Red Moscow

Due to being too tired, Sokov fell asleep unknowingly during the process of thinking.

After an unknown amount of time, the car stopped suddenly. Sokov was about to open his eyes and ask if he was there when he heard Koshkin's voice: "Comrades, which part are you from? Why are you blocking our way?"

"I'm sorry, Comrade Lieutenant." A slightly hoarse voice said: "The Germans have laid mines on the road ahead, and we are clearing them. No one can pass until all the mines are cleared."

Sokov couldn't help being shocked when he heard this, and he suddenly became sober. You know, he was injured a few months ago. On the way to the frontier inspection, he met a group of Germans pretending to be Soviet engineers, and was tricked by them into the room where the bomb was installed. Jumping out of the window to escape, I am afraid that the grass on the grave will be ten feet high at this moment.

He opened his eyes, looked out the window, put his hand on the holster around his waist, and was ready to shoot if he found something wrong.

Unexpectedly, after seeing more than a dozen people standing not far away, Sokov exclaimed: "Lieutenant Colonel Milesyev, is that you?"

Lieutenant Colonel Milesiev was a classmate of Sokov at the Frunze Military Academy. He followed Sokov out of the academy and came to the 53rd Army and was appointed as the deputy head of the 124th Regiment of the 41st Guards Division.

Milesyev, who was arranging for engineers to clear the mines, heard someone calling himself, and turned in the direction of the sound, just in time to see Sokov sitting in the car. He hurried over quickly, and asked in surprise, "Comrade Commander, why are you here?"

"I heard that you have captured Haixin. I came here specially to take a look." Sukov only knew that the 18th Guards Army captured Haixin, but he was not sure which division it was: "Occupy Haixin Your unit is your division, right?"

"Yes, Comrade Commander, it is our division."

"Where is your division headquarters?" Sokov asked, "Can you be my guide?"

"Comrade Commander, I am very happy." After saying this, Milesyev called a captain and told him: "Comrade captain, we must hurry up on mine clearance, otherwise we will wait for our transport convoy to arrive. You can’t go to the city through here.”

Before Milesiev got into the car, Sokov asked curiously: "Milesiev, didn't you clear the mines on the road before capturing the city?"

"Comrade commander, you don't know that these mines were planted by stragglers of the German army." Milesyev replied bitterly: "Before we captured the city, there were no mines on this road at all. It is unimpeded. But unexpectedly, after we occupied the city, landmines suddenly appeared on the road inexplicably, which injured many of our soldiers."

"Is it an infantry mine or an anti-tank mine?"

"Infantry Thunder!"

"Since it's an infantry mine, it's easy to handle." Sokov pointed at a Sherman parked not far away, and said, "Let that tank go and crush it on the road, and the infantry mine will bully and bully you." Infantry is okay, tanks are much less of a threat."

For Sokov's order, Milesyev naturally obeyed unconditionally. He turned and ran to the side of the tank, and gave a few instructions to the commander who was sitting on the car body watching the excitement, and then ran back to report to Sokov: " Comrade Commander, everything has been arranged."

Sokov pushed open the car door, moved inside, and said to Milesyev, "Get in the car, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel."

Under the guidance of Lieutenant Colonel Milesyev, the convoy left the road and drove towards the depths of the forest along the uneven path. "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel," Sokov raised his hand to grab the handle on the roof, and asked with some surprise, "Why hasn't your division headquarters moved into the city yet?"

"It was originally planned to move into the city," replied Milesyev, "but Comrade Division Commander is worried that our superiors will soon assign us new combat tasks. Maybe the division headquarters has just been built and will be transferred to other places." He simply stayed here.” He was worried that Sokov would not understand, and explained specifically, “After our division arrived here, the division commander set up the headquarters in the forest, but before it was put into use, the city was destroyed. Occupied by the vanguard."

"So that's the case." Sokov nodded, and said: "General Kurishenko is very thoughtful. If he just occupied the city, he moved the division headquarters into the city. Maybe he just set up the headquarters. There will be new orders handed down, and the headquarters will have to be transferred at that time, which will cause a lot of inconvenience to the communications personnel."

"Milesiev, how many people are there in your regiment?" Sokov knew that the 41st Guards Division suffered a lot of casualties. As a member of the 124th Guards Regiment, the number of casualties must not be small, maybe only a few hundred people left Maybe that's why I asked this question.

