Red Moscow

"What, release all the prisoners?" After receiving this order, Papchenko couldn't believe his ears, and hurriedly asked, "Comrade Chief of Staff, did I hear correctly?"

"No, Lieutenant Colonel Papchenko, you heard me right." Sidolin replied, "This is an order from the division commander to let the prisoners of war move the weapons and ammunition we seized to the square of the workers' new village, and then release them all." Lose."

"Comrade Chief of Staff," Papchenko asked in bewilderment, "Why did the division commander issue such an order?"

"Didn't you capture thousands of prisoners?" Sidolin explained to Papchenko: "First, we don't have that much food to feed these prisoners, and second, we can't send them to the prisoner-of-war camp on the other side. In this case, tell me, what should we do, can't we shoot them all?"

Papchenko could accept it if he only shot dozens of heinous captives, but if he killed thousands of captives at one go, it would be no different from an inhuman beast. He was very conflicted about such a thing in his heart. After listening to Sidolin's explanation, he immediately understood why the division commander made such a decision, and quickly replied: "Understood, Comrade Chief of Staff. After the prisoners have moved the ammunition to the central square, I will release them immediately."

In order to avoid accidents, Papchenko did not announce this order prematurely, but only urged the soldiers to escort the prisoners and transport all the captured weapons and ammunition back to the central square of the workers' new village as soon as possible.

Seeing that the prisoners were about to finish moving their things, he ordered someone to call Vasily and the commander of the second battalion to the front, and said to them: "Comrades, two battalion commanders, after the prisoners have moved all their weapons and ammunition to the square, send them to the square." Get out of the residential area and let it go." He didn't explain the specific reason, but in order to prevent the two from questioning his order, he finally emphasized, "This is an order issued by the teacher himself, go and execute it."

When Captain Vasily heard the order to release all the prisoners of war, he really wanted to argue with Papchenko, but when he heard that it was Sokov who gave the order, he swallowed what he wanted to say again. Nodding his head, he turned and returned to his troops.

After the prisoners moved the ammunition, they assembled in the square in units of hundreds of people in accordance with the orders of the Soviet commanders and fighters. While the assembly was still going on, some soldiers wondered in their hearts, would the Russians distribute food to themselves later? You know, from noon to now, I haven't eaten anything yet, and I'm so hungry that my chest sticks to my back.

Unexpectedly, after the assembly was completed, the Romanian officers and soldiers discovered that the Russians not only did not distribute food to them, but drove them westward. Although the Romanian army has never massacred civilians or prisoners of war after entering the Soviet Union, they have seen the beasts of the SS do such things with their own eyes. Seeing the Russians driving themselves out of residential areas at this moment, The first reaction was to prepare to throw myself outside to be shot.

A timid soldier was scared to pee at that time, turned his head and cried to the Soviet soldiers behind him: "Please, please forgive me, I have never done anything bad. Please, please let me go!" ..."

The soldiers of the new battalion who were in charge of driving them away couldn't understand Romanian, so they just pushed the submachine gun in his hand towards his waist, and said coldly: "Don't talk nonsense, move forward quickly, hurry up!"

The rest of the Romanian soldiers who felt that something was wrong also began to cry to the soldiers of the new battalion, hoping that they would spare their lives. The Soviet commanders who were full of anger didn't bother to explain to them, so they threw the butt of their guns at the prisoners who yelled the loudest, making them shut their mouths obediently.

When all the prisoners of war were driven out of the residential area, Captain Vasily with an interpreter walked in front of them with a straight face and said loudly to them: "Soldiers, you are free, now return to your Go to your own position."

When the translator translated Captain Vasili's words, all the Romanian officers and soldiers were stunned. They never imagined that the Russians drove themselves out of the residential area and planned to shoot themselves, but they didn't know that they wanted to release themselves. . Some soldiers who were weeping with joy fell to their knees and began to draw the sign of the cross desperately on their chests, thanking God for their grace.

Some of the captives stood there in a daze, while others knelt on the ground and prayed, but none of them left. Captain Vasily was a little impatient, and he repeated what he said just now, but still no one moved. Vasily turned around and winked at the soldier behind him, and the understanding soldier quickly pulled the bolt.

Hearing the sound of the gun bolts, the prisoners immediately became vigilant. They looked at the soldier in horror to see what he would do next. The soldier raised his gun and hit the captives with a "ta da da" over their heads. , and then yelled at them: "Get out of here, if you don't get out, I'll shoot you."

Unexpectedly, his words had an unexpected effect. A Romanian soldier who knew a little Russian whispered a few words to his companions, and then shouted like a soldier: "Hurry up, do you hear me? Hurry up, it's better to shoot!"

