At the same time that the tank corps and the units of the 3rd Belorussian Front were united, General Banov's 1st Guards Tank Army, after regrouping, carried out a surprise attack on the German defense frontal and successfully broke through the defense line of the German 12th Division and captured the Pukhovich area with the 82nd Infantry Division.

General Priev's cavalry mechanized group quickly pounced on Slutsk. In the early morning of July 2, three divisions of the 4th Guards Cavalry Corps captured Stolbutsy, Gorotsa and Nesvizh, and in conjunction with the troops of the 1st Mechanized Army, successfully cut off the lines of communication of the enemy Minsk group to Baranovichi, Brest and Luninets.

And the troops of the 85th Infantry Army of the 3rd Army also moved forward to the Pogost and Chervin regions, where they joined forces with the troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front.

With the tank units of the 3rd Belorussian Front, the 9th Tank Army in the Smolevich area successfully completed the encirclement of the 4th Army east of Minsk, encircling 110,000 elite German troops.

When Zhukov heard that 110,000 German troops were surrounded, he was not only happy, but also said to Rokossovsky with some concerns: "Comrade Rokossovsky, with the strength of the Third Front of Belarus, it may be difficult to eat so many enemies in a short period of time. ”

"Comrade Marshal," Rokossovsky felt completely unnecessary to Zhukov's concern, "don't see that the German army has 110,000 men, but they have been frightened by the powerful blows of our army, and the enemy has long been discouraged and cannot stop effective resistance. I think Chernyakhovsky's troops can get rid of them all in two or three days. ”

"In two or three days, you can get rid of them?" Hearing Rokossovsky's words, Zhukov felt that he was taking it for granted, thinking that it took two months to encircle and annihilate the hundreds of thousands of troops in Paulus, and now it is possible to complete the destruction of the German heavy army group in Minsk in two or three days? Therefore, he said a little unceremoniously: "Comrade Rokossovsky, you are too optimistic, right?" ”

"If you don't believe my judgment," Rokossovsky said with his usual expression, "Comrade Marshal, you can call General Chernyakhovsky and hear what he has to say to you." ”

After Zhukov waited for Rokossovsky to finish speaking, he called Maksimenko, the chief of the communications corps, and instructed him: "Comrade General, immediately connect me to the headquarters of the Third Belorussian Front, and I will speak to General Chernyakhovsky." ”

As soon as the phone was called, Zhukov said loudly: "Is it Chernyakhovsky?" I'm Zhukov, report on your situation there? ”

"Report to Comrade Marshal," Chernyakhovsky replied, hearing that it was Zhukov's voice, with some excitement: "we have managed to surround 110,000 enemies and are now attacking them......

"General Chernyakhovsky," Zhukov waited for the other party to finish speaking, and then asked cautiously, "I want to know, how long will it take for you to be able to besiege this besieged German army?" ”

Chernyakhovsky, who was on the other end of the phone, hesitated for a moment, and then replied: "Comrade Marshal, I have just discussed with Chief of Staff Pokrovsky, about three days or so, to completely annihilate this enemy?" ”

"What, it only takes three days?" Chernyakhovsky's answer stunned Zhukov, he thought that it would take at least two weeks to completely annihilate this enemy, but he did not expect that the commander in charge of directing the offensive battle thought that only three days would be enough, so he asked tentatively: "Is it really only three days?" ”

Hearing Zhukov's question, Chernyakhovsky laughed a little embarrassedly: "Comrade Marshal, in fact, we think that according to the current offensive situation, it will not take three days at all, and at most thirty hours will be able to solve the battle. But to be on the safe side, I'll say three days. ”

After listening to this, Zhukov was silent for a long time, he was quietly digesting what Chernyashovsky said, you must know that there have been many such encirclement battles before, but the time required is very long, as Chernyakhovsky said, the elimination of 110,000 enemies in 30 hours has really not happened before.

