Captain Vanya and the garrison battalion commander stood on the roadside together, quietly waiting for the arrival of Sokov and the large army. Unexpectedly, not long after standing on the roadside, a jeep drove out of the city.
Seeing this, Vanya whispered to the battalion commander: "Comrade battalion commander, look, there are still people driving out of the city so late."
The battalion commander took a look and saw that a jeep was driving along the street towards his location. He quickly shook his head towards the soldiers standing behind him and said, "Follow me!"
After stopping the jeep, the battalion commander walked to the passenger seat and asked loudly to the people sitting in the car: "What section are you from, and where are you going so late?"
"I am Ma Lining!" Unexpectedly, as soon as he finished speaking, a deep voice came from the car: "I am here to greet the friendly forces entering the city."
Although the person in the car said that he was Ma Lining, the battalion commander did not believe it easily. He still shined a flashlight on the vehicle. When he found that the person sitting in the passenger seat was indeed Ma Lining, he quickly extinguished the flashlight and came back where he was. He stood at attention and said with sincerity: "Hello, Comrade Chief of Staff, I am the commander of the garrison battalion. Please forgive me for my rashness!"
Considering that the other party was also performing his duties, Ma Lining did not blame the other party. Instead, he asked kindly: "Comrade Major, what are you doing standing on the roadside so late?"
"That's it, Comrade Chief of Staff." The battalion commander thought that Malinin didn't know about Sokov leading his troops into the city, so he quickly explained to him: "It was a lieutenant colonel from the friendly army who was leading troops into the city, and his subordinates wanted to Welcome him here. I was worried that it was dark and I could not see clearly, so misunderstandings might easily occur, so I waited with him here. Well, the commander is standing there."
"A lieutenant colonel from a friendly force?" Ma Lining was stunned for a moment when he heard what the battalion commander said. Then he remembered that a Sokov force had entered the city in the afternoon, so he asked tentatively: "Comrade Major, I will accompany you to greet him." The commander is the one who led the troops into the city in the afternoon, right?"
"Yes, Comrade Chief of Staff, you guessed it right." Seeing that Malinen actually knew Vanya, the battalion commander nodded vigorously and replied: "It was the unit that brought the wounded into the city. One of the commanders It’s Captain Vanya standing there.”
Ma Lining opened the car door and walked out of the car. He turned to the staff officers who were still sitting in the car and said, "Comrades, we are here. Let's all get out of the car." After that, he did not wait for the staff officers to get out of the car. When he came out, he took long strides and walked towards Vanya in the distance.
When Vanya saw that the battalion commander who had gone to stop the car was actually following the commander who came out of the car, walking towards her position, she guessed that the person coming must be a big shot, and hurriedly walked up to meet him. He stopped two or three meters away from Malinen, stood at attention, straightened his body and reported: "Comrade commander, I am Captain Vanya, commander of the first battalion of the 73rd Infantry Brigade. I am waiting for my brigade here. Chang enters the city, please give your instructions!"
"Hello, Captain Vanya. I am Malining, Chief of Staff of the Front Army. Nice to meet you." Malining extended his hand to the other party and said friendly: "I wonder when you started following your brigade commander?"
"Report to Comrade Chief of Staff!" Vanya replied respectfully: "As early as during the Moscow Defense War, I was a subordinate of the brigade commander, and I once participated with him in the task of defending the Istria Reservoir."
Speaking of the Istria Reservoir, Malinin remembered that Sokov was still a company commander at the time. He successfully defeated the German conspiracy to blow up the dam and received a commendation from his superiors. The company was also awarded the "Istria" Company" honorary title. While shaking hands with Vanya, he asked curiously: "Comrade Captain, I want to ask you, which company is using the title of 'Istria Company' now?"
"Not yet." Hearing Malinen's question, Vanya said with some embarrassment: "Someone once asked the brigade commander such a question during a meeting, but the brigade commander said..." At this point, he suddenly thought of this Maybe Ma Lining just asked casually and didn't really want to know the answer, so he kept his mouth shut.
