Stalin's plan for a counterattack had in fact already been drawn up, and by March 25 the battlefield situation was already very obvious.

At that time, the German Army Group Center was trying to attack the interior of the Soviet Union, throwing off friendly forces on both flanks.

Judging from the battlefield situation, this German army did threaten the two huge strategic clusters of the Soviet Union in the north and south from the flanks.

However, from another point of view, this rapid German army was not alone, and the two flanks were of course seriously threatened by the Soviet forces.

Thus, in this situation, the counterattack plan drawn up by Stalin and Zhukov came into being.

At that time, the plan also included Timoshenko, a Soviet marshal who had already died in battle.

According to Zhukov's plan of action, Timoshenko and Khrushchev will stabilize their defensive lines in the central theater.

Then let the two units of the Western Front and the Southern Front change the direction of the attack, launch an attack from the two flanks of Army Group Center, which was penetrated deep by the German army, and flank the German Army Group Center that broke into the heart of the Soviet Union.

Once this tactic was successfully implemented, the most elite armored units of the German army would be surrounded in the territory of the Soviet Union.

And a German mechanized army without fuel supplies and ammunition replenishment will suffer a catastrophe and be easily annihilated by the Soviet army on the road to Minsk.

As long as this encirclement plan can be carried out smoothly, then the German army can only move from strategic offensive to strategic defense. The situation on the Soviet-German battlefield was reversed in an instant.

According to Stalin's conception, even if Zhukov's flank attack did not work, the Germans would feel the pressure and slow down their determination and speed to attack Minsk.

In Stalin's view, as long as the German army could be shaken, began to waste time on the offensive, and slowed down the pace of the offensive, the Soviet Union could continue to hold out.

Therefore, Zhukov's plan was agreed to by Stalin, and he personally named it "Project Guillotine".

Just by listening to the name of this horror, you can understand the basic idea of this plan, as well as Stalin's hatred of Hitler.

He hoped that with a guillotine-like flanking attack, he could wipe out the German attacking forces and decapitate Hitler.

This Soviet counterattack plan, which has never been seen in history, was also completely tailored to the state of the German army's lone deep army.

Unfortunately, on March 29, the Soviet Union's Guillotine Plan began, the Germans had already captured Baranovichi and defeated the remnants of Khrushchev's army.

The defeat of the Khrushchev cluster was not a difficult task for Marshal Rundstedt and his elite armored forces.

Another great victory, which appeared in the northern regions of the USSR. The German Army Group North, under the leadership of Marshal Loeb, launched a second round of German attacks.

The Germans, with a concentration of 700,000 troops, launched a fierce attack on the Soviet army, which actually had more than 1 million troops.

Under the cover of 2,000 aircraft, the Germans launched a new offensive climax, driving the Soviet troops from the garrisons in the border areas to the retreat path.

The Soviet army retreated all the way and lost air supremacy, which made its troops fall into a congenital disadvantage in terms of retreat and tactical arrangements such as defensive counterattacks.

As a result, the German troops caught up with the defeated Soviet Red Army near Vilnius, and surrounded its main forces near Vilnius.

About 500,000 troops were surrounded by the Germans, and only a little more than 50,000 soldiers broke through. The surrender of the remaining troops became Marshal Loeb's new exploits.

If the troop losses are calculated, Loeb still has about 700,000 German troops in his hands, and Marshal Voroshilov, who has not yet taken office, only has a pitiful 500,000 troops left to mobilize.

What's even more depressing is that the three Baltic states, which have always been relatively peaceful, fought back together when the German army advanced and overthrew the Soviet rule in the region.

Lithuania and Estonia declared independence successively, and helped the Germans stumble on the retreating Soviet troops.

In other words, the Soviet army was surrounded by German troops near Vilnius, largely thanks to the three Baltic states.

And these three regions broke away from the Soviet Union and took refuge with Germany, and the Leningrad Oblast, which was still quite far from the front line, suddenly became a dangerous front line.

As if as a joke, the German Army Group North attacked at a faster pace than even that of Army Group Center, rushing ahead to fill the gap in the left flank of the German army in the center.

The northern part of the country was occupied by the Germans, and strategically lost its bridgehead for the flanking attack. Zhukov's proposal to Stalin to flank the flanks turned out to be an impossible plan before it had even begun.

