Many of the commanders and fighters of the motorized battalion gathered here were rescued from the prisoner of war camp or the Brest Fortress. At this moment, Rokossovsky's words mobilized their emotions. They came out one after another to tell about the crimes they had witnessed committed by the fascist bandits, and what had happened to them in the prisoner of war camps. As he spoke, some of the emotional warriors began to cry, which made the atmosphere of the scene more lively.

Seeing this situation, Rokossovsky couldn't help but smile and nodded, and secretly said that the military spirit is available, as long as everyone knows the brutality of the Germans and the heinous crimes they committed, then in the next battle, the commanders and fighters who hate the enemy can exert their greatest combat effectiveness.

At the next military meeting, in response to Rokossovsky's deployment of asking everyone to hurry up and build fortifications, a regimental commander of the 109th Division asked incomprehensibly: "Comrade commander, I don't understand. Since there is an enemy in front of us, why don't we take the initiative to attack, but hide away from the enemy, build fortifications and switch to passive defense? You know, we are the Soviet Red Army cultivated with a highly offensive spirit! The regiment commander's question asked the hearts of all the participating commanders of the 109th Division, so most of the commanders turned their puzzled eyes to Rokossovsky.

Rokossovsky stood up from his seat, his eyes swept over every commander in the room, and when he saw that his subordinates were looking at him, they were full of trust, and his heart suddenly felt much more steady. He coughed lightly, and then said to the regimental commander: "Comrade regimental commander, just the day before yesterday, in the southwestern Lutsk-Rivne-Dubno region, the largest tank battle since the beginning of the war was held, and our three mechanized corps and the German armored forces, a total of 3,000 tanks, were involved in this engagement.

Although our commanders and fighters behaved very bravely, due to the indiscriminate bombardment of our battle formations by German planes, and the emergence of new German units one after another, our tank losses and casualties were quite heavy. In the end, the mechanized corps had to retreat to avoid the German attack. ”

Speaking of this, he deliberately paused for a moment, looked at the surprised expressions on the faces of the commanders present, and continued: "The German tanks are more advanced than ours, and they still firmly control the air supremacy of the battlefield. If we unrealistically attack for the sake of attacking, then it is tantamount to hitting a stone with an egg, and even if we sacrifice everything, we will not be able to change the tide of the war. Therefore, we must now change our strategy and build fortifications on cities, rivers and forests to deplete the living forces of the German army and prevent them from rushing quickly towards Kyiv and ...... Other important cities. ”

Rokossovsky almost came out of nowhere with Moscow, but fortunately it turned into other important cities in time. It would be nonsense to say to the plain that the commanders, including their own men, heard themselves say in a hypothetical tone that the Germans might rush to Moscow; At worst, it's defeatism. In that case, soon someone from the Ministry of Internal Affairs will come to talk to him.

Krasnoretsky then stood up and said to his subordinates: "Comrade commanders, since you have all heard the order of the comrade commander, then immediately go back to your respective units and arrange the construction of fortifications. At the same time, we also had to set up checkpoints at various intersections, organize containment teams, and integrate the small units that had been scattered into our ranks. ”

"Comrade division commander," the regiment commander, who had just attacked Rokossovsky, stood up and cautiously asked, "Regarding the shooting of officers who left the ranks, do you think more carefully, if the higher authorities blame them in the future......

"If the superiors blame me, let them come to me!" Rokossovsky glanced at the regiment commander with contempt, and then said categorically: "Due to the successive defeats of our army at the front, quite a number of troops have been scattered. However, these commanders at the school level not only did not want to gather their troops and continue to fight the enemy, but fled in panic with the soldiers and refugees to the rear, and if such people were not killed, our troops would be demoralized and demoralized, and the troops would collapse first before the Germans attacked. ”

The more Rokossovsky spoke, the more angry he became, and he said in his heart that if he hadn't been trying to stabilize the morale of the army, how could he have used heavy codes in troubled times to issue such a stern order? Unexpectedly, there were still many commanders who could not understand their intentions, so he added: "I will first say the ugly things in the front, if there is a commander in my unit who takes the lead in escaping, regardless of rank, they will all be shot on the spot." Do you understand? ”

"Got it!" The first to answer was the commanders and fighters of the Novikov tank division, and none of the commanders and fighters of the 109th division opened their mouths, but turned their eyes to their division commander Krasnoretsky.

