Burning Moscow

I took the special bus arranged for me by Zhukov and returned to Lenin Street where I lived. When I got out of the car, I saw the chubby old lady Liu Ba, who was locking the door. I quickly speeded up and walked towards her, and at the same time yelled anxiously: "Liu Ba, wait a minute!"

Liu Ba, who was locking the door, heard someone calling her, and quickly turned her head to look over. Seeing that it was me who called her, a friendly smile suddenly appeared on her face: "Comrade Commander, you are back!"

I stepped forward and held her hand friendly: "Yes, I'm back!"

"How many days can I stay here this time?" Liu Ba asked next.

"I don't know, as long as there is an order, I will leave right away." After I answered Liuba, I found that she was dressed up for going out, and quickly asked, "Where are you going?"

Liuba made a grumpy mouth at the small building where I lived, and said, "Look, look, while the four family members in the building are not at home, I will go out and buy some daily necessities."

I thought that I had just returned to Moscow today, and I didn’t have anything to eat at home, so I said, "Then wait for me, I will go up and change clothes and come down."

Hearing this, Liuba's face showed an embarrassed expression. But the expression disappeared in a flash, and she nodded: "Well, I'll get you the key first." After that, she pushed open the iron door that hadn't had time to lock, and took the key to unlock the duty room lock.

When she handed me the key to the room, she also handed me a thick envelope. I held the envelope and asked puzzledly: "Liu Ba, what's in it?"

"According to your allowance." Liu Ba replied respectfully: "A soldier brought it that day. You had just left at that time, so this envelope has been kept here."

When I went back to the house, the first thing I did was to check whether the treasure spot hidden behind the tapestry was intact. After checking, I found that the hair sticking to the box was not moving at all. It seemed that I was utterly worried.

When I finished changing my casual clothes and was about to go out, I suddenly saw the envelope I threw on the table when I entered the door, so I picked it up curiously and wanted to see how much money was in it. I opened the envelope and found that there was a thick stack of five- and ten-rubles banknotes, at least five hundred rubles.

After waiting for me to go downstairs, Liu Ba immediately urged: "Comrade General, it's getting late, let's go quickly, and the store should close in the next night."

I know that Russians do things more rigidly, especially those salespersons in the malls, as long as the off-get off work time comes, even if there are hundreds of customers waiting to shop in front of them, they will pack their things and leave work without hesitation. There was nothing more, so she helped Liu Ba lock the door and walked quickly along the street towards the nearest food store.

Don't look at Liuba's legs a little lame, but she walks extremely fast, I have to trot to keep up with her speed. She may have noticed that I was running a little bit of breath, so she deliberately slowed down, and smiled to me: "Comrade General, it seems that you have to exercise more. Look at how far you have just walked. You are so tired."

"Now I have been in the headquarters for a long time and lack of exercise, so I can't keep up with your walking speed." After I smiled and defended myself, I added: "Liu Ba, you don't need to be old to me in the future. It was the general's short-term call, which seemed too talented. You should call me Lida."

Hearing this, Liuba was not polite, and directly changed her name: "Lida, although the supply of goods in Moscow is not as tight as in the previous two years, the goods that can be bought in the store are still pitiful. Even To buy bread, butter, eggs, and sausages, it will take a long time to get a chance to buy them."

Liu Ba's remarks made me understand why she seemed so anxious just now. Nowadays, there are long queues everywhere to buy things. If it’s late, it’s really possible that the salesperson will get off work before arriving at the counter.

We walked for more than ten minutes, and finally came to the door of a store, let me once again meet the long queue of people shopping. Although the people lined up deliberately to shorten the distance and formed an S-shape, they still lined up a line of seventy to eighty meters long. Seeing this situation, Liu Ba stomped her feet in a hurry, even: "Oh, I'm still late today. With so many people, it's probably time for the salesperson to get off work before I queue up in the store."

After that, she turned to face me with a disappointed look: "Lida, let's go back, we can only buy it early tomorrow."

