Stalin nodded with a smile on his face and motioned for Rokossovsky to continue.

Rokossovsky said euphemistically: "Comrade Stalin, in order to carry out the offensive campaign you just mentioned, it is necessary to first gather troops, but our troops are still scattered hundreds of kilometers away in Stalingrad. Under the current conditions of transportation, it is very difficult to complete the assembly of troops and reach the designated place, let alone enter the battle. Therefore, I do not think that a full-scale offensive on February 15 can be completed, and I hope that you will delay the offensive for a few days. ”

After Rokossovsky's words were finished, the room suddenly fell silent, and everyone involuntarily slowed down their breathing, especially Rokossovsky's heart was the most uneasy, because he didn't know whether his words had caused Stalin's anger to be angry.

Stalin did not expect Rokossovsky to give himself such an answer, and he was very annoyed in his heart. He took the pipe from his mouth and slammed it the crystal ashtray. Although he did not say anything, the dull noise from the crystal ashtray had already told everyone that he was very angry with what Rokossovsky had said.

Antonov and Voronov became more and more nervous, their eyes moving back and forth between Stalin and Rokossovsky, speculating about what could happen next.

But Stalin did not end up furious on the spot, after all, Rokossovsky was the hero of the great victory that had just been achieved at Stalingrad, and it was absolutely necessary to tolerate him as necessary. Stalin stood up and walked up and down the open space next to the conference table with his empty pipe, carefully savoring what Rokossovsky had just said.

Finally, Stalin walked up to his desk, picked up the cigarette that rested on it, took two out of it, crushed it with his hands, filled the cigarette with his cigarette butt, and said unhurriedly: "Comrade Rokossovsky, I understand that your troops are tired after more than half a month of fighting in bad weather, and it is a little difficult to get them to fight immediately. ”

After lighting his pipe, he slowly walked up to Rokossovsky's side and said earnestly: "In my heart, I also want our commanders and fighters to have a good rest. But no, Comrade Rokossovsky, we must take advantage of the favorable opportunity when Paulus has just been eliminated and the morale of our troops is rising, and launch an offensive as soon as possible before the enemy has time to mobilize forces from other areas. ”

After listening to Stalin's earnest words, Rokossovsky knew that he had not been able to convince Stalin, and if he continued, even if he wore out his mouth, it would not have any effect. So he could only follow Stalin's meaning and say: "I understand, Comrade Stalin, I will rush back to the Stalingrad region as soon as possible and draw up an offensive plan in the Yeltsa region with the other chiefs of the Front." ”

"You must have been tired not long after you arrived in Moscow." Seeing that Rokossovsky agreed to attack as scheduled, a smile bloomed on Stalin's face again, and he said kindly: "Find a place to rest first, and then take a plane back to Stalingrad after dark." ”

Rokossovsky nodded, and just wanted to sit down, when he suddenly remembered the general Kurzbach, who was actively cooperating with the Soviet troops after being captured, and hurriedly said: "Comrade Stalin, I have one more important thing to report to you. With permission, he offered Kurzbach to cooperate with the Soviets, and was willing to recruit from among the captured German officers and soldiers to organize a unit to cooperate with the Soviets.

Before Stalin could reply, the door was pushed open from the outside. Rokossovsky turned his head to look and saw Zhukov and Vasilevsky walking in from the outside. Seeing the appearance of two officers of higher rank than himself, Rokossovsky could not still sit indifferent, he quickly got up from his seat and saluted the two of them.

After Zhukov and the two of them sat down, Stalin took the initiative to introduce Rokossovsky's proposal to the two and asked them what they thought about it.

