Chapter 221
Seeing Stalin frowning in thought, Yuri looked at Zhukov on the side and added: "The battle in the Crimean Peninsula should be a model for encircling and annihilating the German heavy troops. Comrade Yelyomenko's image may not be conducive to post-war propaganda work."
These words are really hurtful. As the saying goes: Don't hit people in the face, and don't expose people's shortcomings. Yuri's words are actually exposing Yelyomenko's shortcomings.
At the beginning, that is, in 1941, Yeremenko commanded the Bryansk Front to defend the southwest of Moscow against the tank group commanded by Guderian.
At the beginning, Comrade Yeremenko was full of confidence and took the initiative to attack Guderian's group, and successfully forced the German troops to retreat in the direction of Bryansk. For this matter, Comrade Yeremenko also sent a special telegram to the headquarters, which meant that his front repelled the German attack in the direction of Bryansk.
But later facts proved that Guderian's tank group was not repelled by him, but took the initiative to turn and launched an attack in the direction of Kiev, which directly led to a major defeat in the Battle of Kiev, and hundreds of thousands of Soviet troops were trapped.
Even more tragically, after a series of battles in the Battle of Kiev, Guderian turned back and surrounded Yeremenko's entire Bryansk Front in the Battle of Bryansk. In the end, Yeremenko abandoned his troops and escaped the encirclement by plane. As a result, the plane crashed midway and fell from the sky. Yeremenko himself was rescued headfirst in a snowdrift.
Many people know about this dark history, including a large number of Western media. Yuri meant that once Yeremenko commanded the Fourth Ukrainian Front to encircle and annihilate the German heavy troops in the Crimean Peninsula, the Western media would definitely report this incident. At that time, if someone made a fuss about Yeremenko’s dark history, the whole country would probably not look good.
With just two simple remarks, Yuri grasped Comrade Stalin's mentality. In the first remark, he proposed a controversial candidate, which made Stalin hesitate. In the second remark, he grasped Stalin's face-saving mentality, which was tantamount to sentencing Yeremenko to death.
So, as a commander at the front level, was Yelyomenko competent? In fact, he was competent.
Although he suffered a rather shameful defeat in the Battle of Bryansk, his performance in a series of subsequent battles was still remarkable. Not to mention, in the Battle of Stalingrad, Yuri was actually still under his command. In fact, Yeremenko was also his old superior.
But there is a saying: when gods fight, mortals suffer. In the match between Yuri and Zhukov, Yeremenko, who had just been kicked by Baghramyan, served as cannon fodder again.
Beside Zhukov, Vasilevsky was watching coldly. When Yuri said the second word, he subconsciously turned his head to look at the crowd, and found Yeremenko drinking a glass of wine in the corner. He secretly sympathized with him in his heart - if nothing unexpected happened, this old general in his fifties might not have a chance to participate in the Crimean Campaign. No, not only the Crimean Campaign, but he might not have a chance to participate in any battle on the main battlefield in the future.
Why? The reason is very simple. If there is a similar opportunity, the first thing Comrade Stalin would think of is Yuri's words: Comrade Yelyomenko's image is not conducive to post-war propaganda work.
It may sound complicated to nail a person to death with just one sentence, but it is actually very simple.
While sympathizing with Yeremenko, Vasilevsky also had a realization that after being deprived of the command of the Crimean Peninsula Campaign, Yuri, the young new generation general, finally stopped keeping silent. He showed his fangs and began to confront Comrade Zhukov, whose style was getting more and more excessive. Moreover, he was very aggressive and used Yeremenko as a flag at the beginning.
Realizing that a dispute might break out between Yuri and Zhukov, Vasilevsky would not interrupt to express his position. He was not the kind of person who would make a fuss. Normally, when faced with a dispute, he would choose to retreat. Now, this dispute had nothing to do with him, so he would not rashly intervene.
However, I don’t know what Zhukov himself was thinking. When Yuri raised objections , he did not refute them and seemed to agree with Yuri’s opinion.
At this time, Timoshenko on the stage also completed a simple opening and began to read out the candidates for the front-level commanders who were awarded the First Class Order of Suvorov.
At first, Yuri thought that he and Zhukov had won the medal, but when the names were read out, he realized that Konev was also one of the candidates for the medal.
