Chapter 1513

The next evening, we received an order from the Supreme Command: in order to command the troops and ensure the safety of the command, the first front army command of Ukraine should move from Toki town northeast of vorochsk to Rovno on April 22.

When he received the order, konev said with regret: "it's a pity that Toki is the most completely preserved town I've ever seen."

"Marshal," sokolovsky said with some pride after hearing konev's feeling, "it's mainly because the commanders and fighters of our first front army moved quickly and we occupied here before the German army could destroy the city."

I looked at the map and asked, "marshal, I have a question. If we want to command the first and second front forces, the most suitable position should be tarnopol, which we liberated some time ago. How can we choose Rovno to the north?"

"Rovno is closer to Belarus." Konev said thoughtfully: "according to my analysis, the supreme command will have a big operation in Belarus. In order to facilitate our cooperation with the Belarusian front army, it is completely correct to set the headquarters of the front army in Rovno."

Just when konev arranged for sokolovsky to be in charge of the relocation, kleinukov ran in from the outside like a gust of wind. He carried a telegram in his hand and said excitedly: "good news, good news, comrades commander!"

"Comrades of the military commissar," konev looked at the emotional kleinukov and asked curiously, "where are you from?"

As he handed the telegram to konev, kleinukov said excitedly: "I just came back from the troops below. When I passed by the telegraph room, I saw that a communication staff was going to send you a telegram. I took it and saw that it was exciting news, so I brought it back directly."

"Comrades of the military commissar," sokolovsky asked eagerly when he saw that kleinukov was so happy, "what's the good news, tell it quickly?"

Before kleinukov spoke, konev put down the telegram and said to us with a smile, "comrades in command, it's really good news. This is a German telegram just intercepted by our army. It says that Hube, who was promoted to General of the army only yesterday, crashed on his way back to Berlin by plane. According to the report from the German army participating in the search, all 15 people on board, including the pilot, were killed. "

"Hube's dead?" Konev said the news, let me surprised, quickly asked: "the news has been confirmed?"

"There should be no mistake." Konev tapped the telegram on the table with his finger and said confidently, "if the German search team didn't find Hubert's body, they wouldn't have sent such a telegram to Berlin."

Sokolovsky did not follow suit. When konev finished, he suddenly asked with great vigilance, "do you think this is a German conspiracy?"

"Chief of staff, you think too much." Konev waved to sokolovsky and continued: "the battle between us and the German army has come to an end for the time being. At this time, there is no need for the Germans to concoct a false intelligence to us. Therefore, I can conclude that Hube's death in the air crash is a firm fact. "

"Marshal, I think it is necessary for us to report this to the higher authorities." I thought that maybe we were the first people to know about Hube's death. Such important information should be reported to the supreme command immediately: "so that the general staff can formulate future combat plans based on this information."

"Yes, Rita, you are right. This information needs to be reported to the superior immediately." As soon as konev spoke, he picked up the high-frequency telephone on his desk and directly dialed the general staff to find Antonov.

Antonov just called us half an hour ago to convey the order of the supreme command to transfer the headquarters. At the moment, seeing konev call himself suddenly, he can't help feeling a little flustered. He worried that something had gone wrong, and quickly asked: "marshal konev, do you have anything important to call now?"

"Yes, my deputy chief of general staff." "I have an important news to report to you immediately," said konev, smiling into the microphone

"Comrade konev, what's the matter?" Konev's words made Antonov even more nervous. He said something out of tune: "can't it be your... Your... Headquarters transfer... Thing?"

"Of course not," konev repeated the contents of the telegram we intercepted to the other side without any more riddles with Antonov. Finally, he said strongly, "Comrade deputy chief of general staff, please check the truth of the information through the intelligence agency."

"Don't worry, marshal konev." Antonov breathed a sigh of relief, and then said, "I will report this matter to Comrade Stalin immediately, and let the intelligence agencies verify the information."

As soon as konev finished his phone call, I asked him, "Comrade marshal, can I make a call?"

"Rita, are you going to call?" Konev listened to me with a puzzled expression on his face, but he was soon relieved: "Oh, I see. Are you going to call Comrade Khrushchev and tell him the good news?"

"Yes." Seeing that konev had guessed my idea, I nodded my head and replied, "in addition to telling him the good news immediately, I also hope that he can send the new recruits as soon as possible. In this way, we will be able to form an anti bandit force immediately. "

"You are very considerate, Rita." "Now you can call Kiev," konev said, pushing the high-frequency phone in front of me

The person who answered the phone was Khrushchev's secretary. When he heard my voice, he politely said, "sorry, general oshanina, comrade Khrushchev is in a meeting..."

Without waiting for him to finish, I said, "secretary, please go now and ask Khrushchev to answer the phone. I have an important message to inform him."

"Can you tell me?" The Secretary asked tentatively, "I'll pass it on to you after the meeting."

"No way," I firmly refused his offer, and said sternly, "I'm still saying that. Please go and ask Comrade Khrushchev to answer the phone immediately."

The Secretary saw that I was so stubborn that he couldn't help falling into a dilemma. If someone else had made this call, he would have hung up long ago. It was because of the friendship between Khrushchev and me that he hesitated.

