"There are usually two ways to deal with a turtle that has retracted its head, one is to disarm it and lure it out with something; The second is to roast it on the fire, so that it is so hot that it will naturally stick your head out......" Zhukov said, "I plan to let the two of you switch roles to the command sequence, Comrade Chuikov changed from a defensive cluster to an offensive cluster, and the same is true for Comrade Chernyakhovsky. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo”

After a little thought, the two understood Zhukov's intention: the Ferghana Basin was the turtle shell of the German army, and it was completely impossible to break through the defense line by relying on human lives, but it was certainly not a good way, and it was obviously too slow to mobilize infantry and troops from the mountains. But on the other hand, the German army hid in the basin and seemed to be hiding well, but in fact it also locked itself in it - when the Soviet army blocked the mouth, the German army would also face a similar problem when attacking, but the German army was a little stronger, and it was true that there was no need to sacrifice so much when grabbing the mouth.

"My strategy is divided into three parts: the first step, a strengthened army group led by Comrade Chuikov to hold the mouth of the Ferghana Basin, not to attack, but to contain the German offensive, and before I give the order to retreat, you must block the exit even to the last man; In the second step, the troops currently deployed west of the first line in Samarkand and Bukhara will continue to attack westward; on the one hand, we must pull out these Soviet mutiny and separatist forces that collude with the German army, and on the other hand, we must cut off the supply bases of the German army in Central Asia; In the third step, I am ready for a counterattack. "When it comes to uprooting the independent forces of Central Asia, Zhukov is clearly gritting his teeth.

Stalin has always been unkind to the various ethnic groups in Central Asia, believing that they are unreliable and cannot be trusted, and will suppress or even purge the whole clan at the first opportunity, and many high-level leaders, including Zhukov and others, originally thought that the attack was too heavy, but after returning to Central Asia with a large army, he witnessed the fate of the local political organs and party organization members at the beginning, and Zhukov's mentality obviously changed, believing that these separatist forces were worse than fascists! The last time Stalin used starving people to deal with the German army, he did not see the other side killing, but handed it over to the Russian People's Liberation Army and sent it to the rear to settle down, but the cruelty of the retaliatory methods after the Central Asian national forces gained power made people indignant. He even sent a special telegram to Stalin to make a review, saying that he had been soft-hearted and had seen far less than Comrade Stalin, had too low a consciousness, and had committed political infantile disease -- this was simply a class struggle to the death.

When determining the list of Central Asian anti-rebels, the Ministry of Internal Affairs considered that a ratio of 20-25% would be sufficient, and Zhukov thought that it was too low, at least 50% or more! -- According to this criterion, almost every adult male can be classified as a whole.

"Comrade Chernyakhovsky's task is to lead the troops to wash these separatist forces and uproot them to see if the Germans can be saved! Of course, you don't have to meddle in the matter of suppressing the rebellion, the Ministry of Internal Affairs will send someone to come. Zhukov explained, "I myself will take 3 army groups and wait on the line of Tash and Samarkand, and if the Germans rush out of the basin, I will surround them and eat them." ”

The other party nodded, this is a good way to force the Germans to move, but what if the Germans don't come out?

"It doesn't matter if the Germans don't come out, you take your troops and continue to attack until you reach the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea, where there are logistics and supply bases for the German army, and maybe 3-50,000 troops, kill them together. At special moments, they don't get reinforcements. ”

"A special moment? Can't get reinforcements? While recalling Zhukov's words, Chernyakhovsky pondered the map, the west bank of the Caspian Sea is the main army group of the confrontation between the German army and the three fronts of the Stalingrad line, how can it not be reinforced? Suddenly, his eyes lit up, and he couldn't help but cry out, "The Caspian Sea is frozen? ”

"Yes!"

From mid to late January, the Caspian Sea will enter an ice age of about 2 months. Moreover, due to the special hydrological conditions of the Caspian Sea, which resembles a lake, its glacial age is very strange and characteristic - not the entire Caspian Sea will be frozen, nor will it be frozen in the cooler places in the north, but will appear to be frozen vertically. Specifically, there is a freeze near the west coast, while there is almost no ice here on the east coast, and even if there is ice, it is very thin. This extremely special freezing state is related to the quality of the Caspian Sea, which has a high salt density and a low freezing point in the southeast, so the overall ice layer is distributed vertically rather than horizontally.

Of course, the overall Caspian Sea was not thick in the ice during the glacial period, and the passage of light infantry was barely possible in the coldest days, not to mention heavy equipment, and during that time it was snowing heavily and it was more difficult for aircraft to be dispatched, so Zhukov said this with confidence. As long as it froze, the German ships on the west bank were basically immobile, the ships could not move, and no amount of troops would help.

"Of course, my ultimate strategy is not to stare at the 30,000-50,000 small shrimp on the east coast, I am going to catch big fish." Zhukov's out-of-the-box thinking today made the two of them a little unable to keep up, but they thought it was an extremely bold strategy and still nodded subconsciously.

