When the commanders in the conference room were almost gone, Zhukov and the others seemed to have forgotten my existence, their heads huddled together, looking at the map in front of them, muttering something quietly.

Looking at the few people who were discussing fiercely, I couldn't help but fall into a dilemma: just leave, it will definitely cause Zhukov to be unhappy, after all, he said that he announced in public that I would stay; But it seemed inappropriate for me to interrupt their conversation and remind them of my presence.

Just when I was in a dilemma, Chief of Staff Korzenevich inadvertently looked up, saw me still standing still, and couldn't help but ask strangely: "General Oshanina, why haven't you returned to the army?" ”

"Comrade Chief of Staff," I explained with some tears and laughter after smiling at him, "I was ordered to stay." ”

"On orders, on whose orders?" Korzhenevich didn't know if it was forgetfulness or if he was distracted during the meeting just now, and he didn't even hear Zhukov leave me alone.

"Comrade Major General, I asked Leda to stay." Zhukov looked away from the map in front of him, and then said slowly: "I would like to ask her privately what she thinks of this battle plan." ”

Zhukov's words stunned me, and I never dreamed that after making the decision not to allow my army group to go to war, he would ask me privately what I thought about the battle plan.

"Tell me, Leda." Zhukov ignored the reactions of the people around him, looked at me and asked, "What do you think of the battle plan announced today?" ”

I glanced at the map in front of Zhukov, pointed with my hand, and asked politely: "Can I use that map?" ”

Zhukov nodded, and pushed the map straight towards us. I looked down at the red and blue arrows above, and then pointed to Kiev and said: "Since our army group and the 40th Army of General Moskalenko crossed the Dnieper before and after, and built a wide landing field. In this way, the attention of the German army in Kiev was invisibly attracted to the south. And according to the battle plan, we will concentrate the forces of the three armies and launch a fierce attack on the Germans from the south. You must know that the terrain here is not conducive to the deployment of large forces, so we can only use the tactic of adding fuel and throwing the troops of one group army after another into battle. ”

"Isn't that good," said Korzenevich disapprovingly, "no matter how strong the enemy's fortifications are, can they withstand the repeated attacks of our three armies?" ”

"Not so, Comrade Chief of Staff." I waited for him to finish, smiled wryly, and then went on to express my opinion: "If we take turns to put our troops into battle, it will lead to a shortage of attacking forces. It is possible that after heavy losses, it will still not be possible to storm Kyiv. ”

Seeing that Korzhenevich looked like he wanted to refute me, Vasilevsky interjected: "Chief of Staff Korzhenevich, I think that Comrade Oshanina has more say than any of us in the matter of attacking Kyiv. After all, a few months ago, she had commanded an infantry corps that was not fully manned, and it took Kiev lightly in one night. ”

Vasilevsky's support for me made Korzhenevich obediently dispel the idea of mocking me. He was silent for a moment and asked rhetorically: "Comrade Oshanina, if you are asked to make a battle plan, how will you capture Kyiv?" ”

My eyes looked at the map and said: "If I were to make a plan to seize Kyiv, then I would definitely put heavy forces on the north side of Kyiv, build a landing ground in Lyujiezh, and from there storm Kyiv, striving to capture the city in the shortest possible time." "Since I knew in my heart that it was Zhukov's idea to attack from the direction of Liujiezhi, I said the name of the place Liujiezhi particularly loudly when I talked about my thoughts.

Zhukov, after hearing that I resolutely echoed his opinion, looked at me and asked with a smile: "Lida, our troops are about to assemble in your defense area, and pulling out troops to Liujiezh at such a time will definitely lead to chaos. ”

At this moment I have a vivid memory of the historical Battle of Kiev: on October 16, the Soviets launched a fierce assault on Kiev from the Bukrin landing ground south of Kiev with the 27th, 40th and 47th armies. However, while the Germans used the 72nd Infantry Division, the 112th Infantry Division, and the 255th Infantry Division to resist the Soviet attack on the front line, the 11th Panzer Division, the 19th Panzer Division, and the 20th Panzer Division tried a counter-assault, which led to the setback of the Soviet offensive. Later, the Soviets quietly moved their forces to Lyujiezh, leaving only some models of tanks and cannons in Buklin to confuse the Germans and pin down their main forces here.

"Comrade Marshal," I replied as soon as Zhukov had finished speaking, "for the time being we can still assemble our troops with great fanfare, but the assembled forces are no longer the three armies, but only the 40th Army of General Moskalenko, and the rest of the troops that have not yet crossed the river, are quietly moving in the direction of Ryujiezh." ”

"But General Oshanina, no matter how big an army is, it can't compare to the size of three armies." As soon as I finished speaking, Korzhenevich began to retort to me again: "If the Germans find out that there is only one army group in the direction of our attack, then they will send a large number of scouts to reconnoiter the whereabouts of the rest of our troops." In this way, our troops moving in the direction of Liujiezh will be detected by the enemy, and the enemy will move enough forces to the north. ”

"In fact, it is not impossible to give the enemy the illusion that one of our army groups is two or even three army groups." I said this with my eyes on Korzhenevich, and although I had a smile on my face, I thought to myself with disdain: Although I have not been in the army as long as you, if I have to come up with an idea to deceive the Germans, I guess you are no match for me.

