Red Moscow

Yakutsk is located in the hinterland of the Siberian continent. Because the city is built on permafrost, it is also called the "Ice City." It has a continental climate, with severe and long winters. The average temperature in January is -38.6°C, the lowest extreme. The temperature is -64.4℃. The summer is short and warm. The average temperature in July is 19.5℃, the extreme maximum temperature is 38.4℃, and the absolute temperature difference exceeds 100℃. It is the most typical city in the world with continental climate.

Just on the outskirts of this city, several prisoner-of-war camps were established, holding prisoners of war from Germany and the Sakura Kingdom, with a maximum number of about 100,000 people. However, due to the harsh climate and insufficient food supply, many prisoners of war died every day, and the total number of prisoners of war continued to decline.

The train arrived in Yakutsk on the afternoon of the fifth day.

As soon as Sokov took his Vaselgov and others out of the car and stepped onto the platform, an officer wearing a long military coat and a cotton military cap, with a face that was purple from the cold, came to Sokov , asked respectfully: "Comrade General, are you General Sokov from Moscow?"

"Yes, I am Sokov." Sokov looked at the unfamiliar officer in front of him and asked warily: "Comrade officer, who are you?"

"I am Captain Yasenko, and I am here to greet you on the orders of General Lukin."

"Please lead the way."

Under the leadership of Yasenko, the group left the train station and got into two jeeps parked on the roadside.

Yasenko sat in the passenger seat of the first car, Sokov and Vaserigov sat in the back, and the other two fighters sat in the second car.

After the car started, Vaserigov couldn't help but say: "Comrade Captain, it's really cold here. Although it's still winter in Moscow with ice and snow, the temperature every day remains at several degrees below zero."

"Comrade Major," Yasenko half-turned around and said, "The coldest months here are in January and February, and the temperature every day is around -35°C. Today's temperature is -20°C. Compared with last month, it's already... It’s quite warm.”

Hearing that the weather here was so cold, Sokov couldn't help but worry about Lukin. He asked tentatively: "Comrade Captain, how is Lieutenant General Lukin's health?"

Yasenko hesitated for a moment, and then replied: "It's not good. After winter, he often coughs. After the doctor checked his body, he said that he should go to a relatively warm place to recuperate, otherwise his body will not be able to support it." a few years.”

Sokov felt that what Yasenko said was very reasonable. Not long after Lukin was rescued from the German prisoner of war camp, he went to the Far East with him and participated in Operation August Storm. Now he is sent to a bitter cold place to look after the prisoners of war of the Kwantung Army, which is very detrimental to his health. He began to consider whether, after he returned to Moscow, he should suggest to Zhukov that he transfer Lukin back to Moscow and give him a relatively free time. Otherwise, with his physical condition, he would not be able to survive in this cold place. several years.

Because there were snow and ice everywhere on the road, vehicles were traveling very slowly, no more than 30 kilometers per hour.

Sokov turned his head and looked out the window, only to find that the window glass was covered with a thick layer of ice, making it impossible to see what was going on outside. He took off his gloves and used his fingernails to press the ice on the glass. It took a lot of effort to open an area as big as his palm, and he could barely see clearly the people walking on the street outside.

Among these pedestrians were soldiers and civilians. They all wore thick cotton-padded jackets, cotton hats or dog-skin hats, and their faces were covered tightly to prevent frostbite. There was snow and ice on the sidewalk, so they didn't walk very fast, they moved forward slowly.

Vaserigov glanced out the window, and then said with emotion: "The climate here is always cold, and it's really hard for the residents."

"Yes, when I first came here, I couldn't stand the severe cold here, but as time went by, I gradually got used to it."

"The prisoners of war detained here, can they adapt to such a climate?"

"If you don't adapt, you have to learn to adapt, otherwise death will be waiting for them." Yasenko said: "Last December just entered, the temperature suddenly dropped to -38°C. Those Kwantung Army prisoners of war from the Far East lived in They were ordinary wooden houses with no fire, and more than four thousand people froze to death overnight.”

