Chapter 295

How time flies! It's mid February before you know it.

That day, I called captain Ali and lieutenant Baku from the station by telephone, and assigned them to carry out anti-aircraft artillery and tank training in their two companies.

Although I'm the commander of the antiaircraft artillery battalion, I'm a bare commander. I don't have guards, signalmen, service soldiers, or even a single residence. From the day I got to the ice transportation line, I had been huddled with kirianova and Orlova in the tent as the headquarters of the women's anti-aircraft artillery company. Because of this, it's natural that I chose this tent as the venue for the meeting of several company commanders.

The tent is too small. It's OK to wait for three people. If there are more people, they will be very cramped. There was only a company commander in one company and two companies, but the female soldier company was the company commander's instructor and vice company commander. Because the women's company had been carrying out anti tank training for a long time, so there were not so many people left. So I arranged Orlova and ugad to go to the air defense position for inspection, and the three company commanders and I continued to have a meeting.

I told two male company commanders how to train soldiers to fight tanks with anti-aircraft guns, and kiriyanova added some problems and precautions found in the training.

Captain Ali was asking kiriyanova for technical advice when lieutenant ugad's voice came from outside the tent: "Comrade major, may I go in?"

I looked out and said, "come in."

Wugad opened the curtain and wanted to come in. Seeing that there were too many people, he hesitated for a moment. He stood at the door and didn't come in. He looked at me and said, "Comrade major, can you come out for a moment?"

"What's the matter?" I asked in surprise.

"I saw a couple of cars parked on the side of the road, and a couple of trucks with awnings. It looks like somebody's coming. I see them coming our way, so I'll let you know. "

Big shot? It's not a day or two for ugad to become an officer. He can be called a big man, at least at the level of general or above. But I'm just an ordinary battalion level organizational unit. It doesn't seem to be worth stirring up. Why don't some important generals come here? So I asked tentatively, "are you sure you want to come to us, not to Colonel harpy?"

"Comrade major, I'm quite sure." At this point, he drew his head back, looked into the distance, then put his head in and continued: "the leader is like general hilov of ice command."

"Here comes general hilov!" When the boss came, I couldn't stay in the tent and said to the others, "let's go, three comrades of company commander. Let's go out to meet the general."

Out of the tent a look, but no, a group of people came across. At the front was a round faced commander of medium build and ordinary appearance. The collar of his military coat was pulled high to block his rank. However, according to my experience, I knew that he was a general.

Behind him on the left was a middle-aged man with thick eyebrows in a short fur coat, a grey ermine cap, and general hilov, whom I knew well, followed him on the right.

I hastened to bring people up and stood at attention in front of several people.

I raised my hand to my forehead and looked at general hilov. I didn't know who to report to.

Seeing my dilemma, hilov stepped up, pointed to the general in front of me and said, "Comrade major, report to the commander of the front army."

It turns out that the round faced general is lieutenant general Huo Jin. I straightened up and said in a loud voice: "report to the commander of the front army, comrade, on the ice transport line. I turned around and told kiriyanova and ugad behind me:" do you hear me? The commander is going to honor you in person. You muster the troops immediately. Go, now. " Because of excitement, my voice trembled.

After the troops assembled, according to the usual practice, kirianova ran to me, stood at attention, saluted and loudly reported, "report major, the women's anti-aircraft artillery company has assembled and is waiting for your order."

"At ease!"

"Yes Kiriyanova agreed, turned and ran to the front of the line, shouting: "at ease!" Team with her command, cleanly completed a little action.

When I saw her standing in front of the line, I turned around and ran to Huo Jin. I reported, "report to the commander of the front army, the women's antiaircraft artillery company has assembled and is waiting for your order."

Huo Jin looked at the neat team and muttered in a low voice: "women's antiaircraft artillery company, how can there be so many male soldiers?"

"Comrade commander, this is the situation." General hilov put his mouth to Huojin's ear and explained in a soft voice why there were so many men in the company.

