The progress of the Red Army was not smooth, to be precise, there was no breakthrough on the entire front. To the north, Tukhachevsky's highly-hoped assault cluster was held back by the old fox Manstein, who struggled in the muddy fields and gained nothing but mud. To the south, the Red Army cluster in charge of the feint made good progress with the surprise attack at first, and then did not achieve much good results under the stubborn defense of the German army.

Tukhachevsky was so embarrassed by such a report card that he was on the front lines and convened a congress of criticism from his general-level commanders in an attempt to open the situation by exerting pressure.

Obviously, it was in vain. Because the key factor in the current situation was not the problem of the command ability of the senior generals of the Red Army. But the objective reality makes it impossible for them to do so. The first is the terrain, the muddy ground brings too much trouble; Secondly, there is a problem with the choice of the focus of the attack of the General Staff. Manstein's 11th Army, which was thought to be a soft persimmon, turned out to be a hard bone, and if it could not be gnawed, it could choke the Red Army to death.

At this meeting, there was a quarrel over these two issues, and the generals complained that the General Staff was too clumsy, which put endless pressure on Tukhachevsky. In the previous period, although Tukhachevsky's life was not easy, the pressure came more from the top of the Red Army, such as the level of the Grand Military District and the Four General Departments. Although the armies below complained a lot, they did not dare to openly slap the General Staff in the face. And now, they have begun to slap Tukhachevsky in the face, which shows that Tu Shuai is really in danger.

After the meeting. Tukhachevsky wrote in his diary: "...... These guys know how to complain. You know that you are in opposition. I have long said that it would be a mistake to carry out the clearance operation at this time, but has anyone respected my opinion before? Now the problem is out, and those guys are once again putting the blame on the General Staff, what bastards! ”

Yes, Tukhachevsky still does not think that he is wrong, he thinks that it is the plan for the liberation of Kiev that is wrong, and considers this plan completely unnecessary. At that time he wrote a long letter to Trotsky, advising the old Toll: "Immediately stop the campaign to relieve the siege of Kiev, which turned out to be meaningless." We still have time to finish it, and we can fully catch up with the four-month battle of Minsk. ”

However, Tukhachevsky's letter was directly lost in the sea, and Trotsky told him with silent silence that it is absolutely impossible to suspend the campaign to relieve the siege of Kiev, Comrade Mikhail, there are not many opportunities left for you to prove yourself, and if you cannot relieve the siege of Kiev, you don't need to think about the Minsk counterattack.

Did Tukhachevsky understand what Trotsky meant? It should be explained. He was disappointed and angry that he could not end this campaign to relieve the siege of Kyiv, which he was not interested in at all! But in addition to the disappointment and anger. He also had to solve the real problem of how to proceed and successfully complete the battle.

At that time, Tukhachevsky gave himself several important points: the first point was the terrain, there was no point in continuing to burn hard in Nosovka, this ghost place was more suitable for boating. He believes that the key reason that has previously restricted the Red Army from giving play to its superiority in firepower is that logistics cannot keep up, and the Red Army's ammunition supply will have problems at every critical moment. The third point is that the coordination of friendly forces is not good, and he believes that the feint forces have not really been able to distract the enemy.

To be honest, Tukhachevsky's list of points is a slap in the face, such as the first one, he was the one who insisted on attacking Nosovka before, but now he thinks that this is only suitable for rowing, so what did he do when he made a battle plan before?

On the second logistical supply problem, Trian Dafilov also warned him, telling him that the troops were not well prepared and asked to postpone the attack. Who indiscriminately rejected Triandafilov's proposal and insisted on launching an attack according to the original plan?

If they had not caused trouble for the Germans on the southern front, the pressure on the main attacking force of the Red Army in the north would have been even greater, and at that time it would not have been a question of whether they could continue to maintain the offensive, but a question of a sharp head-on counterattack by the Germans. At that time, the Red Army in the north will be even more embarrassed!

However, Tukhachevsky disagrees with the above three points, he believes that all this is someone else's fault, so his method of solving the problem is simple and crude and unreasonable. For example, on the question of the direction of the first attack, he said: "It turned out that Nosovka was a mistake, and here we wasted a lot of time and energy, so now it is necessary to correct the mistake caused by this unexpected factor!" ”

The so-called unexpected factor naturally refers to weather reasons, and it is not excluded that there are problems in this regard, but in fact even weather causes can be overcome, if it were not for the forced ban of pre-war reconnaissance by the General Staff, if the Red Army had carried out pre-war reconnaissance, then it would have been possible to completely avoid muddy Nosovka. To put it bluntly, this is still a problem for Tukhachevsky, but he has pushed it cleanly.

As for the problem of poor supply, Tukhachevsky's solution is even more brutal: "The main attack cluster in the north will receive the highest priority in supply, and everything is best considered to meet the needs of the attack cluster in the north!" ”

What does this mean? It is nothing more than to say, you should rest the feint troops in the south, and then you don't want to get any supplies, and the vast majority of resources must be reserved for the main attack cluster in the north.

