Red Moscow

Not long after, the director of the communications corps came over and reported to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, the call has been connected, and you can speak."

Sokov picked up the microphone and pressed it to his ear, but he heard someone inside say: "I am Chief of Staff Ivanov, Major General Sokov, what can you do with Comrade Commander?"

After waiting for Ivanov to finish speaking, Sokov replied cautiously: "Comrade Chief of Staff, I am not looking for General Vatutin, I want to talk to Marshal Zhukov."

"Talk to Marshal Zhukov?!" Hearing what Sokov said, Ivanov turned his head and glanced at Zhukov who was sitting at the table talking to Vasilevsky and Vatutin, and said with some hesitation: "Comrade Marshal I'm very busy, if you have anything to tell me, I'll pass it on to Comrade Marshal."

This matter is of great importance, how could Sokov allow Ivanov to spread the word, if he expresses it unclearly, it may lead to a big mistake, so he stubbornly said: "Comrade Chief of Staff, I have an important battle The plan needs to be reported directly to Comrade Marshal. Please let Comrade Marshal answer the phone.”

Ivanov weighed what Sokov said in his heart, and decisively chose to compromise: "Okay, Major General Sokov, I will immediately ask Comrade Marshal to answer the phone."

After finishing speaking, he put the microphone on the table, turned around and walked to Zhukov's side, leaned over to his ear and said: "Comrade Marshal, Major General Sokov called and said that he has an important battle plan, and he needs to send it to Zhukov immediately." You report."

"Report to me?!" Zhukov frowned, glanced at Vatutin, and said with some displeasure: "Don't he know that his troops have now been assigned to the command of your Voronezh Front Army, what is the battle plan?" , do you need to report to the commander of the front army, General Vatutin, instead of me?"

Zhukov's criticism made Ivanov's face turn red and purple, but he still bite the bullet and said, "I told him that too, but he insisted that he would only report to you."

"Marshal Zhukov," Vasilevsky saw that Zhukov was a little unhappy, and hurried out to smooth things over: "Since Major General Sokov said he would report to you in person, it proved that even Comrade Vatutin could not make a decision on this plan, you still Go and hear what he has to say."

"Yes, Comrade Marshal." Since Vasilevsky spoke up for Sokov, Vatutin, the commander of the front army, couldn't play against him at this time, so he could only laugh and say to Zhukov: "You Let’s listen, maybe he has come up with some good ideas.”

Zhukov stood up, went to the table where the microphone was placed with a straight face, picked up the microphone and pressed it to his ear, and said in a deep voice, "I'm Zhukov, Misha, what do you have to say to me."

"Hello, Comrade Marshal." Hearing Zhukov's voice, Sokov straightened his body and greeted him: "I am Sokov. I have a bold battle plan and I need to report it to you immediately."

"A bold battle plan?" Zhukov asked in surprise, "What plan? Tell me quickly!"

"Comrade Marshal, didn't you directly give me an order yesterday to find a way to block Huot's retreat?" Sokov said on the phone: "My plan is related to this matter."

Zhukov's heart moved. Could it be that Sokov thought of a way to wipe out the Hoth Armored Army, and quickly asked: "Misha, don't be foolish, tell me about your plan quickly."

Vasilevsky, Vatutin and others saw Zhukov's surprised expression, and they all surrounded him in order to find out what happened.

Sokov didn't know that Zhukov was surrounded by several people, who were reporting his bold plan to Zhukov in detail. It took him about five minutes to introduce the whole plan, and finally said: "Comrade Marshal, I think that if this battle plan can be implemented smoothly, our army will be able to consume as much of the enemy's vital forces as possible with minimal casualties. "

After listening to Sokov's plan, Zhukov remained silent, thinking silently in his mind, would Sokov really consume as much of the enemy's vitality as possible by doing this, or would he let the tiger go back to the mountain?

After thinking for a while, he asked noncommittally, "Misha, have you started the deployment yet?"

"Yes, Comrade Marshal." Sokov replied: "The artillery and tank units have been arranged, and they will launch a general attack on the enemy at the right time."

