"What? You said they all surrendered?" On March, the Kremlin received extremely shocking news: more than 60,000 were no supplies inside and no reinforcements outside. The remaining Red Army troops, who had no retreat, put down their weapons and surrendered in despair.

"Yes, Comrade Stalin, this is the case, whether it is the information we have or the last telegram from Baku."

"Traitors! Traitors! I want to hang them all! Hang them!" Stalin was furious and everyone was silent.

Zhukov and Vasilevsky looked at each other and showed helpless eyes: They could not imagine the surrender of the Baku defenders, but it was reasonable to think about it carefully. Moscow only emphasized that the troops would persist until the "last man", but they did not provide any assistance, and did not provide supplies, nor transport them through Caspian ships. They only emphasized the "fearless revolutionary momentum", which of course could not make the defenders persist to the end. Although there were great difficulties in carrying out large-scale transportation in the Caspian Sea in the face of fierce air raids by the enemy, the problem was that if they did not even give hope to the defenders, how could they still persist to the end?

Stalin hoped to use these defenders to consume the forces of the Axis powers to destroy the bankruptcy. In the entire Transcaucasus battle, the Red Army's company suffered casualties, captives and surrenders, and a total of 170,000 people were lost. However, the losses they caused to the Axis were even more than 20,000, of which the Germans, Iranians and Turks were all combined, with only 45%.

From the attack at the beginning of this month to the Baku defenders officially put down their weapons and surrendered, the Axial Group took only about three weeks to capture a large area of ​​territory in the Transcaucasus, but also occupied Baku, a major oil town in the Soviet Union. Finally, the defenders were a little conscientious and blew up the Baku oil field facilities into ruins before surrendering, but this was useless. The Soviet oil production dropped to a terrible number of more than 10 million tons at once.

This big victory (because the German army lost nearly 10,000 people and many of them were elite troops, so it was not perfect in Gauss' eyes) greatly encouraged the two newly added brothers: Turkey suddenly obtained nearly 160,000 square kilometers of land, including Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Not only did Iran recover all its territory, but under the acquiescence and condolence of Germany, under the pretext of traditional ethnic forces and territorial disputes over the years, it grabbed nearly 30,000 square kilometers of land from the nearby Armenia and southern Azerbaijan. Although Turkey expressed dissatisfaction with this, what the Iranians said was not unreasonable. In addition, the essence of the Transcaucasus and the Baku oil field were in the hands of Turkey, and the Turkish Foreign Minister muttered a few words and stopped talking.

In fact, this victory not only did not relieve the pressure on President Inonu of Turkey, but instead brought him more trouble: he originally wanted to stop when he was good, and to take back the territory of the Transcaucasus to temporarily come to an end and talk to the Soviets. Unexpectedly, this easy-to-get victory greatly stimulated the ambition of the hawks in the army, and almost forced the government to agree to expand the army again by 600,000. All newspapers and public opinion in Turkey have consistently demanded "revenge" and "recovering all homelands". At such a storm, anyone who advocates "taking advantage of the situation to negotiate" is regarded as a traitor.

Moreover, President Inonu also found that his strategy of dividing and governing the army was gradually ineffective, because the Germans sent Marshal Bok, and several major senior officials of the Turkish military could not buy each other. However, in front of the veteran German Field Marshal and Bok who served as commander of the Central Army Group, they all showed respect without exception. This respect was not only because of Bok's reputation and past achievements, but also because of the strong attack power of the Germans. The most difficult battles in the Caucasus were all fought by the Germans, and forcing the Baku defenders to subdue the Germans. The Red Army habitually maintained contempt for the Turks with several times more troops than them, but was defeated in front of the Germans with the same or fewer numbers.

Not to mention Iran's domestic situation, Pahlavi, the newly succeeded Pahlavi, has achieved two achievements in restoring his territory and expanding territory, which is enough to stabilize the domestic situation. In addition to the demand for oil, Germany has no intention of colonizing Iran. He also gave Iran great support in other aspects. Even the latest Tiger tanks promised to provide them to the country. He also said that a batch of Iran's guard boats could be given to the country in the future, and torpedo boats were used for offshore defense to ensure oil exports, which made the country's already very powerful pro-German forces even more crazy. Pahlavi recruited 6 new divisions in one go, preparing to hand them all over Rommel to lead him. He thought it clear that he could not fight for the Transcaucasus because of Turkey, but the northeastern Iran bordered the Soviet Union and Turkmen, and it was not Russian. As long as the troops were trained, there would be a lot of room for operation there.

