Sokov waited for the communication lines in the headquarters to be laid, and then immediately called Shechtman and said straight to the point: "Colonel Shechtman, this is Sokov. I think your subordinate Mihaye Captain Fu is a good captain, I am going to transfer him to the 73rd Infantry Brigade..."
When he learned that Sokov was planning to poach Mikhailev, Shechtman became anxious. Before Sokov could finish his words, he couldn't wait to say: "Comrade Commander, Captain Mikhailev is my subordinate. Before you prepare to transfer him, should you discuss it with me instead of notifying me directly like now?"
"Discuss?!" Sokov sneered and said: "Colonel Shechtman, if you want to transfer an officer from the 762nd Regiment to take up a position in another regiment, do you need to discuss it with the commander of the regiment, Prochenko? After discussing with the colonel and obtaining his consent, can you transfer that officer?"
"No, Comrade Commander." When Shechtman heard what Sokov said, he immediately realized that he had fallen into the other party's text trap. He could only bite the bullet and said: "I will tell him my decision directly. He was then ordered to have the officer report to his new unit."
"Comrade Colonel, you are right." Sokov waited for the other party to finish and said smoothly: "After Captain Mikhailev completes the handover, let him report to the new unit."
Shechtman looked sad and asked unwillingly: "Comrade Commander, can you really not keep Captain Mikhailev? You know, after our army liberates Kharkov, I plan to promote him to his post , let him be the battalion commander."
Sokov laughed after hearing this: "Comrade Colonel, don't you think the position of battalion commander is too low? This time he goes to the 73rd Infantry Brigade. Not only can he directly serve as the battalion commander, but he can also concurrently serve as deputy brigade commander."
As soon as Sokov's words came out of his mouth, Shechtman fell silent. For a four-battalion combat unit like the infantry brigade, the battalion commander who also serves as deputy brigade commander is more than one level higher than the battalion commander below his regiment-level unit. At this point, he had completely given up and could only say with a wry smile: "Okay, Comrade Commander, I will obey your order. After Captain Mikhailev completed the handover of work, I immediately asked him to go to the Infantry Division. 73rd Brigade reports."
"He is not the only one who is going to report, Comrade Colonel." Sokov was worried that it would be difficult for Mikhailev to go to the new unit alone, and he also specifically reminded Shechtman: "As long as he He can take the people he likes, whether they are officers or soldiers, to the new unit."
"Comrade Commander, you can't do this." After hearing what Sokov said, Shechtman began to complain: "If he wants to take this battalion over, what should I do?"
Shechtman's words were not without effect. At least they made Sokov make a concession: "Comrade Colonel, don't worry, I won't let him take away the entire battalion. You can limit the number of people he takes away, such as Let’s say there will be no more than thirty people, so that it will not affect the current combat effectiveness of the unit, and he will be able to carry out his work smoothly after he arrives in the new unit.”
After negotiating with Shechtman about Mikhailev's transfer, Sokov finally called Guchakov. After all, such a big matter as arranging the deputy brigade commander had to be communicated with the other party in advance.
After the call was put through, Sokov asked Guchakov: "Comrade Major, has your brigade reached the designated position?"
"Two battalions and artillery companies have arrived in the north of Dergach. The other two battalions and machine gun companies are still on the way. They are led by the deputy brigade commander, Colonel Weisbach. They will probably arrive at noon tomorrow."
After listening to Guchakov's report, Sokov immediately realized that he had made a mistake while busy and made a low-level mistake: the 73rd Infantry Brigade already had a deputy brigade commander, Colonel Weisbach. As a colonel and the deputy of a major, the other party is probably feeling aggrieved enough. Now that he has arranged for a captain to be on an equal footing with him, I am afraid that the other party will feel resentful.
Sokov didn't speak for a while because he was thinking about how to settle the matter. When Guchakov heard that there was no sound on the receiver, he thought Sokov had hung up the phone, so he quickly raised his voice twice and shouted: "Comrade Commander, Comrade Commander, are you still there?"
"Yes, I'm still here."
"Do you have any instructions?"
