It was not until the fourth day after the start of the Soviet-German Middle Road War that General Bashilov received an order to withdraw from Stalin himself from the high command, and finally found a clue from the sporadic information he received.

His confused mind began to sober up for the first time, and he probably figured out that in about two or three days the German fast corps would be able to approach Minsk from the northwest and southwest directions, and encircle the main forces of the Western Front.

In this way, the 3rd and 10th armies, which were fighting in the Bialystok salient, were in a dangerous situation.

It was only at this moment that Pavlov really realized that the question now was not how to counterattack the Germans, but how to avoid the imminent danger of total annihilation.

The more he thought about it, the more frightened he felt, and bursts of cold sweat seeped through his clothes. Then Pavlov looked at the military map again, and Minsk was almost flat behind it, and the Germans could make a long assault on Smolensk and even Moscow. If hundreds of thousands of troops were to be encircled from the Bialystok salient to Minsk, Moscow would have completely lost its geographical and military barriers.

If that happens, the leaders of Stalin will slaughter themselves!

"No! It was necessary to withdraw the troops, at least to preserve the strength of these armies, to hold on to Minsk. Pavlov finally made the same decision to retreat as Zhukov had made a few days earlier.

However, when Zhukov withdrew his troops, he was still relatively calm, and he was able to arrange the rearguard troops to fight and retreat, until the gap between Stalin replacing him with Timoshenko was broken by the Germans.

And Pavlov, who did not withdraw at the beginning, is now difficult to withdraw.

After carefully studying the intelligence, Pavlov finally found that the encirclement of the German Marshal Bock still left a 50~60 km wide corridor in the direction of Minsk that was not completely closed.

This may be an opportunity. Pavlov made up his mind, and he immediately called the chief of staff of the Front, who was going with him to the headquarters of the 13th Army: "Immediately help me sign an order!" Be quick! ”

"Through the commanders of the 10th, 3rd and 4th armies," he called out to the commanders of the other three armies, in addition to the commander of the 13th Army, to which Pavlov himself was: "Today, on the night of June 25-26, the armies must begin their strategic advance no later than 21 o'clock, and the divisions should be ready to take tanks as the vanguard and cavalry and powerful anti-tank defense units as the rearguard.

This march was to be carried out day and night under the cover of a strong rearguard. Throw off enemy forces on a wide front...... At least 60 kilometers should be jumped in one fell swoop during the day and night. By the way, the troops were allowed to fully requisition the tools of the local people and to recruit any number of horses to pull carts for use. ”

It should be said that this order is still clear and decisive, except for the mother-in-law, who still has a little Pavlovian character, there is nothing wrong with it.

It can be said that it is already very difficult for a mediocre mind to finally produce a little spark of wisdom because of the warning order sent by Stalin himself.

However, the order to retreat was no problem, but it was already too late. Pavlov's previous mistakes had completely buried the ability of the various units to carry out this order.

The troops he had transferred to counterattack were no longer fueled or transported, and they were taken or destroyed by the German enemy in the first few days of the battle.

The chaotic retreat of the corps that Pavlov is now demanding is still carried out under extremely difficult conditions in which the Germans have air supremacy and the rapid corps is moving rapidly and in a roundabout way.

The caustic god of fate did not give Pavlov a chance to save himself, to save the Western Front. With great difficulty, Pavlov lost command of several of Bialystok's armies.

He was not at the headquarters of the Front Army, and he had completely lost contact with the armies.

June 26, Moscow Kremlin officer.

Vadudin, the first deputy chief of the General Staff, was giving Stalin his daily report on the situation on the battlefield, and almost without exception there was bad news. And before that, when the previous chief of the General Staff Zhukov was at the head of Duvalin, at least the situation had never been so bad.

Stalin listened silently, everything was happening almost according to the worst, and the panic and restlessness for several days on end had almost numbed him.

He thought that removing Zhukov and replacing Pavlov, who had never been defeated, would make the battle look new.

As a result, Pavlov had not lost a single battle in actual combat before, but this was the first and only defeat, and the defeat was completely unacceptable to Stalin!

On the other side, Vadudin weighed his words and continued to report in a low voice: "The Western Front and the Northwestern Front tried to counterattack, but the air cover was weak, the movements were uncoordinated, and the artillery support was poor, so the expected results were not achieved, and the troops suffered huge losses, continued to retreat, and often a messy retreat......"

He went on to add: "In a particularly difficult situation are the units of the 3rd and 10th armies, which are actually surrounded. The German armored forces were actually closing in on Minsk and were about to complete the encirclement and block the last breach. ”

Stalin, who had been silent just now, suddenly woke up from his contemplation when he heard these words: "What did you say?!" Approaching Minsk! I'm afraid you got it wrong, right? Where did this come from?"

"It's not...... I'm not mistaken, Comrade Stalin. Vadudin's voice was still not high, but he replied in an apologetic tone: "The report of the representative sent to the troops by the General Staff is consistent with the materials of aerial reconnaissance. It can be said that the front-line troops failed to hold back the enemy on the border and maintain the deployment of follow-up troops. And the front of the two flanks of the Western Front has actually been broken through!

Although already a few days ago, Stalin realized that the battle on the border was lost,

But how could the German army be deeply covered by the Soviet Union for 150~200 kilometers in five or six days? It's simply incomprehensible!

What did Pavlov, Kulik, Shaposhnikov eat?

Why didn't the General Staff go and command the troops?

As soon as Minsk loses Belarus, it will be over, and he can't imagine such consequences!

Stalin hurriedly called the headquarters of the Western Front in person, but he could not find a single general in charge there.

He threw down the phone in anger. After a while, he picked up the phone again: "Pick up the headquarters of the Southwestern Front for me...... Look for General Zhukov. ”

On the side, Duvadin was looking at Stalin with a strange look on his face, and after a long time, he slowly reminded in a low voice: "Comrade Stalin, Zhukov, he ...... It has long been out of the South-Western Front. He was put in prison by you and was about to be sent to Siberia......"