The Transcaucasus War came to an end, and the focus of the axis attack was on the passes and strongholds of the Caucasus Mountains. These tasks were not suitable for mechanized troops, so the important task was handed over to Iran and Turkey. Rommel only sent the SS Prince Eugen to assist in the war to play the division's strengths in mountain combat. Inspired by the early victory, the Turks and Iranians fought wildly, but due to the terrain and the enemy's almost defending, they could only make an exchange of about 1:1.

"The main passes in the Caucasus Mountains were attacked by the Germans, Iranians and Turks. Comrade Chulenev fought hard and repeatedly asked us to send reinforcements to him, at least enough technical weapons, especially aircraft." Zhukov said, "I was going to transfer 6-8 aviation regiments to him, but..."

In the Caucasus Mountains, tanks are not the first priority, and artillery is difficult to push to the front line for large-scale use, but aircraft must not be missing. In terms of air force, Germany has a significant advantage, and the ground attack aircraft transformed by the ju-87 has played a great advantage, and incendiary bombs are often better than ordinary bombs. Without German aircraft to assist in the war, it would be difficult for the Turks and Iranians to seize these passes.

"But what?" Stalin asked in confusion when he heard Zhukov's answer that he wanted to speak.

"The General Staff estimates that the enemy will soon launch a large-scale attack in the Don River Basin. At such a critical moment, all aviation forces must stay in the most important places."

"Did you get reliable information? Why did you have such a judgment?" Stalin asked in confusion. "Has the Germans maintained a relatively calm state in the past 1 or 2 months?"

"First, Manstein was too calm, which did not conform to the confrontation between the large army, nor did he conform to his style and habits; the second important factor is that the weather is warming up, and spring will come next."

"The weather is warming up..." Stalin repeatedly considered these words, revealing a thoughtful expression.

The high-altitude areas in northern Russia will not enter spring in late April or even early May, but in the southern region, this process will be advanced to mid-April. On the Eastern Front, entering spring is a very important reference for the war, which means that the thawing of the land will soon begin. Large areas of frozen hard, and the land that rolled over like cement land will soon turn into a piece of mud. In severe cases, vehicles can drive over half a wheel and wheel trucks that can drive over half a wheel. Half-track armored vehicles will soon be unable to move. The interlaced and overlapping wheels with precision and shock absorption performance will also be stuck because the soil enters the gaps between the wheels. Only the large and unique full-tracked wheels of T-34 can offset this impact to the maximum extent. In a word, the German mechanized troops are about to enter the difficult period.

"This is a good thing. I am planning to go through this period to withdraw the three fronts of the Don River front." Stalin nodded slightly.

"We think the enemy will soon launch a large-scale attack, and the target is those three fronts." Huaseylevsky explained, "Manstein's Southern Army Group was relatively calm in the early stage and did not do anything. We have reliable intelligence. The enemy has accumulated a large amount of troops and equipment in the past two months, so a large-scale attack will be launched soon, and this window period is very short, because in April, especially in mid-to-late April, the land will be thawed into a pile of mud, and it will not be suitable for the German mechanized troops movement."

"When do you think it would be if the enemy attacked?"

"If it's fast, next Monday, if it's slow, the end of the month." Zhukov reported, "and it won't be played for a long time, the longest may be one month."

Stalin remained silent: launching a large-scale attack now is like the attack in early winter. The only difference is that the land was frozen at that time, and now it is about to enter the pulp-fill period. In terms of climatic conditions, it is avoiding the severe cold while maintaining traffic conditions.

While silence, suddenly there was shocking news: 2 hours ago, on the front line of more than 500 kilometers, the German army in the South Wing launched a full-line attack, and 400,000 large-caliber shells were poured out in a short period of time. The number of German fighter jets over the war zone was as high as 1,500, and more than 200 Red Army fighter jets that were launched to fight were shot down within half an hour. At first, the front army thought it was just a restrained attack by the German army, but when the forces with 4 armored divisions and 3 heavy armored battalions as assault forces appeared in front of them, the commanders of several front army realized that this was not an ordinary attack, but this was a full-line attack by the German army.

"It seems that it is neither next Monday nor the end of March, and the enemy's large-scale attack is today." Stalin looked at the map, then turned to Zhukov and Vasilevsky, "Are you confident of blocking the fascism?"

"Yes! Comrade Stalin, I'll go to the front line right away." Zhukov was embarrassed by Manstein's surprise attack at noon, and immediately replied loudly: "We have a series of plans for the attack on the German army in the past two months."

"Very good, order the comrades on the front line to block the enemy's army and never retreat." (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!