Our jeep drove for about half an hour, passed seven or eight heavily guarded checkpoints, and finally entered the downtown area of Moscow. Seeing the familiar buildings on both sides of the street, I was very excited. If it wasn't for the unfamiliar liaison officer and the unknown driver sitting in the car, I would yell at the top of my voice: "I'm Hu Hansan back!"
Of course, it's just in my mind. If I really yell like this, even if the liaison officer and the driver don't regard me as a madman, they will ask me this and that curiously, until I have nothing to say.
After several rounds of investigation, we finally arrived at Zhukov's headquarters. After entering through the gate of the sentry forest, the vehicle slowly drove to the tall building and stopped. The liaison officer turned to me and said, "Comrade General, here we are."
I looked out, and before I could see what was there, I casually replied, "Oh, here we are." After a pause, I asked, "major, did you take me to the Marshal's office?"
Unexpectedly, the liaison officer shook his head and replied, "I'm sorry, Comrade General. My task is to take you from Kiev and send you to the commander's headquarters. Now that my task has been completed, the task of sending you to the marshal will be completed by other commanders. "
What the liaison officer said made me feel crazy. He said that you brought me all the way back from Kiev and finally got to the gate of Zhukov headquarters. As a result, you said that the task was completed, you slapped your ass to leave, and you left me here alone. What's the matter?
Before I got angry, the liaison officer said slowly, "when we left the airport, the airport should have informed the Marshal's subordinates of your arrival. You see, "he said, looking out of the window," there's a captain coming out of the building. He's supposed to be here to pick you up With that, he pushed the door open, got out of the car and went to meet the captain who had just come out of the building.
I also pushed the door open and got out of the car. Just as I was about to follow the liaison officer, I suddenly found a small black dot shaking in front of my left eye. I thought it was some scum falling from the air. I reached out to catch it, but it was empty.
I thought I was dazzled, so I laughed and walked forward. After a few steps, the little black dot appeared again. I quickly closed my right eye, staring at the front with my left eye, and found that the black spot also stopped in front. At the moment, my heart surged up a trace of ominous premonition, is his eyes in addition to the problem?
Before I could think of a reason, the liaison officer came to me with the captain. The captain raised his hand and saluted me. Then, in a polite tone, he asked, "is that general o'shanina?"
I nodded and answered in the affirmative, "yes, I'm o'shanina."
"Comrade Marshal asked me to meet you. He has been waiting for you for a long time." With that, the captain stepped back, took one side of his body and made a gesture to the direction of the building.
Instead of walking into the building at once, I turned to the liaison officer, held his hand, and said gratefully, "thank you, major. Thank you for bringing me to Moscow. We'll see you later. "
After releasing the liaison officer's hand, I turned to the captain and said, "come on, comrade captain, please show me the way ahead."
I walked into the building behind the captain and saw that the building was full of commanders walking around. When they saw me, they stopped one after another, put their bodies on the wall, raised their hands to salute me, and I also raised my hands to salute one by one.
The captain and I quickly came to a room and stopped. He said to the lieutenant on duty who had just stood up from the table, "Lieutenant, this is general oshanina whom the marshal will call."
After looking at me, the lieutenant didn't speak. Instead, he went to the door, pushed open one of the two tall wooden doors, glanced inside and closed it again. Then he came up to me and said apologetically, "I'm sorry, Comrade General. The marshal is still talking with other commanders. Please wait a moment." With that, he pointed to a row of chairs not far away against the wall. "Please sit on the chair and have a rest."
I nodded, went to the position of the chair, and found a chair to sit down. I wanted to ask the captain to sit down, but he came up to me and said respectfully, "Comrade General, my task has been completed. Please allow me to leave!"
"Go, comrade captain." I smile and thank the captain who brought me to Zhukov command: "thank you!"
As I sat in my chair waiting for Zhukov to meet me, I tried to close my right eye and look at the ceiling with my left eye alone. When I found that annoying little black spot, moving with my eyes, my heart was half cold. It turned out that there was something wrong with my eyes and I would not be blind, right? If you have time another day, you must go to the hospital for examination.
I heard the door ring and turned to look at it. Two serious looking generals came out of the room. Seeing them appear, the lieutenant on duty, who had been sitting at the table, quickly stood up and straightened up. When I saw that the ranks of the two generals were higher than mine, I quickly stood up and raised my hand to salute them.
The two generals were talking in a low voice. They saw someone nearby saluting them. After glancing at them, they gave them a salute and walked along the corridor.
I look at the back of the two generals, and I don't know if they are one of the famous generals in history. At this time, I heard the voice of the lieutenant coming from behind: "Comrade General, you can go in now."
I turned to see that the lieutenant had opened the door and stood upright at the door, waiting for me to enter.
I walked quickly to the door. After thanking the lieutenant, I went into Zhukov's headquarters.
As soon as I entered the room, I saw a long conference table in the middle of this spacious room, surrounded by exquisite wooden chairs. Zhukov was at the other end of the table, looking down at the map in front of him. Hearing someone come in, he asked without looking up: "what's the matter?"
I quickly stepped forward, raised my hand to my forehead, and said in a loud voice, "report to marshal, major general o'shanina has been ordered to come from Kiev, and I'm waiting for your order. Please give me instructions!"
Hearing my voice, Zhukov raised his head and looked at me with a smile on his expressionless face. He walked quickly towards me and said aloud, "it's Rita!"