"When the whole division advanced towards Haixin, there were still 700 people left in our regiment..."

Although Sokov had known for a long time that the 124th regiment had lost a lot of personnel, the number of 700 people still shocked him. He thought that the regiment was downsizing due to some special reasons during the march, so he sighed softly and asked, "Milesiev, how many people are there in your regiment now?"

Unexpectedly, Milesyev replied excitedly: "2400 people, Comrade Commander."

"2,400 people?" Sokov's eyes widened in surprise. "Where did the extra 1,700 people come from?"

"Prisoner-of-war camp, Comrade Commander, we found a prisoner-of-war camp in the forest." Milesyev said proudly: "When we arrived, all the guards in the prisoner-of-war camp had escaped, and only a few thousand soldiers remained. A prisoner of our army."

Knowing that the 41st Guards Division had discovered a prisoner-of-war camp for thousands of prisoners of war in the forest, the muscles on Sokov's face couldn't help twitching violently a few times. . In order to find the open-pit mine where the prisoners of war were held near Uman, it can be said that it took a lot of twists and turns. But the 41st Guards Division found a prisoner-of-war camp with thousands of people so easily.

But after thinking about it, the 41st Guards Division can replenish thousands of soldiers at once, which is a great thing. At least for a long time to come, Kurishenko will not complain to himself that there are not enough soldiers. . But the only thing that worried him was that the newly rescued commanders and fighters were probably in poor health. Even if they were incorporated into the army, they might not be able to have any combat effectiveness.

Seeing that Sokov was silent, Milesyev asked tentatively: "Comrade commander, what are you thinking?"

"It's a good thing to be able to add thousands of people at once." Sokov looked at Milesiev and said, "I just don't know how these prisoners are in physical condition?"

"Pretty good." Milesyev said with some joy: "These captured commanders and fighters are basically from the First Ukrainian Front Army. They were captured in the battle to defend Zhitomir at the end of last year. Yes. Since they have not been captured for too long, apart from being slightly weak, their overall condition is pretty good. As long as they are fed, they will be able to pick up weapons and go to the battlefield tomorrow to fight the Germans."

As soon as Milesyev mentioned Zhitomir, Sokov remembered that after the liberation of Kiev, the Ukrainian First Front Army sent troops to Zhitomir, where they were counterattacked by the Germans. The troops paid no small price. The commanders and fighters who were captured by the German army only stayed in the prisoner-of-war camp for three or four months, and their health should not be bad.

Under the leadership of Milesiev, Sokov came to the headquarters of the 41st Guards Division-the forester's hut in the forest.

When Sokov walked in, he saw Kurishenko and Sidolin talking to a tall, bearded, middle-aged man in casual clothes. He walked towards the three of them and said loudly: "Commanders, hello! What are you talking about, can you tell me?"

The middle-aged man who was speaking was interrupted, and he was naturally unhappy. When he turned around and was about to explode, he saw Kurishenko and Sidolin both raised their hands to salute the person coming: "Hello, Commander Comrade!"

The middle-aged man was taken aback when he heard the two call Sokov the commander. He looked at Sokov's clothes carefully, and immediately realized that he was facing a high-ranking general. Standing at attention, he raised his hand and gave a substandard military salute: "Hello, Comrade Commander. I'm Guerrilla Captain Izvikov. Nice to meet you."

"Guerrilla captain?!" If it was on Russian territory, Sokov would be more or less delighted when he heard the word guerrilla, because these comrades fighting behind enemy lines can provide a lot of help to the troops. But now on the land of Ukraine, the guerrillas active in this land include both pro-Soviet and pro-German, and even anti-Soviet and anti-German. So Sokov wanted to figure out which side the middle-aged man named Izvekov in front of him belonged to.

Seeing that Sokov was silent, Kurishenko took the initiative to introduce Izvekov's situation to him: "Commander, Comrade Izvekov was a Soviet member of the collective farm before the war. After Ukraine fell, he Organized a guerrilla team of more than 200 people to fight guerrillas in this area. If we hadn’t had his help today, we still wouldn’t be able to discover the prisoner-of-war camp hidden deep in the forest.”

Sokov came here just to ask about the prisoner-of-war camp. Since the other party took the initiative to talk about it, he said calmly: "I heard that there are thousands of people in the prisoner-of-war camp, and their health is not too bad. ,is that true?"

