When Zhukov arrived at the Kremlin, it was late at night, but Stalin remained in his office. When www.biquge.info saw Zhukov push the door open and stride in, he quickly stood up and walked around the desk to meet him.

He shook Zhukov's hand and said cordially: "Comrade Zhukov, you have done a good job in the Yelnya region and dealt a severe blow to the arrogance of the fascist bandits. After the two released their hands, Stalin looked at Zhukov and was silent for a moment, then added, "You were right then." ”

Zhukov understood in his heart that Stalin was referring to his own proposal to let the Southwestern Front abandon Kiev and withdraw to the east bank of the Dnieper to build a new defense. But at this time, the troops of the Southwestern Front, without the slightest sign of retreat, were still engaged in fierce battles with the Germans in the Kiev region, and thinking of this, Zhukov sensibly remained silent, wanting to hear what Stalin would say next.

Sure enough, Stalin continued: "At the moment there are difficult situations on several of our fronts. Where do you want to go? ”

"Comrade Stalin," Zhukov immediately understood that his post as commander of the reserve front was to be removed and assigned to a new post, so he said with a respectful attitude: "I resolutely obey your orders, and I will go wherever you arrange for me to go." ”

"You go to Leningrad." Stalin got straight to the point: "Now the situation in Leningrad is very difficult, the Germans have captured Schlieseburg, surrounded the whole city, and not only carried out air raids on the city during the day, but also set up artillery in the area north of Tosno, bombarding the streets of Leningrad. All this shows that the Germans are ready to storm Leningrad. ”

Zhukov, who had been directing the counterattack in the Yelnya salient lately, had not paid enough attention to the other battlefields, and did not expect the situation in Leningrad to become so bad, he clicked and readily agreed: "Okay, Comrade Stalin, I will fly to Leningrad at once." ”

"Good!" Feeling relieved to hear that Zhukov was willing to go to Leningrad, Stalin turned around and walked to his desk, picked up a folded note on the table, and handed it to Zhukov, "This is an order for you, you will take over the post of Marshal Voroshilov and be responsible for commanding the troops of the Leningrad Front." ”

When Stalin saw Zhukov carefully put the note in his jacket pocket, he struck a match and lit his pipe, and after taking a puff, he said worriedly: "In addition to Leningrad, the situation in the south-west is also quite bad. I decided to change the leadership there, who do you think is more appropriate? ”

When Zhukov heard this, an embarrassed expression appeared on his face, he hesitated for a moment, and then replied: "Comrade Stalin, I am no longer in the post of chief of the General Staff, and I consider it inappropriate for me to nominate the leader of the South-Western direction. ”

After Stalin took the pipe from his mouth, he pointed at Zhukov with his hand holding the pipe and said: "Comrade Zhukov, I trust you very much. Even if you are not the Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army now, you can still talk about your personal opinion. ”

When Zhukov heard Stalin say this, he knew in his heart that if he did not say his personal choice today, he would probably not be able to pass the test. He organized the vocabulary in his head, and then said unhurriedly: "Marshal Timoshenko, who has gained a lot of experience in the practice of warfare and knows Ukraine very well, I propose to send him." ”

In fact, long before Zhukov came to the Kremlin, Stalin, after repeated weighing, also felt that the post of commander-in-chief of the southwest direction was indispensable to Timoshenko. Seeing that Zhukov's proposal coincided with his own, he immediately nodded and said: "Very good, I think the candidate you proposed is appropriate." Marshal Timoshenko took over from Budyonny as commander-in-chief of the South-Western Direction. ”

After Stalin finished speaking, he turned around and walked back to his desk and sat down, looked up at Zhukov and asked: "Comrade Zhukov, what do you think about the enemy's plans and possibilities for the next step?" ”

Zhukov quickly glanced at the large map hanging on the wall, then raised his hand and asked politely: "Comrade Stalin, can I use your map?" Seeing Stalin's slight bow, he walked quickly to the wall, pointed to it and began to introduce his analysis, "The current situation, apart from Leningrad, the most dangerous area is the Southwestern Front. I think in the near future, there will be more difficult situations there than we imagined. The tank forces of the German Army Group Center, having turned to the south, will break through the defensive strip deep into our Southwestern Front...... To the south, the units of Army Group South, which had occupied the starting position for the offensive, would soon join them. In this way, there will be a danger of encirclement of the Southwestern Front. ”

