Red Moscow

After seeing everything that should be seen, and the things that should be explained, Sokov has no need to stay here anymore, so he and Yakov left the Vasily Building with their own guards, preparing to pass through the building. A city full of ruins, return to Mamayev Post to continue commanding the battle.

But after the Vasily Building disappeared from everyone's sight, Yakov suddenly whispered: "Misha, you really shouldn't be leaving at this time."

Yakov's words surprised Sokov, and he asked puzzledly, "Why?"

"You know, some of the areas we are going to pass are the focus of competition between our army and the enemy. Who knows whether we will encounter our army or the Germans when we pass there." Yakov said with a worried face: " If we wait until after dark, with the help of the cover of night, we may be able to avoid the eyes and ears of the enemy and return to Mamayev Post smoothly."

"Yakov, I understand how you feel." Sokov, who came from later generations, didn't know the situation in Stalingrad at this moment. The defense lines of the enemy and us were intertwined. The Soviet soldiers occupied different floors and rooms, and the danger factor was too high if they went out of the city at this time. But in order to get back to Mamayev Post as soon as possible, he can only take one risk: "But if I stay on Mamayev Post, I won't be able to command the troops."

Knowing that Sokov was telling the truth, Yakov nodded and added: "Misha, I also know that going out of the city during the day is very risky, but as the brigade commander of the infantry brigade, you can't stay for too long. Leave your combat post, so I didn't dissuade you when you offered to leave the building."

"Okay, Yakov, stop talking, let's continue on our way." Sokov didn't want to waste time with Yakov on this matter, so he urged him: "We may encounter the enemy, we must do it at any time." Ready for battle."

The road at the beginning was very smooth. The area that the guard squad passed through was almost all within the control of the third battalion or friendly forces. Except for the gunshots and explosions not far away, there was not even a shadow of the enemy. . Seeing the Mamayev Hill from a distance, Yakov felt relieved. He pointed to the front and said with relief: "Misha, the Mamayev Hill is ahead, and we can walk for ten minutes at most. We can go back to brigade headquarters."

Along the way, without seeing the enemy, Sokov couldn't help but relax his vigilance. He thought to himself: "Since we haven't encountered the enemy in the area where the fighting is the most intense, we will be able to fight in the remaining seven or eight hundred meters. , I’m sure you won’t meet Germans either.”

Unexpectedly, just as he was thinking this way, gunshots sounded in front of him, and the two soldiers who were walking in the front fell down. "Battle alert, take cover!" Seeing that his subordinate was shot and fell to the ground, the guard squad leader quickly roared, and then hid behind a pile of rubble nearby.

Sokov and Yakov hid in a bomb crater in the middle of the road. Listening to the bullets whizzing past his head, Sokov silently counted how many enemies were ambushing him. Although there was a lot of gunfire outside, and they were all German-style weapons, but according to Sokov's combat experience accumulated over the past year, most of the shooting sounds were made by soldiers in the security squad. On the other side of the German army, there are only five people at most, and the firepower is also very weak.

Not only Sokov heard the details of the German army from the gunshots, but Yakov also heard it. He turned to Sokov and said, "Misha, there seem to be only five Germans. Judging from the gunshots they fired. Judgment, there is an officer with a pistol, a submachine gunner, and three riflemen, and your men are more than enough to take them out."

Hearing that Yakov agreed with his own judgment, Sokov hastily and carefully poked his head out from the edge of the crater to check the fighting outside. I saw the German submachine gunner hiding behind a half-person-high broken wall, protruding out from time to time to shoot a few shots, and then retracting his body.

Sokov felt that among the five enemies, the one using the submachine gun was the most threatening and had to be killed first, so he placed the assault rifle on the edge of the crater and aimed at the submachine gunner's position. However, he did not pull the trigger casually, but patiently waited for the opportunity to shoot when the submachine gunner appeared.

