Burning Moscow

Facing the fierce offensive of our army, the German troops were retreating steadily. By the evening of the 16th, the troops on the right wing and the central area of ​​the front army had been wedged into the German battle defense for a full depth of 4o5o kilometers.

Seeing the smooth progress of our army, Konev, who had not slept for a few days, finally felt relieved. He called Sokolovsky over and ordered: "Comrade Chief of Staff, tomorrow morning, I want to talk to Li Once you arrive in Moscow, you will be solely responsible for the affairs of the army."

"Comrade Marshal," Seeing Konev suddenly placing such a heavy burden on himself, Sokolovsky, the chief of staff, behaved very nervously: "Now the battle is going on at the most critical moment. You are leaving at this moment. , I am worried that it will affect the troops' next actions."

"Comrade Chief of Staff," Konev looked up at his deputy and said with a serious expression: "Every commander of the group army participating in the battle knows his mission and the direction of the offensive. You only need to do a good job between them. The collaboration will be enough."

"But if there is a sudden incident, what should I do?" Sokolovsky asked unsteadily.

Seeing Sokolovsky's performance, a trace of dissatisfaction surged in my heart. As a chief of staff of the front army with the rank of general, I did not expect that the ability to act alone would be so bad. Konev and I were away for at most one day, and he was a little at a loss.

Just when I was thinking about how I would deal with a chief of staff like Sokolovsky if I was in Konev’s position, I listened to Konev said: "The chief of staff, we went to Moscow. Don’t come back. If there is anything you can’t handle, just send me a telegram. Understand?”

"Understand." Sokolovsky replied respectfully: "I will keep in touch with you at any time."

After the transfer of command authority, Konev and I stayed in the headquarters for another night, and then flew to Moscow by morning flight. When our plane landed at the military airport in the north of the city, a colonel from the Kremlin was waiting for us by the runway.

Seeing us getting off the plane, the officer greeted him immediately, raised his hand to salute Konev and said: "Comrade Marshal, I am ordered to pick you up, please come to us."

There were three black GAZ cars and a hooded mid-Jeep parked by the runway. The officer walked to the middle car first, opened the rear door, and politely said to Konev: "Comrade Marshal, please Get in the car!"

After Konev bent down and got into the car, I was about to go to the car behind, but Konev leaned out of the car and greeted me: "Lida, you come up too."

I promised, and quickly stepped forward, bent over and got into the back of the car, and closed the door smoothly. The officer made a circle from the rear of the car, opened the door next to the co-pilot, and got into the car, and when the door was closed, he told the driver: "Drive!"

The driver nodded slightly and honked his horn. After the GAZ car in front started up, the car we were riding in began to slide slowly.

When our convoy drove halfway, it was stopped by the traffic police. Seeing the convoy being stopped inexplicably by the traffic police and the crowds of civilians still standing on the side of the road, Konev frowned and asked dissatisfiedly: "Comrade Colonel, what is going on, why did the traffic police stop you? Our car."

"Comrade Marshal, traffic control is in force in front." The colonel turned his head and replied with a smile of joy.

I thought to myself that this convoy was sent by the Kremlin. Which traffic policeman would be so short-sighted and dare to stop us. Just seeing Konev's upset look on his face, I asked on his behalf: "Colonel, why is traffic control implemented? Are there any important foreigners visiting?"

"Where are foreigners visiting?" The colonel apparently did not notice the dissatisfaction on Konev's face, and said happily: "Today, a large number of German prisoners of war captured in the Belarusian battlefield will be sent to the city through Moscow. Prisoner of war camp in the field."

"Oh, is it a prisoner from the Belarusian battlefield?" The colonel's words aroused great interest in Konev. He said to me sideways, "Go, Lida, let's go and see." After speaking, he opened the door. Ready to get off.

"Comrade Marshal, please wait a moment." Seeing Konev swaying off the car, the colonel said with embarrassment: "There are too many people here, and it may be difficult to ensure your safety if you get off the car."

