Summer in Russia is characterized by long days and short nights, usually after 10 p.m. Just when everyone in the command thought that the day's fighting was over and began to let their guard down, the unexpected happened.

Twelve German bombers, passing through the Soviet defense zone, reached the sky over Svoboda. Probably, the German navigators spotted the dense antennas on the buildings on the ground and guessed that this might be the location of one of the Soviet commands, so they lowered the altitude and bombed.

Although the air defense units discovered the incoming enemy planes in time, since most of the commanders and fighters went to the restaurant for dinner, only a small number of personnel on duty were left on the air defense positions, and it was not until the first German bombs fell to the ground and exploded that sporadic anti-aircraft guns began to return fire.

After Rokossovsky settled in Svoboda, he gave an order to dig a cover trench next to every building, so that he could find a place to hide whether it was shelled or bombed by the Germans. However, when the sappers were preparing to dig a shelter next to the headquarters, someone said: If a shelter is dug here, then the commanders and fighters who come here from outside for meetings or errands will not even have a place to park, so they must not be allowed to park their cars outside the settlement and walk in, right? And just like that, there were no shelters near the command at all.

Hearing the sound of explosions outside, Rokossovsky couldn't help but secretly complain, and he hurriedly ordered the command to temporarily stop work and move to nearby shelters to hide. As the order was issued, both the staff officers and the communications corps rushed out, and only Malinin, Terekin, Kazakov and others were still standing in the distance and did not move.

Rokossovsky walked over and asked unpleasantly: "You didn't hear my orders, why didn't you go to hide?" ”

Malinin pouted at the small room next to him and said, "Comrade commander, the marshal is still in that room. ”

Marshal?! After being reminded by Malinin, Rokossovsky suddenly broke out in a cold sweat, how could he forget Zhukov. He hurriedly rushed into the hut and shouted to Zhukov, who was sitting at the table reading the battle report: "Comrade Marshal, enemy planes have begun to bomb, let's move quickly!" ”

"What's the panic?" Zhukov, who was reading the battle report, glanced up at Rokossovsky and said unhurriedly: "It's not that I haven't been bombed by enemy planes before, so there's nothing to panic about." ”

"Comrade Marshal, it's too dangerous here." When Rokossovsky saw that Zhukov was sitting still and did not move, he raised his voice and said: "You have no right to put yourself in danger, I ask you to go to the shelter immediately." ”

Zhukov raised his hand and looked at his watch, and said unhurriedly: "Didn't you say that there was a secret message?" Why hasn't it been delivered for so long? ”

Seeing that Zhukov could not leave the command headquarters for a long time, Rokossovsky turned his head and shook his head at Kazakov and Malinin, who were standing behind him, and said: "Send Comrade Marshal to the Cover Department." ”

Kazakov and Malinin agreed, stepped forward and walked outside with Zhukov. While struggling, Zhukov shouted loudly: "Rokossovsky, what are you guys going to do here?" Let go of me, I command you, let me go at once. ”

Kazakov and Malinin ignored Zhukov and continued to carry him outside. When he arrived at the door, he saw a sentry standing guard at the door, and Ma Lining immediately shouted at the other party: "What are you still doing in a daze, hurry up and come over to help, and send Comrade Marshal to the hidden department." ”

Seeing that several sentries were helping Malinin and take Zhukov away, Terekin asked Rokossovsky with some concern: "Comrade commander, he won't blame us if we do this to Comrade Marshal, right?" ”

"Even if he wants to reproach us, we must send him to the Shelter." Rokossovsky said righteously: "He is the Marshal of the Soviet Union, and no one has the right to let him stay in a dangerous place and take risks, even if he himself gives orders." ”

Rokossovsky and Terekin ran out of the headquarters together, and when he ran in the direction of the concealment department in the face of the German bombardment, he turned his head to look behind him, and under the light of the flares dropped by the German bombers, he saw that the position of the headquarters was really too conspicuous, in addition to the church next to the settlement, there were two tall and straight poplar trees not far away, and several antennas were erected on the trees. In short, as conspicuous as you can be, if the German pilot does not see this place as a target, then he is blind.

When Rokossovsky ran into the crowded shelter, two bombs fell from the sky and exploded, causing the dirt on top of the shelter to fall with a pop.

"It's a big hanging," Terekin said with trepidation, "if we move any slower, we might be bombed outside." ”

Enemy planes bombarded the settlements for half an hour until they ran out of bombs they were carrying, and then turned back. Although the Soviet anti-aircraft fire on the ground was fierce, it was too dark to accurately lock on to the target, and by the time the enemy plane left, only one bomber was damaged, while it itself lost seven anti-aircraft guns and sacrificed more than 20 anti-aircraft gunners.

