As the director of the artillery of the group army, Kazakov was somewhat unconscious about the fact that more than a dozen heavy artillery could not be assigned to his own command. But since Rokosovsky had already given the order, he, as a subordinate, could only obey unconditionally.
He took the initiative to tell Rokosovsky: "Comrade Commander, Major Sokov's infantry brigade has suddenly added so many artillery artillery to the command of a qualified artillery commander, these artillery will not play their due role."
Rokosovsky heard the subtle voice of his words and asked back, "Are you planning to send your assistant to the infantry brigade to assist Sokov in commanding his artillery troops?"
"That's right, Comrade Commander." Kazakov nodded and said, "That's what I mean."
"Comrade Artillery Director, what you said makes a lot of sense." Rokosovsky nodded after hearing this and agreed to his proposal: "Then you arrange the manpower as soon as possible and rush to the infantry brigade." Seeing Kazakov anxious to leave, he added later, "By the way, it's better to give that commander a position, which will be more conducive to his command of the artillery."
Kazakov's artillery command was in the room next to him. After returning to his command, he called a soldier and told the other party: "Go and call Lieutenant Artem over and say I have something to look for him."
The soldier agreed and turned around and walked out of the command center.
A few minutes later, the artillery officer Lieutenant Artyom appeared in front of Kazakov. After raising his hand to salute, he was about to report to Kazakov according to the regulations, but was stopped by the other party: "Lieutenant Artyom, I called you over because I wanted to assign a task to you."
"Please give orders, Comrade Artillery Director." Artem replied straightened his back and said, "I firmly obey your orders."
"It's like this, the infantry brigade has formed two new artillery battalions." Kazakov said: "There are 20 76.2mm cannons and more than a dozen 122mm howitzers respectively..."
Hearing this, Artem asked in surprise: "Comrade Artillery Director, how could the infantry brigade have heavy artillery?"
"In the forest, they found two hidden arsenals of our army. These artillery were found in the arsenal." Kazakov continued: "The task I assigned you is to take five artillery observers to the infantry brigade. In order to better command the two artillery battalions, I have asked the commander to ask you to go to the infantry brigade to serve as artillery staff. I hope you will not let our expectations down and achieve good results."
"Comrade Artillery Director, please rest assured." Artem said firmly: "I will never let you down and the Commander trust me."
"Time is tight, so you can set off as soon as possible."
Artem took five artillery observers to the base of the infantry brigade in Sokov.
On the way, an artillery observer asked Artem: "Comrade Staff, where are we going?"
"Go to the Infantry Brigade." Artem replied briefly: "The Infantry Brigade had just formed two artillery battalions and lacked artillery observers, so he sent a telegram to the headquarters for help. After discussing with the artillery director and the commander, he decided to send us to assist the Infantry Brigade in its work."
"What, is it going to the artillery battalion under the Infantry Brigade?" The artillery observer lost interest when he heard Artem say this: "The people in the Infantry Brigade are basically infantry, and there are probably not many people who know how to use artillery. No matter how many artillery there are, they may not be able to play their due role."
After arriving at the base of the infantry brigade, Artem waited for the car to stop and immediately jumped out of the car, grabbed a soldier passing by, and asked politely: "Comrade Soldier, where is your brigade headquarters?"
After seeing Artem's rank clearly, the soldier raised his hand and saluted, then pointed to the location of the tent: "The Brigade Department is in that tent."
After thanking the soldiers, Artem walked towards the tent with five artillery observers.
Unexpectedly, when he was about to reach the tent, Artem unexpectedly saw something building in the woods not far away.
When he stopped and watched, he wanted to see clearly what was being built, a captain walked out of the tent, looked Artem up and down, and asked politely: "Comrade Lieutenant, what are you from, what are you doing here?"
"I am Lieutenant Artjom, an artillery officer from the Army Command. I was ordered to come here to serve as artillery officer." After Artjom revealed his identity, he looked at the captain and asked, "Comrade Captain, who are you?"