Having lost positions in the north and troops in the north, the Guillotine Plan is an incomplete plan and a plan that simply cannot be executed.

So, when the war entered April, on the day of April 1, the Soviet Union's high command was connected to several pieces of news that Stalin could not cry or laugh about.

"Comrade Stalin, the great leader! The officers of the Latvian region announcing its secession from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ......" reported the news with trembling voices in their voices.

Just now, Lithuania has telegraphed its secession from the Soviet Union and detained many high-ranking Soviet government officials.

After hearing the news of Lithuania's secession from the Soviet Union, Stalin was already furious. Not only because of the series of blows brought by the independence of Lithuania, but also because of the blow from another failure of his strategy.

How could the news of Latvia's independence not make Stalin even more furious, even more so when the leader had not finished venting?

Therefore, when the general reported the news to Stalin, Stalin really threw his beloved pipe on the carpet at once.

"Bastard! It's because of these bastards! 500,000 troops of the Western Front! will fall into the encirclement of the enemy! They all deserve to die! I'm going to get them there! Catch! Stalin threw his pipe and stood there ranting loudly.

As a result, before he could finish venting, another officer walked in tremblingly and handed the leader a new telegram: "Great leader, Comrade Stalin, Estonia has become independent......"

Stalin had nothing left to break in his hands, so he simply tore through the telegram, tore it to shreds and threw it on the carpet: "I will make them regret it!" I'm going to make them regret it! ”

At this time, Stalin was a little annoyed and angry, and he was already a little hysterical. Like a leopard in a zoo cage, he walked around his office in circles.

No one dared to look at his already bloodshot eyes, for fear that he would become an unlucky target for the angry Stalin.

No one knew what was going on in Stalin's mind at this moment, and it was not until Marshal Voroshilov sent a telegram requesting the troops to retreat to Leningrad that Stalin recovered some of his state.

"Tell Comrade Marshal Voroshilov that his troops hold Leningrad, the defense of the north of Moscow, depends on him!" Stalin replied to Voroshilov's telegram and turned his gaze to the map again.

The guillotine with a two-sided attack no longer seemed feasible, and what he was calculating in his mind was the feasibility of the Southern Front launching a flank attack on its own.

Without the flanks, the power of the attack will definitely be greatly reduced. In this case, it is also unknown whether a single attack will cause a counterattack by the Germans.

"Why do the damned Germans always make a quick move?" Stalin muttered quietly, complaining that his troops were not carrying out his seemingly brilliant plans faster.

"Let Marshal Budyonny go on the offensive and test whether the Germans have enough troops on the flanks!" Stalin thought about it and finally decided to launch an attack on the flank.

Even a tentative attack could serve the purpose of delaying the German army's further advance. The defensive pressure in the Minsk direction was so great that even Stalin felt a little weak.

Trying to rely on the remnants of the hundreds of thousands of remaining troops in Minsk to block the German offensive in the future is obviously not a reliable solution.

If Minsk is lost, then the final line of defense of Leningrad-Minsk-Kiev, planned by Stalin, will be broken by the Germans.

At that time, the Soviet troops would have to retreat to Smolensk, which was too close to Moscow to be reassured.

And at this time, the news of the victory of the German Army Group North in Vilnius also reached the wolf's den.

"Hey! Hitler! When he met Li Le, the German Field Marshal and Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Brauchitsch, stood at the door and saluted and said: "The battle of Vilnius is over, and our army has won a great victory!" ”

This victory can be said to be a great victory for the Führer, and as a participant in the Barbarossa Plan, Brauchitsch knew the important weight of the Führer in this plan.

From beginning to end, if it were not for the fact that the Führer emphasized the strength of the Soviet Union again and again, he made as many targeted adjustments as possible. It was simply impossible for the Germans to achieve victory in such a short time.

"My marshal...... I heard that the arrangement we made before the war still played a certain role......" Li Le put down the documents in his hand with a smile and said to his generals.

"My Führer! Your plan has brought us the greatest victory! Brauchitsch opened his mouth and complimented Li Le.

"Don't relax! We defeated only one-twentieth of the Soviet army, and there is nothing to be proud of. Li Le stood up, walked in front of Brauchitsch, and said calmly.