Age of Conquest Reborn

In Moscow in early April, the breath of spring can be vaguely smelled in the air. One winter, the snow that covered the entire city turned into pools of water under the sunlight during the day. The entire city

, as if they are about to wake up from the severe cold of winter. In more than a month's time, the girls in Moscow will put on colorful dresses. Every spring is the expectation of Moscow citizens, and this year will not be the same.

exception.

However, the citizens of Moscow did not know that a war had broken out on the western border thousands of kilometers away from the capital. More than six million German troops poured in like a tide. Moscow could not smell the smoke.

, life in the city is going on as usual, no one thought that a few hours later, a nightmarish news would spread like crazy in every corner of the city.

Not only the ordinary citizens of Moscow, but also the top leadership of the Soviet Union learned this shocking news from the report of Marshal Petroshilov, Chief of the General Staff, after nine o'clock on the morning of April 10.

.

The Politburo meeting that was supposed to discuss the war in the Eastern Front, as well as personnel arrangements and military deployment after the occupation of Manchuria and China's Inner Mongolia region, suddenly exploded like a thunderbolt out of thin air, causing all the members of the Politburo of the Soviet Communist Party who participated in the meeting to collectively petrify.

, at this time, nearly four hours had passed since the German army attacked the Soviet Union.

The first person to receive the telegram was Marshal Petroshilov, Chief of the Soviet General Staff. Before that, Comrade Marshal had leisurely eaten a sumptuous breakfast in his villa as usual, and sat on the train sent by the General Staff

A private car to go to work.

In the large and personalized office, Chief of the General Staff Petroshilov first looked at the battle briefings on the Eastern battlefield that were routinely sent from the War Department. While reading, he smiled. All the battle situations,

It can be explained in four words that the progress is going smoothly. The Japanese Kwantung Army was overthrown within a week. The Tang Qiuli troops huddled in southern Outer Mongolia were about to be attacked by General Vasilevsky. More than one million troops

attack.

The news coming from the Eastern battlefield is very gratifying. Zhukov did a very good job. He was able to encircle more than 1.8 million Japanese Kwantung Army troops, which was much stronger than Vasilevsky. For these two hands

In the heart of Comrade Chief of General Staff, who is a commander with heavy troops, he still admires Zhukov. However, Vasilevsky's slight flaws do not affect his appreciation.

The key is that Comrade Stalin likes Vasilevsky, and other people's attitudes are insignificant. There is no need for him to be a villain. Therefore, this morning, Marshal Petroshilov was in a pretty good mood. He drank a fragrant drink.

coffee and started the day's routine.

At 9:15 in the morning, the secretary of Comrade Chief of General Staff knocked on the door and came in, "Comrade Chief of General Staff, according to today's schedule, at ten o'clock in the morning, you will go to Comrade Stalin's office in the Kremlin to report on the situation on the Eastern battlefield!"

Marshal Petroshilov said "Hmm!" without raising his head. The secretary exited knowingly, and he continued to immerse himself in his work.

Five minutes later, at 9:20 in the morning, there was a loud banging sound, and the door of the office was knocked heavily. Petroshilov was conceiving the contents of his report to Comrade Stalin in his mind.

The marshal's train of thought was completely interrupted by a rough knock on the door.

Marshal Petroshilov raised his head angrily. He felt very uncomfortable having his train of thought interrupted. To give a crude analogy, it was like he was working on a young girl until the most critical moment when he was suddenly photographed.

Holding your shoulders and letting yourself down, it's as annoying as it gets!

"Come in!" Marshal Petroshilov shouted in a rough voice, and he was also prepared to severely reprimand this rude guy. Has he broken his rules?

"Huh!" The door was pushed open with great force, and a senior officer with a lieutenant general's epaulettes rushed in. Marshal Petroshilov's light yellow eyebrows stood up at that time, "Hill

Comrade Ponosky, what a decent person you are. As a senior officer of the Red Army, you should have a military demeanor. If you are so irritable and rude, you are not afraid that officers from other departments will see it and laugh at us. The generals of the General Staff are all rude.

Senior?"

The actual person who came was Lieutenant General Shirponosky, the Chief of Operations Department of the General Staff, his direct subordinate. Therefore, Marshal Petroshilov dared to reprimand him sternly, and he was also very angry.

Lieutenant General Ski is a subordinate whom he is very optimistic about. He is going to recommend at the Politburo meeting to serve as the deputy chief of staff of the General Staff Department in charge of operations. He has strict requirements for him. Who is the comrade in charge?

Lieutenant General Shilbonoski, of course, saw the very displeased look on his boss's face. In normal times, he would never have made such a low-level mistake, especially at the critical moment when his husband was about to be promoted to Chief of General Staff, but

Today, the report I received was so horrifying and shocking! - So...! I can't express it in words!

