Hearing that Stalin was already not far from him with reinforcements, Yegorov immediately had his spirits. He said loudly to the officer, "Tell everyone the good news at once." Let everyone hurry up, and we are saved. ”

The news that reinforcements were on the front greatly encouraged the soldiers of the Western Front. Everyone had a look of hope on their faces, and their steps became much lighter. After suffering a crushing defeat, everyone can feel better if they have reinforcements to help them.

When the pursuing Romanian army on the northern front pursued Wadri, he encountered a converging Russian army of more than 300,000 troops.

Lieutenant General Mandev looked at the Soviet Russian troops, who were in full battle and had an absolute superiority in numbers, and he cursed secretly: "Damn it, let these Russian troops escape." ”

Lieutenant General Mandiv flinched a little because of the large disparity in strength and the increasing uncertainty about the field. For the sake of stability, he could only order a retreat first.

Watching the Romanian soldiers slowly retreat into the night, the Soviet and Russian soldiers present cheered as if they had won a battle. And Stalin and Egorov, who were observing the Romanian army on the front line, also soothed their inner worries.

"Fortunately, the commander on the opposite side was cautious and did not attack."

When Stalin saw the retreating Romanian army, most of the tension in his heart was relieved. If you launch an attack on the opposite side, you will find that your side is full of Xibei goods, the kind that will collapse as soon as you fight. How much combat effectiveness a unit consisting of recruits and defeated troops can have is known only to God.

Yegorov, who was burdened by the retreat of the pursuers behind him, immediately remembered the Soviet Russian soldiers who were sacrificed because of his wrong decision, especially the abandoned 14th Army. The grief in his heart could no longer be held back, and he shed tears at the political commissar Stalin.

"Comrade Political Commissar, I have failed to live up to the expectations of the motherland and the Central Committee, and I am sorry for the Party and the people. I was to blame for this defeat, and I failed to discover the other party's intentions. ”

The commander, who was in his thirties, cried sadly like a child in front of the commissar.

Seeing his partner in tears, Stalin, of course, would not let him cry like this, and hurriedly comforted: "Comrade commander, the responsibility for the defeat is not only on you alone, but also on our entire Western Front. At present, our first task is to return to Kyiv first, to ensure that the enemy does not take advantage of the opportunity to seize this most important city in Ukraine. As for the question of responsibility in the future, let's wait until the future. ”

Stalin spoke comforting words to Yegorov, in which, in his opinion, the two leaders of the Western Front were not yet the most responsible parties. The biggest problem is the wrong order given to them by the central government, or the wrong order generated by the overestimation of their own strength, and they are only the victims of this wrong order. Of course, these words can only be left in his heart, and not everyone has the courage to do the decision of the central government.

Under Stalin's persuasion, Egorov regrouped his mentality. After confirming that the Romanian army had retreated, they led the army to retreat overnight to Zhytomyr, Kiev and other cities along the Dnieper River.

While the retreating Romanian army on the northern front was at the Kalotz bridge, it was met by the commander of the 14th Army, the middle army, which pursued General Fereit.

When he heard the news that a large number of enemy reinforcements had withdrawn in response to the pursuing target, Admiral Fereit angrily threw his military hat on the ground.

"Damn it, let this guy go for nothing. Lieutenant General Mandiff was too cautious, why not entangle the other side. ”

His Excellency, who was a little irritable in his heart, couldn't help but complain. Seeing that he was about to get the full credit, he didn't expect that half of the duck in his hand flew away. Change who does not complain two sentences.

Hearing Fereitt's complaint, Chief of Staff Andrew stepped forward to explain: "It may be that Lieutenant General Mandiv wanted to avoid suffering too many casualties, and you heard him say just now, the enemy had about 300,000 people at that time, and the night was not conducive to combat. And he didn't bring a lot of equipment with him when he was pursuing, and he didn't know when we would be able to arrive. ”

Andrew's explanation made Fereit feel better, and he was indeed responsible for not being able to completely annihilate the enemy. That damn enemy, the 14th Army, dragged its footsteps for too long, so that they missed the pursuit.

