Chapter 366

In the face of his hospitality, general afanasiyev did not show any arrogance. Instead, he said thank you with a kind smile. He took the phone from boroda's hand and put it on the table. He picked up the receiver, dialed a signal, and said in a low voice, "I'm general afanasiyev of the second shock group army. Please connect me with general meletzkov, commander of the volhoff front army."

After a while, the phone seemed to be connected, and he said excitedly: "Hello, kiril afanasievich, this is Afanasiev. Yes, I stand out. Thank you for sending troops to meet me. At present, I am in the division headquarters of the 378th division, with your appointed acting division commander, major oshanina, and acting chief of staff, Captain boroda!... "

When afanasiyev was talking to meletskov, I asked boroda in a low voice, "Comrade captain, you used to be the guard of Comrade General."

Boroda took a look at the general who was on the phone and replied in a low voice, "yes. I stayed with the general for five years, first as a guard, then as a monitor of the guard, until the outbreak of the Sufen war

"He said it's good to see you alive. What do you mean? You once told me that when you were working in the 7th group army, you had been injured near Petrozavodsk and did not recover soon. You also served as the company commander of the guard company of the Military Commission of the group army. Does general afanasiyev not know all this? "

For my questioning, boroda patiently explained: "Comrade General didn't know about that injury. He knew it was another time. "

"Oh, you've been hurt once?" What he said aroused my greater curiosity and made me just want to know what happened afterwards, "tell me about it. As a partner, I want to know more about you. "

Hearing my question, he blushed and said with a little embarrassment: "it happened at the end of 1941. Shortly after I was transferred to general meletskov, I accompanied him to inspect nearby tikhvan. We arrived just in time for the defeat of the German attack by the division under the command of koshevoy, and the troops withdrew from their place of departure. When general meletzkov saw this, he decided to encourage the soldiers, so he went to the front army in person. When the soldiers saw the commander, their morale was boosted. They immediately got up and threw themselves into the attack again. This time, they successfully crossed the enemy's position. But there was a machine gunner hiding in the woods, shooting us hard. Another guard, private Xie Liujing and I jumped on the general and protected him with our own body. At that time, I saw a 45mm gun beside me, so I got up, rushed to the gun, and shot the machine gun with direct aim. But I didn't expect that I would be seriously injured by the last point shot by the enemy before I died. "

After hearing what he said, I understood why meletskov would let a captain take the post of division leader. Although he was an acting post, I could see that the commander attached great importance to him. I may have been impressed by the performance of commanding the second lieutenant's training team to fight back against the German army when I was in the 52nd group army last time. That's why the appointment of acting division commander was made.

Just as I was thinking, I heard general afanasiyev's voice calling me, "major oshanina."

When I looked up, the general was covering the receiver with his hand and calling to me, "major o'shanina, come and answer the phone."

I pointed to my nose and asked uncertainly, "Comrade General, are you calling me?"

"Yes," he replied impatiently, "Comrade commander of the front army wants to talk to you."

I quickly stood up, took the microphone from his hand, put it in my ear, and then respectfully said to the microphone, "Hello, comrade commander of the front army, I'm acting division commander, major oshanina, waiting for your order."

Meletzkov's voice came out of the microphone: "Comrade oshanina, listen to general afanasiyev, you personally led the troops to rescue him. Good job! I'm very satisfied with your performance! " The general's praise made me feel elated. Although I tried my best to control my emotions, I could not help but slightly upturned my mouth. He then said, "give the command of the division to captain boroda at once. Accompany general Afanasiev to the headquarters of the front army immediately."

I looked out of the window and thought it was about ten o'clock in the evening. If there was nothing important, meletskov would not let me go to the headquarters immediately. So I couldn't help asking, "Comrade General, may I ask what's important?"

"There will be a meeting at the headquarters of the front army tomorrow morning, attended by not only the commanders of the various group armies, but also the division commanders of the various divisions. We will review some of the problems exposed in the second assault group army's breakthrough, as well as some of its deployment in the new campaign. " Although my question was a bit abrupt, general meletzkov patiently explained it to me, which made me very flattered.

I quickly replied, "I see, comrade commander. As soon as I handed over the command of the division to captain boroda, I accompanied general afanasiyev to the headquarters of the front army. "

When I heard a beep coming from the microphone, I put it back on the phone. He turned to boroda and said solemnly, "Comrade chief of staff, I have received an order from commander meletzkov to rush to the headquarters of the front army with general afanasiyev to attend an important military meeting. Everything in the division will be handed over to you for the time being."

