Time quickly came to the end of the year, and the fortifications that needed to be built in the defense area had been built; the troops that needed to be supplemented were also roughly complete. If I want to use an old saying to describe it, it is "everything is ready and all we need is the east wind."
The 48th Group Army is ready for battle and can rush into the depths of the enemy's defenses without hesitation as long as it waits for Rokossovsky's order.
On the afternoon of December 31, Sidorin received a call from Chief of Staff Bogolyubov: "General Sidorin, how is the situation there?"
Sidorin thought that the other party was asking about his defense and combat preparations, so he quickly replied: "Comrade Chief of Staff, the entire group army has made all combat preparations. Only with your order can we attack the German defenses."
Launch a large-scale attack in depth."
After listening to the other party's answer, Bogolyubov understood that Sidorin had misunderstood what he meant, and explained: "General Sidorin, you are mistaken. I am not calling you to ask how your combat preparations are going.
That's it. You know, you will report to me the situation of your army every few days. Don't I still know whether you are ready for battle? "
"What is that matter?" Sidorin asked puzzledly. He was thinking about what kind of matter it was that could make the Chief of Staff of the Front Army call him personally?
"Tomorrow is the New Year." Bogolyubov said: "Are you ready to celebrate the holidays for the soldiers?"
"What, a holiday?" Sokov, who was chatting with Ponedelin nearby, heard the voice coming from the receiver and asked curiously: "What holiday?"
"Comrade Commander, you should talk to the Chief of Staff." Sidorin said and handed the microphone in his hand to Sokov.
"Hello, Comrade Chief of Staff of the Front Army." Sokov asked politely on the phone: "I wonder what holiday is being celebrated?"
"Tomorrow is the New Year, have you forgotten?" Bogolyubov said: "Have you forgotten?"
After Bogolyubov reminded him, Sokov remembered that tomorrow is the New Year. In Russia, this is the most important festival, which can be compared with the Chinese Spring Festival.
No one really reminded Sokov about this matter, so he naturally could not make any preparations. At this moment, when he heard Bogolyubov say this, he said with some guilt: "I'm sorry, Comrade Chief of Staff of the Front Army, I have not made any preparations in this regard."
.”
"It's not too late to make preparations now." But Bogolyubov did not blame him, but said with a smile: "The front army headquarters will provide you with two tons of beef and mutton, five tons of flour, and a certain amount of chocolate.
For your holiday use."
"Great, this is really great." After learning that Bogolyubov had provided a large amount of supplies, Sokov couldn't help but be overjoyed. He said to Bogolyubov with an expression on his face: "Comrade Chief of Staff of the Front Army, on behalf of the 48th Group Army, I
All commanders and fighters would like to express their gratitude to you."
"Just verbal gratitude is not enough." Bogolyubov said: "If you really want to express your gratitude, you can finally achieve more glorious military exploits in the spring campaign. I think this form of gratitude is what Comrade Marshal
What I want to see.”
"You can rest assured of this." Sokov said carelessly: "I have never let down Comrade Marshal."
After Sokov hung up the phone, Sokov looked at Sidorin and Ponedelin and asked: "Our superiors have provided us with some supplies for the festival. Can you tell us how we should celebrate the upcoming 1945?"
"Comrade Commander, although the Front Army Logistics Department has provided us with a lot of supplies, if they were allocated to each soldier, I'm afraid they wouldn't be able to get much."
"Comrade Chief of Staff, don't keep telling riddles." Ponejelin heard what Sidorin said and said impatiently: "Just tell me directly, how should we use these supplies to celebrate the festival for our commanders and soldiers?"
Sidorin did not answer the question immediately, but looked at Sokov and said: "I think this matter should be decided by Comrade Commander. No matter what decision he makes, I will obey it unconditionally."
Sokov never dreamed that Sidorin would kick the question to his feet. For a moment, he didn't know how to answer. After a long time, he cautiously asked Ponijelin: "Comrade Deputy Commander
, you have stayed in the army for a long time, I will listen to your opinion on how to deal with this kind of thing."
Seeing that Sokov had left the decision-making power to himself, Ponedelin did not pretend to be pretentious, but said bluntly: "If it is made into stew, firstly, the quantity will not be enough, and secondly, it will take a long time. In my opinion, it is not as good as
Just make dumplings."
