Burning Moscow

As soon as Rokosovsky finished speaking, Vatutin went on to say: "After Peter the Great accepted this gift from Frederick I, he placed it in the Winter Palace as a small reception room for important guests. Later, Czar Ekaterina sent someone to move the amber house to the Yekaterina Palace in Pushkin, a suburb of Leningrad."

As soon as Vatutin finished speaking, I asked curiously: "Since this amber room is so precious, why didn't we move it in time after the war broke out?"

After looking at each other, Vatutin and Rokosovsky sighed and said: "Because the German advancement speed exceeded our imagination, in just over a month, they rushed to Leningrad. In the suburbs, we simply do not have enough time and manpower to carry out the transfer of cultural relics. Even so, the staff of the Hermitage Museum have collected as many as one million pieces in a very short period of time. , It was safely transported to Yekaterinburg, which is located on the boundary between Europe and Asia."

The curator walked over when we were talking, and asked unceremoniously: "Where are the other cultural relics?"

I know he must have learned from Kirilov’s mouth that there are still two rooms with a large number of cultural relics. Seeing his anxious look, I didn't care about his rudeness, but politely said: "Comrade curator, please come with me, I will show you the cultural relics in the box."

Our group came to the large room with wooden boxes. As soon as we entered the door, the curator couldn't wait to ask: "Are these the seized cultural relics? Is there a list?"

Lieutenant Colonel Carmela, who had been waiting in the room a long time ago, agreed, "Yes, but they are all in German. We don't understand."

"Give me the list quickly," the curator stared at the pile of wooden boxes in front of him, and said in an unquestionable tone: "I can read German."

Carmela took out a thick and large notepad from a drawer on a table near the door and handed it to the curator. After the curator took it, he couldn't wait to read it without even saying Xie. I looked at the speed at which he flipped through the book quickly, and I asked if he could find what he wanted by flipping through the book at such a fast speed?

Just when I was secretly guessing, the curator stopped reading. He walked quickly to the wooden boxes with the notebook in his hand, and carefully checked one of the boxes. After a while, he turned to Vatutin and said, "Comrade General, please send a few soldiers here to find the wooden boxes numbered at the beginning of 4108, and then move them out."

After he finished speaking, Vatutin winked at me and motioned for me to send soldiers to assist the curator. I immediately understood his hint, and quickly ordered Carmela: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, call the soldiers from the two classes over and let them assist the curator in finding the wooden box numbered at the beginning of 4108."

"Yes!" Carmela agreed, turned and walked out of the room.

I heard Vatutin asking Rokosovsky in a low voice: "Dear Koskika, why do you think Comrade the curator is looking for a wooden box beginning with 4108?"

"If I remember correctly, Ekaterina Palace should have been occupied by the Germans in August 1941?" Rokosovsky replied quietly, "The Germans came based on the time of the plunder. Numbered for the box."

After listening to Rokosovsky’s explanation, Vatutin nodded and said in agreement: "Kostichka, you are very reasonable." He glanced at the hall that was walking back and forth in front of the pile of wooden boxes with the account book. Long, he added, "Do you think you can find the Amber Room in these wooden boxes?"

Rokosovsky shook his head slightly, and said uncertainly: "This is hard to say, only to see if we have this good luck."

When I was listening to the two of them chatting, I suddenly had an impression of this amber room, as if I had heard enough about it at some point. So, I frowned and started to remember. Thinking about it this way, I really remembered what happened to the Amber Room. It seemed that after being looted by the Germans in the Great Patriotic War, it was still missing. Later in 2003, in order to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the founding of St. Petersburg, Germany and Russia copied the Amber Room based on historical photos. The appearance of the new Amber Room was very similar to the original one.

As soon as the memory gate opened, I began to remember more information about the Amber Room. It is said that before the Soviet army retreated from the Ekaterina Palace, in order to prevent the Amber Room from being discovered by the Germans, after removing some of the furniture and small pieces of art ornaments in the house, they also posted a new layer of wallpaper in an attempt to cover it up. The real face of Mount Lu in the Amber Room. But it is a pity that such a trick was spotted by German soldiers, so the Amber Room was demolished and transported to Königsberg by train.

After I recalled the content related to the Amber Room, I immediately understood that there was no Amber Room here, because the Germans had already transported the dismantled Amber Room to other places, so our search action here changed. It's as ridiculous as carving a boat for a sword. I saw that Rokosovsky and Vatutin were still talking in a low voice, and quickly coughed slightly. When they stopped talking, they asked: "Comrades, two commanders, I I want to ask where is Königsberg?"

"That is a German city on the Baltic Sea." After answering my question, Rokosovsky asked curiously: "What's the matter, Lida, did you think of anything?"

At this time, Lieutenant Colonel Carmela came in with a group of soldiers. The curator saw them and immediately blamed Carmela: "Comrade Commander, how slow you are, you know you are going out. How long has it been? Five minutes, five full minutes away? Do you know how much things will be delayed in these five minutes?"

Carmela was inexplicably trained a few words, with a bitter expression on her face. Seeing him so embarrassed, I quickly relieved him and said: "Well, lieutenant colonel, let your people start to work, remember to move out all the wooden boxes whose numbers start with 4108. Do you understand?"

"Understood, Comrade Commander." Carmela agreed, and directed the soldiers to start looking for the wooden boxes I was talking about.

"Lida," Rokosowski asked me again at this moment: "Why did you ask Königsberg just now?"

"Comrade General," I replied in a low voice, "I just remembered who I had heard before that after the Germans looted the Amber Room, they dismantled it and packed it in boxes and transported it to Königsberg by train."

