Chapter 34

I followed Zhukov along the long corridor.

At the end of the corridor there was a room with a closed door. There was a table at the door. There was a lieutenant without a military cap sitting there. Seeing us coming, he quickly stood up and whispered to Zhukov, "senior general, they are all waiting for you. Please come in." Then he turned and opened the door.

Watching Zhukov go straight to the door, I immediately stopped and prepared to stop here to wait for him to come out. After all, this kind of place can't be easily entered by little people like me.

As soon as Zhukov's foot entered the room, he stopped, looked back at me, frowned and said, "what are you doing standing there? Come in with me. " Since Zhukov let me in, I don't have to wait for him at the door and trot to his side. Just as he was about to enter the door, he felt that his image of carrying a submachine gun was somewhat unsightly, so he took off the weapon hanging around his neck and handed it to the index Lieutenant standing by. Then he followed Zhukov into the mysterious room.

Zhukov didn't speak after entering the door. He took off his military coat and hat and handed it to me. Then he put his hand into his trouser pocket and leaned against the wall to watch the people in the room talking. I took his clothes and hat, hung it on the clothes rack next to him, closed the door and stood beside him.

By the window of the room, there were several people sitting around the table, and a dusty general standing in the middle of the room. When I look at it carefully, sitting in the middle of the table is a round faced old man with a straight suit, gold rimmed glasses and a beard. In his left hand is marshal voroshlov, and in his right hand is a thin middle-aged man in military civilian clothes. General konev, the former commander of the western front army, sits opposite them. Standing general is a general, his coat is covered with mud, looks particularly embarrassed.

I heard marshal voroshlov ask the general unhappily: "general rokosovsky, why did you leave the 16th army and stand out the encirclement of the German army alone?"

In the face of the Marshal's rebuke, general rokosovsky defended himself humbly: "Comrade marshal of the Soviet Union, I have been ordered to go to vyajima to accept the 16th army. The order says that there are five divisions waiting for me to command. I didn't realize until I arrived that there were no troops there at all. "

"What?" The marshal was surprised and asked, "are there no troops there? Whose orders do you take? "

"Yes, I didn't see any troops." The general said, took out a folded paper from his coat pocket and handed it to the Marshal's position“ This is the order I received, signed by admiral konev, commander of the Western Front Army. "

The marshal stood up, took the document from the general, opened it, looked at it, and then frowned at konev, who was still sitting there. Seeing the Marshal's unfriendly expression, the Admiral quickly stood up and explained: "yes, I signed the order. Originally, lieutenant general rokosovsky was able to obtain five divisions in viajima. However, these troops were all entangled in the battle with the German army, so they did not arrive at viagima on time

"Pa!" After hearing this, the marshal burst into a rage, slapped the paper heavily on the table, and yelled at konev angrily: "do you know that this is a crime? Let an excellent commander to command the nonexistent troops, this kind of irresponsible written military deployment directly led to the deviation of the judgment of the headquarters on the enemy's situation. Do you know how much loss this will bring to our army? "

In the face of the Marshal's interrogation, konev just said: "the enemy's strength is too strong, they have mastered the initiative of the war." The middle-aged man in military civilian clothes stood up and interrupted him: "enough, comrade konev, this is the argument of defeatism. It seems that you have been frightened by the enemy. In view of the current complex situation, I declare on behalf of the people's Committee of the interior: you are arrested Then he turned to the round faced old man beside him and said, "I think the case of general konev should be submitted to the military court immediately."

As soon as the middle-aged man in the interior department spoke, the room fell into silence. Konev stood there with an iron face and did not say a word. The marshal returned to his position in silence. Only general rokosovsky looked at the depressed general with sympathetic eyes. After all, the clean-up movement, which has just passed, is still fresh in our memory. Even though we know that the people in the Ministry of internal affairs are arbitrary, we dare not speak up.

I couldn't help looking at Zhukov beside me. He stared at several people in the room without expression, as if what happened just now had nothing to do with him.

At this moment, a telephone placed on the wall of the room rang. The round faced old man in suit, who had never spoken, stood up and walked slowly to the phone and picked up the receiver.

