Chapter 397

The convoy was composed of seven trucks and more than 50 carriages. Due to the poor road condition of shuchai Road, it took ten minutes for the convoy to finish. Meletskov's face darkened as he watched the motorcade pass by the jeep. When the jeep was back on the road, he sighed, leaned back and closed his eyes.

I know that he must be thinking about something at this time. I don't want to disturb him. I turn my head to one side and look at the troops on the road.

After driving for another half an hour, I couldn't help asking the driver softly, "Comrade driver, how long will it take us to get to our destination?"

Without looking back, the driver replied, "Comrade major, there should be five or six kilometers left."

Hearing my conversation with the driver, meletzkov opened his eyes and said, "Rita, this is the battlefield. Listen to the guns outside."

I listened, and the sound of the gun, which was covered by the sound of the motor, became clear. The sound of gunfire did not come from one direction, but from all directions. We can see that fighting is happening everywhere in this area.

At this moment, the driver suddenly made an emergency brake. Under the huge inertia, meletzkov and I could not help but rush forward, then lean back and hit the back of the chair heavily.

"What's the matter? Why did you stop?" Meletzkov scolded the driver harshly.

The driver pointed to the outside of the car and said wrongly, "Comrade commander, you see, there are airplanes in the sky. It's German airplanes."

Meletzkov only looked out of the car window, then yelled, "it's an air raid. Get out of the car." After shouting, he opened the door and jumped out.

Seeing that he had got out of the car, I did not hesitate to open another door and get out of here. As soon as he got out of the car, he heard meletskov shouting in his voice: "air raid siren, everyone go to the forest."

I was afraid that his voice was too small for most of the commanders and fighters to hear, so I helped him shout: "air raid siren, air raid siren, everyone go to the forest." Then, the driver who just got off the bus joined our shouting team.

The officers and men who were close to us quickly jumped down the shuchai road and hid in the nearby forest. But there was still a long line ahead, walking along shuchai road. They didn't hear us at all.

Turchinov, who was working as a security guard behind him, came with a few soldiers in a hurry. He asked aloud from a long distance, "Comrade commander, what's the matter?"

"Air raid, comrade lieutenant." I answered meletskov ahead of him, and told him, "take some soldiers to the front immediately, and inform the commanders and fighters of air defense."

After listening, turchinov stood still. Seeing this scene, meletzkov said with some displeasure, "Comrade lieutenant, what's the matter with you? Didn't you hear the order from major oshanina? Take people to the front immediately, and let the marching officers and men go into the forest to avoid the air attack. "

Turchinov agreed. After raising his hand to salute, he took several soldiers under him and ran forward quickly. While running, he cried out: "air raid siren, everyone hide in the forest."

The marching officers and soldiers in front of them soon noticed the difference behind them, but they looked back and saw several people shouting "air raid warning" while running. They immediately left the road and ran to the forests on both sides.

Seeing that the commanders and fighters were evacuating, I ran to the forest with the driver one by one carrying meletskov. He is the commander-in-chief of the first army. His safety is the most important thing. We can't let him have any weakness in the German air raid. Otherwise, the army will be in a mess.

As soon as we ran in the muddy forest, the German planes began to bomb and strafe the firewood road. Listening to the explosion outside the forest, and looking at the fire and smoke rising from time to time, I could not help but fear that if I had run slower, I might have been killed by the German plane.

The German air raid lasted for more than ten minutes. Several enemy planes finished dropping bombs and random bullets, but they were unwilling to circle over the forest again, and then turned around and flew to the West.

Meletskov looked up at the enemy plane leaving, then waved his hand decisively and said, "it seems that the German plane flew away. Let's go. Let's get back to the car. We need to get to the temporary headquarters of the 8th Army as soon as possible. "

I followed him and the driver, and walked out of the forest. When we got out of the forest, we saw that the jeep we were riding was burning, followed by two trucks, one of which was also burning, and the other truck overturned on the side of the road with four feet. Turchinov was carrying the wounded out of the carriage with people.

Seeing his car burning, the driver couldn't help shouting, "my car!" Then he ran towards the burning jeep.

