Smolensk was the bridgehead to defend Moscow after the occupation of Belarus by the Germans, and the Germans adopted their usual blitzkrieg scheme, and the 17th Panzer Division at the front, moving extremely quickly, crossed the Dnieper River and actually rushed to the south of the city of Smolensk!

But after all, they only had one armored force, and they were alone in the depths, and they originally planned to rely on the advantage of speed to directly take Smolensk.

At the same time, they almost succeeded, and when they rushed in from the south, they were met with militias, which were vulnerable and could be beaten at a glance. occupied the whole city, and as a result, the people on the opposite side blew up the bridge.

It was because they blew up the bridge in time that the 17th Panzer Division was stopped in the south of the city, and Lukin arrived with his men to confront the German troops across the river.

After holding out for a day or two, Timoshenko asked for new reinforcements, including the 29th, 30th, 28th, and 24th armies, and surrounded the German army from the outside.

In this way, the situation became very clever, and in the interior of the city, the 17th Panzer Division turned to the defense, they occupied the southern part of the city of Smolensk, and fought in a ping-pong battle with the surrounding encirclement troops, although the Soviets used several army groups, but they could not eat this force.

And at the same time that they were fighting the encirclement war, the rest of the German army was also attacking rapidly, and they did not advance directly to Smolensk, but boldly detoured to the rear, and the situation was quite skillful and old-fashioned, that is, to surround all these armies, and then eat them.

Now, it's up to both sides to see who is faster.

Eastern Smolensk, Yaltsevo.

Sitting on a Gorky buggy, a burly man, with his hands on the windshield in front, stood and looked ahead.

"Yes, this is an order given to me by the base camp, as long as the troops I encounter along the way, they will all be under my command, which part of you are from?"

"Report to the chief of staff in the back, he will give you a specific establishment, you now belong to the Rokossovsky cluster!"

Taking over the command of a company made Rokossovsky feel good, and then he saw a few tanks in a village in the distance!

"Quick, go over, get those tanks together!" Rokossovsky shouted loudly.

Konstantin Konstantinovich Rokossovsky, with the rank of major general, was one of the troika of the Soviet Army in the Great Patriotic War of the USSR along with Zhukov and Konev. He was calm-headed, calm-headed, unfazed, and repeatedly made war exploits in the adversity period of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union, and was hailed as a "hero of adversity".

Compared to Lukin, he is even more legendary.

Rokossovsky was born in 1896 in Veliko Luki, a city belonging to the Prakov region. His mother is Russian and his father is Polish.

Yes, it was because he was born with this half of Polish blood, so when the vigorous purge began, as the purge deepened, he was thrown into prison on charges of Polish espionage and other crimes, and he was about to be shot.

Compared to so many unlucky people who were executed, Rokossovsky was definitely lucky, because he knew Timoshenko.

When Timoshenko was still the commander of the 3rd Cavalry Army, Rokossovsky served under him as the commander of the cavalry division. Timoshenko knew his character and talent very well, so he wanted to get him.

It also happened that at this time the Soviet-Finnish war was unfavorable, and Timoshenko supported his old subordinates to Stalin on the grounds that the troops were in urgent need of command talents. So, with Stalin's acquiescence, Rokossovsky was "shot".

He was just shot with an empty bullet, and then under the name of a condemned prisoner, Rokossovsky was miraculously reinstated, and then the Soviet Union began to form a mechanized army, and he was promoted to the commander of the 9th mechanized army.

At the beginning of the war, Rokossovsky had commanded his 9th Mechanized Corps to fight in the direction of Kiev to the south, and just a few days earlier he had received an order from Moscow to hand over his troops to his deputy to Moscow for the task of creating a new army group.

At that time, he was in the General Staff, and he almost started a fight with others.

Now the Soviets have transferred all the main forces to Smolensk, and in the area from Smolensk to Moscow there is a terrible vacuum.

And Rokossovsky did not get any troops, there were several staff officers and a few soldiers, and this was his headquarters.

At the same time, according to Lukin's original method, he was given a right: from Moscow to Yaltsevo, all the remnants of the soldiers who had been withdrawn from the front line along the way were under his command, which was the basic team of the new army group.

This army group is known as the Rokossovsky cluster.

And now, Rokossovsky is building his cluster, and in the past few days, he has collected thousands of people, but there is still a long way to go to what he needs, especially since he does not have a decent tank unit yet!

The Germans were all armored divisions, and if his infantry encountered armored troops, it could only be the result of being defeated, so he had to have tanks.

Now seeing those tanks, how can you not excite him?

"Quick, quick, get over there!" Rokossovsky shouted loudly at his driver.

Gorky's car sped towards the village on that side.

"Hey, which part of you are in? I am General Rokossovsky, and now I order you, join my cluster. "With the experience of these few days, Rokossovsky is also familiar with the road.

As he got closer, he was pleasantly surprised to see that there were still a few Stalin tanks in it, which was a good thing, and it could compete head-on with the German tanks!

This time, Rokossovsky hit a wall.

After hearing his voice, a colonel came out of the village where he was stationed.

"We are the 238th Mechanized Division, we are under the command of Marshal Timoshenko, and now we are carrying out the orders of Marshal Timoshenko and heading towards Smolensk, I'm sorry, you don't have the right to order us." Division Commander Koroa said.

Rokossovsky could only be stragglers along the way, and this kind of well-organized and neat troops, of course, would not listen to his command.

However, looking at those Stalin tanks, Rokossovsky's eyes were hot, no, he said that he would have to bring them over!

"I have here an order signed by Comrade Stalin himself." Rokossovsky took out his own order and put it in front of the other party's eyes: "See? I have this authority, and now I command you to come with me! ”

"Who will rob Lao Tzu's troops?" Just then, a voice came.