Red Moscow

After the three infantry regiments of the 98th Guards Division passed through the town of Kazakhya Compass in turn, Chuvashov left the dissatisfied artillery regiments in the town to prevent the target from being exposed, and temporarily placed them under the command of Keda.

Captain Lida, commander of the Women's Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion, and Captain Ulanova, instructor, immediately came to the headquarters of the 188th Division and reported to Keda after receiving the order.

Seeing the female commander appearing in his headquarters, Koyda was taken aback for a moment, and then recognized Lida and Ulanova. He quickly stepped forward to shake hands with them, and said politely: "The two female commanders Comrades, welcome to my headquarters."

"Comrade Colonel," Lida said respectfully, "The Women's Anti-aircraft Artillery Battalion is under your command from now on, please give us orders."

Hearing what Lida said, Keida murmured to himself: "The women's anti-aircraft artillery battalion has a limited number of troops, and they are all female soldiers. Obviously, dangerous tasks like searching for infiltrated enemies cannot be entrusted to them. We must find some Give them an easy job so that no accidents will happen."

"Comrade Colonel," seeing that Koyda was in a daze, Lida quickly called him twice, and after he woke up from his contemplation, he continued: "I want to ask, what is the mission of our battalion? "

"Comrade Political Commissar," Koyda turned to look at his political commissar, Colonel Mashkov, and decided to throw this troublesome question to him: "What tasks do you think should be assigned to the Women's Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion?"

Seeing that Koyda left the problem to himself, Mashkov couldn't help smiling, and then asked Lida: "Comrade Captain, tell me, what kind of mission do you want to accept?"

Lida didn't expect Mashkov to ask herself such a question. After a moment of hesitation, she replied with a normal expression: "Comrade Colonel, I obey your orders. No matter what job we arrange, I will never disappoint your trust. "

"Very good." Satisfied with Lida's modest attitude, Mashkov nodded with a smile, and then said: "When our division liberated the town of Compass in Kazakhia, we captured a group of German soldiers. , They are currently being held by us in the warehouse of the grain station west of the town. The task I give you now is to assist our soldiers in guarding them. How about it, Comrade Captain, do you have any objections?"

When Ulanova heard Mashkov say that the Women's Anti-aircraft Artillery Battalion would take care of the prisoners, her face changed immediately, and she wanted to refuse the job arranged by the other party. But Lida noticed her strangeness, and quickly shook her head slightly at her, and then said to Mashkov, "Yes, Comrade Colonel, I will take people to the grain station immediately, and assist the soldiers there to guard the German prisoners of war."

When the two left the headquarters of the 188th Division, Ulanova asked Lida a little unconvinced: "Comrade battalion commander, we are anti-aircraft artillery, not guards. When they assigned us this task, why didn't you tell us?" Are they questioning?"

"Comrade Ulanova," Lida smiled lightly at Ulanova's question, and then comforted her and said, "Have you ever thought that if we don't accept this task, I'm afraid we will have to wait until the main force of the division returns. Can stay in Kazakia Compass Town with nothing to do, and watch the commanders and fighters of other troops make contributions. Do you want to see this situation?"

"Of course not." Ulanova shook her head and said, "But in addition to guarding the prisoners of war, we can also serve as the town's air defense mission. You know, the enemy must not be reconciled to the occupation of Kazakhya Compass Town by our army. They Sooner or later there will be a frenzied counterattack, trying to take the town back from our army."

"Comrade Ulanova, you are right." Lida continued, "Since we are an anti-aircraft artillery battalion, the air defense work in the town is our responsibility."

Hearing what Lida said, Ulanova showed joy on her face: "Lida, so you agree with me?"

"Your opinion, what opinion?"

"Didn't you say that the air defense work in the town is our responsibility?" Ulanova said: "Then we will build an air defense position in the granary later."

"Don't worry, Comrade Ulanova." Lida shook her head and said, "Where to set up the air defense position, we must wait until we have surveyed the terrain."

The two did not return to the camp, but went straight to the grain station.

