"Mr. Captain, I have a question." I got up from my seat, walked around the room with my back on my back, and asked the German officer the question on my mind with a frown: "Yesterday you broke through the defense line of our division with a force of a few hundred men and occupied the positions of our troops on the opposite side. From this point of view, there is no doubt about the combat effectiveness of your troops. Hearing my compliment, the German captain had a smug look on his face. I then said, "But today when our army launched a counterattack against you, you were easily defeated by us. Can you tell me, what's going on? ”

The captain did not answer my words, and his eyes swept over Chistyakov and Sedulin. Chistyakov slammed the table and shouted: "It is the commander of our Guards Division who asked you what you are talking about, you quickly answer her question." ”

The captain was taken aback and explained to me with some nervousness: "Madam Lieutenant Colonel, there are many reasons. First of all, your tanks pretended to be our troops, and when they approached our troops, they suddenly opened fire, and we were caught off guard; Secondly, we lack sufficient anti-tank weapons to withstand the onslaught of your tanks; Thirdly, and most importantly, because of the cold weather, the guns in the hands of the soldiers could not be bolted, and the weapons that could not shoot were held in their hands, which was similar to burning sticks, so we had to sit and wait. If it weren't for this damn cold, even if you could defeat us, you would have paid a huge price. ”

"You mean that it is not our fighters who defeat you, but the bitter cold weather of Russia?" Hearing him say this, Schedurin, who was standing on the side, asked in a mocking tone.

"Yes, Mr. Major." Although the German captain became our prisoner, he was not convinced: "If it weren't for the fact that we were not used to such cold weather and lacked the antifreeze needed for guns, it would not be easy to defeat us, even if you had tank support." ”

"Alright, take him down." Chistyakov saw that Shedurin was unconvinced, and seeing that he was about to quarrel with the other party, he hurriedly ordered the soldiers to take the prisoner out of the city.

As soon as the captives were escorted out of the city, Katukov hurried in. He was not polite, he sat down in the vacant seat opposite me, took off the tank hat on his head, wiped the sweat on his head with his sleeve, and said happily: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I really obeyed you!" Under your command, these two battles were fought very well. Unexpectedly, with such small casualties, we completely annihilated the two German troops wedged into our defensive line. ”

Hearing his praise, I just smiled bitterly and replied: "Comrade General, don't you think that our victory today came too lucky? In both battles, we were able to resolve the battle so quickly by relying on our own overwhelming technical equipment. If the enemy had used aircraft and artillery during the attack, what would you think the battle would have been like today? Speaking of this, I suddenly thought of the tank brigade's good performance in today's battle, and felt that I should not blindly pour cold water on them like this, so I quickly changed the topic and said: "Of course, in today's battle, the tank brigade under your wise command performed remarkably in the battle. First, cleanly took out the enemy's tank detachment; Then he used the captured tanks to confuse the enemy, swaggered close to their positions, and took them by surprise when they were unprepared, and took out the most dangerous armored vehicles against our troops, and took them by surprise. It is because of your command that our infantry battalions can easily destroy the enemy and retake their positions. ”

"Yes, Comrade Division Commander is right!" Major Shedurin also echoed my slap on the back of General Katukov: "When I led my soldiers to rush forward, your tank unit had already divided and surrounded the enemy. With the support of your powerful firepower, the enemy was crushed and, with no hope of escape, was forced to surrender to our troops. ……”

Just when General Katukov was a little embarrassed by our flattery, Chistyakov, who had not participated in the dialogue, suddenly asked inexplicably: "I say, do you think what the German captain said just now is true?" ”

"What did he say?" The three of us asked in unison.

"Bitter cold! The German captain did not admit that they were defeated by us, but by the bitter cold! ”

"It's possible!" Although Shedurin almost got into an argument with the German captain just now, he hesitated at the moment, but still replied very objectively: "When I led my troops to rush into the position, only a few of the enemy were stubbornly resisting, and the vast majority of the rest were carrying weapons and scurrying around like headless flies. I thought it was strange at the time that these Germans had become so greedy and afraid of death that they didn't even have the courage to shoot at us, and they started to run away. When the enemy has laid down his arms and surrendered, I will pick up this submachine gun," and with that, he pointed to the submachine gun on the table, and then said, "I realized what was going on." It's not that they don't want to shoot, it's that the bolts are frozen and can't be pulled at all. ”

"This is an important situation that needs to be reported to the comrade commander immediately." I asked Sedulin: "Comrade Major, can you contact the division headquarters directly with your phone here?" ”

"Can't!" He shook his head and replied, seeing the disappointment on my face, he quickly added, "But the regimental headquarters can." It's a pity that we first contacted the regiment headquarters and asked them to call the division headquarters, and then let the people from the division headquarters call us again. ”

"Alright then!" I nodded and instructed him: "You immediately call the regiment headquarters, ask them to contact the division headquarters, and tell the comrade commander that I have important intelligence to report, and ask him to call me back as soon as possible." When he began to dial, I turned my eyes to General Katukov, who was sitting opposite, and asked him curiously: "Comrade General, I would like to ask you a question, didn't you capture only one German tank, why did it turn into two just now?" ”

"I thought that only one German tank would work, but when I cleaned up the battlefield, I found that there was another one that only blew up the tracks. The fighters felt that they could use it, so they repaired it by the way. Unexpectedly, these two captured German tanks also came in handy. ”