Chuikov saluted Gordorf with a blushing face, turned and walked out. I didn't dare to slack off, so I hurriedly saluted the three generals in the room, and then walked out after him.

Goldov's summons was a bit inexplicable. He called Chuikov from afar to Stalingrad from afar, without saying anything else, just to question him why he allowed the troops to retreat, one thing that could have been done on the phone, but he wanted his subordinates to put down their work and come to the headquarters to be reprimanded, which was simply boring to the extreme.

I walked out of Goldov's office behind a huffing Chuikov, and the commanders, who were still waiting outside the door to receive us, cast sympathetic glances at us, presumably all of whom had suffered the same fate.

Chuikov walked out of the headquarters without saying a word, and as soon as he got into the jeep, he ordered the driver with a gloomy face: "Drive, immediately go back to the observation post in Lower Chilskaya." ”

I saw in the rearview mirror that as soon as Chuikov got into the car, he closed his eyes and leaned against the back of the chair to recuperate, and I was secretly relieved, after all, I had just seen the wolf appearance of Chuikov being reprimanded. Persuade, in front of the driver, a lot of things are inconvenient to say; Don't persuade it, it seems to be a little unsatisfactory. Now that he closes his eyes and recuperates, I have avoided this embarrassing situation of neither persuasion nor non-persuasion.

Our car drove out of the car, and I was going to wait for Chuikov to calm down before asking him what to do with me next. Unexpectedly, as soon as we arrived at the first checkpoint, we were stopped. One of the captains of the lead car got out of the car and said a few words to the people at the checkpoint, trotted to our car, raised his hand and saluted. Report to Chuikov: "Report Comrade Commander. We were stopped by fighters at the checkpoint. Although I identified ourselves. We showed the necessary documents, but they still refused to let us through. ”

Hearing the captain's report, Chuikov, who had his eyes closed, opened his eyes suddenly, pushed the car door and walked down, reprimanding the captain: "Comrade captain, didn't you tell them that we need to rush to the front immediately?" ”

The captain replied with a bitter face: "Comrade commander, I have said all this. However, the sergeant in charge of the checkpoint said that he had been ordered to stop us. ”

Seeing Chuikov firing at his subordinates, I hurriedly pushed the car door and got out of the car, walked to Chuikov's side, and whispered; "Comrade Commander, leave this matter to me, let me ask what happened?"

Chuikov nodded slightly and said, "Go ahead and ask why the checkpoint stopped us." Remember, be kind and don't get angry with the fighters. It is estimated that they are also acting on orders. ”

After listening to Chuikov's words, I couldn't help but get a little nervous. Especially when I heard the last sentence, I began to think about what it means to act under orders, that is, their actions are authorized by their superiors. They were ordered to intercept our car, could it be that Goldov suddenly wanted to investigate the unauthorized retreat of Chuikov's troops at such a time, and wanted to send someone to arrest Chuikov, because he was afraid that he would run away, so he ordered the checkpoints along the way to intercept us? Thinking about it made my legs go limp. Some of them didn't go, they had already volunteered to ask for their lives in front of Chuikov, and retreating at this time would leave a bad impression on him.

I stubbornly walked up to several fighters at the checkpoint, swept my eyes over them, and finally stared at the highest-ranking soldier, and asked sternly: "Comrade Sergeant, I would like to ask, why did you stop our convoy?" You know, it was General Chuikov sitting in the car, and he needed to rush back to the front line immediately to command the battle. ”

The sergeant saluted me and politely replied, "I'm sorry, Comrade Commander, I was also acting on orders." ”

"On orders, on whose orders?"

"It's an order from the garrison command, comrade commander." The sergeant respectfully explained: "The order told us to keep the checkpoints along the way for the time being after seeing General Chuikov's convoy. ”

"Do you know why?"

The sergeant shook his head and said, "I'm sorry, Comrade Commander, I don't know, I'm just acting on orders." ”

"Comrade Sergeant, maybe you have received an order forged by the saboteurs, and I suggest that you confirm it with your superiors immediately, so as not to delay our business."

