When Meretskov got up to make a phone call, the rest of the command was busy except for me, the combat staff officer who played soy sauce. In the past, when Meretskov called the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, the people in the room tried to keep it quiet, so that I could hear the conversation between him and Stalin clearly if I stood a little closer to him. At this moment, the headquarters was as lively as a vegetable market, and the officers who came to deliver war reports to their superiors came and went, and the sound of reports and conversations between superiors and subordinates was endless, and it was obviously impossible to hear the content of the telephone call clearly, so I had to stand bored in front of the map, gossiping with two other colleagues from the combat department.

Meretskov's phone call took at least half an hour to end, and he walked back to the table with a particularly serious look on his face. Stepakh, who had just received a stack of war reports, immediately put the war reports in his hand on the table and asked with concern: "Comrade commander, what did Comrade Stalin say?" ”

Although Stepakh's voice was not high, as soon as the words came out, the room suddenly became quiet, and everyone turned their eyes to Meretskov, quietly waiting for his reply.

Meretskov slowly sat down in his seat, asked the military commissar Zaporozhyets, who was sitting next to him, for a cigarette, lit it and took a puff, and then said slowly: "Comrade Stalin has agreed to the plan of letting the Neva cluster of the Leningrad Front cross the river just now." However, due to their inadequate preparation in advance, the equipment for crossing the river was seriously insufficient, and the assembly of troops was not completed, so it was impossible to carry out the river crossing operation within five hours. That is, the coordinated operation of the Leningrad Front. At least after 7 p.m. ”

"What? The campaign of Signavino, which we have launched, has entered its third day. But the Neva collective, which was ready to join our division, did not even have troops and boats to cross the river ready? Taken aback, Stepach retorted: "What has the commander of the Leningrad Front been doing these days." Watching the excitement across the Neva River? ”

"Comrade Chief of Staff, stop talking about these things that are not conducive to unity. Perhaps in their minds, it never occurred to them that our troops outside Leningrad would help them open up the German encirclement. Meretskov stopped Stepach from continuing to whine, stood up and said to the military commissar: "Comrade Zaporozhyets, I have handed over the command to you and the chief of staff, and I will go to the front-line troops. ”

Zaporozhets stood up and said with concern: "Commander." I'm going to arrange a guard for you. ”

"Thank you, Comrade Military Commissar. There are not too many people, and the number of guards in one platoon is enough. ”

Meretskov put the large-brimmed hat on the table on his head, stood up, looked left and right, and then pointed to me standing by the wall with his hand, and said, "Lida, you go and prepare first, and accompany me to the headquarters of the 8th Army later." ”

I hurriedly agreed, turned around and left the headquarters, and went straight to the room where the operations office was located. Push open the door. Seeing a busy scene in the house, more than a dozen staff officers were on the phone. Some are sorting out the battle reports and are very busy. I stood at the door for a while, grabbed a captain's staff officer, who was about to go out, and asked, "Comrade Captain, where is the weapon?" ”

"Weapons?" The captain was stunned for a moment when I suddenly asked this, and then he stared at the holster around my waist and said puzzledly, "Don't you have a pistol on you?" ”

I saw that he didn't understand what I meant, so I quickly explained: "I am going to accompany Comrade Commander to the front line immediately, and if I only carry a pistol, I am not sure." Do you have any long weapons in the War Department? There are no submachine guns, and so are rifles. ”

When the captain understood what I meant, he turned to the corner of the wall and said, "Go there and see, there are submachine guns and rifles, you can choose whatever weapon you want." With that, he walked out of the room from me.

I walked to the gun carriage in the corner of the house, saw the submachine gun and rifle on it, thought about it, and felt that it was better to be more comfortable with the submachine gun, at least when encountering the enemy, I would not suffer any loss in firepower. With the gun on my shoulder, I opened the wooden box stacked next to it, took a round drum from it, and put it in the briefcase I carried with me.

I returned to the door of the command with my gun on my back and was about to go inside, when I was confronted by Semenov, who was walking out. When he saw me, he stopped me in my way and said, "Comrade Commander, Chief of Staff, and Military Commissar have all gone to the door, so hurry up and find them." ”

I quickly turned around and trotted outside. During the three days of the campaign, I never left the headquarters except for eating and going to the toilet. Now, as soon as I go out of the door, the strong sunlight outside immediately stings me and I can't open my eyes. I closed my eyes, covered them with my hands, and stood there for a moment, waiting for a moment to adjust to the light outside, before I opened them again. A jeep and two trucks were parked at the door, and Meretskov and the chief of staff and the military commissar were standing next to the jeeps talking. Under the other two trucks, there was a group of soldiers standing in each of them, who must have come to serve as guards for us.

