"If we continue to attack like this, we will lose at least 500,000 men!" Kirponos stared at the terrible reports that kept coming back from the front, and muttered to himself in a state of aggrievedness.

Beside him, General Puerkaev, the chief of staff who had been following Kirponos recently and was well aware of his situation, stepped forward and contemptuously persuaded: "Commander, our front army has a scandal of the surrender of 7 Ukrainian divisions in formation, which is already a very serious crime. If we don't obey the general secretary's offensive order at this time and withdraw our troops without authorization, I'm afraid we won't be able to explain it......"

"Confess? If we wait for the German Army Group Center to counterattack on all fronts, we will all explain here, and what else is there to explain to the general secretary? After listening to Puerkaev's persuasion, Kirponos felt a sense of powerlessness again.

Continuing the offensive did not correspond to his sense of responsibility as a commander of the Front, but to give the order to halt the offensive would not be consistent with his standards of loyal action as a general under Stalin.

Kilbonos, who was hesitant, repeatedly paced inside the command: "What about Comrade Zhukov? He should know the seriousness of the problem, and if the order is not given now, it will be too late."

Kirponos had long been ready to give all sorts of orders, stop the offensive, immediately garrison, mobilize the militia....... The drafts of the orders were also drawn up by Chief of Staff Puerkaev, and he is still holding them in his hand.

At this moment, Puerkaev held several order documents drawn up by himself in his hand, clenched his palms, gritted his teeth, and said: "Comrade Zhukov is certainly not a mother-in-law's person, and he will not be willing to delay the fighter plane in this way. But I am afraid that such an order must be given through the Supreme Commander. I guess Zhukov was probably trying to convince Comrade Stalin at this time. ”

After hearing this, Kilponos also felt that it made sense, and this remark was also in line with his inner conjecture.

With a quick temperament, he walked quickly to the position of the telephone: "Anyway, the order will definitely come, I think we might as well make some decisions first, let the troops retreat to the front-line fortifications first, and give up the meaningless attack." Otherwise, it's too late! ”

Seeing this, Puerkaev hurriedly grabbed Kirponos's hand stretched out to the telephone, and reminded in horror: "Wait, we still have to wait for orders." ”

"Why?!" When Kirponos heard that the other party was still waiting for an order at this time, he was surprised and said loudly: "Don't you know that the front line may collapse at any time!" ”

"Of course I do!" Pu'er Kaev, who was the chief of staff, shook his head and sighed earnestly: "But I also know that there are a large number of Ukrainian traitors in our front, and they have not had time to be dealt with by the rear, if we show some more disloyalty and Comrade Stalin's orders at this time, then ......"

Pu'er Kayev's words stopped here, and he couldn't say and didn't dare to say the rest of the content. But Kirponos was good enough to hear what he meant.

"Remember what happened to Marshal Tukhachevsky?" Finally, Pu'er Kaev reminded in a deep voice.

Tukhachevsky, the "Red Napoleon" who fought against Stalin on the Warsaw front, was laid out there for everyone to learn.

The words of the chief of staff caused a deep thought in Kirponos.

Sometimes it's one thing to have the right command, but more often than not, just because you make the right judgment doesn't mean you'll be rewarded and understood by your leader. In the eyes of the leader, a general who obeys his orders is "much more loyal" than a rebellious and intelligent general.

After a long silence, Kirponos finally withdrew his outstretched hand from the direction of the telephone: "Ah...... Then let's wait for Comrade Zhukov to say that the Supreme Commander-in-Chief is on the side. ”

Stalin will definitely pursue the defection of 7 Ukrainian divisions. The reason why he didn't pursue it immediately was just because he still needed Kirponos to command the troops and fight for him at the front.

If Kirponos did not listen to the command and went against Stalin's wishes, then there would be no need for Stalin to keep him, and it would be almost time to settle the score.

"Yes, let's wait here for news from Zhukov."

Chief of Staff Pu'er Kaev played a careful thought here: "However, the matter of blindly launching an offensive really cannot be continued. I think we can allow some units that are not very combat-ready to continue to save their feints. On the one hand, this can be done to the idiot members of the Military Council who don't know anything but shouting slogans. On the other hand, it was also possible to confuse the Germans and conceal our intention to begin preparations for the defense. ”

"Okay, let's do it." Hearing the chief of staff mention the military commissar who was like a military idiot, Kirponos had another headache. He couldn't figure out why he always arranged some of these kind of military blindness to guide his regular professional soldiers.

At times, Kirponos was envious of his German colleagues on the other side. At least their head of state would never let the layman call the insider to fight.

Just when the two generals were anxious, the correspondent suddenly rushed in again: "Comrade commander, comrade chief of staff, Moscow urgent telegram!" ”

......

Zhukov was not having a good time at this time.

General Kirponos, who was most important to him, had spoken to him on the phone many times, urging him to arrange for all armies to carry out defensive operations.

And the chief of staff of Kirponos, General Puerkaev, was also Zhukov's old comrade-in-arms. In the same way, together he stressed to Zhukov the terrible situation at the front.

Zhukov himself did not know anything about this.

Although he was the first to propose the idea of a preemptive thunderstorm plan, too many accidents and unexpected factors made his plan fall through.

For example, the once-invincible British Empire collapsed so quickly.

For another example, after the Soviet army launched an offensive, it was discovered that the Germans had obviously prepared for the defense of the Eastern Front earlier before landing in Britain.

For example, the Germans were able to pull up so many allies, fight side by side with them, and willingly form a coalition against the Soviet army, offsetting a large part of the Soviet army's original strength advantage.

The most infuriating thing is that Pavlov, a fool, is still stumbling in the rear, trapping himself, making it difficult for Zhukov to mobilize the key troops several times, and withholding supplies from the front.

In Zhukov's ears alone, there were no less than ten times when Pavlov slandered Zhukov in front of people.

In fact, there was no need for Kirponos to remind him, Zhukov had already planned to call Stalin again, asking the other party to abandon the previous order and let the troops rest and defend immediately.

However, the thought of Pavlov, who was deeply trusted by Stalin, was framing himself in the rear. Zhukov feared that if Pavlov became aware of the dissuasion he had made by calling Stalin, he would discredit his well-intentioned proposal.

Then, it is quite possible that his own phone call will also provoke Stalin and be counterproductive.

After thinking about it, Zhukov finally picked up the telephone and dialed the phone.

It's just that he didn't call Stalin directly.

"Hey, pick up Marshal Timoshenko from the People's Commissariat of National Defense. Yes, I have important things to discuss with him! Zhukov decided to reach an agreement with Timoshenko first, and then jointly advise. In this case, the effect will probably be much better.

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