After cleaning the battlefield, rokosovsky and Batov met the commanders in the observation station. At such a time, I definitely can't stay in the house any longer and find an excuse to leave.
There are dozens of commanders standing in the trench outside the observation post. Judging from their badges, they are all commanders from company level to division level. The first three people to go in were not too young. In addition to a colonel and a middle school, another was a political worker with the rank of division commander, political commissar and chief of staff.
After only a few minutes inside, they came out again, followed by a lieutenant, who stood at the door and said loudly to the commanders not far away, "Lieutenant kurishenko, commander of the second company of the 979th artillery regiment."
This familiar name immediately attracted my attention. I watched the commander from behind come to the lieutenant quickly. After standing at attention, I reported to the other party, "commander, I'm lieutenant kurishenko. Is it the commander who wants to meet me?"
I was surprised to see kurishenko up close. I thought that a commander with rich combat experience like him was at least middle-aged, but I didn't expect that he was so young, at most in his early twenties, tall, thin and handsome.
The lieutenant standing at the door looked him up and down, then waved his head and said, "come on, Lieutenant kurishenko, two comrades are waiting for you." With that, he turned and walked into the observation post first, while kurishenko was stunned for a moment and followed him.
In my heart, I was feeling that kurishenko had been young for a long time. Suddenly, I heard someone behind me carefully asking, "are you commander oshanina of the friendly army?"
Hearing the question behind me, I quickly turned around and saw a second lieutenant standing in front of me. I asked with great interest, "Comrade second lieutenant, I'm o'shanina. What can I do for you?"
The second lieutenant quickly came to attention, then handed me a piece of paper, and said: "Comrade General, this is a telegram just sent by your division, saying that it will be given to you immediately."
I took the telegram from the second lieutenant, nodded my thanks to him, and looked down at it. The telegram was sent by trakov, and the content was very simple: "the lyudnikov division is in danger. After you hand over the existing defense area to the friendly forces, you will immediately return to the division city and carry out rescue operations against the division."
After reading this telegram, my heart suddenly sank. I didn't expect that the great counterattack had begun for several days. However, the situation in lyudnikov division was not only not getting better, but getting worse. Now I am facing the fate of being completely annihilated by the German army. It seems that the rescue for them is imminent.
I quickly came to the gate of the observation station and asked, "are you allowed in?" according to the regulations
As soon as my voice fell, there came rokosovsky's voice: "come in, Rita."
As soon as I walked into the observation post, before I could speak, rokosovsky added, "Rita, what's the matter? From what I know of you, if there is nothing important, you will never break in so rashly. "
"Comrade commander of the front army, this is the telegram I just received from commander trakov." Then I handed the telegram to rokosovsky.
He took the telegram, looked at it twice, and then handed it back to me again. He said, "Rita, since the situation in the city is not optimistic, you should take the troops back as soon as possible. The defense of konnyi and gorodyser should be handed over to general Batov's troops."
"Comrade commander of the front army, I will leave major akhromeyev, chief of staff of my division, in charge of transferring defense to general Batov's forces." When I finished, I raised my hand and saluted trakov. I turned around and left. But as soon as I turned around, I saw lieutenant kurishenko standing upright in the middle of the room, and I stopped again.
When I was just outside, I had been thinking about how to send kurishenko to my division, but I had to rush back to my division as soon as I could. Now that he is in front of me, if I don't take this opportunity to make a request to Batov, I don't know that I will have a chance until the age of monkey. As soon as I gritted my teeth, I turned to rokosovsky and Batov and said, "comrades commander, I have another request."
Rokosovsky thought that the request I said was related to the transfer of defense, so he said carelessly, "Rita, if you have any request, just put it forward. As long as we can do it, we will do it for you."
I glanced around at kurishenko, who was standing next to me. Then I turned to Batov and said, "commander Batov, you know that my troops are only a few months old, and there is a shortage of combat backbones and commanders at all levels in all arms. This time, if we want to go back to the division city to rescue the friendly forces, we can use artillery as well as infantry. With our present Artillery Force, it is very difficult to suppress the enemy's firepower points when attacking the fortified positions. So I venture to ask you to allow lieutenant kurishenko to support our division. "
After my words, there was silence in the room.
After a while, the recovered Batov said politely but firmly, "excuse me, general oshanina. Lieutenant kurishenko is the commander of our 65th army." After finishing these two sentences, he turned his eyes on kurishenko and said to him in an official tone: "it's none of your business here, comrade lieutenant. You can go now."
Kurishenko snapped to attention, raised his hand to salute us, and turned to leave. General Batov's words, let my heart, completely fell into the ice, see kurishenko to leave, I can't help but want to rush up to hold him.
Just when I was about to despair, suddenly rokosovsky said, "Comrade lieutenant, please wait a moment." Kurishenko, who had already arrived at the door, stopped and turned around again, still holding a stand at attention position, looking straight ahead, quietly waiting for rokosovsky's instructions.
