Red Moscow

Rednikova asked curiously: "Comrade General, I would like to ask you a question."

"Excuse me, Comrade Lieutenant."

"The Germans who pretended to be dead, after being shelled by our army, why didn't they take the opportunity to charge, but ran towards their positions?"

Hearing Rednikova's question, Sokov smiled slightly, then turned around and said to everyone: "You are all people who have been on the battlefield, who will tell Second Lieutenant Rednikova what is going on?"

Although everyone present understood what was going on, they still left the opportunity for explanation to Koshkin. After all, he was from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and he would not have any scruples when speaking: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, let me explain to you. If the enemies pretending to be dead are discovered by us, if they rush towards our position, because they are not covered by firepower, their action is tantamount to death. Our soldiers can wipe them all out with a single volley. On the contrary, after they were exposed, they turned around and ran to their own defense zone. Although there were still casualties, some people managed to escape back alive."

"Comrade Second Lieutenant," Sokov looked at Rednikova and asked, "I think this is your first time on the battlefield?"

"Yes, Comrade General." Rednikova replied truthfully: "I also had the opportunity to come to the front because of this mission. How did you know?"

"The reason is very simple." Sokov said: "It is basic common sense to pretend that the dead body has been spotted, which direction to run, and you don't even know this, so I think you should have never been to the front line."

Rednikova nodded, and said embarrassedly: "Comrade General, I used to work in logistics, and I don't know much about things on the battlefield. This time I came to the front line, I really gained a lot of knowledge. .”

Hearing what Rednikova said, Sokov couldn't help muttering to himself: "No, if I hadn't happened to pass by, all of you would have lost your life."

Lunev felt that he had seen everything he needed to see, and there was no point in staying here any longer, so he asked Sokov, "Misha, where are we going next?"

"Let's go to the 120th Guards Division and meet General Nikitin." Sokov said, "I want to know what his next plans are."

However, before leaving the defense zone of the infantry brigade, Sokov specifically told Sukharev: "Major, your brigade is responsible for protecting the right wing of the army group. Don't let your guard down, lest you be caught off guard by the Germans."

"Don't worry, Comrade Commander." Sukharev saw the enemies disguised in the corpses with his own eyes, and after Sukov saw through them at a glance, his heart was full of guilt. If there was no timely arrival of Sokov, these German soldiers would touch their own positions, which might endanger the safety of the defense line. Therefore, he stated to Sokov: "We will increase our vigilance to prevent similar incidents from happening again."

When Sokov drove to the defense line of the 120th Guards Division, he thought of those enemies who pretended to be his subordinates and sneaked into the West Bank, so he asked Koshkin who was sitting in the co-pilot seat: "Koshkin, what's the matter?" The latest news?" After finishing speaking, he realized that what he said was not clear enough, and quickly added, "About the five Germans who pretended to be our army."

Koshkin was also confused at first, not knowing what Sokov wanted to ask himself. After hearing Sokov talk about the five Germans disguised as Soviet soldiers, he quickly replied: "No, Comrade Commander. I haven't received any reports so far."

"Misha, don't worry." Seeing Sokov's worried expression, Lunev comforted him and said, "Just five Germans, even if they wreak havoc within our defense zone, I'm afraid they won't cause much harm. , don’t worry about it.”

"Well, Comrade Military Commissar, you're right." Sokov agreed with Lunev's statement: "No matter what purpose the enemy came with, there were only five of them, and they couldn't beat the enemy at all. What a big wave."

When he came to the headquarters of the 120th Guards Division and saw Nikitin, Sokov stepped forward to hold his hand and said with a smile: "General Nikitin, your division did not fight much, and the results achieved It has far exceeded my expectations. In recognition of your achievements, I will ask my superiors to award you the Order of the Red Banner."

When Sokov said that his superiors were going to award the 120th Guards Division the Red Banner Medal, Nikitin immediately became excited. If he really got the search, then when calling the unit's number, he would say "those who have won the Red Banner Medal" so-and-so teacher". He grinned and said, "Comrade Commander, it would be even better if Berlin could be added to our division's designation."

