The German ground forces were not close to Kiev, so it was their air force that came first to retaliate. Although our air force stationed at the Beijiao Airport launched a timely attack, we fought with enemy aircraft in the air. Although they achieved the results of shooting down seven and wounding two, losing five of their own, and successfully drove away the enemy aircraft, many bombs still fell in the city, of which a dozen bombs fell to the command. There was an explosion near the Ministry, and gray smoke enveloped the wide streets.

As our fighter planes and enemy planes were fighting in the air, Rebarko and I did not move to the basement and remained in the original headquarters. According to the latest situation received, the troops entering the city were transferred to the need for defense. Of the zone.

By noon, all units of the 12th Tank Army and the 321st Infantry Division had arrived in Kiev and were assigned to the new defensive zone. For the 15th Army, because of the sacrifice of its commander, the command system has not fully restored its policy. For the sake of safety, Rebarko left them on the left bank of the Dnieper River, holding on to the city occupied by our army, and protecting the newly opened up. Traffic line.

We were having lunch with Vitkov, who had just arrived at the headquarters, when the phone rang on the table. Major Pugachev came over and picked up the microphone. After listening for a while, he covered the microphone and reported to me: "Comrade Commander, the officer on duty at the airport reported that a transport plane from Moscow has landed at the airport. At the time, there were two fighter jets escorting."

Hearing Pugachev's report, my first reaction was that someone came? He stood up quickly and asked nervously, "Is there a commander sent by the superior?"

Pugachev shook his head and replied: "It's not a big man. It is a liaison officer sent by Comrade Marshal. He said that he has important orders to be handed over to you." After the report, he immediately asked again, "I need me. Send someone to the airport to order?"

If I consider sending someone to the airport, it will take at least an hour to go back and forth. I guess this order should be very important, otherwise Zhukov would not fail to send us a telegram. Instead, a liaison officer was sent to deliver the letter. With this in mind, I shook my head and told Pugachev: "Major, let the airport send people. Send that liaison officer here."

"Yes!" Pugachev agreed, released his hand covering the microphone, and said to the other party: "The commander has an order to send someone to **** the liaison officer to the command post. Remember, you must make sure that the liaison officer is Security."

Watching Pughachev finish the call. Kirilov said curiously: "Comrade Marshal didn't even telegraph, but sent a liaison officer to send the order. What kind of order would this be?"

After Kirilov finished speaking, Rebarko said in a puzzled way: "Comrade Marshal just sent us a telegram in the morning. If there is anything important, he should say it together. Why would he send a liaison officer at this time? Give us an order?"

I did not speak, but turned my gaze to Vitkov, wanting to hear his opinion. Vitkov put his elbow on the table, pinched his chin in his hand, and said thoughtfully: "Maybe Comrade Marshal saw that we succeeded in capturing Kiev. He felt that we could continue to expand the results, so he gave us Have a new attack target been formulated?"

I see everyone expressing their views, and couldn’t help saying: “We have just laid down Kiev. The current important task is to consolidate our existing line of defense and prevent possible German counterattacks. It stands to reason that the superiors will not be there. At this time, assign us new tasks."

Unexpectedly, Rebarko waved his hand after listening to my words and said: "This is entirely possible. After all, we have just ended the Battle of Kiev. It is absolutely necessary to start a new battle while the enemy has not recovered. "

In my mind. The concept of a battle is to have hundreds of thousands of troops and fight for one or two months. And we only fought a few battles with the Germans in a small area. Is this also a battle? With this question, I asked tentatively: "General Rebarko, the battle we just ended. Is it a battle?"

Rebarko nodded vigorously and said affirmatively: "Yes, although we did not invest much force this time and the scale of the battle was not large, the successful capture of Kiev was a great victory. Such a battle. It's not a battle, so what kind of battle can be counted as a battle?"

Although what Rebarko said was somewhat different from my understanding, I didn't ask any more, just nodded in a seemingly understandable way, indicating that I had understood it. Then, I promptly changed the topic: "General Rebarko, you see, Major General Glebov’s 27th Guards Infantry Division is still stationed in Brovari, and they need to be transferred to strengthen Kiev’s defenses. ?"

After staring at the map for a while, Rebarko shook his head and said: "Comrade Commander, I don't think this is necessary. If Major General Glebov's troops are in Blovari, they can help us fight the German offensive from the east. If they are transferred to Kiev, then our strategic depth will be gone. The enemy can rush to the city of Kiev at once, or even rush into the city to fight us on the streets, then we will be passive."

Vitkov promptly expressed support for this view of Rebarko. Seeing that the two people had the same opinion, I also stared at the map for a while. I felt that once Manstein’s troops got rid of the contact with the Voronezh Front, it was entirely possible to attack Kiev from the east, while the 27th Guards Division stood firm. Blavali, will become the eastern barrier of Kiev. Therefore, I did not insist on my own opinion, but agreed to say: "Comrade General, you are right. We must leave enough troops in Brovari to withstand possible attacks from the east. If this is the case, let us The 22nd Guards Division stay in Brovari."

Then, we studied how to deploy troops in the occupied area, so that the liaison officer who arrived from the airport walked into the headquarters, but I didn't find it in time.

Pugachev walked to my side and reminded in a low voice: "Comrade Commander, the liaison officer is here."

I was looking at the defense zone that Rebarko divided for the 79th Guards Infantry Division. After hearing Pugachev's words, I didn't react for a while, but casually asked: "The liaison officer, what liaison officer?" As soon as I spoke, I suddenly remembered the liaison officer sent by Zhukov, and quickly raised my head and asked him, "Where is the liaison officer?"

Pugachev snorted to the side, and I looked in the direction he directed and saw a major of medium stature. Standing quietly at the other end of the conference table.

"Come here, comrade major," I said politely to the major opposite.

