After Sokov waited for Ponedelin to finish speaking, he said slowly: "It seems that the Romanians are serious about coming. General Ponedelin, what do you think of this matter?"
"How do you say it?" Because Sokov often called himself general in the past, Ponedelin did not notice the change in Sokov's name for himself: "I think this is too ridiculous. You know,
My battle group is now more than two thousand kilometers away from Bucharest, and there is no air force, so it does not pose any threat to them. They proposed to use the capital as an undefended city so early, and there are many problems in it."
"Tell me what problems you think there are."
"First of all, the German army still has a large number of troops stationed in Romania." Ponejelin said: "If this news is known to the Germans, maybe they will directly send troops to occupy Bucharest like they did to Italy, and at the same time, the Romanians on the battlefield will be
All troops must disarm to prevent them from defecting to our army."
Perhaps because he was worried that Sokov did not believe what he said, he also emphasized: "As far as I know, since Italy announced its surrender, the German army has imprisoned and disarmed all the Italian troops fighting on our battlefield.
They directly started massacring the troops they controlled."
Regarding the massacre of the disarmed Italian army by the German army, Sokov had read about it in history books. But when he heard that Romania was preparing to use the capital as an undefended city, he did not consider what kind of consequences it would bring to the Romanian army.
consequences. After listening to Ponejelin's words at this time, I couldn't help but worry about the fate of the Romanian officers and soldiers.
"Comrade Commander," Ponedelin heard Sokov didn't speak and thought he had something on his mind, so he quickly asked with concern: "What do you think we should do next?"
"General Ponejelin, you still follow my original order and keep a distance from the Romanian army. We will treat those who are friendly to us with the same attitude; if they are troops with bad intentions against us, we will resolutely and completely eliminate them.
Lose."
"Okay, Comrade Commander, I will convey your order to each division." After Ponedelin said this, he suddenly realized that when Sokov called himself a general today, he quickly reminded him tactfully.
He said: "Comrade Commander, it was a long time ago that I became a general. Now I am just a lieutenant colonel. If you keep calling me general like this, if someone with ulterior motives hears it, I'm afraid it will cause you unnecessary trouble."
"General Ponedelin," Sokov said with a smile: "I'm calling you because I have good news to tell you. From now on, you are no longer Lieutenant Colonel Ponedelin, but Lieutenant Colonel Ponedelin."
Lieutenant General Nedelin."
Hearing what Sokov said, Ponedelin still felt a little unbelievable: "Comrade Commander, don't make fun of me. Even if my superiors want to promote me to a military rank, it would be great if I could be promoted to colonel. How could I be promoted to three in a row?"
level, becoming a lieutenant general."
"I'm not kidding you, it's true." Sokov said seriously: "I just received a call from Marshal Konev. He said that Comrade Stalin personally promoted you to lieutenant general."
Ponyjelin couldn't help but was stunned. He originally thought that he had been captured by the Germans. Although the suspicion was cleared after review, it would be good to keep his current rank of lieutenant colonel. How dare he expect to be promoted. At this moment, he learned that it was Stalin.
After personally promoting his own military rank, his eye circles suddenly turned red, and he asked with some choking: "Comrade Commander, is it true that Stalin himself promoted me to the military rank?"
"That's right, General Ponedelin." Sokov deliberately pronounced the word "general" with a strong emphasis: "This is absolutely true."
After Ponedelinfa confirmed that the news was true, he cautiously asked: "What about Muzichenko and Kirillov? Have their military ranks been restored?"
"They were just promoted to colonels." Sokov said: "I'm afraid it will take a long time to become generals again. Well, let's not talk about this anymore. Let's continue to discuss the Romanians' intentions."
Then, the two discussed the Romanian's intentions for a long time before ending the call.
When Ponejelin put down the phone in his hand, Sidorin, who was sitting opposite him, stood up, reached out to him, and said in a friendly tone: "Comrade division commander, congratulations on your promotion to general, please accept my sincere greetings."
congratulate!"
Ponejelin held Sidorin's hand and said gratefully: "Colonel Sidorin, thank you for your active cooperation for so long, so that I can achieve such results."
