When Li Xiaofeng finished his negotiations with Japan and was about to return to Moscow, Guderian was staring at the operational map in a daze, thousands of kilometers away in Belarus. After the fierce fighting in March, the situation in Ukraine has taken a profound turn.

The announcement of the release of Kyiv, which had been under siege for several months, not only meant that Hitler's desire to capture Kyiv had been frustrated, but also that the final result of the first phase of the German blitzkrieg had surfaced.

According to the Barbarossa plan, the iron hooves of the German army were supposed to crush Leningrad, Moscow and Transcaucasia, but all of this failed. Army Group North was battled and bleeding in front of the impregnable walls of East Prussia, and made no progress. Army Group Center in the center also only reached Minsk, and after one foot into Russian territory, it was driven out again. At one point, Army Group South made the greatest progress, but with the lifting of the siege of Kiev, the weakened side of Army Group South was exposed.

"I don't believe much progress can be made in the Nizhin region." Guderian said to his chief of staff, "The Russians have concentrated heavy forces in this area, and it is too difficult to capture Nizhin and then cut off the Russian heavy army group!" ”

Saying that, Guderian added: "Especially when our armored forces do not have any advantage, this is tantamount to being difficult to ascend to the sky!" ”

The chief of staff asked suspiciously, "What do you mean?" ”

"I mean, we don't have any advantage in Kyiv. And taking Kyiv at a time when supplies are already very tight will only add an additional logistical burden! Guderian lit a cigarette, took a deep breath, and said, "We should strike at the weak points of the Russians." Instead of gnawing on those hard bones. There is no doubt that the Russian army around Kyiv is a hard bone. But east of Chernihiv. But it was empty! The strength of the Russian Bryansk Front was limited. It will not be easy to hold the border of Belarus, and to the south of them, the main forces of the Ukrainian Front and the transferred Belarusian Front have been attracted around Kyiv. It's a vacuum around Southka! If our army can cut into this area and continue to develop in depth, capturing Kursk to Voronezh, it will not only threaten Moscow, but also cut off the supply of raw materials for the Russian tank production base in the Kharkiv area. Without tanks, the threat of the Russian army is much less than before! ”

Guderian sketched a left hook in the map. He focused on marking a few points on the map, the first one was Clotop, the second was Kursk, and he drew two circles on Kursk, which shows how much he valued the city.

Spreading out the map, we can see that Kursk is northeast of Kiev, and there is a railway line connecting Kyiv and Moscow, not only connecting Moscow and Kiev, but also going northwest from Kursk. It is a first-tier important city, including Orel, Bryansk, Smolensk. To the south is Belgorod, Kharkov, Poltava, and to the east is Voronezh. It can be said that Kursk has a lot to do with it.

Once Kursk was captured by the Germans, it meant that a big hole was cut in the Red Army's defensive line, and the Germans would be relaxed and happy in whatever direction they wanted to go. And, as Guderian said, the area around Kursk at this time was empty, the heavy group of the Red Army was all gathered in Kiev, and between Kyiv and Bryansk, if not a vacuum, it was quite weak.

Guderian's vision was still very old-fashioned, and he saw at a glance the weakness of the military deployment of the Red Army, and he strongly advocated opening a breakthrough from the direction of Shostka and advancing into the heart of Russia. However, Guderian's ideas did not have much market within the German army, for the simple reason that in the eyes of the wolf's den, it is true that he could open a breakthrough in Sustka and advance to the heart of Russia, but it did not mean much?

Why? In the opinion of the mustache, the most important thing now is not to open any breakthrough, but to encircle and annihilate the living forces of the Soviet Union. The previous blitzkrieg had proved that it was not enough to occupy the Soviet land, it was not possible to collapse and bring the Bolsheviks to their knees, and that only by annihilating as many Soviet Red Army as possible could the goal of conquering Russia be achieved.

