Red Moscow

Time went back to a few hours ago. Yeremenko called Chuikov and said apologetically: "Comrade Chuikov, I am calling you to inform you of an important matter. It was originally assigned to your three infantrymen." Teacher, due to various reasons, we are temporarily unable to enter the city."

Hearing this unexpected news, Chuikov's heart immediately turned cold, and he felt like he asked, "Comrade Commander, can you tell me why?"

"The base camp considers that the Luftwaffe, which has command of the air, can carry out large-scale bombing of the city at any time." Yelymenko replied: "If we are in this situation, we will concentrate so many troops in a small area." area, they will suffer heavy losses from the enemy's bombing, which will adversely affect our future major counteroffensive."

"But, Comrade Commander." Hearing such a far-fetched reason, Chuikov said unwillingly: "If we want to stop the enemy, our existing troops are far from enough. Even if we want to arm the workers and residents Get up, but where can you find so many weapons and ammunition?"

Regarding the difficulty Chuikov raised, Yeremenko thought for a long time before he said: "Comrade Chuikov, we have stockpiled a large amount of weapons, ammunition, food, and medicine on the east bank. Now that the underwater pontoon bridge connecting the two banks has been built, I will Send a convoy overnight to transport all the supplies you need to the city."

Krylov, who was on the phone at the side, saw that Chuikov put down the phone and his face was not very good-looking, so he quickly gave a few words into the microphone, then put down the microphone, and then asked Chuikov: "Comrade Commander, what happened?" ?”

Chuikov looked up at Krylov and said with a wry smile: "Chief of Staff, Commander Yeremenko has just informed me that due to changes in the situation, the three divisions that were originally scheduled to be dispatched to the city will not be entering the city for the time being. "

"What, they're not entering the city?" Krylov immediately frowned when he heard the bad news: "Comrade Commander, didn't you tell him that not only are we seriously short of troops, but we also have weapons, ammunition and There are also shortages of food and medicine?"

"How is our situation? Doesn't the Front Army Command know?" Chuikov asked bitterly, "Even if I complain to Commander Yeremenko, do you think he will change his original intention?"

Krylov knew what Chuikov said. Since the superiors had already made a decision, no matter how much the subordinates complained, they would not change their minds. He murmured: "Even if we don't replenish our troops, at least we need to replenish various supplies. As long as we have enough ammunition, we can arm the workers and residents and fight the Germans."

"Commander Yeremenko told me that when it gets dark, he will send a convoy to bring in the weapons, ammunition and various supplies we need." Thinking of the supplies that are about to be transported into the city, Cuikov regained his spirits, He said to Krylov: "Chief of Staff, immediately notify the commanders of the arms exchange station and the supply station, and let them go to the pontoon bridge to receive supplies after dark."

After Krylov recorded Chuikov's order, he asked again: "Comrade commander, where should we store the supplies after we receive them? There is no suitable place to store large quantities of supplies near the underwater pontoon bridge."

"Contact Factory Director Peter," Chuikov replied, "Red October Factory has quite a few underground warehouses, and they should all be vacant at the moment. It should be the safest place to store the newly arrived materials."

Regarding Chuikov's order, Krylov did not express any meaning. He knew very well that in the entire factory area in the north of the city today, the only safest location was the Red October factory where Peter was the factory manager. At the beginning, Sokov repeatedly repelled the German attack here, forcing the enemy to change the direction of attack.

He quickly said: "Okay, Comrade Commander, I will immediately get in touch with Factory Manager Peter and discuss with him about storing supplies..."

"Wait a minute, Chief of Staff." Before Krylov could finish, Chuikov suddenly interrupted him again: "You still have more important work to do. When receiving materials and contacting storage locations, we should leave it to the logistics department." Minister General Lobov to finish."

"Then I'll call General Lobov and ask him to come here immediately." After Krylov finished speaking, seeing Chuikov nodding in agreement, he picked up the phone on the table and contacted the logistics department Contacted and asked Logistics Minister Lobov to rush to the headquarters immediately.

