After perfecting the details of the plan, Vlasov reported our plan to Zhukov. And after Zhukov listened, he hung up the phone without saying a word.

Zhukov's attitude made me feel bottomless, and I secretly wondered if it was because this plan was too unbelievable, and he felt that there was no feasibility at all, so he hung up the phone unceremoniously. Zhukov's actions were also much more than Vlasov and Mr. Lin expected, and the two were silent with gloomy faces, the former smoking incessantly, while the latter leaned over to stare at the map on the table. And the most embarrassing thing is the translator Shi Zhe, who stood straight behind Mr. Lin, not daring to move, and when I looked at him, there was a helpless wry smile on his face.

Just when everyone was feeling down, the phone on the table suddenly rang, startling everyone. Looking at the place where the bell came from, it was the one who had just called Zhukov. No one immediately picked it up, but they looked at each other, and they all showed relieved expressions on their faces, and it seemed that things had taken a turn for the better.

The phone rang twice, and General Vlasov grabbed the phone, took a deep breath, and said: "Hello! I'm Vlasov! ”

It was very quiet in the room, and Mr. Lin and I could clearly hear the voice coming from the phone, and it was Zhukov himself who spoke: "Comrade Vlasov?" I have reported your plan to the Supreme Commander himself, and after careful consideration, Comrade Stalin has agreed to let you carry it out! ”

"Great, Comrade General. Thank you! When Vlasov heard that the plan had been approved for execution, his eyes lit up with excitement, "I'm going to assign tasks to the troops." ”

"Wait a minute, don't rejoice too soon, Comrade Vlasov." Zhukov poured a basin of cold water on his head: "Have you thought about it, there are less than two days left between now and the big counteroffensive, and the enemy will be fooled in such a short time?" Even if they were to mobilize forces back to Suvorovo and Botovo, would they necessarily transfer the troops stationed in the Chismena area? ”

The two questions asked by Zhukov happened to be the biggest flaws in the whole plan. If we can't solve it, we may be busy for half a day, and we will still do all the useless work, so we discussed it just now when we were refining the details of the plan. Vlasov organized the words for a moment, and then replied cautiously: "We also discussed these two issues just now. The opinion of Deputy Commander Lin on how to create the illusion that the enemy troops in Kashino would be attacked by our troops was to carry out artillery bombardment of the area at an appropriate time and send troops to make a feint to completely attract the enemy's attention. ”

Zhukov asked in a deep voice: "What kind of troops are you going to use for this feint?" ”

"We are ready to first carry out artillery strikes on the enemy's Kashino area with a cannon regiment, and then send two battalions of infantry battalions, under the cover of the T-34 tank battalion, to make a tentative attack on the enemy's front line."

"No, no!" Zhukov dismissed Vlasov without thinking, "The forces are too small and the firepower is too weak, so that it will not attract the attention of the enemy and will not achieve the effect of deceiving the enemy." In this case, I will send you another battalion of rocket artillery 'Katyusha' and send the air force to carry out air strikes on Kashino. Although it is said that it is only a feint, it must put on a strong offensive posture. Only when the enemy in the Kashino area is cleared will they consider drawing troops back from the front. ”

"Comrade General, this help you have provided is really timely," Vlasov said confidently, "with the support of the Air Force and the Rocket Artillery Regiment, then I will definitely convince the enemy that we will strike at their supply bases and force them to be withdrawn from other areas." As for where the enemy will move his troops, according to our analysis, if the enemy wants to rescue Kashino, it is the quickest to withdraw troops from the Chismena area. ”

"If that's the case, then you can do it! Good luck! With that, Zhukov hung up.

Vlasov put down the phone, exchanged a few words with Mr. Lin, and then called in several operational staff officers of the headquarters and asked them to convey the transfer orders of various units to Lu Xia.

While they were busy, I called the 8th Guards Division to find out what was going on after I left. The answer to the phone was the commissar Yegorov, who told me that today the weather was calm, and the enemy neither shelled the defensive positions of the city of Cumbre del Sol nor launched a ground offensive. General Rokossovsky had moved his headquarters outside the city, and was replenished by an infantry regiment, a separate cavalry regiment, a cannon artillery regiment and an anti-tank regiment from the headquarters of the Front, and he was now gathering forces for a counteroffensive against Lyalovo.

After noon, the build-up to Ivanovskoye began, because with our own planes in the sky as cover, we had firmly grasped air supremacy, so that we could calmly move our troops in broad daylight without fear of being attacked by the German air force.

By half past three in the afternoon, three infantry divisions, two tank brigades, four cannon regiments, one rocket artillery regiment, one cavalry division, anti-tank artillery regiment and so on were assembled in the Ivanovskoye area. As long as the German scouts were not blind, they would have been able to detect such a huge build-up.

