On the restart, Bukov returned to the co-pilot's seat, while Povsky moved from the front to the back to facilitate our conversation.

Povsky said with emotion: "Comrade commander, I used to complain that the transport team was too slow to deliver ammunition to the artillery, but after coming into contact with these auto soldiers today, I realized that I was wrong to blame them. It is not that they do not do their best, but because they are limited by various objective conditions, the speed at which the convoy can transport materials is never increased. ”

Powsky's words reminded me of the communication line that was strangled by US fighters on the Korean battlefield in the later generations, and it was lucky that one of the ten trucks of supplies could be delivered to the front line. Now the Germans have not launched an attack on us, and the transportation of supplies is only limited by the state of the roads and the volume of vehicles. Once the battle breaks out, our lines of communication will inevitably become the focus of the German attack, and whether the supplies from the rear quartermaster stations will be able to be smoothly transported to the forward positions by that time is a big question.

Although I thought of a lot of solutions, I quickly overturned them one by one. So much so that they all returned to the headquarters of the army group, and I have not yet come up with a reason. At this moment, Bukov, who was sitting in the co-pilot's seat, suddenly said in surprise: "Hey, why is Major Yushchenko standing outside the headquarters, and he still looks anxious, is something wrong?" ”

Hearing Bukov say this, I hurriedly looked out the window, and saw that at the entrance to the building where the headquarters was located, the head of the guards, Major Yushchenko, was walking back and forth with a distraught expression, as if something might have happened.

And at this time, he also spotted our convoy. He stopped, stood there and looked at it for a moment, then ran towards the car I was in. See this reaction from him. I knew in my heart that something must have happened, otherwise my heart wouldn't have behaved so badly.

Before the car could stop, Yushchenko threw himself in front of the car and pulled the door open next to me. Instead of blaming him for his recklessness, I anxiously asked: "What's the matter, Major Yushchenko." What's wrong? ”

"Commander, Comrade Commander." Maybe it was because he was in a bit of a hurry when he just ran over, so when Yushchenko spoke, he kept panting: "Good news, good news, great news." ”

"Good news?" Seeing that there was no accident or something, the stone hanging in my heart fell to the ground, and I asked disapprerovingly, "Comrade Major." I don't know what the good news is? ”

"The military commissar and the chief of staff, they are back." Yushchenko's voice suddenly became shrill with excitement, "In addition to them, there are also a lot of commanders and fighters who have returned. ”

"The military commissar and the chief of staff were both wounded and discharged from the hospital?" I thought Yushchenko was talking about the two who were wounded along with Chistyakov, so I asked with a blank face as I got out of the car: "When did they come back?" ”

As soon as one of my feet hit the ground, I immediately realized that something was wrong. The military commissar and chief of staff of the army group, neither I nor Yushchenko have met, and he categorically would not be agitated like this by two strangers. Then the person who can be called so by him is about to come out. Come to think of it. My emotions also involuntarily became agitated, and I asked tentatively, "Major." Are you talking about Lieutenant Colonel Kirillov and Major Akhromeyev? ”

Yushchenko probably guessed the answer at the sight of me, nodded his head vigorously in excitement, and it took a long time to speak: "Yes, yes, Comrade Commander, it's them, they all came back from Kyiv alive." ”

I couldn't help but cheer. I'm going to rush into the building. Who knew that I forgot that I only had one foot on the ground, and when I ran forward, I immediately lost my center of gravity and fell heavily to the ground.

Yushchenko, who was next to me, immediately helped me up with several fighters, and asked behind closed doors: "Comrade commander." Are you alright? ”

I stood up with their support, heard his question, waved my hand, and trotted all the way into the building, ignoring the pain in my body. Because I ran so fast, I didn't even bother to salute the sentry at the door.

Although I am now the commander of the group army, because I do not have my own capable subordinates, I do not have the feeling of commanding the troops at all. Although Yushchenko and Bukov are also my old subordinates, with their abilities, they can only be responsible for the work of guards, and they cannot help me in military command at all. Now that Kirillov and Akhromeyev have returned, it means that I have a right-hand man again, and as long as I put them in the right position, then the command system of this force can operate more efficiently.

When I rushed into the headquarters, I saw at a glance that it was none other than Kirillov, who had been my partner for half a year, sitting at the table with his back to the door and chatting with Danilov. After taking a deep breath, I opened my mouth and shouted: "Comrade Military Commissar! ”

At my shout, Kirillov turned his head, and after seeing that it was me, he immediately jumped up from his seat, walked quickly towards me, opened his arms, and said emotionally: "Hello, Leda, it's nice to see you again!" ”

When we hugged each other, because I thought that this old partner, whose fate was unknown, could still appear in front of me alive, I couldn't help but have a sour nose, my eyes began to moisten, and tears swirled and swirled in the red sockets, falling like beads of broken threads.

After the separation, Kirillov saw that I was crying, and although he himself was red-eyed, he still comforted me and said: "Lida, don't be sad, although many of our comrades died, didn't Akhromeyev and I come back alive?" ”

"Akhromeyev, where is he?" As soon as I heard Kirillov mention my former division chief of staff, my eyes searched around the room, and I had just paid attention to Kirillov and ignored his presence.

"Here I am, Comrade Commander." Suddenly, behind me came the familiar voice of Akhromeyev. "I'm fine, I'm alive."

I didn't bother to wipe the tears from my face, turned around, grabbed Akhromeyev's arm, shook it vigorously, and said excitedly: "It's good to come back, it's good to come back, so that we can fight side by side and avenge those comrades who have died." ”

Danilov, who had been standing next to him, saw the scene of the reunion of our old comrades-in-arms. With a sigh, he turned around and took a handkerchief from his trouser pocket and held it tightly over his face. After a few moments, I heard him sniff and wipe his face again, then quickly slip the handkerchief into his pocket.

