Chapter 1106

When Zhukov heard my reply, his face showed an angry expression, and his eyes looked at me as if they were about to burst out. Just when I was frightened, he made an unexpected move. He grabbed the cup on the table and fell to the ground.

The glass in the silver cup holder was smashed on the hard ground. While the trouser legs were soaked by tea, a few drops of tea with residual temperature splashed on my face, which made me instinctively step back.

Zhukov angrily pointed to my nose and scolded, "o'shanina, I really misunderstood you. I give you the sixth group army of close guard with a total strength of nearly 80000 people, in the hope that you can turn your defensive zone into a gate that the German army can not cross, just like in Stalingrad. I didn't expect you to tell me that you couldn't hold the line. The battle has not started yet. You have even considered giving up the first and second lines of defense. In this case, how can we fight this battle? " He may be so angry that his address to me has changed from his usual "Rita" to a slightly unfamiliar "oshanina".

At the moment, Zhukov, who is furious, is quite different from the calm and self-confident one in peacetime. Because I was so close, my eardrum was almost broken by his loud voice. Although he said a lot of ugly words, but out of respect for him, I did not care about what he said, just silently endure his thunder.

After he lost his temper and calmed down again, I said to him calmly: "Comrade marshal, can you listen to my explanation?"

He glared at me and said angrily, "just say what you have to say." Then he sat down at the table.

Instead of explaining to him immediately, I went to the place where the teapot was placed by the wall, poured a new cup of tea and put it down in front of him. Povsky, who had been scared into silence, saw that the atmosphere in the room had eased, so he squatted down and began to clean up the mess underground.

After taking a sip of the tea, Zhukov put the cup on the table and asked in a more relaxed tone, "tell me, what do you think?"

"Comrade marshal," I said, staring at Zhukov, "although the strength of the sixth group army of the close guard sounds a lot, it seems to be a little weak because the front of the defense is too large and it is evenly distributed among the three lines of defense. Therefore, under such circumstances, we can only weaken certain sections and focus on defense. "

"That's right. In our defensive war, we often weaken one direction and strengthen the other." Zhukov agreed with me because he had done the same thing when he was commander of Leningrad's front army. He then asked, "but what does it have to do with your intention to give up the first and second lines of defense?"

"As I have strengthened my main forces to important areas, the defence in individual areas will be weak. In this way, once the German army launches an attack, there will be the possibility that our defense line will be broken through at many points. " I knew that if I didn't tell Zhukov what I really thought, he would probably have done "killing my family with great righteousness" and sent me to the military court. Therefore, I said, "our goal is to consume the effective strength of the German army, so we don't have to care about the gain and loss of one city and one place. So even if the German army broke through our first and second lines of defense, there was nothing to worry about. We can not only block them in front of the third line of defense, but also keep the key points of the first two lines of defense in our hands, so that the German army does not dare to use all its strength to attack Kursk. As long as their strength is almost consumed, we can launch a comprehensive counterattack. "

"Don't care about the gains and losses of one city and one place?" Zhukov repeated this sentence for several times, and finally asked, "this statement is incompatible with our army's guiding ideology. I really don't know how you came up with it. You know, we have always taught our commanders and fighters that even if their bones are exposed in the wilderness, they must be nailed to the position like nails, and they can't step back. Now we should publicize to them that we should not care about the gains and losses of one city and one place. Will this cause confusion in the minds of the commanders and fighters? "

"Marshal," I solemnly explained to him about this doubt, "for what you are worried about, I think we just need to send political workers to the army to do a good job in political propaganda."

After hearing this, Zhukov did not answer me. Instead, he turned away from the topic and asked, "Why are you so optimistic about this tactic? Let's hear your reasons."

Seeing that Zhukov wanted to get to the bottom of the matter, I had to move out the famous viewpoint: "save people and lose land, and save people and land; Save the land and lose the people. Although from a tactical point of view, we will lose some positions, but we have preserved our living strength. Sooner or later, we will be able to take back the lost positions. "

I can't remember whether I had said the same thing to Zhukov or other people before, but when I said that, kirilov said, "yes, marshal, I think Rita is right. After the German army occupied our position, they would have to divide their troops to guard it. In this way, their strength for frontal attack will be weakened invisibly. "

What kirilov and I said made Zhukov think deeply. After a long time, he asked slowly, "Rita, if you were the commander of Voronezh's front army, what would you do under the present circumstances?"

On hearing Zhukov's question, I immediately understood that he wanted to investigate my ability to cope with emergencies, and quickly threw out his own well thought out answer: "marshal, since we know that the German army is ready to launch a strong offensive against our defense area, then all the troops of the front army should be ready to fight, except the artillery, The air force group army should also be ready to take off at any time.

In order to command the battle better, commanders of all army groups, infantry units and divisions should be stationed at the front command post. At the same time, from now on, political workers from the political departments and political offices of the group armies, armies and divisions will immediately go to the grass-roots units to help commanders and party and League cadres at all levels carry out ideological and political work at the front line, and find each commander and fighter for pre war mobilization. In order to enhance the vigilance of the troops and encourage the commanders and fighters to fight for victory and pledge to fight with the enemy to the end, the commanders and political workers need to make inspiring mobilization speeches before the battle. "

Zhukov listened to me as like as two peas, nodding his head in satisfaction, and said, "I can't imagine your train of thought is exactly the same as wattojing. By the way, do you still insist on listening to the idea of Ren's German army breaking through our defense line? "

"Yes, comrade marshal." While answering his question, I emphasized my own defense ideas again, so as not to leave a thorn in his heart: "I just said that our first and second defense lines will be broken by the German army, which does not mean that we will not defend with all our strength. It means that we will not put in too many troops to defend in some irrelevant areas. Even if the position is lost, we will not organize our troops to carry out a counterattack with huge casualties. And those main defensive positions are our top priority. In addition to sending heavy troops to guard, we should also strengthen the firepower of the garrison. Even if the German troops break through our defense lines, they can also play a role in restraining the enemy's rear. "

Zhukov listened patiently to me expound his point of view, unexpectedly did not interrupt me, until I finally said: "my words are over." He said without hesitation: "since you have a thorough consideration, then I believe that in the next battle, your close guard Sixth Army will have a good performance."

