Sandbag fortifications flanked the entrance to the three-story building, and a dozen soldiers stood inside, commanded by a captain. Seeing me walking over with Beziakov and Rasmikhin, the captain hurriedly came out of the fortifications, raised his hand and saluted me, and said respectfully: "Hello, General Oshanina. ”

I looked at the captain in front of me carefully, he looked a little kind, I should have met before, but it was too long ago, and his name was long gone. I smiled and said to him: "Comrade Captain, I have something to see General Shumilov, don't you know that he is there?" ”

"Yes, Comrade General." The captain politely replied: "Comrade Commander is in his office, do you need me to show you the way?" ”

I was worried that I could not find Shumilov's office when I entered the building, and since the captain was so eager to show me the way, I said with a smile: "In that case, I will trouble you, Comrade Captain." ”

The captain led us to a large office on the second floor, and outside the confined wooden door, there was a desk where a young blonde female ensign sat chatting with a soldier in black uniform. Seeing a few of us approaching, the female soldier immediately stopped the conversation, stood up, called the captain's name and asked, "...... I don't know what you have to do with Comrade Commander? ”

The captain shook his head at where I was, and replied, "Second Lieutenant, this is General Oshanina, an old acquaintance of the commander, and she has an urgent matter to see the commander, so please go in and report it." ”

The female lieutenant looked at me and said, "Please wait! Then he walked to the door, pushed open one of the doors and entered, closing the door with his hand.

While we waited, the soldier who had just chatted with the female ensign turned around and looked at me curiously. Then in broken Russian, he asked, "Hey, dear girl, I don't know what to call you?" ”

The male soldier's flirtatious tone made me very uncomfortable to hear, and I glanced sideways at him, and when I saw the pilot logo on his chest, I couldn't help muttering to myself: What the hell did this strange guy come from? Not only does he speak Russian badly, but he also looks different from the usual Soviets?

Before I could figure out why, the captain stepped forward, put his hands on the other man's shoulders, and forcibly turned his body over, while saying, "Alright, alright, don't rub around here, go back to your room." ”

After the captain blasted the pilot away. Bezikov asked the other party curiously: "Comrade Captain, where did this guy come from, and what kind of accent did he speak, why did I sound so awkward?" ”

"What? Comrade Colonel, what are you asking? The captain did not hear Bezikov's question, and asked in surprise: "Whose accent sounds awkward?" ”

"Who else could it be, the pilot you just chased away." Bezikov asked thoughtfully: "Isn't he Russian?" ”

"He is a Pole, Comrade General." The captain faced me. Surprisingly replied.

"Poles?" When I heard the captain's words, I was stunned at first. Then he asked, somewhat unexpectedly, "Comrade Captain, how can there be Poles in your defense zone?" ”

"That's right, Comrade General." The captain patiently explained to me: "Although he is a Pole, he is our man. I heard about it after the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War. Some of the former Polish pilots, fortunately escaped from the German prisoner of war camps, quietly crossed the German lines, and defected to our side and joined our army. And so he stayed in the army. There were about thirty of them......"

Before the captain could finish speaking, the two closed doors opened, and General Shumilov, whom I was familiar with, came out of the house with the female ensign who had gone to report, and interrupted the captain's later words.

When Lieutenant General Shumilov saw me standing outside the door, he immediately greeted me with open arms, and at the same time said loudly: "Dear Leda. Mushdakova, I was so surprised to see you here. After that, he gave me a big hug.

I politely hugged him and said, "Hello, General Shumilov, it's a pleasure to see you again." ”

Shumilov let go of me, grabbed my arm, pulled me into the house, and said excitedly: "Okay, Comrade Oshanina, come and sit down in my office." You guy, since you hit the 62nd Army, you have never contacted me since you hit the 62nd Army, like a kite with a broken string, and I often ask others to inquire about you. ”

He led me to his desk and beckoned me to sit in a chair, and he sat down in a chair opposite. After looking me from head to toe, he said, "How remarkable you are that you were able to fight the Germans with a newly formed unit in such a difficult environment as the Battle of Stalingrad." At the end of the battle, some of the German officers and men who were captured by us confessed that the Mamayev post, which your troops were holding, seemed to them to be the narrowest and most difficult to pass through. Because the Germans tried to cut us off from the other side of the Volga by seizing the heights. But their plans have been shattered by the stubborn defenses you have organized. ……”

I never expected Shumilov to be such a talkative person, and when he used to give orders, he would finish them in a few simple and clear sentences, but now he talks so incessantly that I don't even have a chance to interject. I looked at him with a smile on my face and tried my best to be a good listener.

