July 28, 1942 was definitely a bad day for the young Prince Vasily. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Just yesterday, Prince Vasily was still in high spirits and led a large army to pursue all the way to the Ming army, almost almost to Sarova. It took him only a few days to regain a large part of the country, and newspapers across the country sang his praises.

Prince Vasily was so excited at that time that he almost forgot his name. However, it was only one night, when Prince Vasily got up on the morning of July 28 to wash up and have breakfast. His lieutenant rushed in and brought terrible news to the prince, two powerful Ming armored units came out of the rear of the two wings of the legion, broke through the weak flank defenses of the legion, and rushed towards Sassovo like two sharp knives!

Prince Vasily immediately fainted and fell to the ground. He also graduated from a military academy, and although his grades were not good, he was still able to see the basic battlefield situation clearly. The Ming army is going to cut off the back road and surround him.

At this time, Prince Vasily remembered that when he handed over to Zhukov, the other party had warned him very seriously not to pursue and to protect his flanks. However, Prince Vasily was deceived by the good situation in front of him at that time, and he enthusiastically took Zhukov's admonition as a deaf ear, and desperately urged his troops to pursue the Ming army, intending to eat the elite unit of the Ming army, the Sixth Army, so as to achieve great things.

A few days ago, Prince Vasily had sent a telegram to his allies on both flanks, urging them to attack as soon as possible to protect his flanks. However, the friendly forces on both flanks are still making slow progress. And Prince Vasily, who was unwilling to miss the opportunity at that time, did not wait for the troops covering the flanks to come up and led his army to kill, and it was not until now that he received the bad news that he suddenly realized that he had fallen for his alumni.

When Prince Vasily was young, he studied at the Imperial Capital Lu University. Although the relationship between the two countries is not good, there is no problem for members of the royal family to study abroad. Prince Vasily had average grades when he was at Lu University, but he also knew what it meant to lure the enemy deep into the back road. I didn't find it before, or I didn't want to think about it. But now that the matter has come, it is useless for him to believe it even if he does not want to believe it.

Prince Vasily, who had finally come to his senses, hurriedly sent a telegram to Generals Denisov and Pavlyuchenko, who were on his flanks, ordering them to immediately come closer and cover the flanks. At the same time, a telegram was sent to Grand Duke Nikolai in Moscow asking for reinforcements. He even sent a telegram to the Tsar in St. Petersburg, asking for his brother's assistance.

The exchange of telegrams was quick, but it took time to come up with a practical plan. But the Ming army would not leave them much time to prepare. After careful planning and arrangement, and even the Ming army, which had clear rules on where it had to arrive every hour, had already broken through the fragile defense lines of the Russian army before dark, and the front of the troops was directed at Sassovo.

At this time, the elite units of the Russian army followed Prince Vasily into the encirclement, while most of the other main forces were still entangled with the infantry of the Ming army under the command of Denisov and Pavlyuchenko. There are quite a few reserves in the rear, but the nearest formed units at or above the division level are all near Ryazan, and it is simply impossible to rush to Sasovo in a short time.

The marching speed of the armored forces of the Ming army was extremely terrifying. The fully mechanized Ming armoured troops, supported by an almost endless stream of warplanes in the sky, pulled out a long torrent of steel and surged through the field. Even with the resistance of the Russian army, they can march more than 150 kilometers every day! And this is still without counting the time of the night march.

By the evening of the next day, the Ming armored forces that had suddenly been killed from both flanks had successfully converged in Sassovo, and they had recaptured the city that had been lost so long ago. And the reinforcements of the Russians are still halfway at the moment.

More than 400,000 elite Russian troops, including the 1st and 9th Tank Armies and most of the 3rd, 22nd and 27th Infantry Armies under the command of Prince Vasily, were surrounded in the area from Sassovo to Sarova. After the fall of Sassovo, these Russian troops were cut off from supply routes on land and surrounded by millions of Ming troops.

At this time, Denisov and Pavlyuchenko, who were responsible for covering Prince Vasily's flanks, had made little progress when Zhukov was in command of the Central Corps, and were also helpless now.

It's not that these two old generals are passive and sabotage, even if they are passive sabotage, it is Zhukov who was born as a civilian, and now that the commander has been replaced by the tsar's younger brother, how can they continue to be passive and sabotage? The main reason why they have not made progress is that they do not have enough strength at hand.

