Chapter 1553

In my memory, the offensive campaign carried out by the first front army of Ukraine to liberate the western states of Ukraine and southeastern Poland was known as the "battle of livov sandomeri", which was also the sixth strike of ten Stalin raids carried out by the Soviet army in 1944.

When we came back from Moscow, we began to prepare intensively for the offensive campaign. However, 36 hours before the start of the campaign, lunev, who was sent by belia to the headquarters of the front army as a liaison officer, suddenly came out in a hurry and said to us, "comrades in command, something unexpected has happened."

Since lunev's office is not in the same place as our headquarters, his sudden appearance has already made everyone uneasy. If he says this again, the atmosphere in the headquarters will become more tense.

"Director lunev," konev frowned, looked at the war director from the Ministry of the interior, and asked with a little dissatisfaction, "what's the matter that makes you so flustered?"

"My men found a body in an abandoned building." Lunev did not care about konev's attitude towards himself, but continued to report: "although the personal belongings on the body have been lost, and there are no identification documents, but after our comrades identified, we found that the dead was a confidential staff officer attached to the headquarters."

"Intelligence staff?" I was shocked by lunev's words in a cold sweat. As soon as he finished, I grabbed ahead of konev and asked, "Comrade lunev, do you know what is in his lost belongings?"

Looking at konev, lunev replied, "I've just been to the confidential office and learned that this staff officer is one of the people who can contact our attack plan. His sudden death, I suspect, was silenced

"Extermination, what extermination?" Konev glared at lunev and asked rudely, "Comrade lunev, do you mean that this staff officer was killed by the enemy after he provided top secret information of our army to the German spies?"

"I think so." Lunev nodded his head and said: "our detailed attack plan should have fallen into the hands of the Germans."

"Marshal," chief of staff sokolovsky was a little flustered when he heard lunev say so. He looked at konev and asked, "what should we do now?"

Konev was silent for a moment, then asked lunev: "Comrade lunev, according to your judgment, how long has the confidential staff officer been dead?"

After thinking about it, lunev replied without hesitation, "at least five or six hours."

Konev nodded, picked up the phone on the desk, dialed a number and said to the receiver, "I'm konev. Let the director of communications answer the phone Hello, Captain, I want to ask, during this period of time, have you found any radio waves of unknown origin in the city Well, I see. "

Konev put down the microphone and said to lunev, "Comrade lunev, I have just asked, the communication department has not found any radio waves of unknown origin, that is to say, the Germans have not sent them out for the time being after they have obtained the information."

"Comrade marshal," said corneev. As soon as he heard that, he immediately asked, "I don't know what we should do next?"

"Do you have any good ideas, Rita?" Konev looked at me and asked, "I know you have many ideas. I'm sure you can come up with some good way to solve this problem."

I'm a little sad to see that konev put the trouble on me. But in the current situation, I can't shirk it. I can only think of a way with a stiff head: "marshal, I think since German spies haven't sent information through the radio after they have obtained information for such a long time, it can only explain one thing: they don't have a radio. That is to say, there is still room for recovery. "

"What should we do?" Once again, lunev asked, "do you immediately organize people to search the city?"

"It's no use," I directly denied lunev's proposal: "we don't know who the other party is at present. If we rashly conduct a city wide search, it will not have any effect except causing people's panic and military morale floating."

"Shall we do nothing?" My words made lunev a little anxious.

Although I have never been a policeman, I am not familiar with criminal investigation. But I haven't eaten pork. Haven't I seen a pig run? But it's no problem to give some advice to lunev: "Comrade lunev, someone must have seen this confidential staff officer before he disappeared. I suggest you send someone to find out who he finally met before he disappeared, and then look for it through this clue. Maybe you can get something. "

As soon as lunev left the headquarters, sokolovsky could not wait to ask konev, "Comrade marshal, what should we do now, and report this matter to the supreme headquarters immediately?"

"Chief of staff, don't worry." Konev said with an air of complacency: "the theft of the combat plan is only our guess at present. If we report it rashly to the supreme command, it will be a false alarm, but it will not be easy to explain. In my opinion, we can still talk about it after lunev's investigation. "

But I thought it was another thing. After they finished speaking, I asked, "Comrade marshal, if our attack plan falls into the hands of the Germans, what should we do?"

"According to the regulations, if there is a leak, our attack plan will be adjusted accordingly." Konev frowned and said: "but from the attack time, only the last 30 hours, even if we have to adjust the deployment, it is a bit too hasty."

I know what he said is true. It is almost impossible for millions of troops to be redeployed in more than 30 hours. On the contrary, it is easy to cause unnecessary chaos. Therefore, I can only say with a bitter smile: "at present, what we can do is to wait here for Comrade lunev's news."

…………

After waiting for more than an hour, konev received a call from lunev. "Marshal, I'd like to tell you a piece of good news. After our investigation, we found that two journalists from Moscow came into contact with the confidential staff at last," lunev said on the phone

"Where are the two journalists?" When konev heard this hour, he said nervously to the microphone, "control them immediately."

