Red Moscow

Considering that Sokov planned to use the cover of night to secretly go to the third battalion in the old city south of the city, Sidolin was worried about his safety, and while he was still preparing to set off, he tentatively asked: "Comrade commander, I used to be responsible for protecting you Second Lieutenant Samoilov, who is safe, has gone to the enemy's rear with Lieutenant Guchakov to perform missions, who do you plan to let go to the city with you tonight?"

"Chief of Staff, call Seryozha." Considering that on the way to the command post of the third battalion, he may encounter the enemy and must find a trustworthy person to protect him. After thinking for a while, Sokov decided to choose his old man. Friend Seryozha: "Let him go to the city with me."

After receiving the order, Seryozha walked in from the outside. After saluting Sokov and Sidolin, he reported: "Report to the division commander, Comrade Chief of Staff, Lieutenant Seryozha, the commander of the guard company. Come here under orders, please give instructions!"

"Comrade Lieutenant," seeing Seryozha coming, Sidolin assigned him a task: "The division commander is going to the command post of Captain Andrei, and you will lead the people to protect his safety."

Knowing that Sokov planned to go to Andrei's command post, Seryozha's pupils couldn't help shrinking, and he asked in a panic, "Are you going to the old city tonight?"

"That's right, I'll go tonight." Seeing that there was something wrong with the expression on Seryozha's face, Sokov asked curiously, "Why, is there any problem?"

After staring at Sokov for a while, Seryosha reminded him: "Comrade commander, there are ruins everywhere on the way to the command of the third battalion, and there may be German automatic gunners or snipers hiding in any of the ruins. For your sake For the sake of safety, I think you should change into a soldier's military coat."

"Yes, Comrade Commander, Seryozha is right." As soon as Seryozha finished speaking, Sidolin echoed: "For your safety, you should change into a soldier's army coat when you set off." As he said that, his eyes drifted to the corner, because there was a military coat hanging on the wall there, which was lent to Sokov by the factory manager Peter.

Seeing where Sidolin was looking, Sokov shook his head and said, "Chief of Staff, thank you for your kindness. I am wearing a soldier's military coat, hiding my identity and quietly going to the old city, which can indeed minimize the danger. But have you ever thought that the soldiers you meet along the way will think it is just an ordinary squad, and they will never know that the person who came is their division commander. In this way, I will go to the third battalion defense area to inspect what else is there significance."

Half an hour later, Sokov and Seriosha led a platoon of guards and left Mamayev Post. Under the cover of night, they quietly went to the defense area of ​​the third battalion.

On the way, Seryosha scolded Sokov in a low voice: "Misha, you are so adventurous, are you wearing a big-brimmed hat and an officer's overcoat? If there are German automatic gunners or snipers in the ruins along the way , you will definitely be their target."

"Seryozha, you are worrying too much." Sokov felt that even if there were German automatic gunners or snipers along the way, it might not be easy to kill a person with the halo of the protagonist. However, considering that Seryozha also said this out of concern for himself, he said euphemistically: "As long as our luck is not too bad, we should not encounter enemies along the way."

"I hope so." Hearing what Sokov said, Seryozha replied angrily: "Misha, you are now a division commander, can you stop acting like a company commander and go to the most dangerous place if you have nothing to do?" Run? If Asiya knew that you were going to the old town again today, she wouldn't know why she was worried."

Sokov didn't know how to respond to Seryozha's words. He knew in his heart that if Asiya really knew that he had gone to the front to inspect again, he would be very worried. After a long silence, he solemnly said to Seryozha: "Seryozha, let me remind you that this matter must not be told to Assia, do you understand?"

"Understood, Misha." Seryozha sighed softly, and said, "To be honest, in the entire city defense battle, the casualties of our division were the lowest in the entire army. But if something happens to you, we will The division will become a joke, and even the division commander sacrificed, even if the overall casualties are low, what is the point?"

