Red Moscow

With the help of the German prisoners, the women's anti-aircraft artillery battalion quickly established more than 20 anti-aircraft firepower points in the granary. After the prisoners finished their work, the soldiers of Grisa Company drove them to the place of detention.

When many captives passed by Golia and Lida under the escort of the soldiers, suddenly a tall and thin prisoner rushed out of the crowd and jumped in front of Lida.

Although the incident happened suddenly, Lida was also a battle-hardened veteran. She quickly pulled out the pistol from her waist, and before she even had time to open the safety, she put it directly on the opponent's chin.

The prisoner felt something hard against his chin, and quickly raised his hands high, and said in fluent Russian with a flustered expression, "Don't shoot, I mean no harm?"

The soldiers escorting the captives only came back to their senses at this moment, and all of them were so frightened that their dead souls rushed over one after another. Countless black-holed muzzles were waiting for the prisoner who was about to rush out of the crowd, just waiting for Goria's call. Give the order, beat the opponent into a sieve.

Golia raised her hand to stop the soldiers from shooting, and asked the prisoner, "Do you understand Russian?"

"Yes, sir major." The prisoner replied respectfully after seeing the military rank on Goliath's epaulettes: "I once spent a year at the School of Architecture in St. Petersburg..."

"We only have a city called Leningrad, and there is no such thing as St. Petersburg." After Goria said this in a disdainful tone, he looked at the other party's military rank and asked back: "Mr. Second Lieutenant, you suddenly rushed out of the crowd , aren’t you afraid of being shot to death?”

The second lieutenant of the German army nodded and said in a positive tone: "Mr. Major, you are right. If I rushed in front of you suddenly, I might be shot to death before I could speak. There is no way."

"Lida, put the gun away first." Golia asked Lida to put the gun away, and asked curiously, "Mr. Second Lieutenant, what is your name, and what is it worth taking such a risk for you?"

"My name is Otto, and I am a platoon leader of the 168th Infantry Division." The German second lieutenant said: "Several of my subordinates were injured when they were captured. Since there was no medicine, I just wrapped their wounds with bandages." .Not long ago, I found that their wounds showed signs of deterioration. I wonder if you can provide them with some medicine so that they don't die due to wound infection?"

If this happens to other troops, the commander will definitely ignore it: his own wounded don’t have enough medicine, so where can there be extra medicine to treat the enemy’s wounded? Isn't it the best ending to let them die?

But in Sokov's army, it was another matter. Sokov once greeted his subordinates, as long as the captured German soldiers were not SS soldiers, the captured German wounded must be treated. Therefore, Goria turned around and called Griza, telling him: "Captain Griza, call your company's health worker over, and ask him to treat Second Lieutenant Otto's subordinates."

As Sokov's old subordinate, Griza naturally knew that Sokov had given this order. After hearing Golia's order, he immediately answered loudly and turned to find the health worker.

Second Lieutenant Otto was just taking a chance and taking the risk to prevent his subordinates from dying due to wound infection. He didn't expect Golia to agree so readily, and he couldn't help feeling a little doubt in his heart.

Golia saw what Otto was thinking, and said to him, "Mr. Second Lieutenant, don't you think it's strange that I agreed to your request so readily?"

"Yes, Mr. Major." Now that Goria got straight to the point, Otto didn't hide it, and said bluntly, "I thought you would let my subordinates die on their own."

"Mr. Second Lieutenant," Goria did not evade the question, but said openly: "If you are in other troops, maybe they really don't care about your wounded. But our situation is different, we are Sokov General's troops."

"General Sokov's troops?" Otto asked in surprise after hearing what Golia said, "Aren't they all Russian troops? What difference can there be?"

Golia shook his head slightly, and said: "Our commander, General Sokov, once gave us an order that all captured German officers and soldiers, as long as they are not SS, will be given preferential treatment, and you will be given enough food and Drugs, to ensure your personal safety."

After waiting for Goria to finish speaking, Otto asked tentatively, "General Sokov really issued such an order?"

"Yes." Goliath replied in an affirmative tone: "He did give such an order."

"Comrade Major," Lida interrupted and asked Golia, "The German prisoners helped our battalion build an anti-aircraft firepower point. Do you think we should give them some rewards?"

"Reward?" Goliath asked in surprise, "What reward?"

"Distribute enough food to them." Lida glanced at Otto and continued, "I think they are all hungry."

Golia heard Lida's implication. After each army captured the German prisoners, they would not give each other enough food. Usually, every hundred people would give ten black bread. Here, there are more than two hundred prisoners. Only two dozen black breads are needed. The usual way is that the soldiers who distribute the food throw the bread one by one into the crowd, whoever grabs it counts; if they can’t grab it, they deserve to starve to death, whoever made them our enemies and invaded the motherland What about the invaders?

He did not express his opinion lightly, but asked instead: "Comrade Lida, how do you plan to distribute food to them?"

Lida had seen the detained German prisoners of war, so she naturally knew what it was like to distribute food, so she interjected: "We sent special personnel to distribute food to them to ensure that every prisoner of war can get their own food."

Seeing that Lida was willing to take the initiative to take on the task of distributing food, Golia said smoothly, "Okay, Comrade Lida, then I will leave this matter to you."

Otto heard the conversation between Golia and Lida clearly, and couldn't help but feel a lot of emotion in his heart. Although he was a prisoner for the first time, he had never eaten pork, and hadn't seen a pig run away. He had been to a prisoner-of-war camp before, where the guards just threw a few black breads at the crowd of prisoners every day during meals, and watched the prisoners fight for the meager food, but they laughed. He thought that after becoming a prisoner, he would encounter similar treatment, but he didn't expect that the other party would arrange for someone to distribute food for him, which moved him very much.

