As Beria said, Chen Dao's life at this time can indeed be described as the spring breeze.

On the afternoon of June 3, people were surging in the spacious hall on the first floor of the German Supreme Command building.

Senior German military officials gathered and stood on both sides of the hall to watch the ceremony. The photographers had already set up cameras, and the cameras in the reporters also pointed at Marshal Hitler and Marshal Reichnau standing in the center of the hall.

Admiral Gedhart Heinrich, wearing a dress, wearing a full set of medals including the Knight's Iron Cross, walked up to the two of them with their heads raised and their chests raised.

After the ceremony, Hitler took off the epaulette of General Heinrich's infantry and replaced him with the epaulette of the golden crossed scepter symbolizing the rank of marshal.

After changing the epaulette, Hitler picked up the marshal's scepter from the tray held by the adjutant beside him and solemnly handed it to Marshal Heinrich.

Marshal Heinrich raised the red marshal's scepter with his right hand to show his gratitude.

Marshal Reichenau then took out the Knight's Iron Cross with Oak Leaf that had been prepared, tied it to Marshal Heinrich's neck, and replaced the original Knight's Iron Cross.

With his achievements in conquering the Crimean Peninsula, General Heinrich's infantry surpassed the rank of general and was promoted to the marshal of the Army, and was also awarded the Knight's Iron Cross with Oak Leaf.

Also as a meritorious person, Chen Dao was the second to go forward and won the rank of SS General personally awarded by Heinrich Himmler, the national leader of the SS.

After changing to a new military rank, Chen Dao couldn't help but feel a lot of emotion.

Life, life, I now have four ranks: General of the Luftwaffe, General of the Navy, General of the Army and General of the SS. It is only one step away from the highest rank of the four major military branches. No, it should be four steps away.

I still have to continue to work hard to become the Grand Slam winner with the highest rank of the four major German military branches as soon as possible. I always have to pursue some of my life.

Hitler walked up and first gave Chen Dao a warm hug, then gave him a Knight's Iron Cross with Oak Leaf and Double Swords with a smile.

Chen Dao was followed by Major General Ohm, who was promoted to lieutenant general and received the Knights Iron Cross.

After the promotion ceremony and award ceremony, there is a special time for reporters to interview.

I believe that in less than twenty-four hours, the content of this ceremony will appear on the front pages of major German newspapers.

The avatars of Marshal Heinrich, Chen Dao and others will appear on the cover of the military magazine in no time.

After the ceremony, Hitler warmly invited everyone to have dinner.

On the dinner table, Marshal Heinrich was surprised to see four people who had not seen at the ceremony.

The leader was the skinhead, the commander of the Northern Army Group, and Marshal Loeb, with sharp eyes.

Marshal Boke, the commander of the Central Army Group, who looks thin and has a tough temperament like a sword unsheathed.

The hairline is severely moved backward, and the seemingly honest bald man is commander of the Southern Ukrainian Army Group, and Marshal William Lister.

The last one is his elegant and gentle cousin, commander of the Northern Ukrainian Army Group, and Marshal Longdestedt.

Over the years, under the active lobbying of Chen Dao, a literary young man, the middle-aged literary Hitler followed the advice and controlled his pre-dinner speech to within five minutes, and then compressed it to no more than three minutes, making gratifying progress.

After Lao Xi's brief and powerful speech, everyone picked up the knife and fork and started to eat. After eating for five minutes, Marshal Leb, who was sitting opposite Chen Dao, suddenly raised his goblet.

"Heinz, since we conquered St. Petersburg, we haven't seen you for more than half a year. Your former comrades in the Northern Army Group miss you very much. Come and cheer for the friendship of fighting side by side in the past."

Chen Dao hurriedly put down his knife and fork, raised his wine glass and clinked his glass with Marshal Leb.

After a sip of wine, the two put down their glasses. Marshal Leb continued: "Heinz, before I come here, General Reinhardt of the Fourth Armored Army asked me to ask you for help."

“What’s the busy thing?”

"He wanted to know when the 504 Heavy Armored Brigade that he owed him could be allocated to him?" asked Marshal Leb.

Hearing Marshal Loeb's question, Marshal Bock's eyes lit up and asked, "Heinz, General Hort of the Third Armored Army also wants to ask you for help. When will his 503rd Heavy Armored Brigade be in place? We have been waiting for a long time."

Chen Dao suddenly felt a headache. According to the organizational chart of the German Armored Army, each Armored Army had a heavy armored brigade, but because the combat areas of the Third Armored Army and the Fourth Armored Army were relatively north, and there were areas covered with jungles, rivers and swamps. The terrain conditions were very harsh and were not suitable for the performance of the fifty-ton e-50 tanks.

Under the active instigation of Chen Dao and Guderian, the two heavy armored brigades 503 and 504 were deducted and instead assigned to the North Ukrainian Army Group, the main force attacking Moscow.

Being in the Northern Ukrainian Army Group, the Fifth Armored Army commanded by Guderian was strengthened by the 504th Heavy Armored Brigade.