When he shook hands with me, he asked with concern, "did you get off the plane and come straight here?"
"Yes, comrade marshal." As Zhukov's handshake was too strong, I bit my back teeth in pain and replied, "I think there must be something important when you call me back from Kiev, so I got off the plane and came here immediately."
Zhukov called me to the place where the map was placed, pointed to a chair and said in an imperative tone, "sit down. I want to have a good talk with you." With that, he opened a chair and sat down first. After sitting down, he pushed the map toward my position and said, "first, let's see the situation of the enemy and ourselves in Ukraine."
I rigidly sat in his designated chair, looked down at the map on the desktop, and saw that it was covered with dense arrows and various lines of defense. Because I didn't see a name at the moment, I just looked at the picture and didn't dare to speak casually.
Zhukov didn't notice the details. He grabbed a pencil on the desk, pointed at the map and said to me, "Rita, come and have a look. Manstein's troops successfully captured Donetsk two days ago, forcing the southwest front army under the command of general vatujing to retreat to Lugansk. Under the fierce attack of the enemy, general vatukin was ready to command the troops to withdraw from Lugansk one after another. But with your successful capture of Kiev, the dilemma faced by the southwest front army has changed. The German army stopped its attack on Lugansk at 10 a.m., leaving behind a small number of troops to keep in touch with our army, and the rest of the main forces have gradually withdrawn to the West. "
When I heard Zhukov's words, this idiom suddenly appeared in my mind. If I hadn't thought of attacking Kiev on a whim, it would be estimated that vatukin's troops would have been defeated by the onslaught of Manstein's troops.
The pencil in Zhukov's hand pointed to Kharkov again: "and here, the Voronezh front army under general Golikov's command is a little weak because the third group army of tanks has been transferred to you. The supreme command has sent the central front army under the command of general rokosovsky to reinforce. However, due to the muddy road, it is difficult for us to deploy a large number of troops in the designated positions in the shortest time, because general Golikov can only rely on his own strength to deal with the counterattack German forces in Kharkov. " At this point, he threw his pencil on the table and said in a relaxed tone, "but with the liberation of Kiev, this unfavorable situation has been completely improved. According to the reconnaissance of our air force, the main force of the enemy has also turned to the West and moved in the direction of Poltava. It is estimated that they are preparing to concentrate their forces to attack Kiev, so as not to cut off their way back by us. "
When I heard that the two front armies had turned the corner, I could not help but feel relieved. At the same time, I was worried about the fate of the battle group of Dnieper, which is currently deployed near Kiev. Originally, our forces were limited. If more than 100000 German troops abandoned the Voronezh front army and the southwest front army, who were fighting against them head-on, and rushed to Kiev regardless, could general rebalko block the fierce German offensive? And the two front forces who have been out of trouble, when they see that the situation of friendly forces is dangerous, will they stretch out their hands to help them?
When I was troubled by these problems, I heard Zhukov ask, "Rita, what do you think of the current situation? I want to hear your opinion."
Seeing that the troops deployed near Kiev are in danger of being encircled by the German army, I can not help but feel anxious: "Comrade marshal, I want to ask a question?"
"Ask!" Zhukov readily agreed.
Pointing to the location of Kiev, I said to Zhukov, "marshal, general rebalko and I have deployed our troops around Kiev. But our troops are limited. Once the German army's heavy army group is surrounded, I wonder if we can get the support of friendly forces? "
To my question, Zhukov was silent for a moment, then replied: "this may be difficult. Although our military strength is superior to that of the German army, our officers and men are very tired because of the difficulties in logistics and long-term fighting. Once the German army launches the siege of Kiev, I think it may be difficult to provide enough support for the defenders in the city in a short period of time. "
After listening to Zhukov's words, my cold sweat has come down. If it is true, I will wait for the fate of the commanders and fighters of the current campaign cluster in Kiev, either to be completely annihilated or to be captured. I looked up at Zhukov to hear what he would say next and whether he would send me back to Kiev at the worst. After waiting for a while, seeing that Zhukov didn't speak, I couldn't help but ask first, "Comrade marshal, I want to ask, what's the matter with this sudden recall of me to Moscow?"“ It is the Supreme Commander's own intention to recall you to Moscow. " As soon as Zhukov opened his mouth, he directly explained who ordered me to be recalled. He said without hesitation: "he said that you have been fighting for a long time, so you should come back to have a rest for a while, and go to military academies for further study, so as to improve your level of military theory, so that you can play a greater role in a more important position in the future."“ But it's Kiev. What about Kiev? " After hearing the news from Zhukov, I felt ecstatic, but then I worried about my comrades who were still in Kiev: "can we just watch them surrounded by the German army and do nothing?" Zhukov looked at me with an unhappy look on his face and said, "Rita, we don't care about them. But at present, our defense line is scattered by the German counterattack, so we need a force to attract the enemy, so that we have enough time to repair our defense line, strengthen our forces, and accumulate strength to launch a new attack. " At this point, he saw that I was dejected. He suddenly changed the topic and said, "Rita, there's one more thing I want to remind you. Now that you are a general, you can't follow the way you used to do when you were company commander and battalion commander. If you have to deal with everything, you will make a mess of it. You should learn to focus on the big and let go of the small, and only do the most important and unimportant things, leaving them to your subordinates. You are only responsible for observing whether they do it correctly, recording their performance in the process of implementation, and finally summing up who is suitable for what. Only in this way can you improve your work efficiency and become a qualified senior commander. "