Red Moscow

For the next three days, Sokov stayed in his office and didn't go anywhere.

Every day, apart from calling Asia to learn about her latest situation, he sat in the office to look at various data on military machinery to improve his theoretical level.

On the morning of the fourth day, Sokov still didn't receive any information about the new machine gun, and he couldn't help but feel a little anxious. It stands to reason that no matter what the final result of the new weapon test is, the relevant parties should always say hello to the designer and talk about all the problems in the weapon test.

"Captain, Comrade Captain." Sokov opened the door and shouted to the outside.

Soon, the captain ran over from the next room and asked Sokov respectfully: "Comrade General, do you have any instructions?"

"I have submitted my design drawings four days ago, why haven't I received any response yet?" Sokov knew very well that the captain was nominally his assistant, but his main role was to monitor him. If he wanted to leave the room, he had to get the captain's permission: "I want to see Comrade Ustinov, I wonder if it's okay."

"You want to see Comrade Ustinov, there is no problem." The captain heard Sokov's request and showed a smile on his face. A difficult expression: "But Comrade People's Commissar is not in Moscow now."

"What, he is not in Moscow?" Sokov was shocked after hearing this, and then asked: "Where did he go?"

"It is said that he went to the Far East. I don't know when he will be back."

When Sokov learned that Ustinov went to the Far East, he immediately thought of what Yakov said a few days ago, and thought: Could it be that there is really a strange stone from aliens in a research institute in Chelyabinsk, and this stone can also use beam scanning to directly turn the design on the drawing into a physical object?

But he thought about it again and felt that this was too ridiculous. Not to mention whether the strange stone is true or false, people who can see this strange stone must sign a confidentiality agreement and cannot leave the area easily. How could someone leave and still be drunk and tell this big secret. It seems that the military expert mentioned by Yakov was drunk and talking nonsense, and everything he said was imagined by him. Yes, it must be like this.

"Comrade Captain, can I go out for a walk?"

"Of course, Comrade General, you are free and can go anywhere you want." Just when Sokov had the idea of ​​going home, the captain added: "Except for not being able to leave this building, you can go anywhere you want."

"What's the point of not being able to leave this building?" Sokov's heart sank when he heard the captain say that.

He turned around and planned to go back to the bedroom to rest. As long as he closed his eyes and took a nap, time would pass quickly.

"Comrade General," the captain followed and said to him, "You can go to General Yakov. He can't leave the building recently. I guess he feels bored like you."

Sokov decisively adopted the captain's proposal. He stayed in the room alone, which can be described as doing nothing. Every time he sat down to read, he would feel sleepy after a while. He spent at least two-thirds of his time sleeping these days.

"Captain, I don't know where General Yakov's office is." Sokov said to the captain: "Please take me to find him."

"Please follow me, I'll take you there."

Under the captain's guidance, Sokov successfully came to Yakov's office.

"Misha, you're here!" Yakov, who was sitting at the table doing nothing, saw Sokov coming in from outside and quickly stood up to greet him.

"I was bored in the office, so I came to take a look." After Sokov and Yakov hugged each other, he asked curiously, "What are you busy with recently?"

"Nothing." Yakov said with a wry smile, "I told you two days ago that we are studying the development of new tanks here. This is not my specialty, so I was excluded from the core group and can only do some odd jobs every day."

"Is it the T-44 tank?"

The T-44 tank is a medium tank redeveloped on the basis of the T-34/85 tank. It has four crew members and the original T-34/85 tank's electromechanical operator has been cancelled. The directional machine gun is fixed on the body and fired by the driver. The turret is improved on the basis of the T-34/85 tank, but there is no protruding neck ring at the bottom of the turret. It is an intermediate transition model between the T-34 tank and the T-54 tank. For the first time, it adopted a central turret, torsion bar suspension, horizontal engine, rear transmission, and two-sided front tilted armor, laying the foundation for the typical style of the Soviet medium tank development after World War II.

