Obviously, to put it bluntly, the debate is a question of left or right, with Trotsky and Tukhachevsky representing the radical left, while Li Xiaofeng represents the "conservative" right. However, this is not the core of the problem, both left and right are appearances, and the core essence is still a question of military line.

Tukhachevsky believes that after a big retreat in the previous stage, the Red Army has initially stabilized its defensive line by exchanging space for time. Then the next thing to do is to regain the initiative and turn a passive defense into an active offense.

Naturally, Tukhachevsky did not want to see the "rightists" who demanded to remain on the defensive and to put safety first, and he had to establish in the army the notion that he could not retreat even a single step.

However, Li Xiaofeng's perception is completely different, he believes that the Red Army has not completely gained a firm foothold, this newly formed front is also shaky, and the current situation is far from good enough to consider regaining the initiative in the war or even taking the initiative to counterattack and defeat the enemy. He believes that the current situation is still quite bad, the Red Army's losses are not small, the mechanized units established before the war have suffered heavy losses, a considerable part of the technical weapons have either been destroyed or have been voluntarily abandoned, and it can be said that the level of the Red Army's combat effectiveness has suddenly regressed to the early thirties.

In such an unfavorable situation, the first thing the Red Army had to think about was not a counterattack, but a real foothold and a return to strength, especially considering that the winter of 1941 was approaching and supplies would become very tight.

Li Xiaofeng believed that the Red Army's immediate priority was to really gain a foothold, to keep the German army out of Russia with a strong defensive line, and to take advantage of the winter to reorganize and train its troops. Lay a solid foundation for the battle in the coming year.

So. Earlier, he said at a meeting of the Politburo: "The situation is far from improving. In the previous three months of fighting, we lost about 750,000 elite troops, and a large number of technical weapons also need to be replenished urgently, especially it must be noted that the defense line we are building now is still very fragile, especially at the junction of Belarus and Ukraine, our army is very weak, and the possibility of the enemy taking advantage of the situation cannot be ruled out. So. Now we have to think not about offense, but about defense! Before winter comes, we must prepare for a new offensive of the enemy, starting with filling the gap between the 6th and 16th armies! ”

It is conceivable that Tukhachevsky was not satisfied with such a strategic approach, he thought that Li Xiaofeng was too fussful, and although the troops of Rokossovsky and Lukin were indeed a little weaker, he thought that Guderian was not much stronger, and he said: "After three months of attrition, the loss of Guderian's armored clusters is quite large. Judging from the experience of the Polish and French campaigns, the enemy's second tank group was already at the end of its rope. Rokossovsky and Lukin as long as they are not too bad. It is completely possible to block Guderian. ”

Tukhachevsky's idea was: "Our army has amassed about two million troops in Belarus, and the German troops in this direction are roughly the same number, and when a considerable number of the second tank group is pinned down by a small number of 6th and 16th groups, in the Minsk direction, our forces are superior." It is quite possible for our army to take the initiative in this area, to fight one or two battles of annihilation, and to force the third tank group to retreat. ”

Obviously, Tukhachevsky's old mistakes have returned, he still wants to attack too much, and he wants to win one or two battles to make a name for himself. The question is, is this possible?

That's impossible, although there is no problem with Tukhachevsky's judgment, in the Minsk direction, the Red Army does have a certain advantage, but the problem is that this advantage is too weak, and it can even be said that the Red Army is full of disadvantages in all respects, except for the superiority in troops.

For example, the Red Army lost a large number of tanks in the previous two counterattacks and retreats, according to the pre-war establishment, a mechanized corps should have more than 1,000 tanks, but at this time the Red Army mechanized corps in the surrounding areas of Minsk had an average of only 400 tanks, and note that nearly half of these 400 tanks are old T-26 and BT-5, and the more advanced T-34, T-35 and T-54 are less than 100.

It should be said that the strength of the mechanized army before the war has been depleted, and it is really not a good choice to launch a counterattack at this time.

