Red Moscow

The car continued to drive forward. When a small alley appeared on the side of the road, the driver turned the steering wheel and turned directly into it.

"Yasha!" Sokov said that although he had been to Lenin Avenue many times in his past life, this was the first time he saw this alley. He asked Yakov curiously, "What are we doing in this alley?"

Yakov smiled slyly after hearing this, and said, "Misha, don't worry, you'll know when we get there."

The car passed through the brick-concrete buildings one after another, and soon there was a group of buildings surrounded by walls, and there were sentries standing guard at the entrance of the yard.

Seeing this, Sokov asked curiously: "Yasha, the place you want to take us to is not inside the fence, is it?"

"Yes, our destination is inside."

Sokov looked at the surrounding environment. In addition to the sentries standing guard at the gate, there were also patrols with dogs patrolling by the wall. He couldn't help frowning: "Yasha, the security here is so tight, I'm afraid it's not A place where ordinary people live?"

Yakov said with a smile: "Misha, you are right, the yard is full of generals. The new house arranged by the superior is in this yard."

Hearing that all the generals lived in the courtyard, Sokov couldn't help but feel flustered. Although he is also a general, living in such a place still puts a lot of psychological pressure on him: "The generals living here, whether they are Seniority or status, they should be higher than me, I live in the same place with them, is it appropriate?"

"What's inappropriate?" Yakov said: "Although you are young and your qualifications are not as old as theirs, but in our army, you were promoted from an ordinary soldier to a general by virtue of your outstanding military exploits. If you If you are not eligible to live here, then who is eligible to live here?"

Sokov's heart warmed when he heard it. Although Yakov's words were loud, full of self-serving and unreasonable flavors, they were very caring and made him feel very comfortable after listening to them. While speaking, the car had already arrived at the gate of the yard.

The sentry at the door stopped the car with his hand, bent down to look into the car, and asked Yakov politely: "Comrade Colonel, what can I do for you?"

"I'm Colonel Yakov, and I was ordered to send General Sokov over."

The sentry glanced at the back row, and immediately saw Sokov who was sitting with Asiya. He quickly straightened up and took a step back. After raising his hand to salute, he gestured to another sentry at the door, signaling him to move the railing. lift it up.

After the car drove into the yard, the driver turned his face to Yakov: "Comrade Colonel, where are you going next?"

"Go to building 17." Yakov said to the driver: "General Sokov's new residence is in building 17."

When the car came to a stop next to Building 17, Sokov discovered that it was a two-story stone building that would not collapse even if it was hit directly by a 105mm artillery. He said with emotion: "Yasha, this house looks old."

"That's right, this house has a history of more than a hundred years." Yakov nodded and said, "It was originally a shanty town. In the fire that caused the city to retreat, this place was also burned to ruins. When reconstruction began in 1817, it became a residential area for dignitaries."

Yakov led the two to the second floor of the building, opened one of the doors and walked in, then opened his arms and said with an exaggerated expression: "Misha, this is your new house, let's see if it suits you !"

The living room in front of him was more than 30 square meters, with a long sofa and coffee table. Near the kitchen door, there is also a long dining table with twelve matching chairs.

Sokov looked up at the ceiling, and there were paintings on it. He checked the distance with his eyes and found that the ceiling was about five meters high. Seeing the high ceiling in the living room, Sokov couldn't help thinking of what a good friend said in the past. The other party said that in a house he rented, the interior ceiling was astonishingly high. The next time I woke up in the middle of the night and turned on the lights, I felt like I was sleeping under a roadside telephone pole.

Thinking of this past event, the corners of Sokov's mouth can't help but slightly upturned. His expression happened to be seen by Yakov, who misunderstood his meaning and thought that the other party was happy after seeing the new house, so he asked, "Misha, how are you? Are you satisfied with the new house?"

"Satisfied, very satisfied." After Sokov finished speaking, he walked through the living room. He wanted to see if the height of the bedroom was as exaggerated as the living room.

Yakov followed closely and said to him: "Misha, this house has three bedrooms. You and Assia live in the master bedroom. If you have a baby in the future, you can let him live in the second bedroom. As for the remaining one , let’s use it as a guest room, when guests come, you can keep them to stay.”