"What, Königsberg?" Although my voice was not loud, it was still heard by the paranoid curator. He rushed in front of me, waved his fist, and said loudly: "It is impossible for the Germans to move the Amber Room Transported to Königsberg. According to the information we have, the Amber Room was transported to Kiev and is going to be transported from here to Berlin."

Seeing that the curator was so stubborn, I couldn’t say anything, so I shrugged my shoulders, then shut my mouth obediently, and quietly watched Carmela and a group of soldiers from the pile of wooden boxes, numbering one by one "4108 "The wooden box at the beginning was moved to the open space.

We stood by and waited for an hour. After seeing about forty wooden boxes piled up, the curator raised his hand and called to stop: "Stop, stop, pry open these boxes first to see if we are inside. What I'm looking for."

When I saw a soldier prying the lid of a wooden box with a crowbar, I was secretly guessing that after the box was opened, was it an ancient Greek sculpture or an ancient Roman vase? So as soon as the lid was lifted, I probed over to see what happened. It's okay if I don't look at it. After reading it, I don't want to look away from the box.

The wooden box contained neither a sculpture nor a vase, but a neat pile of tortoise shells and animal bones. Looking at the symbols carved on it, I recognized these worded oracle bones at a glance, which are the famous oracle bone inscriptions. The few wooden boxes that were opened next were filled with cultural relics from the East, including rare silk and embroidery, as well as porcelain, enamel, lacquer, and paintings and calligraphy of some ancient masters.

Seeing that these may be precious cultural relics robbed from the capital in the far east when the Russian army joined the Eight-Power Allied Forces, I suddenly came up with the idea of ​​taking all these cultural relics as my own, planning to wait for the right time in the future. , To be able to return to the original owner, so that these cultural relics living in a foreign country will return to their motherland one day.

When I was thinking about it, I suddenly heard a loud noise, which shocked me. I looked in the direction of the sound, and saw the curator slam the account book in his hand to the ground, and then stomped on a few feet vigorously.

"Calm down, comrade curator, please stay calm!" Seeing that the curator's emotions were out of control, Vatutin, who had been standing next to him without speaking, hurriedly stepped forward to persuade him: "Still looking for the Amber Room?"

"What else are you looking for?!" The curator pointed to the ledger on the floor and said angrily: "According to the above records, as many as fifty boxes of wooden boxes with the number starting with 4108 were shipped a few days ago. gone."

When the curator said this, Vatutin turned his head to look at me, and asked with a serious expression: "Comrade Oshanina, have you interrogated the prisoners and asked what happened?"

As soon as his words fell, Carmela, who was standing next to him, took a step towards him and said loudly, "Comrade Commander of the Front Army, the prisoner was interrogated by me personally. Do I need to report it to you?"

Vatutin nodded at him, and then said lightly: "Well, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, you can report."

"Comrade Commander," Carmela reported: "Because the German commander in the base was killed during the battle, and the officer in charge of the cultural relics also left along the convoy carrying the cultural relics. So these are ordinary. No one of the soldiers knows what's in here, let alone where those items that are transported away by car will be sent."

"I see, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel." Vatutin waved his hand to Carmela, and then asked the curator: "Comrade curator, please forgive me. I want to ask a question that has puzzled me for a long time. Is it okay? ?"

The curator looked up at Vatutin with blank eyes, and said weakly: "Comrade Vatutin, if you have any questions, just ask!"

Vatutin asked carefully: "Comrade curator, I just learned that there is a sculpture by Michelangelo in this room, which is the treasure of your museum. Am I right?"

"Yes, the cultural relic you mentioned is indeed one of the treasures of the town hall in our museum." The curator nodded and replied in an affirmative tone.

"However, the Germans did not score into Leningrad at all. How could they get this artifact?" Vatutin asked strangely: "Even if you didn't transfer it to Yekaterinburg in the rear, you would seal it up. It’s so strange that the basement of your museum is here now."

"It's no surprise, Comrade Vatutin." The curator sighed and said: "We have a train carrying cultural relics. Not long after we left Leningrad, it was bombed by German planes. The railway ahead was broken. The train full of cultural relics couldn’t move forward, so it had to stop and was captured by the surrounding German troops.”

The curator’s words let us understand why there are so many artifacts in the Hermitage Museum. These things should have been stored safely in Yekaterinburg, but they have become the spoils of the German army under the circumstances. However, I still can’t figure it out. Since the German army can transport the Amber Room to Königsberg by train, why did these artifacts not be sent there, but sent to Kiev?

When the curator heard my question, he unexpectedly did not get angry, but patiently explained to me: “According to the German plan, after Leningrad and Moscow are occupied, they will be flooded and become a piece of water. Swamp. And Kiev will establish a pro-German puppet regime ~www.wuxiaspot.com~ In order to whitewash peace, they will definitely transport a lot of important cultural relics here to decorate the upcoming puppets."

I found that when the curator was in a calm mood, what he said was very methodical. At least he could tell a good reason why the German army did not transport the cultural relics back to Berlin via Königsberg, but to Kiev.

"Comrade curator, what do you want us to do?" After waiting for him, Vatutin asked with concern: "Do I need to send a special force to help you find the missing Amber Room?"

To me, Vatutin’s words clearly contained a perfunctory and shirk of responsibility. Unexpectedly, after hearing this, the curator immediately nodded his head like a rattle: "Comrade Vatutin, if this is the case, that would be great. To prevent the Germans from transporting the Amber House back to Germany, I beg you immediately Assemble this treasure hunting force."

"Comrade Oshanina, your troops are all around here." Vatutin turned and looked at me and said, "Then I will leave this glorious and difficult task to you. I don't know if you have anything suitable. Candidate?"

Before I could speak, Kirilov approached my ear and whispered: "Lida, Captain Trafkin’s reconnaissance team should be active nearby. You can entrust this task to them to complete." Continued.