Chapter 219
After passing the Kutafya Tower, there is the moat bridge. Going forward, you will reach the Troitsk Tower. After passing this tower, the road ahead suddenly opens up. An old beige building appears on the left side of the road. It is the arsenal built during the Imperial Russian period.
The snow that fell last night had not been cleared yet. At this time, a large number of Internal Guard soldiers wearing blue hats were busy clearing the snow. The cannons and gun barrels placed in front of the armory were still covered with snow and had not been cleared.
The three generals walked on the snow-covered brick road, Yuri on the far left, Rokossovsky in the middle, and Konev on the far right.
"salute!"
A lieutenant in charge of snow removal saw the three people coming and hurriedly dropped the tools in his hands, straightened up and shouted loudly.
The three men saluted back the saluting soldiers, and the silence was broken by Konev, who brushed off the tiny snowflakes that fell on his shoulders, leaned back, looked around Rokossovsky's broad back, and looked at Yuri on the other side, and said, "Yuri, give me a cigarette, I'll finish it on the way."
Yuri smiled, took out the pack of cigarettes from his pocket, gave him one, and said, "These are the last three, just right for one each."
As he spoke, he took out the remaining two and handed them to Rokossovsky.
Rokossovsky didn't smoke that often. He waved his hand at first, as if he wanted to refuse it, but then he thought of something and took the cigarette.
The three of them stopped naturally. Yuri took out the lighter he had just used, lit a cigarette for Rokossovsky first, then lit a cigarette for Konev who had come over, and finally it was his turn.
Konev took a puff of his cigarette, pinched the cigarette butt with his left index finger and thumb, stared at the cigarette, and then said, "Congratulations, Yuri, you are awarded the Order of Suvorov, First Class. This is a rare honor. It's a pity that you got it too early. It would have been better if you got it a few months later."
When he said this, there was a smile on his face, and it was hard to tell whether he was being sarcastic or sincere.
Yuri squinted his eyes and looked at him. He was silent for two seconds before smiling and said, "Thank you. At least this is good news."
Regardless of whether the other party's words were sincere or sarcastic, Yuri felt uncomfortable. Although the other party was one of the so-called three pillars of the Soviet Union in World War II, he would not have any respect for this guy. Although the other party was one level higher than him in rank, in today's Soviet Union, many things were not determined by high rank.
In fact, from a personal perspective, Yuri did not like Konev, because in his eyes, although this man was talented in commanding operations, he was too utilitarian and somewhat ungrateful.
In the previous Ukrainian campaign on the southern front, not only Rokossovsky and Zhukov had a deep conflict, but Konev also had a deep conflict with Zhukov. As for the former, Yuri thought it was okay for Rokossovsky to have a grudge, but Konev had no position to challenge Zhukov. Why? Just because Zhukov saved his life, this alone was enough.
During the Battle of Moscow, Konev had caused a lot of trouble and was almost executed by Stalin. If Zhukov hadn't helped him, how could he have turned things around now? Later, he served as Zhukov's deputy for a period of time. When he was in office, he was respectful to Zhukov and obeyed his orders. But when he turned around, he started to say that Zhukov was arbitrary and had a bad temper.
Putting Zhukov aside, let’s talk about Voroshilov. Konev’s relationship with Voroshilov is now terrible.
Voroshilov was Konev's great benefactor. Although he came from a political work background, he was able to become a front commander thanks to Voroshilov's help.
Because he valued Konev, Voroshilov arranged for him to study as a commander twice. It can be said that it was with Voroshilov's help that Konev completed the transformation from a political worker to a commander. But what happened later? He started fighting again.
Ungrateful, this is the typical behavior of a mean person.
But then again, having an opinion about someone does not mean you have to confront them in person. That is not the way to deal with people, and it is not in line with Yuri's character. Therefore, he will not show his disgust towards the other person in front of Konev.
"Some people are going too far," Konev said, as if he didn't hear the unhappiness in Yuri's words. He took a puff of cigarette, glanced in the direction of the armory, and said, "They are always trying to highlight themselves, belittle others, and are domineering and arbitrary. No matter which direction the battle is going, they want to intervene... Of course, except for the guerrilla operations."
