As a result, the armored train was actually dug up by the Germans, and it was mostly in good condition, if there was any damage, that the Soviet soldier with a turret threw a grenade into it before surrendering...... For this kind of person, the German soldiers can be said to be angry and hateful, but the Soviet soldiers seem to have no problem doing this, they are still enemies when they have not surrendered, and it is natural to damage their own equipment, and they can deal with it as they do after surrendering.

Of course, the German soldiers would not give this Soviet soldier any good treatment, and they would give him a few rifle butts and punches when they came up.

But this "heroic act" of Soviet soldiers could not change anything...... The reason is that the structure of the armored train of the Soviet army is very simple, and the battery is fixed by the T34 in it, so one of the turrets was blown up, and all the Germans need to do is to drive the armored train back to the factory and install it with a captured T34.

Such an armored train can be imagined to play its role in a specific situation, such as the Karachi railway station.

Knowing that Karachi had fallen, Stalin was disappointed with the situation in the Stalingrad direction, knowing that the loss of Karachi would mean that the German 6th Army would fully cross the Don and threaten Stalingrad to the east.

Although in a sense Stalingrad was not of great strategic importance to the German army, it was of great significance to Stalin or the Soviet army...... Because this is a city named after Stalin, if the Soviets can't even keep the city named after their leader, it will undoubtedly be a travesty and a serious blow to the morale of the entire Soviet army.

In other words, the gains and losses of Stalingrad were more politically significant than practical, and if it were lost, it would further amplify the negative thinking of the Soviet army against the Germans.

Perhaps, Hitler also took a fancy to this and was in a hurry to take Stalingrad...... By the time the battle had been fought, Hitler had also begun to get nervous, and he had already left the "wolf's den" and flew to the German Eastern Front operational headquarters by special plane.

To be precise, it was Hitler who secretly built another bunker and command center in Vinitsa, Ukraine, codenamed "Werewolf".

Needless to say, Hitler did this in order to better command the battle on the Eastern Front.

But in fact, Hitler's command at this time did not play much role, because he was so carried away by the series of victories that he thought that the Soviet army had retreated on all fronts, and ordered the troops to capture Stalingrad within ten days......

Paulus and Hoult were stunned by this order, and they almost thought that the Führer must be crazy, that the Soviet troops in front of them were two fronts, and that the German troops directly used to attack Stalingrad were only two army groups, which meant that the battle had just begun and could not even be considered the beginning.

However, in any case, the situation of the Soviet army is indeed not optimistic.

Stalin thought about it and sent a telegram to Zhukov, the commander of the Western Front, ordering him to rush to Moscow that day.

The name Zhukov can be said to be thunderous, he can be said to be one of the few incompetent generals in the Soviet Union with super command talent, and more importantly...... He was also a winning general.

For example, the defeat of the Japanese army in the Battle of Normenheim made it difficult to march into the Soviet Union and turned to China, thus changing the pattern of World War II. Another example is that he held Leningrad, especially because he commanded the Western Front to win the defense of Moscow.

So, at this critical moment, the first person that came to Stalin's mind was undoubtedly Zhukov.

Zhukov arrived in Moscow at ten o'clock in the evening and walked into Stalin's office.

"The situation is very bad, Comrade Zhukov!" Stalin said to Zhukov, who was standing in front of him, with a melancholy face: "The Germans have occupied Karachi and have been marching north overnight, but we have not been able to stop their troops in the north, and if this continues, it will not be long before Stalingrad will be lost!" ”

Although Zhukov had known that the situation in Stalingrad was not optimistic, he did not expect that the problem would be so serious.

"Stalingrad must not be lost!" Stalingrad continued: "We must be very clear about this. If Stalingrad falls, the Germans may use the Volga River as a cover to break north into the Soviet rear, which means that all the gains we have made in the defense of Moscow will be in vain, and more importantly, the army may lose confidence in victory! ”

"I agree, Comrade Stalin!" Zhukov replied: "We can't lose the city!" ”

"Do you have any ideas?" Stalin took his pipe and looked at the map hanging on the wall: "If you were in command, how would you fight this battle?" ”

Zhukov couldn't help but be stunned, he hadn't thought about this problem at all before that.

However, he was a battle-hardened general, and after looking at the map of the enemy's situation on the wall, he replied: "If I were in command, I would do my best to organize an army group north of the Don to launch a counteroffensive against the enemy!" ”

"Counterattack?" Stalin was interested in this proposal.

"Yes!" Zhukov replied: "We cannot passively defend Stalingrad. The weakness of the Germans was that their supply lines were very long, the deeper they went into the heart of the Soviet Union, the longer they became, and the terrible road conditions and countless partisans they had to deal with, coupled with the attrition of the battlefield, I think they were at the end of their power! ”

Stalin nodded in agreement.

"Then ......," Zhukov continued, "in order to prevent the Germans from throwing all their forces into the campaign to attack Stalingrad, we had to launch a counteroffensive from the north along the passage between the Don and Volga rivers to the south. The purpose of the counteroffensive is not to annihilate them or drive them away, and we may even fail and suffer heavy casualties, but...... We depleted the supplies of the Germans and delayed their attack on Stalingrad! ”

Stalin nodded again in agreement.

After a pause, Stalin solemnly told Zhukov: "You have been granted full powers, Comrade Zhukov. The National Defense Council has decided to appoint you deputy supreme commander and send you to Stalingrad, where you can mobilize the two fronts, the air force and other units of Stalingrad, as well as the power to assemble forces on a mobile basis. You have to do everything you can to carry out a counterattack against the Germans and hold Stalingrad at any cost! ”