Chapter 1202

I thought the higher authorities would have to wait at least ten days and a half months before they would send us a new deputy commander. Who knows, in the afternoon I got a call from watujing. He said to me with a smile on the phone: "Comrade oshanina, after my discussion with Marshal Zhukov, in order not to affect the next battle, I decided to immediately send you a new deputy commander of the sixth group army."

"That's very good, Comrade General." I was overjoyed to hear that a new deputy commander would take office soon. I asked quickly, "I don't know the name, rank and place of the new deputy commander?" The reason why I ask these questions is that several division commanders stationed in the south of the city will soon be promoted to generals. If the new deputy commanders are of the same rank and have shallow qualifications, they will hardly be convinced.

I didn't expect that after listening to my question, vatujing sold me the key: "Comrade o'shanina, this new deputy commander is also an excellent old commander. I won't say his name for the time being. You will see him in the evening." Maybe I'm afraid that I have any scruples. I specially added, "as far as I know, the new deputy commander and you are also old acquaintances. I believe you will cooperate happily in the next battle!"

As soon as I put down the phone, kirilov asked curiously, "Rita, what does Comrade vatujing say? Who is he going to send as the deputy commander of our group army?"

I shook my head and said with a bitter smile, "Comrade military commissar, I don't know who the new deputy commander is now. The senior general said that we will know when he reports in the evening. Besides, the new deputy commander is an acquaintance of mine. I can't remember which commander I know would be sent as my deputy by the superior. "

"The commander you are familiar with is competent for the post of deputy commander?" Kirilov, hearing me say this, frowned and thought for a moment, then said thoughtfully, "could it be general trakov?" As soon as his words came out, he immediately shook his head and denied his guess, "no, definitely not. Trikov is now the commander of the eighth group army of the guards. He has not made any mistakes. How can he come to us as a deputy? "

Since it was not trekov, we then, with the help of bezikov, speculated on several possible candidates for the post of deputy commander. But after guessing for a long time, I found that the people I guessed were either not qualified or not qualified enough, and even many of them were people I didn't know at all. I finally waved my hand and said, "forget it, don't guess. When the new deputy commander arrives in the evening, we will know who he is

In order to meet the new deputy commander, before dark, I called all the four division commanders to the headquarters. It is said that a new deputy commander is coming. In addition to rodim tsev, the other three division commanders all surrounded bezikov and asked curiously, "Comrade chief of staff, I don't know who the new deputy commander is?"

As for the question of several people, bzikov looked at me, shrugged his shoulders, spread his hands, and said helplessly: "Sir and comrades, you want to know who the new deputy commander is. I also want to know. But up to now, even the comrades of the commander don't know, let alone me. "

I saw bzikov's expression of embarrassment, so I came out to help him out and said, "well, teachers and comrades, let's be calm. Who will be our deputy commander in the end? Before long, the answer will be revealed. Maybe it's someone we all know." At this point, I turned the subject around and asked, "how are you doing with the task I assigned you this morning?"

Hearing my question, the three teachers were speechless immediately. Seeing that the three did not speak, I glared and said discontentedly, "when you accepted the task in the morning, didn't you all express your determination to me that you could finish the task today? Why are you so dumb now? " I casually pointed to Xie Liujin, "Colonel Xie Liujin, first report the completion of your division."

Xie Liujin, who was named by me, said with a sad face: "Comrade commander, you asked us to clear the mines in the defense area in the morning. Originally, I thought that the Germans could bury as many as seven or eight hundred mines. As soon as the engineers cleared the mine, they dug up thousands of mines. According to the report of the company commander, there are at least so many mines in our defense area. "

When I turned my eyes to askarepov, he quickly replied, "Comrade commander, the situation of our 77th division is similar. With the efforts of the engineering company, nearly a thousand mines were cleared from the front of the position. "

"We're in the same situation." As soon as askarepov finished speaking, Chernoff also added: "fortunately, you let us clear the nearby minefields, otherwise when we push south, we will not know how many unnecessary sacrifices will be caused."

"Which one of you can tell me when the demining work will be finished?" If Danilov had not met with a mine in the morning, I would not have asked several division commanders to clear all mines inside and outside the area. Although I had guessed that there were many mines left by the Germans, I didn't expect that there were so many.

"Three days, comrade commander." Xie Liujin held out three fingers and said to me, "you give me three days, I will clear all the mines inside and outside the defense area."

Although I can't remember the day when the Voronezh front army launched an attack on Kharkov, it will never be earlier than the 10th of this month. So after a moment's hesitation, I simply agreed: "well, three division comrades, I will give you another three days. After three days, you must clear all the mines in the defense area. Do you understand? "

"I understand!" The three teachers replied neatly.

After the three teachers finished their presentation, rodim Zeff asked cautiously, "Comrade commander, I don't know when the new deputy commander will arrive?"

"Soon, soon, Comrade General." I showed great respect to rodimzev, the former superior. "Maybe they will arrive in half an hour or less."

I was perfunctory at first, but not long after that, the head of the guard, Yushchenko, panted and ran into the headquarters and reported to me, "report commander, there are some jeeps coming from the headquarters of the front army."

"It should be the deputy commander." After hearing Yushchenko's report, I immediately made such a judgment, and then waved to everyone, "come on, let's all go out to meet the new deputy commander."

