In Moscow, fine snow flies.

In the villa on the boulevard, Victor was awakened by the ringing of the grandfather clock.

Rubbing his eyes and rolled over, lying on his back on the bed facing the roof, he wiped his face forcefully, trying to get rid of the sleepiness caused by lack of sleep.

By his side, Safina, with disheveled hair, was startled by him, gently slapped, stretched a snow-white arm over and put it on his chest, the little hand still scratched his chin, and her mouth was vague. Asked: "What time is it?"

"Seven o'clock," Victor said, stroking her smooth arm, "You can lie down for a while, I have to get up."

"I can sleep for another hour," Safina grunted.

"I have to go early today," Victor took her arm away, and when he got up, he kissed her on the forehead with a probe, "Comrade Vasilevsky made an appointment with me. It will be in my office at 7:30. meet."

"Then I will sleep for a while," Safina said, turning over and turning her back to him.

Standing up from the bed, pulling on the slippers, Victor wandered into the bathroom, washed briefly, and dressed neatly before going downstairs with his briefcase.

The little snow outside the door, and the dense snowflakes are also mixed with sporadic raindrops. With the arrival of February, the long winter is about to pass, and spring is coming. This may be the last snow of this winter.

Seeing him coming out of the small building, the guards on duty outside the door stood up straight and saluted him.

Victor returned the gift and stepped out of the yard on the wet stone road and onto the quiet tree-lined path.

The black Volga, which Varenka was driving, stopped by the side of the road. Victor waved his hand to his young entourage and motioned to him not to get in the car and to walk over. Varenka had no choice but to drive behind.

Despite the light snow, there are still some pedestrians walking on the boulevard in the early morning. These are all residents living nearby. They may know that Victor works in the People’s Committee of National Security, but they don’t know his specific position, because Victor is very Few in uniforms to show up nearby.

Say hello to those familiar with them, but within three or four minutes, Victor walked into the building of the People’s Committee of the National Security Council. When he rushed to the door of his office, Vasilevsky in uniform was already waiting. Over there.

As the current chief of the Soviet Red Army’s general staff, Vasilevsky would not choose to meet with Victor alone under non-special circumstances. However, today’s situation is a bit special. He was informed by the People’s Committee of National Security. , Came to accept the question.

That’s right, it’s the question. In the past three days, many military generals have received such comrades, not only Vasilievsky, but also Vaduddin, Koroteyev, Kamkov, and Pa Luo Jing et al.

There are many questions involved in the questioning, but there is only one theme: then an answer needs to be obtained from these people. Is Grigory Ivanovich Kulik a traitor, or is he? A cowardly capitulationist.

Three departments are responsible for this questioning: the Central Supervisory Committee, which is responsible for the final decision, the General Political Department, which is responsible for ideological and political review, and the National Security People’s Committee, which is responsible for proof.

To put it bluntly, it is the department where Victor works to determine whether Kulik has actually acted of treason; the General Political Department is responsible for reviewing his political issues; if it is determined that there are problems, then the Central Supervisory Committee will accept the entire case and take This former comrade marshal was sent to a military court.

After the questioning work in the past few days, in Victor’s view, Kulik’s treason problem is unlikely. His staff in the Red Army generals seems to be very good. At least the people who have been questioned have given him more positive opinions. evaluation of. But the evaluation given by most people basically includes one point, that is, his tactical thinking has fallen behind, and his commanding ability can't cope with the current battlefield situation.

As a marshal in the same period as Timoshenko and Shaboshnikov, Kulik seems to have been very unlucky in the two years since the outbreak of the war. When in the Western Front, he could not command his own troops. During the Battle of Leningrad, he refused to accept the offensive order from the front army headquarters on the grounds of his lack of strength.

If all this can be tolerated by Comrade Stalin, then what he did on the Kerch Peninsula really angered Comrade Stalin.

On the southern front, Kulik was in charge of Rostov’s defense. Facing the German offensive, he felt that his strength was insufficient, so he frequently asked for reinforcements from the base camp. Subsequently, Comrade Stalin personally issued an order to transfer him to the Kerch Peninsula to organize defensive operations in the area.

