Rokossovsky listened to the matter and counted it, it was not something he should have mixed in at his level, and Zhukov told him that it was a very interesting move, indicating that in the eyes of the other party he was "his own man" - more important than anything to him of Polish origin. Pen ~ fun ~ www.biquge.info but he hesitated and made it difficult to meet the requirements of the Stalingrad blockade, because none of the two tasks assigned to him by Zhukov could be easily completed:

First, let the 34th, 63rd, and 69th armies alternately cover the retreat, quickly retreat to Stalingrad, lure the Manstein group into pursuit and draw it to the vicinity of the outskirts of the city;

Second, to defend Stalingrad with relatively weak troops, and to take advantage of urban street battles and terrain to fight with the enemy -- we can no longer fight a 1:4 or 1:5 battle loss ratio, and we must give full play to the heroic spirit of fearlessness, and play a 1:1, or at least a 1:2 battle loss ratio.

"Comrade Rokossovsky, I am sure that you will be able to accomplish this difficult task, which has already been demonstrated in the defense of Moscow, and now the party and the state need you to show this ability again." Zhukov said sincerely.

"The first requirement is very difficult to fulfill." Rokossovsky said in embarrassment: "If I had made up my mind now to let the 24th and 69th armies stay where they were, and only let the 63rd Army retreat, the army would have been able to withdraw in its entirety, but if the three armies retreated together, I am afraid that no one would be able to escape in the end." ”

"I don't expect them to escape - this is the bait I threw at Manstein, to lure him to Stalingrad with 3 armies, and if you follow your way, you will lose at most 2 armies, but the enemy will not necessarily attack across the Don - they are very timid now."

"If I lose three armies, I will have less than 200,000 troops......" he exclaimed.

"I will draw one army group from the Southwestern Front and one army from the Stalingrad Front to replenish you, and the troops remaining in the city will also be under your command, so that it will soon be restored to 400,000 men."

"That's not enough, 400,000 troops are not enough, even if you hold the city, you can't destroy Manstein, and the Germans may approach 600,000."

"But the strength of the Germans can be consumed, and the enemy's first step is estimated to lose 4-50,000 troops when encircling and annihilating 3 army groups, and attacking Stalingrad, you will inflict at least about 150,000 casualties on the enemy."

"That Manstein has at least 400,000 left, and I don't have any troops, which won't change the whole situation."

"Don't worry about this, I have a huge reserve in reserve." Zhukov walked to the map and laid out the plan, "I have secretly mobilized the Steppe Front and the Transbaikal Front, and they will appear when the Battle of Stalingrad reaches its climax and both sides are exhausted. ”

Rokossovsky quickly understood Zhukov's intentions: the Germans used the Hult cluster to contain the Bryansk Front and the Southwestern Front, and the Kleist cluster to contain the Stalingrad Front and the Caucasian Front.

"The transfer of a total of 6-7 group armies with strong combat effectiveness from the 4 front armies will not cause fundamental damage to their strength, but on the contrary will make the suppression of the two flanks appear more realistic. I will give you 2 of these armies first, so that the Don Front can recover its strength as soon as possible and enter the defense of Stalingrad, and you will hold out in this city until at least the end of May. ”

Zhukov's strategy was clear: he planned to pin down Manstein's flanks with four fronts, lure Manstein with the Don Front and the city of Stalingrad, and let Rokossovsky bear the first wave, and two months later he would encircle Manstein with the nascent steppe front and the Transbaikal Front, and launch a full-scale counteroffensive with the Don Front.

In terms of troops, on the left flank, he used about 700,000 troops to contain Hort, on the right flank he used 70-750,000 troops to contain Kleist, and in the middle he first gave Manstein 200,000 in exchange for 50,000 German casualties, and then let Rokossovsky pay 300,000 in the defense of the city, and fight out Manstein 15-200,000, so that the German army in the middle lane was only 400,000 (the German army was considered to replenish 50,000 in the course of the campaign). Then at this time, Zhukov again invested 450,000 in the Steppe Front and 350,000 in the Transbaikal Front, and then replenished the campaign reserves of the four army groups to the Don Front, so that Rokossovsky's strength was restored to about 400,000 again, and he planned to crush Manstein's 400,000 with 1.2 million, and strive to fight out the Germans with 600,000 losses of 25-300,000.

