On the night of 4 June, Chen Dao and Marshal Heinrich were summoned separately by Hitler to discuss some details of the battle, and the next morning they set out to return to the front.

Chen Dao was a "habitual airsickness criminal", who took two sleeping pills and was carried on the plane by the adjutant, and slept back to the Crimean Peninsula in one sleep.

The effect of the sleeping pills passed, and Chen Dao woke up to find that it was almost noon, just at lunchtime.

After washing up, Chen Dao walked into the makeshift restaurant in the village of Salabas and had lunch with Marshal Heinrich.

Seeing the worried Marshal Heinrich, Chen Dao suddenly said: "Mr. Marshal, have you heard the story of Tian Ji horse racing? ”

"The story of the 'field chicken' horse race? I haven't heard of it. Field Marshal Heinrich shook his head.

Chen Dao took the initiative to ignore the details of Tian Ji becoming a "field chicken", and told Marshal Heinrich the story of Tian Ji's horse racing······

"In the end, under the guidance of Mr. Sun Bin, General Tian Ji won the prize money by winning two of the three rounds against the king's superior horse, the superior horse against the king's medium horse, and the middle horse against the king's inferior horse."

Field Marshal Heinrich said: "I understand what you mean, our troops play the role of inferior horses, and our task is to go and race against the superior horses of the Russians, to create opportunities for our superior and medium horses to win." ”

"I can't say that completely, after all, war is not a one-man fight, but a group fight. The Russians we are about to face are a mix of upper, middle, and lower horses, and so are our troops. Therefore, in future wars, how to properly assign the tasks of the upper, middle, and lower third-class horses in our troops is a matter that tests our wisdom very much. ”

"It's just that no matter how wise you are, you also need to rely on the hard power of the troops to support it." Marshal Heinrich said.

"The purpose of my coming here is to inspect the troops and see if I can find a way to turn our inferior horse in the eyes of the Supreme Command into a superior horse with the skin of an inferior horse."

"If there is any need, just tell me, and I will do my best to cooperate." Marshal Heinrich said.

After lunch, Chen Dao and Marshal Heinrich returned to the operational command room, and together with the chief of staff of Army Group C, Major General Busse, who had just been promoted, began to study the plan for the transformation and upgrading of Army Group C.

Seeing the establishment table of Army Group C, Chen Dao, Marshal Heinrich, and Major General Busay sighed together: Judging from the number of people alone, the strength of this army group is very strong.

Army Group C is under the jurisdiction of:

1. The Twelfth Army of the German Army:

Units directly under the command of the army group: the Italian 185th "Lightning" paratrooper division, the "San Marco" Marine Brigade

The 44th Mountain Infantry Corps of the German Army: under the 1st, 2nd and 4th Mountain Divisions, and the 684th Assault Gun Battalion.

The 2nd Luftwaffe Parachute Corps: The 4th, 5th and 6th Parachute Divisions are under its command.

SS (Waffen-SS) 3rd Panzer Army: It consists of the SS 3rd Panzer Division "Skeleton", the SS 11th Panzergrenadier Division "Nordic", the SS 12th Panzergrenadier Division "Hitler Youth" and the SS 103 Heavy Panzer Brigade.

Because the area of operations was adjacent to the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, Army Group was supported by the German Navy's 2nd Aviation Division, which had one fighter wing and three bomber wings.

2. Italian Eighth Army:

2nd Infantry Corps of the Royal Italian Army: 2nd, 3rd and 5th Infantry Divisions.

1st Mountain Infantry Corps: The 2nd, 3rd and 4th Mountain Infantry Divisions are under its command.

35th Motorized Rifle Corps: Under the command of the 3rd Rapid Division, the 9th "Pasubio" and the 52nd "Turin" Semi-Motorized Division.

1st Panzer Corps: 132nd "Rams" Panzer Division and 133rd "Litorio" Panzer Division.

The Eighth Army also has the 8th Task Force Wing directly under the Air Force, which has the 22nd Fighter Wing, the 61st Reconnaissance Group, the 71st Bomber Group, and the 8th Transport Aircraft Group, and has 162 fighters, combat reconnaissance planes, medium bombers, and transport planes.

4. The First Army of the Russian Liberation (Liberation) Army:

The command of the army group was directly subordinate to the 1st Tank Brigade

1st Infantry Corps: Commanded by the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Infantry Divisions.

2nd Infantry Corps: Consists of the 4th, 5th, and 6th Infantry Divisions.

5. Romanian Third Army:

The command of the army group was directly subordinate to the 1st Romanian Panzer Division.

Romanian Cavalry Corps: The 5th, 6th and 8th Cavalry Brigades are under its command.

Romanian Mountain Army: 1st, 2nd, 4th and 7th Mountain Infantry Brigades.

Romanian 4th Army: 6th, 7th, 8th and 14th Infantry Divisions.

6. Units directly under Army Group C Command: 11th and 12th Air Force Field Divisions of the Luftwaffe, 696th, 697th, 698th, 699th and 700th Assault Gun Battalions of the German Army.

7. The Black Sea Fleet of the German Navy, the Black Sea Fleet of the Royal Italian Navy.

8. The 6th Air Force of the Luftwaffe

After seeing the compilation table and estimating the number of troops, Chen Dao was taken aback, the troops of the entire Army Group C exceeded 800,000 people.

Chen Dao said with emotion: "More than 800,000 people, this is just the starting lineup, as the war progresses, the troops will definitely be strengthened, and when the time comes, it will exceed one million people." ”

"The total number of troops is quite large, but the Italians, Romanians, and Russians together have more than half a million troops, and their armament and will to fight are very poor, except for wasting supplies, they can only be used to fill the defensive line, and to do auxiliary battles such as covering the flanks," said Major General Buse. ”

Chen Dao continued: "Things are man-made, and we must transform them. The purpose of the transformation was that the troops formed by the Russians, after facing the Russians, should at least be able to ensure a one-to-one battle loss ratio.

The Italians had to be able to exchange one and a half for the Russians, and the Romanians had to be able to exchange two for one after the Russians.

The above is the situation in which they faced the Russians alone, and with our assistance, the number would have become uncertain, fluctuating between 1 to 3 to 1 to 5. In general, I am still very confident in the use of this force to kill 1.2 million Russians. Closer to here are the troops of the Romanian Third Army and General Vlasov, and I think we should go and look at their troops, understand their needs, especially the needs of the officers and soldiers at the grassroots level, and then decide what type of tasks they want to perform, so that we can be more sure. ”

"I'll go with you, just enough to cheer them up." Marshal Heinrich said.

As soon as they said it, the two took their adjutant and guards and drove to the Kerch Peninsula in the east of the Crimean Peninsula, where the Romanian Third Army was stationed.

As soon as he entered the garrison of the Romanian Third Army, Chen Dao said to Field Marshal Heinrich: "It seems that the Romanian officers and soldiers get along very badly, and the officers openly whip the soldiers. ”

"I've heard of this kind of thing before, and today it's confirmed."