Red Moscow

It is not a simple matter to use intelligence personnel lurking inside the German army to investigate whether the German army has seized gold in Belarus. Sokov originally thought that he would get a reply within two days at most, but after almost a week, he still did not receive a call from the Front Army Command.

Although there is no further information about the matter of gold, various defensive measures in the defense zone have been put in place. Sidolin reported to Sokov and Ponejielin: "...Now we have deployed 30 artillery pieces and 60 heavy machine guns on six high grounds, which can completely seal off the entire swamp..."

Before he could finish speaking, Koshkin ran in from the outside and reported nervously: "Comrade Commander, the Commander of the Front Army is here!"

"The commander of the front army is here?!" Sokov suddenly jumped up from his seat: "Where is he?"

"It's just outside, and it's about to enter the door."

Sokov walked quickly towards the door, intending to go out to meet Rokossovsky.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he walked to the door, he almost bumped into the person who came in. The visitor quickly grabbed Sokov's arms to stabilize his body, and then asked, "Misha, where are you going in such a hurry?"

Just hearing the sound, Sokov knew that the person blocking his way was Rokossovsky whom he was going to greet, and immediately stood at attention and raised his hand to salute: "Hello, Comrade General! I just heard that you Here I am, I was planning to go out to meet you, but I didn't expect you to come in first."

As Rokossovsky walked towards the house, he asked, "How is your defense arrangement here?"

"It's almost in place." Sokov was half a step behind, followed Rokossovsky in, and said, "Before you came, the chief of staff was reporting to me the deployment situation."

Rokossovsky nodded, and came to the table to shake hands with Pornedelin and Sidolin, then sat down and looked up at Sidolin and said: "Colonel Sidolin, continue to report, I think Hear how your defense deployment is going."

Seeing that Rokossovsky wanted to know about the deployment of the defense, Sidolin worried that if he continued with the content just now, Rokossovsky would definitely ask a lot of questions, so he repeated the story again.

After listening to Sidolin's narration, Rokossovsky nodded with satisfaction and said, "Misha, although you have not been a commander for a long time, you have arranged your work in an orderly manner. It was right to appoint you as the commander of the 48th Army."

Hearing Rokossovsky's praise, Sokov didn't know how to respond, so he could only grin.

"At the beginning of next month, a military meeting attended by the chiefs of the group army will be held to discuss our next course of action." Rokossovsky said to Sokov: "At that time, all three of you will attend."

"Yes, Comrade General!"

"By the way, there is one more thing that I almost forgot." Rokossovsky continued: "The intelligence personnel lurking inside the German army in Belarus have sent back information. During the German occupation of Belarus, although hundreds of Tons of gold and gold and silver jewelry were shipped back to Germany, but that was what they looted in our country. There is no record of gold in large quantities."

Sokov's eyes lit up when he heard what Rokossovsky said, and he said to Rokossovsky: "Comrade General, so the gold that sank into the swamp is still lying intact. In the swamp?"

"That's right," Rokossovsky said, nodding his head, "That batch of gold must still be lying quietly in the swamp, waiting for our people to find it."

"Comrade General," Sokov waited for Rokossovsky to finish, and asked tentatively, "Then when should we salvage this batch of gold?"

"Don't worry, Misha." But Rokossovsky didn't seem to have much interest in salvaging the gold: "Since this batch of gold has been lying in the swamp for three years, let them lie two or three more It shouldn’t be a big problem. After we drive the Germans out of Belarus, there will naturally be someone responsible for salvaging the gold.”

Knowing that other departments were responsible for salvaging gold, Sokov couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. You know, there is a world of difference between just providing clues and the credit for finding this batch of gold.

He thought that Timofey was the only insider so far, and he would be absolutely indispensable if the salvage work was to be carried out. Thinking of this, he said to Rokossovsky: "Comrade General, how can Timofey arrange for him who knows where the gold sank?"

