"Of course they were allowed to retreat into the city," Sokov replied without hesitation: "After so long the troops of General Popov's troops were not only a large number of wounded men, but also the officers and soldiers became exhausted. It was obviously inappropriate to let them stay in the suburbs."
"But, comrade Colonel. I wonder if you have ever thought that if all the troops retreated into the city," Rukhrey felt that Sokov was still too young and lacked experience, so he made such a wrong decision. He therefore persuaded: "Once the enemy implements two wings, the defenders in the city will fall into their siege."
"Don't worry, Colonel Ruhle, even if we retreat all our troops into the city, the enemy will not be able to encircle the city. You must know that in the south of us, there is a defense zone of the 21st Army; in the north, there is a guard. If the German army wants to detour on both wings, they must be mentally prepared to be surrounded by anti-encirclement." Sokov said confidently: "Besides, I just let General Popov's troops retreat into the city, and my troops will still fight against the enemy outside the city."
"Comrade Commander," said Vitkov, who was standing beside him, "Col. Ruhlei has been fighting for almost a week, and must be very tired. I think he should go to rest."
"The Chief of Staff is right. Colonel Ruhlei must be very tired after a series of battles. Let's go and rest quickly." Sokov finished speaking and shouted outside: "Lt. Samoilov!"
"Come!" As Sokov shouted, Samoilov strode in from outside. He walked to Sokov with great strides and quietly waited for him to give orders to himself.
"This is a friendly Colonel Rukhle," Sokov said to Samoilov. "He just jumped out of the enemy's encirclement with his troops, and he was exhausted. Take him to a nearby hotel to rest."
"Yes!" After Samoilov agreed loudly, he said politely to Ruhre: "Comrade Colonel, please! I will take you to rest!"
Seeing that Sokov and others had issued an order to expel him, Ruhre stood up tactfully, said goodbye to the two, and followed Samoilov out of the command center.
After Rukhlei left the command center, Vitkov couldn't wait to ask: "Comrade Commander, how many people do you think General Popov's troops can successfully break through?"
"It's hard to say, thousands, or even hundreds of people are possible." Sokov said with a wry smile: "This depends entirely on the speed of their meeting with Colonel Bere. But what I'm worried about now is that once General Popov retreats to Lugansk, the main forces of the German army will flock, and there may be a fierce battle at that time."
While talking, a burst of rapid footsteps suddenly came from outside. Sokov heard the sound of a group of people running and couldn't help but frown: "Who is outside?"
As soon as he finished speaking, seven or eight live ammunition soldiers rushed in from outside. They didn't even look at Sokov, but stood on both sides of the door. Looking at the soldiers coming in, with Popov's submachine guns on their chests, Sokov immediately realized that this was definitely not a member of the guard battalion, so he asked loudly: "Who are you subordinates and who allowed you to come in."
"They are my subordinates." A loud voice came from the door, and then a general with a low figure and wide shoulders walked in from outside with great strides.
After seeing the person clearly, Sokov immediately jumped out of his seat. He raised his hand to his forehead and said loudly: "Hello, Comrade General!"
It was not someone else, but General Zhukov, who had no news for a long time. He walked to Sokov and others, shook hands with them one by one, and spoke, "I heard that your troops are fighting against the enemy in the west direction of the city, trying to rescue the rapid cluster of Popov who broke through."
"Yes, comrade General." Sokov quickly replied: "The German army assembled several elite divisions and launched a full-scale attack on General Popov's troops. If we do not rescue him, his troops will be devastating."
"The destruction of the entire army means the destruction of the entire army. How different is the destruction of the troops and the destruction of the entire army?" Zhukov looked at Sokov and said with a sneer. "I am afraid that telling the truth will make me angry, so I actually picked up words with me here."
Zhukov sat down at the table, turned on the faucet of the samovar, poured himself a cup of tea, and asked Sokov slowly: "Col. Sokov, tell me, what will the German army do next once General Popov's troops successfully break through?"
"There are two possibilities." Although Sokov knew that in the original history, after the German army severely damaged the Popov rapid cluster and the Sixth Army, he turned north and attacked Golikov's Voronezh Front. But now he took action to rescue Popov's troops, would he stab the hornet's nest and shift the enemy's attention to his position? Therefore, he carefully analyzed to Zhukov: "First, turn north and attack General Golikov's Voronezh Front; second, go east to seize Luhansk we control."
"Which do you think the German army is more likely to choose between these two possibilities?"
"Both are possible." Sokov could not make the right choice at all, so he could only say ambiguously: "Whether it is General Golikov's troops or my troops, we must be prepared for a fierce battle. In this way, no matter which direction the enemy attacks, we can give them a head-on attack."
"Well said." Zhukov affirmed Sokov's attitude: "No matter which direction the troops are, as long as they are attacked by the German army, they must be vigilant and be prepared to fight the enemy. I plan to stay here for a while, and you can arrange a place for me."
"Ah, comrade General, are you going to stay here?" Sokov was shocked and sweated in a cold sweat when he learned that Zhukov planned to live in Lugansk: "No, I will definitely not. A big war may break out here at any time. It is really unsafe for you to stay here."
"Don't you know that during the Moscow Defense War, I had run around the front line with the driver many times, and there was no guard around me." Zhukov felt that he was a little nervous, so he said confidently: "Compared with the environment at that time, you can be considered as the rear here."
Sokov knew Zhukov's character very well and knew that once he decided on something, even nine cows could not be taken back, so he asked Vitkov to arrange a residence for Zhukov and his subordinates.
"Misha." In private occasions, Zhukov no longer called Sokov's surname and military rank, but asked in his nickname: "Do you have any difficulties?"
"Comrade General, there are difficulties. For example, we do not have any solid permanent fortifications outside the city. It is obviously unrealistic to just stick to it outside the city. I am afraid that when the battle goes through a certain stage, we will retreat into the city and fight street battles with the enemy." Since Zhukov asked himself to raise difficulties, Sokov naturally would not be polite, so he told all the things that made him headache: "Also, we do not have air supremacy. If the enemy is cooperated by the air force when attacking the city, then our defensive battle will become more difficult."