"Well, Comrade Chernyakhovsky, since you are so confident, then I wish you success." At the end of the call, Zhukov said: "There is good news, please inform me as soon as possible." ”

Zhukov put down the phone, shook his head with a smile, and then said to Rokossovsky: "I really didn't expect it, Comrade Rokossovsky, Chernyakhovsky is even more optimistic than you imagined, he actually said that it only takes 30 hours to completely wipe out the 110,000 German troops who were surrounded." ”

Rokossovsky waited for Zhukov to finish speaking, and then said with a smile: "Comrade Marshal, didn't you just ask me, is there anything you can do to help the Third Front?" I thought about it, and immediately sent the air force to carry out non-stop bombing of the German troops besieged by our army, completely destroying their will to resist. ”

…………

At five o'clock in the afternoon of the next day, Zhukov received a telephone call from Chernyakhovsky, in which he excitedly said: "Comrade Marshal, I have good news for you, with the cooperation of friendly forces, we have completely annihilated the 110,000 German troops besieged east of Minsk and captured 57,000 people. ”

"Is this true, Comrade Chernyakhovsky?" After hearing the news, Zhukov immediately felt overjoyed, but he did not expect that Chernyakhovsky really annihilated this German army in 30 hours, and he said sincerely: "I congratulate you!" ”

"Comrade Marshal, we have taken control of the whole of Minsk, and only a few areas can still hear sporadic gunfire, and it should be the scattered German soldiers who are putting up their last resistance." After reporting on his situation, Chernyakhovsky sent an invitation to Zhukov and Rokossovsky: "I would like to invite you and General Rokossovsky to Minsk to have a look. ”

When Zhukov heard this, he did not immediately express his position, but turned his head to look at Rokossovsky, and when he saw it, he nodded and said yes, and then said into the microphone: "Okay, Comrade Chernyakhovsky, Rokossovsky and I will rush over." ”

Two hours later, Zhukov and Rokossovsky arrived in armored vehicles to Minsk, which had just been liberated. After the two of them saw the situation in the city clearly, they couldn't help but feel sad in their hearts, the capital of Belarus had basically become a ruin, full of ruins. But the surviving residents of the city still stood happily on both sides of the road, welcoming the troops entering the city.

Zhukov, who had served in Belarus for a long time before the war, was familiar with the city, and could guess where Chernyakhovsky would set his headquarters, so he ordered the driver of the armored car to drive the car to that area.

Coming to the vicinity of the Belarusian government building in the center of the city, Zhukov was surprised to find that the road was blocked. An officer on duty came over and politely said to the driver: "I'm sorry, comrade commander, the front is temporarily impassable, please take a detour." ”

"What's wrong?" Zhukov opened the hatch and asked, leaning out half of his body.

The sight of a commander wearing a marshal's epaulette leaning out of the car immediately startled the officer. After recognizing Zhukov, he hurriedly raised his hand and saluted, and said respectfully: "Comrade Marshal, explosives left by the Germans were found in the building in front, and our sappers are carrying out the elimination operation. For your safety, please take a detour. ”

"Where is Chernyakhovsky?" Zhukov then asked.

The officer half-turned, nodded at the position where a group of people were gathered not far away, and said: "Comrade Commander is there, and he is directing the dismantling of explosives?" ”

After hearing this, Zhukov immediately jumped out of the armored car and said to the officer: "Take me to Chernyakhovsky." ”

Seeing that Zhukov had already gotten out of the car, Rokossovsky naturally couldn't continue to sit in the car, so he hurriedly got out of the car, followed Zhukov, and walked towards the crowd not far away.

