Although Sokov prepared sniper rifles for the snipers, the results achieved were very few in the following days. The reason was very simple. The Germans were not fools and would not stand on the position and let you act as a target. At the same time, they also drew a group of experienced snipers from the rear, specifically used to deal with Soviet snipers. The battle between the snipers on both sides lasted until early May, with each other killed and injured, and it was only a draw.
From the last few days of April, Sokov called Malining almost every day, ostensibly reporting on his work, but in fact, in order to find out indirectly whether Rokosovsky had returned to the front line.
Sokov remembers reading a time travel book before, saying that in order to avoid the yellow-faced woman in his family, Rokosovsky hurried back to the army before he could recover from his injuries, and even did not participate in the annual May Day military parade. Then April has ended, and the days of the May Day military parade have passed, and I still haven't heard of Rokosovsky's coming back.
Seeing Sokov's distracted look, Potukin couldn't help but ask curiously: "Comrade Commander, I see you are full of sorrow. I don't know why you are worried?" Potukin thought to himself that his superiors have added more than 4,000 troops to our division, and the Tank Battalion and Artillery Battalion have also added tanks and artillery. What else can you be upset about?
"It's already May." Sokov was thinking in his heart that the Kharkov battle was about to begin. Although he was now the commander of the 328th Infantry Division, if Rokosovsky did not come back in time, he might be transferred to his troops by Temuxingo at any time to participate in this doomed defeated offensive battle.
"Yes, it's already May." Potukin could not guess what Sokov was thinking and echoed: "After the May Day military parade in previous years, residents in Moscow would go to their cottages outside their suburbs in groups to plant some vegetables and wait until autumn to harvest. But this year it was not possible. Although the German army was driven away by us from near Moscow, who knew when they would fight back. In that case, the vegetables planted by the residents would be cheaper than the Germans."
When Sokov heard what Portukin said, it was completely different from what he thought, and he did not correct him, but said according to his intention: "Yes, dozens of German divisions were deployed near Moscow. Not to mention that the residents in the city could not go out of the city to grow vegetables, even the workers of the collective farm did not dare to sow seeds casually after returning to the village where they lived. I was worried that in the second half of the year, there would be a grain harvest failure."
"There is no way to do this." Potukin said helplessly: "You must know that it is during the war, and it is still a battlefield near Moscow. Even if you plant food, you will be reimbursed by German planes and tanks before the harvest season."
While the two were chatting, the phone on the table suddenly rang. Sokov thought it was the commander below who called to report his work, but he looked at the phone and did not reach out to answer the phone. Sokov could not answer the phone, but Potukin, who was the deputy, had to answer it. After picking up the phone and listening for a while, he handed the microphone to Sokov and said, "Comrade Commander, you are looking for your phone number, Chief of Staff Malining."
Sokov thought that when he was calling Malining today, he had finished all the things he should say. What would happen to him when he was looking for him at this time? With questions, he put the receiver in his ear and said to the microphone: "Hello, Comrade Chief of Staff, I am Major Sokov. What instructions do you have?"
"Misha, I'll tell you good news." Malining said excitedly on the phone: "Comrade Commander is back. You come to the headquarters immediately to come to him, and he wants to see you."
When Sokov heard that it was Rokosovsky who was back, he couldn't help but feel secretly happy. He quickly said to the microphone: "I understand, Comrade Chief of Staff, I'll hurry over immediately."
After Sokov put down the phone, he suddenly thought that Malining did not say whether to let Potukin go with him. However, he hesitated for a moment and made a decisive decision: Anyway, there will be nothing in the division for the time being, so it doesn't matter to bring him with him. So he said to Potukin: "Chief of Staff Malining called me and told me that Comrade Commander is back. Anyway, there is nothing to do now, let's go to the Army Command together."
"What, Comrade Commander is back?" Although Rokosovsky was injured and hospitalized shortly after the 328th Division was transferred to the 16th Army, Portukin still looked happy when he heard the news of Rokosovsky's return: "Then stop being too slow, let's go there now."
The two of them arrived at the Army Command in the division. Just as they were about to enter the door, Sokov heard someone calling him by the side, and turned his head to see that he was a familiar lieutenant. Seeing Sokov staring at him in a daze, the other party smiled and asked, "Why, comrade Major, don't know me anymore? We had been to Nizhny Novgorod together last month."
As soon as the other party reminded him, Sokov immediately remembered that there was indeed such a person among the officers who went to Nizhny Novgorod with Yakov. Because he didn't know the other party's name, Sokov stepped forward to shake hands and directly called the other party's rank: "Hello, comrade Lieutenant! Why did you appear here?"
"We are ordered to send a batch of supplies here." The lieutenant thrust at a truck with a canopy not far away and said, "A new type of automatic gun is ready to be handed over to one of your divisions."
When the lieutenant said that the car was equipped with an automatic gun, Sokov's heartbeat couldn't help but speed up. He thought to himself: "My God, can't it be the assault rifle I need, right?"
However, he did not ask which division the rifles were intended to be assigned to, because it would be useless to ask. If he could reveal it to himself, the lieutenant had just told him directly. In order to ease the atmosphere, Sokov changed the topic in time: "Comrade Lieutenant, did you come here personally?"
"No." The lieutenant shook his head and replied, "I came with Captain Yakov. He is in your headquarters at this moment. Maybe you can see him later and talk to him well."
"Comrade Major," Potukin couldn't help but urge, seeing Sokov standing at the door chatting with a strange lieutenant, "Comrade Commander is still waiting for us, let's go in now."
