Seeing that his battle plan was adopted, after a short period of joy, he was a little inexplicably empty-hearted. Fighting a war is not a child's play, there will be casualties as soon as the guns go off, and it can be said that the life and death of tens of thousands of people are in my hands.

Chuikov deliberately stopped me again, and said in a very kind manner: "Comrade Oshanina, General Zhukov said in the telegram that this counterattack will be under your full command. ”

Hearing this heavy burden on my shoulders, my heart became more and more unsteady, and I shirked it a little nervously and said: "General Chuikov, I think that this counterattack operation should still be commanded by you and Commander Shumilov, and I am only suitable to do something to give you advice and fight." ”

Chuikov scolded with a smile: "Oshanina, what is your ability, others don't know the way, don't General Zhukov know the way?!" Since he dares to confidently and boldly hand over the troops to your command, you don't have to push back here, and you have the final say in the daytime battles, and Commander Shumilov and I are your assistants. Anyway, you just do what you want. ”

I glanced at Shumilov and saw him sitting at his desk with a blank face, looking down at a document in front of him, as if he hadn't noticed what Chuikov and I were talking about. I turned my gaze back to Chuikov and asked cautiously, "General Chuikov, aren't you worried at all that I will command the troops?" ”

Chuikov shook his head and sighed: "It's strange to say that I'm not worried, if it weren't for General Zhukov's fierce words in the telegram, I would ...... with me" Saying this, he turned his head and glanced at Shumilov. And then he said. "Me and Commander Shumilov. Will you accept this order? ”

"General Chuikov, do you know the reason why Comrade Lu Dao did this?" Although I vaguely felt that Zhukov had the intention of cultivating me, I couldn't understand why he was doing this, after all, in the current situation, no matter how you look at it, it is a bit too risky to do so.

Chuikov patted me on the shoulder and said, "Don't you see it yet?" The reason why General Zhukov sent you to Stalingrad was to train you well. Lay a good foundation for higher positions in the future. What you lacked before was seniority and prestige, but now, as you have served in so many units, your prestige is gradually growing as you slowly accumulate seniority. This time, letting you take the lead alone is also a test for you by Comrade General. If you succeed, it goes without saying that your prestige will skyrocket in the shortest possible time; But if you fail, I guess your career will stop there, even if you stay on the front line. At most, he served as a division commander, and he was almost at the top. ”

Listen to what Chuikov said. I'm getting more and more bottomless. I hesitated for a long time before I cautiously said: "General Chuikov, although I used to hold the post of chief of staff of the group army and also commanded divisions and regiments, I have never commanded the entire group army alone, and I am afraid that I will not be able to do it well. ……”

"No one is born to be a leader, so they can't go to school, and tomorrow Comrade Cui Kefu and I will check for you." Shumilov put down the documents in his hand, got up and walked over, and he said to me: "Actually, it is not difficult to be a commander, you must first find out what the duties of a commander are?" It is to point with your hand to the place to be captured on the map, and then order your subordinates to take it. As for how to seize the law and what the casualties of the troops will be, those are all things that the commanders below have to worry about, and you just need to grasp the general direction of the overall situation. If you can't grasp the big and let go of the small, then you can't grow into a good commander. ”

Hearing Shumilov say this, I immediately had confidence, and I was a little more sure of the battle of Tianming, and I quickly straightened up and expressed my determination to him: "Please rest assured, two commanders, I will definitely command tomorrow's battle and give the Germans a lesson that will never be forgotten." ”

Both Chuikov and Shumilov nodded and said with satisfaction: "Yes, it seems that your fighting mood is very high right now, and we are looking forward to seeing how you perform in the next battles." ”

I pretended to be aggrieved: "Comrade two commanders, when the battle starts, you can give me more guidance." If you see something wrong with me, you can remind me in time. ”

Chuikov nodded, took over my topic and said, "Okay, okay, don't complain, go and rest early." Then he turned his head and called out to Chief of Staff Raskin: "Comrade Colonel, please come here." ”

Raskin was talking to a staff officer at the door, and when he heard Chuikov calling himself, he hurriedly ran over and asked: "Comrade Deputy Commander, what instructions do you have?" ”

Chuikov pointed at me and said, "Comrade Colonel, you go and arrange a place for Lieutenant Colonel Oshanina to rest well, she has been running around all this time and is tired. ”

Raskin nodded, then walked up to me and said politely: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, please come with me, and I will take you to the village to find a place to live." ”

Ruskin led me to a house a little far from the headquarters and said to me: "Comrade Oshanina, this house is the residence of the female soldiers of the communications and health teams of the headquarters, and you can rest here for the night. ”

When I saw the accommodation he had arranged, I politely thanked him, and when he was far away, I pushed open the door and walked in.