"I don't know when they will be in place, after all, they are not my troops. But......" Chen Dao glanced at Marshal Longdestedt, who had eaten silently without saying a word.

"I heard that those two troops were assigned to the Northern Ukrainian Army Group. You can ask Marshal Longdstedt, who should be able to give you the answer."

After successfully leading the "misfortune to the east", Chen Dao picked up the knife and fork to continue eating.

Seeing Marshal Leb and Marshal Bock look at him together, Marshal Longdestedt remained calm and said calmly: "In the next battle, my troops will fight to the main attack. As for those two troops, they will be returned to you after the battle is over."

When he learned that the two troops had fallen into the hands of the oldest Marshal Longdestedt, Marshal Loeb and Marshal Bock knew that their troops would definitely not come back.

Also a Field Marshal, Marshal Heinrich has relatively little qualifications. When he met these veteran marshals, he was inevitably a little bit confident. Seeing that his cousin Marshal Rondestedt had the upper hand, he wisely chose to remain silent.

Seeing that there was a downward trend in the dining table, Chen Dao hurriedly raised his glass and said to Marshals Lister and Marshal Heinrich: "In the future war, the three of us will work hard to kill two million Russians, so that all Russians can have nightmares when they mention our names."

Not only Marshal Liszt, Marshal Heinrich, Loeb, Bock and Longdstedt also looked at Chen Dao together.

Seeing Chen Dao's confident appearance and confident eyes, a common idea emerged in the minds of the five marshals. Your brother-in-law must have some insider information.

It seems that "Operation Captain Hook" is about to start, and there is a plan to kill 2 million Russians. It seems that the scale of this operation is much larger than I imagined, Marshal Heinrich thought.

Originally, he thought that the Southern Ukrainian Army Group he commanded could only play a supporting role in future battles. Now, from the saying "My brother-in-law", his troops seem to be about to play an important role, Marshal Liszt thought.

With doubts and expectations, the five marshals had supper and returned to their residences to rest.

At 8:30 am the next morning, at the Thiel Gardens in Berlin, the conference room of the German Supreme Command building.

Seeing that the staff were all here, Hitler coughed and said first: "The meeting held today is the last discussion meeting before the start of the summer offensive. If you have any questions about the summer combat plan, you can propose it on the spot and we will solve it on the spot. Once the plan is finally determined, you must unswervingly implement it. Marshal Kettle, let's start."

Marshal Keitel, the chief of staff of the Supreme Command, stood up and said, "First of all, according to the report of the Military Office outside the Eastern Front of the Army General Command, opposite us, the Russians have nearly 400 divisions or brigades, totaling about 5.5 million troops. Please note that this number refers to the army fighting on the front line, not including the reserves or the air force's combat personnel. We have about 4.1 million combat troops on the Eastern Front.

In addition, we also have troops from Romania, Hungary, Italy and Finland, with a total of about 900,000 troops. However, please note that the five million troops we are fighting on the Eastern Front now include all the army, navy and air forces.

In terms of number of people, we are not as large as theirs, but our soldiers are far higher in combat literacy than them. I believe everyone is more clear than me.

The combat plan of the summer offensive was officially named "Typhoon Plan". The purpose of the "Typhoon Plan" was to capture Moscow, and at the same time, using Moscow as bait to lure the main force of the Soviet army to gather around Moscow City and annihilate it.

The head of state has made it clear that we must be prepared to annihilate 3 million Russians around Moscow City.

The specific combat plan is as follows: In the northwest direction of Moscow, the right wing of the Northern Army Group and the left wing of the Central Army Group acted together, first capturing Kalinin, and then the Central Army Group's troops detoured from the north to encircle Moscow;

In the direction of the central government, the main force of the Central Army Group set out from the eastern part of Smolensk and attacked Moscow from the west;

In the south, from the left wing of the Northern Ukrainian Army Group and the right wing of the Central Army Group, they marched into Tula, an important city in southern Moscow. After occupying Tula, the main force of the Northern Ukrainian Army Group continued to advance, detoured to the eastern part of Moscow, met with the troops of the Central Army Group, and surrounded the main force of the Soviet army in Moscow and annihilated it.

This is our previous combat plan, I believe everyone already knows it, but considering certain political and military factors, we decided to make subtle adjustments to this plan. Let the Head of State personally explain to us what to change in the plan."

Seeing everyone looking at him, Hitler said nothing, first picked up reading glasses from the conference table in front of him and put them on. Then he stood up and walked to the giant Soviet-German battlefield situation chart on the wall, and said in its iconic hoarse voice:

"First of all, we have to think about a question. We plan to occupy Moscow, which is something we all know. You said, the Russians...Did Stalin know that we are planning to occupy Moscow?"

Goring said first: "Although the Russians have never been very smart, they are not very stupid. Of course, he can guess that we are going to attack Moscow."

