In the evening, the headquarters of the army group moved to the church in the village.

I sat alone in the porter, took off my blood- and oil-stained camouflage suit, threw it on the ground, and watched through the window as the commanders and soldiers went in and out. The death of the female soldier just now made my mood calm for a long time. If she hadn't delivered me food and stood in front of me, it wasn't her but me who had been killed by the sniper, and she had inadvertently become my substitute. When I think about this, I feel extremely uncomfortable.

Suddenly, I saw the Deputy Chief of Staff, Colonel Orel, running past the window of the porter, and seemed to be in a hurry. Is something wrong? Thinking of this, I couldn't sit still any longer, and hurriedly chased out of the small room, nervously asking: "Comrade Deputy Chief of Staff, what happened?" ”

Orel would not have said: "It's nothing serious, Comrade Commander asked me to bring a commander to the headquarters, there is a problem with the line to his unit, and the phone cannot be reached." With that, he got into the straddle of a motorcycle, beckoned the warrior and drove away.

The commander was in such a hurry to summon Katukov to the command, could something serious? However, it stands to reason that the tank brigade commanded by Katukov performed particularly well today, in addition to Skirmanovo, it also cooperated with infantry and cavalry units to recover three other villages in one fell swoop.

"Comrade Oshanina." I was thinking about it when I suddenly heard someone calling me behind me, and when I looked back, it turned out to be Commissar Lobachev. When he saw me turn around, he said to me in a consultative tone, "Are you busy now?" If you're not busy, go to the kitchen and see when dinner will be ready. ”

"Yes!" I said yes, saluted him, and turned away. After a few steps, I suddenly remembered that I had forgotten to ask where the kitchen was, and when I looked back, the commissar had re-entered the church. In this case, I was too embarrassed to run back and ask, so I had to figure it out myself. I stopped and looked around, and most of the buildings around me had collapsed, except for one house to the southeast that looked relatively intact and white smoke was coming out of the chimney on the roof. It seemed that the kitchen where the meals were prepared for the headquarters was there, so I walked over to the smoking house.

Before I reached the door, I smelled a strong smell of meat, and it seemed that I had chosen the right direction. So I walked a few quick steps, walked to the front of the house, pushed open the door, and walked in.

When I walked into the room, I saw a group of people inside who were nervously busy, choosing vegetables, washing vegetables, cutting vegetables, etc., very busy. When they saw me push the door in, they stopped what they were doing, looked up at me a few times, and then lowered their heads and got busy. Except for one or two elderly men, the rest of the room were young girls, where did these people come from? When I was at the headquarters before, why did I never see them? I was wondering when a female soldier with four triangles on her collar badge came up and asked curiously, "Is there anything wrong with you?" Comrade Commander!" It was in a very normal tone, and it was not reported to me as in accordance with the regulations.

"Oh," I was very surprised to suddenly see a room of female soldiers here, and I couldn't help but be a little flustered when I heard someone ask me: "Comrade Political Commissar asked me to ask, when will dinner be ready?" ”

"It's almost good, when this beetroot soup is in the pot, you can send it to the headquarters."

"Uh-huh, I know it." I nodded, then introduced myself to her, "My name is Oshanina, and I am a commissioner of the Front. What do you call it? ”

"I'm Master Ina, the Secretary of the Secretary."

“старшина？” I couldn't help but be stunned for a moment, repeating the word "Sdaasla" in my mouth, thinking that Vaskov of 171 would give way, and there were also four triangles on the collar badge, but he was a warrant officer, why was this female soldier a sergeant?

"What are you thinking? Commander Oshanina! Perhaps because she saw me standing still, muttering to herself, Ina asked curiously.

"Nothing!" I coughed, then shifted the subject and asked, "Where did you guys come from?" I've never seen you here at Army Headquarters before. ”

"Report to Comrade Commander, we were originally from the 7th Mechanized Army, and not long ago, along with Colonel Ma Lining, chief of staff of the former army, we were assigned to the 16th Group Army."

"Can you show me how to make beetroot soup?" Although I have drunk beetroot soup many times, I still don't know how to make this soup, so I want to know more about it while I am curious.

"Yes!" Ina took me to the stove, pointed to a pile of dishes on the cutting board, and said, "These are the ingredients for beetroot soup, in which potatoes, tomatoes, onions, and radishes are sliced, and celery is cut into pieces." Then he pointed to the steaming aluminum pot resting on the stove with no lid on, and continued to explain to me how to make beetroot soup: "The beef tendon meat is boiled in the pot, and when the meat is cooked to a loose point, take out the meat and set aside." Then put the potatoes, onions, and celery in turn and cook for 10 minutes, then add the cabbage and tomatoes. When everything is cooked, add the tomato sauce and salt, and it's ready to go. ”

It can be seen that Ina has been in the kitchen for a long time, and she has a lot of experience in cooking. When it came to cooking, she kept talking until the beetroot soup was in the pot.

When he returned from the kitchen to the entrance of the headquarters, Orel's motorcycle also happened to return, followed by a tank of our army. I was like, 'Who is this?' It's so arrogant to come to the headquarters to report on work, and actually drive a tank. So I stopped and wanted to see what was going on.

