Chapter 701: Beehive

A full day had passed since Zhukov received Stalin’s sudden order to launch a general offensive along the entire front. But apart from frequently moving his troops to keep the frontline Red Army in a high state of combat readiness, he had yet to issue even a single local attack order.

If one were to look at this general’s command performance during the Battle of Nomonhan, one would find that he was actually a very ruthless tactical master. He was familiar with all the troops and weapons under his command and was adept at using them to create all sorts of trouble for his opponents. Moreover, he did not care about the losses of his own troops, viewing casualties as an unavoidable price. In the later stages of the Nomonhan campaign, the Soviet Union still suffered huge losses even while winning, which was directly related to Zhukov’s command style of achieving tactical objectives at any cost.

So, at this moment, although Zhukov had received a strict order from Stalin, he still had not changed his original operational plan. The main reason was that he knew his plan was perfect, worthy of being filled with countless human lives. The reason he had not immediately carried out the order to attack was for no other reason than that he was still waiting, because the result he was waiting for was not yet known.

An officer pushed open the door to Zhukov’s office and stood before him with an embarrassed look on his face. He then began to speak on a topic that interested Zhukov: “General Zhukov, the operation against the ‘Beehive’ was successfully completed. We arrested 20 people, but none of them admit to having participated in the leak. Several comrades from the intelligence department have analyzed the operational report we submitted, and they feel that we have been played by the ‘Beehive’. This organization has still not been broken by us.”

Yesterday’s operation had been carried out in almost complete secrecy. Zhukov had even mobilized some grassroots officers and soldiers from the army, and the arrest operation had been directly commanded by the front’s general headquarters. So, in terms of the operation itself, it was already in the most confidential state possible.

In addition, after this operation, Zhukov had ordered the monitoring of the channels that the “Beehive” had previously used. To this day, the “Beehive” had not transmitted any more radio waves, so Zhukov felt that he might have eradicated it, or at least had severely damaged this German spy network.

Only after eliminating the German spies could Zhukov possibly carry out his deceptive offensive plan. But now it seemed that the results of the espionage war were still fruitless. Just how deep the “Beehive” had penetrated into the Soviet Union was impossible to fathom. But if this “Beehive” was not eliminated, only God would know if his plan could be realized.

“We have arrested 400 relevant personnel who may have leaked our military secrets. The highest-ranking one is a colonel, and there are also people from the logistics department and local government,” Zhukov said to himself, holding his forehead with one hand, somewhat weary. “And a full 1,100 people have been exiled to Siberia, but we still haven’t stopped the ‘Beehive’s’ operations. Who are these people who make up the ‘Beehive’? I really want to know.”

…

“Want to know who makes up the ‘Beehive’?” a man in worker’s clothes asked Vasilevsky with a smile, lighting a cigarette on the side of the road. “With your authority, you are not allowed to ask this question. In fact, I also want to know how many people are in the ‘Beehive’ and who they are. But the number of people in Germany who know this secret is no more than five. And obviously, I am not one of those five.”

Vasilevsky gave a bitter smile. He had been working for this spy network, the “Beehive,” for many years, but he still didn’t know how large it was, or who was in it. He knew there were about 10 German spies in the factories in the rear, and three of the Soviets were his own personally recruited subordinates. Many people were dissatisfied with Stalin’s reign of terror.

Zhukov’s purges at the front could not possibly extend to a rear production factory like Chelyabinsk. These factories conducted their own internal investigations, which were supervised and carried out by factory directors like Vasilevsky. Of course, this kind of investigation in the rear was far less strict than the screening within the military at the front. As a result, Zhukov had indeed destroyed several small German spy networks, but he had never found the real “Beehive” hidden deep in the rear.

“Our eyes and ears in the military system have been almost completely eliminated by Zhukov. So, the ‘Beehive’ has decided that all intelligence personnel will temporarily go into hiding and not show themselves, to preserve their strength for a more important moment in the future!” the contact said, exhaling a puff of smoke. He spoke softly to Vasilevsky, then dropped the cigarette butt, stamped it out with his foot, and turned to walk down the street. Vasilevsky did not linger either and walked in the opposite direction.

Zhukov had overestimated the strength of the German sleeper agents within the Soviet Union. In fact, Germany had very few intelligence personnel embedded within the Soviet military, and their positions were not important. In most cases, the German generals relied on the partial intelligence provided by this factory director, Vasilevsky, to confirm the judgments they had made from reconnaissance aircraft.

