When the members of the Bulgarian delegation packed their own things and politely bid us farewell, the atmosphere inside became dull. .

Temuxin stood up and walked around the room without saying a word. Tolbuxin leaned against the back of the chair, looking at the ceiling with his eyes, as if something beautiful on it attracted him. But I was nervously thinking: "Is it because my words just now that my current government's cabinet resigned? The negotiations collapsed. How should I explain to Stalin who sent me here?"

The first person to break the silence was Tolbuxin. He looked at Brother Timuxin, who was like an ant on a hot pan, and frowned and asked, "Comrade Marshal, what should we do now?"

"This matter should be reported to Moscow." Temuxine said with a serious expression: "Look at what solution Comrade Stalin will propose." After that, he shouted at the telecommunications room.

Following his shouts, a young lieutenant officer walked out of the telecommunications room. He came to Timuxin and stopped, without saying a word, but stood up straight, his chin slightly raised, and patiently waiting for the order given by his superiors.

"Comrade Lieutenant," Temushinge raised his hand and pointed at him, and ordered: "Receive the Kremlin call immediately. I have important situations to report to Comrade Stalin."

A few minutes later, the lieutenant answered the Kremlin call and quietly retreated back to the telecommunications room after handing over the microphone to Temuxin.

Temuxin held the microphone, took a deep breath, and then said to the microphone: "Is it Comrade Poskrebeshev? I am Temuxin, I want to report the results of today's negotiations to Comrade Stalin."

When Brother Temuxin took the microphone, I felt my heart beat suddenly accelerated, my eyes staring at him motionlessly, ready to bear Stalin's anger with him. After he said the first sentence, I even held my breath nervously and my mood became heavier.

After a moment of silence, Brother Timuxin said respectfully to the microphone: "Hello, Comrade Stalin, I am Brother Timuxin. I want to report to you the results of today's negotiation." After reporting today's negotiations expressionlessly, he took the initiative to take the blame for the failure of the negotiations on himself. "Comrade Stalin, it's all my fault. I have no experience, so the matter has been messed up and the negotiations have ended up in the end."

I don’t know what Stalin said on the other side of the phone, Timuxin’s face suddenly turned red. He quickly defended himself: “Comrade Stalin, you can’t blame Lida for failing the negotiation. It’s all my responsibility. It’s because I don’t have the initiative to control the negotiation…”

I suddenly saw Brother Temuxin covering the microphone with his hands and said to me in a heavy tone: "Lida, Comrade Stalin wants to talk to you in person."

I stood up in a hurry, walked quickly to Brother Temuxin, and took the phone in his hand with his slightly trembling hands. I put my headphones in my ears and said tremblingly: "Hello, Comrade Stalin, I am Oshenina."

After hearing my voice, Stalin asked in a plain tone: "I heard that you gave an ultimatum to the representatives of Bulgaria at today's negotiation table. Is this true?"

I could not infer from Stalin's tone what he was about to the unresolved negotiations, so I could only answer truthfully: "Yes, I gave them an ultimatum, saying that if they do not agree with the terms we have proposed before tomorrow, we will put force into solving the Bulgarian issue."

"Tell me, what is the current preparations for the Third Front of Ukraine?" Stalin still did not make any statement, but was just asking some irrelevant words.

I quickly covered the microphone and whispered to Tolbuhin, who was sitting in the distance: "Comrade General, do you have a plan for combat? Comrade Stalin wants to listen to my report."

Tolbuxin quickly waved to an officer standing behind him. The officer rushed forward to Tolbuxin's side and bent down to wait for his further instructions. Tolbuxin turned his head and whispered a few times at the officer. The officer nodded, stood up and turned around and walked out of the conference room.

Seeing that there was no sound on my side, Stalin raised his voice: "Hey, Lida, are you still here? Hey, Lida, are you still next to the phone?"

