Red Moscow

After learning about Sokov's plan, Zakharov, Chief of Staff of the Front Army, tentatively asked Konev: "Comrade Commander, do you think this counterattack plan should be reported to the Supreme Command?"

"Why?" Konev asked in surprise, "It's just a limited counterattack, I don't think it's necessary?"

In fact, Zakharov also understood in his heart that this kind of limited counterattack, if you are lucky, you can destroy one or two thousand enemies, but if you are not lucky, you may be able to kill two or three hundred enemies. There was no need to report it before, but the situation is different now. The attack on Poltava has not progressed. Konev has been reprimanded by his superiors several times. Reporting Sokov's plan may make the superiors mood improved.

"Comrade Commander," Zakharov said cautiously: "I also know that this kind of limited counterattack will not achieve much results, and there is no need to report to the superior. But our army's recent attack on Poltava is not enough. It went well, it is estimated that someone above has already complained about you, and this counterattack plan may divert everyone's attention."

Zakharov's words made Konev fall into deep thought. He recalled that since the outbreak of the Soviet-German War, he had been removed from the post of commander of the Front Army twice. I went with my husband. Even so, before the start of the Battle of Kursk, he appointed himself as the commander of the Steppe Front Army, commanding a force with a very poor sense of presence. If it wasn't for the troops assigned to the front line to fight for their spirits, it is estimated that this army has already been revoked.

"Okay, Comrade Chief of Staff." Konev, who weighed the strengths, said to Zakharov, "You will report this counterattack plan to the General Staff."

A few minutes later, Zakharov reported Sokov's counterattack plan to Chief of General Staff Antonov.

After carefully checking Sokov's counterattack plan, Antonov picked up the phone on the table, dialed a number, and when a voice came out of the receiver, he politely asked, "Hi, Boskele Comrade Byshev, I am Antonov."

"Hello, Comrade Chief of the General Staff." Hearing that it was Antonov's call, Poskrebyshev asked in a friendly tone, "Do you have anything to do?"

"Is the Supreme Commander himself in the office?" Antonov said politely, "I have something important to report to him."

"Yes, Comrade Chief of the General Staff," replied Poskrebyshev, "he's in his office, you can come here now."

After Antonov put down the phone, he put the counterattack plan he had just received into a folder, then stood up and walked out from behind the desk, preparing to report to the bearded man.

In fact, the front-line troops usually don't report such small-scale and insignificant counterattacks, and even if they report to Antonov, they won't let the bearded man know about it. After all, the supreme commander himself has so many affairs to deal with every day, and he didn't bother him for such a trivial matter.

But the reason why Antonov chose to report to the bearded man in person today is entirely because the recent performance of the Prairie Front Army has been unsatisfactory. Progress has been slow, and it is still unknown when the city will be liberated. Just for this moment, the bearded man got angry several times.

Antonov came to the other party soon, and he greeted Poskrebyshev who was sitting outside: "Hello, Comrade Poskrebyshev, I am here, can I go in now?"

"Please wait a moment, Comrade Chief of the General Staff." Boskrebyshev stood up and said politely, "I'll go in and take a look first."

Poskrebyshev came to the door, pushed open one of them, walked in, and closed the door behind him. After two or three minutes, the door opened, and he came out, stood by the door and said respectfully: "Please come in, Comrade Chief of the General Staff! The Supreme Commander himself is waiting for you inside."

Antonov thanked Poskrebyshev, and then walked into the office.

After entering the office, Antonov immediately saw the bearded man walking up and down the open space in the middle of the office, holding a pipe. Seeing Antonov enter the door, the bearded man stopped and asked blankly, "Comrade Antonov, is there something urgent that you are so eager to see me?"

"Yes, Comrade Supreme Commander." Antonov took out the folder under his arm, pulled out the counterattack plan from it, handed it to the bearded man, and said respectfully: "This is the 27th Army just received. The counterattack plan, I want you to have a look."

"The 27th Army?!" After the bearded man repeated the number of the unit, he asked hesitantly, "Is it the unit under the command of Xiao Xiaosha?"