After Lobov received the call, he guessed that Cuikov was in such a hurry to ask him to go to the headquarters because he must have asked about logistics supplies, so he quickly sorted out the relevant information and rushed to the headquarters.

After seeing Chuikov, Lobov took out his notebook from his bag, and was about to report to Chuikov about the logistics supply direction, but he heard Chuikov say first: "Comrade Logistics Minister, I called you here today because tonight we A batch of supplies will be accepted, and you need to arrange a place to store the supplies."

Hearing what Chuikov said, Lobov showed a surprised expression on his face. He opened the notebook in his hand and looked at it, looked up at Chuikov, and said in a puzzled tone: "Comrade Commander, according to my records, tonight the fleet We can only provide us with five ferries at most for the transportation of materials. Once such a small amount of materials lands on the shore, they can be distributed to the troops waiting on the shore. I don’t think there is any need to find any new storage places.”

"Comrade Minister of Logistics, I called you here today. In addition to asking you to find a new storage place for supplies, I also want to tell you some good news." Cuikov said with a smile on his face: "The engineers have successfully erected a pontoon bridge on the river. , In this way, the supplies we need can be continuously transported into the city through the pontoon bridge."

"Pontoon bridge?!" Lobov's mind quickly flashed the pontoon bridge that was constantly bombed by German planes during the construction process, and he couldn't help saying in surprise: "Comrade commander, but I saw that the pontoon bridge could not be erected." Half of it was blown up by German planes, could it be repaired so quickly?"

"You are mistaken, Comrade Minister of Logistics." Chuikov waved his hand and continued: "The pontoon bridge you mentioned was used by us to attract the attention of the Luftwaffe. Our real pontoon bridge was erected in the north and was bombed. Next to the ruined bridge across the river, there is an underwater pontoon bridge."

"My God, it's an underwater pontoon?!" Lobov said in surprise, "The pontoon is under the water, how do we transport our supplies?"

"The bridge deck is only 40 to 50 centimeters above the water surface, so that the exhaust pipes of trucks will not be submerged, so that vehicles can drive over the bridge smoothly." Krylov explained to Lobov: "Except that vehicles can be on the bridge However, our soldiers can also ford across the river from the bridge.”

After listening to this, Lobov showed a pleasant expression on his face: "Comrade Commander, so we don't need to rely on the fleet for our future military and material transportation?"

"Is such that."

"Great, this is really great." Lobov couldn't hide his inner excitement, and he said very fast: "I still had a headache two days ago, as the weather is getting colder and colder, at most it will be later." In a month, there will be a large amount of ice floes on the Volga River. At that time, ships will not be able to pass on the river, and our material transportation may stop. Now with this pontoon bridge, all problems will be solved.”

Chuikov raised his hand and looked at his watch, and said to Lobov: "Comrade Minister of Logistics, when it gets dark, the convoy for transporting supplies will start from the opposite bank. There are two things you have to do now: one is to let the ordnance exchange station Lieutenant Colonel Sokalov and Lieutenant Colonel Spasov at the supply station went to the pontoon to receive supplies; the second was to immediately get in touch with Comrade Peter, the director of the Red October Factory, and borrow the underground warehouse in the factory to store and receive supplies."

"Comrade commander, I would like to make a suggestion." Lobov waited for Chuikov to finish speaking, and said, "I want the convoy to drive directly outside the underground warehouse of the Red October factory, which can greatly reduce the time spent on transporting materials." Personnel. You know, almost all the soldiers in our logistics department are busy at the ferry, if too many people are transferred, it will have a negative impact on the work of unloading the ship."

"Comrade Commander," hearing Lobov's lack of manpower, Krylov thought of a compromise: "I have an idea, and I don't know whether I should say it or not?"

"Chief of Staff, just say what comes to your mind!" Chuikov was very dissatisfied with Krylov's trickery, and he said with some displeasure, "Even if I say something wrong, I won't blame you."

"Now at the ferry, there are a large number of residents waiting to cross the river to the other side." Krylov said tentatively: "Can we recruit people from among them to help us unload the supplies on the ship, so that we can Send more power to the warehouse of the Red October Factory?"

