Red Moscow

The purpose of the formation of the Voronezh Front by the Soviet Supreme Command was to improve operational command in the region. Therefore, the command organization of the Bryansk Front Army and some troops on the left wing were transferred to form this new Front Army. The former commander of the Bryansk Front Army, Golikov, was transferred to be the commander of the army, and the position he vacated was given by Rocco. Sofsky took over.

Rokossovsky took Malinin, Kazakov and others to the front army headquarters 15 kilometers east of Yelets. Still far away, Malinin, who was sitting in the front row, turned his head and said to Rokossovsky: "Comrade Commander, the remaining commander of the Bryansk Front has come out to greet you."

Rokossovsky looked out the car window, and sure enough, he saw a group of officers standing at the door of a pale yellow two-story building, including a general. They lined up neatly, as if waiting to be inspected.

As soon as the car stopped, the general trotted all the way to the front of the car, opened the door for Rokossovsky, and said respectfully: "Comrade commander, hello! I am Kazakov, chief of staff of the front army. Major General, on behalf of all commanders and fighters of the Bryansk Front Army, I welcome you!"

"So it's you, Comrade Kazakov." Rokossovsky couldn't help being overjoyed after seeing the other party clearly: "We haven't seen each other for many years, many years."

The Chief of Staff of the Front Army named Kazakov, who was a comrade-in-arms with Rokossovsky in life and death, is still very excited to meet here again: "Yes, since you entered the Frunze Military Academy Advanced We haven’t seen each other since we were studying in the chief executive training class, almost ten years.”

Although Rokossovsky knew that the chief of staff of the front army was named Kazakov before he came here, but he did not expect that he would be his old comrade-in-arms. After all, there are many people with the same surname. The artillery commander who came here with him member, also surnamed Kazakov. He looked at the other party and said, "I didn't expect that I would meet you here."

"I was ordered to leave the command to hand over the troops to you," Kazakov said to Rokossovsky: "After the handover is completed, I will immediately rush to the Voronezh Front to assume a new position."

In the headquarters, after Kazakov handed over the command to Rokossovsky and Malinin, he said to Rokossovsky: "Comrade Commander, I have given the 3rd, 13th, 48th I called the commander of the 38th Army and asked them to come here to meet you as soon as possible. The former deputy commander of the Front Army, Major General Chibisov, did not go to the Voronezh Front Army. He specifically applied to the base camp, hoping to stay in this heroic army troops. The base camp agreed to his request and appointed him commander of the 38th Army."

Hearing what Kazakov said, Rokossovsky couldn't help becoming very interested in this Chibisov. He wanted to see what kind of person the other party was. In order to stay in the Bryansk Front, he gave up on his own initiative. Instead of the post of deputy commander, he served as an ordinary army commander.

But before several of the subordinate army commanders arrived, the call from Moscow came first. Stalin said to Rokossovsky on the phone: "Comrade Rokossovsky, have you reached the Bryansk Front yet?"

"Yes, Comrade Stalin." Rokossovsky quickly replied respectfully: "I have assumed the post of commander of the front army."

"Very good." After Rokossovsky finished speaking, Stalin continued: "The plane I sent to pick you up has already arrived in Yelets. You should rush to the airport immediately and fly to Moscow. I need to meet with you." You have a good talk."

Three hours later, Rokossovsky appeared in Stalin's office. Stalin shook hands with him, and asked with concern: "How is it, Konstantin Konstantinovich, are your injuries healed?"

"Yes, Comrade Stalin, my injury has long since healed." Rokossovsky replied with a smile, "I think my current body is fully capable of working on the front line."

"Very good, very good!" After Stalin said two very good things, he called Rokossovsky to the wall, pointed to the big map hanging on it and asked, "Tell me, what are the plans of the Germans?" ?”

Rokossovsky looked at the map, staring intently at the Soviet defense line marked in red and the German attack direction marked in blue. After looking at it for a long time, he turned to Stalin and said, "Comrade Stalin, the Germans have launched a new offensive against us."

"Yes, Comrade Rokossovsky," Stalin said impatiently, lighting his pipe, "I know that the Germans have resumed their offensive. Now I just want to know, what is the intention of the German army?"

"Continue to seize our cities and destroy our army." Rokossovsky did not know how to answer Stalin's question, and could only say vaguely: "This is their attempt..."

"Comrade Rokossovsky," Stalin interrupted Rokossovsky, "the Germans want to occupy our cities and destroy our army, everyone knows that. But what kind of Which city should we attack? This is what we, as decision makers, should understand and must understand. Only by seeing through the enemy's schemes and guessing their true intentions can we take the correct approach , crush their conspiracy."

"Comrade Stalin," Rokossovsky suddenly remembered Adelina who escaped from Bryansk some time ago, and asked tentatively: "Didn't one of our intelligence agents return with important information last week? I wonder if there is any German army's next action plan in her intelligence?"

"Yes, what the intelligence agent brought back is an important piece of information." Stalin walked to the table, took off the pipe in his mouth, knocked it on the ashtray a few times, and shook out the ash inside, and then He sneered and said: "The above said that the next step of the Germans' action is Stalingrad. But obviously, this is a German conspiracy. They want to use this information to shift the focus of our army's defense to the wrong direction. .So they can send troops to take Baku, get oil from the Caucasus; and even go north and attack Moscow."

If Sokov was here, he would definitely be surprised by the information brought back by Adelina, because the next direction of the German attack is Stalingrad, named after Stalin himself. But unfortunately, Sokov was not here, and Rokossovsky, standing in front of Stalin, knew nothing about the German army's next attack direction. Therefore, he firmly believed in the analysis of what Stalin said.

