Our car drove along the dirt path next to the forest for more than half an hour. By the time we arrived at a small town, it was already four o'clock in the afternoon.

The small town has taken on a front-line scene, where there is hardly a single house in sight, and the streets are littered with black craters. Except for the signal corpsmen pulling the wires and the patrols that walked by from time to time, there were no local residents to be seen, and perhaps they were all evacuated to the rear.

The person on duty at the crossroads was not a civilian policeman, but a heavily armed Red Army soldier. The driver pulled over in the middle of the road, opened the window and shouted at him, "Hey, friend." How to get to the headquarters? ”

The soldier on duty came over with some displeasure, and it seemed that he wanted to complain to the driver who had parked his vehicle illegally. He bent down and glanced into the car, immediately straightened up, stretched out his hand to the side of the crossroads, and said loudly: "Drive north, comrade commander." The command of the infantry school was located on the northern outskirts. ”

The headquarters was located in a small house in the northern suburbs, and a black sedan was parked not far from the outside, covered with a green camouflage net. This little house is probably the only intact house in town, and our car stopped right in front of it.

After the car stopped, Zhukov turned his head and said: "Let's go down and see, which unit is stationed here?" With that, he opened the door and walked down. The tank captain and I also opened the door and got out of the car to the left and right.

There was a sentry standing guard beside the steps, and when he saw the three of us, he immediately shouted into the open door: "Comrade Second Lieutenant! ”

With his shout, after a while, a second lieutenant wearing a brand new military coat came to the door.

The tank captain quickly jumped up the steps, stood in front of the second lieutenant on duty, and said to him: "I said comrade second lieutenant, please go and report to your commander at once: General Zhukov has arrived!" ”

The second lieutenant glanced at us, then turned his eyes to look at the captain in front of him, and replied with some panic: "Comrade General is very busy at the moment. I don't have the right to let you in, wait until I report first, okay, Comrade Captain? ”

"But this is General Zhukov......" The captain was very dissatisfied with the attitude of the second lieutenant on duty, and was about to get angry, but Zhukov interrupted him: "The second lieutenant did the right thing!" Then he gave a brief order to the second lieutenant: "Go and report!" ”

The second lieutenant turned and ran into the room. In less than a minute, he reappeared at the door, raised his hand and saluted, saying, "Please, Comrade General, Comrade General is waiting for you inside!" ”

I followed Zhukov into the door. Standing in the room stood an elderly major general and several colonel-level commanders, each wearing a brand new military coat.

Seeing us coming in, he took a step forward to Zhukov, who was walking forward, and began to report: "Major General Smirnov, the director of the Podolysk Infantry School......" But Zhukov interrupted him and asked one after another: "Where are the troops under your command?" How many people are there? What is the current state of the war? ”

"To the north, it's about five kilometers from here." The major general replied very calmly. "There are 1,120 students in total. Although the equipment and weapons were poor, the cadets behaved heroically, and we repelled many German attacks and had been holding them back for three days. ”

"The number of the German army? How many troops are there? Zhukov continued to ask questions like a teacher examining a student.

"It's not clear. So far, we have not captured any German prisoners. As for the strength of the German army, I estimate that there is probably a regiment or so. For such troops, we are confident that they can be stopped. ”

"Estimate?!" Zhukov's face became ugly, and he said in a sneering tone: "When did the commander of our army learn to command operations with estimates? Have you never sent men to reconnoiter the enemy? Could it be that all the information you get is what you estimated in this house? ”

"Comrade General!" Faced with Zhukov's dissatisfaction, the major general looked very embarrassed, and he explained in a somewhat panicked manner: "The local population was evacuated, and we could not find a guide, so there was no way to reconnoiter the German troops." ”

Hearing this, Zhukov had a laughing expression on his face, and he asked again: "Then did you counterattack the German troops, or did you carry out small-scale harassment in their rear?" ”

"No, Comrade General. The Germans on the front were strong, and with our current strength, all we could do was hold our positions for as long as possible. A counterattack against the enemy is impossible. ”

"Leda." Zhukov turned his head and affectionately called me by my nickname and said, "It seems that you are still right, this is the kind of conservatism in defense that you are talking about." ”

"Yes! Georgy Konstantinovich. I said yes and quickly shut my mouth. In this case, I still keep silent so as not to offend people and not know what is going on.

The major general looked me up and down, maybe he wondered, why did Zhukov run around with a female soldier? He looked at me and asked Zhukov with some doubts: "Comrade General, who is she?" ”

"Come, get acquainted." Zhukov introduced my identity to the major general. "Major Oshanina, her military rank was awarded by Comrade Stalin personally."

I stepped forward, saluted the major general, greeted him and said, "Hello, comrade general! ”

"Okay," without waiting for the major general to say anything, Zhukov opened his mouth again: "Comrade general, take us to the front line to have a look." Then he instructed the tank captain: "As for you, Captain." Just stay here and make contact with the people at the Military Academy. ”

Zhukov and I were in a sedan that drove north along the dirt road, and the major general's sedan followed us closely.

After driving north for more than ten minutes, rows of wooden stakes with barbed wires began to appear on the side of the road, and I knew that the road was not far from the forward position, so I turned on the safety of the submachine gun, heightened my vigilance, and was ready to deal with emergencies at any time.