"How many?" Sokov, who was looking at the street scene, suddenly became interested when he heard what Yasenko said: "Comrade Captain, how many prisoners of war do you think froze to death?"

"More than four thousand." Yasenko couldn't help but feel a little nervous when he heard Sokov asked about this: "To be precise, 4,652 people froze to death. When Lieutenant General Lu Jin learned about this, he was furious and immediately arranged for people to house the prisoners of war. Even so, hundreds of people still froze to death every day. It was not until March that the number of prisoners of war basically disappeared as the temperature rose. "

Hearing what Yasenko said, Sokov couldn't help but secretly lamented that it was a pity. If the severe cold lasted for another two months, it is estimated that thousands of little devils would freeze to death. It would be too cheap for them to survive like this. .

"So many Kwantung Army prisoners of war died, how did you deal with them?" Sokov said casually: "By burying their bodies in potato fields, can the potato production double next year?"

Unexpectedly, after hearing this, Yasenko had a surprised expression on his face: "Comrade General, it's too cold here to grow crops. The food the residents need is shipped from other places."

This time it was Sokov's turn to be curious: "Since crops cannot be grown here, how do people here make a living?"

"Yakutsk is mainly engaged in building materials processing, wood collection and processing, leather manufacturing, food processing, coal mining, water conservancy and energy development, power industry, fishery processing, hunting, and horse breeding and animal breeding." Yasenko explained to Sokov: "Due to the cold climate, the bodies buried in the soil do not decay all year round. Even the mammoth bodies tens of thousands of years ago are still as fresh as new when they are unearthed."

When Sokov and Yasenko were chatting, he turned his head inadvertently and saw a soldier walking towards the front of the car. Although the other party was wearing a military coat, a cotton military cap, and his face was tightly wrapped, Sokov felt that the man's figure looked very familiar.

Just as Sokov was thinking about why the man's figure looked so familiar, the man had passed by the jeep and walked towards the rear of the car. Sokov quickly turned his head to look at the rear window glass, wanting to confirm again whether the figure of the man was familiar, but he found that the window here was also covered with ice, and he couldn't see the situation outside at all. Sokov tapped the window with his fingers twice, but only a small piece of ice was removed, and he still couldn't see what was outside the car.

"Stop!" Sokov turned and shouted loudly at the driver: "Stop the car quickly!"

The driver didn't know what happened. Since the general ordered the car to stop, he naturally stopped the car.

As soon as the car stopped, Sokov pushed open the door and jumped out of the car directly, looking in the direction behind the car, trying to find the familiar back and figure out who the other person was.

The man was just a dozen meters away, walking slowly along the sidewalk. Sokov quickened his pace to catch up, wanting the other person to turn around and take off the face covering so that he could see who he was. Who knew that he had just run out of two steps when he stepped on a piece of ice on the ground and was thrown upside down.

"Comrade General, are you okay?" Seeing Sokov fall, Vaserigov, who had just got off the car, was frightened. He quickly came to Sokov's side, squatted down, helped Sokov sit up, and then asked with concern: "Are you injured!"

Socov looked up at the man in front of him, just in time to see his back turning into an alley. He quickly pointed forward and told Vaserigov: "Major, there is a man in a military coat who just turned into the alley in front. Take someone to bring him over immediately."

"Okay, Comrade General." Vaserigov stood up, called a guard who had just got off the car, and told him: "Take good care of the general!" Then he said to another guard, "Come with me!"

At this moment, Yasenko also came to Sokov's side, helped the guard to help Sokov up from the ground, and asked with concern: "Comrade General, are you not injured?"

"No." Soko Sokov shook his head and said, "I just fell, but I'm not hurt."

"Comrade General, did you see anyone just now?"

"Just now, a soldier passed by the car," Sokov explained, "Although he was wearing a hat and covering his face with a cloth, I felt that his figure was very familiar, like someone I knew, so I got out of the car to take a look. After I fell, he turned and walked into the alley in front, and I had already caught up with Major Vaseligov and his men."

As he was talking, Sokov saw Vaseligov and his guards walking out of the alley. After the two of them came out, no one else appeared around them, and Sokov immediately realized that they must not have caught up with the person they were looking for.

