Red Moscow

After coming out of the hotel, Sokov, surrounded by a platoon of guards, pushed Lukin's wheelchair towards the hotel where he was staying.

After walking for a while, Sokov suddenly said: "Comrade Deputy Commander, after I return to Fengtian, I plan to discuss with Captain Feng and Lieutenant Chen to see whether to organize manpower to cleanse the traitors in Fengtian City."

Unexpectedly, after Sokov finished speaking, Lu Jin shook his head and said: "Misha, I don't suggest you do this. After all, it goes against the orders of your superiors. It is better for the Chinese people to let the Chinese people take care of their own affairs." Take care of it yourself and we won’t have to meddle in your own business.”

Seeing that Lu Jin was unwilling to stand on his side in purging the traitors in Fengtian, he couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. However, the other party is not wrong in saying that. After all, the Far East Command has issued a similar order before. Lu Jin does not support him because it is for his own good, lest he makes a mistake and is caught by others, and then he will not be able to take advantage of it. gone.

As soon as he returned to the hotel, an officer came to see Sokov: "General Sokov, there is your phone number outside. It is from Fengtian."

Hearing that the call was from Fengtian, Sokov quickly followed the officer to the room where the phone was placed. He saw a microphone on the table. He thanked the officer first, then picked up the microphone and put it to his ear: "I am Sokov, is this Yasha?"

"Yes, it's me." Yakov's voice came from the receiver: "Misha, when can you return to Fengtian?"

Sokov knew very well that if nothing happened, Yakov would not ask himself this question, and quickly asked: "Yasha, is there any problem in Fengtian?"

"There are two things." Yakov said: "First, Marshal Chernyakhovsky, the deputy commander of the Far East Command, came to Fengtian for an inspection. As the commander of the group army, you can't not even meet him. Show one, right?"

When he learned that Chernyakhovsky had come to Fengtian for inspection, Sokov felt that he had to return to Fengtian to meet him as soon as possible, otherwise it would be too rude. He nodded quickly and said: "Well, I will return to Fengtian tomorrow at the latest. What is the other thing?"

"There is an army from Guan Nei, which was the one that joined our vanguard troops going south some time ago." Yakov was worried that Sokov would not understand, and specifically emphasized: "You may not remember, but it was with me at that time. There was a language barrier between the troops and they almost got into a fight, but in the end the misunderstanding was resolved by singing "The Internationale"."

"Remember, of course I remember." Sokov knew better than anyone else that that unit was the first to leave the border. He even knew the name of the unit's commander. Hearing Yakov mention this unit at this moment, he quickly asked with concern: "What happened to this unit?"

"According to the reports of the troops along the way." Yakov continued: "This army mobilized more than two thousand people to form an advance team and took a train to Fengtian. As for how to place them, Cherny and I discussed Marshal Yakhovsky is divided.”

"Oh, there are differences?" Sokov asked curiously: "Where are the differences?"

"I plan to let them station in the Beida Camp in Fengtian, and at the same time shoulder the important task of guarding the prisoners of the Kwantung Army." Yakov said: "But Comrade Marshal disagreed. He said that our army is in the city, how can we just let one of our troops go?" What about the unknown army entering the city? He is worried that after this army enters the city, it will increase the pressure on us to maintain law and order, so he plans to place them outside the city and refuse them entry into Fengtian City."

Sokov's mind began to think quickly. He vaguely remembered that the troops entering Fengtian seemed to be the 12th Regiment of the 16th Army Division. On the day the regiment arrived in Fengtian, the Soviet army drove them to Sujiatun outside the city to station. He was willing to let this unit station in the city, but now Chernyakhovsky was in Fengtian. If he wanted to change his decision, he had to return to Fengtian as soon as possible.

"Yasha, please receive Comrade Marshal first. I will return to Fengtian tomorrow at the latest." Sokov said into the microphone: "As for where the troops from the pass will be stationed, we will tell you when I arrive."

After making the call, Sokov came to Lukin's room, told him the contents of Yakov's call, and said: "Comrade Deputy Commander, I plan to return to Fengtian tomorrow. I don't know what you think about it. ?”

