Antonov, who was far away in Moscow, as soon as he received the news that Bobruisk had been liberated, immediately picked up the phone on his desk and dialed Stalin's office. After hearing the voice of Bosk Klebeshev, he asked with a smile: "Hello, Pos Krebeshev, does Comrade Stalin have time now?" ”

When Boskrebeshev heard that it was Antonov's voice on the phone, he immediately guessed that there must be good news coming from the front, and quickly looked through the notepad on the table, and then said: "Comrade Deputy Chief of the General Staff, you will come over now, Comrade Stalin has exactly half an hour of free time, you can come and report to him." ”

When Antonov walked into Stalin's office, Stalin was working at his desk, and when he saw Antonov walking in with a spring breeze, he quickly stopped what he was doing, looked at the other party and asked: "Comrade Antonov, do you have any good news for me?" ”

"Yes, Comrade Stalin. General Rokossovsky's 1st Belorussian Front, which has managed to liberate Bobruisk. Antonov's memory is superhuman, although he has only read the battle report just now, he has memorized all the contents of it, and at this moment, hearing Stalin's question, he immediately replied without hesitation: "During these six days of fighting, our troops completely destroyed the enemy's defense line south of the Belarusian salient, and the troops advanced 110 kilometers. 366 enemy tanks and self-propelled guns, 2,664 guns of various calibers were captured and destroyed. The enemy left nearly 50,000 corpses on the battlefield, and more than 20,000 German officers and soldiers were taken prisoner by us. All this created conditions for the rapid capture of Minsk and Baranovichi. ”

"It's a great victory." After listening to this, Stalin got up from his seat, walked up to Antonov, and continued: "Do you have any plans for the next step in the General Staff?" ”

"Comrade Stalin, I think so." Before Antonov came to Stalin's office, he had considered the task assigned to Rokossovsky, "let General Rokossovsky's troops attack Minsk with part of their forces, and attack Slutsk and Baranovichi with the main forces of the Front, so as to cut off the enemy's retreat to the southwest, and coordinate with the troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front to complete the encirclement of the fascist army group in Minsk as soon as possible." ”

Stalin thought only for a moment about Antonov's arrangement, and then decisively agreed: "Well, Comrade Antonov, please immediately give an order to Rokossovsky to turn the main forces of the Front in the direction of Lutsk and Baranovichi, and send only a small number of troops to cooperate with the Third Belorussian Front to seize Minsk." ”

After receiving Antonov's new order, Rokossovsky, who was preparing to organize a large-scale attack on Minsk, could not help but feel a little disappointed, he had already prepared the whole army to attack Minsk, but with the issuance of this order, he could only send a part of his troops to the battle.

Zhukov noticed his strangeness and hurriedly reminded him: "I know Antonov, since he can give you such an order, he must have asked the Supreme Commander himself for instructions. In other words, this order is also the meaning of the Supreme Commander himself. Which troops are you going to send to cooperate with the three fronts in the capture of Minsk? ”

According to Rokossovsky's idea, he intended to send Banov's 1st Guards Tank Army to carry out this task, but the army suffered heavy losses in the battle for Bobruisk and could not be replenished for the time being. Therefore, after careful consideration, he decided to send Bakharov's 9th Tank Army to carry out this order.

After listening to Rokossovsky's arrangement, Zhukov also specifically asked: "Why let Bakharov's troops carry out this task?" ”

"The reason is simple." Rokossovsky said with a usual expression: "First, this tank army has not suffered too many losses in the recent battles; The second is that they are the closest armored unit to Minsk. ”

"Comrade commander," as soon as Rokossovsky's words were finished, Malinin asked him for instructions: "At present, the only forces available to General Bakharov's 9th Tank Army are the 23rd, 95th and 108th Tank Brigades, as well as the 1455th and 1508th self-propelled artillery regiments. And the motorized rifle brigade is a full fifty kilometers away from them. ”

"Chief of Staff," Rokossovsky asked, staring at the map in front of him, "there should have been quite a few partisans on the way from the station of the 9th Tank Army to Minsk?" As the chief of staff of the guerrilla command, you should be able to mobilize the partisans along the route to cooperate with General Bakharov's actions. ”

"No problem," Malinin replied without hesitation, "on this road, General Bakharov and they will encounter at least two or three partisan detachments, and their number should be more than five hundred, so that the tank corps will have enough infantry to destroy the enemy's anti-tank men in the event of an encounter with the enemy." ”

"Well, you send them a telegram immediately, and let them rush over immediately to join Bakharov's tank troops."