Rokosovsky laughed and then said to Batov, "Comrade Batov, when it comes to joining forces, our troops with Rita are comrades in arms and comrades; But when it comes to supporting our commanders to the friendly forces, you become as fussy as Grandet... "With these two words, rokosovsky quickly came to lieutenant kurishenko, put his hands on his shoulder, and asked calmly," Comrade lieutenant, what do you think about it, are you willing to go to the independent division of the female general? "
After a quick glance at me, kurishenko gave a loud reply: "Comrade commander of the front army, I firmly obey all your orders."
When I heard rokosovsky speak just now, I was ecstatic. At this moment, when I heard lieutenant kurishenko say that he would obey the arrangement of the superior, I was even more happy.
After kurishenko finished his statement, rokosovsky came to me again and asked with concern, "Rita, do you want lieutenant kurishenko alone?"
When I heard rokosovsky's question, I nodded my head desperately and said, "yes, comrade commander of the front army, although our division lacks enough artillery, as long as general Batov agrees to let lieutenant kurishenko take up the post in our division, then I will be satisfied."
After I finished, rokosovsky did not express any opinions, but frowned and walked back and forth in the observation station. After a few laps, he stopped, turned to me and said, "Rita, when your division enters Stalingrad, it will be a vicious battle. It won't help much to send you an artillery commander. What's more, it will take a long time for lieutenant kurishenko and his new subordinates to cooperate with each other. What you lack most is time. In my opinion, the artillery can be placed under the command of your division. What's your opinion, Comrade General His last sentence was directed at bartov.
I saw the expression of resentment from Batov's face, and knew that he was not willing to give me such a good artillery commander, even if he was only a junior commander at present. Rokosovsky's words were even worse. He clenched his teeth and showed a painful expression on his face. However, decades of military life made him form a good habit of obeying the orders of his superiors. After taking a deep breath, he tried to reply in a smooth tone: "Comrade commander of the front army, since you have given the orders, I will obey them firmly."
I know that in this case, I put forward this kind of request to dig a corner, and got the support of rokosovsky. Batov, who suffered the loss, must hate me to the bone. But in order to find the talents urgently needed in the division, even if I knew that I had offended Batov, I had to stick to my head and do it.
After receiving Batov's reply, rokosovsky nodded with satisfaction, then went to lieutenant kurishenko and said to him, "Comrade lieutenant, what are you still doing? Don't you report to your new superior soon?"
After listening to me, kurishenko quickly turned to face me, raised his hand to salute, and loudly reported: "report to Mr. commander, former commander of the second company of 979th artillery regiment of 173 division, Lieutenant kurishenko, report to you..."
"Wait a minute," I interrupted lieutenant kurishenko before he finished. I knew in my heart that although I used the power of rokosovsky to poach him from general Batov's hands, it would be difficult for him to identify with the independent division if he was not given any advantages. So I solemnly said to him, "Comrade kurishenko, from now on, you are the commander of the second artillery battalion of our red flag independent division, and your rank is no longer lieutenant, but captain. Report it to me again. "
Kurishenko got an unexpected promotion with a surprise expression on his face. After he reported to me again in accordance with his new rank and position, I went on to say, "in addition to your promotion, all the officers and soldiers of the former artillery second company, platoon leader to company leader, squad leader to platoon leader, and soldiers to squad leader. Please convey my order to the soldiers later. "
When kurishenko and I left the observation post and passed in front of the group of commanders waiting outside, I suddenly heard someone calling kurishenko: "Hello, lieutenant, where are you going?"
I looked in the direction of the voice and saw that the speaker was a commander standing in front of the line. When kurishenko heard the commander's inquiry, he ran to him, raised his hand to salute him, leaned forward slightly, and whispered in his ear. Although I couldn't hear what he was saying, I understood that he must be reporting to the other party what happened in the observation station.
As kurishenko spoke, the lieutenant commander gave me a curious look from time to time. From the analysis of kurishenko's attitude towards him, nine out of ten of them are the head of the 979th artillery regiment. After kurishenko's words were over, the lieutenant commander came over with him, stood in front of me, raised his hand and said politely, "Comrade General, lieutenant commander babayevsky, head of the 979th artillery regiment of the 173 infantry division, reports to you."
I raised my hand to give him a salute and said politely, "Hello, comrade commander."“ Although lieutenant kurishenko is young, he is a rare artillery commander. "Although babayevsky dealt with me for the first time, he was still reckless in speaking for the future of his subordinates." so please make good use of him so that he can give full play to his strengths. "“ "Commander babayevsky," I said with a smile and friendliness to the commander who was concerned about the future of his men, "please rest assured that I will take good care of captain kurishenko. I believe that before long, he will become an excellent artillery commander with outstanding achievements. " After these words, I quickly changed the topic: "I'm sorry, commander babayevsky, we still have an urgent task. We'll be here today. We'll have a good chat when we have a chance." After leaving the trench and walking into an open area, I stopped, looked at the artillery position in the distance, and turned to kurishenko: "Comrade captain, how long will it take for your artillery company to move?" Kurishenko raised his hand, looked at his watch, and then replied to me, "it's going to take at least an hour to report to Mr. commander."“ Then I'll give you an hour and a half. "Because I wanted to go back to the headquarters in the city immediately to find kirilov, I gave him a short order:" after the troops are assembled, you will take them to the intersection in the south of kongniayi City, and I will bring the big troops to join you soon. "“ Yes, I promise to finish the task. "