"Russia, the land area is too big!" Hitler said angrily, "Our advance of 1,000 or 2,000 kilometers is only a small tip of the day for the huge Russia." The Bolsheviks could retreat to Moscow, or even to the Urals line to continue resistance. So the most important thing at the moment is not to conquer the city, but to bleed the polar bear! ”

With that, Hitler walked to the map on the wall behind him, poked the location of Kyiv with his baton, and continued: "Now, there are huge Russian troops gathered around Kyiv, and if they can be surrounded and annihilated, then the Bolsheviks will be finished!" Our core and most important task at the moment is to encircle and annihilate these gray animals and wipe them out cleanly! ”

After a pause, Hitler tapped Kursk with his whip again: "And here, there is no main force of the Russian army, and it is simply a waste to transfer the main force from Kyiv in this direction!" ”

Obviously, Mustache didn't appreciate Guderian's plan at all, and in fact before the meeting, Mustache had already sent a telegram scolding the tank monster to the bout. He sternly demanded that the latter focus their main efforts on Kyiv, and not on distant Kursk!

I'm afraid that the mustache will regret it soon, because what Guderian said is right, the possibility of wanting to fight a war of annihilation in Kiev is too small, the Red Army and the German army are half a catty and eight taels and no one can help anyone, as long as Tukhachevsky does not make the mistake of making rash advances, then the Germans still want to fight a war of annihilation.

If you can follow Guderian's idea and intersperse in the direction of Kursk, it will inevitably disrupt the overall strategic layout of the Soviet Union, please note that in this time and space, because the progress of the German army is not as great as in history, a considerable part of the heavy industry left by the Soviet Union in Ukraine has not moved to the Urals, for example, Kharkiv, which is one of the base camps for the production of T-34!

By capturing Kursk, you can copy the back route of Kharkiv, and even if you can't capture Kharkov, you can cut off the supply of materials to Kharkiv. You must know that the production of tanks, engines and artillery requires energy and steel. Cut off the supply of materials and materiel. Even if the Germans did not capture Kharkov. The tank industry that remained in Kharkov would also be paralyzed!

It's a pity. Hitler overestimated the combat effectiveness of the German army, thinking that he could fight a war of annihilation, and missed a good opportunity. Because at this time, as Guderian said, there was a vacuum around Kursk, and only a small number of troops were stationed in this area.

Of course, the Military Commission is not unaware of the fact that this area is very weak, but the strength of the army is really limited. I can't take care of it for the time being. For example, near Voronezh, a completely new front is being formed. Yes, you read that right, the Military Commission formed another Voronezh Front, which temporarily governed two army groups, namely the 37th and 38th armies.

Objectively speaking, the strength of this Voronezh Front Army is very poor, and it belongs to the grass platform team that was hastily formed, and the source of troops is extremely short and the equipment is poor. Originally, according to the plan of the Central Military Commission, this front army would only undertake the second-line garrison task for the time being, and its main task was training and waiting for equipment. To put it bluntly, this front army is a reserve force in the hands of the Military Commission. Once the forces of the army on the front several fronts are tight. It is necessary to draw troops from the Voronezh Front.

So this front army is actually a training camp in the rear, and it's really not interesting. But after the implementation of the siege of Kyiv. The meaning of the above has changed, mainly the meaning of Trotsky. As I said before, Lao Tuo despaired of Tukhachevsky and was ready to train Vasilevsky to succeed him. And how to train Vasilevsky? Naturally, he was liberated from the pile of old papers in the General Staff and went to the front line to directly lead the troops.

However, Vasilevsky's rank and qualifications were not very good-looking, and it was more difficult to directly get into the army group or front, so Trotsky set his sights on the newly formed Voronev Front. The status of this front army is very low, which is exactly in line with Vasilevsky's status. According to Lao To's idea, Vasilevsky has no big problem going to be the commander of the Voronezh Front, right?

