Looking at Liu Da's face full of apologies, I said with a smile: "Liu Da, I haven't seen you for more than a year, and you are already a lieutenant." ”

Hearing me say this, Liu Da's face turned slightly red, and then he said in a respectful tone: "Comrade commander, when you first checked into our hotel, you were only a lieutenant. But more than a year has passed, and you are already a general. ”

Seeing that she was so restrained, I hurriedly waved my hand and said, "Liuda, we are all old friends, so there is no need to be so restrained." You'd better call me Leda like Aksara. Speaking of which, I changed the subject, "I'm a little tired, can you arrange a room for me as soon as possible?" ”

"No problem, Leda." Liuda readily agreed, and then instructed Akshala, who had just separated from me: "Akshala, you take Lida to the private room on the second floor facing south." ”

"Yes!" Aksara tried to help me carry my luggage, but when she saw that I was empty-handed, she took off the assault rifle I was carrying, slipped it on her shoulder, and said to me, "Lida, come with me, and I'll take you to your new room." With that, he strode forward.

I smiled and nodded at Lyuda and followed Akshara through the hall towards the staircase.

Aksala led me to the room on the second floor, and when I entered, I stood in the door and looked at the room. Although the room is not large, there are a lot of things, and there is a writing desk and a lap chair by the window, and next to it is a single bed covered with white sheets. In the middle of the room there was a small round table, surrounded by four chairs with backrests, on which were placed a teapot and several small porcelain teacups that were buckled upside down.

Aksara turned on the lights in the room, walked to the window, placed my assault rifle on the desk, and then walked to a closed door and pushed it open. He turned to me and said, "Lida, this is the bathroom, you can take a shower later, and as for dinner, I'll bring it to you later." ”、

I took off my military coat and shook my head to decline her kindness: "Don't bother. I'd better go to the restaurant for dinner by myself. ”

Aksala walked over, took my military coat, hung it on the coat rack by the door, and closed the door. He took me by the hand and walked to the round table, and said enthusiastically: "Lida, you sit down and have a cup of tea first, and tell me your story by the way." ”

I just smiled at her enthusiasm and said lightly, "What is there to tell about my story?" Just like ordinary soldiers, they fought the Germans on the battlefield every day. ”

Aksara turned an upside-down teacup over, filled it with tea, pushed it in front of me, looked at me and said enviously, "Leda, when you first came, you were a lieutenant; The second time I came, it was a lieutenant colonel. Now it's the third time. It's already a general. Maybe the next time you come, you'll be a marshal. I guess you must have a lot of legends. Tell me about it. ”

I took a sip of warm tea from my teacup, moistened my thirsty throat, and said with a smile, "My story is so long, I don't even know how to tell it." ”

Hearing me say this, Aksara lowered her head and thought for a moment, then said, "That's it." Let's start with the second time you left our hotel, and I'd like to hear what happened to you. ”

Since I didn't know how long I would be staying here, and seeing that Aksara insisted on hearing my story, I began to tell the story of my experiences on the battlefield.

Although I said it lightly. But Aksara still exclaimed from time to time: "Ah, you are the division commander?!" "Ah, you've been promoted to general so soon!" When I told me that I had ordered the execution of all the captured German officers and soldiers because I saw Zoya's mutilated body, Akshara couldn't help but widen her eyes and said angrily: "Kill, kill, these damned fascist bandits, they should all be killed......

Before she could finish her sentence, there was a sharp knock at the door. I was closer to the door, so I stood up, walked over and opened the door.

As soon as I opened it, a chill rushed towards me, shivering in the cold. Before I could see who was standing outside the door, I heard a familiar voice: "Hello, Comrade Commander. Captain Yushchenko came to report to you, I am at your disposal, please instruct! ”

Hearing Yushchenko's voice, I suddenly remembered that when I left Zhukov's command, I forgot about their existence, so much so that after getting into the jeep arranged for me by the lieutenant, I left in the car.