After casually pushing open the door of a bedroom, Sokov looked up at the ceiling, and the ceiling here was indeed the same as the living room. However, in the bedroom there is a curtain with four beds fixed on the pillars. As long as it is lowered, a small space is formed, so that the person lying on the bed will not be affected by the height of the house in the slightest.

"It's great, Misha, this house is really great." Afterwards, Asiya walked into the room, took a closer look, and said emotionally: "Does this house really belong to us?"

"It's needless to say, Asiya." Before Sokov finished speaking, Yakov said first: "This is assigned to Misha by the superior. It was assigned two months ago. I took advantage of Misha's Sha was still in the hospital, so I asked someone to tidy up the house and buy the necessary furniture so that you can move in with your bags.”

When Yakov said the word "check in with bags", Sokov couldn't help laughing. But he quickly restrained the smile on his face, looked at Yakov and asked, "Yasha, it must be a lot of money to help me clean up the house and add furniture? You have helped me so much, and I have no reason to ask you to help me." I paid out of my pocket, how much money I spent, and I will ask Assia to transfer it to you later."

"No money." Yakov pointed to the various furniture and decorations in the house, and said to Sokov: "The bed, wardrobe and table in the house, as well as the tapestries on the wall and the carpet on the floor are all ours. It was brought from the warehouse and cost nothing at all."

Yakov walked to the closet, stretched out his hand and opened the closet door, turned to Sokov and said, "Misha, we have prepared some casual clothes for you here, and they are basically new. If you don't want to wear military uniforms when you go out, just You can wear these clothes to go out."

Seeing the closet full of clothes, Sokov said gratefully to Yakov, "Yasha, thank you so much for being so considerate for me."

"Misha, don't be so polite." Yakov raised his hand and patted Sokov on the shoulder, and said with a smile, "We are not only good friends, but also good brothers who have lived and died together. Let me help you with this." That's how it should be."

There was a knock on the door, and Yakov said to Sokov: "It should be the administrator!"

Opening the door, an elderly lieutenant stood outside the door. Seeing Yakov appearing at the door, the lieutenant immediately apologized and said with a smile: "Excuse me, are you Colonel Yakov?"

"Yes, I'm Yakov." Yakov nodded and said, "Are you an administrator?"

"Exactly, Comrade Colonel. I am the administrator." The lieutenant replied: "I have come to give General Sokov his pass. Is he here?"

"Hello, Comrade Administrator." Sokov stepped forward and stood side by side with Yakov: "I am Sokov."

After the administrator saluted Sokov, he handed two hard cards to Sokov: "Comrade General, this is the pass for the community, please keep it safe. If you lose it accidentally, please contact our management office in time. , we will make it up for you in time.”

"Comrade administrator." Seeing that the administrator had been standing at the door, Sokov turned his body to the side and stretched out his hand in a gesture of invitation: "Please come in and sit down."

"No, no, Comrade General." The administrator waved his hands and said in a panic, "I have other things to do, so I won't go in."

Seeing that the administrator was unwilling to come in, Sokov didn't force it, so he asked casually, "Comrade administrator, do you have anything else to explain?"

"It's like this, Comrade General." The administrator said to Sokov: "Someone will come to help you install the phone tomorrow. Please be sure to keep someone at home, so that the employees of the Post Office will not be able to enter the door after they arrive."

"Don't worry, Comrade Administrator." Sokov replied with a smile, "There will be someone at my house anytime tomorrow."

After the administrator left, Sokov closed the door casually, and said to Yakov, "Yasha, it's time for dinner, why don't you have some at my place?"

Assia interjected and said, "You guys sit and talk first, I'll go out and do some shopping."

"No, no, no." Yakov waved his hands and said, "The kitchen has already prepared the necessary ingredients for you, so you don't need to buy them, Assia."

"That's good!" Assia took off her military coat, hung it on the cloakroom at the door, rolled up her sleeves and said to the two of them, "I'm going to cook, you can chat for a while."