"Let him come with me," said Rokossovsky. "I'll send him back to Moscow and let him report to the banking system. If gold is really found, his future must be limitless." of."

"Okay, then order someone to call him over immediately."

As Sokov said, he picked up the phone on the table, dialed a number, and said into the microphone: "Is this Lieutenant Colonel Milesiev? I'm Sokov. Bring Timofey to me immediately." Come!"

Ten minutes later, Milesyev hurried in from the outside.

As soon as he entered the door, he said excitedly: "Comrade Commander, I brought Timofey!"

The next moment, he saw Rokossovsky standing next to Sokov, and he raised his hand to his forehead in fright, and saluted him: "You... hello, Comrade Commander of the Front Army! I'm sorry, just now I Didn't see you!"

"It's okay, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel." Naturally, Rokossovsky would not blame him for such a trivial matter, but asked bluntly, "Where is Comrade Timofey?"

"It's just outside the door. I'll tell him to come in right away!" After finishing speaking, Milesyev ran to the door and shouted outside: "Timofey, come in."

Following Milesyev's shout, the diminutive Timofey came in from outside.

"Are you Timofey?" Rokossovsky asked, looking at him.

"Yes, Comrade General." Timofey didn't expect to see Rokossovsky here, and he looked extremely flustered: "I, I am Timofey!"

"I heard that you participated in the gold transfer work of the National Minsk Bank back then, didn't you?"

"Yes, Comrade General."

"You were bombed by enemy planes and intercepted by the German army on the way, so you had to choose to sink the gold into the swamp. Am I right?"

Listening to the question and answer between Rokossovsky and Timofey, Sokov couldn't help laughing secretly. He felt that the way the two talked was a bit like a lawyer cross-examining witnesses in court. But out of politeness, he suppressed his smile and stood by and listened quietly to the conversation between the two.

After some questioning, Rokossovsky was able to confirm that what Timofey said was completely true. He turned to Sokov and said: "Misha, I have finished asking what I should have asked, and I think what Comrade Timofey said is true. I plan to take him back to the headquarters of the Front Army, and then send him to Moscow by plane. Assist relevant departments to carry out the next gold search work."

Timofe did not expect that after Rokossovsky questioned him, he was going to send himself to Moscow, which surprised him. Rokossovsky also specifically asked for his opinion: "How about it, Comrade Timofey, would you like to go to Moscow to work?"

For Timofey, it was a good choice to stay away from the front line, and he was even more overjoyed when he was arranged to return to work in the banking system. He hurriedly nodded vigorously at Rokossovsky, and said in an affirmative tone: "Comrade General, I obey your arrangement. I will go wherever you let me go."

After seeing off Rokossovsky and Timofey, Ponejielin suddenly said thoughtfully: "Comrade Commander, I feel something is wrong."

"What's wrong?!" Sokov asked back.

"Since it has been confirmed that the gold that sank into the swamp remains where it is, why doesn't General Rokossovsky agree to immediately organize the salvage?" Ponejielin said: "Also, he said that within two or three months, After driving away all the enemies in Belarus, the relevant departments will salvage them. Does this mean that our army launched an attack on the enemy within a month, and the main direction of the attack is here?"

Sokov didn't expect that Ponederin could guess the truth of the matter from Rokossovsky's few words. However, choosing to attack the German army in the swamp area is still a top secret. Even if this battle plan was proposed by myself, it cannot be disclosed to anyone before the time is right.

Seeing the silence, Sidolin thought he didn't agree with Ponegerin's statement, so he said, "Comrade Deputy Commander, I think it is impossible to launch an attack in our defense zone."

Seeing that both Sokov and Ponegerin were looking at him, he went on to say: "Look at our position, a huge swamp separates us from the German defense line. If we launch from this direction Offensive, how does heavy equipment such as tanks and artillery pass through this vast swamp?"

"Without the support of tanks and cannons, our commanders and fighters will not be able to expand the results of the battle after passing through this swamp even after paying huge sacrifices. Maybe we can only start a tug-of-war with the enemy at the edge of the swamp. In the end, it will become a new one." Little Land' Battle."

