Red Moscow

Although he knew that these Yugoslav soldiers were sent by the headquarters, Kirillov was still full of displeasure. After he glanced at the other side lined up neatly in front, he lowered his voice and said, "Comrade Deputy Commander, I think you should hand them over to other troops. I don't need them here."

"Comrade Kirillov." Seeing that Kirillov refused to enter, Ponegerin's face suddenly changed: "Are you going to disobey the orders of your superiors?"

It stands to reason that Kirilov and Ponejielin are life and death friends, such words can't threaten him at all. But it is precisely because of his experience in a prisoner-of-war camp that Kirillov has become cautious now. He could not help shivering when he heard Pornegerin questioning whether he wanted to disobey the order.

Seeing that Kirillov was silent, Ponedelin raised his hand and patted him on the shoulder twice, explaining in a low voice: "Kirilov, don't look at them staring at the title of the guerrillas, but It is the regular army of Yugoslavia. According to Chief of Staff Bogolyubov, many of these people participated in the Battle of Sutjeska and made great achievements. They are a group of veterans with rich combat experience. Even if they are assigned to your division, if they are organized Entering the grassroots combat force can also become the backbone of the army in a very short period of time. To be honest, you have earned it."

Hearing what Ponegelin said, Kirillov immediately felt more balanced, but he still asked with a lot of concerns: "How should I use them?"

"Before coming here, Comrade Commander and I have studied it." Ponejelin said: "After these commanders and fighters are incorporated into your troops, they cannot be dismantled. If you want to do some reconnaissance in the enemy's rear, remember to choose from among them. Take a few people there, after all, they have fought guerrilla warfare for many years and know how to operate behind enemy lines."

"Okay." Kirillov reluctantly agreed to keep the troops, but he still vaccinated Ponedelin: "If their performance doesn't satisfy me, then we can only let them go. "

"No problem." After Pornegerin finished speaking, he beckoned Velimir over and introduced him: "Comrade Captain, this is Major General Kirillov, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division. From now on, You and your men are under his command."

"Yes, Comrade General." Velimir replied loudly, then turned to salute Kirillov, and said respectfully: "Hello, Comrade Commander, I am Captain Velimir, and my subordinates and I would like to accept you." Commander, please give your order."

"Hello, Captain Velimir." Kirillov raised his hand in return, and then said: "I will arrange for you to rest first, and I will assign you tasks another day."

"Mr. Commander, thank you for your kindness." But Velimir rejected Kirillov's kindness: "We have rested for a long enough time, and we don't need to rest anymore. You can assign tasks to us now." .”

Kirillov pouted at the team not far away, and asked, "Comrade Captain, can all your subordinates understand Russian?"

"Naturally, Comrade Commander." Velimir replied: "Knowing Russian was a basic requirement when selecting personnel."

"Knowing Russian is good, at least when communicating with our soldiers, there will be no language barriers." Since there are people who understand Russian among the group of people who came, it will be much easier to communicate with them. Then Kirillov began to assign tasks: "Comrade Captain, I am preparing to send a reconnaissance team to go deep into the enemy's rear for reconnaissance. Do you have any suitable candidates that you can recommend to me?"

Velimir misunderstood what Kirillov meant, and quickly explained to him: "Comrade commander, my people have just arrived here and are not familiar with the surrounding environment. I think it is inappropriate to send them out to perform reconnaissance missions." .”

After listening to the other party, Kirilov turned his head and looked at Ponejielin next to him. Just in time, Bonegelin also turned his head to look over. The two looked at each other, and then laughed out loud, making Velimir laugh so hard that Monk Zhang Er couldn't figure it out, and looked at the two in a daze.

"Comrade Captain," Ponedelin said to Velimir after laughing, "I think you have misunderstood Kirillov. He didn't ask you to send someone alone to carry out reconnaissance missions, but to send a powerful to join the reconnaissance team he formed. Do you understand now?"

Velimir blushed. He realized that he had misunderstood the meaning of the other party, and quickly replied: "Understood, Comrade General. I will immediately recruit capable people to join this reconnaissance team that goes deep behind the enemy's rear."