Vasilevsky turned his head to look at Rokossovsky, who was sitting next to him, and then expressed his opinion to Stalin: "Comrade Stalin, I don't think there is any need to cooperate with a traitorous German general. Moreover, we cannot confirm the loyalty of these German soldiers, and if they were to defect on the battlefield, we would be in a very embarrassing position. ”

"I agree with Comrade Chief of the General Staff." Zhukov expressed support for Vasilevsky's opinion: "Regardless of General Kurzbach's motives, there is no doubt that his actions were a shameful act of treason for the Germans. If he was despised by the prisoners of war, he would not have been able to recruit many soldiers. ”

"Comrades Zhukov and Vasilevsky are quite right, we cannot agree with the proposal of General Kurzbach." After waiting for his two right-hand men to finish speaking, Stalin stood up and took a stand, but seeing the disappointed expression on Rokossovsky's face, he changed the subject: "But in any case, Kurzbach has already shown his willingness to cooperate with us, and we cannot discourage him." Let us treat him well, and let him address the prisoners in the prisoner of war camp when we have time, and call on the deceived German soldiers to stand on our side against the fascist invaders. ”

In the evening, Rokossovsky, on a light bomber, returned to his headquarters near Stalingrad.

When he walked into the headquarters, he was immediately warmly welcomed by everyone. Terekin also said with a regretful face: "Comrade commander, today's celebration ceremony in the city of Stalingrad is really lively, and it is a pity that you were not able to attend. ”

"Comrade Military Commissar, there is nothing to regret, there will be many such celebrations in the future." After Rokossovsky said this, he said to everyone with a serious expression: "Everyone put down the work in hand first, I have something important to announce." ”

Fortunately, several leading members of the Front Command knew that every time Rokossovsky returned from Moscow, there was usually something important to announce, so everyone hurriedly finished the work in their hands, and even if it could not be done for the time being, it was handed over to the designated staff.

After everyone was seated, Rokossovsky told everyone about the reorganization of his troops into the Central Front from now on, and the attack on the Germans in the Yeltsa area on February 15.

Immediately after Rokossovsky's words, Malinin spoke: "Comrade commander, I feel that it is almost impossible to launch an offensive against the Germans in the Yeltsa area within the allotted time. Don't look at the fact that after the reorganization, the number of our troops has been reduced by half compared to the original, but it is very difficult to transport the assembled troops to the Yeltsa region in a short period of time under such bad weather and poor transportation conditions. ”

As soon as Malinin's words were finished, Deputy Commander Trubnikov continued to express his concerns: "Comrade commander, after the reorganization, we have halved the number of troops and technical equipment, and there will be no problems in participating in the offensive in the Yeltsa region?" ”

"Comrade Deputy Commander, you don't have to worry about this." In response to Trubnikov's concerns, Rokossovsky comforted him and said: "Our front will be deployed directly in the middle of the Bryansk Front and the Voronezh Front, with friendly cover on the left and right flanks, and we only need to attack the German troops defending in front with all our strength." Not to mention that we now have three combined armies, a tank arm, and an air force arm, and even if we have fewer troops, we can still achieve victory. ”

Rokossovsky then said to Malinin: "The current road situation is not good, so the main mode of transportation of our troops still depends on the railway. After the meeting is dismissed later, you should contact the relevant departments of the railway and ask them to arrange the transportation of our army as soon as possible. ”

Terekin patiently waited for Rokossovsky and them to discuss the issue of the transportation of troops, and then said: "Comrade commander, I have one more question, what to do with Paulus and those captured German generals? Was it sent with the captives to the prisoner of war camps, or to other areas? ”

"The prisoners of war in the Stalingrad region were sent to the prisoner of war camp in batches as soon as the bodies of the city were cleaned up. As for the cleaning up of the city, leave it to the person in charge to deal with it later. Rokossovsky was still a little nerve-wracking about Paulus's disposition, he thought about it and decided to hand over the contradictions: "As for Marshal Paulus, including the senior officers of the German army, they will all send special personnel to Moscow, maybe they can be used in the future when propagating against the enemy." ”

"And what about General Kurzbach?" As soon as Terekin mentioned Paulus, Malinin immediately remembered Kurzbach, who was actively cooperating with him, and hurriedly asked: "Will he also be sent to Moscow with him?" ”