"Don't worry, Comrade Colonel." Konev said with a smile: "I believe that the enemies in the city are only prisoners of war who will pass here later, so my safety is guaranteed."

Several traffic policemen who were maintaining order were shocked when they saw a marshal walking out of the car. One of the traffic police captains also asked tremblingly: "Comrade Marshal, what can I do for you?"

If Konev didn’t say to watch the parade of captives, maybe I would say to the lieutenant first: “Just let us go through this intersection.” But seeing Konev’s enthusiastic look, I was also fascinated. Keep silent.

"Comrade Lieutenant, let's just take a look here." Konev kindly said to the terrified lieutenant: "You and your men will continue to maintain order."

Although Konev didn’t worry about his safety, the colonel who came to pick us up did not dare to take it lightly. He called the guards in the car behind him and set up a loose guard ring around Konev. Separated from ordinary onlookers.

Before the prisoners of war arrived, the colonel began to brief Konev: "Comrade Marshal, according to the arrangement of General Artemiev, the commander of the Moscow Military District, the German prisoners of war will be at the Dinamo Racecourse and Hoden in the northwest of the city at 11 o'clock in the morning. After the ground was assembled, the soldiers were divided into two routes, and they went to Kursk, Savilovsk, and Riga railway station. A total of 42,000 prisoners of war traveled along this route, including 1 officer queue, with a total of 1227 generals. Military officers, including 19 generals; a total of 15,600 prisoners of war traveling along the other route. At 7 o'clock that night, these German prisoners will travel to the new destination in 25 tankers at three railway stations."

When the superior was introducing the situation to Konev, there was a small riot in the crowd nearby. I heard a voice shouting: "Comrades, look at it, here comes the German prisoner of war!" I looked around. At a glance, I saw a crowd of black and heavy people appearing on the west side of the road. It should be the German prisoners of war who were parading today.

At the forefront of the team were the 19 captured German generals. They were dressed in neat military uniforms with medals on their chests and walked forward along the street without expression. Escorting them on both sides were cavalry with carbine and tall horse.

When the phalanx of generals walking in the front passed us, a German general nearest to us saw Konev standing on the side of the road with a smile on his face and raised his hand to his forehead. A salute. In response to his behavior, Konev just snorted softly, neither speaking nor responding, as if the other party did not exist.

After the general's phalanx, there was a phalanx composed of thousands of school-level officers. These prisoners of war were still expressionless, moving mechanically, and under the **** of our soldiers, they marched along the street.

Behind it was a queue of low-ranking German officers and ordinary soldiers. Although most of these prisoners of war were ragged and their military uniforms were covered with lice, they still maintained a relatively neat formation and followed the front phalanx.

I thought the crowds onlookers would shout: "Down with fascism", "Kill all these Germans" and other prisoners of war. But the real situation is that the people standing on both sides of the street, and even the people leaning out of the windows of the nearby buildings, watched the marching team of prisoners in silence, without any overreaction. On the contrary, I also saw a few old ladies in turbans stuffing blocks of black bread and coarse salt like bricks on the prisoners who passed by.

After seeing this situation, Konev didn’t change his face. On the contrary, when he saw that I was staring at him, he smiled and explained to me: "Lida, this is a tradition. Give those who are about to The exiled prisoners sent brown bread and coarse salt to hope that they would be safe. Don’t make a fuss."

The queue of more than 40,000 prisoners of war walked for more than half an hour before they all passed the intersection where we were. Seeing the prisoners of war go away, the crowds onlookers also dispersed. We also returned to the car. After the traffic police cleared the traffic, we could go through the intersection and head to the Kremlin.

Konev sat in the car in silence. After a while, he said to me: "Lida, I think the prisoner of war parade in Moscow has done a good job, and we can learn from it. For example, we will also come to Kiev in the future. A similar parade of prisoners of war."

