Red Moscow

When Sokov woke up in the middle of the night, he felt that his pillow was empty. When he reached out and touched it, he found that Agelina was not there. He sat up and saw Agelina sitting in front of the dressing table. With the moonlight coming in from the window, you can clearly see that Agelina's eyes are closed and she is mumbling something.

Out of curiosity, Sokov got out of bed, stepped on the soft carpet with his bare feet, and walked slowly towards Agelina without making any movement.

When he was still two or three steps away from Agelina, Sokov suddenly saw Agelina's right hand raised back, and a black thing flew towards his position. He instinctively raised his hand and grabbed the thing. When he looked closer, he saw that it was an eyebrow pencil.

Seeing the eyebrow pencil thrown by Agelina, Sokov was confused. He said that he was afraid of scaring Agelina. Although he stepped on the carpet when he walked over, he was still very careful not to make any marks. There was movement, but was it still noticed by the other party?

Unexpectedly, at this moment, Agelina suddenly screamed "Ah", and then her whole body began to tremble.

Seeing this situation, Sokov didn't know what happened. He quickly walked over, opened his arms and hugged Agelina, and asked nervously: "Agelina, what's wrong with you?"

Agelina, who was held in Sokov's arms, struggled for a moment. When she heard Sokov's voice, she stopped and asked in a trembling voice: "Misha, is that you?"

"It's me, it's me." Sokov was completely confused at this time. He didn't know what happened. He quickly asked Agelina with concern: "Agelina, what happened? I feel You're shaking all over."

Agelina turned around and buried her head in Sokov's arms, and said nervously: "Misha, there is a ghost in this room."

Is there a ghost in the room? ! Hearing what Agelina said, Sokov couldn't help but tremble and thought to himself: How do you know? However, he still pretended to be calm and asked: "Agelina, who told you that there is a ghost in this room?"

Adelina looked up at Sokov and said: "Misha, I heard someone say that in the middle of the night, sit in front of the mirror, close your eyes, and then throw the pen back. If you hear the sound of falling to the ground, It means the room is clean, but if you don’t hear the sound of the pen falling, it means there is something dirty in the room.”

After hearing this, Sokov couldn't help laughing. He stretched out his hand in front of Agelina, opened his hand, and revealed the eyebrow pencil: "Is this the eyebrow pencil you just threw?"

"Why is my eyebrow pencil in your hand?"

"I saw you throwing it out, so I caught it casually." Sokov said with a chuckle, "I didn't expect you to be frightened."

"Misha, you are so annoying." Agelina hit Sokov's chest twice with her fist, and said feintly: "Who asked you to catch my eyebrow pencil, so that I thought There really is a ghost in this room.”

"Okay, okay, it's getting late, go to bed quickly." Sokov pulled Agelina up from the stool and dragged her towards the bed: "After daybreak, we have to go to the US military prisoner-of-war camp. Battalion inspection."

After the two lay down again, Agelina did not feel sleepy at all. She stared at the ceiling in a daze for a while, and then shook Sokov who had just fallen asleep: "Misha, wake up, I have something to do." ask you."

Sokov opened his eyes and asked feebly: "What's the matter?"

"Do you think there is really a ghost in this room?"

Hearing Agelina bring up old things again, Sokov was really dumbfounded: "Agelina, why do you think there is a ghost in this room?"

"The reason is very simple." Agelina analyzed to Sokov: "In the Battle of Berlin, our army suffered more than 300,000 casualties, including 80,000 killed and 270,000 wounded. As for the German army, the number of casualties was about 400,000. . In addition to the military casualties, there must have been a lot of civilian casualties. I think a lot of people must have died in the Adlon Hotel. Maybe the room we were in was a battlefield between the two sides. "

Although Sokov was still a little sleepy, he knew very well that if he didn't untie the knot in Agelina's heart, he might not be able to sleep peacefully tonight. He simply sat up and turned to face Agelina. Said: "Adelina, the original Battle of Stalingrad was more tragic than the Battle of Berlin. Not to mention other places, there were tens of thousands of corpses near Mamayev Hill alone. The attacking Germans were beaten by our commanders and soldiers He died in front of the position. Before collecting the corpses, their shelling and bombing began, blowing the corpses into pieces everywhere. By the way, Mamayev Hill turned out to be a tomb. If there is a ghost, it is there. The ghosts are much more ferocious than here.”