It's a pity that Lao Tuo thought about the problem simply, after all, the commander of the front army is the commander of the front army, even if it is a very aggrieved commander of the second-line garrison front army, it is not something that Vasilevsky can temporarily top. The Military Commission rejected Lao To's suggestion and appointed Yeremenko as the commander of the front army; after all, Yeremenko's qualifications are much better, and he has climbed up step by step from the commander of the cavalry division to the commander of the mechanized army to the commander of the First Independent Army of the Red Banner in the Far East, and it is reasonable to be promoted to commander of the front army now.

And what about Vasilevsky? He was only a major general in June 1940, and he has always been engaged in staff work, and he has no experience in directly commanding troops, especially at the level of group armies, who dares to let him command the front army as soon as he comes up?

In desperation, Lao Tuo could only retreat and seek the title of commander of the 37th Army and chief of staff of the Voronezh Front for Vasilevsky. Anyway, Lao Tuo regretted it very much at that time, why? Because soon Konev was also appointed political commissar and deputy commander of the Voronev Front and commander of the 38th Army. The commissar and deputy commander are a head above the chief of staff, and Konev still has the 38th Army in hand, which is much higher than Vasilevsky's steps.

Lao Tuo said to Ulitsky at that time: "I had known that if I went to the Far East to cross the gold and could change to the deputy post of the front army and the commander of the real army, I should have let Alexander . Mikhailovich went. ”

But now it's too late to regret it, Lao Tuo can only hope that Vasilevsky can perform well, and of course, he is also actively creating opportunities for Vasilevsky. Quite simply, before the Voronezh Front might have been a substitute and a nurse for blood supply, but now the situation is completely different, and the priority of replenishment and supply of the Voronezh Front has been greatly improved. In accordance with the orders of the Politburo and the Military Commission, the front army will be supplemented with one more army group, and each army group will be guaranteed to have at least one mechanized army level.

You know, this standard is very high, a mechanized army has more than a thousand tanks, and it is clear that according to Trotsky, the T-26 and BT series, which will definitely not die and wear teeth, will be given to the Voronezh Front, at least not the T-34. And even with the direct intervention of Lao To, it is quite possible that the army group will be equipped not with the old T-34-76, but with the T-35A.

Not only for the configuration of the mechanized army, Lao Tuo also personally did Tukhachevsky's work, hoping to let Tushuai give up some of the heavy tank equipment to the Voronezh Front. Here is a simple introduction to the configuration of heavy tanks in the Soviet Union, according to the standard configuration of the pre-war mechanized army. Each mechanized corps has two tank divisions and one mechanized division. Each of these tank divisions consisted of two tank regiments. Each tank regiment consisted of four tank battalions. It includes a battalion of heavy tanks, two battalions of medium tanks, and a battalion of Spitfires.

It's just that this set of establishment basically stays only on paper, because of the relationship between industrial production capacity and battle damage, even the First Guards Mechanized Army only reached this configuration before the war, and it was quickly squandered in battle.

So at that time, the general configuration of the mechanized corps of the Red Army was one tank regiment with four tank battalions, one of which was a heavy tank battalion, two medium tank battalions, and one light tank battalion. Units with high priority armament of heavy tank battalions naturally have T-54s. But the lower priority can only be made with the KV-1 (the so-called T-36 is improvised).

Obviously, not all mechanized corps were assigned to the T-54, and a significant number were made up of the T-36 (KV-1) or heavy tanks originally called IS-1 but renamed ВИ-1 after the fall of Stalin.

The so-called ВИ-1 may not be understood, but in fact, these two initials stand for Vladimir. Ilyich, that is, the great mentor Comrade Lenin. So this is also the so-called Lenin I tank.

Of course, Lenin I is no different from the historical Stalin I, only the name is different. The name was changed to such a name, completely because Kejing's backstage collapsed, and in order to save his life and his future, he had to pat the tutor's ass and get by.

Li Xiaofeng was originally going to clean up this kid, but the outbreak of war disrupted his steps. Kotin was spared for the time being, but the Stalin tank was not as beautiful as it was in history.

