Red Moscow

Sokov waited in the command post for almost two hours before he saw Ponejielin walk in from outside. He hurriedly stood up to greet him, and said, "Comrade Deputy Commander, you are back!"

Seeing Sokov appearing in the headquarters, Ponejielin also showed a surprised expression on his face: "Comrade Commander, when did you come back?"

"I've been back for a few hours." After Sokov gave a short answer, he asked bluntly, "I heard that Colonel Kirillov's search team found something good?"

"Yes, Comrade Commander, it is indeed a good thing."

What Ponegerin said aroused Sidolin's curiosity, and he couldn't wait to ask: "Comrade Deputy Commander, what is it? Is it another batch of gold?"

"Comrade Chief of Staff, although it is not gold, it is more precious than gold."

This time, Sokov couldn't hold back anymore: "Comrade Chief of Staff, tell me quickly, what exactly is it?"

"Comrade Commander, I didn't expect you to be so restless." Ponejielin said with a smile: "What Colonel Kirillov found was jewelry, more than a dozen boxes of jewelry."

"Jewelry?!" Sokov said a little puzzled after hearing this, "How can there be more than a dozen boxes of jewelry found in this kind of place?"

"Comrade Commander, I know." As soon as Sukov's words fell, Sidolin rushed to say: "It must have been buried here by the tsar nobles, and they will be taken out when the time is right."

"Comrade Chief of Staff, your words are only half correct." Pornejelin said: "Most of these jewels were left by the tsarist nobles, but they were not buried by them."

"Okay, Comrade Deputy Commander, don't keep going around in circles, tell us quickly, what's going on." Sukov deliberately pushed Sidolin out as a shield: "You didn't see the chief of staff and you were in a hurry." What's it like?"

"Okay, then I'll tell you about it." Seeing that both of them wanted to know the origin of the jewelry, Ponegerin was about to say something, but seeing Colonel Belkin sitting beside him, he couldn't help but wonder Question: "Comrade Commander, who is this Colonel?"

Hearing Ponejielin's question, Sokov realized that the other party saw a stranger here and was unwilling to reveal this important secret easily, so he introduced to him: "Comrade Deputy Commander, let me introduce you , This is Colonel Belkin, he used to be my partner when I was the battalion commander. Now he has been transferred to the Armament Department to take over the post of General Yakov."

"Hello, Colonel Belgin." After listening to Sokov's introduction, Ponegerin held out his hand to Belkin and said friendlyly, "Welcome to our place."

"Comrade Deputy Commander, you should talk about the jewelry first." Sidolin urged.

"When the Soviet was first established, our country was in great difficulty because of the blockade of foreign hostile forces. At this time, Comrade Lenin issued a decree asking people to donate gold, silver and jewelry at home." Ponejielin said: "At that time, I Although I am just in my early twenties, I also participate in the work of accepting jewelry donations from citizens.”

Hearing this, Belkin couldn't help interjecting: "Comrade Deputy Commander is right, I also worked in the same job for a while."

"Belkin, don't interrupt yet, let the deputy commander continue." Sokov stopped Belkin from continuing, and then urged Ponejielin: "Hurry up and continue."

"After these donated jewels are collected, the Soviet will send special personnel to send them abroad for auction." Ponejielin went on to say: "The funds obtained from the auction are used to support the construction of the country. I estimate that the batch discovered today The jewels were sent abroad for auction back then, and the escorts may have had some accidents on the way, so they hid the jewels. It was not until today that they were able to see the light of day."

"Comrade Deputy Commander, what you said is very reasonable." Since gold can sink into the swamp during the escort, why can't the jewelry be hidden by the escort during transportation? Therefore, Sokov agreed with Ponegerin's guess: "Maybe the escort encountered an accident on the way, and they had no choice but to hide this batch of jewels and prepare to wait for the appropriate time. to pick up things."

Sidolin asked curiously: "Since this is the case, why didn't they take it later?"

"There is only one possibility, that is, after the escorts hid the jewels, they were all killed by the attackers." Sokov said casually, "All the parties are dead, and the whereabouts of these jewels will naturally become unknown."

