With an expression of disbelief on his face, Rokossovsky asked loudly: "What, a counterattack?" The Front Command actually ordered us to launch a counteroffensive against Cumbre del Sol tomorrow? Oh my God, the person who gave this order must have gone crazy, you must know that I, the commander of the 16th Army, don't know where my troops are, how to organize this counterattack? ”

"Comrade Commander," Malinin replied with a calm expression, "and this is what the telegram I just received. ”

"Impossible!" Rokossovsky slapped the table hard, "There must be a mistake, the translator must have mistranslated the telegram." ”

"The translator checked it twice, and there will be no mistakes." Malinin said as he placed the telegram on the table.

Seeing the commander's excited look, I quietly asked Leviagin on the other side: "Comrade General, can we talk directly to the Front Army Command here?" ”

"Yes, Comrade Division Commander." Leviakin also lowered his voice and replied: "We have here the new walkie-talkies provided to us by our US allies, and we can talk directly to the headquarters." ……”

"What are you muttering?" Furious, Rokossovsky roared violently, so frightened that Leviakin quickly shut his mouth. I hurriedly explained: "Comrade commander, please don't get excited. We have walkie-talkies here that can talk to the headquarters of the front, and you can talk directly to Comrade Zhukov to confirm whether this order is correct. ”

Rokossovsky listened to me, stabilized his mood a little, looked at Leviakin, and asked: "Where is the walkie-talkie that Leda said?" ”

"Over here, Comrade Commander, please come with me." As Levyagin spoke, he helped Rokossovsky to the walkie-talkie.

Rokossovsky instructed the signal soldiers: "Give me the command of the front, move quickly!" ”

As soon as the signal soldier agreed, he immediately began to make an emergency call, and soon contacted the command of the Front, Rokossovsky took the microphone from the signal soldier and said straight to the point: "I am Rokossovsky, commander of the 16th Army, which one are you?" ”

The other party replied: "Hello, Comrade General! I'm General Marankin, head of the Operations Department of the Front Command, do you have anything to do? ”

"Just now I received an order for me to counterattack Sun Hill City tomorrow, and I want to confirm it with Comrade Zhukov."

"I know that this order was personally signed by Comrade Zhukov, and then I arranged for someone to convey it to you."

"I would like to talk to Comrade Zhukov personally to find out why such an order would be given for Wei Lu?"

"I'm sorry, Comrade General!" The other party said without humility or arrogance: "General Zhukov has a lot of work, and he may not have time to explain this order to you personally. ”

"No way!" Rokossovsky also did not hesitate to say: "Tonight I will talk to him anyway and tell him about the current situation of the troops and the difficulties in carrying out this order." ”

"Comrade General! ......" The other party wanted to say something, but at this time, Zhukov's familiar voice came faintly from the side: "General Malankin, who are you talking to?" ”

"Report Comrade Commander, it is the phone number of the commander of the 16th Army, General Rokossovsky." Hearing the voice of the other party's report, Zhukov appeared, and everyone present breathed a sigh of relief.

"I'm Zhukov, Comrade Rokossovsky?" Zhukov's voice soon appeared in the conversation channel.

"It's me, Comrade General!"

"Did you get my order to counterattack?"

"Got it, Comrade General!" Rokossovsky hurriedly asked: "Excuse me, did you personally draft and issue the counteroffensive order issued by General Marankin?" ”

"Of course I gave the order! Do you have any questions about this? There was a hint of dissatisfaction in Zhukov's tone.

"Comrade General, please don't get me wrong, I want to verify the authenticity of this order, and then ......"