Overall. The performance of the ВИ-1 was average, mainly due to the lack of firepower, so after the production of about a hundred units, it was immediately improved to the ВИ-2. To be honest, the performance of the ВИ-2 cannot be compared with the T-54 at all, but the Kirov plant on the Leningrad side does not have the capacity to produce the T-54 for the time being, so it can only make up the number with the ВИ-2 first.

Therefore, in 1942, except for the mechanized corps of key construction, it was basically impossible for other general units to obtain T-54, and most of them were equipped with ВИ-2. And it must be noted that there is still a difference between this ВИ-2 and the historical IS-2, because the D-25122 mm tank gun has not yet been completed, and the D-5T is not powerful enough, so for the time being, it is only necessary to borrow a 100-mm smoothbore gun from North Industries. It was not until the second half of 1942, after the D-25 was quickly completed, that the ВИ-2 was fully versioned.

And the reason why Trotsky opened his mouth to Tukhachevsky was to ask Tukhachevsky to cede to the Voronezh Front, the T-54, which was supposed to be equipped with the 1st Guards Mechanized Army. So did Lao Tuo succeed?

No, his request was flatly rejected by Tukhachevsky, because Tukhachevsky was not a fool, and some signs can be seen these days, and it is clear that Lao Tuo is a little cold to him, and a lot of rumors have reached his ears. Who was Tukhachevsky? That's a proud little rooster!

He thinks that even if you want to cultivate Vasilevsky, you can also score a clear priority, and now that the First Guards Mechanized Army is in the first line, it naturally needs better equipment, so why give up the urgently needed equipment to the second-line troops?

Lao Tuo also explained this: "It's not that I don't give the heavy tanks of the First Army of the Guards Mechanized Army, and the performance of the ВИ-2 is also good!" And there are plenty of them......"

Before Lao Tuo finished speaking, he was ruthlessly interrupted by Tukhachevsky: "Since the ВИ-2 has good performance, then it is better to equip it with the Voronezh Front, our 1st Guards Mechanized Army is used to the T-54, there is no need to temporarily change equipment, our tankmen are not familiar with the ВИ-2 and cannot form combat effectiveness as soon as possible!" ”

Anyway, Tukhachevsky meant only one, he wanted to fool me into accepting ВИ-2, no way!

Now even Trotsky is gone, and now he can't turn his face with Tukhachevsky right away, but he wants to improve the combat effectiveness of Vasilevsky's side as much as possible, how can he get it?

In the end, it was Li Xiaofeng who came up with a solution for Lao Tuo: "Since the Military Commission has decided to make the Voronezh Front a key construction force, it is natural to highlight the key points. The performance of the ВИ-2 is really inferior to the T-54, but for the time being there are no more T-54s, I think so, allocate a reinforcement from the heavy tank brigade directly under the Military Commission to the Voronezh Front! ”

The so-called heavy tank brigades are very awesome, and they are generally directly under the command of the Central Military Commission, and they are generally temporarily strengthened for use by key assault units in the campaign. At this time, there were only three such heavy tank brigades in the hands of the Military Commission, and one of them was not properly organized.

At this time, the heavy tank brigade was organized into three heavy tank regiments, each of which was equipped with 21 T-54s, that is, a brigade had at least 63 T-54s, which was quite awesome. The direct assignment of such a heavy tank brigade to the Voronezh Front is really a big deal.

And such a generous gesture also made Trotsky have to admit that as the so-called reciprocation, Li Xiaofeng solved his thorny problem, so when a certain immortal was in trouble, Trotsky naturally could not pretend not to see it.

So is Li Xiaofeng in trouble for the time being? Don't say it, there is nothing else around a certain immortal, but there is a lot of trouble...... (To be continued......)

PS: Bow and thank you Haochuan, Orpheum, old students, old students and Comrade Juventus!