"Of course I will follow you. If you stay, I will stay; if you return to Fengtian, I will also return to Fengtian." After Lu Jin expressed his attitude, he also reminded Sokov specifically: "Misha, since we will go back to Fengtian tomorrow. If we are going back to Fengtian, would you like to say hello to General Lyudnikov so that he can arrange a return train for us?"

"Comrade Deputy Commander, you are right to remind us. I will go find General Lyudnikov right away and ask him to arrange a train back to Fengtian for us."

Sokov came out of Lukin and went straight to Lyudnikov's office.

When he came to the door of the office, he saw that the door was closed. He raised his hand and knocked on the door several times, but there was no movement inside.

"Comrade General," a passing officer saw Sokov and raised his hand in salute and said to him: "The commander is presiding over the meeting in the conference room. I don't know when it will end. If you have something urgent to ask him, you can go there meeting room."

"Do you know where the conference room is?" Although Sokov stayed in the hotel for two days, he really didn't know where Lyudnikov's conference room was, so he politely asked the officer: "Can you bring Shall I go?"

"No problem, Comrade General." The officer said respectfully, "Please come with me."

Under the leadership of the officer, Sokov came to the door of a large room located in the corridor on the second floor. The door here is closed. In addition to two sentries with live ammunition at the door, Lyudnikov's adjutant is also sitting behind a desk placed next to the door.

Seeing Sokov's arrival, the adjutant quickly stood up and walked around from behind the desk, and asked with some surprise: "General Sokov, you have something urgent to see our commander, right?"

"I do have something to see him, but it's not an urgent matter." After thanking the officer who led the way, Sokov looked at the adjutant and asked, "I wonder how long it will take for the meeting to end?"

The adjutant raised his hand to look at the time and replied: "The meeting has been held for forty minutes. According to the habit of Comrade Commander, a meeting can last up to one hour. In other words, the meeting will end in twenty minutes at most. Yes. If you have any emergency, I can go in and inform Comrade Commander."

"It doesn't matter, I'll just stay here and wait for him." Sokov said to the adjutant: "I plan to return to Fengtian tomorrow. I hope he can arrange a train for me."

"General Sokov, this is just a small matter." The adjutant said carelessly: "I will make arrangements for you as soon as Comrade Commander finishes the meeting."

Seeing Sokov nodding in approval, the adjutant asked curiously: "General Sokov, you are staying here well, why do you suddenly think of returning to Fengtian?"

"Marshal Chernyakhovsky, the deputy commander of the Far East Command, has arrived in Fengtian." Sokov smiled and said to the other adjutant: "You think, all the dignified marshals have arrived in my defense area, and I am the commander. Isn’t it inappropriate that someone who is a member of the Communist Party of China is not showing up in Xinjing, hundreds of kilometers away?”

"Yes, yes, you are right." After the adjutant waited for Sokov to finish speaking, he nodded repeatedly and said: "Comrade Marshal personally went to your defense area, but you didn't show up. I'm afraid he will be unhappy, so It’s better to return as soon as possible.”

While the two were talking, the door of the conference room suddenly opened, and many commanders, including generals and school-level officers, walked out. When they saw Sokov standing outside the door, they all raised their hands in salute, and Sokov also raised his hand in return.

After the commanders attending the meeting had almost left, Lyudnikov and his chief of staff and military commissar slowly walked out of the corridor. The adjutant saw his appearance and hurriedly greeted him: "Comrade Commander, General Sokov has something to ask you."

When Lyudnikov saw Sokov standing not far away, he quickly walked over, held Sokov's hand and asked curiously: "Misha, when did you come?"

"Not long after I arrived, I was talking to your adjutant, and your meeting is over."

"Misha, you came to me in a hurry, what's the matter?"

"It's like this. Marshal Chernyakhovsky came to inspect my defense area." Sokov said to Lyudnikov with a smile: "If I, the commander, don't rush back to meet with Comrade Marshal as soon as possible, It’s too outrageous. So I came to you specially, hoping that you can arrange a train for me so that I can return to Fengtian tomorrow.”