After arriving at the Kremlin, the colonel took us to the outside of Stalin's office. Seeing our arrival, Poskrebeshev quickly got up and walked over, waved to the colonel who was guiding us, shook hands with us one by one, and asked Konev with concern: "Comrade Marshal, when are you Arrived?"

"We arrived in Moscow at 10:30. We happened to see prisoners of war parading on the road, so we stopped to look at it for a while." Konev and Poskrebeshev asked carefully after a few words of greeting, "Comrade Stalin Is it in there?"

"Yes, he has been waiting for you." Boskrebeshev said: "I will inform you first." After saying that, he walked to the door, opened the door gently, and stood at the door. Stalin inside reported: "Marshal Konev is here!"

"Please come in!" As soon as his voice fell, Stalin's familiar voice came from inside.

I was half a position behind Konev and walked into the office. The two of us stopped in front of Stalin, and at the same time raised our hands to salute, and then Konev reported: "Comrade Stalin, I have come to Moscow on your order."

Stalin put the cigarette **** in his hand into his mouth, and walked over to shake hands with Konev and me. After the handshake, he smiled and asked, "Comrade Konev, you must have seen German prisoners of war parading on the street, right?"

"Yes, Comrade Stalin, we have seen it." Konev replied politely, "There are tens of thousands of people."

"Do you know what I will arrange for prisoners of war to parade?" Stalin asked Konev.

Konev turned his head and glanced at me, then turned his head to face Stalin, and said flatly: "Comrade Stalin, I think your arrangement of such a parade must have far-reaching significance."

Stalin was obviously satisfied with Konev's practice of seeing through without telling it. He was pacing back and forth in front of the two of us holding his cigarette butt: "Our army has achieved great results in Belarus and successfully regained Minsk. But the Germans did not recognize their failure, and they were serious nonsense. Said that they were withdrawing from Belarus in a planned way. Not only the Germans did not believe in our victory, but even our allies did not believe it, so I asked Antonov to arrange this prisoner of war parade to let the world See how many prisoners we have caught."

"The effect of this is very obvious, Comrade Stalin." Konev waited for Stalin to finish, and then added with a smile: "After this prisoner of war parade is over, all the voices questioning our great results in Belarus, Will disappear. This will be more effective than our ten statements."

"Well, Comrade Konev, please tell me about your situation." Stalin walked to his desk and asked at the same time: "How long will it take you to completely drive the Germans out of Ukraine." ?"

Konev replied confidently: "I estimate that by late August at the latest, our troops will be able to wipe out all the German troops entrenched in the western regions of Ukraine and advance the front into Poland."

After hearing Konev’s reply, Stalin did not comment. Instead, he picked up the phone on the table and told Boskrebeshev: "Is Zhukov here?" Maybe the other party gave him a negative answer. He added, "As soon as he arrives, let him in directly."

When I heard Stalin asking Zhukov, I couldn’t help but wondered if Zhukov was not in Rokosovsky’s Belarusian First Front Army~www.wuxiaspot.com~ Stalin called him back at this time. What happened? Something?

After Stalin put down the phone, he raised his head and said to Konev: "Comrade Konev, I called you back to Moscow because you made a lot of mistakes in the early days of the battle. These mistakes affected our liberation of Ukraine. Action."

When Konev heard Stalin say this, his face turned pale. This may be the first time Stalin said such heavy words to him from the battle of Kursk to the present. Seeing him opening his mouth in an attempt to defend himself, Stalin raised his hand to stop him, and continued: "I called you here, not to inquire you, but to ask Zhukov and you to study and summarize the early stages of the battle. Lessons learned so that the next phase of the battle can proceed smoothly."

As soon as Stalin finished speaking, the wooden door of the office was silently pushed open from the outside, and then Zhukov, who had been missing for a long time, walked in with strides. He came to Stalin, slapped him and stood at attention, and then said blankly: "Comrade Stalin, I have returned to Moscow on your order."

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