After lunev and brakov left, I lay alone on the temporary camp bed, tossing and turning, thinking about whether it was a bit reckless to risk offending the Supreme Commander himself and try to protect bonejerin who I just didn't know for a day?
Just when I was in extreme trepidation, the telephone on my desk rang at last. I turned over from the bed and sat up. I raised my hand and looked at my watch. It was one o'clock in the morning. According to my understanding of Stalin's work and rest time, there will be no one but him who calls at this time.
Carrying a pair of boots, I ran to my desk barefoot. Although it's only a few short steps, I feel that my heart beat faster and my breath became shorter. I put the microphone to my ear and said politely, "Hello, this is uman garrison headquarters. Where are you?"
"Is that Rita?" In the receiver came Stalin's familiar voice: "I am Stalin!"
"Hello, comrade Stalin." Although I know that he is calling me at this time mainly to talk about the matter of bonejerin, he habitually asked, "what instructions do you have?"
"Rita, you are so bold now!" Stalin suddenly raised his voice and said to me in a stern tone, "knowing that Bonnie gerlin is a traitor named by me, he would plead for him. You answer me honestly, why do you want to cover him up like this? Did you get any benefit from him? "
Although his tone was severe, it was obviously not violent, which made my heart a little more stable. I have dealt with him several times, and I know that it is not easy to persuade him, but it is not impossible. The key lies in the way of persuasion. If you are hard to hard like Zhukov, it will only have the opposite effect; Only in this way can he be convinced effectively.
So after a pause, I replied with a smile, "Comrade Stalin, I've known general bonejerin for less than a day, and I don't know each other very well. What can he do for me?"
"But why do you intercede for him?" Stalin was obviously not satisfied with my answer. He asked, "what's the matter with toberia?"
"I had a simple conversation with him and found that he had a wealth of military theory and a certain amount of combat experience." In order not to irritate Stalin, I did not immediately mention the sensitive identity of bonejerin, but deliberately said something irrelevant: "now the army needs such a person, if he can command an army, I think..."
When I was about to fool Stalin into bewilderment and ask for love for bonejerin again, I was impatiently interrupted by him: "OK, belia has said everything to me, so don't do anything more. Let's talk about how you plan to resettle him. Under the current circumstances, he can't be allowed to command a single unit. "
"Yes, comrade Stalin, you are right." Don't mention that bonejerin is still charged with treason. Even if he is innocent, I can't let him command an army alone. After all, he was captured at the beginning of the war. All the tactics he mastered are outdated tactics. If he is allowed to command the army rashly, he may be captured again. However, he once served as commander of the military region or commander of the 28th group army. If the position assigned to him in the army is too low, it seems to be a bit inappropriate. After hesitating for a long time, I said cautiously, "I plan to make him deputy commander of the 18th army. I don't know what you think?"
"No, it can't be." As soon as I uttered my words, Stalin resolutely opposed them.
At such a time, I dare not argue with Stalin. I can only tentatively ask, "Comrade Stalin, I'd like to hear what you mean. What position will he be appointed to?"
Stalin pondered for a moment, then said: "from the prisoners of war who will be incorporated into the 18th army of the guards, 6000 people will be drawn out to form a new division. The division will be headed by your former subordinate, Colonel Lukin, and the Deputy Division will be headed by lieutenant colonel bukov. As for bonejerin, let him be chief of staff. "
"What about the rank, comrade Stalin?" When I heard that a new division had been added to the 18th army of Jinwei, and that my two departments had been appointed as division commander and deputy division commander respectively, while bonejerin had become the chief of staff of the division, it really made me a little sad. The position was second, but Stalin didn't say what rank he would give him, so I asked, "I don't know what rank you are going to give him."
"Major, let him be a major for the time being." After Stalin finished, he added, "is there anything else you don't understand?"
I can't help laughing when I heard that he was demoted to major by Stalin, because in the later period of the Moscow defense war, I was demoted from major general to major by Stalin because of my mistakes. I really feel sorry for him. In order to reassure Stalin about this army, after a moment's thinking, I specially stressed: "Comrade Stalin, in order to strengthen the leadership of this army, I suggest that you send more political cadres who are extremely loyal to the motherland and the people to the army, so that this army can reach the standards of military and political excellence. Do you think so? "
"That's no problem. I'll call konev and ask him to arrange for you." I flattered Stalin just in time, which made him very useful. So before he hung up, he just said in a smooth tone: "Rita, this is the only time for this kind of thing. Do you understand?"
When I heard that he no longer pursued the matter of Bonnie gerlin, the stone hanging in my heart finally fell to the ground, and I quickly and decisively replied, "I see, comrade Stalin."
When I hung up the phone, I found that I was still barefoot on the cold ground. I sat on the chair beside me and put my boots on my feet. At the same time, I was thinking about how to allocate my troops.
The next morning, while I was having breakfast in my office with lunev and brakov, afuning and bukov came in from the outside.
After saluting me, a Funing asked, "Comrade General, when can we reorganize the army?"
"General afuning, don't worry about the adaptation for the time being. Please sit down and have something to eat first." After afuning sat down, I turned my eyes to bulakov and asked, "have you finished your statistical work?"
"Yes, comrade o'shanina, through our efforts all night long, all the statistical work has been completed." Brakov said, taking a document bag out of his briefcase and ready to hand it to me. At the same time, he said, "I was going to give it to you after dinner."
