The economic construction of the Soviet Union was not actually slow, on the contrary, for many reasons, it was very fast in the Stalin era. At least in the construction of the railway, the Soviets still put a lot of effort into it. Instead of hiring German engineers, they designed and built a large railway across Siberia under the leadership of their own technicians.

The railway, which stretched from Kiev in Europe to the Far East, was the main artery of the entire Soviet Union across the east and west. Unfortunately, the railway was not built to European standards, but to the backward railway standards of the Tsarist Russian period. The railway has its own locomotive and wagons, and is almost an independent transportation artery.

In this time, the railroad tracks in the Soviet Union were divided into two parts, the first part was the old Tsarist rails, and most of the western parts of the Soviet Union used the new European rails provided by Germany. The two systems were not compatible, but the Soviets still used the two rail systems in line with the principle of waste utilization.

Of course, the two rails are not only different in width, but also in the number of sleepers within 100 meters, and the rail standards of the Tsarist era are very unsightly, the load-bearing structure of the rails is too simple, and the transportation weight that can be expanded is also very limited. But the backward standards of railway design also had the advantage of being cheaper to build, which allowed the Soviet Union to lay more railroads to solve the "have-not" problem.

Like China, which was in ruins, the Soviet Union today is not thinking more about improvement, but about turning it from nothing into something. The pursuit of quality is not the focus, whether we can produce something and fill a blank field is the concern of everyone.

The train hurtles through the desolate plains, and the clatter of wheels against the railroad tracks is easy to hypnotize. But the people on this train were not in the mood to sleep at this moment, because they were soldiers of the Far East of the Soviet Red Army on their way to the western front.

This column is different from other military columns, the soldiers in this train are all armed, which means that in addition to being sent to the front line in western Ukraine, they are also responsible for part of the defense. Because on this train, there are also 20 T-34 tanks that have just come off the production line.

In the penultimate carriage at the end of the train sat an elegant Soviet officer, who was in his place studying in detail a military map of the Soviet Ukrainian provinces, while on the other side of his desk lay another map with German annotations.

This Soviet officer is Lieutenant General Zhukov, who has just been appointed to take over the military power of Timoshenko and is in charge of military affairs near Ukraine. He was appreciated by Stalin for his outstanding performance in the Battle of Nomenkan, promoted to lieutenant general of the Red Army, and then transferred to Ukraine to command this counterattack because of the tight situation on the Western Front.

"Look at this operational map captured from the Germans......" Zhukov said, pointing to the map on the table, to his staff officer. His tone was full of worry, as if he had despaired of the operational deployment on the Western Front.

The operational map, seized from the corpse of a German company commander, was incomplete, but it recorded road conditions and important information about the surrounding area in countless times more detail than the Soviets' own military maps. Apparently German spies in some areas had already secretly drawn up detailed maps, and the features of the landscape were undoubtedly provided by German engineers who helped the Soviets build the railroad.

"It was premeditated, the Germans began to prepare for the invasion of us in 1930, and we were stupid enough to cooperate with others to develop the western regions of the Soviet Union. Zhukov shook his head and said with some disappointment: "What a desperate war. ”

Of course, he knew how long it would take to draw this detailed combat map, and he also knew what kind of perfection the combat mission could be based on this detailed map.

However, he still opened his mouth and persuaded: "General, after all, we have a local superiority in troops, and we also have new weapons on the battlefield, and the current international situation is also more beneficial to us, after all, the United States participation in the war is something we have been looking forward to, isn't it?"

The staff officer did not know that the Soviet P-40 fighter unit had suffered heavy losses in Ukraine, and he did not know that it was not only the Soviet Union that had invested in new weapons, but that the Germans had also shown off their new equipment on the battlefield. And it was clear that the new equipment of the German army was superior: the Ta-152 fighter was clearly much better than the American P-40 fighter.

Although the overall performance of the T-34 tank on this train is a little better than the M4 Sherman tank in service with the United States this year, it is still at the level of the German Leopard tank, and there is definitely still an insurmountable gap between the Tiger tank with thicker armor and more powerful artillery. It is also clearly unrealistic to count on the appearance of the T-34 to challenge the technological superiority of the German armored forces.

