Red Moscow

Samoilov approached Sokov and said in a low voice, "Comrade Commander, why do you take this kind of person back? Why don't you just drag him to a corner and shoot him to save trouble."

"No, he can't kill him." Sokov saw many pedestrians on the nearby streets, and they all saw what happened here. What did it matter to the brutal Germans if they shot an unarmed man in front of them? So he emphasized: "Then take him first, and we will go to the military commissioner."

The action of arresting the ticket dealer was not only seen by the surrounding pedestrians, but also alarmed a patrol team that happened to pass nearby. The leader was a young second lieutenant. Seeing that there were quite a few people around here, he guessed that something might have happened, so he rushed over with his own people.

"Stop!" Seeing Sokov and the others trying to leave, he yelled loudly: "We are a patrol team, please show your ID."

Seeing that he had alarmed the patrol team, Sokov was worried that if he left like this, he might cause unnecessary misunderstandings, so he quickly said to everyone: "Let's take a rest here now, and leave after we have clarified the matter with the patrol team."

The patrol team came in front of the crowd. After looking at the crowd, the captain locked his target on Sokov and Managarov, because everyone present was wearing civilian clothes except him.

The captain of the second lieutenant came to the two of them, stretched out his hand, and said blankly, "Your documents!"

Seeing that Managarov was also about to take out his ID, Sokov quickly stopped him: "No, my ID alone is enough for everything."

Hearing what Sokov said, the second lieutenant sneered: "Your certificate can handle everything. What a big tone. Do you think you are the commander of the group army?"

Facing the second lieutenant's questioning, Sokov didn't speak, but just handed over his ID. The second lieutenant took over the military ID card and opened it, preparing to find out the other party's name and the unit he was in, and then go to the other party's superior to file a complaint.

After seeing the contents of the military certificate clearly, his face changed suddenly, he stood at attention, and saluted: "Comrade commander, I'm sorry, I didn't know it was you, if there is any offense, please forgive me." Forgive me a lot."

Sokov took the military ID from the opponent, put it back in his pocket, waved his hand with a smile, and said to the second lieutenant, "Go on patrol."

Although Sokov asked the second lieutenant to continue patrolling, the other party would not leave Sokov at this time, so he said with a smile: "Comrade Commander, although our army has occupied the city, there are still some people who have not been cleared." Scattered soldiers. For your safety, let us protect your safety."

Sokov thought that when he came out, he forgot to ask Tsarev where Lunev and the others were, so he took the opportunity to ask the second lieutenant, "Comrade second lieutenant, do you know where the military commissar is?"

"I know!" Unexpectedly, the second lieutenant nodded vigorously, and said in an affirmative tone: "They are distributing food and daily necessities to the residents of the city at the Workers' Cultural Palace not far from here."

Hearing what the second lieutenant said in such detail, Sokov felt that it would be a good choice for him to be his guide, so he said to him: "Okay, comrade second lieutenant, you will be our guide and take us to the military commissar." .”

"Okay, Comrade Commander." The second lieutenant agreed, and was about to lead the way, but when he saw the man caught by Samoilov and others, he asked Sukov curiously: "Comrade Commander, do you know him?" What mistake did you make?"

"Reselling ration certificates and trying to make a profit from them."

"It's disgusting, how dare you resell the ration certificate." The second lieutenant said, pulling out his pistol and aiming at the man: "Comrade commander, what kind of politeness is there to this kind of person, let's execute him on the spot?"

"No, I can't kill him for the time being." Sokov waved his hand and said, "I still have something important to ask him."

Seeing the second lieutenant put away his pistol, Sokov's eyes were red, and he seemed to be sad, so he asked with concern, "Comrade second lieutenant, what happened to you?"

The second lieutenant shook his head with red eyes, and said insincerely: "It's okay, nothing happened."

"Comrade commander, I know what's going on." A veteran in the patrol said unexpectedly: "The second lieutenant remembered his family."

"His family?!" Managarov, who was next to him, couldn't help being interested when he heard what the veteran said, and quickly asked, "Comrade soldier, what's going on?"

