In the face of the sudden attack, the military leaders of the two northern countries were completely confused, and before they could discuss a countermeasure, Lieutenant General Zhukov's troops surrounded the 60,000 troops of the two countries stationed at the forefront. Zhukov did not dare to waste time at all, and he immediately ordered all the heavy artillery to shoot at the covered area of the surrounded army.

The frightened armies of the two countries were in a state of confusion, and they were shelled by superior firepower, and they did not even have time to react, and were immediately overwhelmed by artillery fire. The dense coverage of a large number of artillery shells completely demoralized the already not very elite armies of the two countries, and they immediately surrendered after the Cossack chariots surrounded them.

Overnight, the combined forces of the two countries lost more than 100,000 men, the forces surrounding the Vyborg area completely collapsed, and the doors of the two armies' fronts were opened. Lieutenant General Zhukov did not give them any chance to react, and after handing over the prisoners to the garrison of Vyborg, the Cossack armored units of the four corps went into full swing and, with sufficient logistical supplies, launched a surprise attack in depth.

The top leaders of the two countries immediately judged that the direction of Lieutenant General Zhukov's assault might be all the way to the north, attacking the northern regions that the Cossack Empire had already occupied, and recapturing the important port of Murmansk.

Lieutenant General Zhukov quickly judged the movements of the troops of the Grand Duchy of Gothenburg and the Viking Kingdom, and after finding that the original plan could not be implemented, he decisively ordered his troops to change the direction of the assault and attack the 20,000 defenders of the Grand Duchy of Gothenburg stationed at Lappeenranta.

This was the flank of the combined forces of the two countries, which was rather weak due to the large number of troops being drawn to the north, and Lappeenranta was quickly captured under the superior fire of the Cossacks. The fall of this area opened the door to the Scantinavian Plain in the north, the hinterland of the Grand Duchy of Gothenburg and the point of the alliance between the two countries.

"What do we do now?" "We have completely disrupted the offensive in the north of the Axis bloc, annihilating quite a few enemies, and it will take at least half a year for them to resume their previous offensive, and perhaps we should retreat and continue to participate in the defense of the capital region," suggested Deputy Commander Vasilev. ”

Zhukov shook his head and said: "No, the defense of the position is the business of the infantry, and if the armored troops are imprisoned on the position, it is tantamount to tying their hands and feet." What the armored forces need most is to gallop on the plains, maneuver and nimble to strike at the enemy, and we should continue to attack. ”

Vasilev was originally a corps-level commander, but after the establishment of the Third Army, he was naturally promoted by half a rank and became the deputy commander of the group army. Despite his promotion, he was very unconvinced, because his new immediate boss, the commander of the army group, was Zhukov, who was born as a division commander.

At the beginning, although he was not convinced, he was able to cooperate with Zhukov's work due to the constraints of military law. Soon, Zhukov's capable working style and bold conducting style won the favor of Vasilev.

After successive surprise victories, with 200,000 troops, more than 100,000 enemy troops were eliminated in a short period of time, Vasilev was already completely convinced of Zhukov, at this time he was most convinced of Zhukov, and his idea was to obey his words, so he only put forward his own opinions, and did not ask Zhukov to accept them.

After hearing Zhukov's explanation, he also felt that it was very depressing to let the armored troops fight a defensive war, not to mention that the armored troops had been in a blond-fast assault operation in the past few days, which made Vasilev feel happy, and if he went back to continue the defensive war, it would indeed make him feel pity.

"If we don't retreat, what's next?" Vasilev asked.

Zhukov pointed to the map and said: "Now that we have broken through Lappeenranta, the Scantinavian Plain is in front of us, and there is no longer any obstacle ahead, if we break into the interior of the Grand Duchy of Gothenburg, how do you think the top leaders of the two coalition forces will react?" ”

"Of course, we will mobilize all forces to intercept us." Vasilev blurted out without thinking.

As soon as the words came out, Vasilev reacted: "You mean to fully mobilize the other side and disrupt the other party's deployment, so that we can take advantage of it." ”

Zhukov nodded and said: "The armament of the armies of the two countries is very poor, their air forces are very small, and they simply cannot pose a threat to us. As for those infantry, they can't catch up with us without mechanized equipment, even if they have a lot of heavy artillery, it's useless, they can't defend everywhere. ”

Vasilev nodded and said, "Not bad, then when will we leave." ”

Zhukov said with a smile: "We will set off tomorrow, their main forces are in the north, and now it is the weakest time in the country, so we will beat him hard." ”

The Third Army, led by Lieutenant General Zhukov, struck again, and mechanized units galloped across the Great Plains, aiming directly at Lahti, an important city in the Grand Duchy of Gothenburg. Lahti is located between Lappeenranta and Helsinki, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Gothenburg, which is a very prosperous area of the Grand Duchy of Gothenburg, with national strategic reserve warehouses, especially oil depots, which Zhukov urgently needed.