"So that's the case." After listening to Sokov, Sidolin agreed with his speculation: "I think Comrade Commander's analysis is very reasonable."

However, Belkin raised a new question: "I think there is another possibility, that is, these jewels are hidden by the Russian nobles, and they are going to dig them out when they come back with the foreign intervention army. Who knows that something unexpected happened in the end. , none of their family members survived, so this batch of jewels has completely lost their whereabouts?"

"Colonel Belgin, your guess is unfounded." Pornegerin took out a discolored envelope from his briefcase and handed it to Sokov: "This is what I found in one of the boxes. The passport issued by Cheka."

Sokov took the envelope, opened it, and found a pass inside. It may be because of the age and the long time buried in the ground that many words on the pass have become blurred, but Sokov can still Understanding the content written above is to prove that these valuables are carried to foreign countries to perform special tasks, and let the checkpoints along the way be released.

After reading the pass, Sokov had a general understanding of the origin of the jewels. He stuffed the pass back into the envelope, looked at Ponejelin and asked, "Comrade Deputy Commander, what do you think the jewels should be?" How to deal with it?"

"Does it need to be said, it is naturally handed over to the country." Pornejelin replied without hesitation: "We are still fighting now, and our country is in a difficult period. Relieve stress."

"Okay, then hand over these jewels." Sokov felt that if he really wanted to hand over the jewels, it would be a rare opportunity for Kirillov, and maybe he would be able to return to his post, so he He took the initiative to say: "I think, let's send Colonel Kirillov to escort these jewels back to Moscow."

"I agree!" Ponegerin was naturally the first to agree with Sokov's proposal.

And Sidolin hesitated for a moment, then nodded and said, "I have no objection."

Seeing that an agreement was reached, Sokov made the final decision: "Since there is no objection, then send Colonel Kirillov to escort the jewels to Moscow as soon as possible."

"Comrade Commander, this matter is of great importance. Do you think it is necessary to inform Comrade General?"

Regarding Sidolin's proposal, Sokov agreed very much: "Yes, Comrade Chief of Staff, this matter is of great importance. If you don't greet the Front Army Command and send Colonel Kirillov directly to Moscow, I'm afraid it will make people If Comrade General has any bad thoughts, I will call him later."

But before making the phone call, Sokov wanted to see what a dozen boxes of jewelry looked like with his own eyes, so he tentatively asked Ponejielin: "Comrade Deputy Commander, where are those jewelry? I want to see."

"It's in a building not far away," Ponegerin said cheerfully, "If you want to see it, I can take you there to have a look."

Ten minutes later, the group arrived at a nearby church.

The outside of the church was heavily guarded. In addition to the presence of more than a dozen soldiers standing guard at the entrance and the sandbag fortifications, there were guards at three steps and one sentry at five steps around the church. In addition, there were patrols walking back and forth non-stop.

Seeing this situation, Sokov couldn't help smiling and said to Sidolin beside him: "Chief of Staff, look, the security here is tighter than that of the headquarters. People who don't know the inside story may think that this is my place." headquarters."

After getting the notification, Kirillov hurried out of the church and saluted Sokov and others.

After returning the salute, Sokov asked, "Where is the thing?"

"It's in the church." Kirillov turned sideways and made a gesture of invitation: "Comrade commander, please!"

When he came to the church, Sokov saw more than a dozen boxes the size of microwave ovens on the long altar table, and his pupils could not help constricting violently. He turned around and asked Kirillov next to him: "Colonel Kirillov, don't you?" Will you tell me, are those little wooden boxes full of jewels?"

"That's right, Comrade Commander." But Kirillov obviously misunderstood Sokov, he nodded, and then replied in an affirmative tone: "The jewels are all in the box, and we didn't take even a single piece out of it." piece of jewelry."

Sokov realized that the other party had misunderstood what he meant, but instead of explaining, he walked to the table and stared at the jewelry box on the table in a daze. He thought to himself that he was poisoned by domestic film and television dramas. He thought that the jewelry boxes were all big boxes half the height of a person. He probably used the big boxes specially to enhance the audience's visual effect. The real jewelry The case is as compact as it should be.

