Red Moscow

After Sokov chatted with Bakanidze for a while, he remembered that he wanted to make grilled lamb chops, so he got up and walked into the kitchen.

Nina, who was busy in the kitchen at the moment, saw Sokov walking in and couldn't help but curiously asked: "Misha, what can I do for you?"

"I promised Asiya to cook grilled lamb chops for her." Sokov pointed to the cloth bag placed next to him, "The lamb chops are in the bag."

Asya, who followed at this time, happened to hear what Sokov said and quickly said proactively: "I'll help you wash the lamb chops and potatoes."

Unexpectedly, Nina pushed her out of the kitchen: "Asia, you are pregnant, so you should rest more. Let me and Misha take care of the things here."

Asiya turned to look at Sokov, as if asking him if he could leave the kitchen. Seeing Sokov nodding vigorously at him, he reluctantly left the kitchen.

"Misha, please teach me how to make grilled lamb chops." Nina waited for Asiya to leave, and humbly asked Sokov for advice: "After I learn it, I can often cook it for Asiya when I have the opportunity." eat."

After Sokov explained the steps of roasting lamb chops in detail, Nina nodded and said: "Misha, your method, although I have baked potatoes and lamb chops before, I usually bake them separately. It’s the first time I’ve heard of this method of baking and placing cut potato pieces on the bottom of the baking pan.”

Sokov poured the lamb chops out of the cloth bag and was about to rinse them under the faucet, but Nina stopped him: "Misha, if the lamb chops are washed with water and then baked, the roasted meat will be It will be dry and seriously affect the taste.”

"But the lamb chops are not very clean, so you can't just put them in and grill them, right?"

"Although it can't be washed with water, it can be cleaned in other ways." Nina said, picking up a wet cloth and starting to wipe the mutton chops: "The same goes for using a wet cloth to clean the dirt on the mutton chops."

While Sokov and Nina were cooking in the kitchen, Bakanidze, who was sitting in the living room, said to Asiya: "Asiya, it's rare for you to come back. I plan to invite two people to be guests. You won't object." Bar?"

Asiya thought that the people her father wanted to invite must all be colleagues in the factory, and they were the ones with relatively good relationships, so she readily agreed: "Invite whoever you want, I think Misha is I’ll mind.”

Seeing that Asiya agreed to his request, Bakanidze got up and walked outside. The reason why he suddenly had the idea of ​​​​treating guests was because he heard two days ago that the factory was going to send someone to perform a secret mission, and his son-in-law had just mentioned that he was leaving Moscow to perform a special mission. He connected the two. I think there is definitely a connection. He planned to call the factory director and military representatives and mention the matter in a subtle way in front of Sokov to see if he could be allowed to participate in this secret mission.

He went to the duty room at the entrance of the dormitory area, found a phone, and dialed the factory director's office. When he heard the voice of factory director Prazolev, he said with a smile: "Comrade Prazolev, I wonder if you are free now. I would like to invite you to my home as a guest?"

When Prazorev heard that Bakanidze invited him to his home, he immediately thought of the factory arranging candidates for missions in the Far East. He considered that Bakanidze had spent most of the past two years at the forefront. He was excluded from the list due to health and safety concerns. For this matter, Bakanize came to him every day, hoping that he could change his mind and add his name to the list.

"Comrade Bakanidze," Prazorev said righteously: "The list is the result of discussions among all the factory leaders. It's useless even if you keep pestering me. I have something to do today, so I won't go. Well, I wish you good appetite!"

"Comrade Factory Director," seeing Prazorev bluntly rejecting his invitation, Bakanidze was a little unhappy. He invited the other party to be a guest. He really wanted to use this gathering to make the other party change his mind and let himself Participate in a covert operation shortly afterwards. He didn't want to miss such a good opportunity, so he quickly added: "By the way, I forgot to tell you, Asiya and her husband are back today."

Prazorev, who originally wanted to hang up the phone, was shocked when he heard that Bakanidze's son-in-law was back. As the director of the instrument factory, he usually pays special attention to various news and knew that the other party's son-in-law Soko General Fu has repeatedly performed extraordinary feats on the battlefield. Although the war is over, the opponent's future development is limitless. If you can become familiar with him, it will also be of great help to your future development. It was out of this consideration that he quickly changed his mind: "Bakanidze, why didn't you tell me earlier that your daughter was back? I'll take care of the work at hand and rush to your house as soon as possible."