Next, Stalin assigned Rokossovsky the task of actively taking various offensive actions to contain the German forces in the direction of Bryansk, Orel, and Voronezh, making them unable to attack Moscow, and unable to attack Moscow. Deploy troops to support the troops attacking the Caucasus.

After the conversation between the two, Rokossovsky looked at Stalin and asked: "Comrade Stalin, allow me to leave?"

Unexpectedly, after hearing this, Stalin waved his hand at him and said, "Wait a minute, I have a conversation here, which may be very interesting to you. Sit down for a while." After speaking, Stalin walked to his office At the desk, he picked up the phone and said into the microphone, "Comrade Boskrebyshev, ask Kozlov to come to me."

When he heard Kozlov's name, Rokossovsky couldn't help raising his eyebrows. According to the battle report some time ago, he knew that Kozlov himself was expelled from the Crimea due to the disastrous defeat in Kerch. Front army position, but also was demoted rank. But what was Stalin's intention in allowing himself to stay and listen to his conversation with Kozlov at this moment?

According to Rokossovsky's thinking, when Stalin saw Kozlov, he would definitely lose his temper and even threaten to send him to a military court. However, when Kozlov walked in, Stalin was extremely calm, without the slightest anger or dissatisfaction on his face. After shaking hands with Kozlov, he said politely: "General Kozlov, go ahead and ask me to receive you. Do you have any questions for me?"

"I don't agree, Comrade Stalin." Hearing Stalin's question, Kozlov was very emotional, even a little hysterical: "I feel that the opinions on my handling are unfair, and I should not bear such responsibility for this failure. "

Stalin did not interrupt him, but after calmly listening to his complaints, he asked calmly, "Have you finished?"

"It's over!"

"You complain that we have treated you unfairly?"

"Yes. The reason for the terrible defeat at Kerch is that the representatives of the headquarters seriously hindered my command."

"How did Mekhlis hinder you?" Stalin continued to ask.

"He hindered my command. When our army was about to take combat operations, he had to hold a meeting and even issued contradictory orders. As a representative of his base camp, he suppressed me, the commander."

"That is to say, he hindered you." Stalin asked calmly: "Comrade Kozlov, please tell me, who of you two knows the commander of the front army, is it you or Mekhlis?"

Kozlov replied with a guilty conscience, "It's me."

"So, you are the commander of the front army, but Mekhlis is not." Stalin asked with a normal expression: "That is to say, you should be in command of the troops, not Mekhlis, am I right? "

"Yes, but..."

Stalin interrupted Kozlov's words: "You just said that you are the commander of the front army."

"That's right, I'm the commander of the front army." Kozlov nodded vigorously, and replied, "But Mekhlis has placed his cronies everywhere, replacing those commanders with rich combat experience, and not letting me Command the troops to fight."

"Did you forget that the headquarters of the Supreme Command that handed over the Front Army to you was Mekhlis?" When he said this, a trace of anger appeared on Stalin's face: "Is there a high-frequency telephone in your headquarters?" ?”

"some."

"Since there is a high-frequency phone call, why didn't you report it to me?" Stalin stared into the other party's eyes and said in a stern tone: "Even if you only report to me once, saying that someone is obstructing your command, then I will personally intervene in this matter." .”

"I want to call." Kozlov replied in a panic, "but there is no chance."

Hearing what Kozlov said, Stalin asked curiously, "Why?"

"He is always by my side," Kozlov said with a guilty conscience, "I dare not sue you in front of him for the representative you have appointed."

"Why can't you call me in front of him?" Stalin asked. "Maybe we can solve the problem quickly."

Regarding Stalin's inquiry, Kozlov remained silent.

Stalin snorted coldly, and continued: "If you think you are the one who is right, and not him, then why don't you dare to call me when he is around? Obviously, Comrade Kozlov, you are afraid of Mehli Stan beats the Germans, doesn't he?"

"No, Comrade Stalin." Kozlov shouted a little excitedly: "You don't know Mekhlis."

"Comrade Kozlov, I know Mekhlis very well. Although he lacks experience in commanding operations, I heard that when the troops began to rout, he was very heroic. He even rushed to the front line in a jeep to stop the rear withdraw the troops and organize them for defense." After taking a puff of cigarette, Stalin continued: "In the report handed over by Vasilevsky, he pointed out various reasons that led to your failure: such as weak defensive depth configuration , Improper use of the reserve force, not good at coordinating operations, the commanders have poor adaptability, the main leaders of the front army are not firm in carrying out orders, etc. As the commander of the front army, you should bear all the responsibility for the failure of the front army, rather than attribute the failure of the battle to Mekhlis interfered with you. Personally, I think, Comrade Kozlov, what we did to you was absolutely correct and you should be punished."

After Kozlov walked out, Stalin turned to Rokossovsky and said: "Comrade Rokossovsky, this is a very interesting conversation, and I hope to learn from it."

"I will learn from General Kozlov, Comrade Stalin." Rokossovsky was afraid that Stalin would send Mekhlis to his army as a representative of the headquarters on a whim, so he asked tentatively: "Would I I would like to ask, who do you plan to appoint as the military commissar of the front army?"

Fortunately, what Stalin said next reassured Rokossovsky: "I will send Comrade Susaikov, the military-level political commissar, to the Bryansk Front as a military commissar."

When Rokossovsky walked out of the Supreme Commander's office, Poskrebyshev greeted him and asked, "General Rokossovsky, are you going back to the front now?"

"Yes, Comrade Poskrebyshev." Rokossovsky nodded with a smile and said, "I need to return to the front line immediately. Can you arrange a car for me to take me to the airport?"