Chapter 488

Watching trakov walk out of the cabin, the stone hanging in my heart falls to the ground. As long as he is safe, the course of history will not change. Under his command, the Soviet army will eventually win the battle of Stalingrad.

Trekov came up to me, reached out to me and said, "Hello, comrade oshanina. Nice to meet you here. "

I didn't shake hands with him immediately. Instead, I raised my hand to salute him. Then I reached out and took his hand. At the same time, I politely said, "Hello, general trakov. I've been ordered to look for you. I'm relieved to see that you're safe. "

He was a little surprised and asked, "have you been ordered to look for me? On whose orders? How did the superior know I had an accident? Comrade commander, what's going on? Tell me about it. I'm confused by you. "

I have no need to hide this series of questions raised by him, but some of them are too complicated to be explained in a few words. So I sorted out the whole process in my mind and answered him, "Comrade commander, this is a bit complicated. Please listen to me and tell you slowly." Seeing that trakov nodded, I went on to say, "the headquarters of the front army refused to carry out the counter offensive order given by the superior because general lopagin resisted first; Then, due to poor command, the main force of the 62nd army was severely damaged by the enemy. So he made the decision to cancel his group commander and appoint you to take over his post at the same time. "

"General gordoff asked me to take over as commander of lopagin? Is that true? " Trikov couldn't believe the sudden order was true.

I nodded hard and said with certainty, "Comrade commander, yes, I happened to be in their office when commander gordov and deputy commander glikov made this decision. Just when I wanted to send this appointment to the army, I unexpectedly received a report from general shumilov that I had lost contact with you for five hours. The search team found your jeep blown up by enemy planes on the grassland. There were two charred bodies on the jeep. It is suspected that you have been killed. "

Listen to me, trikov nodded and echoed, "yes, we were attacked by enemy planes on the grassland, and jeeps and communication equipment were lost. If it wasn't for adjutant kerimov who forced me to get out of the car, I would have had an accident. Alas, we later met with the enemy's small troops and were scattered. Only I and the herald sidtorin withdrew to this village. I don't know what happened to them later? "

Hearing that he was so concerned about the safety of his subordinates, I immediately comforted him and said, "Comrade commander, don't worry. Captain Klimov is still alive. He was wounded in the battle and happened to meet us. In a word, he has been saved. "

With a long sigh of relief, trakov said, "I'm relieved to know that he's OK. By the way, you haven't finished just now. When the commander of the front army heard that I was missing, how did he react? "

"The commander was very worried when he heard that you were missing. He ordered general shumilov to send people familiar with you to the scene to identify the body; At the same time, send more troops to the grassland to find your whereabouts. Later, when I left the office, a new chief of staff of the 62nd group army, general Krylov, arrived. Under the mediation of general Krylov and chief of staff nikishev, general gordov agreed to release general korpakchi and let him temporarily act as commander of the group army until he found you. "

Hearing the name of kolpakchi, trekov immediately asked, "where is general kolpakchi?"

"Just outside the village."

"Take me to him quickly."

As trekov and I walked out of the village side by side, I continued to say to him, "we ran into captain kerimov on the prairie by accident." Speaking of this, I looked left and right, and found that the soldiers were a long distance away from us, so I lowered my voice and said, "the captain was wounded and captured in the battle. At that time, the Germans were escorting him to their camp. I took people to save him. From his mouth, we know the assembly place you agreed in advance, so we came to look for you. "

Trikov raised his hand and patted me lightly on the shoulder. He said with feeling, "Comrade oshanina, thank you on behalf of the captain."

When we got to the entrance of the village, kolpakchi and Krylov, who had been waiting outside, had already got the news and came to meet us. They met and saluted each other, then hugged each other tightly. I walked away from them wisely and went back to the jeep to wait.

After more than ten minutes, the three returned to the jeep. Trakov first ran to the truck in the back, visited captain Klimov lying there, and then got on our jeep. They crowded in the back with kolpakchi.

Before driving, the driver asked as usual, "Comrade commander, where are we going next?"

Both korpakchi and krailov set their eyes on trakov, waiting for him to give orders. After all, he is the nominal commander of the group army. He told the driver, "go to the 64th army headquarters."

The driver looked at him and said, "sorry, comrade general, I don't know where it is."

"Drive to the northwest first, and the headquarters of the 64th army is located in a depression 10 kilometers east of zeta."

