red moscow

Chapter 2643

After seeing Khrushchev off, Sokov suddenly had a bad feeling in his heart. He was obviously a general commanding thousands of troops, but why did he have to ask him about local affairs? Did Khrushchev still want him to go to Kiev to help him?

When Sokov returned to the living room, Asiya was packing up.

Seeing Sokov coming in, she asked curiously: "Misha, what did Comrade Khrushchev talk to you about?"

Sokov thought to himself that building a skyscraper should not be considered top secret, so he said boldly: "Comrade Khrushchev said that he plans to build some more modern buildings in Moscow and asked me if I have any ideas."

Asiya smiled: "You are not an architect. You are asking the wrong person to help you with house repairs."

After laughing twice, Asia seemed to have thought of something, and her expression became serious: "Misha, Comrade Khrushchev even asks you about this kind of thing. Does he still want you to go to Kiev to help him?"

"That's entirely possible." Sokov nodded and said in a positive tone, "Otherwise, I can't think of any other reason why he would come to me just for such a trivial matter."

"If he really invites you again, will you go to Kiev?"

"I won't go." Sokov shook his head and said, "I've already told you that according to various signs, Ukraine is likely to face a food shortage crisis this year due to drought. I'm good at commanding troops to march and fight, but if I want to solve the food crisis, I don't know where to start."

"Misha, no matter what decision you make, I will respect your choice." Asia said solemnly: "If you want to go to Kiev, I will go with you to Kiev; if you want to stay in Moscow, I will stay with you in Moscow."

"Where is Seryosha?" Sokov suddenly remembered Seryosha. Since Khrushchev appeared, he had been hiding without a trace, so he specifically asked Asia about his whereabouts.

"I found him a room upstairs," said Asia. "If he can't find his old home tomorrow, he can live there permanently."

Sokov raised his hand to check the time and said, "I'm a little tired and want to go upstairs to rest. You don't have to call me for dinner. I'll eat when I wake up."

He originally thought he could only sleep for a few hours at most, but when Sokov opened his eyes again, he saw that it was still daylight outside.

"Misha, you're awake." Standing beside the bed, Asiya asked with a smile, "Are you hungry?"

Hearing Asiya's question, Sokov felt his stomach growling, so he nodded and said, "I've been sleeping for a long time, and I'm really a little hungry."

"You have been sleeping since yesterday afternoon until now." Asia said, "You have slept for more than ten hours."

"Ah, I slept for so long?" Sokov asked in a panic, "Did anyone call me during the time I was sleeping?"

"No, there was no phone call for you." After saying this, Asia asked Sokov tentatively: "Misha, do you want to come downstairs to eat, or should I bring it to your bedside?"

"I'll go downstairs and eat." Sokov said, "I have hands and feet, how can I let you bring the food to me?"

The two men came to the living room and saw that it was empty, with no one there. Sokov asked curiously, "Where is Seryosha, where is Vaseligov?"

"Seryozha went back to where he came from, and Vaserigov went with him, fearing that he might get into trouble on the way."

"Vaseligov is right." Sokov nodded and said, "Seryosha has just returned from Siberia and does not have an official identity in Moscow. If he encounters a patrol checking his identity on the way to the old house, he will be in trouble."

"Misha, I want to ask you something."

"what's up?"

"If, I mean if," Asia asked seriously, "if you hadn't met Seryosha when you went to see Lukin this time, do you think he would still return to Moscow?"

"I don't think so." Sokov shook his head and said, "Even Seryosha's statement that he had written to me was probably a lie. From what I know about him, he is a very proud person. He was captured by the Germans, and after being rescued, he was sent to Siberia for forced labor. This has seriously hurt his self-esteem. If he comes back rashly and meets acquaintances, he might become a laughing stock. He definitely doesn't want to see this situation."

"Poor Seryosha." Asia said with emotion, "If you hadn't been injured at the time and had let him follow you, maybe you wouldn't have been captured. Judging from his expression on the battlefield, even if he couldn't become a general, it's entirely possible for him to become a lieutenant colonel or even a colonel."

