"Nonsense, just nonsense!" Rokossovsky's thunderous roar came from the earpiece, followed by a loud bang, presumably another hard slap on the table in front of him. I am very sympathetic to the wooden table in the division headquarters at the moment, I wonder if Lu Dao has been shot apart after being hit hard again and again by the commander in the past few days?

I pulled the phone away from my ear a little bit, lest his roar would knock my ears deaf. "Anyway, anyway, I will see Katukov and Yevremenko and their troops in your division headquarters by ten o'clock tomorrow morning. If you can't destroy a few enemies for a long time, sooner or later you will lose all the tank brigades and anti-tank artillery regiments. ”

Listening to the commander's fury on the phone, presumably because of the repeated failures of the attack on Mount Sol, which had driven him to the brink of collapse, he was so concerned with venting his frustration that he didn't even listen to what I had just told me that the battle was over. However, I knew that it was unwise for Lu Dao to remind him at this time, so I kept silent.

He roared for a while, and suddenly asked as if he had discovered a new world, "Leda, what did you just say?" Another German unit wedged into your division's line was also annihilated by you? ”

"Yes, Comrade Commander." I put the earpiece back to my ear and replied with a smile: "I have already reported to you just now, the lost position has been recaptured, and the invading enemy has been completely annihilated. ”

"I'm sorry, Leda!" Rokossovsky took the initiative to apologize to me for his attitude just now: "I was in a bad mood just now, and I was angry at you, don't care." By the way, what about the casualties of the troops? ”

"The casualties of our troops were minimal, only 5 people were killed and 18 wounded, more than a hundred enemies were eliminated, and an equal number of prisoners were captured. Later, the captives would be escorted to the division headquarters, where they would be escorted to Moscow. ”

"It's not easy, it took such a small casualty to destroy the enemy and recapture the position." Rokossovsky said with heartfelt feelings: "It seems that I should report to Comrade Zhukov, give up the position of this commander, and let you command the troops to counterattack the city of Cumbre del Sol." ”

I smiled and replied, "Comrade Commander, don't you know me yet?" With my ability, it is a bit difficult to command a division now, and then to command a group army, isn't that a joke? ”

"Just now, the commander of the 1075th regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Serebryakov, called and said that you have important information to report to me. What is it that makes you so anxious to find me? ”

"That's right, Comrade Commander." Hearing him ask this question, I told him in detail about the lack of winter equipment for the German troops, and finally suggested: "I suggest that you suspend military operations at Cumbre del Sol, because it is very inappropriate to fight with the Germans in the absence of air supremacy and inferior equipment." We should first withdraw from the few settlements we are currently occupying and retreat back to the point of departure for the attack and allow the troops to recuperate. ”

"You have a point, but I can't do that." Rokossovsky, although he agreed with me, could not take my advice, and in order not to distract me, he quickly stated his opinion: "This counteroffensive is the intention of the Supreme Command, and Zhukov has only drawn up a plan and conveyed it to the troops in the form of an order. ”

"But such an attack is to send our soldiers to death in vain!"

Rokossovsky sighed and said earnestly: "I also know what you said, but there is no way, the orders of the superiors cannot be discussed, they can only be carried out." You often contest my orders, which is dangerous, and it is entirely possible that you will be court-martialed if you were to be replaced by a different person. Do you know what it means to be court-martialed? The only end was to be shot. ”

I was startled when I heard the shooting, and I still remember the last time I escaped death inside and outside, and I knew that it was useless to say anything at the moment, and if I continued to say anything, it would be easy to put myself in danger, so I obediently shut my mouth.

Hearing that there was no sound on my side, he probably felt that I was frightened, and hurriedly changed his tone and said: "Tell me why you don't plan to return the tank brigade and the anti-tank artillery regiment. ”

When I saw him and asked me to talk about my opinion, I was not polite, and said straight to the point: "Today's German army is attacking at a very fast speed, and many formations have been disrupted. I intend to use the tank brigade to cooperate with the troops to launch an offensive against an isolated enemy and annihilate one or most of it. In doing so, it can not only relieve the pressure of the attack in the direction of Cumbre del Sol City, but also disrupt the enemy's offensive deployment. What do you think of my idea? ”

After listening to my proposal, Rokossovsky was so slow that I thought he hung up the phone. After a while, I heard his voice again: "This idea is good, I will report it to Comrade Zhukov immediately." You rush back to the division headquarters or to the regimental headquarters of the 1073rd Regiment as soon as possible, and the phone number of the front headquarters cannot be directly connected to the battalion headquarters. ”

"Yes!" I hurriedly agreed, put down the phone, first instructed Major Sedulin to arrange for men to escort the prisoners to the headquarters of the division as soon as possible, and then beckoned Katukov and Chistyakov to leave.

Out of the headquarters, Katukov ran back to his tanks and went to mobilize troops. The rest of me and Chistyakov went to the jeep. It was only one or two hundred meters from the headquarters to the parking position, but when I walked to the jeep, I felt that my face and ears were almost unconscious.

Sitting in the car, while the Grissa was in the hot car, I gently rubbed my numb ears and said to myself, "This damn weather should be minus 20 degrees." ”

"It should be more than that," Chistyakov said, "you see that on the way we came just now, the snow on the ground was creaking, at least minus 30 degrees. In this kind of weather, if you don't have enough warm measures, you will freeze to death in the middle of the night. ”