"Comrade division," boroda stood up and politely replied, "you can go to the meeting safely, and I'll take care of it." After a pause, he said, "by the way, there's one more thing I haven't reported to you yet. During the day, several commanders called me one after another and told me that the troops had basically assembled, and that they could go to a new battlefield immediately at your command. "

I am very satisfied with the high efficiency of these new subordinates. I nodded and said, "you ask them to stay in the original defense area for a while and wait for the next order of the division." Speaking of this, it suddenly occurred to me that I didn't know where the headquarters of the front army was, and general afanasiyev didn't know the new headquarters, so I had to ask boroda, "Comrade chief of staff, where is the headquarters of the front army?"

Boroda nodded hard and said, "I know. A few days ago, I set out from the headquarters of the front army directly with my troops to rescue the personnel of the headquarters of the second assault group army. I'll call a soldier to be your guide With that, he raised his voice and called out to the door, "Xie Liujing, come in."

With his shouts, a sergeant came in from the outside. He came up to us, raised his hand to salute after standing at attention, and loudly reported: "report commander comrades, Sergeant Xie Liujing has been ordered to come and wait for your orders."

Hearing that this is the soldier who once saved the life of general meletzkov with boroda, I couldn't help looking at him more. He was of medium build, with a round face. There was a long scar on his left face. I don't know whether it was a fragment or a bullet scratch.

Boluoda nodded to him and said, "Xie Liujing, I'll give you a task to guide the general and division commander and take them to the headquarters of the front army."

Xie Liujing took a look at me and afanasiyev, and immediately stood up to attention and answered loudly, "I promise to complete the task."

As the road to the headquarters of the front army is not peaceful, I dare not take it lightly. I don't want to work hard to get out of the encirclement. Then I was ambushed by the German army on the way to the headquarters for a meeting and ended up captured or killed, so I specially strengthened the security forces. So I asked captain Gusev, the commander of the guard battalion, to prepare a motorcycle, a jeep and two trucks for me. Xie Liujing and two other motorized Company soldiers from the headquarters of the front army took motorcycles to lead the way; Then there was a truck with guards from the former 2nd shock group army who broke out with afanasiyev; In the truck behind the hall, there were two classes of security soldiers led by the new lieutenant vaskov. The jeep that general afanasiyev and I were in was between the two trucks.

General afanasiyev and I were sitting in the back seat of the jeep. After the team started, we both looked out of the window, and no one spoke.

About an hour later, general afanasiyev suddenly asked, "major oshanina, are you telling the truth today?"

"What are you talking about?" I remember that since I met the general, I seem to have said a lot to him, and I don't know what he suddenly asked, so I have to ask him clearly. So I politely asked him, "Comrade General, we talked about a lot of things today. I don't know which one you mean?"

General afanasiyev said solemnly, "it's about general privalov. Are you sure what you said to me is true?"

After listening to his question, I immediately understood that he wanted to confirm whether general privalov had made the mistake I had said. He nodded his head seriously and replied, "Comrade General, what I said is true. When you come to the headquarters of the front army, you can ask him for confirmation after you see Cao Lifu going to school."

The general nodded his head and said, "in that case, when I see commander meletskov, I will ask him to deal with this matter seriously..."

Just now, the jeep suddenly came to a sharp brake, and I was caught off guard. I dashed forward and hit the seat back in front of me heavily. As I rubbed my chest, I angrily asked the driver, "what's the matter? Why did you stop all of a sudden? "

The driver looked back and said wrongly, "report to Mr. commander, the car in front suddenly stopped."

I turned to general afanasiyev and said, "Comrade General, you stay in the car first, and I'll go down to see what's going on?" Seeing the general nodding slightly, I opened the door and went down.

I just walked forward a few steps, then I saw Xie Liujing running face to face. He ran to me, raised his hand to salute, and reported: "Mr. division, there is a big tree in the middle of the road at the corner ahead, blocking the way of the motorcade. We need to go to a few more people to move away."

A tree fell in the middle of the road? After hearing what Xie Liujing said, I immediately became alert. In those films and TV works, the guerrillas usually put a tree in the middle of the road before they ambush. When the enemy entered the ambush circle and sent people to try to remove the trees, they suddenly opened fire. But at the moment, the Germans are lying in ambush on both sides, and we are the targets of ambush.

General afanasiyev's soldiers got out of the car. Vaskov also got out with the soldiers in the guard platoon. A large group of people surrounded the car. Seeing all this, I cried out: "what are you doing here? Want the Germans to target you? Spread it out. Go to ten people to help Xie Liujing move the tree, the rest of the people to the forest to search, see if there is a German ambush

As soon as I reminded you, everyone was on the alert and all of them were scattered. Xie Liujing took ten soldiers to move the trees, while vaskov left a squad of soldiers to guard around the jeep. He took the rest of them into the forest to search for possible Germans. General afanasiyev, who was sitting in the car, wanted to get out of the car and have a look. When I stopped him for the reason of danger outside, I asked him to lean down and hide in the car, so as not to become the target of German snipers.