Sokov raised his hand and patted Seryozha's shoulder twice, and said in a low voice, "Don't worry, Seryozha, I'll be fine. I don't just want to see the enemy attacking Stalingrad with my own eyes." To be wiped out by us, and to see the enemy driven from our territory, and to see the red Soviet flag flying over Berlin. Until then, I will be absolutely fine."

Seryozha didn't expect Sokov to be so confident in winning, and couldn't help being stunned. After a long time, just as he was about to speak, there was a sudden rush of footsteps in front of him. It seemed that there was more than one person. He hurriedly shouted to the soldiers around him in a low voice, "Hidden."

As soon as the crowd took cover in the nearby ruins, Seryozha heard a familiar voice calling to himself in a low voice: "Comrade Company Commander, Comrade Company Commander, where are you?"

The person who heard the shout was a soldier he sent to explore the way ahead, Sergesha quickly stood up from behind a broken wall, and said to the other party: "I am here, what happened?"

"Comrade Company Commander," the soldier came to Seryozha and reported to him, "we met some soldiers from the third battalion ahead and brought them here."

When Sokov heard that it was a soldier from the third battalion, he also came out of his hiding place and asked the soldier, "Where are they?"

Hearing Sokov's question, two soldiers with rifles in their hands came out of the darkness, came to Sokov and Seryosha, and reported to them: "We are here, Comrade Commander. "

Sokov glanced at the rifles in their hands and found that they were all wrapped in cloth. After a brief astonishment, he thought of a possibility and asked tentatively, "Are you snipers?"

Seeing that Sokov saw through their identities at a glance, the two replied with some embarrassment: "Yes, Comrade Commander, we are snipers from the Eighth Company, and we are hiding in the ruins on duty. , in order to prevent misunderstanding, I came out to say hello."

After confirming the identity of the other party's sniper, Sokov immediately became interested: "Comrade Warrior, I would like to ask, how many snipers like you are there?"

Although the sniper saw that Sokov was wearing a big-brimmed hat, he didn't see clearly who he was. After hearing this question, he seemed a little hesitant, wondering if he should answer truthfully. Seeing that the two were silent for a long time, Seryozha immediately guessed what they were worried about, so he grinned and said to the two: "This is our division commander, Colonel Sokov, what he asked you, you just answer truthfully."

Knowing that the commander standing in front of them was actually the division commander, the two snipers were stunned. After a long time, one of the older snipers replied nervously: "I'm sorry, Comrade Commander, I didn't know it was you..."

"Comrade snipers," Sokov was eager to know how many snipers the third battalion had deployed in the old city, so he interrupted the other party and urged, "You haven't answered my question just now, how many snipers are there in this area?" Your sniper?"

"I don't know the exact number, Comrade Commander." The sniper who was asked scratched the back of his head and replied, "The battalion commander pulled out all the sharpshooters in the battalion and formed a sniper unit. The total number is about There were dozens of people. A team of two was responsible for sniping a street or a few houses, and as soon as the Germans appeared, they would shoot at them."

The sniper's words aroused Sokov's strong interest. He looked at the sniper and asked, "I want to ask, how many enemies have you eliminated so far?"

"Nine, Comrade Commander." The sniper replied, "Two of them were achieved by my companions and I during the day."

"Good job." Sokov nodded at the opponent, then turned to ask another sniper: "What about you, how many enemies have you eliminated?"

Hearing Sokov's question, the young sniper said shyly, "I only killed four enemies."

"Good job, comrades, you are all good." After learning about the results of the two men, Sokov said gratifiedly: "You two have eliminated thirteen enemies. If each team can get With the results of your battles, how many enemies can ten or twenty teams destroy? Maybe one day when the enemy headquarters is about to assemble its troops, it will be discovered that more than half of its soldiers have been lost, and all of them have been killed by our snipers. Annihilated."

Sokov's words caused a burst of laughter. The two snipers quickly stated to him: "Comrade commander, please rest assured that we will definitely eliminate more enemies in the next battle."

