"Rommel's troops are all ace troops of the German army, with strong combat effectiveness, and the will to fight is very high, and it is not a good choice to fight hard, even if it is barely surrounded on all sides, it may be forcibly rushed out by the opponent, which is why last time we used 300,000 troops to encircle and intercept it still did not work. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 But the supply lines are its Achilles' heel, and if I block the supply channels with heavy forces and do not engage him, the enemy will either come and attack the huge group of 500,000 troops, or suffocate to death. ”

"Will Hitler abandon this army group? If we send 1 million troops to the Central Asian front, our defenses in the hinterland will be even more empty - if you are not going to use the main forces of the four fronts on the southern front. "The enemy is completely able to use these 100,000 people as bait and push them all the way to the Ural industrial zone." ”

"Isn't this the result that Comrade Vasilevsky wants to see?"

Vasilevsky said angrily: "I don't plan to use the two fronts in the middle of this way, and now that you are doing this, I have nothing to rely on." ”

"So I have to bet, I'm betting now that Hitler couldn't give up this army of 100,000 men." Zhukov's eyes were bright, and his tone was very firm, "First, Rommel is Hitler's favorite general, not only as his guard battalion commander, but also as a war hero packaged by the fascist official organization, and it is impossible for Hitler to give up on him for private or public purposes; Second, Rommel's army group, although small in size, was a very well-known unit, including the Großdeutsches Division, the 15th Panzer Division, the Prinz Eugen Mountain Infantry Division, and the 1st Mountain Infantry Division, as well as the 1st German Parachute Division and the Italian Paratrooper Brigade. ”

Zhukov has a very detailed grasp of the situation, the 5th Panzer Army under the command of Rommel is all top Category A troops, and even completed the 1943 type formation, originally the army group also had a Viking division in the sequence, and later because of the formation of the 1st SS Panzer Army, the Viking Division was selected together with the Guard Flag Corps and the Imperial Division, so the 1st Mountain Infantry Division (Edelweiss Division) was assigned to Rommel, who was quite satisfied with this, because in terms of the terrain of Central Asia, the heavily armed Viking Division was not as suitable as the standard mountain infantry division, What's more, due to supply constraints, the 5th Army could no longer afford to supply the third Type 1943 Panzer Division, and both Panzer Divisions were struggling to toss - if it weren't for the great help of the transport aircraft formation.

"If even a field marshal like Rommel and his ace troops who symbolize the glory of Germany can choose to give up, then I have nothing to say, Hitler is indeed a generation of heroes, worthy of the status of European hegemon, the Soviet Union and Germany should hurry up and negotiate peace." Zhukov explained, "It was a gamble, but I believe the Germans would take the bait." ”

"Assuming that this trapped beast is really surrounded, what are you going to do next?"

"For the troops that must be rescued, the enemy has only two choices: either to send troops from the middle battlefield to the south to rescue, or to send troops from Army Group South to the east to rescue, either option is very beneficial to us, and our army can take advantage of the situation to launch a counterattack."

"Reinforcements?" Stalin became excited, "Let the troops of the four fronts of the Southern Front attack reinforcements together with the Central Asian troops?" ”

"No!" Zhukov suddenly said, "This is not my goal, and it is impossible to succeed just to surround the point and send reinforcements." ”

"Then where are you going to fight" Stalin was confused and asked curiously.

Vasilevsky vaguely understood, and immediately shouted: "I am resolutely against this plan, the siege of Rommel's headquarters is already a major gamble, and I do not want you to gamble again, putting the future of the country and the Red Army on the ......"

"Now we can only give it a go, and any delay is a chronic suicide. Victorious, let's sit down and talk to the Germans about the conditions; Defeated, we unconditionally accepted the German conditions and simply took the Ural Mountains as the demarcation line......"

"Nope! I still insisted on my original proposition, stretching the German salient and attacking from below the salient. ”

"It's opportunistic." Zhukov unceremoniously retorted, "What if the enemy doesn't take the bait?" What if the enemy only advances to the existing front this year, and then waits for next year to repair the bridge and railway, solve the supply problem, and then push over step by step? Do you go back another 1000 km? ”

Vasilevsky was unconvinced: "Next year the international situation may undergo major changes, and the domestic situation will tend to improve, at least there will be no food crisis and other problems." ”

"What if it continues to get worse?"

"I say, what the hell are you arguing about?" Seeing that the two had already fought over each other, Stalin, who felt a little inexplicable about the argument, was still confused, he looked at Zhukov and then at Vasilevsky, not knowing what they were arguing about, and finally had to look at Kuznetsov, "Can you tell me about the strategies of the two men and who makes more sense?"

