Red Moscow

Before leaving Zhukov's office, Sokov thought of the double imprisoned in the basement, so he stopped and asked: "Comrade Marshal, I want to ask, how do you plan to deal with the person imprisoned in the basement?"

Zhukov did not answer Sokov's question, but waved his hand and said: "From now on, this person's life and death have nothing to do with you and me. How to deal with him will naturally be decided by General Sokolovsky who will take over my position."

Sokov did not speak, but he knew in his heart that it would not take long for the double who was tightly imprisoned to disappear from the world. But the life and death of that person had nothing to do with him, so it was better to stay out of his business. He raised his hand to salute Zhukov, turned around and walked out of the office.

After returning to the hotel from the headquarters, Sokov locked himself in the room, turned a deaf ear to the outside world, and was busy writing novels.

Before he knew it, it was getting dark. The light in the room made it difficult for Sokov to see the words on the paper. He stopped writing and looked at the time. It was already six o'clock in the evening. He hadn't eaten for a day and his stomach was growling with hunger. He sorted out the manuscripts on the table, put them away, and walked out of the room to have dinner in the restaurant.

Who knew that as soon as he walked into the hall, he saw three familiar figures, not only Hosenfeld, Ernst, but also Bayer. Seeing this, he hurried over.

"Comrade General," the three saw Sokov coming towards them, and they stood at attention and saluted him.

After Sokov raised his hand to return the greeting, he asked curiously, "Why are you here?"

"Comrade General," Ernst, the only one among the three who knew Russian, said, "You helped my cousin find his wife and children, and he came here to thank you."

Sokov waved his hand after hearing this: "Captain, if you want to thank someone, you should go to Officer Shebeil. During our time in Nuremberg, he and his son Zorda were always asking around for your wife's whereabouts. Without them, it would not be easy to find your wife and children."

"Comrade General, I have already thanked him." Hosenfeld said, "But if you hadn't taken him to Nuremberg, I'm afraid I wouldn't have had the chance to see Leoni and the children. So after learning that you had returned to Berlin, I came here to thank you."

"We are all so familiar with each other, there is no need to say polite words." Sokov asked the three people, "Have you had dinner?"

The three shook their heads, indicating that they had not had dinner yet.

"It's just right. I'm going to the restaurant for dinner. You can come with me."

Sokof brought the three people to the restaurant. A waiter came up to them and asked politely, "Comrade General, what are you going to eat tonight?"

"Just follow my usual menu and bring four servings."

As soon as the waiter left, Sokov said to the three people, "I heard that the guards have started patrolling. How is it? Have you encountered any difficulties?"

"No." Hosenfeld shook his head and said excitedly, "Since the end of the war, the streets have been full of Soviet troops patrolling. The residents of the city suddenly saw their own army appearing on the streets, and naturally felt a sense of familiarity. Some residents even stopped our patrols and asked us about the whereabouts of their relatives."

"Their relatives either died in the war or were imprisoned in prisoner-of-war camps." After Ernst translated what Hosenfeld said, he went on to his own. "I don't know how to answer the questions asked by the residents?"

"Of course, answer truthfully so that they can also know the situation." Sokov said: "But those prisoners in the prisoner-of-war camps, I estimate that they will have to wait for several years to be released."

Although before coming here, Hosenfeld and others knew that the comrades in the prisoner-of-war camps would have to wait for a long time to be released, they did not expect that this time would be several years. Therefore, after the three looked at each other, Hosenfeld asked again: "Comrade General, can this time be shortened?"

"No," Sokov shook his head and said: "You should know that although my military rank is high, I do not hold any position here in Berlin, so even if I want the prisoners in the prisoner-of-war camp to be released early, I have no say."

Sokof's words made the three people fall into silence.

After a long time, Ernst broke the silence first: "Comrade General, in fact, we came to see you today to ask for something."

"What is it?" Sokov asked.

"It's like this, my cousin has a neighbor who wants to join our guard." Ernst said hesitantly: "We want to ask if it's okay?"

"Is he also in the Wehrmacht?"