Unexpectedly, Malinen saw that he had only finished half of what he said and stopped, and quickly urged him: "Comrade Captain, why don't you stop talking? How did Lieutenant Colonel Sokov respond at the meeting?"
"He said," Seeing that Malinen was not asking for fun, but really wanted to know the answer, Vanya continued: "It stands to reason that the honorary title of 'Istria Company' can be awarded to a company of the first battalion." , but he was worried that the companies formed later would be dissatisfied, so he would not award it to any company for the time being. He planned to wait until the enemies besieging Stalingrad were defeated, and then decide which company to award this honor to based on the results achieved by each company."
"Sokov has thought very carefully." After listening to Vanya's words, Malinin nodded and said: "In this way, the companies in your brigade will compete during the battle, hoping that they can become the honorable unit. .”
The two chatted for a while and then saw an army walking along the road from outside the city. Malining raised his hand and slapped Vanya on the back, and said: "Comrade Captain, your brigade commander must be here. Why don't you hurry up and greet him." Vanya quickly agreed and trotted over to greet him. .
After a few minutes, Vanya and a few people came back, and they stopped in front of Malinen. Then, Malinin heard Sokov's voice: "Hello, Comrade Chief of Staff, I am Sokov. I obey your orders, please give me instructions!"
"There's nothing to give." Malinin stepped forward, held Sokov's hand, and said with a smile, "I'm just here to greet you."
Standing behind Sokov were Bely, Gurdiev, Sverin and others. When the three of them heard what Malinin said, they all thought: This Lieutenant Colonel Sokov is not simple. Even the front army The chief of staff came out to greet him personally.
After the three of them finished shaking hands with Sokov and Malinin, they also stepped forward to introduce themselves and say hello to each other. Although Ma Lining shook hands with the three of them and spoke politely, others could easily tell that there was a sense of unfamiliarity in his politeness.
"Comrade Chief of Staff." Sokov glanced at the troops standing on the road and asked Malinen with some embarrassment: "How should these commanders and fighters of the 308th Division be placed?"
"Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, you don't have to worry, leave this matter to me." After Malining finished speaking, he turned around and called a staff officer who had followed him, and told the other person: "There are many empty houses in the south of the city. , you are responsible for arranging the troops."
Seeing that Malinin asked his staff to find accommodation for his subordinates, Gurdiev quickly offered: "Comrade Chief of Staff, the political commissar and I will go with this staff officer. This can avoid unnecessary chaos."
Ma Lining considered that it was all in the dark at the moment, with a staff officer leading hundreds or thousands of people looking for accommodation in the city. Without the cooperation of capable people, chaos would easily occur. He originally planned to ask the commander of the guard battalion to bring people to assist, but when he heard that Gurdiev took the initiative to ask for help, he said smoothly: "Okay, Colonel Gurdiev, then you and the staff will go to the resettlement." Your subordinates. After all this is done, come to the front headquarters to see the commander."
After Gurdiev and Sverin left, Malinin smiled and said to Sokov and Bely: "Two comrades, commanders, you must be tired after walking all night. Why don't you come back to the front commander with me first?" department."
When Ma Lining arrived, there were four people in the car. Now a staff officer took Gurdiev and the others to find a place to live, and there were two empty seats in the car, just enough for Sokov and Bely.
The jeep returned to the entrance of the headquarters. After Vanya waited for Sokov and Bely to get out of the car, he took the two of them and walked inside. By the way, he mentioned the matter of Jia Xiaoning: "... General Jia Xiaoning proposed that because of him Our troops have lost an organic division, and we hope that we can agree to integrate Colonel Gurdiev’s 308th Division into the combat order of his 24th Army.”
The fate of the 308th Division has always been a knot in Sokov's mind. When he heard Ma Linin take the initiative to mention it, his heartbeat accelerated. He asked nervously: "Comrade Chief of Staff, can you tell me, you Do you agree to his request?"
