"You're crazy, Shulka!" Zolotarev scolded Shulka, and then shouted to stop the communication soldier: "Don't cancel the mission! This is mine..."
Shulka pushed the muzzle of the gun hard against Zolotarev's head, forcing him to repulse his next words.
"Don't you dare, Shulka! Put down the gun and I will pretend nothing happened!" Although Zolotarev said this, he still felt guilty when faced with Shulka's murderous look.
"You don't understand the battlefield, Comrade Zolotarev!" Shulka stared into Zolotarev's eyes and said viciously: "If I don't do this, tens of thousands of my soldiers will die on the battlefield!
Give me a reason not to pull the trigger!"
When Shulka said this, Zolotarev fell silent.
Shurka is right, no matter what, it means death. Pulling the trigger will only kill two people at most. If you don't pull the trigger, tens of thousands of people will die, and it may even lead to the failure of the entire battle. Shurka has no reason not to pull the trigger.
.
When Zolotarev was silent, Trufanov gave the order to the signal troops again.
This time the signal soldiers did not hesitate, picked up the phone and shouted: "Mission cancelled, repeat, mission cancelled!"
"Mission cancelled! All units' offensive missions are cancelled!"
…
The order was passed to the headquarters, which then conveyed the order to the artillery, tank crews and infantry who were already prepared. So it went smoothly and everyone received the order.
Only then did the hands of the watch point to six o'clock, the artillery preparation time.
Seeing that the gunfire did not come as expected, Shulka breathed a sigh of relief.
Trufanov walked up to Shulka, looked at Zolotarev, and said: "I hope you are right, Shulka!"
Shulka understood what Trufanov meant.
It is not a trivial matter that Shulka put a gun to the head of the political commissar. No matter from the perspective of "committing a crime below", "disobeying orders", or "rebellion in battle"... this is all a capital crime.
And when Trufanov just issued the order to "cancel the mission", he actually sided with Shulka and became Shulka's "accomplice".
So now, the only way to exonerate the two of them is Shulka's method.
"Don't worry!" Shulka replied, then put away his pistol and said to Zolotarev: "Comrade Political Commissar, we can have a serious talk now!"
Zolotarev glanced at Trufanov and Shulka, as if he was assessing whether he could take control of the situation and arrest the two men immediately.
But he gave up the idea when he saw Shulka holding the pistol at his waist... Zolotarev knew that he was no match for Shulka. Shulka was right in front of him, not to mention the guards around him.
Will they obey his order and arrest the two people? Even if the guards obey the order, no one can stop Shurka from drawing the gun and pointing the gun at his head again.
From this aspect, it actually doesn't make much difference whether Shulka puts away his gun or not.
After hesitating for a moment, Zolotarev could only nodded and followed Shulka to the map.
"The terrain in Surovino is low!" Shulka pointed to the map and said: "In other words, the Germans' water accumulation situation is more serious than ours!"
"Do you hope that the accumulated water will kill the Germans?" Zolotarev sarcastically said unconvinced, "So we are just waiting like this now?"
"No, Comrade Zolotarev!" Shulka said: "We don't need to wait!"
As he spoke, Shulka pointed to a point on the map.
"Frelovo Reservoir?" Trufanov immediately understood what Shulka meant: "Do you want to blow it up?"
"Yes!" Shulka nodded.
"Is this your method?" Zolotarev laughed: "Blow up the reservoir? But you should know that if you blow up the reservoir, we will not be spared and will be flooded as well!"
"But we are prepared, Comrade Zolotarev!" Shulka replied: "We can pull supplies and troops to higher ground!"
"Really? Then how should we attack?" Zolotarev said: "When Surovino becomes a vast ocean, can we swim across it?"
"We have amphibious landing ships!" Trufanov replied: "We have a lot of amphibious landing ships!"
Hearing this, Zolotarev couldn't help being stunned. He didn't know much about the 51st Army. He didn't know that the 51st Army was also equipped with amphibious landing ships... In fact, he knew about it, but he didn't take it seriously.
Here, because in Zolotarev's mind, war should be a collision of tanks against tanks and infantry against infantry, and the amphibious landing ship was just a small prop used for landing or crossing the river, so of course he would not have thought of this.
stuff.
But now that Trufanov mentioned it, I realized that it was true.
If the flood flooded the entire Surovino, the German defense line would definitely disappear.
But the Soviet army could rely on amphibious landing ships to launch a surprise attack on them, and then... nothing would be a problem. The Soviet army could obviously quickly occupy Surovino at a very small cost.
"So, where are our tanks?" Zolotarev then asked: "Without tanks, we will not be able to break through quickly in the next battle!"
"This requires us to know the amount of water in the Frelovo reservoir!" Shulka said: "And then calculate how long the flood will last. I think this should not be a big problem!"
Trufanov nodded and said: "Of course! We just need to make a phone call and they will tell us the data!"
"As soon as the water level drops!" Sulka pointed to the railway line on the map and said, "Our tanks can move along the railway... The railway has a solid foundation and is on a higher ground, so the impact of the flood should not be great.
If there is any impact, it will be that some of it will be deposited in the mud!"
Hearing this, Zolotarev was speechless.
"I'm done, Comrade Comrade Political Commissar!" With that, Shulka took off his armed belt and put it on the table, then pushed it in front of Zolotarev and said: "If you want to arrest me, now is the time!
"
Trufanov looked at Zolotarev, then took off his armed belt and said: "And me, Comrade Political Commissar!"
Zolotarev was silent, seeming to be thinking about how to deal with Shulka and Trufanov.
This did put him in a bit of a dilemma.
After a while, Zolotarev replied: "No, Comrade Trufanov, Comrade Shulka! You are right, this plan is very good, it will bring us a brilliant victory and will save the country."
Our strength allows us to save many lives! So..."
Zolotarev pushed the armed belt back in front of the two men and said: "But next time, I don't think you should use this method!" (To be continued)