Shumilov talked for a while, but seeing that I never finished speaking, I just looked at him with a smile, and immediately realized that I could no longer sing a one-man show, so he quickly changed the subject: "By the way, Lida, I heard that you have been appointed commander of the 6th Guards Army, how can you have time to come to me today?" ”

"Comrade Commander," I called him as before, "we are now friendly neighbors, and I feel it necessary to come to you in order to strengthen our cooperation with each other. ”

"Look, what's there to see?" Shumilov asked rhetorically with some confusion: "Don't you know that the task of our Voronezh Front is to contain Manstein's troops, so that he does not dare to easily transfer troops to reinforce their Army Group Center, so as to relieve the pressure on General Rokossovsky." ”

I can't help but smile bitterly at Shumilov's disapproving attitude. After organizing the vocabulary in my head, I asked tentatively: "Comrade commander, according to your analysis, is the main direction of the German attack on General Rokossovsky, and not on our side?" ”

"That's nature." Shumilov replied without hesitation: "According to the analysis of the intelligence that we have at the moment. The enemy will launch an attack on Kursk from the Orel region. And we here, at best, Manstein launched a round of feints to achieve the goal of containing our troops. ”

After listening to Shumilov's analysis, I couldn't help but laugh dumbly, and if I hadn't come from the future, I might have the same idea as him, that the main direction of the German attack was to the west of Kursk. Moreover. I don't have enough information to confirm that the Germans are going to attack from the south of Kursk, and I can't tell him that, according to the history books, the Germans will attack Kursk from both directions at the same time, and he would have to think I'm crazy.

I thought for a moment, and then asked lightly, "Comrade Commander." I wonder how the fortifications of your army are being completed? ”

Hearing me ask this question, he immediately let out a long sigh. "Lida, almost all of the fortifications we built before May have been scrapped due to the soaking of stagnant water after the snow melts. Now it is to start repairing the fortifications from scratch, and in such a short period of time, without the cooperation of enough construction machinery, the progress of the project is simply not guaranteed. ”

I listened to his answer. Worried about his fate, I kept a straight face, tapped my fingers lightly on the armrest of the chair, and said earnestly: "Comrade commander, have you ever thought about it. You are only a few dozen kilometers from Belgorod, and in just a few hours, the German tanks can rush to the outside of Korocha, and if you don't have a perfect defense system, you may be surrounded by it. At this point, I paused to think for a moment, and then suggested to him, "Why don't you move your headquarters somewhere else first, and then move your headquarters back when the defense system in the Korocha area is perfected?" ”

"No, absolutely not!" As soon as I finished speaking, Shumilov replied categorically: "Even if the Germans rush to the entrance of my command, I will command the soldiers to fight bravely and will never take a step back." ”

"Since you don't plan to transfer your headquarters," I heard him resolutely say that he would never take a step back, so I had to persuade him in another way: "Then what you have to do now is to urge the troops to speed up the construction of fortifications, as long as there is a perfect defense system, let alone rush to your headquarters, even if you want to get close to the city of Korocha, it is impossible." ”

"Lida, how is the construction of the fortifications in your defense area?" Shumilov waited for me to finish, and couldn't help but ask curiously: "I heard from my subordinates a few days ago that you are building a lot of construction there, and it seems that a lot of them can improve the existing defense system. But there is one thing that strikes me as strange. ”

"Comrade Commander, I don't know what makes you strange?" I asked casually.