When Sokov learned that Yakov was in the headquarters, he couldn't wait to see him immediately, so he reached out to the lieutenant and said politely: "Comrade Lieutenant, I'm very happy to see you here. I still have something to do now, let's talk about it later."
When Sokov and Potukin walked into the headquarters, Potukin looked at the lieutenant standing at the door and whispered: "What, is it your comrade-in-arms?"
"When I was in Moscow, I had a deal." Sokov did not explain the other party's identity to Potukin, but just said vaguely: "I also went to a military factory in another place together." Seeing that Sokov was unwilling to explain in detail, Potukin did not continue to ask questions, but accelerated his pace toward the room where the headquarters was located.
As soon as the two of them entered the room, Sokov heard a familiar voice: "Misha, you are here!"
Sokov looked closely and Rokosovsky was walking towards him, quickly stood attentively, raised his hand to salute, and said respectfully: "Hello, Comrade Commander, I'm glad to see you back to the front line."
After shaking hands with Sokov, Rokosovsky pointed to the back and said, "Come on, meet your old friend. If you don't come again, he will run to your teacher to find you." Seeing Yakov standing next to him, Sokov smiled on his face. He walked towards Yakov and took the initiative to reach out to the other party.
When Yakov shook hands with Sokov, he pounded his shoulder twice with his left hand, and then said with a smile: "Why don't you say hello to me when you leave Nizhny Novgorod? I thought you were kidnapped by the enemy, and I also contacted the garrison commander specifically and asked him to send someone to search for your whereabouts everywhere in the city."
"What, Yakov doesn't know about me leaving?" Sokov was stunned at first, and then he realized that this kind of thing is very Russian. It is not easy to communicate with various departments. I only thought that there will be similar things in the future, but I didn't expect that there will be similar things in this era.
He guessed the reason, but he didn't say it out loud. He just grinned and said with apologies: "I'm sorry, dear Yakov, I also received the order to return to the army temporarily. I left before I could say hello to you."
Malining, who was on the side, might want to save Sokov, so he took the initiative to say, "Yakov, blame me for this matter! Because something happened within the army and Sokov needed to deal with it, I asked General Bragoravov to bring Major Sokov back together when he returned."
After Malining finished speaking, Yakov nodded at him and said, "Comrade General, after Bragoravov returned to Moscow, he called me specifically and said that Misha was ordered to return to Moscow. After I answered the phone, I asked the garrison headquarters to cancel the search in the city."
Rokosovsky patiently waited for Sokov and Yakov to finish reminiscing the past before he spoke: "Major Sokov, I think you should understand very well in your heart that we will launch an attack on the German army soon. I want to ask, how are your division ready?"
"Comrade Commander, please rest assured." Hearing Rokosovsky's official position, Sokov also quickly replied in an official manner: "After our division has been supplemented, the morale has been high, and all the commanders and soldiers are ready for combat and can perform combat tasks assigned to us by their superiors at any time."
After hearing Sokov's words, Rokosovsky looked at Malining and smiled and said, "I really didn't expect that Misha would be ready for battle so quickly." Then he turned his eyes to Sokov again, and restrained the smile on his face and said, "I have two goals for calling you here today. One is that in the upcoming offensive battle, your division will be the vanguard of the entire army, first launching an attack on the enemy, striving to tear open the German defense in the shortest time and open a passage for our subsequent troops."
Since becoming the acting division commander, Sokov has been making various preparations for the attack. He sent people to reconnaissance the distribution of the German army; he also sent people to explore the location suitable for crossing the river. If it weren't for the lack of sufficient artillery support and necessary air support, he might have led his troops to launch an attack on the German positions on the other side.
After seeing Rokosovsky finishing his first destination to call him here, Sokov stopped and stopped talking. He couldn't help but ask curiously: "Comrade Commander, can I ask what the second destination is?"
Rokosovsky smiled, pointed his finger at Yakov, and said to Sokov: "The second purpose is related to Yakov, you will know if you ask him."
Sokov waited for Rokosovsky to finish speaking, and turned his eyes to Yakov beside him and asked, "Yakov, can you tell me what you are here to come?"
"I said brother, don't have such serious expressions on your face." Seeing Sokov's serious look, Yakov quickly raised his hand and patted him on his shoulder, signaling him to be calm: "I will introduce you to the supplies I brought. After working overtime from the machinery factory workers, all the 50 automatic guns you need have been produced. The purpose of my 16th Army here is to escort General Rokosovsky back to the front line, and the second is to give you this batch of weapons." After that, he picked up an assault rifle thrown on the table and handed it to Sokov.
Sokov held the automatic rifle, first tried aiming, then pulled the bolt and looked at it, and asked casually: "Yakov, I want to ask how much ammunition is provided for each gun."
"Each automatic gun is equipped with three hundred bullets, which is equivalent to ten magazines per rifle." Yakov asked back after introducing the situation: "Misha, if you have nothing to do, we will go outside to handle a handover. As long as we send the weapon to the location, my mission will be completed."
"Let's go, let's go now." Sokov said, stepped forward and hugged Yakov and walked shoulder to shoulder to shoulder. After walking a few steps, Sokov remembered that he was in Rokosovsky's office now, and the leader did not allow him to leave. How could he go casually? So he stopped and faced Rokosovsky with a little embarrassed question: "Comrade Commander, are you allowed to leave?"
"Yes." Rokosovsky nodded with a smile and said to Sokov and Yakov: "Misha, you go and count the weapons with Yakov first. When you come back later, I want to talk to you. You don't object, right?"
Chapter completed!