After presenting the analysis of the situation of the enemy and the enemy, Zhukov turned around and pleaded with Stalin: "Comrade Stalin, I once again advise you to transfer the Kiev group to the eastern bank of the Dnieper, do you agree?" ”

Hearing Zhukov mention the abandonment of Kiev again, Stalin's heart was extremely uncomfortable, but considering that he now has a place to rely on Zhukov, it is obviously inappropriate to be angry at him. So he forcibly suppressed the anger in his heart and asked coldly: "Comrade Zhukov, is it necessary for us to withdraw our troops from all areas that may be encircled?" ”

Stalin's words made Zhukov's heart half cold, he understood his persuasion, and once again ended in failure. In an official tone, he said: "Comrade Stalin, encirclement is the traditional way to achieve victory in war,......"

"That's right, Comrade Zhukov!" Before Zhukov could finish speaking, Stalin interrupted him and said to himself: "We cannot look at only one engagement, we should look at the results of the entire war." At the moment, the Germans, although they have achieved some victories in Kiev, have lost time. Saying this, he stood up and walked towards Zhukov, while continuing, "Time is one of the main factors in the war, and we are mainly staring at the south-west direction, trapping the German troops as much as possible, and letting them stay as long as possible. The campaign that is defending Ukraine is the equivalent of the campaign for the defense of Moscow. At this point, he paused for a moment, and finally said categorically, "We will hold our ground and prepare for a general decisive battle." ”

After Stalin's impassioned words, he walked back to the table, shook the ash from his pipe into the ashtray, turned around and asked: "Comrade Zhukov, do you need to bring your own deputy when you go to Leningrad to take office?" ”

Speaking of the candidate for deputy, Zhukov's first thought was Rokossovsky, and he said that with such an excellent commander, he would be more handy when commanding the Leningrad Front. But just as he was about to open his mouth to make his request to Stalin, he suddenly thought that the reason why the Western Front was able to block the attack of the German Army Group Center was indispensable, and even if he made this request, it is estimated that Timoshenko would not let him go. So he changed his tune and asked: "Comrade Stalin, I wonder what suitable candidates the General Staff can provide me?" ”

Stalin did not immediately answer his question, but picked up the phone on the table, dialed a number, and said slowly: "Boris Mikhailovich, Comrade Zhukov is about to go to Leningrad to take up his post, you need two deputies, do you have any suitable candidates there?" … Uh-huh, I understand, you immediately let them report to you and wait there, Comrade Zhukov will also pass after him ...

After putting down the phone, Stalin smiled and said to Zhukov: "Comrade Zhukov, you are lucky, two excellent commanders happened to return to Moscow to report on their work, so I asked Marshal Shaposhnikov to arrange for them to accompany you to Leningrad." ”

"Comrade Stalin," although Stalin said that the deputies who went to Leningrad with him were two excellent commanders, he did not know who the other party's name was, so he hurriedly asked: "I don't know which two generals they are?" ”

"One is your current subordinate, Lieutenant General Hozin, the head of logistics of the Reserve Front." Stalin pressed the tobacco into his pipe and said, "And the other is the commander of the 15th Infantry Corps, Major General Fedyuninsky. Shaposhnikov will soon recruit them to the General Staff, you can go there to find them. ”

Zhukov left Stalin's office and went to his former General Staff office with ease. When he pushed open the door and walked in, Shaposhnikov, who was leaning on the back of the chair and closing his eyes, heard the movement, quickly opened his eyes, and when he saw that it was Zhukov, his face was suddenly full of smiles, he stood up and said with a smile: "Hello, Comrade Zhukov, welcome back to Moscow." ”

Zhukov took two steps forward, shook Shaposhnikov's hand across his desk, and then asked bluntly: "Comrade Marshal, I don't know where my two deputies are?" ”