"No," Yakov shook his head and said, "The T-44 tank began small-scale production at the end of 1944. We are researching a more advanced tank. If we have to finalize it, it should be the T-54 medium tank."

Sokov also knows a thing or two about the T-54 medium tank. This tank was developed based on the T-44 tank. The first prototype was made in 1946 and put into mass production at the Kharkov Tank Plant in 1947.

"T-54 medium tank." Sokov found a seat and sat down, then asked Yakov: "You tell me this, it won't involve leaks, right?"

"How is this possible? You are also a member of the design bureau and have the right to know these secrets." After Yakov said this, he began to briefly introduce this new type of tank to Sokov: "T-54 The initial design began in October 1944 and was carried out by the OKB-520 Design Bureau (183rd Stalin Ural Tank Factory). The prototype design was completed in December of that year. The prototype was also built in February 1945 and was launched in 1945. It was tested and passed in March and April, and was officially designated as the T-54. The body structure and power unit of this prototype are the same as the T-44. The difference is that the armor is thicker, and the front armor is 100 mm on the upper part and 100 mm on the lower part. 90mm, sides 90-150mm, top 30mm, turret base diameter increased to 1800mm, and has a newly designed cockpit and observation window.”

"Since it was manufactured in February, why was it not put into the battlefield?" Sokov asked curiously: "You know, the battlefield is the best place to test the performance of weapons."

"As I just said, it only passed the test in March and April." Yakov said with a wry smile: "The Germans surrendered before our army could produce it on a large scale. As a result, this tank was of no use."

"This tank has been finalized and can be put into mass production at any time." Sokov recalled Yakov's complaints to himself two days ago and couldn't help but curiously asked: "Then why are you still talking about which tank to use?" Where’s the tank?”

"Someone suggested that this T-54 medium tank was designed for war. Now that the war is over, it has no place to be used. A more advanced tank should be designed as a tank to be installed by the army in the next few decades. "Tanks." Yakov explained: "The agenda of the meeting in the past two days revolved around whether to mass-produce T-54 tanks or develop new tanks. As you know, although I have been in the tank division, I But he is an artilleryman and doesn’t know much about tanks.”

After chatting for a while, Sokov changed the topic to Ustinov: "I heard that Comrade Ustinov went to the Far East. Do you think he went to Chelia?" Binsk’s research institute?”

Although Sokov was full of doubts about what Yakov said that day, he couldn't help but think of a strange phenomenon in later generations: in the early morning of February 15, 2013, a planet with a diameter of about 20 meters and a weight of 12,000 tons The huge meteorite passed through the atmosphere and flew quickly towards Chelyabinsk. As a result, before it was about to hit the city, it exploded and turned into a huge fireball, injuring about 1,500 people and damaging 7,200 buildings.

Later, the video of the meteorite from entering the atmosphere to exploding was played repeatedly, and an astonishing phenomenon was discovered. The meteorite was actually shattered by a mysterious object flying from behind. You know, at the flying speed of the meteorite at that time, even the fastest missile in the world could not catch up with it. Therefore, what object destroyed the meteorite has become an unsolved mystery.

Thinking of this matter at this moment, Sokov could not help but have doubts about his judgment: "Is what the military expert said to Yakov true? Otherwise, how can we explain the sudden appearance of later generations and the destruction of meteorites? What about the mysterious object? You know, if that meteorite fell in the city, the explosion would be powerful enough to wipe Chelyabinsk off the face of the earth.”

"Misha, what are you thinking about?" Yakov couldn't help but ask when he saw Sokov sitting in a daze again.

"Yasha, I'm wondering, is what you said that day true?" Sokov expressed his doubts: "If it's not true, then why did Comrade Ustinov suddenly run into the car? Going to Yabinsk?”

"Who told you that he went to Chelyabinsk?" But Yakov retorted: "There are so many cities in the Far East, who stipulates that you must go to Chelyabinsk when going to the Far East?"

