When Sidorin waited for Sokov to put down the phone, he kindly reminded him: "Comrade division commander, you just asked the factory to produce grenades for us without asking for instructions. If your superiors find out, I'm afraid they will blame you. You See if you can report this matter to Commander Chuikov to avoid unnecessary trouble in the future."
Sokov raised his hand and looked at the time. Seeing that it was already early morning, he shook his head and said, "It's too late. I think we should wait until dawn."
Next, the three of them conducted a careful study on the defense issues in and around Mamayev Heights. Just when everyone saw that nothing happened and was about to go to rest, the phone on the table rang. Sidorin glanced at the ringing phone and said to Sokov with a half-smile: "Comrade division commander, isn't it the commander who is calling you to accuse you of launching a division?"
Sokov stared at the phone and said to Sidorin with some guilt: "Chief of Staff, please answer the phone. If the commander calls and curses, please explain a few words to me first." Sokov said Sidorin pushed him out because he had a good personal relationship with Chuikov and it would be better for him to come forward than him.
2.0 Sidorin guessed Sokov's thoughts, but did not expose him. Instead, he picked up the microphone and put it to his ear and said: "I am Chief of Staff Sidorin, where are you?...Ah, it's you, comrade colonel. !Hello... You are looking for the division commander. He is here. Please wait a moment. I will put him on the phone right away." Sidorin covered the phone with his hand and whispered to Sokov, "It's Colonel Bely. , he said he has something important to ask you."
"Colonel Bely is looking for me?" Sokov thought to himself. Since Bely went to the Red October Factory, he has had almost no contact with him. What will happen if he calls himself at this time? He took the phone with doubts and said, "Hello, Colonel Bely, this is Sokov."
"Hello, Misha!" Belei asked with a smile on the phone: "I didn't disturb your rest."
Sokov quickly glanced at the watch on his wrist and saw that it was already three o'clock in the morning. "No, I haven't slept yet. Colonel Bely, you called me at this time. Do you know what happened?"
"Misha, you may not know that my troops are no longer at the Red October Factory..."
"What, not at the Red October Factory?" Although Sokov passed by the Red October Factory during the day, he had no time to find out where the tank troops were stationed. When he heard Bely saying that defenses had been deployed, he asked curiously: "Colonel Bely, I wonder where your superiors have transferred you?"
"At the Dzerzhinsky Tractor Factory, judging from the situation during the day, it was the focus of the German attack." Bely said in a serious tone: "Since the troops defending there lacked effective anti-tank weapons, the commander placed Our entire brigade was transferred there specifically to deal with enemy tanks."
"Colonel Bely, if according to what you said, there will be no tank units of our army in the Red October Factory?" Considering that Bely was no longer under his command, the organization of the tank unit was restored from battalion to brigade, so simply Cove asked with a sense of luck: "Are there no more cars?"
"No more." Bely replied with a wry smile: "Our entire brigade currently has less than forty tanks. They are all deployed at the Dzerzhinsky Tractor Factory. There are not enough tanks. There are still excess tanks left elsewhere."
"The Dzerzhinsky Tractor Plant is now the largest tank manufacturer in our country," Sokov asked strangely, "Can't they provide you with the tanks you need?"
"If it had been a few days ago, it would have been possible." Bely complained to Sokov: "Now the enemy has rushed near the factory, and the shells fired by their tanks may fall in the production workshop and explode at any time. As for the production in the factory, all production had to be stopped."
Sokov held his chin with his hand and thought to himself: Belei called him in the middle of the night, there must be something important. Talking to him so much now is just to pave the way for what will happen next. Thinking of this, he yawned and said into the microphone: "Colonel Bely, do you have anything else important to do? If not, I want to go to rest. I have been severely deprived of sleep in the past few days, and the total is less than Ten hours.”
When Sokov said he was going to rest, Bely stopped talking in circles and got down to business: "Misha, I'm calling you because I want to ask for a favor from Lieutenant Agavon!"
