Far away in Moscow, Ponomarenko, received puzzling news on the afternoon of May 22.

With this telegram in hand, he circled around the large office of his guerrilla headquarters, while his subordinates had to watch their superiors circle around.

It was the content of this telegram that made him so puzzled, he frowned and turned for a while, and finally looked at all the staff, and asked suspiciously: "Do you believe them?" They invented new rockets and bombed Chernihiv directly! The chaos is no small thing! ”

It was an urgent meeting convened by Ponomarenko, which was attended by a large number of guerrilla zone liaisons, staff officers, and several cadres of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. They had all read the message, and no one was not shocked by the document.

Moreover, there are many intelligence realities, and there is indeed a major chaos in Chernihiv, so much so that the whole city is lifted.

A staff officer raised his hand and stood up: "Comrade Commander-in-Chief! I think there's something strange about this! According to some other information that we have, there was indeed chaos in Chernihiv, and it was really the 63rd Army that created all this? We received information from the Germans that the enemy claimed that the partisans had planted a large number of bombs and detonated them in a surprise manner during the execution of the captured partisans, which caused the confusion. ”

"Yes! Sergeisky! I am aware of the information you mentioned, however, our comrades in Chernihiv claim that they did see something like a meteor crashing into the city and causing a violent explosion. Maybe this is the new invention on the part of the guerrilla republics! ”

"Maybe?" Another staff officer stood up, "With all due respect, Comrade Commander-in-Chief, they claim that this is a new type of rocket nicknamed Exocet that they invented, but, let's calculate it on the map a little!" The rocket had to fly forty kilometers in order to land in Chernihiv. Is this possible? I don't know anything about the production of weapons, but I at least know that our Katyusha rocket launchers can fly only ten kilometers at a distance. I can't imagine that they, trapped in the swamp, can produce more advanced weapons than our Kirov factory! ”

The entire attendees, they were extremely suspicious of the past telegrams sent by Salinch Blonde. No one recklessly asserted that Salinchkin was boasting, and no one was sure that the chaos in Chernihiv was the work of local partisans.

The city was under martial law and the local guerrilla groups had been devastated, but radio contact still existed, albeit in greater concealment.

Ponomarenko was certain that the German puppet army stationed there had killed a large number of civilians, and that the German barracks and the granaries they controlled had suffered serious damage.

From Ponomarenko's standpoint, he was of course more than happy to believe that Salinchikin's telegrams were true, because he was the first secretary of the former Belarusian Republic, and if it had not been for the war, he would still be the leader of this union republic. Today, there is only a large area of land left in the swamps of Belarus that has never been gnawed by the enemy, and Berekov and Salinchkin have waged many large-scale battles here, and the results achieved are not insignificant!

When they expanded the guerrilla zone around the swamps, there was no doubt that Ponomarenko, as the commander-in-chief of the guerrilla movement, had something to boast about in front of Stalin.

Only this time, a report based on this message was written and handed over to the Kremlin, wouldn't the leader think that this guerrilla republic was bragging? Who would believe that there really is rocket artillery with a range of forty km?

Only a traitor would have hoped for the defeat of the Soviet army, and everyone present at the meeting hoped in their hearts that the contents of the telegram were all true. However, everyone was aware of Stalin's temper, and most of them were afraid of him, and whoever reported the document must be held accountable for its contents. If the military situation is lied, the Ministry of Internal Affairs will mercilessly act according to the regulations, that is, shooting!

There was a lot of talk in the office, like a swarm of flies buzzing together, which made Ponomarenko very upset.

He yelled, "Stop arguing! As for whether the partisan republics really shelled Chernihiv with rocket artillery, the matter is put on hold for the time being! ”

The office fell silent, and after a moment of silence, a staff officer raised his hand again: "So, how do we report to the leader?" After all, even if it was the partisans inside the city, as the Germans claimed, it was the attack carried out by the guerrillas. As you all know, the guerrilla republics are so special that they can simply launch a large-scale offensive on their own without listening to our moderation! Are we going to let them attack Chernihiv? No!

The order we gave them was only to rescue the 17th Guerrilla Brigade in distress, and they did their job well. Don't you know what they did after that?

Right! They mobilized on a large scale and fought a decisive battle with the invading Romanian 6th Division! Although the battle was won, their move was already disobedience!

They decided to fight the enemy on their own initiative, and at least if they were victorious, the leader would not blame, and would even be rewarded. But we can't give them all the credit and the rest of the guerrillas are still watching! I think the credit for this attack on Chernihiv goes to the local partisans. After all, the enemy also thinks so, why don't we make a big deal about it, and objectively, can't we also encourage guerrillas in other cities in the occupied areas?! ”

Hearing these words, Ponomarenko's mood was quite unhappy. He glanced at the man and saw that he was wearing a blue hat, and it was not surprising that as a high-ranking political worker, he would give such a mechanical answer.

In the guerrilla movement command, and even in the vast majority of Soviet organs, senior officers and officials were very disgusted with their subordinates not doing things according to the plan, and even if the subordinates changed the plan in order to accomplish the task well, as a superior, the first thing they thought of was to punish them according to the regulations.

The reason for this is that Stalin was a man of order, and besides, today's guerrilla command, except for the supreme commander Ponomarenko, the others, their understanding of guerrilla warfare still lies in the book written by Lenin back then, and they pay more attention to whether these units are absolutely loyal to the Soviet Union and can obey absolute command to carry out orders than local partisan forces.

Ponomarenko is not the kind of rigid person, compared to staying in Belarus before the war and holding real power, now he is just in a house in Moscow, remotely commanding partisans everywhere through the radio! Moreover, the seat of Belarus in the Council of Ministers was temporarily abolished and replaced by a partisan republic, of which Taponomarenko was the first book.

Doesn't this mean that Belarus is not perishing, but continues to exist in a completely new way.

Considering the presence of several high-ranking personnel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ponomarenko could not refute anything. He rolled his eyes at his subordinate who was a staff officer and pig teammate, and then reluctantly said: "What you said has some truth, we should encourage the guerrillas who are fighting on other battlefields. ”

Then he changed his words: "But the partisans in Chernihiv, who refuse to admit that all sabotage is what they call it, and even then we have to impose credit on them?" That's not right! Today, we just lack the evidence to prove that the guerrilla republics really have rockets with a range of 40 km, and that they are also responsible for the chaos in Chernihiv. Until the matter is completely resolved, the matter will not be reported for the time being! But beating that infantry division in Romania into a severely disabled position can be reported! The USSR needed victory!

For us, the military operation that we had planned since May 5 had finally ended in victory, with the 17th Guerrilla Brigade suffering heavy casualties, and the enemy's casualties were not also very heavy. Regardless of whether the guerrilla republics disobeyed their orders in the decisive battle with the Romanian army, they brought us a great victory, and we, the leaders of the guerrilla movement, were able to give an account to the leaders. ”