Hearing Stalin's voice a little angry, I quickly let go of the words covering the microphone and defended me: "Comrade Stalin, please wait for a moment. The front's battle plan will be brought soon."

It was still very good for the officer to do business. It took him only three minutes from receiving the order from Tolbuxin to getting the combat plan back. I looked through the plan quickly and browsed it. When I saw the key points, someone had already marked a black line below to mark it. In this way, I saved a lot of trouble and no need to find the key points in the thick plan.

I looked at the plan and said to Stalin: "According to the plan of the Third Front of Ukraine, the 37th Army launched an attack from Dobridge Provadia; the 46th Army carried out an attack in the direction of Yesekioykubrat; the 57th Army prepared to attack Kochimarshumen. In the direction of Kanobat Burgas, the 4th and 7th Army prepared to enter the battle were the guard mechanized 4th and 7th Army, and these two troops should reach the designated attack position on the second day of the battle."

After listening to my report, Stalin said with satisfaction: "It seems that Temusingo and Tolbuhin have made all preparations for combat. Even if our negotiations with Bulgaria end in failure, our army has enough strength to successfully enter the Bulgaria border."

When I heard Stalin say this, I seemed to be in a good mood and couldn't help but ask with some confusion: "Comrade Stalin, our negotiations today are incomplete. Aren't you angry?"

"Angry, why am I angry?" Stalin said with a smile: "I have guessed that the negotiations with the Bulgarian delegation will not be able to come to an end. After all, this government was supported by fascist forces, and no matter what the negotiation results are, it will be defeated. The government leading the Bulgarian people should be a government that has friendly relations with the Soviet Union and represents the interests of the broad masses of people, rather than the Bagrianov government, which is now in power."

From Stalin's words, I heard that he did not pursue the collapse of the negotiations at all. On the contrary, he seemed to be happy to see it. However, if you think about it carefully, there is really such a possibility. If we talk about diplomatic negotiations, the three soldiers we participated in the negotiations today were tied together and were not even qualified to attack Molotov.

Just as I started to think about it, I heard Stalin continue, "Lida, you performed well at the negotiating table today. After you put forward our conditions to them, you should give them a deadline so that they will not always sway between us and the Germans, and even engage in a relationship with Britain and the United States."

Seeing that Stalin had no intention of blaming us, my heart was finally overwhelmed. I quickly asked, "Comrade Stalin, what should we do next?"

"Two-pronged approach, one is to wait for them to elect a new government so that a new round of negotiations will be held again." Stalin said in a relaxed tone: "The second is that our troops will continue to mobilize to designated locations and start hoarding weapons, ammunition and various military supplies. After the next negotiation fails, they will officially declare war on Bulgaria."

Seeing that I finished the call with Stalin, Tolbuhin waved to the officers standing in the conference room and signaled them to go out first. When there were only three of us left in the conference room, he asked cautiously: "General Oshanina, what punishment measures would Comrade Stalin take against us for the sake of today's negotiations that would be incomplete?"

"No, comrade General." Seeing that Tolbuhin was so worried, I quickly comforted him and said, "Actually, the Supreme Commander himself is not optimistic about today's negotiations at all, so he is not angry at all."

"What, Lida, what did you say just now?" When Brother Temuxin heard this, he immediately interrupted me and asked impatiently: "How do you know that Comrade Stalin is not optimistic about today's negotiations? If he is not optimistic, how could he hurriedly send you from Moscow?"

The question of Temuxin Ge really made me feel a little amused. I thought in my heart that someone with such poor political sensitivity could actually become one of the members of the Supreme Command. This was simply a miracle. However, due to his poor ability, shortly after the outbreak of the war, he and Voroshilov gradually lost their role and became chores. They could only respect the orders of the base camp and were exhausted on all fronts.

After organizing the words in my mind, I spoke, "Comrade Marshal, have you not noticed that the people we participated in the negotiations are all soldiers and there is not a single diplomat?"