"Stop!" No sooner had the driver run far than meletskov stopped him at the back.

Almost at the same time, the jeep made an earth shaking noise, and the body was torn apart by the exploding fuel tank. And turchinov are rescuing the wounded soldiers, many of them were hit by flying debris, screamed and fell down.

The three of us stood there, staring at the jeep surrounded by fire and smoke. After a long time, meletskov said, "since there is no car, we have to walk to the 8th Army. There are five or six kilometers left, and we can reach our destination in about two hours. "

Walking out of the forest, I looked around and was shocked. Let alone the explosion of the jeep, even if it was intact, I couldn't move on. In the air raid just now, the bombs dropped by the German planes broke many sections of shuchai road. On both sides of the road, from time to time, you can see the officers and soldiers lying in a pool of blood. From the forest out of the officers and men, some people are busy to rescue the wounded, others, are holding branches in desperately hit the burning bundle of firewood.

Turchinov ran to us solemnly. It is said that he saluted and said, "Comrade commander, the vehicles have been destroyed. It seems that we can only walk the rest of the way."

Meletskov asked with concern, "Comrade lieutenant, how are the casualties in the secret service?"

Turchinov replied with a bitter face: "15 people were killed and 11 were injured, of which 5 were seriously injured."

Meletzkov looked at his watch and told him, "leave two soldiers to take care of the wounded. You take the rest with me."

"But Comrade commander, two people may not be able to take care of so many wounded people."

"Why are you so stupid? When you meet the retreating wounded team later, just let them take your wounded men with you by the way."

"I see, comrade commander. I'll arrange it now."

Five minutes later, ten of us set out again. This time, for the sake of safety, turchinov took us through the forest. Looking at the muddy road, meletzkov could not help frowning and asked, "Comrade lieutenant, how long will it take us to get to the headquarters of the Eighth Army?"

Turchinov, who led the way in front, looked back and said as he walked: "please rest assured, comrade commander, we are walking a small road. We can reach general starikov's headquarters in half an hour at most."

Under tulchinov, we arrived at general starikov's temporary headquarters in the forest. Several sentinels on duty at the gate saw a group of us walk past, immediately hid behind the sandbag, nervously pulled the bolt of the gun, and yelled at us: "stop, command!"

Turchinov quickened his pace and answered to the nervous sentinels in a loud voice: "how can we from the headquarters of the front army know the command of your 8th Army? It's just nonsense."

"Who are you? Comrade lieutenant. " One of the Sentinels leaned out of the back of the fortification and asked aloud.

"I'm lieutenant turchinov, chief of the secret service." After he identified himself, he ordered the sentry loudly: "you should report to general starikov that the commander of the front army is coming."

The sentry didn't dare to neglect him. He stood up straight, put his rifle on his shoulder, turned around and ran to the earth house type bunker not far away. It seemed that it was the temporary headquarters of the Eighth Army.

Little effort, the sentry came out of the bunker, followed by a group of commanders. I saw that there was starikov in the team. I quickly turned back to meletzkov and said, "Comrade commander, it's general starikov, commander of the eighth group army. I've brought people to meet you in person!"

"Come on, let's go." With these words, meletskov turned his back to the group of commanders.

Starikov and his commanders came to meletskov and stood at attention to salute. On behalf of everyone, starikov also reported: "Hello, comrade commander of the front army. Major general starikov, commander of the eighth group army, and the staff of the headquarters come to welcome you and wait for your orders. "

At the end of my eyes, I found that behind starikov, I was standing at the commander of the Fourth Army of the guards, general Gagan. I am very curious about how he appeared here. At this time, he should stay in his headquarters and command his troops to cooperate with the 8th group army to attack German positions.

Meletzkov also obviously saw Gagan standing in the team. Instead of being polite to starikov, he simply said, "go to your headquarters first." With that, he took the lead in walking towards the temporary headquarters.

At the headquarters, he went straight to the wooden table and sat down. He picked up the map on the table and looked at it. Starikov and Gagan stood behind him honestly, not daring to let out the atmosphere.

