Red Moscow

After receiving Sokov's order, Merkulov left a battalion responsible for handing over the defense to the friendly army, and then led his troops towards the Red Army Village.

When passing through the defense area of ​​the 71st Guards Division, he and political commissar Sheyko paid a special visit to Sivakov.

Seeing Merkulov who suddenly appeared in his headquarters, Sivakov hurriedly stepped forward to salute, and asked in surprise: "Comrade General, why did you come to me?" The reason why Sivakov asked this was , because he saw Merkulov appearing in his own defense zone, and worried that the opponent would not be able to defend the city, so he voluntarily evacuated.

"Comrade Commander gave me an order to hand over the defense of the city to the two divisions of the 21st Army, and then lead the main force of the divisions to the direction of the Red Army Village." Merkulov held Sivak Holding the husband's hand, he said gratefully: "Colonel Sivakov, if it weren't for your timely rescue, the enemy may have rushed into Donetsk."

Merkulov knew very well in his heart that once the Germans rushed into Donetsk, it would not be easy to drive them out. Therefore, I must visit the door in person to express my gratitude to Sivakov for his kindness.

"Comrade General, you don't need to thank me." Sivakov said with a smile: "Actually, I was also ordered to act."

"Act under orders?" Merkulov couldn't help being taken aback when he heard what Sivakov said. He asked tentatively, "Could it be that Comrade Commander gave you the order?"

"Yes, Comrade General." Sivakov nodded and gave him an affirmative answer: "He said that your division does not have any heavy weapons, and it is very difficult to block the German division that has been strengthened with artillery and tanks." Difficult things, so I ordered me to send a regiment to move with the tank brigade to assist you in defeating the enemy attacking the city."

"Sure enough, it was an order from Comrade Commander." When the city was in danger, Political Commissar Sheyko once told him that Sokov would never ignore the situation in Donetsk, and at critical moments, he would definitely send Troops come for reinforcements. Merkulov didn't believe it at the time, but now it seems that Sheiko's judgment is completely correct.

Sivakov said to Merkulov: "Comrade General, if you have nothing to do, I suggest that you rush to the group headquarters immediately, maybe he will assign you a new combat mission."

Merkulov felt that what Sivakov said made sense. After a brief chat, he hurriedly left the division headquarters of the 71st Division, and drove to the group headquarters in the Red Army Village with Sheyko. .

Sokov received a report from the sentinel on duty outside the city and learned that Merkulov and Sheyko had entered the city. He also curiously said to Vitkov: "Comrade Chief of Staff, this General Merkulov It’s pretty quick. It’s been less than two hours since I gave him the order. Could it be that the troops of the 21st Army arrived so quickly?”

"I don't think so." Vitkov shook his head, expressing his doubts, "Judging from my many years of work experience, it is possible that General Merkulov brought the friendly forces before they reached Donetsk. Troops left Donetsk."

"What, General Merkulov led people out of the city before the friendly troops arrived?" Sokov asked in surprise.

"Don't worry, Comrade Commander." Seeing Sokov's worried expression, Witkov comforted him and said, "Even if they want to leave the city, they will leave a battalion or two companies to continue to defend the city. Only when the friendly forces arrive and they have handed over their defenses will they leave there."

Ten minutes later, Merkulov appeared at the headquarters.

Sokov hurried forward and extended his hand to the two of them: "How are you, General Merkulov, Colonel Sheyko!"

"Hello, Comrade Commander." The two replied respectfully.

"General Merkulov, your division fought well and tenaciously withstood the enemy's attack." Although repelling the enemy who attacked Donetsk was the result of multi-faceted cooperation, in front of Merkulov On the face of it, Sokov still did not hesitate to praise him.

"Comrade Commander," Merkulov felt a little embarrassed when he heard Sokov's praise, "Our division did not fight well. If the friendly troops hadn't arrived in time, the enemy might have rushed into the city."

"General Merkulov, we can't care about the gains and losses of a city or a place in a war. Sometimes in order to better destroy the enemy, we can properly give up some positions to disperse the enemy's forces, so as to achieve the goal of defeating them one by one. "

Sokov's words made Merkulov feel a bit unacceptable. In the past, when the superiors learned that the enemy was attacking their own defense area, they would give simple and rude orders: "Resolutely hold the position, and you are not allowed to retreat a step." But What Sokov said now was exactly the opposite of his former superior, which made Merkulov a bit at a loss.

Seeing Merkulov's doubts, Sokov explained to him: "Comrade General, I think you should know that some time ago, the German army lost many positions under the strong offensive of our two front armies. And forced to move to the banks of the Dnieper River?"

If Merkulov didn't know about such a big matter, he wouldn't need to be a teacher. He nodded quickly, and replied affirmatively, "Yes."

"The enemy was originally at a disadvantage in terms of strength and equipment, but as they gave up a large area of ​​land, their strength and technical equipment gradually concentrated in one place. In this way, they can form a local advantage, and at the right time, Launch a counterattack against our army." Sokov said: "It is through this method that our army has occupied a lot of places, and the troops have become scattered, so that they are powerless in the face of the enemy's counterattack. .”

Regarding Sokov's statement, Merkulov thought about it carefully, and it seemed that this was really the case. After Sokov finished speaking, he asked, "Comrade Commander, I would like to ask, is there any major military action you have concentrated all our troops in the Red Army Village?"

The reason why Sokov wanted to transfer Merkulov's division back to the Red Army Village was that he really wanted to concentrate all his troops and take a large-scale action against the enemy. Seeing that Merkulov guessed his intentions at this moment, he couldn't help smiling, and said: "Yes, Comrade General. The German troops are now staying at a place more than 20 kilometers away from the city. Although they did not launch The intention of attacking, but it held us firmly."

