Steel Soviet Union

The not-so-long conversation with Zhukov was over.

Malashenko also waited until the moment he stepped out of the camp before he finally felt relieved. He finally understood the purpose of Zhukov's call for him. In short, there were only two reasons.

First, ask yourself about the battle situation of the battle just now, and see how the leading division's combat effectiveness has recovered after taking a break, how well it has mastered the newly installed technical equipment, whether it can fully exert its combat effectiveness on the battlefield, and the final question at the end of the day. This is the question of "whether the leadership division is currently ready for high-intensity frontal combat and to play the role of a sharp knife."

The second thing is to arrange combat missions after Malashenko gave a positive answer.

The next combat mission, in Zhukov's words, is that "the stage has been set up for you, the props have been prepared for you, and all the cooperating personnel are in place and ready. Now it's up to you." Can you sing well if you play the lead role?"

This is what Malashenko has been looking forward to for a long time, a tough battle that can show the true strength of the leader. It is the only tough battle that can be remembered as "tragic" in the existing history. Malashenko I feel that it is worthy of today's leader to exert all his strength and give 100% of his strength to go all out.

Compared with this, a small battle like killing the 502nd Battalion seems not worth mentioning. On his own behalf, Zhukov also congratulated Malashenko on his successful revenge for his fallen comrades. On behalf of the Front Army Headquarters, he also expressed his affirmation to the leading division for regaining honor and erasing shame on the battlefield.

After all, this was a losing battle that cost the leader's division an entire company of elite heavy tanks and failed to achieve any decent results. Even Comrade Stalin asked Zhukov, who was accompanying the leader to dine together, about it in his spare time at the dinner table. . Afterwards, he asked with great concern: How is the young man doing? Is it possible to view such a failure correctly and continue to lead the troops?

As Malashenko's consistent "firm supporter", Zhukov's answer at the time was definitely "no problem."

As the supreme strategic commander, Comrade Stalin did not understand the following specific situation, and it is impossible for Zhukov, who is familiar with Malashenko, not to understand.

On the question of "whether you still trust your command ability?" Zhukov did not believe that Malashenko could be defeated by such a small setback.

The most famous tank hero of our Soviet Union went up mountains of knives and fell into seas of fire. He was killed indiscriminately in German baton formations and cut into mountains of corpses and seas of blood. He endured such a difficult past in Stalingrad. Zhukov did not believe in Marat no matter what. Schenko will be here, falling so close to victory.

The loss of a close friend was too common in the war years. Zhukov believed that Malashenko would be able to survive this.

In short, the task Zhukov assigned to Malashenko this time is to prepare and reorganize the troops as soon as possible after returning. It is foreseeable that the troops who opened up the attack channel on the forward front will soon achieve a breakthrough. It will then depend on whether the performance of Malashenko and the leader division can leave a mark in history. This will be a mark in history for opening the road to Berlin. In a battle, in a political sense, it is most suitable for a special unit like the Leader's Division to take the lead. This is what Comrade Stalin meant.

Of course, Zhukov did not tell Malashenko so clearly and in detail.

It’s not that I deliberately concealed anything, I just didn’t want to put too much pressure on Malashenko, and wanted him to go into battle as lightly as possible and go all out. With himself as the commander of the front army who is his direct boss, it’s important to emphasize the importance of this battle. That's enough.

Therefore, Malashenko still couldn't figure it out until he walked out of the front army headquarters, got on the troop transport truck, and set off on his way home with the soldiers who protected him.

Why didn’t Zhukov know that he was walking alone? If he really knew about such a big thing, it would be impossible for him to not react at all. If he didn’t trigger it, he would have to verbally criticize and hit him twice. Malashenko knew that this was inevitable, but the actual result was that there was no reaction at all. , this kind of thing did not happen at all.

What was the reason that Zhukov didn't know about this? What really happened?

Malashenko vaguely felt that this matter must be inseparable from Comrade Political Commissar. Comrade Political Commissar said that he went to the front army headquarters to inquire about information. After leaving, he did not know any details about what happened after that. Not sure anymore.

Malashenko guessed that the problem may lie in this process that he did not know. Something must have happened that he did not expect or did not plan. This led to the final result of the matter being different from the original expectation. Such a big deviation.

Malashenko, who has adequate EQ and IQ, guessed that there must be a problem, and the answer to this problem must not be obtained from Zhukov.

Intuition told Malashenko that Zhukov probably didn't know how paranoid he was at the beginning and went his own way, so he should continue not knowing for the time being, at least until he figured out the truth of the matter.

After all, if possible, Malashenko did not want to be kicked out of his position as division commander at this juncture and driven back to his hometown.

It was just that I was in a hurry at that time, fearing that the fighter planes would change rapidly, the bastards of the 502nd Battalion would run away, or the leader would not be able to go into battle. In order to avoid risks and must avenge Kirill, Malashenko decided to go alone.

Thinking about it now, I can't say I regret it. Malashenko never regrets what he has done, and it is the same this time.

I just feel lucky that I can continue to lead the troops to the final victory. Isn't this the final result that I have dreamed of after fighting so hard? Malashenko could not think of a better outcome than this.

According to Malashenko's request, the two troop transport trucks just returned to the battlefield ruins after the fighting ceased, which is currently the resting place where the main force of the Leader's Division is on standby, and where the Forward Division's tribe has set up camp.

Malashenko, who had urgent questions in his mind that needed to be answered, was impatient. As soon as he got out of the car, he went straight to the division headquarters camp without saying a word. He strode in without looking back while the wind was blowing under his feet, but he didn't expect this. The first thing I saw when I walked in made me dumbfounded.

"How are you, Comrade Political Commissar? Tell me, what's going on?"

"It's very bad. The lung sounds are muddier than what I heard last week. The disease may have spread to the entire lungs."

"I don't want to admit it, but the complete loss of lung function seems to be close at hand. I mean, Comrade Political Commissar may suffer from respiratory failure at any time, and then I don't know what to say, but that is the foreseeable final outcome. result."

Looking at the political commissar lying on the cot with his hands on his chest, his face sallow and pale, and Lavrinenko standing nearby talking eagerly with Karachev with a stethoscope hanging around his neck, he no longer cared about asking any questions. Malashenko rushed away with a lunge on the spot.