When night fell, the rain stopped, and Yang Shuoming and the soldiers rested on the marching bed.

The lights are on, the green onions are stir-frying in the pot, and someone is sneezing.

"Add red! Be red! Let Lao Yang take a look at this authentic dish! ”

As the hot steam in the pot on the stove spread, the spicy air was scattered and wafting, and Yang Shuoming couldn't help but sneeze several times in a row.

"Have fun! It's going to be a spicy addict here! - Hey! You guys, get the table out! Lao Yang is willing to eat with us outside, but he is not diligent! A sergeant named Liu Changchun commanded with a smile.

The soldiers smiled and moved the table over, Yang Shuoming and the soldiers gathered around the table, at this time the spicy meat in the pot was extremely strong, Yang Shuoming couldn't help but swallow his saliva.

Although he was in a high position, he had seen many delicacies from the mountains and seas, but at this moment, the aroma of this pot of boiled meat slices and the warm atmosphere brought by the soldiers around him were incomparable to any delicacy.

"Boiled pork slices, farm dishes, you can do whatever you want." One soldier handed Yang Shuoming a pair of chopsticks, while another soldier took a military kettle, unscrewed the lid, and handed it to the crowd.

"Come, come, come! Fenjiu puree! A sip of wine and a mouthful of meat, stuffed with living immortals! ”

"What? Fenjiu? Hurry up, hurry up! Give me a bite! ”

"Hurry up, while it's hot, start eating!"

Together with the soldiers, Yang Shuoming stretched out his chopsticks and put a piece of meat in the pot and put it in his mouth, chewing it, the strong and spicy taste reminded him of the years of fighting with the soldiers when he was young.

Those days, although hard, but unforgettable.

A few sips of strong liquor were swallowed, and the cold air brought by the Siberian wilderness was dispelled.

Yang Shuoming listened to the conversation of the soldiers while eating the meat.

"If my dad knew we were so close to Moscow by now, his eyes would have to fall out, haha!"

"When was he? We're mechanized now! ”

"Yes! The troops now are very different from their old ones, and it doesn't mean that they can do it by arresting a person. Take our regiment as an example, the mechanized infantry regiment, if they come, they will have to see it! ”

"They're good to say - mechanization is driving a tank! Ha ha! ”

“…… Come! Old Sue! Let's take a sip! ”

"Good! When Moscow is defeated and the Red Tsar is captured, let's have another good drink, not drunk! ”

"Break into Moscow! Capture Stalin alive! ”

"Break into Moscow! Capture Stalin alive! After a while, the same roar was heard everywhere.

Listening to the roars of the soldiers, Yang Shuoming could feel the high morale of their bodies due to the victory, and the previous worries about the battle situation also disappeared without a trace.

In fact, as night fell, so did the siege of Sverdlov.

Although the losses of the [***] team have also been large so far, Yang Shuoming still firmly believes that he has won the battle. Because in more than 80 days of fierce fighting, the losses of the Soviet army were unprecedentedly huge.

Now he can truly feel that the road to victory, although difficult, is not unattainable.

But for Stalin, the shadow of defeat had completely overshadowed him.

At this time, Stalin, in his Kremlin office, was already in a state of frenzy and frustration in front of the vague reports on the table.

After the final battle, by July 8, 1944, most of the Soviet troops in the encirclement had been wiped out. Although in some places there were still some detachments of the Red Army continuing to fight, this did not prevent the command of the Chinese Central Army Group from declaring in an instruction on this day: "The two-way flanking attack on Sverdlovsk has been successful. On July 11, the war report of the Chinese High Command further claimed that 328898 Soviet troops had been captured and 4,332 tanks and 3,829 artillery pieces were captured (according to the Chinese standard, only corps and divisional artillery were included). Among the prisoners were Major General Nikin, commander of the 6th Cavalry Army, and Major General Makharov, deputy commander of the 11th Mechanized Army. Another captured Soviet general, Major General Yaravodov, commander of the 5th Infantry Division of the 113th Infantry Army, committed suicide after being captured.

The figures released by the Chinese may not be very accurate, but the crushing defeat of the Soviet Eastern Front in this great siege is an indisputable fact. The Siege of Sverdlovsk was the first large-scale encirclement battle in the Sino-Soviet War. Many of the heavy armies of the Soviet Union will be annihilated in the encirclement. In future battles, this effective combat method of using a powerful armored corps to carry out a large in-depth assault to encircle and annihilate the opponent's large corps will be used many times and become more mature.

According to the figures that have been calculated, by April 1 to June 22, 1944, the Soviet Red Army had lost a total of 1778751 people, including 698305 dead, missing, captured (the so-called pure attrition), and 180446 wounded and sick. The disproportion of net attrition to casualty reflects the fact that a large number of Soviet troops were encircled, including many wounded and sick. According to the figures published by the Chinese side, about 200,000 to 300,000 of these people were captured in a desperate situation where they were denied all the ammunition and were unorganized, and the remaining 600,000 to 700,000 were either killed in the battle or lurked. Quite a few of the latter later joined the guerrillas and were eliminated in later battles.

