Red Moscow

Early the next morning, Colonel Khokhlov, commander of the 182nd Division, and Colonel Shepilov, political commissar, appeared in Sokov's headquarters.

Seeing the appearance of the two, Sokov's first reaction was that the two must have felt uneasy when they saw other troops making contributions while their own troops were doing nothing, so they asked him specifically to request the mission.

Before the two could speak, Sokov said first: "Colonel Khokhlov, Colonel Shepilov, I know why you two are here. Although I know that the troops used for combat are insufficient, I really want to send You are sent to deal with the enemy. But it can’t be done. Your division has just recruited thousands of recruits who have not fought, which has seriously weakened your combat effectiveness. If you are sent to the battlefield at this time, it is tantamount to letting those recruits die.

In my opinion, you should not come to me to ask for any missions in the future, and I will not arrange combat missions for you for the time being. If you have time, you should focus on the training of recruits, and strive to restore the combat effectiveness of the troops to the previous level before the end of the year. "

Unexpectedly, Khokhlov and Shepilov didn't say anything after listening to Sokov's words, they just looked at each other and smiled.

Seeing the expressions of the two, Sameko asked curiously: "Comrades colonels, what are you laughing at? Didn't Comrade Commander express clearly enough just now? Your troops are too weak to fight, even if you spend every day in the headquarters Here, we will not arrange any combat missions for you in a short time."

"Comrade Chief of Staff, you misunderstood." Seeing Sameko misunderstood his smile, Khokhlov quickly explained to him: "Actually, we are here today not to request any combat mission from Comrade Commander, but Not long ago, an interesting incident happened, and I felt it necessary to report it personally to Comrade Commander."

"Interesting thing?" Khokhlov's words aroused Sokov's curiosity: "What is it, let's hear it."

"Comrade Commander, do you remember Second Lieutenant Serelkov?" Shepilov asked with a smile.

"Second Lieutenant Serelkov?!" Sokov repeated the name he had heard before, and asked with a frown, "Who is he? I don't seem to know him."

"Comrade commander, why did you forget?" Seeing that Sokov couldn't remember who Serelkov was, Sepilov quickly reminded him, "It's a veteran of the batch of recruits you added to us last time. After chatting with him for a few words, he was directly appointed as a second lieutenant."

After being reminded by Sepilov, Sokov immediately thought of this person: "Oh, is that the veteran who fought with Marshal Tukhachevsky?"

"That's right, it's him."

In Sokov's mind, an elderly soldier like Serelkov must know how to abide by military regulations, and the violation of military regulations must have nothing to do with him. In order to find out what was going on, he tentatively asked, "Colonel Khokhlov, what kind of trouble did Second Lieutenant Serelkov cause?"

"Comrade Commander, you made a mistake." Khokhlov quickly waved his hands when he heard Sokov's question. "Not only did he not make any mistakes, but he also made great achievements."

"Have made great achievements?" Khokhlov's words made Sokov even more confused: "Comrade Colonel, you have confused me, tell me quickly, what great achievements has he made?"

"Comrade Commander, the situation is like this." Khokhlov said: "Didn't the superior distribute vodka to each soldier? Second Lieutenant Serelkov was responsible for transporting and distributing vodka to each soldier."

Although Sokov was anxious to find out what was going on, he did not interrupt Khokhlov, but listened patiently to his explanation.

"Last night, Second Lieutenant Serelkov and a soldier named Lulik pulled a cart of vodka, preparing to transfer to the new station and then distribute it to the soldiers. Unexpectedly, it was too dark, and Second Lieutenant Serelkov, who was in charge of driving, left Wrong way, unknowingly drove into the enemy's defense zone..."

"What, you drove the car into the enemy's defense zone?" Sameko exclaimed in surprise when he heard this: "They were not captured by the enemy, did they?"

