Chapter 360

When I finished introducing myself, I raised my hand and looked at my watch. It was already five o'clock in the afternoon. It was time for dinner. So I stood up and said to the seven regimental commanders, "it's time to have dinner. Let's stay and have dinner together. To tell you the truth, I've been here for three days, and I've never been invited to dinner. Today, even if I'm in the light of everyone, how about the food of the teacher? "

As soon as my voice fell, everyone burst into laughter. Sholov said in a close tone: "Sir, I have a say in the food business. You know, I used to come here every once in a while to eat. If it had not been for Colonel dorofeyev's reluctance, I would have poached his cooks into my regiment. " Sholov's words made everyone laugh again, and the atmosphere in the room became especially harmonious.

While we were chatting, boroda ran to the door and told the kitchen to send the food for nine of us to the headquarters. After all this, he returned to his position and quietly listened to our chat.

Kung Fu is not big, a second lieutenant with nine soldiers carrying a tray into the headquarters. The second captain saluted me and said, "Hello, sir! Your meal has arrived. Please have a meal

I nodded to him and said with a smile, "thank you, comrade lieutenant."

He gave a rude reply, and then told the soldiers to put the food plate on the table first, and then put the knife, fork and napkin in front of everyone in turn. After all this, he saluted me again and left with the soldiers.

Under current conditions, the dinner was quite rich, with two plates and a bowl of soup in front of each person. On one plate were a spoonful of oatmeal, two pieces of square jelly, five or six fingers of pickled cucumber, an egg sized pickled tomato, several pieces of roast mutton and two baked potatoes; The other is salad platter, which includes crab salad, mushroom salad, carrot salad, sweet and sour vegetable salad and chicken salad; Soup is the famous red vegetable soup, which also contains sliced cooked beef.

Seeing so many delicious food, I couldn't help swallowing my mouth without eating anything for nearly a month. Not only in front of my own department, I still want to maintain my glorious image. I picked up the fork next to the plate, put on a calm look and said to everyone: "comrades, don't be stunned. Let's eat it quickly." Finish saying, fork up a meat jelly with fork, put into own mouth directly. Others saw that I had started to eat, they also raised their forks and began to wipe out the delicious food in front of them.

I always think the dining table is a good place to connect feelings, even in Russia. After a while, I saw that some commanders were not as restrained as they were at the beginning, so I began to chat with them. I first asked the tank commander, "Comrade Donskoy, where are you from?"

Donskoy quickly put down his fork, wiped his mouth with a napkin, stood up and replied, "Mr. reporter, I am from Moscow and was born in the town of big uvarovo, on the outskirts of Moscow."

I stretched out my right hand and pressed it down. I said, "Comrade Donskoy, I'm just talking to you. Don't be so constrained. I'd better sit down and talk."

After he sat down, I suddenly thought that the place name of big uvarovo was very familiar, so I asked him, "I heard you said that you were born in big uvarovo, and this place name is very familiar. It seems that I have heard someone talk about this place."

Donscoy frowned and said, "there are at least a few hundred soldiers in the town with me. I can't guess who mentioned the place to you."

I tapped on the table with my fingers, repeatedly thinking about who had mentioned this place name to me, and this person's position was not too low at least, otherwise an ordinary place name would not leave such a deep impression on me. The sound of my knocking on the table caught everyone's attention. Everyone stopped and looked at me.

Seeing that it affected everyone's eating because of me, I quickly gave them a sorry smile and said, "I'm thinking about something that affected everyone's eating. I'm really sorry. You go on eating. Don't worry about me. " As I spoke to you, my eyes inadvertently swept over Donskoy's body and saw his black tank uniform. A familiar name suddenly jumped into my mind. As soon as my eyes brightened, I suddenly remembered who it was. I couldn't help saying to myself, "it's him. No wonder I think this place name is very familiar."

"Who is he? Comrade teachers. " Donscoy asked curiously.

"Katukov!" I solemnly stated the name of the person I had just thought of, and tentatively asked the tank commander, "Comrade Donskoy, do you know katukov?"

"Katukov?! Hahaha, you said Misha Donscoy couldn't help laughing when he heard my name: "it's this guy! No wonder you will be so impressed when you hear him mention his hometown. According to me, anyone who has ever been with him will be deeply impressed by his madman. "

"Lunatic?! What's the matter? Why do you call him that? " I know Misha is katukov's nickname. Only people who are most familiar with him will call him that. However, I can't understand why he is called a madman.

"Oh, dear teachers, that's a long story." When Donskoy knew that I knew katukov, his words became casual. "At that time, we were sent to the command class of olabaokunin advanced Infantry School and the motorization College of the workers' and peasants' Red Army to learn and master the command skills of tank operations. In a later military exercise, Misha served as the leader of the t-18 tank unit, and I was the vice captain. On the way to the enemy's position, our tank unit had a trench dug by the other side, which exceeded the crossing width of our tank and blocked our unit. "

Speaking of the trench, I remember hearing about katukov's barbarism, so I tentatively asked Donskoy, "is it burying a car as a bridge?"

"Yes, sir." Donskoy gave me a positive answer. "At that time, Misha asked his subordinates to send me a signal to accept the task. When my tank stopped at his side, he gave me an order: drive the tank to the pit, take the car with the bridge, and let other tanks pass from above. After listening to his order, I was in a hurry at that time. I called him a madman. I could have come up with such a crazy plan. You know, if you were careless, you would be killed. But no matter how I scolded him, he didn't care. He just ordered me to carry out the order. There was no way. I drove the rest of the tank soldiers out of the car and drove the tank into the trench by myself. Sir, it's a trench more than two meters deep! When I drove the tank in, I was knocked out of my body and fainted at that time. In this way, the other tanks of the unit rolled over my roof and passed through the enemy's fortified area smoothly. After the exercise, marshal Tukhachevsky, the national defense people's commissar who came to watch the exercise, received us and praised Misha, calling him a "Kutuzov type commander."