Kirillov stepped forward to open the jewelry box, and Sokov immediately felt a smell of earth rushing towards him. The box is full of jewelry such as necklaces and rings, which may have temporarily lost their original luster after being buried in the soil for too long.

"Colonel Kirillov," Sokov didn't have much interest in these jewels, he glanced at them casually, then raised his head and said to Kirillov: "This batch of jewels is very important, I plan to send someone to To Moscow. Would you like to take responsibility for the delivery?"

Kirillov couldn't hear the meaning behind Sokov's words. He nodded hurriedly and said emotionally, "Comrade Commander, I resolutely obey your order and personally escort this batch of jewels to Moscow."

"Then make preparations and send a few capable subordinates to accompany you." Sokov said, "I will send someone to notify you after I have arranged everything."

Back at the headquarters, Sokov felt that the matter could not be delayed, so he immediately called Rokossovsky, "Comrade General, I have something important to report to you."

When Rokossovsky heard it, important things, you just returned from the front army headquarters, what important things can you have? But he still said politely: "Misha, if there is something important, just talk about it."

"Comrade general, the situation is like this. Not long ago, I sent Colonel Kirillov to form a search team to search in the defense zone to see if we found our army warehouse before the war." Sokov said into the microphone : "In their search, although they did not find the military warehouse, they unexpectedly found a batch of special things."

"Misha, how could there be our army's military depots in your defense zone?" Rokossovsky said with a smile, "Even if you manage to build one or two military depots in such a humid area, it won't take long. , the materials inside will be moldy and rusty, so no one will ever choose a location near the swamp to build a warehouse.”

After pausing for a moment, he suddenly realized that Sokov called himself, and the focus seemed to be not on the warehouse, but on finding something special, so he hurriedly asked, "You just said, what special thing did you find?"

"Jewels, Comrade General." Sokov said, "Twelve boxes full of jewels."

"Jewels?!" Rokossovsky was taken aback, and asked in confusion, "What the hell, where did these jewels come from?"

"Comrade General, after careful inspection by the deputy commander, I found in the jewelry box a passport issued more than 20 years ago, which was issued by the Cheka at that time." Sokov explained: "Obviously, this batch Jewelry is ready to be sent abroad for auction.”

"Jewels sent abroad for auction?" Rokossovsky hesitated for a while, then suddenly remembered the old events more than 20 years ago, and suddenly realized: "I remembered that in the early 1920s, the state organized citizens to donate The gold, silver and jewels were collected and sent abroad for auction, and the funds obtained were used to build the motherland. In other words, the jewels you found were part of the jewels that were going to be auctioned back then."

"That's right, Comrade General." Sokov nodded and said affirmatively: "From all indications, the jewels we discovered were intended to be sent abroad for auction that year. The escort may have encountered some kind of attack on the way." , In order not to let this batch of jewels fall into the hands of the enemy, they buried the jewels on the spot."

"Misha, what are you going to do with these jewels?"

"I am going to ask Colonel Kirillov to send this batch of jewels to Moscow." Sokov replied, "Considering the importance of the situation at this time, I think it is necessary to report to you first."

"Have you contacted Moscow?"

"Not yet, Comrade General." Sukov knew very well in his heart that the most taboo thing for superiors is that subordinates step over themselves and do something by leapfrogging, so he took the initiative to say: "Before I report to you, how could I do things on my own initiative?" claims."

Sokov's answer made Rokossovsky very satisfied. He nodded and said, "Misha, you ask Colonel Kirillov to bring the things to the Front Army Headquarters, and I will personally send someone to deliver them. He flew back to Moscow."

"Okay, Comrade General, I will arrange for Colonel Kirilov to go to your headquarters as soon as possible." After Sokov finished speaking, he asked tentatively: "I also want to ask, this time the jewelry is Kirilov Colonel Love discovered it, and he escorted it back to Moscow, so I wonder what reward the superior will give him?"

As soon as Rokossovsky heard it, he guessed what was on Sokov's mind, and said with a smile: "Misha, you don't have to worry about this kind of thing. I can tell you this, Colonel Kirillov will definitely Get the corresponding rewards."