"Yes, that's it." Brother Temuxin looked at me and nodded, and said thoughtfully: "At first I thought it was Comrade Stalin's negligence, but now if he thinks carefully, he seems to have made this arrangement intentionally."

After Brother Temuxin finished speaking, Tolbuxin also smiled and said, "Yes, Comrade Marshal, you have made sense. If we talk about war, we are all commanders with rich combat experience; but when it comes to negotiating at the negotiating table, we are still a rookie who knows nothing."

Temuxin did not evaluate Tolbuxin's words, but coughed without warning. At first, he coughed twice, just like the kind of coughing choked when drinking water, so that neither Tolbuxin nor me noticed it. But then he coughed more and more violently, and in the end he coughed so hard that he was heartbreaking.

"Comrade Marshal, you are sick and need to hire a military doctor immediately." As I said, I stood up and prepared to go outside to ask the officers on duty to invite the military doctor over.

But Brother Timuxin raised his hand to stop me: "Lida, don't look for a military doctor, I'm fine..." Before he finished speaking, he coughed violently again, his hands and feet trembling constantly.

Seeing that Brother Temuxin coughed so hard and his face turned pale, I felt that things were not good. Taking advantage of Tolbuxin's time to get up and pat his back for Brother Temuxin, I rushed to the door, opened the door, and shouted to the officer on duty sitting outside the door: "Comrade officer, call the military doctor quickly, doctors are needed here."

Ten minutes later, a middle-aged man in a lieutenant colonel uniform walked into the conference room under the guidance of the officer on duty. The officer placed the small suitcase in his hand on the table, bowed respectfully to us, then turned around and walked out of the room, and brought the door to the room.

The military doctor walked to Timuxin, who had no longer coughed, and asked with concern: "Dear Xie Miaokonstantinovich, how do you feel now?"

Brother Temuxin, sitting on the chair, was sweating profusely. He smiled bitterly and said to the military doctor: "No, I feel that my lungs are almost coughing out."

"If you can stand up, please take off your shirt." The military doctor opened the small suitcase on the table, took out the stethoscope from it, and prepared to check Temuxin Ge's body.

Timuxin stood up with the help of Tolbuxin, took off his military uniform, and only a white hooded shirt was left. The military doctor walked over, lifted his clothes, put the pick-up part on his chest, and listened carefully. I was afraid of disturbing the military doctor to check on Timuxin, so I quickly slowed down my breathing.

After listening to the front, chest and back, the military doctor said to Timuxin Ge with a serious expression: "Comrade Marshal, I think you have acute pneumonia and need to be hospitalized immediately, otherwise the consequences will be very serious."

"No need, it doesn't matter if there is a minor problem." Brother Timuxin said to us as a calm person: "I was the commander of the Fourth Cavalry Division and suffered from severe pneumonia. The military doctor asked me to rest in bed, but I ignored it. The next day, he personally led the troops to defeat the Khenno bandits and won the Red Flag Medal."

"Comrade Marshal, I know very well what you are talking about." The military doctor said in a humble and arrogant manner: "But that was more than 20 years ago. Now that you are old and your physical condition cannot be compared with that at that time. If you don't rest in bed as soon as possible, you will even endanger your life."

When I saw the military doctor say this, the expression on my face was very serious. I knew that what he said was true, so I quickly helped him persuade Brother Timuxin: "Comrade Marshal, I think you still listen to the military doctor and go to the hospital for a few days to rest. Don't worry, I will take over what you are responsible for. If I can't handle it, I can ask Marshal Zhukov to take charge."

Brother Temuxin wanted to be stubborn, but after hearing me lifted Zhukov out, hesitated for a while, he finally nodded and agreed to the military doctor's arrangement: "Okay, since that's the case, I'll stay in the hospital for a few days. Lida, Zhukov is busy at work now, so don't cause trouble for him. If you encounter anything you can't handle, you can come to the hospital to find me."
Chapter completed!