I saw that there were still a few people standing behind Yushchenko, so I asked preconceptively: "Comrade Captain, are you and your subordinates here?" ”

I thought that Yushchenko would give me an affirmative answer, but I didn't expect him to shake his head and say: "No, Comrade Commander, I am alone, and the rest of the people have gone back to the garrison headquarters to report." ”

I looked sideways at the people behind Yushchenko, because there were no lights in the hallway, and they were standing in a place where the light from the room couldn't shine, so I couldn't see each other's faces. I raised my chin at the location of the people and asked Yushchenko in surprise: "Captain, how many of them are ......?" ”

"All your acquaintances, Comrade Commander." After Yushchenko said this, he turned sideways, gave way to the door, and said to the people behind him: "Please come in." ”

One of the several people in the darkness whispered, "Thank you, Comrade Captain. ”

I was thinking that this man was familiar, and before I could remember who he was, the man had already walked to the door, smiled at me and said, "Hello, Comrade Leda! It's great that we're here today. He held out his hand to me as he spoke.

I looked at the soldier in front of me in the colonel's uniform in amazement, and I was stunned for a while before I recognized who the other person was. Hurriedly grabbed the other party's hand and said excitedly: "Hello, Colonel Bezikov, I really didn't expect to see you here." ”

This old acquaintance of mine, Bezikov, shook hands with me and said with a smile: "Lida, you are amazing, I haven't seen you for more than a year, and you have resumed the rank of general." ”

In response to his compliment, I smiled and said, "Colonel, you also know that the more time you have to fight on the front line, the more opportunities for meritorious service are naturally indispensable. As long as you can survive and get a military rank, you will definitely be much faster than in the rear. ”

"Comrade commander, don't stand at the door, please come in and talk." Aksala, who had been sitting at the round table, stood up and beckoned Bezikov and me, who were standing at the door, into the room.

Aksara's words reminded me. Bezikov is a guest, how can I always let someone else stand at the door, hurriedly let go of the other party's hand, turned sideways and made a gesture of invitation, and said at the same time: "Comrade Colonel, look, if it weren't for Aksara's reminder, I would have forgotten to invite you into the room to sit down." Please come in. ”

After Bezzikov sat down at the table, I personally poured him a cup of tea. After placing it in front of him, I asked, "Comrade Colonel, you came to me today, is there anything you can do?" "From what I know about Bezikov, if there is nothing important, he will definitely not come to me on the first day of my arrival in Moscow, there must be something important.

After listening to my question, he nodded. He affirmed: "I came here today to find you for two important things. ”

I've heard that there are important things. I quickly sat up straight and stared at him intently, waiting to hear what he would say next.

"First of all, Comrade Stalin heard that you were unwilling to go to work in the localities, so let me ask you if you would like to go to the reserve front to take up the post of chief of staff?" After he said this. Seeing that I was silent, he continued: "At present, the commander of the front is General Leuttel, and the military commissar is Lieutenant General Suselkov. ”

When I heard this, I said in my heart that the commander and military commissar of the front army were generals and lieutenant generals, respectively. They are all veteran commanders, and I, a major general who has not been a major general for a few days, will I be discriminated against and excluded by them? Thinking of this, I could not help but hesitate about this new appointment, and when I was considering how to reply to Bezikov, he was the first to speak.

Bezikov saw that I was slow to speak, and deliberately explained: "The first commander of the reserve front was Marshal Zhukov. The chief of staff of the front turned out to be Lieutenant General Sandalov, and after he was transferred, the post of chief of staff became vacant because his superiors had appointed him otherwise. ”

I could tell from Bezkov's tone that he had misunderstood that I looked down on this unit, and hurriedly replied: "Comrade Colonel, it's not what you think. To be honest, I am very happy to accept the position of Chief of Staff, but I am afraid that my qualifications are not enough, and my rank is too low, and it may be difficult for me to adapt to that position. ”

After listening to my words, Bezikov grinned and said disapprerovitically: "Lida, I thought you were worried about something, it turns out that this is the matter." If you don't have enough qualifications, you can cultivate it slowly; As for the low rank you are talking about, there is even more to worry about. With that, he stood up, turned around and shouted outside, "Adjutant, bring things in." ”

As he shouted, a captain walked in from the outside, carrying a small box in his hand. After the experience of Yeremenko and Khrushchev handing over the new uniforms, when I saw the box in the captain's hand, my first reaction was: Could it be that the box contains the new military uniform given to me?

