The strength of the Russian army is very large, and there are countless numbers of various troops. However www.biquge.info unlike the strict large establishment of the Ming army, which was fully staffed, most of the unit numbers in the Russian army were not compiled. In other words, most of the troops are imaginary, and their strength is one level less than their names.

Just like the tank army mentioned by Zhukov, most of the tank armies in the Russian army are not satisfied, and their real strength may not be as good as a full tank army. If it is compared with the Ming army, it may only be about the same as a fully equipped armored division of the Ming army.

Grand Duke Nikolai knew very well that the three tank armies mentioned by Zhukov were definitely not those with empty tank armies, but in fact the vast majority of the troops were infantry shelf troops. Zhukov inevitably demanded troops similar to those of the 1st Tank Army, which had been fighting on the front line for a long time. And this kind of troops, not to mention him, even the Tsar did not have them. The two most powerful tank armies are now in the encirclement of the Ming army, waiting for their own people to rescue them. Grand Duke Nikolai also had no way to conjure up a few elite troops for Zhukov.

Of course, if the elite Allied troops were willing to obey his command. It's just that the Russian army has always behaved badly, and the allies say that they dare not hand over their troops to the Russians to command the battle.

"There are no more elite troops like this." Grand Duke Nikolai shook his head slightly, and said in a somewhat bitter voice, "All I can give you now is the tank brigade and the mechanized corps." I still have six tank brigades and four mechanized corps at my disposal, and I'll give them all to you. After a pause, Grand Duke Nicholas continued, "There are many more infantry, all for you." ”

"......" looked at the Grand Duke with a face full of hope, Zhukov opened his mouth and wanted to tell His Excellency that it was better for these troops to stay in place and use them as a reserve for the next Ming army to attack Moscow. In that case, there is still hope for holding on to Moscow. Once all these last mechanized troops are consumed in a hopeless rescue operation, let alone the troops of Prince Vasily, even Moscow will not be able to hold it!

Zhukov had no confidence in relieving Prince Vasily's troops. He has been fighting on the front-line battlefield for a long time, and he has a very clear understanding of the balance of strength between the enemy and us. Basically, a division of the Ming army dared to fight against an army or even a group army of the Russian army, and most of the time it was the Ming army that won the victory. At this moment, he is facing several group armies of the Ming army! He knew that with the strong strength of the Ming army, Prince Vasily's troops were basically doomed. It's just that he can't say this kind of thing.

looked at the old man in front of him, full of gray hair, but he still had to work day and night on the battlefield, and single-handedly promoted himself from an ordinary infantry division commander to his current position. Zhukov was also deeply moved by his spirit of giving everything for Russia.

Zhukov couldn't bear to refuse the Grand Duke with hope in his eyes, and after a moment of silence, he said in a deep voice: "I can't guarantee that I will be able to complete the combat mission. I suggest that if the rescue fails, then the rescue plan should be abandoned immediately, and the rescue force should not be included in any case. ”

"Okay, everything is up to you!"

......

The last days of July 1942 were a memorable moment for the Russian army. More than 400,000 elite troops were trapped in the encirclement of the Ming army's heavy army group, and there was no sign of escape. These besieged forces include a large number of mechanized troops, and the logistical supplies required by these mechanized units can be enormous.

More than 400,000 men and horses were surrounded by water, and so many troops had to eat and drink every day, and at least 1,000 tons of supplies were needed a day. And in the case of the cutting off of ground roads, the Allied air forces could not provide sufficient support to the encircled forces, even with full support. Their transport planes are capable of delivering less than 100 tons of supplies per day at most. You must know that the Ming Army Aviation has air supremacy. Even the less than 100 tons of material were able to be sent by the Allied air forces at a huge cost of casualties.

The Ming army did not sit idle after completing the encirclement, they only took a short rest and immediately launched a fierce attack on the surrounded Russian army from all directions.

In fact, according to the general tactical process, when the Ming army has completed the encirclement, the main attention should be focused on strengthening the defensive line and all-out siege. After all, so many troops have been cut off from supplies, and they will inevitably collapse on their own in the end.

If people don't have food to eat, they will have no strength and they will starve to death. And all kinds of vehicles will become scrap metal that cannot be moved without fuel. All kinds of weapons are refilled with flaming sticks without ammunition. As long as the Ming army firmly surrounds the Russian army, it will be able to eat these Russian troops at a very small cost.