Sokov also felt that the heating in the room was a little too high, so he took off his military overcoat, hung it on the coat rack, and then said to Yakov: "Yasha, it's too hot in the room, you also put it on." Take off your coat."

When Yakov took off his coat, Sokov took it and hung it on the coat rack. Yakov jokingly said, "Misha, it's a great honor for you, a lieutenant general, to help me, a colonel, hang up my coat. "

After the two sat down on the sofa in the living room, Sokov said apologetically, "Yasha, I'm so sorry, I don't have anything at home, I can't even invite you for a cup of tea."

"We can't drink tea, we can drink." Yakov said, stood up, walked to a closet by the wall, opened the door and took out a bottle of whiskey and two goblets.

After returning to Sokov's side and sitting down, Yakov put two goblets on the tea table, opened the whiskey bottle cap, and poured some wine into each of the two glasses. He picked up two cups, handed one of them to Sokov, then raised the cup in his hand, and said to Sokov, "Misha, in order to celebrate your discharge from the hospital and your new house, let's have a drink."

Sokov and Yakov clinked glasses, looked up and poured the whiskey in the glass down their throats. Because he drank too much, he was choked and coughed violently.

"Drink it slowly," Yakov said with a smile while patting Sokov on the back, "No one will grab it from you."

Hearing Sokov's violent coughing, Asiya, who was busy in the kitchen, rushed out immediately and asked with concern, "Misha, what's wrong with you? Why are you coughing so hard!"

"I, I'm fine." Sokov coughed and explained to Asiya, "I drank too fast and accidentally choked. Go back to the kitchen and cook."

Knowing that Sokov just choked on drinking, Assia still worriedly warned: "Your injury has not completely healed, if you cough too hard, it may cause partial wound rupture, and you will be in trouble at that time. Drink later, drink slowly, you know?"

After admonishing Sokov, she turned to Yakov and said, "Yasha, Misha's injuries haven't completely healed yet, don't let him drink too much."

"I see." Although Asiya didn't say no to drinking anymore, the meaning in her words has clearly expressed her attitude. Yakov quickly put away the wine glasses on the table, and said to Asiya apologetically, "That's it for today, we won't drink any more."

Sokov knew that Yakov was a good drinker, and the glass of wine just now was just to quench his thirst, so he waited for Asiya to leave, and said apologetically, "Yasha, I'm so sorry that I have caused you to die too." You can't drink. If you want to drink, please drink, but I can't accompany you."

"There's no need for this." Yakov closed the lid of the wine bottle, got up and put the unfinished whiskey into the cupboard. Turning around and returning to Sokov, he said to him, "After your injury is completely healed, let's have a good drink."

"Okay then, drink it after I recover from my injury."

"Misha," since they can't drink, and it's impossible for the two of them to sit stupidly in the living room, Yakov asked first, "When will you finish your studies?"

"The mid-level commander training course was completed yesterday." Sokov replied, "According to the original plan, I will stay in the academy for half a year to attend the senior commander training course and special training course."

"That's a pity." Although Sokov and himself were the only ones in the living room, Yakov still lowered his voice and said, "The day before yesterday, the troops of the Ukrainian First and Second Fronts used east-west assault tactics to attack the German Army Group South. The 11 divisions formed an encirclement. If you return to the army at this moment, you can still catch up with this battle."

Sokov knew that the battle Yakov was talking about was the Korsun-Shevchenkovsky battle jointly launched by the two forces of Vatutin and Konev. In this battle, the Soviet army resisted the powerful counterattack and counterattack of the German army internally and externally, annihilating more than 70,000 enemies, and even killed the commander of the German 11th Army, William Stemmermann. Favorable conditions were created for smashing the southern flank of the German army and completely liberating Ukraine on the right bank.

"Yes, it's a pity." Sokov also regretted that he could not participate in this battle: "Judging from the combat area, the German Viking Division is also among them. You know, the combat effectiveness of this unit Tough is the only unit I have not defeated. On the contrary, the 300th Infantry Division under my command was defeated by them. In this battle, our army used millions of troops from the two front armies. Even if the Viking Division was not defeated If they are wiped out, they will suffer heavy losses, and I don't know when I will have the opportunity to fight this army again."