"General, Comrade Chief of General Staff, the Operation Department received a telegram from the Western Border Military Region five minutes ago. At dawn today, a large number of German troops launched a sudden attack on our border garrison. The Germans are attacking us!"

Lieutenant General Shilbonoski did not even apologize, but directly reported the emergency with beads of sweat as big as peas on his forehead, and his tone was so nervous that he stuttered!

"What?" Marshal Petroshilov suddenly jumped up from his high-backed chair, as if the red-hot iron burned his buttocks. He knocked over a bottle of ink on the table and soaked a pile of ink.

His first reaction was that he didn't believe the document. It was indeed hard to believe Beria's sworn assurance. Could his intelligence department be sure that the German army was in a stalemate with the American and British coalition forces in the British Isles? How could it suddenly attack the Soviet Union?

"Nonsense, how is this possible? Are you sure you are not mistaken? Maybe there were sporadic frictions between our soldiers and German patrols in some areas on the western border. Have you verified it? Comrade Shilbonosky, I solemnly

I'm warning you, if your report causes the General Staff to make a wrong judgment, you know very well what the consequences will be!" Marshal Petroshilov's roar echoed in the office.

As an old man who has been with the General Staff for many years, Lieutenant General Shilbonoski certainly knew the consequences, and he did not want to believe it was true, but - emergency telegrams flew in like a snowflake.

Confirming this, the Germans attacked the Soviet Union and the war broke out in full force.

Shilbonoski swallowed hard, his light blue eyes full of confusion, and said with difficulty: "Comrade Chief of Staff, in just five minutes, the operations department successively received orders from the western border line.

Leningrad Military District, Baltic

Emergency telegrams from the Coastal Special Military District, the Western Special Military District, the Kiev Special Military District, and the Odessa Military District, and in the telegrams, the military district commanders also reported that the location of their military district headquarters had been bombed by German bombers!"

"The wired communication between various military regions and the troops in the border areas has been interrupted. Currently, the front line is in chaos. They have no idea where the German army has attacked, what is the situation of the front line troops, and the extent of the losses. We have no idea.

There is no way to know. Comrade Chief of General Staff, I suggest that you immediately report to the Politburo that the German attack on us is absolutely a fact!"

Marshal Petroshilov was still in disbelief. The veins on his neck were bulging and he shouted: "No -! This is not true. I will personally call each military region to confirm!" As he said that, he picked up the paper on the table.

A red confidential phone number.

Lieutenant General Shilbonoski said with a wry smile: "It's useless, Comrade Chief of General Staff. After receiving the telegram, I immediately called the various military district headquarters, but all phone calls have been interrupted and cannot be reached.

!”

"So, the Germans really attacked the Soviet Union? The war really broke out?" Marshal Petroshilov fell back on his chair slumped, muttering painfully to himself, "Why is this happening? Why wasn't there anything in advance?

An omen?"

"Comrade Shilbonosky, take these telegrams and come with me immediately to Comrade Stalin in the Kremlin. Hurry!" Petroshilov suddenly jumped up and said hurriedly, but before the two of them could wait,

Walking out of the office, follow-up telegrams from various military regions in the western border area came one after another.

The content of the telegram was almost the same, "The General Staff transferred to Comrade Stalin, the war broke out, and the German attack was very fierce. At the location of our headquarters, soldiers who had retreated from the front line could already be seen. After verification, they were all border garrison troops.

Under the attack of the German army, we have retreated to this point. The situation is extremely critical. Please ask the General Staff to dispatch reinforcements as soon as possible. Otherwise, with the current strength and equipment of our department, it will be impossible to resist the German attack!"

Among them, especially the telegram from the Kiev Special Military District located in Ukraine, made Marshal Petroshilov feel like he was struck by lightning. "After being bombed by German aircraft, our military district headquarters was raided by German tank troops.

, a fierce battle broke out in the city, and the military district headquarters has evacuated the area and moved inland."

God! Kiev is an important strategic town on the road to Moscow. It can be called the bridgehead of Moscow. The Kiev Military District has at least hundreds of thousands of troops stationed in that direction. Now, the German army has entered the city, and...

Kiev is more than 200 kilometers away from the border. In other words, nearly four hours after the war broke out, the German army had penetrated more than 200 kilometers into the Soviet Union.

At 9:40 a.m. on April 10, Marshal Petroshilov stuffed the urgent telegrams from various military districts on the western border into a document bag and took Lieutenant General Shilbonosky, Chief of the Operations Department of the General Staff, with him.

, hurriedly jumped into the car and rushed to the Kremlin like crazy.

(To be continued) (To be continued..)