Still far away, Lida saw a sandbag fortification piled up on both sides of the entrance of the grain station, each with a machine gun, and the machine gunner was vigilantly observing the surrounding environment.

A second lieutenant who was leading the team on duty at the gate saw Lida and Ulanova approaching, and hurriedly stepped forward to block their way, and said politely: "Comrades two commanders, the front is a military restricted area, and there are no people around here. Can't wait to get in."

Ulanova glanced at the military rank on the opponent's shoulder strap, and said bluntly: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, we are not idlers, but are here to assist you in guarding the prisoners."

"Assist us in guarding the prisoners?" The second lieutenant looked the two of them up and down, then stretched out his hand and said, "Two commanders, please show your IDs."

Hearing what the second lieutenant said, Lida was very straightforward, and directly took out her ID card and handed it over. But Ulanova was full of reluctance. After taking out the certificate, she held it tightly in her hand and refused to hand it over to the other party. Lida quickly took the ID from her hand, handed it to the second lieutenant, and said politely: "Comrade second lieutenant, this is our ID, please have a look."

After quickly checking the IDs of the two, the second lieutenant said politely to Lida: "Captain Lida, please wait a moment, I will call the battalion commander and report this matter to him."

"Go, go." Lida said reasonably, "We'll wait for you right here."

The second lieutenant took their IDs and walked quickly towards the gate, planning to make a call in the duty room at the gate and inform his battalion commander of the news of Lida's arrival.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he reached the door, an officer came out from inside. Seeing the second lieutenant in such a hurry, the officer asked, "Comrade second lieutenant, what's the matter?"

The second lieutenant held up the two military ID cards in his hand and replied, "Captain Griza, two commanders from the friendly army have come and said they are here to assist us in guarding the prisoners."

Captain Griza reached out and took the ID from the second lieutenant, and after flipping through it, he only glanced at it, with a surprised expression on his face. He looked around and saw Lida and Ulanova who were standing about ten meters away. He quickly walked over and said loudly: "Lida, Ulanova, what a shame!" I didn't expect that it was you guys who came here!"

The second lieutenant standing at the door saw Captain Griza striding towards the two female commanders. After the three walked in, they shook hands first, and then gave them a warm hug. He couldn't help being dumbfounded, and said to himself: I really didn't expect that Captain Griza knew them.

As Sokov's old subordinate, Griza had fought in many places, so he was naturally familiar with Lida and Ulanova. Seeing an acquaintance here at this moment, he was pleasantly surprised. After a brief exchange of pleasantries, he returned the documents to the two, and asked curiously at the same time: "Captain Lida, why did you appear here?"

"That's right, Captain Griza." Lida explained to Griza: "We are now in the artillery regiment of the 98th Guards Division. Since the main force of the division is going to perform an important task, we are sent to Stay in the town and hand it over to your division commander, Colonel Koida. When we went to the division headquarters to receive the mission, the division political commissar, Colonel Mashkov, ordered us to come here to assist you in guarding the German prisoners of war."

"It turns out that you are helping us, that's really great." Griza said as he walked towards the gate with the two of them: "Our battalion has lost nearly half of its personnel after repeated battles, and now only There are less than 200 people left, and it is really a bit powerless to take care of such a large grain station."

Griza took the two to the battalion headquarters and met the battalion commander, Major Golia. Coincidentally, Golia also knew Lida and Ulanova, and when he saw them appear, his face was full of astonishment: "Lida, comrades Ulanova, why did you come to our place? "

"Comrade Major," although they are both battalion commanders, Goria's military rank is higher than hers, so after Lida raised her hand to salute each other, she replied politely: "We are under the orders of Colonel Mashkov, the political commissar of the division. Came here to assist you in guarding the prisoners of war."

"Assist us in guarding the prisoners of war?" Golia looked at Lida and said with a puzzled expression, "Comrade Lida, I remember that there are no female officers in the division. Where did the two of you come from?"

"Gorya, what do you say?" Even though Gorya's military rank is much higher than Ulanova's, Ulanova didn't frighten him at all, but asked with her hips on her hips, "What do you mean by self?" From what? We are..."