In terms of technical equipment, the Soviet Red Army lost 16,703 tanks, 28,749 artillery pieces and mortars, and 7,985 combat aircraft. A significant proportion of these weapons were abandoned or scrapped when they ran out of ammunition and fuel, or had a technical failure that could not be repaired, and a large number of them included old equipment, such as the "T-35" multi-turret heavy tank and the "BT" tank.

The new tanks of the Soviet army were not much better: all 63 "KV" heavy tanks of the 10th Division of the 15th Mechanized Army lost 56 units in the battle, in fact, they were abandoned due to malfunctions. The 8th Tank Division lost 43 of the 50 "KV" heavy tanks, all of which were destroyed in battle, 2 of the other 30 "T-34" tanks sank in the swamp, and the other 28 were all destroyed by the Chinese army. Of the 41st tank division's 22 KV-2 tanks, 15 were destroyed, the rest were lost due to breakdowns. This is not the case with new tanks, and old tanks that were almost scrapped before the war are being thrown everywhere in piles and piles. With large swathes of land occupied by the Chinese, almost all of this largely abandoned equipment fell into the hands of the enemy. This is confirmed by Chinese sources. According to Chinese statistics, as of June 30, 18,025 Soviet tanks had been captured. According to intelligence estimates, these tanks accounted for about 80-90% of the total number of tanks lost by the Soviet army during the same period. These tanks and vehicles also somehow made some trouble for the Chinese. Many lieutenant [***] officers have reported terrible situations in which their troops were blocked by Soviet vehicles clogged up with roads.

The heavy losses of the Soviet army were not only reflected in the huge number of losses. You must know that although the Red Army units whose entire divisions and entire armies were wiped out had many shortcomings, after all, they had received relatively good training before the war, and many of them still had a certain amount of actual combat experience. After the annihilation of these units, the Soviet army will not be able to train troops comparable to their combat effectiveness in the short term, and will have to rely on a large number of rapidly trained or even untrained recruits to make up for the huge casualties. In this case, the gap in quality between the Soviet armed forces and the Chinese army will be further widened, which can only mean even greater losses. The loss of technological weapons, especially the large amount of new technological equipment that was accumulated at great expense before the war, cannot be remedied in the short term.

Stalin, who remained in Moscow, although not very clear about the specifics of the front, already understood that the counter-assault, which he himself ordered, suffered terrible crushing defeats in almost every sector of the front. Pavlov's Eastern Front suffered the worst defeat: he not only lost the important town of Sverdlovsk (Stalin still knew this news from the Chinese broadcast), but also threw hundreds of thousands of troops into the circle of the Chinese. It is not known whether Stalin was aware of his own responsibility for this, but Stalin apparently realized that his once supreme power and prestige might be shaken by the sudden catastrophe before him, and Stalin left his office in the Kremlin.

Stalin's departure threw the members of the Politburo of the CPSU into chaos. Molotov told everyone that Stalin was so depressed, he had no interest in everything, he lost his initiative, and he was in a bad mood. Woznevsky was very angry when he heard these words, and he said: "Vyacheslav, you take the lead, we follow you." What he meant was that if Stalin was still in such a stagger, then Molotov would lead them, and they would follow him. They believed they could organize their defenses and be able to fight a real big fight. They weren't depressed. But Molotov, who was familiar with Stalin's surname, knew that he was by no means a man who gave up easily. They decided to go to him. He was in Beno in the suburbs. Eventually, the members of the Politburo came to Stalin's dacha.

The commissars came to Stalin's dacha. He was in the dining-room, sitting on a circle chair. He looked at the commissioners and asked, "What are you doing here?" He looked a little strange, and so did the question he asked. You know, he should have called them together.

On behalf of everyone, Molotov said that power should be concentrated in order to quickly solve various problems and mobilize the whole country as soon as possible. Such an institution should be headed by Stalin. Stalin looked at everyone in amazement and did not express any objections. "Okay," he said.

Everyone looked at each other, and they knew that for Stalin, the looming catastrophe was not only the kind of harm that could be inflicted on every citizen of the Soviet Union, but also the destruction of the "God on earth" that Stalin had promised to be. The "leader" is falling from a greater height than others. For a person who believes that he is outstanding, perceptive, and has a special mission, the fissure that appears under his feet is truly a bottomless abyss. Stalin was in a deep mental concussion, almost to the point of numbness.

Stalin probably thought that almost all the members of the Politburo had come to him with the intention of removing him from all his posts? Or even want to arrest him? Because the most convenient thing is to "blame" one person for all faults. He Stalin had long believed that there should be a "scapegoat" for any mistakes and failures. People should be angry and scolded those who are at fault. But Stalin's prestige in the hearts of his comrades-in-arms was so high that it seemed impossible for them to have such thoughts. Stalin was great in their eyes even when he was "downcast" (according to Molotov). If they have read Berdyaev's book, they will be reminded of his words: "A person can only fall from a height, so a person's fall itself indicates his greatness." This greatness was created by themselves for the "leader", and now it is hoped that he will remain in his original high place and lead them.

