Chapter 474

When they heard that general lopagin was accompanied by the people's Committee of internal affairs, all those who attended the meeting were stunned. They did not understand why the group army commander was changed immediately during the war. Some of them raised their heads and took a sneak look at kolpakchi to see his reaction. Unfortunately, general kolpakchi, the former commander of the group army, just sat in his position in a daze without saying a word. A moment later, all the people present reached a consensus. In such an extraordinary period, it's better not to speak easily, so they all sat in their respective positions and were silent. The quiet atmosphere in the headquarters became tense.

After a while, kolpakchi stood up slowly. Instead of looking at gulov, the military commissar sitting next to him, he scanned the commanders who attended the meeting and said slowly, "Comrade commander, the superior has sent you a new commander, general lopagin. He is a commander with rich combat experience. I believe that under his leadership, you will be able to reverse the current unfavorable situation and stand out from the enemy's encirclement. "

I can see that colpakchi is trying to control his emotions, trying to keep calm before he is under his old part, but I can still hear his excitement in his voice.

When kolpakchi was taken away by the interior department, lopagin sat down in the middle of the room, glanced at all the commanders present, and then asked gurov, "Comrade military commissar, what are you discussing?"

Gurov put his head close to him and replied, "we are discussing which army should be left by the group army to cover the main force's retreat from the floating bridge on the Koska river."

Lopagin's face darkened. He grabbed the military map on the table, pulled it in front of him, then pushed it in front of gurov, and said in an impolite tone: "Comrade military commissar, where is the pontoon over the Koska river? Show me. "

Gurov tilted his head and looked at it, then pointed to a position with his finger and said, "Comrade commander, we have built three pontoons here. The original purpose is to facilitate the reinforcement of mechanized troops to cross the river from here, but from the current situation, there is no reinforcement. We were just discussing which division would stay for the task of blocking and covering, and the order of the other divisions crossing the river. "

After hearing this, lopagin said: "Comrade military commissar, you need to arrange your staff to blow up all the three pontoons."

"What? Comrade commander, as soon as the pontoon blows up, our retreat will be completely cut off. "

After listening to gurov's words, lopagin glared his eyes and said, "I remind you, comrade military commissar, comrade Stalin just issued Order No. 227 two days ago, asking the commanders and fighters to hold their positions and not to retreat. But look at you, the enemy is approaching the Koska River step by step, trying to cross the river and join the German forces in other directions. Your consideration is not how to block the enemy, but how to retreat. " At this point, he smashed his fist on the table. "It's a crime. I will never allow it. Without the order of the superior, the troops of the group army are not allowed to retreat. It's urgent to blow up the bridge. Comrade military commissar, please send someone to do it now. "

Seeing that lopagin's attitude was so firm, gurov couldn't refute it in public, so he called captain shamikov who was still standing in the room and told him, "Comrade captain, you should call the battalion commander of Zhouqiao battalion immediately and ask them to dismantle the pontoon immediately."

I didn't expect lopagin to remind him seriously: "Comrade captain, when you call the battalion commander of Zhouqiao, tell him that it's blowing up the bridge instead of withdrawing it. This is the order of the Group Commander. This order can't be changed."

After listening to what lopagin said so seriously, shamikov looked at gurov in embarrassment. Gurov looked at lopagin beside him, then turned his face and nodded to shamikov with a bitter smile. Shamikov saluted this time, turned and went out.

It was only after LOPA jingliwei that we got back to business. He asked gulov, "Comrade military commissar, how many divisions of our group army have fallen into the encirclement of the Germans?"

Gurov was very familiar with the number of the troops, and almost without thinking, he replied: "Comrade commander, the troops that we are surrounded by the enemy are the 33rd division of the close guard infantry, the 399th, 196th, 181st and 147th divisions of the infantry, and the 229th division of the infantry of the 64th group army."

After hearing this, lopagin nodded his head, raised his hand to the headquarters, and said, "I don't know the commanders who came to the meeting today. Please introduce them to me next to each other."

So gurov began to introduce from the right side of lopagin: "these two are Colonel farnasiev, commander of the 33rd division of the guard infantry, and political commissar rishenko. Since the formation of the group army, they have been in the organizational structure of our group army, participated in many important battles, and achieved great results. " When the military commissar said his name, fanasiev and the political commissar quickly stood up, straightened up, saluted lopagin and sat down again.

"Colonel Travnikov, commander of 399th infantry division, political commissar doroshenko. Their division was transferred from the Far East to our group army on July 28. "

"Commander of the 196th infantry division, Colonel avirin, political commissar, zheramsky. Their troops joined the fighting sequence of our group army on July 17. "

"Major general Novikov, commander of the 181st infantry division, and political commissar lukenko, have been in the battle sequence of the group army since the formation of the group army."“ Major general walshin, commander of the 147th infantry division, political commissar Kotov. " When gurov introduced the numbers of the troops and their commanders, I heard the new numbers, but at the same time, some familiar ones were missing. I whispered to a staff officer of the headquarters who was sitting next to me, "Comrade major, why is there no 192nd infantry division of lieutenant commander tarantsev?" The major's staff officer looked around and answered in a low voice, "Comrade commander, you don't know. Lieutenant Colonel tarantsev, who was seriously injured in the fighting a few days ago, has been sent to the military hospital in Stalingrad. His replacement is colonel zhulavrov. The division suffered heavy casualties in the fighting two days ago and has been ordered to retreat and recuperate. " I heard that tarantsev was seriously injured. I couldn't help it. Although I covered my mouth in time, the sound was heard by lopagin. He turned his head and looked in my direction. At a glance, he found me sitting in the middle of the male commander. Then he pointed to me and asked gurov, "Comrade military commissar, who is this female commander? Why did she appear at such an important military meeting? " Without waiting for gurov's reply, I stood up, straightened up and reported to the new Commander: "Comrade report commander, I'm lieutenant commander oshanina, who used to be an adjutant of commander korpakchi in the 62nd army. Later, he was seconded by general trakov to the 64th army as commander at the regiment level. Today, he just returned after completing his mission, just in time for the military meeting held in the headquarters, so kolpakchi asked me to stay and listen in. " I thought lopagin would say a few words, but after listening, he just raised his hand and pressed down, saying, "since you're here, please sit down and continue to listen." Gulov, who was sitting beside him, was worried that lopagin would make trouble for me. He seemed a little restless. Seeing that he was so relaxed, he passed the test, and his face also regained a relaxed expression. Lopagin said in a loud voice, "comrades commander, after the introduction of comrades of the military commissar, I have known each other. What we need to do next is to quickly return to the army and make a good defense deployment. We should tell the commanders and fighters that even if there is only one person left in the battle, they should firmly hold on and never step back. OK, I'm done. It's over The division commanders stood up in unison, saluted the commander and the military commissar, and then turned to leave. And I sat in a daze and thought bitterly, "it's over. Blow up the pontoon, and the retreat of the army will be gone. If we have to fight against the dominant German army in the position, these tens of thousands of troops will soon be exhausted. "