Chapter 2002

Sokov's convoy returned to the headquarters of the group army smoothly. Seeing that it was getting closer and closer to the headquarters, Koshkin, who was sitting in the co-pilot position, suddenly turned his head and said to Sokov: "Comrade commander, Bel The hovercraft unit commanded by Colonel Jin should have arrived!"

   "Oh?!" Sokov asked in surprise, "How do you know?"

   "Look at the forest on the right." Koshkin pointed to the forest on the right and said to Sokov: "The hovercraft parked inside should be the latest hovercraft, right?"

  Sokov quickly turned his head and looked out of the car window, and he saw many huge monsters covered with tarpaulins parked in the forest, and the soldiers with live ammunition next to them serving as guards were indeed very likely to be hovercraft.

   Seeing Sokov staring out the window, Koshkin tentatively asked: "Comrade Commander, why don't we stop and have a look to see if it is a hovercraft?"

"No need, Captain Koshkin." Although Sokov wanted to see what the newly manufactured hovercraft would look like, he was worried that Belkin was waiting to be himself at the headquarters, so he rejected Koshkin's proposal : "We will go back to the headquarters according to the original plan. As for whether these things in the forest are hovercraft, we will know when we see Colonel Belgin."

   As soon as the convoy stabilized outside the headquarters, before Sokov had time to get out of the car, he saw Sidolin rushing out of the headquarters and went directly to the outside of the car to help him open the door.

  After getting off the car, Sokov asked Sidolin curiously: "Comrade Chief of Staff, how do you know I'm back?"

"I called the front army headquarters an hour ago, but the commander who answered the phone told me that you left very early." Sidolin explained: "I guess you must be on your way back to the headquarters , then ordered the troops along the way to pay attention, and immediately reported to the headquarters when they found your convoy.”

   "Just now I received a call from the resident observation post, saying that your convoy has entered the control area of ​​the headquarters, so I rushed out to meet you. Let's go, Comrade Commander, everyone is waiting for you."

   When Sokov and Sidolin walked inside, Sokov tentatively asked: "Comrade Chief of Staff, is Colonel Belkin here?"

   "That's right." Sidolin nodded his head and said with certainty: "Colonel Belkin and his hovercraft unit arrived at our defense zone in just over an hour, otherwise I wouldn't take the liberty of calling you."

As soon as he walked into the headquarters, before Sokov's eyes adjusted to the light in the room, a person quickly walked over and gave him a bear hug: "Misha, I really didn't expect that we would meet again so soon. "

Recognizing Belkin's voice, Sokov patted his back and said, "Belkin, I really didn't expect you to come as soon as you said you would, without saying hello beforehand. If I hadn't told you Thea called, I didn't know you were on the front line."

   "Did Assia tell you that I'm coming here?"

   "Of course not." Sokov shook his head and said, "She only knows that you left the weapons and equipment and brought a batch of hovercraft to the front line. As for which front line it is, she has no way of knowing."

  Belkin let go of Sokov, and asked curiously: "Then where did you come from and knew that I was coming here?"

"Who knows your whereabouts best?" Sokov asked himself and answered, "Since Asya didn't know your whereabouts, I called Comrade Ustinov directly, and he told me that You came to me with the hovercraft unit."

   After figuring out what was going on, Belkin also heaved a sigh of relief. You know, where he took the hovercraft unit to, this matter is absolutely confidential in the Weapons and Equipment Department. If Assia really said it, it might cause some unnecessary troubles for Assia, after all, this is a leak.

   But if Ustinov personally told Sokov about this, it would be another matter. This is not classified as leaking secrets, but reporting to relevant parties is reasonable.

After Sokov asked Belkin to sit down, he asked curiously: "Belkin, since Comrade Ustinov agreed to your request and handed over these hovercraft to us for use, you should call me and let me know. what."

"No way," Belkin said rather helplessly: "From the time I received the departure order to the departure, Comrade Ustinov gave me two hours. Time to call you."

