While the Soviet bombardment of the city of Breslau was still going on, both Zhukov and Rokossovsky received orders from their base camps to immediately rush back to Moscow for a temporary emergency military meeting. Immediately after receiving the notice, the two marshals handed over their work to their deputies and flew to Moscow by plane.

Although Rokossovsky's plane took off more than an hour later than Zhukov, because of his location, which was closer to Moscow than Zhukov, the planes of the two landed at the city's military airfield one after the other.

As soon as Rokossovsky got off the plane, he saw a black sedan drive by. He thought it was someone sent by the base camp to pick him up, but after the car stopped, the window behind it was rolled down, revealing Zhukov's face: "Koschika, you are going to the Kremlin, it just so happens that I am too, you can go with me in my car." ”

According to his own knowledge of Zhukov, he took the initiative to invite himself to ride in the same car, and he must have something to tell himself in private, so Sokov did not object, and walked straight over and got into Zhukov's car.

On the way to the Kremlin, Zhukov said apologetically: "Koschika, I ordered the troops to stop the offensive on the city of Breslau, in fact, for a reason. We have limited forces outside the city to overcome the enemy's well-defended and heavily defended city......"

Rokossovsky understood Zhukov's distress very well, and if he hadn't asked him to send troops to feint and attack the city, it is estimated that the troops in charge of besieging the city would have remained unmoved. Even if the feint attack was launched, it did not succeed in attracting the attention of the enemy, but still suffered a lot of losses. As a result, Zhukov had to mobilize troops from elsewhere to replenish the troops that had suffered losses.

"Koschika," Zhukov finally asked, "how is your squad doing, has it been safely withdrawn?" ”

Rokossovsky shook his head and said with a wry smile: "At the time of my departure, I had not received any news about them, so I don't know if they are still in the city or safely evacuated. ”

After saying this, he thought that the base camp urgently recruited himself and Zhukov to Moscow, and there must be something important, so he asked Zhukov tentatively: "Comrade Marshal, do you know what kind of military meeting the base camp is going to attend when it calls us back to Moscow this time?" ”

"I don't know." Zhukov shook his head and said: "The notice came very suddenly, and I didn't have any news beforehand. I wanted to call and ask Antonov, but his deputy said that Comrade Stalin was talking to him and could not answer my call for the time being. ”

"Who do you think attended this emergency military meeting?" Rokossovsky asked briefly.

"I think the people who will participate in the meeting must be the top commanders from all fronts." Zhukov pointed at Rokossovsky and then at himself, and continued: "Since you and I are here, I think Konev will appear later. ”

Zhukov's prophecy soon came true, and the car they were in entered the Kremlin, and as soon as the two got out of the car, they saw another black sedan driving by. Zhukov wanted to know who was coming, so he did not immediately enter the building, but stood next to the car with Rokossovsky, quietly watching the approaching car.

"Comrades marshals," after the car stopped, the rear door opened, and out of it came an officer in a military overcoat, who couldn't help but show a surprised expression on his face when he saw Zhukov and Rokossovsky standing aside, and he walked towards the two of them and asked loudly: "Are you waiting for me here?" ”

Zhukov stretched out his hand to hold the other's outstretched hand and said in a friendly manner: "Hello, Marshal Konev, it's a pleasure to see you here. Rokossovsky and I were notified by the base camp that we should come here for a meeting. Why, you were also notified? ”

"That's right." After shaking hands with Zhukov, Konev shook hands with Rokossovsky and replied: "I was making arrangements for the attack on the industrial zone of Silesia, and suddenly I received a notice from the base camp, so I temporarily handed over the work to the deputy, and I hurried over by plane. ”

While the three of them were standing next to the car and talking, an officer wearing a blue-capped hat came out of the building, he came to the front of the three of them, raised his hand and saluted, and said politely: "Three marshals, the meeting is about to begin, please come with me." ”

Rokossovsky came to the conference room, and in addition to seeing Stalin, Antonov, Vasilevsky, who had not been seen for a long time, he also saw many familiar faces, all sitting on both sides of the conference table.

After Stalin had made a brief opening remarks at the beginning of the meeting, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Molotov began to explain the theme of the meeting to those present: "Comrades, we are convening this meeting today because we have received information from the relevant sources that the Germans are in close contact with the Allies and are trying to open the front to the British and American forces by unilateral peace and make them their anti-Soviet allies.

As for our allies, although they also had to go to Germany to surrender unconditionally to the Allies, they deviated in their execution, that is, they allowed their military commanders to accept the surrender of the enemy forces on the battlefield, and even in some areas, the armies of both sides ceased all hostile military operations.

The Germans felt that this way of surrendering to the Allies was very beneficial to them. After the nominal surrender, they could calm the Anglo-American forces into Germany and let them drive straight into the heart of Germany and occupy German territory. In this way, the need for our Soviet Red Army to enter Germany was ruled out.

After research, we believe that this surrender of the enemy cannot be regarded as unconditional surrender, and they can gain a lot of benefits from it, and they can withdraw the troops of the Western Front to their homeland and avoid the fate of annihilation. If only the Anglo-American troops entered Germany proper, then Germany's industrial base, the ** army, and the territory and resources necessary to continue the war against the Soviet Union would have been preserved. ……”

After Molotov's speech, the General Staff Antonov stood up and continued: "The General Staff, having learned of the conspiracy of the Germans, began to pay close attention to these circumstances and the resulting changes in the situation at the front, and at the same time sent a note to the Allies, asking them not to allow Hitler to transfer troops from the Western Front to strengthen the defense of the Eastern Front.

Although Eisenhower gave us assurances that he would do everything in his power to avoid such a scenario. Despite this, a large number of new German units appeared on the front of our offensive, and according to the numbers of these units, we can clearly see that they were all deployed on the Western Front.

In addition, we found that the Germans would build a new line of defense on the impassable areas of southern and southwestern Germany, so as not to annihilate their forces on the Eastern Front. According to the information we have, the mountainous areas to the north and northwest of Czechoslovakia and the Austrian Alps were impassable areas, and in the event of an unfavorable war, the Germans withdrew from those areas through which they could to the hastily established defensive areas of the British and American forces to the west.

Therefore, our next task is to advance towards Berlin without allowing the enemy to form a strong defense in these areas or withdraw to the Allied occupation zone. ”

As soon as Antonov finished speaking, Vasilevsky stood up and said: "Comrades, we have learned from the British that most of the important institutions of Germany have been transferred to the south. According to reliable sources, Hitler was building the 'Alpine Fortress District' in an attempt to take advantage of the treacherous terrain and make a death throes.

The head of the Czechoslovak military delegation, General Pika, informed us every day about the build-up of German forces in the mountains. German trains and automobiles were carrying large quantities of cement and other building materials there, and various ordnance stations, headquarters facilities, and engineering teams were also being transferred in that direction. It is clear that the enemy is hurrying to build command posts, various fortifications, as well as build warehouses and camps for troops. In order to prevent detection by our reconnaissance aircraft, the facilities were also heavily camouflaged......"

When Zhukov heard this, he suddenly remembered that there was such a secret base in the mountains next to the city of Breslau, so he took advantage of the gap between Vasilevsky's words, raised his hand and said: "Comrade Vasilevsky, can you let me say a few words?" ”

。