When they heard that the Cossack Third Army had invaded the territory of the Grand Duchy of Gothenburg, the Axis high-level was shocked, and they never expected that the Cossack army, which had been pressed and beaten, would actually fight such a sharp counterattack.

The Thar army was still making final preparations, and when they heard that the Grand Duchy of Gothenburg had been invaded, they had to rush into battle and launch a new large-scale attack on the Paladinburg. The Saar army, who had returned to the front, was surprised to find that the Cossack positions in front of them had been completely restored, and the fortifications destroyed in the past few months had all been restored and even strengthened.

The Saar army launched an offensive and soon suffered heavy casualties, and the Cossacks were also not idle during the months of the freeze. Taking advantage of the fact that the Axis troops were not paying attention, the logistics department of the Cossack Army paved a road with wood on the ice of Lake Ladoga, and they mobilized a large number of trucks to rush supplies, especially various anti-tank guns and anti-aircraft artillery were deployed in large quantities to the Paladin Fort, and even Fang Ruijun saw Daria's face and transferred a mixed missile brigade for them.

The road paved on ice was in use for an entire winter, and without harassment from the Axis air forces, large quantities of war materiel arrived at Fort Paladin. After the weather warmed up and the ice on the lake melted, they handed over the task of transporting supplies to the transport ships, which means that the supply of supplies to the Paladinburg has never been cut off, and with sufficient supplies, the Cossack defense will naturally become stronger.

When the Sahr Air Force fleet flew over Fort Paladin, anti-aircraft guns of various calibers opened fire, and a dense rain of bullets shot into the sky, shooting down one bulky bomber after another. The fighter group of the Cossack Air Force intercepted on the periphery and fought fiercely with the Thar Air Force.

On the ground, the tank units of the Saar Army rushed to the Cossack fortification group and were immediately attacked by a large number of anti-tank guns, mixed with some Red Arrow 1 wire-controlled anti-tank missiles that had just been equipped with the Second Artillery Corps of the Chinese Empire. Encountering such strong anti-tank fire, the chariot units of the Saar army immediately suffered heavy casualties, and there was some confusion among the front-line troops, and when they approached the Cossack positions, a large number of bazookas began to fire again.

The battle on the southern front of the Paladinburg was raging, and in the city of Lahti, in the Grand Duchy of Gothenburg, the Cossack Third Army, which had taken full control of the area, was urgently replenishing fuel. After so many days of assault operations, the army's fuel has bottomed out.

Occupying the reserve oil depot in the city of Lahti, they naturally tried to load as much fuel as possible for future combat needs, and what made Zhukov even happier was that more than 100 oil tankers were captured in the oil depot, and with these tanker trucks accompanying them, plus the original supply vehicles, the army did not need to think about the problem of fuel for at least ten days.

Those Cossack logisticians took the opportunity to refuel and quickly overhauled the combat vehicle, especially the tracks have been worn out very seriously in these days, but fortunately, the quality of the products of the Chinese Empire was excellent, and the troops carried a large number of spare parts in advance, so there was no problem, but the tank engine had undergone such a high-intensity operation, and it already needed to be well maintained.

"The chariots are really happy to use when charging, but the logistical requirements are too high, and if we continue like this, it will be difficult for us to drive these chariots home." Looking at the logisticians who were maintaining the tank, Vasilev scratched his head a little.

Zhukov did not realize the seriousness of the problem of tank maintenance in advance, and at this time they also felt a little tricky: "Indeed, the engine is okay, the products of the Chinese Empire are very good, as long as they are well maintained, there is no big problem with the use of the three thousand hours required by the design, but the track gap is relatively large." ”

Vasilev suddenly patted his head and said, "By the way, how about you say we ask for an airdrop?" This makes it possible to replenish the tracks and some necessary spare parts. ”

"Airdrop chariot tracks?" Zhukov nodded: "This is indeed a good way, but the Cossack Air Force does not have a transport aircraft unit, and if you turn to the Imperial Chinese Air Force, the mobilization of materials and troops will not be completed in a short time, and we can't wait that long." ”

Vasilev was embarrassed and said, "Then what should we do?" ”

Zhukov said: "Do you know how the supplies of the Sahr army are transported? ”

Vasilev said: "You know, because the situation of the Yade Sea channel is complicated, the Saar Empire fleet does not dare to go deeper, so they transport supplies to the port of Helsinki, and then the ships of the Grand Cossack Duchy will transfer them, do you want to attack ......"

Zhukov nodded: "Yes, I want to attack the port of Helsinki and seize military supplies there." Although the tracks of the M4 tanks made in Boston are narrower, they are also completely usable, and as long as a batch of tracks is captured, we can gallop the entire Great Plains. ”