This approach is a bit infuriating, and it is fair to say that the feint cluster in the south is better than the main attack cluster in the north, and it should be said that all the tasks assigned to them in the plan have been well completed. And now, having completed the task and not making mistakes, they have to pay for the ineffectiveness of the main attack cluster, what kind of trick is this?

At that time, Timoshenko, who was in charge of directly commanding the feint attack cluster on the southern front, became angry: "What does this mean? Where did our feint troops fight badly? ”

Tukhachevsky was very tired of Timoshenko, and replied impatiently: "You have not completed the task, and the current situation on the battlefield also determines that it is necessary to highlight the focus of the attack, what is the focus. The main attack group on the northern front is naturally the focus! ”

These words directly angered Timoshenko. He roared: "What does it mean that the feint attack cluster has not completed the combat mission? Comrade Chief of the General Staff. Please tell me which of the feint clusters has not been completed! ”

Who would have thought that Tukhachevsky was even more annoyed than him, and shouted back in a louder voice: "You did not attract the main forces of the German army, this is the biggest failure!" ”

Timoshenko laughed angrily, and he said loudly: "It turns out that the main force of the German army is the enemy's 11th Army, and it turns out that the main force of the German army is the Romanians, not the more elite 17th Army with the German Wehrmacht as the main body. Well, it turns out that Romanians are hard bones! ”

This is a blatant slap in the face, especially after Timoshengo finished speaking. Birds don't bird Tukhachevsky slammed the door directly, which made Tukhachevsky's face hurt hotly.

However, Tukhachevsky still held back, because he really couldn't do it with Timoshenko for the time being, and who asked the Military Commission to recognize Timoshenko's command ability. And for Tukhachevsky, the most important thing now is to achieve the goal, as long as he gets the supplies that originally belonged to the feint cluster. Anyway, as long as the main attack cluster opens up the situation and successfully relieves Kyiv, there will be time to clean up Timoshenko in the future.

So naturally, he issued a new order: "The feint cluster will be put on standby and transferred to the defense, while the main attack cluster will be transferred to the south and advance along the road from Kyiv to Priluki." ”

This command is plain stated. Even to make Priluki's feint troops make way is tantamount to rejecting the plan for the main attack on Nosovka formulated before the war.

In this regard, Triandafilov said mockingly: "Tell him before." It would be better to attack Priluki or Glezhenka, but he didn't listen, and now he is halfway through, and then let the main attacking force withdraw and attack from Priluki again, hum! Isn't this a toss-up! ”

It was indeed a toss-up, and according to Tukhachevsky's new order, Priluki's Red Army was to move north to replace the vacancy of the original main attacking force, pinning Manstein's troops to the same place, while the main attacking force went south to attack in their place.

Note that such a movement involves at least three army groups, and that it is carried out at the same time as direct contact with the enemy, which is likely to cause confusion!

In fact, as soon as the transfer began, the troops were in chaos, and the troops going south and north were crowded together, making the already bad traffic situation out of control. Fortunately, the German army was not ready to counterattack and did not have the ability to carry out a counteroffensive, otherwise it would have been possible to make the initiative on the battlefield change hands immediately, and then the Red Army would have to thank God for holding its position, not to mention maintaining the offensive.

However, this chaos did not bring benefits to the German army, first of all, Manstein had no pressure there, and he could hold his position without reinforcements, on the contrary, the chaos of the Red Army also gave the German army more time to consolidate its position, and in those days, the German army frantically repaired the position, making the defense line stronger.

Let's put it this way, Tukhachevsky was originally going to try his luck again in a different place, but when he changed hands, the Germans became more difficult, which directly led to the complete ineffectiveness of his adjustment. Although the traffic situation in Priluki is better than in Nosovka, it is not at the same level as before. The ground is still muddy, the weather is still not ideal, and the Germans are getting stronger, how do you think he can open the situation?

When the Red Army resumed the offensive, it was even inferior to Nosovka, and was directly beaten back by the Germans after less than two kilometers of the attack. Tukhachevsky's adjustments failed at the outset.

"I've said a long time ago that there's no drama at all with his style of play." Timoshenko began to speak coldly. "The most important thing we should do is not to adjust the allocation of troops, but to replace a more competent chief of the General Staff, with him, we will not be able to turn over the battle in our lifetime!"

Shaposhnikov did not speak, because he basically agreed with Timoshenko, and he had long been desperate for Tukhachevsky, and he was even too lazy to say anything. For example, in this siege relief campaign, as the commander of the Ukrainian Front, the battlefield commander should not be said to let him be fully responsible, at least he must be given considerable autonomy, right?

Actually? In fact, it was Tukhachevsky, who not only deprived Shaposhnikov of the power of command, but only ordered Shaposhnikov to be in charge of the defense of Kiev, and even deprived him of the right to advise. The commander of the dignified Ukrainian Front has turned into an out-and-out soy sauce party, what do you say?

It was not only Shaposhnikov who was deprived of command, but Triandafilov as commander of the Central Military District in Moscow and commanders of the Belarusian and Bryansk Fronts. Also deprived of command. It is only responsible for logistics and has some right to advise. The sense of presence is also quite low.