"I am Captain Bobricov, the commander of the brigade guard company." After explaining his identity, the captain politely invited Artem into the tent: "The brigade commander is not here for the time being, you can go in and wait for a while."
"You are here to wait for me." After saying this to the artillery observer he brought, Artem followed Bobricov into the tent.
There were two lieutenant colonel officers and a female radio operator in the tent.
Seeing Bobricov coming in with a strange lieutenant, one of the lieutenant colonels was the first to ask: "Captain Bobricov, who is he?"
Bobricov reported respectfully: "Comrade Deputy Brigade Commander, this is Lieutenant Artem who came from the Army Command, and he came to our brigade as an artillery officer."
"So you are Lieutenant Artem." The lieutenant colonel came over and shook hands with Artem: "We have received a telegram from the headquarters to learn that you are coming to take office. On behalf of all the commanders and fighters of the Infantry Brigade, I welcome your arrival."
After the two shook hands, the lieutenant colonel took the initiative to say: "I am Lieutenant Colonel Belkin, the deputy commander of the Infantry Brigade, and the next person is Lieutenant Colonel Karsokov, the chief of staff."
After Artem and Karsokov shook hands, they asked Belkin curiously: "Comrade Deputy Brigade Commander, I wonder where the brigade commander has gone?"
"Before you come in, you might see something building in the wood next to you?"
"Yes, I saw it."
"The Brigade Commander plans to build a wooden platform there as an observation point so that he can see the situation on the battlefield at any time."
After Belkin's explanation, Artem immediately understood what he saw before entering the tent. He calmed down and said to Belkin: "Comrade Deputy Brigade Commander, I am here to serve as an artillery officer. I wonder if you can send someone to guide me to meet the two artillery battalion commanders."
"I'll have someone call them right away," said Belkin. "It won't be possible to get you there."
"Okay, then I'll wait for them here."
Not long after, the two artillery battalion commanders who received the notice ran over hurriedly.
Before entering the tent, they saw five soldiers standing outside. From the collars they wore, they could tell that they were artillery soldiers.
Lewan stopped and asked an artillery observer: "Comrade Soldier, what part are you from?"
"We are from the Artillery Battalion of the Infantry Brigade." The other party replied briefly: "Just come from the headquarters."
When he saw that the artillery personnel sent by his superiors, Liewan's face was full of joy. He touched Alten with his elbow and said excitedly: "I heard that, this is the artillery soldiers sent by his superiors."
After the two entered the tent, Belkin nodded to the two and then said, "Two battalion commanders, I will introduce you to you. This is Lieutenant Artjom, the artillery staff sent by his superiors to our brigade. From now on, he will assist the brigade department in commanding you to fight."
After hearing what Belkin said, Lewan and Artem looked at each other and both saw the joy in each other's eyes.
"Hello, Comrade Battalion Commander." Artem stepped forward and shook hands with the two battalion commanders, then said: "I am Lieutenant Artem. From now on, the orders issued by the brigade commander to the artillery will be conveyed through me."
"Firmly obey your orders." The two battalion commanders replied in unison.
"Two battalion commanders, I wonder what to call you?"
"I am Major Liewan, the battalion commander of the Second Artillery Battalion."
"I am Major Alten, the battalion commander of the 1st artillery battalion."
"Comrade Deputy Brigade Commander, your brigade is so magnificent that it actually has two artillery battalions." Liewan said with some envy: "Now some divisions may not have two artillery battalions, let alone one brigade."
Sokov, who walked in from outside, saw that there were too many people in the tent and seemed a little crowded, he asked Belkin: "Comrade Deputy Brigade Commander, what happened? Why are there so many people here?"
"Report to comrade comrade commander." Hearing Sokov's question, Karsokov quickly reported: "The superior sent us an artillery staff member. When you want to use artillery in the future, you can give him the orders and then he will issue orders to the artillery troops."
Sokov did not object to this point. After all, there are not many people in the infantry brigade who know how to command artillery. If the superior sends a professional to himself, he can save a lot of trouble. Sokov extended his hand to the other party and said with a friendly attitude: "Hello, artillery staff comrade. Let me introduce myself to me. Major Sokov, the commander of the infantry brigade."
