"But in this way, the pressure on the flanks will increase, the 21st Army on the front is 100,000 people, and the flank is estimated to be no less than 100,000, and the two groups of 62 and 57 armies downstream add up to almost 16-180,000 troops, and the front-line troops will soon withstand the attack of 36-380,000 enemies."

"Don't worry, I have a solution...... Call Hoth, and 3 days later attack the Bryansk Front. ”

"What?" Weller was stunned, "I thought you were going to ask Hult to help us?" ”

"We don't need his help, I haven't seen the three Red Army fronts yet, I may not be able to attack them, but if we defend, there is nothing I can't defend." Manstein said with a smile, "But your suggestion reminds me that I really need an expert in command and defense now, and I have to control the overall situation and distract the offensive and defensive of the 6th Army, and I really don't have enough energy......"

"Huh? The last time Chief Zeitzler asked you if you needed General Moder to take over the post, why did you refuse? ”

"Modell is of course very good at presiding over the defense, and is the number one defense expert on our side, but he has a problem...... "Manstein said grinning, "he always cares about the air force today, the tanks tomorrow, and then it would be better to give him two more infantry divisions - if there is none, one will do." The Führer said that there were no reinforcements for me, so I didn't dare to ask for Moder, and I couldn't afford him. ”

"Oh......," Weller let out a long sigh with a smile.

"Actually, at the earliest, I wanted the former commander of the 51st Army, Sedlitz, to come to my aid, but the Führer did not agree. It was only said that he was unreliable, and kicked him to the Western Front to serve as a military senator for Marshal Rundstedt, and made him an errand under Paulus. ”

"Unreliable?" Weller asked in a low voice. "What does that mean?"

"What else could that mean?"

"How dare he oppose the Führer?" Weller exclaimed, "I haven't heard of this, and he's not from Halder all the way......"

"I didn't understand the Führer's thoughts, but the last time Seydlitz sent me a telegram, I knew that the Führer was right to see people - better than we were."

"What does the telegram say?"

"A lot of whining, full of pessimistic and disappointed words about the future - this has to be admitted that Guderian is much better than them, at least after the dismissal of this old man is still worried about the development of a new generation of tanks. Worried about the formation and training of the troops, he was still respectful to the Führer, and I never heard him complain in public - this was the difference between his fate and that of Hopner. Manstein said. Even if he didn't do Guderian, he should be like Marshal Liszt without saying a word, not to mention that the Führer hadn't done anything with him, at least he was still in the army. The rank and rank remain the same. It's just a change to a more leisurely and less responsible position on the Western Front, and Paulus is still doing a good job on the Western Front? - He turned out to be a serious commander of the Sixth Army, and his position was not higher than that of you Seydlitz? Why aren't there so many complaints? He didn't change his way to pat me on the back, trying to get me to find a way out for him. ”

"But I don't remember you having a relationship with this dude?"

"yes, I didn't." Manstein smiled meaningfully, "But he found out the situation with Marshal Rundstedt, and he probably knew that I had served as the old marshal's chief of staff and had a good relationship, and wanted to go this way......"

"Hmph. I'm pretty good at camping. ”

Of course, what Manstein didn't know was. The deepest reason why Hoffman was reluctant to use Seydlitz was that this guy led his troops to retreat in the Battle of Stalingrad in history, and forced Paulus to give him an order to retreat with a fait accompli, disrupting the overall deployment - although it was death if he didn't retreat, this obviously put extra pressure on Paulus; Then he surrendered to the Soviets, and that was not all, and after the surrender he tried to become a figure like Vlasov, trying to rally the German soldiers in the Soviet prisoner of war camps to fight for the Bolsheviks, which was worse than Paulus, who was captured and at best exposed a little bit of a virtuous character, which was pronounced death by Hoffmann on his political future, and which took advantage of this unified action of disarmament and expansion to put him in the cold.

"Who are you going to recommend now?"

"General Gothard Heinrich, now commander of the 4th Army." Manstein raised the telegram in his hand, "The Führer reacted quickly, he officially replied to the telegram less than three hours after my telegram was sent yesterday, and tomorrow you will see Heinrich coming to take office." ”

For one reason, Manstein did not tell Weller that he had a normal relationship with Modell, but that he had a good relationship with Heinrich, who was a cousin of Rundsteadt and had a very close relationship with each other. When Rundstead was in charge of Army Group South, Manstein was his chief of staff, the old commander was calm, Manstein made strange moves, the two sides cooperated very well, and they won a lot of battles, and later when they were forced to withdraw from Rostov due to lack of troops (the second Rostov campaign), Rundstead himself took full responsibility and left Manstein clean, and even strongly recommended the latter to take over the position of commander of Army Group South, although Hitler replaced Rundstead with Bock, But Manstein also became the commander of the Crimean campaign at the recommendation of the old marshal and received the rank of marshal after the final capture of Sevastopol.