I took Kirillov's hand and came to the table. After pressing him into his seat, he asked: "Comrade Military Commissar, tell me, how did you get out of Kyiv and how many people did you bring?" ”

"Comrade commander," Akhromeyev came to my side and said to me respectfully, "allow me to report to you in detail. ”

I looked at the ragged Akhromeyev in front of me and guessed that their breakthrough must be very difficult, so I nodded. He casually pointed to the vacant position next to him and said, "Major, you better sit down and talk." With that, I sat down right next to Kirillov.

Akhromeyev sat across from me and gave me a clear account of their breakthrough: "...... After the fall of Kiev, General Romanov, with the main forces of his troops, broke through in a northwesterly direction. And another part of the troops under the command of me and Comrade Military Commissar was cut off on the eastern bank of the Dnieper. It was not possible to cross the river to join the main forces, so we had to continue to choose the direction of the breakthrough. Break through to the weakly defended areas of the Germans to the east.

At the time of the breakout, our troops numbered more than 700 men, and they were well equipped and had ample ammunition. We were divided into two parts, Major General Vachuk, with the remnants of his troops, to open the way in front; In the back, the military commissar and I were in the back, sheltering the rout and the wounded. Following General Vachuk's rear, turn east, preparing to cross the enemy's blockade line and join our main forces.

At first it went well, but while the troops were marching to Ligov, the vanguard and the German armored units encountered. After more than two hours of fighting. In addition to a dozen wounded soldiers who escaped, General Vachuk and his other commanders and fighters all died heroically.

In order to avoid a hard fight with the German army, which had superior strength and equipment, I decided to turn south after consulting with the military commissar, bypassing the heavily defended area of the German army, and rushing to the Kursk area in a roundabout way to join up with the main forces of our army.

However, our whereabouts were soon detected by the Germans, who sent out ground troops to search for our whereabouts, and constantly sent planes to reconnoitre. Fortunately, the area where we operate is still very forested, which invisibly provides us with a favorable place to hide.

…… Hunger and sickness have caused our troops to be constantly attritional. When we arrived in the Suja area, there were only a hundred people left in the entire force, and the rest were either killed or broke away from the ranks. At that time, it was proposed that if we could not reach the defense zone of our army within a few days, then the rest of the people would also be lost.

It was then that Captain Grams, who had surrendered, made a suggestion to us. He said that since we have not many people now, why not disguise ourselves as German troops, swagger through the enemy's defensive zone, and enter our army's defense area to join the main force. ”

When I heard Grahms's name, I couldn't help but be slightly surprised, I didn't expect that in such a dangerous situation, Grams's group of surrendered officers and soldiers would continue to follow our troops, which was really unexpected. So I interrupted Akhromeyev and asked anxiously: "In addition to Grams, who are the officers and soldiers who defected?" ”

Akhromeyev thought for a moment and counted the number with his hands, "There is Captain Grams, his adjutant Second Lieutenant Grettka, Captain Beckman, Lieutenant Braun, Captain Perel, Captain Dangel, Corporal Wenger, etc. ”

Hearing the series of names pronounced out of Akhromeyev's mouth, I couldn't help but be overjoyed, you must know that these are German officers and soldiers who took the initiative to surrender to our army during the Battle of Stalingrad, but I did not expect that in the most difficult time for our army, they did not waver, but continued to follow Kirillov and Akhromeyev, and after a long journey, they came to the defense area of our army.

I only heard Akhromeyev say again: "Comrade commander, you also know that they were originally Germans, and as soon as they put on military uniforms, they are no different from real German soldiers. It was thanks to their help that we were able to successfully pass through one German line after another and successfully return to the defense zone of the troops.

We were lucky, and after completing the mission of crossing the line of fire, we came across a reconnaissance detachment. After secretly observing us for a long time, they felt that we were their own people, so they came to contact us and led us here.

Comrade commander, do you know? How happy were I when I and Comrade Military Commissar heard that it was you who took up the post of commander of this army group? Facing me who was looking at him with a smile on his face, he continued: "I believe that as long as you are in command of this force, we will be able to achieve the final victory. ”

I didn't get carried away with Akhromeyev's compliment, but just smiled politely, wondering if I should report their arrival to Vatutin, and see what kind of decision he would make. While I was still thinking about it, Danilov, who was next to me, suddenly said: "Comrade commander, there is something I haven't had time to tell you yet. ”

I didn't know what Danilov was going to say, so I turned my head to look at him and said politely: "Comrade Deputy Commander, if you have anything, just ask." ”

"That's right, Comrade Commander." Although Danilov was more senior than me, he still spoke politely to me: "Before you returned, I had already called to report the news of Kirillov's return to Comrade Vatutin. ”

"What did Comrade Commander of the Front Army say when he learned about this?" When I heard Danilov say this, I hurriedly and nervously asked: "Did he say how to arrange Kirillov them?" ”

Danilov probably guessed that I would have such a question, and after nodding his head in affirmative, he directly said the answer: "After receiving my call, Commander Vatutin, after receiving my call, reported this matter to Marshal Zhukov and Comrade Vasilevsky respectively, and after obtaining their permission, officially announced that Comrade Kirillov had the post of temporary member of the Military Council of the Army Group, and the rank would remain unchanged. As for the appointment of other returning personnel, it is your sole responsibility. ”

"Great, that's great." When I heard the good news, I excitedly shook Danilov's hand and shook it vigorously, and at the same time said gratefully: "Thank you, thank you, Comrade Deputy Commander." In this way, I can partner with my old comrades again. (To be continued.) )