"Comrade Zhukov's opinion is a series of troop transfers: first trap Rommel's headquarters with heavy troops, lure the Germans to send troops to rescue and mobilize the opponent's forces and battle lines, and use part of the forces to delay time after the onset of winter, intending to use the battlefield space to carry out a reverse offensive -- from the heavy army groups of Stalingrad and Moscow to the north and south, and pounce on the Voronezh line; Comrade Vasilevsky's opinion was to continue to retreat, lure the enemy to reveal his flaws, and then launch a positive pincer offensive from the two bottoms of the salient, preparing to solve the incoming German troops in one fell swoop, and striving to push the front back to the end of the summer...... "Kuznetsov, with his whip, sketched a different overall strategic concept for Stalin on the map.

Zhukov's offensive plan involved the mobilization of a total of 4 million troops: of which, 1 million troops transferred from the central battlefield were responsible for holding Rommel back; 500,000 troops and the first batch of troops were used to contain the reinforcements sent by the German Army Group South and Army Group Center; The main forces of the offensive were 1 million troops of the three fronts in the direction of Stalingrad on the southern front and 750,000 troops of the two fronts in the direction of Moscow on the northern front, and there were also 750,000 troops responsible for the connection and communication between the battlefields.

Its core idea was to direct the German army's center of gravity from the middle to Central Asia and the Caspian Sea area, and then use the German army to launch a general offensive in the opposite direction because the German army had no time to return to help. Because although the Red Army still has more than 8 million troops on its books, the real number of troops that can fight is about 6 million, of which about 1 million are distributed in the Far East and Siberia and cannot be moved, and there are still about 100 to hold on to important places, and dispatching 4 million is basically equivalent to all the troops being desperate to fight. If the overall pattern is won by winning, the overall situation will fundamentally improve, not to mention gaining the upper hand, at least maintaining a relatively decent tie posture.

Vasilevsky's offensive plan was actually a defensive counterattack plan, which required a total of about 2 million troops: among them, 1 million troops transferred from the central battlefield were responsible for luring the Germans to stretch the front to continue the offensive, prompting the Germans to stretch the supply line to more than 1,000 kilometers, and then transfer about 500,000 troops from the north and south to carry out a surprise attack, cut off the supply channels of the German army in the salient, and force the German army to retreat. During the retreat of the German army, the 1 million troops who had been continuously retreating were responsible for counterattacking, striving to eat up the 1-2 armies after the German army was broken, restore the overall front to the end of summer, and thwart the German offensive attempt.

Its core idea was to direct the main forces of the German Army Group Center and Army Group East to the direction of the Urals, and the Red Army used the characteristics of fighting on the inside line, being familiar with the situation and relatively less dependent on logistics to engage the German army, hoping that the German army would show flaws in the process of retreating, because both the scope of the battlefield and the use of troops were smaller than Zhukov's plan, so it was also called a forward plan or a small solution. Winning the war would bring about an improvement similar to the Moscow counterattack, but it would not shake the German superiority, but it would cost the opponent more and more, and the war would inevitably be protracted.

Due to the relative weakness of the Red Army's combat effectiveness and low industrial capacity, both plans were inevitably flawed:

The defect of the big solution is that the tactical command requirements are too high, not only the first step is to trap Rommel, but the second step is to use Rommel as a bait to mobilize the German army, if the German army does not eat this bait or quickly complete the rescue mission, the plan will inevitably fail;

The defect of the small solution is that the enemy's strategic assumptions are too hasty, and the starting point is that Germany hopes to find and eat the main force of the Red Army in the middle of the battlefield as soon as possible and then force the Soviets to sign the alliance under the city.

After listening to Kuznetsov's analysis, Stalin's face was cloudy, and the two plans actually reflected the different value orientations of the two: Zhukov repeatedly emphasized rapid peace and preservation of vitality, so he hoped that the victory or defeat would be decided in a war; Vasilevsky has always advocated procrastination and waiting for change, and exchanging space for time, so he has tried his best to prolong the course of the war. Like a man who is seriously ill, Zhukov advocates major surgery - either to clean up the stubborn disease and get a new life, or simply to prepare for the aftermath; Vasilevsky advocated conservative treatment, wanting to wait to see if there was a change in the condition or a new special drug (the international situation has changed drastically)

These are two completely different ideas, and Stalin himself made a difficult choice in the end: whether to take a stud while he still had some capital or gradually stop the loss, and exchange small losses for the chance to continue to survive.

"I will give you four hours to form a complete plan, and this evening I will convene an emergency meeting to be reviewed and discussed by the comrades of the Politburo and the Supreme High Command." Stalin did not know which decision to make, so he planned to submit the relevant plan to other high-level discussions, and in case any problems arose in the future, he himself would have a decent way out.

Zhukov and Vasilevsky looked at each other, and then agreed in agreement. (To be continued.) )