Chapter 1448

When chisjakov and bezikov knew that I had been defeated in the competition for the commander of the front army, their faces were filled with regret. Perhaps it was because I was worried that I couldn't think of it. Chisgakov also advised me to say, "don't be sad, comrade commander. The higher authorities appointed general kurotchkin as commander of the front army, probably because of his old qualification and experience in commanding the front army. But in terms of command level, I don't think he can match you."

I knew that chisgakov meant well. I gave him a little smile and said as if nothing had happened: "Comrade deputy commander, thank you for persuading me. In fact, I don't think I have the experience of commanding a large regiment. Suddenly, I was promoted from Group Commander to commander of the front army. Maybe my work didn't go as smoothly as I thought. " I told myself in my heart: Although I really want to be the commander, I don't want to force it. I'm lucky to get it and I'm lucky to lose it. Let it be.

While I was chatting with chisjakov, at the headquarters of the front army hundreds of kilometers away, rokosovsky was also talking about me with malining. Rokosovsky nervously asked malining: "chief of staff, after Rita heard the news you reported, what's her reaction?"

"The reaction was flat." Malining replied.

Rokosovsky was surprised by malining's answer. He asked in surprise: "is she not disappointed after she learned that she lost the election?"

"Well, maybe." "I guess she's a little disappointed, but I can't hear anything from her tone," malining said in an uncertain tone

"What else did she talk to you about?" What rokosovsky is very concerned about is that after malining brought me bad news, he talked with me for a long time and what he talked about.

"She said that she intends to let the reconnaissance team go deep into the enemy's rear to conduct reconnaissance and at the same time try to contact the guerrillas in the area." Malining gently reported to rokosovsky: "when our army launches a large-scale attack, these guerrillas can be put to use."

"Rita has a point." After listening to this, rokosovsky nodded his head and said: "at the beginning of the war, due to the paralysis of the command system of the Western army, the forces in their own ways were unable to resist the rapid advance of the German army. As a result, many of our scattered troops scattered in Belarus and formed a group of guerrillas, fighting tenaciously with the Communist occupation army for a long time."

"Speaking of the fighting capacity of the guerrillas," malining said with a lingering fear, perhaps because he was frightened by those dragon and snake mixed guerrillas in Ukraine: "it's OK to fight with the wind. Once defeated in the battle, they will flee. I'm afraid that contacting the guerrillas behind the enemy's lines, no matter how helpful it is to us, will drag us down on the contrary. "

"Chief of staff, you can't say that." Regarding malining's statement, rokosovsky refuted it without hesitation: "Ukraine is Ukraine and Belarus is Belarus. The two cannot be confused. We need to know that some of the guerrillas in Ukraine support us, some support the Germans, and even fight on both sides. This kind of army is originally a group of loose sand. How can it form combat effectiveness? The situation in Belarus is different. The guerrillas here are almost made up of small units of our army that have been broken up. They not only have a unified command, but also have political workers. Their cohesion and combat effectiveness far surpass those of the Ukrainian guerrillas. "

"Comrade commander," malining asked tentatively after rokosovsky finished saying, "in that case, we should also send people behind the enemy lines to contact those guerrillas who have always insisted on fighting and organize them. When we launch a large-scale attack on the German army, they will cooperate with us and harass the enemy's rear. "

Rokosovsky expressed his support for malining's proposal and said, "chief of staff, you immediately order the chief of reconnaissance to select a suitable person to go deep into the German rear for reconnaissance, and try to get in touch with the guerrillas in this area."

"I'll add." After recording the orders, malining continued: "I think every reconnaissance team should be equipped with radio stations. After contacting the guerrillas, we should stay in the guerrillas as liaison officers, so that we can give various operational orders to the guerrillas."

"Your proposal is good. Let's do it. "

Malining just got up to call the reconnaissance director when the high-frequency telephone in front of rokosovsky rang. He put the earphone to his ear and said in a loud voice, "Hello, this is rokosovsky. Where are you?"

Zhukov's deep voice came out of the receiver: "Comrade rokosovsky, I'm Zhukov. How are you recently?"

Hearing Zhukov's voice, rokosovsky quickly stood up from his seat, straightened up and said politely, "Hello, dear Georgi konstantinovic, I'm glad to hear your voice. I don't know what good news you have brought us?"

Zhukov sighed and said, "I'm sorry, comrade rokosovsky. I think I've brought you bad news."

Zhukov's words surprised rokosovsky. He said in his heart that apart from something important, he immediately asked, "Comrade Zhukov, what's the matter?"

"There are two things," Zhukov said slowly. "First, your Belarusian front army will be officially reorganized into the Belarusian first front army on February 17. It may be necessary to transfer one or two army groups from your army to enrich the newly formed second front army."

After writing Zhukov's in the book in front of him, rokosovsky asked, "Comrade marshal, don't you know what the second thing is?"

"As far as I know, you have a good relationship with the individual leaders of the general staff." Zhukov didn't beat around the bush with rokosovsky, so he said directly: "you should know who will be appointed as commander of the second front army today. Originally, Rita was also one of the candidates, but because of a small situation, she was the most promising, but in the end she lost the election

From Zhukov's words, rokosovsky seemed to hear something, so he asked cautiously, "Comrade marshal, can you tell me what kind of small situation has happened?"

