Red Moscow

While waiting, Sokov asked Shamyakin: "Captain Shamyakin, I wonder how many such gendarmerie units there are in Xinjing?"

After hearing Sokov's question, Shamyakin thought for a moment and then replied: "Apart from the Gendarmerie Headquarters, there is only one Gendarmerie."

Sokov secretly thought that if there was only such a military police unit in Xinjing, there would be no way that there would only be dozens of people killed by him. In order to clarify this problem, he continued to ask: "Do you know how many people this gendarmerie originally had?"

"As far as I know, there are hundreds of people." Shamyakin explained to Sokov: "Since I was not involved in the takeover, the specific situation is not clear. I only know that those who are officials are imprisoned elsewhere. There are only some ordinary soldiers of no importance left here.”

Sokov looked at the corpses not far away and found that except for a second lieutenant and several sergeants, the rest were soldiers. It seemed that Shamyakin was right. The officials were all locked up in other places. place, the only ones left here are some ordinary military police. However, seeing the firearms piled aside, he continued to ask: "You have left weapons for them, aren't you afraid that they will riot? You know, the prisoners of war and expatriates we hold in the school do not have any weapons on them. They all once launched riots, causing considerable casualties to the soldiers guarding them."

Shamyakin's eyes widened in surprise: "The little devils have been taken as prisoners, and they are still so rampant?"

"Yes, that's true." Sokov nodded and said, "That's why I was very surprised when I saw these Japanese military police holding weapons in their hands!"

When he said this, Sokov suddenly remembered something: In November 1953, when our army's communications troops were repairing underground cables, they accidentally discovered a large number of archives buried underground at the Kwantung Army's gendarmerie site. This was a new Beijing Military Police Captain Shigeki Hirabayashi and Kwantung Army Military Police Headquarters Police Section Chief Hiramori led more than 100 military policemen to burn relevant official documents and files. The files that were not burned in time were buried directly in the yard of the Military Police.

Due to the long burial time, many files have been destroyed. Now that I have caught up, I must make these files available in advance, so that the world can know the ugly faces of the little devils and the heinous crimes they committed earlier.

Sokov and others waited at the gendarmerie for nearly an hour, but Lyudnikov did not arrive. However, when the people in Xinjing learned that the Soviet army had bloodbathed the Japanese gendarmerie, they all came to watch with their children. The gendarmerie was surrounded by water. A river of blood flowed outside the gendarmerie gate, and corpses piled up like a hill. It had a strong visual impact and made many onlookers pale and tremble. Some people even couldn't control themselves and vomited loudly.

The common people whose relatives had been killed and whose homes had been poisoned all felt sad in their hearts when they saw the corpses of the Japanese military policemen who used to ride on their heads to dominate and do evil things. First, they felt the joy of having their great revenge avenged, and then the relief that their loved ones should rest in peace came to their hearts. They had mixed feelings for a while.

When Lyudnikov got the news that Sokov led people to bloodbath the military police headquarters in Xinjing, he couldn't help being shocked. He quickly called Zakharov and reported what he knew to him. Finally, he returned Specifically asking for instructions: "Comrade Chief of Staff, how do you think this matter should be dealt with?"

Although Zakharov and Sokov had some personal relations, they were somewhat dissatisfied with the fact that he slaughtered the Beijing Gendarmerie without even saying hello. However, he understood Sokov's character and felt that there must be a special reason why the other party did this. Out of caution, he specifically told Lyudnikov: "General Lyudnikov, ask Sokov why he massacred these Japanese gendarmes who had laid down their weapons. I only know the truth behind his actions. Only after the reasons are given can a decision on his punishment be made.”

Fortunately, Lyudnikov knew that Sokov and Zakharov had a relationship. Since he said this, he naturally hoped that he would make it a big deal and turn it into a trivial matter. He nodded and replied: "I understand, Comrade Chief of Staff, I will take care of it properly." Handle this matter.”

After putting it down, Lyudnikov called his adjutant and asked him to take a guard company with him to the gendarmerie to find out what happened there.

