Red Moscow

"Misha," after Yakov finished the call, seeing Sokov still staring at him in a daze, he leaned over and called him: "What are you thinking?"

Yakov's voice woke Sokov up from his contemplation. For a while, he didn't know how to answer the other party's question. Fortunately, he quickly returned to normal, pretending to be nonchalant and asked, "Yasha, are you done calling?"

"Yes, the call is over." Yakov gestured to Sokov, "Let's go for a walk outside."

The three of them quickly walked out of the small building and headed towards the small building where the restaurant was located. Sokov walked in the center, Asiya was on his right, holding his arm with both hands; while Yakov walked on Sokov's left with his hands behind his back.

"Yasha," Sokov said, "if your younger brother wants to visit you here, will the superior agree?"

"No problem." Yakov replied straightforwardly, "If the superior is worried about leaking secrets, Vasily can also live here after he comes. Anyway, in such a large nursing home, why not worry about finding a place for him to live. "

"He said he wanted to go fishing, but unfortunately there is no fish pond in the nursing home." Sokov said with a smile: "Otherwise he would be able to find something to do every day."

"If it's fishing, there's a pond right outside the nursing home."

Hearing what Yakov said, Sokov couldn't help asking curiously: "Yasha, how do you know there is a pond outside the nursing home?"

"When I was wandering in the yard yesterday, I saw a pile of red bricks piled up on the wall behind, which should be left over from the renovation of the nursing home, so I stepped on the pile of bricks and looked out of the wall." Yakov said: " There is a large pond in the back, and there are many wild ducks in it. In the front is the mother duck, followed by a group of her children, swimming up and down on the water. "

"Yasha, is what you said true?" Assia asked unexpectedly.

"Of course it's true," Yakov nodded and said, "I saw it with my own eyes."

Asiya was full of curiosity about cute little animals like wild ducks, so she asked: "Yasha, where is the corner of the wall piled with bricks, show us there." After saying this, Asiya asked again He specifically said to Sokov, "Misha, come and watch with me."

Sokov nodded and asked Yakov, "Yasha, where is the place where the bricks are piled up? Anyway, it's not time for dinner yet, so take us there first."

Seeing that the Sokovs and his wife wanted to see the scene outside the wall, Yakov nodded and said, "Let's go, I'll take you to have a look."

Under the leadership of Yakov, the three of them soon came to the location where the bricks were piled up. Sokov saw that the location where the bricks were piled up took up two-thirds of the wall, so it was very convenient to stand on it and watch the scenery outside. He walked over quickly to see where it was safer and quicker to go up, and when Asiya came over, he helped her up the pile of bricks.

Standing on the pile of bricks and looking out, there is indeed a large pond 30 to 40 meters away, surrounded by low trees or bushes. I don’t know whether the pond is connected by a river or has groundwater. , the water quality looks crystal clear. When there was a cry of wild ducks, a group of ducklings followed a mother duck, got out of the bushes, and swam comfortably on the water.

"Misha, look quickly, wild ducks, there are really wild ducks." Seeing the wild ducks swimming on the surface of the pond, Assia exclaimed excitedly: "It's so cute."

Sokov chuckled, and then said: "It's a pity we can't leave the nursing home, otherwise we can stand by the pond and watch the wild ducks swim."

"Yeah," Assia had a frustrated expression on her face after hearing Sokov's words, "I don't know when we'll be able to leave this nursing home."

"Yasha," Sokov asked Yakov curiously when he remembered something, "Will any hunters come here to hunt?"

"There may be, but not too many." Yakov said to Sokov, "Didn't you see the warning signs on the roadside before the car we took drove into the forest?"

"Warning sign?" Sokov's first thought was a warning sign about traffic safety, but he quickly denied his guess. In today's era, how many people own a private car? If it is in the city, there are some warning signs about traffic safety, which makes sense. But this is the outskirts of Moscow. Except for two small towns for dozens of miles, there are no people at all. Putting a few traffic safety warning signs here, what effect can it have? With such doubts, he tentatively asked: "What warning sign?"

