As soon as the exercise ended, all units gathered their troops and returned to their camps.

Tang Shaohua stood on the hillside, looking at the blue army's position that was still emitting wisps of green smoke, rows of crooked wooden stakes and broken barbed wires on the hillside, as well as tracks that had been crushed by tanks. Although the exercise was completed as planned, his mood became inexplicably heavy.

The commander of the 19th Mechanized Corps, who was walking in the distance, said something to several of his commanders with high spirits as he walked, and seemed to be extremely satisfied with the results of this exercise.

Fedyuninsky walked to Tang Shaohua's side, patted him on the shoulder and asked, "Hey, Comrade Rokossovsky, what are you still doing here?" Comrade Military Commissar left a few minutes ago, and it is time for us to go back to Lutsk to attend the summary meeting of the exercises of the military district. ”

Tang Shaohua nodded, turned around, and walked down the hill side by side with Fedyuninsky. After walking a few steps, he saw that all the guards around him, except for Fedyuninsky and Maslov, were seven or eight steps away, so he lowered his voice and asked Fedyuninsky: "Old friend, what do you think of today's exercise?" ”

Fedyuninsky turned his head to look at Tang Shaohua and asked casually: "Do you want to hear the truth, or do you want to lie?" ”

Under normal circumstances, everyone would choose to listen to the truth, but Tang Shaohua wanted to know what Fedyuninsky really thought, thought for a moment, and replied: "Let's hear it." ”

"Falsehood, this exercise was very successful." Fedyuninsky looked ahead and continued to walk, and at the same time began to express his opinion: "And the truth, it is meaningless to be based on this kind of exercise, except for the fact that in order to take care of the mood of the blue army, they are allowed to commit fouls within the normal range, and all the other troops must act strictly according to the exercise plan." Speaking of this, he shook his head vigorously, "It's really hard for me to imagine what kind of result it will be when our commanders and fighters, who are accustomed to this mode of exercise, break out once war breaks out, when they face an enemy who is armed to the teeth?" ”

When Maslov heard Fedyuninsky say this, he couldn't help but be stunned, hurriedly took two quick steps, and after being parallel to him, he also whispered: "Comrade Fedyuninsky, do you really think that war with Germany is inevitable, like our army commander?" ”

"That's for sure, General Maslov." Fedyuninsky looked at the chief of staff of the army beside him and replied affirmatively.

"However, the superiors did not say that the Germans had never fought on two fronts since the last imperialist war." Hearing Fedyuninsky's affirmative statement, Maslov couldn't help but refute the cliché that makes people's ears hear a calloon: "Moreover, from the results of today's exercise, we can see how strong our army's offensive capability is. ”

Fedyuninsky snorted, stopped, pointed to the troops that were being evacuated in the distance, and said: "General Maslov, according to the original exercise plan, during the exercise in the Lyubom area, the Blue Army should send an infantry division, and on the side of the Red Army, your 9th Mechanized Army, 19th Mechanized Army, and my 27th Infantry Corps are respectively. According to the plan, we should throw all the units of the three armies into battle. However, due to the small number of cars, insufficient fuel, and lack of ammunition, the plan had to be revised again and again, and in the end, less than half of the original troops were dispatched. ”

"Strange, why am I telling him this?" As soon as Fedyuninsky finished speaking, he noticed that the guard was standing in a position where he could hear his whining, and he could not help but think with a sense of uneasiness, "It's all because I was so excited, and I ended up chattering endlessly." There are so many guards here, and if anyone reports my complaints to my superiors, I can get in trouble. ”

Just when he was worried, Tang Shaohua glanced at it and immediately found his embarrassment. In order to relieve his nervousness, Tang Shaohua put a hand on Fedyuninsky's shoulder and said: "Okay, my old friend, don't rub it off, Comrade Military Commissar is probably still waiting for us at the foot of the mountain, let's go quickly!" ”

With that, he took Fedyuninsky's shoulders and walked down the mountain. And Maslov sensed that the two good friends might have to talk about something in private, so he distanced himself from them a little, took a few steps behind, and at the same time turned back to remind the guards behind him: "General Fedyuninsky was just joking just now, and no one is allowed to hear what to say everywhere, otherwise I will lock him up, understand?" When he said the last word, it was noticeably accentuated.

The guards who could follow Rokossovsky were not stupid, although Maslov did not say it explicitly, but everyone knew in their hearts what he was trying to say. So he replied neatly: "Understood." ”

"Old friend, it seems that you think the same way as me, and you think that Germany will fight with us sooner or later." Tang Shaohua suddenly said: "So we have to prepare in advance." ”

"Ready?!" Fedyuninsky, who had not yet recovered from the panic, asked with a blank expression: "What kind of preparations do we have to make?" ”

"War will break out sooner or later." When Tang Shaohua said this, he felt extremely awkward, he only knew that the war was about to break out in less than a month, but he couldn't say it to anyone. Even in the face of Rokossovsky's best friend, he could not tell the truth, and could only say vaguely: "I think this time may come soon, so we must make some necessary preparations within our ability." ”

"Dear Konstantin Konstantinovich!" Fedyuninsky affectionately called Rokossovsky's real and patronymic names, and asked hesitantly: "I wonder what we can do to prepare?" ”

While walking side by side with Fedyuninsky, Tang Shaohua tried to tell the other party what he had in mind: "If war breaks out, the enemy will definitely destroy our communication system first, so that the commander and the troops will lose contact, and achieve the goal of paralyzing our command system." Therefore, we must make some preparations in a targeted manner, find a suitable time, and we will sit down and discuss the mutual cooperation between the two armies and how to keep the communication open. Do you think it's appropriate? ”

Regarding Tang Shaohua's proposal, Fedyuninsky hesitated for a moment, then nodded and said, "Okay, I'll call you when I set the time and place." We'll talk about these things in detail when the time comes. ”

The two were talking, and before they knew it, they came to the place where they parked at the foot of the mountain. Vashukin, who was standing next to a gas car, had been waiting impatiently for a long time, and when he saw the two of them appearing, he urged loudly: "Two comrades generals, stop rubbing any more, we will immediately rush back to Lutsk for a summary meeting." ”