According to the tradition of the Soviet army, it is the highest honor to include the place name in the unit's designation. No division commander wants his unit to receive such an honor, even Nikitin is no exception.

"I'm sorry, General Nikitin." Hearing Nikitin's request, Sokov smiled bitterly and said, "Don't say you can't get this honorary title, even our entire Belarusian Second Front Army doesn't have a single unit." deserve such a title.”

"Why?" Nikitin asked in bewilderment.

Sokov asked with some surprise: "Didn't the chief of staff call you yesterday?"

After hearing this, Nikitin asked blankly, "I wasn't at the headquarters yesterday. I was in command of the 339th regiment. Is there anything important?"

"General Nikitin, if you were at the division headquarters at that time, you should have heard the important announcement from Chief of Staff Sidolin." Sokov said with a serious expression: "Marshal Zhukov's Belarusian First Front and Kogne The troops of the Ukrainian First Front Army of Field Marshal Husband have already reached the outskirts of Berlin. If nothing else, their vanguard troops have already rushed into Berlin at this moment."

Hearing what Sokov said, Nikitin showed a shocked expression on his face: "What, all friendly troops have entered Berlin? What about us? Do we still have a chance to enter Berlin?"

Sokov was unwilling to give the other party illusory hopes, so he said truthfully: "No, Comrade General, I can tell you responsibly that we have no chance to enter Berlin. It cannot be said that there is no chance at all. When our army liberates Berlin , When a grand military parade is held in the city, one or two troops may be drawn from our army group to participate, and then qualified troops will be able to enter Berlin smoothly."

After Nikitin heard this, his face turned livid. He commanded the troops to push forward with difficulty, just to reach Berlin earlier. After all, his frontier was only less than 50 kilometers away from Berlin. If it goes well, it will take at most two days to reach the outskirts of Berlin. Unexpectedly, Sokov told himself that the troops of the friendly army had already reached the outskirts of Berlin, and even entered the city of Berlin at this moment, so how could he not be discouraged.

"General Nikitin," Sokov sighed softly, and continued, "The task of our army group is to continue to advance westward, rush to the Elbe River northwest of Berlin, and join forces with the oncoming Allied forces."

"Joining forces with the Allied forces?" But Nikitin did not show much interest after hearing this: "When we launched an attack on Berlin, the Allied forces were only 60 kilometers away from Berlin, while our army was hundreds of kilometers away. Now our friendly forces have reached the outskirts of Berlin, and even entered the city of Berlin, while the Allied forces are still in their original positions. Let us fight the Germans desperately, while they watch the fun, and when we eliminate the Germans, they will continue Come here to pick up ready-made, the abacus is really too good."

"After careful calculation by the Allied forces, if they want to attack Berlin, the number of casualties will not be less than 100,000." Sokov said to Nikitin: "Such casualties are unacceptable to them. To reduce their own casualties, they deliberately stayed in the existing area and did not take any military action against the German army, just watching us and the Germans desperately."

"If the casualties of our army are too heavy, what good will it do for the Allied forces?"

"Of course there are benefits." Sokov said with a sneer: "If the casualties of our army are heavy, then after the war, we will not be able to send troops to occupy more areas, and this is exactly what the British and American allies want to see. So they gave us the priority to attack Berlin on the surface, but in fact they wanted the Germans who defended the city to consume a lot of our vitality and lay the foundation for them to gain a firm foothold in the European continent in the future."

"But we are allies." Nikitin asked in bewilderment, "Why do they calculate us like this?"

"General Nikitin, as I just said, the Allied forces did this to prevent post-war Europe from being under our control." Sokov said: "And if our army is in the battle to liberate Berlin If there are huge casualties, then the number of troops deployed in Europe in the future will be greatly reduced, which is more in their interest."

After Sokov finished speaking briefly, he asked Nikitin: "Comrade General, can you contact the Army Group Command on your phone?"