"Lieutenant Agavon?" Sokov couldn't help but frowned when he heard this unfamiliar name: "Colonel Bely, who is he? I have never heard of this name."
"Misha, stop joking." Sokov's answer surprised Bely. He quickly reminded: "You sent someone to escort him to the army headquarters. How could you not know who he is?"
Bely's words suddenly reminded Sokov of a person. He quickly covered the microphone with his hand and asked Sidorin and Ivanov who were sitting opposite him: "That tank lieutenant who was escorted to the headquarters by me?" ,What is your name?"
"Agavon!" Sidorin and Ivanov said in unison: "Lieutenant Agavon."
After figuring out the name of the tank crew lieutenant, Sokov immediately understood the purpose of Bely calling him in the middle of the night. He released his hand covering the microphone and asked, "Colonel Bely, do you want to plead for him?"
"That's right, Misha, I do want to plead for him." Seeing that Sokov had seen through his intentions, Bely no longer concealed it, but nodded and said: "He is one of the people I value more. Subordinate, I do not want him to be court-martialed."
"Comrade Colonel," Sokov said with a straight face: "I think you should already know what he did. It was because he was greedy for life and afraid of death. As a result, more than ten or twenty of our officers and soldiers were captured by the German army..."
"Misha, you are right. Lieutenant Agavon did make mistakes before." Bely tried his best to defend his subordinates and said: "It was his first time to participate in the battle. He had no combat experience and was afraid of being a human being." It’s normal…”
"Colonel Bely..."
"Misha, don't speak yet. Listen to what I have to say." Sokov was about to retort, but was interrupted by Bely: "Even if Lieutenant Agavon did anything wrong, it was in the past. In the past year or so, he has made countless meritorious deeds under my command. It is precisely because of his outstanding military exploits that I will send him to take charge of the security work of the headquarters. Not to mention the distance, let’s just say that during the day, in order to protect the headquarters, The German tank you captured drove to a safe place, but of the sixteen soldiers he brought with him, only seven survived."
To be honest, Sokov was indeed very angry when he heard Guchakov accuse Agafoon of what he had done. But as time went by, he felt that under the conditions at that time, Agaphon was probably participating in the battle for the first time and was frightened by the enemy's strength, so he fled in a hurry.
Regarding the process of capturing the Tiger tank, Sokov heard Sidorin say that it takes a lot of courage to brave the enemy's shelling and bombing and bravely rush to the tank near the explosion point. It would be inappropriate to send Agafond to a military court just because of some mistakes he had made in the past.
"Colonel Bely." Sokov did not rush to express his position, but asked: "What do you think should be done with him?"
"There are not many excellent tank commanders like him in my brigade now." Bely said in a consultative tone: "Misha, can you see if you can tell the commander that he can forget the blame and let him go?" Stay and continue to command the troops."
If someone else had mentioned this, Sokov might have refused, but Bely was a comrade who had fought side by side. He finally made a request to himself, and even if he wanted to refuse, he didn't know how to say it. After a long time, he said: "Colonel Bely, I have sent someone to escort him to the army headquarters. Is it too late to say hello to the commander now?"
"No, it won't be too late." Bely heard that Sokov was planning to be more liberal, and said with some excitement: "As long as you don't pursue the case anymore, I will personally negotiate with the commander."
"Okay." Sokov decided to give Lieutenant Agavon a way out for Belly's sake, so he said readily: "On behalf of the division, I will express my opinion that we will not pursue this matter any longer. As for the Army Group Headquarters It’s up to you to negotiate how to deal with it over there.”
The conversation between Sokov and Bely was heard by Sidorin and Ivanov sitting nearby. As soon as Sokov put down the phone, Sidorin couldn't wait to ask: "Comrade Commander, are you really not going to pursue this matter?"
"No more pursuing it." Sokov waved his hand and said: "Since Colonel Bely called us personally to plead for mercy, we must give him this face. As for Guchakov, we will keep it from him for the time being. After a while, he will naturally forget about it."