Heinrich was a devout Protestant, and his wife was Jewish (Hitler presented her with a certificate of honor Germanic on the spot at the time of her marriage, so the racial policy about anti-Semitism was actually a matter of courtesy), and there were objections to Heinrich's religious beliefs, arguing that this practice was incompatible with Party and State Socialism, but Heinrich ignored this warning and continued to worship in the church the following week, not only himself, but also his wife and daughter. Manstein expressed his appreciation for this, saying that a soldier, especially a high-ranking officer, should have some convictions that he should always adhere to, and without such convictions, it is difficult to be as solid as a rock in defense if he blindly tends to the flames. This characteristic is also evident in Moder, who is the Führer's love, but Moder's position is not obtained by sloppiness and inflammation, he really believes in National Socialism and really worships the Führer - although he is more ruthless than anyone else when he stands up to the Führer. As for people like Seydlitz, the wind will go in the right direction, and not only Hofmann looks down on him, but Manstein now has a bad opinion of him.

And Hoffmann's reason for approving this appointment is very simple: Heinrich is a historically recognized defense expert, and his defense capability can be ranked second after Moder, and if you talk about the level of weak and strong, you may be called the first - the commander of the Oder Battle before the Battle of Berlin in 1945 was Heinrich, who had only about 820,000 exhausted, demoralized, and mixed age troops at his disposal, only 1,519 tanks, and faced the three most elite fronts of the Soviet army. Armed with more than 6,000 tanks and self-propelled guns, the 2.5 million army was armed, but in the defensive battle of the Zelaufer Heights he managed to hold off Zhukov for three days, interrupting Zhukov's honor of monopolizing Berlin, inflicting huge losses on the 1st Belorussian Front - 30,000 officers and soldiers killed, 210,000 wounded, 837 tanks destroyed, and 1,653 tanks and self-propelled guns wounded, almost breaking the backbone of the Front. As for Hitler's dislike of Heinrich's religious beliefs and the Jewish factor, for Hoffmann there was no such thing as a dislike.

Hote was originally worried that the Southwestern Front would cut off the connection between himself and the Manstein group, and he was afraid that Vatutin would threaten Manstein's flank, so he had not dared to act at will, but now that Manstein let him do it, he immediately issued an order to prepare to attack north, even though the Bryansk Front had more than 600,000 troops, he only had 400,000 on hand and Romanians and Italians accounted for nearly half, but he was very confident in the combat effectiveness of his troops.

Three days ago, he had just received 2 base fuel supplies (according to German norms, the total amount of gasoline and diesel required for the movement of all vehicles in the whole army for 100 kilometers was regarded as 1 base), plus the original reserves and the part captured in the hands of the Voronezh Front in the last short assault, he had a total of nearly 5 fuel bases in his hands, and he could have a good fight. He also received reinforcements from more than 70 No. 4G tanks during this replenishment, and he knew that Manstein now only had two armored divisions in his hands, and at such a tense moment, he also allocated all the tank supplies of the entire army group to himself, which made him very moved, and after thinking about it, he finally decided to draw out all the No. 3 tanks in the army and strengthen them to Manstein -- now the Fourth Panzer Army is the first cluster to achieve a comprehensive replacement of No. 3 tanks, although the Romanians and Italians are very covetous of this batch of replaced No. 3 tanks, but I heard that it was to support the central defense line of Manstein, and they all stopped talking in good spirits.

He studied the map for a long time, this time it was not possible to hit the joint of the Bryansk Front and the Southwestern Front, the two families had learned the lesson of the last time the Voronezh Front was broken, and they looked at the joint to death, but Hoth quickly came up with a way - to hit the flank of the Southwestern Front!

"Didn't Marshal Manstein tell us to attack the Bryansk Front, why did it become the Southwestern Front again?" A bunch of people asked him strangely.

"I'll kick him in the ass when the Southwestern Front crosses the river, do you think it's better for Vatutin to retract himself and deal with me again, or let the Bryansk Front help contain our offensive?"

The crowd thought about it for a moment and thought it was probably the latter.

"That's right......" Hult smiled slightly, "the Bryansk Front is now huddled there like a hedgehog, and I can't do anything about it, but the Southwestern Front is about to move to cross the river and head south, and as long as they try to support Vatutin, there will be flaws ......exposed" (To be continued.) )