Red Moscow

When the car arrived at the headquarters of the army group, Sokov got off the car and told Bobrikov: "Comrade Captain, keep an eye on this prisoner. I will go in to see the commander first."

"Comrade Brigade Commander," Bobrikov asked hurriedly when he saw Sokov preparing to enter the wooden house where the headquarters was located, "How long are we going to watch him?"

"Don't worry, it won't take long, someone will take him in soon."

As soon as Sokov entered the command center, he was seen by Malinin.

Malinin said to Rokossovsky: "Comrade Commander, Major Sokov is here!" After that, he took the lead to greet him.

When Sokov saw Malinin approaching, he immediately raised his hand to salute him and said hello: "Hello, Comrade Chief of Staff!"

Malinin shook hands with Sokov, then pulled him in front of Rokossovsky and said with a smile: "Major, you are finally here. We have been waiting for you for a long time."

After saluting Rokossovsky, Romanov and Lobachev, Sokov mentioned Georg who was still outside: "By the way, when I came here today, I also brought a German lieutenant who was captured by us not long ago."

But the crowd seemed to have no interest in the prisoner Sokov mentioned. Malinin said disapprovingly: "He is just a low-ranking officer. Just hand him over to the people below to deal with. We have more important things to do."

Seeing that everyone was so indifferent, Sokov quickly explained: "But the identity of this prisoner seems to be complicated."

After hearing what Sokov said, Malinin asked curiously, "Why is it not simple?"

"Comrade Chief of Staff, please listen to my explanation." Sokov reported to Malinin: "At night, an enemy force attacked our position and was repelled by us. I have already reported this to the headquarters."

"Yes, I have reported it." Malinin nodded, looked at Sokov and asked, "This prisoner should be one of the attackers, right?"

"I don't think so."

"Yes, it is, and no, it is not." Hearing this, Rokossovsky couldn't help but interrupt and said, "Why do you think it shouldn't be?"

"My men captured this prisoner when they were cleaning up the battlefield in the early morning," Sokov continued. "When my men found him, he didn't put up any resistance and surrendered. One of my men was worried that he might have some conspiracy, so he beat him up. I can't confirm whether he participated in the night raid for two reasons: first, his uniform was clean and didn't look like he had participated in the night battle; second, there were several hours from the end of the night battle to dawn. If he had participated in the night raid, he would have left the vicinity of our position and would definitely not have stayed there waiting to be captured."

After hearing Sokov's explanation, everyone realized that something might be wrong. Malinin quickly asked, "Where is he?"

"He's outside the headquarters, guarded by my people." Sokov said, "Chief of Staff, you can ask someone to bring him in."

Just as Malinin was about to ask someone to bring Georg in, Rokossovsky added, "Call the translator over so that we can interrogate the prisoner."

"Comrade Commander, that's not necessary. The prisoner can speak Russian very fluently. I guess he might be an intelligence officer we have placed inside the enemy."

Knowing that the prisoners outside might be intelligence personnel who had infiltrated the German army, Malinin's expression became serious: "Major Sokov, are you sure he is one of us?"

"Comrade Chief of Staff, I can't confirm it." Sokov said helplessly, "After he became our prisoner, I also interrogated him, but he refused to say anything. He only begged me to send him to the superior unit, saying that he had important information to report."

To be fair, Sokov did not want to participate in such a counterattack that had little chance of success. Not only was there no support from aircraft, tanks and artillery, but even the number of weapons and ammunition for combat was seriously insufficient. It was impossible to let the officers and soldiers hold rifles without bullets to deal with German tanks, right? You know, in the Battle of Kiev, after the officers and soldiers of the Southwestern Front ran out of ammunition and food, they launched several brave attacks on German tanks, artillery and machine guns with bayonets in their battalions, trying to break through the encirclement and retreat to the east. However, flesh and blood are no match for steel. They were killed and wounded in the shelling, strafing and crushing of German tanks. Except for a few troops that escaped, the rest were either annihilated or became prisoners of the German army.

With the lessons learned from the Battle of Kiev, Sokov knew very well that this counterattack was doomed to failure before it even started. If his infantry brigade really participated in the counterattack, it would probably become the shortest-lived unit in the Soviet military history.

Seeing that Sokov was silent, Rokossovsky was about to say something when he saw Malinin walking in with a bruised German second lieutenant.

"Comrade Commander," Malinin walked quickly to Rokossovsky and introduced him, "Let me introduce you to Comrade Georg, a comrade from our army who has infiltrated the German army."

"Hello, Comrade General." Georg took two steps forward, then stood at attention and saluted: "I am Georg, and I have important information to report to you."

But Rokossovsky was not in a hurry to listen to his report of the so-called important situation. Instead, he wanted to know his identity first: "Georg, you said you are an intelligence officer of our army lurking inside the German army. Why did you appear in our defense zone?"

"Comrade General, this is the situation." After seeing the rank on Rokossovsky's diamond-shaped collar badge and confirming that he was the highest commander here, Georg reported his intelligence truthfully: "I am a staff officer of the 24th Motorized Army Command. Usually, after obtaining intelligence, I hand it over to one of my intelligence officers, who will find a way to send the intelligence out..."

"Send intelligence?!" Romanov couldn't help but interrupt and ask, "Can't you use the radio?"