When Asia mentioned Siberia again and again, Sokov couldn't help but think of Lukin. As soon as he got off the train yesterday, he was picked up by someone sent by Zhukov. He didn't know what happened to him now. He wanted to contact him, but he didn't know where he was.

Just as Sokov was considering whether he should call Zhukov to ask about Lukin's whereabouts, the phone in the room rang.

Sokov quickly stood up, went over, picked up the microphone and put it to his ear: "I'm Sokov!"

"Misha, this is Rokossovsky."

"Hello, Comrade Marshal." Hearing that it was Rokossovsky's voice, Sokov was overjoyed: "Are you fully recovered?"

: "Yes, I have been out of the hospital for some time." Rokossovsky continued: "I am going to the General Staff today, can you come?"

Sokov didn't know why Rokossovsky asked him to go to the General Staff Headquarters, so he hesitated: "I'll go, okay?"

"Of course." Rokossovsky said in a positive tone: "Marshal Zhukov asked me to call you."

Knowing that it was Zhukov's idea to let him go to the General Staff, Sokov dared not neglect it and said quickly, "I will rush over as soon as possible."

Since moving into the villa, the superiors have given Sokov another car, plus the original bucket car, now there are two cars. When Vaserigov accompanied Seryosha to the old house, he drove away one car, and his bucket car was still at home.

Seeing Sokov was about to go out, the guard on duty at the door immediately came out and asked, "Comrade General, are you going out?" "Yes, I am going out." Sokov nodded and said in an affirmative tone, "I need to rush to the General Staff Headquarters immediately."

"Comrade General, if you don't mind, I'll drive you there."

Sokov thought that since Zhukov had assigned him several guards, if he wanted to go out, he would definitely have to take two with him, so he nodded in agreement: "Okay, you can call a companion and we can set off."

Half an hour later, we arrived at the General Staff Headquarters.

Since Sokov had been here last time, many people knew him, and some even took the initiative to bring him to Antonov's office.

Antonov, who was sitting behind his desk, saw Sokov coming in and quickly stood up and greeted him, "General Sokov, you're here!"

"Yes, Comrade Chief of the General Staff," Sokov replied, "I came here on orders."

"Today's meeting will be held in the same conference room as last time," Antonov said. "I still have things to deal with here. You can go there first."

When Sokov came to the conference room alone, he found that there were already quite a few people sitting there. Judging from their shoulder straps, there were people ranging from marshals to lieutenant generals, and many of them were unfamiliar faces.

Just as Sokov was still looking around, searching for someone familiar in the crowd, he heard a voice calling him from the side: "Misha, Misha!"

Sokov turned his head and saw that it was Rokossovsky, and he walked towards him quickly.

Coming closer, Sokov raised his hand to salute Rokossovsky and said politely: "Hello, Comrade Marshal! It is a pleasure to see that you have recovered."

"We are all family, don't be so polite." Rokossovsky patted the empty seat next to him and said, "Sit here."

After Sokov sat down next to Rokossovsky, he asked in a low voice: "Comrade Marshal, what is the matter that made you call me here today?"

"We originally planned to conduct a large-scale military exercise in Europe at the end of April," Rokossovsky said. "Now that the European and American allies have learned of this news through special channels, they intend to take countermeasures and conduct a military exercise of comparable scale."

Hearing what Rokossovsky said, Sokov was stunned: "Comrade Marshal, if our exercise schedule conflicts with that of the European and American armies, will there be any trouble?"

"They conduct their exercises, and we conduct our exercises, and there is no conflict between us." Rokossovsky continued: "What we are going to discuss at today's meeting is, if the imaginary enemy launches a new attack on us through Ukraine, what measures should we take to deal with it?"

A map of Europe immediately appeared in Sokov's mind, and he began to think about where the imaginary enemy would most likely launch an attack deep into the Soviet Union.

