Red Moscow

The officer took the gun, weighed it in his hand, and then said: "General, if it is just to shoot these damn escapees, one gun is enough. But if their death is to make others feel terrified, I need more guns."

"How many guns do you want?" Sokov asked.

The officer counted the Kwantung Army prisoners of war who were about to be punished and said, "I need 11 pistols, three bullets in each gun, and a phonograph."

"Lukin," Sokov turned to Lukin and said, "Please find him 11 more pistols and a phonograph."

"Misha, what are you doing?" Lukin frowned and said, "Giving so many guns to the prisoners of war, aren't you worried that something will happen?"

"Don't worry, Lukin." Sokov smiled and said, "I believe this SS officer will definitely be able to play some new tricks for us."

Since Sokov had said so, Lukin's objection was useless, so he simply found 11 more pistols and a phonograph, put them in front of the officer, and then stepped aside to see what tricks this officer could play.

The officer walked up to the prisoners, picked out 12 of them, asked them to stand in a circle, and gave each of them a pistol. He said loudly: "I will play music on the phonograph now. When the music stops, you pull the trigger in your hand. There are three bullets in each gun. Whether you can survive depends on your luck."

A Japanese translator standing next to him kept translating what the German officer said to the 12 selected prisoners.

After Sokov understood the rules set by the officer, he always felt that he had seen such a death game somewhere before.

Soon, the game began.

As the music sounded, the Kwantung Army prisoners of war who were gathered in a group, each holding a pistol in their hands, pointed the muzzle at the head of a companion in front of them. Although there were several fires burning around, it was clear that everyone was trembling.

After the music sounded for a while, the German officer suddenly moved the needle away, and the music from the phonograph suddenly stopped.

At the same time, two dull gunshots rang out in the field, and then two prisoners of war fell softly to the ground, and the blood flowing from the back of their heads soon dyed the snow on the ground red. The soldiers surrounding them immediately stepped forward, dragged the bodies out, and made the gap in the circle smaller, and continued to play the death game.

When the three rounds of the game were finished, there were only 3 prisoners left out of the 12 prisoners of war, two of whom were scared to the point of peeing their pants, and one was directly scared crazy.

"Well done." Sokov nodded to the German officer, and then ordered a soldier, "Give him another 500 grams of bread and 100 grams of sausage."

"Misha," Lukin looked at the prisoners' team and felt that such a warning should have the effect of a small punishment, so he said to Sokov: "Or, let those prisoners go back to their barracks?"

"Don't worry, the show has just begun." Sokov turned his head and said to Lukin: "The Germans used many tricks to treat Jews and our prisoners in the concentration camps. Today I let them use these tricks on the Kwantung Army prisoners to let them know what the consequences will be if they want to escape again."

After saying this, Sokov came to the German prisoners again and asked them: "Do you have other ways to play the game?"

As soon as the translator translated his words, all the German prisoners raised their hands. They wanted to exchange food to fill their stomachs by performing in front of Sokov.

After Sokov's eyes swept over the prisoners, he pointed at a corporal and said, "Corporal, come out."

The German corporal named by Sokov walked out of the queue happily, looking at Sokov with expectant eyes, wondering when he would reward him.

Sokov asked someone to give the corporal a piece of bread, and then asked, "How do you plan to punish these prisoners? I remind you that the method just used must not be repeated, understand?"

"Understood, Mr. General." The corporal swallowed the small piece of bread into his mouth as quickly as possible, and assured Sokov, "I will definitely not let you down."

After that, the corporal ran to the remaining dozen or so Kwantung Army prisoners and shouted at them loudly.

Because they were a little far away and the corporal spoke very quickly, Sokov and Lukin didn't hear clearly what the other party was shouting.

But the next moment, they saw five Kwantung Army prisoners leave the queue waiting to die and walk towards the brigade not far away.

After a while, they walked out of the crowd, each holding two prisoners, and returned to the death queue.

"What's going on?" Lukin asked in surprise.

After a brief moment of shock, Sokov immediately remembered the history he knew, and explained to Lukin: "I think the German corporal must have told those Kwantung Army prisoners of war who were bound to die that each of them must go to the queue to pick two prisoners with whom they had a good relationship and come to die with them."

"Will the prisoners of war of the Kwantung Army be so obedient?" Lukin asked in surprise.

"If I'm not mistaken," Sokov continued, "the German corporal should have told them that each of them must pick two companions to die together. If anyone doesn't do this, he will randomly capture ten times as many people and execute them. These Kwantung Army prisoners of war had no choice but to go to the queue to pick people to avoid more deaths."

"But why are there only five prisoners who picked people, and the rest are standing still?"

"I think it should be that the corporal only picked five people."

Sure enough, the fifteen prisoners were quickly driven aside.

The German corporal ran over and said respectfully: "General, please order the execution of these 15 people."

For Sokov, only dead enemies are good enemies. He turned to Lukin and said: "Let someone execute these 15 prisoners."

Next, the German prisoners proposed many disposal plans, but they were all rejected by Sokov.

The only plan that interested Sokov was to dig a pit and bury all the Kwantung Army prisoners to be executed in the soil, leaving only one head outside, and then smash their heads with a wooden stick like smashing watermelons. But unfortunately, in this cold place, it is not easy to dig a pit, and the frozen soil must be blasted with a howitzer, so the remaining devils can only be solved in other ways.

After returning to Lukin's headquarters, an officer came in from outside and reported to Lukin: "Comrade General, the commander who will take over your position has arrived and is outside."

"Quick, please invite him in."

After the officer left, Sokov stood up and said to Lukin: "Lukin, I will go to the next room to sit first, so as not to affect your handover of work."

"Okay, Misha." Lukin felt that Sokov made sense, so he nodded and agreed: "I will come to you after I hand over my work."

