The King Tiger tank appeared on a large scale on the frontal battlefield for the first time, and it became the enemy's nightmare, this kind of steel monster with low appearance, strong power, amazing protection, and superior firepower, easily tore apart the Soviet defense line, and even more than a dozen Soviet tanks rushed over to support, were also simply destroyed.

The appearance of these King Tiger tanks made the German army once again superior to the Soviet Union in the quality of armored forces, and even the Stalin tanks that the Soviet Union had managed to produce with great effort were proved to be unable to cope with it. Once again, the Soviet line was broken through, and the German Army Group A was closer to Minsk.

When Zhukov received that the new German tanks appeared on the battlefield, broke through the defensive line arranged by the commander of the 1st Guards Front, Konev, and advanced 20 kilometers in one breath, he just waved his hand and told the people who reported to stop talking. Now he has enough troubles, and one more thing like this doesn't make him desperate anymore.

The news has just come that hundreds of thousands of troops of the Soviet Red Army in the Donetsk direction have abandoned resistance, lost their weapons and surrendered to the Germans. This information was a disaster for the Soviet Union, and the fragile Caucasus region was exposed to the guns of the German army, and there were oil fields vital to the Soviet Union, producing oil and various chemical products needed for the Soviet counterattack.

Once the Caucasus is lost, the Soviet Union, even if it can remain undefeated on other fronts, will one day be dragged down by Germany and fall into the abyss from which it will never recover. For the Soviet army, or for the Soviet Union as a whole, the Caucasus was even more important than Moscow.

Zhukov walked to the front of the map with his hands behind his back, carefully staring at the front of his defensive line, the line of actual control between the two sides that was getting closer and closer to Minsk, and sighed helplessly. And at this time, the commander of the 2nd Guards Front of the Soviet Army, General Rokossovsky, walked into Zhukov's office.

He had come to report on his work, and now his 2nd Guards Front was in dire need of recuperation, and there was no need to remain at the front. The battle on the front line has little impact on him personally, after all, the way the war is fought now has little to do with him.

"Ah, Comrade Rokossovsky, here you are. Sit, I don't have any vodka here, I can only give you some water, it's a pity. Zhukov pointed to the seat not far away, motioned for Rokossovsky to sit down, and then continued to speak slowly: "Do you know why I brought you here?"

"Comrade Zhukov, I heard that in the southern region, our army has been defeated on a large scale, and at this time you came to me in the hope that I would rush to the south and help the army there stabilize their position?" Rokossovsky thought for a moment and replied: "Anyway, my front army needs to rest and recuperate, and it is just time to retreat to the Caucasus, right?"

"If we can't hold there, we won't have to fight any longer, so I've sent you over in the hope that you will hold on until we have defeated the German attack from the front. Zhukov sighed and said, "I can't give you much, but you are closer to Chelyabinsk there, and I will give you as much priority as possible to supply you with tanks and other heavy weapons." ”

Everyone knows that going to the Caucasus is not an easy job. Most of the soldiers there were newly recruited and had no combat experience, and it was a very difficult task to use these soldiers to stop the German advance.

"The 2nd Guards Front also let me take it away? plus the troops mobilized in other directions, if I don't have to counterattack, I can still do it if I hold the Caucasus to the death. Merely...... No matter how you insist, there must always be a time limit, and if you survive this time limit, I can't do anything. Rokossovsky said confidently.

Zhukov shook his head, looked at the huge map of the Soviet Union hanging on the wall, and said with some sadness: "This war is now a lose-lose attrition, in fact, there is no possibility of victory for us, no matter what we do, the losses of the Soviet Union are estimated to not be recovered in 50 years." ”

His eyes swept over Minsk, over Kiev, over Kharkov. In the end, it stopped at Rokossovsky: "We have no way to end the war, because we have to get back all the lost territory before we dare to ask for peace talks, otherwise we, including Comrade Stalin, will be sinners of the nation." But I don't see any hope of getting our land back now, not the slightest. I sent you to the Caucasus because I myself can't say how long before we have the ability to fight back, maybe a year, maybe two years, maybe ...... Wait three years or more. ”

He stretched out his hand, stroked the important cities on the map, looked at the line of control that represented the forces of both sides, and finally pressed his hand on Minsk: "In order to draw troops to give you more support, I have even written an operational report on the abandonment of Minsk and sent it to Moscow...... This may be the last time I give the order to retreat, Comrade Stalin must find someone to bear the consequences of defeat, I ...... The location is suitable. ”

The relinquishment of Minsk was a desperate move to shorten the defensive line, and the German army was obviously advancing too fast in the south, so that the whole north was like a huge salient in the German semi-encirclement, and once Guderian's troops began to move north along Kursk, then all the defenders in Belarus were in danger of being encircled and eaten.

