Chapter 1452 The Truth

   Sokov took Lunev, Weisbach and Bunch, under the protection of the guard platoon led by Samoilov, to the Fesky collective farm overnight.

   It is more than 30 kilometers from Gergach to Fesky collective farm, and the road has become potholed due to the long-term fighting. For safety reasons, the speed limit for driving at night cannot exceed 30 kilometers per hour. Sokov was so anxious that he kept urging the driver to speed up from the moment he got in the car, so that he must arrive at the Fesky collective farm as soon as possible.

  Sokov and Lunev sat side by side in the back row of the jeep, frowning and thinking hard.

  Seeing that Sokov was silent, Lunev asked in order to resolve the embarrassment in the car: "Comrade Commander, do you think the 384th Division's operation tonight will be successful?

"Comrade Military Commissar," Sokov confidently replied to Lunev's question: "Our attack in the direction of the landing field has successfully attracted the attention of the German army. direction, and there is no sign of strengthening the defense."

"That's good, that's good." As Sokov's partner, Lunev believes in Sokov's ability very much. Since he said that there is no problem with tonight's offense, there must be no problem. He said happily: "As long as the 384th Division successfully breaks through the German Oud River defense line, we will have two landing fields on the east bank. When the time is right, we can send troops to attack from the two landing fields at the same time, making the enemy hard to defend."

"Comrade Military Commissar," since Sameko is in command of the headquarters, Sokov will naturally not be distracted by this matter. What he is worried about at the moment is that he will send out commanders without asking for instructions. , taking over an infantry division and a tank brigade from friendly forces. It doesn't matter if the superior turns a blind eye; but if there are serious people who insist on pursuing it, then I can't afford it and walk away. "Are you saying that if I do this, there will be trouble?"

"Trouble?!" Lunev waited for Sokov to finish speaking, and said with a smirk: "Comrade Commander, what should I say, this matter is big or small. If the superior does not pursue it, then there is nothing wrong; if If you have to pursue it, you may still have the possibility of going to a military court."

"I think as long as I can lead them to victory after taking over the two units, I guess the superiors will not pursue it." Sokov is worried about another thing: "In any case, this matter must be reported to the superiors. Report. Tell me, should I report to Commander Konev, or should I bypass General Vatutin and report directly to Marshal Zhukov?"

Lunev thought for a long time, and said: "I think it is more appropriate to report directly to Marshal Zhukov." Without waiting for Sokov to ask again, he continued, "The troops you received are all from the Voronezh Front Army. Even if you report to Marshal Zhukov Commander Nev reported that after he understands the situation, he also needs to negotiate with General Vatutin. It is still unknown whether you can keep these two troops.

   And report directly to Marshal Zhukov. After he understands the situation, he may directly issue an order to put these two troops under the organizational system of our army group. In this way, no one can gossip. "

Sokov felt that Lunev's proposal was good, so he took out a pen and paper from his briefcase, quickly wrote the message, and handed it to Samoilov who was sitting in the co-pilot seat: "Comrade Lieutenant, we will Send this telegram to Marshal Zhukov as soon as you arrive at the Fisky Kolkhoz."

   "Wait a minute, Comrade Commander, don't worry." But Lunev put forward his objection from the side: "Don't rush to send a telegram to Marshal Zhukov."

   It was Lunev who told him to report to Zhukov; it was Lunev who stopped him from sending a telegram to Zhukov at this moment. Sokov's heart was full of doubts: "Why?"

"Although the scouts reported to us the information from the Fesky collective farm, it is unclear what exactly happened." Lunev explained to Sukov: "If we rush to report to the Marshal Zhukov reported and asked him to agree to our incorporation of these two units. He must have refused. Once rejected, these two units will be completely out of our favor.”

   "Hmm, that makes sense." After listening to it, Sokov kindly took back the telegram from Samoilov. "Then it won't be too late to report to Marshal Zhukov after I figure out what happened to the Fesky collective farm."

When they arrived at the Fisky Collective Farm, the first battalion led by Captain Mikhaiev had already taken control of the farm, and moved all the commanders and fighters who fell to the ground into nearby houses or arranged them neatly on the side of the road. batch.

