One Thousand One Hundred and Eighty-Three
A rough hand stroked the edge of the window in front of him, flicking away the dust on it. The hand kept moving forward along the edge of the window, and finally stopped at the broken edge of the window. The window has obviously been damaged, the glass on it has been shattered, leaving only a few sharp fragments, and it is also because the nails are fixed on the window edge.
This hand pressed on the broken window sill, and stopped moving forward, because there was nothing in front of the broken window sill. More than half of the walls here have collapsed, only half of the walls are left, and some windows are still standing stubbornly here. If you are not very familiar with this place, no one will realize that this is actually part of the original Kremlin.
The collapsed walls are as eerie as twisted ghosts. Some engineers are using sandbags and other debris to reinforce the defensive positions near the Kremlin. The German army is only a few kilometers away. Maybe a few days later, the Germans Tanks were able to shoot shells straight into the windows of the Kremlin.
Stalin walked out of his underground headquarters in the early morning, and then saw the Kremlin, which he was familiar with but now extremely strange. It has been completely changed by the bombardment of the German army. Not far away, some Soviet soldiers are strengthening their defensive positions. Now this place is no different from ordinary ruined houses.
Yesterday evening, a unit of the German army captured Lemonosov Avenue, while another part of soldiers from Army Group A crossed Minsk Avenue and occupied several houses on Minsk Avenue. These troops are the furthest away from Moscow. The location of the core Red Square is only about 6 kilometers away.
What is even more exaggerated is that the troops of the 13th Panzer Division of the SS launched a violent attack all the way west along Kutuzov Avenue. The Soviet defense line could only gradually retreat with the German offensive. The Young Pioneers theater has stabilized its defense line, but there is only a pathetic distance of about 4 kilometers from the Kremlin.
Vatutin commanded the Soviet troops to continue to deploy defenses along the street, almost desperately struggling, while Stalin, under the fierce German offensive, silently counted his last days in this world. Everyone knew that Stalin had completely lost his chance of victory. He had been dying since a few months ago.
"It turned out to be my favorite meeting room... Zaitsev." Stalin looked at the dilapidated window sills in front of him, as well as the broken glass and the broken floor under his feet. Itsev said, "I never dreamed that this sacred place would become what it is now."
"Comrade Stalin! If you are willing to leave Moscow now, I will personally go to Zhukov and ask him to arrange for troops to break through desperately...Maybe we can make a gap, and things may turn around." Zaitsev followed behind Stalin , looked at the Kremlin, which was no different from the ruins in front of him, and said sadly.
Zaitsev is not a person who is greedy for life and afraid of death, but he dedicated his whole life to Stalin in front of him,
He is loyal to his boss and loves him like his father. He used to be brilliant, and when he was by Stalin's side, he was once more powerful than the commander of the military region, so now he has made up his mind that he will never leave this lonely old man in front of him.
Stalin didn't seem to feel Zaitsev's love, he just stroked the broken window edge with his hand gently, feeling that the originally luxurious palace has now become dilapidated ruins. After listening to Zaitsev's persuasion, the Soviet leader shook his head and laughed: "Zaytsev...I won't leave here, after all, this is where I should be , I should indeed finish my final journey here.”
After saying this, he paused for a moment, and then continued to ask, "How is my substitute doing with you?"
When his substitute went to inspect the entire Moscow defense system on his behalf that day, he was surrounded by civilians and soldiers, and finally retreated to the Kremlin, and the entire operation plan was completely cancelled. This small riot made Stalin even more jittery, and he even felt that it was never a good thing for him personally to leave a substitute.
He was afraid that the double would be captured alive by the Germans after his death. In that case, the Germans would probably use this double to make a lot of fuss. Even arrange a decent surrender ceremony to insult Stalin. Stalin also didn't want someone to use his appearance to continue to bluff in the days to come, so he instructed Zaitsev to get rid of the double as soon as possible.
Zaitsev, who was standing behind Stalin, heard Stalin's question, nodded and replied: "Comrade Stalin, I have personally executed your substitute, and the body was transported to the back garden of the Cathedral of the Assumption for burning and burial. A means of distracting the Germans' sight. Even if the Germans found the body, they would have nothing to prove."
