Red Moscow

"What's going on, what's going on?" At this moment, Sameko, Trofimenko and others rushed over along the corridor. Sameko, who rushed to the front, kept asking, "Where is the sound of the cannon coming from?"

"Comrade Chief of Staff, don't panic." Sokov raised his hand to stop Sameko and others who were rushing over, and explained to them: "I ordered someone to bombard the ace sniper of the German army with artillery. Captain Koshkin I have taken someone to deal with the aftermath.”

"Blasted out the ace sniper of the German army with artillery?!" After hearing this, Sameko asked in a daze: "Comrade commander, what is going on, you have confused me."

Sokov thought that it would be too troublesome to explain it to Sameko here, and then explain it again to the consolation team when he returned to the headquarters later, so he said to Sameko: "Chief of Staff, When I get back to the headquarters, I will explain to you slowly."

Trofimenko and Smirnov, who were staying in the headquarters, saw Sameko enter the door, and hurriedly asked: "What's going on outside, where is the sound of the cannon?"

Sameko shrugged, spread his hands, and said helplessly, "Comrade Deputy Commander, I think it's better for the commander to explain this to you."

Seeing that Trofimenko opened his mouth to ask, Sokov hurriedly raised his hand to stop him, and then said: "Comrade Deputy Commander, don't be impatient. I will explain to you after all the comrades from the condolence team come in." what's going on."

Soon, the members of the condolence team entered the headquarters, accompanied by the old man and Konev's adjutant. Seeing everyone entering the door, Sokov took the lead in applauding, and soon there was warm applause in the room.

After the applause stopped, Sokov introduced to Trofimenko, Smirnov and Sameko: "Let me introduce to you, this is Marshal Konev's adjutant, this time the condolence team is He will lead the team. Comrade adjutant, these are all members of the Army Group Command, this is..."

After introducing Trofimenko and others, Sokov said politely: "Comrade adjutant, please introduce the members of the condolence team to us."

The adjutant nodded upon hearing what Sokov said, and then enthusiastically introduced the members of the condolence team to everyone.

After all the procedures were completed, a middle-aged man with round eyes in the condolence group asked: "Comrade commander, can any of you tell us what happened to the loud noise outside just now?"

Although Sokov couldn't remember the man's name, he remembered that he was an astronomer, and explained to him with a smile: "The situation is like this, comrade astronomer. The Germans sent an astronomer to the city. Ace sniper, tried to snipe and kill important targets including you in the destroyed attic on the day of your visit. If I don't fire first, some of us will pay the price in blood. "

However, astronomers questioned Sokov's statement: "Comrade General, we have been to many enemies, and this is the first time we have heard about snipers. Did you get the wrong news and make a decision?" the wrong decision making?"

"Comrade Chief of Staff," Sokov said to Smirnov, who was sitting beside him, "please stand up and let the comrades of the advisory group take a look."

Smirnov stood up, and everyone in the consolation team was surprised to see that one arm was hanging on his chest in a sling. The astronomer asked curiously: "Comrade commander, can you tell me how you were injured?"

Smirnov laughed dryly and said, "I was outside the gate a few days ago and was hit by a bullet from a German sniper. If the old man hadn't shot and wounded the sniper, causing her bullet to shift, I'm afraid I'm already lying on the cold ground right now."

"Who is the old man?" the astronomer asked curiously.

"Me!" The old man raised one hand, stood up and said to the people in the condolence group: "I am already old. After I arrived in this army, the comrade commander called me old man. As a result, soon the whole army, Follow him and call me old man." After speaking, he laughed.

The old man's words caused laughter in the room.

After the laughter stopped, the astronomer continued to ask: "Comrade General, so the German snipers should have caught it, so why are you bombarding that position today?"

The astronomer's question is exactly what everyone wants to know the answer to, so everyone's eyes are on Sokov, waiting for him to give the final answer.

