Chapter 166 Another Front
The car with its headlights on slowly stopped by the street. A soldier waiting at the entrance of the apartment quickly ran over and opened the door for Yuri.
"Move all the documents to my study," Yuri said to Arseni as he put on his military cap and got out of the car. "Don't mess up the order."
"Okay," Arseni replied.
Without wearing his military cap and holding it casually in his hand, Yuri walked into the door of the apartment.
The apartment was brightly lit, and there was a man sitting on the sofa in the living room. It was Khrushchev who had previously visited the Military Commission.
Perhaps he was sleepy, or perhaps he was guilty and confused, but when Yuri entered the room, Khrushchev was sitting there quietly with his head in his hands.
"Borenka, what's wrong?" Hearing the footsteps, Khrushchev stood up immediately, looked at Yuri expectantly and asked.
"I just came out of the Kremlin," Yuri said, putting down his military cap. "Comrade Stalin has gone to bed. Before that, no one reported to him about Leonid. How is the Military Committee doing? Is there any definite news?"
Khrushchev shook his head, and after a moment, he said dejectedly: "The Military Committee has confirmed the situation. Leonid did parachute before the crash. He landed in enemy-occupied territory. There is no news yet."
Yuri nodded. He could understand Khrushchev's feelings. His son crashed in the enemy-occupied area. The difference between sacrifice and non-sacrifice was too big. If it could be confirmed that Leonid was indeed sacrificed, then Khrushchev would undoubtedly be a heroic father. Even out of sympathy, Stalin would give him some compensation. But now, Leonid parachuted and did not sacrifice, so there was too much for others to make a fuss about.
But did Leonid really escape by parachuting?
Yuri vaguely recalled a statement he had seen in his previous life. In this statement, Leonid did not parachute to escape. The reason why someone said that he parachuted to escape was because the witness was worried about retaliation from Khrushchev.
"How did the Military Committee confirm this information?" Thinking of this, Yuri asked Khrushchev, "Did they find a direct witness to Leonid's parachute escape?"
"The Military Committee's findings are well-founded. According to the report they provided, the witness was Leonid's lead pilot," Khrushchev shook his head and said, "The credibility of the report should be beyond doubt."
"Eyewitnesses can also lie, Comrade Nikita," Yuri said firmly, "You know, Leonid is your son, and you are a member of the Military Commission and a member of the Politburo. Facing Leonid's background, as the lead pilot, it takes a lot of courage to ask him to tell you that Leonid has died."
Khrushchev frowned, apparently thinking about something. After a long time, his brows gradually relaxed and the originally dim look in his eyes began to twitch.
"You're right, Baolenka." Khrushchev seemed to have found an opportunity to turn the tables from Yuri's words. He clenched his right fist and shook it vigorously, saying, "It is indeed possible that the witness is lying. We need to further confirm the credibility of his testimony."
Once he recovered from his decadent state, Khrushchev quickly regained his clarity of thought.
"I will go to the Kremlin at dawn and report this to Comrade Stalin," Khrushchev said thoughtfully while stroking his chin while pacing in the living room, "Perhaps Panteleimon can also help. There should be our guerrillas active near Kaluga..."
Yuri would not interrupt at this time. Although he might be able to help Khrushchev to some extent based on his memories of his previous life, the problem was that helping superiors sometimes did not necessarily earn more trust, and might even have a certain counterproductive effect.
Just like now, what Khrushchev needs is not help, nor advice from others, he just needs to calm down and design the most reliable response plan to get through the troubles in front of him, and even gain something. If Yuri gives him advice rashly at this time, once Khrushchev recalls his eldest son in the future, he will always think of Yuri as well. As for what he is thinking, only ghosts know.
When Khrushchev left Yuri's apartment, it was almost three in the morning. As for how he would eventually deal with the impact of the Leonid incident, Yuri was not very clear. He did not ask, and Khrushchev did not say.
It was not until Khrushchev left that Yuri had a short rest, but it was not long before dawn.
…
Although Khrushchev had prepared for the worst and made a series of arrangements immediately after receiving the news of Leonid's accident, this incident was still used by some people to fabricate some rumors.