When Bakanidze saw that Prazorev agreed to come to the party, a proud smile appeared on his face. After he put down the phone, he thought for a moment and called the office of the military representative Major Kudlin. He knew very well that if he wanted to participate in this secret operation, Prazorev's nod was not enough. Kudrin, the military representative, needs to agree.

Major Kudrin, who had just received the call, had the same attitude as Prazorev, and righteously rejected Bakanidze's invitation. However, when he heard that Bakanidze's daughter and son-in-law were coming home today, he immediately changed his mind and said that he would definitely come to the party.

When Sokov's grilled lamb chops and Nina's pineapple chicken were freshly baked, invited guests also came to the house.

Aunt Damana and her husband Michik fell into the trap as Sokov expected. After all, the two of them had dined together the last time he came. But the appearance of Prazorev and Major Kudrin surprised Sokov. He secretly thought, today is just an ordinary family dinner, why did his father-in-law call the factory director and military representatives?

"Hello, Comrade General!" Both Prazolev and Kudrin were very enthusiastic after meeting Sokov: "Nice to see you again!"

Faced with the enthusiasm of the two people, Sokov did not want to be too cold to them, so he shook hands with them one by one: "Hello, comrade factory director, comrade military representative! I am very happy to see you again."

After Prazorev looked Sokov up and down, he asked curiously: "Comrade General, why are you wearing casual clothes today?"

"I'm here to visit my father-in-law," Sokov explained with a smile: "If you wear military uniforms, you will need to bring security troops, which may cause a lot of inconvenience. It is more convenient to wear casual clothes, whether you are traveling by bus Whether on the subway or on the bus, we can be as unobtrusive as ordinary people.”

When they started eating, Sokov thought everyone was just drinking vodka or red wine. Unexpectedly, Prazolev took out a bottle of tequila like a magic trick and said to everyone: "How are you? Are you interested?" Want to try it?"

Sokov knew that there were too many things to pay attention to when drinking this kind of wine, and he couldn't get used to it, so he shook his head and said, "I'm sorry, I can't get used to it, so I won't drink it."

Although Prazolev was a little disappointed when he saw Sokov not drinking tequila, he still took out a lemon from his pocket and handed it to Nina: "Nina, please help us cut the lemon into slices. .”

Sokov was very curious. Just drink wine. What does it mean to slice a lemon?

Fortunately, the answer was soon revealed.

Prazorev, Bakanidze, Kudrin and Michik each picked up the seasoning bottle with salt and sprinkled some salt on the tiger's mouth of their left hand. Under Sokov's surprised gaze, they picked up the lemon slices on the plate, chewed a sip, drank a sip of the agave in the cup, and then stretched out their tongues to lick the salt from the tiger's mouth. Seeing them repeating the same actions while drinking, Sokov couldn't help but be shocked: It's really amazing that people can drink like this.

After the family dinner, the first people to leave were Damana and Michik, while Prazorev and Kudrin stayed. When Asya and Nina went to the kitchen to wash the dishes, Prazolev suddenly lowered his voice and asked Sokov: "Comrade General, I want to ask you something."

"What's the matter? Please tell me."

"Are you going to the Far East recently?"

Facing the question raised by Prazorev, Sokov did not answer, but frowned and asked: "What should I do in the Far East?" Apart from Asiya, Baka knew that he was about to go to the Far East to fight. Neither Nize nor Nina knew, so naturally he would not tell Prazolev, who was not familiar with him at all.

Prazorev is also a smart man. He quickly guessed the reason why Sokov was unwilling to tell the truth to him, because he also received an order from his superiors to form a maintenance team to go to the Far East. It was said to be a top-secret mission, but quite a few people in the instrument factory knew about it. Fortunately, everyone kept it secret and did not leak the secret. Based on Sokov's reaction, he deduced that the other party might also go to the Far East, so he cautiously probed: "Although the Germans have surrendered, the Kwantung Army in the Far East still threatens the security of our country. After taking care of the Germans, After that, it’s time to deal with them.”

