As Beria said, Chen Dao's small life at this time can indeed be described as a spring breeze.

On the afternoon of 3 June, the spacious hall on the first floor of the building of the German High Command was crowded with people.

High-ranking German military officials gathered on both sides of the hall to watch the ceremony, and the photographers had already set up their cameras, and the cameras in the hands of the reporters were also aimed at Hitler and Marshal Reichenau standing in the center of the hall.

Infantry General Gedhart Heinrich, dressed in a ceremonial dress and wearing a full set of medals, including the Knight's Iron Cross, walked up to the two men with his head held high and raised his hands in salute.

After the ceremony, Hitler took off the epaulettes of Heinrich's infantry general and replaced him with a golden crossed scepter epaulette symbolizing the rank of marshal.

After replacing the epaulettes, Hitler took the marshal's scepter from the tray held by the adjutant next to him in both hands and solemnly handed it into the hands of Field Marshal Heinrich.

Field Marshal Heinrich raised the red marshal's scepter in his right hand as a token of gratitude.

Marshal Reichenau then took out the Knight's Iron Cross with oak leaves, which had been prepared, and tied it around Marshal Heinrich's neck, replacing the original Knight's Iron Cross.

For his exploits in the conquest of the Crimean peninsula, Infantry General Heinrich crossed the rank of general and was exceptionally promoted to field marshal, while receiving the knight's Iron Cross with oak leaves.

Also as a meritorious person, Chen Dao stepped forward for the second time and received the rank of SS general personally conferred by Heinrich Himmler, the national leader of the SS.

After changing to a new military rank, Chen Dao couldn't help but feel a lot of emotion in his heart.

Life, life, I now have the four military ranks of Luftwaffe general, admiral, army general and Waffen-SS general, only one step away from the highest ranks of the four major services, no, it should be four steps away.

I still have to make persistent efforts to become the Grand Slam winner of the highest rank of the four major branches of the German armed forces as soon as possible, and I always have to pursue something to be a man.

Hitler stepped forward, first gave Chen Dao a warm hug, and then smiled and presented him with a knight's Iron Cross with oak leaves and two swords.

Chen Dao was followed by Rear Admiral Ohm, who was promoted to Vice Admiral and at the same time received the Knight's Iron Cross.

After the promotion ceremony and the award ceremony, there is a special time set aside for reporters to cover the news.

It is believed that in less than 24 hours, the content of this ceremony will appear on the front pages of major German newspapers.

The portraits of Marshal Heinrich and Chen Dao and others will also appear on the covers of military magazines in a short time.

After the ceremony, Hitler warmly invited everyone to dinner.

At the dinner table, Field Marshal Heinrich was surprised to see four people who had not been seen at the ceremony.

At the head of the group was the bald-headed, sharp-eyed commander of Army Group North, Marshal Loeb.

The commander of Army Group Center, Marshal Bock, who was thin in appearance and tough in temperament like an unsheathed sword.

The hairline is seriously receding, and he looks like a dignified Xie Dingnan, commander of Army Group South Ukraine, Marshal William Liszt.

The last one is the personable, soft-eyed cousin, the commander of Army Group North Ukraine, Marshal Rundstedt.

Over the years, under the active persuasion of Chen Dao, a literary and artistic youth, the middle-aged Hitler of literature and art has made gratifying progress by first controlling the pre-dinner speech to less than five minutes, and then compressing it to no more than three minutes.

After Lao Xi's short and sonorous speech, everyone picked up their knives and forks and began to eat, and after eating for five minutes, Marshal Loeb, who was sitting opposite Chen Dao, suddenly raised his goblet.

"Heinz, since we conquered St. Petersburg, we haven't seen you for more than half a year, your former comrades-in-arms of Army Group North miss you very much, come, for the friendship of fighting side by side in the past, let's toast."

Chen Dao hurriedly put down his knife and fork, raised his wine glass and clinked glasses with Marshal Loeb.