Of course, confidence has to be full, it's a matter of attitude. The commanders of the Soviet Red Army had been so frightened by the purge that it had not yet been completely over, and in any case did not dare to say anything contrary to Stalin's ideas. This is a means of saving life, and it has nothing to do with character or ability.

If the United States had not been dragged into the water by Japan and forced to enter the war, the Soviet Union might have already made peace with Germany a long time ago, right? Zhukov thought helplessly. He was not in favor of taking action against Germany in advance, but he himself knew that the start of the war against Germany would only be more difficult for the Soviet Union if it dragged on.

From this military map, he saw Germany's scheming, and also saw the gap between the officers and soldiers at the grassroots level on both sides. It would have been very difficult for the company commanders of the Soviet Red Army to survey the topographical maps of the vicinity on their own. Many Soviet commanders did not have a good military education, they only fought with faith and courage, and the things that used their brains were mainly left to the generals.

Ideally, this is not impossible, but the purge held high the banner of loyalty and killed most of the officers and generals with brains, which also caused a terrible fact: most of the Soviet army could not fight with their brains, and they were as clumsy as a bear but could not use their strength.

The fact that there is a group of generals who can't use their brains, a group of middle-level officers who can't use their brains, and a group of low-educated soldiers who can't use their brains -- such an army has to face a high-tech army with the highest professional and highest level of education in the world.

Zhukov poured himself a glass of boiling water, and then looked out the window, his homeland has such a vast territory, which is the highest honor obtained by countless ancestors who have worked hard to expand, but now he doubts whether he is capable of holding this territory and allowing his descendants to continue to live in this beautiful land.

"Send a telegram to Comrade Stalin and tell him that, if possible, I hope to be able to stop this offensive and strengthen our forward line of defense and hold on to the existing positions. Zhukov thought for a few minutes, and finally said to his staff officer: "To be honest, I am not sure about the attack, and I hope that our diplomats can end this war at the negotiating table." ”

"General......" The staff officer was stunned after hearing Zhukov's words, and then reminded his commander: "We can't figure out how to go to a military ......tribunal for such a power generation against Moscow."

"I'd rather be sent to Siberia or shot in Moscow than be tried like this after burying a million Red Army soldiers!" Zhukov said firmly: "This is my choice and my right!"

The staff officer nodded, and he also felt that in this way he might still have a way to live: if he was sent to Siberia because he offended Comrade Stalin, there would be a chance of survival. But if the command of the war fails and a large number of personnel and materials are buried, then it is not as simple as going to Siberia, and if you don't get it right, you may even be harmed by your wife and children.

He went to another carriage to send a telegram, and Zhukov picked up the military map and looked at it again, the German army was shrinking its forces on the frontal battlefield, trying to laugh at the occupied part of the Ukrainian region, which was what made him despair the most.

To be honest, he was not afraid of the German army's long drive, after all, the German army's frantic advance could not threaten the huge deep hinterland of the Soviet Union. Even after losing Moscow, he was confident of winning the war, because taking land to consume German armored forces was a surefire deal for the Soviet Red Army. Similarly, the instability in the rear caused by a rapid offensive would definitely give the Soviet Union a greater and more convenient opportunity to counterattack.

However, the German strategists were simply geniuses, which allowed Germany not to be carried away by the victory on the border, but to stop steadily on the territory of Ukraine. The defensive line deployed along the Dnieper River allowed the armies of the Germans and the client state of Romania to shorten the defensive line, and the defense system laid along the river can be described as impregnable.

At this stage, the Soviet troops did not have the strength to ensure the success of their troops crossing the river and penetrating the defense, nor could they guarantee that their troops would not be annihilated by the oncoming German armored forces after crossing the Dnieper. So Zhukov felt that it was very unwise to start a counterattack at the end of May this year, and he felt that he could postpone this time until the end of July or even the end of August.

The reason is very simple: the campaign will continue until the cold winter of Ukraine comes, and then it will be time for the Soviet troops who are good at winter combat to play, and the advanced German tanks and planes will be greatly reduced because they cannot adapt to the cold weather of the Soviet Union. R1148