Sokov came to the next room, and Seryosha and Vaseligov, who were chatting, stopped talking and stood up.

"Sit down, sit down." Sokov asked the two to sit down and asked curiously, "What are you two talking about?"

"Misha, we are talking about the methods you just used to deal with the Kwantung Army prisoners of war. Aren't they a bit too cruel?"

"Seryosha, you have to remember that these Kwantung Army prisoners of war in the prisoner-of-war camp are not prisoners of war, but a group of enemies who have laid down their arms." Sokov said with a serious expression: "To deal with the enemy, we must use all available means to send them to hell."

"Misha, when can Lieutenant General Lukin hand over his work?" Seryosha said anxiously: "I don't know what happened. Since I saw you, I can't wait to return to Moscow immediately."

"Don't worry, Seryosha, it won't take long for Lukin to hand over his work . "Sorkov comforted him and said, "We can set off to return to Moscow tonight at the latest."

"It takes five or six days to take the train." Seryosha sighed and said, "It would be great if we could take a plane. It only takes half a day to reach Moscow."

Sorkov laughed, "You have waited for so long, do you still care about just five or six days?"

"Misha, I am thinking about one thing. My original home must be gone." Seryosha said with hesitation, "I don't know where to live after I go back?"

"It's okay, you can live with me." Sokov smiled and said, "My place is big, even if there are more people, it can accommodate them."

"Really?" After Seryosha and Sokov met again, they were busy reminiscing about the past and had no time to ask Sokov about his current situation. Now that he heard that the other party wanted him to live in his house, he naturally had to be more cautious: "If you can't live here, don't force it."

"Not at all, my house is big enough." Sokov said: "Major Vaserigov can testify for me, he and his men are now living in my house."

Seryosha asked in surprise: "Misha, how big is the house you live in now, and it can accommodate so many people?"

"I live in a villa now, with two floors and a basement." Sokov said with a smile: "It can accommodate more than ten or twenty people."

"Oh, you have moved into the villa now." Seryosha said with surprise: "I really didn't expect that I could enjoy the feeling of living in a villa in my lifetime."

After the three of them chatted here for a long time, Lukin came in from outside and said to Sokov: "Misha, my work has been handed over. You can leave at any time. I wonder what time you plan to take the train to leave here?"

"Of course, the sooner the better." It was too cold here. Even if he stayed in a heated room, Sokov felt cold all over, so he hoped to leave here as soon as possible.

"I just checked the train schedule," Lukin said with a smile, "There is a train to Moscow at 4 o'clock this afternoon. If you don't object, we will take this train back to Moscow."

"Well, I think the 4 o'clock train is good, let's choose this one."

A few hours later, when the train started and slowly left the station, Lukin, who was sitting on the bed, sighed softly: "I have worked here for more than half a year. I am reluctant to leave."

"The weather here is too cold, which is very bad for your health." Sokov said: "Now that the war is over, don't you want to live a few more years and take a good look at the changes in this country?"

"Of course I want to see it, but I don't know how long I can live."

Sokov remembered that Lukin lived in Moscow for more than 20 years and died in May 1970, living longer than Rokossovsky. He quickly comforted him and said, "Don't worry, Lukin, I believe you will live a long time."

"I hope so."

After a week of telegrams, the train finally arrived at the train station in Moscow.

As soon as everyone got off the train, a colonel officer came over, saluted Lukin, and said politely: "Hello, Comrade General, I am sent by Marshal Zhukov to pick you up. The car is waiting outside, please follow me."

"Comrade Colonel," Sokov, who was standing next to him, interrupted and asked, "Do you need me to see Marshal Zhukov too?"

The colonel shook his head and said, "I'm sorry, General Sokov, Marshal Zhukov didn't say he wanted to see you, you should go home first."

Since Zhukov was unwilling to meet him, Sokov would naturally not force it. He walked up to Lukin, shook his hand, and then said, "I have already sent my I have told you the address of my home. Please come to my home when you are free. "

"No problem, no problem." Lukin nodded and said, "When I have time, I will definitely visit your home."

After Lukin left with the colonel, Sokov turned to Vaseligov and Seryosha and said, "We have a lot of people. Let's find two cars to go back."

"Comrade General, leave this to me." Vaseligov said, "I will arrange a car to pick us up."

As Zhukov's subordinate, Vaseligov has a wide network of contacts. Within 20 minutes after a phone call, two black cars drove directly to the platform.

Seeing the car coming, Vaseligov walked out of the station duty room, went over to chat with the driver, and turned to Sokov and said, "Comrade General, the car has arrived, and we can set off now."

The two cars left the train station and drove directly to the villa area where Sokov's family was located.

When the car stopped at the gate of the villa, two soldiers in the duty room ran over and opened the gate of the villa, inviting everyone in.

Seryosha looked around and said with envy: "Misha, I didn't expect you to live in such a big villa and have such a big yard. It would be a waste if you don't plant some flowers and plants in the yard."

"Seryosha, you don't know that there were originally many flowers and plants in the yard, but because the original owner was evacuated to other places, no one took care of it for a long time, and they all withered." Vaserigov said: "Wait until the spring, and then plant a new batch of flowers and plants, and the yard will be more beautiful."

The speaker is unintentional, but the listener is intentional. When Vaserigov told Seryosha to plant flowers and plants in the yard, Sokov was thinking, seeing that the great famine was coming, could he use the open space in the yard to plant some potatoes? In this way, even if the supply is reduced in the future, there will be potatoes to eat. The only regret is that there is no crop like sweet potato here, otherwise I must plant more.

"Comrade General," Vaserigov said to Sokov, "I know someone in the Gardening Bureau. Do you think you can ask them to come and help you plant some flowers and plants when the weather warms up?"