There were three beds in the room, and in one of them lay a female soldier in white underwear, who saw me enter the door, quickly sat up from the bed, and asked vigilantly, "Who are you?" Comrade Commander. ”

Instead of answering her question right away, I walked over to the bed across from her, stopped and asked her, "Is there anyone in this bed?" Seeing that she shook her head, I sat down on the bedboard, leaned the submachine gun against the side of the bed, and began to untie the belt on my body, and then answered the female soldier's question, "I am Lieutenant Colonel Oshanina, chief of staff of the group army headquarters, I don't know what to call you?" ”

After hearing my self-declaration, the female soldier quickly jumped out of bed, stood in front of me barefoot, raised her hand and saluted and reported: "Hello, comrade commander. I'm Hygienist Garka, waiting for your instructions! ”

I looked at the petite and delicate female soldier in front of me, raised my hand and pressed it down, and said, "Comrade Garka." Don't be so polite. Sit down. I'm here to stay. If you're so polite, I'm embarrassed to come back. ”

Garka smiled, stepped forward, took my belt and briefcase, and hung it on the wall next to my bed, then retreated to his bed and sat down, looking at me with a grin.

I took off my outer uniform, leaving only my underwear inside, and sat face to face with her. Chatting: "Garka, how many people live in this house?" "I asked this because I was worried that there were three people in the house, and if the other two came back in the middle of the night, they wouldn't be able to stay.

Galka replied, "Just me and Lisa, she's a communications soldier and usually doesn't come back until midnight. ”

"Is the health team busy?"

Galka shook his head and said, "There are very few battles here in the headquarters, so there are basically no wounded or sick. Even if the wounded from other units are brought over, stop for a maximum of several hours. It was transferred to Stalingrad. ”

As he spoke, the door was pushed open. A female soldier swaggered in, went straight to Jialka's bedside and sat down, sat down beside Jialka with a big grin, and asked me: "Hey, I said, comrade soldier, are you new here?" ”

I didn't care about her attitude, nodded, and replied lightly: "Yes, I came today." ”

Garkara tugged at her sleeve to remind her, but the female soldier ignored her and continued to ask, "What do you do?" Signal soldier or hygienist? ”

"Neither, I'm the new Chief of Staff."

As soon as the words fell, the female soldier jumped up from the bed, stood up straight in front of me, the hand raised to her forehead was trembling violently, and her mouth trembled and reported: "Comrade report commander, Lisa, a communications soldier, report to you, I don't know your identity, please forgive me." ”

I smiled, got up and walked over, pulled her hand down from my forehead, and said softly, "Comrade Lisa, I'm just staying here for a few days, don't be too restrained." I sat Lisa down, took two steps back and sat back on the edge of my bed, chatting with the two of us.

As he was talking, there was a sudden knock on the door, and a male soldier's voice outside shouted: "Lieutenant Colonel Oshanina, do you hear me?" Lieutenant Colonel Oshanina. ”

I hurriedly got up and walked to the door, and asked outside, "Who's out there, is there anything going on?" ”

The male soldiers outside stopped knocking on the door and reported: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, General Chuikov asks you to go to the headquarters immediately." ”

Zhilu said. You go and report to General Chuikov and say I'll be there shortly. ”

By the time I arrived at the entrance of the headquarters in full gear, Chuikov had been waiting in the jeep at the gate for a long time. Seeing me running over, he pushed the car door, leaned out half of his body from inside, and shouted, "Oshanina, hurry up and get in the car." ”

After the car started, I curiously asked Chuikov: "Comrade General, is something wrong?" ”

Chuikov replied with a serious face: "I just received a call from Colonel Lyudnikov saying that during the transfer of troops, when passing through a small village, hundreds of corpses of refugees were found outside the village, as if they had been slaughtered. ”

"Massacre?!" I was startled and casually asked, "Could it be that the enemy has bypassed our line of defense and made a detour back to our rear?" ”

Chuikov shook his head and said in an uncertain tone: "Judging from the situation reported by Colonel Lyudnikov, it does not look like a large army, maybe it is a small German army of several dozen people. They happened to encounter the retreating refugees and killed them all in order to prevent their whereabouts from being leaked. ”

The place of the accident was not far from the headquarters, no more than ten kilometers, and our jeep arrived quickly. Trucks loaded with soldiers of the 138th and 157th Divisions stopped on the side of the road and formed a long queue for several kilometers. Our jeep drove along the convoy and soon saw a village, and under the lights, a lot of people could be seen busy, probably the fighters were gathering the remains of refugees.

Lyudnikov and Kuropatenko, who were commanding the fighters at the edge of the village, saw a car driving towards them, and immediately guessed that it was Chuikov coming, so they hurriedly greeted them and stopped in front of the car to salute.

After getting out of the car, Chuikov returned the salute to the two division commanders and asked: "Colonel Lyudnikov and Colonel Kuropadenko, why did you stop the convoy?" When are you going to get troops into attack positions? ”

Lyudnikov and Chuikov, who were more familiar, took over the topic and said: "Report to Comrade Commander, I am ordering the fighters to collect the remains of the slain refugees. I plan to bury the body and continue to set off. ”

Talking. We have come to the edge of the village. See the piles of corpses. Chuikov's eyes were spewing fire, and he stood there silently.