As for Zhukov’s plan, the German high command did not know about it, or rather, they could not yet confirm the Soviet offensive plan. As for the main direction of the attack and the disposition of forces, they could only make rough judgments based on reconnaissance planes and could not fully grasp it.

The worker who had contacted Vasilevsky returned to his home, took off his old coat, and hung it on the coat rack by the door. He then sat down on the sofa and suddenly covered his face and let out a cold laugh. His laughter was very low, as if he was trying hard not to laugh too wildly.

He laughed like this for a long time before finally stopping. He wiped his face with both hands, composed his expression, and looked around his room again. Suddenly, he muttered a few words in a voice so low only he could hear. No one could hear his whisper, and its content was one of Germany’s top secrets. What he had just muttered was, “‘Beehive’? Who said the ‘Beehive’ is a network? In this world, only the Führer knows this secret. The ‘Beehive’ is me, and I am the ‘Beehive’!”

…

Zhukov felt that he probably wouldn’t be able to find that intelligence organization called the “Beehive” anytime soon. He also knew that if he continued to suppress Stalin’s order to attack, the pressure from Moscow would destroy him, the front-line commander, first. So he had to get the Soviet troops moving as quickly as possible to launch the great decisive battle on the Eastern Front that Stalin, or rather, the entire Soviet Union, and perhaps the entire world, had been eagerly awaiting.

The strategic plan drawn up by this Soviet general was actually not complicated. It was just a simple feint. But he firmly believed that this plan would catch the Germans off guard and, at least in the initial stage of the campaign, would allow the Red Army to seize the absolute initiative on the battlefield.

From the time he took office as the Soviet front-line commander, he had been trying his best to strengthen the Red Army’s forces in Kiev and had been widely publicizing that the Red Army would retake the industrial center of Kiev in the shortest possible time. Even another relatively skilled Soviet general, Timoshenko, had been transferred to the outskirts of Kiev to command the nearly one million Red Army troops there.

However, in secret, he had been reorganizing the Red Army under his command, forming three field army groups on the outskirts of Minsk. These army groups were all equipped with new, more mobile artillery, or some self-propelled guns that the Soviets had hastily produced in imitation of German assault guns. And all three of these field army groups had a large number of tanks and could be said to be the most elite units of the Soviet Union.

Zhukov used the numerical data of his forces to deceive German intelligence, while using every means at his disposal to strengthen the forces in the direction of Minsk. His intention was very simple: when the battle broke out on a large scale again, he would not advance from the direction of Kiev into the trap that the Germans had prepared, but would instead march south from Minsk to fight a large-scale battle of annihilation to destroy all the main German forces in Ukraine.

This plan was called “Harvest,” and it was hoped that it could wipe out the main frontline forces of Germany in one fell swoop and retake all the lost territory. However, after studying the combat effectiveness of the German army, Zhukov had set the strategic objective as the encirclement of Kiev. He knew that his initial strategic objective was a bit of a pipe dream; the Soviet Union simply did not have the ability to encircle and destroy two or more German army groups.

But he felt that as long as they attacked in a sector the Germans did not expect, it was definitely possible to break through the defense line and advance to Kiev. And once Kiev was retaken, the Dnieper River defense line could be restored. Then, in the time to come, the Soviet Union could at least rely on the advantage of the river to wear down the Germans’ limited armored forces.

He had even written a letter to Stalin, stating the possibility of the Red Army defending Moscow, Leningrad, and Stalingrad to the death if something unexpected happened. If the German army were to be worn down at Kiev, then the Soviet Union would once again face a dangerous vacuum of forces. If Germany continued to advance eastward, then the Soviet capital might become a front line.

This plan had been approved by Stalin, and under extreme conditions, he was even willing to use Moscow as bait. But ever since he had learned that there was a very secret German intelligence organization called the “Beehive” within the Soviet Union, and that his plan might be leaked, he could no longer be sure of his judgment. If Kiev was a huge pocket, and his troops charged into it, and the Germans did not suffer heavy losses, it was very likely that Moscow would be occupied by the Germans. At that time, he, Zhukov, would be the sinner of the entire Soviet Union.

Published: 2025-09-20T03:06:21.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2026-03-01T19:19:51.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c701-beehive-139307083

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