The helicopter group landed at the Kinov Fort (now known as Ganja) airfield.

Fort Kinov was chosen as the base because it is located directly below the eastern and central sections of the Caucasus Mountains, not far from the Caucasus Mountains and Baku, and can be used to quickly reinforce these strategic points at the speed of helicopters.

As soon as they stepped out of the helicopter, the soldiers felt a little uncomfortable.

It was the beginning of December, and the lowest temperature in the Soviet Union had reached about minus 10 degrees, but here it was about 10 degrees, and the German soldiers near the base watched the soldiers come down in bulky cotton clothes and white camouflage suits, and they all had some strange expressions on their faces.

"Major!" Alexander looked around, there was no cold except for the snow that could be seen in the Caucasus Mountains as far away, and said, "I don't think this seems to be a suitable training base for us!" ”

"Why?" Qin Chuan asked as he took off his camouflage suit.

Alexander spread his hands around and replied: "Our soldiers will adapt to the warm weather here, they can even jump into the river with their bare butts and swim......"

As he spoke, the German soldiers were already running to the river outside the base with loud cheers one after another.

Alexander couldn't help but roll his eyes: "What did I say?" ”

"I think it's the right place for you!" Qin Chuan replied.

"I heard you right!" "We're going to do highland training," Alexander said, "......

Alexander raised his head towards the Caucasus Mountains to the north: "There is a lot of snow and ice and very low temperatures, and the environment is very different......

"That's why we can refine our adaptability!" Qin Chuan interrupted Alexander's words: "It's like suddenly throwing them from heaven to hell!" ”

Alexander was stunned for a moment, then nodded in agreement.

In fact, if it is only in terms of skills, the first step corps, especially Qinchuan's troops, has almost mastered it, for example, the directly upgraded rappelling training is actually taught by the instructor of the mountain division, and then only needs to add some essentials of mountain warfare.

Therefore, training should be more about the ability to adapt to various environments, and this requires differences in the environment.

"So......" Qin Chuan said to Alexander, "enjoy the life of heaven, soon we will go to hell again!" ”

As he spoke, Qin Chuan also stripped himself and walked to Xiaohe to join the ranks of the soldiers.

Moscow, Zhukov and Vasilevsky were again called into Stalin's office.

Stalin smoked his pipe, and the smell of tobacco filled the office.

It was a long time before Stalin took his pipe in his hand and asked: "So, our plans leaked?" ”

"I think so, Comrade Stalin!" Zhukov replied: "It's about that raid that the Germans launched with helicopters and captured two of our generals!" ”

"I'm very confused about this!" Vasilevsky said: "According to our intelligence, it was Seninovich who became a shameful traitor, and Stepkov heroically died on the day he was captured. And Seninovic did not know what the plan was about......"

"But the facts are in front of you!" Zhukov said: "The Germans retreated before we attacked, and they must have sensed something. Moreover, it is clear that they laid a particularly large number of mines in the two directions of Serafimovich and Abuganerovo, and the most complete damage to the traffic, which made it impossible for our troops to pursue at all! ”

Vasilevsky wanted to say something, but was stopped by Stalin.

"There's no point in discussing this now!" Stalin said: "The retreat of the Germans can be said to be a good thing, because we have recovered large tracts of land that belong to us, and this has a certain effect on our morale." But ......"

Stalin put the cigarette butt on the table, knocked it down, poured out the ash inside, grabbed some more tobacco and carefully stuffed it into the pipe by the light of the lamp, and said: "This encouragement is very limited, because they did not retreat from us, but retreated on their own initiative." It's like telling us...... Our millions of troops are not enough to protect the country, she is like an undefended city, the Germans come and go when they want. It is not difficult to imagine that next spring, when the snow melts and the weather warms, the Germans will launch another attack, and then massacre the Soviet soldiers and civilians in large numbers, destroy the roads, railways and houses that we have just built in winter, and then withdraw! ”

"No, Comrade Stalin!" Zhukov said: "I will not let such a thing happen again!" ”

"What do you use to guarantee?" Stalin said: "Marshal Timoshenko once made a similar guarantee, at that time the Baku oil fields were still in our hands, and we still had enough oil to start the machine!" ”

Timoshenko was the commander who launched the Battle of Kharkov.

However, he was not to blame, Stalin seemed to have forgotten that it was his order to launch a counteroffensive in Kharkov, and many Soviet generals at that time considered the counteroffensive to be unripe and opposed the counteroffensive plan.

"We can build a defensive line along the Don River!" Zhukov said: "So that we can keep the Germans at bay on the west bank of the Don!" ”

"I don't know if you found out, Comrade Zhukov!" Stalin lit a match, lit his pipe, took two puffs and continued: "In addition to retreating to the west bank of the Don, the Germans are retreating to Transcaucasia!" ”

"Of course, Comrade Stalin!"

"And Transcaucasia is located on the east bank of the Don River!" Stalin said: "That is, the flank of the Don line." This means that if we build a defensive line on the Don River, we will be attacked by the Germans on both sides next spring...... They don't need to cross the Don at all to attack us! ”

This is another clever point of Qinchuan's strategic layout.

Transcaucasia can be said to be a strategic location, and if it is occupied, it can be used as a natural barrier in the Caucasus Mountains, which can be defended and attacked, and as soon as it enters the North Caucasus, it will immediately threaten the flank of the Don River defense line and encircle it.

On the other hand, the Soviet army was unable to build a relatively safe line of defense because of the threat of the German troops on the flank...... Only the river could stop the blitzkrieg of the German armored forces, but they could not do this.

"So!" Zhukov said: "While we are building the Don line, we will have to fight with them for the Caucasus, and even Baku!" ”

"When?" Stalin asked: "Wait until next spring?" By that time the Germans were already on the offensive! ”

"No, it's now!" Zhukov replied.