As a result, when the comrade Marshal Manstein's troops advanced to the front of the position, he felt that he was insufficient. This time, he did not seek support from the base camp, but without the permission of the base camp, he directly commanded the troops to evacuate the Kerch Peninsula, cross the Kerch Strait, and reached the Taman Peninsula. The entire Kerch Peninsula was directly thrown to Manstein, who was truly under-strength.

The most terrible thing was that Kulik’s unauthorized retreat had an overall impact on the battle situation on the southern front. Without the threat from the Soviet army in the eastern part of the peninsula, the Germans were able to concentrate their forces to conquer Sevastopol. Then, One returned to the teacher and took Rostov, who had been defending quite well before.

When news of the loss of the Kerch Peninsula spread to Moscow, especially after knowing that Kulik had barely resisted, he retreated directly. Comrade Stalin suffered a heart attack. So that night, Victor received an order to request. He arranged for people from the Caucasus Bureau to **** "this traitor" back to Moscow and throw him directly into prison.

In the past few months, Kulik’s affairs have not given a final determination, mainly because the situation in Stalingrad is anxious and no one cares about him. Now that the battle of Stalingrad has been won, Kulik’s affairs should also solved.

However, perhaps it was because the victory of the Battle of Stalingrad made Comrade Stalin happy, or because Kulik, as an old man of the 1st Cavalry Army, was a close friend of Comrade Stalin. Therefore, the order Victor received was this question. The work must be done by him himself. The list of generals who have been questioned are basically those who have relatively good relations with Kulik, like those who have a bad relationship with him, including Zhukov, Konev, and Yeremenko, are not on the list of questions.

As a rebirth, Victor is a very thoughtful person. From this order, he can see the result Comrade Stalin wants. Undoubtedly, Comrade Stalin hoped to teach Kulik a profound lesson and let him take a warning. At the same time, he didn’t want to beat him to death with a stick. Of course, this set of dramas should be performed like this, at least Don't let outsiders feel unfair.

It stands to reason that Kulik’s matter is really not small. If you take a look at his experience over the past two years, you can draw a conclusion. At least he is not too much to say that he is cowardly and wary: he thinks he is not strong enough, so Do not execute the offensive orders of superiors; think that he has insufficient strength, so he asks for support all day long; think that he has insufficient strength, so violate the order of never retreat, retreat without authorization, lose position, so as to affect the situation of the battle.

Therefore, he always thinks that he has insufficient strength, so don't others have insufficient strength? Cuikov has held on for so long with half of the army's strength in Stalingrad. When has his strength passed?

Therefore, his question can't stand scrutiny at all. Without those master interrogators, Victor believes that he can ask him speechlessly in a few sentences. What's more, before he retreated for the last time, his estimate of the strength of the German army was completely wrong. It was true that the opponent's strength was insufficient. He was completely scared off by the German army.

However, now all issues cannot be decided by Victor. How he thinks it is secondary, only what Comrade Stalin thinks is important.

Inviting Vasilevsky into his office, Victor first made two cups of coffee, put one of them in front of Vasilevsky, and smiled and said, "Taste it. It was obtained in the hands of an American journalist."

"Thank you," Vasilevsky smiled, he said while looking at the layout of the office, "I heard that the intelligence department has some news about Trussin and Zakuqin?"

Victor walked to his desk, took a notebook and a pen from the desk, and then returned to the sofa next to Vasilievsky. While sitting down, he said, "Yes, from Berlin. With the latest news from the intelligence department, they all betrayed."

Trussin refers to the former Chief of the Operations Division of the Northwest Front Army Staff and the rank of Major General, while Zakuqin is the former Chief of Staff of the 21st Infantry Corps, and his rank is also Major General.

"After the Battle of Stalingrad, the Germans seem to have changed their usual attitude towards our prisoners of war." Putting the notebook on his lap, Victor took a sip of his coffee and said, "They started a large-scale sip. Inducing surrender, including giving better housing and food treatment, giving better medical treatment, etc."

Shaking his head, he said with a smile but a smile: "This strategy is very effective. According to the information that has been sent back recently, from generals to middle-level commanders, including ordinary soldiers, more and more people surrender openly."

"Have you reported to Comrade Stalin?" Vasilievsky asked.

"Not yet," Victor said. "We will wait until the final result of Marshal Kulik comes out."

The tone of voice paused, he looked at Vasilievsky and smiled: "You know, if such information is sent up at this time, Marshal Kulik is likely to be angered."