"Yes, it is the 27th Army under the command of Major General Sokov."

After confirming that the plan came from Sokov's troops, a smile appeared on the bearded face. He took the plan from Antonov's hand and browsed it carefully. And Antonov stood aside, quietly waiting for his next instruction.

The counterattack launched by Sokov is only a limited counterattack, and the plan will certainly not be too long. According to Zakharov, the content recorded by Antonov is only one page.

It took only two minutes for the bearded man to finish reading the counterattack plan. He shook the plan in his hand, and said with some displeasure, "Comrade Antonov, is this the counterattack plan you want to report to me?"

"Yes!"

"I thought that in this plan, we could see that our army could further expand the landing field during the counterattack, but it was only a limited counterattack." The bearded man said sternly: "A counterattack of this scale, It was actually reported to the General Staff Headquarters, isn't it a bit of a fuss?"

"I think the reason why General Sokov made such a plan is completely limited by their current situation."

Antonov's words aroused the curiosity of the bearded man: "Comrade Chief of the General Staff, what is going on?"

"The attack on Poltava is still going on now, so the weapons, ammunition and supplies we supply to the front line are given priority to the troops attacking the city, and Sokov's troops are too far away from the logistics, so the supplies they get are limited "Antonov explained calmly: "It is precisely because they cannot get sufficient supplies that they can only launch a limited counterattack on the landing site, so as not to exhaust the limited number of weapons, ammunition and supplies. When the Germans counterattacked, they would not be able to stay on the landing field to fight the enemy's attack."

The bearded man picked up the cigarette case on the conference table, took out a cigarette from it, crushed it with his fingers, and stuffed the shredded tobacco into the cigarette butt. After finishing all this, he put the pipe in his mouth, but did not light it immediately, but asked slowly: "Comrade Chief of the General Staff, is what you said true?"

"It's completely true, Comrade Supreme Commander." Seeing that the bearded man still had doubts about the matter, Antonov quickly explained to him: "Two days ago, Marshal Zhukov contacted me and said that he hoped that I would come forward to negotiate with the Air Force. , dispatched some transport planes to provide supplies to the 27th Army in Klemenchug."

The bearded man knows that the troops stationed in Kremenchug at this moment, in addition to Sokov's 27th Army, also has Managarov's 53rd Army, which will provide air supplies to the two troops with a number of hundreds of thousands. , the number of transport aircraft required will be very terrifying.

He frowned and said, "Comrade Chief of Staff, how could Zhukov have such absurd ideas? You must know that our transport planes are limited and cannot meet the needs of the two armies at the same time."

Hearing what the bearded man said, Antonov realized that he hadn't expressed clearly, which caused the other party to misunderstand, and quickly explained: "Comrade Supreme Commander, I asked Marshal Zhukov, the Air Force only needs to transport the 27th Army. The heavy artillery shells needed by the troops are enough."

"Heavy artillery shells?!" The bearded man asked a little puzzled: "I want to ask, where did these heavy artillery shells come from?" He would like to know where the heavy artillery shells that directly supplement Sokov's troops come from?

"Comrade Supreme Commander, this matter has something to do with your son Yakov." Since Antonov wanted to report the matter to the bearded man, he must have done investigation work in advance: "He ordered a spare arsenal in the eastern suburbs to start work, Specially provide the required heavy artillery shells for the 27th Army."

"Does Ustinov know about this?"

"I don't know." Antonov shook his head and replied, "Comrade Ustinov is still inspecting work in Kuibyshev and has not returned to Moscow for the time being."

"Nonsense, this is simply nonsense." The bearded man started to walk around the house again, and said angrily as he walked, "Who gave him the right to activate the spare arsenal for production without authorization."

Seeing that the bearded man was angry, Antonov quickly explained: "Comrade Supreme Commander, the landing site on the right bank of the Dnieper River that Sokov's troops are defending is under German attack every day. If there is not enough artillery support, it is very difficult to hold the position." Difficult. I think Yakov’s self-assessment this time, although inappropriate, is still justifiable, after all, it is all for victory.”