The jeep entered the farm, and Sokov looked through the window glass at the friendly commanders and fighters lying on the side of the road outside, smelling the strong smell of alcohol in the air, he couldn't help frowning: "Damn, where did they find it?" Vodka?"

  Sitting in the co-pilot position, Samoilov saw a sentry outside the door of a nearby building, so he concluded that Captain Mikhaiev had set up his headquarters there, and quickly pointed out the direction to the driver.

  After everyone got out of the car, Sokov, surrounded by several commanders, walked towards the building.

  The sentinel guarding the door, there is no reason why he didn't know Sokov, so he stood at attention and saluted.

  Sokov asked: "Where is your battalion commander?"

   "Yes, Comrade Commander." The sentinel replied in a panic, "He is having a meeting with some company commanders inside."

  Sokov walked into the dimly lit room illuminated by candles, and saw a few people sitting around the table. He squinted his eyes and watched for a while before he recognized Captain Mikhaiev and his company commanders. They were discussing something intensely, and they didn't find Sokov standing at the door at all.

  Sokov stood at the door for a while, and found that the debate seemed unlikely to stop, so he stopped waiting, but walked over, and asked bluntly, "comrades, commanders, what are you discussing?"

When Mikhaiev heard someone talking, he suddenly raised his head and saw Sokov and several officers. He hurriedly stood up from the table and saluted Sokov: "Comrade Commander, the 73rd Infantry The deputy brigade commander and first battalion commander Mikhaiev reports to you that we are discussing how to clean up the mess in the collective farm."

   "Clean up what mess?" Sokov asked coldly.

"Comrade Commander, when our battalion arrived here, we found that the ground was full of our commanders and fighters." Mikhaiev reported to Sokov: "After our careful inspection, we found that these people were not injured, but drunk. .”

"Drunk?!" Although Sukov came here, the information he got was that all the commanders and fighters in the Fesky collective farm were drunk and unconscious: "Who can explain to me, what is going on? thing?"

"Report to Comrade Commander," Mikhaiev waited for Sokov to finish, and immediately went on to say: "After I arrived here with the troops, I sent people to settle these drunk commanders, and on the other hand, I sent people to look for the drunk commanders. Sober personnel, ask them about what's going on here."

   "Have you checked it out?"

"The German army has several warehouses and a huge underground wine cellar in the Fesky collective farm." Mikhaiev said: "In the underground wine cellar, the Germans stored the production of the French winery for a year, and there were also There are millions of cigarettes and canned goods stored on a scale sufficient to consume a medium-sized town for half a year."

  Sokov heard this and realized what the problem was, so he tentatively asked: "So, our commanders and fighters are all drunk because they drank the fine wine stored in the enemy's underground wine cellar?"

"Yes, there are a lot of empty vodka cans around these drunk commanders." Mikhaiev continued to report: "In order to find out what is going on, I sent people to search the farm, hoping to find out what happened. The top commanders of the two armies were found. Fortunately for us, both were found and placed in the next room."

   "Oh, the two commanders of the friendly army are next door," Sokov asked with some surprise: "How are they doing now, are they still conscious?"

   "Sufficient." Mikhaiev shook his head and said, "Although I sent health workers to sober them up, they drank too much, and they won't be able to sober up in a while."

   "Comrade Captain," Sokov thought that he had brought someone to take over the troops. The commanders of the two troops are now in a state of unconsciousness. It would be very easy to dismiss them from their posts. So Sokov told Mikhaiev: "You send someone to the next door to see if the two commanders are awake."

   Mikhaiev agreed, called a soldier, and told him in a low voice to go to the next room to see if the two commanders who had drunk the fragments had woken up.

   As soon as the soldiers left, Mikhaiev suddenly saw Weisbach standing behind Sokov, raised his hand to salute him, and asked in surprise, "Comrade Colonel, why are you here?"

Sokov recalled that Mikhaiev set off earlier and did not know that he planned to appoint Colonel Weisbach as the acting commander of the 300th Infantry Division, so he took the initiative to explain to him: "Comrade Captain, I will bring Colonel Weisbach over here." , to take over the post of commander of the 300th Division."

