Ubolevic's so-called wisdom is actually to lure the enemy into the deep. In his opinion, fighting this Kursk battle is like fishing for a big fish. If the fish is caught, don't raise the line immediately. You have to put a long line. You have to fight the big fish little by little. You can spend almost all the energy of the big fish before you can pull it up.

So after commending the performance of the 38th Army and Konev in the first phase, he ordered: "Now, what we are facing is a very vigilant big fish. Continue to use toughness to be tough, it is easy to scare the fish away. So Comrade Ivan Spantenovizi, I ask your army to start showing the enemy as weak, and tempt the enemy's main force to the vicinity of Kursk little by little, creating an opportunity for the main force of the front army to rush to the battlefield to fight an annihilation war!"

This mission is not light, and Konev also realized that Guderian was obviously not determined to fight and was likely to run away at any time. If he was allowed to run away, the annihilation battle would naturally become a waste.

But is it that simple to lure the enemy into the deep? It is difficult to grasp the degree of weakness to show the enemy as weak, but not to really retreat. What's more, the opponent he is facing is an old fox like Guderian. If a slight mistake is made and the opponent catches the flaws, it may cause a chain reaction.

This task is indeed difficult, but Konev took it without saying a word. He, like Ubolevic, also has to prove himself. After all, his army commander seems to be "incorrect" and gives people a feeling of being promoted through the back door. He can use this battle to prove his ability and block those who say strange words.

After returning to the 38th Army Command, he immediately summoned three commanders to discuss, and finally made the following arrangements. The 78th Infantry Army, which was standing on the front line, gradually began to retreat, and with the cooperation of the 60th Tank Division, he retreated behind the 79th Infantry Army to rest and build a third line of defense.

Konev's request was: "You must panic and not be confused, so that the enemy can't hold on anymore and think we are running away. But the army's system is absolutely not chaotic, especially not to backfire!"

In order to paralyze the German army, the German army thought that the 78th Infantry Army was really retreating. At Konev's request, Rebarko's 60th Tank Division would also launch a counterattack, making the illusion that the German army would cover the retreat of the infantry.

Of course, at the same time, Konev also issued an instruction to the 48th Mechanized Army, requiring the 61st Tank Division and 105th Mechanized Division of the army to be prepared to respond. Once the 78th Infantry Army retreated, they must immediately take the lead to ensure that the army successfully withdraws from the line of fire.

"Pavel Semionovich (Rebarko), you are lucky! You can take the initiative to attack and fuck the Germans hard!" Rotsmitrov, the commander of the 61st Tank Division, envied Rebarko's good luck. He had been engaged in military education before and had no chance to fight with the German army. To be honest, he couldn't wait.

Rebarko smiled bitterly: "Pavel Alexeyevich, do you think this job is simple? I have to force the Germans to retreat, but I can't really scare them away. What's the matter!"

Katukov also felt a little disgusted with Rebarko's thief behavior and joked: "You are getting a bargain and being good at it. Do you want us to change it?"

Suddenly, Rebarco shook his head repeatedly. He finally had a chance to go to the battlefield, so how could he give up? Although this battle is not easy to fight, it is right. The more difficult it is to fight, the more it is to show that Rebarco's ability is not.

Vatujing quietly watched the three division commanders quarrel. To be honest, he was a little envious. If possible, he wanted to lead the 61st Tank Division to entertain the German devils. He had been waiting for too long at this moment. However, he is the commander of the army, and Konev asked him to be like a commander, and he could not always think about fighting the vanguard, but to coordinate the overall situation.

Of course, Vatuting doesn't like this job. Sometimes he really wants to change with Rebarco, and it feels so good to charge in a tank!

I have to say that Li Xiaofeng really took great care of Konev, not to be honest, he was just a small army commander, but he had many elite soldiers and generals under his command. Take the 48th Mechanized Army as an example. Commander Vatujing is a fierce man, and he can be regarded as the most capable general in the Red Army who can play armored assaults. If he had not been unfortunately killed, a Soviet marshal would not have escaped.

Not only Watujing was very strong, but the three commanders of the 48th Mechanized Army were also powerful. Rebarko was later commander of the Third Guards Tank Army, and he was the first to break into Berlin.

Rotmistrov was not bad either. He was later commander of the Fifth Army of Guards Tank. His performance was quite outstanding in the Battle of Kursk.

As for Katukov, this was later commander of the First Guards Tank Army. He fought from Moscow to Berlin and was known as the "slippery general". This Soviet-style general was not an ordinary Soviet-style general. He attached great importance to the casualties of the troops and would do everything possible to both attack the enemy and protect himself. For this reason, in the Battle of Berlin, he and Zhukov had a complete fall in love with each other, and were eventually suppressed and unsuccessful.

Of course, Katukov's talent is unquestionable. Like the two above, they are one of the strongest generals among the Red Army's armored soldiers. Especially you have to consider that Katukov had only one kidney during the Patriotic War and was not in good health, which is even more rare. Moreover, Katukov's character is also good. After the Patriotic War, he was deprived of the honor he should have because of Zhukov's relationship. Logically speaking, he should have hated Zhukov, but when Zhukov fell, this person was not as gloating and taking advantage of others.