Hearing what Antonov said, the bearded man stopped, picked up the match on the table, and lit the pipe. After taking a sip, he took the pipe out of his mouth and pointed at Antonov with his hands: "How many transport planes can the Air Force dispatch to transport heavy artillery shells for the 27th Army."

"Two, Comrade Supreme Commander." Antonov replied: "The newly opened arsenal is small in scale, and it is more than enough to use two transport planes to transport heavy artillery shells."

Unexpectedly, after hearing this, the bearded man waved his hand at Antonov, indicating that he disagreed with the plan.

Seeing that the bearded man rejected his plan, Antonov couldn't help feeling a little panicked. He secretly guessed whether the other party thought that the two transport planes were too many, so he could only ask cautiously: "If you think the two transport planes are too many, we can reduce the number of transport planes." to one, and it's shipped every two days."

"Comrade Antonov, you have misunderstood me." The bearded man shook his head and said, "I mean, it is too little to provide only two transport planes. You can discuss it with the air force commander and see if he can Whether to deploy ten transport planes specifically to transport supplies for the 27th Army."

Hearing that the bearded man had increased the number of transport planes from the original two to ten, Antonov couldn't help being secretly surprised. He said cautiously: "Comrade Supreme Commander, as I just said, the production capacity of the newly opened arsenal is Insufficient, the materials that can be provided to the 27th Army every day are limited. Is it a bit too wasteful to provide them with ten transport planes?"

"It's not a waste at all." The bearded man said seriously: "I asked the Air Force to provide them with ten transport planes, not only to transport shells, but also to transport other materials. Even some seriously wounded on the front line can also be transported by transport planes. The plane returned and received better treatment in a military hospital in Moscow."

Antonov didn't expect the bearded man to suddenly become so talkative, he nodded quickly and said, "I see, Comrade Supreme Commander, I will convey your intentions to the Air Force Commander and let him serve as a representative for Sokov's troops. Provide ten transport aircraft."

The bearded man nodded and continued to ask: "Comrade Antonov, what do you think the 27th Army's counterattack will achieve?"

The bearded man's question really stopped Antonov. He was silent for a long time before he said: "Comrade Supreme Commander, since this is a limited counterattack, even if it is commanded by our ever-victorious general Sokov Yes, the results that can be obtained will also be limited. I think it is probably the most optimistic estimate that we can eliminate 300 to 500 enemies."

Beard did not refute Antonov's speculation, after all, there were many similar counterattacks before. Most of the results of the battle were to wipe out one or two hundred enemies, but the Soviet army as the attacker had to pay two to three thousand casualties.

After Antonov finished speaking, seeing that the bearded man did not refute himself, he continued to say: "Whether it is offensive warfare or defensive warfare, General Sokov is very good at it. At the same time, he also knows how to fight at the lowest cost." Therefore, in this counterattack, the number of casualties of our army should be roughly the same as that of the German army, or even slightly lower."

"I really didn't expect you to be so optimistic about Xiao Xiaosha." The bearded man said with a smile on his face: "If he can really control the casualties of the troops within the range you mentioned in this counterattack, I will definitely personally reward him."

"Comrade Supreme Commander," Antonov thought of an important matter when he heard the bearded man say that he wanted to reward Sokov, and quickly took the opportunity to bring it up: "I think General Sokov's rank is a bit low. Major General, but in the troops under his command, there are commanders with higher ranks than him. Although this is the arrangement of the superiors, the commanders with higher ranks can only choose to obey, but there will definitely be some resistance in their hearts. You see..."

Antonov’s words stopped abruptly at this point, but the bearded man couldn’t understand what he was trying to express, so he nodded slightly and said: “Comrade Antonov, you are right, Misha’s military rank is indeed a little Low, at the beginning it was because of his youth. If he was promoted too quickly, he would inevitably appear domineering. But now it seems that our worries at the beginning were unnecessary. I think he will be officially promoted to his rank after this battle is over. .”