Red Moscow

Sokov raised his eyebrows and asked in surprise: "Major Yakuda, I don't seem to have asked you to set up the artillery positions, so why are you ready to fire?"

Yakuda grinned: "Comrade Commander, as your old subordinates, we naturally remember the 'bayonet on the cannon' tactic you introduced. You called us here obviously to destroy that building. I I feel that the current position of the cannon is the most suitable for bombarding the target.”

Hearing what Yakuda said, the corners of Sokov's mouth turned up slightly. He really didn't expect that it had been almost two years since he left the 27th Army. These old subordinates still remembered his combat habits and even waited for his orders. For artillery positions that have been actively arranged, you can only fire at the target with a single order.

"Wait a moment, Major Yakuda." Sokov said with a smile: "Captain Mensov, who came here with me, went over to inform his men to retreat to a safe distance to avoid being accidentally injured by our army's artillery fire. When they finish retreating, you can start firing."

While waiting for Menshov to return, Shamrih approached Sokov and asked: "Comrade Commander, I heard a news that after the beginning of next year, large-scale disarmament will be carried out. I wonder if you have heard it?" Have you ever heard of similar rumors?”

"Shamrih, you should understand that now that the war is over, our country no longer needs so many soldiers, so large-scale disarmament is inevitable." When Sokov said this, he saw Shapovalian Co and Yakuda also had curious expressions on their faces, as if they wanted to find out whether the disarmament was a rumor or a real thing, so he raised his voice and said: "To tell you the truth, I am also among those being laid off. ”

"Ah, you will also be laid off?" Shamrih asked in surprise.

"Yes, I will also be laid off." Facing his former subordinates, Sokov did not hide anything, but answered truthfully: "In September, I was still in a city in the Far East. , responsible for handling the aftermath of the kid's surrender, but suddenly received an order from Moscow to ask Yakov and I to know each other. Yakov is my good friend who often sends weapons and equipment to our troops. The one.”

"Yes, I remember, of course I remember." Shamrih nodded vigorously and asked with some surprise: "Did he also get laid off?"

"The order conveyed to us at that time said that after we handed over the command to the deputy commander of the group army, we would immediately return to Moscow to accept the new appointment." Sokov took the cigarette handed over by Shapovarenko and held it in his mouth. Putting it on his lips, Yakuda quickly lit a match and lit his cigarette. After taking a puff of his cigarette, Sokov continued: "After we returned to Moscow, Yakov went to the General Ordnance Department, which was the original weapons and equipment department."

"What about you, Comrade Commander?" Yakuda asked cautiously, "Where are you assigned to work now?"

"It's a bit complicated to talk about my work arrangements." Sokov said with a wry smile: "I want to go to Siberia to manage the prisoner-of-war camp. After all, we captured hundreds of thousands of Kwantung Army prisoners of war in the Far East Campaign. I am very responsible for the supervision. They are more interested.”

Shapovalenko heard what Sokov was saying and quickly asked: "Then why didn't the superior agree to your request?"

"Although I want to go to Siberia, my superiors have their own considerations." Sokov continued: "Marshal Zhukov wanted me to go to Berlin to assist him in his work; but Comrade Khrushchev invited me to Ukraine to work in the Special Military District and another Comrade Ustinov wanted me to stay in the General Ordnance Department like Yakov. "

"Comrade Commander, you are very capable and are in demand wherever you go." Shapovarenko asked with a smile: "Then you decided to go to Marshal Zhukov. After all, this line leads to Berlin."

"Shapovarenko, you guessed wrong. I didn't want to go anywhere. I just wanted to stay at home and write a novel quietly..."

"Write a novel?" After hearing what Sokov said, Shapovarenko's eyes suddenly lit up and he couldn't wait to ask: "Comrade Commander, I saw a novel a few days ago. The author's name is M.M. Sokov, whose initials look very much like yours, told Shamrih specifically about this, but he said it was impossible.”