After walking a distance with the dejected Liu Ba, I suddenly remembered the officer shopping store I had seen in Lublin. I quickly stopped Liu Ba and asked in a low voice, "Liu Ba, do you know where there is an officer shopping store nearby? ?"

"Yes, at the crossroads on the north side of Lenin Avenue, there is a large-scale military officer's shopping store." Liuba casually said, "But we can't get in at all..." She stopped abruptly in the middle of her words, she looked forward to it. Looking at me, there was a surprised expression on his face, "By the way, Lida, you are an officer. You can enter and exit these shops casually."

As we walked back, I worriedly asked Liuba: "We have to rush over now, is it too late? The store won't close, right?"

"How can this be, dear." Liu Ba smiled and replied, "Since it is a store dedicated to military personnel, it is naturally open 24 hours. Unless it is an inventory, it will never be closed."

The dark curtains are pulled on the glass doors of the officer's shopping store, probably because they don't want passers-by to see what's inside. When I opened the glass door and walked in, a middle-aged man walked over from behind the table next to the door and politely said to both of us: "Two female citizens, this is an officer’s shopping store, which is not open to ordinary people, please Go out."

"I'm an officer," I said politely to the other party: "Should be eligible to shop here, right?"

The other party hesitated for a moment, and then said: "If you can prove your identity, then as the manager of the store, I welcome your visit. If not..."

"What if you can't prove it?" Liu Ba interrupted and asked before he was finished.

"Naturally ask you to leave." After the man finished his sentence, he stretched out his hand to me, "Comrade female soldier, please show your credentials!"

I took out the ID from my bag and handed it to the man. The man turned his military card and opened it indifferently. At this sight, his mouth opened wide, and he couldn't close it for a long time. After a while, he was a little flustered to me: "I'm sorry, Comrade General, I didn't know that you are wearing casual clothes today. I am Mikhailovich, the store manager, and I am very happy to help you."

I took the military ID he handed back, put it in my bag, and asked, "Comrade manager, if we buy a lot, can you send someone to help us take it home?"

"No problem, no problem." Mikhailovich nodded and bowed: "No matter how many things you buy, we can send someone to take you home. May I ask your address."

I didn't remember the address very well, so I turned to Liuba for help. Seeing me looking at her, Liu Ba guessed that I must be unfamiliar with the address of my home, so she took the initiative to inform the manager of our residence.

After recording my address, the manager respectfully asked: "Comrade General, do you need me to send someone to go shopping with you?"

"No, Comrade Manager, we just wander around." After I declined the manager's kindness, I took Liu Ba and walked towards the counter where the goods were placed.

Liuba looked at the dazzling array of goods in the store, a little excited: "Lida, this store is really great, not only does it need to be in line, but also," she paused for a moment and took a deep breath. Then he said, "You smell, the air smells of smoked ham and fish, and the aroma of cigarettes and coffee is permeated. Oh my God, since the outbreak of the war, I have almost forgotten the smell of these things."

"Liu Ba, since you are here today, you can buy whatever you want, you are welcome."

"Really?" Liu Ba showed an unbelievable expression on her face. After seeing me nodding vigorously to express affirmation, she rushed to the counter closest to us and directed at the salesperson standing behind. Make a shopping list.

Liu Ba looked very sophisticated. For each product, she would first ask the salesperson if she had it, and simply ignore it; if it did, she would only have a certain amount and let the salesperson move to the open space in front of the counter. After she reported everything she wanted to buy, I was shocked. She actually bought 10 kg each of black and white flour, 8 kg of oatmeal, 10 kg of rice, 5 kg of sugar cubes and 5 kg of white sugar, and a lot of smoke. I bought more than a dozen cans of ham, sausage and fish, as well as several varieties of canned vegetables and canned meat.

When I saw so many products, I couldn't help but beat a drum. Although it was very cold in Moscow in September, it was not easy to store so many things at once. I asked Liuba tentatively: "Your duty room is not very big, can you fit so many things?"

