"Two days?" Hearing what I said, watujing hesitated for a moment and then tentatively asked, "can't we advance to tomorrow?"
"No, Comrade General." Although I heard from his tone that he wanted us to take advantage of the victory, I resolutely rejected him: "in the two cities we occupied, all the residents were moved by the Germans. In this way, not only can we not get any additional soldiers, but also we can not grasp the German trend. Therefore, we must stop for a while and wait until we have a clear idea of the enemy's strength and distribution in the vicinity before we can start our next operation. "
My farfetched reason made watujing silent again. After a while, he said, "well, in that case, we'll wait another two days. During this period, we happened to send troops to occupy the areas that were let out by the Germans. "
From watujing's tone, I heard a lot of helplessness, and then said: "don't worry, comrade general, as soon as the intelligence of the reconnaissance team comes back, I will immediately launch an attack on smira."
As soon as I put down the phone, chisgakov asked me, "Comrade commander, smira is a medium-sized city and can't deploy too many troops. Which army do you plan to take up the main task this time?"
Instead of answering his question immediately, I turned my eyes to bezikov and asked with a smile, "Comrade chief of staff, which unit do you think is the most appropriate to take on the main task?"
After listening to my question and thinking for a moment, bzikov replied, "I think this attack can be taken up by the 51st guard division of Colonel chejerikov."
"No, no, absolutely not." As soon as his words came to an end, chisjakov strongly objected and said, "you know, Colonel shijerikov just took over the command of the 51st division of the guards today. If he goes into battle before he can get familiar with the troops, the command system may fall into chaos." At this point, he looked at me and said in a flattering tone, "I think lieutenant colonel Lukin's 375TH infantry division is very suitable for the main attack."
"Comrade commander, how do you think about it?" Asked bezikov with concern.
"Although shejerikov has just taken over the post of division commander, he once fought here a few months ago and is very familiar with the terrain here." Although both xiejerikov and Lukin are my valued old subordinates, after weighing, I decided to choose the former: "I think it is appropriate for his troops to take the initiative."
It's hard for chisjakov to object to my statement. He thought about it, then nodded his head and said, "well, since Comrade commander has made a decision, I will reserve my opinion."
As soon as it was decided which unit was responsible for attacking smira, I saw bere, the deputy commander of the tank army, coming in from the outside. Seeing the appearance of bere, I couldn't help looking at chisjakov and bzikov in surprise. I said in my heart that I didn't summon him. Did either of them ask him to come.
I was about to ask who had called berey. Berey had already said, "Comrade commander, I want to ask, when will we launch our attack on smira?"
"Comrade deputy commander," kirilov, who was sitting beside him, stood up and said to him with a smile, "why, do you want to go back to the old place and show yourself well?"
Kirilov's words confused chisjakov and bezikov, but I knew very well that we had captured smira when we crossed the north of Dnieper from zaborosh a few months ago. But at that time, bielei was seriously injured and didn't take part in the battle in person. I guess I always felt very sorry. Now seeing the chance of seizing smira again, he can't help but want to lead the troops to establish meritorious service.
After kirilov finished speaking, berey also said with a smile: "Comrade military commissar, the last time I liberated smira, I could only lie on a stretcher and watch you establish your meritorious deeds eagerly. Now we have the chance to liberate the city again. You should let me direct the troops to take part in the battle. "
"No problem." Kirilov took a look at me and said, "I'll grant your request for Rita. Two days later, when our attack on smira begins, you will personally command a tank brigade to cover our infantry to attack the city."
Although kirilov had explained that he had agreed to bere's request on behalf of me, bere was still a little worried. He looked at me and asked, "Comrade commander, can you really let me command the troops to attack smira?"
"Yes, general berey." In order to reassure him, I also said with a smile: "I know you didn't take part in the attack last time, I always feel very sorry, so I will let you do it this time."
"Great, that's great." With these two words, bielei raised his hand to salute us, turned and walked out. After two steps, he suddenly stopped and turned to look at me.
I saw that he wanted to stop talking and asked, "general bielei, what else can I do for you?"
"Well, comrade commander." "Don't you remember my captain shamrih and how many of them?" he said He was deeply afraid that I couldn't remember who this man was, and he specially reminded me, "it was the commanders of several tank soldiers who fought guerrillas here at the beginning."
In fact, as soon as he said the name of captain shamrih, I knew who he was talking about, but I recognized from his words that he had more important things to say, so I went on to say, "general bere, I remember captain shamrih. At that time, he took out their well preserved flag and asked us to rebuild a tank brigade. Now that you have mentioned them all of a sudden, do you have something important to tell me? "
"Yes, comrade commander, you are right. I have something important to tell you." Berey walked a few steps towards me, came to the table, pointed to the map and said, "according to captain shamrih, there should still be our guerrillas near the small city of Koson west of cherkaser."
"Guerrillas?" Hearing that, chisjakov exclaimed: "I can't believe that there are still our guerrillas here!" At this point, he turned to look at me and said, "Comrade commander, we should send someone to get in touch with them and learn about the enemy's strength and defense from them."
