After Christmas, 1940 came like this.

On January 7, 1940, Lin Youde gathered all the generals to plan the war plan for the new year.

In the large conference room of Sanssouci Palace, there was a crowd of German generals sitting in the dark, which made Lin Youde quite a kind of illusion that he had returned to the time when Kaiser Wilhelm was crowned the emperor of Germany in the Mirror Palace, and standing in the middle of the venue, he was the ruler of New Germany and the new emperor of the empire.

Lin Youde subconsciously glanced at his yellow skin, and involuntarily smiled on his face.

"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for taking time out of your busy military schedule to come to Potsdam," Lin Youde said to everyone with a smile, "but we must have everyone present at today's meeting, and I will explain to you in detail our operational objectives for the next year or even years." ”

After speaking, Lin Youde turned to the big map behind him.

"In the last war, His Excellency Ludendorff and His Excellency Hindenburg occupied a large amount of Russian land by virtue of their military prowess, but they did not achieve victory over Russia. Similarly, the greater Napoleon Bonaparte even took Moscow, but in the end he could only rely on his own god and withdraw from Russia with dignity. All of the above tells us one thing, that is, it is very difficult to defeat Russia by military occupation, and Russia's vast territory and harsh natural environment make it difficult for us to destroy the country by military means. ”

After Lin Youde finished speaking, many of the generals present had changed their expressions, some frowned, some nodded in agreement, and unlike in the past, Lin Youde was very popular with the young Shaozhuang faction officers in the past, but now many of the frowning people are lieutenant generals and major generals of the Shaozhuang faction.

"Gentlemen, I know that some of you are desperate for a glorious victory on Russian soil, but this is unrealistic." Lin Youde said directly, "Even if you just occupy the European part of Russia, you need a huge number of troops, and many lands in Russia actually have no value in carrying out the occupation. What we need is only a small part of Russia's vast territory. ”

Lin Youde said and made a comparison on the map, so Ukraine was divided from Russia's territory.

"This is what we need. We need the coal mines of Donbass, we need agricultural products for the entire Don River basin, we need manufacturing in Kiev, we need Crimea to control the Black Sea. Lin Youde continued to draw on the map, "After we take control of Ukraine, our forces will advance to the Caucasus, we will occupy Rostock, and then go all the way south to the Baku oil fields on the shores of the Caspian Sea." ”

As soon as Lin Youde's voice fell, someone said: "Mr. Lin, in this way, our army's supply line is too long, and our army's control area is very thin, basically sandwiched between the Russian hinterland and the Black Sea. Especially the section from Donetsk to Rostov-on-Don is simply a 'bee waist' that can be broken at a pinch. ”

"Yes, so we will not only capture Donetsk, Luhansk and Rostov, we will also capture Tsaritsyn and build a defense here on the Volga River."

To be honest, Lin Youde didn't want to attack Tsaritsyn, because this place was renamed Stalingrad in 1925 in another time and space, and it would be too unlucky to attack it. However, Lin Youde studied the map for a long time, and felt that it was necessary to defeat Tsaritsyn, otherwise the plan to attack the Baku oil field would be very dangerous, and the Russians could rely on the railway from Tsaritsyn to Moscow to continuously transport the recruited soldiers from the city to the vicinity of the North Caucasus to put pressure on the attacking German army.

And if Tsaritsyn is pulled out, it will be possible to build a solid defense here on the Volga River and become a support point for the front.

Lin Youde is now short of fuel, and Germany in another time and space relies on the advanced synthetic oil industry to barely provide enough fuel for the front-line armored troops, and Lin Youde in this time and space of course also follows this - fortunately, the previous German Empire saw that the British attached great importance to synthetic oil, so they were also very interested in synthetic oil, leaving Lin Youde with a considerable foundation, so Lin Youde's Germany was not much inferior to Germany in another time and space in terms of synthetic oil capacity. But the problem is that Lin Youde's armored troops do not burn gasoline in this time and space, and most of the oil produced by the synthetic oil industry is used for gasoline engines, which is very embarrassing.

Before the war, Lin Youde had been desperately stockpiling fuel for the armored troops, but by now, it has begun to be a little tight. If the time of the war is moved back a little, Lin Youde has managed the Middle East well, and he can send oil to Germany, then the situation will be much better, but unfortunately Lin Youde really can't decide the time of the war.

So next year Lin Youde must open a land passage to Baku.