"Don't worry," Liu Ba leaned close to my ear and whispered, "Beside the duty room, there is an air-raid shelter. The space inside is quite large. Even if you buy ten times more things, you can put it all down."

When we called the manager over to check out, the manager asked me politely: "Comrade General, we still have the lamb chops that just arrived today. Would you like to have some?"

"Lamb chops?!" Liu Ba heard the manager say this, her eyes lighted up, and she hurriedly asked: "Apart from lamb chops, are there lamb and leg of lamb?"

"The leg of lamb is gone," the manager shook his head: "Half an hour ago, it was bought by several other officers. They were going to make roast leg of lamb tonight, so there were no more than a dozen leg of lamb left. There is still a lot of lamb left, would you like it?"

"I'll give you five kilograms." After I said this, I pointed to the pile of things in front of me and said to the manager: "I will trouble you to send someone to bring these things to my house."

"Don't worry, Comrade General," the manager vowed to me: "I will do things properly and satisfy you!"

The manager personally took a staff member, pushing a full trolley, and followed us to the residence. When they arrived at the place, the two moved to the basement one after another under Liu Ba's command.

Out of curiosity, I even ran down to take a look. Judging from the decoration of the basement, it used to be the wine cellar of the earl’s house, but now it has become a place for food in Liubatun.

After leaving the manager away, Liu Ba looked at me excitedly: "Lida, we bought so many good things today, what do you want to eat tonight?"

Before I bought anything, I felt quite hungry, but seeing the house full of food at the moment, I lost my appetite. I waved to Liuba and said, "Forget it, your legs are inconvenient. It's not easy to go to the store. I'll leave it to you." I picked up a paper bag with bread next to me, very casually," I eat these are enough."

"Lida, what's the job? Just eating bread is no nutritious." Liuba grabbed the paper bag from my hand, took out a large leba from it, and put it on the table and cut it with a knife. Each slice of bread is put on a slice of sliced ​​salmon, and then a thick layer of mayonnaise is applied.

After finishing this, she put the processed bread into a large plate, and solemnly handed it over to me, saying: "Okay, Lida, this is the dinner I made for you. I hope you can satisfaction."

"Satisfied, satisfied." I took the plate she handed over and nodded vigorously: "I am very satisfied, thank you, Liu Ba!"

When I walked out of the basement with bread filled with salmon slices and was about to go upstairs, I was stopped by Liuba again. She rushed into the duty room and took out a tightly wrapped paper bag from the drawer of the desk. She took the paper bag and walked in front of me, placed it on the edge of the plate, with a big smile: "This is a Ukrainian friend of mine. When I came here two months ago to see me, she gave me a small piece of Salo. , I hope you like it."

Although Salo is a famous Ukrainian dish, it is actually salted and fatty meat. I feel tired when I look at it, let alone eat it. Therefore, for Liuba’s kindness, I can only tactfully refuse: "Thank you, Liuba, the dinner you prepared for me is rich enough. Is this a gift your friend brought you from Ukraine, or you keep it? Eat slowly, after all, this is what other people want, so you can’t let them down!” Now, I use my left hand to take the tray with one hand, and the other hand takes out the salo on the plate and hands it back Liuba. Liuba saw that I handed Salo back to her~www.wuxiaspot.com~ and was unwilling to accept it. After a long time back and forth, she reluctantly accepted it.

When I returned home with a tray, grabbed a piece of bread and was about to eat, the phone on the table rang suddenly. I threw the bread in my hand onto the plate, ran to the phone quickly and grabbed the handset.

Zhukov's voice came from the receiver, and he was a little displeased: "Lida, where did you go, I called twice but no one answered."

"I just went out to buy something," I asked cautiously after understanding the reason why I was not there just now, "Comrade Marshal, do you have any important things please?"

"Comrade Stalin will see you tomorrow morning. You should be prepared first. The car to pick you up should arrive at eight in the morning." Zhukov did not care about me, but directly understood the reason for looking for me. After these words, he didn't immediately put down the phone, but hesitantly: "I have one more thing. I'll talk to you when I meet tomorrow."

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