For the next few hours, I sat in a tent and attended the meeting, but I was distracted. As is customary, every time I lose my energy, my listening to Russian almost automatically goes to zero.

I watched with some bewilderment as the commander of the cavalry, Colonel Porosushy, took turns to stand up and speak, and Zhukov and Rokossovsky elaborated on their views after they had finished speaking. The words they spoke, reaching my ears, turned into meaningless strings of foreign words.

When Major General Panfilov stood up to speak, I finally regained my focus. This old man from Central Asia and West Asia, with a Rendan beard, who looked like a widow in appearance, brought up my interest in him, and could barely understand what he was saying, and he said slowly, "...... My division is vibrant, there are fifteen thousand people there, it is formed according to the old formation, the commanders are all selected, the political workers are all activists of our Kazakhstan, we are going to fight! ……”

His speech was soon over, and I was a little absent-minded, staring at his pesky looking mustache, wondering if I would have pulled out my pistol and shot him in the head if I had been in front of him instead of a Soviet major general, but a murderous widow.

"Leda!" It seemed like someone was calling me by name, and I looked around and couldn't find anyone talking. "Leda!!" Zhukov's voice came clearly, and I came back to my senses, it turned out that this comrade general was calling me, "Lida, what are you doing, it's time for us to go." He said with some unhappiness in his tone, then stood up and shook hands with Rokossovsky, who was standing up at the same time.

Zhukov and I walked out of the tent, and with us came out, along with Colonel Porosushy. I looked at him in amazement and thought, "What is he doing with us?"

Just as I was guessing, Zhukov, who was already sitting in the car, poked his head out of the window and said, "Colonel Porosushy, get in the car and go, take us to your line of defense." ”

Hearing this, I quickly pulled the door open and asked Colonel Porosusch to get into the car. He actually said very politely: "Honey, how can you let me get in the car first?" Are you a lady, or do you please first! Since he said this, I was not polite, and just got into the car, sat down, and moved my body to the other side to make room for him. When he got into the car, he sat down next to me and closed the door.

At the direction of the colonel, the car quickly drove near a position. Through the car window, I saw a large number of men in civilian clothes in the trenches nervously digging fortifications. As soon as we got out of the car, a lieutenant colonel officer climbed out of the trench and ran after us. Came to us with a salute and loudly reported to Zhukov: "Comrade General, guarding the positions is the 230th Preparatory Teaching Regiment, all Muscovites. ”

Zhukov looked left and right, then raised his voice and said loudly: "Hello, Muscovites! ”

Hearing his voice, all the people stopped what they were doing, turned their eyes to him, and replied neatly, "Hello! Comrade General. ”

Zhukov, accompanied by us, walked along the trenches, looking at the fighters in civilian clothes in the trenches, and as he went, he asked: "Where did these people come from?" ”

Hearing his questioning, the lieutenant colonel hurriedly stepped forward and introduced him: "Mainly workers from the sickle and hammer factory. Pointing to one of the nearest fighters, he said: "This is Engineer Grigriev." The old man, standing in the trench, heard the lieutenant colonel introducing himself to the senior commander, took off his reading glasses on the bridge of his nose with his hand and greeted Zhukov in an ordinary tone: "Hello! Comrade General. ”

"Hello!" Zhukov nodded to him and continued his walk.

"This is the senior electrician in the factory." With the introduction of the lieutenant colonel, the middle-aged man standing in the trench with a shovel came to stand upright, and said respectfully in an excited tone: "Hello, Comrade General. ”

"These are the workers in the sand turning workshop, and they are also from the sickle and hammer factory." The warriors collectively stood up and looked at the general who walked in front of them with reverence.

"This is Pavlov and his son." When the lieutenant colonel introduced the father and son soldiers, the young man was flushed with excitement and looked up at us. And the father, who was a little nervous, lowered his head a little nervously.

Zhukov stopped, squatted down, and asked the old man with interest: "Is the ancestral home Muscovite?" ”

"Exactly, Comrade General!" Zhukov's approachability dispelled his nervousness, and he raised his head and looked excitedly at the general in front of him, who was commanding thousands of troops.

"How's the mood?" Zhukov continued to ask.

"Full of fighting spirits, Comrade General! However," speaking of this, he looked at his son beside him with some embarrassment, and said hesitantly: "It's the squad leader just now, who wants to drive us old men away." Look at this ......."

"Who is this?" Zhukov diverted the topic and pointed to the young man next to him. I couldn't help but want to laugh next to me, Zhukov didn't ask knowingly, just now the lieutenant colonel has already introduced us that this is Pavlov's father and son, and the one next to him must be his son.

The old man turned his head to look at his son, who was embarrassed to touch the back of his head, and replied proudly: "My son Paplov, he has just been promoted today and has become a private soldier. There was a pause at this point, and then he said with some embarrassment, "But you see, I'm still ...... Or ......"

"Haha Zhukov laughed loudly, although the old man's words were not finished, he had already understood what the old man meant, patted him on the shoulder and said, "It's okay, old man, when this battle is over, you will be promoted to sergeant, and I will personally inquire about this matter." ”

After saying this, Zhukov stood up and continued to walk forward. I heard the old man in the trench say to his son triumphantly, "Do you hear that? Sergeant, this is said by Comrade General himself. ”

"What kind of flag is that?" After walking a short distance, Zhukov suddenly stopped, pointed to a flag planted in the trench in front of him and asked. I looked in the direction of his finger, and it was a dark brown double-headed eagle flag, which didn't look like the flag of the Soviet army.

"Comrade General, that's the flag of the Moscow militia in 1812," Colonel Porosuesh, hearing Zhukov's question, hurriedly stepped forward, approached his side and explained: "It was brought from the Borodino War Museum this morning, and I want to let these glorious flags bless them." ”

"Well, that's a good idea." Zhukov nodded in agreement and said: "I hope it can bring luck to the troops in battle." ”

After inspecting the position, Zhukov shook hands with Colonel Porosuech and said goodbye. But I saw the colonel cast a glance at Zhukov, and a look of nervousness flashed in his gaze. But I quickly denied myself: I must have been dazzled, and the Colonel was not the first person to go to war, and should not have shown such fear.

The colonel made an unexpected gesture, as if to keep Zhukov, and confirmed his actions with the following words. "I can...... I beg you, Comrade General,...... Can you grant me a request? "I began to despise him in my heart, did he want to ask Zhukov to transfer him to the rear and let someone else take command of this army, knowing that it was impossible for Zhukov to agree to him with his character.

"You...... Did you encounter any problems? Zhukov's tone was harsh, and the address changed from "you" to "you".

"There's a warrior getting married tonight," the colonel hesitantly made his request, "I want you to stay for the wedding." ”

"Warrior married?!" Zhukov asked in surprise. I was also surprised to hear him say this, before the battle was about to start, there were actually fighters who wanted to get married, would Zhukov agree?

"It's an Azerbaijani fighter," the colonel said in one breath, fearing that Zhukov would interrupt him, "There is a company of Azerbaijanis in the division, and they all followed you in the past and taught the Japanese devils a hard lesson......"

"Understood." Without waiting for the colonel to finish speaking, Zhukov agreed very happily: "Since they are all old comrades-in-arms who fought the Japanese together at Nomenkan. So, I must go to this wedding. ”