Chapter 1455

To be the deputy commander is both an opportunity and a challenge. If I can't make remarkable achievements, I guess my future will stop at being the commander of the group army. Like trakov, I can only command one group army at the end of the war.

After Zhukov finished the call, he rang the bell to call in the colonel at the door, and told him: "you go to find a staff officer, but the deputy commander is familiar with the environment."

"Comrade deputy commander?" When the Colonel heard Zhukov's words, he looked confused. He asked mistily, "Comrade marshal, I don't know which deputy commander you are talking about?"

Zhukov shrunk his mouth, waved his head at my position, and said impatiently, "who else can it be? Don't you see that it's just me and general oshanina here? "

The colonel was also a wise man. After listening to Zhukov's words, he immediately understood and said, "I see, comrade marshal." Then he came up to me, reached out and made a gesture of invitation, politely said, "Comrade deputy commander, please come to me, I'll find someone to take you to get familiar with the environment."

After coming out of Zhukov's office, the Colonel politely said to me, "Comrade deputy commander, please wait here for a moment. I'll find a staff officer to accompany you around."

I raised my hand and looked at my watch. It had been almost an hour, but they were still waiting for me outside, so I said to the colonel, "Comrade Colonel, let's do this. We are divided into two groups. You can help me find the staff. I'll go to the door to see my subordinates. We'll meet at the door later. What do you think?"

As for my proposal, the Colonel agreed without hesitation: "yes, comrade deputy commander. In five minutes, I'll take someone to the door to see you. "

As I walked down the corridor towards the door, I saw two generals coming face to face. With sharp eyes, I can see clearly that the commander in front is lieutenant general Moskalenko, who is now the commander of the 38th group army, while the general behind looks like a stranger.

I quickly stopped, stood in the same place, raised my hand to my forehead, saluted Moskalenko, and said with a smile, "Hello, general Moskalenko!"

Moskalenko was stunned for a moment when he heard someone calling his name, but he recognized me quickly. He quickly stepped up to shake hands with me and said in a friendly way, "it's you, comrade oshanina. Aren't you transferred to the Belarusian front army? Today you want to visit us? "

Although I didn't like Moskalenko, I had fought side by side in several places, so I showed enough politeness: "Comrade General, I was called here by Marshal Zhukov." After I said this, I turned to the general beside him and asked, "I don't know who this general is?"

The round faced lieutenant general saw me ask him, quickly stepped forward, took the initiative to reach out to me, and introduced himself: "Hello, general oshanina! I'd like to introduce myself. My name is zhimachenko. After general Moskalenko was transferred to the 38th army as commander, I took over his original position as commander of the 40th army. "

"Hello, general jumachenko." After shaking hands with zhimachenko, I turned to Moskalenko and said, "Comrade General, are you looking for Marshal? He's in the office at the moment

"Thank you." Moskalenko first said thanks to me and then asked, "how long can you stay here? If you can stay two more days, I'd like to call on some old friends to get together with you. "

"Don't worry, I'll be here for a while." I didn't tell him that I was going to be the deputy commander of the front army. Instead, I said vaguely, "there will be opportunities to get together at that time."

Moskalenko didn't realize my indifference to him, and still asked enthusiastically, "where are you going now?"

"I don't know how long I will stay in Zhitomir," I politely replied to his question, "the soldiers who escort me to Zhitomir are still waiting outside. I'll go and settle them first."

"Then go and settle them up," Moskalenko urged. "We'll have a good chat after I see the marshal come out."

Out of the gate of the building, the cold wind made me shiver, and I found that it didn't know when it began to snow outside. I stood on the high steps and looked around for bukov. I soon found bukov and seven or eight soldiers standing by a broken wall on the opposite side of the road. They were covered with snow and turned into a group of snowmen.

I quickly walked up to them and asked in a reproachful tone, "major, it's snowing so hard outside. Why don't you find a place to avoid it? You see, all of you have become snowmen. "

Bukov and the soldiers looked at each other and said to me with a smile: "Comrade commander, I'm afraid you can't find us when you come out, so I'm standing here waiting for you." After a pause, he asked me tentatively, "shall we go back to the group headquarters now?"

"Why are there only a few of you, the others?" Instead of answering his question immediately, I looked around and didn't see the tanks, armored cars and trucks that came with me, so I asked with concern, "where are they?"

Bukov raised his hand to the side and said, "there is a square over there. The comrades of the garrison headquarters told us to stop the motorcade there, and the security forces are also resting there." After reporting the position of the team, he asked me, "Comrade commander, shall we go back to moziri now?"

"We're not going back to moziri for the time being." Facing bukov, who was eager to return home, I shook my head and said to him, "from the current situation, we may stay here for a while."

"Not back to moziri?" Bukov was surprised by what I said. After a moment's hesitation, he asked carefully, "Comrade commander, is there something wrong that you can't go back to moziri in a short time?"

Although I didn't tell moscalenko the truth just now, in front of my most trusted subordinates, I didn't hide: "Marshal intends to let me be the deputy commander of the front army, so in the short term, I won't go back to moziri."

"Fang... Front army... Deputy... Division... Commander?" After listening to these words, bukov stammered, "is this true?"

"That's right," I nodded, and then said to bukov, "major, you go to the people in the garrison headquarters and ask them to arrange a place for you. You can live here first."

"Yes Bukov promised, and he wanted to leave with the people. But after two steps, he stopped, reached out to me and said respectfully, "Comrade commander, I congratulate you on your higher position."

"Thank you," I said, shaking him gently, then releasing my hand and telling him, "OK, you go and carry out the order."

…………

The meeting presided over by Zhukov was held on time in the afternoon.

