In the General Staff of Moscow, there was a scattered lifelessness and no anger at all. Although it was the hot and energetic summer outside the window, the command center was as stern as winter, and everyone entering and leaving had a gloomy face.

Originally, under Comrade Stalin's "wise" deployment, the Red Army used an incredible method of refugees to block the German army's advancement. There were the old, weak, sick and disabled people who were actively abandoned by the Bolsheviks, the German army's rapid advancement and the people who were unable to retreat, and the people who hid but reappeared. The total number has exceeded 1.2 million. It is reported that it is still increasing, and it may exceed 2 million at most.

This put great pressure on the German army, forcing them to stop their attacks and consume hard-won food. The guerrillas interspersed there triggered various security incidents, forcing the enemy to act as an occupation force on the spot to maintain order. The strongest mechanized assault legion was blocked by the weakest peasants. The Russians did not know that Hoffman had officially issued an order, and the Summer Thunder Plan was suspended until August 1, and it would be decided whether to continue depending on the situation.

Everyone was waiting for the withdrawn troops to adjust their deployment in time and create a new line of defense as soon as possible. In any case, they had to support until the arrival of the winter break. Unexpectedly, the Germans could not start the situation on the central battlefield, but they started killing and thunder stopped in the Caspian Sea and the hinterland of Central Asia, but the sharp arrows did not stop.

The geographical environment everywhere in the Gobi Desert in Central Asia is somewhat similar to the North African desert. Rommel's troops quickly found the feeling of galloping. Unlike North Africa, the supplies in the Caspian Sea can be fully guaranteed. A large number of ships, giant me-3D transport aircraft, and medium-sized A-2 transport aircraft shuttled and supported the entire supply line. The Junker Aunt 52 transport aircraft, which was commonly used by the German army in the past, officially withdrew from the historical stage. However, Junkers was not disappointed. These transport aircraft, like the main medium-sized bomber in the Air Force, use a 1,800-horsepower Jut-213e liquid-cooled engine, and lived a pleasant life.

Fengshui turns around. Now the hottest engine company is BMW. The BM801 series has become a well-deserved actress. The 901 series also has a large group of aircraft waiting to be used. The most difficult life is Mercedes-Benz. In addition to meeting the small number of B-109 orders abroad, their db engine series can only guard the order of He-218. Dr. Tan Ke used the latest db603 on the next generation of mainstream piston fighter Ta-152. The Ministry of Military Affairs also placed an order of 5,000 aircraft on this aircraft. Unfortunately, it will not be launched until at least autumn. Mercedes-Benz can only watch the orders of the -190 and me-262 drool but cannot do anything.

There are many discerning people in the aviation industry. Everyone knows that the Japanese military will become the second largest market in the future. Although Henkel strives to innovate in the He-218, if Ju-198, which integrates dive bombing and horizontal attack, will definitely be the first choice of Japan. Even if the He-218 does not withdraw from the historical stage, its scope of use and order volume will be greatly limited, so Mercedes-Benz still has to continue to pay the price for its original arrogance and short-sightedness.

Rommel's landing was only a week after his successful landing. With the cooperation of Iranian troops, he achieved a shocking success: most of the western part of Turkmen, and a small part of the western part of Uzbek were all occupied. Wherever the Iranian and German troops went, they were warmly welcomed by all ethnic groups in Central Asia. Many times, before the German troops even arrived, the local people had spontaneously stepped forward to overthrow the Bolshevik regime, and the remaining local Red Army troops fled. That situation gave people the illusion that it seemed that they were not fighting now, but rather armed march.

The German army discovered that the Central Asia region was indeed as intelligence showed, completely empty and unguarded. It was not until July 24 that the Caspian Assault Group had advanced 400 kilometers to the east coast of the Caspian Sea before it encountered the first large-scale regular army sent by the regular army. What was ridiculous is that the 7th Cavalry Army was actually coming.

Rommel's armored troops and the planes above his head quickly turned this cavalry unit that was neutral in the Russian civil war and had great achievements. The wind-like cavalry unit turned into batches of corpses. In the end, all the living horses were transported and supplied by the German army, and the horse corpses became food for the ethnic minorities in Central Asia.

Subsequently, with the support of the two countries, various independent regimes began to emerge. The Republic of Turkmenistan and the Republic of Uzbekistan declared independence one after another. Pahlavi was not polite and directly included more than 200,000 square kilometers and nearly 500,000 tribal populations at the junction with Iran into the territory of Iran. The Iranian newspapers in Tehran could not hide the pleasure of revenge and wrote in a large title: "It's time for us to settle the accounts with Stalin!"