"Recruiting residents to help us work?" For Krylov's statement, Lobov first expressed doubts: "Is this possible?"

"Chief of Staff," Chuikov felt that with Krylov's character, he would not mention this matter inexplicably, so he pointed at him with his hand and said, "Tell me what you think."

"As far as I know, some residents have been waiting for the ferry by the river for half a month or even longer, but they have never had a chance to board the boat. The food they brought with them is almost exhausted." Krylov used to Once chatting with Sokov about the residents waiting to cross the river, the other party gave him a suggestion. Seeing that Lobov was facing a shortage of manpower, he took the opportunity to express Sokov's thoughts: "We can recruit people from them. Manpower, residents participating in the work, each can get 300 grams of bread, 50 grams of dry sausage or cheese per person per day..."

After Krylov said Sokov's original thoughts, Chuikov and Lobov were stunned. After a long time, Lobov murmured: "Comrade Chief of Staff, you are really a genius. If we really do this, then at least one or two thousand residents can be recruited to work for us, and we will no longer have to worry about shortage of manpower."

"Comrade Chief of Staff!" Chuikov knew Krylov's character very well and knew that he would never come up with such a solution, so he asked tentatively: "If I guess correctly, this idea must have come from Colonel Sokov yes, right?"

Krylov is not a person who casually appropriates other people's credit for his own. When he heard Chuikov's question, he nodded and replied affirmatively: "Yes, Comrade Commander. Colonel Sokov came to the headquarters some time ago. , When I chatted with him, I said that the riverside ferry was bombed by the enemy every day, and the soldiers responsible for unloading supplies suffered too many casualties. After he heard this, he gave me such a suggestion. At that time, because the manpower was barely enough, I I didn't mention this matter. Now we need to receive supplies from the east bank in two directions at the same time, and we urgently need a lot of manpower, so I thought of Colonel Sokov's method."

"His method is very good and effective." After expressing his approval to Sokov's method, Chuikov turned to Lobov and said, "Comrade Minister of Logistics, please remember that we have opened a new route to prevent the enemy from discovering us." The water transport line, located in the warehouse of the Red October factory, can only be loaded and unloaded by soldiers from the logistics department. As for the ferry by the river, except for the necessary manpower, the rest of the manpower is from the residents who boarded the ship. Recruit."

After waiting for Chuikov to finish speaking, Lobov asked another question: "Then who should be responsible for the distribution of food every day?"

"Needless to say," Cuikov pointed at Lobov, "Since they are recruited by your logistics department, your logistics department will naturally be responsible for distributing food to them."

…………

At ten o'clock in the evening, a convoy of fifty trucks set off from the east bank, and under the guidance of engineers and soldiers, drove to the underwater pontoon bridge. In order to avoid rear-end collisions caused by the flameout of the vehicle in front, each vehicle was separated by 100 meters and drove onto the pontoon bridge at a speed of 5 kilometers per hour.

In order to prevent being discovered by the German spies hidden on the shore, none of the driving vehicles had driving lights. The first few trucks driving on the pontoon bridge, because the sky was too dark and they were not familiar with the performance of the pontoon bridge, all fell into the river one after another. Except for the driver who escaped by jumping out of the car by chance, the trucks and their supplies all sank into the cold water. river bottom.

Lobov, who was standing on the west bank, couldn't help feeling anxious when he saw this situation. He hurriedly said to Spasov at the supply station: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, send a signal to the opposite bank to make all the trucks on the bridge turn on their headlights."

"Comrade Minister," upon hearing Lobov's order, Spasov hastily reminded him: "If we turn on the lights, the German secret agents hidden on the shore will find out. If they send a signal to direct the German artillery to bombard In this section of the river, our situation will be even worse."

"I can't care about that much anymore." Lobov pointed at the drivers who were struggling in the water, and said: "The drivers are using this pontoon bridge for the first time, and they have no experience at all. If they continue to slander and cross the river, it is possible All the cars will end up in the river. What's the point of our water transport lines if supplies can't be transported across the river?"