On July 1, drums were playing at the military airfield in the western suburbs of Minsk, but the military band was not playing "God Save the Tsar", and although no one sang it, the melody of "Long Live the Laurels of the Victors" was all too familiar, but it could be heard everywhere the black, white and red tricolor of the German Empire was raised.

Before landing, Chen Tian deliberately let the pilot fly the plane over the city of Minsk, as he expected, the whole city was silent, there was no smoke or fire, the collapsed houses and damaged streets were mostly damaged in the bombing of the Luftwaffe, the German ground forces did not encounter strong resistance from the Russian army when they occupied the city, to be precise, the vast majority of the defenders had already abandoned the city.

Escorted by two squadrons of fighters, Chentian's special plane finally landed slowly on a large military airfield that had been built by the German engineering troops only three days earlier. This special plane can be described as Germany's "Air Force One", although it is not the largest aircraft in Germany, but it must be the most complete one in terms of performance and equipment, it has 24 single-wing four engines, a maximum take-off weight of 22 tons, and the use of strong armor protection in key parts, with a maximum speed of 410 kilometers per hour and a maximum flight distance of 4,700 kilometers.

As soon as the plane stopped, more than 500 officers and soldiers of the Royal Praetorian Guard, who had arrived in advance, quickly came up to deploy a cordon, although it was said that Skesk had been occupied by the Germans a week ago, and at this time the German northern cluster had advanced the battle line to more than 200 kilometers northeast of Minsk, but after all, this was Russian land, and the generals in charge of the Kaiser's security did not dare to slack off.

Anyway, it wasn't a formal friendly visit, and when Chen Tian walked out of the cabin, he didn't pose those generous waves, but walked down the gangway quickly to greet Ollie. Marshal Kahn shook hands cordially, and by this time Oli's general command of the front had moved to Minsk, which was relatively close to the front.

"I haven't seen you for a few days, I've lost weight successfully, congratulations!" Chen Tian approached Ollie and teased in a low voice, indeed, don't look at the German field marshal who is usually chubby, and when the war starts, he will enter a state of forgetting to sleep and eat. It is also thanks to this body fat that he can consume it like this, but usually after a battle, he will inevitably lose twenty or thirty pounds, and his body shape before and after the war is almost like two people, but once life calms down, this guy will start to accumulate fat again.

"Heh, it's not like you're torturing your stomach!" Ollie said with a wry smile.

After shaking hands with the generals present one by one, Chen Tian and Oli rushed to the German front headquarters in the same car, and the battle of Kiev jointly launched by the German Central Cluster and the Southern Cluster was still in progress. If nothing else, this will be the last battle of the German army in southwestern Russia, because the remnants of the Russian Army Group South, with the exception of the 5th and 6th armies besieged in Kiev, with a total of more than 160,000 men, have retreated in the direction of Moscow under the command of Sokolov.

"Your Majesty, the situation in Finland has stabilized!"

In the car, Ollie, who had been busy with the war in the South, mentioned that he usually knew only a little about the war in the North, which was currently largely under the joint responsibility of the Luftwaffe and the Admiralty.

"Well, in the first battle of Vyborg, the Russian army lost more than 30,000 elite Guards soldiers, and was carpet bombed by our heavy bomber group during the day. After that, they retreated to the Isthmus of Karelia! Chen Tian turned his head. A little gloating, he said, "The Finns also know that the Russians are powerful this time, and they are very active in asking our troops to be stationed in Finland to assist in the defense!" Up to now.

We have arrived in Finland by air and sea with more than 70,000 soldiers, of whom about 30,000 are Marines! ”

"I heard that our Marines did well in the First World War of Vyborg!"

"Yes, the original Finns' Vyborg defense line is in danger, and it was our more than 5,000 marines who saved the battle! These brave lads proved by their actions that they were good at landing operations, and defensive operations were equally impressive! Chen Tian said and nodded slightly.

"Alas, they are all elites selected from our army!" Ollie looked very distressed, in fact, in the first few years the Marines were recruited from the German Army, and since 1922 they began to select soldiers directly from recruits, but in the joking words of the War Generals, they were still competing with them. After all, the Marine Corps is one step higher than the average army unit in all aspects.

