Red Moscow

  Chapter 219 Return of the Commander

  Although Sokov prepared sniper rifles for the snipers, in the following days, few victories were achieved. The reason is very simple, the Germans are not fools, they will not stand on the ground and let you be a target; at the same time, they also deployed a group of experienced snipers from the rear to deal with the Soviet snipers. The sniper contest between the two sides lasted until the beginning of May, and there were casualties on both sides, so it was a tie.

  Since the last few days of April, Sokov has been calling Malinin almost every day, ostensibly to report to him, but in fact to find out whether Rokossovsky has returned to the front line.

Sokov remembered reading a time-traveling book before, saying that Rokossovsky rushed back to the army before he recovered from his injuries in order to avoid the yellow-faced woman in his family, and even the annual "May 5" One" did not participate in the military parade. And now that April is over, and the days of the May Day military parade have passed, there is still no news that Rokossovsky is coming back.

Seeing Sokov's distraught look, Potukin couldn't help asking curiously: "Comrade Commander, I see that you are full of sadness. I don't know why you are worrying about it?" The tank battalion and the artillery battalion have also added tanks and artillery respectively. What else can you worry about?

"It's already May." Sokov thought to himself, the Battle of Kharkov is about to begin, even though he is now the commander of the 328th Infantry Division, if Rokossovsky doesn't come back in time, he will be ready at any time. Probably transferred by Timoshenko to his unit to participate in this doomed offensive campaign.

"Yes, it's already May." Potukin couldn't guess what Sokov was thinking, and casually echoed: "After the 'May 1st Military Parade' in previous years, the residents of Moscow will gather in groups I went to my hut in the outskirts, planted some vegetables, and waited until autumn to harvest. But this year is no good. Although the German army was driven away from Moscow by us, who knows when they will kill their carbine. In that way, The vegetables grown by the residents are all cheaper for the Germans."

Sokov heard what Potukin said, and what he thought was completely different from what he thought, so he didn't correct him, but followed his meaning and said: "Yes, the German army has dozens of divisions deployed near Moscow. Don't worry. It is said that the residents in the city cannot leave the city to grow vegetables, and even the members of collective farms do not dare to sow seeds casually after returning to their villages. I am worried that there will be a grain failure in the second half of the year.”

"There is no way around this." Potukin said helplessly: "You must know that it is a war period after all, and the vicinity of Moscow is still a battlefield. Even if the food is planted, it will be bombed by German planes before the harvest season. , once the tank is crushed, not all of them will be reimbursed."

  While the two were chatting, the phone on the table suddenly rang. Sokov thought that some of the commanders below had called to report to work, but he just glanced at the phone and did not reach out to answer the phone. Sokov could not answer the phone, but Potukin, as his deputy, had to. After picking up the phone and listening for a while, he passed the receiver to Sokov and said, "Comrade Commander, I am looking for your number. Chief of Staff Malinin is calling."

  Sokov thought that when he called Malinin today, he had finished all the things that should be said. What would happen to him looking for himself at this time? With doubts, he put the receiver to his ear, and said into the microphone: "Hello, Comrade Chief of Staff, I am Major Sokov, what instructions do you have?"

   "Misha, I have some good news for you." Ma Linin said excitedly on the phone: "Comrade Commander is back, you should go to the headquarters immediately to visit him, he wants to see you."

  Hearing that Rokossovsky had returned, Sokov couldn't help but secretly rejoiced, and he quickly said into the microphone: "Understood, Comrade Chief of Staff, I'll rush over right away."

  After Sokov put down the phone, it suddenly occurred to him that Malinin hadn't said whether to let Potukin go with him. But he only hesitated for a moment, and then made a decisive decision: Anyway, there will be nothing in the division for the time being, so it doesn't matter to bring him. So he said to Potukin: "Chief of Staff Malinin called and told me that Comrade Commander is back. Anyway, there is nothing to do now, let's go to the Army Group Headquarters together."