After waiting for a moment, I saw that the Secretary neither hung up the phone nor said to go to Khrushchev, so I added: "don't worry, secretary. If Khrushchev blames me, I will say good things for you."

After getting my promise, the Secretary said reluctantly, "well, general oshanina, I'll go to Comrade Khrushchev. But I can't guarantee whether he will answer the phone or not. "

A few minutes later, Khrushchev's displeased voice came from the receiver: "Rita, do you have anything important? I'm calling a meeting of leaders at all levels in the state and the city to talk about the restoration of industrial production and the reconstruction of collective farms. "

As soon as Khrushchev finished speaking, I went straight to the main topic and said, "Comrade Khrushchev, I'm calling to tell you a big piece of good news: Hube is dead!"

Khrushchev was so shocked by my unexpected news that he didn't speak for a long time. After a long time, he tentatively asked, "Rita, did I hear you right? Hube's dead?! Did you air drop an action team to the enemy's defense area yesterday and kill him by surprise? "

I admire Khrushchev's imagination, so I said: Hube is dead. He even thought that we sent an action team to carry out the assassination mission in the enemy's rear“ Comrade Khrushchev, we have not sent any action teams. Hube died in a plane crash on his way to Berlin during the day. "

"Has this information been verified?" When Khrushchev learned about the cause of Hube's death, the first question he thought was the same as I thought: "can't it be the rumor spread by German spies?"

"The news of Hube's death in the air crash came from the interception of German telegrams." Khrushchev's suspicions are reasonable. Hube's death will have some influence on the future war situation. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to be cautious. I repeated what konev had just said and explained to him: "the battle between us and the German army has come to an end for the time being. There is no need for the Germans to concoct such false news to deceive us. If they do, they may not be able to deceive us in the end, but will cause military unrest. "

"It seems to be true?" I've already said that, Khrushchev said with half faith.

"Yes, comrade Khrushchev." I stressed again, "this information has been reported to the general staff. General Antonov will ask the intelligence department to verify this information."

When I said this, Khrushchev finally confirmed that the information I told him was not a joke, but real. He sighed a long time and said in a relaxed tone, "Hube is dead. It's so good. Although he escaped from the encirclement of our army twice, he still failed to escape the fate. "

After reporting the news of Hubei's death to Khrushchev, I went on to talk about business: "Comrade Khrushchev, I want to ask, how many recruits have you recruited at present?"

After I asked, Khrushchev's voice of turning the paper came from the receiver, as if he was looking at the data reported below. After a while, his voice came out from the receiver again: "as of today, we have recruited 36000 new soldiers."

"Comrade Khrushchev," when I heard that so many recruits had been recruited, my heart beat faster and I couldn't wait to ask, "can you bring all these recruits to the front line by train?"

"Is it too early to transport the new soldiers now?" Khrushchev also kindly reminded me: "the recruits have no special military training or combat experience. At this time, they will be incorporated into the army, which will dilute the combat effectiveness of the army."

"Well, comrade Khrushchev." Seeing that he was not willing to send the newly recruited soldiers to the front line at such a time, I quickly gave him a brief report on the plan of "replacing training with war" that we discussed last night.

After listening to my report, Khrushchev was silent for a while. Then he said, "OK, I'll send a train to deliver 5000 new soldiers to you tomorrow."“ Five thousand people? " When I heard that only 5000 recruits were given, I felt a little disappointed, because this number was less than one sixth of his recruits. So I continued to plead, "Comrade Khrushchev, 5000 is too few, at least 10000."“ I'll tell you the truth, Rita As soon as I finished, Khrushchev immediately explained to me, "these 5000 recruits are all equipped with new uniforms and weapons. If you want 10000 people, you may be left with the weapons and uniforms of the recruits, and you can only rely on yourself to solve the problem. " When Khrushchev said this, I quickly covered the microphone with my hand and turned to konev, who was standing across the table, for help. Konev listened to the conversation between Khrushchev and me clearly. Seeing me looking at him at the moment, he nodded vigorously, and then said decisively, "Rita, promise him that we will solve the problem ourselves for the remaining 5000 recruits' weapons and uniforms." I quickly released my hand covering the microphone and said to the microphone, "well, comrade Khrushchev, we will solve the weapons and uniforms that the remaining 5000 recruits need." When I put down the phone, sokolovsky immediately asked konev, "marshal, we are seriously short of weapons and military supplies. I don't know where we should go to find the weapons and uniforms that these 5000 recruits need." Konev pointed to the map and said to sokolovsky: "Comrade chief of staff, you see shepetovka, which is southwest of Rovno, was the military warehouse of the southwest front army before the war. According to the reports of the troops occupying the area, there are still a large number of our weapons and military supplies seized by the German army in the warehouse, which we can use to arm our recruits. "“ Shepetovka has been occupied by the German army for three years, "sokolovsky said with a surprised face." hasn't the German army removed all the materials in it? "“ You have to know that the weapons and military materials stored there were enough for the southwest army to use for one year at that time. " Konev gave a wry smile and said to himself, "the Germans may not look up to our army's weapons and equipment, and feel that they do not have their weapons. Therefore, after occupying that area, except for military materials, weapons and ammunition are basically not used."