"Of course it is true." Kurishenko nodded and said, "Comrade Izvikov led us, and I personally led a regiment to drive there. It is true that thousands of prisoners of war of our army are being held, but guarding them Germans, but they escaped at some point."

"How many commanders and fighters were rescued?" Sokov asked briefly, "Have they been reviewed and screened?"

"A total of 2,391 commanders and fighters were rescued,..."

"Wait a minute, General Kurishenko." Hearing this, Sokov interrupted what Kurishenko was saying, and asked tentatively, "You said there were only 2,391 officers and fighters rescued?"

"Yes, only 2391 people!"

"Since there are only more than 2,000 people, why are 1,700 of them assigned to the 124th Regiment?" Sokov asked puzzledly, "The 122nd and 126th Regiments combined only got 700 people?"

"That's right, Comrade Commander." Sidolin explained to Sokov: "The rescued commanders and fighters are all personnel with military training and combat experience. The 124th regiment is the regiment with the worst combat effectiveness in our division. , The division commander added 1,700 people to the regiment, hoping to improve the combat effectiveness of the troops in a short period of time.

As for the 122nd and 126th regiments, firstly, the reduction in personnel during the battle was not as large as that of the 124th regiment, and secondly, they had a large number of veterans, so there was no need to add more combat backbones to their troops. "

Sokov did not express any opinion on Kurishenko's approach. After all, this is an internal matter of the 41st Guards Division, and it is not easy for him to dictate it.

Kurishenko pointed to Izvikov and introduced to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, after three years of struggle, Comrade Izvikov's guerrilla has grown from the initial number of more than two hundred people to one There are more than 1,500 people. When you just came in, we were discussing some details of incorporating guerrillas into our division."

"More than 1,500 people?" Sokov thought that Izvikov's troops were at most two or three hundred people, but he did not expect that there were more than 1,500 people. He asked in surprise: "Kurishin General Coe, which regiment do you intend to put them in?"

Unexpectedly, Kurishenko shook his head after hearing this, and replied: "I plan to organize them into the troops directly under the division. After the combat effectiveness improves in the future, it will not be too late to distribute them into other regiments."

"General Kurishenko, you are very considerate." Sokov felt that Kurishenko's arrangement was quite appropriate. After he nodded, he asked Izvekov with a silly smile: " Comrade Izvikov, you have no objection?"

Izvikov shook his head like a rattle: "No, no, Comrade Commander, I have no objections."

"Comrade Commander," Kurishenko said to Sokov with some embarrassment: "After the guerrillas have been incorporated into the army, it involves conferring military ranks on them. I don't know if you think Izvekov should be conferred What rank?"

Kurishenko's words made Sokov feel embarrassed. It stands to reason that 1,500 people can be formed into a regiment, and Izvikov can be given the rank of lieutenant colonel justifiably by making Izvikov the regiment leader. However, although there are 1,500 people in the reorganized guerrilla unit, its combat effectiveness may not even be comparable to that of an ordinary company. If the opponent is appointed as the regiment commander and awarded the rank of lieutenant colonel, there will be many people who are not convinced.

"Comrade Commander," Kurishenko was somewhat anxious seeing Sokov not speaking for a long time. He urged, "What position and rank should Comrade Izvekov be assigned?"

Sokov stared at Izvikov for a while, then turned to Kurishenko and said: "In my opinion, the guerrillas will be reorganized into the second battalion of the divisional guards, and Izvikov will serve as the battalion commander and be awarded the rank of major. He paused for a moment, then added, "As for the lesbians in the guerrillas, we can arrange for them to go to the health team or the communications department."

After Sokov finished talking about his plan, he found that Izvikov was a little depressed, so he raised his voice and asked, "Major Izvikov, do you have any objections to my arrangement?"

Although Izvikov was somewhat disappointed by the position of battalion commander and the rank of major, after hearing Sokov's question, he still replied loudly: "No, Comrade Commander, I firmly obey your order." arrange."

Seeing that Izvikov accepted his arrangement, Sokov felt relieved, put his hand on the other's shoulder, and said in an encouraging tone: "Major Izvikov, when you make meritorious deeds in the future, I will definitely grant you a higher military rank and arrange for you to take on more important positions."