When he arrived near the gendarmerie, Lyudnikov unexpectedly found that the road ahead was tightly blocked by the people in the city. The truck leading the way kept honking its horn, but it was still not moving very fast. In the end, the guard company commander got out of the car and led people to evacuate the traffic, and the convoy was able to successfully reach the gate of the gendarmerie.

Still far away, Lyudnikov saw the jeep and truck parked on the roadside at the door, and Sokov, Yakov, Lukin and their men standing beside the vehicle. There was a pile of corpses three to four meters high on the roadside near the door. There were still no dried bloodstains everywhere on the ground next to the corpses.

As soon as Lyudnikov got out of the car, he saw Sokov coming up to him.

Before Lyudnikov could speak, Sokov said first: "Ivan, you are here!"

"I'm here!" Lyudnikov shook hands with Sokov and said with a wry smile: "Misha, you are making me very embarrassed like this. You didn't even say hello, and you just ordered people to wash away the Japs with blood. Gendarmerie, what on earth is going on?”

Sokov, who had already prepared the draft, saw Lyudnikov asking about it, so he told him in detail what happened today.

After hearing this, Lyudnikov nodded slightly and said, "So that's it. How do you plan to deal with the aftermath?"

At this moment, Sokov wanted to ask Lyudnikov's subordinates to help him dig out all the files buried by the Japanese in the yard. He did not bother to answer the other party's words, so he said bluntly: "Ivan, I want to please help me."

"Help?" Lyudnikov asked puzzledly, "What can I do for you?"

"I just stood at the door of the yard and looked inside. I found that in many places I could see the ashes of burned paper and smell a faint smell of gunpowder smoke. If I guessed correctly, the Japanese must have been there before you arrived. A lot of documents were burned here."

"Misha, that's for sure." Lyudnikov said disapprovingly after hearing this: "Enemies who have lost a battle always burn some documents before they lay down their weapons to cover up what they did in the war. crimes committed.”

"I want to see what kind of crimes these little devils have committed." Sokov looked at Lyudnikov and said: "Can you see the location of the new soil in the yard and organize people to dig it out? , maybe there will be unexpected surprises.”

"Okay, Misha." Faced with Sokov's request, Lyudnikov readily agreed. The purpose of his doing this was to help Sokov reduce the responsibility he had to bear. In any case, even if Sokov was the commander of the group army, he had no right to kill surrendered enemies in friendly defense zones without authorization. But if something can be dug up in the yard, it will relieve Sokov of his responsibility: "I will order someone to dig in the yard."

Lyudnikov called the guard company commander and told the other party: "Captain, take someone to the yard and take a look. If you see new soil somewhere, immediately organize people to dig there to see if there are any little devils." Buy something important in the field.”

The guard company commander roared in agreement, turned around and gathered the soldiers, preparing to follow Lyudnikov's order to dig where new soil appeared in the yard to see if they could find the important files Sokov said.

"Misha," Lyudnikov said hello to Lukin, Yakov and others, then looked at Sokov and asked: "Do you really think that the Japanese will bury someone you want in the yard of the gendarmerie?" s things?"

"Yes, Ivan, you are right." On this matter, Sokov was not ambiguous, but answered straightforwardly: "I believe that the soldiers digging in the yard will definitely find something unexpected. reward."

Hearing what Sokov said, Lyudnikov didn't believe even a single punctuation mark. But on the surface, he still pretended to agree, and even asked with concern: "If the files are dug up here, should I give them to you, or should I keep them?"

"Ivan, since it was dug up in your defense area, I will naturally leave it to you to deal with." Sokov said magnanimously: "By the way, does the Army Headquarters know about this?"

"Misha, after I received the notice, I immediately reported the matter to Chief of Staff Zakharov." Lyudnikov replied: "Marshal Malinovsky probably also knows about the matter at this time. You have to be mentally prepared.”

Sokov laughed after hearing this, "Ivan, what preparations do I need to make? Will Marshal Malinovsky revoke my position as commander because of this incident?"

Lyudnikov glanced at the pile of corpses of the Japanese military police, hesitated for a moment and said: "It is obviously impossible to remove you from your post. After all, you only killed some enemies who laid down their weapons, and besides, they were the ones who attacked you first. It posed a threat, and you were just acting in self-defense. Marshal Malinovsky could only criticize you a few times, but nothing else."

