Unlike the war-torn front lines and the smoky Sevastopol, Stalingrad is still peaceful.

Although the atmosphere on the streets is very tense, the army is also moving frequently. But here at least there is no intensive shelling, and there is no whistling of Stuka dive bombers.

In the spacious, well-lit office, Stalin and his secretary general were sitting there, listening to the officers of the intelligence department report on the front-line operations they had just obtained.

Of course, as before, the German army was in full swing, and Stalin and his secretary general heard bad news that could not have been worse.

"The day before yesterday afternoon, the German Navy shelled Sevastopol! General Vasilevsky responded calmly, with little losses, sinking a German destroyer ...... "seven points true and three points false," the officer reported on the course of the battle in the Black Sea.

"At about half past three in the afternoon, the detachment of the German fleet fought a decisive battle with our Black Sea Fleet near the Kerch Strait, and the two sides engaged in an artillery battle for almost two hours." The debriefing officer read the report and glanced at Stalin out of the corner of his eye.

Seeing that he was not annoyed, he continued: "Our battleship Paris Commune was sunk, and the enemy ships then retreated due to huge losses, and our transport fleet and auxiliary ships were unharmed......"

This is the art of reporting, and while mentioning one's own losses, one should also implicitly emphasize the enemy's losses. Anyway, in the end, the German fleet was the first to retreat, so it was inevitable that a "victory" in repulsing the enemy fleet could be reported.

To speak of the obvious defeat as a forgivable pyrrhic victory is also to take care of the face of General Gorshkov, who died in the Kerch Strait.

After all, as an admiral, it is a respectable thing to choose to bravely face the enemy and sink with your own warship.

"Unfortunately...... Comrade Stalin, the great leader. The commander-in-chief of the Black Sea Fleet, General Gorshkov, fought bravely to the last moment, died on the battleship Paris Commune, and sank with the ship. The officer, in a heavy tone, spoke of Gorshkov, who had died in battle.

Sure enough, Stalin was relatively tolerant of generals who chose to die in battle. He wanted to investigate the losses of the Black Sea Fleet, but when he heard that the commander-in-chief of the Black Sea Fleet had died in battle, his face was still a little calmer.

"Promoted to Admiral Gorshkov as Marshal of the Navy! An obituary is issued in my name praising his heroic fighting spirit! Stalin thought about it and decided to promote the already dead Gorshkov, as is customary.

After all, whether it was Konev or Rokossovsky, Stalin would generously give the title of marshal to any general who died in the last battle.

After talking about the battle at sea, it is time to talk about things on land. The officer flipped through a page of report paper and continued to report: "As of yesterday, 4 German divisions have broken through our defense line and are advancing in the direction of Mirgorod, and the 7th Guards Tank Division is building a new line of defense in Poltava in an attempt to stop the German army from continuing to advance. ”

The 6th Guards Tank Division, the 4th Guards Tank Division, and the 5th Guards Tank Division and the retreating 7th Guards Tank Division, four tank divisions with the title of Guards, were now all compressed by the Germans east of the Dnieper.

This also made the location of the Crimean Peninsula even more dangerous, and it was easy to fall into the encirclement of the German army.

But now it is not the Crimean Peninsula that is important, but the Soviet troops in the encirclement of Kiev, which has already been encircled and is dying.

After the officer finished talking about the relatively smooth direction of Poltava, sure enough, he mentioned Kyiv in the encirclement.

He did not say anything about the bad situation in the Kyiv encirclement, but only mentioned the morale in the encirclement: "The morale of the troops in Kyiv is high!" The commander of the defenders, Comrade Govorov, is consolidating his own line of defense! ”

Then, it's time to defend as usual. Govorov was also a famous general, so the army he commanded was still very worthy of recognition.

Therefore, the promise given by this Soviet officer was very inspiring, and the secretary general around Stalin was a little overjoyed: "The defense line of our army in the Kiev region is very complete, and it can hold it for at least more than a month!" ”

However, after the heart was excited, the secretary general, who was always hit, still poured a basin of cold water out: "Don't say it so absolutely!" Comrade Stalin has heard enough of such unrealistic promises! We want the most conservative time! It's not time to brag about it! ”

The officer who reported knew that the defenders at the front were too much to brag, so he quickly changed his words and said: "Conservative estimate...... Can you hold on for a week? ”

Stalin heard about this time, but was a little dissatisfied. He looked at the reporting officer and asked coldly, "A week?" It's really a short time...... Stay there for as long as you can...... That's not too much to ask, isn't it? ”

"We are confident that we will hold on there for two weeks! In accordance with the plan of Comrade General Govorov, we also deployed forces in the Brovare area! There we can also fight the aggressor! Hearing Stalin's question, the officer raised the target to two more weeks.

If it is a serious military meeting, this kind of nonsense time is simply a joke. Stalin's belief in such a promise also shows how chaotic and unbearable the Soviet Union is today.

On weekdays, when Zhukov or Vatutin was by Stalin's side, eighty percent of them would ask: "How is this time estimated and estimated?" ”

But now the generals who can fight are no longer with Stalin, and these staff officers can only talk nonsense.

"I have a lot of confidence in you! I hope you can live up to your promises! Stalin nodded and spoke.

He had to believe it, and he was happy to believe it. After all, talking about morale and talking about exaggerated holding on to the time would have convinced him that the Soviet Union could win the war.

Although the current situation is dire and most people do not see any hope - Stalin personally has to keep fighting, so he needs all kinds of victories to support his convictions.

Even if some of these victories were fake, or if all of them were fake, it didn't matter. He just needed a reason to keep going, and he just wanted to continue fighting the Germans.

"Send a telegram to General Govorov! Promote him to Marshal of the Soviet Union! Victory belongs to the great Soviets, and victory will surely belong to us! Stalin held his head high and said firmly.

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7th update! Long Ling worked hard today! There will be an 8th update in a moment!