"Don't worry, comrade marshal." "I have sent for the two journalists," said lunev confidently

Konev put down the phone and said to us with relief: "Comrade lunev said that he had found a clue and they are pursuing it. I believe that he will give us a positive answer soon."

We thought that lunev would come to the headquarters soon and give us all an explanation. However, this wait lasted for more than an hour. Some sokolovsky, who was not calm, called the office where the interior department was located to inquire about lunev's whereabouts, but the staff on duty in the office did not know where he had gone.

Sokolovsky put down the phone and asked konev, "Comrade marshal, what should we do now?"

"Marshal, I think the situation is very bad. We should report it to the supreme command immediately," said kleinukov, a military commissar who never said a word

"Wait a little longer," konev thought for a long time, frowning, and finally said decisively, "we can't act rashly until we know what's going on."

I am very much in favor of this safe approach taken by konev. If we do not know the real situation, we will report to Stalin in a hurry. When we finally find out that it was an Oolong incident, it will not be a good end.

Just after konev made up his mind to postpone the report, lunev finally appeared in the headquarters. From the expression on his face, I can guess that it must be very serious. Sure enough, as soon as he spoke, all of us were startled: "Comrade marshal, when we just went to arrest two reporters from Moscow, we found that one of them was missing. After our interrogation of the arrested spies, we know that the information they have obtained has been sent out. "

"What, information has been sent out?" Sokolovsky asked in surprise: "Comrade lunev, I want to ask, how did they send out the information?"

"According to the spy's confession, they killed the bought confidential staff officer and stole his confidential documents. One of them left on a motorcycle."

When we heard what lunev said, several of us rushed to the table at the same time, staring at the map on the table. After scanning the map, konev frowned and said, "in the absence of radio, if the enemy wants to send out the information, he can only find a way to pass through our checkpoint and enter the German defense area."

Seeing the red and blue arrows and defense marks on the map representing both sides of the enemy and us, sokolovsky said with a sad face, "our defense front is hundreds of kilometers wide. How do we know where the spy will escape from?"

"Chief of staff," I said decisively, pointing to Lutsk's position after carefully examining the distance between Rovno and the German occupied areas, "if the spy wants to enter the German occupied area, go in the nearest direction of Lutsk."

"But how did he get into Lutsk?" Sokolovsky didn't seem to agree with my judgment. Instead, he asked, "you know, these areas are tightly blocked by our army, and he can't get through."

"It's very simple," I shrugged, and then said, "there are only two ways for a spy to go back to the Germans through our defense area: one is to pretend to be a scout, and the other is to continue to use his journalist identity."

"Where fighting is about to break out, even if we use the identity of a reporter, we can't get through our defense zone." "I think he will pass through our defense area as a scout," konev interrupted

"I see. I'll call general pokhov of Lutsk immediately and ask them to forbid anyone to pass through our defense area and go to the enemy's occupied area." With that, sokolovsky went to the phone on his desk, ready to call general pokhov, commander of the 13th army.

When sokolovsky called, kleinukov asked uneasily: "Comrade lunev, are you sure that the contents of the spies you arrested are true?"

Lunev looked at kleinukov for a moment, then asked in a cold voice, "Comrade military commissar, do you doubt the ability of our Ministry of interior?"

When I heard lunev's question, I couldn't help laughing. I said that the Ministry of internal affairs is equivalent to the Russian version of the royal guards. It seems that no one who has entered the royal guards has been able to carry it to the end. The 18 kinds of torture have not been used up. What should be said and what shouldn't be said have been honestly said. I think the captured spy enjoyed this treatment, so he confessed truthfully. Seeing that kleinukov didn't dare to answer his own words, lunev bit his back teeth and said, "no one dares to confess dishonestly when he is a spy in our Ministry of interior. So I think everything the spy said is true. " As soon as lunev's words were finished, sokolovsky came over nervously and reported to konev, "Comrade marshal, general pokhov said that half an hour ago, a scout passed through the defense line of Lutsk and went to the German occupied area. I think this should be the person we are looking for." Konev smashed his fist on the table and said angrily, "hell, it's a step too slow for him to escape."“ Marshal, I don't think it will take long for the enemy to get our attack plan. " Sokolovsky suggested to konev: "we should report this matter to the supreme command immediately, postpone the attack time, redeploy troops and adjust the attack direction at the same time."“ No, it can't be. " Hearing the advice given by sokolovsky to konev, I quickly retorted: "almost all our troops have entered the attack position. If we make adjustments at this time, it is bound to cause unnecessary confusion. I firmly do not agree to modify the attack plan."“ But our plan has been known by the Germans. If we don't make adjustments, the enemy can take targeted counter actions. " Sokolovsky said anxiously: "our troops will suffer huge casualties at that time."“ Rita, "konev looked up at me and asked as usual," if the Germans get our attack plan, how do we deal with it? "“ Marshal, in fact, my method is very simple, "I replied with a smile," since our troops have entered the attack position, we should launch the attack ahead of time. In this way, even if the German army gets our attack plan, they have no time to adjust their defense. "