The driver suddenly shouted: "Germans! Then the car came to a screeching halt. Because of the suddenness of the incident, I was carried forward by the huge inertia, and my shoulder hit the back of the chair in front of me so hard that I almost screamed in pain.

I didn't bother to check the injury on my shoulder, opened the car door and jumped out. I saw a long trench more than 20 meters ahead, and there seemed to be a lot of people waiting in it. I raised my gun half-crouching, and as soon as I saw the men in the trenches rushing towards us, I did not hesitate to shoot at them.

"Wait a minute. Lida! Zhukov opened the car door and walked out, looked over there, "It's not German troops in the trenches, don't shoot." "It's not the Germans, is it the driver who lied about the military situation? But since Zhukov said this, there should be no problem, so I straightened up, put the submachine gun back to my neck, and closed the safe.

Later, the major general in the car also ran over in a panic and asked nervously, "What happened?" ”

"It's fine." Zhukov said in a calm tone: "The driver was wrong and mistook our fighters for Germans. Then he waved to a man on the other side of the trench who had just stood up and shouted, "Hey! Come here! ”

A captain officer in a brand new army overcoat, jumped out of the trench, ran over in muddy water, stood up straight in front of Zhukov and saluted, and reported in a loud voice: "Comrade General, Captain Andrei of the 6th Company of the Podolysk Infantry School reports to you. ”

"How many days have you been on the defensive?" Zhukov asked with concern.

"The third day and night."

"How's the enemy offensive?"

The captain turned and pointed to the front and introduced us: "We have driven the enemy across the Ugra River, it seems that this is the vanguard of the enemy, and we are holding on to the east bank of the river. After saying that, he turned around again, looked at Zhukov, and waited for him to make a statement.

"How many people are there in the company?" Zhukov asked in a steady tone.

"One hundred and forty cadets. If one more company can be added and sixty more men can be added, the depth of the defense can be increased. Comrade General! ”

The captain's words seemed to suit Zhukov's appetite, and he turned to the major general next to him and said, "Give him a hundred." ”

"Difficult, Comrade General!" The major general looked embarrassed and complained to Zhukov: "In other battalions, the number is less than half. And we hold on to such a line of defense,......"

"I know it." Without waiting for the other party to finish, Zhukov interrupted him. "Look for it, you can look for it anywhere."

"Yes!" The major general reluctantly agreed.

Zhukov took two steps forward, walked up to the captain and asked: "Captain, if you get replenishment, can you guarantee to hold this area?" ”

After a brief silence, the captain replied hesitantly, "Yes." I think it must be, Comrade General! ”

"You see, the German fascists should not be allowed to cross the Ugra River, so the cadets are told."

"Yes!" The captain readily agreed.

"Wait!" Zhukov immediately changed his mind again, "I'll tell you personally!" As he spoke, he walked around the captain in the direction of the trenches, and I hastened to follow.

Seeing our arrival, the soldiers in the trenches stood up one after another. I looked at this trench, it was so rudimentary, narrow and shallow, people squatted inside, their heads were still exposed, and it was okay to block stray bullets. If the Germans bombarded with intensive artillery fire, it is estimated that there would be no survivors left.

Zhukov stood on the edge of the trench, glanced around, and said in an unhappy tone: "Why do you wear a German military coat?" "When I looked at it, most of the soldiers in the trenches were wearing German military coats and boat-shaped hats, so it was no wonder that the driver thought they were Germans just now.

"Comrade General," replied to one of the soldiers closest to him, taking off his German overcoat and standing up straight, "this is just a substitute, and it feels really cold to stay in the trenches without a military overcoat." Comrade General! ”

"What's the matter, why don't the soldiers have military coats?" Zhukov looked back at the major general and asked angrily. I took a closer look, and the officers in the trenches were wearing military overcoats, while the soldiers were still wearing thin summer uniforms. As soon as he took off his German military coat, he shivered in the cold wind.

"There was a battle alert in the school, and because of the rush of time, the quartermaster did not have time to count, so the cadets were not issued military coats." The major general hurriedly stepped forward and explained to Zhukov.

"Take the quartermaster to court-martial." Zhukov said very angrily. I reckon the quartermaster would have been shot by him if he had stood in front of him. "The military coat must be delivered on time in the evening, and you can do it yourself."

"Yes! I see. The major general agreed and retreated to his place.

Zhukov walked a few steps back and forth on the edge of the trench, and then said loudly: "You are all good!" Children, you must not take a step back, you must hit the last person," and then crouched down and said in a kind tone to the warrior who had just spoken: "I ask you, understand?" The children! Reaching out and touching the warrior's head, he whispered, "Hold on for two more days." ”

Then he stood up and gave an order to the major general as he went: "Be sure to get a military coat at night." ”

"Yes." Major General Zhukov saluted him as he passed by.

The car staggered by, and I stepped forward and opened the door to let Zhukov sit in. Then I opened the back door and got into the car as well.

"Where do we go next? Comrade General. The driver asked as he drove.

"Next, it's time for us to go to Porodino, where the headquarters of the Western Front is located."

Starting Point Chinese Network www.Welcome the majority of book friends to come and read, the latest, fastest and hottest serialized works are all original at Starting Point!