Sokov did not expect that the garrison in Poland could also see the novel he wrote. He chuckled and said: "I wonder if the book you are reading is called "The Dawns Here Are Quiet". If so, That was indeed what I wrote."

"Really, Comrade Commander, that book was really written by you?" Before Sokov could give himself a definite answer, Shapovalenko turned to Shamrih and said: "Shamrih, I That’s right, that book was indeed written by Comrade Commander.”

"Comrade Commander, I am very curious, why do you think of writing a novel?" Shamrih looked at Sokov and asked puzzledly: "As your subordinate, if I hear others say, you commanded the troops to fight I will definitely believe it if you win more or less battles. But if you write a novel with excellent reputation, I don’t think it is possible.”

"At that time, because my superiors had not arranged a job for me, I took my wife with me... By the way, there is one more thing I almost forgot to tell you. Asiya is pregnant. In three or four months, I will I’m going to be a father!”

"Comrade Commander," upon hearing the news Sokov said, Shamrih and others had expressions of surprise on their faces, and they all extended their hands to Sokov and said sincerely: "Comrade Commander , please accept my sincere congratulations on becoming a father soon.”

Sokov shook hands with the three of them one by one, expressed his gratitude, and continued to tell his story: "I took Asya to the Crystal City east of Moscow to buy crystal products. When I passed through Vladimir on the way back, I happened to catch up. A crew was filming a film about the Battle of Stalingrad, and I stayed on the crew for a few days. While chatting with the director and assistant director, the idea of ​​writing a novel suddenly came to my mind. It took me almost a week to write this novel.”

"What, it only took a week to write this novel?" Shapovarenko turned to look at Shamrih and Yakuda beside him, with an expression of disbelief on his face: "That novel The book has more than 200,000 words. If you finish it in one week, that means you have to write more than 30,000 words every day, not counting the time required for revision. I am very curious, how do you do it? "

"If I were asked to write it myself, I would not be able to finish the novel in half a year or even longer." Sokov explained to several people: "I don't mean that when I wrote this book, I would not be able to finish it. I enlisted the help of the crew and assistant director Sergei Eisenstein to send me several stenographers and scribes..."

Sokov originally thought that Shamrih and others did not know who Sergei Eisenstein was, and when he was about to explain it to them, he heard Yakuda say in surprise: "My God, help your deputy." The director is actually Sergei Eisenstein, a famous director, screenwriter, producer, actor, writer and editor in our country.”

Sokov didn't expect Eisenstein to have so many titles, so he couldn't help but asked in surprise: "Major Yakuda, do you know him?"

"Of course, anyone who has watched movies should know him." Yakuda may be worried that Sokov does not understand Eisenstein, and even introduced Sokov's resume to him: "In 1923, he directed His first short film "Grumov's Diary"; in 1924, he directed his first film "Strike"; in 1925, he directed the war movie "Battleship Potemkin"; in 1928, in order to commemorate On the tenth anniversary of the October Socialist Revolution, he directed the drama film "October"; in 1938, he directed the war film "Alexander Nevsky", for which he was awarded the State Medal; in 1939, he was awarded Received the Medal for Contribution to "Twenty Years of Soviet Cinema"; in 1944, last year, he directed the biographical film "Ivan the Terrible."

Sokov listened to Yakuda talking about the films directed by Eisenstein in one breath, with a shocked expression on his face: "Really? Eisenstein really directed so many films?"

"Yes, Comrade Commander, I am not mistaken." After Yakuda said this, he turned to Shamrih and Shapovalenko and said: "Regiment Commander, Political Commissar, what I just said is correct. Wrong?"

"Yes, you are absolutely right." Shapovarenko gave him an affirmative answer.

"I really didn't expect that Eisenstein was such a powerful person. The next time I see him, I will have a good chat with him about the films he made." After Sokov finished his digression, he continued. Next: "The stenographer sent by Eisenstein was responsible for recording what I dictated. After copying a page, it was handed over to the scribes waiting nearby, who would then transcribe the correct content based on what the stenographer recorded. ”

"Comrade Commander," Shapovarenko asked tentatively: "After you finish writing this novel, do you have any new creative inspiration?"