The driver promised, "I see, comrade commander." And then we started the jeep.

With the goal, you know the rest of the way. The jeep adjusts its head at the entrance of the village and drives toward the place that trikov points out.

After driving for more than two hours, it's already dawn. Colpakchi, sitting in the back row, raised his hand and gently patted the driver on the shoulder. The driver was shocked and seemed to be startled. Then he respectfully asked, "Comrade commander, do you have any instructions?"

Without consulting others, colpakchi told the driver, "stop somewhere in front. We'll go down and have something to eat."

Krailov immediately echoed: "general korpakchi is right. Comrade trakov may not have eaten all day. Let's stop to eat before we leave." Then he specially asked for the opinions of trekov, "Comrade trekov, what do you think?"

"I have no objection."

After driving forward a bit, I saw a burned black T-34 tank. I pointed to it and said, "Comrade driver, stop by the burned tank."

The driver nodded, drove to the side of the tank and stopped.

After the driver got out of the car, he took a stack of newspapers from the car and asked me to help him lay them on the floor. When we were laying the newspapers and setting the food, I heard krailov asking, "comrades commander, what's the matter with this tank? Was it destroyed in the battle with the enemy? "

Then I heard trakov's voice: "chief of staff, you see, there are no signs of fighting around here. This tank should have been blown up by enemy planes."

By this time, we had all the food ready. The driver whispered to me, "Comrade commander, you can call the generals over for breakfast."

I nodded, then stood up and yelled to the three generals who were still circling around the tank, "comrades, breakfast is ready. Come and eat."

After the three people sat down around the newspaper, trakov saw that I was still standing next to him and said to me, "Comrade oshanina, what are you still standing for? Please sit down and eat with us." I gave him a smile and sat down next to him.

After the driver pried open the can of fish with a dagger, he automatically stepped aside. Kolpakchi said to everyone: "comrades commander, are you hungry? Start eating. Although the food here is a little less and a little less, it's better than nothing. After you've eaten, we'll be on our way. "

Trekov put a piece of enema into the corner of his mouth. As he was about to chew, he suddenly stopped and stared at a place in front of him. As soon as I swallowed a piece of bread, I found something strange about trekov, so I looked curiously in the direction of his eyes. If you don't look at it, you almost spit out the bread you just swallowed. It turned out that in the grass only one meter away from us, the arm of this charred and blackened man was erect.

Looking at me and trakov staring at the front in a daze, sitting opposite us, kolpakchi put a small fish into his mouth and asked vaguely: "Hey, I said Comrade trakov, what are you looking at?" Then he turned his head to look. It didn't matter. He vomited the fish out of his mouth and began to retch.

Krylov, who was sitting next to him, said discontentedly, "I said, general korpakchi, this can of fish is just not to your taste. Don't waste it like that!"?! What are you all looking at? Are you so absorbed in it? " Then he turned to look. After seeing it, his reaction was no less than that of colpakchi. He jumped up from the ground and vomited out all the food in his mouth.

Trikov stood up and said faintly, "comrades, I guess you all have no appetite. Come on, let's go to the headquarters of the 64th army. " Then he took the lead and went to the jeep.

After another section of driving, a track appeared on the grassland. Trekov said to the driver, "just drive along the railway. A few minutes further, you can get to the 74th passing station, which is not far from the headquarters of the group army."

It wasn't long before I saw hundreds of officers and men running north along the railway, looking like they were running for their lives. I quickly turned to trikov, who was in the back row, and said, "general trikov, we have troops in front of us. I don't know if they have met the enemy. They are retreating to the north in disorder. "

Trikov looked out of the window and got angry. "What the hell is going on? There's no gunfire outside, no pursuers behind. What are they running about for? Driver, drive in front of them and stop them all

The driver promised, stepped on the gas, and the jeep sped up, rushed past the soldiers, then turned in front of them and stopped steadily.

Trekov jumped into the car, pulled out his pistol, fired several shots into the air, and yelled, "stop, stand here for me!" Because of the large number of disorderly soldiers, the noise of guns and shouts was drowned out. When I saw something wrong, I raised the muzzle of the submachine gun and pulled the trigger in the air.