"Warning signs for animals!" Seeing that Sokov knew nothing about this matter, Yakov said in surprise: "The foxes, rabbits and deer are painted on the warning signs, which means that in this forest area, there may be There will be these three kinds of animals. Even if hunters want to hunt, they will hunt foxes, rabbits and deer, and no one will hunt wild ducks. At most, they will come here to pick up a few wild duck eggs during the season when wild ducks lay eggs."

When she heard Sokov's question, Assia looked at Yakov nervously, fearing that the other party would say that the hunter was going to hunt wild ducks in the pond. Knowing that hunters at best go to the bushes by the pond to pick up a few duck eggs during the season when wild ducks are laying eggs, the hanging heart is relieved.

Seeing the fish jumping out of the water from time to time with the wild ducks swimming, Sokov smiled and said to Yakov: "Yasha, if your brother Vasily wants to come here, you can take him to this place." Fishing in the pond, I think he will be able to return with a full reward."

Unexpectedly, after Yakov heard this, he waved his hands and said, "Forget it, it's best not to let him go fishing, otherwise there will be another catastrophe."

Sokov knew about Vasily's injury from frying fish, but Asya didn't know anything about it. She asked in surprise, "Yasha, let Vasily come here to fish, what kind of trouble can you cause?" , are you a little nervous?"

"Asiya, you may not know that Vasily was seriously injured because of fishing two years ago, and even almost lost his life." Yakov shook his head and said, "So when I heard him talk about fishing, I immediately My scalp is numb, and I'm afraid that something will happen to him again."

"What dangers can there be in fishing?" Assia asked inexplicably: "Could it be that when they were fishing, they were bombed by the German army and were unfortunately injured?" She also said cleverly, "Now the war is over, no matter what Wherever you go fishing, you don’t have to worry about being bombed by German planes.”

"No, Assia, you made a mistake." But after hearing this, Yakov smiled bitterly and said, "Vassily was injured not because of the bombing by the German planes, but because they themselves injured themselves, even It also caused the commander of the Air Force Group Army to be dismissed from his post."

"Yasha, what's going on here?" Asiya asked curiously, "Can you tell us?"

Yakov nodded, and told the story that Sokov knew. After hearing this, Asya couldn't help but turn pale with shock: "My God, one person died and six people were injured. The price of this fish frying is too high. Yasha, you are right, we can't easily let Vasily come here Fishing, maybe he'll throw a grenade into the pond and blow up the fish."

The three of them were standing on the pile of bricks and chatting, when they suddenly heard someone shouting from behind: "Hey, comrade generals, what are you doing standing on the pile of bricks?"

Sokov looked back and saw that it was Major Bezikov, and explained to him with a smile: "We found a pond outside the wall, so we came up to have a look."

"It's time for lunch, General Sokov." Bezikov said, "Be careful when you come down, don't fall."

When the three of them came down from the pile of bricks, Bezikov continued: "This pile of bricks is too dangerous, please don't go up there casually, otherwise, if something happens, I won't be able to bear the responsibility."

From Bezikov's tone of voice, Sokov heard that the other party was extremely dissatisfied with the fact that the three of them stood on the brick pile without authorization to watch the scenery outside, so he said with a haha: "Remember, Comrade Major, only this Once, there will be no next time."

"There are a lot of wild ducks in the pond." Bezikov said, "Gurchenko and the others will go to the bushes outside to pick up some wild duck eggs during the season when the ducks are laying eggs."

"I don't know what month is the season for wild ducks to lay eggs?" Assia asked, "If there is a chance, I would also like to pick up some wild duck eggs."

"Wild ducks lay eggs in two seasons a year." Bezikov explained to Asya: "The first season is from March to May, and the second season is from October to November. Each brood has ten eggs. One, hatched by female ducks, the time is 27 or 8 days. It's a pity that you came late, if you came half a month earlier, you can eat fresh wild duck eggs."