"Adjutant," Lyudnikov called his adjutant immediately after Sokov finished speaking: "Immediately help General Sokov arrange a train so that he can return to Fengtian as soon as possible."

"Comrade Commander, don't worry." The adjutant replied: "There will be a train bound for Fengtian at eight o'clock tomorrow morning. We can add an extra carriage and let General Sokov and his men take that carriage back to Fengtian."

Early the next morning, Sokov, Lukin and the soldiers of the guard platoon took the train arranged for them by Lyudnikov and set off back to Fengtian.

Sitting in the spacious carriage, Lu Jin said with a smile: "Misha, don't tell me, the carriage of this train is more comfortable than the car. I have made it clear in advance that wherever we want to go in the future, we can take the train. I have to take the train, I don’t want to take that bumpy car anymore.”

Sokov laughed after hearing this: "No problem, no problem. Comrade Deputy Commander, to be honest with you, if possible, I prefer to fly. It takes several hours to travel by train or car. Flying It doesn’t even take an hour.”

"That's true." Lu Jin nodded in agreement with Sokov's statement, but he quickly added his own opinion: "But I think that as commanders, as long as we are not in a hurry, we should do more Take a train or a car so you can keep up to date with the terrain along the way."

While the two were chatting, the conductor came pushing the dining car to bring food to them.

Sokov glanced at the soldiers in the guard platoon sitting at the other end of the carriage and asked the conductor: "When can my soldiers eat?"

"Comrade General," the conductor said politely, "please wait a moment. I will bring the food to them after I finish delivering it to you."

Before the breakfast for the guard row could be delivered, the train stopped.

Lu Jin turned to look out the window and muttered: "No way, we haven't finished our breakfast and we're already in Fengtian?"

"No, it should be at some station along the way." Sokov felt that no matter how fast the train drove, it would not be able to reach Fengtian in such a short time. It should be stopping at a station along the way. He stood up and walked to the window, looked out, and soon saw a sign saying "Siping".

When he saw this place name, Sokov's heart skipped a beat. He may not be familiar with other cities in the Northeast, but he knows the city of Siping very well. Soon, the two armies will fight fiercely for this city here, from March 1946 to March 1948. Four battles took place here in two years, and the city was finally liberated.

"Misha, what are you looking at?" Lu Jin asked from behind.

Sokov quickly left the window and said covertly: "I didn't see anything, but I guess this is a big city. When the conductor comes, ask him where it is."

Soon, the conductor appeared in the carriage pushing another dining car. Sokov quickly stopped him and pretended to ask: "What is the name of the place we are stopping at?"

"Comrade General." The conductor thought that Sokov really didn't know where this place was, so he quickly told him: "This is Siping. Our train needs to stop here for half an hour to replenish coal and water before continuing on its journey."

"It turns out it's Siping." Sokov pretended to be suddenly enlightened and said to Lu Jin: "I have heard of this place. It is located in the central plain of Northeast China. It is the throat of the China-Changchun Railway and the southern barrier of Xinjing. It has of great strategic significance.”

Lu Jin had also seen this place name before the war and knew something about it. After hearing what Sokov said, he agreed: "Fortunately, the Kwantung Army took the initiative to lay down its weapons and surrender, otherwise we would have to open up the gap between Fengtian and Xinjing." Railway lines, I don’t know how much it will cost.”

"That's right." When Sokov thought about the four fierce battles that were about to take place in Siping in the future, he understood how difficult it would be to capture this city, so he nodded and said, "Fortunately, our army did not have any conflict with the Kwantung Army here. Fight, otherwise if we want to take this city, we may have to pay the casualties of a division."

The conductor on the side listened to the conversation between Sokov and Lukin, with an embarrassed expression on his face. After finally waiting for the conversation between the two to come to an end, he said cautiously: "Comrade General, you may not know that there are no fortifications in Siping City at all, so I think it is impossible to fight a tough battle here."

"What?" Hearing what the conductor said, Sokov's jaw almost dropped to the ground. "You said there are no fortifications in Siping City. Are you right?"