"Comrade Oshanina, I am very curious about what you say." Vatutin smiled and asked, "What can you do to make the enemy treat one of our army groups as two or three?" ”

"It's very simple, Comrade General." I replied with a relaxed expression: "During the day we drive the trucks full of commanders and fighters to the front, and at night we quietly transport them back to their original camps, and then after dawn we transport them to the front with great fanfare." In this way, the German scouts would think that we were moving a large number of troops to the front line. Once the enemy is convinced that the direction of our attack is south of Kiev, they will concentrate their main forces to the south to defend against a possible attack by our troops. ”

Since I have used this tactic more than once, both Zhukov and Vasilevsky are not surprised. On the contrary, Vatutin was amazed: "Fantastic, Comrade Oshanina, I can only say that the solution you have come up with is really wonderful. In this way, as long as this method can deceive the Germans, then we can use General Moskalenko's 40th Army to pin down the main German forces south of Kiev, while the rest of the troops quietly drive to the north of Kiev. After the deployment is completed, it can launch a surprise attack from the north to catch the Germans by surprise. ”

After Vatutin finished speaking, I looked at Zhukov and said: "Although we can use this method to confuse the enemy, for the sake of safety, we should still send more planes to patrol the air and prevent the enemy's reconnaissance planes from rising into the air, otherwise this plan of concealment may be discovered by the Germans." ”

"What do you mean by 'hiding from the world'?" I had come up with an idiom, but Korzhenevich heard it, and he asked curiously: "It's the first time I've heard it." ”

"'Concealment' is a term from the East, and its general meaning is to use deception to divert the attention of the enemy in order to achieve our desired end." Vasilevsky, after volunteering to explain the whole idiom, turned to me and asked: "Comrade Oshanina, am I correct?" ”

"That's right, Comrade Marshal," although Vasilevsky's explanation was not accurate enough, at such a time I could only pat his ass on the back in order to cover up as soon as possible the slip of the tongue caused by my quick mouth: "This is exactly what you explained. ”

"Okay, comrades commanders, Leda has finished expressing her opinion, what do you think?" Zhukov scanned everyone's body with his gaze, and then asked slowly: "Do we need to adjust the offensive direction of the 27th Army and the 47th Army?" ”

Zhukov's words plunged the room into silence. Vatutin and Korzhenevich looked at each other, and then turned their gaze back to Zhukov. Just half an hour ago, Korzenevich had just assigned offensive tasks to the commanders of the 27th and 47th armies, and now they had to adjust their deployments, which would not only affect the prestige of the commanders in the troops, but also might cause unnecessary confusion.

"In this case, let the 40th Army hand over the defense area to friendly forces as soon as possible and assemble at the starting point of the attack." At this time, it was Vasilevsky who came out to play a round, and he looked at Zhukov and asked in an inquiring tone: "As for the 27th and 47th armies, they have not crossed the river to the other side anyway, so let them stay in the defense area and continue to standby, and then quietly move in the direction of Liujiezh before the battle starts." Comrade Deputy Commander-in-Chief, I don't know what you think? ”

"Well, Comrade Vasilevsky." Zhukov immediately expressed his support for Vasilevsky's proposal, and at the same time said: "Let General Moskalenko lead his 40th Army to the north, and the rest of the troops will remain in the current camp and continue to standby." As he spoke, he waved his hand at Korzhenevich and ordered, "Comrade Chief of Staff, what are you still standing here, hurry up and call the commanders of the two army groups and ask them to stop the movement ......of troops immediately."

Having come out of the command of the Front Command, I joined Chistyakov and Kirillov outside the gate. Chistyakov asked curiously: "Comrade commander, is there anything important for the marshal to let you stay?" ”

I turned my head to look left and right, and saw that in addition to the military vehicles coming and going on the street, there were also commanders and fighters passing by from time to time, so I raised my hand and said, "This is not the place to talk, let's get in the car and talk." ”

Kirillov was not in the same car as us when he came, but when he heard that something important was going on, he immediately threw Basmanov, who was sitting in the passenger seat, down and sat down himself, just to hear the reason why Zhukov left me.

After the car started, I saw that there was only one driver in the car, except for the three commanders, and the driver was also a trustworthy person, so I told the two of them in detail what had happened after I stayed.

After listening to my story, Chistyakov asked thoughtfully: "Comrade commander, do you really think that we will fail when we attack from the south with three army groups?" ”

"That's right, Comrade Chistyakov." After listening to his whole question, I immediately restrained the smile on my face and said to him solemnly: "I think the build-up of our troops south of Kiev will not be long before the Germans will find out. They will build a strong and well-established defense system to the south to resist our attack. At the same time, due to the terrain south of Kyiv, we were unable to deploy large forces here, so we had to resort to the worst tactics of refueling, throwing one division after another into battle. If we fight like this, we will pay a huge price for casualties. ”

Just when Chistyakov was deep in thought about my statement, Kirillov suddenly interjected and asked: "Leda, can we still have the troops disguised as Germans, bypass the enemy's defensive zone, quietly enter Kyiv, and carry out another sneak attack on war horses, like a few months ago?" ”

I almost without thinking about Kirillov's statement: "No, Comrade Military Commissar, the situation is different today than it was a few months ago. At that time, due to the main forces of Manstein, on the other side of the Dnieper River, we confronted our Southwestern Front and the Voronezh Front, and Kiev was almost empty, plus the defenders were defenseless, so we easily captured the city. And now that there are heavy German troops in Kiev, even if we have one or two divisions of troops, disguised as German troops and infiltrated into the city, after launching an attack, they will be quickly divided and eliminated by the enemy, so this time we can only fight a face-to-face battle with the Germans. ”

Hearing me say this, Kirillov sighed, then stopped talking, turned around and looked out the car window silently.

"Comrade Commander, although our superiors did not assign us an offensive mission this time, do you think they will let us participate in the war in the future?" The pensive Chistyakov suddenly asked.

"Yes, my comrade deputy commander." I replied with a smile: "If the troops attacking Kyiv from the south are left with only one army group, then we have a chance to enter the war." (To be continued.) )