Red Moscow

After sending Khrushchev away, Sokov suddenly had an unpleasant feeling in his heart. He was obviously a general commanding thousands of troops. Why did he even come to ask himself about local affairs? Could it be that Khrushchev Does your husband still want you to go to Kiev to help him?

Asya was packing her things when Sokov returned to the living room.

Seeing Sokov enter the door, she asked curiously: "Misha, what did Comrade Khrushchev talk to you?"

Sokov secretly thought for a moment that things like building skyscrapers should not be considered top secret, so he said confidently and boldly: "Comrade Khrushchev said that he plans to build some more modern buildings in Moscow and asked me if I have any What idea."

Asiya smiled: "You are not an architect. If I ask you about building a house, isn't it the wrong person to ask?"

After laughing twice, Asiya seemed to have thought of something, and the expression on her face became serious: "Misha, Comrade Khrushchev even wants to ask you about this kind of thing, does he still want to let you go? Kiev helps him?"

"It is entirely possible." Sokov nodded and said in a positive tone: "Otherwise I can't think of any other reason why he would come to me specifically for such a trivial matter."

"If he does extend an invitation to you again, will you go to Kiev?"

"I won't go." Sokov shook his head and said: "I have told you that according to various signs, Ukraine is likely to have a food shortage crisis this year due to drought. I command the troops to march and fight. It’s okay. If we want to solve the food crisis, I don’t know where to start.”

"Misha, no matter what decision you make, I will respect your choice." Asiya said solemnly: "If you want to go to Kiev, I will follow you to Kiev; if you want to stay in Moscow, I will stay with you in Moscow."

"Where is Seryosha?" Sokov suddenly remembered Seryosha. He had been hiding without a trace since Khrushchev appeared, so he specifically asked Asya about his whereabouts.

"I found a room for him upstairs." Asiya said, "If he can't find his original home tomorrow, he can stay there permanently."

Sokov raised his hand to look at the time and said, "I'm a little tired and want to go upstairs to rest. You don't need to call me for dinner. I can eat whenever I wake up."

He originally thought he would sleep for a few hours at most, but when Sokov opened his eyes again, he saw that it was still bright outside.

"Misha, you're awake." Asiya, who was standing beside the bed, asked with a smile: "Are you hungry?"

Hearing Asiya's question, Sokov felt his stomach growling, so he nodded and said, "How long have I been sleeping, and I'm really hungry."

"You have been sleeping since yesterday afternoon until now." Asiya said, "You have slept for more than ten hours."

"Ah, I slept for so long?" Sokov asked in a panic: "Did anyone call me while I was sleeping?"

"No, I didn't call you." After Asiya said this, she asked Sokov tentatively: "Misha, do you want to go downstairs to eat, or should I bring it to your bedside?"

"I'll go downstairs to eat." Sokov said: "I have hands and feet, how can I let you bring the food in front of me."

The two came to the living room and saw that there was no one here. Sokov asked curiously: "Where is Seryosha and where is Vasergov?"

"Seryozha went back to his original place of residence, and Vaserigov was worried that he would get into trouble on the way, so he went with him."

"Vaseligov did the right thing." Sokov nodded and said: "Seryozha has just returned from Siberia and has no official identity in Moscow. If he encounters a patrol checking his identity on the way to the old house, he will There will be trouble."

"Misha, I want to ask you something."

"What's up?"

"If, what I'm talking about is if." Asiya asked with a serious expression: "If you didn't meet Seryosha when you went to see Lukin this time, do you think he would return to Moscow?"

"I think certainly not." Sokov shook his head and said: "Even Seryosha said that he once wrote me a letter, he is probably lying. According to what I know about him, he is a very face-saving person. He was a prisoner of the Germans, and was sent to Siberia for a labor camp after being rescued. This has seriously damaged his self-esteem. If he comes back rashly, he may become the laughing stock of others when he meets acquaintances. He will definitely not. Hope to see this happen.”