In order to avoid this danger, Zhukov decided to abandon some areas in order to strengthen his defenses. And the first place he had to give up was Minsk, the western center of the Soviet Union. Naturally, the responsibility of losing the city and losing the territory will not be borne by the leader Stalin, so Zhukov, the commander-in-chief of the front, will become a first-class good candidate to carry the black pot.

However, once the Soviet Union ceded Minsk, it was equivalent to liberating about 200,000 troops, which could follow the 2nd Guards Front to the south, fill the gap in the Caucasus, and continue to fight for the Soviet Union to maintain the current stalemate and continue to fight.

In other words, the Soviet Union may have to give up not only one Minsk, but also a series of regions such as Kharkiv, Smolensk, Kursk, etc., and even turn Moscow into a front line, and keep the oil fields of the Caucasus. Only in this way will the Soviet Union have the capital to continue to fight, and the capital to continue to entangle with Germany.

The point now is that these are just a series of military speculations, and whether Stalin, who was far away in Moscow, could buy Zhukov's account or not. Whether he accepts this plan or not is the most important question in everything.

Fortunately for Minsk, whether Stalin had the courage to give up the gateways to Moscow such as Smolensk and Kursk, so that the German army could really hit the door, and exchange the loss of strategic space for more mobile forces and delay more time, in order to launch a strategic counterattack in the future.

If this plan is successfully implemented, then it will depend on whether the German army has the courage to advance almost 700 kilometers into the real Forte of the Soviet Union, transport its own logistics materials on muddy roads, and fight to the death with the Soviet army under the city of Moscow.

What Zhukov was waiting for was nothing more than an order from Stalin, and all he could do now was to draw the 2nd Guards Front out and push it in the direction of the Caucasus.

"Report!" At this time, a soldier stood at the door with a telegram and knocked on the door, and then walked up behind Zhukov respectfully, stood up and saluted, and handed the document to Zhukov: "Call from Moscow, a telegram sent by the great leader Comrade Stalin himself, please read it." ”

"Read!" Zhukov did not take the telegram that decided his fate, but looked at the map and gave a forced command.

"Comrade Zhukov, as a marshal of the great Soviet Union, my personal trust in you is beyond doubt. I have already announced your appointment to continue as a front-line commander at the Conference on Wartime Personnel Appointments in Moscow...... You are not to blame for the rout at the front, in fact the main reason for this defeat was because of the events on the Crimean peninsula. The sinners of these countries have already paid for what they have done, and on our own side, the main responsibility lies with Comrade Timoshenko, who commanded unfavorably on the southern front, and not you. When the soldier heard the order, he opened the message and read it solemnly.

When Zhukov heard this, he closed his eyes. The result of handing over the black cauldron to his back did not appear, and this time the scapegoat was the first person in charge of the rout in the south, Marshal Timoshenko, who was in charge of directing the battle there. It seems that Stalin also saw that the situation in the Caucasus was very dangerous and supported the abandonment of the Minsk plan.

Sure enough, Zhukov's guess was not wrong at all. The soldier continued: "As for the plan to abandon Minsk, I personally support it. Wars, of course, will have setbacks, there will be short-lived defeats. But we should firmly believe that the power of the revolution is infinite and that we will surely achieve the greatest victory!"

"It seems that we can still fight the Germans once!" Zhukov noticed that before he knew it, the shirt he was wearing was already soaked with sweat. However, his worries have been swept away now, and his mood is more than a little relaxed. Stalin not only continued to let him command the troops at the front, but also removed Timoshenko so that Rokossovsky, who was sent by Zhukov, could take over, which was undoubtedly good news for all Soviet soldiers.

Zhukov looked at Rokossovsky and muttered: "Abandonment, give us a chance to win." ”