Moscow, inside the Kremlin, night.

In a large room with a high roof and dimly lit walls, a row of maps hung on the walls, and Tukhachevsky paced slowly in front of the map with a cigarette in his mouth, his face ugly to death. To be honest, he never imagined that the Soviet Red Army would lose the strategic initiative in a world war, and even when he proposed to Trotsky to abandon Poland, he never imagined that the Soviet Red Army would switch from strategic offensive to strategic defense. So when he first thought about how to hold the large territory that the Red Army had defeated, he had just discovered that the strength of the Red Army was so insufficient!

Although the total strength of the Soviet Red Army and their European, Indian, Persian and Arab brothers together is about 20 million men, and the Soviet Red Army itself has a strong strength of nearly 800 divisions, it really seems to be a lot. But the number of enemies seems to be higher! After one year and eight months of mobilization, China, Britain and Germany have basically switched to wartime. The number of people in the squadron is estimated to have exceeded 10 million! The total strength of the British army, including the Anglo-Indian army, the South African army, the Australian New Army and the Canadian army, has reached about 5 million. The Wehrmacht has almost expanded to about 7 million. The sum of the three is already 22 million. If you add to that the miscellaneous armies of Italy, Romania, Hungary, Sweden, the Caliphate, the Indian Army, the Indian National Army, the North Korean Defense Force, and the Allah Army, the total strength of the reactionary army that went to war with the Soviet Union must have exceeded 30 million! And even more troublesome is the fact that the Soviet Red Army has gained a large territory in the offensive of 32 and 33 years. As a result, the Red Army's forces were scattered on relatively minor battlefields.

For example, the total strength of the Indian Front is about 3 million, of which nearly 600,000 belong to the descendants of the Soviet Red Army. In the Middle East, a battlefield that has basically "ceased fire", the Soviet Red Army still maintains a garrison of 500,000 troops. There are also similar numbers of Persian and Arab People's Armies. In Asia Minor, which had just been captured, the Soviet Red Army also maintained a garrison of 200,000 men. In the Balkans, the total strength of the Red Army, including the Romanian Red Army and the Bulgarian Red Army, amounted to 1.8 million. In Finland, the Soviet Red Army still maintained a military stock of 500,000 men. Counting down, nearly 6.5 million troops are placed on these relatively minor battlefields, of which there are no less than 180 divisions of the Soviet Red Army in the main row, accounting for nearly a quarter of the total strength of the Red Army!

If only nearly 3 million Soviets were sent to those battlefields, it would be enough. The Soviet Union, with a population of 155 million, did not lack these people. But the logistical supply of the thirty or so Soviet Red Army groups, as well as the much larger revolutionary armies of fraternal countries, is not an easy problem to solve. They are also far from the heavy industrial centers of the Soviet Union, and there is not necessarily a railway connection to the Soviet mainland, as for shipping, it is not even a matter of thinking, and hundreds of thousands of tons of military supplies can only be transported by road. And the trucks on the Soviet side were still insufficient. Normally, it can only be dragged by manpower and animal power, and the various expenses along the way are probably more than those transported to the hands of the front-line troops.

However, while the war was enormous, the industrial and agricultural production of the Soviet Union showed a trend of sluggish growth. Since the Soviet system has always been quasi-wartime, there is not much room for improvement even in wartime. Moreover, the large number of young men conscripted into the Red Army also contributed to the shortage of labour in the field of industrial and agricultural production, especially since the area sown in agriculture had been declining for two consecutive years, and was estimated to decline further in 1934. Now the food supply in the rear has begun to be tight, and there are even signs of famine in many places. The war potential of the USSR. I'm afraid it's going to come to an end soon, but I'm afraid the real hard war hasn't started yet, right?

"Comrade Shaposhnikov. What do you think? Tukhachevsky turned his head and stared into the eyes of his deputy. The two of them were the chief and deputy chiefs of the General Staff of the Soviet Red Army, and they were almost the soul of the military. Whether or not the next strategic defense can be prevented depends on the skills of their two "souls."