After taking a sip of wine, the two put down their glasses, and Marshal Loeb continued: "Heinz, before I came here, General Reinhardt of the Fourth Panzer Army asked me to ask you for a favor. ”

"What's the busy?"

"He wants to know, when will the 504 Heavy Armored Brigade that owes him be transferred to him?" Marshal Loeb asked.

Hearing Marshal Loeb's question, Marshal Bock's eyes lit up, and he asked: "Heinz, General Hoult of the Third Panzer Army also wants to ask you for help, when will the 503rd Heavy Armoured Brigade under him be in place?" We've been waiting for this for a long time. ”

Originally, according to the establishment table of the German Panzer Army, each Panzer Army had a heavy armored brigade, but because the combat areas of the Third Panzer Army and the Fourth Panzer Army were relatively northern, and they were all areas densely covered with jungles, rivers, and swamps, and the terrain conditions were very harsh, which was not suitable for the 50-ton E-50 tank at all.

At the active instigation of Chen Dao and Guderian, the two heavy armored brigades 503 and 504 were detained and assigned to the main force attacking Moscow, Army Group North.

In the Northern Ukrainian Army Group, the 5th Panzer Army under Guderian's command was reinforced by the 504 Heavy Armored Brigade.

"I don't know when they'll be in place, after all, they're not my troops. But ······" Chen Dao glanced at Marshal Rundstedt, who was silently eating without saying a word.

"I have heard that those two units are assigned to Army Group North Ukraine, you can ask Marshal Rundstedt, he should be able to give you the answer."

Successfully diverting the "disaster to the east", Chen Dao picked up the knife and fork and continued to eat.

Seeing Marshal Loeb and Marshal Bock looking at him together, Marshal Rundstedt's face did not change and his heart did not beat, and he said very calmly: "In the next battle, my troops will fight the main attack. As for those two troops, they will be returned to you when the battle is over. ”

Knowing that the two troops had fallen into the hands of the oldest Marshal Rundstedt, Marshal Loeb and Marshal Bock knew that their troops would definitely not return.

is also a field marshal, Marshal Heinrich has relatively little qualifications, and it is inevitable that he will not have enough confidence when he encounters these veteran marshals, and seeing that his cousin Marshal Rundstedt has the upper hand, he wisely chooses to remain silent.

Seeing that there was a tendency for the dining table to be cold again, Chen Dao hurriedly raised his wine glass and said to Marshal Liszt and Marshal Heinrich: "In the future war, the three of us will cooperate with all our strength to try to kill two million Russians, so that all Russians will have nightmares when they mention our names." ”

Not only Marshal Liszt and Marshal Heinrich, but also Marshal Loeb, Bock and Marshal Rundstedt also looked at Chen Dao together.

Seeing Chen Dao's determined appearance and confident eyes, a common thought emerged in the hearts of the five marshals, His Excellency the brother-in-law must have some inside information.

It seems that "Operation Captain Hook" is about to begin, and there is a plan to kill 2 million Russians, and it seems that the scale of this operation is much larger than I imagined, Field Marshal Heinrich thought.

Originally, I thought that the South Ukrainian Army Group under his command could only play a supporting role in future battles, but now from the statement of "Your Excellency Brother-in-law", it seems that his own troops are about to play some kind of important role, Marshal Liszt thought.

With doubts and expectations, the five marshals had dinner and returned to their lodgings to rest.

At 8:30 a.m. the next morning, in Berlin's Thiel Garden District, the conference room of the German High Command Building.

When Hitler saw that the personnel had arrived, he coughed lightly and took the lead in speaking: "Today's meeting is the last discussion before the start of the summer offensive. If you have any questions about the summer battle plan, you can raise them on the spot, and we will solve them on the spot. Once the plan is finalized, it must be implemented steadfastly. Marshal Keitel, let's get started. ”

Field Marshal Keitel, Chief of the General Staff of the Supreme Command, stood up and said: "First of all, according to the report of the Foreign Military Division of the Eastern Front of the General Headquarters of the Army, on the opposite side of us, the Russians have nearly 400 divisions or brigades, totaling about five and a half million troops. And we have about 4.1 million combat troops on the Eastern Front.