"What, Comrade Commander is back?" Regardless of the fact that shortly after the 328th Division was assigned to the 16th Army, Rokossovsky was injured and hospitalized, but Potukin heard the news of Rokossovsky's return, Still with a happy expression on his face: "Then don't dawdle, let's rush over."

  The two took the jeep in the division and came to the headquarters of the group army. Just as he was about to enter the door, Sokov heard someone calling him from the side. He turned his head and saw a lieutenant who looked very familiar. Seeing Sokov staring at him in a daze, the other party smiled and asked, "Why, Comrade Major, you don't know me anymore? We went to Nizhny Novgorod together last month."

  As soon as the other party reminded him, Sokov immediately remembered that there was indeed this person among the officers who went to Nizhny Novgorod with Yakov. Since he didn't know the other party's name, when Sokov stepped forward to shake hands, he directly called the other party's military rank: "Hello, Comrade Lieutenant! Why are you here?"

   "We were ordered to send a batch of supplies here." The lieutenant pouted at a covered truck not far away, and said, "A new type of automatic gun is going to be handed over to one of your divisions."

   Hearing the lieutenant say that the car was equipped with an automatic gun, Sokov's heart beat faster, and he thought to himself: "My God, it can't be the assault rifle I need, right?"

   But he didn't ask which division these rifles were going to be assigned to, because it was useless to ask. If he could reveal it to himself, the lieutenant told him directly just now. In order to ease the atmosphere, Sokov changed the subject in time: "Comrade Lieutenant, did you personally **** the car here?"

"No." The lieutenant shook his head and replied, "I'm here with Captain Yakov. He's in your headquarters right now, maybe you'll see him later and have a good chat with him. "

   "Comrade Major," Potukin saw Sokov standing at the door chatting with an unfamiliar lieutenant, and couldn't help urging: "Comrade Commander is still waiting for us, let's go in now."

Knowing that Yakov was at the headquarters, Sokov couldn't wait to see him immediately, so he held out his hand to the lieutenant and said politely: "Comrade lieutenant, it's a pleasure to meet you here. I have something to do now, Let's talk at another time."

  When Sokov and Potukin walked into the headquarters, Potukin glanced at the lieutenant standing at the door and said in a low voice, "Why, is it your comrade in arms?"

"When we were in Moscow, we had dealings with each other." Sokov did not explain the identity of the other party to Potukin, but said vaguely: "We also went on a business trip to a certain military factory in other places." Potukin Seeing that Sokov was unwilling to go into details, he didn't continue to ask any more questions. Instead, he quickened his pace and walked towards the room where the headquarters was located.

   As soon as the two entered the room, Sokov heard a familiar voice: "Misha, you are here!"

Sokov took a closer look and saw that Rokossovsky was walking towards him. He quickly stood at attention, raised his hand in salute, and said in a respectful tone: "Hello, Comrade Commander, I am glad to see you are back on the front line again." gone."

After shaking hands with Sokov, Rokossovsky turned sideways and pointed back, and said, "Come on, meet your old friend, if you don't come, he will come to your division in person I'll go find you." Seeing Yakov standing beside him, Sokov had a smile on his face, and while walking towards Yakov, he actively extended his hand towards him.

When Yakov shook hands with Sokov, he beat his shoulder twice with his left hand, and then said with a smile: "You guy, why didn't you say hello to me when you left Nizhny Novgorod? I thought you were kidnapped by the enemy, and I specifically contacted the Garrison Commander, asking him to send people to search for your whereabouts in the city."

"What, Yakov didn't know about my departure?" Hearing what Yakov said, Sokov was stunned for a moment, and then he understood that this kind of thing is very Russian, and there is no communication between various departments. I only thought that there would be things in later generations, but I didn't expect similar things to happen in this era.

He guessed the reason, but he didn't say anything, just grinned and said apologetically, "I'm sorry, dear Yakov, I also temporarily received the order to return to the army, so I left before I had time to say hello to you." .”