The small field battle that Sidolin said in his mouth refers to the breakout operation in Leningrad. At the beginning of the year before last, in order to break the encirclement of the German army, the troops of the Leningrad Front crossed the Neva River and occupied a narrow area on the right bank of the river.

But how could the German army besieging the city allow the Soviet army to break out of the encirclement smoothly, so they gathered heavy troops to attack this area, trying to destroy the Soviet army's landing field on the right bank.

For the Leningrad Front Army, this was the only hope. Naturally, it was impossible for the Germans to re-occupy the landing field that was finally occupied, so they continuously sent new troops from the city to fight in this area.

The two sides had a year-long tug-of-war here. Although the German army did not drive the Soviet army into the Neva River, the Soviet army wanted to move forward from here, but it also couldn't do it. It wasn't until the beginning of 1943 that the Soviet army opened a gap in the German encirclement. This landing field called "Little Land" was completely abandoned. However, the Soviet army suffered tens of thousands of casualties here.

"Don't worry, Comrade Chief of Staff, even if we launch an attack in this area, the situation in Leningrad will not happen." Sokov comforted Sidolin and said: "The reason why the friendly forces were unable to open up the situation in the small area , it was entirely because the terrain there was too narrow, no matter how many troops there were, it was impossible to deploy, and as a result, the offensive was turned into a refueling tactic, and huge casualties were paid in vain."

"Although the terrain here is full of swamps, it is not good for our offensive, nor is it good for the German defense. After observing this period of time, I think you also know that the German army on the opposite side has no decent defensive positions at all. As long as Our fighters can move through swamps, and we can break through enemy lines and push deep into their defenses, even without the support of tanks and artillery."

Sidolin saw that Sokov said the truth, and suddenly a bold idea popped up in his mind: "Comrade Commander, have you got some gossip that our army will launch an attack on the enemy from the swamp area?"

"What gossip can I get?!" The battle plan is still top secret, so it is impossible for Sokov to disclose it to him, so he can only say vaguely: "When Comrade General came here just now, he just said that the meeting will be held next month. A military meeting to discuss the next direction of action of the front army. You were there at the time, did you hear him mention anything like an offensive plan?"

Speaking of this, Sokov intentionally paused, his eyes sweeping back and forth between Sidolin and Ponegerin to see how they reacted to this matter.

Ponedelin nodded and said: "That's right, Comrade Commander is right. When General Rokossovsky came here, besides asking about gold, he casually mentioned that there will be a meeting at the beginning of next month. The matter of the military meeting did not disclose any information related to the attack."

Sidolin was a little confused by Pornegerin's remarks. He tried hard to recall every word Rokossovsky said when he was here, and found that he did not mention anything related to the attack. Could it be? What Sokov said were all his speculations?

"Comrade Commander," Sidolin asked tentatively, "Did what you said just now be your own guesses based on the information you have?"

Under such circumstances, where Sokov could tell the truth, he could only follow the other party's wishes and say: "Yes, I just speculated on a possibility based on the various information I have so far. But my The speculation may not be accurate, you must know that General Batov's 65th Army is still attacking in the direction of Paliqi non-stop, maybe the superior will choose that as the main attack direction."

For Sokov's statement, Ponejelin agreed: "Yes, the terrain in the direction of Paliqi is dry, and there is no river barrier, which is conducive to our army's use of large-scale armored forces. According to my judgment, It is very likely that the superior will choose the main direction of attack here."

"In this way, the superior will not choose our place as the main direction of attack." Although he knew that the superior would not choose his own area as the main direction of attack in the next stage, Xidolin was a little disappointed, but at the same time he also Fortunately, this place will not be the main direction of attack, because in this way, the casualties of the troops can be greatly reduced. When the main offensive unit is unable to continue fighting due to heavy casualties, this unit can be put into the battlefield as a reserve team to complete the final battle.