Marshal Tukhachevsky, when I heard the name, I could not help shivering. You know, Tukhachevsky was executed for treason. At the moment, who wants to get involved with him, the consequences are still very serious. I watched the other people's faces with vigilance. Seeing that they were eating as usual, I put my heart back into my stomach.

Fortunately, Donskoy did not mention Tukhachevsky, but asked about katukov's whereabouts: "Sir, do you know Misha? I haven't seen him for years, and I don't know what happened to him. "

I nodded hard and said, "yes, I know general katukov. I fought with him during the Moscow defense."

"General? Oh, my God, this maniac is going up so fast. I'm still a commander, but he's a general. " Donscoy's exaggerated expression caused a burst of laughter.

"Colonel Donskoy, have you been separated from general katukov for so many years that you have never contacted him?" In my opinion, as old comrades in arms, they should have a close relationship with each other.

"Since the outbreak of the patriotic war, I have lost contact with him. You know, being a tank soldier is different from being an infantry soldier. We often move around. In addition, the wartime military postal system is also inconvenient. Maybe the letter he wrote to me was lost in the process of mailing, or because he was afraid of divulging secrets, he was detained by the inspection authorities

I'm surprised to hear him say that two fellow countrymen and good friends lost contact after the outbreak of the war. They didn't even know that one of them became a general?! I asked suspiciously, "don't you know how he became a general?"

Donscoy shook his head, saying he didn't know.

"Haven't you seen the report of the Moscow battle?"?, You know, you can find the answers you need there I asked reluctantly.

Donscoy still shakes his head. My eyes swept to the others. All of you have already stopped your knives and forks. When you see my eyes looking at them, you collectively shake your head, saying that you have not read the war report I said. Among them, sholov said with a smiley face: "Comrade division commander, since everyone is very interested in how katukov became a general, and you have worked with katukov, you can tell us more about him."

"Yes, yes, sir, tell us about it." The rest echoed.

Seeing that you are all interested in this topic, I didn't refuse any more. I pushed aside the empty plate in front of you and told you about the Soviet war report I read: "since you want to hear about general katukov's deeds, I will first talk about his war of fame: the battle of msensktanke.

In October last year, Capt. katukov served as a newly formed independent tank. After listening to katukov's experience, Donskoy clapped the table excitedly and said in a loud voice: "just with dozens of old tanks, the German army's invincible goodrian was beaten to pieces. Misha is really wonderful!"

I looked at him with a smile and said, "Comrade commander, if you can achieve the same brilliant results in the next battle. Then I believe that in the near future, you will soon become general Donskoy's wife. "

Donscoy blushed in the friendly laughter of everyone. He stood up and expressed his determination to me: "please rest assured, sir, I will never live up to your expectations. In the future, make sure to complete every order you give

Hearing Donskoy's determination to me, all of you stood up and said, "please rest assured, sir, that we will complete all the orders you have given us."

Seeing your response, I nodded with satisfaction and said, "well, since you are so confident, I solemnly promise you that as long as you have achieved outstanding results in the campaign you are going to launch, I will personally submit an application for your promotion to the commander of the front army."

Hearing that he might be promoted to a higher rank after the end of the battle, several commanders blushed with excitement and cried out in unison: "serve the Soviet motherland." I was very satisfied with their attitude. After looking at the empty plates on the table, I knew that everyone had almost eaten, so I didn't ask them to stay: "everyone has almost eaten. Let's stop here and there today. Comrades in command, go back to your respective units immediately, do a good job of mobilization before the war, and be ready to pull the troops out at any time. " The seven commanders answered in unison: "yes, sir, I promise to complete the task!" Then he saluted me and boroda and left one after another. Looking at the back of their departure, boroda said with emotion: "Sir, your mobilization is really unique. You see, just how long ago, these commanders who originally held a contradictory attitude to us have been coached by you. " In today's meeting, I skillfully subdued the most rebellious commander sholoff. Then at the dinner party in the evening, the tank commander, Lieutenant Colonel Donskoy, was attracted by katukov, which was also an unexpected gain. When I heard boloda's words, I laughed and said, "to tell you the truth, if you want to control this division quickly, the best way is to replace all the middle-level commanders with people you are familiar with. But we can't. We just took over the division today, and we didn't bring new commanders here. We don't know the situation of the commanders at all levels of the division. If we easily replace those who don't agree with us, it may cause chaos in the command system and affect the morale of the troops. Managing a division is totally different from managing a company or battalion. When we are battalion commander or company commander, the order can be passed directly to the squad leader or soldier; But after becoming a division commander, if we want to pass on our orders, we must pass on them to every soldier through the regiment commanders who come to the meeting today. So we need to consider a lot of problems, how to deal with the relationship with these intermediate commanders is our first consideration. Only if they do not exclude us and are willing to accept us and obey us, can this division command easily. "“ Yes, comrade major, I do! " Boroda's words puzzled me a little. I couldn't figure out why he said that. Fortunately, his later words solved the mystery for me: "when commander meletskov appointed you as the division commander, I was still quite unconvinced. But seeing your performance today and what you said just now, I am convinced of you." When he finished, I was about to be modest when he suddenly patted his forehead and said, "Comrade major, it's so late. Should you go back to the dormitory to accompany your son alik?" When he said that, I remembered that Alek was still in the dormitory of the female health worker, and said, "yes, I forgot if you didn't say it. Well, you stay on duty in the division headquarters. I'll go back first and come back tomorrow morning. "“ Comrade major, you can go back safely and leave it to me. "