Red Moscow

As the chief of the army's artillery, Kazakov was somewhat upset that more than a dozen heavy artillery pieces could not be assigned to his command. But since Rokossovsky had given the order, he, as a subordinate, could only obey unconditionally.

He took the initiative to say to Rokossovsky: "Comrade Commander, Major Sokov's infantry brigade has suddenly added so many artillery pieces. If there is no qualified artillery commander to command them, these artillery pieces will not be able to play their due role."

Rokossovsky heard the hidden meaning in his words and asked in return: "Are you planning to send an assistant to the infantry brigade to assist Sokov in commanding his artillery unit?"

"That's right, Comrade Commander." Kazakov nodded and said, without disguising his true intentions. "That's what I mean."

"Comrade, Chief of Artillery, what you said makes a lot of sense." Rokossovsky nodded and agreed to his proposal: "Then you should arrange personnel as soon as possible and rush to the Infantry Brigade." Seeing that Kazakov was eager to leave, he added, "By the way, it would be better to give that commander a position, so that it will be more conducive to his command of the artillery."

Kazakov's artillery headquarters was in the next room. After returning to his headquarters, he called a soldier and told him, "Go and call Lieutenant Artyom and tell him that I have something to talk to him about."

The soldier agreed and turned to walk out of the command center.

A few minutes later, Lieutenant Artyom, the artillery staff officer, 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 to assign you a task."

"Give me your orders, Comrade Chief of Artillery," Artyom answered, straightening his back. "I shall obey your orders without hesitation."

"It's like this. The infantry brigade has newly formed two artillery battalions." Kazakov said, "Each has 20 76.2mm cannons and more than a dozen 122mm howitzers..."

Hearing this, Artyom asked in surprise: "Comrade Artillery Chief, how come the infantry brigade has heavy artillery?"

"They found two hidden arsenals of our army in the forest, and these artillery pieces were found in the arsenals." Kazakov continued, "The task I assigned to 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 and plan to send you to the infantry brigade as an artillery staff officer. I hope you will live up to our expectations and achieve good results."

"Comrade Arty Director, please rest assured," Artyom said firmly, "I will never let you and the commander down for your trust in me."

"Time is running out, so you should leave as soon as possible."

Artyom took five artillery observers and drove to the base of Sokov's infantry brigade.

On the way, an artillery observer asked Artyom: "Comrade Staff Officer, where are we going?"

"To the Infantry Brigade," Artyom replied briefly. "The Infantry Brigade had just formed two artillery battalions and was short of artillery observers, so it sent a telegram to the headquarters for help. After the artillery director and the commander discussed it, they decided to send us over to assist the Infantry Brigade in its work."

"What? We're going to the artillery battalion under the infantry brigade?" The artillery observer lost interest immediately after hearing what Artyom said. "The people in the infantry brigade are mostly infantrymen. I guess there aren't many people who know artillery. Even if they have more artillery, I'm afraid they won't be able to play their due role."

After arriving at the infantry brigade's base, Artyom jumped out of the car as soon as it stopped, grabbed a soldier passing by, and asked politely: "Comrade soldier, where is your brigade headquarters?"

After the soldier saw Artyom's rank, he saluted and pointed to the tent: "The brigade headquarters is in that tent."

After thanking the soldiers, Artyom led five artillery observers towards the tent.

Unexpectedly, when he was almost reaching the tent, Artyom unexpectedly saw something being built in the woods not far away.

He stopped to watch, trying to see what was being built, when a captain walked out of the tent, looked Artyom up and down, and asked politely, "Comrade Lieutenant, which unit are you from, and what are you doing here?"

"I am Lieutenant Artyom, an artillery staff officer from the army headquarters. I have been ordered to come here to serve as an artillery staff officer." After Artyom revealed his identity, he looked at the captain and asked, "Comrade Captain, who are you?"

"I'm Captain Bobrikov, the commander of the brigade's guard company." After explaining his identity, the captain politely invited Artyom to enter the tent: "The brigade commander is not here at the moment, please go in and wait for a while."

"Wait for me here." After saying this to the artillery observer he brought with him, Artyom followed Bobrikov into the tent.

There were two lieutenant colonels and a female radio operator in the tent.

Seeing Boblikov coming in with a strange lieutenant, one of the lieutenant colonels was the first to ask: "Captain Boblikov, who is he?"

Bobrikov reported respectfully: "Comrade Deputy Brigade Commander, this is Lieutenant Artyom from the army headquarters. He is here to serve as an artillery staff officer in our brigade."

"So you are Lieutenant Artyom." The lieutenant colonel came over and shook hands with Artyom. "We have received a telegram from the headquarters and learned that you are coming to take up the post. On behalf of all the officers and soldiers of the infantry brigade, I welcome you."

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 person next to me is Lieutenant Colonel Karsokov, the chief of staff."

After Artyom shook hands with Karsokov, he curiously asked Belkin: "Comrade Deputy Brigade Commander, where is the Brigade Commander?"

“Before you came in, you might have seen something being built in the woods next to you?”

"Yes, I see."

"The brigade commander plans to build a wooden platform there as an observation point so that he can see what's happening on the battlefield at any time."

