Red Moscow

But Second Lieutenant Zhukovin was more stubborn than Sokov imagined. He shook his head slowly and said: "I'm sorry, Comrade Captain, I don't think I can accept your suggestion. My task is to escort the prisoners to Moscow. Without I will not accept any other tasks until I complete this one.”

Hearing what Zhu Kewen said, Sokov wanted to slap him in the face, making his face full of peach blossoms. But considering that these two prisoners were the ones he was eager to get help from, he could only say patiently: "Second Lieutenant, judging from the current situation, it will definitely not be that easy for you to return to Moscow smoothly. Why not make it up temporarily?" You can continue to stay with these two prisoners and take care of them. After we defeat the Germans, you can send them to Moscow. Do you think this will work? ?”

Seeing Sokov lowering his attitude to talk to him, Lieutenant Zhu Kewen thought for a long time and finally nodded and agreed to Sokov's compromise.

After inspecting the 295th Division, Sokov was about to leave with the guard platoon when he unexpectedly received a call from Colonel Del.

"Captain Sokov, when are you going to leave the 295th Division's headquarters?"

"Reporting to Comrade Chief of Staff," Sokov said respectfully: "My inspection here has ended. I plan to return to the right bank of the Dnieper River to inspect the defensive areas of other divisions."

"Your mission is officially over." Del said briefly: "You come back immediately with the guard platoon."

"Understood, Comrade Chief of Staff." Sokov quickly replied: "I will return immediately with the guard platoon."

Sokov came out of the division headquarters and immediately sent someone to find Second Lieutenant Konstantin and told him: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, I just received a call from the headquarters. Colonel Del canceled the next mission and asked us to return to the commander immediately. department."

Constantine couldn't help being surprised after hearing this, and then asked: "Comrade Captain, what happened?"

"I don't know." Sokov shook his head and said, "The chief of staff didn't say, hurry up and gather the troops. We have to leave as soon as possible."

Ten minutes later, the convoy left the headquarters of the 295th Division and headed towards Kiev.

Second Lieutenant Zhu Kewen, who was sitting in the jeep, saw that the convoy was heading towards Kiev. He couldn't help but asked curiously: "Captain Sokov, didn't you say that we have to go to other places? Why do I It looks like this car is going to Kiev?”

"I don't know the specific situation." Sokov shook his head and said: "Anyway, our superiors asked us to return to Kiev, so we will return to Kiev. We only need to obey the orders of our superiors, and we don't need to ask why."

When we were about to walk another kilometer or two and reach downtown Kiev, suddenly there was the roar of airplane engines in the air.

Hearing this voice, Sokov almost issued an air defense order, telling the convoy to hide in the forests on both sides of the road. But when he looked up, he found that what was passing overhead was actually a Soviet fighter plane.

As soon as he relaxed his vigilance, he heard Zhu Kewen shouting: "Look, that fighter is going to crash."

Sokov quickly looked towards the plane, and sure enough he saw that the plane was flying lower and lower, and its speed was getting slower and slower. It looked like it had run out of fuel and the pilot was preparing to find a place to make an emergency landing.

Seeing this, Sokov quickly issued an order for the motorcycle team to turn around and follow the fighter to see where the plane would make an emergency landing so that the pilot could be rescued.

The fighter flew forward unsteadily and soon disappeared into a forest.

But fortunately, there was no explosion in the forest, and no black smoke was seen, indicating that the pilot may have made a successful emergency landing.

"Hurry up, hurry up!" Sokov urged the driver loudly: "Our pilot may be injured, and we must rescue him as soon as possible."

Seven or eight minutes later, the motorcycle team found the fighter jet that had made an emergency landing in an open space in the middle of the forest. Just as Sokov expected, the plane made a successful landing without an explosion. Looking from a distance, the pilot seemed to be still sitting in the cockpit, with his head tilted to the side, as if he had fainted.

The convoy stopped more than 20 meters away from the fighter plane, so that even if the plane exploded, the lives of the soldiers would not be endangered. After the motorcycle came to a stop, Lieutenant Constantine rushed to the plane with five or six soldiers, opened the hatch cover in a hurry, and dragged out the pilot inside.