Hearing the shouts of their companions, the prisoners started to move. First, a few of them walked forward slowly a few steps. Seeing that the soldiers from the new battalion around them showed no signs of firing, they quickened their pace. Seeing that their companions were not shot, the Romanian soldiers finally believed that the Soviet army was really planning to release them, and they also took action one after another, walking quickly towards their own positions.

And the soldier was still waving his arms in the crowd, excitedly shouting in broken Russian: "Get out of here, if you hear me, get out of here, it's better to shoot!" , Seeing his unusually exaggerated body movements, the soldiers standing around all laughed.

After releasing all the captives, Captain Vasily returned to the central square with his troops. Papchenko, who had been waiting here for a long time, immediately came up to shake hands with him, and said politely: "Thank you, Comrade Captain."

"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel!" Vasily stood upright in front of Papchenko, and asked respectfully, "What is our next task?"

Papchenko turned around and pointed at the mountains of weapons and ammunition, and said: "According to the order of your superiors, except for these anti-tank guns and supporting ammunition, you will take the rest of the weapons and ammunition back to Mamaye Fugang."

Vasily glanced at the ammunition boxes, and then asked: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I would like to ask, is this an order from the division commander?"

"That's right, it's really the command of the division commander." Papchenko also explained to Vasily specifically: "The division commander said that if we want to use these weapons and ammunition, we need a large-scale reloading, which will affect the troops in a short time. Therefore, the easiest way is to hand it over to the downsizing regiment, after all, you have always been equipped with German weapons."

"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel." Facing the mountains of ammunition, Vasili knew very well that he would have to rely on hundreds of soldiers under his command to carry them on their shoulders, and at least it would take them all night. Trucks for anti-tank guns, tentatively asked Papchenko: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, can we use those trucks to carry ammunition?"

"Oh, those trucks, no problem." Papchenko reminded Vasily: "Comrade Captain, although we released all the Romanian prisoners, they will not bombard us in a short time. But the Germans said no. Qing, maybe they will retaliate against us and cover this area with artillery fire after they learn that the Romanian army is completely wiped out, so you must act quickly."

"Don't worry, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel." After hearing Papchenko's worries, Vasily said with confidence: "We will definitely be able to transfer all the weapons and ammunition on the square before the enemy's shelling begins."

In fact, their worries were superfluous. The two battalions that attacked Workers' New Village were completely annihilated. Although thousands of captured soldiers were released, they lost the equipment of the two battalions and the eight German-style troops. anti-tank gun. For such a shameful incident, the Romanian military officers had no time to cover it up, so how could they take the initiative to report it to the Germans?

It was precisely because the Romanian officers concealed their failure from the German army, and the German army was having a headache because the ammunition stored in the town of Gorodishe was completely blown up by the Soviet army, and they did not have the energy to ask the Romanians. Besides, they have always looked down on the army of the slave country. Because of this, Captain Vasily and his men were able to successfully transport the captured ammunition back to Mamayev Gang.

Knowing that Vasily had transported all the ammunition back to Mamayev Post, Sokov personally called Belgin and said to him: "Comrade Commissar, I am Sokov. I heard that Vasily has already Bring the ammunition back?"

"Yes, Comrade Commander." Belkin, who had already served as the head of the regiment, felt warm when he heard Sokov still call himself political commissar. "How do you plan to distribute this batch of ammunition?"

"The third battalion of Captain Andrei has been fighting the enemy in the old city." For the ammunition brought back, Sokov had already had a distribution plan in his mind, and when he heard Belkin's question, he had no idea. Said with reservation: "You immediately arrange the manpower and send them part of the ammunition."

"Yes!" Belkin replied respectfully: "I will immediately arrange manpower to send ammunition to Captain Andrey's troops."

"Also," Sokov added: "Although the number of soldiers in the third battalion sounds quite large, most of them are temporarily armed residents, and their combat effectiveness is too weak. It just so happens that your regiment has no combat missions recently, so We will transfer the combat backbone from the New First Battalion and New Second Battalion to the Third Battalion, and strive to improve the combat effectiveness of the Third Battalion in the shortest possible time."

"Understood." After Belkin agreed, he asked cautiously: "Comrade Commander, I would like to ask, when will the Marine Battalion be restored?"

"The Marine Battalion is now assisting the 122nd Guards Regiment in defending the Workers' New Village," Sokov thought for a while, and replied, "I'm afraid it won't be possible to return to the village before November."

"And after November?" asked Belkin.

Sokov thought that the defense of Stalingrad would enter the most difficult days in November, and the troops standing firm in the Workers' New Village would probably be almost exhausted by then. Maybe he will also transfer Belkin's downsizing regiment to strengthen the defense. At that time, no matter how many people are left in the Marine Battalion, they can justifiably return to the establishment, so he simply replied: "Don't worry, Comrade Political Commissar, I Definitely getting the Marine Battalion back in November."