Chapter 1230 The Great Prophet
When he saw Vatutin again, Malashenko's first impression was
"Wow, the commander has gained weight again!"
Vatutin, who was already a bit short and fat, has become even fatter now. Maybe it's because he wears too many clothes, but Malashenko always feels that Vatutin's unusually obvious general's belly is about to burst the winter military coat he is wearing, at least it is absolutely no problem to burst the buttons of the clothes.
Vatutin, who was arranging the plan in front of the war zone map with a group of young staff officers, soon noticed Malashenko's arrival.
After reaching out to greet the chief of staff to come over and temporarily take over his work, Vatutin, who was still smiling when he saw Malashenko again, quickly walked forward, and his voice floated before he arrived.
"I made a bet with Marshal Zhukov that the German bullets pose no threat to you and you will be back on the battlefield in less than two months. Excluding your vacation time, I obviously won the Marshal again."
"Welcome back to the battlefield to defend the motherland, Malashenko. Oh, and congratulations to you. Now, we are both generals, which you deserve."
Vatutin's conversation with Malashenko was as easy-going as ever. Malashenko felt that this was probably one of the reasons why he subconsciously wanted to save Vatutin and fight against fate.
"To make those fascist lackeys more terrified by the powerful force of the Red Army's heavy tanks, this is the greatest significance of becoming a major general of the tank troops for me, comrade commander.
If someone else said this, it might be a bit boastful, but Malashenko's past history of climbing up to his current military rank step by step was piled up with the heads of Germans with swords and guns. If Malashenko said that he could kill more Germans, it would not be as simple as one or two.
Of course, Vatutin was still as usual, and was extremely satisfied with Malashenko's answer.
"If all our tank commanders and fighters could have your ambition and courage, I guarantee that the Germans would be half lying in the coffin now. Unfortunately, the ideological construction of many comrades still needs to be strengthened. "
Vatutin was generous in praising the officers and soldiers he valued. Malashenko, who turned the tide in Prokhorovka and withstood the fierce attack of three armored divisions of the SS lunatics, played a decisive role in the victory of the battle. In Vatutin's heart, he was actually placed in the first order of his generals.
Faced with Vatutin's rounds of bombardment-style praise, Malashenko, who was a little embarrassed, could only smile instead and didn't say anything more.
"Enough of the small talk, let's talk about business now."
"You came at the right time. The commanders of the 27th Army and the 40th Army will be here soon. We are going to hold an important meeting on the next combat operation. The commanders of the main divisions will also come to attend. Your division is a direct unit of the front army. At that time, you will be responsible for important combat tasks in the main attack direction, so prepare to attend the meeting later.
Malashenko came here for this purpose. Now that he happened to catch up with the convening of the combat meeting, he naturally had no choice but to respond to Vatutin with a standard military salute.
After the brief conversation with Vatutin, he had to have a chance to "disband" temporarily and do something he wanted to do before the formal meeting began.
Malashenko, who had called Political Commissar Petrov, came to the outside of the headquarters, found a quiet place with no one around, squatted down against the wall, took out the cigarette box, took out two from it, and handed one to the Political Commissar.
"Special cigarettes for the general level, I didn't expect that I could still benefit from you."
The supplies corresponding to the military rank were also different. The Mahe tobacco smoked by the soldiers had to be replaced with a higher-end variety when they came to the generals.
Malashenko, who had just started smoking the high-end cigarettes supplied by this general level, smiled and shook his head in the face of the teasing words of Political Commissar Petrov.
"I really didn't expect that I would be the first one in our group to become a general. To be honest, it's a surprise. I always thought that the first person should be you, not me."
Malachenko always said what he wanted to say in front of Political Commissar Petrov, unless there were special circumstances that required him to tell a white lie. Of course, this was only a rare exception, and this time it was obviously the former.
Click --
Huh --
Comrade Political Commissar, who felt the fragrance between his lips and teeth, had smoke coming out of his nostrils and mouth. For a person suffering from illness, the pleasure brought by cigarettes was really limited compared to the huge pain. Comrade Political Commissar relied entirely on strong willpower and the maintenance of strong analgesics to survive until today.
Being able to squat alone with Malachenko and smoke a cigarette, Political Commissar Petrov valued the artistic conception of the moment more than the taste that had long been tasted numb in his life and was now dispensable.
"The future belongs to you young people. It doesn't matter if our generation fights and dies in this war. What's important is you. You are the successors who will take over the red flag and go further."
"Kirill is like me back then, and you are like Kirill's brother now. To put it another way, this is also seeing the scene that his father hoped to see with Kirill's eyes. It doesn't matter whether I am a colonel or a major general."
Political Commissar Petrov raised his hand and took a deep puff of the mid-burn cigarette. The strong tobacco taste without filter remained in his mouth for a long time.
"Let's talk about something else. Have you studied the recent world situation? The signs of German failure are now quite obvious. The Americans and British took Sicily, stole Mussolini's ass and kicked it hard. A kick. Fascism is now forced to face a two-front situation. Do you think you are sure to end the war next year? "
Malashenko threw the remaining cigarette butts in his hand into the snow and made a hissing sound. Because of the reason for his arrival, this war has increasingly deviated from the historical trajectory and is becoming more unpredictable and unpredictable, but Malashenko always feels that everything will not be too optimistic and simple.
"It's difficult. Hitler is not the Kaiser. He knows very well that if he fails, he will definitely die, and neither his face nor his life will be saved. It is easy to force out a madman in such a situation, but Hitler himself is a madman. For him, It will only get crazier and more outrageous.”
"He will definitely drag the entire country to be buried with him. He will never give up until the entire Germany is beaten to pieces and completely destroyed. Either he will win alive or he will be defeated dead. There is no third way, but now The wall on the first road has been built so high that he can't climb over it. Death is his only end, no matter how crazy he is before he dies."
Political Commissar Petrov, who held a cigarette butt between his fingertips, thought about it for a while. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that Malashenko's analysis made sense. However, the next sentence made Malashenko quite unexpected.
"There will always be people who don't want to watch the whole country rush to destruction. Do you think there will be people who organize to assassinate Hitler and then come to negotiate peace with us and the Americans? This is almost what they did last time, but the method It’s just a little different.”
Malashenko, who was unsteady when he heard this, almost slipped and fell on the spot. I have to say that Political Commissar Petrov is a very old man. In this era of limited information, he held the position of a colonel. It was possible to predict what would happen next year, but it was a pity that Colonel Stauffenberg's plan ended in failure.
Otherwise, it is really possible to recreate the "wonderful activities" during World War I.
"Maybe it will happen, but most likely it won't succeed. If Hitler was really that stupid and easy to kill, he would have been killed before he could accomplish anything."