After hearing what he said, Yuri smiled and said nothing, while Rokossovsky frowned and smoked his cigarette silently.
"You all should know who I'm talking about," Konev continued without hiding anything. "It's not that I like to complain, but some things he did were too extreme. For example, in the previous battle, I was the first one to apply to Comrade Vorobyov for the CN-19 heavy floating boats. At the end of September, the two heavy pontoon bridge columns had already arrived north of Perevolochnaya. But what happened in the end? He withdrew both battalions with a transfer order."
Vorobyov is the current director of the engineering corps of the Equipment Department. Yuri has dealt with him before. As for what Konev said, he had also heard about it before.
The two heavy pontoon bridge units were organized at the battalion level and equipped with the powerful CN-19 heavy floating boats, which can be used to directly build railway bridges. They were developed and produced in Komsomolsk in the Far East, but they have never been used in the war over the past two years. The main reason is not that they are impractical, but that the Soviet army was in retreat most of the time and could not use them at all . After the Battle of Kursk, the Soviet army counterattacked very quickly and had no chance to use them.
Before the outbreak of the war, Konev had served as the commander of the Second Independent Army of the Far East and the chairman of the Inspection Committee of the Pontoon Forces of the Equipment Department. Therefore, he knew that the Far Eastern troops had this thing. Before the Battle of Ukraine, he applied to the Equipment Department to transfer two battalions of heavy pontoon forces from the Far East.
Logically speaking, the two heavy pontoon bridge units were requested . If anyone thinks this thing is useful, they can apply to the Equipment Department themselves. This is not a critical equipment that can determine the success or failure of the battle. The worst that can happen is that they will just have to wait for a while.
But Comrade Zhukov did not think so. When he saw this thing, he thought, wow, this thing is very useful. It can support the armored units to cross the river quickly and support the beach landing operations. Immediately, as a member of the Supreme Command, he issued a transfer order and transferred two battalions of heavy pontoon bridge troops.
Just such a thing, let alone Konev who was already a bit petty, Yuri felt that if it were him, he would probably be furious.
"I've made up my mind about this trip back to Moscow," Konev said, taking another long drag on his cigarette. "I want to have a good talk with Comrade Ivanov. What do you think?"
Ivanov refers to Stalin. In the previous Ukrainian campaign, in order to prevent the telegram exchanges between the front line and Moscow from being discovered by the German army, Stalin used the pseudonym Ivanov.
Rokossovsky thought about it and advised: "I'm afraid this is not a good choice."
"You should think carefully about this," Yuri followed Rokossovsky's words and said, "That man did have a reasonable excuse for transferring your heavy pontoon troops. After all, his main attack direction is Kiev, which is the primary target."
"Even so, I will report the problem to the higher authorities," Konev threw the remaining half of the cigarette to the ground fiercely and stomped on it hard, as if to show his determination, saying, "I can't tolerate others stepping on my head like this."
Yuri's mouth twitched. He instinctively glanced at Rokossovsky. Seeing that he looked calm, he took a puff of cigarette, changed the subject, and said, "Let's go. It's almost time."
A villain is a villain. What he said did not mean that he was really going to report the situation to Stalin. It was purely to add fuel to the fire. And it was obvious that he was adding fuel to the fire of two people, one was Rokossovsky, and the other was Yuri.
Yuri could conclude that, despite Konev's solemn promises, he would definitely not really go to Stalin to report anything in the end. To put it bluntly, he did have a deep conflict with Zhukov, but he probably didn't have enough courage to really take the lead, so he was instigating others to do it for him.
Unfortunately, the three people present were all adults, and they had all fought on the battlefield and were accustomed to the bloody storm. None of them would jump out and bite people just because he provoked them.
In fact, thinking more deeply, Yuri felt that Konev was not necessarily trying to instigate him and Rokossovsky to bite people, because he should not be so low-level. It is more likely that this guy is making his position clear. In this way, he told himself and Rokossovsky that he stood on their side and had long been dissatisfied with Zhukov.
If it is the latter possibility, Yuri thinks he can make good use of it, not now, but in the future. He has reason to believe that at some point in the future, Comrade Zhukov will definitely be his enemy in some sense, and to deal with Zhukov, he needs a lot of allies.