"That's right, send him to Moscow too." Rokossovsky said with regret: "I mentioned his proposal to Comrade Stalin, but unfortunately it was directly rejected. He was deeply afraid that the people below would treat Kurzbach slowly because of this, and he specially emphasized to Malinin, "Chief of Staff, you must send someone to take good care of his life." In any case, he helped us a lot in the battle to completely wipe out the enemy in the Stalingrad region, and we cannot treat him badly. ”

"I understand, Comrade Commander." Malinin immediately understood Rokossovsky's intentions, and hurriedly nodded and said, "I will instruct the people below to take good care of him." ”

Since he was not very familiar with the enemy situation in the Yeltsa area, before the plan was formally formulated, Malinin called the chief of staff and the chief of intelligence and asked them to arrange for manpower to collect relevant information about the local German army, so that they could draw up a corresponding battle plan based on accurate information.

While Malinin was busy, Terekin pulled Rokossovsky aside and whispered to him: "Comrade commander, I received a call at noon today looking for you. ”

"Looking for me?" Hearing that someone was looking for him, Rokossovs basically asked: "Who is it?" ”

"It's a woman. She said her name was Yunia, and that it had taken a lot of work to make this call to you through the military line. After Terekin finished talking about the situation, he frowned and asked with some displeasure: "Comrade commander, please forgive me, this can't be another girlfriend of yours, right?" She came to you through the military line like this, did it have a bad impact? ”

Hearing Yunia's name, Rokossovsky couldn't help but hesitate for a moment, thinking about where he had heard this name. But when he heard Terekin's last few words, a flash of inspiration suddenly flashed in his mind, and a familiar and unfamiliar name came to mind, and he smiled and said to Terekin: "Comrade Military Commissar, you are too worried. I remembered who this Yunia was, her full name was Yulia Petrovna Rokossovskaya, and she was not my girlfriend, but my wife. ”

"Ah, your wife?" When Terekin and Rokossovsky were partners, although he knew that he had two close girlfriends, he really didn't know about his wife, and at this moment he took the initiative to say that the woman on the phone was his wife, and he couldn't help but ask curiously: "Comrade commander, it turned out to be your wife, I don't know where she is now?" ”

"I don't know." Rokossovsky unexpectedly replied: "I have not seen her since the day the war broke out." Before the fall of Zhytomyr, she and my daughter were evacuated to the rear, but I don't know exactly where, because the people in charge of the evacuation were either killed or missing, and all the relevant information fell into the hands of the enemy. ”

"I see." After hearing what Rokossovsky said, Terekin said apologetically: "I'm sorry, Comrade Commander, I didn't know that she was your wife, so after saying that you weren't there, I hung up the phone." I should ask her where she is, so you can be reunited again. ”

"Don't worry, I can't know where she is, but I can only know which city she's in now." After Rokossovsky finished speaking, he got up and called the communications director Maksimenko over, and said politely: "Comrade Major General, there is an outside call to me today, can you find out what city is calling?" ”

Seeing Maksimenko's dazed look, Terekin hurriedly reminded him: "Do you remember the phone call we called the commander when we were having dinner at noon?"

After Terekin's reminder, Maksimenko suddenly realized: "Oh, I remembered, Comrade Military Commissar. You answered the phone and looked unhappy. Then he turned to Rokossovsky and said, "Comrade commander, please rest assured, as long as I know the approximate time of the call, I will be able to find out where the call came from." Please wait a few minutes and I'll help you find out right away. ”

After a few minutes, Maksimenko excitedly ran back and reported: "Comrade commander, it has been found that the call is from the city of Vladimir, east of Moscow. ”

"Great, that's great." After listening to Maksimenko's words, Terekin smiled at Rokossovsky: "Comrade commander, it is a small city, mainly for the production of crystal products, and it is very easy to find someone. Do you need me to immediately call the city's leader and ask him to help you find your wife and daughter? ”