Chen Tian didn't care too much about this kind of joke, as Germany's potential enemies decreased one by one, the German ** team no longer needed to maintain the huge size it once had, and when the Russian war was over, the army and navy would be reduced on a large scale, and the generals would not be worried about the selection of soldiers. However, the future world situation is still not calm, especially the Far East is still in turmoil, due to the sudden hardline attitude of Zhang Zuolin, the leader of the Feng warlords, the Feng army, which has a numerical advantage, still temporarily contained the offensive of the Japanese Kwantung Army. However, the Feng system, which had always relied heavily on Japanese funds, was not enough to confront a powerful Japan, and the attitude of the Nationalist government in Nanjing was very important. It is reported that after the Shenyang Incident, the Feng Department had sent people to the camp of the Northern Expeditionary Army to hold secret talks with Commander-in-Chief Chiang, and although the results were still unknown, the offensive of the Northern Expeditionary Army had slowed down significantly by the end of June.

"If it weren't for the elite division, how could it resist the crazy charge of tens of thousands of Russian troops with 5,200 light infantry! However, this battle also exposed a problem, that is, the Marines were very disadvantaged to fight without the cover of armored vehicles, and if they had even one armored battalion at that time, they should be able to launch a counterattack with remarkable results! ”

"Listen to Your Majesty's intentions, and plan to reorganize the light infantry division of the Marine Corps into a mixed combat division?"

Chen Tian nodded, "After the end of the Russian war, I hope that the Marine Corps can be reorganized, abolishing the distinction between heavy landing divisions, mixed combat divisions and light infantry divisions, and changing them to mixed combat divisions!" ”

"6 mixed combat divisions?" Ollie asked casually.

"10!" Chen Tian blurted out, "Or 12!" ”

"So much?" Ollie was very surprised at first, but after thinking about it carefully, he guessed what Chentian meant.

Chen Tian did not explain directly, but said: "Through the combat operations in Canada, we have clearly seen the performance of the army units and the Marine Corps in the landing operation, although the army is still the backbone of the landing operation, but the Marine Corps is an expert in the beachhead attack operation!" ”

In this way, the intention to increase the size of the Marine Corps is very obvious. Although the war against Japan has not yet been included in the written plan, preparations are being carried out in an orderly manner, such as restoring the size of the submarine force to the level of the late Anglo-German war, building 804 heavy aircraft carriers to replace the first aircraft carriers in service, and improving the performance of the carrier-based torpedo aircraft and carrier-based dive bombers in service.

The convoy soon arrived at a large villa on the edge of the city of Minsk, which had been requisitioned by the Germans as a former residence of Tsar Aglini. The city of Minsk originally had many famous buildings from the Agrini era, but unfortunately very few were preserved during the air raids, and the Luftwaffe was destroying the enemy's war potential on the one hand, and on the other hand, destroying cultural monuments, but all this was difficult to avoid.

The heat of July has reached its peak throughout the summer, but after getting out of the car, Chen Tian can feel the cool breeze blowing here, except for the grand buildings of ancient gray, everywhere is verdant, large areas of grass can be used as a golf course, and the trees look to be fifty or sixty years old, to say the least. There is also a small river not far away. It's a great place to cool off.

At this time, Chentian did not have time to enjoy the pleasant scenery here, although the German army won successive victories on all fronts, the situation was not enough to make people sit back and relax.

The more than 100,000 Russian troops in Kyiv have become turtles in the urn. But after all, it is a rearguard unit with a large number of wounded soldiers; Although the main force of the Russian Black Sea Fleet has been destroyed, it is clear that this is the fleet that the Empress decided to abandon before the war; The Turkish army was making good progress in the Caucasus, but failed to seize the opportunity to annihilate the Russian Caucasus Army in one fell swoop, and this elite mountain force was retreating into the Russian hinterland; As for the Russian revolutionary armed forces under the leadership of Stalin, although the territory is rapidly expanding, it still does not have the strength to compete with the main force of the Russian army, and all that can be done at present is to contain the Russian army and help maintain order in the German theater.

"Where is the vanguard of our northern cluster?" Tatsuten asked as soon as he entered, and Ollie followed him to the large map on the wall.