Sokov knew that Russian dumplings, or Siberian dumplings, are a Russian dish originating from the Ural Mountains. They are called "ears of bread" in the Uralic language. The shape of the dumplings is different from Chinese dumplings, which are flat in shape.
The round ones look more like wontons.
The fillings are beef, mutton and pork, and the cooking method is roughly the same as that in China. If you want to say what is special about it, it is its dipping sauce, which usually uses tomato juice, cream, sour cream, salad dressing, etc.
"Okay, let's make dumplings." Seeing that Ponedelin had already stated his plan, Sokov readily agreed: "Comrade Deputy Commander will be responsible for making dumplings. I hope that at the stroke of zero o'clock
When the bell rings, every commander and fighter within the group army will be able to eat hot dumplings."
"Comrade Commander, you can rest assured on this." In any case, Ponedelin has been a commander in the army for decades and is familiar with how to arrange this kind of work. Since Sokov has handed over the task to
Himself, he readily replied: "I will deliver hot dumplings to every commander and soldier before the clock strikes zero."
Action was what he said. After Ponejelin took over the task from Sokov, he immediately led a unit directly under the group army to start mincing meat and making dumplings.
Seeing the lively scene outside the headquarters, Sidorin could not help but drool. He said to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, to tell you the truth, I haven't eaten dumplings in two or three years. Now I see outside
I can’t help but drool while making dumplings.”
Sokov laughed loudly after hearing this, and then said to Sidorin: "Comrade Chief of Staff, you can eat as much as you want today, Comrade Chief of Staff, just to make up for the regrets in the past."
In the evening, the dumplings that had been frozen in the snow for several hours began to be put into the pot one after another. The soldiers at the pot who were responsible for lighting the fire, adding water and placing the dumplings couldn't help but start drooling when they saw the dumplings tumbling up and down in the pot.
Ponyjelin was not surprised by this situation and shouted to the soldiers: "Comrades, you can eat with open belly, eat as much as you can, and you must eat back all the dumplings you owed before."
.have you understood?"
As soon as Ponijelin finished speaking, thunderous shouts rang out from all around: "I understand."
The first dumplings to come out of the pot must have been delivered to the Army Group Headquarters by Ponejelin himself, asking Sokov, Sidorin and others to eat them first. He directed the soldiers carrying the trays to put the plates of dumplings on the
On the table.
When the plates with dumplings were placed on the table, Ponejelin brought a few more plates of dipping sauce and said to everyone: "Comrade commanders, the dumplings are already cooked. You can eat them with your belly open." He also said specially.
Looking at Potapov, who had just arrived, he said, "Misha, you have suffered in the German prisoner-of-war camp for so many years. Today you can enjoy some dumplings from your hometown."
Potapov, the artillery director, has generally recovered after more than two months of training. Seeing the plates of dumplings in front of him, he smiled and said to Ponedelin: "Pavel, you
After a busy afternoon, let’s sit down and have something to eat.”
As soon as Potapov finished speaking, Sokov echoed: "Yes, Comrade Deputy Commander, you have been making dumplings with the soldiers all afternoon. You must be tired and hungry. Sit down and eat some with us first."
Bar."
Ponyjelin wanted to refuse, but Potapov pulled him to sit down: "Say, old man, I used to like eating dumplings made by you the most. I haven't seen you for so many years, so I don't know if your skills have deteriorated.
"
"You will know after you try it." Ponejelin pushed a plate of dumplings in front of Potapov and said with a smile: "I made this plate of dumplings with mixed fillings of mutton and chicken. You can taste it."
How about. By the way, I remember that every time you eat dumplings, you like to dip them in salad dressing. Well, this salad dressing is your favorite flavor, try it quickly."
Just as everyone picked up their knives and forks and began to eat the dumplings on the plates, a staff officer hurried in from outside.
Seeing the staff officer entering the door, Ponejelin thought that the other party was here to report the news that the dumplings were cooked, so he said to him first: "Comrade staff officer, we have enough dumplings here for the time being. If there are cooked dumplings, you can give them to others first."
Comrades in the unit will eat it. If it’s not enough, I’ll notify you to cook it again.”
"No, Comrade Deputy Commander." Unexpectedly, after hearing this, the staff officer shook his head vigorously and said to Poniejlin: "It's not about the dumplings, but a general came from outside and wanted to see our commander.
