Chapter 2127: relapse

  Chapter 2127 Old injury attack

  For Rokossovsky, having a deputy who is both capable and familiar with the situation of the troops is very helpful for him to quickly control the troops, and Zakharov happens to meet this standard.

  The two successfully completed the transfer of the command of the front army. After a night's rest, Zakharov accompanied Rokossovsky to inspect various defense areas and troops, and met with the commanders of the divisions under the various armies.

  After two days of running around, Rokossovsky, accompanied by Zakharov, inspected all the defenses and met with all regiment-level commanders in his subordinate troops.

The two returned to the headquarters after completing their inspection. When Zakharov was busy pouring tea for Rokossovsky, suddenly the high-frequency phone on the desk rang. Rokossovsky picked it up and listened. The call came from Chief of the General Staff Antonov: "Is this Marshal Rokossovsky? I am Antonov!"

   "Hello, Comrade Chief of Staff." Rokossovsky asked politely, "Do you have any latest instructions?"

   "Yes, Comrade Marshal." Antonov said: "I am entrusted by the Supreme Command to officially announce a new personnel appointment to you."

  Hearing what Antonov said, Rokossovsky couldn't help but thumped in his heart, and secretly said: What appointment, is it going to revoke the position of commander of our front army again, and demote to the following troops to command an army group? With complicated emotions, he tried to use the same voice as usual to ask: "Comrade Chief of General Staff, what is the new appointment?"

  Antonov heard the tension in Rokossovsky's heart, and quickly said: "Comrade Marshal, this personnel appointment has nothing to do with you, it is about Comrade Zakharov's job arrangement."

"What, it's about Comrade Zakharov's appointment?" Knowing that it was not his demotion order, Rokossovsky heaved a sigh of relief. He looked up at Zakharov who brought tea, and said yes Looking into the microphone, he asked, "I don't know how the Supreme Command plans to arrange him?"

Zakharov, who just came over with tea, couldn't help being stunned when he heard what Rokossovsky said. He thought to himself that he had just been demoted to the deputy commander of the front army, so why was there a new appointment just two days later? , Could it be that he intends to demote himself to the commander of the group army?

  I just heard Antonov say: "After research by the Supreme Command, it was decided to send him to the Belarusian First Front Army as the deputy commander of the Front Army and as the deputy of Marshal Zhukov."

   Rokossovsky then asked: "Comrade Chief of the General Staff, I would like to ask, Zakharov was sent to the First Front Army as the deputy commander, so who will be my deputy?"

"This is exactly the second appointment I am going to announce to you." Antonov replied calmly: "The Supreme Commander himself considers Admiral Kuzma Petrovich Trubnikov a suitable candidate. From now on, he will take over the position of General Zakharov and serve as your deputy."

  Although these two personnel appointments are related to Rokossovsky, the Supreme Command failed to communicate with him beforehand, which made him somewhat uncomfortable. But considering that as early as when he was the commander of the Stalingrad Front Army, Trubnikov had served himself as a deputy for a period of time. He is a commander with rich combat experience and has excellent character. Can be picky, if you partner with yourself, at least there will be no constraints.

Antonov heard Rokossovsky's silence, and continued to say: "Trubnikov will rush to the headquarters of the Second Front this afternoon to replace Comrade Zakharov. After the handover is completed, the Supreme Commander himself hopes that you can come to Moscow as soon as possible, and he will personally assign you the next combat mission of the Second Front Army."

"What, rush to Moscow as soon as possible?" Antonov's words surprised Rokossovsky, "I just took over the Second Front Army not long ago, and I am still familiar with the situation of the army, so I may not be able to leave for a short time. "

   Unexpectedly, Antonov said in a reasonable manner: "Comrade Marshal, you can return to Moscow with Marshal Zhukov in three days. Therefore, the combat mission that the Supreme Commander himself will assign is about the coordinated operations of your two front armies."

Rokossovsky calculated silently in his heart. If Trubnikov could arrive at the headquarters today and complete the handover with Zakharov, he would have two days to get familiar with the members of the headquarters. If you understand the situation of each army, you can hand over the troops to the other party with confidence and boldness. Thinking of this, he said into the microphone: "Okay, Comrade Chief of Staff, I will fly to Moscow in the morning three days later."

   Putting down the phone, Rokossovsky looked up and said apologetically to Zakharov: "Comrade Zakharov, I want to talk to you about your next work arrangement."

"Comrade Marshal, I heard everything." Zakharov put the tea cup in his hand in front of Rokossovsky, tried to squeeze a smile on his face and said: "I really didn't expect that I just pawned it to you." The deputy who has been in charge for two days is about to leave for a new army, and I feel really reluctant. To be honest, if I want to serve as the deputy commander of the front army, I can definitely stay, after all, I know the situation here better."