"After this happens, the time will enter the summer, and Manstein's central army will have only 15-200,000 troops left, and will have to retreat. Once the Germans retreated, we would have a superior force of about 600,000 in the center, and we would be able to win whether we pressed on the left flank or the right flank. ”

Rokossovsky secretly calculated in his heart that if this plan was carried out, he would have to undertake the heaviest and most arduous tasks: first, to lure Manstein into the bait with the bait of three army groups; Second, it is necessary to use 400,000 weak troops to hold Stalingrad and wear down the spirit of the German army, so as to buy time for the mobilization and deployment of the Steppe Front and the Transbaikal Front; Third, in the later stages of the campaign, it was necessary to launch a counteroffensive in coordination with the two new front armies that had joined the battlefield. If any of the three links go wrong, the goal of the overall campaign will not be achieved.

Rokossovsky agreed with the intent of the overall plan, and he clearly knew the core of the tactics: to use the urban defense system to drag down and consume the German army, and to fight the Red Army in the field is not an opponent at present, but street fighting and close combat are not necessarily. However, he thought there was another key factor that he didn't take into account, and he said, "What if, I mean if...... What if Manstein doesn't come to attack Stalingrad after eating my 3 armies? ”

"That's where I feel the most uncertain." Zhukov was also frank, "Think about it, if you were on Manstein's side, what kind of temptations and stimuli would be needed to make you want to take the city. ”

"It's hard unless it's ......"

"Unless what?"

"We'll give him half or even half of the city first, so that he thinks he can take it without paying a big price." Rokossovsky smiled bitterly, "In this case, you can't supply those 2 armies to me first, you can only let me use 200,000 or even less troops to hold them first." ”

"This ......," Zhukov hesitated, "it doesn't matter if you let them out, as long as I can destroy the Germans, I can give him the whole city, but 200,000 troops have to face 600,000 troops, can you hold on?" ”

"I can't hold on." Rokossovsky replied helplessly, "So you can't let the Germans seal the encirclement, you have to send us reinforcements - whenever I can't hold on, you send me reinforcements from an army group, so that the Germans mistakenly think that they can kill us with a little more force." ”

"I'll do my best to help, but who are you going to have with you in this difficult task? This must be someone you can trust in a high degree, and your honor and life, the success or failure of the entire campaign, rests with this invisible front commander. ”

Rokossovsky did not speak.

At first, Zhukov thought that the other party was thinking deeply, and asked again, but he did not hear a follow-up answer for a long time, and when he looked away from the map, he found that Rokossovsky only stared at himself and did not leave for a long time - the meaning was obvious, the only person the other party trusted and could entrust was himself. Zhukov couldn't help laughing: "Since you believe in me so much, I happily accept this invitation." ”

"But what about the overall coordination of the battle situation?"

"Comrade Vasilevsky is invited to preside over the overall situation." However, when he said this, Zhukov's brows couldn't help jumping: the whole battle concept had not yet been agreed with Vasilevsky, who had a different opinion, it was still unknown whether Stalin could pass here, and there were still many places to communicate, but the retreat of the first bait - the three armies could no longer be delayed.

He gritted his teeth and made up his mind: "You go and arrange the retreat of the 3 army groups first, don't worry about the direction of Moscow, I will communicate well." ”

"Can you give me another 200 tanks?"

"I can only add you another 100."

When they shook hands and said goodbye, their expressions were solemn - their futures and prospects were now completely linked.

As soon as Rokossovsky's order was given, the three armies immediately retreated as fast as possible in the direction of the Don River, and Manstein keenly caught this change and reported to Hoffmann: "Look at this posture, the Russians really want us to fight Stalingrad. ”

Hoffman nodded: "That's right, they've been expecting us to fight this city, and they were disappointed that we didn't fight there last year - because they knew that we couldn't fight there, not only could we not fight there, but we would also suffer heavy losses." ”

Manstein looked at Hoffmann and said solemnly: "Führer, this joke is not funny at all. ”

"I'm not kidding. Seriously, we can't beat the megacities of the Russians, Moscow, Leningrad, Stalingrad. ”

"This ......" Manstein was speechless because the Führer had listed all the facts, and finally had to say, "At least we took Kiev and Minsk ......"

"But it's not Russians, they're Ukrainians, they're Belarusians...... True, pure Russian megacities, it seems, have not taken a single one. ”

"Well......" Manstein sighed, "what about these three armies?" ”

"Since the Russians have given us food, of course we can't be polite - it's much easier to fight a retreating enemy than to crouch in a fortification." Hoffman waved his hand and said lightly, "Aim to solve them in a week." (To be continued.) )