"Comrades," Sokov said to the crowd, "when we captured the sniper who wounded General Smirnov, we thought we had wiped out the enemies in the city. But soon, I realized something was wrong. The intelligence provided to us by the captured sniper is half-truth, and if we don’t pay attention to some details, we will be easily deceived by her. Then we re-investigated and found that there should be a higher-level ace sniper in the city The hand exists."

"Comrade General," the astronomer said again, "Even if there is an ace sniper from the German army, you can kill him with a sniper. Why use bombardment? Aren't you afraid of accidentally injuring civilians?"

"Comrade Astronomer, let me explain to you one by one for your questions." Sokov said: "Since he is an ace sniper, his observation and judgment must be better than ordinary people. In this regard, The old man can prove that, after all, he is also an excellent sniper."

Hearing that the old man is an excellent sniper, many people in the condolence group showed surprised expressions on their faces. A meteorologist asked the old man in surprise: "Morozov, I really didn't expect that you can become an excellent sniper at such an age. This is simply unbelievable."

The old man smiled lightly and said: "Being a sniper requires talent, and I just have this talent, so the day I joined the army, I started trying to be a sniper. Unexpectedly, after a period of training, I He really became a good sniper."

"Don't interrupt." The astronomer interrupted the meteorologist who was about to continue asking questions, looked at Sokov and said, "Comrade General, please continue, why do you think of using artillery fire to destroy the enemy's snipers."

"As I said just now, an excellent sniper has better observation and judgment than ordinary people. And an ace sniper, not only these two points are better than ordinary people, but he can even rely on his sixth sense, and accurately judge the dangers that may exist nearby.” Sokov continued to explain: “If I follow the conventional deployment and arrange a few snipers near the position where he is going to snipe, I am afraid he has not yet entered the sniper position. , we can find the position of our sniper, and then he will re-select the sniper position, and it will become more difficult for us to prevent him.

It was my whim to bombard him with artillery fire. I think he can detect dangers 300 meters, 400 meters, or even 500 meters away, but he certainly cannot detect threats 800 meters or even 1,000 meters away. That's why I decided to bombard his hiding place with artillery to solve this problem once and for all.

Comrade astronomers, you don't have to worry about the accidental injury of civilians that you are worried about. There are no residents in that building. Even though there were several households in the past, as we established the headquarters here, they all moved to other places in order to avoid some unnecessary troubles. "

"In order to avoid some unnecessary troubles?" This astronomer is obviously a natural savvy, obviously Suokov has made it very clear, but he still wants to continue to ask: "Comrade General, can you tell me, What's the trouble?"

"It's very simple, Comrade Astronomer." Although Sukov was full of dissatisfaction with the astronomer, he still tried to say with a smile in front of everyone: "The headquarters has always been the target of the enemy's attack. In addition to sending people to infiltrate and destroy, and even use artillery bombardment or plane bombing, residents with a little military knowledge will choose to move their homes away from the headquarters."

"Then tell me, how do you know when it's time to fire?"

The astronomer's question aroused great interest from Sameko. He also wanted to know that Sokov didn't send out the signal in time at all. How did the artillery in the distance know when to fire, so he couldn't help urging: "That's right, Comrade Commander, how can the artillery deployed far away know when to fire?"

"Comrade Chief of Staff," Sokov turned to Sameko and said, "Since the artillery is deployed in the distance, there must be artillery observers. They will provide the artillery with the necessary shooting parameters. And I sent Lyudmila In the past, she assisted the artillery observers, and when to fire the artillery, it was completely up to her to decide."

After Sokov explained this, Sameko immediately understood what was going on, nodded, and said casually: "So that's the case, I understand, Comrade Commander, your arrangement is really great."

Although Lyudmila has repeatedly appeared in various newspapers because of her sniper record. But in the condolence group, there are still people who don't listen to things outside the window and only read sage books. For example, the mathematicians among them are such people. He asked his companions puzzledly: "Who is Lyudmila? Is she famous?"