"And then what?" Zhukov's tone sternly interrupted Rokossovsky's later words, "Since the authenticity of the order has been verified, let's go and prepare for execution immediately!" ”

"But, Comrade Commander." Hearing Zhukov say this, Rokossovsky became a little anxious, and hurriedly defended: "You must know that the command of our group army has lost contact with the troops below, and it is simply impossible to organize enough forces to counterattack the enemy forces within the specified time. ”

"What do you say? Say it again! It can be heard that Zhukov in the distance is on the verge of a rampage, "Your troops are scattered?" How did all this happen? What about General Zakharov, who commanded the troops to defend Klin, Dovator's 3rd Cavalry Corps, and the troops defending the city of Cumbre del Sol? You have at least twenty divisions of troops, but where are they now? ”

"I don't know how to do it, I've completely lost contact with them." Rokossovsky was already angry and couldn't find a place to vent, and seeing that Zhukov's attitude was so bad, he was not polite, so the two began to argue through the microphone and headset: "The enemy is far stronger than we thought, and many of our troops had to withdraw from the battle after a stubborn battle. After withdrawing from the city of Mount del Sol, I and the members of the command entered a village called Peshki in the evening, where we met with a team of investigators led by Generals Carmela and Kurkin. I reported to them the situation of the army group and asked them to give me a few days to gather my troops and form a new defensive zone. ”

"The two generals, Carmela and Kurkin, are probably delayed by something on the road, and they have not yet returned to the front headquarters, so I don't know anything about the situation of your army group. I need you to answer me bluntly: tomorrow at ten o'clock in the morning, can you launch a counteroffensive against the city of Cumbre del Sol? ”

"I'm sorry, Comrade Commander! If the day after tomorrow or later, I believe I can organize a counteroffensive that you want to see, but if it's tomorrow, then, sorry, I can't do that! ”

"You should immediately set up a temporary command in the village of Peshki, quickly get in touch with your men, and gather as many troops as possible to prepare for a counterattack tomorrow day."

"Comrade General, I don't need you to remind you of this. When General Carmela and the others left, we began to set up a temporary command and used various means to communicate with the troops below. ”

"You are quite right to do this," Zhukov's tone softened, and even changed the address to Rokossovsky from "you" to a relatively cordial "you", "and how many troops have you contacted now?" ”

"I'm sorry, Comrade General! I haven't been able to get in touch with any of them! ”

"What?" Zhukov asked a little angrily: "What happened, several hours have passed from evening to now, and you actually said that not a single unit has been contacted, what is going on?" ”

"Listen to me, as we were in contact with the troops, a German mechanized unit suddenly launched an attack on our village. Since there were no units of our army in the village, and the guard units of the army group headquarters were sent to the front line, only a few staff officers remained, and in the face of enemy attacks, we suffered heavy casualties. ”

"Wait a minute," Zhukov stopped Rokossovsky from continuing, and I heard him ask the person next to him, "General Marankin, please check if there are any troops of our army near Peshki." Less than a minute later, General Marankin's voice reporting to Zhukov came: "I have inquired, there is an infantry regiment and a tank detachment in the village, which were drawn from the general reserve by order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief and placed under the direct command of the Supreme Command. ”

"Comrade Rokossovsky," Zhukov asked in a stern tone, "did you hear what General Marankin said?" There is a regiment in the village, and if the enemy does not have the same strength as ours, it is impossible to storm the village in a short time. ”

"Hell!" Rokossovsky scolded viciously and defended: "This regiment was transferred a few hours before I entered the village, and as for the tank detachment, one was left to serve as a guard, and the rest of the tanks drove to the base to refuel." If it weren't for Leda's chance to bring a paratrooper to the rescue, you would probably have to arrange for someone to collect the body for us. ……”

"Who do you say brought troops to relieve the siege?"

"It's Leda!" Rokossovsky looked at me, and then replied to Zhukov word for word: "It's Lieutenant Colonel Lida Mushdakova Oshanina, the commander of the 8th Guards Division. On her way back from the hospital to the divisional headquarters, she met a paratrooper unit, and when she heard that I was in danger, she brought them to rescue us. After repulsing the enemy, they were escorted to the division headquarters of the Guards Division by the soldiers of the 8th Division, who rushed to hear the news. ”

"So you're now at the headquarters of the 8th Guards Division?"

"Yes!"

"Give Leda the microphone and I'm going to talk to her personally!"

Hearing Zhukov say this, Rokossovsky handed me the microphone without saying a word. I took the microphone and took a deep breath before I spoke: "Hello, Comrade General! I'm Oshanina! ”