"If it's me or vasilevsky who will speak when recommending candidates, maybe Lida will not be able to run away when she becomes commander of the second front army." When Zhukov said this, he could not help sighing again and said with regret: "who knows that it was Ivanov, deputy chief of general staff, who recommended Rita to Comrade Stalin."

Although Zhukov's words came to an abrupt end, rokosovsky understood immediately. Because Stalin hated Ivanov, many senior commanders knew it. Only then did he understand why I was implicated in Ivanov when I became commander.

Rokosovsky was silent for a long time, then tentatively asked: "marshal, as far as I know, although it will take two months to form the third front army, the post of commander has been designated as general chernyahovsky. I want to ask, "will Rita have such a chance in the future?"

"There are always opportunities." Zhukov couldn't tell rokosovsky about his private dialogue with Stalin and vasilevsky. He just said vaguely: "in fact, even if he becomes the commander of the front army now, it's not good. There are too many aspects to be dealt with in a newly formed army. With Rita's ability, it is difficult for her to cope with it. Rather than this, it is better for experienced people to lay a good foundation in front of her. "

After these words, Zhukov didn't wait for rokosovsky to respond, so he promptly changed the topic: "by the way, I think you've already informed her about Rita's defeat. What's her mood now?"

Although Zhukov's words were vague, rokosovsky still realized from his words that kurotsky, who is now the commander of the front army, is only a transitional role, and he could not help but feel relieved. After hearing Zhukov's questions, he said with a smile, "don't worry, marshal. Her mood has not been affected."

"Oh," Zhukov asked curiously, "how do you know?"

Rokosovsky laughed and said with some embarrassment: "I asked the chief of staff, general malining, to call her after I learned that she had lost the election. When she heard this news, she may feel a little disappointed, but she soon talked to my chief of staff about work. "

"What did you talk about?" Rokosovsky made Zhukov more curious, so that he couldn't wait to ask, "did she come up with any good idea?"

"You are right, comrade marshal." Rokosovsky replied with a smile: "she suggested to malining that the reconnaissance troops we sent to the enemy's rear should not only scout the enemy's deployment, but also contact the local guerrillas, so that when we launch a large-scale attack on the German army in the future, the Rangers can cooperate with us behind the enemy."

"Interesting, interesting, really interesting." After these words, Zhukov said, "I'll call her myself and ask her how she thinks about it." With that, I hung up the front army headquarters and ordered the operator to get through to my headquarters.

When Zhukov's phone call came in, I was personally telling bzikov that he should deploy competent personnel to set up the reconnaissance and intelligence services in the shortest possible time.

I was really surprised to hear Zhukov's voice coming out of the receiver. I was a little surprised and asked, "marshal, aren't you in charge of the coordination of the first and second front forces in Ukraine? How did you remember to call me today? "

"There are some things that I think rokosovsky has already told you. I won't repeat them here." Zhukov said to me frankly, "I just called him. He told me that you are going to send people to the enemy's rear to contact the guerrillas in those areas. Is that the case?"

"Yes, comrade marshal." Although I didn't know the destination of Zhukov's question, I answered truthfully: "I have given orders to the following troops to let each reconnaissance team try to get in touch with the local guerrillas when carrying out reconnaissance behind enemy lines."

"What are you going to do when you get in touch?" Zhukov asked noncommittally after listening to me“ After establishing contact, I plan to leave liaison officers in the guerrillas and keep in touch with us through radio so that in the future, I can give operational orders directly to the guerrillas. " I confidently said to Zhukov: "after our offensive battle starts, the guerrillas can destroy the German lines of communication behind the enemy, prevent the enemy from sending reserves to the front line, and timely report the latest situation of the enemy to us through the radio station we left behind."“ Rita, have you ever thought that the front of your group army is swamp, lake and forest, which is not conducive to the development of large forces at all? " After listening to my statement, Zhukov said without hesitation: "in other words, your group army may not have the opportunity to participate in the attack on the German army at all. What should these guerrillas do then? They were surrounded by heavy German troops. If they were not careful, they would be in danger of being destroyed. Have you considered all these? "“ I've thought about it all, comrade marshal. " As for Zhukov's worry, I said with complete assurance: "we can't surprise the German troops by launching attacks from other directions. But after our reconnaissance, the German army only set up a few firepower points on some commanding heights at the edge of the swamp. If our troops can cross the swamp by surprise and give the enemy an unexpected attack, they will certainly achieve great results. "“ What would you do if the German forces strengthened their defense at the edge of the swamp when the troops were assembled? " Zhukov, like an interviewer, kept asking me new questions: "the troops trapped in the swamp may become the targets of the German army."“ Comrade marshal, please listen to my explanation. " I know that in the real history, Zhukov has not considered the possibility of launching an attack on the German army in the swamp and lake areas, so I must remind him first: "you just said that because it is a swamp area, we can not use large-scale tank troops. And the Germans must be closely monitoring our tank forces. As long as they find that these forces are not in Belarus, then our attacks will also be taken as auxiliary attacks by them. " After listening to what I said, Zhukov was silent for a long time, and finally said, "Rita, you have a good point. I want to discuss with vasilevsky. If necessary, I'll ask him to call you in person and discuss the direction of attack carefully