Zhukov was not angry about Rokosovsky's sudden request for retreat, but asked calmly: "Where do you want to withdraw? How many troops can you withdraw?"

"Cross the Don River and retreat to Stalingrad, at least one of the three armies can withdraw. { ?" Rokosovsky thought for a while, "If possible, I plan to withdraw the 63rd Army. The army is relatively more combat-effective, and it is more valuable to retain it."

Zhukov did not directly express his opinion on whether it was good or bad, so he asked another topic: "Do you think the Germans will take the opportunity to pass the Don River Quarter and attack Stalingrad?"

If it were the past, Rokosovsky would have said yes without hesitation, but after 9 and 10 years of the last year, the German army suddenly retreated in a big way, he hesitantly replied: "This is not necessarily, it depends on what Hitler and Manstein think. You see, the Germans crossed the Don River half a year ago, and did not retreat again in the end?"

"Will they go back this time?"

"There is certain possibility, depending on how much pressure we put on the Germans. If we put enough pressure on the Southern Army Group in all aspects, Manstein may not go deep into Stalingrad alone, but if we cannot give this pressure, the enemy may rush over, after all, they currently have the upper hand." Rokosovsky thought for a while and added, "It is not particularly difficult to curb the enemy's attack on Stalingrad. The key is that the two wings must suppress the enemy. If the Germans' Hot cluster on the left and Kleist on the right, the Germans must suppress the enemy.

Even the cluster cannot be destroyed. Only the middle Manstein cluster can cross the Don River, which will actually become a single advance, forming a larger protrusion. We can mobilize troops and deal with the enemy calmly. But look at the fact that the Bryansk and the Southwest Front have more troops than Hot, but they keep complaining that they are attacking fiercely by the enemy. Yelemenko and Comrade Chulenev have more troops than Klester. They also said that if they cannot pull away, they mean that I am the only one to deal with Manstein. How can I have such great strength and ability?"

Rokosovsky talked a lot, and Zhukov understood the other party's complaints. He was hinting that the other four fronts did not use all their strength to help him clear the siege, which made him bear too much enemy troops. The latter's brows were frowning at first, but later slowly relaxed, and even occasionally nodded and agreed.

Rokosovsky breathed a sigh of relief: Comrade Zhukov just listened to it. He didn't want to shirk responsibility. He just felt that it was clear that the three fronts had agreed to jointly suppress Manstein at the beginning, but now he had to bear the entire German offensive by one of the fronts. He felt that the pressure was too great. If he had to hold him accountable for this, it would be even more unfair to punish him.

But Zhukov's next sentence made him stunned: "You said, if I create a situation where both wings are free and the resistance in the middle is not strong, will Manstein really attack Stalingrad?"

"This..." Rokosovsky was stunned: he was talking about retreat and blocking well, why did the topic jump to this? But looking at Zhukov's inquiry gaze, he couldn't help but express his opinion, and finally he had to answer hesitantly: "The result of this question is not necessarily. If it were me, I would think it was a good opportunity. After all, we were not strong in Stalingrad, but since the Germans clearly had a great advantage last year, their thinking has become very strange and elusive. I can't keep up and can't understand Manstein's routine."

"You are very honest. Not only do you not understand, but I cannot understand either." Zhukov sighed, "but now I understand that the Germans are not trying to occupy here or there, and they are not even interested in occupying Baku."

"This is impossible!" Rokosovsky blurted out his doubts, "Gods believe this sentence. The Germans dream of wanting our oil. Otherwise, what would they do in the "Blue Operation" last summer? What would they do when they target the Caucasus? Without oil, the German planes and tanks were all a pile of scrap iron!"

"Really! If they wanted Baku, they would not attack slowly like this a few days ago, but should seize it as quickly as possible, even if they paid a little more for it."

"Didn't it mean that we were blown up all over there before the Baku defenders surrendered?"

"If the Germans are fast enough, they can actually stay a little."

Rokosovsky opened his mouth in surprise, and suddenly felt that he was not thinking enough: What was Comrade Zhukov thinking? He thought the Germans were not fighting fast enough? Could it be that he was a lurking German spy like Marshal Tukhachevsky? Wait, what am I thinking about? How could Comrade Zhukov be a spy? Moreover, as a lucky person who survived three times in the era of the Great Purge, Rokosovsky was not convinced of Tukhachevsky's affairs at all. He was thinking whether Comrade Zhukov had other ideas?... Could it be?