Rokossovsky stood up, put his hands on the opponent's shoulders, and said with regret: "Comrade Zakharov, although I also want you to stay, but this is an order from the headquarters, we can only Unconditional obedience. Do you understand?"

"Understood." Hearing what Rokossovsky said, Zakharov knew that there was no room for redemption, so he tentatively asked: "Comrade Marshal, may I ask, who is going to be appointed by the headquarters to take over my position? "

"General Trubnikov." Rokossovsky was afraid that Zakharov would not be able to remember who he was, so he reminded him: "When I was the commander of the Stalingrad Front, he He used to be my deputy." Seeing that Zakharov's mood was stable, he changed the subject in time, "How is the preparation for the new headquarters?"

  The headquarters of the Second Front Army is located in a small village in an open field, and has been bombed several times by German aircraft. After Rokossovsky came here, he proposed to Zakharov that the enemy should have noticed that there was an important headquarters here, so they would continue to send planes to bomb. If you continue to stay here, once the battle preparation stage comes, the number of people and vehicles entering and leaving this area will increase greatly, and you will be bombed by the enemy on a larger scale, so the headquarters must be transferred.

   Although Zakharov accompanied Rokossovsky to inspect the troops below these two days, he handed over the relocation to Chief of Staff Bogolyubov. At this moment, when Rokossovsky asked about this matter, he quickly called the other party over and asked, "Comrade Chief of Staff, how is the matter with the new headquarters going?"

   "Comrades, two commanders," Bogolyubov replied respectfully, "I think the best location for the headquarters should be in the forest area of ​​the Dlugoshedlo region."

"I agree." Rokossovsky passed by the place Bogolyubov said during his inspection in the past two days. You can go to any group army's defense zone for inspection. "When can we move there?"

Bogolyubov reported to Rokossovsky: "We have erected four strong wooden houses in the forest and laid telephone lines, which will be ready for use tomorrow at the latest. As for the security of the headquarters, I will also check In addition to arranging powerful air defense positions, checkpoints have been set up on every road leading to the headquarters, and machine gun fire points have been established in concealed positions."

"You are very thoughtful, Comrade Chief of Staff." Rokossovsky affirmed Bogolyubov's work: "I believe that such a command is the most important thing for us. The most applicable." He turned to Zakharov and said, "Our superiors informed us that Trubnikov will come to take up his post in the afternoon. I think it is better for you to transfer the work after the headquarters has moved to a new location." Not too late."

In the evening, Trubnikov, escorted by the guard platoon sent by Zhukov, came to Rokossovsky's new headquarters. After entering the door, he saluted Rokossovsky first: "Hello, Marshal Comrade, I have been ordered to come and serve as your deputy."

"Hello, Comrade Trubnikov." Rokossovsky stepped forward to hold Trubnikov's hand, and said with a smile, "Welcome to work in the Second Front Army." Pointing to Zakharov at the side, "This is Comrade Zakharov. You two are old acquaintances, so I don't need to introduce you."

   "Hello, Comrade Trubnikov." Zakharov also stepped forward to hold Trubnikov's hand, and said with a smile: "We can start the handover work now."

   In this way, the two completed the handover in an extremely friendly atmosphere. After handing over the work, Zakharov said goodbye to Rokossovsky and others, and got into the jeep that sent Trubnikov.

   When Rokossovsky saw that what he was worried about did not happen, he felt more at ease. From the next day, he took Trubnikov to inspect several of his subordinate armies, letting him familiarize himself with the troops and the defense zone as soon as possible.

   In the early morning of the third day, Rokossovsky took a transport plane to Moscow from the field airport under the jurisdiction of the Front Army. This nasty transport plane has no comfort at all. Rokossovsky, who had already suffered a back injury, was so painful that he couldn't straighten his waist when he got off the plane after several hours of flying.

  A colonel who came to pick him up from the Kremlin saw Rokossovsky being helped off the plane, and hurried over and asked nervously, "Comrade Marshal, what's wrong with you?"

   Rokossovsky said with a wry smile: "It may be that the old injury on my back has occurred again." He glanced at the colonel in front of him and asked, "Comrade colonel, are you taking me to the Kremlin?"

   "Yes, Comrade Marshal!" Seeing Rokossovsky's pale face, the colonel hurriedly asked tentatively, "Do you need me to take you to the hospital first?"

   "There is no need to go to the hospital." Rokossovsky thought that Stalin must be waiting in the office at this moment, and he would dare to go to the hospital to waste time, so he shook his head and said, "Let's rush to the Kremlin as soon as possible."

   After the colonel helped Rokossovsky into the car, he asked a little worriedly: "Can your body support it?"

   "No problem." Rokossovsky resisted the pain from his back and replied, "Let's set off now, don't make Comrade Stalin wait too long."