Not only was the strength of the mechanized corps insufficient, but the infantry also generally felt the lack of heavy weapons (a considerable part of the artillery was abandoned or destroyed on the spot), and the divisional artillery regiments were generally only one and a half battalions.

The Air Force also had the problem of insufficient strength, but their problem was not that they had too many losses, but that the batch of I-15, I-16, SB-2 and DB-3 produced in the thirties before the war seemed to be useless in this war, and could only take on a small number of combat missions or simply used as training aircraft.

The production of new Yak and Lager fighters, as well as bombers and attack aircraft, is not enough to fully offset the vacancy of these aircraft, and it will take time to train pilots. All in all, the Air Force appears to be in limbo and will take time to transition.

In general, the Red Army looked weak and urgently needed to regroup, and this took time. If the counterattack is carried out in a foolish manner, the Red Army will probably suffer more losses and more holes that need to be filled.

According to Li Xiaofeng's estimate, it will take at least half a year for the Red Army to catch its breath, and it may even take longer, and the most optimistic estimate is that the Red Army will only have the ability to counterattack in the second half of 1942.

The differences between Tukhachevsky and Li Xiaofeng are too great, and the attitudes of the supporters behind them are more ambiguous. Speaking of Trotsky first, was old Torotsky still taken into the ditch by Tukhachevsky?

I am afraid that this is not the case, Trotsky did not approve of Tukhachevsky's idea of launching a new counterattack as soon as possible, and as Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, after all sorts of figures were summed up with him, he would have come to the conclusion that the Red Army needed to recuperate and regain its strength.

So he did not approve of Tukhachevsky's proposal, had little interest in countering it, and the reason why he supported the "leftist" views was simple. First of all. He was against the counterattack though. But that doesn't mean he agrees to continue trading space for time. In his opinion, the Red Army must not retreat, and if it retreats, it will probably have to defend Moscow or Leningrad. This is no joke, the tsarist army of the First World War did not allow the Germans to reach Leningrad and Moscow, and the great Red Army, which was more combative, actually lowered the lower limit, which is absolutely intolerable!

Therefore, Trotsky thought it necessary to emphasize the idea that every inch of land must be contested, and it was necessary to let this concept penetrate thoroughly into the hearts of the officers and men of the Red Army.

Secondly, it was Li Xiaofeng who led the rectification movement, and he was not against Trotsky. At this time, it was not only Sverdlov who realized the strength of someone in the army, but Trotsky also felt that someone was too powerful in the army, and if someone was allowed to do whatever he wanted, the Soviet Red Army would change its surname from the Bolsheviks to Sbelsky.

Trotsky was highly vigilant about someone's ambitions, so when someone took aim at the "old revolutions" who had gone through the revolutionary war at home but had been bleak after the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, he could not help but think that someone was preparing to cut the corners of the party.

Naturally, Trotsky would not let Li Xiaofeng get his way, and he must resolutely oppose it. And this was the key reason why Trotsky supported the "left".

Like Trotsky, Sverdlov was ambiguous about what to do with the rectification. For Xiao Si. In fact, he was not very interested in rectification, and in his opinion, the Red Army could defeat the invading German army in the end. The so-called rectification is fundamentally a by-product of the spread of political struggle to the military field.

It was only when he discovered that both Li Xiaofeng and Trotsky attached great importance to this rectification movement, and that Lenin had made a rare statement of support, that he suddenly realized that this was an opportunity for him. If he can strengthen his power in the military through rectification, then why not rectification?

Moreover, compared with the traditional military field, rectification can be said to be a matter of politics, and at the political level, Xiao Si does not consider himself worse than Trotsky and Li Xiaofeng. But it is a pity that Xiao Si's movements are too slow, and as at the beginning of the Big Three era, his reaction in this regard is simply slower than that of a snail, when Trotsky stands clearly on the side of the left, when Li Xiaofeng raises the banner of the right, Xiao Si once again finds that he cannot find a market.

