It seemed that reinforcements were pouring into the city, and I couldn't help but get worried. Although Sun Hill City is not small, there are still thousands of people and horses of our division stationed at present, and with so many soldiers and technical equipment, the city will suddenly be crowded. So I consulted with Rokossovsky and suggested that he send these troops to assemble in the settlements of Sverchikovo, Selishevo and Maltnovo outside the city.

Rokossovsky agreed to my proposal, and immediately ordered the command to receive the staff officers of the troops to guide the troops entering the city to the three settlements.

After arranging everything, he and Chief of Staff Malinin and a group of staff officers of the army group stood in front of the map and began to study the counteroffensive against Lyalovo. Since I was no longer from the 16th Army, I could only stand silently and be an audience member when they discussed. From the conversation between the two, I realized that Dollyalovo is just a relatively large village, not a city as I imagined it.

While studying, the roar of tank motors was heard outside, and Rokossovsky straightened up, waved his hand and said: "Go, go to the door and look at our troops!" After saying that, he took the lead and walked out, and we hurriedly followed.

Standing on the steps outside the division headquarters, Rokossovsky stood at the front with high spirits, looking with great interest at the tanks, rocket artillery and trucks full of fighters passing in front of him, his face flushed with excitement, and from time to time he waved at the marching columns and shouted: "Well done, boys!" Well done, lads!! His emotions deeply infected everyone around him, and everyone looked at the endless queue and talked excitedly.

Before all the troops had finished, a communications officer hurried out of the building, stopped beside me, stood up and saluted, and reported in a low voice: "Comrade division commander, General Vlasov, commander of the army group, asked you to answer the phone. ”

I trotted to the headquarters, picked up the microphone resting on the table, and said: "Hello, Comrade Commander! I'm Oshanina, do you have any instructions? ”

Vlasov did not beat around the bush, but said straight to the point: "You immediately hand over the command to the deputy division commander Chistyakov and the political commissar Yegorov, and then rush to the headquarters of the army group, and we will jointly study the next operational deployment." ”

I asked the communications officer to call in the commissar, the deputy division commander, and the chief of staff, and then called the guard battalion and asked Major Bukov to arrange for me to be manned and to prepare the car.

The three of them hurriedly walked in, and the political commissar asked with concern: "Lida, you are in such a hurry to call us in, is something wrong?" ”

I said with a calm expression: "Just now the commander of the army group, General Vlasov, called me and asked me to hand over the command of the division to you, and then I myself immediately rushed to the headquarters to attend the operational meeting. After saying that, he began to hand over the command of the division to them.

When he finished explaining everything and turned to walk out, he met Rokossovsky, who had returned. When he saw me hurrying out, he also asked with concern, "Lida, where are you going?" ”

"I will rush to the headquarters of the 20th Army immediately and attend the operational meeting that will be held immediately."

Rokossovsky took my hand, shook it vigorously, and said: "It's not safe on the road, you may meet Germans, you can bring more fighters." ”

"Xie Lu Xie Commander cares, I will pay attention to safety."

"Good luck!" Rokossovsky let go of my hand after saying the last sentence.

Waiting outside was a jeep driven by Grissa, and Yushchenko, the commander of the guard company, was waiting for me outside. When he saw me come out, he saluted me and hurriedly opened the car door, and only then did he go around from the back of the car to the other end of the car, open the door and sit in the passenger seat. After our car started, it quickly followed a truck full of fighters.

I pointed to the truck behind me and asked Yushchenko strangely: "Comrade Captain, what's going on with the truck behind?" ”

Yushchenko replied to me half-sideways: "Comrade division commander, this is Major Bukov, for the sake of your safety, he specially sent two squads of fighters to protect your safety along the way. ”

Although I have been running back and forth outside recently, I have always only brought one or two guards, and on the surface it doesn't matter, but in fact I am still terribly scared in my heart, in case I encounter an enemy attack along the way, just a few of us, we are simply going to the tiger's mouth to kill ourselves. Hearing Yushchenko's explanation, I hummed and did not speak again, feeling very satisfied with Bukov's arrangement.

As soon as I got out of the car, an officer on duty came to salute me, saying that the commander and deputy commander had been waiting for me for a long time, and guided me to the headquarters under the rubble.

In the room, Vlasov and Deputy Commander Lin were sitting face to face drinking tea, and the interpreter stood behind Mr. Lin, and promptly translated Vlasov's words to Mr. Lin, or relayed Mr. Lin's words to Vlasov.

When they saw me enter, both commanders stood up and greeted me. Before I could stand up and salute, they all stretched out their hands to shake my hand. Vlasov also smiled and said: "Hello, Chief of Staff Oshanina. Just called you, I didn't expect you to come over so soon. Have you had a safe journey, right? ”

"The concern of Comrade Commander Xie Luxie," I also replied with a smile: "The line from Solhill City to Volokolamsk is under the control of our 20th Army. Perhaps it was because the enemy was afraid of the two commanders and did not dare to come out and harass me casually, so I was able to be calm and safe along the way. ”

Vlasov smiled, gestured to the side, and said, "Come, sit down first." Because General Lin had to wait for Comrade Shi Zhe's translation, his reaction was slightly slower than Vlasov's, but he still added in Chinese: "You are the chief of staff of the group army, which is equivalent to a person from the headquarters, so you don't have to treat yourself as a guest, don't be restrained." ”

When I sat down, I took a closer look at Vlasov and found that he was actually a tall and thin man, at least 1.9 meters tall, but why I used to think that he was of medium height, maybe I didn't observe him carefully.

After taking his seat, Vlasov said straight to the point: "Comrade Lida, we are in a hurry to call you here today because a major counteroffensive is imminent, and the current situation is still very unoptimistic. If we rush into a counteroffensive, we are not expected to achieve any good results, so we need to study carefully what can be done to change the current unfavorable situation. ”