"Comrade Commander," Merkulov asked tentatively, "what are you going to do?"

"General Merkulov, come and take a look." Sokov called Merkulov to the table, pointed to the map spread on the table, and said to him: "Look, the enemy's large army They are concentrating in our northwest direction. I want to take advantage of the opportunity they stand still, send a force to detour to their flank, and take advantage of the enemy's unprepared situation, give them a thunderous blow, and completely disrupt their attack plan .”

"Comrade Commander," Merkulov asked with some embarrassment after hearing this, "I wonder which unit you plan to fear to carry out this glorious and difficult task?"

"My old troops have combat experience in this area. I plan to take them to carry out this task." Sokov looked up and said to Merkulov: "The reason why I transferred your division is to Let you take over the defense."

Knowing that Sokov was going to let the 41st Guards Division perform this arduous task, Merkulov couldn't help but secretly heaved a sigh of relief. According to his thinking, it was already very important for his troops to hold off the German attack. It's exhausting. If you take the initiative to attack the enemy, isn't that a dead end?

When Vitkov heard that Sokov planned to lead the troops back to the enemy's flank, he couldn't help being surprised, and quickly persuaded: "Comrade commander, you are now the supreme commander of the group, you can't leave your post without permission. This kind of thing, you can let other people do it."

The reason why Sokov was unwilling to stay at the cluster headquarters was because it was an empty shelf. Except for himself and Witkov, the rest of the personnel belonged to the 41st Guards Division. Every time I hear someone calling me a commander, I always feel terrified. On the contrary, he still likes to hear the commanders and fighters of the 41st Guards Division call himself the commander.

"Comrade Chief of Staff, it is enough for you to preside over the overall situation here." Sokov sighed and said with some regret: "If Colonel Ivanov is still alive, I can completely entrust him with this task. But since he has already sacrificed, I still feel uneasy about handing over the Guards Division to someone else, so I still have to go there myself."

…………

Sokov's action was very fast, and he completed the assembly of troops in the afternoon of the same day, and was ready to set off as soon as it got dark.

Division chief of staff Sidolin asked tentatively: "Comrade commander, are we really going to attack the German army?"

"Yeah." Sokov looked at Sidolin and asked with some surprise: "Is there something wrong?"

"After this period of fighting, each regiment has a certain degree of attrition." Sidolin reminded Sokov: "Now there are only more than 12,000 people left in the whole division, and we are going to attack troops twice as many as us." Enemy, isn't it sent to death?"

"Comrade Chief of Staff," Sokov said with a chuckle, "the number of troops and equipment is certainly an important reason for fighting. But as long as we use our brains and think of ways, we can still overcome the problem of insufficient troops and equipment. .”

"If we are going to make a sneak attack, Colonel Bely's tank brigade will definitely not be able to go with us." Sidolin reminded Sokov again: "That is to say, we can only use infantry to deal with the German armored forces."

"We say we are infantry, but we have equipment that other infantry units do not have." Sokov smiled and said to Sidolin: "Don't forget, our rocket launcher is a big killer against enemy tanks. And the new rocket launcher , it is a devastating weapon against dense German infantry. With these weapons, our combat effectiveness will definitely not be weaker than that of an armored division.”

After waiting for Sokov to finish speaking, Sidolin stared at him for a long time, finally nodded and said: "Okay, Comrade Master. According to what I know about you, you have always been very accurate in judging things. Since you said that our sneak attack can win, I decided to choose to believe you."

Sokov's idea is very simple. When the troops get close to the enemy, instead of launching a strong attack, they adopt the tactic of zero-knocking brown sugar, eating a small piece of the east today, and destroying a small piece of the west tomorrow. In just a few days, many units of the German army will become incomplete. At that time, I will concentrate my forces and give them a thunderous blow.

When stationed in the Red Army Village, Colonel Ershakov reported to Sokov that they seized a German warehouse containing tens of thousands of German military coats. The reason why Sokov came up with the idea of ​​sneak attacking the enemy was entirely because of these army coats. Although it is impossible for everyone in the whole division to have one, as long as most of them wear German military overcoats, they can justifiably pretend to be German troops and approach the enemy swaggeringly. While they are not paying attention, bite them hard like a wolf.

After dark, a troop wearing German military overcoats left the Red Army Village in a mighty way and marched westward along the road. Of course, this unit is not all infantry, there are more than 30 trucks in the middle, and more than a dozen captured German armored vehicles. The trucks were loaded with new rockets, and the armored vehicles were filled with Sokov and members of the division headquarters.

Although Sidolin had been Sokov's chief of staff for a long time, he spent most of his time in the headquarters, commanding troops instead of Sokov. It was the first time that he participated in combat operations like this. He asked Sokov nervously: "Comrade Commander, is it true that the enemy will not find our whereabouts?"

"If the German army deployed scouts nearby, they would definitely find our troops." Sokov said with a serious expression: "But as long as they see the German army overcoats on our army, they will think that we are from somewhere." German troops were brought in, so the chances of us being attacked were very small."

"Comrade commander, in fact, what I am most worried about is that the enemy regards us as their own people, while our guerrillas active in the nearby forest regard us as Germans." Sidolin said worriedly: "If you When people fight with their own people, what should we do then?"

"You don't have to worry about this. After repeated raids by the enemy, we can't find our guerrillas in this area." Sokov comforted Sidolin: "So you don't have to worry at all, we will have misunderstandings with our own people. "

"But what if there is a misunderstanding?" asked Sidolin insistently.

"Chief of Staff, in fact, before the troops set off, I dispatched some of Mihiga's fighters. They are old guerrillas who have experienced many battles. They searched for possible guerrillas in the forest along the way. "Sokov said: "If guerrillas are really found, they will greet each other in advance to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings."