After dawn, when Yakov reported his work to Ustinov, he specifically mentioned Golikov's intention to transfer Sokov to the Voronezh Front.
After hearing this, Ustinov smiled faintly, and then said: "I really didn't expect that Sokov was so popular that even Golikov wanted to recruit him."
Yakov heard what Ustinov was saying, and quickly asked: "Comrade People's Commissar, was there anyone who wanted to recruit Misha into his ranks before?"
"As far as I know, Rokossovsky lobbied Sokov twice." Ustinov said: "The first time was in the town of Khimki, when Sokov had just been promoted to platoon leader. Rokossovsky promised to give him a company commander as long as he agreed to be transferred. In the first two months, Rokossovsky even proposed that as long as Sokov was willing to join his army, he would be given a company commander. The position of a military commander.”
"What, give him the position of army commander?" Yakov had heard Sokov mention Khimki's matter before, but he hadn't paid much attention yet. However, in order to recruit Sokov, Rokossovsky even promised him the position of army commander. Yakov did not know about this. At this moment, hearing Ustinov mention it, he felt it was a bit too far-fetched: " is this real?"
"Of course it's true." Ustinov nodded and said in a positive tone: "I have my own information channels, so I can get a lot of information that is unclear to the Ministry of Internal Affairs in time." He paused for a moment, He continued, "Both Rokossovsky and Golikov respect Sokov's opinions."
"Why do you say that?" Yakov asked curiously.
"This question is very simple." Ustinov said lightly: "If the two of them don't respect Sokov, they only need a transfer order to transfer Sokov to their army. Don't say Sokov Now he is just a division commander, even a military commander, no matter how unwilling he is, he can only obey orders obediently."
"Comrade People's Commissar," Yakov asked tentatively after waiting for Ustinov to finish speaking: "When do you plan to have him return to Stalingrad?"
Ustinov was silent, and after a long time, he spoke: "According to the Supreme Commander's wishes, Sokov will not be allowed to return to Stalingrad for the time being."
When he learned that the order not to allow Sokov to return to Stalingrad was actually given by his father, Yakov couldn't help but asked in surprise: "Why?"
"Perhaps, your father intends to send Sokov in a certain direction to participate in the fighting there when the situation deteriorates." After Ustinov finished speaking, he specially emphasized: "Of course, this is just My guess."
"Paulus' troops have been trapped by our army," Yakov said with a surprised look on his face: "Do they still want to break out?"
"Encircling the enemy does not mean that we can destroy the enemy." Ustinov said with a wry smile: "Last winter, our army besieged 100,000 German troops in Demyansk. For two and a half months, we relied on The German troops supplied from the air not only blocked the fierce attacks launched by our army from several directions, but also successfully broke through in the end.
Model's 9th Army was also besieged in the Rzhev area, and finally successfully shattered our army's siege.
In addition, there are Holm, Susinich, etc..."
Yakov heard the examples listed by Ustinov and found that the German army was indeed surrounded many times, but in the end they not only smashed the Soviet army's plan to annihilate them, but even successfully broke the siege. From this point of view, although Paulus's troops were besieged, it was not easy to annihilate them.
After listening to Ustinov's analysis, Yakov felt completely bad. He returned to his office with a depressed face and woke up Sokov who was sleeping in the room.
Sokov sat up from the sofa, rubbed his eyes, and weakly asked Yakov: "Yasha, have you asked for me when I can return to Stalingrad?"
"Asked," Yakov replied: "You may not be able to return to Stalingrad in a short time."
"Why?" Hearing that he could not return to Stalingrad for the time being, Sokov felt a little anxious.
Yakov repeated the conversation he had just had with Ustinov to Sokov, and finally said worriedly: "I think Comrade People's Commissar's analysis is very reasonable. Maybe my father will not let you come back for a long time." Stalingrad is to send you to the most dangerous place when the situation deteriorates."
After hearing this, Sokov couldn't help laughing: "Yasha, you actually believe this? You don't even think about it. I am just an ordinary division commander. If the situation in a certain direction really deteriorates, even if I am in danger, I will be ordered to do so." , I’m afraid it won’t help if we bring troops to support us.”
After Sokov's analysis, Yakov felt that this was really the case. Sokov has never attended any military academy. His current position as division commander is an exceptional promotion. It may not be easy to advance to the next level. Therefore, it is unreliable to say that he was kept in Moscow to prepare for dispatching to important areas at critical moments.
