Red Moscow

  Chapter 188 Meeting

  After the first round of shooting, the four-tube group, the two-tube group and the single-tube group were then shot. Although none of the fired rockets hit the mound again, the point of impact was not far from the mound. As soon as the shooting was over, staff immediately took a jeep to the impact point to check and record relevant data.

  Sokov sat on the bench in the wooden house, looking at the jeep going away, regardless of Yakov and the tall and thin man who were chatting in a low voice, and asked with some guilt: "I wonder if today's experiment is considered a success?"

"Success, of course it is considered success." Hearing Sukov's question, the tall and thin man said excitedly: "The rocket launchers equipped by our army often deviate from the impact point by more than two hundred meters. It was discontinued. And the rocket you designed, after a small improvement, has effectively improved the accuracy of shooting..." Weapon experts were full of praise for the 107mm rocket launcher, which made Sokov feel a little bit complacent.

  Yakov sat aside and didn’t speak at first. After seeing the staff who went to measure the data returning by car, he immediately interrupted the chat between the two, “The jeep is back, let’s go and see the data collected by the staff.”

  The tall and thin man and Yakov came outside the house, took the splint handed over by the staff, and checked the data recorded on the paper together. Sokov leaned his head over to have a look, only saw a bunch of symbols and a lot of numbers, and couldn't figure out what it meant.

Yakov pulled out the data recording paper from the plywood, folded it and put it in his pocket, and said to the tall and thin man: "I will go to see Comrade People's Commissar right now and give him the data of this test. You guys Stay here and prepare for the next round of testing."

  Sokov, who was standing next to him, was about to ask Yakov what the test was, but Yakov shook his head at him and said, "Let's go, Misha, follow me to the Comrade People's Commissar."

In this way, Sokov, who followed Yakov to this mysterious test site, only looked at the staff in charge of weapon testing, and fired several groups of rockets. He didn't even understand the collected data, and followed Yakov in a daze. The husband left here and went to see Ustinov.

   The two came to Ustinov's office, and the people's commissar had been waiting for them for half a day. As soon as he saw Yakov walk in the door, he asked straight to the point: "Comrade Captain, have you finished collecting all the data?"

"Yes, Comrade People's Commissar." Yakov took out the piece of paper from his pocket, spread it out and placed it in front of Ustinov, saying respectfully: "The test data are all on it, please Take a look!"

   After reading the data on the paper, Ustinov had a surprised expression on his face. He raised his head and looked at Yakov standing in front of the table, and said, "Captain Yakov, judging from the test data, the effect of this new weapon is not bad. Next, you must hurry up and complete the test of other data , and strive to prepare the troops as soon as possible."

"Comrade People's Commissar," Sokov, who was standing behind, couldn't help but thumped when he heard that Ustinov planned to equip the troops with this weapon as soon as possible. He didn't care what the consequences would be if he spoke, but hurriedly said: "Even if this kind of weapon is produced, it cannot be equipped with troops for the time being."

   "Why?" Ustinov and Yakov asked in unison.

"Although this new rocket launcher has just undergone the first round of tests today, I think you can imagine the power of this rocket launcher." Sokov paused for a moment when he said this. To observe the reaction of the two men, seeing that they both nodded in agreement with his statement, he went on to say: "Although our army's counterattack under the city of Moscow has achieved great results, but at the same time, we should also see that the enemy is still very strong. We have not been able to gain the initiative on the battlefield. If this new rocket launcher is equipped with troops too early, once it falls into the hands of the Germans, it will not take long to imitate it with the current military level of the Germans. If They are also equipped with this weapon, which is a disaster for our army."

"Misha, your statement is too pessimistic..." Yakov was afraid that Sokov's words would upset Ustinov, so he interrupted him quickly: "Since our army can smash the German army under the city of Moscow attack, then we will annihilate their effective forces in more areas."

  Sokov's words made Ustinov confused, and he asked in puzzlement: "That's right, if this new type of rocket launcher can't be equipped with troops as soon as possible, then what's the point of developing it now?"

   Facing Ustinov's questioning, Sokov naturally couldn't tell him that in the coming days, the Soviet army would also launch fierce contests in Kharkov and Stalingrad. If the German army has this new type of rocket launcher, then the troops of the 62nd Army that stick to Stalingrad may be driven into the Volga River at any time.

Sokov organized the vocabulary in his mind, and then said to Ustinov: "Comrade People's Commissar, according to my judgment, our army will have to wait at least 43 years to gain the initiative on the battlefield. Before that, the German army will still have the upper hand. If we prematurely put the new rocket launcher into the army, once it is captured by the German army and produced in large quantities, it will bring a catastrophic blow to our army. Therefore, I suggest that after it is officially put into production, It is only provided to a small number of troops. Even if the battle situation is not good for our army, this rocket launcher can be destroyed in time."

"Major Sokov, your assumption is not valid." After hearing what Sokov said, Ustinov said with a straight face: "While you overestimated the enemy's strength, you also seriously underestimated it." The strength of our army has been weakened. The counterattack under Moscow has already seriously injured the Germans, and I believe that it will not be long before we can drive the Germans out of our territory."

   Facing Ustinov's self-confidence, Sokov really couldn't laugh or cry, but under the current situation, he really couldn't refute it, so he could only keep silent.

Fortunately, Ustinov did not argue with him, but told Yakov: "You must hurry up for the next few tests. It is best to finalize this new type of rocket launcher within half a month and start It is going into production. But because our production capacity is insufficient, we can only produce about a hundred doors and equip troops on a small scale. Do you understand?"

   "Understood, Comrade People's Commissar." Yakov nodded and replied, "I guarantee that the production workshop will be able to put into production of this new rocket launcher before the end of May..."