Some people say that Leonid surrendered to the Germans on his own initiative, while others say that he fell into the hands of the Germans after parachuting to escape, and finally surrendered to the fascists because he could not stand the coercion and inducement of the Germans. In short, there are many , although most of them cannot stand scrutiny and there is no evidence, but some people will spread it with relish, which is the charm of rumors.
But for Yuri, political struggles at the level of Khrushchev are still beyond his reach. Even though he is the Chief of Operations of the General Staff and has gained Stalin's trust to a certain extent, he is still a soldier in essence. The transformation from a soldier to a politician is only a psychological transformation, and the real transformation has not yet occurred.
What soldiers should pay most attention to is naturally the war, the front line, and national security.
The trap that Stalin had set for Vatutin finally worked. Just before the May Day celebration, as the commander of the Southwestern Front, Vatutin submitted a battle plan to the General Staff and the Supreme Command. In this detailed battle plan, Vatutin explained the feasibility of his attack on Kupyansk.
According to Vatutin, the German army's deployment on the southern front has already had loopholes, especially on the Kupiansk front, where the defense is quite weak. Vatutin hopes to get approval to command the Southwestern Front to launch an attack in the direction of Kupiansk to liberate the city. Once the Southwestern Front captures Kupiansk, its forces will be able to deploy along the Oskol River, thus posing a threat to the rear flank of the German Kharkov-Belgorod Group in the northeast.
As far as this battle plan is concerned, even Yuri thought it was feasible. Of course, he would never agree verbally. However, within the General Staff, Vatutin's battle plan was still approved by a series of people including Vasilevsky and Antonov.
However, when the plan was submitted to Stalin, he rejected it without hesitation. He personally called Vatutin and asked him to pay more attention to the war on the southern front, adjust the combat coordination with the Southern Front, and not always focus on the battlefield that did not belong to him.
Stalin's words were not harsh, but for Vatutin, who was eager to show off, they were like a bucket of cold water poured over his head.
In fact, Yuri's opinion of Vatutin is very personal. Among the senior generals of the Soviet Union, Vatutin should be regarded as a relatively outstanding general. He is good at seizing opportunities and can keenly perceive loopholes in the enemy's defense line. If he is scored according to comprehensive ability, his score is at least 70 points. However, Vatutin also has his obvious flaws, that is, he is utilitarian, has a narrow strategic thinking, and cannot take the overall situation into consideration when commanding operations. He is easily distracted by the smooth advancement of the front line. To put it bluntly, this person likes to show off in combat. When fighting, he only cares about his head and not his buttocks. Another point is that this person is very conceited.
This time, the reason why Vatutin planned to launch an attack in Kupiansk was to make up for the points lost in Kharkov last time. Needless to say, that battle was really not fought well.
But Stalin's phone call not only shattered Vatutin's idea, but also made him feel a deep fear, because although Stalin's tone on the phone was not very harsh, it was full of impatience. This impatience indicated that Stalin no longer believed in his command ability.
The failure of the Southwestern Front's plan to attack Kupiansk did not have much impact . His main concern now was the battle in the Kursk direction. The battle plan of this battle was designated by him. Therefore, the success or failure of the battle would be directly related to his fate.
Only after taking the position of Chief of the Operations Department of the General Staff did Yuri gradually realize that behind every victory on the battlefield there were certain political factors involved, and that it was not the one with more outstanding talents who would necessarily reap the honor.
The Kupyansko offensive plan carefully formulated by Vatutin became a piece of waste paper and was put aside. Perhaps many years later, someone would take out this file and analyze the feasibility of this plan based on the situation before the Battle of Kursk. Then they would comment on how much the Soviet army would lose if this plan was implemented. But what about it? Things that have not happened are only a possibility, no matter how reasonable the analysis is at that time. What's more, by that time, Yuri still doesn't know whether he is alive or not.
While Vatutin was feeling sad, Yuri was awarded the first honor after he joined the General Staff, a formal honor - he was invited by the Supreme Command to go to the viewing platform of Lenin's Mausoleum during the May Day celebration to watch the celebration tour of the masses. At Lenin's Mausoleum, his position was arranged to the right of Antonov.
As for Yuri's right side... there was a guardrail on his right side, and if he flipped over it, he would fall onto the ring ladder.