But Zhang Cheng rejected this tactic of being safe and suffering few casualties. The reason is simple, this will reduce casualties, but it will waste the most important time for Zhang Cheng at this time. It will take a long time to surround the enemy army and wait for them to collapse on their own, after all, people can hold out for a long time even without eating, and the Russian army still has a lot of horses there to support for a while. Who knows how long the siege will end? At this time, Zhang Cheng was not willing to wait even an hour!

Under Zhang Cheng's order, the Ming army took the Sixth Panzer Army as the main force, supplemented by a large number of artillery and infantry units to comprehensively compress the Russian troops in the encirclement. The unusually all-out attack of the Ming army exceeded everyone's expectations. At this time, the Russian army was preparing to break through and respond, and they did not expect that the Ming army would launch a ferocious attack in such a short time, and they were immediately caught off guard.

Not to mention the Russians, even the Ming army's own troops did not think of it. Junmo, who was still arranging siege operations, received a telegram from Zhang Cheng himself, in which Zhang Cheng strictly ordered Junmo's Sixth Panzer Army to eat the Russian troops in the encirclement as soon as possible with the cooperation of the infantry, so as to buy time for the next attack on Moscow. As for the deadline for the end of the campaign, the sooner the better.

At this time, the main force of the 11th Panzer Army of the Ming Army had gradually withdrawn from the battle line, and opened a larger encirclement from the south of the battle line farther away, trying to encircle Zhukov's headquarters and the Russian infantry cluster in the south again. The Sixth Panzer Army, on the other hand, made every effort to encircle and annihilate the Russian troops in the encirclement with the cooperation of many infantry units.

The larger the size of the army, the higher the need for various supplies. Mechanized troops in this era are even more so. Because of the emphasis on mobility and rapid marching operations, front-line troops will generally only carry the standard base of ammunition and supplies. For example, at this time, Prince Vasily's troops were carrying supplies for the battle share.

The supply of the battle share seems to be a lot, but it is not enough to distribute it to hundreds of thousands of soldiers and thousands of vehicles.

Moreover, the fierce attack compression of the Ming army regardless of the cost of casualties led to the Russian army in the encirclement having to resist desperately, and the consumption of various ammunition and weapons rose rapidly. Because the Ming army's offensive was too fierce, the Russian army's position was constantly compressed and lost, although many Russian officers and soldiers could flee to the central area, but a lot of equipment and materials were left on the position and became the Ming army's trophies. This further increased the loss of Russian materiel.

By the time the time came on 3 August, the remaining forces of the Russian army in the encirclement had been compressed into a narrow area of more than 10 kilometers long and several kilometers wide. Lacking all types of supplies, these Russians had killed all their horses, including Prince Vasily's mount, which he had received as a birthday present from the Tsar. But that's still not enough to fill hundreds of thousands of mouths.

The encircled Russian army was only able to replenish the supplies through the night airdrops of the Allied air forces at this time. All personnel had been reduced to less than 200 grams per day, and there was nothing to eat other than brown bread and potatoes.

Almost all of the mechanized vehicles of these surrounded Russian troops have lost their fuel supply, the artillery lacks shells, the machine guns lack bullets, and the wounded have no medicine and bandages. The Russian army in the encirclement is facing unprecedented pressure. At this time, Zhukov had only just completed the deployment of the rescue corps. But Zhukov hesitated at this time.

The latest information sent by the Russian intelligence department indicates that the 11th Panzer Army of the Ming Army has broken the defensive positions of the troops on the southern front commanded by Pavlyuchenko and is making a rapid assault in the direction of Ryazan in a circle from the south. Once the 11th Tank Army of the Ming Army really captures Ryazan, it will not only be the Russian troops in the encirclement, but even Zhukov's rescue troops and Pavlyuchenko's Southern Front Corps will face huge risks.

In this case, Zhukov began to hesitate. He wanted to abandon the rescue plan and transfer his troops back to Ryazan to block the offensive of the Ming 11th Panzer Army. But the pressure from all sides prevented him from making up his final decision. Subsequently, Zhukov wasted two more days in hesitation.

When the time comes to August 5, the Russian troops in the encirclement are already extremely dangerous, and they may be completely eaten at any time. And Zhukov also understood that his hesitation affected the fighter. He immediately ordered a rescue operation. However, at the same time as the rescue operation was launched, Zhukov sent a telegram to Prince Vasily, who refused to leave his unit by plane, saying that there was only one chance for the rescue operation, and that Prince Vasily must be prepared. (To be continued.) )