  After explaining the task to Yakov, Ustinov turned his gaze to Sokov who was dazed aside, and raised his voice and said, "Major, you can tell me what you think now."

  Although Sokov was trained, he couldn't help but secretly heaved a sigh of relief when he saw that Ustinov still agreed with his point of view and did not equip the troops with such rocket launchers in large quantities. He tried to force a smile on his face and said: "Our army is now equipped with artillery and rocket launchers of various calibers, so whether this new rocket launcher is installed or not is not too important. Its main function is to attack the enemy's weapons." Shipping lines, camps, and warehouses, if possible, would also be of great use in street fighting."

   "Street fighting, where is the street fighting?" Ustinov heard this, got up and went to the wall, looking up at a map hanging on the wall. Since this is not a military map, there are no dazzling red and blue arrows on it. He casually pointed to several cities occupied by the German army on the map: "Do you mean Smolensk, Kyiv or Odessa?"

Although Sokov glanced at the location of Stalingrad, he still said insincerely: "Comrade People's Commissar, the places you mentioned are the places where we will start street battles with the enemy. But now, I think I The location where the army is going to fight the Germans in street fighting may be south of Moscow."

"South of Moscow?" Sokov's words aroused Ustinov's interest. He slapped the map twice and said, "Show me where we will be next, and the German army Start a fierce battle?"

"Here!" Sokov quickly walked to the map, pointed to the two cities south of Moscow, and said to Ustinov: "Kharkov and Belgorod! According to my judgment, it is necessary to In a short time, our army will start a fierce battle with the German army here."

   Seeing Sokov pointing out these two places without hesitation, Ustinov showed a hint of surprise on his face. Because the Supreme Command meeting he attended two days ago specifically mentioned that Marshal Timoshenko's troops would launch a large-scale attack on the enemies entrenched in Kharkov and Belgorod in June. Huge offensive. But I didn't expect the major in front of me to guess the intention of the Supreme Command.

Seeing that Sokov was so young, Ustinov did not believe that he would guess the plan of the Supreme Command, so he asked tentatively: "Comrade Major, I want to ask you about the plan to attack the German army. Did you analyze it yourself, or did someone tell you?"

  Regarding the question raised by Ustinov, Sokov grinned and replied cheekily: "Comrade People's Commissar, of course I figured it out myself."

"Tell me your reasons." Ustinov walked back to his table and sat down, looked at Sokov and asked curiously: "Why do you think that the targets of our army are Kharkov and others?" Where is Ulgorod?"

"In the north of our country, Leningrad is surrounded by the German army. The enemy can't rush in, and our army can't break their siege for the time being." Sokov pointed to the map and said pretendingly: "And Moscow on the center line , although both the enemy and the enemy have concentrated heavy troops, the possibility of another war is not great, because the German army can no longer advance to Moscow unscrupulously like last year. In this way, the only places where battles can occur are Kharkov and Berg Rhodes, if these two cities are recaptured, then the military industrial enterprises in Kharkov can resume production as soon as possible, and provide the troops with urgently needed weapons and ammunition..."

  Ustinov, who was sitting in his seat, looked at Sokov who was talking eloquently, his face turned livid, because what the other party said was roughly equivalent to what he heard at the meeting of the Supreme Command. If he hadn't investigated the other party's identity in advance, he would almost order someone to arrest Sokov as a German spy at this moment.

"Major Sokov," but when Sokov finished speaking, Ustinov also made a decisive decision: "Marshal Timoshenko intends to launch a counterattack to the south of Moscow, and he will launch a counterattack in the near future. Organize a group of commanders with rich combat experience to study his combat plan. If you have no objection, I plan to recommend you to attend this seminar."

   After the meeting with Ustinov, Yakov took Sokov out of Ustinov's office. When he came to the corridor, Yakov looked around and saw that no one was passing by, so he complained to Sokov in a low voice: "Misha, how can you talk nonsense in front of Comrade People's Commissar? I broke out in a cold sweat, and I was deeply afraid that if he got angry, he would order someone to arrest you. Even if I came forward at that time, it would not be so easy to rescue you."

"Thank you for your concern." In fact, when Sokov left the office, he also found that the shirt on his back was soaked with sweat. Regarding Yakov's concern, he said gratefully: "Fortunately, nothing happened. "

"Fortunately, Comrade Ustinov is easy to talk about, but some people of the older generation are not easy to talk about." Yakov thought that Sokov would attend a meeting chaired by Timoshenko in a few days, so he said tactfully Remind him: "So when you are in a meeting, you have to understand in your heart what you can say and what you can't say. Once you say something wrong, it's not as simple as being criticized a few times. Maybe you will be sent to a military court directly. "

  Yakov's words once again scared Sokov into a cold sweat. He asked in surprise, "Yakov, don't scare me. Is Marshal Timoshenko really in such a difficult situation?"

"Yes." Yakov nodded, and said with certainty: "If you obey his orders, maybe nothing will happen. But once you sing against him, hehehe...maybe you will bring yourself a disaster .”

  Hearing this, Sokov couldn't help but start beating drums in his heart. He thought to himself, if he went to the meeting chaired by Timoshenko, he would have to sing against the battle plan he proposed, otherwise he could only watch the attacking troops be defeated by the Germans. If, as Yakov said, he would irritate Timoshenko by putting forward different opinions, then it would be better not to attend such a military meeting.

  Yakov saw Sokov standing there in a daze, his face still turning red and white, so he guessed that he had been frightened by himself. He quickly raised his hand and slapped him on the back, and said with a smile: "I'm just kidding you. In fact, Marshal Timoshenko is quite easy to get along with. In the meeting, you can just say what you think, even If you make a mistake, he won't blame you."

  (end of this chapter)