Seeing Sokov in deep thought, Rokossovsky took out a folded square map from his bag, unfolded it and placed it in front of Sokov: "Here is a ready-made map, you just need to point it out."

"Comrade Marshal," Sokov said to Rokossovsky, looking at the map in front of him, "When the Great Patriotic War broke out, the huge German army used three army groups to break through our army's defenses from different directions and entered our territory. Now the Germans have been completely defeated. Within a hundred years, they will not be able to launch an attack in depth into our country. Comrade Marshal, I think this assumption is inappropriate."

"I've already said that this is an exercise," Rokossovsky said with a smile. "In war, anything can happen. Just tell me, if you want to rush deep into our country, what are you going to do?"

Since Rokossovsky asked this, it would be inappropriate for Sokov not to say something. He pointed to the map and said, "If the troops I command were the German troops back then, I would choose to stay put in the north and middle areas, and launch an attack from the southern army group to Ukraine. After occupying the entire Ukraine, I would use this place as a springboard to expand the results of the war deep into our country."

"If we withdraw troops from Belarus to reinforce the defense of Ukraine during your offensive, what are you going to do?"

"The troops I originally placed on the Belarusian border were only used for surveillance and containment." Sokov pointed to the map and said, "Then this direction will become the new main attack direction. While Belarus's troops are weak, we will launch a surprise attack and break through the defenses of this area in one fell swoop."

"Even if Belarus cannot reinforce Ukraine, I can mobilize the troops originally deployed in Russia to strengthen the defense of Ukraine." Rokossovsky said with a smile: "Will this break your attempt to occupy the entire territory of Ukraine?"

"Comrade Marshal, it seems that you have considered it very carefully." Sokov pointed to the eastern part of Ukraine. "I will order the troops to advance towards the Dnieper River and build a line of defense along the river bank. As you know, all rivers in the country have the same trend. The left bank is flat, while the right bank is a cliff. Once we build fortifications on the right bank, you will inevitably pay a heavy price if you want to attack the right bank from the left bank."

"Very good," Rokossovsky said approvingly, "I believe that if your troops occupy the right bank, the attacking side will only be able to land on the right bank after suffering heavy casualties. But we can't get through, and you can't get to the left bank either. How do you plan to break this deadlock?"

"Comrade Marshal, I will definitely choose one or two locations to break through and establish a landing site in the left bank area to threaten your defense line. For example, Kremenchuk and Zaporizhia are very good landing sites." Sokov continued: "In this way, in order to prevent the defense line from being breached, you can only mobilize heavy troops to be deployed near my landing site."

After listening to Sokov, Rokossovsky nodded slowly and said, "That's right. Once your troops establish a landing site in the left bank area, then in order to stabilize the defense line, I will have to withdraw troops and deploy defenses around the landing site to prevent you from breaking my defense line."

"That's true." Sokov nodded and said, "Perhaps in the next period of time, we will engage in a brutal tug-of-war near the landing site, turning this place into a meat grinder that consumes the forces of both sides."

"Is there any way to break the impasse?" Rokossovsky asked calmly.

"Of course." Sokov nodded and said, "I will pretend to stabilize the two landing sites to attract you to transfer more troops to the area. Then I will find a suitable location to break through your defense line on the Dnieper River again and establish a new landing site."

"So where do you plan to break through?"

"Here, Cherkasy." Sokov continued, "Once our army breaks through your defenses in the Cherkasy region, we can split into two groups. One group will go down the river to support the Kremenchuk and Zaporizhia landing sites, and the other group will go north and head directly to Kharkov. If I'm lucky, I can also break directly into Kursk Oblast. It's only 550 kilometers from there to Moscow. If everything goes well, we can arrive in a week at most."

"Misha, if a war really breaks out, do you think there won't be heavy defense in the direction of Moscow?"

"I don't really want to seize Moscow. I just want to force you to withdraw troops from the front to defend Moscow." Sokov said, "If you really do this, the initiative on the battlefield will fall into my hands."

(End of this chapter)