At four o'clock sharp, according to the plan, a cannon artillery regiment first opened fire on the German positions, and then Zhukov's rocket artillery regiment, equipped with our army, also fired two volleys at the enemy's positions, blowing the enemy's positions into a sea of fire. After the artillery preparation was completed, a regiment of the cavalry division, under the cover of two tank battalions, made a tentative attack on the enemy's positions, and actually broke through the first line of defense of the German army in one fell swoop.

Originally, we were just going to make a feint, but we didn't expect the Germans to be easily repelled by our cavalry so carelessly. Since the enemy's line of defense consisted of a trench and a large number of foxholes, which was not conducive to defense, and since we did not really intend to attack the enemy's supply base, Vlasov ordered the troops to withdraw in time after a large amount of enemy fire was consumed by artillery fire.

In the middle of the night, the troops transferred during the day, except for the rocket artillery regiment, quietly drove to the Chismena area.

During the day, the newly arrived reserves of our army group again swaggered towards the Ivanovskoye area.

But a morning passed, and according to the reconnaissance of the air force, the German troops in the Kashino area did not move at all, and no information was received from other directions about the retreat of the German troops. In the anxious waiting, I even had the idea of asking Vlasov and General Lin to change Casino's attack from a feint attack to a main attack, knowing that Lu Dao would launch a full-scale counteroffensive in the early hours of tomorrow morning, and many group armies were forced to retreat because of the enemy's attack, and they had not yet entered the starting point of the attack.

Just after three o'clock in the afternoon, the situation suddenly took an unexpected turn. An operational staff officer, who was assigned to the 354th Infantry Division, accompanied a ragged major to the headquarters.

When the major walked in, he raised his hand and reported to us: "Hello comrades, commanders, I am Major Leutov, commander of the 17th Cavalry Division, and I have just rushed out of the rear of the enemy. ”

"The 17th Cavalry Division? Colonel Gaidukov's troops? "I immediately remembered that this unit was subordinate to the 16th Army, and the news was lost after the Battle of Klin, and I always thought that they were all wiped out, but I didn't expect a regiment commander to emerge now." Where is your leader? ”

Major Leutov shook his head and said: "After the loss of Klin, the troops were also scattered, and I led the remnants of the cavalry in the regiment to break out of the encirclement, because I could not find troops, so I have been operating in the area occupied by the enemy. ”

Vlasov beckoned him to sit down and asked with concern: "How many people are left in the troops at the moment?" ”

"Report to Comrade General," Leutov, although he did not know that Vlasov in front of him was the commander of the army group, stood up and replied respectfully: "There are still seven hundred men left in the regiment, all of whom are fighters with rich combat experience. ”

After listening to the translation, Mr. Lin asked curiously, "Comrade Major, how did you find here?" ”

The major couldn't understand the Chinese spoken by General Manager Lin, just stared at the general from China in front of him in a daze, not knowing how to respond, Shi Zhe quickly repeated what General Manager Lin had just said in Russian. The major then replied: "Yesterday our scouts came back to report that there was a fierce battle in the direction of Cassino, so we rushed in this direction early in the morning. On the way, we encountered a German unit, and after a battle, we completely annihilated the enemy. From the mouths of the captives, we learned that there were our troops stationed in Volokolamsk, and we rushed over. ”

I heard that there had been a battle on the road, so I couldn't help but ask, "Comrade Major, tell us about the battle you experienced today, what kind of enemy is it?" ”

The major looked at me with a look of surprise on his face, probably because he had seen a female general for the first time, and said, "We are resting in the forest near Botovo during the transfer. Scouts reported the sighting of a large German transport unit on a nearby road. At that time, I ordered all the soldiers to mount their horses and hide in the forest a kilometer away from the road. To know the road, this distance is exactly the distance at which the war horse exerts the greatest impact. When the Germans on the road swaggered forward, the whole regiment launched an attack on the enemy as the bugle sounded. With the loud sound of horses' hooves and shouts, the cavalry warriors swept towards the road like a whirlwind. In the face of the surprise attack of our army, which was superior in strength and momentum, the German army, which was still marching leisurely just now, suddenly fell into a chaos, and before even the bolt of the gun could be opened, our cavalry had already rushed onto the road. So a near-slaughtering battle began, as a result of which most of the enemy was hacked to death, and more than a hundred were taken prisoner by us. Only three of our regiment were killed and one was wounded. ”

After listening to his narration, Vlasov stretched out his hands and patted him on the shoulders vigorously, and praised him repeatedly: "Amazing, amazing! Comrade Major, you have done a good job, I will report this matter to my superiors and ask them to award you the Order of the Red Banner. ”

The communications soldier, who was sitting in front of the walkie-talkie in the corner, came over, handed a piece of paper to Vlasov, and whispered: "Comrade commander, the command of the front army has called. ”

When Vlasov read the telegram, I also looked over and saw that it read: "According to intercepted German intelligence, the defenders of the Chismena area have been transferred to the above-mentioned area to strengthen the defense due to the sudden attack of our troops on Botovo." ”