Seeing the commander in a fierce crowd, I felt secretly grateful. Fortunately, I had a whim and took the initiative to take charge of the escort of prisoners of war from Konev. If I were really just sending an ordinary staff officer to supervise the supervision, I guess these prisoners of war were killed by all the commanders and fighters who had suffered in the prisoner camp for several years before they were sent to Uman.

After I waited for the calm in the room to return to my heart, I slowly said, "Comrades Commander, I want to ask you, who knows the great parade of prisoners of war in Moscow?"

"The prisoners of war parade in Moscow?" The commander sitting below showed a blank expression on his face when he heard my question, and looked at each other and muttered in a low voice: "Do you know what's going on?"

"I don't know, have you heard of it?"

"Of course I haven't heard of it, otherwise I won't ask you."

At this time, Afuning, who was sitting next to him, coughed heavily. When he heard his cough, the commander below immediately closed his mouth and focused his eyes on him, wanting to hear what he was going to say next.

"Comrades, this is the situation." Afuning said to his subordinates: "In order to show the great victory our army has achieved and to inspire the morale of the whole people, the Supreme Command conducted an unprecedented German prisoner-of-war parade in Moscow on July 17th.

The German prisoners of war paraded were mainly composed of German prisoners of war escorted by the Belarusian Front to Moscow, with about 60,000 people. The entire prisoner war team was divided into 90 platoons, stretching for more than 3 kilometers. They passed through the city of Moscow under the escort of the Derrensky Division and were sent to the prisoner war camp where they were imprisoned."

After everyone's low voices, Lu Jin stood up and asked me on behalf of the commander present: "Is this true, Comrade Deputy Commander?"

"That's right. Not long ago, Moscow did have such prisoners of war parades." I now hadn't had I taken the initiative to mention the prisoner war parades in Moscow, these division commanders wouldn't know. At this moment, since Lu Jin was asking me this question on behalf of everyone, I would go with the flow: "The reason why I asked you to escort the German prisoners of war captured in the battle of Lviv to Uman is because we plan to have a similar prisoner of war parade in Kiev next month.

The German prisoners of war who participated in the parade were not only from our Front Army, but also from the First and Second Front Army of Belarus, as well as the Second Front Army of Ukraine. If the prisoners of war we provide are fewer than other Front Army, would you say it be a shameful thing?"

After I finished speaking, the room fell into silence again, and everyone seemed to be thinking hard about what I said. The first to break the silence was Major General Rumentsev, the commander of the 4th Division of the Guards Airborne Army. He stood up and said loudly: "Comrade Deputy Commander, please hand over the task of escorting prisoners of war to our division. I promise you that we will definitely escort these prisoners of war to Uman smoothly."

"General Rumentsev," as soon as Rumentsev finished speaking, Major General Vasily, the commander of the 2nd Division of the Guards Airborne Army, also stood up and competed for the task with his colleagues: "I think it's better for our division to complete this task. After all, half of the commanders and fighters in your division have been in the German prisoner-of-war camp. If they are escorted, I'm worried that there will be a slanderous situation. Maybe when the prisoners of war reach Uman, they will be killed by them."

Seeing the two of them being nervous, I quickly came out to stop them: "Okay, two generals, don't argue anymore. I have already thought about which army to escort prisoners of war."

"Which unit is it?" the two asked in unison.

I pointed at Lu Jin who had just sat down and said, "I will give the new editor full responsibility for the task of escorting prisoners of war this time."

When Lu Jin heard me say this, he quickly stood up and kept his hands standing attentively. His hands were naturally drooping, his fingertips pressed against the trousers, and he replied with his chest raised: "Yes, we guarantee to complete the task."

After all the three division commanders sat down, I coughed gently, cleared my throat, and solemnly announced: "Comrades Commanders, I will announce an important appointment to you. After research by the Front Command and reporting to the Supreme Command for approval, I decided to restore Comrade Bonegelin's rank as Major General and appointed as Deputy Commander of the 18th Guards."

Ponegelin might have never dreamed that he would hear such good news here and was stunned. When the commander next to him reached out to him and congratulated him, he was still confused and just mechanically shook hands with the commanders around him.

