"Leninno, you have moved your headquarters to Moscow?" Stalin reacted very fiercely to Zhukov's words, he thought that at least most of the southern part of Moscow should still be in the hands of the Soviet army, but now he knew the truth, that the Germans had captured Razvilka, Butovo, and even Bilyulev.

"Yes! The Germans had already taken Butowo from us ten days ago, and if you don't already know, I can tell you with certainty that the counterattack on Bytsa Park failed, and now the Germans are in control there, and the 150mm howitzers that shelled the Kremlin this morning should have been fired from there. Zhukov smiled bitterly, and then told everything he knew to Stalin, who was still in the dark.

It's really terrible news, Stalin staggered for a moment, and then looked at Zhukov, hoping to see some clues from the other party's face, but he failed, obviously Zhukov was very honorable when he said these words, and there was no change in his expression at all.

"How long is the nearest German unit from me?" Stalin seemed to quickly adapt to Zhukov's collapse therapy, he did not lash out as before, did not break down, and did not even show up the larger mood swings, but calmly asked Zhukov, who said everything: "If there is anything else you don't know, let's say it together." ”

"According to radio and other sources, we can confirm that Siberia has defected, and the attitude of the Far East is now ambiguous. Zhukov simply became more disgraceful: "The reinforcements you have been waiting for are simply not coming, and the Germans have already captured Vorontsov Park a day ago......"

"An infantry battalion of the German army is now infiltrating the neighborhood near Vorontsov Park, and the nearest unit is already only 1 km away from Lermonosov Street. "This news is still on Zhukov's way to the situation, personally discovered. At that time, when his car drove over the bridge to the east bank of the Moscow River, he heard the sound of artillery from there.

Lemonosov Street is another central location of Moscow's defenses. If the Germans had really taken the street, there would not have been much distance left from the Moskva River. At that time, mortars that may be larger and farther away will be able to hit the Kremlin, the core of Moscow.

When Stalin heard this fateful news, he didn't say anything more, he just quietly listened to Zhukov's constant bad news that could not be worse, and kept telling him about it. Zhukov was not very aware of the operations of the German troops north of Moscow, and Vatutin did not report more information to the anxious Zhukov.

The poor Marshal of the Soviet Union now probably had at most 10 divisions of troops, and some of these troops were dissatisfied. He insisted on the defense near Leninno, inflicting many casualties on the Germans, but the Germans did not retreat because of the heavy casualties, but intensified the attack in the vicinity.

"Our forces are no longer sufficient to hold the existing defensive positions, and we must retreat, abandon some of the burdens, and focus on defending the positions near Nasimov Street. Zhukov pointed to a huge map of the defense of the Moscow region hanging on Stalin's wall and said to Stalin.

The location of his finger was still marked on the map, and the farther away were still marked with the Soviet army's control. It's a pity that most of those places have now been occupied by the Germans, and the reserves that appear to be large are actually more than half of them now.

In fact, there are not many forces left in the Soviet Union that can fight, part of the original Moscow city defense troops, some troops in the hands of Vasilevsky, plus some troops in the hands of Zhukov and Konev. The remaining defensive forces, which seem to be staggering in number, are in fact just civilian armies with no heavy weapons.

To put it bluntly, these units are only the most ineffective infantry with guns in their hands, and without much systematic logistics and supplementation, and without unified command and scheduling, it is difficult for these units to play any role in the process of defense. In the face of German tanks, these improvised forces, even with basic anti-tank firepower, could easily be taken out by groups of German experienced infantry.

Officially, the Germans were killed or missing on July 15 with about 519 soldiers, and the number of Soviet soldiers killed was as high as 4,000 for this reason. In the official records of the Soviet Union, the Germans lost 600 soldiers on this day, which is not much different from the German record, but the losses of the Soviet army itself in various circumstances were only 780, which is because many poor armed battles are not counted.