"Yes, Shapovalenko." Sokov nodded and said in a positive tone: "I am currently writing a new book called "Ordinary Soldier". It is based on the battle hero Matlosov. Written for the protagonist.”

Hearing this unfamiliar name, the three of them had confused expressions on their faces. They didn't understand why Sokov would use an unfamiliar character as the protagonist of the novel? Will readers like this kind of writing?

Just when Sokov was about to explain to the three men, Captain Menshov came over and reported to Sokov: "Comrade General, my men have all withdrawn to a safe area, and the artillery can fire at any time."

"Major Yakuda," Sokov said to Yakuda: "You can order your artillery to fire! Remember, you must completely destroy the building and eliminate all the gangsters hiding inside. ”

"Don't worry, Comrade Commander." Yakuda said excitedly: "It is too easy to destroy a fixed target at such a close distance. Just wait and see our performance." After that, he raised his hand. He saluted, turned around and ran towards the gun emplacement.

Sokov saw Yakuda running back to the artillery position and shouting something loudly at the artillery soldiers. The artillery soldiers followed his instructions and began to adjust the shooting angle of the muzzle and got ready to fire.

Soon, as the signal flag in Yakuda's hand suddenly waved down, two 152mm howitzers fired at the same time.

One of the shells that came out of the barrel missed, flew close to the building, landed more than 70 meters away from the building, and exploded. Fortunately, Sokov took precautions and ordered Menshov to evacuate the soldiers here, otherwise this shell may cause accidental damage.

The other shell hit the target accurately. After the huge explosion, the building collapsed in half.

Seeing that one of the shells fired by the artillery hit the target, while the other missed the target, Shamlih couldn't help but frowned: "What's the matter? Shooting at such a close distance will miss the target. What if we go to the battlefield?"

"Shamlih, don't worry." Although the first round of shelling did not completely destroy the building, Sokov was not in a hurry at all. Instead, he comforted Shamlih and said: "The soldiers may be shooting with live ammunition for the first time, and deviations are inevitable. As long as the next shells don't miss the target, it's fine."

Yakuda, who was at the gun position, was naturally anxious when he saw that one of the shells was off target. He yelled at the artillery of the howitzer and asked them to revise the shooting parameters and prepare to shoot again. The artillery soldiers did not dare to refute, and quickly readjusted the muzzle angle of the cannon according to the parameters provided by Yakov.

The second round of shooting did not disappoint everyone's expectations. Both shells hit the target accurately. The building, which had already collapsed halfway, could not withstand the second bombardment of heavy artillery, and collapsed in flames and smoke, raising a cloud of dust.

"Great, Comrade General, our artillery is really great." Menshov saw the building where the bandits were hiding was destroyed, and shouted excitedly: "The bandits in the building must be all finished."

"That's for sure, Comrade Captain." Shamlikh looked at Menshov with a squinting look, and said indifferently: "Don't say there is no basement in the building. Even if there is a basement, it will be bombarded by our heavy artillery. The people hiding inside will definitely be killed."

"That's right, that's right, it must be like this." Menshov didn't care about Shamlikh's attitude towards him, but asked Sokov excitedly: "Comrade General, should I take people to clean up the scene now?"

"Don't worry, Comrade Captain." Sokov shook his head and said: The bombardment has just ended, don't rush forward. Wait for the smoke to clear and see if there are any surviving bandits escaping. It won't be too late for you to go up and clean up the battlefield. "

When Menshov went back to explain the task to his subordinates, Sokov said to Shamlikh and Shapovalenko: "Shamlikh, Shapovalenko, your task has been completed. I wonder what you two are going to do next, will you go back to the train with me, or go directly back to your base?"

Although Shamlikh and Shapovalenko both wanted to talk to Sokov again, they had to return to their base as soon as possible after completing their mission due to their duties, so they could only say regretfully: "Comrade Commander, I'm so sorry, we need to return to our base as soon as possible. "