Look, Li Xiaofeng directly threw all the fierce people to Konev. This is clearly a sign that he wants to make the old University of Science and Technology shine. In other words, if these great people cooperate and Konev can't make a name for himself, it would be useless to do so.

On April 30, Rebarko led the 60th tank division to attack from the diagonal sect and collided head-on with the German army. The division gathered 240 tanks and rushed towards the center of the battlefield from two directions. This was the first tank battle that broke out in Kursk.

The German SS Second Armored Division, which was the famous Imperial Division, was the famous Imperial Division. The division was equipped with relatively advanced No. 4 2 tanks. Although it is more advanced compared to other German armored units, its performance is still much worse than the T-35a equipped by the 60th Tank Division.

At this time, the T-35a was replaced with a 100-mm smoothbore gun equipped by the original T-54, and the thickness of the turret armor was also strengthened to 90 mm. The head of the vehicle body was 60 mm (30-degree inclination angle, equivalent to 120 mm), which could basically withstand the attack of the No. 4 tank equipped with the kk4075mm tank gun projectiles fired from 500 meters away.

So in this battle, the Germans suffered a lot, let's see how the German tankers recalled: "I ordered the driver to stop the tank. Although we should continue to advance according to the company commander's order until the Russians' position was crushed. But just now, I saw a large group of T-35s emerge from the Russian positions from the telescope. Well, at least it looked like T-35s, because it was much more beautiful than the t-34 that was too forward to the turret, and its unique pot-shaped turret was also very easy to recognize."

"This is not the first time I have dealt with the T-35. Overall, it has almost the same performance as the T-34. If nothing unexpected happens, my tank can easily destroy it from 1,500 meters away! So I ordered the driver to stop the car, the gunner can aim well, and then kill all the Russians little by little!"

"I'm not nervous at all. Even though there are indeed many tanks in the enemy, there are more than a dozen of them at random, but I trust the kk40 tank guns very much. The battalion commander told us that through live ammunition shooting of Russian tanks, neither the t-34 nor the t-35 can block its thunder strike!"

"The gunner John is in good condition today. The first time he fired the shell, he flew away against the turret of the Russian tank. I believe that after some correction, John will definitely achieve results today! After a few seconds, when the loader stuffed another armor-piercing bomb into the barrel, John couldn't wait to open fire!"

"With a rumbling sound, the car body was shaking, which fully demonstrated how powerful our new main gun was. Of course, the more powerful one was John, who hit the gun! In an instant, all the members of the crew began to cheer, and I could even hear the sound of the turret turning again, obviously. John was preparing to turn the gun and aim at the second target!"

"'Damn it, stop!" I had a little more thought. Instead of looking for the next prey like John, I continued to observe the t-35 that should have been destroyed. The result was not good. The t-35 was still moving forward. A shot on the turret seemed to have no effect on it, so I let out the roar above!"

"John soon discovered that the enemy was not destroyed. He quickly turned the cannon back, muttering and cursing the Russians, probably complaining and cursing the Russians. Soon the body of the car started to shake again, and another armor-piercing bullet roared out of the bore, once again muffling the Russian tanks. This time, we did not celebrate in advance, who knows whether the result is good or bad?"

"The result is bad, the damn Russian tanks are still unscathed! This greatly dampened our morale and created great doubts about the true performance of the kk40 tank gun that the superiors boasted."

The subsequent battle was a torture for all German tankers. They basically fired from a distance of about 1,500 meters, but when the distance between the two sides was closer to 1,000 meters, it was still unable to destroy any Soviet tank. Some German tankers with irritable temperament had already started to curse.

However, the pain of the German tankers was not over. From one thousand meters to eight hundred meters, they were still firing tirelessly, but they consumed a large number of armor-piercing bombs but failed to achieve any results. According to the reaction of the Red Army, a considerable number of T-35a were hit at least five times in this armored assault, and the largest number of T-35a was hit thirteen times. But what inspired the German despair and the awakening of the Red Army soldiers was that no T-35a was penetrated during this period.

When it reached a distance of about 800 meters, the long-silent Red Army tank assault group began to fight back. The 100mm medium-bore pressure smoothbore cannon only has a decent hit rate at this distance. To be honest, the soldiers generally do not like this cannon and call this cannon a toothpick equipped for heavy knights.

Of course, this is definitely not a problem with the power of the 100mm smoothbore gun. The armor-piercing bombs it fires can destroy all existing tanks of the German army, and even the Tiger tanks that the German army has not yet equipped cannot stop its thunder attack. The only problem is that the accuracy of this gun is too poor, and it is often just attacking the air.

The Germans also had an understanding of this. They recalled: "Compared with the sturdy Russian tanks, the shooting skills of the Russian gunners are really bad. Most of their attacks are hitting mosquitoes. Even if we don't move, it's hard for them to hit us. Of course, the only problem is that we can hit them without any use..."

The German tankers and Russian tankers on the battlefield probably had an idea at that time. The best tank was the Russian tank equipped with German artillery, which was a perfect match.

