Chapter 59

Along the way, I pondered: most of the people I saw just now were Stalin, but why did he come to yugatzabatnaya, southwest of Moscow, at this time? Besides, there is not enough security around him, so he brings a driver. Isn't he afraid of danger?

I was so absorbed in my thoughts that Nina called me several times, but I didn't hear her. It was only after she grabbed my shoulder and shook it a few times that I recovered. I looked at her and asked, "Nina, what's the matter?"

"Here we are."

I look out of the window, but no, the building of the front army headquarters is 100 meters away“ Ah geifu's car is really fast enough to return to the headquarters so soon. " I just said something with emotion, but unexpectedly I found that the car was still in place, so I asked a geifu strangely, "why don't you drive forward?"

Ah gei Fu didn't speak. On the contrary, Nina began to wriggle. She stammered to me with a red face: "that... That, Rita, can you... Walk back the rest of the way? Ah gei Fu and I still have something to do. "

I looked at the two embarrassed people and immediately understood them. I said, "no problem. I can walk back for the rest of the journey. I won't disturb you." Then he blinked at Nina, picked up the paper bag on the bridge, pushed the door open, jumped into the snow, waved to them, and slammed the door shut.

I took a few steps forward and heard the truck behind start again. I couldn't help looking back and saw that the truck had turned its head and was staggering towards the forest.

When he came to the gate of the headquarters, the sentry on guard met him and said, "commander oshanina, you are back. The general is looking for you everywhere."

"I see. Thank you With that, I quickly stepped into the building.

The second lieutenant on duty in the corridor saw me from a distance and stood up from the table to meet me. He said to me in a low voice, "Comrade commander, senior general, I sent people everywhere to look for you just now."

"Do you know what it is?" I asked the lieutenant as we walked to the door side by side.

He shook his head and said, "I'm not sure about that. Anyway, I heard him angry at several generals who came to report their work just now. When the generals left, he asked me to send someone to you, saying that I wanted to see you immediately. "

"How long ago was that?" I asked with some worry. After all, I just went shopping in yugatza patnaya and wasted too much time.

"About twenty minutes ago." The second lieutenant's reply made me feel relieved. Fortunately, it was only 20 minutes later, and it should not delay Zhukov's major event.

When I came to the door, I handed the paper bag to the second lieutenant to tidy up my uniform. Then I suddenly opened the door and went in. The second lieutenant helped me gently close the door behind me.

Zhukov walked up and down the room with his hands back and his face full of anger. I approached him and said in a loud voice, "senior general, o'shanina has been ordered to come and wait for your instructions!"

Hearing my voice, he stopped and approached me a few steps. With a sullen face, he asked, "where have you been? You haven't come until now?"

"Sorry, Comrade General!" Seeing his bad complexion, I quickly explained, "I didn't know you would come to me, so I just used the half day holiday you gave me to go shopping in Yuga zabatnaya."

"Judging from the current situation, your holiday has to end ahead of time," he said, taking a piece of paper from his desk and handing it to me. "You immediately send this order to the 16th group army headquarters, and their contact with the front army is completely broken. They are ordered to firmly hold their present positions at all costs and not to retreat at all. "

"Yes." I took the order from him and answered it out loud.

I got into the car Zhukov arranged for me and asked the driver, "do you know how to get to the 16th army headquarters?"

"Is it general rokosovsky's headquarters?"

"Yes, can you drive faster?"

"Yes, comrade commander." The driver agreed, stepped on the gas, and the black car rushed out along the bumpy dirt road.

Half an hour after the car left, guns came from the front. I felt the pistol pinned to my waist. I didn't have the submachine gun I used to use around me. When I heard the gunfire, I felt a little uneasy. Can't help but some worry to ask the driver: "how long to get to the headquarters?"

"If it goes well, we can get to the headquarters of the 16th group army in ten minutes." The driver replied indifferently.

The farther you go, the louder the guns are. The roadside began to appear one after another retreating wounded, some on sleds, some on foot. I asked the driver to pull over to the side of the road, opened the door and asked the wounded in a loud voice, "comrades, what part are you from?"

"The 16th army." Replied a soldier with a bandage on his head and a crutch on his post.

"Do you know where the group command is?" I went up to him and asked.

"I don't know. Our positions have been occupied by the enemy, our troops have been dispersed, and our contacts with our superiors have been interrupted."

"Where is your commander?"

"All sacrificed. We are the only wounded left in the battalion. " He said, pointing to the wounded standing beside him. I counted that there were only eleven people, and all of them were injured in more than one place. It seems that they had to go through fierce fighting to withdraw. I didn't speak, just patted the wounded on the shoulder, then turned and walked back to the car.