Stalin expressed to the visitors his intention to resign, because he suspected that they wanted to put all the blame on him Stalin. The comrades-in-arms immediately swore that not only did they have no such intentions, but were ready to let anyone with ulterior motives "go to hell", because "no one is more competent than you".

Stalin returned to the Kremlin. In the face of an extremely critical situation, he must concentrate all his power. The "Stavka" of the Supreme Command of the USSR was nominally headed by the Chairman of the People's Commissariat of Defense, Marshal Timoshenko, but in practice any decision was ineffective without Stalin's approval (the leader sometimes interfered with the use of a tank platoon of "KV" or the distribution of barbed wire). Stalin was the real supreme military commander with supreme authority (Yang Shuoming's military command was much more limited at the time), and he had to hold all the rear power in his hands. To this end, on June 30, a National Defense Committee was set up under his chairmanship, with Molotov as its vice-chairman and including Voroshilov, Malenkov, and Beria. All Soviet border regions, the People's Commissars of the military-industrial complex, and even the major industrial enterprises, infrastructure units were under the committee, or more precisely, under the direct control of Stalin himself.

Although Stalin's reluctance to admit that the unfavorable situation on the battlefield was largely due to him, the colossal defeat had already taught Stalin a lesson and forced him to make a strategic retreat. The Northeast Front was ordered to retreat and cover the Stalingrad direction; The Eastern Front retreated to Ulyanovsk, covering the Kuibyshev direction and preventing the Chinese from rushing to Moscow; And the Southeastern Front had to retreat to a more backward inner line defense.

While making retreat arrangements, Stalin, lacking knowledge of modern warfare, could not tactically come up with more ways to provide the troops at the front. Compared with his enemy, Yang Shuoming, Stalin knew too little about modern warfare, but he relied heavily on the air force. In the early days of the war, when the war situation deteriorated, Stalin's first thought was often to use the air force. In order to exercise more centralized leadership over the Air Force, he appointed on 29 June the Air Force Commander (the first commander was General Garev) with the powers of Deputy People's Commissar of National Defense.

If in the modern military field, Stalin was more or less a novice in the early days of the war, but he was rich in experience in the use of an iron fist. At a time of great tension in the war, Stalin did not forget to punish with an iron fist those who he believed to be responsible for the defeat: the commander of the Northeast Front, Colonel-General Kuznetsov, was removed from his post, and he was replaced by Major General Sobinkov, who had performed well, and the Deputy Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Vadutin, was appointed Chief of Staff of this Major General.

Compared with Pavlov, the commander of the Eastern Front, Kuznetsov, who was dismissed, was considered lucky. On Stalin's instructions, after Pavlov was dismissed (Timoshenko succeeded him), he was brought to a military tribunal along with Major General Korobkov, the former chief of staff of the Front, director of communications, and commander of the 4th Army (this person was arrested because Stalin ordered that the commander of one of the armies of the Eastern Front must be executed, and Major General Korobkov was the only commander of the army group of the Front who could be found at that time).

Although Pavlov and others were not responsible for the fiasco and were not enough to be sentenced to death, and although they were willing to serve on the front line as ordinary soldiers, in order to maintain the dignity of the leader, the court sentenced all four to death and confiscated all their property on July 2, 1944, according to Stalin's wishes. The military court, which was eager to complete the task, hastily pronounced the verdict, and directly pulled out the four people and shot them that night. In addition, the commander of the Air Force of the Southeastern Front, Putusin, the commander of the 41st Infantry Corps, Major General Kosobutsky, and the commander of the 9th Mixed Aviation Division, Zirnic, who was tragically destroyed in a sneak attack by the Chinese Air Force, were also shot. At the same time, in order to examine the Red Army soldiers who were prominent in the encirclement of the Chinese army, Stalin also approved the establishment of 25 screening battalions.

To escape the same fate, quite a few Soviet generals committed suicide. Among them were the commander of the Air Force of the Eastern Front, Kopez, the deputy commander of the mechanized 17th Army, Korochin, and, of course, the aforementioned military commissar of the Southeastern Front, Vashukin, although he was not yet a general.

No one accused Stalin of being arbitrary, of being a reader. Because for the Soviet Union and the Russian nation, which were facing an unprecedented crisis at that time, to withstand a powerful enemy, they had to accept Stalin and his wrists. It is an existential war, and any weakness and hesitation will lead to the demise of an entire nation.

The greatest thing that distinguishes Stalin, a leader who is not very well versed in military affairs, is that he has strong enough nerves to withstand one of the most terrible blows and shocking losses, and to learn war in this great school of war, where millions of people's lives are spent paying for their tuition. As the name Stalin indicates, he was "an iron-clad man."

(To be continued)