Of course, Russia is not without better artillery. For example, it is fine if the D-5t85mm tank is being prepared to be equipped on the T-34, at least the accuracy is much stronger than the 100 slide. The General Equipment Department and the Armored Forces Directorate even suggested that the D-5t be moved to the T-35, but because of the capacity limit of the D-5t, it has not yet been achieved.

However, Northern Industry is not idle either. They are very aware of the problem of the 100mm medium-bore pressure smoothbore gun. However, this gun is a stopgap and excessive product. Since 1940, Northern Industry has been working on 100mm high-bore pressure smoothbore gun. According to the test results of the sample gun, the initial speed of this gun has been greatly improved. In conjunction with the latest research and development of the sub-caliber shell-piercing ammunition, the accuracy of the sub-caliber shell-piercing ammunition has been qualitatively improved, which can at least ensure an attack is launched at around 1,200 meters.

Back to the battle itself, when the tanks of the two armies approached about 800 meters, the situation began to change. Although the kk40 is still unlikely to penetrate the front armor of t-35a, it can penetrate its side armor. And under the strong call of the tank soldiers, the artifact 88 cannon, which has not been shown for a long time, has once again shown its strength, and it can still penetrate the t-35a.

The next was a complete melee, with tanks constantly being destroyed. The sound of gunfire and cannon explosions filled the ears of soldiers on both sides. However, although the German resistance was very fierce, Rebarco's attack was indeed too fierce. The pressure caused by two hundred tanks was unimaginable. At least the Second Imperial SS Panzer Division had not yet been under such pressure on the Eastern Front battlefield. After an hour of fierce fighting, the Germans began to cast smoke and retreat immediately.

Rebarco did not pursue recklessly. He chased for several kilometers and cleared the German positions, and then began to organize the retreat. At the same time, Guderian also received news of the Red Army's large-scale attack.

The first thought of the tank monster at that time was: "Did the Russians concentrate their troops so quickly and are they preparing to encircle and annihilate me?"

To be honest, he was startled and bounced up from the chair and asked: "How much troops has the enemy put in? How is the progress?"

When he learned that the Red Army had invested about 200 tanks in the first wave, the tension and urgency became stronger and stronger. He wanted to retreat a few days ago, and thought that continuing the avalanche operation was meaningless, but the superiors just refused to listen. This time, the Red Army had begun a large-scale counterattack, which shows that the Red Army was ready to fight an annihilation war. At this moment, we can't hesitate anymore and must retreat quickly!

Without discussing with Paulus, Guderian sent a telegram to the Central Army Group Command, General Staff and Wolf Knot again, exaggerating the scale and significance of the Red Army's attack and strongly demanding a retreat immediately.

His telegram naturally caused great dissatisfaction between the General Staff and the Wolf's Knot, but they did not dare to condemn Guderian rashly at that time. What if someone was really right? So Halder immediately contacted Paulus and asked what the situation was. At the same time, Xiaowang also ordered the Air Force to go to Kursk for reconnaissance immediately.

It should be said that the result was not very beneficial to Guderian. Because after the initial panic, the German army quickly regained its foothold, and the reconnaissance forces also responded that the Russian army, which was advancing in the morning, was retreating!

So when Paulus replied to Halde in the afternoon: "The scale of the attacks of the Russian army in the morning is indeed relatively large, which is a large-scale assault operation of the Russian army since the war began. However, through the reconnaissance in the afternoon, it can be believed that this attack was only the beginning of a series of retreat operations of the Russian army. The main purpose is to force our tank troops to retreat through armored assaults, and to cover the infantry to retreat to Kursk!"

At the same time, the air force's reconnaissance report also shows that the Russian troops on the front line of Kursk are retreating in panic, and a large number of troops are pouring into the Kursk city. The Kursk city is also in chaos, and it is not ruled out that the Russian army may give up Kursk and continue to retreat!

Paulus's judgment and the air force's reconnaissance made Hitler furious. The latter scolded Guderian for an hour in the office. After finally venting his anger, he decisively ordered: "The armored cluster must unswervingly assault in the direction of Kursk, and chase and annihilate the Russian escaped troops as fast as possible. There is no hesitation at all, and you must devote yourself to it with all your strength!"

Although there is no word criticizing Guderian in this order, the unique anger of the head of state is revealed between the lines. Obviously, his patience with Guderian has reached the threshold. If Guderian does not follow his instructions, the consequences will probably be very bad.

So what is the mood of Guderian? It should be said that the tank monster was very disappointed. In fact, he deliberately made a big fuss in the morning. He also knew that the Russian army was unlikely to be so fast. He deliberately put pressure on the General Staff and the Wolf's Knot, just to make them agree to retreat. However, Paulus lost the chain, and this general who was too loyal to the head of state ruined Guderian's major event. So when Guderian received the strict order from the General Staff and the Wolf's Knot, he was quite dissatisfied with Paulus's non-cooperation... (To be continued)

ps: Bow to thank Nirvana, Chuan Liuhuagui, Guundam0080, hzangdd and comrades Juventus!
Chapter completed!