Denisov and Pavlyuchenko led infantry groups, and although they were outnumbered, they were not provided with enough heavy weapons, especially heavy artillery and tanks. As a result, they could not form an effective offensive in the face of the Ming army's strong defensive positions, and could only use the sea of people to fill in the Ming army's trenches. In this era of automated weapons, in the face of dense machine guns and machine guns and overwhelming shelling, crowd tactics have become completely outdated.

The infantry divisions of the Ming Dynasty were equipped with battalion-level armored units, and they also had strong artillery power. In this case, the Russian army, relying solely on the number of infantry, would not be able to penetrate the Ming defenses in any case. Denisov and Pavlyuchenko did not contribute to the force, but they did not contribute but could not make a difference.

The two infantry armies of the Ming Army's Central Army Group have always held the battle line, firmly tearing apart the two wings of Prince Vasily, providing an opportunity for the surprise attack of the armored forces.

Because the Ming army has air supremacy, it is difficult for the Russian army to grasp the movement of the Ming army. In fact, the troops that Prince Vasily pursued along the way were only the 9th Panzer Army. Other units of the 6th Panzer Army had long been secretly moving to the northern part of Prince Vasily. After Prince Vasily led his troops into the encirclement, the Sixth Panzer Army and the Eleventh Panzer Army in the south attacked together, and the turbulent torrent of thousands of tanks and armored vehicles was not something that the Russian army could resist at all.

The Ming armored troops, which have ultra-high mobility capabilities, have broken down the Russian army's defenses like two huge iron pincers encircling Prince Vasily's troops.

The situation changed very quickly, and in just a few days, the Russian army, which was still marching forward, was made dumplings by the Ming army in a blink of an eye. The whole of Russia came to their senses from the great surprise, and everyone panicked.

In fact, the Russian army was very numerous, after all, they had a good advantage in population resources, and there were many people who could go to war with rifles. Although being surrounded by more than 400,000 troops is also a huge loss, it is still within the range of at least relative to the tens of millions of Russian troops.

However, this surrounded force is no ordinary Russian infantry. Among this army, there are two tank armies, one is a veteran who has been fighting on the front line with the Ming army for a long time, and the other is an ace reserve formed by the elite drawn from various units. These two tank armies are the only two units of the Russian army that have been able to remain at full strength for a long time and have been greatly strengthened. But this time it's all fenced off.

In addition to these two tank armies, the infantry and the independent The tank brigade and mechanized army are also rare elite units in the hands of the Russian army. Most of the officers and soldiers of the besieged Russian army had gone to school, which was very rare among the Russian army, which was full of serfs. In addition to the troops, at least more than 2,000 tanks of various types, as well as numerous mechanized vehicles, artillery and a large amount of supplies were all trapped in the encirclement.

To put it simply, these troops are like a state. The Fifth Army in the Army. In the Russian army, which is dominated by infantry, once so many mechanized troops are really lost, it is too small to say that it hurts the muscles and bones. But now the Russians have no way to cope with the current situation. There is an even worse situation that is that in this situation, when the Ming army continues to attack Moscow, the Russians can no longer have strong troops to resist!

Grand Duke Nicholas had many troops in his hands, but most of them were infantry. And if you want to use infantry to attack the blockade line formed by the armored forces of the Ming army, you are really looking for death. The Russian army had neither air supremacy nor could it concentrate a powerful armored force in a short period of time to assault the Ming army's defensive line, and they fell into collapse in an instant.

After quick negotiations, Zhukov, who was in St. Petersburg, was redeployed back to Moscow before he could familiarize himself with his office in the General Staff. However, in order to save the face of the bigwigs involved in Zhukov's job transfer, Zhukov returned to Moscow as a battlefield observer this time.

"Konstantinovich, it's all up to you this time." After seeing Zhukov, several Grand Duke Nikolai, who was sweating profusely, stepped forward and grabbed Zhukov's hand and said eagerly, "Please rescue Prince Vasily's troops no matter what." I can put all the troops at your command, and you must bring them all back!" ”

Unlike the bigwigs in St. Petersburg, Grand Duke Nikolai, who had been on the front line for a long time, knew very well the situation on the battlefield and how important the troops at the hands of Prince Vasily were. After seeing the most capable general in his heart, Grand Duke Nikolai immediately asked Zhukov to rescue the besieged troops. It's just that Zhukov is shaking his head.

"Your Excellency, Your Excellency." Zhukov sorted out his words and said, "If you want to rescue the besieged troops in this situation, no one can do it unless you can give me three tank armies and strong air support." ”

"What? Three tank armies? Grand Duke Nikolai was dumbfounded. (To be continued.) )