Sure enough, when Vaserigov came to Sokov, he apologized and said, "I'm sorry, Comrade General, we didn't see anyone when we chased him into the alley."

"How deep is this alley?" Sokov asked, "Did he disappear in a blink of an eye?"

"Comrade General, this alley is about 50 to 60 meters deep." Vaserigov replied, "There are many residents in the alley, but the doors are all closed. I guess that person may have entered a private house after entering the alley. There are only two of us, and we don't know what the person looks like, so we can't find him."

After hearing what Vaserigov said, Sokov could only sigh secretly, then waved his hand and said, "Get in the car. I think Lieutenant General Lukin must be waiting anxiously."

The vehicle was back on the road, and after driving for more than half an hour, it drove into a yard and stopped next to a three-story building.

After the car stopped, Yasenko turned to Sokov and said, "Comrade General, we're here!"

"Lead the way."

When Sokov followed Yasenko into the building, the two sentries standing at the door saluted him with their guns, and did not stop Vasherigov and others who followed him.

Led by Yasenko, Sokov and others came to the door of an office on the second floor.

Yasenko raised his hand and knocked twice on the closed double doors. Without waiting for any sound to come out, he raised his hand and pushed open one of the doors, walked in directly, and closed the door casually.

After a while, Yasenko walked out of the door and opened it wide, and then said to Sokov respectfully, "Comrade General, please come in!"

Sokov turned his head and said to Vasherigov behind him, "You stay here and wait for me." Then he walked into the office.

As soon as he entered the house, Sokov was stunned by the scene in front of him. Lukin, who usually sat in a wheelchair, was now standing steadily in the middle of the house.

Seeing Sokov enter, Lukin opened his arms and said enthusiastically: "Misha, welcome to Yakutsk!"

After Sokov stepped forward and gave Lukin a warm hug, he asked curiously: "Lukin, how can you stand up?"

Hearing Sokov's question, Lujin laughed twice, and then said: "After you and Yasha left the headquarters, Marshal Vasilevsky once inspected our troops and saw that I was sitting in the After receiving him in the wheelchair, he said somewhat unhappily: "How can we keep our hero in a wheelchair?" After that, he called an officer and gave me a few instructions in a low voice. I received the prosthesis sent by Vasilevsky. After more than half a year of practice, I have basically got rid of the wheelchair and can walk freely without crutches.”

Although Lu Jin said that he could walk on his own, Sokov knew very well that no matter how exquisitely made the prosthetic limbs of this era were, the user would still not be able to walk as freely as a normal person, so he helped Lu Jin sit down on the sofa. .

"Misha, I really didn't expect you to come here so quickly after receiving my telegram." Lu Jin said with some surprise: "I thought you had to wait until the weather warmed up in June or July before coming here. "

Sokov is mute at the moment and can't express his pain. He can't tell the other party, "I didn't know it was so cold here in Yakutsk, otherwise I would definitely wait until summer to come visit you again." But he could think about these things in his mind, but he couldn't say them out, so he found a high-sounding reason: "Lu Jin, the situation is like this. Our army will hold a large-scale military exercise in Europe in late April, and I may I also want to participate in this exercise. If I don’t come to visit you before the exercise, I will have to wait until July or August. I don’t want to wait for Nanchang.”

Lujin heard Sokov say that a large-scale military exercise would be held in Europe in late April, and he couldn't help but curiously asked: "Misha, the war is over, why is our army conducting military exercises at this time?"

"Lukin, you may not know that this military exercise is to frighten the West." Sokov knew that Lukin had no chance to hear Churchill's speech, and put forward the "Iron Curtain" theory that would throw Churchill out. I told him about it and finally said: "Think about it, if we don't take a tough attitude to deal with this matter, Western countries will think that we are weak and can be bullied, and they will deal with us even more harshly in the future."

"Misha, I think Marshal Zhukov's approach belongs to the opponent." Lu Jin nodded and said: "When the opponent waves his fist at us, we should not show a smile to the opponent, but pick up an ax and swing it a few times. Next, let the other party know that we are not easy to bully.”