 300-500 km."

Kuznetsov was dumbfounded: "So even Kuibyshev will fall."

"If we don't want the Germans to fight Moscow or Stalingrad this summer, we can only take the middle to them. Of course, the necessary resistance still has to be fought once, and if you don't fight at all and just retreat, the troops will really be finished. Zhukov hesitated for a long time, and finally made up his mind: "Let's follow this order first, and save the living force as much as possible." (To be continued.) )