I followed Zhukov and walked along the long corridor.

At the end of the corridor was a room with a closed door, and a table in the doorway, where a lieutenant without a military cap was sitting. When he saw us coming, he quickly stood up and whispered to Zhukov: "Comrade General, they are all waiting for you inside, please come in." Then he turned and opened the door.

Seeing Zhukov walking straight to the door, I immediately consciously stopped, ready to stop here and wait for him to come out, after all, this kind of place is not something that a small person like me can enter casually.

Unexpectedly, as soon as Zhukov entered the room with one foot, he stopped, looked back at me, frowned and said, "What are you doing standing there?" Come in with me. "Since Zhukov let me in, then I don't have to wait for him at the door, and hurriedly trot a few steps to his side. When he was about to enter the door, he felt that the image of carrying a submachine gun like this was a little unsightly, so he took off the weapon hanging around his neck and handed it to the lieutenant of the indicator standing aside, and then followed Zhukov into this mysterious room.

Zhukov did not speak when he entered the door, took off his military coat and hat and handed it to me, then put his hand in his trouser pocket and leaned against the wall to watch the people in the room talk. I took his clothes and hat, hung them on the coat rack next to them, closed the door, and stood beside him.

In the room by the window, several people sat around the table, and a dusty general stood in the middle of the room. I looked closely, and sitting in the middle of the table was a round-faced old man in a crisp suit, gold-rimmed glasses, and a beard, with Marshal Voroshilov sitting in his left hand and a thin middle-aged man in civilian clothes in his right hand, while the former commander of the Western Front, General Konev, sat opposite them. The general standing was a lieutenant general, and his military coat was covered with mud, and he looked particularly embarrassed.

I heard Marshal Voroshilov ask the general unhappily: "...... General Rokossovsky, why did you leave the troops of the 16th Army and highlight the encirclement of the Germans alone? ”

In the face of the marshal's reproach, General Rokossovsky defended himself without humility or arrogance, saying: "Comrade Marshal of the Soviet Union, I was ordered to go to Vyagima to receive the 16th Army, and the order said that there were five divisions of troops waiting for me to command. When I arrived, I found out that there were no troops there. ”

"What?" The marshal was surprised and asked: "There are no of our troops there?" Whose orders are you receiving from? ”

"Yes, I didn't see any troops." As he spoke, the general took out a folded piece of paper from his coat pocket and handed it to the marshal's place. "This is the order I received, signed by the commander of the Western Front, Colonel-General Konev."

The marshal stood up and took the document from the general's hand, opened it and looked at it, then frowned and looked at Konev, who was still sitting there. Seeing the marshal's unfriendly expression, the admiral hurriedly stood up as well and explained: "Yes, the order was signed by me, and originally Lieutenant General Rokossovsky was able to get five divisions in Vyagima. However, these units were entangled in the battle with the Germans and did not make it to Vyagima on time. ”

"Smack!" Hearing this, the marshal was furious, slapped the paper on the table, and shouted at Konev angrily: "Do you know that this is a crime? The irresponsible written military deployment of having an excellent commander in command of a non-existent unit directly led to a deviation in the high command's judgment of the enemy's situation. Do you know how much loss this will bring to our army? ”

Konev faced the marshal's criticism and just opened his mouth to defend himself: "The enemy's strength is too strong, and they have already grasped the initiative in the war." ......" The middle-aged man in civilian clothes stood up and interrupted him: "Enough, Comrade Konev, this is defeatist rhetoric, it seems that you have been frightened by the enemy. In the midst of the current complex situation, on behalf of the NKVD, I announce: you have been arrested! Then he turned his head to the round-faced old man next to him and said, "I think that the case of Admiral Konev should be submitted to a military court immediately." ”

As soon as the middle-aged man from the Ministry of Internal Affairs said his words, the room immediately fell silent. Konev stood there without saying a word, and the marshal sat back in his place in silence, only General Rokossovsky, who looked at the dejected admiral with sympathetic eyes. After all, the Great Purge Movement, which has only passed recently, is still fresh in everyone's memory, and it has frightened the people who are bold, even if they know that the people of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ludao are acting arbitrarily and arbitrarily, but everyone dares to be angry and dare not speak out.

I couldn't help but look at Zhukov beside me, who stared at the few people in the room with a blank face, as if everything that had just happened had nothing to do with him.

Just then, a telephone placed on the wall of the room rang. The round-faced old man in a suit, who had not spoken, stood up, slowly walked to the telephone, and picked up the receiver.

"Hey, who's that?" The round-faced old man asked straight to the point. The sound coming from the earpiece was loud, loud enough for the entire room to hear the conversation between the two sides of the conversation.

