Chapter 177 Meeting an Old Friend Again
Influenced by the Black Sea climate, Krasnodar is humid and rainy in summer. After more than a week of short sunny weather, the sky has become gloomy again since yesterday. The thick dark clouds are like cotton balls covered with dust, piling up in the air and making it hard to breathe.
The plane Yuri was on arrived in the North Caucasus at three o'clock in the afternoon and landed at the airport in Tikhoretsk, the headquarters of the 9th Air Force Army. Then he took a military vehicle that had been prepared in advance and rushed to Krasnodar.
Less than an hour after the convoy left Tikhoretsk, the dark clouds in the sky finally couldn't bear their own weight, and with a gust of wind, heavy rain poured down.
In the car, Yuri sat in the back seat, flipping through a book, a book that he should not read with his status - "System Theory of Sociology" by German Karl Mannheim, who is still alive.
Due to class reasons, Mannheim's book is banned in the Soviet Union today, but it is very easy for Yuri to get a copy. Even if the State Security Committee finds out, it is not a problem for him.
He didn't read much of the book, only about twenty pages, mainly because Yuri's mind was not on the book, and he was in a very depressed mood. That feeling of being hit hard is always unpleasant.
The big raindrops hit the roof of the car, making a crackling sound like frying beans, which made people feel inexplicably irritated.
Closing the book, Yuri turned his head to look out the window. At this moment, the car window was already scratched by rain. Through the window glass, he could see that the car was passing through a completely destroyed village. The broken ruins and broken walls looked like historical relics hidden in a water curtain cave.
As mentioned before, the Soviet counterattack on the southern front had already begun. The North Caucasus Campaign had caused the Germans to lose all their advantages on this front, and the Kuban air battle had destroyed their last chance of victory. Now, the Germans had already switched to a comprehensive defense on the southern front. They could only shrink in the angle of the Taman Peninsula centered on Novorossiysk, passively waiting for the Soviet attack.
However, although there was hope of victory in the war, the trauma of the war had already left a deep mark on this land. In the south, before the German army retreated, all the cities and villages were burned down, and almost all the roads, railways, and bridges were blown up. The entire North Caucasus was almost reduced to ruins.
The only way to deal with atrocities is to commit another atrocity, and the only way to fight hatred is to create more hatred. Recently, according to the report of the Military Committee, there have been some atrocities of shooting prisoners in the North Caucasus Front. The Military Committee has remained silent on this violation of discipline, which should have been dealt with seriously, and even whitewashed it in many places. This is a revenge mentality at work.
Yuri did not think that the Military Committee's decision was correct. Acquiescence at this time was actually equivalent to connivance, which would reveal more adverse consequences in the future.
However, disagreement does not mean explicit opposition. Yuri also remained silent. After all, the Soviet Union was filled with a strong sense of revenge at that time. This was a nationalist sentiment that would surge violently once it arose. Anyone who raised opposition at this time would encounter a lot of trouble.
In the pouring rain, Yuri saw two vehicles appearing right in front of , a jeep and a truck towing a howitzer. In addition, there were several people in military uniforms standing behind the artillery vehicle in the rain.
Yuri's car was getting closer and closer, and the view was becoming clearer and clearer. When it was about ten meters away, Yuri finally figured out what was going on.
It turned out that the truck pulling the howitzer had sunk into a mud pit, and the men were surrounding the truck to check the condition of the pit.
Yuri originally didn't intend to pay attention to this matter, but when several people under the car heard his car approaching, a man in a second lieutenant's uniform raised his right arm and gestured for help to his car.
"Stop the car, " Yuri turned his head and said to the driver in front.
"General, it's not safe here," Arseni, who was sitting in the passenger seat, turned around. He was reluctant to stop the car at this time, after all, this was the front line.
"It's okay, there's someone I know here," Yuri happened to see a familiar face among the people outside the car. He smiled with some surprise and said.
"Oh?" Arseni turned around in confusion and looked outside the car, but before he could see the situation of those people clearly, he heard the sound of the car door opening from behind. He turned around hastily and saw Yuri bending down and getting out of the car. This scared Arseni, and it was raining heavily now.
Without saying anything else, Arseni picked up the umbrella at hand and jumped out of the car in a panic. At this time, Yuri was already hugging a square-faced general who was soaked like a drowned chicken.