"Poor Seryosha." Asiya said with emotion: "If you had not been injured at that time and let him follow you, he might not have been captured. With his expression on the battlefield, even if he could not be a general , it is still entirely possible to become a lieutenant colonel or even a colonel.”

When Asya repeatedly mentioned Siberia, Sokov couldn't help but think of Lukin. He was picked up by people sent by Zhukov as soon as he got off the train yesterday, and he didn't know what he was doing now. I want to contact him, but I don’t know where he is.

Just as Sokov was thinking about whether he should call Zhukov and ask about Lukin's whereabouts, the phone in the room rang.

Sokov quickly stood up, went over to pick up the phone and put it to his ear: "I'm Sokov!"

"Misha, I am Rokossovsky."

"Hello, Comrade Marshal." Hearing Rokossovsky's voice, Sokov couldn't help but be overjoyed: "Have you recovered?"

"Yes, I have been discharged from the hospital for a while." Rokossovsky continued, "I am going to the General Staff today, can you come?"

Sokov didn't know what Rokossovsky asked him to go to the General Staff, so he hesitated: "I will go, okay?"

"Of course." Rokossovsky said in an affirmative tone: "This call was made by Marshal Zhukov."

Knowing that it was Zhukov's intention to let him go to the General Staff, Sokov dared not neglect it and hurriedly said; "I will rush over as soon as possible."

Since moving into this villa, the superiors have allocated Sokov a car, plus the original bucket car, there are two cars. When Vaserigov accompanied Seryosha to the old house, he drove away a car, and his bucket car was still at home.

Seeing Sokov was about to go out, the guard on duty at the door immediately came out and asked: "Comrade General, are you going out?"

"Yes, I am going out." Sokov nodded and said in an affirmative tone: "I need to rush to the General Staff Headquarters immediately."

"Comrade General, if you don't object, I will drive you there."

Sov thought that since Zhukov had equipped him with several guards, if he wanted to go out, he must take two with him, so he nodded and agreed: "Okay, you can call a companion and we can set off."

Half an hour later, they arrived at the General Staff Headquarters.

Since Sokov had been here last time, many people knew him, and some even took the initiative to lead him to Antonov's office.

Antonov, who was sitting behind his desk, saw Sokov coming in and quickly stood up and greeted him: "General Sokov, you are here!"

"Yes, Comrade Chief of the General Staff." Sokov replied: "I am here on orders."

"Today's meeting is still held in the last meeting room," Antonov said: "I still have things to deal with here, you go first."

When Sokov came to the meeting room alone, he found that there were already quite a few people sitting here. Judging from their shoulder badges, there were from marshals to lieutenant generals, and many of them were new faces.

Just when Sokov was still looking around and looking for acquaintances in the crowd, he heard a voice calling him from the side: "Misha, Misha!"

Sokov turned his head and saw that it was Rokossovsky, and he hurried towards him.

Coming closer, Sokov raised his hand to salute Rokossovsky and said politely: "Hello, Comrade Marshal! It is a happy thing to see you recover."

"We are all family, don't be so polite." Rokossovsky patted the empty seat next to him and said: "You sit here."

After Sokov sat down next to Rokossovsky, he whispered: "Comrade Marshal, what's the matter with calling me here today?"

"We originally planned to carry out a large-scale military exercise in Europe at the end of April." Rokossovsky said: "Now the European and American allies have learned of this news through special channels, so they plan to take countermeasures. At the same time, they will also conduct a military exercise of a similar scale. "

Hearing what Rokossovsky said, Sokov was stunned: "Comrade Marshal, if our exercise time coincides with that of the European and American armies, will there be any trouble?"

"They exercise theirs, we exercise ours, and there is no conflict." Rokossovsky continued: "What we are going to discuss at today's meeting is, if the imaginary enemy launches a new attack on us through Ukraine, what measures should we take to deal with it?"

In Sokov's mind, a map of Europe immediately emerged, and he began to think about where the imaginary enemy is most likely to launch an attack into the depths of the Soviet Union.

Seeing Sokov start to ponder, Rokossovsky took out a square map from his bag, unfolded it and placed it in front of Sokov: "There is a ready-made map here, you just need to point it out."