"I have always been very confident in your affairs. If my generals are as reliable as you in their affairs, then we will win the war." Stalin withdrew his palm from the window sill, and swayed it to Zaitsev's shoulder on, and patted lightly: "Stay with me, accompany me through the last time, the last time of the Soviet Union..."
...
"Boom!" A shell fell on the edge of a building on the banks of the Moskva River. The huge air wave lifted the gravel by the river, smashed the French windows nearby, and knocked down the dummies placed in the shops on the street. A dozen Soviet soldiers held on to the helmets on their heads and ran along the embankment to the building, and then got into the hole on the side.
Inside the building, Vatutin was standing next to his telephone, and about 1,000 meters in front of him was already the border between the two countries. Bullets were flying everywhere, and from time to time tanks roared and overturned the wreckage, which was then blown up on the corner of a certain street.
"Ring, ring, ring!" During the interval between shell explosions, the telephone rang faintly. Vatutin grabbed the receiver of the phone and said to Zhukov on the other side of the phone: "Comrade Marshal! The telephone line was broken by the shell. It's been a day, and the communication between us may be interrupted again at any time... I don't know how long the troops in my hand can last, I will now officially hand over the command of the Moscow City Defense Force to you... Yes! I will officially send documents to Comrade Stalin, then give orders to all units that can be reached."
"Boom!" Another shell landed not far from where he was, and a huge air wave rushed into the building, setting off a cloud of smoke and dust. Vatutin patted the dust away from his mouth with his hands, and spat out. After spitting, he continued to talk to the phone: "My troops are short of ammunition and don't have many anti-tank weapons...but they are all warriors who love this country, please treat them kindly."
"Hello? Hello?" Because the German shelling was too violent, the phone line was cut off again before Vatutin could finish what he wanted to say. Hearing that there was no sound from the phone receiver, Vatutin regretfully threw the phone receiver back on the table covered with maps.
"Is there any troops in the guard battalion? Take your weapons and go support the 1st Moscow Division in front! What? No more?" Vatutin looked at the desperate combat staff officer, squeezed out a smile, and dusted it off with his hands. Brushing the dust off his shoulders, he looked at the electromechanics next door: "Comrades! It is really an honor to work with you! The Moscow City Defense Front, as an organized unit, no longer exists... We lost The effective command of the front-line combat troops... Our battle is over..."
He stretched out his hand, picked up the military cap instead of the steel helmet from the table, put it on top of his head, and then looked at the civilians and officers in the headquarters who had all turned their eyes to him: "Take it Your weapons, get out of here! Go home and see, or retreat to the back buildings, after all, you have done everything you can for this country. There is no need to wait here to die, really!"
"General! We have been working with you here for so long, and now you let us leave by ourselves, we really don't know where we should go." The chief of staff smiled and looked at Vatutin, not paying attention to the shells falling in the distance , the black smoke that covered the sky and the dense gunshots.
"General! Let us follow you!" Some young electromechanics and officers also said enthusiastically. They are a group of young people who love their motherland, and they are easily infected and inspired by the scenes in front of them. They don't care about life and death, nor are they afraid, but no one wants to be a coward, and no one wants to go before others.
Vatutin smiled and looked at his subordinates around him, shrugged his shoulders and said, "Okay! Actually, I have nowhere to go. I don't want to go to the Kremlin again and tell Comrade Stalin that we failed to hold our ground." , that was a painful job. I just want to rest here and rest, and then wait for my enemies to step over my dead body."
"Yes! We will stay here! Let those Germans step over our corpses!" Everyone nodded and said firmly. Young soldiers began to pick up Mosin Nagant rifles from the corners, and some people picked up precious sand submachine guns. Everyone squatted down in some corners, watching the movement on the other side of the river in the distance among the ruins.
At this time, going home was already a distant and unattainable word for these officers and Vatutin.
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The second one is here! Long Ling is going to write the third chapter of the supplementary update, it may be a bit late, everyone can read it tomorrow morning.
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