After looking at the map for a while, meletzkov pushed it aside, looked at starikov, and said, "general starikov, tell me about the war now? I want to know, when will your troops take over the heights of sinavino? "

As for meletskov's question, starikov seemed a little nervous. He raised his hand to wipe the sweat that did not exist on his forehead, and said in embarrassment: "Comrade General, I think conquering the Highlands is a difficult task under the current situation."

Meletskov raised his eyebrows. Unexpectedly, he did not lose his temper. Instead, he asked calmly, "Comrade General, tell me your reason."

"Report to the commander, our group army lost the support of the artillery of the front army and fought very hard in the battle of attacking the highlands. Although the Leningrad front army and the Baltic Fleet provided us with artillery support, their artillery attack failed to destroy the enemy's defense system because of the long distance and low shooting accuracy. When we launched the attack, the Germans hid behind these intact fortifications and shot at us madly. The casualties of the infantry who carried out the impact were very large, and the troops completely lost their assault capability in a very short period of time. "

Meletzkov turned his eyes to Gagan, who was standing beside him. He asked sternly, "general Gagan, what do you do when you go to the headquarters of the Eighth Army instead of staying in your headquarters to command the troops?" General Gagan, speechless when asked, turned to starikov beside him, hoping that he would come out and say something good for himself. Starikov immediately understood and immediately defended Gagan: "Comrade commander, general Gagan came to the front in person in order to command the troops better. Because his headquarters haven't settled down for the time being, he has to stay in my headquarters for the time being. "“ So it is. " Meletzkov suddenly realized, and then asked Gagan, "I'll ask you, where have your troops arrived? When can we attack the Germans? " Gagan stammered: "Comrade commander, you don't know something. The troops received the order too late, and the assembly delayed the time. When they were ready to rush to the front line, they found that there were not enough transport vehicles, and they had to rely on the commanders and fighters to walk for more than ten kilometers. The road is not easy to go, but also suffered from German air strikes, so the troops have not reached the designated position. " Meletzkov slapped the table angrily, stood up and yelled, "what? How long have you been under orders? All the troops have not entered the designated position up to now. I tell you, if your department's slow action affects the process of subsequent campaigns, you'll wait to go to the military court. " As soon as meletskov said this, the atmosphere in the headquarters suddenly became depressed. Just then, I saw a staff sergeant come in with a cup of hot tea on a tray. After seeing the situation in the headquarters, I hesitated. I didn't know whether I should quit or continue to deliver the tea to meletskov. I suddenly had an idea. I went up and picked up the tea cup from the tray. I waved to the soldier to leave. Then he took the tea and went to meletskov. He carefully put the tea in front of him and said in a low voice, "Comrade commander, you must be tired after such a long journey. Have a cup of tea first and have a rest!" Seeing that I came out to ease the atmosphere at this time, starikov quickly went down by the steps. He bent down and said to meletskov with a smile: "yes, comrade commander, you must be tired after such a long journey. Have a cup of tea first, have a rest, and talk about attacking the Highlands later. Do you think so? " Although meletskov was angry just now, after my agitation, and starikov said good things with a smiling face, he snorted heavily, sat down and took a sip of his tea cup. When he adjusted his mood, he continued to ask starikov, "Comrade General, when are you going to attack again?" Starikov hesitated for a moment and replied, "Comrade General, in today's battle, the 19th division of the guards has been disabled. At present, there are only more than 700 people left in the whole division. We must replenish our forces before we can launch another attack." Meletzkov glared at Gagan and said indignantly, "the troops of the Fourth Army of the guards are not in place yet. What can I do for you?" Then he asked Gagan, "you're in the 8th Army. Who's in command in the army headquarters?"“ Report to commander, "Gagan said, straight and respectfully," major general rogensky is the deputy commander. Major general rogensky is commanding the troops. " Meletzkov looked down at his watch, looked up and said, "major general starikov, I'll give you another hour. An hour later, I'd like to see the 8th Army launch a new attack on the highlands. And you, major general Gagan, if your troops have not reached the designated position when starikov's troops launch an attack, you will lose your position as commander and be taken to the military court. "