"I believe in you." Sokov raised his hands, patted the shoulders of both of them at the same time, and said, "I will personally award you the honor on the day we drive the enemy out of Stalingrad."

When the two snipers were very excited, they suddenly heard Sokov ask: "I want to ask, you were not on duty in this area yesterday, were you?"

"No. Last night we all stayed in the basement to rest, and did not come out to carry out the mission." The two snipers shook their heads and reported last night's whereabouts to Sokov. The older sniper even said in a regretful tone: "It is said that several armored vehicles of the German army passed by here last night. The man on duty was a worker from a factory. He had no combat experience and he didn't even fire a few shots. Hit the target, and the grenade missed."

The sniper said this in a regretful tone, but Sokov secretly rejoiced in his heart. He thought to himself: Fortunately, these two soldiers did not know about it last night, otherwise Guchakov's team would not know that there would be casualties how many people.

After sending the two snipers away, Sokov and the others continued on their way. Seryozha saw that Sokov seemed to have something on his mind, and quickly asked: "Misha, what are you thinking, I think you seem a little absent-minded."

Considering that Guchakov's troops were attacked yesterday while passing through here, Seryozha did not know about it. Sokov lowered his voice and said to him: "Yesterday I ordered Guchakov to lead a small detachment to drive through here to the enemy's rear in German armored vehicles. As a result, when passing through this area, we were met An ambush by our own people. Fortunately, the soldier on duty had just picked up his weapon not long ago, and his marksmanship was inaccurate, otherwise it would have caused too many casualties to the squad."

When Seryozha just heard from the sniper that the German army passed by here last night, because the soldiers' marksmanship was too poor and did not cause any casualties to the enemy, he still felt quite regretful, and even thought, if he was here last night, at least he could Kill the opponent five or six people. At this moment, when I heard that the small German army was actually disguised by Guchakov and the others, I couldn't help breaking out in a cold sweat, and said to myself that fortunately I wasn't there at the time, otherwise even if I was Misha's friend, he might have sent himself to the army. Go to court martial.

Just as Seryozha was thinking wildly, he suddenly heard Sokov's voice again: "Seryozha, how far are we from the command post of the third battalion?"

Seryozha saw that the surrounding terrain was already different from the last time he came, and how could he judge the distance from the command post, so he called a soldier beside him and told him, "Go ahead and ask Leading soldiers, how long will it take us to reach the command post of the third battalion?"

Before the soldiers ran away, there was a series of footsteps in front, and it seemed that there were quite a few people coming. Although the people who appeared nearby may be his own people, for the sake of safety, Seryozha still ordered the soldiers around him to hide on the spot and prepare for battle. As soon as they found anything wrong, they would open fire immediately.

"Hey, comrades." Just after they took cover, they heard the footsteps in front of them stop, and then a voice asked, "Did you come from Mamayev Post?"

Seryozha felt that the voice of the speaker seemed familiar, so he stood up from behind the masonry where he was hiding, and asked the other person, "That's right, we are from Mamayev Post. Who are you?"

"I am Lieutenant Yegor, commander of the eighth company. I am here to greet the division commander under the order of the battalion commander." After the other party stated his identity and purpose of coming, he asked back: "Comrade division commander, are you with you?"

"It turned out to be Lieutenant Yegor. No wonder the voice is so familiar." Seryozha first turned his head and whispered to Sokov, "It's all right", then walked around the pile of bricks and stones, and walked in the direction of the voice: "I'm Griza, and I'm escorting the division commander to your battalion command post."

"Hello, Lieutenant Seryozha!" Yegor stepped forward to shake hands with Seryozha, and asked with concern: "May I ask, where is the commander?"

"I'm here." After confirming that there was no danger, Sokov also stood up from his hiding place, walked towards Yegor with big strides, and asked in a raised voice, "How far is your battalion command post from here?" Far?"

"Hello, Comrade Commander." Seeing that it was Sokov, Yegor straightened his body and replied, "The battalion command post is only one street away from here. Please allow me to act as your guide."