"Misha, have you ever thought about it?" Zhukov asked slowly: "Now only the 188th Division and the 81st Guards Division are standing firm. Both divisions have been severely weakened in the early battles. , with their strength, how long can they resist the German attack?"

Sokov replied confidently: "If you get the support of the air force and artillery, and stick to it for more than five hours, there should be no problem."

"No, five hours is too short." Zhukov shook his head and said, "If the enemy launches an attack on your blocking position at six o'clock in the morning, it will not be noon before breaking through your position. During the day with excellent visibility, Huo Te can adjust his deployment calmly, adopt alternate cover methods, pass through the breached positions, and return to Belgorod."

According to Sokov's plan, it is enough for the 188th Division and the 81st Guards Division to block the attack, and it will not be too late for the other divisions to wait until the general attack begins. But hearing what Zhukov said at this moment, he could only make temporary adjustments to his original plan: "Comrade Marshal, the 384th Division of Major General Gritsenko is only a few kilometers away from the blocking position. If you want to block the enemy more In a few hours, after the battle started, I could let the division enter the blocking position in units of regiments one by one to participate in the blocking of Huot's troops. In this way, our blocking time can be extended by three to four hours. "

Zhukov calculated silently in his heart, adding a new force, the entire blocking time would be extended to almost ten hours. After Huot's troops break through the defensive position, it will not be far from dark. In order to prevent the troops from being attacked at night, Huot will definitely order the troops to speed up their march. At that time, Sokov's troops will start to attack again. The battle plan The chances of success will be high.

After Zhukov hung up the phone, he saw that there were already people around him. He guessed that they should have heard what Sokov reported, so he asked, "What do you think of Sokov's bold plan?"

There was silence around, and no one spoke.

After a while, Deputy Commander Apanashenko looked around and found that neither Commander Vatutin, Chief of Staff, nor Military Commissar had any intention of expressing their views, so he leaned forward and said to Zhukov: "Marshal Comrade, are you telling the truth?"

"Of course." Zhukov said with a wry smile, "Comrade General, if you have any ideas, feel free to speak up."

Apanashenko coughed lightly, cleared his throat, and then said: "Comrade Marshal, I have to admit that Major General Sokov's plan is very bold. But, have you ever considered that his There is no possibility of the plan being implemented at all?"

Zhukov did not expect that Apanashenko would actually sing against Sokov's plan, but he did not express his opinion immediately, but asked curiously: "Comrade general, can you tell us your reason?"

"I heard Major General Sokov say that in order to consume the enemy's vital strength, you can pretend that you can't resist the German attack, and deliberately give up a passage." Apanashenko said plausibly: "Did he not think about it?" , our commanders and fighters who stick to their positions, once they find that their positions have been breached by the enemy, they will probably be shaken by panic. If they no longer hold their positions, but choose to flee, what kind of scene will it be like?"

Having said this, Apanashenko intentionally paused for a moment to observe everyone's reactions. Seeing that everyone was silent, he went on to say: "Once there is a rout, our defense line will completely collapse, and it will even affect those troops that are about to join the battle. Just imagine, a troop with low morale, Can we continue to fight?"

"Comrade Deputy Commander, I think your statement is wrong." As the chief of staff, Ivanov is not busy advising Vatutin all day long. He is also very concerned about the things around him. He has long discovered that Ah Panashenko seemed to have a prejudice against Sokov, so when he heard the opponent criticize Sokov's plan, he stood up and spoke up in time: "What is the ability of Major General Sokov? Marshal Ski is very clear in his heart. That's right, although his plan is very bold, once there is a problem in a certain link, the plan to consume the enemy's vital strength will fail, and the enemies who retreat south will be able to return to Biel smoothly. Gorod, make it more difficult for us to capture the city next step.

However, based on the series of victories he has achieved in the past, I can think with great certainty that although this plan is bold, it has a great chance of success. As his superior leader, even if we can't give him more help, we shouldn't demolish him behind. I'm done talking! "

Everyone could hear from Ivanov's tone that when he said these words, there was a surge of anger in his heart.