However, Yakov felt particularly disappointed when he thought about the possibility of Paulus' troops in the encirclement breaking through the Soviet siege. He asked Sokov tentatively: "Misha, do you think the Paulus troops in the encirclement will break through the encirclement of our army?"
"I think that if the Paulus Group in the encirclement can make a decisive decision to break out of the encirclement and break out from the southwest of the encirclement, then they may still be able to successfully escape. But now, not only have they failed to break out, but they have shrunk their forces. In our case A heavy troop group was formed in the middle of the encirclement, trying to use this method to resist our army's attack." Sokov sneered and said: "If their approach last year or early this year, maybe it would really be effective. But by doing so now, they are seeking their own death.”
Sokov's impassioned speech confused Yakov. He asked in confusion: "Misha, you have confused me. Can you tell me your reasons?"
"The reason is very simple." Sokov said seriously: "Last winter or early this year, the reason why our army was unable to annihilate the besieged German army was that the commanders and fighters involved in the attack lacked combat experience and their technical and tactical levels were also very poor; the second reason was that the equipment It was not sophisticated and could not compare with the German troops in the encirclement.
But more than a year of war has allowed our commanders and fighters to learn how to fight during the war, and their combat effectiveness has been gratifyingly improved. Moreover, various new types of equipment are emerging one after another, and compared with the enemy's technical equipment, they are not inferior at all. Tell me, can our army defeat the enemy now that its combat effectiveness has been improved and its equipment has been improved? "
"Well, if you go by what you said, it should still be possible for our army to defeat the German army." Yakov said thoughtfully: "But the German army has so many troops after all. If you want to eat them in one bite, , I’m afraid it will still take time.”
"In fact, the more enemies that are trapped in the encirclement of our army, the more advantageous it is for our army." After Sokov finished speaking, seeing Yakov's confused look, he explained to him: "We The heavily encircled Paulus group cut off their land supply lines, forcing them to rely on transport planes for aerial supplies.
The German air force wanted to supply Paulus' troops, which not only required fuel and ammunition, but also a large amount of food. It may be possible to maintain it in a short period of time, but over time, the enemy will have to reduce the ration standard. Think about it, if the Germans were starved for several months, would they still have the strength to continue fighting with us? "
Yakov knew about the siege of Leningrad. In order to ensure that more people could survive, the leaders of the city had to grit their teeth and repeatedly cut the rationing standards. His eyes suddenly lit up and he said excitedly: "Once there was a problem with the German army's supplies and it could not meet the needs of the trapped troops, Paulus had to reduce the soldiers' rations. In this cold season, the German soldiers could not eat Well, it’s easy to have a lot of non-combat attrition.”
After Sokov waited for Yakov to finish speaking, he added: "If our army dispatches the air force to continuously attack the transport aircraft that provide supplies to Paulus' troops, it will greatly reduce the supplies Paulus gets. Time. Over time, the combat effectiveness of Paulus' troops will be greatly weakened, which will reduce the pressure on our army in the next battle."
"Misha, your analysis is so reasonable." After listening to Sokov's analysis, Yakov admired him so much that he quickly expressed his stance: "I will truthfully present your analysis results to my father. Report."
When Yakov mentioned Stalin, Sokov couldn't help but feel a little moved. He asked tentatively: "Yasha, can you arrange an opportunity for me to meet your father?"
"I'm afraid that won't work." In response to Sokov's request, Yakov replied with a wry smile: "Don't say it's you, even I can't see him if I want to."
Seeing Sokov's disappointed look, Yakov quickly added: "But I can convey your analysis to Comrade People's Commissar and ask him to report the results of the analysis to his superiors when reporting to my father. , so that my father can also be aware of it."
Since he could not see Stalin and could not return to Stalingrad in a short period of time, Sokov could only focus on the hovercraft he was developing. After being silent for a while, he tentatively asked Yakov: "Yasha, since I can't return to Stalingrad in a short time, can you arrange for me to visit the hovercraft project team to understand the progress of their development."
Let Sokov go to see his father, Yakov is more than willing and unable to do so. But Yakov still had the authority to take Sokov to study the hovercraft project team, so he nodded and said: "Okay, Misha, I will arrange this as soon as possible and let you take a look at it." The development process of the hovercraft.”
