The Third Reich: The Return of the King

Chapter 1132

Timoshenko and Budyonny were originally the commanders of the Soviet army on the Eastern Front, but Starling was a little distrustful of their strength, so he sent Rokossovsky to lead the team.

Timoshenko and Budyonny were naturally very unhappy with such an arrangement.

They were both veterans in the army. They had served the country in the army when the Red Bear was founded.

After finally killing Frunze, Tukhachevsky and others, they encountered challenges from the younger generation.

Zhukov was entrusted with an important task by Starling and led the army alone, which made them very jealous and unhappy.

At this time, Starling directly airdropped Rokossovsky to snatch the military power from them, which made them even more unhappy!

However, although they were unhappy, they did not dare to go against Starling at the moment.

After all, the Great Purge had just passed, and Starling killed hundreds of thousands of people in the Great Purge!

Faced with such an iron-blooded and ruthless ruler, Budyonny and Timoshenko dared not express their complaints openly, because if this reached Starlin’s ears, they would be in trouble!

However, it was inevitable that the two of them would trip each other up behind the scenes.

Starlin asked them to cooperate with Rokossovsky’s actions. They agreed very well, but they kept making various small moves behind the scenes.

Most of the troops transferred to Rokossovsky were the troops that Tukhachevsky had led before, and none of their direct troops were sent.

Although according to Starlin’s request, the first and second Guards Tank Army were handed over to Rokossovsky, the quality of other troops was very worrying.

Before the Great Purge, the army under Marshal Tukhachevsky was still very strong. Most of these troops had rich combat experience and were very strictly trained. They were the mainstay of the Soviet Army on the Eastern Front and the real existence of supporting the defense line!

However, after Marshal Tukhachevsky was purged, the army under his command could not escape the bad luck and was targeted by Starlin.

Those generals in this army who had close relations with Marshal Tukhachevsky, no matter how high their ranks were, from the commander of the army group to an ordinary soldier, could not escape the fate of the purge.

The direct result of such a strong purge was that the organizational structure of Marshal Tukhachevsky’s army was completely destroyed!

Moreover, such a fierce purge also made everyone in the army feel insecure. At this time, everyone had no intention of training at all, and everyone was more concerned about whether they would be implicated.

This chaotic situation lasted for nearly a year. After a year, although Starlin realized that he could not let this army be in chaos anymore, because it would affect the combat effectiveness of the Soviet army.

So he sent a lot of officers over and promoted a group of young officers from the military academy to let them enter this army and transform this army.

However, it is very easy to destroy an army, but it is difficult to transform an army and turn them into a strong iron-blooded army again!

In addition, Starlin didn’t pay much attention to this army, which led to the very slow progress of the army’s restoration and reconstruction. Their combat effectiveness may not be more than half of its peak period.

Budyonny and Timoshenko looked down on this kind of army, so they naturally threw all these troops to Rokossovsky.

Rokossovsky was promoted too quickly and lacked grassroots experience, which led to him not being very clear about the details of these troops on the Eastern Front.

Therefore, he did not see through the two people’s scheme, but was very grateful to Budyonny and Timoshenko for their strong support for his work.

After all, they allocated more than one million troops to him at once, so that he had enough powerful forces to complete the task assigned to him by Starlin!

So, Rokossovsky happily took over these troops, and then excitedly led this army south!

“General Timoshenko, do you think this kid Rokossovsky can succeed?”

Looking at the Soviet army gradually moving away, the two bigwigs on the Eastern Front started chatting.

Budyonny turned his head to look at Timoshenko and asked him a question.

Timoshenko smiled slightly and said,”It depends on his luck!”

“Oh? How do you say that?”Budonny was obviously very interested in what Timoshenko said.

“The German army currently has few troops in Poland. They seem to have transferred too many troops to the south to encircle Zhukov’s troops. This is a good thing for us, or it may be a bad thing, it depends on how you look at it!”

Timushingo’s words sounded very interesting. Budyonny was intrigued by the other party, so he continued to ask:”How do you look at good things, and how about bad things?”

“At this time, the German army in the south already had three army groups participating in the siege of Zhukov’s troops. Now other troops were dispatched to reinforce them. Wouldn’t Zhukov and his troops be surrounded like a bucket? In this case, it would be difficult for Rokossovsky to break the German encirclement, so he might return empty-handed, unable to rescue Zhukov, and return in disgrace!”

Budonny was even more confused. How could it be a good thing to retreat and return without being able to rescue anyone?

“So what is the bad thing?”

“Bad things, very simple, all of this, including everything you and I have seen, everything arranged by the man in Moscow, and even Zhukov’s encirclement on the southern battlefield, were all planned by the Third Reich, with the purpose of luring us to leave our own defense line and go deep into enemy territory to fight them!

Think about it, with the powerful field combat capabilities of the German army, even if we have solid fortifications and defense lines to defend, we may not be able to stop their iron hoofs, but if we lose the protection of these fortifications and complete defense lines, and encounter the German army in the wild, what do you think the result will be?”

Timoshenko’s words made Budyonny shudder!

If things are really as he said, it would be too terrible, right?

Rokossovsky’s army is likely to be in danger, and even they themselves may be defeated!

“Marshal, why don’t you tell Comrade Starlin about your worries?”

Budyonny asked angrily.

Timoshenko spread his hands:”If I tell him, will he believe it? You have to know that once the guy in Moscow makes a decision, he will never change it easily. So my words, even if I say them, are just unpleasant noise!” PS