At this time, an officer came up to me, saluted me, and said politely: "Hello, Major Oshanina, I didn't expect us to meet again so soon." ”

I took a closer look at the officer in front of me, and my heart beat faster with fright, this officer was none other than Lieutenant Turchinov, the head of the secret service section, who almost shot me. However, I quickly stabilized my emotions, after all, now that Meretskov, Zhukov, Fedyuninsky and others are taking care of me, he does not dare to do anything to me. To be honest, although I can't wait to pull out my gun and break him immediately, I still have to make a false deal with him at this moment. As the saying goes, many friends have many roads, and many enemies have many walls. Although Turchinov is of a lower rank than mine, he cannot be easily offended by the people of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, for at some point I will fall into their hands, and if they try to deal with me, I will be in danger again.

I struggled to squeeze a smile on my face and said politely: "Hello, Lieutenant Turchinov, I didn't expect to meet you here again." Where are you going? ”

He probably didn't expect me to be so polite to him, hesitated for a moment, and replied with a smile: "I was ordered to protect Comrade Commander to the headquarters of the 8th Army. Comrade Major, you are in passage with the commander, right? ”

"Leda," at this moment, Meretskov, who was standing next to the jeep in the distance, suddenly called out to me: "What are you still standing there for?" Hurry up, we're leaving. ”

I hurriedly used this reason to say to Turchinov: "Yes, Comrade Lieutenant, you guessed it right, Comrade Commander specifically asked me to accompany him to the headquarters of the 8th Army by name. Then I'll go first, and I'll see you at the place later. After saying that, he trotted towards Meretskov without looking back.

I ran to the jeep, opened the door on the left side of the back, and made a gesture of invitation to Meretskov, who was saying goodbye to the chief of staff and the military commissar. Meretskov said a few more words to the two of them before getting into the jeep through the open door. I closed the door and was about to go around the back of the car to the passenger seat, when I was stopped by Meretskov, who ordered me: "Leda, you can also sit in the back." ”

I glanced back at Stepak and Zaporozhyets, who were standing next to me, and seeing that they did not express any objections, I gritted my teeth and opened the car door and sat down next to Meretskov.

The location of the headquarters of the 8th Army is only a dozen kilometers from us. Although the distance is not far, because we are driving on the road with firewood, we can't increase the speed.

After the car had traveled some distance, Meretskov suddenly said: "Lida, do you know why Comrade Stalin asked you on the phone about the arrangements for the campaign?" ”

I really didn't think about this question for him, I only thought that Stalin always asked me to report to him in the role of commander of the front army on my next deployment, and as for why he asked such a question, I really didn't think about it carefully. Unable to answer Meretskov's question, I honestly shook my head and said I didn't know.

Meretskov did not sell the matter, and said straight to the point: "Comrade Stalin's real intention in asking you to serve as an operational staff officer at my headquarters is, first, to let you accumulate a little experience as a staff officer, and second, to see how we, the senior commanders, command large-scale battles. Don't underestimate your short experience in the Front Command, you will benefit a lot in the future. ”

Hearing him say this, I was silent. I know that he must be right when he says this, after all, his age and experience are there, he has crossed more bridges than I have walked, and the height of seeing problems is beyond my reach.

We soon saw the troops on the march on the Shuchai road. Because the forests on both sides were muddy, the infantry could only march to this narrow road, and our speed immediately slowed down.

A convoy of wounded people approached the convoy with several trucks in front of it and a long line of horse-drawn carriages, and our driver drove the cars onto a paved log platform on the side of the road to make way for the convoy of wounded.

Meretskov poked his head out of the window and asked in a loud voice: "Hey, comrades, what part of you are from?" ”

A truck that happened to pass by stopped, and the driver poked his head out and replied: "Report to Comrade General, we are from the transport team of the 8th Army, and we are transporting the wounded of the 19th Guards Division to the front army hospital, please instruct!" ”

Meretskov waved his hand and said, "Go on." (To be continued......)

PS: Thank you book friends thindy, gao6, and my wind for freely voting for the precious monthly pass