"Golia, we belong to the Artillery Regiment of the 98th Guards Division. Since the main force of the division is going to perform an important task, if we follow, it may affect their actions, so the division commander ordered us to stay in the town. Go up, and assign it to Commander Koida for the time being."

"Oh, so that's the case." After figuring out what was going on, Goria nodded, and then said to the two, "You two, do you want to go and see the German prisoners of war under our guard?"

"Does it need to be said, of course it depends." As early as during the Stalingrad War, Golia, who was stationed in the Red October factory, had pursued Ulanova. Due to the environmental impact at that time, Ulanova Nova rejected the other party without hesitation, but this did not prevent the two from becoming good friends. She grabbed Golia's arm and pulled him up from the seat, "Don't dawdle, quickly take us to have a look."

Golia was pulled up from the seat by Ulanova, and she said to Lida, "Come on, Captain Lida, I will take you to see the place where the German prisoners are held."

Golia left the battalion command post with Lida, Ulanova and Griza, and went to the place where the German prisoners of war were held.

More than 200 German prisoners of war were held in an open space, surrounded by barbed wire, and outside the barbed wire were Soviet commanders and fighters with live ammunition. The commanders and soldiers stood outside the barbed wire fence, staring at the German prisoners inside the net, and pointed their guns at them vaguely, as if they would pull the trigger without hesitation if they found out that the other party had the slightest attempt to do anything wrong. The captives went to meet their God.

The four stopped at a distance of more than ten meters from the barbed wire fence. Golia pointed to the enemies inside the barbed wire fence and said to Lida, "Lida, these are all prisoners captured by our regiment."

Lida keenly grasped the key words in Goliath's words: the captives captured by our regiment. She tentatively asked: "Comrade major, so there are still quite a few prisoners, are they being held elsewhere?"

"That's right." Goliath nodded, and gave Lida an affirmative answer: "The superior originally planned to imprison all the prisoners of war in the granary. Problem. But because our troops are too small, the regiment commander rejected the plan to detain all the captives here."

"Comrade Major, now that we are here to assist you, I think we can gather all the prisoners of war here." Lida said to Golia, "In this way we will not disperse our precious troops to guard the German prisoners of war. "

"Lida, what you said makes sense." Goliath agreed with Lida's statement: "Although the captives captured today are scattered among the regiments, there are not many of them, but a certain number of prisoners must always be transferred. Troops were sent to guard them, so we had to draw men from our overstretched troops to watch over the prisoners."

"Ulanova," Lida said to Ulanova after observing the situation in the granary, "you immediately return to the battalion and bring the troops here. We need to set up an air defense position here to prevent the Germans from attacking us. A possible airstrike."

"Lida, if you need help, please tell me." Golia said politely.

Lida considered that her subordinates had to prepare a large number of sandbags for setting up air defense positions here, so she asked cautiously, "Comrade Major, can your subordinates prepare a batch of sandbags for us?"

"No problem," Griza replied ahead of Goria, "no matter how many sandbags you want, we can meet your needs."

"Captain Griza," Goria's expression became serious when he heard what Griza said: "Now there are less than 200 people left in the whole battalion. Where is the artillery battalion preparing sandbags?"

"Here, Comrade Major, look over there." Griza pouted in the direction where the German prisoners were being held, and said, "Aren't these people ready-made labor?" He added with a sneer, "We didn't shoot them. Give them food, we have treated them well. Now let them do some work, shouldn't we?"

"It makes sense, it makes sense." Griza's words were so enlightening that Golia felt his eyes light up, and he nodded repeatedly and said, "That's right, that's right, these captives have nothing to do here anyway, it's better Let them help prepare sandbags and help the women's anti-aircraft artillery battalion build anti-aircraft positions. Lida, do you think this will work?"

"Of course no problem, Comrade Major." Lida was very satisfied. She was worried that the commanders and fighters of the 188th Division had already become exhausted after repeated fierce battles. But since the labor force to be used today is the German prisoners who were imprisoned in the barbed wire, Lida took it for granted. "Just do as you say."