However, this strategy was successful at least until the Don River froze in winter, as it not only used the Don River to cover the flanks of Army Group South's attack, but also used the large number of client state troops to disperse the Soviet forces...... The Soviets had always thought that the German target would still be Moscow, so they judged that the German army would cross the Don River and head north at any time.

As a result, the main forces of the Soviet Stalingrad Front were dragged along the upper Don River and could not move. So much so that Zhukov had difficulty in rallying an army group to rescue Stalingrad......

As soon as Zhukov arrived at Yeremenko's headquarters in Lower Ivanovka, he immediately began to form a counteroffensive unit, which was called the 1st Guards Army.

This army group did not exist before this, and Zhukov was formed on the basis of the 2nd Army, which was originally used as a reserve, and then incorporated into five Guards Infantry Divisions (37th, 38th, 39th, 40th, and 41st Infantry Divisions).

As mentioned before, the Guards Infantry Division is an elite unit in the Soviet Army with strong combat effectiveness, good equipment, and even meritorious service and combat experience, which can also be seen that Zhukov's intention in this battle is not just to rescue Stalingrad.

And that's exactly what happened.

After consulting with the commander of the 1st Guards Army, Moskalenko, Zhukov set a strategic goal: "Kotluban, if you capture here, you can encircle all the German troops that have broken through to the east of Kotluban, and at the same time get in touch with Stalinge!" ”

But in practice, however, difficulties have been encountered...... The troops of the 1st Guards Army were scattered in various places, and they needed time to assemble near the village of Sadki, 25 km north of Kotluban.

It may seem like an easy task to send all the units that were part of the 1st Guards Army to the village of Sadki, but in reality there were many problems.

The first was that a considerable part of these divisions incorporated into the 1st Guards Army were distributed on the defensive line north of the Don River, so that troops had to take over their defense areas first, otherwise the banks of the Don would be exposed to the Germans.

Secondly, some Guards Infantry Divisions were located at a great distance from the village of Sadki, and it was almost impossible to reach their destination in a few days with equipment, especially tank movements that relied heavily on roads.

At the same time, there is no need for this, because it will cause the transfer of tanks from the west to the east and the transfer of tanks from the east to the west, which is a complete waste of fuel and resources.

So Zhukov ordered that only personnel need to arrive and take over each other's heavy equipment.

Therefore, the question of how to exchange equipment will arise, and even more serious is that the army in the Stalingrad direction will not be able to provide so many tanks for exchange because of the serious losses of tanks.

Artillery had similar problems, so much so that the 39th Guards Rifle Division arrived at Stalingrad and received only 19 artillery pieces and 12 tanks. The situation was similar for the other divisions.

And in this case Zhukov could not launch an offensive, he could only wait for more equipment and supplies to arrive at the front.

So Zhukov immediately called Stalin: "Comrade Stalin, the 1st Guards Army is being formed, the troops are experiencing difficulties in supply and equipment, we need at least two days to prepare, and now the offensive will not work in any case, otherwise the troops will suffer senseless losses!" ”

Zhukov's words are reasonable, although the people have arrived and are still elite, but without equipment and ammunition, let them charge with a gun like that, in fact, it is not much different from the cannon fodder of the "punishment battalion".

But Stalin ignored this.

"Comrade Zhukov!" Stalin sarcastically said: "Do you think that the enemy will wait for you to be slowly ready before attacking Stalingrad?" If you don't attack immediately, the enemy may only need one onslaught to take Stalingrad! ”

"Comrade Stalin!" Zhukov disagreed with this judgment: "Stalingrad is in great danger, but it is impossible for the enemy to occupy it in a day or two, and I ask permission to attack on the original date!" ”

Stalin thought for a moment and replied: "Well, attack on the original date." Then you should drive the Germans south of Stalingrad, that is, retake the port of Karachi and restore its nearby Don defenses! ”

Zhukov couldn't help but be a little stunned when he heard this, although he did gather elite troops, but the expectations were too high to drive the strong German army out of the passage and restore the previous defensive line.

In this respect, Stalin also lacked a correct and objective judgment of the battlefield situation.

While Zhukov was preparing intensively, the 21st Panzer Division finally got a rare break.

The 21st Panzer Division advanced seven kilometers south towards Stalingrad before encountering a divisional resistance, and the 21st Panzer Division did not launch a strong attack because their mission had been changed to test the impregnable defensive line on the outskirts of Stalingrad...... Weak defenses were simply pushed off with tanks, and strong defenses were handed over to infantry divisions.

Therefore, the 21st Panzer Division turned around and headed for the important node, that is, the central part of the defensive line, Kotluban.

Luckily, on the way, we passed through the Experimental Field State Farm, located on the outskirts of Stalingrad...... The Soviet Union at this time had a planned economy, which was characterized by the ownership of such large tracts of land owned by the state.

When the 21st Panzer Division drove here, all it saw was endless crops and vegetables, in which a large number of Soviet officers and soldiers were busy harvesting, apparently knowing that the Germans were coming, and on the other side, there seemed to be people using tractors to destroy the crops that were too late to be harvested so that they would not fall into the hands of the Germans......

The German soldiers, of course, did not let them continue when they saw this scene, and the tank gun, on the order of Colonel Slein, turned to the tractor, made a slight adjustment, and then with a "boom", a tractor was blown into the sky.

When the other civilians saw this plane, they hurriedly fled the "scene" in a panic, including the tractor driver, who abandoned the tractor and fled, but some of the Soviet soldiers did not raise their guns to fight back, but after a burst of machine guns, they were knocked to the ground in rows.

"God!" Werner jumped out of the car, looked back at Qin Chuan excitedly after looking at the scene in front of him, and shouted, "Major, shouldn't we improve the food?" ”

Qin Chuan looked at the crops in front of him and a large green vegetable field...... Since he came to this world, he doesn't know how long he hasn't had a full meal, especially green vegetables, slices of bread or canned bread, or baked potatoes, and this vegetable field in front of him is like discovering a treasure mountain for him.

Qin Chuan set his eyes on Colonel Slane, who looked at the map and nodded, "I'll camp here tonight!" ”