Li Xiaofeng's previous focus was not on the Kiev siege campaign, he focused on the negotiations between the Soviet Union and the devils, and the Politburo gave him full authority to deal with this task, and the requirements for him were to stabilize the situation in the northeast, and it was best to stop the war with the devils, and at the same time he must also maintain the relationship with the Turkish-communist class brothers, and do a good job of scraping the Kuomintang side.

To put it bluntly, it is to ensure that the armistice in the northeast will not affect the relations between the Soviet Union and the Turkish Communist Party, and that this will not cause any bad thoughts on the part of the Kuomintang to arise.

For others, this work may not be completed, but for a certain immortal, it is more pleasant to carry out. On the issue of the armistice in the northeast, the two sides quickly reached an agreement, but for the devil's request that the Soviet Union stop military aid to the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, a certain immortal played Tai Chi.

Of course, Li Xiaofeng is not kicking the ball, but dragging. Yes, a certain immortal is a drag that retreats step by step, and every negotiation makes a little concession, but does not let the devil succeed, anyway, it is an unlimited delay time, but it makes the devil think that the Soviet Union still has the idea to reach an agreement with them.

Why such a strategy? To put it bluntly, Li Xiaofeng is waiting for the day when the devil will die, and judging from the information he has learned from his intelligence channels, the devil has already made the decision to go south, but he is still a little worried that the Soviet Union will drag his feet.

And what he needs to do is to get to the day when the devil is not in a hurry step by step, and around May, as the weather improves, the devil must be ready to fully occupy Southeast Asia, and he will put another smoke bomb on the devil. Urge them to go south with all their might as soon as possible.

As long as the devil obediently goes south. Then. The verbal concessions made before, a certain immortal would definitely not admit it, and at that time, the devil had nothing to do with him.

However, when the battle of Kiev entered the second stage, when the Germans began to counterattack, Li Xiaofeng's eyes were inevitably involved, because the Germans' attack came too suddenly.

At this time, the original main attack group had just switched from offensive to defensive, and only preparations were made for a small-scale German attack. The Germans, on the other hand, threw four armies into a counterattack in one go. Based on Li Xiaofeng's understanding of Tukhachevsky, that guy must not have made the corresponding preparations, and he never even thought about this possibility.

Tukhachevsky really did not expect that, according to his estimates, the German army would only regain strength in early April at the earliest, when the battle to relieve the siege of Kiev would have long ended. But what made him hurt was that the German army regained its strength more than half a month earlier than he expected. And the focus of the attack is directly locked on Nezhin, which is equivalent to kicking Tukhachevsky's little brother, that hurts!

If you think about it, the unsiege cluster in the north at this time happens to be the most tiring and chaotic. With the armored assault capabilities of the German army, it was entirely possible to break through the Red Army lines. As a matter of fact. In the first three days after the outbreak of the fighting, the Red Army's defense line was honestly fragile, except for the harsh terrain and mines that caused relatively large problems for the German army.

For example, the German 47th and 48th Panzer Corps showed a posture of long-distance drive, forcing Tukhachevsky to order the 1st Tank Division to rescue the driver. And it was precisely because of the transfer of the 1st Tank Division that the flanks of the 163rd Mechanized Division were exposed, and then it was besieged by three German divisions, and the battle was once extremely fierce.

The 163rd Mechanized Division gambled almost all the tanks to reopen the connection with the brother troops, and avoided the tragedy of the First Guards Mechanized Army being surrounded and annihilated by a main division just after the battle.

However, this is not a long-term solution, because the German attack wave is quite violent, like a wave, wave after wave, with the strength of the tired Guards Mechanized First Army, I am afraid it is difficult to withstand.

At this time, Tukhachevsky showed the military qualities of a Soviet marshal, on the one hand, he forcefully ordered the 1st Guards Mechanized Army to hold the defensive line, and on the other hand, he threw reserves into support. Of course, these were decent countermeasures, and the best and most brilliant move Tukhachevsky did was to give an order to the Bryansk Front:

"Konstantin. Comrade Konstantinovich, your front must be ready for battle within three days...... Concentrate at least one mechanized corps and two or three infantry corps to attack Gomel at once, it must be fast, it must be fierce! It would be ideal if Gomel could be captured! ”

What is Gomel? Gomel, north of Chernihiv, was the base camp of the 1st and 2nd tank clusters of the German army. From here there is a railway to Chernihiv and Nezhin. If Gomel can be captured, it will be equivalent to cutting off the supply line of the German offensive cluster.

Let's put it this way, Tukhachevsky thought of a way to surround Wei and save Zhao, your German guy kicked Lao Tzu's balls, then Lao Tzu will not be polite to your Tintin, let's compete with each other to see whose attack power is stronger!

Yes, Tukhachevsky finally made an accurate judgment, he believed that this large-scale German offensive was hastily organized, and both troops and supplies were probably problematic. As long as you can carry the three-plate axe, it is difficult to say who will kill the deer in the end!

