After Commander Kirponos and Pulkaev, who had finished briefing the exercise plan, sat down, he raised his head and looked at everyone and said with a smile: "Commanders and comrades, if you have any opinions on this exercise, you can talk about it in public?" ”

After his words were spoken, the commanders at all levels present only looked left and right for a moment, and then resumed their posture of sitting upright, and no one expressed a single word of opinion on the exercise plan.

Pulkaev put his hand on the frame of his glasses, and said with a smile: "Don't have scruples, you can say whatever comes to mind." Speaking of this, he turned his head to look at Kirponos next to him, and continued, "Even if it is wrong, Comrade Commander and I will not blame everyone. ”

Kilponos laughed heartily, "Comrade Chief of Staff is right, everyone can speak freely, even if they are wrong, it doesn't matter. Who wants to speak next? ”

Seeing that the commander and the chief of staff have expressed their positions, it is not so appropriate for the commanders present to remain silent any longer. When Tang Shaohua was hesitating whether he would be the "first bird", someone had already stood up, and it was the commander of the 19th Mechanized Army who was sitting opposite him. I only heard him ask: "Comrade commander, comrade chief of staff, I would like to ask, if a real war breaks out, will the enemy really attack Ukraine first?" ”

"That's right, Comrade General." Kilponos said with a serious expression: "According to the judgment of the General Staff, if war breaks out, the first place where the enemy will attack will definitely be Ukraine. Because here they can get grain from Ukraine, coal from Donbass. If they attack further east, they will also get oil from the Caucasus. Based on the analysis of various circumstances, we have reason to believe that the judgment of the General Staff is completely correct. ”

As soon as Pulkaev and other commanders finished speaking, they also continued: "The reason why we deployed you in the Vladimir-Volynsky area during the exercise is so that your tank division can strike hard at the flank of the enemy troops rushing from Lublin to Kowell. Wait for them to fall into confusion under the front and rear of our army, and then wipe them out. ”

The army commander then asked: "But when General Zhukov was the commander of the Kyiv Special Military District, he once forcefully pointed out that the first direction of the German offensive was not Ukraine but Belarus. ”

"Comrade Commander, your assumptions are completely untenable." Military Commissar Vashukin, who had never spoken, was furious, and he frowned and said: "I admit that General Zhukov is very talented in military affairs, but in judging the direction of the German offensive, I think he is completely wrong. When the enemy attacks Belarus, he will face hundreds of divisions of General Pavlov who are on standby, and our army can easily crush their attack. Would the enemy do such a stupid thing? ”

The commander seemed unwilling, and blurted out: "What if the enemy does not play his cards according to common sense and has to abandon Ukraine and take the lead in attacking Belarus?" ”

Vashukin slammed his fist on the table and said impatiently: "Comrade commander, your worries are completely superfluous. Since the end of the last imperialist war, no enemy has foolishly chosen to fight on two fronts. Don't let your panic affect our fighters......"

Before Vashukin could finish speaking, Kirponos stopped him and said: "Comrade Military Commissar, as I just said, let everyone share their opinions, and even if they are wrong, they will not be blamed." With that, he gestured to the commander across from me, signaling that he could sit down. Then he said: "According to the judgment of the General Staff, the enemy's attack on us will not be earlier than in 1942, so we must not be too nervous, we have enough time to consolidate the defense in both directions at once." So that wherever the enemy attacks, what awaits them will be a devastating blow to us. ”

After the commander sat down, he took out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat from his forehead, and at the same time secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

With the experience of this military commander, no one was willing to speak again, and the atmosphere in the entire meeting hall became depressing. Kirponos may have sensed this, and after briefly reciting some precautions during the exercise, he officially closed the meeting.

Tang Shaohua and Fedyuninsky walked out of the conference room side by side and came to the parking lot outside. Tang Shaohua saw that the commanders closest to him were also ten meters away, and he should not be able to hear the conversation between himself and Fedyuninsky, so he quietly asked: "Do you think we will fight with the Germans?" ”

Regarding Tang Shaohua's question, Fedyuninsky was silent for a moment, then nodded affirmatively, and said lightly: "Yes, Comrade Rokossovsky, as an old subordinate of General Zhukov, I believe his judgment is completely correct." ”

"So where do you think the Germans will be the main attack?" Tang Shaohua then asked.

"Needless to say, it must be Belarus." Fedyuninsky said in a firm tone: "As far as I know, in the exercise of the head of the command on a strategic scale held a few months ago, the Blue Army troops under the command of General Zhukov divided and surrounded the troops of General Pavlov and easily won the exercise. ”

Speaking of this, after looking Tang Shaohua up and down, Fedyuninsky said with interest: "Dear Konstantin Konstantinovich, if we hadn't known each other for more than ten years and were very familiar with you, I would really think that you today are pretending to be someone else. ”

Fedyuninsky's words frightened Tang Shaohua, and he said in his heart that he wouldn't expose his impersonated identity like this, right? In order to find out what was going on, he asked calmly but humbly: "Fedyuninsky, my old friend, why do you have such a delusion?" ”

Fedyuninsky shrugged his shoulders and said thoughtfully: "It's just a feeling, I always feel that you are a little timid when you talk and do, and you are simply like two people in peacetime." After speaking, he didn't wait for Tang Shaohua to answer, then pointed to the side and said: "Chief of Staff Maslov has come to you, probably urging you to go to the end of the exercise." ”

Tang Shaohua turned his head to look, and sure enough, he saw that his chief of staff was looking around in the crowd at the moment, looking for his traces. At this time, he heard Fedyuninsky's voice again: "Let's go, Comrade Rokossovsky, let's go to the site of the exercise together." According to the plan of the exercise, after your troops have formed a defensive line in Cowill, they are to first hold off the enemy's attack, and when our infantry corps and the 19th Mechanized Corps arrive, drive the enemy to the area of Lyubom, where they will be completely annihilated. ”