Chapter 840 The Final Battle - Bribery of the Queen (Please Recommend and Subscribe)

"The progress of the 1st Panzer Army seems to be too smooth!"

At the General Staff in Zossen, Marshal Guderian, the First Quartermaster General, took the telegram just sent by General Mackensen and said to Hessmann: "General Mackensen's troops only encountered relatively firm resistance from the Soviet army when they broke through the Pripyat River, and then they basically had a smooth journey. Now the only thing restricting the advance of the 1st Panzer Army seems to be the fuel supply."

Herssmann stood in front of the giant sand table with his arms folded, watching the staff push the wooden sign symbolizing the 5th SS Panzer Grenadier Division to Gomel east of the Dnieper River with a long pole - Gomel was occupied by the 5th SS Panzer Grenadier Division at noon on May 4. Although Mackensen's 1st Panzer Army had to stay near Lechitsa for a few days to wait for the arrival of the fuel convoy, it was still possible to send a few Panzer Grenadier Divisions to clear the gasoline around Lechitsa.

"Are there any movements from the Soviet army on the Dnieper River defense line in the south?" Hessmann asked.

The reason why he and Guderian assigned heavy troops to the 1st Panzer Army was that they were worried about the Soviet troops on the Dnieper River defense line moving north. In fact, blocking the Soviet troops moving north from the Dnieper River defense line was the main task of General Mackensen's Panzer Army. And this task now seems unnecessary, because the Soviet Southwestern Front did not seem to make any major moves on the fifth day of the battle.

"No big movement," Guderian said, "Except for about 10 divisions of infantry being transferred to Chernigov, there was no movement... We seemed to have stabbed the Soviets in the soft spot."

"What about the direction of Cherikov?" Hersman asked again.

Cherikov was the meeting point for the three Panzer Armies stipulated by Hersman and Guderian - they originally thought that the 1st Panzer Army would engage in a fierce battle with the Soviet Southwestern Front troops in the Dnieper River area, and it would be possible to reach Cherikov only after defeating the troops of the Southwestern Front moving north. Unexpectedly, the Southwestern Front of the Soviet Army was now watching the 1st Panzer Army piercing into the junction between them and the Western Front like a steel knife.

"The cavalry has been sent to test." Guderian flipped through the report of the 1st Panzer Army, "sent the 1st Cavalry Division, the 14th Ukrainian Cavalry Division of the SS and the 20th Polish Cavalry Division of the SS to conduct a reconnaissance attack to the north."

The three cavalry divisions sent by Mackensen were not cavalry or mounted infantry in the traditional sense, but mechanized cavalry. They were not the kind of troops that mixed tanks and cavalry and let cavalry and tanks charge in shifts. Instead, they were a kind of light armored unit responsible for reconnaissance, vigilance, occupation and maintenance of logistics line security. There were no tanks, but there were many wheeled armored vehicles with strong mobility and low fuel consumption.

This kind of troops could not be used to deal with the Soviet tank army, but they could scare the infantry divisions, cavalry divisions, and militia divisions that were not equipped with tanks.

Moreover, the 1st Cavalry Division and the 14th Ukrainian Cavalry Division (originally infantry, fought in Lviv and Kiev) of the three cavalry divisions sent by Mackensen are both elite. Even if they encounter Soviet tanks, they can resist them.

That is why General Mackensen sent three cavalry divisions to take the lead when the troops were short of fuel - after all, the previous air force reconnaissance did not find any traces of Soviet tank clusters around Cherikov, and even large groups of infantry were not seen. If it is really an empty gate, then just let the energy-saving and environmentally friendly cavalry occupy it, and don't send out the armored clusters with huge fuel consumption.

"It's about 150 kilometers from Lechitsa to Cherikov. If everything goes well, we can get there tomorrow." Hessman scratched his head. "If we really successfully occupy Cherikov, won't the 1st Panzer Army have too much work?"

"More than just easy? It's simply a pleasant outing." Guderian shook his head. "Imperial Marshal, we should find more work for the 1st Panzer Army."

Hessman thought for a while and said, "Go north to attack Smolensk?"

"No need," Guderian said thoughtfully. "The 4th Panzer Army has 8 armored divisions and 8 armored grenadiers. With 100 armored divisions, 8 motorized infantry divisions and 12 infantry divisions, as well as 2 French artillery groups and 1 reserve artillery group (an artillery corps unit directly under the artillery director), how could they not take Smolensk? I think what is worrying General Hoth the most now is how to deploy so many troops and tanks... In my opinion, Smolensk is too crowded and cannot accommodate more armored divisions. "

Because there is a railway to the south from Velikiye Luki, in the "Purple Plan" that puts "energy saving and fuel saving" first, a full 36 divisions plus 3 artillery corps were deployed along the way.