   Seeing that the other party didn't want to elaborate on the matter, Sokov changed the subject in time: "By the way, Belkin, why were you suddenly transferred to the weapons and equipment department?"

"Misha," Belkin said, "after you were injured and left the army last year, one of my old superiors visited the army. After meeting and chatting with me for a long time, he suggested that I work in the rear. I thought He was talking casually, so he didn’t object. As a result, one day, I received a transfer order from Moscow, only to know that I was transferred to the Armament Department and took over General Yakov’s position.”

   "Oh, so that's the case." Sokov nodded, and then asked again: "I don't know if you came this time, is the ship empty or full of cargo?"

   "Misha, since I came here with the hovercraft unit, I definitely won't come empty-handed." Belkin said with a smile: "Except for the five combat hovercraft, the other 15 transport ships are full of supplies."

"Comrade Commander," said Sidolin on the side, "after I met Colonel Belkin, I asked about it, and after hearing what he said, I went to see it myself. They are the weapons and ammunition we urgently need. In order to prevent leakage of secrets, I asked them to park the hovercraft in the forest, cover it with canvas, and send people to guard it, so that no one who is irrelevant is allowed to approach easily."

"Comrade Chief of Staff, you are doing the right thing." Sukov praised Sidolin's arrangement: "Not only the weapons and ammunition on the hovercraft, but also the hovercraft itself, before the battle begins, don't let too much If the Germans know that our attacking force has hovercraft, they will definitely strengthen their defenses, and I am afraid that we will pay more when we break through the enemy's defense line."

Hearing what Sokov said, Belkin added on the side: "Yes, if the enemy knows that we are equipped with hovercraft, they will definitely strengthen their defenses. I remember that we used hovercraft to easily cross the outside of Belgorod. The river, occupied the river defense positions of the German army.

  After the enemy suffered this loss, they learned a lesson. On the river defense positions outside Kharkov, they not only pulled barbed wire, but also laid minefields, just to prevent our army from using hovercraft to break through their positions again. By the way, Misha, when will you attack the enemy? "

  Sokov heard Belkin's question and knew in his heart that because the other party was not high enough, he was not qualified to know about such an important operation as Bagration. But now that he has come to his own territory and will assist his troops to launch an attack, it is still possible to tell him some inside information.

So he pulled over a map on the table, pointed to the position where his troops were about to attack, and said to Belkin: "Belkin, look, this is where my troops are about to attack. No To tell you the truth, there is a large swamp on our way forward, and it would take half an hour for the attacking troops to pass through this swamp at the fastest. Now with the hovercraft you brought, it can take two to three minutes at most to cross the swamp. Wide swampy area."

Belkin looked at the map with a shocked expression on his face: "Misha, why did you launch an attack from the swamp area? Also, how did I hear that the next stage of the attack will still focus on Ukraine, How did it become Belarus in the blink of an eye?"

"Belkin, the statement that Ukraine will be the next main attack direction you know is a kind of strategic deception implemented by us on the German army, which made the German high command make a wrong judgment. It also ensures the smooth progress of the campaign and has a major impact on the entire campaign.

  Because it was impossible to deploy large-scale mechanized troops in Belarus, the Supreme Commander placed all four tank armies in Ukraine, which made the German High Command make a wrong judgment on the direction and time of our army's attack. Maybe after our offensive campaign in Belarus started, the Germans would still consider it a diversionary feint, which caused most of the German troops and weapons on the Eastern Front to be wasted in Ukraine, while the troops in Belarus were due to their strength. Weakness cannot resist the powerful offensive of our army. "

After listening to Sokov's narration, Belkin stared at the map for a while, then nodded and said: "Misha, it seems that our army's deception tactics are very successful, at least not long ago, I firmly believed that , Our army’s new main attack direction will still be in the Ukraine region. Since even I will make wrong judgments, let alone the Germans. It seems that the Belarus campaign launched by our army this time will definitely be successful.”