Half an hour later, Lida personally led a dozen female soldiers and began to distribute food to the German prisoners.

Although the prisoners had all their weapons confiscated, their food was still there. Seeing someone distributing food to them, they quickly formed a long and orderly queue and went forward to receive the food.

Originally, according to Goliath's intention, each prisoner was given two slices of bread for each meal, as long as they could not die of hunger, so as not to cause trouble when they were full. But after Lida's request, Golia agreed to add a spoonful of thick porridge to each prisoner.

The prisoners who received the food were very surprised to see that the female soldier who distributed the food not only gave him two slices of black bread, but also scooped a spoonful of thick porridge for himself. Although these foods are not much, but for them who have been hungry for a day, they are already very rich.

A dozen men distributed food to more than two hundred prisoners, and the work went quickly. In less than five minutes, the distribution of food was coming to an end. However, at this moment, something unexpected happened.

A young woman wearing a headscarf ran out from nowhere. She reached out and knocked out the lunch box in the hands of the German soldier who was about to receive food, and pushed him staggeringly, then shouted at Lida: "Comrade commander, how can you provide food for these damn invaders?"

According to Lida's thinking, the granary is heavily guarded, and there should be no idlers. But when she took a closer look at the young woman wearing a turban in front of her, she was actually wearing casual clothes. She couldn't help but be full of doubts. She frowned and asked, "Comrade women, who are you and why are you here?"

"My name is Katya, and I am an employee of this grain station." The young woman asked angrily, "I want to ask you, Comrade Commander, why did you distribute food to these damned invaders and let them starve to death? Is it better?"

Hearing Katya say these words in such an angry tone, Lida immediately realized what misfortune might have happened to the other party, so her heart was filled with incomparable anger towards the German army.

"Katya," in order to find out what happened to Katya, Lida put her arms around Katya's shoulders, and said softly to her, "There is an office next to it, let's take a rest in it?"

Katya was an employee of the grain station, so she naturally knew where the office Lida mentioned was, so she nodded slightly and agreed to the other party's proposal. Before Lida left, she winked at the subordinates who were distributing the food, signaling them to continue working.

Lida and Katya came to the nearby office, which is the office of the dispatcher of the grain station, and there are complete desks and chairs inside. Lida asked Katya to sit down on the bench, "Katya, are you married?"

"Yes, I was married before the war broke out."

"Where's your husband, is he in the army?"

"Sacrificed." Katya replied with a heavy expression: "When the Germans attacked Kharkov in 1941, he died in the battle."

"Then do you have any children?"

Katya nodded and replied, "There is a son who was just one year old when my husband went to war."

Lida calculated silently in her heart, the child was one year old in 1941, and should be three years old now, so she asked curiously, "Where is my son now?"

"died."

"died?!"

"Yes, dead." Katya said through gritted teeth, "Just a month ago, I brought my child to work at the grain station. While I was not paying attention, the child ran outside the gate of the grain station to play, but was killed by a passing German soldier. Shot dead."

Hearing this, Lida finally understood why Katya was full of deep-seated hatred for the Germans. The Germans not only killed her husband, but even killed her dependent son.

Lida organized the vocabulary in her mind, and then said with a heavy tone: "Katya, you know, many of us died fighting the German attack. If you want to avenge them, the only thing you can do is , instead of venting anger on those unarmed captives, you should take up arms and fight the enemy face to face."

Katya had just rushed out to destroy the prisoner's lunch box, which was the only thing she could do. Hearing what Lida said now, I suddenly had a new idea in my heart: Yes, I can take up arms and go to the battlefield, kill a few damn Germans with my own hands, and avenge my dead relatives.

But she asked Lida cautiously: "Comrade commander, in my situation, can I be employed in the army?"

"Don't worry, Comrade Katya." Lida has suffered a lot of casualties since the last air defense operation, and she has been trying to find a way to replenish the lost soldiers. Seeing Katya now, she feels that it is a rare opportunity, maybe she can Through Kajia, recruit more women to join his army: "Not only you can join the army, but other women as long as they are willing to join the army, we all welcome them."

"Is this true?" Knowing that not only she can join the army, but also other women can join the army, Katya asked a little emotionally: "There are more than 20 female workers in our grain station, and they can also join your army. team?"

"Of course." Knowing that more than 20 new recruits would be added soon, Lida's voice changed a little with excitement: "As long as they are willing, I absolutely welcome them to join."

"Alright then." Katya nodded and said to Lida, "I'll go find them later and tell them about this. I believe they will be very happy when they hear the news."

Lida thought that Kharkov used to be an important industrial city in the Soviet Union. The factories and enterprises must have organized militia units to help the army resist the German attack, so she tentatively asked Katya: "Katya, let me ask you, your grain station Are there any members of the Soviet?"

"No." Katya replied simply: "The Soviet members in the grain station were all killed by them when the German army occupied the town."

When Lida heard this, her heart sank suddenly, and then she asked cautiously: "Is there any resistance organization in that town?"

"No." Katya said, "They were all wiped out by the Germans."

"Is there really no one?" Lida asked unwillingly, "Is there really no resistance organization in this town?"

"No, really not." Katya said without waiting for Lida to ask again: "After the fall of Kharkov, our army launched a large-scale counterattack in 1942 and early this year. The resistance in the town In order to cooperate with the main force's offensive, the organization attacked the single enemy in the town and attacked their transportation lines. But with the strength of our army's offensive, these exposed resistance organizations were wiped out by the Germans."

Katya's explanation made Lida understand that the reason why Kharkov and the nearby towns did not move at all when the Soviets launched a new offensive was because the underground resistance organizations in these places failed after the previous two offensives. , were wiped out by the Germans.