When I saw this, I was also very sad. Looking at the fighters who were carrying the corpses, I suddenly had an idea in my heart, thought of a way to boost morale, and quickly turned to Lyudnikov and Kuropatenko and said: "Comrade two division commanders, I beg you to immediately order each truck to send a soldier and immediately rush here. ”

Lyudnikov looked at me. Puzzled, he asked, "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, what is your purpose?" ”

"Less nonsense, Comrade Colonel." Chuikov gritted his teeth and said, "Don't you know that the orders of the superiors are not allowed to be discussed, but can only be carried out?" Immediately do as Lieutenant Colonel Oshanina says. ”

Lyudnikov and Kuropatenko reluctantly agreed, turned around and were about to leave, but I hurriedly stopped them.

"Anything else? Comrade Lieutenant Colonel. Lyudnikov asked coldly.

I pointed to the soldiers who were carrying the corpses and said, "Let these soldiers leave first, and order the convoy parked on the side of the road to leave immediately." The fighters who were being pulled out, waiting for the trucks to pass by here. Just let them get out of the car. Lyudnikov and Kuropatenko listened and did not say a word. Let those fighters immediately stop working and leave with them.

The soldiers, who had been called up by order, lined up in a neat line on the side of the road. When we were almost there, I walked to the front of the queue. Looking at the angry eyes of the soldiers and the grinding of their teeth with hatred, I pointed to the bodies of the refugees and said loudly to them: "Comrades, do you know who these dead are? ”

The whole team was silent, and no one answered.

I continued: "These are our ordinary people in the Soviet Union, who were brutally killed by the invaders on their own soil. As a military man, we should be ashamed because we can't defend them......"

The warrior standing in front of me was quietly wiping tears at first, but by this time someone was already sobbing and crying.

"Who's crying?!" I shouted loudly, and I glanced at the hundreds of commanders and fighters standing in front of me, "Today, these ordinary people who were killed need revenge, the blood of the enemy, not our tears." ”

My shouting immediately stopped the crying in the ranks.

I gritted my teeth and said, "Since they have come to our land to do anything, then they will pay the price of blood. I ask you, in the coming battle, to use the weapons in your hands to avenge the death of these ordinary people and eliminate the fascist bandits. Can it be done? ”

"Yes!" Hundreds of throats roared in unison, "Resolutely avenge our people!" ”

"Resolutely destroy all evil fascist bandits!"

After everyone's slogans were shouted, I continued to shout loudly: "Now, let's take immediate action to bury the bodies of these killed civilians, so that their remains cannot be exposed." ”

Since Lyudnikov left behind the political commissar of his division, Titov, I handed over the matter of burying the body and the return of the troops to him, and then Chuikov and I returned to the headquarters by car.

On the way, Chuikov said with deep feelings: "Comrade Oshanina, I now think that Comrade Bandurin's words are reasonable, and perhaps you should really be asked to become a political worker, because you know very well how to cheer up the fighters and boost their morale. Originally, I was a little worried about the counteroffensive after dawn, but now it seems that there is no big problem in solving the Romanian army with the troops of Lyudnikov and Kuropatenko. ”

I smiled bitterly and replied: "Comrade General, it's okay for me to make occasional cameo appearances as a political worker, but if I am asked to become a full-time worker, I don't think I am qualified for this job, and I am still willing to command troops to fight the enemy at the front." "It's also true that I say this, at least I know who my enemies are at the front, and in the organs in the rear, it is very likely that I will lose my life inexplicably. After all, the last time we were in Moscow, Colonel Bezikov and I almost died in the Ministry of Internal Affairs because of Stalin's stand-in.

The jeep drove to the entrance of the headquarters and stopped, and Chuikov and I got out of the car. Chuikov was afraid that I would not be able to see the road clearly when I went back, so he asked the driver to bring me a flashlight. I thanked the driver and walked back with the help of the flashlight.

Walking to the wooden house where I was staying, I breathed a sigh of relief and said thank goodness that I had finally returned. Then he raised his hand and pushed the door open, and strode inside.

Maybe it was me pushing the door too loudly, but at the moment of entering the door, a scream suddenly came from the room, and then someone asked vigilantly, "Who is it?" Who's at the door? ”

Startled by the screams, I casually shone my flashlight at the sound that came from the sound. In the light, I saw the most beautiful scene, with Galka and Lisa lying naked on the bed, their legs entangled. I quickly turned off the flashlight, closed the door, and walked towards my bed from memory, while saying, "I'm Lieutenant Colonel Oshanina, I'm sorry, I opened the door so loudly that it woke you both up." Go back to sleep. "I went to my bed like a thief, leaned my submachine gun against the bed, and lay myself on the bed with my clothes.

After a tired day, I wanted to close my eyes and sleep, but I kept thinking about the fragrant shot I saw just now, and I couldn't sleep. After a while, I heard someone on the other side quietly get out of bed, walk lightly outside, and after a few steps, I heard the sound of going to bed again. I didn't open my eyes, but I realized that it was Lisa who had crept back to her own bed.

I lay in bed for more than an hour and couldn't sleep. Since I couldn't sleep, I simply got up, picked up the submachine gun placed next to the bed and walked out, preparing to go to the headquarters first and discuss with Chuikov and them to improve today's combat deployment. (To be continued......)

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