Red Moscow

Sokov's words made Colonel Balanin's eyes light up. "This is a good idea," Balanin said. "Although there are thousands of captured German officers, based on their approximate age, we can narrow them down." "Mr. Spielman," he said to Spielman, "remember the approximate age of the German captain. This will be very helpful for us to find him as soon as possible."

Spielman thought for a moment and said hesitantly: "His age is probably between 30 and 40 years old."

"A German captain between 30 and 40 years old." Baranin repeated what Spielman said, and then said with a smile: "Mr. Spielman, since you remember his approximate age, then what we are looking for The scope has been greatly reduced, and I believe we will be able to find this German captain within a week or two..."

"Colonel Balanin!" Sokov heard that Balanin said it would take a week or two to find the German captain who had helped Spielman. He immediately interrupted and said: "I will not stay in Warsaw for a long time." Commander, I may leave here tomorrow. I hope you can find this captain before I leave and leave it to me." Sokov knew very well that the Soviet army might have been faster during the war, but not now. After a war, work becomes procrastinated again. If you don't supervise yourself, it is entirely possible to spend half a year or even a year looking for it. If Balanin were transferred midway, the search for the German captain would probably end in vain.

"Ah, before you leave Warsaw, find this German captain?"

"Yes." After Sokov gave Baranin a positive answer, he asked with a straight face: "Can it be done?"

The muscles on Balanin's face twitched violently for a few times, and then he said with a grimace: "Comrade General, we will do our best."

"Then what are you still doing? Why don't you work quickly?" Sokov reminded the other party: "If you can't do it alone, I can ask you to help you."

Sokov's words reminded Balanin, and he quickly called several officers and told them: "Immediately write down the names of captains and officers aged 30 to 40 years old in the prisoner of war roster."

Although several officers did not know what was going on, since it was an order given by Colonel Baranin, they naturally had to obey it unconditionally. So they took the roster of German prisoner-of-war officers and sat down at the conference table next to them. Start transcribing.

While the officers were transcribing the list, Baranin came over to chat with Sokov, trying to find out the general's resume.

Sokov guessed the other party's intention and said openly: "I have served as the commander of the 27th, 48th and 53rd Army. In August 1944, when I was still serving as the commander of the 48th Army, We once commanded the troops to launch an attack on the city of Warsaw. Although an uprising broke out in the city at that time, due to some problems with the cooperation with the insurgents, our river-crossing troops did not receive timely response. As a result, under the German counterattack, we had to Neng retreated to the east coast again."

Although Sokov's words were very euphemistic, as a member of the Warsaw Garrison Command, Baranin naturally understood what was going on. When he learned that Sokov was once the commander of the 48th Army, he couldn't help but said with some regret: "Comrade General, if your troops had not been transferred to the East Prussia area, your troops might have been among the troops that liberated Warsaw. Based on your record, you might be the first unit to rush into the city."

Sokov had no interest at all in whether his troops would be the first to rush into Warsaw. His most regretful thing was that he was not able to participate in the Battle of Berlin. According to his assumption, if he knew where Mustache was really hiding, he would not foolishly concentrate elite troops to attack the Capitol Building, which had only political significance but no military value. The most correct thing to do is to bombard the Capitol with artillery fire, and the infantry will just rush directly to where Mustache is hiding, maybe capturing him alive before he takes poison and a bullet to commit suicide.

But there are no what-ifs in history. He never dreamed that he, a time-traveler with the aura of a protagonist, was not even qualified to participate in the Battle of Berlin at the last moment of the war, and missed the opportunity to go down in history.

Several officers worked very efficiently. In less than half an hour, they compiled a list of qualified German prisoner-of-war officers.

Balanin took it over, turned it over, and then said to Sokov: "Comrade General, there are 48 German captains who meet the standards, including 6 in the North Prague District, 5 in the South Prague District, and 8 in the Mokotov District. , 11 people from Ojota District..."

"Stop! Stop!!" Sokov's head hurt when he heard the series of place names that Balanin read out. He quickly stopped the other person from continuing to read, and asked directly: "Which district is closest to here?"

