USSR 1941

"Kill!" Shulka yelled, and the soldiers rushed out along the hole opened by the tank.

How could the German anti-aircraft gunners think that the enemy suddenly "broke" out of the flanking buildings as if falling from the sky, and it was a T34 tank as soon as it came out.

Unprepared, they froze for a moment, got up from the ground with their hands and feet together, turned around and ran.

But it's too late.

The tank machine gun rang out, and the bullets kicked up a long string of sand on the road, and then knocked down rows of fleeing German soldiers to the ground.

Some German soldiers happened to be in the blind spot of the tank's machine gun, but they were not spared, because a group of Soviet soldiers had drilled out from behind the hole in the wall, raised their weapons and shot them one by one from behind.

After a long while, Kalashnikov laughed "haha".

"We did it, we did it!" Kalashnikov said. "It's unbelievable that in this way...we went through the whole building!"

Then Kalashnikov asked into the microphone as if remembering something, "Hey, what's your name?"

There was no answer on the other side of the microphone. Kalashnikov felt that something was wrong, so he called a few more times, but still no one answered.

Shulka knew what was going on.

When he raised his gun and knocked down two fleeing German soldiers, he saw the thief crouching under the corner of the wall.

Shulka hurried up to check and found that the thief had no gunshot wounds, but his face was pale and his whole face was twisted together due to pain.

"Medical soldiers!" Shulka yelled, but the Soviet medics were always late.

"It's a wall brick!" The thief said intermittently, "I, I can't move..."

So Shulka knew that the thief was injured by falling bricks when the tank passed through the wall.

Shulka looked to the side and found a whole piece of broken wall that was bigger than the backpack. If it hit the thief...

The thief spat out blood, grabbed Shulka's hand in pain, struggled, struggled, then shivered as if frightened,

Then it didn't move anymore.

Only then did the medics catch up from behind, but he just poked the thief's nose with his hand, shook his head slightly at Shulka with apologetic eyes, and then walked towards another wounded man.

Actors and others also surrounded them. They did not move forward... Others were completed by other troops. After this anti-aircraft gun was destroyed, there was no suspense in this battle, and the other anti-aircraft gun would lose its flanks and rear soon. is destroyed.

Shulka silently took out the bakelite tube for the identity card from the thief's jacket pocket, and opened it... As expected, there was no identity card containing the thief's information, only a sewing needle and a coil of thread .

"He has no family!" the veteran explained. "His parents starved to death, and he was orphaned when he was ten years old. That's one of the reasons why he became a thief!"

After a pause, the veteran went on to say: "Comrade Fovalikov, he often said that he was the person with the least worries. Even if he died, no one would miss him or mourn for him. He just disappeared from this world. !"

Shulka stood up, picked up his rifle and walked away, a little afraid to face the thief.

The battle situation was just as Shulka thought, and the fourth tank brigade successfully occupied Kling and filled the gap in the second line of defense.

But the 4th Tank Brigade is destined not to stay in Kling for too long... As I said before, the 4th Tank Brigade is a mobile force, and the purpose of their formation is for mobile defense.

In theory, they should stay in Moscow at all times, and only when the Germans break through somewhere in the defense line, they will go out and launch a counterattack.

Therefore, the fourth tank brigade boarded the train back to Moscow that night...Klin is only 100 kilometers away from Moscow. It is not difficult to repair the railway between the two places and restore traffic.

On the train, Shulka silently smoked a cigarette and looked at the scenery passing by in the darkness outside the window. Scene after scene flashed in his mind the last moment before the thief died.

The instructor sat across from Shulka, handed him a glass of vodka, and said, "That's none of your business, Comrade Shulka!"

Shulka smiled and said, "Although I would like to think so, do you really think that's none of my business?"

"Of course!" replied the instructor.

"I gave the order!" Shulka said: "I made him attack on the rear armor of the tank, and he died because of it!"

"There is no problem with your order!" The instructor took another cup and poured vodka into it... For troops that have won battles like the Fourth Tank Brigade, vodka is no longer a rare commodity. Know the ration of 100 grams per man per day for the 4th Moscow Chartered Tank Brigade.

No doubt it made every fighter cheer like a festival.

"100 grams per person per day, I heard it right!" Uncle Alek danced happily: "Oh, boys, I knew that it would be right to fight with you. Can there be anything better than this?"

But only Shulka remained silent.

Before that, he only knew that killing someone for the first time was a bit scary, but he never thought that a subordinate who died in battle would make him so sad... To be precise, he was guilty, because the thief died of Shulka Order.

"You should look at it this way, Comrade Shulka!" The instructor held up the cup and saluted Shulka from a distance, took a sip, and then continued: "Everyone has his mission, everyone, including you and me Inside... From this point of view, every soldier who died was because of their mission, and it was also because of their commander's request, that is to say, the commander must die for every soldier who dies in battle. Comrade responsible?"

Said the instructor smiled, and then continued: "No, Shulka! You have to know one thing: if your order is wrong, and Comrade Fovalikov died because of your wrong order, then it is indeed... You should feel guilty and blame yourself for this. But it is not the case, your order was correct, and we won because of it, which means that Comrade Fovalikov's sacrifice was valuable, for the country and for the troops , made contributions to the Soviet Union, if you blame yourself for this, you have to blame yourself for every comrade who has been your subordinate and sacrificed at the same time, not just Fovalikov!"

Shulka felt that the instructor was right, and the facts seemed to be what he said, because this is war.

However, that trace of apology was still lingering in Shuerka's heart. After all, it was Shuerka's direct order to push the thief onto this road of no return.

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