All in all, the battle was a one-man show for Tukhachevsky, who played as much as he wanted. In this regard, the commanders dared not speak out, who let Trotsky give such a stern instruction?

For the current painful situation, Timoshenko and Shaposhnikov complained again and again, and the other took responsibility for the silence, but this did not solve the actual problem. Now it is Tukhachevsky who covers the sky with one hand. They're so bad!

Is it really okay? Not necessarily. Someone thinks there is a way, and this person is Zhukov.

"I don't think Comrade Mikhail's adjustment is completely unfavorable," Zhukov suppressed the excitement in his heart, and said with a little excitement: "After this adjustment, the German army must not understand the direction of our army's main attack, I think that the German army will move in the direction of Priluki next, if I keep a low profile enough for the feint group, then the main force of the German army will be attracted to the north, and at that time, we can make a difference!" ”

Is the truth profound? Not esoteric at all. Then why didn't Shaposhnikov and Timoshenko think of it? It's not that they can't think of it. In fact, they also thought of this possibility. But they think it's hard to achieve.

Why? Who let Tukhachevsky, who suffered a thousand cuts, transfer most of the supplies to the main attack cluster, and the feint attack cluster in the south can really only be regarded as soy sauce. It's not even as good as. Let's put it this way, in addition to being able to eat a full stomach, the feint attack cluster now uses a little less ammunition and fuel, and Tukhachevsky will definitely not allocate a little more to them.

How can a war be fought in such a situation? After all, the Germans are not made of tofu. But Zhukov believes that there are not no loopholes to exploit. What's the loophole? It's Kyiv.

"Comrade Mikhail can control the supply of unexpected feint troops in Kyiv, but he can't reduce the supply in Kyiv!"

Shaposhnikov completely disagreed: "Why not, yesterday he spoke, in order to ensure the smooth operation of the siege, we can only reduce the quota of Kiev, I hope we understand!" ”

"What if we don't understand?" Zhukov interjected.

"Then he'll do the same!" Temoshenge snorted coldly, "With Lao Tuo's support, he doesn't dare to do anything!" ”

Zhukov smiled: "Yes, Comrade Trotsky did give Comrade Mikhail great autonomy, and we have nothing to do with him. But we should not forget that there is some pressure that Trotsky can carry for him, but there is also some pressure that Comrade Trotsky cannot bear! ”

"What pressure?" Timoshenko and Shaposhnikov asked in unison.

"Pressure from the people of Kyiv!" Zhukov said fiercely, "In the past few months, the living conditions of the residents of Kyiv have deteriorated day by day, and there are not a few people who have starved to death and froze to death. What do you say will happen if you let them know at this time that Comrade Mikhail is going to lower the quota for Kiev? ”

Timoshenko and Shaposhnikov were eye-catching, but immediately they fell silent again, because it was very risky to do so, and which leader would like to be threatened by public opinion? Especially for a leader of Trotsky's level, if you play with him here, it is properly a matter of death.

Otherwise, how can it be said that there is a specialization in the art industry? Shaposhnikov, Timoshenko and Zhukov are all soldiers, not politicians, and they are 108,000 miles away from real insiders. For example, in Kyiv at this time, there is an expert in this area.

"It's absolutely impossible to do this!" Misty Wind Jevic said to Triandafilov.

Why to Triandafillov? Didn't Shaposhnikov make this up? It's true, but this matter cannot be done with the power of Shaposhnikov and Timoshenko alone.

It is impossible to bypass the Moscow Central Army in this matter, and without the nod of the Moscow Central Military District, public opinion and public opinion cannot be mobilized. Moreover, as the direct leader of the Ukrainian Front, if Trian Dafilov knew that Shaposhnikov was carrying out such a big move behind his back, the consequences would be very unpredictable.

You must know that behind Trian Dafilov is another Politburo elder, and if you provoke two Politburo elders at the same time, it is simply death. Therefore, Shaposhnikov immediately reported the relevant ideas to Trian Dafilov, hoping to gain understanding and support.

In terms of politics, Triandafilov's level is not high, but it does not prevent him from having a ready-made military advisor.

"You must not do that!" Kirifujevic replied with certainty, "This is a confrontation with the Politburo, and the consequences are very serious, even if the Politburo does not deal with you for a while, you will settle accounts in the future!" It's just a lot of harm! ”

"Then watch Mikhail toss around, according to his method, the siege of Kyiv will not be solved at all!" Trian Dafilov was in a hurry.

Misty Wind jevic sighed, and after a moment of silence, he replied, "Well, I'll be solely responsible for this matter, and I'll do everything at my disposal, and you must never interfere!" ”

Triandafilov frowned and said cautiously, "It won't affect you, right?" ”

Misty Wind Jevic replied very seriously: "There will be a little impact, but at this time, for the sake of the overall situation, my personal impact is nothing!" (To be continued......)

PS: Bow and thank you for the streams of Huagui, the people who drank a thousand cups without getting drunk, the glorious charter and Comrade Juventus!