"Of course," Nikitin nodded vigorously, and said in an affirmative tone, "Of course we can get through to the Army Command."

Knowing that the phone here can reach the headquarters of the Army Group, Sokov picked up the phone and called Sidolin. After hearing Sidolin's voice, he said bluntly: "Chief of Staff, I think you already know what happened to us on the road. How is it? Do you have any news about those Germans?"

"Not yet, Comrade Commander." Sidolin replied truthfully: "I haven't received any calls yet, and I guess I haven't found any trace of them yet."

After listening to Sidolin, Sokov couldn't help but frowned and said, "It's strange, how could this happen? Whether they are planning to sabotage in our army's defense zone, or they are planning to sneak back to their defense zone and take a jeep It is the most convenient, how could it suddenly disappear without a trace?"

"Comrade Commander," Sidolin waited for Sokov to finish speaking, and said cautiously: "Could it be that the Germans think that the jeep's target is too big, if they continue to ride, they may be noticed by us, So after they finished crossing the river, they found a hidden place, abandoned the jeep, and marched on foot?"

One word awakened the dreamer, and Sokov ordered the troops on the West Bank to search for five soldiers in a jeep, including a major, a captain, two second lieutenants and a driver. But if the Germans were really like what Sidolin said, in order to prevent the target from being exposed, they would find a place to hide the jeep as soon as they crossed the river, and the soldiers on duty at the checkpoints would definitely not be able to find any suspicious personnel who matched the conditions they proposed .

"Comrade Chief of Staff, what you said is very reasonable." Sokov slapped the table with his hand, and continued: "Maybe they were worried about exposing the target, so after arriving at the West Bank, they decisively abandoned the jeep, and then They left on foot. I think they might even break up into groups of two or three and leave in different directions at the same time."

"Then shall we continue to search for them?" Sidolin asked tentatively, "How about I send a special force to search for them where the enemy disappeared?"

"I don't think it's necessary." Sokov knew very well in his heart that if the German agents really went to the West Bank and mixed with tens of thousands of troops, finding their whereabouts would be tantamount to finding a needle in a haystack. After thinking about this, he gave up his plan to continue the search: "Since we haven't found any traces of the enemy so far, it would be a waste of manpower and material resources to continue the search. If you continue to inform, the original order will be cancelled, what should the commanders and fighters do?" What are you going to do?"

"Okay, Comrade Commander." Sidolin actually had the same idea in his heart. After all, the enemy has infiltrated the area with the largest number of troops. It is almost impossible to find a person among them. Seeing Sokov at this moment Giving up voluntarily, he pushed the boat along and said, "I'll pass on your order immediately."

"Comrade General." When Sokov put down the phone, he followed him in. Rednikova was in a hurry and said loudly to Sokov: "How can we stop the search for German secret agents? You know, we almost died at their hands."

"Second Lieutenant Rednikova," Sokov said earnestly in the face of Rednikova's questioning, "Think about it, these enemies managed to hide from the eyes of your Ministry of Internal Affairs, and even drugged you. They were all lost and took away your weapons and documents, which can prove that they are very shrewd people. After killing the soldiers on duty at the checkpoint, they fled to the West Bank, knowing very well that we will definitely search for them. In order to avoid The target is too big and was captured by our army. They must be broken into pieces at this moment and scattered among the enemies that we can't find. If we continue to search, it is tantamount to wasting time."

Sokov finished speaking so much in one breath, seeing Rednikova's face full of grievances, he explained to her: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, our task is to continue to attack and completely defeat the enemy standing in front of us." , rushed to the Elbe River to join the Allied forces. As for these German agents, even if they want to do something in our defense zone, I am afraid they will not be able to do what they want."

"But if they steal your battle plan and take it back to the German headquarters, won't it have a negative impact on your next attack?"

"Comrade Second Lieutenant." Sokov said confidently: "Even if the German army has obtained our information, with their current strength, there is no way to stop our progress. In my opinion, don't worry about it. .”