"Comrade Captain, when you are selecting personnel, remember to look for those with rich experience, otherwise, mistakes will easily occur when conducting reconnaissance behind enemy lines."

"Comrade General, you can rest assured that I will definitely send the most capable subordinates to participate in this reconnaissance operation with comrades from the friendly army."

Now that the conversation has come to this point, Kirillov called Chief of Staff Miyakov and asked him to incorporate the personnel sent by Velimir into the reconnaissance team that is about to depart. And specifically told the other party: "Chief of staff, you tell the leader of the reconnaissance team to take good care of these comrades from Yugoslavia, and don't let them have any accidents."

Taking advantage of the chief of staff's execution of his order, Kirillov took Ponedellin into the division headquarters next to him, and sat down at a table next to the wall.

After Ponedelin waited for Kirillov to pour himself a glass of water, he asked tentatively, "How do you feel here?"

"I'm fine." Kirillov nodded and replied, "It can be said to be better than ever. After all, I am the division commander, and I have the final say on everything in the division."

"That's good." Ponegerin said, "I'm still worried that you will be excluded by the original division commanders here. It seems that I am worrying too much."

"I'm hurrying up to train the troops recently," Kirillov said, "so that when a new offensive campaign begins, our division will have the opportunity to take on the main offensive mission."

"I studied it with the commander some time ago, and I think it is impossible for us to launch an attack on the enemy before the arrival of the New Year's 45." Ponejelin said: "That is to say, you have a few months to carry out the attack." Rest. But don't waste such a long time. Send more scouting teams to penetrate the enemy's defense zone to find out the deployment of German troops. The better you know the enemy's defense line, the price you will pay when the offensive battle begins in the future will be smaller."

The two chatted for a while, and when Ponegerin was about to get up to leave, he suddenly heard Kirillov saying: "We are attacking East Prussia in the north, while the First Ukrainian Front is launching an offensive in the south. It's getting farther and farther apart."

Hearing that Kirillov suddenly mentioned the Ukrainian First Front Army, Ponegerin couldn't help but feel a little bit in his heart, and then asked tentatively: "Kirilov, why did you suddenly mention Marshal Konev's troops?"

Kirillov looked at Ponedelin and said, "Comrade Deputy Commander, I've been feeling flustered for the past two days, and I kept having nightmares at night."

"What did you dream about?"

"I dreamed that you and I, as well as Muzichenko, were subjected to inhuman torture in a German prisoner-of-war camp." Kirillov said bitterly: "The Germans even sent Muzichenko to prison. gas chamber."

"Kirilov, the experience in the prisoner-of-war camp was a nightmare for us." Ponejielin said with a sigh: "But now everything is fine, we have regained our freedom , and returned to the army, which means that we have the ability to pay back the blood debt to the Germans."

"I haven't contacted Muzichenko for a long time." Kirillov said: "I don't know how he is doing now."

Hearing that Kirillov mentioned Muzychenko, Ponedelin's scalp couldn't help but tingle. He didn't know whether he should tell Kirillov truthfully the news of Muzichenko's sacrifice. After all, the three of them Back then in the German prisoner-of-war camp, it was considered life and death.

I just heard Kirillov continue: "It's strange to say that Muzichenko didn't think of calling me for so long in the 48th Army. What's more, I wrote seven or eight letters to him. letter, but he didn’t reply to me at all. I don’t know if he has forgotten our friends who have been in trouble together.”

Ponegerin didn't say anything, but just listened silently to what Kirillov said.

After talking for a while, Kirilov found his old friend Ponejielin, but kept silent all the time, feeling a little strange in his heart. You know, since the two of us came to the 48th Army, every time we talked about Muzichenko, there were countless topics to talk about, but today the other party seemed to be a different person and became silent.

With doubts in his heart, Kirilov looked at Ponejielin and asked, "Comrade Deputy Commander, do you have any concerns?"

"No, no, I don't have anything on my mind." Pornegerin said hastily concealed, "I just listened to you and listened intently."

"No, you are definitely not listening intently, but you have something on your mind." Kirillov said: "We knew each other long before the war, and we spent such a long time together in the prisoner-of-war camp. Deep. He hasn't replied to me for such a long time, which makes me very worried, worried that something might happen to him, although at his level, the chance of accident is not very high, but I'm not afraid of 10,000, just in case..."

