Red Moscow

In Sokov's impression, Rotmistrov is a calm person. But I didn't expect the other party to lose his composure when he heard that he was about to obtain the rank of Marshal of the Armored Forces. Less than half an hour later, the future marshal of the armored forces appeared in the front headquarters.

Seeing Rotmistrov's appearance, Susaikov hurriedly went up to him, and greeted him with a smile: "General Rotmistrov, are you here, did you bring the port wine? "

Rotmistrov laughed dryly, and said, "Since you're here, you definitely can't come empty-handed." Then, he raised his hands to a position higher than his right shoulder, and clapped them hard twice.

Just when everyone was wondering, a young officer walked in from the outside, holding a wooden box in his hand. After he entered the door, he handed the wooden box in his hand to Rotmistrov, then raised his hand to salute, then turned and left.

Rotmistrov came to the conference table with the wooden box in his hand, put it on the table and opened it, took out a bottle of wine from it, smiled and said to Sosusaykov: "Comrade Military Commissar, this is my collection Years of port wine."

When Susaikov and Zakharov stood at the table, taking the Port wine in Rotmistrov's hand and appreciating it repeatedly, Sukov was muttering to himself: Port wine Warm wine is just a kind of cheap wine mixed with alcohol. Because of its strong stamina, it is easy to affect people's ability to express after drinking, so it is also called "little wine". However, this wine is very popular in Russia, second only to vodka in sales.

When Susaikov handed the bottle to Zakharov, he turned his head inadvertently, and saw Sokov's disgusted face. He was taken aback for a moment, and then he understood why the other party had such a reaction. He smiled To Sokov: "Comrade Sokov, are you surprised that such a low-grade wine as Portwyn is easy to make people talk nonsense after drinking it, but we cherish it?"

"That's right." Now that Susaikov had guessed what he really thought, Sokov didn't hide it. He nodded and said, "I really think so."

After hearing this, the three of them looked at each other first, and then they all laughed. Their laughter confused Sokov. He didn't know what he said wrong, so he turned his questioning gaze to Susaikov , hoping to get an answer from him.

"Comrade Sokov," Rotmistrov explained to Sokov after the laughter stopped, "you are quite right. Portvin is a low-grade ordinary wine with added alcohol. , Drinking it will make people unconscious and even talk nonsense. This kind of wine can be seen everywhere before the war, but as the production area of ​​this kind of wine is occupied by the Germans, the original common wine has become It's so precious."

After Rotmistrov's explanation, Sokov finally understood why Susaikov and Zakharov had such reactions when they saw the bottle of wine: "Oh, so it is like this. .”

Sokov then thought that Ukraine not only produces beautiful women, but also produces good wine. Located in Yalda on the Crimean Peninsula, there is the world-renowned Massandra Winery, which is the origin of the famous Massandra red wine.

Massandra Winery is recognized as the best winery in the era of Tsarist Russia. Its wine cellar houses millions of bottles of Russian wine and Western European wine, some of which are engraved with the royal seal. The wine cellar has a long history and a large scale. In the 1970s, there were 400,000 bottles of Ukrainian and foreign wine products, totaling more than 700 varieties. The oldest wine was produced in 1775. There are more than 1 million bottles of famous wines in the collection, most of which are priceless treasures.

"I heard that Massandra Winery in Ukraine produces famous wine," Sokov said with emotion, "I don't know when our army will be able to recover this city."

"Hurry up, Comrade Sokov, hurry up." Rotmistrov said, "You know, not only our troops on this front are attacking the enemy, but the rest of the fronts are also launching a full-scale attack. Counterattack. I believe that if the current trend continues, we will be able to completely drive the enemy out of our country in a short time."

Sokov agrees with Rotmistrov's statement. In his memory, the Soviet army stationed in Belarus, after launching an offensive in June, defeated the unprepared German army, and recovered the entire territory of Belarus in less than a month.

"General Rotmistrov," Zakharov put the Portwin wine back into the box and closed the lid, and said to Rotmistrov: "The commander has rested today, and drinking is Impossible. You might as well just stay here for one night and have a drink with the commander tomorrow."