After Belkin's explanation, Artyom immediately understood what he had seen before entering the tent. He calmed down and said to Belkin, "Comrade Deputy Brigade Commander, I am here as an artillery staff officer. I wonder if you can send someone to guide me to meet the two artillery battalion commanders."

"I'll send for them right away," said Belkin, "so you don't have to make another trip."

"Okay, I'll wait for them here."

Not long after, the two artillery battalion commanders who received the notice hurried over.

"We will resolutely obey your orders." The two battalion commanders answered in unison.

"Comrade Battalion Commanders, what should I call you?"

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"I am Major Levan, commander of the Second Artillery Battalion."

"I am Major Alten, commander of the 1st Artillery Battalion."

"Comrade Deputy Brigade Commander, your brigade is really generous. You actually have two artillery battalions." Levan said with some envy: "Nowadays, some divisions may not even have two artillery battalions, let alone a brigade."

Sokov walked in from outside and saw that the tent was a bit crowded because there were too many people. He asked Belkin: "Comrade Deputy Brigade Commander, what happened? Why are there so many people here?"

"Report to Comrade Brigade Commander." Hearing Sokov's question, Karsokov quickly reported: "The superiors have sent us an artillery staff officer. When you need to use artillery in the future, you can give orders to him, and he will give orders to the artillery unit."

Sokov did not object to this. After all, there were not many people in the infantry brigade who knew how to command artillery. If his superiors sent him a professional, he would save a lot of trouble. Sokov extended his hand to the other party and said in a friendly manner: "Hello, comrade artillery staff. Let me introduce myself. I am Major Sokov, the commander of the infantry brigade."

When Sokov came in just now, Artyom found that he was only a major, and he was quite worried. He wondered if the other two lieutenant colonels had different views when formulating the combat plan, and whether they would listen to Sokov's orders?

But he soon found that his worries were unnecessary. When the officers in the tent saw Sokov's appearance, they all behaved neatly, which showed that Sokov's prestige in the infantry brigade was still quite high.

"Comrade Commander," after confirming that Sokov could control the entire infantry brigade, Artyom breathed a sigh of relief and asked Sokov tentatively, "How are your artillery positions deployed?"

"Comrade Chief of Staff." Sokov waited until Artyom finished speaking, then immediately turned to Karsokov and said, "Show the location map of the artillery position to our new artillery staff to see if there is anything that needs to be improved."

Karsokov agreed and took up a map and placed it in front of Artyom. "Comrade Lieutenant, take a look. This is the distribution of the artillery positions of my brigade."

Artyom picked up the blueprint and after a careful examination, he unexpectedly discovered that one of the artillery batteries was located in front of the infantry position. He quickly pointed to that location and asked Sokov, "Comrade Brigade Commander, I don't understand why you want to deploy an artillery battery in front of our defense line?"

Hearing Artyom's question, Karsokov quickly explained to him: "Comrade Lieutenant, the situation is like this. Yesterday, our superiors sent us an artillery company with four guns. Each gun had less than 20 rounds of ammunition left, and most of them were armor-piercing shells..."

"Ah, all armor-piercing shells?" Artyom asked in surprise, "Is this artillery battery specially used to deal with German tanks?"

"Comrade Lieutenant, your guess is correct." Sokov did not hide his true purpose at all, but answered truthfully: "Since they are carrying armor-piercing shells, it means that their mission is to fight against tanks. And they are deployed in the left front of the infantry position because I think they can easily destroy the enemy's tanks and armored vehicles when the German army attacks..."

After listening to Sokov's words, Artyom continued to ask: "How much ammunition do you have for your artillery?"

Sokov smiled and replied, "Each gun is equipped with two basic ammunitions."

"Ah, two base shells?" Sokov's words shocked Artyom again. He asked with a little stuttering: "Comrade Brigade Commander, where did you get so many shells from?"

"I think Comrade Commander may have told you that I found a hidden arsenal in the forest. The artillery and the matching shells were all found there." Sokov remembered the five soldiers standing at the door before he entered the tent. The rank marks on the collar badges all indicated that they were artillerymen. "By the way, the five people outside the tent, are they all here with you?"

"Yes, Comrade Brigade Commander." Artyom nodded and gave Sokov an affirmative answer: "Those are the artillery observers you want."

"The artillery observer is here?" Belkin had never left the tent, so he naturally didn't know that there were five unfamiliar soldiers standing outside. Hearing Artyom's words, he couldn't help but smile: "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."

"That's absolutely right, Comrade Deputy Brigade Commander." Sokov said to Belkin, "Since our superiors have assigned us an artillery staff officer, then he should be responsible for arranging the work of these artillery observers."

Seeing Sokov cooperate with him so well, Artyom felt warm in his heart. He quickly expressed his loyalty to Sokov: "Leave the artillery work to me. I promise you that I will never let you down."

Although Sokov had just met Artyom, he was a person who knew how to delegate authority. Professional matters should be left to professionals. He knew very well that he was the commander of the infantry and knew very little about artillery. Now that his superiors had sent him an artillery staff officer, she would be in charge of all artillery matters in the future.

"Lieutenant Artyom," Sokov raised his hand and patted Artyom on the shoulder, saying with a smile, "We all believe in you. We hope that the artillery unit will achieve even more brilliant results under your leadership."

Facing Sokov's trust, Artyom was extremely excited: "Comrade Brigade Commander, don't worry, I will never let you down."