In addition to this, we have troops from Romania, Hungary, Italy and Finland, which total about 900,000 people. However, please note that the five million troops we are fighting on the Eastern Front now include all the army, navy, and air force.

In terms of numbers, we are not as numerous as theirs, but our soldiers are far superior to them in terms of combat quality, and I believe you know this better than me.

The operational plan of the summer offensive was officially named "Typhoon Plan", and the purpose of "Typhoon Plan" was to capture Moscow and at the same time use Moscow as bait to induce the main Soviet forces to gather around the city of Moscow and annihilate them.

The Führer has made it clear that we are mentally prepared to annihilate 3 million Russians around the city of Moscow.

The specific operational plan was as follows: in the northwest direction of Moscow, the right flank of Army Group North and the left flank of Army Group Center acted together, first capturing Kalinin, and then the troops of Army Group Center outflanked Moscow from the north;

In the central direction, the main forces of Army Group Center set out from the east of Smolensk and attacked Moscow from the west;

In the south, the left flank of Army Group North Ukraine cooperated with the right flank of Army Group Center to march to Tula, an important town in the south of Moscow, and after occupying Tula, the main force of Army Group North Ukraine continued to advance, detoured back to the east of Moscow, joined forces with Army Group Center, and surrounded the main force of the Soviet army in Moscow and annihilated.

This is our previous battle plan, and I am sure you all already know it, but considering some political and military factors, we have decided to make minor adjustments to this plan, and I will ask the Führer himself to explain to us the parts of the plan that will be changed. ”

Seeing that everyone was looking at him, Hitler did not say a word, first picked up his reading glasses from the conference table in front of him and put them on, then stood up and walked to the giant Soviet-German battlefield situation map on the wall, and said in his trademark hoarse voice:

"First of all, we have to think about the question, we plan to occupy Moscow, which is something we all know. You say, the Russians······ Did Stalin know that we were planning to occupy Moscow? ”

Goering preemptively said: "The Russian, though he has not always been very smart, is not very stupid, and of course he can guess that we are going to attack Moscow." ”

Hitler nodded, his gaze swept over everyone's faces, and continued: "Marshal Goering is right, Stalin will definitely be able to guess that we are going to attack Moscow." So, the question is, what will he do? ”

Field Marshal Reichenau, Commander-in-Chief of the Army, said: "He will certainly gather the main forces around Moscow, and we will take advantage of this psychology of his and prepare for a huge war of annihilation around Moscow." ”

Hitler said: "Strategically our plan is so, but can we do it wiser, more skillfully? After careful consideration, I have decided to temporarily add a Blue Plan before the Typhoon Plan is launched

to disrupt Stalin's deployment, to allow our summer offensive to be more destructive, and to increase Turkey's confidence in us, and if possible, to use the campaign to bring Turkey into the Axis and then settle the Eastern Front in one fell swoop. If our goal can be achieved, the war can end this year. ”

Göring asked: "What are the details of the Blue Plan?" ”

Seeing that Goering had asked a question in time, Hitler, who was in charge of playing the role of "teaser", picked up the whip, pointed to the combat map on the wall and continued: "First of all, we will reorganize the troops, the original North Ukrainian Army Group will be renamed Army Group B, the South Ukrainian Army Group will be renamed Army Group A, and at the same time, a new Army Group C will be added with Field Marshal Gedehardt Heinrich as the commander. Our "Blue Plan" will be carried out by Army Groups A and C, and the focus of the plan is to mobilize the enemy to the maximum extent with the minimum force, and at the same time use the strong combat power of our troops to annihilate the enemy's living forces, especially armored forces, to the greatest extent at the minimum cost. ”

Hitler's gaze swept over everyone's faces, and he said with great ambition: "In the Blue Plan, Army Group C under the command of Field Marshal Heinrich will be the main attack. Because you have just conquered the Crimean peninsula, the hatred in the hearts of the Russians is relatively high, plus General Rosen, and our propaganda, can definitely direct Stalin's eyes to the south and make them think that the goal of our summer offensive is the Caucasus direction.