Malinin on the side may want to rescue Sokov, so he took the initiative to say: "Yakov, this is my fault, my fault! Because something happened inside the army, Sokov needed to come back to deal with it, so I asked Bragon General Lavov brought Major Sokov with him on his return."

Yakov waited for Malinin to finish speaking, nodded at him, and said: "Comrade General, after Bragonlavov returned to Moscow, he called me specifically and told me that Misha was ordered to return to Moscow. After I answered the phone, I asked the Garrison Command to cancel the search in the city."

Rokossovsky waited patiently for Sokov and Yakov to finish talking about the old days before he said: "Major Sokov, I think you should understand in your heart that we will launch an attack on the German army soon. attack. I would like to ask, how is your division preparing?"

"Please rest assured, Comrade Commander." Hearing Rokossovsky addressing his official position, Sokov also hastily replied in a businesslike manner: "After our division has been supplemented, the morale is high, and all commanders and fighters are ready to fight. We are ready and ready to carry out the combat tasks entrusted to us by our superiors at any time."

After listening to Sokov, Rokossovsky exchanged glances with Malinin and said with a smile, "I really didn't expect Misha to be ready for battle so soon." Then he turned his attention to Sokov again. On the body of Kefu, he suppressed the smile on his face and said, "I have two purposes for calling you here today. One is that in the upcoming offensive campaign, your division will serve as the vanguard of the entire army, and first attack the enemy. Launch an offensive, and try to tear through the German defenses in the shortest possible time and open the way for our follow-up troops."

  Since serving as the acting division commander, Sokov has been making various preparations for the attack. He sent people to scout the distribution of the German army; he also sent people to scout the places suitable for crossing the river. If it weren't for the lack of sufficient artillery support and necessary air support, he might have led the troops to attack the German positions on the opposite bank.

Seeing that Rokossovsky had finished telling him the first purpose of coming here, Sokov stopped talking and couldn't help asking curiously: "Comrade Commander, can I ask the second question?" What is the purpose?"

   Rokossovsky chuckled, pointed at Yakov, and said to Sokov: "The second destination is related to Yakov, you can just ask him."

   As soon as Rokossovsky finished speaking, Sokov turned his gaze to Yakov next to him, and asked, "Yakov, can you tell me your purpose here?"

"I said brother, don't look so serious on your face." Seeing Sokov's serious face, Yakov quickly raised his hand and patted him on the shoulder, signaling him to be calm: "I'm I will introduce to you the materials I brought. After the overtime work of the workers in the machinery factory, all the 50 automatic guns you need have been produced. The purpose of my visit to the 16th Army is to **** Rokosovs General Ki returned to the front line, the second is to send you this batch of weapons." After speaking, he picked up an assault rifle that was thrown on the table and handed it to Sokov.

  Sokov took the automatic rifle, first tried to aim, then pulled the bolt to look at it, and asked casually: "Yakov, I want to ask, how much ammunition is equipped with each gun."

"Each automatic gun is equipped with 300 rounds of ammunition, which is equivalent to ten magazines for each rifle." After introducing the situation, Yakov asked back: "Misha, if you have nothing to do, we will come to Make a handover outside. As long as the weapons are delivered to the location, my mission will be completed."

   "Let's go, let's go now." After Sokov finished speaking, he took a step forward and hugged Yakov, and walked outside side by side. After walking a few steps, Sokov remembered that he was in Rokossovsky's office now, and the leader did not allow him to leave, so how could he leave casually? So he stopped, turned to Rokossovsky and asked with some embarrassment: "Comrade Commander, are we allowed to leave?"

"Yes." Rokossovsky nodded with a smile, and said to Sokov and Yakov: "Misha, you go to count the weapons with Yakov first, and when I come back later, I want to talk to Sokov You talk. You have no objection?"

   "No objection." Sokov quickly shook his head and said, "I am very happy to chat with Comrade Commander."

  (end of this chapter)