"Comrade Marshal," Sokov looked at the map in front of him and said to Rokossovsky: "When the Great Patriotic War broke out, the huge German troops used three army groups to break through our army's defense line from different directions and broke into our territory. Now the Germans have been completely defeated. Within a hundred years, they will not be able to launch an attack in the depth of our country. Comrade Marshal, I think this assumption is inappropriate."

"I have said that this is an exercise." Rokossovsky said with a smile: "In war, anything can happen. Just tell me, if you want to rush into the depth of our country, what do you plan to do?"

Since Rokossovsky asked this, it would be inappropriate for Sokov not to say something in his mind. He pointed to the map and said, "If the troops I command were the German troops back then, I would choose to stay put in the north and the middle, and launch an attack from the Southern Army Group to Ukraine. After occupying the entire Ukraine, I would use this as a springboard to expand the results of the war into the depths of our country."

"If we withdraw troops from Belarus to strengthen the defense of Ukraine during the attack, what are you going to do?"

"The troops I originally placed on the Belarusian border only serve as surveillance and containment." Sokov pointed to the map and said, "Then this direction will become the new main attack direction. Taking advantage of the weak Belarusian forces, we will launch a surprise attack and break through the defense of this area in one fell swoop."

"Even if Belarus cannot reinforce Ukraine, then I can mobilize the troops originally deployed in Russia to strengthen the defense of Ukraine." Rokossovsky said with a smile: "Will this defeat your attempt to occupy Ukraine?" The intention of the whole territory.”

"Comrade Marshal, it seems that you have thought very carefully." Sokov pointed to the eastern part of Ukraine: "I will order the troops to advance towards the Dnieper River and build a line of defense along the river bank. You also know that the trends of all rivers in the country are It's all the same, the left bank is a flat river, but the right bank is a cliff. Once we build defenses on the right bank, you will definitely pay a heavy price if you want to attack the right bank from the left bank. "

"Not bad, not bad," Rokossovsky said in an approving tone: "I believe that if your troops occupy the right bank area, the attacking side will only be able to board the right bank after paying heavy casualties. But we can't get through, You also can’t come to the Left Bank, how do you plan to break this deadlock?”

"Comrade Marshal, I will definitely choose one or two locations to implement a breakthrough and establish a landing site on the left bank area to threaten your defense line. For example, Kremenchuk and Zaporozhye are very good landing sites." Cove continued: "In this case, in order to prevent the defense line from being breached, you can only mobilize heavy troops and deploy them near my landing site."

After listening to Sokov's words, Rokossovsky nodded slowly, "Yes, once your troops establish a landing site on the left bank, in order to stabilize the defense line, I will have to deploy troops and deploy defenses around the landing site. , to prevent you from splitting my defense line."

"That's true." Sokov nodded and said, "Maybe in the next period of time, we will start a brutal tug-of-war near the landing site, turning this place into a meat grinding ground that consumes the forces of both sides."

"Is there any way to break the situation?" Rokossovsky asked calmly.

"Of course." Sokov nodded and said, "I will make a posture of stabilizing the two landing sites to attract you to transfer more troops to the area, and then I will look for a suitable location to break through you again. The army’s defense line on the Dnieper River was established and a new landing site was established.”

"Then where do you plan to break through?"

"Here, Cherkasy." Sokov continued: "Once our army breaks through your defense line in the Cherkasy area, we can divide our troops into two groups and go all the way down the river to support Klemen. There are two landing sites in Chuuk and Zaporozhye, and I will go all the way north to Kharkov. If I'm lucky, I can break into Kursk Oblast directly. From there to Moscow, it's only 550 kilometers away. If things go well. , it will arrive in a week at most.”

"Misha, if a fight really breaks out, do you think there will be no heavy defenses in the direction of Moscow?"

"I don't really want to seize Moscow, but I am just using this method to force you to draw troops from the front line to defend Moscow." Sokov said: "If you really do this, then the initiative on the battlefield will be lost. will fall into my hands."