"Comrade General, look what you said, I am your chief of staff. I help you carry out your work and cooperate with you in carrying out combat operations. These are all my duties. There is no need to say thank you."
After congratulating Ponejelin, Sidorin asked for instructions on the next step: "Now that our entire battle group has entered Romania, how should we carry out military operations next?"
"Invite the two division commanders here," Ponejelin said: "We will assign them the next battle plan."
The other two divisions were stationed not far from here. After receiving Sidorin's call, the two division commanders hurried over to participate in Ponejelin's impromptu military meeting.
When the two entered the door, they unexpectedly saw a bottle of champagne on the table. Chuvashov asked Sidorin curiously: "Chief of Staff, what are you doing by placing a bottle of champagne? It is to celebrate all the members of our battle group."
Have you entered Romania?"
Sidorin smiled and said: "Yes, this is one of the things we want to celebrate."
"What about the other one?"
Sidorin pointed at Ponedelin with his hand and said with some excitement: "I now officially announce to you that not long ago, our division commander, Comrade Ponedelin, has been officially promoted to lieutenant general by Comrade Stalin.
"
Sidorin's words stunned the two of them. Chuvasov and Shechtman looked at each other and saw the shocked look in each other's eyes. He quickly turned to Sidorin and asked tentatively: "Sidolin
Colonel Lin, are you kidding?"
"How can such a thing be a joke?" Sidorin deliberately said with a straight face: "Comrade Commander personally called to inform him of this news."
After learning that it was Sokov who conveyed the promotion order, the two men no longer doubted the authenticity of the news, but instead extended their hands to Ponedelin and extended their sincere congratulations to him.
Sidorin opened the champagne, poured some into each of the four teacups, handed a cup to Chuvashov and Shechtman, picked up a cup himself, raised it to a position parallel to his shoulders and said: "Let's raise our glasses.
,Congratulations to Comrade Ponejelin for becoming a general again."
After the four teacups clinked together, the four drank the champagne in the teacups.
Sidorin put down his tea cup and began to arrange a new combat mission.
"Comrade division commanders, although our battle group has entered Romania, it is regrettable that apart from occupying this fortification group near the border, we have not occupied any Romanian city. In other words, we have not occupied any Romanian city so far.
So far, we have not established a foothold in Romania at all, so our next task is to capture the nearby city and establish a solid defense area."
Chuvashov gently turned the tea cup in his hand, looked at Sidorin and asked: "Colonel Sidorin, I wonder which city we are going to capture nearby?"
"Let's take a look at the map." Sidorin pushed the map into the middle of everyone and said: "After discussing with Comrade General, I decided that the 98th Guards Division would occupy Storozhnets in the southwest; while the infantry
The 254th Division occupied Giliboka due south."
After Sidorin assigned combat tasks to the two divisions, Chuvashov raised his own question: "Colonel Sidorin, Storozhnets is not more than five kilometers away from our defense area, which means it is under our control.
Within the range, is it necessary to send special troops to occupy it?"
Chuvashov stood up and pointed to the left side of the battle group's defense area: "Why not go west and occupy Kosov? Although it is more than 60 kilometers away from our defense area, as long as we occupy it, we will expand
The scope of our defense zone.”
"General Chuvashov, although Storozhnets is within the range of our army's firepower, the city has not been occupied by us after all. Once the Germans enter this city, they will pose a great threat to us.
Also, the reason why we captured these two cities on the southern side of the defense zone was to respond to the friendly forces that were about to enter Romania from the north of Wingene."
When Chuvashov heard this, Sidorin's words made sense. If the battle group advanced directly to the west, it could also capture many Romanian towns. However, this would create a distance from the friendly forces entering Romania from the south.
, it is difficult to cooperate with each other.
"Then when will we start taking action?" Chuvashov asked.
"Of course, the sooner the better." Ponejelin said: "But before attacking, you have to send people into the city to find out the enemy's strength and deployment."
