Chapter 1201

The German army is attacking, and the Soviet garrison is fighting to the death. Although the German soldiers are close to the Kremlin in the heart of Moscow, the fighting is still breaking out in the streets. It seems that people will bleed and die because of the war every moment.

In a hidden underground headquarters in the front line area of northern Moscow, konev, his assistants and several other officers are arranging to give up some positions and continue to retreat near the Kremlin.

He knew that the troops there had suffered heavy losses and needed to be replenished urgently. If all the troops don't rush to reinforce there, the Kremlin is likely to fall in one day. So he decided to give up part of the defensive positions, and sent 2000 troops to the Kremlin to help the people over there hold their own defensive positions.

With Stalin's departure, konev also suffered a huge blow. This decisive and brave commander can't even believe that the leader he has been following has really left them. So he ordered that the news of Stalin's departure be sealed off and not communicated to the grassroots soldiers who were fighting on the front line.

However, a lot of troops got this amazing news. The remnant troops of a whole army, about 3100 people, surrendered to the Finnish army in the defensive position at the northernmost end of Moscow. About three blocks of defensive positions were given up, leading to the collapse of the northern line. Konev had been deploying troops for three hours, just stabilized his defense line, barely prevented the Finnish army from continuing to attack south.

"Send a telegram to vasilevsky and ask him to find a way to support another 3000 soldiers in the Kremlin. It's better to get there tonight, or we may be divided and surrounded by the German army." Konev told the chief of staff around him: "in addition, we need to count the remaining ammunition in the army. We can't do anything without weapons and ammunition, can we?"

As the chief of staff walked out of the room, konev motioned to another of his officers to lean over, then pointed to a few blocks on the map and ordered to him, "try to let the garrison in this area withdraw quietly, and then you take these people to the Kremlin immediately and listen to the commander there, understand?"

Just as konev was about to arrange the third task, the telephone on his desk suddenly rang, so he had to stop issuing orders, turn around, walk quickly, and pick up the receiver: "Hello! I'm konev

"Comrade konev! I'm Zhukov On the other side of the phone, Zhukov's voice came. Konev subconsciously closed his heels and stood upright: "Dear Marshal Zhukov! What are the instructions? "

On the other side of the receiver, Zhukov's voice looked tired and haggard. However, he insisted on speaking and said to konev, "Comrade Stalin left us. He left me and all the soldiers who were loyal to him and gave the order to continue fighting and not to surrender when he was dying."

"..." konev didn't speak. He knew Zhukov would continue to speak, so he had to keep silent, waiting for Zhukov to stop and continue to say what he wanted to say.

On the other side of the phone, Zhukov did not ask konev to wait too long. He soon continued: "I have promised Comrade Stalin's last wish with my loyalty. As long as I still have the command of all the troops in Moscow, I will never order to surrender."

"But! Konev... You and I all know that the war is over. Every minute we continue to resist here, hundreds of excellent soldiers under our command will be lost... We can give up our lives for our ideals, but we have no right to ask them to die with us! " Zhukov holding the phone, to the other end of konev said word by word.

He was not the kind of general who cared about the casualties of his troops. Even in the first battle of Nomenkan, he ordered to continue to attack the defeated Japanese army because of his carelessness and pursuit of greater results, regardless of the soldiers' sacrifice. This order directly led to a sharp rise in the casualty rate of the Soviet Red Army, and also proved Zhukov's ruthlessness and determination.

However, after being besieged in Moscow, Zhukov saw too many innocent deaths and too many desperate destruction. He reflected on his past and finally began to question himself. He thinks that the sacrifice in the pursuit of victory is valuable, and the desperate self destruction when doomed to failure is not rational.

So he said to konev, who was stunned over there, "so I'm going to leave a last hope for all the Soviet soldiers in the siege of Moscow. I think they should have the right to choose, at least they should not be forced to die... Are you right, comrade konev? "

"Marshal Zhukov... Now you are my direct commander and leader. I accept any of your orders and guarantee that I can firmly carry out them! If you order my troops to surrender, I will carry out this order... "After a long silence, konev finally answered Zhukov's question.

His voice was shaking, because he didn't know what kind of eyes those who were alive and those who had died would look at him after he gave the order of surrender - he had been encouraging everyone to fight for the motherland until the last second, but now it was far from the last second, but he had to take the rest with him, Choose the shameful option of surrender.

"No! Konev! I don't give the order, I ask you to give it. " Zhukov, holding the phone, slowly said to konev who was at a loss: "I promised Comrade Stalin that I would resist until the moment I died. So I won't break my promise. When I'm alive, I won't give orders to surrender. "“ Marshal Aware of something, konev wanted to interrupt Zhukov, but his voice was interrupted by Zhukov. On the other end of the phone, Zhukov rushed to say his own idea, which confirmed konev's conjecture: "I will transfer the command of Moscow city defense force to you now, and all the people around me are witnesses... In ten minutes, I will kill myself in my office. As a Soviet marshal, I will entrust everything to you and Comrade vasilevsky!"“ Live with all of you! Konev! This is my last order to you! Please help me finish him After Zhukov finished, he waited patiently. He waited for the response from the phone. Until he heard a weak answer, he hung up the phone contentedly“ Everybody out! When you hear the gunshot, my body will lie on the bed. You can ask the Germans to verify it, so that they won't worry about my escape. " Zhukov looked at the room full of officers, trying to squeeze out a smile, but found that his face had not listened to his command. So he had to wave his hand and let everyone leave. He was afraid that his ugly behavior would be seen. When everyone faced death, he could not help but be afraid. One by one, the officers left in frustration. Finally, when Zhukov's chief of staff came to the door, he stopped. He looked back at Zhukov and suddenly drew out his pistol and put it on his temple: "Marshal! I've been working with you for so long. I shouldn't let you leave alone! " Before Zhukov spoke to persuade him, before Zhukov raised his hand to touch his opponent's arm, the chief of staff pulled the trigger of the pistol, and blood splashed all over his face and chest. The room was quiet, and the officers who had just come to the door looked back at the amazing scene. Zhukov looked hard at his feet and at the chief of staff who was lying there. They have been commanding Zhukov group together for nearly a year, and they have a very tacit understanding of cooperation. Unfortunately, this tacit understanding did not bring victory to the Soviet Union, but only enhanced their personal friendship. As he moved his eyes, Zhukov drew out his pistol. He raised his foot and went back to his desk and sat down in his favorite chair. Then the Soviet Marshal looked at the officers who were still standing at the door and said the last sentence of his life: "the Soviet Union has no marshal who surrendered!"“ Bang The gunfire rang out and reverberated on the ceiling of the headquarters. Four hours after Stalin chose to die, he entrusted Georgi, who was guarding Moscow? Constantinovic? Zhukov chose the same way to avoid the final failure“ Bang Before people could recover from Zhukov's suicide, another officer took out his weapon and smashed his head. Pessimism and despair, at this time of doomed failure, spread as easily as plague, affecting everyone's thoughts. Soon there will be a second and a third followers, they all choose to use death to draw a beautiful ending for their persistence. The sound of gunfire reverberated in the general headquarters of Zhukov group. One by one, high-ranking officers fell in a pool of blood. The female sergeant who was responsible for sending newspapers and sorting out files curled up in the corner and cried. From time to time, the sound of crying and broken wine bottles came, followed by a loud shot, which made people collapse. At 15:33 p.m. on August 6, a Soviet officer holding a white flag, following by two officers, delivered an important message to the German Army: "we are here to negotiate!"