The major walked in front of me at a neat pace, raised his hand to salute, and reported to me: "Hello. General Oshanina. I am the liaison officer sent by Marshal Zhukov. I am ordered to give you a secret letter. "After that, he took out a tightly sealed envelope from the briefcase he was carrying and handed it to me.

I took the envelope and took out the letter paper inside and looked at it. After reading it, I couldn’t help thinking: "What the **** is going on. Why did Zhukov ask me to rush back to Moscow? Didn’t he know that we just liberated Kiev, and there is still a lot to do next? How can I? Drop the troops at this time and go back to Moscow?"

After seeing me reading the order, Kirilov stayed silent and couldn't help but asked with concern: "Lida, I don't know what kind of order Comrade Marshal has given you?"

I thought that there was no need for them to keep this secret document secret, so I handed him the letterhead, and at the same time said to Rebarko and Vitkov: "Comrade Marshal ordered me to immediately transfer the command of the troops to Lei. General Barko, then the liaison officer who came to deliver the confidential documents. Return to Moscow together."

My words surprised everyone. Pougachev was standing not far from the liaison officer. I heard him whisper to the other person: "Major, do you know why you want to call Comrade Commander back to Moscow?"

The liaison officer shrugged his shoulders and said helplessly: "I'm sorry, Comrade Major, I was only ordered to deliver the letter to Comrade General. As for what is written in the letter, I don't know anything."

After Rebarko waited for Kirilov to read the letter, he immediately took it over. Look at the above content carefully. After reading it, he said with a serious expression: "Comrade Oshanina, Marshal Zhukov only asked you to hand over the command of the troops to me in this letter. But there is no explanation for the reason for the recall of you to Moscow. I guess. , This order was issued by the Supreme Commander himself, and Comrade Marshal was only conveying the order."

For Rebarco's analysis, I think it makes sense. If Zhukov wanted to call me back to Moscow, he would only need a telegram instead of sending someone to deliver some letter in person. Thought of this. I asked the liaison officer, "Comrade Major, am I the only one going back to Moscow?"

After listening to my question, the liaison officer first looked at the people who focused on him, and then replied: "The commander who was recalled to Moscow is only you, but you can bring a few guards back together. For example, Say Captain Yushchenko."

Hearing Yushchenko’s name mentioned by the liaison officer, and even the title of his military rank, which was the original captain rank, I knew better in my heart that the person who issued this order might really be of a higher rank than Zhukov. people.

"Major, when can we leave?" I asked the major.

The liaison officer replied blankly: "Comrade General, I am instructed to **** you back to Moscow after you have completed the transfer of command."

After listening to the liaison officer’s words, I turned my head and said to Rebarko who was standing next to me: “Pavel Semenovich, we don’t have time to be too particular about the situation. Since the commanders of the battle cluster are all there, Then let us carry out the handover ceremony of the command power of the troops."

As I said, I picked up a red and blue pencil on the table and wrote on the corner of the map: "Hand over command of the Dnieper battle group." Then, I wrote the date on the back, signed my name, and put The map was pushed in front of Rebarco.

Rebarko took the pencil in my hand without saying a word, and in the other corner of the map, he skillfully wrote "Pavel Semenovich Rebarko takes over the command of the Dnieper battle group."

Seeing that Rebarko had finished signing, I looked at my watch, and then said to Kirilov and Vitkov: "Political commissar, chief of staff, from now on, you will be under the command of General Rebarko."

As soon as I finished speaking, Kirilov stepped forward and took my hand, shook it vigorously, and said with concern: "Lida, I wish you a safe journey. I hope we can see you again soon."

"Comrade Commander, there will be a period later." As soon as Kirilov let go of my hand, Witkov also reached out to me.

"And me, Comrade Commander." Pugachev said not to be outdone. "Please take care of yourself. We also look forward to your return as soon as possible and continue to command us to teach the Germans severely."

After shaking hands with several commanders, I went to shook hands with the staff officers and communications soldiers sitting next to them. After finishing all this, I waved my head at the liaison officer and said, "Let's go, Comrade Major."

The jeep that Yushchenko and I rode drove until the door of the transport plane parked in the middle of the airport. But when I got out of the car, the driver turned his head and said: "Comrade Commander, I wish you a smooth journey, and hope to see you return to the army as soon as possible."

I smiled at the driver and nodded, turned and walked to the front of the plane, and got on the plane along the gangway.

After flying in the air for more than an hour, the plane landed at a military airport on the south side of Moscow. Before the plane landed, I looked at the vast expanse of forest outside from my porthole, turned my head and asked the liaison officer loudly, "Major, the location of this airport seems remote."

"Yes, Comrade General." Because the noise in the cabin was too loud, the liaison officer had to shout out loudly: "In order to avoid enemy planes from bombing our airport, we built a lot of such temporary airfields in the forest. . UU reading www.uukanshu.com"

"After the plane landed later, will anyone come to pick us up?" I asked again loudly, feeling the landing gear of the plane lowered.

The liaison officer shook his head and replied: "No one will answer, Comrade General. The order I received is to take you from Kiev directly to Marshal Zhukov's command."

Without much effort, our plane landed steadily at the airstrip. The liaison officer led me to a car parked near the runway, and actively opened the door and invited me to get in. I looked back at Yushchenko who was following, and a few guards, and asked the liaison officer: "What do they do?"

The liaison officer looked back and replied: "Please rest assured, Comrades, there will be a car to take them to the city later. Please get in the car, I guess Comrade Marshal is waiting in a hurry."

When the liaison officer said so, I stopped checking, nodded, and sat in the back row of the car. After closing the door, the liaison officer went around from the rear of the car to the other end, opened the door and sat in the position of the co-pilot, and told the driver: "Drive!" (To be continued.)