Even Tukhachevsky sketched another picture on the map: if Rokossovsky can capture Gomel and cut off the retreat and supply routes of the German army, if the main offensive cluster of Kiev can stop the German onslaught, then the situation in the north of Kyiv will become different. It seemed possible that the Red Army would encircle at least four German armies in one fell swoop in this area. If such a war of annihilation can be fought, it will re-change the balance of forces between the enemy and us, and it will also wash away the notoriety of Tukhachevsky since the beginning of the war in one fell swoop.

Is this possible? Yes, but it's subtle. Because Tukhachevsky envisaged all this had two important preconditions, the first was that Rokossovsky would be able to capture Gomel, and the second was that the Red Army would be able to hold the existing defensive line until Rokossovsky captured Gomel.

This was not easy to do, so Tukhachevsky began to attack Shaposhnikov and Timoshenko, and he sent a telegram to the Military Commission, proposing to transfer part of the troops from Shaposhnikov and Timoshenko to reinforce the original main attack group in the north. This will allow you to hold the line. Even he made bold suggestions. Simply Shaposhnikov should not squat in the shell of the turtle in Kyiv. Directly began a counterattack, striking at the flanks of the German 11th Army, forcing the enemy to divide and reinforce the enemy with offensive to attack.

It's just that the latter suggestion was ruthlessly rejected by the Military Commission and the Politburo, for the simple reason that although there are more than 200,000 troops in Kyiv, most of these troops were temporarily formed after Kyiv was surrounded, and their combat effectiveness is limited. Defending the city may be okay, and attacking is purely food delivery.

And the Politburo is very worried that once the troops are transferred from Kyiv to the offensive, it will weaken Kyiv's defenses, you must know that there are still German troops here, once the attack does not go well, and the city cannot be defended, isn't the result unreliable at both ends?

To be honest, the Politburo really has no confidence in Tukhachevsky's strategy and tactics, and every time the old figure was clapping his chest, the result was that his cheeks were crackled. After disappointing the Politburo once, twice, three times. Everyone is really dead to him. And this time, like before, he was playing with fire and walking a tightrope, so how could the Great Elders believe him?

What's more interesting. The only one who voted in favor of Tukhachevsky's tactics was Li Xiaofeng. A certain immortal thinks that Tu Shuai's tactics this time are actually quite reliable. It is true that he can transfer troops from Kyiv to the offensive, because he also judged that the German forces around Kyiv are not capable of continuing to threaten the Red Army, and they can completely attack boldly and break the flank of the German army in one fell swoop.

It's a pity that one of the immortals voted in favor, and even Lao Tuo chose to abstain, which shows how desperate he is for Tukhachevsky. And this also led to the fact that the Red Army lost an opportunity, because the German army at this time was really ill-prepared.

At that time, the Politburo preferred a safe strategy, that is, to draw part of the troops from Timoshenko's feint cluster to reinforce the original main attack cluster on the northern front and stabilize the defensive line.

This kind of strategy is not impossible, it is indeed more safe, but it is precisely because of insurance that it also causes a problem. The first problem is the weakening of the combat effectiveness of the Timoshenko cluster, which is tasked with sweeping the perimeter of Kyiv and annihilating the German army and its puppets of this generation. When Timoshenko's cluster was weakened, it was naturally impossible to completely annihilate the above-mentioned enemies.

And this problem has caused another problem, when Timoshenko is unable to completely annihilate these enemies, the threat of Kyiv has not been substantially lifted, which is equivalent to the formation of a stalemate in Kyiv, and it is also a stalemate that the Red Army cannot take the initiative to break for the time being.

When a stalemate formed in the Kiev area, when the northern front was attacked by the Germans and fell into a passive defense, it can be said that the Red Army had completely lost the initiative on the battlefield. There was no possibility of taking the initiative to change the pattern of the battle, so he could only be led by the nose by the Germans.

This is undoubtedly quite unfavorable, and if the Red Army fails to open up the situation on other battlefields, it will once again fall into passive beating. Fortunately, as mentioned earlier, Tukhachevsky was finally wise this time, and he ordered Rokossovsky to "surround Wei and save Zhao", which was a good move. Let's just say that Rokossovsky was able to make a splash in this time and space in 1942 thanks to this order from Tukhachevsky.

It was this order that allowed Rokossovsky to regain the spotlight on the battlefield, and his every move was related to the trend of the Kyiv region and even the entire Great Patriotic War.

However, when receiving Tukhachevsky's order, Rokossovsky had doubts, because the condition of the Bryansk Front was not good, and after the completion of the defense of Bryansk, the Bryansk Front was reorganized.

The front army has jurisdiction over three armies, namely the 6th, 16th and 20th armies. As for the 12th and 21st armies, which had been reinforced to him earlier, they were all transferred to participate in the battle to relieve the siege of Kyiv.

The 6th and 16th armies, on the other hand, suffered relatively large losses in the previous period, and were in the process of rebuilding or had just completed reconstruction, and a large number of new recruits and new equipment were flooded into the troops, and their combat effectiveness was affected.

According to Rokossovsky and Lukin, the two armies could return to combat effectiveness only in June, and in the months before that, the Bryansk Front should have given priority to the defense.