"Guderian's two advance armored battalions have arrived on the outskirts of Sokolniki and Smolensk this morning and have exchanged fire with the Russian troops stationed there!" Ollie took the long baton from the staff officer, "Here, Sokolniki. St. Petersburg is another 400 km; Smolensk, 419 km from Moscow! ”

"Smolensk ......" Chentian looked up at the map, and whispered the name of this place in his mouth, it may be just a simple place name for the German ** officials here, for Chentian, in another world it is one of the places where the German ** team and the Soviet Russian army met, the Germans won the battle, but the Russians strategically bought themselves precious time, although the German army captured more than 400,000 Soviet troops and captured a large amount of equipment in the Battle of Smolensk, opening the passage for the attack on Moscow. However, since the battle of Smolensk was fought on a frontal of nearly 650 kilometers and in depth of nearly 250 kilometers, the German combat units were extremely tired and were forced to stop the advance towards Moscow, which was the first time since the Soviet-German war that the German army was forced to stop attacking in the main direction and go on the defensive. At the same time as the victory, due to the stubborn resistance of the Soviet army, the German army itself also suffered heavy losses, the tank corps and motorized corps of Army Group "Center" lost nearly 50% of its personnel, and the infantry corps lost nearly 20% of its personnel, so that the German high command used nearly half of its strategic reserves to strengthen Army Group "Center" in the second month after the start of Barbarossa, and the Soviet high command gained time to prepare for the defense of Moscow and then crush the German army in the Battle of Moscow.

Will history repeat itself here?

Chen Tian is not worried about this, but he and his army can not relax and underestimate the enemy, as the gate to the Russian hinterland and important agricultural, animal husbandry, industrial areas, the Russian army will not ignore the strategic significance of Smolensk, and just two days ago, the Russian army retreating from Kiev has arrived in the area near Smolensk, and the Russian army retreating from Minsk has just arrived in Sokolniki.

"After continuing to retreat for thousands of kilometers, the remaining two main forces of the Russian army are also sleepy!" "I don't believe two legs can run through our wheels!" ”

Chen Tian continued to tilt his head, "Tell me about the situation of those two troops!" ”

"Yes, Your Majesty!" "The 4th Army, which fled from Minsk and was subordinate to Russia, was commanded by the 56-year-old Lieutenant General Mikhavolodin, who was only a small battalion commander during the time of Nicholas II, who made outstanding achievements in the Russian-Austrian campaign of Belarus and was appreciated by Agripleni I, and since then has participated in many battles against the Russian Revolutionary Army and has been promoted to major general, one of the few veterans who can survive the Empress's brutal purge of the army's command. Volodin, who was born in infantry, is said to have studied defensive warfare, presumably it was Sokolov's order that made him abandon Minsk early and retreat, there are still about 80,000 people along his way, basically all infantry, and the combat effectiveness should be similar to the 2 armies that were surrounded and annihilated by our army in Riga! ”

"The detachment from Kyiv belonging to the Russian 5th Army, under the personal command of Sokolov, the commander of the Russian Army Group South, the speed of the Russian army's march along this road is somewhat surprising, covering nearly 500 kilometers in 7 days, and it is under the condition of repeated bombardment by our air force! Sokolov is the absolute confidant of the empress, and he also climbed from a small company commander during the Nicholas II period to today's position, it is said that the command ability is very good, and there are more than 230,000 people when he retreats from Kiev along the way, because the blocking troops deployed along the way have been captured or annihilated by our army, it is estimated that there are still about 180,000 left! ”

Chen Tian didn't express his opinion, and asked again: "So where are the main forces of Gudri's armored army and Fleming's armored army now?" ”

"About 20 km from Sokolniki and Smolensk, respectively!" Ollie replied, "The two Panzer Corps are marching better than we expected!" If nothing else, they will be able to cut off the retreat of the two Russian armies tonight! ”

"So General Guderian will be less stressed?" Chen Tian speculated according to the strength of the two Russian armies.

"Not necessarily!" Ollie looked back at the map, "I'm afraid that the third Russian armored division has joined Volodin's forces!" ”

Chen Tian pondered, "The third armored division? It was deployed in St. Petersburg when it went to war! ”

"Back to Your Majesty, in order to avoid the bombardment, it has already quietly moved south, although there is no definite information yet, it is very likely that it is hidden somewhere near Sokolniki!" Ollie looked at Chentian squarely, if this speculation came true, Guderian's Panzer Corps was likely to encounter the Russian Panzer Division in a movement war, but compared to the Russian 1st and 2nd Panzer Divisions that were destroyed by the Luftwaffe on the Sokolov Line, the fate of the Russian Panzer Division did not seem to be much better.