As the list was read out by Timoshenko, warm applause broke out in the crowded hall.
"Go to the stage first," Stalin's frown relaxed, he patted Yuri on the shoulder and said with a smile, "We can talk about other things in the afternoon."
Yuri saluted him and gestured to Zhukov on the side to go first.
Zhukov smiled and said something polite to him, then turned around and walked towards the stage.
Yuri did not follow him onto the stage directly. Instead, he turned his head and found where Konev was. He watched him go onto the stage as well, and then he followed him a few steps behind.
In today's Soviet Union, especially in the military, the overall atmosphere is positive and does not emphasize seniority. But Yuri is young and inexperienced after all. Matters such as awarding medals and promoting military ranks may not depend on seniority, but he still has to take it into consideration in his daily behavior.
The three men stood on the stage, and the next step was to invite the people who would present the medals to the three men. There was no doubt that since there were three people, the people who would present the medals one by one would definitely be Stalin, Voroshilov and Budyonny.
On the stage, the order of the three people was Zhukov on the right, Konev in the middle, and Yuri on the left. Because they entered the stage from the left, according to the order, Comrade Stalin must have been the first to go on stage and present the medal to Zhukov who was standing on the far right; Voroshilov was second and he should have presented the medal to Konev; and the last person to present the medal to Yuri was naturally Budyonny.
Stalin was wearing a white military uniform today, without a hat. He walked onto the stage with a cigarette butt in his mouth, smiling, and walked to the left side of the ceremonial platform. He first raised his hand to the audience, who were applauding and flashing spotlights. Then, when he walked to Yuri, he smiled and extended his hand.
Yuri didn't realize anything at this time. He stood up straight, saluted Stalin, then stretched out his hands and shook the other's hand.
"Comrade Konstantin Konstantinovich proposed to me," Stalin grabbed his hand and leaned forward. He asked directly at this moment, on the medal awarding platform, "He believes that the time has come for the complete liberation of Belarus and the Baltic coast. What do you think, Comrade Yuri Arkhipovich?"
Yuri was stunned for a moment, then he bowed slightly, moved closer to Stalin, and said, "I agree with Comrade Konstantin Konstantinovich's opinion, but it is difficult to form a large-scale annihilation war relying solely on the strength of the Central Front. I suggest that the troops in Polotsk, Vitebsk, Orsha, Mogilev, and Bobruisk be redeployed, especially in the Kovel direction. A tank army with relatively strong assault capabilities must be deployed."
As the Ukrainian campaign progressed, especially the rapid retreat of the German Army Group South, the German Army Group Center and Army Group South formed a "┚" structure in the Belarus direction. The entire right wing of the German Army Group Center was actually empty. The Kovel mentioned by Yuri was at the bottom of this defensive corner, which was also the weak link of the German defense.
Stalin seemed to think about it, then he leaned over and whispered in Yuri's ear: "I need a complete and detailed battle plan. You can include the headquarters reserve. In addition, I plan to redeploy several fronts in the direction of Moscow to form three to four heavy troops for the Belarus campaign."
After a pause, he added, "What I need is to annihilate as many German troops in that direction as possible in Belarus, not just repel them. Yuri, you must understand the importance of this battle. I hope to end all battles within the Soviet Union before the summer comes. This is related to a series of key issues in post-war reconstruction."
"Yes, I understand, Comrade Stalin," Yuri was a little excited. He knew that since Stalin had given him this task, the task of coordinating the various fronts of Belarus would most likely also be his. In other words, he had a great hope of serving as the representative of the headquarters in the Belarusian campaign.
The people in the audience could not know what Stalin and Yuri said, but they all saw them communicating for a long time on the stage.
That's not all. When the two men finished their conversation and loosened their hands, Stalin actually ignored Voroshilov and Budyonny who were following behind him, and directly took a prepared medal from the protocol tray and pinned it on Yuri's chest himself. Then he gave him the certificate.
As a result, the order of awarding medals was completely disrupted, and it became Stalin awarding Yuri, Voroshilov awarding Konev, and Budyonny awarding Zhukov.
The audience was silent for a moment because of this sequence, and about one or two seconds later, applause broke out again.
