At 7:40 a.m. on July 3, north of the city of Mogilev, Zhukov stood at the door of an old Orthodox church with a steeple in his face, holding his stomach and looking up at the sky.

Having just eaten breakfast, Zhukov found a rare free time to rest, he opened his mouth wide and greedily breathed in the fresh air.

The air in the headquarters was so foul that even the two oversized fans, which were more than a meter in diameter, shook their heads and worked hard, they couldn't purify the sour smell of sweat in the room.

Enduring the poison of the smell, Zhukov was busy for most of the night, and his strong nerves were constantly bombarded with all kinds of bad news, until the early hours of the morning, and finally waited for the bright moment.

Zhukov's eyes turned around with joyful eyes, sweeping through the dense dark clouds in the sky, and Zhukov's heart was more comfortable than ever.

I finally waited for the long-awaited rainy day, and the great Soviet Motherland, the precarious central defense line, would also usher in a great turnaround.

Wait a little longer, as long as the area covered by dark clouds is a little larger and the color is a little darker, Zhukov stopped the anticipation in his heart, and looked down at an M-1 Gass command car.

The M-1 sedan turned more than a hundred meters away at the intersection of Hongxing Road and rushed straight towards the church.

Looking at the license plate number on the car, Zhukov recognized the M-1 sedan as his car.

The driver drove this car to the airport to pick up a person in the morning, and when he remembered that person, Zhukov felt like a maggot eating in a delicious Black Sea caviar, and half of the joy in his heart disappeared in an instant.

The M-1 sedan turned around and rushed towards Zhukov, rushing to his side with a gust of wind.

With a "squeak", the car dragged out a long tail and stopped in front of him.

The passenger door opens earlier than the driver's door. A stout man with a fat head, big ears and a shiny face jumped out of the car. With a wide mouth. With a hearty laugh, he hurried towards Zhukov.

"Dear Georgi. Konstantinovich. Comrade Zhukov, we met again, when the general secretary said that he wanted me to come to the Central Front as your deputy, I was so happy that I would faint, and we will work together to definitely save the situation on the Central Front.

The man with the rank of lieutenant general took Zhukov's arms around and chattered. I didn't pay attention to the sunny and cloudy look on Zhukov's face.

In the face of the conversation with the lieutenant general, Zhukov struggled to squeeze out a sentence of entertainment.

"Dear Andrey. Ivanovich. Comrade Yeremenko, welcome to the Western Front. ”

Seeing that Yeremenko was still going to speak, Zhukov spoke first, and suddenly asked: "You are from Moscow?" ”

"Yes, I flew from the Far East to Moscow, and the General Secretary personally received me and personally gave some instructions for the next operation, well, all very strategic instructions. And then"

"Did you see Pavlov?" Zhukov said suddenly.

"Pavlov? Oh, that hapless guy. Lieutenant General Yeremenko sighed.

Poke the big brimmed hat on the head. Yeremenko said bitterly: "I saw him, his prospects are not good, well, very bad, the general secretary is very angry at his failure, we must not repeat his mistakes, we must not anger the general secretary, we must fight according to the instructions of the general secretary." ”

Zhukov subconsciously rolled his eyes to look at the dark clouds in the sky, and was pleasantly surprised to find that the color of the dark clouds seemed to be darker again.

After confirming that he was not psychological, Zhukov unconsciously clenched his fists, plucked up his courage, and cautiously asked: "What instructions does the general secretary have for the battle here?" ”

"The general secretary's instructions are very simple, there is only one word, attack, must attack, only offense can achieve victory, passive defense cannot win the war." Yeremenko said with great interest.

Zhukov let out a wail in his heart comparable to that of the three-headed dog of hell, and he knew that this would be the case.

The general secretary first sent himself an unreliable deputy commander of the front army, and this deputy commander carried the general secretary's supreme instructions, and it was also this unreliable supreme directive.

As for the former classmate of the Leningrad cavalry senior commander training course in front of him, Zhukov felt an incomparable headache.

As an old classmate, he clearly knows Yeremenko's biggest characteristic, one word, stupid.