"Yes, yes," fortunately his companion knew Lyudmila, nodded vigorously, and replied: "She is a young sniper from Ukraine. After the war broke out, she joined the army and became a The sniper killed 309 German soldiers within half a year, and was awarded the honorary title of Hero of the Soviet Union and the Gold Star Medal."

"What an amazing girl," said the mathematician in surprise. "It's amazing that she can kill so many enemies within half a year."

Probably because he was worried that the astronomer would argue with Sokov again, the old man said with emotion: "The arrangement of Comrade Commander is correct. An excellent sniper will serve as the assistant of the artillery observer. She can follow the actions of the enemy sniper." , to judge whether the enemy will shoot, and to accurately calculate the timing of the shelling."

"The old man is right," Sameko interjected: "Facts have proved that Comrade Commander's arrangement is completely correct. First, he arranged for the artillery to set up an ambush in the distance to disarm the enemy's ace snipers; Lyudmila, one of the best snipers, came to direct the artillery to fire."

Unexpectedly, as soon as Sameko said this, the astronomer started to argue again. He said to Sokov: "Comrade General, as far as I know, Lyudmila is the greatest sniper in our army. Why? Is there anyone else who can compare to her?"

Sokov smiled lightly, and replied: "In other units, I really can't find a better commander than Lyudmila. But in my unit, there are two other commanders whose level is almost the same as Lyudmila's." Individuals, one of them is the old man."

The astronomer heard that there was an old man among the snipers who were on the same level as Lyudmila. He was stunned for a moment, and then continued to ask: "Then who is the other person?"

"Vassily Zaitsev!" Sokov said proudly: "He is also an excellent sniper, and now he, Lyudmila, and the old man are our sniper instructors."

"It turned out to be Vasily Zaitsev!" The astronomer did not raise an argument this time, but asked respectfully: "It was the man who stayed in the Vasily Building for more than a month during the Battle of Stalingrad." The Vasily from here?"

As soon as the astronomer mentioned the Vasily Building, Sokov couldn't help but blushed slightly. The originally famous "Pavlov Building" became the "Vassily Building" because of his appearance. But he quickly calmed down, nodded, and said in a positive tone: "That's right, it's him."

"Where is Vasily?" The astronomer's attitude became more humble: "Can I see him?"

"He's on a mission outside, and I'll let him meet you when the mission is over."

Seeing that Sokov agreed to meet with Vasily, the astronomer quickly took Sokov's hand, nodded and said, "Thank you, Comrade General, thank you so much."

Seeing the other party's expression, Sokov felt quite strange. He secretly said that Vasily was just a sniper who killed a few more Germans. Is it worthy of your admiration for him?

At this time, Koshkin walked in from the outside, holding something wrapped in cloth in his hand. When he came to Sokov, he raised his hand and saluted and said, "Comrade Commander, I'm back!"

"How's the situation? Have you found the German sniper?"

"Yes, we have found it." Koshkin nodded and said, "But when we found him, he had been blown into two pieces, and his head was smashed to pieces by falling bricks. His real face."

He put the cloth bag in his hand on the table, opened it slowly, and said, "This is his sniper rifle. It has been blown into pieces by shells. I managed to collect them all."

As soon as the cloth bag was opened, Sokov saw that the sniper rifle inside had been broken into several pieces just as Koshkin said. Some parts even became spare parts. After seeing the broken gun, Sokov looked up at Koshkin and asked, "Comrade Captain, are you sure that the deceased is the sniper we are looking for?"

"It's absolutely certain," Koshkin nodded and said, "The person who examined the corpse with me was Vasily. He carefully observed the deceased's right hand, shoulder and other parts before he came to such a conclusion. He was very sure. Tell me, the deceased must be the ace sniper we guessed, and there is absolutely no falsehood."

Now that Vasily has endorsed this matter, Sokov's heart is naturally at ease, and he told Koshkin: "Comrade Captain, you go and call Vasily and Lyudmila here, and I want to tell them in public. Thank you both!"