Seeing that Fereitt's complexion had improved a lot, Andrew asked again, "Are we still chasing now?" ”

Hearing Andrew's inquiry, Fereit said with some anger: "What are you chasing?" After a night's delay, the enemy had long since retreated. Since there are only half ducks left, then they can't be allowed to fly away too. ”

The remaining half of the ducks that Admiral Fereit spoke of clearly meant Nemirov's 6th and 9th Army. And what is the current situation of this army that attacked Nemilov?

When Yegorov sent a telegram to Sklev saying that the plan had failed and that he needed to evacuate. The 6th and 9th armies had already stormed the second line of defense of the Romanian army on the southern front, and when his telegram arrived, it caused a fierce quarrel at the command.

At that time, one side believed that since the plan had failed, it needed to retreat immediately, and could not wait for the other two lines of Romanian troops to encircle them.

On the other hand, they said that if they go back now, the stretch of mountains and forests will also become their biggest obstacle, and there are not too many soldiers who can return to their motherland. Because Romania is very likely to set up a blockade outside this mountain forest, as long as they go out, they will fall into the net. It is better to take a gamble, and immediately after taking Nemirov, turn to the southeast, pass through Uman, where the enemy has fewer troops, and return to Cherkasy under Ukrainian rule.

Both options have their own advantages, and the first option has a high chance of escaping part of the army as long as it runs fast. After all, it will take time for the other two lines of Romanian troops to surround them. The difficulty, however, is that a significant part of the army will be annihilated by the enemy.

The second option is that as long as they can quickly defeat the enemy in front of them, they can escape before the other two enemy forces surround them. The difficulty is that if they fail to defeat Nemirov's enemies, they will face total annihilation.

And they must choose one of these two plans as soon as possible, they can't afford to delay the time, otherwise they will sit and wait for the enemy to encircle and annihilate.

Sklev, who served as their commander, was in a dilemma at this time, and both options were so difficult to choose. In the end, out of prudence, Sklev chose the first option and retreated to the rear through the mountains and forests.

After making up his mind, Sklev immediately ordered the troops to withdraw, and everyone brought only other household items such as weapons and food. As for the artillery, machine guns and other equipment brought over by the shoulder-carrying people, all of them were thrown away. Within two hours, the Russian 6th and 9th armies were again in the nearby mountains and forests.

This made the 1st and 28th Praetorian Divisions, which were one step late, sigh in vain.

And Lieutenant General Ankodar immediately informed General Fereit, who was still encircling and annihilating the 14th Army, of the news that the enemy was retreating to the mountains and forests and intended to retreat. That's why the admiral said that the remaining half of the duck can't let it fly.

Therefore, when the other two lines of Romania surrounded them, the 6th and 9th armies were already doomed to lose most of them. Sure enough, at the beginning, when the 6th and 9th armies took advantage of the fact that the encirclement was not completed, they broke through the encirclement of more than 50,000 people, and all the people behind did not run away.

When these cold and hungry Russian soldiers appeared in the field, they were faced by Romanian soldiers who had been waiting for a long time. Faced with this desperate situation, most of the Russian soldiers wisely chose to surrender. A small number of diehards were exterminated on the spot. In the following ten days, 110,000 Russian troops were captured by Romania.

It should be mentioned here that during this encirclement and suppression, a young Russian soldier named Dofosko stayed in the mountains and forests for three months. It was only after the final lull on the borders of Romania and Soviet Russia that they returned to their homeland. At that time, the Soviet and Russian newspapers reported heavily on this soldier who remained in a desperate situation, and pushed his popularity to an extremely high level.

The battle in Vinnytsia, the final official statistical results. The two sides sent a million troops to fight for the ownership of Western Ukraine, and Romania won in the end.

However, as a price for victory, the Romanian army suffered more than 65,000 casualties. Among them, 21,573 people died, 43,872 were injured, and 1,876 were missing.

The Soviet Russian army, which was the defeated side, lost a total of 265401 people this time. Of these, 67,341 were killed, 46,243 were wounded, 134516 were captured, and the remaining 10,000 or so were all missing.