"No, Comrade Chief of Staff, they were not discovered by the enemy." After answering Sameko's question with a smile, Khokhlov continued: "After the truck entered the camp, Serelkov overheard someone outside the truck. Speaking in a language he didn't understand, he immediately realized that he might have strayed into the enemy's camp.

When he was trying to think about how to get out of danger, he undoubtedly found more than 20 trucks with tarpaulins parked in the open space in front of him, so he drove over and stopped.

After the car stopped, Serelkov and Lulik sat in the car and waited for a while, and found that no one came to check them, not even a patrol team nearby, and they couldn't help but secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

In order to find a way to escape, Serelkov let Lulik stay in the car, and quietly got out of the car to check the German trucks parked next to him to find out what was in the car. He thought to himself, even if he couldn't escape, he had to find a way to blow up all the trucks of the German army.

When he lifted the tarpaulin from the back of a truck, he was surprised to find that the car was full of German soldiers. When he was frightened out of his wits, he unexpectedly discovered that the German soldiers in the car were all asleep, as if they were transferred from other places.

After discovering this unexpected situation, a bold idea popped up in his mind, which is to pull these Germans back to our defense zone and let them be prisoners directly. After thinking about it, he returned to his car, called Lulik, and drove a truck full of German soldiers towards our defense zone. "

Hearing this, Sokov couldn't help breaking out in a cold sweat: "Comrade Colonel, this Serelkov is really bold. He actually pulled a carload of Germans back. Isn't he afraid that the Germans will wake up halfway and give them a shot from behind?" One shot? Also, even if the Germans don't shoot from behind, when their vehicles enter our defense zone, if the soldiers on duty at the checkpoint see a car full of German soldiers, they will definitely regard them as spies. "

"When they passed the first checkpoint, Serelkov got out of the car and told the officer on duty that they had pulled a carload of German soldiers. The officer even went to the back of the car to take a look, and then told him that he had only One squad can't deal with so many enemies, let him continue to drive to the second checkpoint, and it will help him contact the troops there to prepare.

Since the strength of the first checkpoint was insufficient, Serelkov did not stop and continued to move forward. When they came to the second checkpoint, they found that it was already in full battle. In the sandbag fortification next to the checkpoint, two machine guns were mounted, and there were more than 50 commanders and fighters nearby who were ready to fight.

After Serelkov contacted the officer on duty at the checkpoint, he knew that all preparations had been made here, so he parked his car on the side of the road and asked the soldiers who had been waiting for a long time to drag out the sleeping German soldiers one by one.

When the German soldiers were dragged out, they thought their sleep was disturbed by their own people, and they didn't even open their eyes, so they began to complain. When they saw the muzzles of our army all around, they were suddenly frightened. When our comrades counted the number of people, there were actually eighteen people, and the highest rank among them was a lieutenant. "

After Khokhlov finished speaking, everyone burst into laughter. But Sokov began to ponder. Serelkov exchanged a cart of vodka for eighteen German prisoners. Although it was a gratifying event, it also exposed some problems in the army.

Seeing that Sokov remained silent, Sameko couldn't help asking curiously: "Comrade Commander, what are you thinking?"

"Colonel Khokhlov," Sokov did not immediately answer Sameko's question, but ordered Khokhlov: "Call and invite Second Lieutenant Serelkov here. I want to ask him something."

"Yes, Comrade Commander." Khokhlov quickly replied, "I will call him immediately and ask him to report to the headquarters."

"Comrade Chief of Staff," Sokov said to Sameko while Khokhlov was on the phone, "I was thinking that it is indeed a good thing to exchange a carload of vodka for a carload of prisoners." It’s a great deal. But it also exposes a lot of the problems we have today.”

"A lot of problems have been exposed?" Sameko repeated Sokov's words, and asked puzzledly: "Comrade Commander, I don't understand what you mean."

"The reason why Second Lieutenant Serelkov drove his car to the enemy's defense zone was entirely because the troops in charge of traffic management did not mark important areas, so such mistakes occurred." Sokov said with a straight face: "Second Lieutenant Serelkov and the others were able to return safely from the enemy's defense zone. It is purely their luck. But if they were detected when they entered the enemy's camp, do you think they can survive?