Hearing Kirillov chattering on and on, Ponejielin finally couldn't help it: "Enough, stop talking!"

It may be that Ponegerin's voice was too loud, which alarmed the staff officers working nearby. They all stopped their work at the same time and cast surprised glances at Ponegerin.

"Go on with your work." Bornejelin waved at the staff officers, "I'm talking to your division commander about something."

When the staff officers bowed their heads to work again, Ponedelin said to Kirillov in a solemn tone: "Kirilov, I want to tell you some bad news. I hope you can make mental preparations in advance."

Kirillov raised his eyebrows, and then asked tentatively, "Did something really happen to Muzychenko?"

Ponegerin sighed softly and said, "Yes."

"Is he injured?!" Kirillov asked tentatively.

"He sacrificed!"

"What, sacrificed?!" Kirillov stood up abruptly when he heard the bad news, and asked Ponejielin, "What's going on here? How did he sacrifice himself?"

Pornegelin did not immediately answer the question, but instead asked: "Do you remember how your predecessor died?"

"My predecessor?!" Kirillov was at a loss when he heard what Ponejielin said, but soon understood what the other party meant: "You mean the former commander of the 3rd Division?"

"That's right, I mean him."

"During the battle to seize the Triangle, he led the division to move forward. Unfortunately, he was concentrated by German artillery fire and died heroically." Kirillov asked tentatively after briefly talking about the process of his predecessor's sacrifice. : "Did Muzichenko die in the same way?"

Ponedelin nodded and said: "Two days ago, the commander called Smirnov, chief of staff of the 53rd Army, and asked about Muzichenko. Who knew that the other party told the commander that he was In the battle to capture Lviv, many of the German fortifications were not destroyed due to inadequate artillery preparations, and Muzichenko was suddenly attacked when he passed these German fortifications as he led the division forward. .Although they fought tenaciously, most of the commanders and fighters died in the battle, and Muzichenko was one of them."

Kirillov's eyes were red. He raised his hand to wipe away the tears that came out of his eyes, and asked with a choked voice, "Where is his body buried? I want to visit him on his grave after the war is over."

"I don't know the exact location." Ponegelin said, "But don't worry, once the war is over, I will go with you to pay homage to him. After all, we are friends who have lived and died."

"By the way, there is one more thing. I am considering whether I should report to the commander."

"whats the matter?"

"I sent a reconnaissance team some time ago to go deep into the enemy's rear for reconnaissance." Kirillov said: "In the reconnaissance report I received, the scouts found a prisoner-of-war camp in which more than two thousand people were detained. Army commanders."

When Ponegelin heard this, he immediately became interested: "I found a prisoner-of-war camp with more than 2,000 commanders? I don't know when these commanders were captured?"

Kirillov knew that Ponedelin's purpose in asking this question was to find out if the prisoner-of-war camp was liberated, could these captured commanders and fighters be directly incorporated into the army. He shook his head slowly and said: "Comrade Deputy Commander, I think I will disappoint you. These commanders and fighters were not captured when our army liberated Belarus, nor were they captured after our army entered Poland. Captured by the Germans during the Battle of Kiev in September 1941."

"What, captured in the Battle of Kiev?" You know, the Battle of Kiev is known as the largest annihilation battle in human military history. The Soviet army lost 700,000 people, and more than 600,000 people were captured. However, Ponegerin still raised his own question: "Since he was captured in the Battle of Kiev, why was he imprisoned by the Germans in East Prussia?"

"I think the Germans might want to use these prisoners to help them with some work, so they sent a group of prisoners to East Prussia." Kirillov analyzed to Ponejielin: "I think they were sent There may be tens of thousands of prisoners of war who came here, and most of them died for various reasons during the labor process, and there are only a few people left."

"Your analysis is very reasonable." Ponegerin agreed with Kirillov's guess: "Many of our captured commanders died in the camps because of starvation, disease and overwork. I think the prisoner-of-war camp discovered by the scouts should be the survivors of those captured in those days."