Another classmate in the class, Bagramyan, once teased: "Among us, the one who seems to be the most stubborn is Andrei. Ivanovich. Yeremenko. With rare effort, he mastered a wide and rich knowledge as prescribed by the syllabus. ”

This sentence seems to be praised, but Zhukov knows that this sentence can also fool people who don't know the inside story.

What Bagramyan really meant by this sentence was that Yeremenko was so stupid that it took a rare effort to master such a simple content as the syllabus! As for other requirements for high-ranking generals, with Yeremenko's level of intelligence, Zhukov was suddenly full of despair for the next battle.

Obviously, there are a lot of spare generals to use, why do you have to travel thousands of miles to transfer him back from the Far East, how much does the general secretary love this big-mouthed guy.

Yeremenko did not know that his appearance had brought great pressure to Zhukov, and took the initiative to ask: "What is the current situation?" I must have a sober understanding before I can carry out the reaction in accordance with the instructions of the General Secretary. Speaking of counteroffensives, I didn't come alone, behind me, the train from Moscow to here was loaded with tanks and artillery. The General Secretary allocated to me two mechanized corps from the base camp of the Supreme Command, and with these troops, we will definitely be able to fight a beautiful counterattack. ”

He brought two mechanized corps? This was good news, and a ray of sunshine flashed on Zhukov's cloudy face.

Walking into the church with Yeremenko, Zhukov briefly introduced Yeremenko's identity to the staff officers of the command, and immediately pointed to the map and said to Yeremenko: "We are currently facing a lot of pressure, the enemy's three armored armies are advancing eastward in three directions, and behind them, the Fourth and Ninth armies are still followed.

In the middle, the enemy's 1st Panzer Army had just captured Borisov. The next target will be Orsha.

Nan. The 2nd Panzer Army under the command of Rommel had already occupied Bobruisk. The next target is us, Mogilev.

To the north, the 3rd Panzer Army under the command of Hort was marching on Vitebsk. If we make a mistake in coping, the enemy will form a second encirclement in Smolensk, and we will suffer another Pavlovian defeat. ”

Yeremenko restrained the smile on his face and asked with a straight face: "How many enemy troops are there?" ”

Zhukov replied: "The enemy's 1st and 2nd Panzer armies each had three Panzer Corps, and the 3rd Panzer Army had only two Panzer Corps, a total of eight Panzer Corps. Twenty-four armored divisions and motorized infantry divisions, and we count the two mechanized corps you brought, for a total of only four mechanized corps, twelve tank divisions and motorized infantry divisions can be used, which is only half the number of the enemy. ”

Yeremenko said in embarrassment: "So our counteroffensive will face great difficulties? ”

"That's exactly what happened, so I decided to fight a defensive counterattack, using infantry to consume the enemy's armor as much as possible, and wait until the enemy's armor power was consumed to a certain extent and lost its sharpness. We will then launch a counterattack in accordance with the instructions of the General Secretary. ”

After Zhukov finished speaking, he stared at Yeremenko's square face. Check out his expression.

Yeremenko stared at the map for a while and then said: "I agree with your plan, assign me a task, I want to go to the south and compete with Rommel, although I was in the Far East, but I have also heard that the German newspapers and radio have been touting him as an invincible god of war, and the general secretary also said that he is the third most popular villain among the Germans." ”

Zhukov raised an eyebrow in his right eye and asked curiously: "Who are the two villains who are in line before him?" ”

"The first villain is Hitler, and the second is Guderian, Guderian's offensive momentum in Romania is fierce, and our old classmate Rokossovsky suffers a big loss at his hands."

So that's the case, Zhukov secretly wrote down this ranking.

After tapping his fingers on the map for a while, and after his eyes wandered over the map for a while, Zhukov coughed lightly and cleared his throat, and said to Yeremenko: "There is a greater threat before us than Rommel, and I hope that you will take up this burden and eliminate this threat." ”

"Oh? What a threat. When Yeremenko heard that Zhukov was going to give him a heavy responsibility, he suddenly came to his senses, turned his eyes off the map, and turned his eyes to stare at Zhukov and asked.