Krasnoretsky saw that his subordinates were all looking at him, and he couldn't help but turn his face and asked sternly: "Comrade commander asked you, didn't you hear?" ”

"I heard you!"

"I heard that, why didn't you answer?" Krasnoretsky knew that his subordinates were at fault, so in order to prevent them from being reproached by Rokossovsky, he had to sing his own black face: "The army commander said that all commanders who are greedy for life and afraid of death and flee from the battle will be shot, do you understand? ”

"Got it!" The commander of the 109th Division replied neatly.

Rokossovsky waved his hand at them and said: "Now that the tasks are clear, then immediately return to their respective units and hurry up to build fortifications." Don't wait for the Germans to appear before us, your fortifications have not been repaired, and you will reap the consequences. Meeting! ”

When Krasnoretsky was waiting for only himself and Rokossovsky to be left in the room, he leaned over and asked flatteringly: "Comrade commander, do you really think that the Germans will break through the lines of our troops and rush to Shepetovka?" ”

"That's for sure, Comrade Colonel." Rokossovsky stared at Krasnoretsky and said to him with a serious expression: "Due to the lack of preparation of our troops before the war, it will be difficult to resist in the face of the fierce offensive of the German army. What we can do now is to seize the time to build fortifications, establish a sound defense system, and hold back the enemy's advance. As soon as our main forces arrive, we can crush the enemy and drive them out of the border. ”

Although Rokossovsky knew that the Soviet army would be defeated, in order to increase the confidence of the other side, he still said many clichés against his will to strengthen the other side's determination to hold on to Shepetovka.

Seeing Krasnoretsky's confident look after listening to his words, Rokossovsky secretly breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, then picked up the phone on the table and dialed Lukin's headquarters: "Hey, Comrade General, I want to ask, are there any cannons in the warehouse you manage?" ”

"Cannon, what cannon?" Lukin was confused by Rokossovsky's question, and he asked in confusion: "What do you want the cannon to do?" ”

"That's right, Comrade General." Rokossovsky patiently explained to him: "Since I now have only a small number of tanks left in my hands, it is almost impossible to hold off the German armored forces. So I want you to ask for a batch of artillery to deal with the German armored forces. ”

"Please wait a minute, Comrade Rokossovsky." After Lukin figured out Rokossovsky's intentions, he said politely: "I'll ask the quartermaster first, and then I'll answer you, please don't hang up." ”

"Okay, Comrade General."

Lukin covered the microphone with his hand and shouted out the door, "Hey, someone's coming!" ”

With his shout, the officer on duty who was standing at the door with two sentries pushed the door and walked in, and asked respectfully: "Comrade commander, what instructions do you have?" ”

"Second lieutenant," Lukin glanced at the other party's rank, and then ordered, "Go and invite Colonel Marangin, the quartermaster of the group army, I have something to ask him." ”

"Comrade Commander, here I am." Say Cao Cao, Cao Cao will arrive! Lu Jingang asked the officer to look for Malankin, but he didn't expect Malankin to appear at the door. He heard that Lukin was looking for him, and hurriedly walked into the room and asked, "Do you have any instructions?" ”

"Are there artillery in military warehouses?" Lukin asked, looking at him.

"Yes, Comrade Commander." Malankin nodded and said: "There are various types of cannons, and there are plenty of ammunition, but I don't know which model you want?" ”

Lukin heard Malankin's exact reply, quickly let go of the hand covering the microphone, and happily said to Rokossovsky: "Comrade Rokossovsky, there are quite a lot of cannons in the warehouse, and there is enough ammunition, you can send someone to collect it at any time." ”

Although Rokossovsky had known for a long time that the military warehouse in Shepetovka contained weapons, ammunition and various military supplies needed by the Southwestern Front, he was always unsure about whether there was heavy equipment such as artillery in the warehouse. At this time, when I heard Lu Jin's reply, my heart suddenly blossomed. The heart said that as long as we could have dozens of artillery, we could defeat the German armored forces rushing towards Shepetovka and completely disrupt their plan to rush to Kyiv.

So Rokossovsky hurriedly said: "Great, comrade general, this is really good." I immediately asked the division commander Novikov to send someone to the warehouse to pick up the artillery we needed. ”

"Comrade Rokossovsky, I will have Colonel Malankin, the quartermaster of the army group, wait for you in the warehouse." Lukin said generously: "Except for cannons, as long as it is the supplies you urgently need, you can pick them up as you like." ”