To be honest, Yuri didn't expect to run into an old acquaintance here, Sergei Semyonovich Biruzov. At the beginning, Yuri was seriously injured when he led the 209th Battalion to break out. When he was recovering in Kiev, he met this guy who had just been injured. During that time, the two got along very well, but after recovering from their injuries and returning to the army, the two never met again. Who would have thought that after such a long separation, the two would meet again here.
"Aren't you the chief of staff of Comrade Rodion Yakovlevich in the Southern Front? Why are you here?" Yuri hugged Bilyuzov and smiled with his eyes narrowed - the rain was so heavy that it hurt slightly on his face, and he couldn't even open his eyes.
"Why, you, the Chief of Operations of the General Staff, can come here, but I can't?" Biryuzov wiped the rain off his face and said with a smile.
However, right after he finished speaking, he took another look at Yuri's car and said, "Let's put aside the old times. How is your car? Is it powerful?"
Yuri shrugged and said, "I don't understand this. What? You want to requisition my car?"
"My car won't work. It's old and can't tow this big thing," Biryuzov said, pointing to the cable tied to the back of his jeep. "Let's try yours instead."
Yuri nodded, turned around and waved to Arseni who came over to hold an umbrella for him, meaning that he should go and help.
"You are not competent as the head of the Operations Department," Biryuzov said to Yuri as he watched Arseni and his men untie the ropes. "Don't you know that Comrade Rodion Yakovlevich has been transferred?"
Rodion Yakovlevich refers to Malinovsky, the previous commander of the Southern Front.
"Oh, when did it happen?" Yuri was a little surprised. He turned his head slightly to prevent the rain from hitting his face directly.
"According to an order issued just yesterday from Moscow ," said Biryuzov, "he has gone to the Southwestern Front and assumed the post of commander of the Southwestern Front. Now, the commander of the Southern Front is Comrade Tolbukhin."
"Where is Vatutin?" Yuri asked in surprise.
"Haha, I heard people say you had a problem with Vatutin before, and I was skeptical, but I didn't expect it to be true," Biryuzov glanced at him and laughed.
Yuri called Vatutin by his first name, which was a sign of disrespect, and Biryuzov was not surprised to hear it.
"You are the same," Yuri retorted with a smile. After all, Biryuzov also called Vatutin by his first name.
Biryuzov smiled but said nothing. He waited for a while before saying, "I heard that he was transferred to the Equipment Department to take charge of personnel work."
Well, going to the Equipment Department to manage personnel is just like studying English in a sports university; it is never the right path.
"I boarded the plane yesterday. It seems I missed a lot during this period of time," Yuri said with a faint smile.
"It is said that yesterday afternoon, Vatutin proposed to the Supreme Command that he was ready to command the Southwestern Front to launch an offensive in the direction of the Oreli River. Then, less than two hours later, he was transferred back to Moscow," said Biryuzov.
This time Yuri understood what was going on. If nothing unexpected happened, Vatutin's plan to launch an offensive on the Oreli River must be to go up the Oreli River and bypass the rear of the German army in Kharkov. This plan seemed good, but Vatutin obviously ignored Konev's feelings. Kharkov was the offensive direction of the Steppe Front. It was not impossible for him to cooperate with the Steppe Front, but the premise was that this operational plan should be proposed by the General Staff. Of course, it could also be proposed by the Kursk Direction Operation Command. As the commander of the front to propose such a plan. And he offended a lot of people.
When in Moscow, Yuri did not put up a good face for him in front of Stalin. This time, he stood up so rashly and offended people. The consequences can be imagined. After doing this, it would be unfair if he was not transferred to the rear.
Vatutin returned to Moscow, and the position of commander of the Southwestern Front became vacant. This position was probably very attractive to many people, after all, the Southwestern Front was also one of the participating troops in the Battle of Kursk. The Supreme Command moved Malinovsky from the position of commander of the Southern Front to the Southwestern Front, and then assigned Tolbukhin to the Southern Front. This adjustment was... I guess Tolbukhin would be a little unhappy.
However, Yuri could tell that when Biryuzov talked about Vatutin, he was clearly gloating. It seemed that Comrade Vatutin was indeed not a very good human being.
Yuri's military vehicle was specially prepared for him by the 9th Air Force Army. Although his military rank was the same as Biliuzov, his identity as a representative of a headquarters was obviously higher than that of the chief of staff of the front, so his military vehicle had to be very powerful as well.
The cable was hung up, and the gun carriage was dragged out of the mud pit with difficulty in the mud thrown up by the wheels, and Yuri and Biryuzov quickly escaped to the carriage to avoid the heavy rain.