Hearing what Sokov said, Mikhaiev was very surprised. He asked in amazement: "Comrade Commander, Colonel Atakuz, the commander of the 300th Division, can continue to command the troops as soon as he sobers up. What about dropping him?"

"Just the charge of making the commanders and fighters of the army drunk unconscious and delaying the fighter plane is enough to send him to a military court." Sokov said in a stern tone: "The reason why they appeared in this area is because the superiors sent them to the military court." They came to help us. But what about them? They did more than they did. Everyone was drunk. Fortunately, there were no Germans around. If there was an enemy, even if there was only one company, it would be like killing pigs and sheep. Annihilate our two forces.

  In order to avoid similar things from happening again, I plan to send someone to take over the positions of the two commanders and assign their troops to our army. "

  At this time, there was a sound of chaotic footsteps at the door, as well as the hoarse roar of two people. Sokov turned his head and saw four soldiers, in groups of two, each supporting a drunken officer. Although both of them were strangers, Sokov immediately guessed their identities from their military ranks.

  The soldier dragged the two of them to Sokov. Because of the hangover, the two of them couldn't stand at all. If it wasn't for the soldier's support, they would have fallen to the ground. Seeing this, Sokov couldn't help frowning, and then raised his voice and shouted: "Stand at attention!"

   Following Sokov's shout, the two drunk commanders instinctively stood at attention. When he saw clearly that among the people standing in front of him, there was actually a major general and a lieutenant general, and he woke up more than half of the wine in shock.

  Colonel Atakuz hastily raised his hand to salute Lunev, and said nervously: "Comrade General, Colonel Atakuz, commander of the 300th Infantry Division, is reporting to you. I will follow your orders, please instruct!"

"Comrade Colonel," Lunev didn't hear his order clearly because Atakuz's speech was ambiguous, and could only address the other party's military rank: "Come and tell me, what's going on here, why are all the people here?" All commanders and fighters will be drunk?"

"Comrade General," Atakuz replied nervously, "when we occupied the Fiski collective farm, some soldiers discovered an underground wine cellar containing thousands of jars of vodka. To celebrate our successful liberation from German-occupied I let the commanders and fighters drink to celebrate. Who knew that we drank too happily and accidentally drank too much."

  Seeing that Atakuz, who made such a serious mistake, has not yet realized the seriousness of the problem, Lunev couldn't help stamping his feet angrily. And Sokov said with a blank face: "Comrade Colonel, I am Major General Sokov, Commander of the 27th Army Group. I am honored to inform you that due to the serious mistakes you have committed, I temporarily suspend you from serving as division commander." position, subject to review by superiors."

   "Comrade General," Atakuz never dreamed that Cheng Yaojin would appear next to him, and he couldn't help saying angrily, "Your superior hasn't spoken yet, and you're just dictating me..."

"Superior?!" Lunev pointed at his nose with his index finger, and asked Atakuz: "The superior you mentioned refers to me, right?" Without waiting for Atakuz to make a statement, he continued, " Comrade Colonel, you are mistaken. Although my military rank is higher than that of Comrade Sokov, I am his deputy, and he has the final say on everything here."

   Realizing that he had made an own mistake, Atakuz suddenly felt blushing on his face. Fortunately, his face had already turned red from being drunk, and the people around him couldn't see anything strange about him.

  The tank lieutenant colonel, who was standing beside him without speaking, hurriedly stepped forward and reported to Sokov: "Comrade general, I am Lieutenant Colonel Chukliko, commander of the 37th tank brigade."

Sokov glanced at the lieutenant colonel with contempt, and said angrily: "Comrade lieutenant colonel, I formally inform you that you have been dismissed from the position of brigade commander of the tank brigade due to drunkenness. You vacated The position will be taken over by Major Bunch under me, you can handle the handover with him now."

   "Comrade General," Chukliko seemed a little flustered when Sukov asked him to handle the handover with Major Bunch: "I know I was wrong, can you give me another chance?"

   Seeing Chukliko take the initiative to admit his mistake, Sokov felt a little bit unbearable, and his tone of voice became much more relaxed: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, what kind of opportunity do you think I should give you?"

  (end of this chapter)