Hearing me say this, the sergeant hesitated, pondered for a moment, and replied, "Comrade commander, please wait a moment, I'll make a call." After I nodded in approval, he turned and ran into the sentry box on the side of the road, picked up the phone and started dialing.

With little effort, the sergeant put down the phone and trotted all the way over. He came to me and said with a stern expression: "Report to Comrade Commander, I have just called to confirm that the higher authorities have indeed issued an order to ask General Chuikov to stay, and not only my checkpoint, but all checkpoints in the whole city have received the same order. In other words, even if I let General Chuikov pass, he will be stopped at the next checkpoint. ”

"Do you know why?" I asked the same question a second time.

Fortunately, this time the sergeant did not answer that he did not know, but replied truthfully: "Comrade commander, I just asked, saying that the front army headquarters has an order to convey to General Chuikov, because I am afraid that he will not be able to contact him on the road, so I have to let the checkpoint temporarily keep him." At the moment, the chief of staff of the front army is rushing here with an order. ”

After learning why the checkpoint was holding us back, I went back to Chuikov and reported the matter to him as it was.

After hearing this, Chuikov frowned and said to himself: "What will happen? You must know that when he was at the headquarters just now, Commander Gordorf, but he didn't say anything. When he said this, when he saw me standing straight in front of him, he quickly smiled and said, "Comrade Oshanina, don't be nervous, there shouldn't be any big deal, let's go back to the car and wait first." ”

While we were anxiously waiting, a jeep drove up the road we had come from and stopped not far from us. The door opened, and several people came down at the same time, in addition to the chief of staff of the Front, Major General Nikishev, there was also a tall major general and a colonel-level officer. Nikishev and the general walked towards us, while the colonel-rank officer walked towards the checkpoint.

Chuikov and I pushed the car door and got out of the car and walked over to Nikishev. Chuikov said loudly: "Hello, General Nikishev. I didn't expect us to meet again so soon. ”

Nikishev squeezed out an ugly smile on his face, and said in an unfamiliar tone: "Yes, General Chuikov, I didn't expect to meet again so soon." After speaking, he leaned slightly sideways, pointed to the major general beside him, and said to Chuikov: "Come, Comrade Chuikov, let me introduce to you, this is the new commander of the 64th Army, General Shumilov. General Shumilov, this is your deputy, the deputy commander of the army group, General Chuikov. ”

Hearing Nikishev say this, I realized that Chuikov was actually just a deputy commander. Just when I was surprised, Nikishev continued: "General Shumilov, as you know, the commander of the 64th Army turned out to be General Goldov, who was summoned to Moscow by the Supreme High Command less than a day after taking office, and was soon appointed commander of the Front, so the work of the 64th Army has always been in charge of Deputy Commander Comrade Chuikov. ”

I thought that Chuikov would be a little embarrassed, but I didn't expect that after listening to the introduction, he still had an indifferent expression, and he saluted General Shumilov very generously, and then stretched out his hand and said politely: "Hello, Comrade Commander." Welcome to the 64th Army. ”

Shumilov also smiled and shook Chuikov's hand, then turned to Nikishev and said: "Comrade Chief of Staff, thank you for sending me here." Please go back, and I will go back to the front with Comrade Chuikov's car. ”

Nikishev nodded, shook hands with the two of them one by one, and then turned back to his own car.

By this time, the checkpoint had received an order from Nikishev's subordinate, the colonel-ranking officer, to remove the obstacles at the intersection and let our convoy pass.

I was still sitting in the passenger seat of the Chuikov, so I could hear the conversation between the two commanders in time.

Chuikov asked: "Comrade commander, what is our next task?" ”

Shumilov said: "In accordance with the operational order specified by the command of the Front, we will carry out a surprise attack on the enemy at two o'clock in the morning on the 29th, simultaneously with the 62nd Army, to annihilate two enemy groups in the area of Verkhny Buzinovka and the Chir River. To accomplish this campaign, we will use the newly reinforced 204th Infantry Division and the 23rd Tank Army. (To be continued......)

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