After only waiting for a few seconds, the German submachine gunner stood up again and fired at the positions where the soldiers were hiding. Sokov, who had already locked on to him, pulled the trigger without hesitation and fired a burst. The bullet hit the submachine gunner's body, splashing three flowers of blood. The huge impact force made the submachine gunner lean back and fell straight into the rubble.

After killing the German submachine gunners, the remaining four Germans became nothing to worry about. A dozen or so submachine guns from the guard squad beat them to the point where they couldn't hold their heads up. A soldier took the opportunity to throw a grenade towards their hiding place. After a loud bang, there was no movement in the enemy's hiding place.

With the help of soldiers, Sokov and Yakov climbed out of the crater and came to the rubble piled by the grenade, but found only the bodies of three German soldiers, and the guns they used were scattered beside them. Sokov thought that there were only three corpses here, plus the enemy who was killed by him behind the broken wall, how could there be only four people? Could it be that he and Yakov got it wrong?

Yakov was puzzled when he saw that there were only three corpses here: "It's strange, there are three corpses here, plus the submachine gunner behind the wall, there are only four enemies in total. Did I hear wrong?"

The guard squad leader walked up to Yakov and said with a smile: "Comrade major, I have read it carefully, and there are only four enemies fighting with us. You must know that there are sometimes errors in judging the enemy's strength by hearing. ..."

"Comrade squad leader," Yakov said with some frustration: "Even if there are only four Germans, how did they appear here?"

The squad leader of the guard glanced at the corpses on the ground, and said thoughtfully, "I think they must have gotten lost during the battle, and they came here by mistake."

When Yakov and the guard squad leader were talking, Sokov looked around. He felt that when he and Yakov were hiding in the crater, he really heard the sound of five guns firing, and one of them was definitely pistol. Just as he was frowning and thinking, he suddenly heard the sound of someone knocking over bricks and stones from the side. heard it.

He looked in the direction of the sound, and saw a pistol slowly protruding from behind a pile of rubble not far away, aiming at Yakov's position. "Yakov, be careful." Seeing this situation, Sokov instinctively rushed to Yakov's side, blocked him with his body, and pulled the trigger where the pistol was. The bullets fired by the assault rifle immediately splattered mud where the pistol was.

The guards standing around were stunned when they saw Sokov shooting to the side, and then turned their guns around one after another, shooting crazily there. But after the soldiers emptied the bullets in the clip, the hand holding the pistol had already dropped to the ground, and the pistol fell aside.

The squad leader of the guard ran to the gravel in person. After taking a look, he raised his head and shouted at Sokov: "Comrade Brigadier Commander, he is a second lieutenant of the German Army. He has been shot to death by us."

Hearing what the security squad leader said, Sokov couldn't help but feel a little proud. He felt that his hearing was pretty good, and when he heard five enemies shooting, it turned out to be five enemies. At this moment, Yakov who was standing next to him suddenly screamed, "Misha, are you injured?"

Sokov looked at Yakov in a daze, and asked in confusion, "Yakov, where did I get injured?"

Yakov supported Sokov, and said anxiously: "Misha, you were shot in the stomach, can't you feel it?"

Hearing what Yakov said, Sokov quickly lowered his head and saw that there was a dark wet mark on the military uniform on his abdomen, and the area was still expanding. The dangerous situation just now put Sokov at the moment when his adrenal glands were at their peak, so he didn't feel the slightest pain after being shot. As soon as he relaxed his mind at this moment, he immediately felt a sharp pain. He felt as if all the strength in his body had been drained, and his whole body immediately fell down limply.

Yakov tried his best to hold him, but he didn't. He just fell down and sat on the ground slowly. Seeing Sokov's pale face, Yakov quickly laid him flat on the ground, and shouted at the surrounding soldiers: "Whoever has a first-aid belt, give me a first-aid kit."

Following his shout, the soldiers hurriedly took off the backpacks they were carrying, took out the first aid kit from it, and handed it to Yakov. Yakov grabbed a first-aid kit, took out a bandage from it, and pressed it on Sokov's abdomen, trying to stop his blood gushing out of the wound.