Hearing what Sokov said, Agelina remained silent. Sokov took the opportunity to pat her face, and said with a smile: "Agelina, stop thinking so much, go to sleep quickly. Even if there is a ghost, there is nothing to be afraid of, I will be by your side to protect you. ”

After listening to Sokov's words, Agelina finally stopped worrying about whether there was a ghost in this room, and Sokov also lay down again and continued to sleep.

Early the next morning, Sokov was awakened by a knock on the door outside. He got up and went to the door and opened it.

Major Vaserigov stood outside the door. When he saw that the person who opened the door for him was Sokov, he quickly took a step back, raised his hand in salute and said: "Comrade General, we will set off soon. Please do it as soon as possible." Be prepared.”

"Okay." Sokov raised his hand and looked at the time. It was just seven forty. "Comrade Major, please wait for me for twenty minutes."

"I'm going to prepare breakfast for you first." Major Vaserigov said, "I wonder what you would like to eat?"

Sokov had no special requirements for food and said casually: "Comrade Major, it's up to you."

After Vasergov left, Sokov woke up Adelina who was still sleeping: "Adelina, it's late, it's time to get up and have breakfast."

After Sokov and Agelina finished washing, when they came to the restaurant, Vasergov had already prepared breakfast for them.

While the three of them were having breakfast, Sokov looked at Vaserigov and asked: "Comrade Major, I may have to stay in Berlin for a long time. I wonder if Comrade Marshal has arranged any security personnel for me?"

"Comrade General." Upon hearing Sokov's question, Vaserigov quickly replied: "I received a notification from the Marshal's Adjutant yesterday that I will protect your personal safety while you are in Berlin."

Sokov had already guessed that Zhukov would arrange this, nodded, and continued to ask: "How many people do you have?"

"There is a security squad." Vaserigov replied: "There are also four jeeps for your transportation."

Sokov was secretly thinking that in one of the four jeeps that Vaselgov mentioned, he, Agelina, and Vaselgov were sitting, while in the other three jeeps, each car Four soldiers are equivalent to twelve guards. With them by his side, his personal safety can be guaranteed during his stay in Berlin.

"Tell me about the situation in Berlin," Sokov continued.

Vaselgov said: "After Germany surrendered, the Soviet Union, the United States, Britain and France issued a joint statement on joint control of Germany on June 5, 1945, in accordance with the agreement reached at the London Conference in 1944, stipulating that Germany and Berlin, its capital, was divided into four occupation zones, which were militarily occupied by the four countries mentioned above. The Soviet-occupied zone was in the east of Berlin, the French-occupied zone was in the north, the British-occupied zone was in the west, and the American-occupied zone was in the south.”

Sokov looked up out of the window, from where he could see the broken Brandenburg Gate. He pointed in that direction with his hand and said: "We will be there later, with the French and the heads of the US military. Convergence?”

"Yes, Comrade General." Vaserigov gave Sokov an affirmative answer: "After we meet up with the Allied officers there later, we will go to the German prisoner of war camp on the Rhine River to check whether there are Prisoner abuse.”

"Comrade Major," Agelina heard this and couldn't help but interrupt and asked: "Do you think there will be torture of prisoners in the prisoner of war camps established by the US military?"

Agelina's question obviously stumped Vasergov. He looked at Sokov hesitantly, wondering whether he should answer Agelina's question.