   "It's more than a success." Sokov, who knew the results of the Belarus campaign, said confidently: "The Belarus campaign will be an unprecedented great victory."

   "Comrade Commander," Sidolin couldn't help interjecting again when he heard this, "I think it would be great if we could achieve greater results in this Belarus campaign. How dare we mention a great victory."

"Comrade Chief of Staff, you are so pessimistic." Sokov smiled and said to Sidolin: "This battle has mobilized so many troops, and it was a breakthrough from the weakest German defense area. Definitely more than you can imagine. So I think it's very appropriate to call it a great victory."

  Sidorin believed in Sokov's commanding ability, but this time he was not the commander of the battle, but just a participant. What he said was not so credible.

  But before he raised his doubts, Sokov suddenly asked: "By the way, where did Comrade Deputy Commander go? Why didn't I see him?"

"Before you came back, he received a call from Colonel Kirillov. It seems that after a period of searching, he found something." Sidolin explained to Sokov: "After the deputy commander answered the phone, call me He said hello and left. Colonel Belkin arrived at the headquarters after he left."

  Since Kirillov was mentioned, Sokov couldn't help asking Sidolin: "Chief of Staff, do you know what Colonel Kirillov found?"

   "I don't know." Sidolin shook his head and said in an uncertain tone: "The deputy commander didn't tell me, but from his expression, I think it should be something very important."

Belkin was confused by the conversation between the two, and couldn't help asking Sokov, who told him: "Because there is no suitable position for Colonel Kirillov in the army, I will temporarily A search team was formed, led by him to search for military warehouses that our army may have left behind in the defense zone."

"Misha, please forgive me, if you really want to find some military warehouse in your defense area, I'm afraid you will be disappointed." Belkin said sharply: "It's next to the swamp, and it's too humid. It's not suitable for a military warehouse at all, so I say you will be disappointed."

"Belkin, I've considered the possibility you mentioned a long time ago." Sokov said with a smile: "But it's not because Colonel Kirillov is free and has nothing to do, and I'm afraid that he will make something wrong, so I specially give it to you. What job did he get?"

   "Then guess what Colonel Kirillov found?"

   "I'm not a **** who can pinch and count. I don't know what Colonel Kirillov found!"

   "Comrade Commander, do you think you will find gold?" Sidolin said.

   "This is unlikely." Sokov said hesitantly: "The location where the gold sank should not be within Colonel Kirillov's search range."

"Is there anything impossible." Sidolin insisted on his own opinion: "Since there is one bank that throws gold into the swamp, there may be a second or third bank that can't escape the German encirclement. , chose to throw the gold into the swamp."

   "Gold, what gold?" Belkin asked with a smile, "What are you guys talking about? It confuses me."

"Belkin, the situation is like this." Sokov explained to Belkin: "Some time ago, one of my regiment commanders reported to me that a soldier in his regiment was a national soldier before the war. Employees of Minsk Bank, after the war broke out, the bank urgently transferred 180 tons of gold. Unexpectedly, on the way, they were bombed by enemy planes and intercepted by German ground forces. In order to prevent this batch of gold from falling into German hands, they chose Sink all the gold into the swamp."

   "That batch of gold didn't fall into the hands of the Germans in the end?"

   "No." Sokov shook his head and said, "After the offensive campaign begins, the bank will organize people to search carefully and salvage the sunken gold location."

"Oh, so that's what happened." After figuring out what was going on, Belgin said to Sokov: "I think Chief of Staff Sidolin is right, since there is a bank that can sink the transferred gold into the swamp, It is entirely possible that there will be a second, or even a third bank sinking gold into the swamp. Maybe Colonel Kirillov found this gold, so he can't wait to call the deputy commander and tell him to rush there immediately Check."

"It's hard to say." Sokov is not a fairy, how could he know what Kirillov found, he could only smile bitterly and said: "We can only find out what we found after the deputy commander returns." Know the answer."

  (end of this chapter)