When the pilot was carried in front of Sokov, Sokov couldn't help but froze when he looked at what the other man was wearing. Because the pilot was not wearing a flight suit, but a horizontally striped prison uniform.

Seeing this situation, Sokov was stunned and said to himself, strange, why did the pilot wear prison uniform?

After a moment, Sokov turned and asked Zhu Kewen beside him: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, do you think this looks like a prisoner who escaped from some prison?"

Second Lieutenant Zhu Kewen stared at the other party for a long time, slowly shook his head and said: "There are very few prisoners in Kiev Prison wearing prison uniforms. And the prisoner he is wearing is obviously not our style. I think he might Escaped from the Germans."

A bold idea immediately came to Sokov's mind. The unconscious pilot in front of him might have been captured by the Germans. But he was unwilling to be a prisoner of the Germans, so he found an opportunity to steal a plane and fled back to the Soviet defense zone.

Just when Sokov wanted to express his thoughts, he heard Konstantin say to Zhu Kewen: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, you see this pilot is wearing a prison uniform and flying a fighter of our army. What do you think he is?" Could it be that he was flying to defect to the Germans?"

"Don't talk nonsense." Sokov was worried that Zhu Kewen really believed Konstantin's speculation and wronged the pilot in front of him, so he interrupted him: "Without investigation, there is no right to speak. As for what? Let’s wait until the pilot wakes up and ask in detail.”

Constantine asked a veteran for a kettle and poured some water into the unconscious pilot's mouth.

As soon as the water entered his throat, the pilot immediately coughed violently and soon opened his closed eyes.

After seeing the people around him clearly, the pilot asked tremblingly: "Are you the Soviet army?"

"That's right." Sokov came to the pilot and squatted down, looked at him and said, "We are the security force of the 37th Army Headquarters. Who are you and why are you wearing prison uniform?"

The pilot struggled to stand up with the help of the guard platoon soldiers. After standing firm, he raised his hand to salute Sokov and said respectfully: "Hello, comrade captain, I am Lieutenant Yegor of the Uman Flying Group. During the Battle of Uman, the airport where our flying group was located was attacked. When the Germans attacked, after a fierce battle, almost all the commanders and fighters guarding the airport were killed, and the pilots who did not have time to take off became prisoners of the Germans. "

When Zhu Kewen heard this, he couldn't help but interrupt and asked: "Then why don't you take off?"

Yegor glanced at the blue hat Zhu Kewen was wearing, and said with a grimace: "Second Lieutenant, do you think we don't want to take off? But no, we have just participated in an air battle, and the fuel and ammunition on the plane have been exhausted. When we landed on the ground and were resupplying, German armor broke into the airport and made us prisoners."

"So, you all became prisoners of war of the German army?" Zhu Kewen asked.

"Yes, we became prisoners of the Germans." Yegor said with a painful expression: "We were locked up in a prisoner of war camp. We didn't have enough to eat or wear warmly every day, and we had to do heavy labor. We thought about what to do all the time. Escape from a German POW camp."

"Lieutenant Yegor," Constantine interrupted and asked, "I'm very curious, how did you fly our fighter plane and appear in our army's defense zone?"

"After we became prisoners, the planes at the airport that had not been destroyed became trophies of the Germans." Yegor said to everyone: "Although we became prisoners, we still had the opportunity to fly these planes into the sky."

"What, what did you say?" Hearing what Yegor said, Zhu Kewen had an expression of disbelief on his face: "You have all become prisoners of the Germans, and they can still let you often fly our fighter planes into the sky? "

"That's right, how could the Germans let you fly our fighter planes into the sky?" Constantine asked equally puzzled: "Aren't they afraid of you flying the plane and escaping back to our defense zone?"

Although Sokov felt that what Yegor said sounded a bit strange, in order to find out what was going on, he still stopped Konstantin and Zhu Kewen from interrupting, and looked at Yegor with enthusiasm. Question: "Lieutenant Yegor, can you explain why the Germans allowed you to fly the plane into the sky? And since you can fly the plane into the sky, why don't you return to our defense zone?"