"Ojota District."

"Since Ojota District is the closest, we will go there to check first." Sokov said: "I remember you said that there are 11 officers who meet the criteria we are looking for."

"Yes, Comrade General." Balanin said with a smile: "Your memory is really good. Indeed, 11 officers meet the criteria we are looking for."

When they were going to the prisoner of war camp, Balanin, who was leading them, would definitely not act alone. He was worried that if there were escaped German prisoners of war in the city, they would see him alone and launch a sneak attack on him, so he specially brought one with him when he went out. Guard platoon.

In this way, a convoy consisting of a jeep and three trucks left the garrison headquarters and headed towards the prisoner-of-war camp in the Ohota district.

Not long after, the convoy arrived in front of a prisoner-of-war camp.

After the sentry on duty at the gate saw Baranin sitting in the co-pilot seat of the jeep, he hurriedly opened the gate of the prisoner-of-war camp and let the convoy enter the prisoner-of-war camp.

The convoy stopped in an open space in the prisoner-of-war camp. The person in charge of the prisoner-of-war camp learned that Colonel Baranin had arrived and hurriedly ran out of the wooden house to greet him.

Baranin shook hands with him and introduced Sokov to him: "Comrade Captain, this is General Sokov. He came here to look for a German captain."

"A German captain?" The person in charge asked in surprise: "What's his name?"

"I don't know." Without waiting for Sokov to answer, Baranin said: "So far, we know that the person we are looking for is a captain, aged between 30 and 40. Here, this is the list compiled by my subordinates, you just need to find the German officers on it."

The person in charge took the roster from Baranin's hand, looked at it, and then nodded and said: "Okay, Comrade Colonel, I will immediately arrange for people to find all these German officers."

More than ten minutes later, a group of ragged German officers, driven by the bayonets of several soldiers, came to Sokov and others.

The person in charge counted the number of people and then reported to Baranin: "Comrade Colonel, there are 11 German officers you are looking for, and 9 of them are here. One of the absent ones died and the other was seriously ill in bed."

"Comrade General," Baranin said to Sokov with a smile: "Look among these people, is there anyone you are looking for?"

Sokof didn't know what the German captain Spieman was talking about, so he turned to Spieman and said: "Mr. Spieman, please go and see if there is the officer who helped among them?"

The German officers standing opposite did not understand Russian and did not know what Sokov was talking about. When they saw the man with a hooked nose next to Sokov walking towards them, their bodies could not help but tremble slightly.

Seeing this, Ajelina asked in surprise: "Misha, what's wrong with these Germans? Why are they all shaking?"

Sokof glanced at Szpilman and lowered his voice to Ajelina: "Ajelina, you have also been to Warsaw. Don't you know that the hooked nose is the appearance feature of Jews? Szpilman is a Jew at first glance. These officers may think that Szpilman is going to retaliate against them. It would be strange if they are not afraid."

After figuring out what was going on, Ajelina took two steps forward and said to the officers: "Mr. Officers, please stay calm. We are here today to find a German captain. He selflessly helped the Polish pianist Szpilman in front of you during the German occupation of Warsaw."

Hearing what Ajelina said, the emotions of the officers stabilized a lot. Since the Jew standing in front of them was looking for the German officer who had helped him, it meant that he wanted to repay the other party's kindness and might even rescue the other party from the prisoner-of-war camp. Thinking of this, all the officers straightened their chests and held their chins high, hoping to be selected by Spielman and leave this damned prisoner-of-war camp as soon as possible.

After Spielman walked back and forth in front of the nine officers twice, he turned around and shook his head at Sokov, his face full of regret, indicating that there was no one here he was looking for.

Sokov thought of what Baranin had just told him, saying that the two German officers who were absent, one died and the other was seriously ill in bed. He asked Baranin with a fluke mentality: "Comrade Colonel, the people we are looking for, could it be the two officers who are absent?"

"Captain," Baranin called the person in charge of the prisoner-of-war camp and asked, "Do you have the information of the two German officers?"

"Yes, Comrade Colonel."