After finishing speaking, Sokov raised his hand to look at his watch, yawned again, and said to the two of them: "It's getting late, so you should seize the time to sleep for a while. Otherwise, you won't be able to sleep even if you want to wait until dawn. Opportunity.”
As soon as Sokov lay down on the cot in the corner, he heard the harsh ringing of the phone again, startling his drowsiness to disappear. Just as he was secretly considering whether to change rooms and continue sleeping, he heard Sidorin, who had just picked up the phone, say to him: "Comrade division commander, your call is from the commander."
"Is this a call from the commander?" After hearing what Sidorin said, Sokov immediately jumped up from the bed. He didn't even bother to put on his boots and ran over barefoot: "Hello, comrade commander, I am It’s Sokov, what are your instructions?”
"Colonel Sokov, I think you have received a call from Bely, right?" Chuikov said hesitantly on the phone: "The Lieutenant Agavon you sent to the headquarters has been carefully checked by General Orel. After cross-examination. After our repeated research, we feel that his behavior of abandoning friendly forces and escaping without permission under the circumstances was extremely wrong and should be severely criticized. However, just because of an old incident, a man was We feel it is inappropriate for a commander with many military exploits and rich combat experience to be sent to a military court."
When Sokov heard this, he was secretly glad that he decided to let Lieutenant Agavon go for Belly's sake. Otherwise, even if he rejects Bely, he will not be able to reject Chuikov and will offend Bely. He quickly asked cautiously: "Comrade Commander, I wonder what you plan to do with him?"
"Under the current circumstances, I think it is enough to lock him up for two days." Chuikov said: "After all, we now need a large number of commanders with combat experience."
"Comrade Commander," Sokov waited for Chuikov to finish speaking and immediately expressed his attitude to him: "Colonel Bely just called me and talked about Lieutenant Agavon. At that time, he may have been the first Participating in a battle for the first time, he was frightened by a powerful enemy, so he did the wrong thing of abandoning friendly forces. I believe that he must have been feeling uncomfortable for such a long time, and he must have been blaming himself in his heart. In this case, we might as well Give him a chance to change his ways..."
Listening to Sokov's talk, Chuikov found that none of the series of rhetoric he had prepared was used. After finally waiting for Sokov to finish speaking, he changed the subject in time: "Colonel Sokov, a few hours ago, Director Peter called me and said that you asked him to produce a batch of grenades for you. With this Something?"
"Yes, Comrade Commander." Regarding asking Peter to produce grenades for him, Sokov originally planned to wait until dawn before reporting to Chuikov. Since he took the initiative to ask, he took the opportunity to say: "I think the grenades we are using now, Since there was no help from the Germans, we asked the factory director Peter to make a batch for us so that we could better attack the enemy."
Regarding the fact that Sokov stepped over him and directly asked the factory to produce grenades, Chuikov was not angry in his heart. He was just curious about why Sokov wanted to imitate German hand grenades: "Colonel Sokov, can you tell me why you let Peter Where’s the factory director’s imitation of the German army’s grenades?”
"Comrade Commander, don't you think the wooden handle grenades used by the Germans are more effective than the grenades used by our army?" Some scenes from the movie emerged in Sokov's mind, in which countless Soviet commanders and soldiers fired at the enemy. Because of the lack of weapons, many people hold a huge grenade in their hands. In many cases, instead of throwing it to blow up the enemy, they prepare to use the grenade to kill the enemy in close combat. "And our army's grenades require special training to ensure that they do not explode when thrown."
"Colonel Sokov, what you said makes sense." Chuikov knew very well that the grenades used by the Soviet army were indeed not as effective as the German wooden handle grenades, so he said approvingly: "After the grenades are produced, you first If it works well after a trial period, I will ask Director Peter to increase production so that all commanders and fighters in the entire army can be equipped with the new grenades."