In this way, they will transfer the troops that were originally entrenched in the vicinity of Moscow to the south, because of the distance, because of the reasons of transportation, and because of the changes that may arise on the battlefield, there will be a time lag in the arrival of these forces of the enemy in the south. We can take advantage of this time difference to eat these troops that are arriving in batches one bite at a time. Marshal Heinrich, Marshal Liszt, be prepared to kill 2 million Russians in the middle and lower reaches of the Don and south of the Don. ”

It turned out that this was the case, Marshal Heinrich and Marshal Liszt first looked at each other, and then took the initiative to ask: "How many troops can I use to accomplish this task?" ”

Hitler said: "This is the main part of the plan that I am going to talk about next, our plan is to bring together all the Italians and Romanians, and by the way, the 'Russian Liberation Army,' which we have conscripted, which is a force made up of Russians." These units are all for you, plus the Twelfth Army, and an elite armored force.

Your mission is to command this large army, consisting of a small number of German elites and a large number of miscellaneous troops, to go to the south to wreak havoc as much as possible, to put pressure on the Russians to attract their elite to the south, and then take advantage of the mistakes of the other side's hasty entry into battle to defeat each of them. Remember, the point is to annihilate the enemy's armored forces. This is a very test of your command skills, Marshal Heinrich, are you confident that you will complete this task? ”

Field Marshal Liszt, Field Marshal Rundstedt, Field Marshal Bork and Field Marshal Loeb looked sympathetically at Field Marshal Heinrich, who could not have understood what Hitler meant, he wanted Field Marshal Heinrich to command a troop of fish belly to seduce the elite Russian troops to the south and then destroy them.

I knew that the conquest of a small Crimean peninsula would not be enough to make me a marshal, and it turned out that there was such a difficult task waiting for me later.

The marshal's scepter has already been obtained, and now on this occasion, it seems that there is no room for refusal.

"Führer, I······ I heard from you that General Rosen is also going to cooperate with me? ”

Marshal Heinrich was just about to nod his head in agreement, when his tongue turned and the topic shifted to Chen Dao.

"Yes, the difficulty of this task is to convince the Russians that the target of our summer offensive is the south, and to make them actively move the elite troops to the south, and with General Rosen's position in the hearts of the Russians, at least Stalin can transfer a Russian of the front army to the south. If General Rosen was able to stimulate his ingenuity on the battlefield and inflict unquenchable anger on the Russians, it was not impossible to attract two or three front armies to the south. ”

Chen Dao opened his mouth to explain: "What the Führer means is that I am a person who is more capable of pulling hatred. With me, I am not afraid that the main forces of the Russians will not come to the south. I'm in charge of attracting the Russians to the south, you're in charge of getting rid of them, and we'll work together. ”

Hitler said: "You don't have to worry, if the enemy's forces going south are too large for you to support, Field Marshal Liszt's troops will go south to support you." ”

"Okay, I see, Führer, I accept the task. The task of annihilating 2 million Russians, I am willing to take on the target of 1.2 million, and the other 800,000 is in the responsibility of Field Marshal Liszt, do you think it is okay? ”

"Very well, I am glad that Field Marshal Heinrich was able to have such courage. Marshal Liszt, do you have anything to ask about this plan? ”

"I have no objection, how long do we have to prepare?" Marshal Liszt said.

"Because the Twelfth Army has just participated in the mission to conquer the Crimean Peninsula and needs to rest, the first stage of the Blue Plan battle plan still needs to be completed by your troops, and try to give Army Group C time to rest and replenish. Ten days later, on June 15, the "Blue Plan" began. ”