After the bombing of enemy planes, both the fortifications and the buildings in the city were turned into pieces of desolate ruins, and the corpses of soldiers and civilians were scattered all over the vicinity of the ruins. Although the infantry regiment of the 109th Division stationed in the city suffered huge losses in the bombardment, after receiving the order of Krasnoretsky, while collecting the bodies of their comrades, they helped the homeless residents to snatch some daily necessities from their homes that had become ruins.

Rokossovsky was arranging manpower to repair the fortifications and arrange relief for the victims when he received a call from Lukin. The commander of the army group said very briefly on the phone: "Comrade General, please come to me immediately. As for what he was in a hurry to recruit Rokossovsky for, he hung up the phone without saying anything at all.

Rokossovsky knew that if it wasn't for something important, Lukin wouldn't call him. After putting down the phone, he explained the matter to Colonel Krasnoretsky, and then took Ensign Kochetov and several fighters and drove to Podolia, the town where Lukin's headquarters was located.

The small town of Podolia is located northeast of Shepetovka and is also an important railway junction. As they approached Podolia, a steady stream of refugees blocked the path of Rokossovsky's vehicle. The inhabitants of the cities that had fallen to the west, carrying all sorts of luggage, looking exhausted from the long journey, staggered along the railroad or the highway.

Rokossovsky saw that several trucks full of refugees were stuck in the flow of people on the road ahead, and he knew that his vehicle would not be able to pass for a while, so he pushed the door and got out of the car. Kochetov, who was sitting in the passenger seat, saw him get out of the car, and hurriedly got out of the car, and after looking left and right, he said to him nervously: "Comrade commander, why did you get out of the car, if you encounter a German spy lurking among the refugees, it will be troublesome." ”

"Don't worry, Comrade Second Lieutenant." After hearing this, Rokossovsky said disapprovingly: "Even if there are German spies lurking among these people, they are ready to go to the rear cities to cause sabotage, or spread rumors to create panic, and they will never casually expose their whereabouts for my sake." After saying this, he shook his head at Kochetov, "Let's go, second lieutenant, let's walk over." ”

Rokossovsky and his party laboriously made their way through the crowd, and under the guidance of the fighters they met on the road, they came to the station master's office, where Lukin's headquarters was located.

At the door, a sentry with a submachine gun hanging on his chest stood at the door, and when he saw Rokossovsky and his party approaching him, he hurriedly raised his hand to signal them to stop, and at the same time asked tentatively in a respectful tone: "Comrade General, may I ask you something?" ”

"Comrade Sentinel, please go and report," Kochetov stepped forward and said to the sentry: "Let's just say that the commander of the 9th Mechanized Army, General Rokossovsky, was ordered to come and report!" ”

The sentry snapped and stood upright, then turned and walked in through the open door, and then heard his urn voice: "Comrade sergeant, there is a general who wants to see Comrade Commander. ”

After a while, a sergeant, who also had a submachine gun on his chest, came out of the door. After looking Rokossovsky up and down, he stretched out his right hand and said politely: "Comrade General, please show your ID." ”

As soon as he saw the sergeant appear, he asked Rokossovsky for his documents, and Kochetov, who was standing next to him, said unconvinced: "This is General Rokossovsky, the commander of the Ninth Mechanized Army!" ”

Rokossovsky knew that checking documents was a tradition in Russia, and even Lenin, who went to inspect the work everywhere, was checked by the guards guarding the door many times, not to mention his own little general. So he took out his papers from his pocket and said to Kochetov: "Second lieutenant, this comrade sergeant has done the right thing. ”

The sergeant took the document handed to him by Rokossovsky, thanked him for it, and then looked down at it. After confirming Rokossovsky's identity, he returned the document to the other party and said politely: "Comrade General, the commander is waiting for you, please come with me." ”

The sergeant guided Rokossovsky along a short corridor, and after walking forward for some distance, he stopped in front of a room with an open door, turned around and said: "Comrade General, the commander is inside, please come in!" ”

Rokossovsky walked into the stationmaster's office and saw a desk in the small room, and at the end there was a general without a military cap, who was bowing his head and writing something in the notebook in front of him. After coughing lightly, he raised his voice and reported: "Comrade General, the commander of the Ninth Mechanized Corps, Rokossovsky, has been ordered to come, I am waiting for your orders, please instruct!" ”

Lukin, who was busy, raised his head when he heard the sound, saw Rokossovsky standing at the door, and quickly stood up and greeted with a smile: "Hello, Comrade Rokossovsky," and then pointed to an empty chair next to the desk: "Please take a seat!" ”

After shaking hands with him, Rokossovsky respectfully asked: "Comrade commander, I don't know if you have summoned me to the command headquarters, is there anything important?" ”

Lukin picked up the teapot on the table, poured a cup of tea and put it in front of Rokossovsky, and then said with a smile: "Comrade commander, I heard that you fought well today, not only repelling the enemy who rushed to Shepetovka, but also depleting a lot of their troops and technical equipment. ”

Hearing Lukin's praise, Rokossovsky said a little embarrassedly: "Comrade commander, although we have inflicted heavy losses on the ground forces of the German army, our defensive positions and Shepetovka have been bombarded indiscriminately by enemy planes, and the losses have been very large. ”

"Yes yes, Comrade Commander, you are quite right." Lukin said as he walked around the room with his hands behind his back: "Since the Germans attacked our air force at the beginning of the outbreak of the battlefield, we did not have the strength to compete with them in the air, so as to firmly grasp the air supremacy of the battlefield. ”

Rokossovsky knew that Lukin had called himself here, and he would definitely not ask how to repel the German attack with artillery, or what the losses were after the bombing of enemy aircraft, and he could understand all this information by phone, so there must be more important things to call him here. Therefore, as soon as Lukin finished speaking, he asked again: "Comrade commander, I would like to ask, do you have any important tasks that you want to give us to complete?" ”

When Lukin heard Rokossovsky ask, he couldn't help but restrain the smile on his face, and said with a serious expression: "Comrade commander, I received a telegram from the command of the Front that they intend to withdraw the troops. In order to ensure that the front-line troops could be safely withdrawn, the superiors gave us a difficult task. Let's help the friendly forces to complete the retreat as much as possible, while holding on to Shepetovka. ”

"Help friendly forces retreat?" When Rokossovsky heard this strange order, he couldn't help frowning: "We don't have enough troops to hold the line now, how can we help the friendly troops retreat, do we give up our positions and go to attack the enemy, attract their attention, so that our besieged troops can successfully get out of danger?" ”

"Comrade Commander, you misunderstood." Lukin waved his hand and said: "The so-called help to retreat is just to provide transportation vehicles to friendly troops, after all, the presence of a large number of wounded will slow down the march of the troops. ”

"Traffic vehicles, where are we going to get them a vehicle?" When Rokossovsky heard such an order, he really couldn't laugh or cry, "It's not enough to let the fighters of the motorized battalion drive motorcycles to meet them, right?" ”

"I don't need this song," Lukin said to Rokossovsky, seeing the embarrassed expression on his face: "Comrade commander, you can set up a checkpoint in the defense zone, detain the cars full of refugees on the road, let them come here and transfer to the train to Kiev, and send people to drive these vehicles to meet our retreating troops." ”

"But, Comrade Commander." Although Rokossovsky knew that this was the only way to go, he was embarrassed and said: "You should know that those refugees will not leave their cars easily." How many cries, pleadings, and curses will our commanders and fighters hear when they carry out this mission! Is it really appropriate to do this? ”

"Although it is indeed inappropriate to do this." Lukin said categorically: "But there is no way, this is war!" ”