   Half an hour later, Rokossovsky, supported by the colonel, came to Stalin's office. Poskrebyshev, who was sitting outside, was surprised when he saw that Rokossovsky had been helped in. He hurried out from behind his desk and asked with concern: "Comrade Marshal, what are you doing?" gone?"

   Rokossovsky smiled wryly and said to Poskrebyshev: "The condition of the transport plane is too bad, and the flight time is too long. It may be that the old injury has recurred."

"Comrade Marshal, since you are not feeling well, why don't you go to the hospital for treatment." Boskrebyshev said in a reproachful tone, "If the injury recurs, don't be careless, if something happens, the consequences will be serious. At this point, he quickly glanced at the closed door, and asked in a low voice: "How about I go in and tell Comrade Stalin?"

   "Thank you, Comrade Poskrebyshev." Rokossovsky waved his hand at Poskrebyshev and said, "I don't think it's too late to go back after the meeting."

  Rokossovsky opened the door, and when he walked into Stalin's office, he found that Stalin was sitting at the front of the long conference table, and on the left were three generals without military caps. Hearing that someone opened the door, Stalin turned his head and saw that it was Rokossovsky, so he stood up with a smile and said: "We are waiting for you, Comrade Rokossovsky, welcome to Moscow." Come!"

After shaking hands with Rokossovsky, Stalin pointed to the three generals and said: "Comrade Rokossovsky, let me introduce these generals to you. Fejuninsky of the 2nd Shock Army, Grishin of the 49th Army, General Volsky of the 5th Guards Tank Army. From now on, their units will be placed under the command of your 2nd Belorussian Front."

After shaking hands with the three generals, Rokossovsky turned to Stalin and said, "Comrade Stalin, I have known General Volsky as early as 1930, when he was in the Cavalry No. The 7th Division commanded a cavalry regiment; later we were transferred together to the Transbaikal Army Group, where he served as the commander of the tank brigade. Feduninsky is also an old acquaintance and old friend. When he was in the Kiev Special Military District, his troops were stationed It is very close to Zhytomyr, where I am the commander of the garrison. There is only General Grishin, whom I met for the first time."

After Stalin invited everyone to sit down, he said to Rokossovsky: "I called you here today to explain to you personally the direction of the Second Front's attack. You should start from the existing occupied area, Launch an attack in the northwest direction... The East Prussian Group of the German Army, you don't have to worry, I will give the task of smashing this group to the Belarusian Third Front Army to complete. Remember, you and Zhukov's Belarusian First Front Army Between them, the closest coordinated action must be maintained."

Speaking of this, Stalin pushed a map on the table in front of Rokossovsky, drew an arrow pointing to the enemy's flank with a red pencil, and explained to Rokossovsky: "Rokossovsky Since the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front are slow to move in the attack, Comrade Kevsky, they can attack the German flank and help Zhukov."

   Rokossovsky stared at the map for a while, and then asked: "Comrade Stalin, if we want to turn the direction of attack to the northwest, then the front of the attack will become extremely narrow, which is not conducive to the deployment of troops."

"Comrade Rokossovsky, you can rest assured about this." After hearing Rokossovsky's concerns, Stalin further explained to him: "The demarcation line of your Second Front will move south until The place where the Narew River joins the Vistula River, and at the same time, the troops occupying this area will be transferred to your front. Among them, including the 65th, 48th and 70th armies."

Hearing what Stalin said, Rokossovsky began to calculate silently in his heart. The three armies of the original First Front, plus the two combined armies and one tank army that were just allocated to me, are equal to the number of troops of the Second Front. Six army groups have been added, and their strength has tripled.

  While he was feeling happy, he suddenly heard Stalin say: "In addition, according to the organizational system of your front army, the 33rd Army of General Tsvetayev was placed under the command of the Third Front Army."

  Give six armies, and take away one army, whether it is a loss or a profit, anyone can see. Rokossovsky nodded in agreement with Stalin's arrangement, which naturally meant nothing.

  Stalin then talked about the current domestic and international situation, and believed that the German army fighting on two fronts was almost unable to support it. If the Soviet army can continue to maintain a strong offensive, then at most one year, Japan's Germany will be completely finished.

  After Stalin finished speaking, he refilled his pipe with shredded tobacco and asked Rokossovsky with a smile: "Comrade Rokossovsky, do you have any objections to my deployment?"

Hearing Stalin's question, Rokossovsky hurriedly stood up, but before he had time to speak, he felt his eyes were darkened, and there were stars in front of his eyes. After a burst of dizziness, he threw himself directly on the conference table .

   Rokossovsky fainted without warning, startling several people in the room. Fejuninsky, who was the first to react, rushed to his side, helped him sit up again, pinched him with his thumb, and shouted anxiously: "Konstantin Konstantinovich! , what's wrong with you? Wake up, wake up!"

  (end of this chapter)