"Yes," Ernst answered this question, realizing that his expression might not be accurate enough, and quickly added: "But he left the army as early as the Night of the Long Knives."

Hearing what Ernst said about the "Night of the Long Knives", Sokov remembered that this was the purge of the SA led by Rohm by the mustache. Could it be that Hosenfeld's neighbor was originally a member of the SA? With such a question, he asked Hosenfeld: "Captain Hosenfeld, your neighbor was originally a member of the SA under Rohm?"

After listening to Ernst's translation, Hosenfeld was stunned at first, and then he realized that Sokov had misunderstood his meaning, and quickly explained to him: "Comrade General, you misunderstood. My neighbor was cleared out of the army not because he was a member of the SA, but because he was a Jew."

"What, Jews?" Sokov's eyes widened in surprise. He did not expect that after the "Night of Long Knives", the Jews in the army were also purged. "As far as I know, the Jews in Germany were not deported. How did he survive even though he died in a concentration camp?”

"Comrade General," Hosenfeld explained to Sokov, "my neighbor's name is Bachner. Before he was expelled from the army, he was a second lieutenant in the Wehrmacht. When the country began to clean up the Jews on a large scale, he was also arrested. Sent to Auschwitz because of his strong health, he was not immediately sent to the gas chambers, but was engaged in heavy labor in the camp.”

When he heard about the Auschwitz concentration camp, Sokov couldn't help but frowned, thinking that this was a notorious death concentration camp. Almost no one who went in survived. And what happened to this former Wehrmacht second lieutenant named Bachner? What about those who survived? "Captain Hosenfeld, as far as I know, all the Jews who entered Auschwitz in the early days were basically massacred. How did he survive?"

"Comrade General, what I just expressed was not very clear." Hossenfel continued: "Actually, there is another concentration camp a few kilometers away from Auschwitz, called Auschwitz 2. , also known as Birkenau concentration camp, Bachner was sent to this concentration camp.”

Hosenfeld's words aroused great interest in Sokov. He looked at him and asked: "Captain, tell me, how did Bachner escape from danger?"

"Bachner first did hard labor in the concentration camp. After a while, he was transferred to the corpse transport team, which was to drag the corpses of the poisoned Jews out of the gas chambers, put them on flatbed trucks and drag them to the incinerator. "Go and burn it." Hosenfeld said: "But this work is not permanent. The guards will replace a new group of prisoners every three months, and the original prisoners will be dragged nearby and shot.

When it was their turn to be shot, due to the large number of people, they were shot in three batches, and Bachner was assigned to the third batch. When the guards finished shooting the first batch of prisoners and began to clean up the bodies, he sneaked into a nearby public toilet and hid in a cesspit while others were not paying attention. He endured the stench and hid in the cesspit for three days, with feces falling from above covering his neck. But in order to survive, he gritted his teeth and persisted.

On the evening of the third day, it rained heavily. He climbed out of the cesspit and ran to the barbed wire fence. He dug a passage under the barbed wire fence that could allow one person to pass through and escaped from Birkenau concentration camp. After escaping, he walked along the railway in the direction of Germany. When he passed a farmhouse on the road, he was discovered by a kind farmer. Not only did he put clean clothes on him, he even hid him in his cellar until Poland was conquered. until Soviet occupation. "

Sokov waited for Hosenfeld to finish his story and then asked, "Then when did he return to Berlin?"

"Just the other day."

"What, you just came back a few days ago?" Sokov frowned: "Even if he waited until the war was completely over before leaving Poland and returning to Germany, he couldn't have arrived now."