There was a sharp-eyed officer in the crowd, and when he saw Zhukov walking towards him, he hurriedly said to Chernyakhovsky: "Comrade commander, Marshal Zhukov is here." ”

Chernyakhovsky looked in the direction of his finger, and sure enough, he saw Zhukov and Rokossovsky walking towards him, and hurriedly shouted: "Lizheng~!" ”

After all the commanders and fighters present maintained an upright posture, he quickly ran to Zhukov and saluted: "Comrade Marshal, welcome to Minsk to inspect!" ”

While shaking hands with him, Zhukov asked curiously: "Have all the explosives in the building been cleared?" ”

"Not yet." Chernyakhovsky shook his head and replied: "According to our inspection, in addition to the Belarusian government building, the Germans also planted explosives in the building of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus. Probably because our army was attacking too fast, and before they could blast, we took this place. ”

After Rokossovsky and Chernyakhovsky shook hands, he casually asked: "Did you report to the Supreme High Command about the destruction of the besieged German army and the liberation of Minsk?" ”

Chernyakhovsky nodded and replied: "Yes, the moment the troops were stationed in Minsk, I reported the situation here to the General Staff. ”

"So, you haven't reported to the High Command yet?" Zhukov waited for Chernyakhovsky to finish, and after a moment of silence, continued: "The news of the destruction of the besieged German army will be reported by me personally to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief himself. Where is your communication vehicle? ”

When Chernyakhovsky heard Zhukov's question, he immediately called the head of his communications corps and ordered: "Immediately help Comrade Marshal to connect the phone to Moscow." ”

The director of the communications corps agreed, and then said to Zhukov: "Comrade Marshal, please come with me, our communication vehicle is nearby, and you can talk to Moscow there." ”

After a few minutes, the phone to Moscow was connected. Zhukov excitedly reported to Stalin: "Comrade Stalin, the 110,000 enemies encircled east of Minsk have been completely annihilated by the troops of Chernyakhovsky and Rokossovsky, and more than 57,000 officers and men have been captured. At the moment our troops are advancing towards the Polish border. ”

…………

When Stalin received Zhukov's phone call, he was studying the situation in the Ukrainian region with First Deputy Chief of the General Staff Antonov and Deputy Chief of the General Staff Ivanov. After putting down the phone, he looked at the two and said: "Now the situation in the direction of Belarus is already very favorable to our army, I don't know what is going on on the Ukrainian side?" ”

"Comrade Stalin," Antonov continued, as soon as Stalin's words fell: "According to what we know, the Germans, in order to save the situation in Belarus, have transferred a large number of troops from the south in an attempt to block the breakthrough opened by our troops. As a result, their forces on the territory of Ukraine have become weak, especially on the front of the 1st Ukrainian Front under Marshal Konev, and the situation is even more pronounced. He asked me if he could take advantage of the emptiness of the German army on the front and launch another attack in Ukraine? ”

Stalin still agreed with Antonov's proposal, he nodded, pointed at Antonov with his fist holding a cigarette butt, and said: "Comrade Deputy Chief of the General Staff, I agree with Konev's plan, you give him an order, let him hurry up and prepare for battle, ready to attack the enemy at any time." ”

"Our army launched a full-scale attack in both Belarus and Ukraine at the same time," Antonov breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Stalin agreed to Konev's battle plan, and he pointed to the map and said to Stalin: "The German army is simply unable to take effective defensive measures against our army's offensive until it is replenished with troops." So I think that maybe in two to three months, our troops will be able to drive the enemy out of our borders. ”

Konev, who was sitting far away in Kyiv, received the offensive order from Antonov, and said to the new Chief of Staff Sokolovsky with a smile: "Comrade Chief of Staff, the Supreme Command agrees with the plan we have proposed, and at the same time as the Battle of Bagration is going on, a large-scale offensive will be launched against the German army in Ukraine, so that they will not be able to prevent an effective defense. ”

"This is wonderful, Comrade Marshal." Sokolovsky was also very happy to learn that his superiors had approved the battle plan: "The focus of our army's offensive for more than half a month has been in Belarus, and our logistical supply has been greatly weakened. If we can start a new offensive campaign, I believe that the supplement given to us by our superiors will soon return to the previous state. ”

Konev raised his hand and looked at his watch, and then said to Sokolovsky: "Chief of staff, you immediately call the commanders of the armies and order them to rush to the headquarters immediately, and I will assign them combat missions." ”