If you want to expand your political power, you have to win over people, and now that the left has followed Trotsky, and the right has united on Li Xiaofeng's side, poor Xiao Si is once again confused, and he is afraid that he wants to sigh: "Which are my people!" ”

Fortunately, after the lessons learned during the Big Three period, Xiao Si already has a way to deal with this passive situation, and Li Xiaofeng was stunned to find a different way at the beginning, and this time he is ready to continue to flicker like the cat and the tiger.

Xiao Si chose a so-called middle line, declaring: "In times of war, blind left or extreme right are inappropriate, and the core of the rectification movement is not to rectify people, but to save." It is necessary to give priority to criticism and education, to give people the opportunity to turn over a new leaf, to foster the Red Army's courageous and fearless fighting spirit, and to avoid unrealistic and unrealistic brute action that ignores science! ”

Anyway, when he said this, Sverdlov was full of confidence, he thought that the standard of his speech was too high, and neither the left nor the right would oppose him, and at the same time he could win over two completely different factions, and indirectly hack Trotsky and Li Xiaofeng.

There may be comrades who have questions, where is Xiao Si black? Very simply, it can be seen from his last sentence that this sentence is nothing more than saying that the right is capitulationist and lacks the will to fight stubbornly, while the left only knows how to blindly act brute and does not pay attention to science. It is tantamount to buttoning the hats of both Li Xiaofeng and Trotsky. Looking at the rectification he said earlier, it is not a rectification of people, isn't it clearly scolding Trotsky and Li Xiaofeng for playing on the topic!

So what is the actual effect of Xiao Si's statement? That really can only be hehe, because not the middle route can be taken at any time, and sometimes the middle route means that both ends are not pleased, and now Xiao Si is facing such a dilemma.

Because Xiao Si did not understand the essence of this rectification at all, he foolishly thought that this was a political struggle between Li Xiaofeng and Trotsky for power and profit, and thought that as long as he curry favor with both sides, he could win the hearts of the people.

I have to say that Xiao Si's starting point is wrong. It is true that this rectification is a political struggle, but the fundamental cause of the struggle is the struggle for the right to speak between the old and new generations of commanders. Since the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, there have been issues of operations and command. The older generation of commanders, who had grown up during the revolutionary war in the country, and the new generation of commanders who had systematically received military school education, were at odds with each other on a number of issues.

For example, the older generation generally has a lower level of education. Even if it was trained by a military academy later. But the natural foundation is there, which seems very rough, and their understanding of the war has been affected by the previous domestic revolutionary war. For example, they generally do not attach importance to defense, for example, they generally do not attach importance to casualties, they like to act brutally, and they also advocate using revolutionary attacks to counter the enemy's counterrevolutionary attacks, so as to defeat the opponent with offensive attacks.

The latter group of new academics were systematically educated, and their experience in the Spanish Civil War and the war against Japan in the Far East gave them a completely different understanding of war from that of the old revolutionaries. They don't like the old experience. It is believed that the tactics of the Red Army could have been more abundant, and it is not considered that defense is a mistake.

Obviously, these two factions are not together, the former thinks that one generation is not as good as the next, thinks that the academics think too much and do too little, thinks that fighting a war is not a map homework, and pays attention to a ruthless spirit, and thinks that the academics are too concerned about casualties, so much so that they forget how to strive for victory.

And the latter thinks that the old revolutionaries are all a bunch of turtles, and they can only do brute things. He is not good at thinking, and he does not know how to study strategy and tactics. will only use human life to fill holes, and such a war is simply a disregard for human life, so it is natural to resolutely resist it.

In the final analysis, this is a debate between the old and the new thinking, and represents the Red Army's understanding of the direction of future warfare, whether to bring simple and crude manpower-intensive tactics to the extreme, or to carry out industrial upgrading and play more technical tactics.