I waited patiently for the commanders around me to shake hands with him and said again: "General Bonegelin, I will leave you to take charge of the task of escorting prisoners of war. You have the final say which regiment to lead to escort prisoners of war. I only require one thing: when the prisoners of war arrive in Uman, at least the number of survivors must be more than four-fifths. Can you do it?"

"Don't worry, Deputy Commander." Bonegelin stood up and replied firmly: "I will never let you down your trust in me."

…………

We left two days later, and the jeep I was riding slowly drove eastward behind the team escorting prisoners of war.

Just as I was drowsy in the seat behind, I was suddenly awakened by a crisp gunshot, and then another sound of submachine gun shooting sounded. However, the gunshot stopped for a moment.

I asked the driver to stop the car, and then ordered the staff officer sitting in the passenger seat: "You go ahead and see what happened, why are there gunfire?"

The staff officer went to the front for a few minutes and returned to report to me: "Comrade Deputy Commander, several German prisoners of war attempted to escape, but were shot dead by the soldiers we escorted."

After listening to the report, I said nothing, but just told the driver to continue driving. The jeep I was riding over one phalanx of prisoners of war and the commanders and soldiers of our army who were escorting them, drove forward along the uneven dirt road. I soon saw the bodies of seven or eight German prisoners of war lying on the side of the road. Not only were the soldiers responsible for escorting the prisoners turned a blind eye to these prisoners, but even the prisoners of war on the marching had a numb expression on their faces, as if the bodies lying on the ground were not their comrades at all.

I thought to myself: At the meeting, Bonegelin's words were quite straightforward, but it was very difficult to execute. Because almost all the commanders and soldiers of the regiment responsible for escorting German prisoners of war have been staying in the German prisoner-of-war camp and have a deep hatred towards the German army. They will never let go of their hatred for the Germans because of a command from Bonegelin. Therefore, on the way to Uman, the German army would definitely be punished with arbitrary execution of German prisoners of war.

When camping that day, I called Bonegelin to my tent and asked with a serious expression: "General Bonegelin, today we carried the prisoners of war for about 40 kilometers. I have discovered at least ten cases of shooting prisoners of war. Can you explain to me what is going on?"

Bonegelin replied with a look of shame and flushed, "Comrade Deputy Commander, I don't want to have such a thing to do. It's because my brothers have suffered too much from the Germans. I finally seized this opportunity to take revenge, so I will naturally not give up easily. Don't worry, I will do my best to restrain them."

I knew that these commanders and soldiers were filled with anger. If they were not allowed to vent, it would even affect their morale. I had to say lightly: "Okay, General Bonegelin, since you said that, let's forget it this time, I don't want to have similar things in the future. You can go back to the army first."

Bonegelin agreed, raised his hand and walked out of my tent.

However, during the next day's march, I could still hear gunfire sounds from time to time. Every gunshot, another German prisoner who was disliked by our commanders and soldiers died. At the beginning, I was quite dissatisfied with Bonegelin and felt that Bonegelin was slandered for his orders, but then I thought about it and felt that Bonegelin could not blame him for this matter. After all, the prisoners of war were several kilometers long, so how could he take care of it alone?

In order to stop being idle, I asked the driver to speed up and catch up with Bonegelin who was driving the way in front, and told him to continue to escort the prisoners of war to Uman, and then I asked myself to drive the car directly to Kiev.

In the evening of that day, I successfully arrived in Kiev and arrived at Khrushchev's office in the shortest time.

Khrushchev, who was busy in the office, seemed very happy to see me coming. He walked out from behind the desk and shook hands with me, and asked curiously: "Lida, why are you here?"

"Comrade Khrushchev," I looked at him and said with a smile: "Marson Konev asked me to cooperate with you in the parade of prisoners of war, so I will come over earlier to wait for your orders."

Khrushchev shook hands with me and asked, "Lida, how many prisoners of war have you brought this time?"