"Comrade General, I have a question." But Shechtman suddenly said: "Whether it is Storozhnets or the garrison in Giliboka, they all keep a distance from our army and seem to be watching something.
.If we fight so rashly, will it stimulate the other party to fight us desperately?"
"It has been a few days since we entered Romania," Ponejelin said again: "Except for the army that greeted us, the attitude of the remaining Romanian troops is not clear. We have no idea at all whether these troops are welcoming us.
As for us, we are still prepared to fight to the end.
In order to clarify this matter, I think it is completely necessary to take military action against them. Only when the guns are fired can we figure out who are our friends and who are our enemies."
"What method of attack?" Chuvasov asked: "Should artillery preparations be carried out before the attack to destroy the enemy's outer fortifications? Also, is it necessary to issue an ultimatum or something to the Romanian army, asking them to lay down their weapons and attack me?
The army surrenders?"
"The mobilization of troops can be carried out during the day." As for whether to use artillery and issue an ultimatum, Ponejelin did not take a position, but he came up with another way: "The Romanian troops in the city will naturally understand when they see our mobilization.
What's going on? It's up to them to decide what choice they should make next."
"What about the 27th Border Guard Regiment?" Shechtman suddenly asked: "You know, this unit is in the same defense zone as us now. If we launch an attack on the city, what do you think these Romanian soldiers will do?
What choice do they have? Should they continue to cooperate with us, or should they fall out with us and take up arms to defend their country?"
"I think both possibilities exist," Sidorin suggested: "How about we invite the commander and chief of staff of the 27th Border Guard Regiment here and ask them what their opinions are?"
Regarding Sidorin's proposal, everyone was silent for a long time. Finally, Poniejlin broke the silence: "I think Colonel Sidorin's proposal is worth a try."
Seeing that Ponejelin agreed to his proposal, Sidorin did not hesitate and immediately ordered the communications soldier to get through the phone of the 27th Border Guard Regiment and ask for the regiment's commander and chief of staff.
Knowing that Ponejelin had something to ask of him, Colonel Costin, the commander of the 27th Border Guard Regiment, and Luca, the chief of staff, did not dare to neglect and quickly drove to Ponejelin's headquarters.
After entering the door, he saw several division commanders sitting here, and Costin couldn't help feeling terrified. Seeing that the regiment commander was so rude, Luka could only ask on his behalf: "Your Excellency, Commander, could you please come to us?
Is there anything important?"
"That's right, Lieutenant Colonel Luca." Sidorin stood up and replied: "We plan to launch an attack on the two cities of Storozhnets and Giliboka, and we would like to ask your opinions."
Both Costin and Luca were shocked when they heard that the Soviet army planned to launch an attack on Romanian cities. Luca asked in surprise: "We have not taken any hostile actions against your army, why are you attacking our city?"
?”
"Lieutenant Colonel Luca, it has been a long time since we entered Romania." Sidorin explained to Luca: "Our tens of thousands of troops cannot stay here forever. We must take some military actions. Since it is nearby
The army in the city has not expressed its attitude towards us so far, so we cannot wait indefinitely. Therefore, it is completely necessary to take military action."
"Colonel Kostin, Lieutenant Colonel Luka," Ponedelin looked at the two of them and said expressionlessly: "If you have any ideas, you can take this opportunity to speak out."
"I have nothing to say." Kostin knew that since Ponejelin had already made a decision, no matter what he said, it would not change the reality, so he simply said bluntly: "Everything is up to you."
Luca, on the other hand, seemed much more cautious. He said to Ponejelin: "Your Excellency, Commander, I hope that when you attack the city, you will focus on attacking military targets and never harm ordinary people."
"Lieutenant Colonel Luca, you can rest assured on this." Ponejelin explained to him: "In this attack on the city, we will try not to use artillery, so that the damage to the city will not be great, and accidental damage will naturally occur.
The possibility of civilians is greatly reduced. The purpose of our entry into Romania is to liberate the Romanian people from the iron heel of the German Nazis."
"That's good, that's good." After Luka received Ponejelin's assurance, he suddenly felt more at ease: "Then I wish you a final victory in the next military operation."