"
"What, there is a general outside who wants to see me?" Sokov stood up and looked at the staff officer and asked: "Who is it?" According to his idea, maybe it was someone from the front army headquarters, maybe it was Chief of Staff Bogolyubov.
maybe.
But the staff officer shook his head again and said: "I'm sorry, Comrade Commander, that general did not allow me to say his name. He said that you will know who he is as soon as you see him."
Hearing what the staff officer said, Sokov felt somewhat displeased. He asked, "Who are you? You want to see me, but he actually told the staff officer not to give his name. So he said to the staff officer impatiently: "Comrade staff officer,
Go and invite him in."
After the staff left and Sokov sat down again, Sidorin asked curiously: "Comrade Commander, who do you think it will be? Will it be Chief of Staff Bogolyubov?"
"No." Before Sokov could finish speaking, Ponedelin said first: "Based on my understanding of Bogolyubov, he would not do such boring things. But fortunately, the staff went out to call him.
, we will soon know who this arrogant guy is!"
As soon as Ponejelin finished speaking, a voice familiar to most people came from the door: "Deputy Commander Ponejelin, who do you think is the arrogant guy?"
Hearing this voice, Sokov stood up suddenly and looked towards the door with a shocked face. He saw a general wearing a gray military coat standing there. Seeing Sokov noticed him, the man took off his head.
He put on his hat, spread his hands, and said helplessly: "Misha, I haven't seen you for a few months, don't you recognize me?"
"Yasha!" When Sokov heard the other party speaking, he recognized that it was Yakov. Now that he saw the other party's face clearly, he was even more sure that his judgment was not wrong. He quickly walked around the table and walked towards the other party with open arms.
: "Why are you here?"
After Yakov and Sokov gave a warm hug, he replied: "Misha, I was ordered by the General Staff to go to the front to check on the troops' New Year celebrations. It seems that your place is not bad. There are a lot of things outside.
There are countless large pots, and hot dumplings are being cooked."
"Yasha, it's better to come early than to come well." Sokov pulled Yakov towards the table and said, "We are eating dumplings, you should sit down and eat them too."
Ponedelin and Sidorin were very familiar with Yakov, so they naturally greeted him: "Yes, General Yakov, please sit down and eat dumplings with us."
But Potapov and Colonel Malyshev, the director of the armored forces, did not know who Yakov was, so they could only stand there silently, preparing to wait for the other party to sit down before asking Sokov to find out who this person was?
"Wait a minute, Misha." Yakov gently broke away from Sokov's hand and said to him with a smile: "There is a distinguished guest I brought outside the door."
When Sokov heard that there was a distinguished guest from Yakov outside the door, he said carelessly: "Yasha, since he is your distinguished guest, he is also my friend, so let him come in quickly."
The next moment, when a female soldier wearing a fitted military uniform appeared at the door, Sokov's eyes widened. After a long time, he murmured: "Asia, what, why is it you? You
Why are you here?"
After hearing this, Yakov chuckled and said, "Of course I brought it."
When Sokov and others were talking at the door, Potapov asked Ponedelin in a low voice: "Old man, who are the two new arrivals? I think the comrade commander is quite enthusiastic about them."
"The young general's name is Yakov, and he is the son of Comrade Stalin." Ponedelin whispered: "And the female soldier next to him is the wife of Comrade Commander Asya."
After listening to Ponedelin's words, Potapov was completely shocked. He did not expect that this young general had such a great background and was actually Stalin's son. And judging from the tone of his conversation with Sokov, the two of them were surprised.
People should be friends who talk about everything. What's more important is that when the other party came this time, he also brought Sokov's wife.
Ponejelin walked up to Asiya, stretched out his hand to her, and said in a friendly manner: "Comrade Asiya, you are welcome to come to us. On behalf of all the commanders and fighters of the group army, I welcome your arrival."
"And I, Comrade Asiya." Sidorin also leaned over and stretched out his hand to Asiya: "Welcome!"
Asia was very familiar with Ponedelin and Sidorin, so she didn't feel nervous. After shaking hands with them one by one, she said with a smile: "General Ponedelin, General Sidorin, can you
I am also very happy to see you again."
Seeing the arrival of Yakov and Asiya, Sokov felt a little embarrassed when everyone in the command stood up to greet them. He felt that doing so was somewhat self-serving, so he called to everyone and said:
"Everyone, please stop standing and sit down and eat the dumplings. If you don't eat them, they will get cold."