…………

Bakharov was at the command of the 3rd Army and asked Commander Gorbatov for the task: "...... Comrade Commander, I feel that our army can play a greater role in this campaign, and I hope that you will assign me to a more important combat post. ”

"No, General Bakharov." Gorbatov did not hesitate to reject Bakharov's request, and he said eloquently: "Our next move will be to wait for the order of the Front Command. If your superiors do not assign you combat missions, you and your army can only continue to stay in the second echelon as a reserve. ”

Bakharov was about to argue with Gorbatov when suddenly a communications staff officer came up and handed Gorbatov a telegram. When Gorbatov saw what was on the telegram, he couldn't help but laugh, and he said to Bakharov: "Okay, General Bakharov, stop complaining to me, your task is coming, it was an order from the command of the Front Army personally. Take a look. With that, he handed the telegram to Bakharov.

Confused, Bakharov took the telegram from Gorbatov's hand, and after reading the above contents, he couldn't help but be dumbfounded, and stammered: "Comrade commander, this... This to... In the end... How... What's going on? ”

"Don't you understand, my Comrade Bakharov?" Gorbatov said to him with a smile: "The superiors, out of trust in you, intend to order you to command the tank corps to turn to the northwest and seize Minsk with the troops of the 3rd Front. To tell you the truth, I really envy you that you can actually go to the great battle for the liberation of the Belarusian capital. ”

When the task was confirmed, Bakharov returned to his usual serious expression, he looked at Gorbatov and asked: "Comrade commander, allow me to return to the troops to prepare for battle?" ”

"Go ahead." Gorbatov said kindly: "On your march, some partisans may join you, and you need to complete the tasks assigned to you by your superiors with their cooperation. ”

Two hours later, three tank brigades and two self-propelled artillery regiments of the 9th Tank Army set off one after another, and the commanders and fighters were particularly excited to learn that they were going to take part in the battle to liberate Minsk. Tanks and self-propelled guns usually go at a speed of 15 kilometers per hour when they march on tracks, perhaps because they want to participate in the battle for the liberation of Minsk, which stimulates the commanders and fighters of the tank army, who actually increase the speed to 25 kilometers per hour, and they all want to get to Minsk as soon as possible.

The chief of staff of the tank corps, instead of being as happy as other commanders and fighters, asked Bakharov with some concern: "Comrade commander, the motorized brigade is currently 50 kilometers behind us, and without the cooperation of the infantry, if we encounter the enemy's anti-tank fighters, I think it will be very difficult for us to deal with it." ”

"Don't worry, Comrade Chief of Staff." Bakharov raised his hand and patted his deputy on the shoulder, and said confidently: "On the land of Belarus, there are 270,000 partisans active, and with their help, we can solve the problem of not having infantry cooperation." ”

Less than an hour after Bakharov finished speaking, when the tank column was passing through the area, a large number of men in civilian clothes and armed weapons appeared on the side of the road ahead. The commander of the 108th Tank Brigade, who was opening the way ahead, opened the hatch of the tank turret, poked his head out and asked loudly: "What part are you from?" ”

One of them, a middle-aged man with a submachine gun in his hand and a military belt around his waist and a pistol in his hand, replied loudly: "We are guerrillas. I said, "Commanders, where are you going?" ”

"Where else to go, Minsk, of course." After the brigade commander finished answering, he said to the middle-aged man: "Comrades, we are just short of infantry, you all get on the bus, let's go to Minsk together." ”

After receiving the report from the commander of the tank brigade, Bakharov smiled and said to the chief of staff: "Comrade Chief of Staff, I am not wrong, I said that I would meet the partisans, and I really met the partisans. ”

The 9th Tank Army drove on the road for two days, and then successively absorbed four or five guerrilla units, so that half of the tanks were filled with guerrillas with various weapons.