If it doesn't work, Ukraine will have to be taken as well, so that the land passage between Russia and the Balkans can be cut off, which will greatly facilitate Lin Youde's diplomatic efforts to win Romania to pan-humanism.

Romania has grain and oil fields, and in the last war, Romanian grain kept Germany alive for an extra year, otherwise the war might have ended in 1917.

Therefore, it means a lot to take Ukraine.

After Lin Youde explained this to his officers, Manstein raised his hand and asked, "How sure are we of winning over Romania?" ”

"As long as we take Ukraine, we will almost certainly win Romania. You must know that in the Pan-Slavic Union, only the Romanian army obediently stayed on its own territory and did not respond to the call of Russia. This is also amply illustrated by the fact that the Romanians, after declaring war on us, still allowed us to maintain a diplomatic presence at the level of consulates in their capital, Bucharest. The Romanians are waiting to see who is stronger, us or Russia. ”

As soon as Lin Youde finished speaking, Lundsted, who was sitting among the traditionalist officers, said: "I heard that the Romanian goddess is a troubled fellow, can we trust her?" ”

"Of course not," Lin Youde replied simply, "But as long as the two sides have common interests, then there is the possibility of cooperation, Romania has a god, so it has long wanted to be the overlord of the Balkans, but unfortunately Austria-Hungary on the left and Russia on the right, they can only fall to one of them." Now we can offer them an attractive offer, we can give Romania Bulgaria and other countries that have not yet joined the Pan-Humanist Alliance, and make the nocturnal goddess a veritable queen of the Balkans. ”

There was a lot of discussion among the conservative officers, and then a lieutenant general who Lin Youde didn't recognize raised his hand and asked, "Can we only complete this offensive plan by ourselves?" Can we get some outside reinforcements? As far as I know, the new Turkish government is now inclined towards pan-humanism, can we expect Turkey to launch an offensive south of the Caucasus and reciprocate with us after formally joining the Alliance for Human Renewal? ”

"We can't say that there is no such possibility, but when we make a battle plan, we must base our battle plan on the least optimistic scenario, right?"

After Lin Youde finished speaking, there was another discussion below, and then Halder, who was sitting at the front of the conservatives, asked slowly: "When can we get support from the French army on the battlefield?" ”

"When the infighting in the French is over, the French army will appear."

"Can't you just think of a way to get the French to end the infighting at once? Or have you acquiesced to the fact that the lovely Miss Charlie continues to take advantage of the opportunity to grow France? ”

"Now there is no shortage of troops on our front." Lin Youde stared at the chief of staff who always liked to go against him, and in another time and space, Halder also sang a lot of disagreements with the mustache, so Lin Youde was not very surprised by what Halder did in this time and space.

"The more troops, the better." Halder doesn't seem to intend to back down, "It's true that we have a full front now, but when the French come, they can deploy the French army to the Carpathian front, and when our army starts to attack Ukraine, they can also cross the mountains to respond to our army's offensive." ”

"On this note, the armies of Hungary and other union republics will do this when they need to."

"But they also need to guard against Romania."

Lin Youde straightened his face and put on a much more stern expression than just now: "Admiral Halder, I must remind you that many things in diplomacy are confidential matters, and you had better not stretch your hand too far." ”

"Okay. I'm sorry. Halder pouted.

"All in all, the basic goal of this year is to occupy Ukraine, and in order to achieve this goal, we first need to build on last winter's offensive and reach the border between Poland and Ukraine, and in addition, we need to retake Lublin by early June, so that the flanks of the Russian troops besieging Warsaw will be completely exposed to our army, and as long as the Russians are not stupid, they will end the siege of Warsaw and retreat and reorganize the defensive line." ”

"What if they don't retreat?" "Judging from last year's fighting, it is entirely possible that the Russian troops will continue to hold out when the flanks are exposed, turning the so-called flanks into a battle line." ”

"In that case, we will break through their lines and advance towards Bialystok." Lin Youde paused, "It is expected that this operation will delay our offensive against Ukraine until August, but we will annihilate a large number of the living forces of the Russian army." It would be foolish to conduct a winter operation on Russian soil, but Ukraine, as long as our officers and men can bear, we can use another beautiful winter offensive this year to control Ukraine. ”

After speaking, Lin Youde scanned the entire room to confirm whether anyone else had an opinion. After seeing that no one was silent, Lin Youde said: "Then, everyone, let's start formulating this year's plan in accordance with the above general guidelines." I would like to see preliminary plans before the end of January, and then operational readiness will begin in February. ”