"This time against the Japanese Kwantung Army, I am ready to send you to serve as the commander-in-chief of the First Army in the Far East." Seeing off the Mongol representatives, Stalin left the general in his early forties alone to speak.

The handing over of an army group to a young general who had just turned forty years old shows Stalin's trust in this general. And this general, who was deeply trusted by Stalin, was named Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov.

"Thank you Chairman for your cultivation! Rest assured, I am 100% confident that I will win this battle. "Being able to command an army group, Zhukov confidently believes that with the Japanese Kwantung Army, that man is definitely not his opponent.

The forty-year-old commander of the group army, even in Germany, which is full of heroes, can be regarded as quite young and promising. But if someone asks whether this position is worthy of the current Zhukov, then the answer is yes, it is far from worthy of Zhukov's talent!

At the age of nineteen, he captured a German battalion commander by himself and was awarded a Georgian Cross. At the age of twenty-two, he led a cavalry company to attack the hidden Cossack White Army headquarters, and won a brilliant victory for the Red Army. Four years later, he was admitted to the Leningrad Higher Cavalry School with excellent grades and was given the opportunity to further his studies. At the age of twenty-seven, he entered the advanced advanced training course of the famous Frunze Military Academy in Moscow, and later graduated with the first grade!

Zhukov's former classmate, the famous military strategist and later Marshal of the Soviet Union, Baglamyan, also recalled with shame: "Zhukov was absolutely outstanding among us, he was not only resolute and tenacious, but also resourceful and insightful. During his studies, he often made some unexpected points, which were amazing. Although his opinions are always highly controversial, he is always able to use novel logic to argue them. ”

The young Zhukov was already a dark horse in the Soviet military. At the beginning, in order to hide Reinhardt's eyes, Stalin even secretly ordered the name of a condemned prisoner to be changed to Zhukov, and then shot him with great fanfare.

Stalin's original purpose was to win hearts and minds so that Zhukov would be grateful to him and become a reliable confidant. But he also got an unexpected harvest - he found a young general who was fully qualified to become a famous general.

In several exchanges with Zhukov, Stalin was surprised to find that this man was extremely skilled in military affairs and extremely brave in battle.

Stalin soon learned that Zhukov had nearly lost his life in order to recapture the heavy machine gun, and that he had led his troops in battle with great losses in exchange for greater gains. For this reason, Stalin attached great importance to the brave and warlike Zhukov, and on more than one occasion secretly congratulated himself that he had not mistakenly killed a good general because of the provocation of the German Führer.

"How are you going to fight in the Far East this time?" Stalin said to Zhukov, who was about to depart: "The railways in the Far East were not built with the help of the Germans, but were inefficient narrow-gauge railways built by ourselves many years ago. The efficiency of transport is not comparable to that of the Soviet Western Railway Network. ”

Ever since he learned of Stalin's saving grace to him, Zhukov has been telling him everything he could. After beckoning a staff officer to bring two cups of coffee, Zhukov handed one of them to Stalin and said confidently: "Compared with the operation of the Japanese Kwantung Army in the Northeast, our operation in the Far East is much longer and better." ”

After taking a gentle sip of coffee to refresh himself, Zhukov continued: "Once the war starts, even if not a single material is transported to the Far East within a month. Our reserves are also enough to be depleted for the first month of fierce fighting. After a month, the Japanese army would either have to increase its forces in large numbers, or the whole army would have to retreat. ”

After listening to Zhukov's confident analysis, Stalin looked him in the eye: "Comrade Zhukov, I now officially hand over to you the entire army provided by the First Army of the Soviet Far East and the future Mongolia. Defeat the invaders! Let me see how good you are! ”

In fact, the Soviet troops that Stalin so solemnly handed over to Zhukov were three times the number of the attacking forces of the Japanese Kwantung Army, and this is still calculated in addition to the tens of thousands of Mongolian troops.

The 36th Motorized Infantry Division, the 57th, 82nd, and 152nd Infantry Divisions, the 5th Mechanized Brigade, the 6th and 11th Tank Brigades, the 7th, 8th, and 9th Armored Brigades, and the 212th Airborne Brigade under the First Army of the Soviet Far East are hundreds of times better than the supposedly sophisticated equipment of the Japanese Kwantung Army.

Compared with the 6th Army of the Japanese Kwantung Army, the ratio of the total number of artillery to the 1st Army of the Soviet Far East was as high as 6 to 1, which was enough to suppress the artillery fire of the Kwantung Army.

It can be seen from the name of the number alone that the First Army of the Soviet Far East is also equipped with a large number of tanks.

Although the designer of the Soviet T-34, Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin, was killed by Reinhardt during Soviet-German cooperation, the Soviet armored brigade has not yet come up with such an excellent tank as the T-34.

But now the T-26 light tank that the Soviet Army uses the German No. 1 tank as the prototype is much more reliable than the Japanese army's Type 89 medium tank (a 9-ton tank, and only the Japanese are embarrassed to call this Zhongtan). After all, the T-26 surpassed even the German tank No. 2 in firepower.

Even putting aside the superiority of the Soviet T-26 tank as a light tank over the Kwantung Army's Type 89 medium tank, the 7 to 1 ratio of the number of tanks between the two sides as shown in the intelligence alone is enough to give Zhukov 100% confidence!

In fact, the Japanese tank can be regarded as a unique feature. If we compare the German tanks in history, we can find that the Japanese heavy tank is equivalent to the German medium tank, and the Japanese medium tank is equivalent to the German light tank, and the Japanese light tank refers to the armored vehicle with tracks.

The most deplorable thing is that the tanks of the Japanese army are still willow nail structures! This means that the T-26 will hit the tank with one shot, and it is likely to cause damage to the Japanese Willow Nail tank due to the shock of the willow nail and the whole piece will fall off.

Zhukov was so keen, he discovered early on that the Nomenkan battlefield was a great wasteland terrain and the Soviet army was still located on high ground, and the Japanese army was in no danger to defend. In this kind of battlefield terrain that is very suitable for the performance of armored forces, whoever has stronger armored strength has a great chance of winning.

There are more troops, better equipment, aircraft, tanks, and artillery are far inferior to the Kwantung Army in terms of quantity and quality, and most importantly, he Zhukov thinks that what he is best at is to fight this kind of battle with the advantage of the sea of people! If it weren't for General Secretary Stalin's unsmiling words, Zhukov would have even wanted to make wild remarks that he was 200 percent sure.

In the end, after bidding farewell to Stalin, Zhukov quickly flew to the area of Nomenkan on a special plane, and met the First Army of the Soviet Far East that had been assembled behind Nomenkan for a long time.

"The whole army is ready for two things from now on! First, be ready for victory. Second, be prepared for sacrifice. These were the first words spoken by Zhukov when he became commander of the First Army in the Far East.