Seeing that Sokov was injured, the security squad leader panicked at first, and then calmed down. He first took the first-aid kits from the soldiers one by one, and then ordered a soldier to report back to Mamayev Post immediately, and ordered several A soldier stretches a stretcher. After arranging these, he squatted down and assisted Yakov to help Sokov treat the wound.

After the soldiers tied up the crude stretcher, Yakov, with the help of the guard squad leader, bandaged Sokov's wound. He grabbed Sokov's hand and said with red eyes, "Misha, if you hadn't blocked this shot for me, I guess the person lying here should be me."

Sokov looked at Yakov in front of him and thought to himself: If something happened to Yakov, it would definitely arouse Stalin's fury, not to mention himself, even Chuikov and the others might be implicated. Now that I have blocked a shot for Yakov, although I will suffer a little, it is not a bad thing for me. On the contrary, it will make the friendship between myself and Yakov solid.

He forced a smile and said, "Yakov, you and I are friends. It is right to block bullets for friends on the battlefield." He had just finished speaking when he suddenly felt his throat itchy and couldn't help coughing twice. The cough involved the wound in his abdomen, and he couldn't help grinning in pain.

"Misha, from now on, you are my brother, my dear brother. As long as I am still alive, I will definitely not treat you badly." After expressing his opinion, Yakov said to the guard squad leader: "Squad leader Comrade, hurry up and send your brigade commander back to Mamayev Post, and let the military doctor treat him as soon as possible."

The soldiers of the security squad lifted Sokov's stretcher in groups of four and rushed to Mamayev Post at a speed of 100 meters. The first group was tired from running, and immediately switched to the second group. It took them ten minutes to walk, but they got there in three minutes.

When the soldiers panted and carried Sokov to Mamayev Hill, they found a group of people waiting in front of them. The soldier who originally reported the news ran to the duty post outside the hill, and reported Sokov's injury to Sidolin and Belkin by phone. As soon as Belkin heard that Sokov was injured, he couldn't stay there, so he asked Sidolin to stay and continue to command, and he himself called people from the health team to come out to greet him immediately.

Seeing the stretcher carrying Sokov approaching, Belkin hurried up to greet him, and asked the stretcher soldiers of the health team to replace the soldiers who were out of breath. He trotted along with the stretcher carried to the entrance, and at the same time asked Sokov who was lying on the stretcher with concern: "Comrade Brigadier, how do you feel?"

"Comrade Commissar," Sokov replied feebly, "I may not be able to command troops for a while, and I will leave everything to you and the Chief of Staff..."

"Comrade Brigadier, don't worry about it." Belkin couldn't help his nose sore when he saw Sokov like this, and he quickly said: "There are me and Lieutenant Colonel Sidolin in the brigade, so you can take care of yourself." Let's recuperate."

When the stretcher came to the health team, Asiya, who hadn't rested for several days, heard that Sokov was injured again, and suddenly felt dark in front of her eyes, and passed out. When she woke up and saw herself lying on a stretcher, she sat up quickly and asked the health worker beside her, "Misha, where is my Misha?"

"Asiya, don't worry." The health worker quickly grabbed her and comforted her, "Don't worry, Comrade Brigadier only suffered an abdominal injury and has already been sent to the operating room. Comrade military doctor performed the surgery himself. , should not be life-threatening."

However, Asiya, who cared about Sokov's comfort, couldn't sit still at all. She still struggled to stand up, walked out staggeringly, and said, "No, I'm going to see him."

When they came to the door of the operating room, Assia found that there were many people standing here, including the political commissar. Assia walked up to Belkin in a few steps, grabbed his arm, and asked nervously, "Comrade political commissar, what happened? How could Misha be injured for no reason?"

Belkin did not immediately answer Asiya's question, but turned his gaze to Yakov who was aside, and said to him: "Major Yakov, this is the brigade commander's wife Asiya. I think it's up to you Tell him how the brigadier was wounded."