"That's it, Comrade General." Hosenfeld said: "He was captured by the Soviet sentry when he was passing through the Polish-German border. Thinking that he should be a German soldier who slipped through the net, he was imprisoned in a prisoner of war camp. Until Last month, he met a general who was inspecting the prisoner of war camp. He revealed his identity to the other party and showed him the prisoner number stamped on his wrist, and then he was released from the prisoner of war camp. "

"Oh, that's it." After Sokov figured out what was going on, he nodded slowly, and then asked Hosenfeld: "Captain, if you let him join the guard force, what position do you plan to let him hold? "

"I can let him serve as my deputy." After Hosenfeld said this, seeing Sokov's expression a little unnatural, he quickly added: "He has been away from the army for too long and is not suitable for specific positions. Therefore, I think it is okay to keep him in the garrison to assist me in my work. Comrade General, are you willing to see him? If you agree, I can bring him to see you. "

Sokov immediately thought of the scene where the other person was covered in feces, and suddenly felt something in his stomach rushing directly to his throat. He quickly covered his mouth to prevent him from vomiting it out in public and damaging his image. After his mood stabilized a little, he released the hand covering his mouth and waved to Hosenfeld: "Captain, since he won't be assigned a specific position, if you are willing to keep him, then just keep him."

The reason Sokov agreed so readily was because he was about to leave Berlin. As for the person in charge later, if the personnel arrangements for the guard force had nothing to do with him, he would just do it as a favor and leave one for Hosenfeld and others. Good impression.

Only a limited number of people knew about the news that Sokov was leaving Berlin, so Hossenfeld and others would naturally not know about it. When he heard that Sokov agreed to keep Bachner, he quickly stood up, saluted Sokov, and expressed his gratitude to him.

After several people finished their dinner and chatted for a few more words, they dispersed.

Sokov returned to his room, intending to continue writing the rest of the novel, but for some reason, he could not concentrate.

Seeing that he couldn't calm down and write the novel, Sokov simply threw the pen on the table, went directly to the bed, lay down, and began to close his eyes and meditate.

Soon, he fell asleep without realizing it.

In his dream, he dreamed that he followed Zhukov back to Moscow. The first thing he did when he arrived in Moscow was to rush back home and reunite with Asia.

Asia was also very happy to see Sokov's return. She came forward and hugged him, and asked him with concern: "After you come back this time, you won't leave again, right?"

"No, no." Sokov answered very straightforwardly: "I won't leave your side until our children learn to walk."

Who knew that Asia's face was stern, and she said a little unhappily: "When you stay with me, will you miss the woman far away in Berlin?"

Sokof was shocked to break out in a cold sweat when he heard what Asia said, thinking that the things between him and Adelina were known by Asia?

Just when he was panicking, Asia pointed to the door and said to him: "Go open the door quickly, the woman you miss is here to see you!"

The next moment, there was a loud knock at the door.

Sokov suddenly woke up from his dream, sitting on the bed and breathing heavily to relieve his nervous mood.

Soon, Sokov's mood gradually stabilized, but the knocking sound he heard in his dream did not stop, and it was still knocking rhythmically. Sokov looked at the door with horror on his face, wondering if he was dreaming or awake, why didn't the knocking sound stop?

He calmed down and realized that he had woken up. The knocking sound was not an auditory hallucination, but someone was really knocking on the door.

He turned over and got out of bed. He didn't even have time to put on his boots. He walked to the door barefoot and asked outside: "Who is it? Who is outside the door?"

"Misha!" A familiar voice came from outside the door: "It's me, I'm Ajelina!"

After hearing clearly that it was Ajelina's voice, Sokov opened the door without hesitation, and sure enough, he saw Ajelina standing outside the door.

Adelina was followed by Vaseligov. When he saw Sokov opening the door, he quickly raised his hand to salute and reported respectfully: "Comrade General, I have brought Adelina back safely and I am reporting to you."

"Thank you, Comrade Major." Sokov nodded to Vaseligov and said with gratitude: "Thank you for sending Adelina back."

After Vaseligov left, Sokov pulled Adelina into the room and closed the door with his heel: "Adelina, shouldn't you be in Berlin tomorrow morning? How come you are here so early?"

Adelina stood on tiptoe and kissed Sokov on the cheek, then said: "After you set off, Major Vaseligov said that you would be in danger when you returned to Berlin without anyone to protect you, so we set off overnight. Except for stopping for two meals on the way, we didn't stop at all, and finally returned to Berlin half a day ahead of schedule."