Sokov was satisfied with Lyudnikov's statement. He nodded and turned the topic to the issue that the other party was most concerned about: "Ivan, have you found the other two thousand-person graves?"

Upon hearing Sokov's question, Lyudnikov's expression darkened. The thousand-man graves Sokov mentioned were when during the battle to defend Stalingrad, Lyudnikov ordered his men to bury the fallen soldiers in three large pits. A pit of thousands. But after the battle, only one of the thousand-man graves was found, while there was no trace of the other two.

Lyudnikov slowly shook his head and said with a depressed expression: "No. I specifically asked the person in charge of Stalingrad City about this matter. They had sent people to search many times in the area where we fought, but they failed. The other two mass graves were never found.”

"What are you talking about?" At this time, Lu Jin's voice suddenly came from beside the two of them. Seeing that their eyes were still on him, Lu Jin specifically explained: "I heard you two talking about It’s a thousand-person trap, so come here and find out what’s going on.”

Seeing that Lukin wanted to know about the mass graves, Sokov explained to him: "The 138th Infantry Division commanded by General Lyudnikov suffered huge casualties in the battle to defend Stalingrad. He used During the battle, he ordered his men to dig three large pits and bury the bodies of the fallen commanders and soldiers in them. Since there were nearly a thousand bodies of martyrs in each large pit, we called it a thousand-man pit. The battle ended. Later, General Lyudnikov planned to have the remains of these martyrs dug out and reburied. However, after many searches, only one of the thousand-man graves was found, and there is still no trace of the other two thousand-man graves. "

After listening to Sokov's words, Lu Jin asked curiously: "Why is this happening? The Thousand Man Traps don't have legs and they can't run around. How could they not be found?"

"Comrade Deputy Commander, I think there is a possibility." Sokov has been thinking about this issue ever since he learned that Lyudnikov had never found the other two mass graves. Since Lu Jin wanted to know at this moment, he expressed his judgment: "I guess the enemy's shelling and bombing may have been too violent and destroyed these two thousand-man pits, which resulted in us never being able to find them."

"Destroyed by artillery fire?" Lukin expressed doubts about Sokov's statement: "How is this possible?"

"How is this impossible, my comrade deputy commander." Seeing that Lukin did not believe his words, Sokov specifically gave him an example: "The Belarusian campaign we conducted in June 43, also known as For 'Operation Bagration'. You should know where Bagration's body is buried, right?"

"Well, I know that." Lu Jin nodded and said, "It's buried on the high ground of Borodino. But is there any connection between this and General Lyudnikov's inability to find the Thousand Man Grave?"

"Of course there is a connection." Sokov said with an affirmative tone: "When the enemy attacked Borodino, they used a large number of artillery to carry out intensive shelling, which resulted in the tomb of Bagration, the great commander, being destroyed by artillery fire. , the corpses inside are also missing.”

"Misha, what you said makes sense." After listening to Sokov's explanation, Lyudnikov nodded slightly and agreed: "The area we were holding at that time not only had to withstand the fierce artillery fire of the Germans, but also Sometimes there is also artillery fire from one's own..."

When Lu Jin heard this, he couldn't help but interrupt Lyudnikov. "General Lyudnikov, I don't understand why you were hit by artillery fire from our side? Could it be that the artillery made a mistake?" I learned your coordinates, thus causing the accidental attack?"

"No," Lyudnikov shook his head and explained to Lukin: "Our division's defense area was fragmented by the enemy. Even my division headquarters was endangered by the enemy many times. In order not to Let the enemy occupy my division headquarters, and I will contact the army artillery unit by phone and ask them to fire directly at me and use intensive artillery fire to destroy the enemies close to the division headquarters, lest I be killed or captured by the Germans."

"So that's what happened!" After Lu Jin figured out the situation, he gave Lyudnikov a thumbs up: "General Lyudnikov, from a soldier's point of view, I admire your courage. We The reason why we were able to win the battle to defend Stalingrad was because there were many brave and fearless commanders and soldiers like you in the city."