Along the way, I wondered: the man I just saw was Stalin, but why did he come to Yugazabatnaya, southwest of Moscow, at this time? And there are not enough guards around him, so he brought a driver, isn't he afraid of danger?

Because I was so engrossed in my thoughts, that Nina called me several times next to me, but I didn't hear it. It was she who grabbed my shoulder and shook me a few times before I came back to my senses. I looked at her blankly and asked, "Nina, what's the matter?" ”

"We're here."

I looked out the car window, but no, the building of the front headquarters was a hundred meters away. "Aqifu's car is really fast enough to get back to the headquarters so soon." I had just said something with emotion, but I was surprised to find that the car was parked and motionless, so I asked Aqifu strangely, "Why don't you drive forward?" ”

Aqifu didn't speak, but Nina squirmed a little, and she blushed and stammered to me, "That...... That, Leda, the rest of the way, you can ...... Can you walk back on your own? Azifu and I still have some things to do. ”

I looked at the two people who were nervous, and immediately understood, and immediately said, "No problem, I can walk back the rest of the distance by myself, and I won't disturb your good things." After saying that, he winked at Nina, picked up the paper bag on the driver's platform, pushed open the car door and jumped into the snow, waved his hand at the two of them, and then slammed the door shut.

I took a few steps forward and heard the truck behind me start again. I couldn't help but look back and see that the truck had turned around and was staggering towards the forest.

Walking to the gate of the headquarters, the sentry standing guard greeted him and said, "Lieutenant Colonel Oshanina, you can count it back, Comrade General is looking for you everywhere." ”

Zhilu said. Thank you! With that, I hurried into the building.

The second lieutenant on duty in the corridor saw me from afar, stood up from the table, and greeted me. He whispered to me: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, Comrade General has just sent people everywhere to look for you. ”

"Do you know what the road is?" I asked the second lieutenant as I walked side by side to the door.

He shook his head and said, "I don't know much about this, anyway, I heard him lashing out at a few generals who came to report to work just now. When the generals were gone, he asked me to send for you, saying that I wanted to see you immediately. ”

"How long ago was that?" I asked worriedly, after all, I had just lost too much time shopping for Yugazabatnaya.

"About twenty minutes ago." The second lieutenant's answer relieved me, fortunately, only twenty minutes had passed, and it should not delay Zhukov's major event.

When I got to the door, I handed the paper bag in my hand to the second lieutenant, straightened out my uniform, and then slammed open the door and walked in, and the second lieutenant helped me gently close the door behind me.

Zhukov walked around the room with his hands behind his back and with an angry face on his face. I approached him and reported loudly: "Comrade General, Oshanina has been ordered to come and listen to your instructions!" ”

Hearing my voice, he stopped, took a few steps closer to me, and asked with a sullen face, "Where have you run to, and you haven't come until now?" ”

"I'm sorry, Comrade General!" Seeing that his face was not good, I quickly explained, "I didn't know that you would look for me, so I just took advantage of the half-day vacation you gave me to go shopping in Yugazabatnaya. ”

"Judging by the current situation, your vacation has to end early," he picked up a piece of paper from his desk and handed it to me, "you immediately send this order to the headquarters of the Sixteenth Army, and the communication between them and the Front Army is completely severed. They were ordered to resolutely hold their existing positions at all costs and not to retreat a single step. ”

"Yes." I took the order from his hand and replied loudly.

I got into the car that Zhukov had arranged for me and asked the driver: "Do you know how to get to the headquarters of the 16th Army?" ”

"Is it the command of General Rokossovsky?"

"Yes, can you drive faster?"

"Understood, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel." The driver agreed, and as soon as he stepped on the accelerator, the black car rushed forward along the potholed dirt road.

Half an hour after the car had left, gunfire was heard in front of me. I touched the pistol pinned to my waist, and without the submachine gun I was used to, I was still a little unsure when I heard the gunshots. I couldn't help but ask the driver with some concern: "How long will it take to get to the headquarters?" ”

"If it goes well, you will be able to reach the headquarters of the Sixteenth Army in another ten minutes." The driver replied nonchalantly.

The further you fired, the more intense the gunfire became. Retreating wounded began to appear on the side of the road, some on sleighs and some on foot. I asked the driver to pull over to the side of the road, opened the door and asked the wounded in a loud voice: "Comrades, what part of you are from?" ”

"Of the Sixteenth Army." A warrior with a bandage on his head and a cane on his legs replied.

"Do you know where the headquarters of the Ludao Army is?" I walked up to him and asked.

"It is not clear, our positions are occupied by the enemy, the troops are scattered, and communication with superiors is broken."

"Where is your commander?"

"All sacrificed. The battalion was left with a few of us wounded. He said, gesturing to the wounded standing beside him. I counted them, and there were only eleven people, and all of them were wounded in more than one place, and it seemed that they had been withdrawn after a fierce battle. I didn't speak, just gently patted the wounded man on the shoulder, then turned around and walked back to the car.

