Episode 59 Two-sided attack

On May 29, the German army marched eastward and invaded the territory of the Soviet Union with a great defeat of the Czech Republic and Poland, and the whole world was shocked, and the public opinion of various countries did not criticize Hitler for tearing up the Munich Agreement so badly, but with a kind of expectation, and many media were cheering for the German army. Originally, there were still many parliamentarians in Britain, France, and other countries who insisted on sanctioning Germany, but now they have also died down.

As originally expected, in today's world, no matter how bad a country is, as soon as it becomes an enemy of the Soviet Union, it will immediately be shrouded in a halo of justice. If the Spanish Civil War was fought between the extreme left and the extreme right, and the Western powers were still passive and neutral, then now on the land of the Soviet Union, the ultra-left (Nazis) and the extreme right (Bolsheviks) are still fighting, but the Western powers are more or less on the side of Germany. For nothing else, the Soviet Union has done too many bestialities: the Great Famine, the Great Purge, the Holocaust...... The Nazi record in this regard is much more innocent than that, nothing more than the burning of books, the control of the press, and the persecution of dissent. And what kind of life do the German people live when they have enough food and clothing. Compared to the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany at this time was like a lovely angel.

Contrary to real history, the Soviet Union at this time had long anticipated the German attack. It's just that in Central Asia, he was dragged by the Ming army and couldn't withdraw from the battle. Even so, Stalin still transferred more than half of the elite Soviet troops from Central Asia to the Western Front of Europe in the previous half month. The consequences of this were clear to Stalin, but now he could not care less. Europe is the head, Central Asia is the ass. Even if your butt is cut off in half, you won't die, but if you have a little problem with your head, it's over.

Even so, the "elite Soviet army" that had suffered repeated defeats and demoralized in Central Asia was still no match for the German army. Not only morale, but also the level of equipment, the quality of officers and men, and the command art of generals are all not on the same level. It turned out that Tukhachevsky, the most high-level general of the Soviet army, had already been killed by Stalin himself. Now there is only one remaining general of the Soviet army, Zhukov, who is okay, and there are no other people to count. On the German side, there were a star-studded group: Manstein, Guderian, Rommel (who became a famous general in advance in the Ming and Qing wars), Lundstedt, Jodl, Keitel, Moder, Paulus, Bock, Loeb, Catherin, Stuartdent......

The total number of troops invested by the German army was smaller than in regular history, at 120 divisions, divided into three army groups. Army Group North was attacking in the three Mediterranean countries: Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, and the target of the attack was Leningrad. In regular history, when the Soviet Union and Germany divided Poland, the Soviet Union piggybacked on the annexation of the three Baltic states. But in this time and space, the Soviet Union was mired in the quagmire in Central Asia and did not dare to expand in Europe, so the three Baltic countries are still the best, and now they are on the way to the German Army Group North, and they are taken by the "way".

The main direction of the German Army Group Center was Belarus, and the target of the attack was Moscow. This is the main road, and the one where resistance is expected to be the most intense. Army Group South is attacking in the direction of Ukraine, and the target of the attack is Kyiv. It is also the shortest front and the weakest expected resistance. Among the several member countries in Europe, the Soviet Union's rule in Ukraine was the most unstable, and the local Ukrainians were separated from the Russians, especially the great famine in Ukraine a few years ago, and Ukraine, known as the "breadbasket of Europe", almost all the local people fell in the famine. Uprisings and riots have followed, and the Soviet Union has lost all its hearts in Ukraine.

The Germans were advancing in three directions, mechanized troops were concentrated on breaking through, Stuka bombers in the sky swooped down, and the air and ground were fighting as one. The "elite of the Soviet army," which had been defeated by the Ming army in Central Asia, "found a familiar feeling" as soon as they arrived on the Western Front, and when they saw that the tactics and style of the German army were exactly the same as those of the Ming army, they could not help but transfer their fear. The Soviet troops were at a qualitative and quantitative disadvantage, and in three directions of the offensive there was a succession of routs.

The smoothest German attack was Army Group South. The German army marching on the land of Ukraine was warmly welcomed by the local people all the way, and the local people were almost eating pot pulp, and greeted each other in the middle of the road, while the Soviet army, composed of many Ukrainians, directly surrendered the German army with the whole division and the whole division, and then turned the muzzle of the gun and counterattacked, and even the German uniform did not have time to change, and directly wore the "swastika" armband, and led the German army to the east to "liberate" their hometown.

……

In response to the German advance, the Ming army also launched a new and fierce offensive in Central Asia. The genuine Ming army, which had not participated in the war much for a long time, now participated in the offensive on a large scale. The main attack of the Ming army in tanks and cars was in the front, and on the flanks and in the rear, there were more new Ming troops riding on big horses and wielding war knives, and they were mainly composed of locals.

Now the offensive is much smoother, and the remnants of the Soviet army in front can only parry, but have no power to fight back, often symbolically resisting twice, and immediately fleeing. When the Ming army reunited, it felt that the shelling was much weaker. The planes of the Ming army can also easily go to air supremacy. The armored forces of the Ming army were not very able to meet their opponents. - Because a large number of artillery, tanks, and planes were transferred to Europe to resist the German army. Now the Ming army is facing almost a group of old, weak, sick and disabled, just like chopping melons and vegetables.

But the front of the Ming army was already too long after all. On the sixth day of the offensive, the mechanized troops and motorized units of the Ming army soon stopped. There is no supply of fuel, there is no supply of ammunition, there is no supply of parts. Fortunately, the Soviet troops on the opposite side were already only on the defensive, and did not dare to launch a counteroffensive at all. If it had been in the past, the Ming army would have suffered defeat at this time, and it would have been chased all the way back by the other party. That's how the tug-of-war is fought. But now the forces of the Soviet troops on the opposite side are too weak to counterattack at all. It is common to see dozens or hundreds of tanks of the Ming army parked on the prairie waiting for supplies, and officers and soldiers gathered together to play cards and eat in twos and threes, feeling at ease and full of a sense of security. Not a single Soviet plane in the sky was gone.

At the same time, the German forces in the European theater were also advancing at a speed of 60-80 kilometers per day, and the vanguard of Army Group Center was only half the way from Moscow. And at this time, it was only a week since the war began. The decision-makers in Nanjing felt that this would not work, the German army attacked too quickly, and the battle was one-sided. In a few days, Moscow will move its capital. This is too far from the result of "losing both" that Daming hoped.

It just so happened that now on the battlefield in Central Asia, the supply of mechanized troops of the Ming army could not keep up, and the Ming army command decided to use this as a reason to greatly slow down the pace of the offensive and put on the appearance of "the end of the strong crossbow", so that Stalin could transfer some more Soviet troops to Europe to increase the pressure on Hitler.