Shaposhnikov pointed to a seat next to Zhukov and said: "Please take a seat, Comrade Zhukov, they will come soon." ”

After Zhukov sat down, Shaposhnikov chatted with him: "Comrade Zhukov, your battles in the Yelnya region have stabilized the defense line of the entire Western Front. This allows us to draw the necessary forces to support the south-western and Leningrad directions. ”

"Comrade Marshal," Zhukov said lightly in response to Shaposhnikov's compliment, "we simply eliminated the enemy in the Yelynian salient and recaptured the city of Yelnya." Such a victory could only restrain the German offensive in a short period of time, and could not fundamentally change the unfavorable situation of our army. ”

Shaposhnikov did not continue the discussion with Zhukov on this issue, and he changed the topic in time: "Comrade Zhukov, have you heard? Marshal Timoshenko was ready to adjust the defense areas of the two army groups under his command. ”

"Adjust the defense zone of the troops?" Zhukov couldn't help frowning, and he nervously asked: "Comrade Marshal, which defense areas of the two group armies he plans to adjust, and what kind of adjustment method?" ”

Shaposhnikov hurriedly pushed the map spread out in front of him towards Zhukov, pointed to it, and said: "Marshal Timoshenko intends to let Konev's 20th Army move south and establish a new defensive zone south of the Yaltsevo region, and the vacant space will be taken over by Rokossovsky's 16th Army. ”

Shaposhnikov said this, paused for a moment, carefully observing Zhukov's reaction. When he noticed that the expression on Zhukov's face was not shocked, and he just stared at the map without saying a word, he continued: "Timoshenko put the 16th Army, which has the strongest combat effectiveness, in the middle, so that not only the German army will launch an attack on Yaltsevo from whichever direction, but the 16th Army can directly or indirectly participate in the battle and crush the German army's attempt to rush to Moscow. ”

After staring at the map for a long time, Zhukov finally nodded and said, "That's right, Marshal Timoshenko's deployment is very correct. Placing Rokossovsky's 16th Army in the middle of the 19th and 20th armies, he was able to send troops to support in a timely manner, no matter which army the enemy attempted to attack. ”

"As the front of the Western Front stabilized, the residents who had been evacuated from the Yaltsevo region returned to the city one after another." Shaposhnikov couldn't help but smile when he said this: "Food stores in the city have reopened, and there are policemen on the streets to maintain order. If it weren't for the fact that many buildings in the city were blown up by the enemy, the city would not be much different from before the war. And all this is inseparable from Rokossovsky. ”

"Comrade Marshal," Zhukov saw that Shaposhnikov also had a special appreciation for Rokossovsky, and hurriedly struck while the iron was hot: "I once made a suggestion to Comrade Stalin, saying that Rokossovsky is a very capable commander, and he can fully serve as a commander of a higher rank. ”

"That's right, Comrade Zhukov." Shaposhnikov nodded and said: "Comrade Stalin also mentioned Rokossovsky to me today, and I have a good impression of him. However, after all, he has just served as the commander of the group army, and his qualifications and prestige are not high, so whether he has the ability to command a large corps in combat remains to be seen in the next battles. ”

Zhukov originally wanted to say a few good words for Rokossovsky, but when he heard Shaposhnikov say this, he closed his mouth with amusement, because he understood that as long as the General Staff included Rokossovsky in the list of key inspections, as long as he was really capable, he would be promoted and reused sooner or later.

Just then, there was a knock at the door, and an officer walked in. Standing at the open door, he looked at Shaposhnikov and said respectfully: "Comrade Marshal, Lieutenant General Khozin and Major General Fedyuninsky are outside the door, they say they came on your orders. ”

"Let them in!" The old marshal commanded briefly.

Not long after the officer turned and walked out of the room, two commanding officers entered the room. The two came to Shaposhnikov, raised their hands and saluted, and then reported: "Comrade Marshal of the Soviet Union, Lieutenant General Khozin (Major General Fedyuninsky) was ordered to come and report to you, we are waiting for your orders, please instruct!" (To be continued.) )