A series of gunshots stopped the soldiers from running away. They stood in the same place one by one, looking at the three generals standing in front of them without saying a word. Trekov stepped forward and yelled, "I'm general trekov, commander of the 64th army. What part of the army are you? Who's in charge, out! "

A sergeant stepped out from the soldiers who were standing in front of him, raised his hand and reported to trikov, "Hello, Comrade General. We are soldiers of the lyudnikov division. Just now our position was attacked by the enemy, and the commanders died. We didn't know what to do, so we pulled out. "

After hearing this, trakov called out to the soldiers, "I order you to stop your retreat and build fortifications here. As for the commander, I'll send it to you soon. "

In this way, the troops who had fled were stopped by trakov and began to dig trenches on the east side of the railway.

We came to the military headquarters of the 74th meeting station. Inside, a political worker sat behind his desk and was making a phone call. When he saw us coming in, he quickly put down the phone and stood up to salute: "report to the commander comrades, the 74th meeting will let the military commander..."

"All right, no report." With a wave of his hand, trakov interrupted him and asked him, "Comrade commander, can you contact Colonel lyudnikov's division headquarters here?"

The commander nodded and replied positively, "yes, general trakov."

When he called out his name, trikov was stunned for a moment and asked curiously, "Comrade commander, do you know me?"

"Yes, Comrade General." The commander replied, "I've seen you before. Moreover, half an hour ago, I received a phone call from the headquarters of the 64th group army, saying that I will report to you as soon as I find your trace. "

Trekov nodded and said, "I see. Comrade commander of the military movement, you should immediately call Colonel lyudnikov and ask him to send a commander to the 74th meeting station to command the soldiers who are building fortifications. Tell him to stick to that position. "

When he came out of the military commander's office, trikov suddenly asked me, "Comrade oshanina, did you get anything from going to the headquarters of the front army?"

I appropriately showed a face of excitement, just right to say: "yesterday I went to the headquarters of the front army, and I gained a lot, and I also felt a lot. However, I still feel very kind when I come back to the front-line troops, especially when I stand in front of you again, commander. I feel very secure and at ease. "

Trikov laughed, pointed at me with his finger and said, "you o'shanina, I didn't expect that you are so familiar with flattery. Come on, let's go back to the headquarters of the 64th army. "

When we entered the village where the headquarters of the 64th army was located, the Sentinels at the entrance of the village saw that trakov appeared and immediately exclaimed excitedly, "general trakov is back, general trakov is back." With his shouts, many officers and soldiers poured out from the houses on both sides, and they all welcomed him.

When we went to the village, trakov stopped to shake hands with the soldiers on the side of the road and had a chat. I couldn't help feeling that he had a high reputation in the army.

Shumilov, who got the news, came with a group of commanders. As soon as he met, his left hand put on trakov's right shoulder. At the same time, his right hand clenched his fist in trakov's chest and hammered hard twice. He said angrily, "hell, you guy, you've gone there, causing everyone to worry about you." Then they hugged each other.

When they were separated, shumilov yelled at the distance: "signalman, call general nikishev, chief of staff of the front army, and tell him that general trakov has found it and returned to the headquarters safely."

Next, trakov began to introduce the commanders present to us: "general korpakchi, general Krylov, I'd like to introduce to you. This is general shumilov, commander of the group army, comrade Abramov, military commissar of the group army, and chief of staff, Colonel Raskin."

Then he took kolpakchi and krailov and introduced them to the commanders of the 64th Army: "let's get to know each other. This is the acting commander of the 62nd army, general kolpakchi and the new chief of staff, general krailov. From today on, our two army groups will fight side by side to defend our great Stalingrad. "

After hearing his introduction, shumilov quickly pulled him aside and asked in a low voice, "Comrade trakov, I heard that you have taken over the post of general lopagin as commander of the 62nd army? Why did the commander become general kolpakchi again, and he was dismissed and investigated? "

Trikov also said in a low voice: "listen to Comrade oshanina, when the commander of the front army was going to make this appointment, he received your report that I was missing on the battlefield. General gordov had no choice but to release general kolpakchi temporarily and let him take my place temporarily. It is said that when I return to the 62nd army, he will hand over the command of the army. "

"What's your plan? Comrade trekov. " Shumilov asked with concern, "do you want to stay in the 64th group army as deputy commander or go to the 62nd group army as commander immediately?"“ Comrade shumilov, I have considered that I still have a lot to do in the 64th group army, so the date of taking office in the 62nd group army should be postponed, and I will take up my post after this is done. You will immediately arrange for people to escort kolpakchi and Krylov to find the headquarters of the 62nd army. "