All in all, the arguments between the two factions are completely opposite, there is no middle way, and Sverdlov's hope of pleasing both ends is doomed to be unreliable at both ends. Let's put it this way, the centrists that Xiao Si wants to win over are basically mixed in the punishment camp or the guilty meritorious service company, and these people have no value at all, which dooms Xiao Si to be a blind man lighting a lamp in vain.

So who will win on the left or the right? I am afraid that this is a rather long-term process of struggle, and it may even accompany the entire course of the Great Patriotic War, after all, the struggle of soldiers in the final analysis depends on the achievements on the battlefield.

But for the time being, Li Xiaofeng has a slight upper hand, why? Because neither officers nor soldiers are fools, judging by the situation in the three months since the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, the leftists who advocated a fierce attack have nothing to gain but a large number of casualties, and such a result is naturally unpleasant.

On the other hand, although the rightists do not have any outstanding appearances, their voices of respect for every soldier and their earnest demand for the improvement of tactical tactics are still very attractive. It's a very simple truth, one side will only make you stupid to die, and the other side says that you don't have to send death like this at all, which side will you vote for?

Anyway, in the minds of middle- and grass-roots officers and soldiers, the rightists are more marketable, and the vast majority of grass-roots officers and soldiers welcome the ideas of the rightists. The key reason why Li Xiaofeng's side has not yet established an overwhelming superiority lies in the middle and high-ranking officers, a large part of whom grew up during the domestic revolutionary war, and they have accepted the traditional tactics of the Red Army, believing that this is the Bible that cannot be desecrated, and the power of a large number of middle and high-ranking officers to hold together cannot be underestimated.

If Li Xiaofeng wants to win, I am afraid that he can only sweep away this group of people, otherwise it will be difficult for the Red Army to achieve unity of opinion. Of course, this is also a long-term process, and it is neither possible nor realistic to achieve it overnight, Li Xiaofeng can only move forward slowly step by step.

For example, in the current first leg of the confrontation, the core issue is whether to carry out a Minsk counterattack, and the left is unanimously saying yes, and the right is strongly opposed. This quarrel directly involved all the high-ranking generals at the level of the front army, the large military region, and the Central Military Commission, and the meetings were one after another, and the quarrels never stopped.

It wasn't until the tank cluster of the German Army Group South suddenly appeared in Mozyr that it easily cleared the garrison left by Rokossovsky, and then crossed the river north to cooperate with Guderian to flank the Sixth Army, and after two days of fierce fighting, Rokossovsky was completely repulsed.

When this information was on the desks of the Military Commission and the Politburo, the debate over whether to launch a Minsk counterattack came to an end for the time being.

In the words of Trotsky: "Now the enemy has once again broken through the weak lines of our army, and as soon as the enemy crosses the Dnieper, it will cause a chain reaction." What we have to do is to hold back the enemy troops, stop the enemy on the west bank of the Dnieper and prevent them from invading Russia one step! ”

After a pause, Trotsky said in an unquestionable tone: "Troops should be immediately drawn from the Minsk direction to reinforce the 6th Army, and the 16th Army should be ordered to go to the Dnieper to build a strong defensive line!" ”

Trotsky's opinion was very marketable, and the Belorussian Front was once again mobilized rapidly, with reinforcements rapidly moving in the direction of the Dnieper, and there was an ambition to stop the Germans at any cost.

But for this ambition, Li Xiaofeng scoffed: "I said a long time ago that Rokossovsky and Lukin are very empty and need to be paid attention to, but as a result, the General Staff did not listen, and they made small moves under the pretext of defending Minsk." Now it's okay, Rokossovsky was broken through, the fire was all burned to the roof before thinking about going to extinguish the fire, it's too late! (To be continued......)

PS: Bow and thank Ma Shen Bobo, Shen Shanshan, Fat Man Fei Ah Fei and Comrade Juventus!