But in just a few seconds, countless scenes flashed through his mind like a turbulent sea. In the end, he was so smart that he didn't say a word, he just took a deep breath and asked simply according to the topic just now: "Why is this?"

"Because they took the Middle East, where there are large oil fields with large storage and very shallow buried, the Germans are mobilizing the forces of the European oil industry to prepare for the opening. All the number of oil companies and exploration teams are in it, including Germans, Italians, French, Belgians, Dutch, etc. The oil wells in that place can produce oil continuously by just a few hundred meters. It is much better or even faster than hard work to repair the Baku oil field, and it is also safe. At present, we are about 12 kilometers away from the Prostina oil field in Romania. It is more difficult to destroy the bomber. It is almost impossible to threaten it by 2 kilometers from the Middle East oil field. And how far Baku is, less than kilometers, I can send a plane to bomb tomorrow!"

Rokosovsky has been leading troops on the front line and has little knowledge of the international situation, especially the international situation that has nothing to do with the Soviet Union. He is far inferior to Zhukov, who is in the center. He asked: "Have the Germans found a large oil field in the Middle East?"

"In fact, it was not Germans, but the British found them. They had found several blocks of the Qianzang oil fields. They only had little demand for oil before the war. The capitalists did not go to exploit them in order to prevent the impact on market prices. As a result, all the Germans are now cheaper. The Kuwaits crawled at the feet of the Germans and willingly became protectors. Saudi Arabia was dismantled by Germany to form the Neizhi Kingdom and a bunch of emirates. Even Iraq divided a piece of territory. Now they were determined to follow the Germans..." Zhukov introduced, "Now the Germans are in Iran. Several large oil fields in Iraq resume production and increase the scale of oil production, while building oil pipelines, and preparing to transport millions or even tens of millions of crude oil back to China. Do you know who is working hard?"

"who?"

"Poles, Jews, and our comrades," Zhukov said with heartache. "The Iranians and Iraqis are accomplices of the Germans. They served as supervisors and guards, and now they have to add Turks."

"Our comrades are there?"

"Prisons of war who belong to the Russian tribe and refuse to join the puppet army."

Although Rokosovsky was a Pole, he did not show much indignation for the Poles' hard work. This is natural. If Russia occupied the enemy's land, the same would be true. As for prisoners of war, if they had not been unwilling to do their best on the battlefield, how could they be prisoners? The ending is not worthy of sympathy at all! So he was only slightly surprised and asked, "When did this happen?"

"It started more than a month ago. We have sympathizers among the French working class. An engineer predicts that the Middle East crude oil production will continue to rise. The region can provide about 10,000 tons of oil to Germany this year, about 20,000 tonnes of oil next year, about 25,000 tons of oil to 20,000 tons of oil in the third year, and maybe 40,000 tons of oil in the fourth year."

"What about 4 years later?"

"Four years later?" Zhukov smiled bitterly, "Do you think the war will continue to take place in 4 years?"

Rokosovsky was choked and speechless.

"Let's talk about Baku, the Germans will basically have enough oil in the future. The occupation of Baku is not to seize oil. The only purpose is to try to cut off our oil supply. Originally, we had more than 10,000 tons of oil a year, while Germany only had more than 10,000 tons of oil. Now the status has turned out to be that we only had more than 10,000 tons, and Germany will reach or even exceed 10,000 tons. As time goes by, the gap will become bigger and bigger." Zhukov sighed, "Many of our comrades have not realized this, and they don't understand the truth that lacking oil is more terrible than lacking tanks when they are short of oil."

"If I consider this, I will judge that the Germans are likely to rush to Stalingrad. It is not only the core hub of the Don River-Volga Basin, but also the gathering place for a series of national defense industries, but also the gateway to the Volga-Ural Oilfield Area (Second Baku)." Rokosovsky said with a sad face, "If the Germans defeated Stalingrad and rushed into the Second Baku, then we will really have no oil."

"That's not enough, because the Germans are basically satisfied with maintaining the current front." Zhukov said, shook his head, "The intelligence officer just obtained the relevant information not long ago. Do you want to hear it?"

"certainly."

"The Germans' guiding ideology of war has undergone major changes in 1943: a high exchange ratio was made on the premise of basically sticking to the existing defense line. This order is not top secret and has been deployed to the level of the group army or even the division. Hitler clearly requires that the battles with an exchange ratio of more than 1:4 would rather not fight."

"What?" Rokosovsky was shocked after hearing this, "What does this mean? Isn't tactics serve strategy? What is this tactic? What is the enemy's strategic goal? Even if there is a phased goal." (To be continued.)8
Chapter completed!