I nodded at chisgakov's proposal, and then said to berey, "Comrade General, you should immediately arrange for captain shamrih to go to korson to see if you can contact the guerrillas active near the city. If we can get in touch, in addition to collecting the enemy's intelligence, we'd better let them cooperate with us when we attack the city. "
"All right, comrade commander, I'll arrange it now." After finishing this time, bielei turned decisively and left the headquarters.
Looking at berey's back, chisjakov said with emotion: "I didn't expect that we could meet guerrillas here. If we could get their help, we could get twice the result with half the effort in the next battle."
Seeing the joy of chisjakov's face when he talked about the Ukrainian guerrillas, I could only smile bitterly, and then said: "Comrade deputy commander, although there are many Ukrainian guerrillas, there are not many troops that can be trusted, because many of them are pro German. In addition to helping the Germans attack our army, they often rob villages. We can not accept such troops. On the contrary, we have to eliminate them all. "
As I said this, the expression on his face suddenly became serious. He tapped the table with his fingers and said thoughtfully, "it seems that after going deep into Ukraine, we will organize special forces to eliminate these scum who betrayed our motherland."
"Comrade deputy commander is right." As soon as his words were finished, bzikov continued: "I suggest that a battalion be drawn from general seleucin's forces and be used exclusively to eliminate these scum troops."
"Chief of staff, don't worry." Seeing that the two men put on a posture of "do as you say", I quickly raised my hand to stop them and said, "at present, our primary task is to eliminate the enemy in smira. As long as those scum troops who commit crimes in Ukraine, we will deal with them later. "
As our army has just occupied cherkaser and kaniv, we have a lot of work to do, which has kept us busy all night. When I saw that it was bright outside, I just wanted to find a place to rest. However, akhromeyev, who was going to the headquarters of the front army to deliver a report, rushed out and came in.
I nodded at him and asked politely, "major, are you back all right?"
"Report to Comrade commander, it's been a smooth journey." After answering my question, akhromeyev suddenly said a surprising news: "Comrade commander, on the way from kaniv to here, I heard the soldiers along the way say that we have successfully recovered the small city Kesong from the enemy this morning."
"What, regained Corson?" Akhromeyev's words startled me. I looked at chisgakov and saw that he was also puzzled, but I casually asked, "Comrade deputy commander, do you know what's going on?"
"I don't know..." chisjakov just shook his head twice, suddenly his face showed an appearance of a sudden realization. "Wait, comrade commander, it's not general berey who commands the army and goes all night to take Corson down, is it?"
I listened to what chisgakov said, frowned and thought for a moment, and felt that it was completely possible. Compared with yesterday when berey took the initiative to mention the small city of korson, it was a bit too coincidental that he was recaptured by our army this morning. Thinking of this, I picked up the phone on my desk and told the operator, "connect me to the tank command."
After I got through the phone, I heard Kravchenko's voice coming from the opposite side, so I politely said, "Comrade General, don't worry, is major general Lei here? I have something important to ask him
A moment later, there was a voice from the receiver: "Hello, comrade commander, what can I do for you?"
"Comrade General, I congratulate you." Although it is a good thing to capture Kesong, he acted without asking me for instructions, which I can't tolerate. So I said coldly, "I congratulate you on your successful capture of Kesong."
"What, took Corson?" I didn't expect that after hearing this, bielei was also surprised. He asked in surprise: "Comrade commander, what did you just say? Our troops captured Kesong. What's the matter? You have confused me."
When I heard that, I couldn't help doubting my own judgment. I tentatively asked, "why, comrade general, didn't you send the troops to attack Kesong?"“ No, comrade commander. " "To capture a city, it's impossible to rely on tanks alone. It also needs the cooperation of infantry," said berey. You didn't send us infantry to cooperate. How can we attack Kesong? "“ Comrade commander, I can testify for major general berei. " From the receiver came Kravchenko's voice again: "he was in the headquarters with me all last night, and he didn't go anywhere. It must have nothing to do with us to attack Corson's troops. "“ I know. I'll find out which army captured Corson overnight. " After I finished, I hung up without waiting for them to talk. After I put down the phone, I looked at akhromeyev standing in front of me, frowned and asked, "Comrade major, who did you listen to about the liberation of korsong by our army?"“ Of course, the comrades of the tank army told me that. " Akhromeyev said somewhat unexpectedly, "you also know the commander, Captain shamrih, who used to fight guerrillas around here. When I met him on the road, he was walking back to the tank army, and I gave him a ride As soon as akiromeyev finished speaking, chisjakov proposed to me: "Comrade commander, it seems that we should call captain shamrih to ask what's going on." But before I called the tank army again, they called first. What reported to me was Kravchenko, who said excitedly: "Comrade commander, it's clear that it's really our own people who successfully captured Kesong this morning."“ Which army captured Corson? " I frowned at the question“ It's not the regular army. According to captain shamrih's report, it's the local guerrillas who attacked korsong at night and liberated the city from the German hands. " Kravchenko continued to report that "since there were only more than 100 German soldiers in the city, seven or eight guerrilla units operating nearby formed an army of more than 800 people. They took advantage of the night to touch in, wiped out the garrison in the city, and successfully liberated the small city."