In fact, even if Zakharov didn't mention it, Rotmistrov didn't want to leave. After all, whether he was really promoted to the Marshal of the Armored Forces has not been confirmed, and his heart is still not at ease. Since Zakharov voluntarily asked himself to stay, he said without hesitation, "Okay, Comrade Chief of Staff, I'll call the troops and I won't leave tonight."

Susaikov called an officer, handed him the box of Portwin, and invited them to sit down and drink tea.

"Comrade Sokov," Rotmistrov was curious about Sokov's appearance at the headquarters: "Why are you here?"

"General Rotmistrov," Susaikov said before Sokov could speak, "Not only have you been promoted, Comrade Sokov may also get a higher rank."

"Comrade Sokov, I congratulate you." Rotmistrov waited for Susaikov to finish speaking, then got up and extended his hand to Sokov, and said in a friendly way: "I congratulate you in advance for your higher achievement. rank."

Sokov quickly got up to shake hands with the other party, and said politely: "Thank you, Comrade Marshal!"

After a few polite words, the two sat down again. In order not to be cold, Sokov took the initiative to find a topic to ask Rotmistrov: "Comrade Marshal, I want to ask you, are the tanks in your army equipped with telephones?"

Sokov's question stunned all three of them. Fortunately, Rotmistrov had come into contact with the kind of tank phone that Sokov mentioned, and quickly asked: "Comrade Sokov, what you are talking about is the kind of phone that is installed behind the tank and can directly communicate with tank soldiers. ?"

"That's right, it's this kind of phone." Sokov couldn't help but thumped when he heard Rotmistrov's answer. It seemed that his "invention" had not been promoted. In order to attract everyone's attention, he also specially explained: "Everyone may know that when the crew in the tank closes the hatch, they are in a semi-isolated state from the outside world and cannot timely understand what is happening outside. In this case Next, the infantry who follow the action outside will be needed to provide them with instructions.

In the past, the attention of the tank crew was obtained by knocking on the tank body, and then they could communicate with each other after they leaned out of the tank turret. However, due to the loud roar of the tank engine, the tank crew may not be able to hear clearly what the infantry is reminding.

That's what I was trying to do with a phone mounted on the back of the tank. In this way, the infantry following the tank can promptly report the outside situation to the tank soldiers in the vehicle through the phone. "

Zakharov may have heard of the tank call for the first time. After listening to Sokov, he immediately turned to Rotmistrov and asked: "General Rotmistrov, I think Comrade Sokov's This kind of idea is good, why don't you promote it in the army?"

Regarding Zakharov's question, Rotmistrov's eyes flashed with embarrassment, he coughed lightly, cleared his throat and said: "Comrade Chief of Staff, General Sokov's idea is indeed good, but It is a big project to complete the transformation of all the tanks. You know, the workers in the maintenance station are too late to repair the broken tanks every day, so how can they have time to install some phones for the tanks. "

After he finished explaining, he saw Zakharov frowned slightly, and quickly added: "Comrade Chief of Staff, installing telephones on tanks not only takes a lot of time, but also requires an astonishing number of telephones. Therefore, after discussing with the commander of the group army, I decided not to install it for the time being."

Although Sokov wanted to refute that the opponent's approach was short-sighted, he swallowed his words abruptly. No matter what, Rotmistrov was about to become the Marshal of the Armored Forces. The little lieutenant general has no right to accuse the other party, so he can only choose to remain silent.

Seeing that the atmosphere in the room suddenly became tense, Susaikov hurried out to smooth things over: "Okay, let's change the topic to something lighter." After saying this, he fixed his eyes on Sokov and asked with a smile, " Comrade Sokov, I heard that you married a female military doctor during the Battle of Stalingrad. How about it, do you have children?"

Susaikov originally wanted to relieve the tense atmosphere in the room, but the topic he deliberately picked up unexpectedly hit Sukov's sore spot again. Regardless of the fact that he and Asiya have been registered for more than a year and a half, but so far, the two are only a couple in name, so it's strange that they can have children.