Sokov noticed Vaseligov's embarrassment and said: "Comrade Major, we are just chatting. You don't have to have any psychological burden. Just say whatever comes to mind. Even if you say something wrong, no one will blame you. "

After receiving Sokov's assurance, Vaserigov said with confidence: "I think there must be cases of torture of prisoners. You know, most of the German troops in Berlin ran to surrender to the Allies, and they had to be taken over immediately. With so many prisoners of war, I very much doubt whether they have the ability to accept so many prisoners. Therefore, there will definitely be problems in terms of living environment, food and medicine supply.”

"Misha," Agelina turned to look at Sokov and said, "It seems that the major's idea is the same as yours. Are you still going to stick to your original view and remain silent even if you see the torture of prisoners?"

"Agelina, I think you need to figure one thing out first." Sokov said with a wry smile: "The US military asked us and the French side to accompany the International Red Cross to inspect their prisoner of war camps to see if there was any abuse of prisoners. The situation is just a formality. No matter how they usually abuse these German prisoners of war, when the inspection team appears in the prisoner of war camp, this kind of situation will never be seen, and they will deliberately arrange for us to see some things they have arranged in advance. , thus making the officials of the International Red Cross think that the information they received was wrong.”

Sokov picked up the tea cup in front of him, took a sip of water, and continued to sneer: "I think Marshal Zhukov must have understood this, so he gave this job to me who just arrived in Berlin. Because he knows me My character knows that I will not express my opinions easily on unfamiliar things.”

"Since you know it's just going through the motions, what are you going to do? Why don't you just refuse."

"This is definitely not possible." Sokov laughed: "Even if we know it is just a formality, we still have to go. Although we know what is going on, the officials of the International Red Cross do not know. We have to help the US military fool this. people."

"Misha, do you think officials from the International Red Cross are so easy to fool?"

"Of course." Sokov replied without hesitation: "I heard from others that a few years ago, officials from the International Red Cross visited Jewish settlements controlled by the Germans. The Germans arranged a group of people in advance to replace them. Wearing new clothes and explaining what to do after meeting the International Red Cross officials, we even arranged a band on the roadside to start playing when the inspection team showed up.”

"What will happen if someone talks nonsense?"

Hearing Agelina's new question, the muscles on Sokov's face twitched a few times, and he thought to himself: Is the Agelina in front of me still the Agelina I know? Why do you always ask such uneducated questions? Could it be that she had never heard of this matter despite being lurking inside the enemy for so long?

"If someone talks nonsense and tells the truth to the officials of the International Red Cross, then only death is waiting for him." Sokov said with a serious expression: "Not only will he die, but his family and friends will also be implicated. To the Germans, the death of a few Jews is nothing.”

The expression on Agelina's face became serious, and she said solemnly: "So, when you inspected the prisoner-of-war camp, even if there were brave German prisoners of war, they couldn't tell you the truth. Arrive. And after they say it, they may lose their lives. "

"Yes, Agelina, this is the truth." Sokov once again expressed his attitude to Agelina: "Not to mention the German invasion, which caused the death of more than 20 million people in our country, and We have a bloody feud. More importantly, many German officers and soldiers in the prisoner-of-war camps were originally in the combat areas assigned to our country, but when they saw that defeat was certain, they fled the Allied combat areas and surrendered to the Allies today. All I can say is that they are to blame for what they have suffered.”

"You are right, Comrade General." Vaserigov, who had been acting as an audience, couldn't help but interjected: "In the later stages of the Battle of Berlin, when the Germans saw that their defeat was certain, they fled one after another to They surrendered to the Allied forces in the combat area. They thought the Allies would give them preferential treatment, but news of prisoner abuse broke out recently. They deserved it!"

Sokov finished the food on his plate, looked around, and saw that Adelina and Vaserigov had finished eating. He picked up the cup and took a sip of water. He stood up and said, "I've finished eating. Let's set off." ”

The three of them walked out of the hotel. Several soldiers standing at the door saw them coming out and quickly stood at attention.

Vasergov introduced to Sokov: "Comrade General, these are your guards. They will escort us to the US military prisoner of war camp."