"Then get it quickly!"

After the person in charge left, Baranin explained to Sokov: "Because we have too much information, the roster of prisoners of war is relatively simple. But the information in the prisoner-of-war camp is much more complete, not only the content you just saw, but also the photos of the prisoners of war."

Soon, the person in charge came with two documents: "Comrade Colonel, what you want is here."

Baranin took the information and flipped through it, and handed it to Sokov: "Comrade General, these are the two officers who are absent. See if the people you are looking for are among them."

Sokov took the information and found that it contained detailed information about the officers, including photos taken when they entered the prisoner-of-war camp.

"Mr. Spiman," Sokov handed the information to Spiman: "Take a look and see if there is the person you are looking for." Spiman took the information, carefully checked the photos on it, and then shook his head and said: "Sorry, Comrade General, no." Sokov was a little disappointed when he heard Spiman say no. But he did not lose heart. After returning the information to Baranin, he raised his hand and patted Spiman on the shoulder: "Mr. Spiman, don't lose heart. There is no one in this prisoner-of-war camp, we will continue to look for it in other prisoner-of-war camps." "Comrade Captain, I am sorry to trouble you." After Sokov said this to the person in charge of the prisoner-of-war camp, he turned his head and said to Baranin: "Comrade Colonel, let's go to the next prisoner-of-war camp, maybe there will be gains there!"

When Sokov and others returned to the jeep and were saying goodbye to the person in charge of the prisoner-of-war camp, the camp gate was suddenly opened, and a group of prisoners came in from outside under the escort of Soviet soldiers. When everyone heard the noise, they all turned their eyes to see that it was a group of prisoners returning to the camp, and then retracted their eyes.

No one noticed that among the prisoners, there was a prisoner wearing a worn-out corporal coat, but he was walking and looking back. His eyes stayed on Spiman standing next to the car, and his face was full of shock. Because he kept looking back, his steps were naturally slower than other prisoners. Seeing this, a Soviet soldier in charge of escorting pushed him hard and angrily scolded: "Go faster!"

Who knew that the prisoner actually rushed out of the crowd and rushed directly to the jeep.

The soldiers standing around Sokov thought that the prisoner was going to harm Sokov, so they raised their guns, blocked the prisoner's way, and prepared to shoot.

The prisoner of war was held by two soldiers and dragged back when he suddenly shouted loudly. Although Sokov could not understand what he was shouting, he could tell that he was not shouting in German, but in Polish.

Spielman, who was standing behind Sokov in a daze, shuddered when he heard the voice, and then looked at the prisoner of war who was dragged away by the soldiers with an unbelievable look. After a moment of stunned, he shouted and stumbled towards the prisoner of war. After pushing away the two soldiers holding the prisoner of war, he looked at the prisoner of war, and then hugged each other.

Seeing this, Sokov guessed that the prisoner of war might be the German captain that Spielman was looking for, and quickly raised his hand to stop the soldier who was about to separate the prisoner of war and Spielman, and then asked: "Mr. Spielman, is this the German captain who helped you at the beginning?"

"Yes, Mr. General, it's him, it's him." Spielman replied with tears in his eyes.

"Colonel Baranin," Sokov asked Baranin with a stern face, "Why is this officer's name not on the roster?"

Baranin was stunned. He turned his head and looked at his subordinates with a reproachful look, as if he wanted them to give him a reasonable explanation.

The head of the prisoner-of-war camp replied in a panic, "Comrade Colonel, you are looking for a German captain, and this prisoner was wearing this corporal's military coat when we captured him. He said he was a German captain, but he couldn't produce a valid ID, so we registered him as a corporal."

Sokof came to the prisoner, looked at him and asked, "What is your name and rank?" After that, he winked at Adelina, indicating that she should translate his words.

"My name is William Hosenfeld." The prisoner stood at attention and answered straight, "My rank is Captain of the Wehrmacht!"

William Hosenfeld? ! When he heard the name, Sokov was stunned. He knew that after the war, many Germans had been awarded the title of "International Righteous", including the famous Schindler, and this captain was one of them.