"Hello, who is it?" Asked the round faced old man. The sound from the receiver was loud enough for the whole room to hear the conversation.

"Molotov?" Stalin's voice came from the microphone.

"Yes, comrade Stalin." Although the other side couldn't see it at all, the round faced old man nodded habitually when answering. I thought to myself, the old man's name is Molotov. His name sounds familiar, but I can't remember his position?

"Is Zhukov here?" Stalin asked“ Zhukov? " Molotov asked in a puzzled way, and then looked over to where we were standing. It turned out that we had been in so long that no one in the room found us. He saw Zhukov standing at the door and quickly replied, "yes, he has arrived. He will come right away." Then he took the receiver away from his ear and stretched it in our direction. Zhukov walked over with heavy steps, took the phone from Molotov's hand, looked at Stalin opposite the microphone, and said smoothly, "I'm Zhukov, comrade Stalin."“ Judging from the current situation, the decision of the base camp to appoint you as the new commander of the western front army is correct. Do you have any objection to our appointment? "“ I obey "I have a request to appoint general konev as my deputy to be the deputy commander of the front army," Zhukov said in a calm voice There is no sound in the microphone. It is estimated that Stalin is considering this problem. The staff of the Ministry of internal affairs just said that they would arrest konev and send him to the military court. They decided that it was not a spur of the moment, but rather the advice of others at a higher level“ Are you still there? Comrade Stalin. " Zhukov couldn't help but ask when he didn't hear each other's voice“ Members of the National Defense Commission have great opinions on konev. " I heard Stalin say this from a distance and thought to myself: I'm afraid it's not the members of the National Defense Commission who have opinions on konev, but you are not satisfied with him! However, these words can only be thought about in mind, and can never be said“ Konev is very familiar with the combat area. " Zhukov turned to konev and tried to persuade Stalin at the other end of the telephone line, "I think konev should be assigned to lead the troops in the direction of Kalinin." When Zhukov said this, I found admiral konev's face was grateful and his eyes were red“ This area is so far apart that I need to have my own Deputy there. "“ All right After a while, Stalin finally agreed with Zhukov's proposal. He continued: "all the remaining units of the reserve front army are transferred by you, and they will be taken over as soon as possible." Then the phone was hung up. After putting down the microphone, Zhukov faced several big figures from the headquarters and said, "as the new commander of the Western Front Army, I want to talk to the members of the National Defense Commission about my views." When he said that, it dawned on me that these are the members who have opinions on konev! Zhukov took another look at konev, and then said: "the troops of the western front army fought bravely and tenaciously. The main thing is that they didn't run away. I think... "He took two steps forward and pointed to konev." this is also the achievement of the former leader of the Western Front Army. " He went to the table, put his hands on the table, looked at the three members of the National Defense Commission, and continued: "they saved Moscow with their precious lives. We should pay tribute to those soldiers who fight to the end in the cruel battle of defense and fight to the death in the encirclement. They held back the main force of the German army and delayed the German attack for eight days. We should make full use of this achievement and build a new front in front of Moscow. " At this point, he stood up straight and turned to greet general rokosovsky standing on one side: "Comrade General rokosovsky, commander of the 16th group army," when he heard his name, the lieutenant general hurried up to him and stood up, "now I'm going to set up a combat mission for you. You are going to cut off the enemy's road to Moscow. "“ Are there any troops? " Asked rokosovsky impatiently. Zhukov pondered for a moment, then nodded and answered in a very positive tone: "there should be!" After a pause, he said, "the Minsk Road on your left will be cut off by other troops." When Zhukov finished his assignment to rokosovsky, the lieutenant general saluted everyone and turned to walk outside. I hastened to open the door for him, and when he left, I closed it again. Konev left with the three members of the National Defense Commission. He will follow Zhukov's orders and immediately set out from here to command the Kalinin front army in a new area. When marshal Voroshilov was about to leave, he suddenly stopped me and said, "major oshanina, when Comrade Zhukov went to see you in the hotel in the morning, he forgot something important. Now I've brought it for you. Put it away Then he handed me a red certificate. He shook hands with me and strode out. When I opened my ID card, it turned out to be a new military officer's ID card. The picture pasted in it was the one I took in the Kremlin guard room yesterday.