Hitler nodded, glanced around everyone's faces, and then said, "Marty Goring is right. Stalin can definitely guess that we are going to attack Moscow. So, what will he do when the question arises?"

Marshal Reichnau, the commander-in-chief of the Army, said: "He will definitely gather the main forces around Moscow. We happen to use his mentality to prepare for a giant annihilation battle around Moscow."

Hitler said: "We have a strategic plan, but can we do it more intelligently and skillfully? After careful consideration, I decided to temporarily add a "Blue Plan" before the Typhoon Plan was launched.

Let’s disrupt Stalin’s deployment, allow our summer offensive to have stronger destructive power, and at the same time enhance Turkey’s confidence in us, and if possible, strive to use this battle to encourage Turkey to join the Axis powers, and then resolve the Eastern Front battle in one fell swoop. If our purpose can be achieved, the war will end this year.”

Goring asked: "What are the details of the Blue Plan?"

Seeing the "supporter" Gorene asked a question in time. Hitler, who was responsible for playing the "funny", picked up the coaching stick and pointed to the combat map on the wall and continued: "First of all, we need to reorganize the troops. The original Northern Ukrainian Army Group was renamed the B Army Group, and the Southern Ukrainian Army Group was renamed the A Army Group, and a new C Army Group was added with Marshal Gedhard Heinrich as the commander. Our "Blue Plan" will be completed by the A and C Army Groups. The focus of the plan is to use the minimum force to mobilize the enemy to the greatest extent, and at the same time use the strong combat power of our troops to annihilate the enemy's vitality at the lowest cost, especially the armored forces."

Hitler's eyes swept across the faces of everyone and said with confidence: "In the Blue Plan, the C Group of Army Group commanded by Marshal Heinrich will serve as the main attacker. Because you have just conquered the Crimean Peninsula, the hatred value in the hearts of the Russians is relatively high. In addition, General Rosen and our propaganda, it can definitely lead Stalin's eyes to the south, making them think that the target of our summer offensive is the direction of the Caucasus.

In this way, they will transfer the troops that were originally entrenched around Moscow to the south. Due to distance, transportation, and various changes that may occur on the battlefield, the time difference will occur when the enemy's troops arrive in the south. We can use this time difference to eat these troops that arrived in batches one by one. Marshal Heinrich and Marshal Liszt, you must be prepared to kill 2 million Russians in the middle and lower reaches of the Don River, as well as the areas south of the Don River."

So that's the case. Marshal Heinrich and Marshal Liszt looked at each other first, and then took the initiative to ask: "How many troops do I have to use to complete this task?"

Hitler said: "This is the key part of the plan I will talk about next. Our plan is to bring all the Italians and Romanians troops, and by the way, the Russians we have recruited, which is the Russians. All of these troops will be given to you, plus the 12th Army, and an elite armored force.

Your mission is to command this army of a small number of German elites and a large number of miscellaneous troops to go to the south to carry out as much as possible to destroy them, put pressure on the Russians, attract their elites to the south, and then use the mistakes caused by the opponent's hasty battle to defeat them. Remember, the key is to annihilate the enemy's armored troops. This is a very test of your command skills. Marshal Heinrich, are you confident of completing this task?"

Marshal Liszt, Marshal Longdestedt, Marshal Bock and Marshal Loeb looked at Marshal Heinrich with sympathy. Hitler understood his meaning, but he wanted Marshal Heinrich to command a weak army to seduce the elite Russian troops to the south and then eliminate them.

So that's it. I knew that conquering a small Crimean Peninsula was not enough to promote myself to marshal. It turned out that there was such a difficult task waiting for me later.

The marshal's scepter has been obtained, and in this situation, I seem to have no room for rejection.

"First of the People, I...I heard from you that General Rosen should cooperate with my actions, too?"

Marshal Heinrich was just about to nod and agreed, but his tongue turned to Chen Dao.

"Yes, the difficulty of this task is to convince the Russians that our summer offensive is the South, and that they actively transfer elite troops to the South. With General Rosen's position in the hearts of the Russians, at least Stalin can transfer the Russians from one front to the South. If General Rosen can inspire his intelligence on the battlefield and cause unstoppable anger to the Russians, it is not impossible to attract two to three fronts to the South."

Chen Dao explained: "The head of state means that I am more capable of hatred. With me here, I am not afraid that the main force of the Russians will not come to the south. I am responsible for attracting the Russians to the south, you are responsible for killing them, and we will divide the work and cooperate."

Hitler said: "Don't worry, if the enemy's troops going south are too large and you can't hold on, Marshal Liszt's troops will go south to support you."

"Okay, I understand, Head of State, I accept this task. I am willing to bear the 1.2 million target of annihilation of 2 million Russians, and Marshal Liszt is responsible for the other 800,000. Do you think it's okay?"

"Very good, I feel relieved that Marshal Heinrich has such courage. Marshal Liszt, do you have anything to ask about this plan?"

"I have no objection, how long will it take for us to prepare?" Marshal Liszt said.
Chapter completed!