After the captain placed the box on the table, he took two steps back and stood by the door. Bezzikov lifted the lid and turned the open box one hundred and eighty degrees and pushed it in front of me and Aksala.

We both leaned over into the box, and Akshara was the first to scream, then covered her mouth with her hand so as not to disturb me. And when I saw the contents of the box, my heart almost stopped. Because there is a brand new uniform in the box, the general's uniform, although it also has two gold stars on his shoulder, but the meaning of the two gold stars on my collar badge at this moment is different. The two stars on the collar badge are the rank of major general; And the two stars on the epaulettes of the new military uniform represent the rank of lieutenant general.

I took two deep breaths, waited for my mood to stabilize a little, and asked in a tone of disbelief, "Comrade Colonel, are you sure this is something for me?" ”

"Of course," replied Bezikov without hesitation, "it was the box sent to me by the Supreme High Command that it was for you, Comrade Oshanina's new military uniform." "Maybe it's getting down to business, so he calls me official.

After speaking, he took out a document from his document bag, handed it to me, and said, "This is a promotion order given to you by your superiors. In recognition of your record of killing the German 'Skeleton Division' commander Ike and capturing Hitler's stand-in on the battlefield in Ukraine, you are officially promoted to the rank of lieutenant general with the approval of the Supreme Commander himself. ”

I stretched out my trembling hands, took the document from Bezikov's hand, opened it and looked at it carefully, and found that it was basically the same as what Bezikov said. I carefully folded the papers, placed them on top of my uniform, and closed the box.

I looked up and was about to thank Bezikov when he reached out to me and said with a smile: "Lida, please accept my congratulations on achieving a higher rank!" ”

"Thank you, thank you, Colonel Bezkov!"

As soon as he let go of Bezikov's hand, Yushchenko walked up to me, stretched out his hand to me with a happy face, and said politely: "Comrade commander, congratulations on achieving the rank of lieutenant general, please accept my congratulations to you." ”

"Thank you, thank you, Captain!"

Then Aksara, who was standing next to me, pounced on me, hugged me, kissed me fiercely on the face, and said excitedly: "Leda, you are so amazing, you have been promoted to lieutenant general." Allow me to extend my heartfelt congratulations to you. ”

After everyone had congratulated me, I looked at Bezkov and asked, "Colonel, what happened to that Hitler stand-in?" ”

After hearing this, Bezkov shrugged his shoulders and replied: "What else can be done, of course, it was shot." ”

When I heard that Hitler's stand-in had been shot directly, I couldn't help but feel a little sorry, and said regretfully: "We can actually use him as propaganda to let the German soldiers know that the Führer they saw on the battlefield was not actually himself, but just a stand-in, which would be of great help in breaking down their morale." ”

"Lida, it's not as simple as you think." After listening to my words, Bezikov's expression suddenly became serious: "If we really use the matter of Hitler's stand-in for propaganda, they will also have a way to fight back." Don't forget, how we both ended up in prison in the first place. ”

Bezikov's words silenced me, and it seemed that he was right when he was almost shot dead as a German spy by the people of the Ministry of Internal Affairs after he and I rescued Stalin's stand-in on the battlefield. If we really choose Hitler to appear on the battlefield, it is a stand-in; Then the Germans can also make a fuss about this matter, saying that Stalin, who is still in Moscow, is also a stand-in, and then there will be an endless war of words between the two sides. Or the current way of disposal is simple, kill the stand-in with one shot, and it will be a hundred. (To be continued......)