Heinz? William? Guderian wandered around his headquarters in distraction.

The two staff officers next to him bit their ears quietly: "What's wrong with the commander?" ”

"The commander wanted to command the siege of Lublin himself, but Mr. Lin did not agree and asked him to continue preparing for the next phase of the operation. At this time, I guess he is worried about what he is doing on the front line. The staff officer who spoke paused, "After all, the armored chasseur unit that went to attack Lublin included several elite divisions of our assault group. ”

At this time, Heinz said: "I have to go to the headquarters of the army group. ”

"Mr. Commander," said the staff officer, who had just been talking at length, "if you want to know the state of the battle, you can just make a phone call, for the offensive is underway, the roads are full of supply trucks and vehicles evacuating the wounded on their way to the front, and the traffic jam is so severe that you may spend the whole day on the road." ”

Heinz hesitated, sat down at the map table, and said, "Okay, give me a call." ”

A few minutes later, Heinz finally got through to Army Group B Command.

"I'm Manstein," said the voice of the commander of the army group from the other side, "is there anything special about it?" ”

"I just wanted to know how the attack on Lublin went."

"Very smooth, as of early this morning, our army has taken control of the northern part of the city, and the Russian army defending the city has been compressed in the southern city, and the connection with the main force of the Russian army has been cut off by us." Manstein was also very happy, and directly told Sù Heinz what he wanted to know, "I promised Mr. Lin that the battle would be over within thirty hours, and now there are seventeen hours left, so I think there should be no problem." ”

"What about the Russian counterattack? I heard that they were ferociously attacking our positions west of Lublin. ”

"Yes, and the artillery fire is fierce, the Russians seem to have mobilized a large number of corps heavy artillery over, we lost some positions, but it was not a big problem, I mobilized the reserves of several divisions to go over. The Air Force has promised to deal with those regimental heavy artillery. Manstein paused and said to Heinz, "You can prepare for the next phase of the operation with peace of mind, and until then we will put your rear in order so that you have no worries." ”

Heinz was silent for a moment on the phone before he pouted and said, "Well, I'll wait for the news of the victory." ”

**

That evening, Lin Youde in Potsdam received a report that the Germans had largely occupied the whole city of Lublin, but there were still a small number of Russian troops resisting stubbornly, but they no longer posed a threat.

At the same time, the report of Army Group B also said that the counterattack launched by the Russian army caused a lot of trouble, and several villages and some positions west of Lublin were captured by the Russian army, but after the air force used BF109 carrying aviation rockets and lightning dive bombers to suppress the Russian heavy artillery positions, the Russian offensive was contained.

Army Group B is preparing to launch a counterattack on these positions early tomorrow morning.

After reading the report, Lin Youde handed it to Isera casually, but Nia, who rubbed his shoulders behind him, shouted: "Don't, I haven't finished reading it yet!" ”

"You're going to have to learn to skim." Lin Youde had no choice but to take back half of the report and spread it out on the table.

"I'm a little surprised that the Russians were able to take down several villages in one day." Nia pinched her father's shoulders as she looked at the report and whispered, "It's just a different general, will the difference be so big?" ”

"After Govorov arrived, the Russian army became shrewd in its use of artillery," Lin Youde looked back at his daughter, "In February, they used artillery and sappers to build a bridge over the Vistula River north of Warsaw, and they almost succeeded." The Russian army had never used such dense artillery fire to suppress our troops before, which caught the troops on the front line a little unprepared.

"So, daughter, remember, always be kind to those talented generals, in ancient times, it may be that just a brave man can become a famous general, and he can lead his troops to victory, and sometimes he can even rely on his own bravery to change the tide of battle. Modern warfare has much higher requirements for excellent generals, and the role that famous generals can play is far greater than that of ancient times. ”

"I know," Nia paused, then glanced at Ysera, who had been on the side of the table, "You shouldn't tell me about this, you have to tell my sister that I'm going to be on the battlefield in the future, as long as I'm brave." ”

Lin Youde smiled, and he pointed to the report on the table: "Finished reading?" Well, here you go, Ysera, look at your neck so long, you're almost a giraffe. ”

After taking the report, Ysera quickly skimmed through it and put it in the paper folder for filing—which she was quite skilled at doing now. If at first she sat in her mother's place just to study, now she is a competent secretary.

"So, does this mean that the first phase of the Star One operation will end soon?" Ysera looked up at Lin Youde.

"It probably will last for about half a month." Lin Youde shrugged his shoulders, "After all, it is not enough to capture Lublin, we need to drive the Russian army away from the surrounding area of Lublin, and there will be a limited offensive in early April, the goal is to drive out the Russian army between Lublin and Warsaw." ”

Lin Youde stood up and walked to the map on the wall, pointed to the piece between Warsaw and Lublin, and while moving his finger along the dividing line between the two armies, he said to his daughters: "After our army takes Lublin, this piece will form a salient embedded in our army's front, and in order to ensure the safety of our army's front, this salient must be smoothed out." After completing this step, the foundation for the second phase of our Star-One operation is solid. ”

After Lin Youde finished speaking, he put his hands behind his back and looked at the map with a classic "leader pose", his eyes moving along the battle line.

After a moment he said, "So there will be many fierce battles this spring, and this qiē is just the prelude to the largest ground offensive in the history of mankind." ”

"The largest human being has ever had?" Nia held the back of her head with both hands and said beside Lin Youde, "I think the Russians' attack on Poland was also huge before." ”

"What I just said was what I was going to use in my speech before the attack began." Lin Youde shrugged his shoulders, "The key to a speech is momentum, so we have to list more imposing statements, and whether it's right or not is another matter." ”

"I see." Nia nodded repeatedly, "However, it seems that I am not the material for speeches, so ......"

"Yes, yes," Ysera's voice came from behind Lin Youde, "I'm listening, I heard." ”

Lin Youde reached out and touched Nia's head, and the corners of his mouth rose slightly.