"There are seven or eight thousand prisoners of war." I don't know how many people will be left after the German prisoners of war were escorted to Uman by Bonegelin and others, so I can only say vaguely: "But before escorting prisoners of war to Kiev, they must be detained in Uman for a period of time, and after the prisoners of the other fronts arrived, they will be sent here to participate in the unified prisoners of war parade."

"Lida, I have reported to Comrade Stalin about the prisoners of war parade in Kiev." Khrushchev greeted me and sat down on the empty chair opposite his desk, and then said: "He said that since several fronts provide prisoners at the same time, the number of prisoners of war parades in Kiev should be higher than Moscow."

I have seen the parades of prisoners of war in Moscow, whether in history books or later film and television works. But I have never heard of the parades of prisoners of war in Kiev. In other words, even in real history, there is such a thing, the scale of the parades of prisoners of war in Moscow cannot be compared with that of prisoners of war in Moscow. Therefore, I said in an uncertain tone: "Comrade Khrushchev, whether the scale of the parades of prisoners of war this time can surpass Moscow depends on how many German prisoners of war provided to us by several fronts."

When camping that day, I called Bonegelin to my tent and asked with a serious expression: "General Bonegelin, today we carried the prisoners of war for about 40 kilometers. I have discovered at least ten cases of shooting prisoners of war. Can you explain to me what is going on?"

Bonegelin replied with a look of shame and flushed, "Comrade Deputy Commander, I don't want to have such a thing to do. It's because my brothers have suffered too much from the Germans. I finally seized this opportunity to take revenge, so I will naturally not give up easily. Don't worry, I will do my best to restrain them."

I knew that these commanders and soldiers were filled with anger. If they were not allowed to vent, it would even affect their morale. I had to say lightly: "Okay, General Bonegelin, since you said that, let's forget it this time, I don't want to have similar things in the future. You can go back to the army first."

Bonegelin agreed, raised his hand and walked out of my tent.

However, during the next day's march, I could still hear gunfire sounds from time to time. Every gunshot, another German prisoner who was disliked by our commanders and soldiers died. At the beginning, I was quite dissatisfied with Bonegelin and felt that Bonegelin was slandered for his orders, but then I thought about it and felt that Bonegelin could not blame him for this matter. After all, the prisoners of war were several kilometers long, so how could he take care of it alone?

In order to stop being idle, I asked the driver to speed up and catch up with Bonegelin who was driving the way in front, and told him to continue to escort the prisoners of war to Uman, and then I asked myself to drive the car directly to Kiev.

In the evening of that day, I successfully arrived in Kiev and arrived at Khrushchev's office in the shortest time.

Khrushchev, who was busy in the office, seemed very happy to see me coming. He walked out from behind the desk and shook hands with me, and asked curiously: "Lida, why are you here?"

"Comrade Khrushchev," I looked at him and said with a smile: "Marson Konev asked me to cooperate with you in the parade of prisoners of war, so I will come over earlier to wait for your orders."

Khrushchev shook hands with me and asked, "Lida, how many prisoners of war have you brought this time?"

"There are seven or eight thousand prisoners of war." I don't know how many people will be left after the German prisoners of war were escorted to Uman by Bonegelin and others, so I can only say vaguely: "But before escorting prisoners of war to Kiev, they must be detained in Uman for a period of time, and after the prisoners of the other fronts arrived, they will be sent here to participate in the unified prisoners of war parade."

"Lida, I have reported to Comrade Stalin about the prisoners of war parade in Kiev." Khrushchev greeted me and sat down on the empty chair opposite his desk, and then said: "He said that since several fronts provide prisoners at the same time, the number of prisoners of war parades in Kiev should be higher than Moscow."

I have seen the parades of prisoners of war in Moscow, whether in history books or later film and television works. But I have never heard of the parades of prisoners of war in Kiev. In other words, even in real history, there is such a thing, the scale of the parades of prisoners of war in Moscow cannot be compared with that of prisoners of war in Moscow. Therefore, I said in an uncertain tone: "Comrade Khrushchev, whether the scale of the parades of prisoners of war this time can surpass Moscow depends on how many German prisoners of war provided to us by several fronts."
Chapter completed!