Sokov shook his head and said with a wry smile: "Comrade Military Commissioner, I don't have any children yet. I think, even if I want to have children, I have to wait until after the war is won."

"What, you want to wait until the end of the war to have a child?" After listening to Sokov's answer, Susaikov couldn't help shaking his head and said, "Comrade Sokov, don't look at our army gradually gaining an advantage on the battlefield, but I guess it will take two or three years to completely defeat the Germans. In my opinion, you should hurry up and have a child."

"Comrade Military Commissar, you are really too pessimistic." Sokov, who knew the history process, replied with a smile: "According to my judgment, in a year and a half at most, we will be able to completely defeat the Germans and achieve the final victory." Victory." Although there are only 14 months left before the victory of the Soviet-German War, Sokov still said it would be a year and a half to be on the safe side.

Susaikov smiled and said: "Comrade Sokov, you are right, I may be too conservative. Before the Battle of Kursk, if someone told me that we could drive the Germans from the vicinity of Moscow, Even driving them to the right bank of the Dnieper River, I would definitely think he was talking nonsense. But the current situation shows that our army is gradually becoming stronger, and after so many years of war, the Germans have combat-experienced officers and soldiers. Bit by bit, it will be consumed little by little, and the next battle will be more and more useful to us.”

"I agree with Comrade Sokov's point of view." Zakharov agreed with Sokov's point of view: "Don't look at the Germans on all fronts who continue to resist, but their strength has been severely weakened. At least under the current circumstances, they do not have the ability to take the initiative to launch a large-scale offensive campaign against us, and the initiative on the battlefield has been tilted towards our army. That is to say, we can attack wherever we want, and the Germans It has become a passive defensive side."

Having said that, Zakharov remembered his purpose of calling Sokov to the headquarters, and asked, "Comrade Sokov, have the scouts you sent found the open pit?"

"No." Sokov said: "I have sent several reconnaissance teams, so far there is no news. I don't know if they had an accident or failed to reach the designated location."

Rotmistrov heard what Sokov said, and quickly asked Susaikov in a low voice: "Comrade Military Commissar, what is going on? Why did General Sokov look for an open pit?"

"That's right, General Rotmistrov." Susaikov replied in a low voice: "Not long ago, Comrade Sokov exchanged General Stammermann's body and 2,000 wounded German soldiers for He returned more than 3,000 prisoners of war from our army. From one of the prisoners, he knew that tens of thousands of prisoners of war from our army were being held in a mine near Uman. He intended to send troops to rescue these prisoners of war and take their bodies Healthy commanders and fighters are incorporated into their own units."

After figuring out what was going on, Rotmistrov said regretfully: "It's a pity that I served in Russia before the war and never stayed in Ukraine, so I couldn't provide him with useful information."

"You don't have to worry about this." Susaikov pouted at Zakharov and said, "Our chief of staff has obtained the specific location of the open pit from Khrushchev."

"Comrade Sokov, I have the cheek to ask Comrade Khrushchev about the open-pit mine." Zakharov dragged the map spread on the other side of the table and pointed to the location southwest of Uman. : "Look, the open-pit mine is located more than ten kilometers southwest of Uman. Because this open-pit mine was abandoned in 1934, not many people know about it. Khrushchev also ordered people to investigate a lot Only through the information, did I know that such a place exists.”

Sokov stared at the position of Zakharov's finger for a while, and after taking note of the approximate location, he said, "Thank you, Comrade Chief of Staff of the Front Army. I will call Chief of Staff Smirnov immediately and ask him to notify The scouts narrowed down the search area and tried to find the specific location of the open pit in the shortest possible time."

When Smirnov received the call, he thought Sokov was coming back, and immediately asked, "Comrade Commander, are you coming back? Do you want me to send someone to pick you up?"

"Comrade Chief of Staff, I will not return to the headquarters for the time being." The military situation is urgent, so Sokov did not go around in circles, but said bluntly: "I learned the approximate location of the open-pit mine from the Front Army Command, and now I will tell you. Find a way to notify our scouts, narrow the search area, and strive to find the specific location of the mine pit as soon as possible."