"In the center of the enemy is the 1st Panzer Army, which is attacking along the Borisov road to Smolensk, which is the closest to Smolensk and poses the greatest threat to Smolensk. So we need to eliminate the threat along the way first. The task I have given you is to withstand their attack and, if possible, launch a counteroffensive appropriately to drive them to the west. ”

Yeremenko rolled up his sleeves and said happily: "The task of dealing with them is entrusted to me, how many troops do I have at my disposal?" ”

"The remnants of the Thirteenth Army, one of the Twentieth Army, about six infantry divisions, one of the two mechanized corps you brought with you under your command. The focus of the defense was on Orsha. ”

"Six infantry divisions plus a mechanized corps against three armored corps of the 1st Panzer Army?" Yeremenko asked.

"What? Are you scared? If you don't think you can complete this task, I can change it to an easier task for you. Zhukov asked rhetorically.

Sensing the distrust hidden in Zhukov's gaze, Yeremenko straightened his stout body and looked at Zhukov without showing weakness.

"The central direction is handed over to me, and I guarantee that Orsha is the terminus of the advance of the 1st Panzer Army."

Zhukov said with relief: "I believe that with your strength you can make the Germans suffer enough, I am waiting for the news of your victory, and I believe that it will not be long before there will be an extra gold star on your epaulette because of the victory." ”

"I'll leave for Orsha at once, and either the Germans will be killed by me, or the Germans will step over my body and pass through Orsha."

Seeing off the energetic Yeremenko, Zhukov wiped the sweat from his forehead, and a wave of exhaustion welled up in his heart, mixed with a little sense of accomplishment in the middle.

Externally, he wants to fight with the Germans; Internally, I still have to fight wits and courage with the general secretary, Yeremenko and others, which is really unprecedented exhaustion.

As for the sense of accomplishment, Zhukov secretly sighed, people with stupid brains are easy to deceive, and he knows with his heels that the most threatening of the three German armies are the two armored armies from the north and south flanks, and if they can't withstand the enemy on both flanks, the enemy will definitely form a second giant encirclement in the Smolensk region.

How to block the German troops from both flanks is the real heavy task, and this heavy task must not be handed over to Yeremenko.

When Zhukov was proud that he had "outwitted" Yeremenko, a loud rumbling sound caught his eye.

The windows of the command room trembled in the thunder, and a storm blew outside the window, and lightning pierced the dark clouds and shone between the heavens and the earth.

Raindrops the size of soybean grains poured down, and a moment later, the otherwise dry road surface turned into a sea of water, and the entire city was shrouded in water.

Standing in front of the window, feeling the moisture from the pavement, Zhukov raised his face in intoxication.

"Great, it's finally raining."

Almost at the same time, in the city of Borisov, Chen Dao looked at the pouring rain, and his mouth burst out with words that were completely different from Zhukov's.

"Why is this damn rain at this time?"

Major Lorenz kindly enlightened Chen: "It's the height of summer, it's normal to have this kind of rainstorm, don't worry, this kind of rainstorm won't last long, it will stop after an hour or two at most." ”

"One thing you forget, this is not Germany, there are no asphalt roads, there are no concrete roads, and if it rains like this level for an hour or two, I can't imagine what it would be like on the road outside the city?"

More than an hour later, when the torrential rain stopped, Chen Dao ran out of the hotel where he was staying, jumped into an armored car, and personally went outside the city to check the road conditions, and the result was even worse than he imagined.

Under the soak of the rain, the floating soil on the road turned into mud and sank into the axles of the trucks, and the Opel trucks dragging PAK40 anti-tank guns of the Guard Flag Division were struggling in the mud for half an hour before driving less than two kilometers.

Chen Dao also saw a gendarme standing on the side of the road directing traffic, and during a simple operation across the road, the gendarme's feet got stuck in the mud and struggled for a full minute before pulling out his left foot, but it was only his left foot, and the leather boot on his left foot remained in the bottomless black mud.

The gendarme stared at his bare left foot, forgetting that he was in the mud to keep the golden rooster independent.

As soon as his right foot slipped, the gendarmes danced into the mud on the ground under Chen Dao's attention, and fell firmly into the mud.

Chen Dao couldn't help but wail in his heart, the power of the "Mud General" is unstoppable, with this kind of road conditions, when will he be able to reach Orsha? (To be continued.) )