Steel Soviet Union

The major victory just achieved in the Yelnya salient is certainly worthy of everyone's rejoicing.

But for Zhukov, who had just submitted an almost perfect answer to Stalin, the battle to regain the salient in the Yelniya theater was just a partial firefighting.

In the Moscow Kremlin, far away in the rear, Comrade Stalin, the supreme leader of the Soviet Union, had more important tasks to assign to him.

After handing over all the work at hand in the direction of Yelnia, Zhukov, who was working non-stop, immediately returned to the Supreme Command in Moscow in accordance with the orders of the General Staff Headquarters. The Gorky car, which has the highest right of passage in Moscow, carried the Red Army God of War who had just returned from the front line and sped away in the direction of the Kremlin.

Although the Yelniya salient was regained by the Red Army after this carefully prepared counterattack and defense battle, Zhukov's real concern was how to handle the subsequent defense plan in the Yelniya direction.

The German Army Group Center, which is equivalent to pulling out an incisor from a tiger's mouth, will never give up.

Zhukov, who had just returned from the front line, understood deeply that the German Army Group Center, which had the largest offensive energy and strength among the three army groups, was only sending troops to Leningrad in the north and Kiev, Ukraine, in the south to support friendly forces. But it seemed that there was no way to do anything, so the Soviet army seized the opportunity to recapture the Yelnya salient in one fell swoop and reversed the situation of the war.

Once the war in Leningrad in the north and Kiev in Ukraine in the south comes to an end, the German Army Group Center will definitely resume its offensive in the direction of Moscow after recovering all its main forces.

By that time, the city of Yelniya, which had just been regained, would be the defensive bridgehead for the Soviet army to resist the fierce forces of the German Army Group Center.

Although the main forces of the 24th and 43rd Army Groups under the Reserve Front Army still exist, it is tantamount to wishful thinking to rely solely on the strength of these two main group armies to withstand the entire Central Army Group. Zhukov, the leader, has been thinking about how to explain this serious problem to Stalin.

Zhukov, who was sitting in the back seat of the car, was so preoccupied that he had no extra time to pay attention to the scene of Moscow city shrouded in night outside the window.

It was not until the entire Gorky car came to a slow stop as a bright flashlight shone into the car instantly. Zhukov, who was interrupted from his thoughts, raised his head and looked out the window.

"Is it General Zhukov?"

Looking at the familiar face outside the car window, Zhukov immediately recognized the true identity of the person in front of him after briefly searching for memories in his mind.

"Comrade Vlasik, I am Zhukov, and I have been ordered to report to the Supreme Command."

After confirming the identity of the visitor through the clear face illuminated by the flashlight and the familiar tone, the general, the captain of the personal guard of Stalin, the Supreme Leader of the Soviet Union, then nodded slowly and motioned to his subordinates to open the road card.

"The Supreme Leader ordered me to come to greet you. General Zhukov, please come with me."

After getting off the car outside the Kremlin wall, Zhukov immediately followed Stalin's guard captain and passed multiple internal checkpoints unimpeded before arriving at his final destination.

Although it was late at night under the starlight, it was long past dinner time for ordinary people, but after the outbreak of the Self-Defense War, Stalin often had a reversed schedule due to insomnia and neurasthenia, and often stayed up day and night.

When he is in a bad mood, it is sometimes difficult to sleep all day long. For the supreme leader of the Soviet Union, he eats three meals a day when he is hungry, otherwise he has no appetite at all.

Zhukov, who happened to catch up with Stalin's dinner time in the evening, walked into the restaurant. He accompanied Stalin to dinner and discussed work and issues with Foreign Minister Molotov and other familiar faces.

Seeing this, Zhukov, who quietly stood at attention without saying a word, then turned to Stalin, who was sitting at the head of the dining table, and said.

"Comrade Stalin, I'm sorry I'm an hour late."

He put down the spoon in his hand noncommittally and raised his hand to look at his watch. Stalin, without any emotion in his words, quietly replied.

"It's one hour and five minutes."

Stalin took the small spoon next to the dinner plate back into his hand. Stalin, who was only halfway through the meal, had no intention of ending it because of Zhukov's arrival.

"Please sit down, Comrade Zhukov. I wonder if you have eaten on the way. If you are hungry, sit down and eat something together. We can talk while eating."

From Stalin's brief words, it is not clear whether the supreme leader is angry or happy at the moment. Zhukov, who accompanies the emperor like a tiger, and is so preoccupied that even if his stomach is empty, he is not in the mood to enjoy these specially provided to the leader. Delicious food, Zhukov, who had been holding back his words, immediately began to explain to Stalin the entire battle of the Yelniya Bulge after taking his seat.

While slowly chewing the food in his mouth, he quietly listened to the rapid-fire reports from Zhukov's mouth next to him. Stalin, who had been silent and noncommittal, suddenly took advantage of Zhukov's opportunity to take a breath and quietly spoke.

"One question, have you read today's Pravda? Zhukov."

Zhukov was a little overwhelmed by the sudden and irrational words from Stalin's mouth. His mind was spinning rapidly but he still couldn't figure out which song Stalin was singing. Zhukov had no choice but to answer truthfully.

"The war is busy, Comrade Stalin, I have not read today's edition of Pravda."

Having already anticipated that his love would respond in this way, Stalin, who knew Zhukov's character well, immediately smiled and took out a volume of today's Pravda lying not far from his dinner plate without saying a word. The ground was handed to Zhukov.

"this"

Not sure what kind of medicine Stalin was selling in his gourd, the confused Zhukov had no choice but to open the newspaper and read it with his head down as Stalin instructed.

Unsurprisingly, the newspaper's front-page headline was a large-scale propaganda report such as "The heroic Red Army recaptured Yelniya and severely damaged the Nazi invaders." Such a long-awaited victory was indeed worth using the front-page headline to highlight. The special book did not surprise Zhukov, who personally won this victory.

After secretly glancing at Stalin from the corner of his eyes, Zhukov did not notice anything strange about the Supreme Leader. Zhukov, who had been with Stalin for a long time, naturally knew that the Supreme Leader's true intention was more than that.

Zhukov, who was full of questions, had no choice but to turn to the second page of the newspaper, but it was the content published on the second page of the newspaper that made Zhukov stunned on the spot.