Tukhachevsky's question sounded like a never-ending question, but Shaposhnikov understood exactly what the other side meant. In the face of insufficient troops and even less supplies, if we want to do a good job in strategic defense, we must make targeted deployments. If the 800 divisions of the Soviet Red Army were evenly distributed to eight battlefields for defense, the final result would definitely be a dead end. However, it is not easy to make targeted deployments, after all, the Soviet intelligence agencies have no way to penetrate the core of the decision-making organs of China, Britain and Germany, and who knows what these imperialists are planning?

Since there is not enough exact information to refer to, then it can only rely on guesswork and character. Shaposhnikov had been guessing for a long time, and naturally had some thoughts: "Comrade Tukhachevsky, I think that the main direction of the imperialist attack has always been obvious, because among the three countries of China, Britain and Germany, Britain's land combat power is basically negligible, and it is China and Germany that can really constitute a wēixié for us. According to the division of theaters between China, Britain, and Germany, Germany is responsible for the two theaters of Eastern Europe and the Balkans, and China is responsible for the two theaters of the Far East and Central Asia. ”

Of course, it is also possible for an imperialist counteroffensive to begin in the other four theaters, first cutting off the wings of the Soviet Union and then attacking its core, but Shaposhnikov bets on another possibility.

"The scope has been narrowed down to four theaters of operations." Tukhachevsky nodded in agreement, he could not guess what his opponent thought, but he knew very well what battlefields could be lost and what battlefields could never be defeated. "But this is not enough, Comrade Shaposhnikov, we don't seem to have enough troops to hold the four areas mentioned above, so we have to ......"

"We have to concentrate our forces to break through one of them, and that's the only way to reverse the unfavorable strategic situation." Trotsky's voice suddenly sounded behind the two men.

"Comrade Chairman!"

The chief of the General Staff of the Red Army and the deputy chief of the General Staff hurriedly turned to salute Trotsky. Trotsky nodded, and returned the salute. Then he showed a gentle smile: "It's so late, you still haven't rested, have your bodies suffered?" ”

Tukhachevsky smiled: "Today it is me and Comrade Shaposhnikov on the night shift. There are no important battle reports to deal with, so let's discuss the future trend of the battle together. ”

"Then do you think it's feasible to concentrate your forces to break all the way?" Trotsky asked.

"How so," Tukhachevsky muttered for a moment. "Theoretically, of course, it is possible, but the situation in the four main battlefields where the big war is about to start is somewhat ...... It is very difficult to use such tactics, and it is very costly. ”

"Why?"

"First of all, in addition to the fact that the Eastern European theater and the Balkan theater are connected. The distances between the rest of the battlefields were very long. It was almost impossible to quickly deploy forces between battlefields, so we couldn't use the tactic of concentrating forces to defeat each one. If we concentrate our forces on one battlefield, we may be able to guarantee victory on that battlefield. But on the remaining three battlefields. We can all suffer a crushing defeat, and such an outcome will be difficult for us to bear.

Secondly, among the four main battlefields, there are actually still primary and secondary battles. Among them, the Eastern European battlefield is the most critical battlefield. The Far Eastern theater was second. The Central Asian and Balkan theaters were again the same. Therefore, the deployment of Chinese and German forces must also have priorities, and the main forces of the German army will inevitably be concentrated in the Eastern European battlefield, while the main forces of the Chinese army will be concentrated in the Far Eastern battlefield. If we concentrate our forces on a decisive battle with the enemy in the Eastern European or Far Eastern theaters, we may not be sure of victory, and we are very likely to be in a stalemate, and when the enemy in the other three theaters wins, we will still lose the entire war. ”

"So, do you think we should use the method of dividing the troops to slowly wear down the enemy?" Trotsky asked with some disappointment. Dividing troops to fight a war of attrition is fighting for national strength. At present, the human, material, and financial resources of China and Germany are far superior to those of the Soviet Union, and the results of consumption will certainly not be much better.

Tukhachevsky seems to feel the same way. He shook his head and said, "No, as you said, concentrating our forces to defeat one or two enemy forces is the only way to reverse our strategic passivity, so we can only fight like this, but we must consider all possibilities thoroughly, and find the best way to win at any cost." ”

"But our concentration of forces on one will inevitably create an emptiness in the other three, what is the best way to win?" Shaposhnikov asked, somewhat puzzled.

