Early the next morning, Chuikov woke up from his sleep. The first thing he did was to ask Krylov, who was on the night shift: "Chief of Staff, has Colonel Sokov called?"
"No phone call, Vasily Ivanovich!" Krylov answered, shaking his head.
Although he did not get the answer he wanted, Chuikov still asked unwillingly: "Chief of Staff, tell me, what is Colonel Sokov doing at the moment? Has he sent out the task force?"
Seeing Chuikov worrying about gains and losses, Krylov couldn't help laughing. He replied: "Comrade Commander, what's wrong with you? Don't you have great confidence in Colonel Sokov? Why have you become so uncool? "
"I can't help it." Chuikov stood up, walked to the place where the samovar was placed, turned on the faucet and put himself a cup of hot tea. Then he came over with a teapot and said to Krylov: "The enemy is attacking the barricade factory and the Czech Republic." The attack on the Erzhinsky factory is so fierce that if we don’t take some action, I’m worried that the factory will not be saved.”
Hearing what Chuikov said, Krylov fell silent. No one knows the situation of the two factories better than him. Every time he answers the phone and hears that such and such a place has been occupied by the enemy again, his heart feels like a knife. Facing the request for reinforcements from the commander below, he could only repeat over and over again: I have no reserve team, and you must rely on your own strength to resolutely block the enemy.
"What's wrong with you, Chief of Staff?" Seeing Krylov in a daze, Chuikov couldn't help but curiously asked: "What are you thinking about? I saw you kept this posture for several minutes."
Chuikov's voice woke Krylov out of his reverie. He sighed softly and whispered: "Comrade Commander, if our superiors don't send us more reinforcements, I'm worried that the city may be lost. "Perhaps he was worried that Chuikov would say that he was panicked, so he added, "Of course, I'm talking about the worst-case scenario."
"Chief of Staff, you don't need to explain." Chuikov also understood the situation in the city, otherwise he would not have tried to let Sokov's troops launch an attack in the south of the city. He just hoped to have a way to indirectly support the two sides. Soldiers and workers fighting hard in a factory. "The situation in the city is getting worse day by day. Yesterday I heard from Division Commander Zoludev that his troops seized the diary of a German officer. The officer wrote in the diary: 'The enemy and we are fighting for every building. Houses, workshops, water towers, railway embankments, even a wall, a cellar and every pile of rubble were fought over with an intensity never before seen.'
Chief of Staff, did you hear that? Not only do we feel that the battle was extremely brutal, but even the Germans on the attacking side now feel the same way. "
"Comrade Commander," seeing Chuikov not blaming himself, Krylov asked him again: "Would you like to ask your superiors to send us reinforcements? Even if there is only one division or one infantry brigade, we can It’s the two factories where the unfavorable situation has been alleviated.”
"Neither Commander Yeremenko nor Comrade Khrushchev will just watch the city fall." Chuikov waited for Krylov to finish and then said thoughtfully: "If they There are mobile troops that can be used, and they must have been sent to the city a long time ago. The fact that they have not received any reinforcements can only mean that they are also facing a situation where they have no available troops. "
"So, we have no other choice but to think of another way." Krylov asked Chuikov cautiously: "How about I call Colonel Sokov and ask him what the situation is like there, the troops who destroyed the enemy's ammunition depot , has it been dispatched?”
Chuikov thought for a while, reached out and grabbed the phone, and said, "I'll make this call."
The call was quickly connected to the division headquarters at Mamayev Ridge. When he heard Sidorin's voice coming from the receiver, Chuikov immediately asked impatiently: "Lieutenant Colonel Sidorin, this is Chuikov."
Sidorin was shocked when he heard that the call was from Chuikov. He raised his hand and looked at his watch. Seeing that the time had just reached seven o'clock, Chuikov came to the phone. There must be something important. He asked nervously: "It's me. , Comrade Commander! What instructions do you have?"
"I want to ask," since it was his old subordinate Sidorin who answered the call, Chuikov did not go around in circles, but asked directly: "Have the troops that went behind enemy lines to destroy the ammunition depot set out?"
"Yes, Comrade Commander, the team has already set off." Even if Chuikov didn't take the initiative to ask about it, Sidorin planned to wait until dawn and find a time to report to the headquarters. Since Chuikov asked about it at this moment, he would answer Said: "The team has a total of twenty people. The members are from the division headquarters guard battalion and the downsizing regiment. The team is led by Lieutenant Grisa. He has just returned from behind enemy lines not long ago and has rich experience in fighting the enemy behind enemy lines. Therefore, the division commander asked him to Responsible for commanding this squad."
"What, there are only twenty people?" Chuikov said with some disappointment: "The enemy's ammunition depot must be heavily guarded. I'm afraid these few people were wiped out by enemy fire before they even got close to the ammunition depot."
"Don't worry, Comrade Commander." Regarding Chuikov's worries, Sidorin explained with a smile: "Twenty people are more than enough. They have the ability to destroy the enemy's ammunition depot at a long distance."
"Destroy the enemy's ammunition depot at a long distance?" Chuikov repeated Sidorin's words and asked: "Do they carry mortars? If so, it is indeed possible to destroy the enemy's ammunition depot at a long distance. Ammunition Depot."
"They are not using mortars, Comrade Commander." Sidorin quickly explained to Chuikov: "They are the new rockets you have seen."
"Haven't the new rockets been used up a long time ago?" Chuikov asked in confusion: "Where did they come from now?"
"When Lieutenant Grisa led his troops on a mission behind enemy lines, he hid three of them somewhere behind enemy lines because they were inconvenient to carry." Sidorin replied: "They planned to use New rockets destroy enemy ammunition depots."
"That's great." Chuikov knew the power of the new rockets and was overjoyed to learn that Sokov actually had such a magical weapon in his hand. But he quickly thought of a key question: "Do you know where the enemy's ammunition depot is?"
"We don't know the exact location yet." Sidorin continued: "But after a series of analyses, I feel that the enemy may have located the ammunition depot in the town of Gorodishe." This may be because Chuikov, like Sokov, , worried that blowing up the ammunition depot would cause disaster to the residents of the town, he preemptively explained, "According to reliable intelligence, all residents in the town had been evacuated two months ago, and now the town is full of Germans."
Chuikov did have the same idea as Sokov, but after hearing Sidorin's explanation, the boulder hanging in his heart immediately fell to the ground. He nodded and said into the phone: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, if there is any new progress, remember to call me in time."
"Don't worry, Comrade Commander." Sidorin replied: "I will keep in touch with you at any time."
After receiving Sidorin's assurance, Chuikov put down the microphone with relief and said to Krylov sitting aside: "Comrade Chief of Staff, Sokov has sent a small team to the enemy. I believe it won't be long before we can defeat him." I heard the good news." After saying that, he saw Krylov's confused look and remembered that when he called, the other party seemed to have also answered a call, and he probably didn't hear the conversation between him and Sidorin. Then he repeated the content of the call just now to Krylov.
After listening to Chuikov's story, Krylov also showed joy on his face. He said in surprise: "Comrade Commander, if the enemy's ammunition depot is really located in Gorodishe, then tomorrow at the latest, it will be at the barricade. The German troops in the area of the Factory and Dzerzhinsky Factory will have to temporarily stop the attack due to lack of ammunition. In this way, we can gain valuable time to readjust our defense deployment."