The veteran already knew the identity of Sokov. Seeing this elderly soldier, although he was wearing the military uniform of an ordinary soldier, he knew very well that this person must have a high position, so he replied respectfully: "At the end of last year. , when the second lieutenant's father went to collect food rations, the ration card he was carrying was stolen by a thief. You know, it is the ration card for the whole family. Without the ration card, it means that there will be no food, and the whole family will be killed. starve.

When he was in a hurry, a man suddenly came over, pulled him aside, and asked him in a low voice if he needed a ration certificate. If he wants, I can help him find a copy through special channels..."

"Comrade soldier," Sokov couldn't help interjecting when he heard this, "I'm curious, can such a precious ration card be bought with money?"

"Of course you can't buy it." The veteran shook his head and replied, "The man told the second lieutenant's father that the ration certificate is too precious to buy with money. If you want it, you can use the gold jewelry at home to exchange it. The second lieutenant's My father thought that if there was no ration certificate, the family would starve to death, so he immediately went home to fetch the jewels that had been treasured for decades, and exchanged two ration certificates from the man."

Hearing this, Sokov thought to himself, exchanging the jewels he had collected for decades for two ration certificates valid for only one month, it was really a disadvantage. No wonder the second lieutenant was so angry.

Unexpectedly, the veteran continued to say: "The father of the second lieutenant went to the designated place to pick up the food with the ration card he bought at a high price, but he was told that he had used a false card, and he fell down in a panic. Although he was sent to the hospital , but was not rescued. His mother, two younger sisters, and a younger brother all starved to death because they lost their ration certificates and could not get food.”

A few ration certificates actually killed a few lives! Hearing this, Sokov couldn't help being filled with righteous indignation, and reached out to touch his waist, but found nothing. He remembered that he was disguised as a soldier when he went out this time. Naturally, he couldn't bring a pistol, so he smiled wryly and shook his head, looked at the man beside him, and thought to himself: "You are lucky, if I have a gun on me, I'm afraid I'll die sooner or later." You were shot dead."

Seeing that everyone was looking at him, the man couldn't help panicking. He said repeatedly: "It's not me, definitely not me. I have never left Klemenchug, and at the end of last year, the city was still occupied by the Germans." Controlling, how can there be a ration certificate?"

Amidst the man's yelling, Sukov suddenly smelled a choking smell of urine, so he frowned and asked, "What's the smell so bad?"

Samoilov looked around, then smiled and said to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, we caught this kid who wet his pants in fright." His words immediately aroused laughter from all around.

"Comrade Lieutenant," Sokov raised his hand to check the time, and realized that he was delayed for more than ten minutes, so he told Samoilov: "Take him, and we will find the military commissar together."

"Okay, Comrade Commander." Samoilov agreed, and made a gesture to his subordinates, signaling them to take the man away. But the man had already been paralyzed by fright, and the two soldiers couldn't hold him back. Seeing this, Samoilov stepped forward and gave him a kick, cursing: "Coward, you were so scared that you wet your pants in a few words. Don't worry, our commander said, we won't shoot you, you Just follow us honestly."

Hearing that he would not be shot, the man regained his energy immediately, his back was no longer sore, and his legs were no longer hurting. When the soldier who grabbed his arm made a slight movement, he immediately moved forward in cooperation.

The second lieutenant led the crowd to the front of the Workers' Cultural Palace, and Sokov was stunned by the endless line in front of the door, and the line turned a few corners in the middle, and there were at least seven or eight thousand people by visual inspection.

The second lieutenant came to an officer on duty, and after whispering a few words to him, the officer came over to salute Sokov and Managarov.

"Comrade Captain," Sokov glanced at the rank of the officer on duty, and asked, "Where is Comrade Military Commissar?"

"In the manager's office." The officer on duty said respectfully: "Comrade commander, please come with me."

Lunev and Gorokhov were standing at the window, looking at the distribution of rations below, when they suddenly heard someone open the door from the outside.