"Oh, that's it, Major Guchakov." Sokov had already made a decision at this moment. It was obviously inappropriate to let Colonel Weisbach serve as Guchakov's deputy for a long time. It was only a matter of time before he was transferred to other troops to take on more important positions. Now sending Mikhailev there would just serve as a transitional role. "I plan to send you a deputy brigade commander."
"Send a deputy brigade commander?" Guchakov asked in surprise: "Isn't Colonel Weisbach the deputy brigade commander of our brigade now? Why send another one?"
Sokov, who had been mentally prepared for a long time, said casually: "It is a bit unfair to let Colonel Weisbach serve as your deputy. I plan to wait until the end of this battle to let him take up a more important position. Now send The new deputy brigade commander is here just to play a transitional role."
"So that's it, I understand." After Guchakov answered, he then asked: "I wonder what the name of the new deputy brigade commander is and what his rank is?"
"His name is Mikhailev, and he has the rank of captain."
"What, the rank of captain?" Guchakov was startled by Sokov, and he asked cautiously: "Comrade Commander, you must know that Weisbach has the rank of colonel, which is higher than my rank. Now you I’m afraid it would be inappropriate to send an officer with a lower rank than me to hold the same position as him.”
"There's nothing wrong with that. I just said that as soon as the battle is over, I will transfer Colonel Weisbach to other units to take up more important positions." Sokov said: "Captain Mikhailev will not only He serves as deputy brigade commander and also serves as battalion commander.”
"Comrade Commander," Guchakov couldn't help but ask after hearing that Sokov assigned such an important position to Captain Mikhailev: "You take such good care of him, does he have any origins?"
Since he wanted Mikhailov to parachute to the infantry brigade, he naturally had to explain the situation of the other party clearly to the military commander of the brigade, so Sokov told Guchakov in detail what he knew about Mikhailov. He went through it again, especially the plot of persuading the enemy in the church to surrender. He talked about it very carefully.
After listening to Sokov's story, Guchakov felt a little more at ease. He at least knew that what Sokov sent was not a loser, but a capable commander. With the assistance of such a commander, it would be difficult for his troops not to win the battle. He quickly expressed his attitude to Sokov and said: "Comrade Commander, on behalf of the commanders and fighters of the entire brigade, I warmly welcome the arrival of Captain Mikheyev."
As soon as the transfer issue of Mikhailev was settled, Samyko came over and said to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, we just received a telegram from Colonel Chuvashov. He asked us when we can take offensive action? "
Sokov took the telegram from Samyko, quickly read the contents, put it on the table, and said: "Now that we have occupied Dergach, we can fight with the 98th Guards Division. By cooperating with each other, even if they are besieged by the enemy after seizing the bridge, we can send a large force to reinforce them in the shortest possible time."
Samyko had obviously guessed what Sokov would say. After Sokov finished speaking, he quickly asked: "Then when should they carry out the operation to seize the bridge?"
Sokov did not answer the question immediately, but instead asked: "What is the status of their ammunition reserves now?" He asked this, not unfoundedly worried. If his troops really occupied the bridge on the Oude River, the German army would be in danger of lifting the bridge. If there is a threat outside Kharkov, a large number of troops will definitely be dispatched to carry out uninterrupted counterattacks. Without enough ammunition, the 98th Guards Division would not be able to hold on for long in the face of a high-intensity German attack.
"Comrade Commander, you can rest assured about this." Samyko reported to Sokov: "Colonel Yakov's hovercraft detachment has delivered two bases of supplementary ammunition to the 98th Guards Division three times. These include more than 400 new rockets, plus the original ones, there are about 600 rockets."
"Six hundred new rockets will be very helpful for them to resolutely hold the bridge after seizing it." Sokov looked down at the map on the table, and then said to Samyko: "Comrade Chief of Staff , where is the enemy’s artillery position by the Oude River?”
Samyko walked to Sokov's side, lowered his head and looked at the table, then pointed to a location by the river and said to Sokov: "It's right here, about three kilometers away from the bridge."