"Comrade Captain," Yegor said with a complicated expression: "The planes we can fly have no ammunition at all except a small amount of fuel. The reason why the Germans let us fly the planes is to let their The new pilots used us as targets to improve their air combat skills. There were 24 pilots captured with me, but now only one other friend and I are left.”

"Lieutenant Yegor, you flew back to our defense area alone, aren't you worried that they will kill your friend?"

Yegor heard Sokov's question, and then slowly shook his head and said: "My friend is also dead, and I no longer have any scruples. I knew that the plane was seriously low on fuel, but I still chose to fly back. , even if I die, I will die within our own defense lines."

"Your friend died too?" Yegor surprised Sokov. He asked in surprise: "How did he die?"

"Today, the German commander had a whim and said that one-on-one training is of little significance to his pilots, so he planned to let my friend and I fly into the sky at the same time, and then let a German pilot do it like target practice. "Kill us all down." Yegor continued: "Before boarding the plane, my friend told me that if there is a chance, try to fly the plane in the direction of our defense line and try to get rid of the German planes that use us as targets. .

Unexpectedly, today's pilot was a veteran. Shortly after taking off, before we could fly in the direction of our army, he locked onto us and shot us with a machine gun. Fortunately, we were lucky and successfully dodged the bullets of the German pilots.

We split into two groups, trying to improve our chances of escape. Unexpectedly, at this moment, my friend's plane was hit by a machine gun from a German plane, and blood spurted from the wound splashed everywhere in the cockpit. When the German pilot saw that he had hit my friend, he did not fire again, but turned around to deal with me, trying to let me taste the taste of machine gun bullets. "

Hearing this, Zhu Kewen interrupted and asked: "Since the German pilot hit your friend, why not just shoot him down, but turn around to deal with you?"

"Second Lieutenant, I think I may know the reason." Sokov said: "Have you ever seen a cat catching a mouse? After the cat catches the mouse, it does not eat it immediately, but plays with it repeatedly. In this way, the cat catches the mouse. Hone and perfect your hunting skills. I think the German pilot probably got instructions from his instructor to use this method to deal with Yegor and his friends, Lieutenant Yegor, please continue. , how did you escape in the end?"

Yegor nodded and continued: "I saw the enemy plane rushing towards me, and I screamed in my heart. There are some problems with the plane we fly. If it is targeted by an enemy plane, it is very difficult to get rid of it. Difficult. Seeing that the enemy plane was getting closer and closer to me, and I was about to fall into despair, my friend suddenly rushed over with a fighter plane from the side and directly engaged the enemy plane, thus saving me from danger. "

After listening to Yegor's story, Sokov finally figured out how the other party escaped. If his friend hadn't crashed his plane into an enemy plane, Yegor and his friends might not have escaped death today.

"Lieutenant Yegor, you have returned to our army's defense area. At least you are safe now." Sokov knew very well that people like Yegor who escaped from the enemy's prisoner-of-war camp, after returning to the army, Strict scrutiny is required. Therefore, he felt that it was necessary to explain the matter clearly to Yegor first so that he could be mentally prepared: "But I would like to remind you one thing. Although you have returned to our army's defense zone, after all, you are a prisoner of war from the enemy. "If you escape from the camp, you will definitely undergo strict scrutiny and screening after you return. I hope you are mentally prepared."

"Don't worry, Comrade Captain." Yegor nodded and said, "I know very well what kind of strict review and screening you will face after returning to our military camp. I still say the same thing, no matter what the final review result is. , I don’t have any complaints, even if I die, I will die within my own defense zone.”

After hearing this, Sokov nodded and immediately gave an order to Constantine: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, since the pilot has been rescued, we must return to the road as soon as possible and return to Kiev according to the original plan to accept a new mission."

Just like that, the motorcycle team returned to the road and headed towards Kiev.

Second Lieutenant Zhu Kewen, who was sitting in the passenger seat, turned around and handed a cigarette to Yegor in the back seat, and asked curiously: "Comrade Lieutenant, would you like one?"

"Thank you, I don't smoke." But Yegor waved his hand and refused: "I want to keep a clear head at all times, so not only do I not smoke, I don't even drink."

Zhu Kewen took back the cigarette and said to Yegor: "I will take you to the internal affairs department later. If possible, I will put in a few good words for you."