"Molotov?" Stalin's voice came out of the microphone.

"Yes, Comrade Stalin." Although the other party couldn't see it at all, the round-faced old man nodded habitually when he answered. I thought to myself, it turns out that this old man's name is Molotov, and his name sounds quite familiar, but I can't remember what position he holds?

"Has Zhukov arrived?" Stalin asked.

"Zhukov?!" Molotov asked a rhetorical question, a little puzzled, and then looked over to where we were standing, and it turned out that we had been in for so long that no one in the room had noticed. He saw Zhukov standing at the door and quickly replied: "Yes, he has already arrived, he will come at once." Then he took the earpiece away from his ear and stretched it out in our direction.

Zhukov walked over with heavy steps, took the phone from Molotov's hand, and said in a steady tone to Stalin across the microphone: "I am Zhukov, Comrade Stalin. ”

"Judging by the current situation, the decision of the base camp to appoint you as the new commander of the Western Front is correct. You have no problem with our appointment, right? ”

"I obey!" Zhukov was still expressionless, and said in a steady tone: "I have a request, to appoint Admiral Konev as my deputy, as the deputy commander of the front. ”

There was no sound on the other side of the microphone, and it is estimated that Stalin was thinking about it. The staff of the Ministry of Internal Affairs had just said that Konev would be arrested and sent to a military court, and the decision was not a whim, but nine times out of ten it was instructed by someone from a higher rank.

"Are you still there? Comrade Stalin. After not hearing the other party's voice for a long time, Zhukov couldn't help but ask.

"The members of the State Defense Committee have a lot of opinions about Konev." I heard Stalin say this from afar, and I thought to myself: I'm afraid it's not the members of the State Defense Committee who have an opinion about Konev, it's you who are not satisfied with him! However, these words can only be thought about in the heart, and they must not be spoken.

"Konev is familiar with the area of operations." Zhukov turned his head to look at Konev and tried to convince Stalin on the other end of the telephone line, "I think Konev should be assigned to lead the troops in the Kalinin direction." "When Zhukov said this, I noticed that Admiral Konev had a grateful expression on his face, and his eyes were a little red." The area is very far away, and I need to have my own deputy there. ”

"Okay!" After a while, Stalin finally agreed to Zhukov's proposal, and he continued: "All the remaining forces of the reserve front are transferred by you, and the troops will be received as soon as possible." The phone was then hung up.

After Zhukov put down the microphone, he said to several bigwigs from the headquarters of the base camp: "As the new commander of the Western Front, I would like to share my views with the members of the National Defense Committee. When I heard him say this, it dawned on me that these were the members of the committee who had opinions about Konev! Zhukov glanced at Konev again, and continued: "The troops of the Western Front fought bravely and tenaciously, the main thing is that they did not run away. I think ......," he said, taking two steps forward and pointing at Konev, "this is also the merit of the previous leadership of the Western Front. ……”

He walked to the table, propped his hands on the table, looked at the three members of the National Defense Committee, and continued: "With their precious lives, they saved Moscow. We should pay tribute to those who fought to the extreme in the brutal defense and fought to the death in the encirclement. They pinned down the main forces of the Germans, and they delayed the German offensive for eight days. And we should make full use of this and build a new front in front of Moscow. Saying this, he straightened up and turned around, beckoning General Rokossovsky, who was standing aside: "Comrade General Rokossovsky, commander of the 16th Army," hearing him call his name, the lieutenant general hurriedly walked up to him and stood up, "Now I assign combat missions to you." You are going to cut off the enemy's road to Moscow. ……”

"Are there troops?" Rokossovsky asked impatiently.

Zhukov pondered for a moment, then nodded, and replied in a very affirmative tone: "There should be!" After a pause, he added: "The Minsk road to your left will be cut off by other troops." ……”

After Zhukov finished assigning tasks to Rokossovsky, the lieutenant general saluted everyone, turned around and walked out the door. I hurriedly opened the door for him, waited for him to leave, and then closed the door again.

Konev left with three members of the State Defense Committee, and he was to follow Zhukov's orders and immediately set off from here to the new area to command the Kalinin Front.

When Marshal Voroshilov was about to leave the house, he suddenly stopped me and said: "Major Oshanina, when Comrade Zhukov went to look for you in the hotel in the morning, he forgot to bring something important. Now that I've brought it for you, you can put it away! As he spoke, he handed me a red ID. He shook my hand and strode out.

When I opened my ID, it turned out to be a new military ID, and the photo attached to it was the same one I took yesterday in the Kremlin security room.