"Misha," Assia said to Sokov with some disappointment after hearing this, "it seems that we can only wait until October to go to the pond to pick wild duck eggs."

Sokov didn't think he would have the opportunity to pick wild duck eggs here in October. He was thinking in his heart that after defeating the Kwantung Army, he should be able to find wild duck eggs in the forests of the Daxinganling area, but he didn't know how the salted duck eggs tasted.

A soldier passed not far away and was stopped by Bezikov. Sokov saw Bezikov pulling the soldier aside, muttering something in a low voice, and pointing to the brick pile from time to time. Sukov suddenly had an ominous feeling in his heart. Could it be that Bezikov was going to have those bricks cleaned up in order to prevent himself from waiting for others to jump out of the wall?

Before the three of them entered the restaurant, Bezikov chased him up from behind, and said to Yakov with a smile: "General Yakov, for today's lunch, I specially prepared Georgian red wine for you. I didn’t drink the fine wine from my hometown.”

When it comes to red wine, the first thing that comes to mind is French wine, but in fact, Ukraine and Georgia are the countries that produce high-quality red wine. The whole world is drinking French wine, while the French are drinking Georgian wine. Sokov remembers very clearly that when he was a guest at a Russian friend's house in later generations, he saw that the red wine on the table was from Georgia.

He had been to Georgia once and saw the statue of Nino, the mother of Georgia, standing on the top of the mountain. The sculpture holds a wine glass high in its left hand and a long sword in its right hand, vividly interpreting the famous saying: "When a friend comes, he is greeted with wine; when an enemy comes, he is greeted with a sword."

When Yakov heard that there was Georgian red wine for lunch today, he blushed with excitement. He held Bezikov's hand and said gratefully: "Comrade Major, thank you so much for giving I got such a precious wine."

"Comrade General," Bezikov said respectfully, "During the war, Georgia's wine production stopped for two years, so all we can find now are wines produced in previous years. I don't know how they taste. mind."

"I don't mind, I don't mind." Yakov said, "Although the wine has been stored for more than five years, it will affect the taste, but you can help me get the wine stored a few years ago, I am very grateful Endless."

Yakov approached Sokov and asked in a low voice: "Misha, isn't the longer the wine is stored, the better? Why does Yakov say that the taste of wine will deteriorate after five years?"

In fact, Sokov's knowledge about wine is also half-knowledgeable, but since Assia asked, he could only pretend to be knowledgeable and said: "The longer the wine is, the better, because every bottle of wine has Its storage period. If it exceeds the best drinking period and enters the aging period, the taste of the wine will not be so good, so the usual wine is suitable for drinking within five years.”

"But I've heard that some wines have been stored for more than a hundred years." Assia was afraid that Sokov would not believe what she said, so she specifically gave an example: "For example, wines located in the suburbs of Yalta on the Crimean Peninsula Massandra Winery, which still has a collection of wines produced in 1775."

Sokov did not expect that Assia knew about the Massandra winery, but then he thought about it, as a Russian, it is normal to know this winery, after all, this is a winery that specially provides royal wine to the tsar. He said vaguely: "Assia, besides having to store wine in oak barrels, there should be other ways of preservation that we don't know. Otherwise, after more than a hundred years, these The royal wine offered to the Tsar has long since become undrinkable."

"Misha, Assia." When Sokov and Assia were still studying the wine, Yakov, who was walking in front with Bezikov, unexpectedly found that the two did not keep up, so he stopped. He asked them, "What are you still standing at the door for? Come here quickly. Let's go and taste the fine wine that Major Bezikov found for us."

"Okay, here we come." Sokov held Assia's hand and walked quickly towards the restaurant. He also wanted to taste the Georgian red wine of this era, and what kind of taste is the same as the red wine of later generations the difference.