We went out of the headquarters and walked along the traffic ditch. Not far ahead, I saw a group of people coming towards us. With the help of the bright moonlight, I could see that Khrushchev, the military commissar of the front army, was walking in the front. He hastened his pace. When I got to the place four or five steps away from him, I stopped, raised my hand, saluted him and said respectfully, "Hello, comrade military commissar, welcome to the sixth group army of our guards!"

When Khrushchev shook hands with me, he said with a smile, "Rita, I came here today for two things. First, your new deputy commander has been sent; The second is... "

As soon as he finished his first intention, I couldn't wait to interrupt him and asked anxiously, "Comrade military commissar, I don't know where the new deputy commander is?"

When Khrushchev saw that I was so worried, he could not help laughing and shaking his head and said, "well, since you are so worried, I will let you meet the new deputy commander first." After that, he leaned his back against the dirt wall, turned to a commander in the back and said, "please come up, comrade general, and say hello to your new partner, comrade oshanina."

I stared at the man who was standing behind Khrushchev, walked up to me with a smile, raised my hand, saluted me and said, "Hello, general oshanina. I didn't expect that we would meet again."

I hesitated for a long time before I reached out and took each other's hand, shaking it hard and saying, "Hello, general chisgakov. I didn't expect that the superior would send you to the post of deputy commander. " When I said this, I obviously felt that I was not strong enough. If he had not had an accident two months ago, I would not have been the commander of the sixth group army. Now the former commander has returned to the army, but he can only be a deputy commander wrongly, which makes me feel particularly embarrassed.

After kirilov, who was behind me, and they shook hands with Khrushchev and chisgakov in turn, Khrushchev first said, "well, we all know each other. Don't stand at the door any more. If there's anything, let's go in."

When we returned to the headquarters, I asked Khrushchev, "Comrade military commissar, you just said outside that you are going to do two things when you come here today. One is to send our deputy commander, comrade chisjakov, to take office. I don't know what the other thing is."

Khrushchev couldn't help laughing when he heard my question. He turned to look at chisgakov and said, "Comrade chisgakov, as soon as Rita saw you, she didn't care about anything. Now, as soon as I get back to the headquarters, I can't wait to know my other intention. "

After a cooperative smile, chisgakov said to Khrushchev, "Comrade military commissar, I am an old acquaintance with Comrade oshanina. We had a relationship between the superior and the subordinate as early as in the eighth division of the guards. Later, we had two contacts in the defense war of Stalingrad. Now I'm going back to her work, and I'm very happy. As for her gaffe just now, it may be due to the reunion with my old comrade in arms. "

Khrushchev waited for chisgakov to finish, then turned his face to me, and said, "Rita, I know you are eager to know my other purpose, so I will tell you directly without playing the game. Before the attack on Belgorod, Marshal Zhukov made a wish to you that if your troops performed well in this attack, they would be promoted to the ranks of three division commanders after the battle. Is that so? "

"Yes, comrade military commissar, there is such a thing." When I heard Khrushchev's question, I knew that the promotion of Xie Liujin and his three men to general was a certainty.

Khrushchev stood up and called out, "come on!"

With his shouts, an officer came in from the outside, carrying small suitcases in both hands, one of which was carrying two suitcases. He went to the table and put the suitcase on the table. Then he stepped back two steps and stood aside.

Khrushchev faced my three division commanders and said, "three division commanders, according to your heroic performance in this battle, Marshal Zhukov will formally grant you three major general ranks after reporting to the supreme command for permission." With that, he opened the top box, held it in his hand, and called the first person's name: "Comrade Xie Liujin!"

Captain Xie Liujin, commander of the 89th division of Jinwei. No, it's major general Xie Liujin now. He quickly took two steps forward and came to Khrushchev. He raised his chin and straightened his waist, waiting for Khrushchev's next order. Khrushchev handed him the suitcase in his hand and said: "major general Xie Liujin, I congratulate you on your higher rank. I hope you will continue to show your brave and indomitable style in future battles..." Xie Liujin first saluted, took the suitcase in his hand, and at the same time gave a loud reply: "serve the motherland of the Soviet Union!" Then Khrushchev successively awarded the major general ranks of the 77th and 90th division commanders of the guards, and gave them the small suitcases with brand-new uniforms. After the simple ceremony of promotion, Khrushchev introduced to us the reason why the superior sent chisgakov as Deputy Commander: "comrades, I will not repeat the resume of general chisgakov here. What I want to tell you is that the reason why the superior appointed him as the deputy commander of the sixth group army is that he is good at impeccable pre war preparation and is good at expanding depth after breaking through the enemy's positions, which is exactly what your sixth group army lacks at present... "Although Khrushchev introduced chisjakov, But his words that "one point is exactly what the sixth group army of your guards lacks at present" let my heart begin to beat. I thought that in the eyes of my superiors, my military talents were satisfactory to everyone. I didn't expect that there was such a shortcoming that the superior sent such a deputy commander to assist me. However, on second thought, it's not a bad thing to learn from each other. Since I lack this knowledge, I should learn from him in a big way. If we can't improve our ability as soon as possible, the road to rise in the future will be full of obstacles. After Khrushchev finished, kirilov asked a question of concern to all of us: "Comrade military commissar, do you know when we will launch an attack on Kharkov?"