Under my watchful gaze, the tank stopped next to the church. Orel, who was in front, got off the motorcycle first, walked to the tank, and patiently waited for the passengers inside. The hatch clattered open, and out of the cockpit crawled out a tall tankman with a belt tightly tied to his black tank suit and a pistol pinned to the belt, which turned out to be an officer. I looked at the officer, and I thought he was familiar, I seemed to have seen him at the meeting yesterday, but I couldn't remember his name for a while.

"What are you looking at? Comrade Oshanina! "I was startled by someone who suddenly spoke next to me, and when I looked back, it turned out to be Chief of Staff Ma Lining.

I hurriedly explained to him: "Comrade Chief of Staff, you see that there is a tank parked at the door, and I want to see who is driving it, so I stop and take a look." ”

"Isn't that the commander of the 4th Tank Brigade, Colonel Katukov? Didn't the commander introduce him at the meeting yesterday, don't you know him? ”

While we were talking, Orel and Katukov had already walked in front of us, and Katukov saluted Malinin and said in a loud voice: "Hello, Comrade Chief of Staff! Malinin returned the salute and reached out to shake his hand. While the two were shaking hands, I also hurried to salute the new colonel.

"Hello, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel." Katukov did not return the salute, but directly gave me a bear hug. His strength is really not small, and I almost can't breathe when I hug me. But I don't want to get angry, after all, hugging is a Russian custom, and the strength used when hugging represents the degree of friendship. But I muttered to myself: I only met him at the meeting yesterday, and we are not so familiar with each other, so I can't hug him so tightly.

"Okay, Comrade Katukov, don't keep holding on to our comrade lieutenant colonel, the commander is still waiting for you." Malinin beckoned the tank colonel and relieved me of the siege in time.

I followed the three and walked into Rokossovsky's headquarters. Seeing us enter, Rokossovsky got up from his seat, greeted Katukov and held out his hand, saying: "Welcome, Comrade Major General Katukov. ”

As soon as these words came out, not only Katukov, but even I was stunned, thinking: Isn't he a colonel, when did he become a general, could it be that Comrade Commander has been tired and confused recently?

Sure enough, Katukov also corrected the commander's statement: "Comrade commander, I am a colonel, not a general. ”

"I can't be wrong, Comrade Katukov, I can't be wrong about that." Then he turned to the commissar and said: "Comrade Lobachev, announce it." ”

The commissar, who was originally standing behind Rokossovsky, took a step forward and read aloud with a piece of paper: "In recognition of the heroic tenacity and brilliant results achieved by Comrade Mikhail Yefimovich Katukov and the 4th Tank Brigade under his leadership in the defense of our great capital Moscow, the Supreme Soviet decided to award the commander the rank of Major General and, at the same time, the glorious title of '1st Guards Tank Brigade'. November 11, 1941. ”

When the order was announced, Rokossovsky smiled and shook Katukov's hand and said: "Congratulations, you received the rank of general, and your unit was also the first armored unit of our army to receive the title of Guards." In the next battles, I hope that your troops will achieve even more brilliant results. ”

People in the command came up to Katukov to shake hands and congratulate him, and I was no exception, shaking his hand and saying: "Comrade General, congratulations on achieving a higher rank. ”

"Thank you, thank you for congratulating me, and I also express my gratitude to you!" As soon as Katukov said this, the room fell silent, and all eyes turned to me. I was puzzled and asked, "Comrade General, why do you want to thank me for this?" ”

"Remember the tactics you came up with at the meeting yesterday?" Seeing that everyone was looking at me, Katukov hurriedly explained to everyone: "Today's battle can go so smoothly because of the tactics proposed by Comrade Oshanina. ”

"Tell me, what's going on?" Rokossovsky asked curiously, then waved his hand to the table and said to everyone: "Don't stand in the room, sit down and talk slowly, the food will be delivered soon, and we can talk while eating." ”

I sat down next to Rokossovsky, and Katukov sat across from me, before he continued: "In the past, our cavalry or infantry would charge first after the artillery was ready, and the tanks would attack when they approached the enemy trenches. According to this style of play, if the enemy's firepower is too fierce to press the attacking troops to the ground and cannot move, the offensive channel of the tanks will be blocked, and once our tanks have to stop on the battlefield, they will become the target of the enemy's shooting, and their artillery or air force can easily destroy us. This time, the tanks attacked first, with infantry and cavalry cooperating behind. In the course of the attack, those enemy fire points were easily knocked out by our tanks, and the anti-tank men who came out were also eliminated in time by the infantry who followed. To be honest, I never thought in advance that this kind of cooperation between the arms would be so easy to win the battle, and the casualties would be far lower than I expected. That's why I would like to say that I would like to express my gratitude to Comrade Oshanina for giving us such a good tactical suggestion. ”

I turned out to be like this, and after listening to his explanation, I finally figured out why he was so hard when he hugged me just now. The commanders present listened to his words and began to talk about each other.

"Can I come in? Comrade Commander! "Ina's voice came from the doorway, and I turned my head to see her and several female warriors standing in the doorway with trays full of dishes.

"Come in," Rokossovsky stood up, greeted her very politely, and then said to everyone: "The meal is coming, let's eat first, and after eating we will continue to discuss this tactic proposed by Comrade Oshanina." ”