During the meal, General Shumilov, who had always been silent, said slowly: "General Kolpakchi, I would like to ask, how many troops can the 62nd Army put into the counter-assault in the early hours of tomorrow morning?" After asking, he looked at Kol Parkucci with a smile and waited for his answer.

After listening to his words, Korpakchi put down the knife and fork in his hand and replied slowly: "General Shumilov, Comrade Chuikov, there is one thing I want to tell you, the 62nd Army may not be able to participate in the counterattack in the early hours of tomorrow morning. When you just came in, I was calling Commander Goldov to explain the reasons why I could not participate in the counterattack. ”

The smiles of Shumilov and Chuikov froze on their faces, and I looked at Kolpacchi in confusion, wondering why he had such the audacity to openly resist the orders of his superiors.

After a long while, Chuikov asked with a serious face: "Vladimir. Yakovlevich, I wonder about the real reasons why the 62nd Army did not participate in the counterattack. ”

Korpakchi sighed and said with some helplessness: "I received a call today from the Chief of Staff of the Front, General Nikishev, who informed me that at two o'clock in the morning tomorrow, our army group and your 64th Army will launch a counter-assault against the frontal enemy. However, I soon found that the troops were not ready, and that the ammunition had been consumed a lot in the early stage of the battle, and the ammunition supplied to us had not yet arrived. To make matters worse, General Moskalenko's 1st Tank Army had found itself in a very difficult situation and had completely lost its assault capability. Coupled with the absolute air supremacy of the enemy's air force, the massing operation of the 4th tank army of General Kryuchonkin and the operation to cross the Don River ended in failure. Based on the analysis of the current situation, the counter-assault plan can no longer be implemented. ”

"General Kolpakč, you are a defeatist argument, and other troops, after stubborn fighting with the enemy, also have a situation of insufficient ammunition and insufficient troops. But they still carried out every order given by their superiors to the letter. Shumilov completely ignored the fact that Kolpakic was of the same rank as himself, and said unceremoniously, "I think you are frightened by the enemy." ”

Korpacic slapped the knife and fork in his hand on the table, stood up suddenly, leaned forward, held the edge of the table with both hands, glared at Shumilov with fire-blazing eyes, and said angrily: "What?!" I'm a coward!! Comrade General, do you know how many enemies my army group fought in the Don Valley during these more than half a month? Although several times they broke through the lines of defense of our troops. But they had to pay a huge price for every step forward, and our fighters who held their positions fought completely to the last man, and it can be said that the enemy barely occupied our positions by stepping on the corpses of our soldiers. ”

Seeing Kol Parkch get angry. I leaned slightly to the side so that I could flip the table. I was able to quickly escape to safety. Fortunately, Chuikov was able to stop the conflict between the two in time. Without the worst-case scenario I had envisioned, he said to his superiors with a stern expression: "General Shumilov, I have known Comrade Kolpakchi for almost twenty years, and he is definitely not a coward who is greedy for life and afraid of death. Then he turned his gaze to me and said, "Lieutenant Colonel Oshanina, you were once the adjutant of General Kolpakchi. Do you think I'm right? ”

When I saw that Chuikov threw the conversation at me, I couldn't help but panic a little, and said that there is a conflict between your commanders, what does it matter to me. Do you still need me to come out and comment, this is really lying down and getting shot. But since Chuikov has already asked so, I have to share my opinion. I coughed, attracted everyone's attention, and then said, "Comrade commanders, let me say a few words, if you say something wrong, please don't be surprised. You must know that only ten days ago, if anyone mentioned the construction of fortifications on the Don River, it was equivalent to saying that the enemy could almost penetrate into the hinterland of the motherland and approach the city named after the Supreme Commander himself. Well, to put it nicely, this is a ridiculous idea; To put it mildly, it's a form of defeatism. ”

After listening to my vague words, Chuikov muttered: "I am asking you to evaluate General Kolpakchi, not to let you say such useless nonsense." Then he turned to Kolpacchi and said: "Comrade Kolpacic, I think you have a very reasonable point, how did he reply to you when you reported this idea to the commander of the front?" ”

Kolpakchi shook his head with a wry smile and said: "Commander Goldov scolded me before I could finish my thoughts, and then warned me that if I could not launch an attack on time tomorrow morning, he would remove the commander of our army group and send me to a military court." ”

Chuikov asked again: "What do you think?" ”

Without hesitation, Kolpacchi replied: "Since I have determined that this counter-assault plan cannot be carried out, then I will stick to my own opinion and let the troops stay in their original positions and not participate in this hopeless operation." Our defensive positions were already undermanned, and if we continued to be exhausted in this hopeless counterattack, we would simply not be able to resist when the enemy re-attacked. ”

After hearing this, Chuikov pondered for a moment, then turned to Shumilov and said: "Comrade commander, let's go now, go back to the headquarters of the army group." ”

"Back to the army headquarters?" Shumilov asked in surprise: "Why, we are not looking for the two lost troops?" ”

"I'm not looking for it." Chuikov was a resolute man, and in this case, he said without hesitation: "We have been looking for so long, but we have only found a brigade of the 23rd Tank Army, and from what we have seen, they are not ready for battle at all, and even if they find all the troops, they will not be able to complete the assembly under the fierce air attack of the enemy, but will increase unnecessary casualties." ”

"But ......" Shumilov wanted to say something, but was interrupted by Chuikov, and he said in a flat tone: "Comrade commander, I will take you back to the headquarters of the group army, meet with everyone and get acquainted with each other, so that you can command the battle in the future." ”

Hearing Chuikov say this, Shumilov had no choice but to nod helplessly and said, "Okay, let's go back to the headquarters." After saying that, he stood up, stretched out his hand to Kolpakchi, squeezed a stiff smile on his face, and said politely: "Comrade General, we are leaving, thank you very much for your hospitality." ”

Kolpacchi also reached out and shook his hand politely, then with Chuikov. The two of them clasped their hands tightly together, shaking vigorously, not saying a word, but making eye contact with each other.

The two commanders are leaving, and I can't sit or eat lunch anymore. Since Chuikov didn't say anything about letting me go back to the 62nd Army, I had no choice but to follow him away. I had to put down the sumptuous lunch on the table after only a few bites, and I was really unwilling to look at it. While the three of them weren't paying attention, I quietly grabbed two pieces of sausage and stuffed them into my mouth.

As a result, before I could swallow the sausage, Kolpakchi had already stretched out his hand to me, smiled and said: "Comrade Oshanina, if you want to come back one day, just say it, and I will let Comrade Chuikov let you back immediately." At this point, he turned his head to look at Chuikov and jokingly said, "I said, old man, you can't let people go when the time comes." ”

Hearing Kol Parkucci say this, I regret dying in my heart, don't you say I'm unlucky, I don't eat early or late, but I eat at this time, my mouth is full of things and I can't speak. Otherwise, I would have taken the opportunity to offer to stay in the 62nd Army, and then I would have stayed and eaten the rest of my lunch.

Without saying a word, Chuikov and Shumilov walked briskly towards the jeep parked outside the village. I followed behind the two of them, thinking back to what Kol Pakchi had just said, and secretly asked myself, although the counter-assault formulated by the Front Army Command was somewhat out of place, if I were in Kol Pakchi's position, would I refuse the deployment of my superiors like him, or would I carry out the wrong orders of my superiors regardless of him?

Before I could come up with something, we had already walked to the jeep, and Chuikov patted me on the shoulder and asked unhappily, "Oshanina, what are you doing in a daze, hurry up and get in the car." (To be continued......)

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