The car bumped forward for another half an hour and finally arrived at the headquarters of the 16th group army. The driver pulled up to the door and asked the guard, "Hello! Man, is this general rokosovsky's headquarters? "

"Yes, what can I do for you?" Asked the sentry alertly, and came with his bayoneted rifle.

"Don't be nervous, man! I'm not a German devil. " The driver jokingly said: "I sent the special commissioner of the front army to the headquarters to find general rokosovsky. You can't shoot casually!"

"The general is in there, comrade commissioner." The sentry put the gun back on his back, saluted me as I walked out of the car, and then made a gesture of "please come in."

The light in the headquarters of the group army was very dark, but I saw the rokosowski I was looking for at a glance. He was sitting at the table looking at the map with a sad face. Several people who looked like the staff of the headquarters were busy nervously.

I went up to rokosovsky, saluted him at attention, and told him in a loud voice, "Comrade commander, lieutenant commander oshanina reports to you. At your disposal. "

"Hello! Commander o'shanina. " Rokosovsky stood up, hugged me and said excitedly, "I was very worried to see you lying unconscious on the stretcher that day. I'm so happy to see you standing in front of me alive! From the outbreak of the war to now, I have lost many good comrades who have worked together for many years. "

When he let me go, I quickly explained my intention to him: "I have brought you the latest order from the headquarters of the front army. The senior general has ordered you to stick to your present position and not to retreat."

"Difficult, comrade commander." Rokosovsky cried out to me, "the fighting is going on day and night, and our troops have suffered great losses. The troops added to each division no longer come from the reserve forces in the rear, but from a temporary patchwork. Those soldiers used to belong to different units. They all rushed out of the encirclement, lost contact with the original units, and became a group of one or several people. We have temporarily formed a united fighting group of all these people and enriched them to the front where there is a shortage of manpower. Because of the lack of time, these soldiers and commanders did not even know each other, so they rushed into battle. Can you count on the combat effectiveness of such an army? "

"What is the situation of the 16th group army? Comrade commander. " I asked with concern.

"We have retreated from many places." He said with great pain.

"Ah?" "How's the 316 infantry division?" I asked in surprise

"And retreated." He told me what had happened“ After you were wounded, the guard camp also suffered heavy casualties, leaving less than 50 people in the whole camp. I pulled down the guard battalion and sent a new battalion to defend that part of the area. In the first few days of the battle, the enemy only shelled the positions there every day without launching even one ground attack. In order to better command the battle, I set the observation post of the group army headquarters at the edge of the forest, next to the anti-aircraft artillery company. "

"And then?"

"One day, when the enemy's shelling was sparse, I decided to look at the situation of the position, so I went to them with the chief of staff. Unexpectedly, I saw with my own eyes a dense line of German soldiers coming towards us from behind the ridge 2km away from the position. There were about 10 tanks behind them. In the face of the enemy's attack, the soldiers in the defensive positions were shooting with machine guns without fear, and the anti-aircraft artillery company on the edge of the forest began to fire directly. At first, everything seemed good. The German infantry lay down and the tanks stopped

"What happened next?" I asked anxiously.

"But soon there were enemy planes on the horizon... Diving into our foxholes, the enemy guns and mortars strengthened, the tanks advanced again, and the planes bombed our positions in turn. In the face of the enemy's heavy bombardment, some of our infantry couldn't stand it and began to shake up. At first, a single person jumped out of the trench and ran to the forest, and then they ran to the forest in groups. I felt very sad when I saw all this. "

"Because of the retreat of the soldiers, is our defense lost?" I asked cautiously.

"That's not true. The soldier was running when suddenly a soldier in the crowd cried out, "stop! Where are you going? go back! I didn't see the general standing there... Go back! " Yes, the chief of staff and I stood upright in front of all the soldiers, because we realized that this was the only way to save the situation. The soldier's cry and our performance had a huge effect. The soldiers who were running towards the forest fell down on the spot and fired at the enemy together, making the enemy infantry who got up to attack fall down again. Our artillery company also aimed directly at the enemy's tanks. But the enemy was too strong. Although several tanks were hit and set on fire, their infantry, under the cover of the rest of the tanks, as well as the firepower of aircraft and artillery, occupied our position. In the face of the enemy who occupies the advantage, we can only be forced to retreat. "

"Do you have the confidence to hold the present position?" I asked the general who was worried in front of me with concern“ I don't know, "rokosovsky said helplessly," because of continuous retreat, the organizational structure of the group army has been completely disrupted. Because of the complete interruption of communication, there are only two or three infantry divisions that I can command now. If we don't get the reserves, we will have to continue to retreat