When a dense complex of buildings appeared in the distance, the tanks that were opening the road in front stopped, and in time reported to Bakharov. Bakharov called a partisan leader and asked him for advice: "Comrade Captain, do you know where we are going? ”

The partisan leader looked ahead, and then replied: "Comrade General, if I am not mistaken, in front of me is Ljubiachia, where there is a railway hub, where the German freight trains stop. ”

"There, what kind of forces did the Germans have?" Bakharov asked briefly.

"There were about two companies of German conservatives." The partisan leader frowned and said: "We organized five guerrilla detachments some time ago to attack here, but because the Germans were too well defended, we had to temporarily withdraw from the battle after losing half of our men. Comrade General, let's find another way around here, otherwise the Germans will find out and be in trouble. ”

After hearing this, Bakharov couldn't help but laugh dumbly: "Comrade Captain, since there are Germans in front, then let's go and destroy them." Don't worry, we're a tank army, and in such a small place, the Germans don't have that many anti-tank weapons. After saying this, he shouted to the operator sitting on the body of the tank: "Order the brigades to form a battle formation and attack the freight station in front." ”

The Germans saw a large group of Soviet tanks rushing towards them, and immediately became a mess, except for a few soldiers who entered the position in time and fired at the tanks with machine guns, most of the soldiers were scurrying around like headless flies.

The tank slowed down, first disembarking the partisans sitting on it, and then stopped to aim at the points of machine-gun fire that were firing wildly and firing shells. Clouds of gunpowder smoke rose from the German improvised positions, and those fire points, which were still somewhat rampant, were destroyed one after another under the fire of the Soviet army.

The guerrillas may have never fought such a smooth battle, the enemy's fire point has just appeared, and before they can lie down and return fire, the tank that opened the road in front of them has already destroyed the fire point with one shot. Seeing the Germans running around, the partisans knocked them down one by one as if they were shooting targets.

The battle lasted less than twenty minutes before the cargo terminal fell into the hands of the Soviets. Half of the defenders were killed, while the other half obediently laid down their arms and raised their hands in surrender. Bakharov left part of his forces to defend the cargo station, and then he himself led the remaining tank forces and quickly rushed to the west of Minsk.

The tank army advanced less than ten kilometers, and the tanks in front suddenly stopped, and Bakharov didn't know what was going on, so he hurriedly asked the commander of the 108th Tank Brigade who opened the road in front: "Comrade Colonel, what happened, why did it stop?" Did you encounter the enemy? ”

"Comrade corps commander," said the brigade commander with unusual excitement, "directly in front of us, a large number of tanks appeared. ”

"Tanks?" Hearing that a large number of tanks appeared, Bakharov's heart beat suddenly, and he said in his heart that it would not be the German armored forces in Minsk that broke through, right? If this is the case, it is really not easy to stop them by relying on their own troops. Thinking of this, he hurriedly ordered the other party: "Comrade Colonel, I order to immediately start a battle formation, make all preparations for battle, and we will immediately go over to support you." ”

"Comrade Commander, why are we preparing for battle?" The brigade commander said in a voice that had changed tone because of excitement: "All that appeared in front of us were T-34 tanks, T-34 tanks. You see, comrade commander, on the other side are our own people, and if we guess wrong every time, we should be comrades from the Third Front. ”

"So, we're joining forces with the Third Front?" Bakharov asked tentatively: "Do I understand that I have to fight?" ”

"Then I don't need to talk about it, Comrade Commander." The brigade commander said a little anxiously: "I'll go to join the friendly army first, and I'll report to you later on the specific situation." After saying that, there was no sound in the earpiece, and it seemed that he couldn't wait to run to the other side and join the friendly army.