"In your defense zone, there are both plains and high ground. But what makes me strange is that almost all of your fortifications are built on the high ground, but very little on the plains. ”

"Comrade Commander, the reason why we have chosen to build a defensive position on the high ground is that I would like to talk to him about where to build fortifications, but since he has offered it, I will take the opportunity to instill in him my theory of tunnel defense: "This is because first, we can avoid the fate of the fortifications being flooded by stagnant water, and second, we can build a large number of tunnel fortifications on the high ground, which will be used to hide our troops and reduce casualties in the enemy's artillery bombardment or air raids." ”

After listening to my words, Shumilov was silent for a while, and then said: "After the Battle of Stalingrad, I went to visit the fortifications you built on the Mamayev Heights, and after seeing them, I have to say that this is really a great feat. Even if the Germans occupied the surface positions at Mamayev Heights, our troops would have been able to remain in the tunnels to contain the enemy, but they would not be able to move forward. I guess that's why you're building fortifications on the high ground, right? ”

"That's right, Comrade Commander." Seeing that Shumilov finally understood what I was trying to say, my mood became cheerful, and I smiled and said to him: "Having a well-developed defense system and strong fortifications can make defensive battles relatively easy and greatly reduce the casualties of the troops. At this point, I couldn't help but think of the 107.5 heights that looked like the "flesh mill", and I added bitterly, "Next to the Mamayev Heights, there is a 107.5 height, and because the original defenders did not build a tunnel on it, the troops who held the high ground suffered heavy casualties in German artillery fire and air raids." A regiment or brigade was usually crippled in less than two days and had to be withdrawn to the other side of the Volga for rearmament. ”

Shumilov jerked up from his chair and walked back and forth in the room with his hands behind his back. At this time, I looked around and saw that Bezikov had not come in, and I was considering whether I should go out and call the two of them in, when the door was slammed open from the outside, and a burly commander hurriedly entered from the outside.

When I saw someone coming, I quickly jumped up from my seat, straightened my body in place, my left hand naturally drooped against the seam of my trousers, raised my right hand to my forehead, and said loudly: "Hello, Comrade Marshal of the Soviet Union!" ”

Hearing my voice, Shumilov, who had been pacing, also stopped. He walked up to me, raised his hand and saluted, and said: "Hello, Comrade Deputy People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR. ”

Listening to the two of us greet us with different addresses, Vasilevsky, who had just walked in, nodded at us, walked briskly around the back of the desk and sat down, and raised his hand to beckon us to sit down.

When we both sat down, he looked at me with his back in his chair and asked, "Lida, why did you get to General Shumilov's defense zone?" ”

Hearing Vasilevsky's question, I quickly stood up and replied respectfully: "Comrade Marshal of the Soviet Union, I went to General Shumilov to establish contact with General Shumilov after inspecting the defense situation of the 51st Guards Division, so that we could better coordinate operations in the next battle. ”

"So," Vasilevsky asked, raising his eyebrows with some surprise, "do you think that Manstein, with his little strength, would dare to attack our strengthened Voronezh Front?" ”

"Comrade Marshal," I saw Marshal Venus on Vasilevsky's shoulder, and I couldn't help muttering, remembering that when I left Moscow, he was still a general, how did he suddenly become a marshal. Although he was thinking crankily in his heart, he was still answering his question in his mouth: "The combat effectiveness of Manstein's troops is not weak, his 'Hitler Division', 'Imperial Division' and 'Skeleton Division' are all elite units of the SS, let alone one-on-one, even if we are three against one, we may not be able to defeat them." ”

"Is it that serious?" Vasilevsky asked in a skeptical tone.

"Yes, Comrade Marshal." I immediately replied in the affirmative: "I have fought against two of these units and know their strength very well. Even if they were weakened in the early battles, the replenishment rate of this elite unit is usually very fast, and I believe that their combat effectiveness has basically recovered now. ”

"Lida, I know that you have a lot of unique opinions, which even Comrade Zhukov admires very much." Vasilevsky said slowly: "Can you tell us about your considerations? ”

"What we can do at the moment is to seize the time to repair the fortifications and improve the existing defense system." "When the defensive system is formed, we can use defensive warfare to drag down the enemy, and then switch to a counteroffensive and annihilate the enemy." If conditions permit, our army can also launch a full-scale general offensive in the Kharkov, Poltava and Kiev directions, completely driving the German troops away from the vicinity of Moscow in order to ensure the safety of Moscow. (To be continued.) )