Chapter 103

Zhukov, as the commander of the front army, soon knew about the failure of the counter offensive. Just after noon, he called the headquarters to ask questions.

"Comrade rokosovsky," as soon as the phone was connected, Zhukov began to rage: "why did you switch from attack to defense? I heard that the troops assigned to you by the 5th and 30th army were either defeated or trapped by the German army. What's the matter? "

"Comrade commander, please listen to my explanation," rokosovsky replied in a loud voice, "the 30th group army was assigned to our 126th infantry division, because in the early stage of the battle, too many soldiers were reduced and all the new recruits without any combat experience were added, and the overall combat effectiveness of the army was very poor. After only one hour of fighting, the division commander, Colonel Maximov, was seriously injured and withdrew from the fighting. The troops who lost command were also defeated by the German army. "

Zhukov interrupted: "what I care about is not the 126th infantry division, but the Cadet regiment named after the highest Soviet assigned to you by the fifth group army, which is a very effective force. I know very well why it is surrounded by the German army?"

"I sent the Cadet regiment and the 58th tank brigade to the spas lyuhovsky area to reinforce the 289th anti tank regiment, which blocked the German armored forces there," rokosovsky said. It was thought that the Cadet regiment, with the support of the tanks of the 58th brigade, could cooperate with the 17th and 20th cavalry divisions to eliminate the enemy in the front. Unexpectedly, there were only five tanks in the 58th tank brigade, which could not provide enough firepower support for our troops. The soldiers of the Cadet regiment were all very brave. They cooperated with the cavalry troops to repel the German frontal attack many times and did not let the enemy move forward. However, according to the information just received, an armored force of the German army circled the rear of our defense line and cut off the connection between the group army and the area of spas liukhovsky

Zhukov rudely interrupted the words behind rokosovsky: "I don't want to hear your explanation. I just want to know when your troops can turn back to the attack on the German army?"

"Comrades commander," rokosovsky said, holding the microphone in his hand and standing upright, "I need a week to redeploy..."

"No, one week is too long. Three days. I can only give you three days. After three days, that is, November 16, your troops must launch a full-scale counterattack against the German army! "

Listening to Zhukov's words, I muttered again: what's the matter with Zhukov? With his military common sense, it should be very clear that under the situation of great disparity between the enemy and ourselves, our first consideration is how to defend, not how to attack the enemy.

When I was thinking about it, I heard rokosovsky calling me. I looked up at him blankly and saw that he was handing me the microphone. He said, "Rita, comrade commander wants to speak to you."

Zhukov just scolded rokosovsky. At this time, he suddenly wants to talk to me again. Do you want to scold me? Thinking of this, I couldn't help my heart beating faster. I nervously took the microphone from rokosovsky's hand, put it in my ear, and then I said, "senior general, I'm oshanina. I'm waiting for your instructions."

"Rita!" Zhukov said to me in a softer tone, "you are the special commissioner I sent to the 16th army. I hope I can hear a little truth from you."

"Go ahead, senior general." After hearing this, I realized that he wanted to learn from me, instead of scolding me. The big stone in his heart fell to the ground.

"If you want to turn back to counterattack, do you think there is any difficulty?"

As for Zhukov's question, I hesitated for a moment and looked at rokosovsky, hoping to get some enlightenment from him. But now he stood on the other side of the table, moved another phone to him, shook the handle a few times, picked up the phone and said, "connect me with general dovator, Commander of the third cavalry army." Seeing that handsome Luo doesn't care for me at the moment, I can only honestly say my own opinion: "senior general, if we want to turn to the counter offensive, we will face many difficulties. First of all, there was no air supremacy. Under the heavy bombing of German planes, our army suffered too many casualties during the attack, and it was often unable to continue to develop in depth after occupying German positions. "

"Well, I wrote that down. What else?"

"Facing the strong armored forces of the German army, our army lacks enough anti tank weapons..."

"Wait a minute," Zhukov suddenly interrupted me and said, "I know what you mean, but I don't have any artillery or tank reserves on hand. The last mortar battalion and Katyusha battalion, I have been equipped for the 16th army a few days ago."

"Comrade General, I have an idea that we can easily attack Fu's tanks without adding artillery to the 16th army." An idea suddenly appeared in my mind, but I was afraid of being rejected by him after saying it. I couldn't help hesitating. When I was struggling, Zhukov impatiently urged me to say, "just say what you have, don't stammer."

"We can consider using trained animals to bomb German tanks."

"Trained animals?" Zhukov listened to my proposal and asked with great interest, "what animal?"“ Army dog I hesitated to say this word again and again. In China, if we propose to use military dogs to bomb tanks, we can say it lightly. But in Russia, a country where everyone loves dogs, it takes enough courage to say this. I was afraid that Zhukov would interrupt me, so I continued to say it in one breath: "we can send military dog trainers to carry trained military dogs, Hidden in the trenches. When the German tanks approached, the trainer quickly fixed the explosive on the back of the military dog, ignited the ignition cable of the explosive, and then released the general dog, so that the military dog could rush over and die with the enemy's tanks. " After listening to my proposal, Zhukov fell into deep meditation. For a long time, there was no sound coming from the microphone, so that I thought he had put down the phone. He rushed to the microphone and called out: "general, are you still there?"“ Yes The opposite answered drily, and then there was no sound. Rokosovsky, who was standing opposite me, also finished the call and was looking at me with strange eyes. At this time, Zhukov began to speak again: "Rita, I will report your proposal to the supreme command immediately to see what Comrade Stalin's opinion is." Finish saying, hang up the phone directly. As soon as I put down the receiver, rokosovsky on the other side immediately asked me, in a tone full of reproach: "Rita, how could you make such a suggestion to the general? We should know that dogs are our human friends. How can they perform such a dangerous task? " In the face of rokosovsky's criticism, I did not refute him. His attitude was completely in my expectation. Russia is a dog loving country. Saying that dogs are human's friends is not just a saying, but a deep-rooted tradition. I remember when I first came to Russia in the winter of 2002, a group of data was published in the newspapers every day, reporting how many people died of freezing in the streets last night; But one day, all the newspapers and magazines suddenly reported the news that two stray dogs were hunted and killed by people on the edge of the forest with column headlines. There were many words of condemnation to the murderer of dogs, which showed that the Russians love dogs. In order to ensure the interests of dogs, the Russian government even issued a law, declaring that all dog owners must go out to walk their dogs every day, otherwise it would be an illegal act and would be severely punished. The political commissar came out to help me out and said, "don't worry, comrade commander. Rita must have her reasons for saying that. You might as well listen to her reasons."“ Come on, I want to hear what's going on? " Rokosovsky sat down in a huff across the street“ Comrade rokosovsky, "I said solemnly to the commander of the group army," in the previous stage of the battle, our artillery lost a lot. In the face of fierce German tanks, if we want to stop them, we can only let the soldiers blow up these tankers with flesh and blood. " Having just said that, the telephone on the desk rang very well, avoiding the possible dispute between the commander of the group army and me. Rokosovsky picked up the phone. Zhukov's voice came from the microphone: "Comrade rokosovsky, I just talked to Comrade Stalin on the phone. He has agreed to Rita's proposal. What I didn't expect is that Comrade Stalin had the same idea for a long time. He had set up four anti tank dog companies as early as August, and the headquarters will send one of them to your group army tomorrow. " Hearing Zhukov's words, I can't help but feel relieved. It seems that my proposal is very timely. As long as it is affirmed by the supreme commander, other people will not blame me any more.