Zhukov was sitting at the main table. The chief of staff and I were sitting on his right side. On his left side were two members of the Military Commission: General Khrushchev and major general kleinukov. The reason why there are two military commissioners is that after the recovery of Kiev, Khrushchev was appointed chairman of the Ukrainian people's Committee and concurrently served as the first book of the Central Committee of Ukraine. Because he was absent from the army for a long time, and the political propaganda work could not be stopped, the superior appointed kleinukov to assist him in his work in the army.

Seeing me sitting beside Zhukov, Moskalenko's face not far away showed a surprised expression. Just as he was about to ask questions, Zhukov announced the beginning of the meeting.

Zhukov stood up, put his hands on the edge of the conference table, leaned forward slightly, and said to the commanders present: "comrades, as you all know, comrade watujing was ambushed by the enemy yesterday and was seriously injured. He was unable to command the army for the time being, so I was asked to take over his position as commander of the front army. And the deputy commander of the front army, general kurotchkin, was transferred some time ago. In order to ensure the normal operation of the work of the front army, I decided to appoint comrade oshanina to act as deputy commander of the front army after reporting to the Supreme Commander for approval. "

After Zhukov's words, the whole room fell into silence.

Seeing this situation, my heart was like 15 buckets of water, I thought to myself: "is it true that as I guess, people are not willing to accept my appointment as deputy commander, even if it is temporary, because my qualifications are too shallow?"

Just when I was worried, a middle-aged general sitting diagonally opposite me stood up and said to Zhukov, "marshal, my troops once fought side by side with general oshanina's troops. I highly approve of her ability. I think the decision of the superior to appoint her as deputy commander of the front army is very correct."

After staring at each other for a moment, I immediately recognized the bald general as Lieutenant General pokhov, commander of the 13th group army, who had indeed fought side by side with him before. I gave him a grateful smile for his support. Poorhoff looked at me, nodded, and sat down again.

Seeing that some of his colleagues expressed their views, Moskalenko stood up not to be outdone and made remarks similar to those made by pokhov. Then the commander of the 27th group army, troffi Menko, the commander of the 40th group army, rimachenko, the commander of the 60th group army, the commander of the 3rd group army of the close guard tank, rebalko, and the commander of the 2nd group army of the air force, all recognized me as deputy commander one after another.

Seeing that no one objected to my taking the post of deputy commander, I finally put down my heart hanging in my throat. Next, when discussing other tasks, the atmosphere in the meeting room becomes more harmonious.

The meeting lasted for a full hour. After explaining all the tasks, Zhukov turned around and asked Khrushchev on the left, "Comrade military commissar, do you have anything to add?"

"No," said Khrushchev, shaking his head in the affirmative, "I have nothing to add."

Zhukov nodded, looked at me again, and asked the same question: "what about you, Rita? Is there anything you need to tell the commanders?"

"No, comrade marshal." I also shook my head and replied, "I'll spend a few days familiarizing myself with the environment before I start my work formally."

"I'll give you two days." Zhukov said to me in an unquestionable tone: "in a few days, we will launch a new campaign with the second front army, so you should get familiar with the internal affairs of the front army as soon as possible." After he said these words, he stopped for a moment. After I nodded my head for confirmation, he announced in a loud voice: "this is the end of today's meeting. It's over!" Several group commanders stood up one after another and walked out slowly through the open door. After saying hello to Zhukov, I got up and walked to the door, intending to have a chat with an old friend, rebalko. As soon as I got to the door, I saw a young lieutenant trotting down the corridor. He looked at the commanders coming out of the conference room for a moment and then walked decisively towards Moskalenko. Moskalenko obviously knew the lieutenant. He stopped and drew close to the wall, waiting for the lieutenant who was coming towards him. I saw the lieutenant come up to him, close to his ear, and whisper a few words. Moskalenko, with a look of panic on his face after hearing what the lieutenant said, turned and walked quickly towards the conference room. He passed me and walked into the conference room. He said to Zhukov, who was still packing his things in a flustered way, "Comrade marshal, no, ADA is injured?"“ What, ADA's hurt? " On hearing this news, not only Zhukov was shocked, but also Khrushchev, who was chatting beside him, jumped out of his seat. Seeing that both of them came towards the door in panic, I couldn't help muttering in my heart: I don't know who is Ada that Moskalenko said, who can make the two big men in the army so impolite. When I was thinking, Zhukov rushed to Moskalenko, raised his hand, grasped his arm and asked anxiously, "how did she get hurt?" Without waiting for Moskalenko to say why, Zhukov repeatedly urged: "where is she? Come on, take us. Let's walk as we go When I saw Zhukov and Moskalenko passing me like a gust of wind, and I was hesitating whether I should follow them, Khrushchev patted me on the shoulder and asked strangely, "Rita, won't you go?" I listen to Khrushchev's tone, is ready to let me also go to see the injured ADA. Although I didn't know why he wanted to pull me, I casually replied, "yes, of course I will. Since you and marshal are going, I'm no exception. I'll go and have a look with you. " When we followed Zhukov and walked along the corridor, the commanders of the group army looked at us with strange eyes. They didn't know what was wrong, but they didn't ask. Instead, they looked at us with curious eyes. When there was no one around, I asked Khrushchev quietly: "Comrade military commissar, can I ask who this ADA is? Why are you and marshal so nervous when they hear that she has been injured? " Khrushchev turned to me and said, "ADA, you may not know him. But you know her father very well Hearing that I was familiar with Ada's father, I instinctively asked, "who?"“ Rokosovsky, "Khrushchev said with a smile," general rokosovsky, commander of the Belarusian front army. "