"Three kilometers away?" Sokov couldn't help but frowned after listening to Samyko's words. "Once the enemy orders artillery to bombard the bridge in order to prevent our army from crossing the river, I won't be able to wait long before the intensive artillery fire will It can blow up the bridge and cause our army's river-crossing operation to fail."
"Comrade Commander, you are right." Samyko agreed with Sokov's concerns: "If the enemy's counterattack fails to recapture the bridge from our hands, they will take extreme measures , destroy the bridge with artillery fire, and then our troops will not be able to cross the Oude River through the bridge."
"To save the bridge, we must destroy the enemy's artillery positions."
"Comrade Commander, the new rockets now possessed by the 98th Guards Division are enough to turn the enemy's artillery positions into a sea of fire." Samyko tentatively asked Sokov: "Do you need to order Colonel Chuvasov to use it immediately?" Rockets to attack enemy artillery positions?"
"Comrade Chief of Staff, don't alert the enemy." Sokov shook his head and said: "The current task of the 98th Guards Division is to use their fake German identities to quietly carry out sneak attacks on the bridge and seize the bridge by surprise. Wait until they occupy it. After the bridge, it is not too late to use rockets to destroy the enemy's artillery positions." As soon as Mikhailev's transfer issue was settled, Samyko came over and said to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, we just received the news from Qiu A telegram from Colonel Vashov asking when we can take offensive action?"
Sokov took the telegram from Samyko, quickly read the contents, put it on the table, and said: "Now that we have occupied Dergach, we can fight with the 98th Guards Division. By cooperating with each other, even if they are besieged by the enemy after seizing the bridge, we can send a large force to reinforce them in the shortest possible time."
Samyko had obviously guessed what Sokov would say. After Sokov finished speaking, he quickly asked: "Then when should they carry out the operation to seize the bridge?"
Sokov did not answer the question immediately, but instead asked: "What is the status of their ammunition reserves now?" He asked this, not unfoundedly worried. If his troops really occupied the bridge on the Oude River, the German army would be in danger of lifting the bridge. If there is a threat outside Kharkov, a large number of troops will definitely be dispatched to carry out uninterrupted counterattacks. Without enough ammunition, the 98th Guards Division would not be able to hold on for long in the face of a high-intensity German attack.
"Comrade Commander, you can rest assured about this." Samyko reported to Sokov: "Colonel Yakov's hovercraft detachment has delivered two bases of supplementary ammunition to the 98th Guards Division three times. These include more than 400 new rockets, plus the original ones, there are about 600 rockets."
"Six hundred new rockets will be very helpful for them to resolutely hold the bridge after seizing it." Sokov looked down at the map on the table, and then said to Samyko: "Comrade Chief of Staff , where is the enemy’s artillery position by the Oude River?”
Samyko walked to Sokov's side, lowered his head and looked at the table, then pointed to a location by the river and said to Sokov: "It's right here, about three kilometers away from the bridge."
"Three kilometers away?" Sokov couldn't help but frowned after listening to Samyko's words. "Once the enemy orders artillery to bombard the bridge in order to prevent our army from crossing the river, I won't be able to wait long before the intensive artillery fire will It can blow up the bridge and cause our army's river-crossing operation to fail."
"Comrade Commander, you are right." Samyko agreed with Sokov's concerns: "If the enemy's counterattack fails to recapture the bridge from our hands, they will take extreme measures , destroy the bridge with artillery fire, and then our troops will not be able to cross the Oude River through the bridge."
"To save the bridge, we must destroy the enemy's artillery positions."
"Comrade Commander, the new rockets now possessed by the 98th Guards Division are enough to turn the enemy's artillery positions into a sea of fire." Samyko tentatively asked Sokov: "Do you need to order Colonel Chuvasov to use it immediately?" Rockets to attack enemy artillery positions?"
"Comrade Chief of Staff, don't alert the enemy." Sokov shook his head and said: "The current task of the 98th Guards Division is to use their fake German identities to quietly carry out sneak attacks on the bridge and seize the bridge by surprise. Wait until they occupy it. After the bridge, it is not too late to use rockets to destroy the enemy’s artillery positions.”
