In the evening of that day, Rokosovsky convened several division commanders in the city to hold a temporary combat meeting. The topic of this meeting was to cooperate with the 61st Army on the right wing to eliminate the German troops located north of Sushinic.

After the meeting began, Chief of Staff Malining pointed to the map on the wall and said to the participating division commanders: "To the north of Sushinic, there is a large village called Popkovo, located on the high ground overlooking the surroundings. It was from here that the Germans fired shells at the city of Sushinic. Our meeting was to discuss how to take Popkovo and completely eliminate the enemy's threat to the city."

After Malining finished speaking, the commander of the 324th Infantry Division, Kiliuxin, asked: "Comrade Chief of Staff, can you tell us what kind of troops and technical equipment the enemy has in this village?"

"According to our intelligence," Malining replied in response to the question of Kiliuhin: "There are about 2,000 German knights in this village, who have tanks and large-caliber artillery. In order to prevent our army from attacking, they built circular fortifications around the village."

When they learned that there were two thousand German troops stationed in the villages and towns and had a large amount of technical equipment, the division commanders who attended the meeting frowned. They all knew very well that this was a bad battle and was difficult to fight. Even if the troops were fully equipped and could receive support from powerful artillery fire, it would cost a huge price to seize such villages and towns. Now that the troops were short of troops and insufficient ammunition, wouldn’t it be better to use such troops and equipment to attack the enemy with eggs?

Seeing the division commanders remain silent, Rokosovsky guessed what everyone was worried about, so he stood up and said, "Dear division commanders, when I and the military commissioner Comrade Lobachev returned to Moscow some time ago, someone asked us why we have invested more division-level troops than the enemy, but we cannot defeat the enemy and break through their defense line?"

Rokosovsky's words immediately attracted the attention of the division commanders, and they turned their attention to each other involuntarily, wanting to hear what he would say next. Rokosovsky continued: "I told them that our division was only eight thousand when it was full, and after a long battle, there were only 3,500 people left in each division, and some divisions were even only 2,000. What about the enemy? Their infantry divisions were 10,000 to 12,000, while the tank divisions and motorized divisions were 12,000 to 15,000."

When their troops suffer serious losses, soldiers and junior commanders will be replenished to other divisions, and the division command will retreat to the rear to form new troops. This will ensure that the combat effectiveness of the troops will not be affected. What about our troops? They usually replenish them while fighting, and a large number of new recruits who have no combat experience will be replenished into the troops. Although the number of people is large, their combat effectiveness has decreased..."

Rokosovsky said while observing the reactions of everyone. Seeing that everyone was nodding their heads, he agreed with his statement. After saying a lot of words that had nothing to do with the battle but could resonate with the division commanders, he cut the topic to the point: "In this battle to capture Popkovo, the army was ready to invest three infantry divisions, two tank brigades, two artillery regiments and three rocket artillery battalions. The 61st Army on the right wing would also invest roughly equal forces and launch an attack from the north. I believe that even if Popkovo had a large number of German troops and technical equipment, facing our attacks from both north and south at the same time, the fate of failure awaited them."

After Rokosovsky finished speaking, Malinin announced the combat order. The three infantry divisions participating in the attack were Cherneshov's 11th Guard Division, Kiliuxin's 324th Infantry Division, and the 97th Infantry Division from the base camp's reserve. After the combat order was announced, the commanders of the participating divisions raised some possible problems. Malinin, who had already done his homework, gave them detailed answers one by one.

After the meeting, other division commanders stood up and left the command center, but Chernesov stayed. He took out two documents from his briefcase and handed them to Rokosovsky, and said, "Comrade Commander, this is the combat report and commendation application report submitted by Captain Sokov, the commander of the Istrian Battalion. Please check it out."

Rokosovsky, who had just stood up, took the documents from Chernesov and reached out to make an invitation: "Comrade General, please sit down, I'll take a look at these two documents first." As he said that, he sat back in his seat and carefully browsed Sokov's report.

After reading the commendation application report, he handed it to Lobachev casually and said, "Military Commissioner, look, this is a commendation application report submitted by Captain Sokov." Then he buried his head in the combat report.

Lobachev quickly finished reading the commendation application report. After Rokosovsky finished reading the combat report, he spoke: "Comrade Commander, I suggest awarding the Medal of All Warriors of the Women's Anti-aircraft Machine Gun Company, and Sergeant Lida can award her the Red Star Medal alone."

Regarding Lobachev's proposal, Rokosovsky nodded immediately and agreed: "Comrade Military Commissioner, I agree with your proposal. You must know that on the battlefield, even male soldiers will sometimes be panicked. But these young female soldiers bravely fought tenaciously with the enemy and wiped out the enemy. This is very amazing. In addition to awarding them a medal, I also recommend that Sergeant Lieta be promoted to the rank of lieutenant."

"I agree!" Lobachev nodded vigorously and said, "Comrade Commander, I will draft the order now."

After Lobachev got up and left, Rokosovsky returned the combat report to Chernesov, and said to him with a serious expression: "In Captain Sokov's report, the troops have reduced their troops by 40% in recent battles. I hope that his superiors will supplement his troops and the weapons and ammunition consumed. Comrade Chernesov, please tell him that I can agree to the reward for the female soldier company; but I cannot do the supplementary troops and weapons and ammunition, so I can find a way to solve it myself."

"What, let him find a solution?" Cherneshov heard Rokosovsky say this and immediately turned into a frown: "Comrade Commander, this may be difficult to do."
Chapter completed!