After listening to general hilov's words, Huo Jin strode to the front of the team with tears in his eyes and said with emotion: "girls, comrades, good job, you are all good! It is with you that the enemy's planes dare not fly recklessly over the ice transport line, and our transport team can transport more grain and daily necessities into Leningrad. On behalf of the headquarters of the front army, thank you With that, he made a solemn salute to all the soldiers.

"Wula Kiriyanova took the lead in shouting, the soldiers chin up, eyes slightly closed, followed her neat and rhythmic shouting: "Wula! Wula! ~ ~ " At first, the soldiers of the female company were shouting. With Huo Jin's response, several company commanders and I, as well as the commanders and soldiers Huo Jin brought, were shouting.

"Lieutenant, bring me the papers." After the cheers subsided, Huo Jin turned to greet his subordinates. An officer with a briefcase squeezed out of the crowd behind him, walked up to Huo Jin, saluted him, opened the cover of the briefcase, took out a stack of documents from inside, and handed the top one to Huo Jin. Huo Jin took over the document and said solemnly, "in recognition of" the bravery and heroism shown in the air defense battle of defending the ice transportation line, the red flag Medal of Rita mushdakova oshanina is awarded by the research and decision of the headquarters of the front army. " This is "Comrade major, why don't you talk?" Huo Jin said sternly, "don't you know what you should say when you get the medal?" Then I found that I was distracted, and the general's entourage had put the new red flag medal on my coat. I quickly and loudly said, "serve the Soviet motherland!" Huo Jin nodded with satisfaction and then reached out to shake hands with me. When I stood aside again, I could not help regretting that I should have hung the other three medals on my uniform on my army coat when I knew I was going to win the medals today. The four medals were lined up in a row. It looked like a lot of fashion. Next, those who won the medal were Orlova, ugad, Yelena and other officers. Even ordinary soldiers like Naya also won a medal. After Huojin's award, his colleague vasnezov went up and delivered a speech, warning everyone not to be proud, to continue to do their own work, to protect our ice transportation line, and to continue to fight with the bandits. Huo Jin called me into the tent alone and said frankly, "Comrade major, I received a call from general Zhukov a few days ago. He is very concerned about you."“ How are you, senior general? Having been away from Moscow for so long, I still miss him and the leaders of the Western Front Army. "“ He's very good and is now preparing to deploy a new campaign. " Huo Jin finished saying this, some embarrassed to continue to say, "originally this award at the same time, I want to promote your rank, and transfer you to a more important department. After all, you've been a general, and you've commanded tens of thousands of people's operations, and you have rich combat experience. At present, there is no commander like you in Leningrad's breakthrough. But... "" but what? Comrade General. " As soon as I heard this turning word, I knew that I had no hope of promotion in recent months, but I still couldn't help asking“ However, your rank was demoted by Comrade Stalin himself. No one has the right to promote your position and rank without his consent. I can't, general hilov can't, not even general Zhukov. Please understand that. " In fact, I don't mind if I can be promoted. Now is the time of war, the promotion of military rank is very random, even depends on the personal will of the supreme commander. Although he demoted me from major general to major some time ago, maybe one day he will be in a good mood and be reinstated by me. With a smile on my face, I replied, "please rest assured, comrade commander. I can understand your difficulties, and I will not be burdened ideologically." After staring into my eyes for a long time, he made sure I didn't mean it. Then he asked, "if you have any plans in the future, please let me know." I thought about it and said, "in another month, the ice on the lake will begin to melt. I expect that the anti-aircraft artillery battalion will soon be disbanded and merged into other units. I hope Comrade commander can arrange a suitable position for me then. "“ No problem. " Huo Jin said very frankly: "the fijiuningsky group army lacks enough intermediate commanders. I want to send you there. What's your opinion?" I have dealt with fejiuningsky before, and I know that as long as people with ability can be reused under his hands, so I simply replied, "great, comrade commander, I will obey your distribution."