After a while of sinking. As the commander of the front army, Vatutin finally expressed his opinion: "Comrade Marshal, I just want to ask you, do you think this plan can be successful?"

"This plan is very bold." Zhukov said cautiously: "But if it succeeds, it will definitely cause heavy losses to the enemy. Comrade Vatutin, you give orders to the troops in the direction of Oboyan now, and after dawn, order They launched a comprehensive counterattack against the German army, and only when they hurt the enemy can they strengthen their determination to go south. Only in this way can they step into the trap that Sokov set for them."

Zhukov didn't speak just now, but he was thinking about what actions he should take to help Sokov successfully implement this bold battle plan. In addition to ordering the troops in the direction of Oboyan to launch a counterattack, he also said to Vatutin: "In addition, the air force will also dispatch to carry out violent bombing of the area where Hoth's armored army is deployed, disrupt the enemy's combat deployment, and put the The initiative on the battlefield is firmly in our hands."

"Comrade Marshal." Vatutin waited for Zhukov to finish speaking, and said with some embarrassment: "It is not impossible to order the troops in the direction of Oboyan to launch a counterattack. However, after half a month of fierce fighting, they have consumed both soldiers and ammunition. It is very powerful, and even with air support, it may be difficult to seriously injure or wipe out the enemy."

"Comrade Vatutin, I think you misunderstood me." Zhukov looked at Vatutin and said solemnly: "I asked the troops in the direction of Oboyan to launch a counterattack, not to let them annihilate or seriously damage Huot's troops. , but to find a way to drive the enemy away from the direction of Oboyan, forcing them to do their best to assault the blocking position set by Sokov in order to achieve the goal of withdrawing to Belgorod."

"Also, our air force is now mainly concentrated in the south of Prokhorovka. I'm afraid we won't be able to spare much power to provide air support for the troops in the direction of Oboyan."

"Comrade Vatutin, as far as I know, although Sokov's troops were assigned to your command, they have never received even one air support from you." Zhukov frowned and asked, "Is it because of air power?" Insufficient, can you give up providing air support to an important combat force?"

After being criticized by Zhukov, Vatutin blushed immediately, and he explained to Zhukov embarrassedly: "Comrade Marshal, you have been staying at my headquarters all the time, and you should know that the air power during this period has been used Repelling the enemy outside the city of Prokhorovka, it is really impossible to spare a plane to support Major General Sokov and the others."

"Okay, okay, don't complain in front of me." Zhukov waved his hand and interrupted Vatutin's words: "Misha's troops have recently received air support from Konev, and it seems that in tomorrow's battle In the middle, we can only ask Konev for help, and ask him to dispatch the air force to attack the enemy's ground targets."

After Zhukov finished speaking, he told Ivanov: "Comrade Chief of Staff, please ask the communications soldier to help me connect to Konev's headquarters. I want to talk to him!"

The call was quickly connected, and Konev learned that it was Zhukov who was looking for him, and asked in surprise: "Comrade Marshal, what happened to you calling me so late?"

"Yes, General Konev." Zhukov said with a smile: "I do encounter a little difficulty now, and I need your help."

Konev knew that it was impossible for Zhukov to joke with himself on such an important matter, so he hurriedly said: "Comrade Marshal, what can I do to help? Just ask, and I will definitely complete the task you assigned."

"It's like this, General Konev." Zhukov said: "Tomorrow Sokov's troops will have a fierce battle with the Germans. As you know, their equipment is equipped according to the standard of the reserve team, and they lack a sufficient number of artillery and weapons. Tanks are very difficult to face the fierce German offensive. Therefore, I would like to ask you to dispatch the air force to provide air cover for Sokov's troops, attack the German tanks on the ground, and relieve the pressure on the defenders."

Knowing that this was the case, Konev said straightforwardly: "Comrade Marshal, please rest assured that as long as Sokov's troops need it, my air force can be dispatched at any time to help them destroy the enemy."