Especially considering that the Bryansk Front faced the enemy with the elite German 1st and 2nd tank clusters, the pressure was very high, and it was not easy to hold the line and keep the enemy outside Russia. At this time, Tukhachevsky actually ordered him to take the initiative to attack, which is a bit difficult to look at.

But an order is an order. Rokossovsky also knew that the situation in Kyiv was very tense. Start with the big picture. He had to fight this battle.

"According to preliminary estimates, the German 1st and 2nd tank groups also have the strength of four Panzer Corps in the Gomel area, plus some German reinforcements from the Minsk direction, these two groups should have the strength of 5 or 6 armies."

Rokossovsky glanced at his subordinates and found that everyone's mood was rather heavy, the commander of the 6th Army, Malinovsky, had a bitter face, the new commander of the 16th Army, Meretskov, was also full of clouds, and Govorov, the acting commander of the 21st Army, could not see any expression. However, judging from the state in which he was sitting, it was definitely not easy.

In fact, in the face of this painful situation, no one can feel relaxed, the three armies of the Bryansk Front plus one actually only have the strength of eight armies, and eight armies have a certain advantage over six armies, but considering that the German army has four armored corps, while the Red Army has only two mechanized corps, and it is not yet formed, the disadvantage in this regard is too great.

"Comrades. I know this battle is not going to be easy. Rokossovsky said calmly, "But if it's not good, you have to fight." And the situation on the battlefield is not completely unfavorable for us. The enemy has four armored corps, but it must be seen that these four armored corps are all defeated by our men! In the Bryansk counterattack, we were beaten to the bottom, and the situation of our army at that time was far from good, right! ”

Rokossovsky made a joke to defuse some of the tension in the conference room, and then he continued: "Judging from the reconnaissance and the intelligence fed back by the KGB, the reason why the Germans did not transfer these four armored corps to Kyiv to participate in the war is very simple, that is, because their combat effectiveness has not been restored, otherwise even if one more armored corps is transferred, the situation on the Kyiv side will probably be even more dangerous." ”

After a momentary pause, Rokossovsky continued: "So, do not overestimate the strength of the enemy. We are not dealing with the enemy's mechanized troops in September 1941, we are dealing with a frightened bird that has suffered heavy losses and is in the process of being rebuilt, and if we show more ferocity than them, we may directly scare them! ”

Rokossovsky's cheering still had a certain effect, and the suffocating solemnity was further reduced, but he sighed in his heart. The reason is simple, this is really just a morale-boosting rhetoric. Because, according to the report of the KGB, the recovery of the enemy is amazing, although not as fast as last September, but definitely not a soft persimmon with low morale.

Rokossovsky was well aware that the enemy was strong and could strategically despise the enemy, but tactically it was absolutely impossible to do so.

Malinovsky asked: "And how are you going to fight?" ”

Sitting in this conference room was probably the most capable group of senior officers in the Soviet Union, and their quality was beyond question, so everyone wondered how Rokossovsky would arrange his tactics under less favorable conditions.

Rokossovsky glanced around and said solemnly: "Let's defend and let the enemy attack!" ”

Hey, the generals in the conference room were stunned, what do you mean to defend and let the enemy attack? Didn't the Military Commissar and the General Staff tell us to fight Gomel? Isn't playing Gomel an initiative to attack? How is it possible to fall over?

Some people think that Rokossovsky is crazy, and some people think that Rokossovsky is really just a rocket cadre who can only pat on the back. Strangely, however, Malinovsky, Meretskov and Govorov were calm, as if they were well aware of Rokossovsky's thoughts.

Why is that? The reason is simple, because they think that they can only win this battle if they do what Rokossovsky said. In their opinion, the quality of the Red Army's individual soldiers lagged behind that of the German army, especially the Bryansk Front, which had been replenished with a large number of new recruits, and the overall quality was even more worrisome.

Offensive tactics are the most tests of the quality of the troops, and a unit like the Red Army, which stresses the combined tactics of multiple arms, has quite high requirements for officers and soldiers. Let's put it this way, they believe that the current Bryansk Front simply does not have the ability to perform such tactics, and reluctantly acting is just following the cat's example. Saw what happened to Tukhachevsky in Nosovka? In addition to the terrain, even the performance of the elite 1st Guards Mechanized Army is that bird-like, who dares to say that the "motley" of the Bryansk Front can behave better?

Anyway, Rokossovsky, Lukin, Malinovsky and Meretskov did not believe it. They believe that with the overall quality of the Red Army at present, it can only be based on active defensive tactics for the time being. The requirements for defense are slightly lower, and the counterattack tactics of a small number of elite mechanized units of the Red Army may be more effective.

That's why Rokossovsky said let the Bryansk Front defend and let the Germans attack. But the question arises, the Germans are not stupid, and their forces are insufficient, how can they take the initiative to provoke the Bryansk Front?

Hehe, Rokossovsky still has a way, he drew two circles on the map, and said with confidence: "Comrades, after the campaign is launched, we will attack these two targets with all our might, and after we succeed, we will fully switch to the defense and hold there at all costs, and this will be the key to our victory!" (To be continued......)

PS: Bow and thank you to Admiral Hood and Comrade Juventus!