Also, if a vehicle of a division commander strays into the enemy's defense zone due to unclear road signs and becomes a prisoner of the enemy, how much damage will it cause us? "

"Comrade Commander, I don't think this is very likely." Sameko quickly argued, "A division commander must bring at least one soldier from the guard squad with him when he goes out. .”

"Comrade Chief of Staff, you are taking chances." Sokov retorted bluntly: "If you enter the enemy's defense zone by mistake and are discovered by the enemy, let alone the division commander will only have one guard squad next to him." , Even if there is a guard platoon or a guard company, whether they can escape safely is still a problem."

Hearing what Sokov said, Sameko immediately realized that he had thought the problem too simply, and quickly admitted his mistake: "Comrade Commander, I was wrong. I immediately ordered the relevant personnel to check the traffic lights set up at each intersection. signs to prevent similar incidents from happening again."

"Also," Sokov continued after Waiting for Sameko to finish speaking: "As the first checkpoint closest to the enemy's defense zone, why only one squad is arranged? If Lieutenant Serelkov's luck is bad, As soon as we arrived at the first checkpoint, the sleeping enemies in the car woke up, couldn't they easily occupy our checkpoint?"

"I understand." This time, Sokov didn't need to emphasize anything, Sameko took the initiative to say: "I will immediately notify the troops below that the number of troops deployed at the first checkpoint must not be less than one platoon."

After Sokov said all the problems he thought of, and came up with a corresponding solution, he said to Khokhlov and Shepilov who stood aside and dared not speak: "Two colonels, comrades , Although there are still many loopholes in our deployment, we will still commend Second Lieutenant Serelkov for his meritorious service."

Having said that, Sokov turned around and asked Lunev who was sitting on the side: "Comrade Military Commissar, tell me, what reward should we give Second Lieutenant Serelkov?"

Lunev stood up and said with a smile: "Before dark, the Front Army Command sent a batch of bravery medals. I think the performance of Second Lieutenant Serelkov and Lulik are fully worthy of this medal. "

"You're right, their performance is fully worthy of this medal." Sokov said while the iron was hot: "Comrade Military Commissar, after Second Lieutenant Serelkov and soldier Lulik arrive later, you will be in charge." Honor them."

When Serelkov and Lulik appeared at the headquarters, Sokov took the initiative to shake hands with them: "Second Lieutenant Serelkov, I really didn't expect that we would meet again so soon. I heard that you two met last night Congratulations to you for your meritorious service.”

"And you, little guy." Sokov let go of Serelkov's hand, took Lulik's hand again, and said to him with a smile: "I really didn't expect that you and Comrade Second Lieutenant behaved very differently." It's simple. It was able to pull a carload of German soldiers out of the enemy's camp. Tell me honestly, were you afraid at the time?"

Unexpectedly, this random question asked by Sokov actually made Lulik a little panicked: "I...I...I"

Seeing that Lulik was speechless for a long time, Sokov realized that under the circumstances at that time, let alone a child who had just joined the army not long ago, even an adult who had been in the army for two years would probably scared. So he said to him in an encouraging tone: "Comrade Lulik, don't be afraid, you just need to tell me truthfully, how did you feel at that time?"

"Comrade commander, you are right. I was really scared at the time." Lulik replied truthfully: "When our truck strayed into the German barracks and saw the German soldiers walking back and forth outside the truck, I was really scared in my heart, and even had the idea of ​​getting out of the car and running away."

"But you didn't run away at that time, which shows that you are a brave fighter. Since you and Second Lieutenant Serelkov are both brave people, then you will get your honor." Sokov said here, Turning around, he said to Lunev, who was standing aside, "Comrade Military Commissar, now it's your turn to award our two brave commanders with their bravery medals in recognition of their achievements."