When kirilov saw that Zhukov's attitude had become calm again, he lost no time to ask, "Comrade marshal, the teachers of our divisions are here. We are waiting outside now. Can you meet them?"

When Zhukov heard kirilov's suggestion, he could not help frowning. After thinking for a while, he nodded and said, "well, since Comrade kirilov has put forward this matter in person, I'll see you. Anyway, many people are old comrades in arms. We can take this opportunity to talk about the past."

Seeing that Zhukov agreed to his proposal, kirilov winked at povsky, who was standing beside him. The latter understood, walked quickly to the door and said to the outside, "come in, comrades, come in. Comrade marshal of the Soviet Union wants to meet you. "

Hula came in more than a dozen people, making the room suddenly crowded. Several older teachers were obviously familiar with Zhukov. They called Zhukov's real name and father's name affectionately, saluted and shook hands, and asked each other about their recent situation. They seemed very close. I just heard Zhukov say that many of them were his old comrades in arms. I thought he was just talking casually. Seeing this, I realized that what he said was true.

Because of the limited space in the room, the chief of staff, bezikov, arranged for people to move in several benches so that all division leaders could sit down and listen to Zhukov.

After everyone was seated, Zhukov, who was sitting at the table, said with a smile, "Hello, commanders. Today, I'm here to check the army's preparations for war and to see you by the way. " At this point, he suddenly increased his voice and asked, "are you all ready to fight?"

After a moment's pause, the teachers present answered in unison, "ready."

Zhukov didn't look happy when he heard everyone's reply, but said with a straight face: "comrades commander, we may have a big battle soon, so you should go deep into the grass-roots company at ordinary times, understand the real situation of war preparation, see what problems still exist, and solve them immediately. Otherwise, it will be too late if we encounter a big battle or a vicious battle and our shortcomings are exposed again. "

Danilov and Zhukov also added: "comrades, although most divisions of our group army are close guard divisions, their combat effectiveness is better than that of ordinary troops. But we should understand in our hearts that the reason why we are better than others is that there are a high proportion of veterans, a large number of combat backbones, good weapons and equipment, and rich combat experience in the Jinwei division. However, in order to make up for the war damage of the guard division in the early stage, we have also added a lot of new soldiers to you. For these new soldiers who have no experience, you should seize the time to train and improve their combat effectiveness as soon as possible. Don't let them pee their pants when they hear the gunshot. Such a force is unreliable. "

After Danilov's words, there was a lot of laughter from the commanders on the scene. After laughter, the commander of the 52nd division of the guards, Col. nikolasov, stood up and said: "Comrade deputy commander, you are right. The position we lost some time ago was because there were too many new soldiers in the garrison. Hearing the gunshot, many people panic. They don't know how to take advantage of the favorable terrain to resist. They either run around in the position or follow the frightened cowards to run back. "

"Colonel Nekrasov," I said, interrupting him with a raised hand. "Have the recruits of your division gone through live fire?" Nikolasov didn't know why I asked, but he replied honestly: "report to commander, most of the recruits of our division have never fired live ammunition. But I believe that they are in combat... "Can you expect the recruits who have not even experienced live firing to play an extraordinary combat effectiveness in combat?" When I saw that Nekrasov didn't think much of it, I pointed out to him without hesitation: "what's more, your division and the 51st guard division are holding fast to the first line of defense of our group army. If the fighting quality of the troops is not good enough, how long can you hold on when you are deep behind the enemy?" The reproached nikolasov blushed, and some unconvinced, explained: "even if the recruits are allowed to shoot live ammunition, they still can't reach the standard of the old guards."“ It doesn't matter if we can't reach the level of veteran soldiers for the time being, but the training of live firing must be carried out immediately. " "I'll give you two days to make sure that every recruit has to carry out at least one round of live fire, so that they don't panic when they hear the enemy's guns," I said in an imperative tone“ Two days is too short, isn't it "I don't think this kind of training can achieve the effect you want," said Col. Nekrasov At this time, I suddenly thought of the ghost instructor of Japan who helped me train new soldiers in liuban area, so I said with a straight face and solemnity: "extraordinary things, we have to adopt extraordinary training methods. Let your recruits squat in the trench, and then let people shoot into the trench, so that they can truly experience the feeling of bullets whizzing over their heads. In addition, let every recruit throw at least five grenades, so that they will not be afraid to hear the explosion After a long time, he murmured, "Comrade commander, is this suitable?"“ Appropriate. In the current situation, it is absolutely appropriate. " After I said these words to nikolasov, I said to all the division commanders, "this training method should be popularized in the whole regiment immediately. However, you must remember to ensure safety, because the lives of every soldier are precious. The purpose of our training is to reduce the unnecessary casualties caused by their panic in battle. Do you understand? "“ I see! " All the teachers roared in unison.