The streets and alleys were littered with corpses of all kinds, some of them real civilians, who came out to find something to eat or do something else, and then they were hit by shells or stray bullets or something like that, and they died there and no one cared about them. Others were members of the "Moscow Self-Defense Forces", carrying a Mosin Nagant with a few rounds of ammunition and crouching in a corner until they were killed by the Germans or after killing passing Germans - they often had only one shot, and most of the time the shot had no chance to hit the enemy.

The number of guns soon became insufficient due to the unlimited expansion of the "Moscow Self-Defense Forces". As a result, this haphazard "expansion" was finally stopped by Zhukov. Then the Moscow Theater High Command issued an order that firearms should be distributed only to those between the ages of 10 and 65 after registration, and that women should not be issued as much as possible.

Even so, the Germans saw and recorded a terrible sight of a Soviet building, which was largely devoid of regular soldiers, and when the Germans rushed in, they found that they were being shot at 40 young women, 15 children, and a group of 60-year-old men - an integrated company of the "Moscow Self-Defense Forces", commanded by a temporarily promoted captain, tasked with defending the building with little strategic value.

These poor "soldiers" had only 3 to 7 rounds of ammunition each, the entire company had only one grenade, no anti-tank weapons and no radio stations, and because many of them were on crutches, they did not even have the ability to retreat if necessary. Some of these people were leaning against the wall, some were propped up by chairs, and they were wearing nunty coats and firing at the Germans with weapons, and then some of them could not even pull the bolt of their guns and just sat there waiting for their deaths.

The combat-ready women in the room were surrounded by the Germans and shot each other to complete their mission - and when the Germans stormed the house, all they saw was blood all over the walls and a whole room full of corpses. Soon the building, which had no roof, was occupied by the Germans, and judging by the German combat diaries and official documents, the Germans did not capture a single prisoner in this battle.

"Comrade Stalin! We must leave women and children from the battlefield...... These people are of no help at all, they are useless except for wasting the enemy's ammunition. Zhukov also brought up in front of Stalin about the "Moscow Self-Defense Forces", which wasted valuable ammunition and often launched heavy charges, increasing casualties.

"This unit was organized by the committee, and it was formed spontaneously by the citizens of Moscow to fight the invaders...... I don't think it's necessary to negate the upsurge of patriotic fervor, we don't have much left now, Comrade Zhukov. Stalin's forehead was drenched with sweat, and he trembled a little when he spoke, as if because he had not smoked since he opened his eyes.

Zhukov shook his head depressedly and said to Stalin: "Comrade Stalin, if you think that it is a high patriotic fervor to charge the German positions with a group of people a few years older than you with a gun, then I should keep my mouth shut...... The old men, women and children didn't know what fighting was, they would just run to the German positions, rifles in their hands - I don't need to tell you what the fate was, the Germans would not hesitate to shoot and kill these civilians who would not shoot at all. ”

"Then let them shoot the civilians, just as they shot me in a few days!" Stalin finally burst out in a frustration, and he endured Zhukov's reproach only because his illusory victory burst like a bubble, not because he could bear to be questioned about his decision. Of course, he knew that some departments were organizing civilians to die, and they were doing it at his behest.

If this is not done, how will the defense line of hundreds of kilometers outside the city of Moscow be built? If this is not done, where will the million-strong army in the Moscow theater come from? Stalin needs a million-strong army, even if the million-strong army is illusory, ineffective, and improvised armed civilians. And in his heart, he took it for granted that when he needed an army of millions, he must have an army of millions!

"I will allow you to dismiss the Moscow Self-Defense Forces in the Leninno region that you think are useless, but you have no right to deny all the Patriotic Self-Defense Forces!" Stalin, staring at Zhukov, asked in a cold tone.

Zhukov knew that he had overdrawn Stalin's trust and mood by coming here this time. He did not speak, but stood upright and gave a solemn military salute to Stalin. Then he turned and walked out of Stalin's room, leaving the underground bunker with his guards - this was the last time he and Stalin met.