Tukhachevsky nodded and said: "There is a way, because the Soviet Union is a vast country, and now we will put our troops at the door of our house or even the enemy's house to fight a decisive battle with the opponent, which is far away from the enemy's big rear and close to our big rear, what if we change our thinking and put the enemy in to fight?" ”

"Put it in?" Trotsky's face hesitated. "Where? Comrade Tukhachevsky, can you make it clearer? ”

"Of course, on the territory of the USSR, like Marshal Kutuzov...... Well, it was the Tsar's lackey Kutuzov who dealt with Napoleon. Tukhachevsky mentioned Kutuzov, the famous Russian general who led the Russian army to defeat Napoleon's invading army, who was the idol of all Russian army officers before the revolution. However, after the revolution, Kutuzov was no longer a Russian national hero, but a lackey of the tsar. It is a great irony that a dignified GCIST military strategist should learn from a lackey.

"So...... Who was Napoleon? Trotsky asked.

"Chang Ruiqing and Hitler are both!" Tukhachevsky gritted his teeth. "If the world revolution wants to win, and if the Soviet motherland wants to survive, it must defeat the armies of Chang Ruiqing and Hitler...... Although their strength is far superior to that of the Red Army, the final victory must be ours! ”

"Comrade Tukhachevsky, let's talk about the specific ideas." Trotsky's eyes lit up, and he seemed to see hope for a reversal of the decline.

"Lure the enemy deeper!" In order to strengthen the tone, Tukhachevsky raised some voices: "At present, the core combat strength of the Chinese and German armies is powerful armored forces, according to intelligence, Germany has formed 20 to 25 armored divisions, 100 panzergrenadier divisions, and the German army has more than 18,000 tanks and artillery pieces!" China has 5 to 10 armored divisions, 50 panzergrenadier divisions and 10 armored cavalry divisions (some armored cavalry divisions have been upgraded to armored divisions), and has nearly 10,000 tanks and assault artillery! Moreover, both China and Germany have strong air forces and motorized/semi-motorized infantry.

One of the offensive tactics that should be adopted with such a level of equipment is the tactics of large-depth assault. Although in the past year or so, the Chinese and German armies have not launched a decent large-depth assault, it is only a matter of time before they master the tactics of large-depth assault at the level of the commanders of the two major events of China and Germany. In this year's war, most of the Chinese and German armies will launch a large-depth assault with perfect organization and coordination.

However, although this tactic is powerful, it also has a fatal flaw. The ammunition, fuel and spare parts consumed by the armored cluster and the air force in combat are astronomical and require a strong logistical support system. However, their advance speed is much faster than that of traditional infantry groups, so they must invest more manpower and material resources to establish a logistics support system that can keep up with the advance of armored groups, otherwise as the armored groups move away from their rear, their assault combat capabilities will be strictly subject to the logistics support system!

According to the information available to the present, neither China nor Germany has established a logistical support system corresponding to the size of their armored clusters! In fact, their huge armored forces rely on railways for supply, and China and Germany are both 'oil-poor countries', and they do not have enough fuel to supply their huge logistics fleets. If we can make up our mind to emulate Kutuzov's tactics, carry out the clearing of strong walls in the direction of the main attack of China and Germany, completely destroy railways, bridges, and other important transportation facilities, and organize a large number of guerrillas to attack the enemy's logistical lines of communication. At the same time, gather a large force in the deep area, wait for the enemy's attack momentum to be exhausted due to lack of supplies, and then launch a decisive counterattack! ”

"Comrade Shaposhnikov, what do you think?" Trotsky seemed to hesitate, knowing that Tukhachevsky's approach was feasible. But he also knows that the tactic of clearing the field and luring the enemy deep is definitely a way to kill 1,000 enemies and lose 3,000 yourself! Even if it narrowly wins in the end, the Soviet Union will definitely be exhausted, and it will no longer have the strength to liberate all mankind......