When occupying the central oasis zone at the junction of Turkmen and Uzbek 500 kilometers from the east coast of the Caspian Sea, located in the central oasis zone at the junction of Turkmenistan and Uzbek, the Caspian Assault Group finally encountered some resistance, but this resistance seemed more like a helpless act of dying struggle. From the successful landing to the final occupation of the oasis zone, Rommel fully demonstrated the characteristics of the desert fox, which seemed to repeat the scene of North Africa's rapid advancement.

Faced with the large tracts of lost territory on the map and the constant news of ethnic independence and uprising, Stalin finally couldn't sit still and summoned Huasilevsky and Zhukov to ask the two of them how to deal with it.

"There is no good idea now. The troops in Central Asia are not opponents of the enemy's armored forces at all. They can only die in vain after going there. The fate of the 7th Cavalry Army has told us this." Zhukov sighed, "Our military deployment in this direction is really empty. In addition to the north of the Caspian Sea, there is also a reserve army. There is no other way to plug the leaks within 500 kilometers of Central Asia."

"What you mean is that the enemy will always be entrenched in Central Asia, and then incite all kinds of bad elements to break away from the alliance, and then the next step is to occupy big cities such as Tashkent, Dushanbe, and Almaty, and then what awaits us will be the entire hinterland is ruined?" Stalin was furious, "And you do nothing, and you don't even dare to draw the group army to intercept it?"

"This is useless. We sent planes to reconnaise the movements of the enemy. He has at least 60,000 to 80,000 armored troops and 80,000 to 100,000 Iranian infantry cooperation. Not to mention one army, even two army groups cannot defeat it."

"Then send 3, 4 or even 5."

"We don't have so many troops. If I draw troops from Stalingrad, the enemy will definitely take advantage of the situation. At that time, it will not be Central Asia, but the entire southern wing front."

Stalin was anxious: "This is not OK, that is not OK. What are you going to do?"

"Two. On the one hand, we will draw troops from the Far East and prepare to continue to draw 300,000-400,000 to make up for the losses on the front line. Now that the Japanese army has begun to attack India, I think there is no danger in the Far East in the short term; on the other hand, we will continue to implement the policy of luring the enemy into depth and stretching the enemy's supply line."

Stalin ignored the previous suggestion. If Zhukov's blood draw method is followed, the Far East troops would soon be reduced to less than 1 million. For the latter suggestion, he frowned instinctively and asked: "When will it count? Once the enemy occupy Central Asia, it will pose a great threat to our Ural industrial zone."

"It was almost the time when the enemy attacked big cities such as Tashkent, Dushanbe, and Almaty."

"You!" Stalin slapped the table and was so angry that he smoked: Among these three cities, the German army was more than 800 kilometers away from Dushanbe, and 1,500 kilometers away from the farthest Almaty, which is even farther from Warsaw to Moscow.

Seeing that Zhukov was about to argue with Stalin, Vasilevsky immediately interrupted: "Comrade General Secretary, can I ask how the progress of the armistice negotiations is going?"

"Is this a concern for you?" Stalin glanced coldly at him, who immediately fell silent.

"But it's okay to tell you." Stalin thought about it, but finally decided to tell it. "Comrade Molotov has flew to Sofia (the capital of Bulgaria) to start secret negotiations with Ribintrop, but the progress is not going well. The Germans asked for a high price and demanded that the truce must be carried out based on the existing front. I also asked me to recognize the independence of Central Asian countries. Is this a condition that can be easily agreed?"

Zhukov was stunned for a moment. Now he finally understood how sinister the intention of retreating 500 kilometers on the existing front proposed by Germany was: as long as the German army opened the gap, the 500 kilometers of territory disappeared. No wonder Comrade Stalin was so disgusted with the strategy of "tempting the enemy into the depth" every kilometer. Every retreat of kilometer seemed to be digging meat on the Russian body.

"What about Leningrad?"

"The other party agreed to the first ceasefire in principle, but the Germans took advantage of the situation to raise the issue of refugees, demanding that we have to allocate food at the standard of 2 million... Hell, if I had so much food, would the people still go hungry?"

Huasilevsky pointed out incisively: "It seems that the enemy has no sincerity in ceasefire negotiations."

"No, you were wrong." Zhukov shook his head, "It's not that the enemy is not sincere, the enemy just doesn't want to fight in the summer."

"How long will it take for the Far Eastern troops to be transferred to fight in Central Asia?"

"It may take half a month. If it goes well, we can launch a counterattack in early September." Zhukov made a suggestion, "Whether to consider communicating with the Germans once, and the refugees will be responsible for solving the problem. We will first return the jailers of the war who are sick and disabled to the German army. Anyway, they cannot be used for combat, so they might as well put them back to the enemy and increase their burden. Anyway, staying here will be a waste of food."

Stalin nodded reluctantly after a long time: "I will tell Comrade Molotov to let the Central Battlefield be temporarily released. You must give priority to solving the Central Asian issue. I don't want to hear the news of independence here or there again after September."
Chapter completed!