Just when Sokov entered the door, Artem found that the other party was only in the rank of major, and was quite worried. I wonder if the other two lieutenant colonels had a deviation in their views when formulating the combat plan. Will they obey Sokov's orders?
But he soon discovered that his worries were unnecessary. Several officers in the tent showed that Sokov was quite clear when he saw Sokov's appearance, which showed that Sokov's prestige in the infantry brigade was quite high.
"Comrade Brigade Commander," after confirming that Sokov could control the entire infantry brigade, Artem asked Sokov tentatively while breathing a sigh of relief: "I wonder how your artillery position was deployed?"
"Comrade Chief of Staff." Sokov waited for Artem to say this and immediately turned to Karsokov and said, "Give us a picture of the position of the artillery position to our new artillery staff to see if there is anything that needs improvement."
Karsokov agreed, picked up a map and placed it in front of Artem: "Comrade Lieutenant, look, this is the distribution of artillery positions in my brigade."
Artem picked up the drawings and looked carefully for a while, and unexpectedly found that the location of one of the artillery companies was actually in front of the infantry position. He quickly pointed to that position and asked Sokov: "Comrade Brigade Commander, I don't understand why you should deploy an artillery company in front of our defense line?"
Hearing Artem's question, Karsokov quickly explained to him: "Comrade Lieutenant, this is the situation. Yesterday, the superior sent us an artillery company with four artillery pieces. Each of them has less than 20 rounds of ammunition left, and they are basically armor-piercing bullets..."
"Ah, they are all armor-piercing bombs?" Artem asked in surprise: "Is this artillery company specially used to deal with German tanks?"
"Comrade Lieutenant, your guess is not wrong." Sokov did not hide his true purpose at all, but replied truthfully: "Since they were carrying armor-piercing bombs, it means that their mission was for anti-tank combat. And deploying them on the left front of the infantry position was because I considered that they could easily destroy the enemy's tanks and armored vehicles when the German army attacked..."
After hearing Sokov's words, Artem continued to ask: "How much ammunition does your artillery have?"
Sokov smiled slightly and replied: "Each cannon is equipped with two cardinal ammunition."
"Ah, two cardinal shells?" Sokov's words shocked Artem again. He asked in a stuttering manner: "Comrade Brigade Commander, where did you get so many shells from...?"
"I think the commander may have told you that I have found a hidden arsenal in the forest. The artillery and supporting shells were all found there." Sokov remembered that the five soldiers standing at the door at the door and the military rank marks on the seals all indicated that they were artillerymen. "By the way, the five people outside the tent were all with you, right?"
"Yes, comrade brigade commander." Artem nodded and gave Sokov a positive reply: "Those are the artillery observers you want."
"The artillery observer is here?" Belkin never left the tent, so he naturally didn't know that there were five strange-faced soldiers standing outside. After hearing Artem's words, he couldn't help but be happy: "That's great. In this way, our artillery can carry out long-range strikes on the German army based on the data provided by the artillery observer."
"It's totally correct, comrade of the deputy brigade commander." Sokov said to Belkin: "Since the superiors have arranged an artillery staff member for us, then he will be responsible for how to arrange the work of these artillery observers."
Seeing Sokov cooperated with him so much, Artem couldn't help but feel warm. He quickly expressed his loyalty to Sokov: "Please leave the artillery work to me. I promise you that I will never let you down."
Although Sokov had just met Artem shortly after, he was a person who knew how to delegate power, and professional matters had to be left to professionals to complete. He knew very well that he was the commander of the infantry and knew very little about artillery. Now that his superiors sent him an artillery staff member, she would deal with the matters about artillery in the future.
"Lt. Artem," Sokov raised his hand and patted Artem's shoulder, and said with a smile: "We all believe in you and hope that the artillery troops will achieve more brilliant results under your leadership."
Facing Sokov's trust, Artem was extremely excited: "Comrade Brigade Commander, don't worry, I will never let you down your trust in me."