"I thought about it carefully. What you said that day might still be true."

"What's true or false?" Yakov stood up and closed the door. He turned to Sokov and said, "Can you take what you said when you were drunk? Besides, when I told you about it that day, I also said this. The things were so fantastical that it was impossible to tell whether what the other party said was true or just nonsense.”

He poured a cup of hot tea, placed it in front of Sokov, and continued to ask: "By the way, have you signed the confidentiality agreement that Comrade Ustinov asked you to sign?"

"Since I handed the design drawings to Comrade Ustinov that day, I have never seen him again." Sokov answered simply: "Of course I didn't sign any confidentiality agreement."

"It's right not to sign." Yakov continued: "As far as I know, the R\u0026D team formed this time has about two hundred people, and there are more than a dozen generals alone. This shows that the higher-ups attach great importance to this matter. If you agree to join, I'm afraid you will have to live in isolation for a long time in the future. By then, not only will Asiya not be able to see you, I'm afraid that when your children grow up, I haven’t had a chance to see you in person for a day.”

"Yasha, I have been psychologically prepared for the situation you mentioned. However, the reason why I did not sign the confidentiality agreement is not because I am worried about how I will live in isolation in the future, but because I am worried about my lack of ability. After joining the R\u0026D team, , not only can’t help others, but will actually hinder everyone.”

"What, you think you are not capable enough." Yakov laughed when he heard Sokov say that: "When I was in the weapons and equipment department, the military experts around me, especially General Blagonravov, praised the weapons you designed. If you think you are not capable enough, those military experts will probably feel ashamed."

Hearing the name of Blagonravov, Sokov suddenly thought of a person: Kalashnikov, the developer of the AK47 assault rifle, but it seemed that with his early launch of the assault rifle, Kalashnikov's talent was drowned, so that the person who should have been famous became unknown at this moment.

Just when Sokov felt guilty for stealing Kalashnikov's achievements, Yakov suddenly asked him another embarrassing question: "Misha, do you know what Adelina's purpose of going to Germany is?"

Sokov had asked Adelina the same question many times on different occasions, but the other party either kept silent or talked about other things, and did not tell him about her mission to Germany. Hearing Yakov's question, he slowly shook his head and said, "I'm sorry, I don't know. Adelina never told me what her mission to Germany was."

"As far as I know, in January this year, Comrade Sherbakov, then director of the Intelligence Bureau, formulated a bold plan that will be of great help to our development in the next 20 years." Yakov said, "But unfortunately, Sherbakov died of a heart attack on May 10 this year, and the Intelligence Bureau he led fell into chaos because of a lack of leadership. Later, a new person took over and continued his original plan, but because of the missed opportunity, the plan ended in failure."

"Yasha, can you tell me what the plan is?"

"I don't know." Yakov answered very straightforwardly: "I just know that there is such a plan, but I don't know the specific content. But according to my guess, Adelina should be one of the participants in the plan. She was ordered to sneak into the US military occupied area. Her mission should be to obtain intelligence that is beneficial to us, or to cooperate with a hidden agent to obtain more important intelligence."

Sokov agreed with Yakov's guess. When he met General Patton at the Brandenburg Gate, Sokov could sense the change in Ajelina's expression. If he hadn't been able to talk and laugh with Patton in fluent English, she might have stayed by Patton's side and left a deep impression on him.

Thinking of this, Sokov realized that he might have made a mistake. He was busy contacting Patton directly in English, which reduced Ajelina's chance to contact Patton, which had a certain impact on her upcoming mission.

"Where is Ajelina now? Is she still in Berlin?"

"Yes." Sokov quickly replied: "She was assigned to the translation team under the Office of the General Staff of the German Occupation Army Group, and she is doing some translation work every day."

"When can she return home?"

"She has just been there for a few days. Even if she wants to return home, I'm afraid she will have to wait for a year or two."