Sokov hesitated for a long time, but still did not say anything about his upcoming trip to the Far East, but said vaguely: "In Zhanggufeng in 1938 and Nomenkan in 39, the Kwantung Army owed us a lot of blood debt. Once the time comes, it will be time to demand repayment of their blood debt."

Prazorev learned the conclusion he wanted from Sokov's words. The general in civilian clothes in front of him would indeed go to the Far East soon, but the other party was worried about leaking the secret and did not tell the matter. Since the other party couldn't tell, he made the matter clear: "General Sokov, to tell you the truth, our factory has also received orders from superiors to form a maintenance team to perform secret tasks. Because of the leadership of the factory Considering that Bakanidze has spent most of the past two years working in the front-line maintenance station, out of care for him, his name was not included in the list of the maintenance team this time."

After hearing what Prazorev said, Sokov immediately understood what was going on. He had just been wondering why Bakanidze had called the factory director and military representatives when it was just an ordinary family dinner. ? Now the truth has finally come to light. It turns out that the instrument factory is organizing a maintenance team to go to the frontline maintenance station again, and Bakanidze is not on the list this time. In order to work at the frontier, Bakanidze took advantage of the opportunity when he and Asiya came back to visit relatives to invite the factory director and the military representative. I am afraid he wanted to use his face to persuade them to agree to his trip to the Far East. .

Sokov glanced at Bakanidze who was sitting next to him. Seeing that the other person was looking at him expectantly, he coughed lightly, cleared his throat, and then said: "Comrade Factory Director, I think I My father-in-law has long-term experience working in a forward maintenance station. If the superiors want to allocate manpower to perform similar secret tasks, they can give him priority."

Bakanidze almost shed tears when he heard Sokov speak for himself like this. He quickly turned his attention to Prazorev to see what kind of reaction the other party would have.

"It's difficult, General Sokov." Having said this, Prazorev fell into a difficult situation. If you agree, you will inevitably violate your original intention; but if you don't agree, if Bakanidze says something bad about himself in front of his son-in-law, it may have adverse effects: "The list of personnel has been reported, and we must If you make modifications, I’m afraid it won’t be an easy task.”

Seeing that Prazorev's tone had relaxed, Sokov felt that this matter was interesting, so he struck while the iron was hot and said: "Comrade director, it's not a big deal to submit the list. You can submit another supplementary list and tell me that once the iron is hot, If anyone on the first list is unable to travel due to physical discomfort before departure, the person on the supplementary list will fill in. Do you think this is okay?"

"This is a good idea." Kudlin, who had never spoken, suddenly interjected: "In the list we reported, if anyone gets a sudden illness before departure and cannot participate in the operation, we need to find someone to replace him. I think it is better to submit a supplementary list as a substitute. Once someone is unable to perform the task due to physical reasons, he can be replaced by someone on the waiting list."

"Okay, Comrade Military Representative." Since this plan was proposed by Kudrin, Prazorev followed suit and said, "When I return to the office later, I will prepare a supplementary list and report it to my superiors. Send it. Bakanidze," he turned to Bakanidze and said, "That's all I can do for you. As for whether you can participate in this secret operation in the end, it depends on your luck. "

Bakanidze knew Prazorev, and knowing that the other party said this was tantamount to agreeing to participate in this secret operation. He could even imagine that Prazorev would write in the new report: "Due to our poor consideration when submitting the first list, the technical strength of the maintenance team was insufficient. After re-discussing and studying, it was decided to On the basis of certain conditions, some experienced personnel will be added to enrich the technical strength of the maintenance team."

After sending Prazorev and Kudrin away, Bakanidze looked in the direction of the kitchen, and then lowered his voice and said to Sokov: "Misha, you and I just know this, but you have nothing to do with it." Don’t tell Asiya, I don’t want them to worry about me.”

The muscles on Sokov's face twitched violently twice, and he thought to himself: If you don't want Asiya and Nina to worry, then you shouldn't apply to go to the Far East at all. Although the maintenance point is not as dangerous as the forward position, you are still on the battlefield and the danger is still there. I'm afraid that as soon as you leave, Nina and Asiya will have to worry about him all day long.