Seeing that the German bombardment was over, the members of the command who were hiding in the concealment department left one after another, and only Zhukov was still sitting in the corner and did not move. Rokossovsky walked over and said with a smile: "Comrade Marshal, the bombing of enemy aircraft is over, let's go back to the headquarters." ”

Zhukov glanced up at Rokossovsky and said angrily: "Comrade Rokossovsky, you should know that I was waiting for the interpreter to translate a cipher, but you dragged me here. If you delay a big event because of this, can you afford to pay the responsibility? ”

Seeing Zhukov's anger, Rokossovsky was not annoyed, but said with a smile: "If something happens to you, I really can't afford to pay this responsibility." Alright, Comrade Marshal, let's go back to the headquarters. ”

The two left the shelter and walked along a road full of craters. Fortunately, there were burning houses everywhere, lighting the way so that they would not fall into the crater. Zhukov, who was walking side by side with Rokossovsky, said with some displeasure: "It seems that our air force is a little unsatisfactory, you see, the Germans bombed us for half an hour, but Rudenko's air force has not moved until now." ”

"Comrade Marshal, General Rudenko cannot be blamed for this." Rokossovsky explained to Zhukov: "We don't have many planes that can take part in the night battle, and if they had rushed over recklessly, maybe the enemy planes would have not been shot down, and they would have been shot down by our anti-aircraft guns first." ”

A long way from the headquarters, Rokossovsky saw a circle of people outside, and the wooden house that served as the headquarters canteen was burning. He secretly screamed in his heart that it was not good, and walked over with a quick pace.

He saw Ma Lining in the crowd of onlookers, and hurriedly asked him, "Chief of Staff, what the hell is going on?" ”

"A bomb landed in the cafeteria," Malinin said, gesturing at the burning building, "killing a cook and a staff officer who had not had time to evacuate." A sentry and another staff officer, who were near the building, were also slightly wounded. ”

"Hell," Rokossovsky asked worriedly, hearing Malinin say this, "what about our command?" ”

"All the windows of the headquarters were shaken off in the explosion, and all the glass on the windows was shattered." Malinin saw Zhukov standing next to Rokossovsky and added: "In the room where Comrade Marshal was just staying, the walls were half collapsed, and there was a lot of shrapnel on the walls and wooden tables. ”

After listening to what Malinin said, Zhukov was silent for a while, and then said to Rokossovsky: "Comrade Rokossovsky, thank you, it was you who saved my life. ”

At this moment, the head of the tank corps, General Orel, came, he ran up to Rokossovsky, spread his hands, and said with some horror: "Good fellow! I was almost reimbursed by the bombs of the Germans! ”

"What's going on?" When Rokossovsky heard this, he hurriedly asked with concern.

"That's right," Orel explained to Rokossovsky, "and I saw the German planes dropping flares, and immediately jumped into a shelter next to it. But when the enemy planes began to drop bombs, I left the shelter and returned to my room. I heard explosions outside the house, but thankfully, none of the bombs hit my room. When the air raid was over, I walked out of the room and saw that the bomb shelter that I had just hidden had become a huge crater. ”

"General Orel," Zhukov, who was standing aside, asked, "how did you suddenly think of leaving the shelter?" ”

Orel smiled at Zhukov and said: "Comrade Marshal, do you know that there are too many people in that shelter trench, and with your back against the wall of the trench, you feel that your back is cold and cold, as if you are staying in a grave. I thought that if a bomb fell from the Germans, I would probably be buried in the mud, and even if I were to die, I would die in my own house. With that, I climbed straight out of the shelter and back into my house. ”

Orel's words drew laughter from all around. Zhukov nodded at him and said, "General Orel, you are lucky, you can escape the bombs of the German army in this way, it seems that your future prospects must be limitless." ”

After waiting for Zhukov to finish, Rokossovsky called Malinin in front of him and said to him: "Chief of Staff, we can no longer use the current command, because we don't know when the Germans will come and bomb again." ”

"Comrade Commander," Ma Linin couldn't help but interject when he heard this, "where do you plan to transfer the headquarters?" ”

"No, the current situation does not allow the transfer of command, but we have no right to continue to take risks." Rokossovsky pointed to the church not far away and continued: "Chief of Staff, you immediately go to Proyakov, the chief of the engineering corps, and ask him to send someone in the garden of the church as soon as possible to build some solid underground shelters, and we will move the headquarters underground. ”

"Understood, Comrade Commander." Malinin nodded and replied: "I immediately asked Comrade Proyakov to organize sappers and in the garden of the church, to build an underground shelter that could accommodate the headquarters. ”10