After Georg turned his head and saw Romanov's rank clearly, he explained respectfully: "Comrade Major General, although we have the opportunity to access the radio station, we cannot use it because it will expose our identities. Therefore, we can only use this most primitive method. I will hand over the information I have obtained to the intelligence officer, and he will deliver the information to the designated location."

"Since there are intelligence officers helping you to transmit information, why do you risk entering our military's defense zone?" Romanov continued to ask.

"Comrade Major General," Georg said with a bitter face, "I haven't seen him since I handed over a piece of intelligence to the intelligence officer the day before yesterday. When I couldn't contact him, I realized that he might have been in trouble. I had no choice but to take the risk of driving a motorcycle into our defense zone to deliver the intelligence."

"When did you arrive at our military defense zone?"

"Around early this morning," Georg continued, "I heard gunshots and explosions in the woods. I guessed it must be the German troops that attacked your position and were exchanging fire with you. In order to avoid being accidentally injured, I found a place to hide. At dawn, I saw some of our people coming to clean up the battlefield, so I immediately greeted them, but was beaten up by a soldier and then sent to the major's command post."

After finding out Georg's background, Rokossovsky looked at him and asked, "Comrade Georg, what are your plans next? Are you going to return to the German headquarters or stay with us?"

"Comrade General," Georg said, "I think my identity has been exposed. If I go back, it will be like committing suicide, so I can only choose to stay here."

"What kind of information do you bring?" Rokossovsky asked bluntly, "About the German operational deployment?"

Everyone thought that Georg risked his life to deliver a letter, which must be about the battle plan of the German 2nd Panzer Group. However, he shook his head and said, "No, Comrade General. The information I brought this time is not about the German battle plan, but another top-secret information."

"Top secret information?" Rokossovsky asked curiously, "Then tell me quickly, what kind of information is it?"

Unexpectedly, Georg's next answer surprised everyone: "I'm sorry, Comrade General, I can't tell you. Although this intelligence has little to do with the German military deployment, it is very important to the entire country. Therefore, I hope you can send me to the Intelligence Bureau, and I will report in detail to the person in charge there."

Sokov almost couldn't help but slap Georg when he heard what he said. He had worked so hard to send him to the army headquarters, but he didn't want to reveal the content of the intelligence to Rokossovsky and others. He instinctively looked at Rokossovsky to see how he was going to deal with Georg.

Rokossovsky frowned and pondered for a moment, then asked Georg: "Comrade Georg, if I understand correctly, the information you have is not something that we present here have the right to know?"

"That's right, Comrade General." Georg said solemnly, "This intelligence is related to the safety of the country, so I can only tell you the content of the intelligence after I arrive in Moscow and meet with senior officials of the Intelligence Bureau."

"Comrade Chief of Staff." Rokossovsky did not get angry at what Georg said, but ordered Malinin: "Immediately arrange for someone to send him to the intelligence agency in Moscow."

"Okay, I'll arrange it right away!"

After Malinin took Georg away, Romanov asked Rokossovsky in confusion: "Comrade Commander, why did you let the chief of staff send this man to Moscow? Aren't you worried that this man named Georg is a spy sent by the Germans?"

Rokossovsky raised his eyebrows and said to Romanov in a gentle tone: "Comrade Deputy Commander, you have been in the prisoner-of-war camp for too long. You may not know that many things are different from before the war or even at the beginning of the war. The current battlefield situation is favorable to the Germans. They don't need to use such tricks to deal with us."

"So what kind of information do you think he brought?"

"I'm not interested in knowing." Rokossovsky said lightly: "Our top priority is to complete the task assigned to us by our superiors and launch a powerful counterattack against the German army in the designated area."

When Sokov heard this, he realized that the fate of his troops depended on Rokossovsky's decision.

"Misha!" Rokossovsky turned to look at Sokov and asked, "When do you think we should launch a counterattack against the Germans?"

"I think we should choose the time of the counterattack in the evening." After Sokov proposed the time period for the counterattack, he did not wait for Rokossovsky to ask again, and went straight to the next sentence: "Now it is winter, and it is often dark at five or six o'clock. If our army launches a surprise attack on the German army at this time, their air force will not be able to take off and fight, and their tanks and artillery will also be greatly reduced in effectiveness due to the arrival of night..."

Sokov talked incessantly about his ideas, and Rokossovsky and others nodded repeatedly, and no one interrupted him.

As soon as he finished speaking, Malinin hurried in from outside and reported to Rokossovsky: "Comrade Commander, I have arranged a staff officer with several guards to escort Comrade Georg to the Intelligence Bureau in Moscow."

"Yeah, very good."

"Major Sokov," Malinin turned to Sokov and said, "Now, you can tell us all about your thoughts on this counterattack."

"Comrade Chief of Staff," Sokov realized that Malinin was not present when he just described the operational plan. Should he repeat what he just said to him? "I have just described my plan for the counterattack."

"Oh, you've already told me that?" Malinin looked around in surprise and asked, "Did I tell everyone about it when I just left?"

"That's right."

"Chief of Staff, don't worry, I'll tell you." Rokossovsky repeated to Malinin what Sokov had just said, and finally asked, "What do you think of this battle plan?"

Malinin stared at the map spread out on the table, trying to mentally demonstrate the combat steps described by Sokov to determine whether they could be adopted.

After a long time, he raised his head, looked at Rokossovsky and nodded, indicating that the plan was feasible.