And so many heavy troops and artillery are certainly not used to deal with Smolensk, but to prepare for the Battle of Moscow after the Battle of Smolensk!

Hersmann nodded and agreed with Guderian's view that Smolensk could not be defended at all. As long as the troops of the 4th Panzer Army were in place, it would only take a little effort to take it down.

The troops in the Belarusian salient include Model's 3rd Panzer Army, General Eugene von Schaubart's 11th Army, and Ernst Busch's 16th Army, totaling nearly 800,000 troops. How can they not defeat it?

As for attacking Bryansk Oblast to the east, it doesn't seem to make much sense. If they want to get close to Moscow, they can just go through Smolensk. If they want to detour to Ukraine, now is not the time.

Hersmann thought for a moment and found that it was not very useful to let the 1st Panzer Army go west or east, and going south seemed to be the only option.

"How about going south to oppress Chernigov?" Hesmann asked.

"Imperial Marshal, I think so too." Guderian chuckled, "We can scare the Soviets... maybe we can attract the Red Army in the middle to go south. In this way, we can break through to the vicinity of Moscow after taking Smolensk. And we don't need to mobilize the entire 1st Panzer Army, which is too scary and too fuel-consuming. I think it is enough to send out an armored army and a motorized infantry army. The rest of the troops can wait in Lechitsa. Once the Smolensk Campaign is over, they can approach Moscow through Bryansk Oblast and Kaluga Oblast."

Use part of the 1st Panzer Army to scare the Soviet Southwestern Front, contain the forces of this front, and at the same time attract the Red Army in the direction of Moscow to go south. This will create conditions for the Central Group and the Northern Army Group to work together to take Moscow!

Although Guderian also agreed with Hessman's general policy of focusing on Eastern Ukraine, Moscow and Leningrad still attracted him deeply... In his opinion, Hessman was only striving for a relatively stable victory, and taking Moscow and Petrograd to restore the Romanov dynasty would be a truly perfect victory.

So as long as there was a chance, the first military supply director could not help but want to create conditions for capturing Moscow.

"Okay," Hessman did not guess Guderian's thoughts. He nodded and said, "Heinz, the question of how many troops to send to Chernigov, you and General Mackensen will discuss it by telegram and deploy it. Tell me the result tomorrow afternoon."

"Tomorrow afternoon?" Guderian was stunned, "Are you going to leave Zossen?"

Hessman nodded and said, "Go to Glücksburg, with Chloe and Rudolf."

Hessman's eldest son Rudolf returned to Germany from the Pacific battlefield. He was going to the Naval Staff College for further studies in order to obtain the qualification to be promoted to major and become a fleet aviation staff.

However, the German Naval Staff College is not in Glücksburg. This castle is located on the edge of Flensburg Fjord in the Baltic Sea in northern Germany, close to Denmark, and belongs to the Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg dynasty.

This is an influential dynasty in Europe. The grandmother of the Romanov dynasty in exile in Europe, Queen Mother Maria Feodorovna, was born in this dynasty. Because of the relationship with this queen mother, Queen Olga was very close to the Danish royal family. In 1942, this castle was lent to Olga as her official residence in Germany.

And Hessmann went to Glücksburg with his wife and son at the invitation of Queen Olga. The queen was also going to hold a ball in Glücksburg - for Rudolf and the queen's adopted daughter, and also Prince Yusupov's only daughter, Elena Feliksovna. The Russian queen was going to marry this girl, who was said to be extremely beautiful, into the Heinsberg-Hessmann family.

However, Hersman knew that this marriage was actually a bribe of a particularly huge amount!

Because the Yusupov family was a wealthy family in the Tsarist era. Apart from the Tsarist family, his family was the richest and had countless properties, including 7 houses that could be called palaces and 37 less luxurious houses, as well as countless works of art, as well as a large number of coal mines, iron mines, factories and oil fields in Baku!

Of course, now all these properties of the Yusupov family have been GC by the Soviet government and belong to all Soviet people. But once the Soviet Union collapsed and the Russian Empire was restored, the Yusupov family would immediately become rich enough to rival a country. And Rudolf married someone's only daughter, didn't he get both money and beauty?

In order to restore the throne, the Russian empress really spent a lot of money this time - if Hersman didn't have Chloe and had a good relationship, she would be willing to take herself out as a prize.

Although Hessman was unwilling to accept this "bribe", he could not reject Queen Olga outright because Hessman did not know whether Queen Olga had the "mandate of heaven" or not, so it was best not to offend her.