Hearing the sound of the door opening, Lunev couldn't help frowning, thinking who would be so rude, knowing that we were inside, coming in without even knocking on the door. He turned around abruptly, wanting to teach the reckless intruder a lesson, but unexpectedly saw Sokov and Managarov, who were wearing ordinary soldier uniforms, standing not far from him. The place.

"Comrade Commander, why are you here?" Lunev asked in surprise: "And you, General Managarov, have also come with our Commander."

Gorokhov had been staring out of the window, but when he heard Lunev mention Managarov's name, he quickly turned his head and met Managarov's eyes. "Comrade Commander, you are here!" Gorokhov went up to meet him, and asked in surprise, "Why are you wearing the uniform of an ordinary soldier?"

The question Gorokhov asked was also what Lunev wanted to ask, and his eyes were fixed on Managarov, wanting to hear how he would answer.

"It's like this," Managarov explained to everyone why he wore a soldier's uniform as Lunev imagined: "General Sokov said that he wanted to get a real look at the distribution of rations, so he suggested We walk around in ordinary military uniforms, so we can see a lot of things that we usually don't see."

"Comrade General," Lunev asked with a smile, "do you see what you want to see?"

"I did see some things that I don't usually see." Sokov interjected. He took out the ration certificate confiscated from the man from his pocket and handed it to Lunev: "Comrade military commissar, look at these rations." certificate."

Lunev took the ration card, looked at it over and over for a while, a trace of doubt flashed in his eyes, then he handed the ration card to Gorokhov, and said in his mouth: "Comrade Gorokhov, come and see these Ration certificate."

"It's a fake," Gorokhov replied without hesitation after only a glance, "Although the forgery is exquisite, it can be seen at a glance that it is fake."

"Comrade Gorokhov, you are right. I also think that these distribution certificates should be fake." Lunev asked puzzledly: "But I have never found a flaw. How did you identify that these distribution certificates are fake?" What about fake ones?"

"It's very simple." Gorokhov took two ration certificates from Lunev's hand and showed them to everyone in his palm: "Although these ration certificates are very good imitations, the numbers on them are exactly the same. of……"

Sokov leaned over to take a look, isn't it? Not only the two ration cards in Gorokhov's hands have the same number, but even the remaining ration cards in Lunev's hand have the same number.

"Also," Gorokhov continued: "Our ration certificate numbers start with two Russian letters, followed by seven-digit Arabic numerals. But these ration certificates have three Russian letters. And six numbers, presumably those who resell the ration certificates deliberately did it to distinguish the real from the fake."

"Comrade Commander," Lunev asked curiously after Gorokhov finished speaking: "Where did you get these fake ration certificates?"

"Today, General Managarov and I chatted with the citizens queuing up and asked if we could buy ration certificates. As soon as we left the queue, a man came to us and said that there were extra ration certificates we needed. Sell ​​it to us."

"It's been a while since we liberated the city, but we can't replace the German marks with rubles for the time being." Lunev continued to ask: "He wants to sell you ration certificates, what is he going to ask you to pay with?"

"Guns and bullets."

"Where is he?" Lunev was filled with righteous indignation when he learned that the ticket dealer actually asked buyers to exchange guns and bullets for a ration card, and asked sternly, "Have you been arrested and shot?"

"Comrade Military Commissar, I think he is useful to us, there is no need to shoot him." Sokov said, pointing to the door: "He is outside the door now. Lieutenant Samoilov!"

Hearing Sokov's shout, Samoilov immediately poked his head in from the door: "Comrade Commander, what's the matter?"

"Bring in the man who sold the tickets, I have something to ask him."

Soon, the man entered the office under the escort of two soldiers in plain clothes.

Sokov sat behind his desk, looked at the man and asked, "Tell me, what is your name and what do you do?"

The man knew whether he would survive, it was all in Sokov's thought, and he quickly replied respectfully: "Comrade commander, my name is Gorel, and I am a printer."

"You are a printer?! So, you printed these fake ration certificates yourself?"

"Yes, I printed them all myself."

"Where did you get the template?" Lunev asked angrily.

"I carved a template myself based on the ration certificate you issued." Golier replied, "Unfortunately, the resources I can use are limited, and the printed ration certificates all have the same number."