The trees on the road were quickly removed, and I guess the German ambush did not appear. Seeing Xie Liujing standing in front of me recovering his life, I can't help but doubt my judgment. Am I wrong? Is it really just a tree that fell in the middle of the road due to an accident?

Perhaps hearing that everything was going well outside, afanasiyev sat up straight, poked his head out of the window and asked me, "major oshanina, what's the matter? Where are you talking about the Germans? "

I blushed and replied with embarrassment, "Comrade General, maybe I made a mistake."

The general said with displeasure, "when can we start again?"

I hastened to reply: "please wait a moment. When the soldiers of forest search come back, we will start immediately."

The general raised his hand to look at his watch and said impatiently, "hurry up and call them back. We still have a long way to go."

"Yes I promised, turned around and told Xie Liujing: "Sergeant comrade, you immediately call lieutenant vaskov back in the forest, and then we will start."

Xie Liujing promised to turn around and leave. With a shot, Xie Liujing covered her legs and fell to the ground. My brain suddenly came up with an idea: "no, it's a German sniper."

I fell to the ground, just want to open mouth to warn the rest of the soldiers, Xie Liujing has cried out: "everyone quickly fall down, there are German snipers in the forest."

There was a bang, another shot, a bullet hit not far away from me, burst up a cloud of dust, splashed small stones hit on the face of pain, pain, I can't help humming. Lying not far away, Xie Liujing asked with concern: "Comrade teacher, have you been injured?"

I shook my head and said, "no, it's a small stone splashed on my face."

When I spoke to Xie Liujing, all the soldiers who were on guard fell to the ground and opened their guns in the direction of the bullets.

Seeing the soldiers shoot out bullets like they don't need money, I shiver with anger. I've never seen such a loser, and I've never seen the enemy like that. I shot out hundreds of bullets. I repeatedly called out: "don't shoot in succession, shoot out, shoot out!" However, in the clear and dense gunfire, so that my shouts can not be heard by the soldiers.

"Don't shoot in succession, use the punches. Do you hear me, you damned guys!" Xie Liujing, lying next to me, repeated my words aloud. His voice was louder than mine. After shouting several times, the soldiers no longer shot blindly, but shot after shot.

At this time, I could clearly see a figure running among the trees about 70 or 80 meters away, hiding his figure in the shape of "Zhi", and rushing to the depth of the forest. The figure moves very quickly. In a few seconds, it may disappear from our sight.

At this time, a gunshot rang out in my ear. Xie Liujing took the rifle he was carrying, aimed at the figure and pulled the trigger. The bullet flew over the enemy's head and hit a tree. The man was stunned and stopped in the same place. Before he moved again, another bullet hit in front of him, shaking the Bush in front of him.

The man was so scared that he hid behind a tree. Xie Liujing and the soldiers shot at the tree one after another, blocking all the retreats on both sides of the tree, and covering vaskov who was aware that the enemy was rushing there.

Vaskov, they were moving so fast that in less than two minutes, they fell near the tree. I saw vaskov dive behind the tree from a distance. Then he fell out with another man in his arms. The soldiers around quickly came forward, separated them with all hands, and took the cold shooter back to us with both hands.

When I saw the prisoners coming, I was relieved and got up from the ground. Just as he was about to walk by, he heard the voice of general Afanasiev. He asked nervously, "major oshanina, what's the situation?"

I turned to look at him and said, "Comrade General, it's a German sniper. We've caught it."

After a while, the prisoner was brought to me. I looked contemptuously at the young soldier in German uniform, and then asked vaskov, who was standing beside me with concern, "Feijia, are you not hurt?"

Vaskov grinned silently and shook his head to show that he was not hurt. Xie Liujing, who was helped up by his comrades in arms, asked me angrily, "Comrade division commander, what should I do with this prisoner?" What we didn't expect happened. The prisoner knelt down in front of us and cried out: "Comrade commander, please spare me. I was forced. I'm Ukrainian, I'm my own Ukrainians, Ukrainians in German uniforms. I looked at the soldier kneeling in front of me fiercely and realized that the sniper was a defector after being captured. So I gave an order to vaskov mercilessly: "Lieutenant, don't be polite to the traitor of our motherland. Drag him to the forest and shoot him." Vaskov excitedly agreed to let the two soldiers carry the sniper to the forest. Soon, I heard a clear shot.