The car drove forward for another half an hour, and finally came to the headquarters of the 16th Army. The driver parked the car at the door, poked his head out and asked the sentry standing guard at the door: "Hey! Man, is this the headquarters of General Rokossovsky? ”

"Yes, what's the matter with you?" The sentry asked alertly, and approached with a rifle with a bayonet attached.

"Don't be nervous, don't be nervous, man! I'm not a German devil. The driver said jokingly: "I sent a special commissioner of the Front Army to the headquarters to find General Rokossovsky, you can't shoot casually!" ”

"The general is inside, comrade commissioner." The sentry put the gun back on his back, saluted me as I got out of the car, and made a gesture of please: "Please come in." ”

The light in the headquarters of the army group was dim, but I still saw at a glance that I was looking for Rokossovsky, who was sitting at the desk with a sad face and looking at the map. A few people next to him who looked like staff officers at the headquarters were busy nervously.

I walked up to Rokossovsky, saluted him and reported loudly: "Comrade commander, Lieutenant Colonel Oshanina reports to you. Listen to your instructions. ”

"Hello! Lieutenant Colonel Oshanina. Rokossovsky stood up and hugged me, and said excitedly: "I was so worried that day when I saw you lying unconscious on a stretcher. I'm so happy to see you standing in front of me alive! Since the outbreak of the war, I have lost many good comrades-in-arms who have worked with me for many years. ”

When he let go of me, I hastened to explain to him my intentions: "I have brought you the latest order from the front headquarters, and Comrade General has ordered you to hold your existing positions and not to retreat a single step. ”

"Difficult, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel." Rokossovsky cried out to me, "Now the fighting is going on day and night, and our troops have suffered huge losses. The troops that were replenished to the divisions were no longer reserves from the rear, but units that had been improvised and pieced together. The fighters, who had previously belonged to different units, had broken out of the encirclement, lost contact with the original troops, and became a lone group or a few people. We have temporarily formed all these people into a unified fighting collective and filled the front with a shortage of manpower. Due to lack of time, these fighters and commanders did not even know each other and rushed into battle, can you expect much combat effectiveness from such a unit? ”

"What is the situation with the Sixteenth Army? Comrade Commander. I asked with concern.

"We've retreated from a lot of places." He said bitterly.

"Huh?" I was surprised and asked, "What happened to the 316th Infantry Division?" ”

"Retreated, too." He told me everything that had happened. "After you were wounded, the guard battalion also suffered heavy casualties, and there were less than fifty men left in the battalion. I removed the guard battalion and reassigned a new battalion to defend that section. In the first days of the fighting, the enemy shelled the positions there only on a daily basis, without launching even a single ground offensive. In order to better command the battle, I set up the observation post of the army headquarters at the edge of the forest, next to the anti-aircraft artillery company. ”

"And then?"

"One day, when the enemy shelling was sparse, I decided to go and see what was going on in the position, so I walked towards them with the chief of staff. Unexpectedly, we saw with our own eyes that from behind the ridge 2 km from the position, a dense skirmish line of German soldiers appeared, walking towards us, and behind them there were about 10 tanks. In the face of the enemy's attack, the fighters of the defensive positions fearlessly fired with machine guns, and the anti-aircraft artillery batteries that spread out at the edge of the forest also began to fire directly at aim, and everything seemed to be fine at first. The German infantry lay down, and the tanks stopped advancing. ”

"What's next?" I asked anxiously.

"But soon enemy aircraft appeared on the horizon...... Dives into our skirmishers, enemy artillery and mortars intensified their fire, tanks re-advanced, and aircraft bombarded our positions in turn. In the face of the enemy's indiscriminate bombardment, our infantry could not hold up and began to waver, at first a single man jumped out of the trench and ran towards the forest, and then in groups ran into the forest, and I felt very uncomfortable to see all this. ”

"Because of the retreat of the warriors, our line of defense was lost?" I asked cautiously.

"Not really. The warriors were running, and suddenly one of the soldiers in the crowd shouted: 'Stop! Where are you going? Get back! I didn't see the general still standing there...... Get back! 'Yes, I and the Chief of Staff stood straight and straight, in front of all the soldiers, because we realized that only in this way could the situation be saved. The soldier's shouts and our performance had a tremendous effect, and the soldiers, who had been running towards the forest, lay down on the ground and opened fire on the enemy in unison, causing the enemy infantry to fall back on their stomachs after getting up to attack. Our artillery battery, too, fired directly at the enemy's tanks. But the enemy was too strong, and although several tanks were hit and set on fire, their infantry, under the cover of the rest of the tanks, as well as aircraft and artillery fire, occupied our positions. In the face of an enemy who had the upper hand, we were forced to retreat. ”

"Are you confident that you will hold your existing position?" I asked the troubled general in front of me with concern.

"I don't know what to say," Rokossovsky said with his hands outstretched, somewhat helplessly, "because of the continuous retreat, the formation of the army group has been completely disrupted. Because of the complete interruption of communications, the troops I can command now are only two or three seriously ill-formed infantry divisions. If we don't have a reserve to replenish it, we'll have to keep retreating. ”