I saw the thick paper bag in his hand. I knew that if I had to look carefully, I would miss breakfast. I told him: "Comrade General, you'd better give us a brief introduction first."
Brakov nodded and began to introduce their statistics to us: "there are 21547 prisoners of war rescued in the POW camp. The number of sick is 9386, including 2195 seriously ill. In addition to the number of serious diseases requiring hospitalization, the number of people who can be incorporated into the army immediately is 19352. "
"General afuning, have you heard all the statistics?" After brakov finished reporting, I turned to afuning and asked, "I don't know how you plan to distribute these soldiers?"
Afuning had been prepared for a long time. As soon as I finished, he took out a book from his briefcase, turned a few pages and said to me, "after months of fighting, the casualties of our divisions are very large. The second and third divisions of the close guard airborne troops need to be replenished with 9000 soldiers; And the fourth division of the airborne guards needs to add 3000 to 5000 people. "
As soon as afuning's words were finished, bulakov broke in and said, "Comrade General, if you just said that you only need 12000 people in your army at most, how do you deal with the redundant soldiers?"
"This... This..." afuning may not have thought that brakov would suddenly ask this question. For a moment, he was tongue tied and didn't know how to answer.
"I received a call from the Supreme Commander himself last night," I quickly came out to help afuning. "He said that he was going to add a new division of 6000 to the 18th army of general afuning's guards."
"Add a new editor?" My words stunned everyone. After a while, ah Funing asked carefully, "general o'shanina, I don't know how to allocate the leadership of this division?"
"The division is headed by Colonel Lukin, commander of the 375TH infantry division of the sixth group army, and the deputy division is headed by lieutenant colonel bukov, deputy head of my guard regiment. He served as chief of staff of the division, with the rank of major. "
While brakov and afuning were trying to digest what I said, brakov reminded me with some embarrassment: "Comrade commander, you just made a mistake. I'm a major, not a lieutenant commander."
I looked up at bukov, who was a little embarrassed, and said to him with a smile, "Comrade bukov, you are promoted to the rank of commander in chief and appointed to the rank of deputy division commander. This is what the Supreme Commander himself means. Are you going to refuse? "
As soon as I finished, afuning and brakov looked at bukov with admiration. What an honor it was to be appointed by Stalin. Bukov's face was flushed with excitement, and he asked in disbelief, "Comrade commander, is that true? Is it really the appointment of the Supreme Commander himself? "
"Yes, comrade commander." In time, I called bukov with a new rank: "in the new division, you should work hard and never let down the trust of the supreme commander. Do you understand? "
"Yes," bukov replied loudly, "I will never fail this trust."
After bukov finished his statement to me, afuning then asked himself what he was concerned about: "general oshanina, the division leaders have it. What are the criteria for selecting commanders at all levels below?"
"Comrade General, you don't have to worry about that." Seeing that afuning was still at a loss about the adaptation, I immediately gave him some advice: "you can choose from the prisoners of war those soldiers who used to be battalion commanders to serve as platoon leaders or squad leaders; Cadres at the regiment level shall be company commanders, and cadres at the division level shall be battalion commanders or regimental commanders. As for political work cadres, the higher authorities will send you a batch of them. "
After the problems of the establishment and commanders at all levels have been solved, afuning continued to ask, "where should we supplement weapons, clothing and various military materials?" He was deeply afraid that I would not pay attention to this problem, and specially stressed that "it is not a small matter to solve the weapons, ammunition and military supplies of nearly 20000 people at one time."
"It's easy." I remembered that konev had provided me with a large number of military warehouses in the shepetovka area, which could fully meet the needs of the army. So I asked brakov to take a map, pointed to shepetovka on it, and said to afuning, "Comrade General, I will discuss with general konev later to transfer your army to the shepetovka area, What do you think of resupplying weapons, ammunition and military supplies there? "“ That's great. That's great. " When I heard that I was going to konev to transfer them to shepetovka, afuning's eyes lit up as if there were some treasure there. He said excitedly: "in this way, not to mention our army has more than 20000 people, even if we have more than 200000 people, we don't have to worry about the shortage of weapons and materials."“ General afuning, you are just daydreaming. " As soon as afuning's words were finished, lunev, who had been eating beside him, said jokingly, "here are 200000 people. Are you still commanding an army? That's at least the scale of two army groups. How about I discuss with marshal konev and let you be deputy commander of the front army? " As soon as lunev's words were finished, they immediately caused a lot of laughter. I got up, went to my desk, picked up the high frequency phone and called konev. After the connection, without waiting for me to explain my intention, he said in advance, "Rita, I have received a call from Comrade Stalin. I have transferred 60 political work cadres from the headquarters of the front army to enrich the cadre team of the new division."“ Marshal, "I waited patiently for him to finish before explaining my intention. Finally, I said," as the total number of the 18th army of the guards has exceeded 40000, if we don't coordinate in advance, we will go directly to shepetovka, I'm afraid it will cause unnecessary confusion. "“ You're right. I'd like to talk to shepetovka first, so that they can prepare for you in advance, as well as the necessary weapons, ammunition and various military supplies. " "In addition, we need to contact the railway department to prepare enough wagons to transport our troops to shepetovka," konev said