"After taking control of the east coast, we should have an easier time getting ships, and then I can also request the use of 1-2 airborne troops, and then we will fight here......" he pointed out the location of Baku on the map, "The comrades of the intelligence system told me that there are no German troops in Baku and near Azerbaijan, all Turkish troops. And because of the struggle for Baku and Azerbaijan, the Turks and the Germans and Iranians had a rather stalemate, although the relationship on the surface has not been broken, but I boldly speculate that the Turks will not choose to ask Iran or the German army for support in the first place, even if they do, the German or Iranian army will not be able to arrive soon, as long as we can go up to a group army, and then cooperate with the Caucasus pass, we will fight far away. ”

The other two suddenly became excited, and they quickly understood Zhukov's intentions: on the surface, he was taking the opportunity of clearing the supply base and part of the defenders of the eastern Caspian Sea of the German army to launch an offensive posture, but in fact this was just a false shot by him, and the real purpose was to deploy the troops forward, and then quickly take the nearest Baku by surprise and occupy the bridgehead in Transcaucasia in one fell swoop!

After the recapture of Baku, the situation will change significantly: in terms of defense, the Central Front can easily rely on the passes of the Caucasus Mountains for defense; As for the offensive, with the cooperation of the Yeremenko Front, which was deployed in the direction of Astrakhan from the north, the armies of the northern and southern fronts could flank the German forces in the Lesser Caucasus.

"Of course, it is impossible to expect to encircle or inflict heavy damage on the German army on the southern flank." Zhukov finally concluded, "At least we can turn the situation back, and it can also deal with the arrogance of the Turks, and more importantly, after Baku is re-controlled, we will have the capital to negotiate with the Germans, even if the Germans want to attack us from the north, I don't have to be afraid, it's a big deal that we continue to fight the Turks and Iranians in the south, and then retreat from the southern shore of the Caspian Sea to Central Asia." It's a fact that the Soviets can't beat the Germans, but it's not like even the Iranians and Turks can't beat them now, right? ”

"Can I suggest an amendment?" Chernyakhovsky spoke.

"Of course, you say."

"In addition to the 3-50,000 troops on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea, the German army also has some troops near the northern shore, can you ask Malinovsky's independent army group to cooperate?"

"That's a good suggestion." Malinovsky's Independent Army was originally a separate force set up to prevent Rommel's troops from breaking through the defense line on the northern shore of the Black Sea and threatening Astrakhan from the rear, but after Rommel made a false shot and led the main force all the way east, the independent army regained most of the northern shore of the Caspian Sea, but never went south to deal with the German army on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea - because it was afraid that the German Central Asian Army would counterattack and was flanked. But now the situation is reversed, the German Central Asian Army Group itself has locked itself in a solid cage, and the main force of the German army on the opposite bank will be unable to support it for a period of time and will be in a hurry, and the independent army group can completely go south to cooperate with the Central Asian Front to fight a dozen.

The three of them deliberated for a whole afternoon, and finally finalized the general process and attack plan, and then asked the staff officers to form a detailed battle plan.

"The day after tomorrow, I will return to Moscow with this report and report it to Comrade Stalin in person. You first deploy and mobilize according to the relevant points, and I think he will be interested in this plan. ”

On January 11, when Zhukov went to Moscow to report on the full package of the "Mercury Project", a wide-eyed confrontation had begun in the Ferghana Basin, and the Red Army had abandoned its aggressive, unstoppable offensive and began to hold on to the same trenches as the Germans. Chuikov's defensive deployment quickly took shape, he divided the forces at hand into three lines of defense, and formed a mobile defensive force with two guards tank brigades as the core, and did not hesitate to pile up tank destroyers such as SU-100 and SU-122 at key nodes.

"The enemy wants to trap us to death?" After receiving the information, Schellner felt strange, but suddenly put his mind at ease, "We have at least 4 months of supplies available, let's spend it, see who can consume whom!" ”

While the eyes were wide on both sides, Chernyakhovsky had already led his troops to launch a sweep in Central Asia in a fan-shaped manner, and the cavalrymen cut off the heads of the rolling men with their sabers, and the cries shook the sky everywhere. This abnormal situation was soon reflected to Schellner through various channels, and he began to have difficulties. Balk and Wink suggested taking the initiative to try a blitzkrieg, but it was clearly not going to work out well - the defensive terrain advantage that the Germans had been desperately looking for was now in turn called the positional advantage of the Red Army.

After 2 days of fighting, the Germans lost nearly 2,000 troops and more than 40 tanks, but only advanced less than 3 kilometers, although Chuikov's losses exceeded 15,000, but he gritted his teeth and blocked it with reserves.

"You can't fight like that." Schellner said to his opponent, "According to the current battle damage, it will be necessary to lose at least half of the troops to penetrate the enemy's defensive line, and if the enemy mobilizes the main force to counterattack, the Fergana basin will not be able to hold, report to Marshal Manstein, and ask him to deal with it as appropriate." ”