Malinin shook his head, stared at Sokov with strange eyes and said: "Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, how is this possible? If the 308th Division was a unit of the Don Front, we would definitely agree to General Jia Xiaoning's request. But this unit now belongs to the 62nd Army of the Stalingrad Front, so what right do we have to make changes without authorization?"
After hearing Malinin's reply, Sokov's mental arithmetic that was hanging in his throat returned to his stomach. He laughed dryly and said: "That's good, that's good. As long as you don't integrate the 308th Division into the 24th Group Army, I can give an explanation to Commander Chuikov when I go back."
The three of them walked into the headquarters. After Ma Lining invited them to sit down at the long conference table, he ordered the orderly to pour them two cups of hot tea and prepare something to eat. After finishing all this, he also sat down, looked at Sokov and asked: "Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, I heard that you only suffered more than thirty casualties and captured the enemy's position. Tell me, you guys How did you do this?”
Sokov knew in his heart that the reason why Malinin asked this was because when they captured this position, they lost an entire division and made no progress. He only suffered dozens of casualties and easily captured the position. The difference between the two The contrast was too great, so Malinen wanted to find out.
"Comrade Chief of Staff, the situation is like this." Sokov said calmly: "There are two reasons why we were able to capture the enemy's position so easily."
Ma Lining took out a notebook, opened it on the table, and posed to record it, and asked, "What are the two reasons?"
"The first is the terrain. The south side of the hillside is flat, and the Germans have not built any fortifications, so we can invest tanks during the attack." Sokov said: "The second is the sneak attack tactics we used. Before the attack, there were no What kind of artillery preparations are made, that is to say, the enemy is not aware of our actions before approaching the enemy's position..."
After recording what Sokov said, Malinin nodded and said with emotion: "Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, the main reason why you can take down the enemy's position so easily is due to the proper use of tactics. To put it bluntly, If our front troops attack from the south, the casualties will definitely be much greater than yours."
Just as Sokov was hesitating how to answer Malinin's words, he suddenly heard a surprised voice coming from the door: "Misha, it's really you. You have also withdrawn from the position."
Sokov looked around and saw that the person standing at the door talking was Yakov. As soon as he stood up, Yakov rushed towards him, then gave him a bear hug, patted his back several times with his hands, and said excitedly: "Thank God, you are finally safe. The Earth is back, why am I still worried about what will happen to you?"
"Yakov, thank you for your concern." Regarding Yakov's concern, Sokov felt that his nose was sore. He tried hard to control his emotions, squeezed a smile on his face and said, "My The bullets that can kill me and the artillery shells that can blow me up haven’t been produced yet.”
Sokov's words immediately caused laughter in the room. Amidst the laughter, a tall middle-aged general walked quickly to Sokov's side. Following Yakov, he gave Sokov a warm hug and said with a smile: "Misha , you little guy always gives us unexpected surprises."
When Sokov was hugged, he was still muttering in his heart, who is this? It's too casual to just hug him. When he heard the other party speaking, he immediately recognized that the person hugging him turned out to be Lieutenant General Rokossovsky, the commander of the Don Front.
After Rokossovsky let go of Sokov, he grabbed both of his hands, took a step back, looked at him carefully, and said: "He has lost weight and become darker. But the whole person looks... I feel more mature."
After Rokossovsky let go of his hand, Sokov quickly stood at attention on the spot, stood up and saluted and said: "Comrade General, Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, commander of the 73rd Infantry Brigade, is reporting to you. I follow your orders." ,Please advise!"
"Okay, don't do this again." Rokossovsky waited for Sokov to report to him in accordance with the order, raised his hand and pressed down, and said: "Sit down first, I still have something to do. I'm asking you."
After Sokov sat down again, he looked up at Rokossovsky and asked respectfully: "Comrade General, what are your instructions?"
"Instructions are out of the question." Rokossovsky sat down opposite Sokov, looked at him and asked: "I just want to ask you, do you think that if our army uses that position as the starting point for the attack, what can we do? Pierce the German defenses and join forces with the defenders in the city?"
