Red Moscow

  Chapter 155 Tit for a tooth, blood for blood (Part 1)

Hearing Sokov's question, Valodya, like a drowning man grabbing a life-saving straw, grabbed Sokov's other hand, shook it vigorously and said, "Uncle Commander, the Germans put People in our village are locked up in the church, and they say they will be killed after dark. We crawled out of the gutter, please, go and save them."

"What? The Germans are going to kill all the people in your village?!" Vasily, who was standing aside, immediately became anxious when he heard Valoja say this in a crying voice, and hurriedly urged Sokov: "Comrade Battalion Commander, We have to get there as soon as possible, otherwise the villagers will be killed by the Germans."

When Sokov heard that the villagers were about to be massacred by the German army, he was also very anxious, but he did not lose his footing because of this. He then asked: "Valodya, tell me, how many Germans are there in the village, what equipment do they have, and what is the firepower deployment like?"

Faced with a series of questions from Sokov, Valoja was a little confused. He hesitated for a long time before answering: "There are more than one hundred of them. But, uncle commander, what is equipment and what is the deployment of firepower?" "

Valoja's words made Sokov realize that he had made a common-sense mistake. The military terms he said inadvertently, let alone a seven or eight-year-old child, even an adult who has not received any military training People may not be able to understand. In order to let Valoja have a better understanding, he quickly stood up and shouted at the marching troops: "The troops stop advancing!"

   Following Sokov's order, the troops walking towards the outside of the village stopped. The soldiers didn't know what happened, they just stared at Sokov and the two children he was holding with curious eyes.

Sokov brought Valodya and Anton to the front of the queue, pointed to the weapons in the hands of the soldiers, and asked: "Children, look at these guns in the hands of the uncles. The Germans in the village What are there?"

  The soldiers of the Istria Battalion were all equipped with German equipment, so the two children easily recognized the weapons they had seen. After Valoja and Anton whispered a few words, Valoja wanted to run to a soldier carrying a machine gun, pointed to the MG34 machine gun and said, "The Germans built a ditch in the ditch dug at the entrance of the village. A small wooden house with this in it.”

  Although Valoja’s expression was not accurate enough, Sokov understood: the German army had a civil firepower point at the entrance of the village, and there was such a machine gun inside. He nodded slightly, and said encouragingly, "Valodya, keep talking."

After figuring out the general distribution of the German army, Kov suddenly thought of a key question, and asked Valoja curiously: "Valoga, how do you know that there is an army of your own in this village? Who is it?" Did I tell you?"

"No one told us." Volodya shook his head and said, "I just heard that our troops came to Susinich, so I crawled out of the gutter with Anton and prepared to go to the city to find them." As soon as our troops came here, they met you."

  Vassily came over and reported to Sokov: "Comrade Battalion Commander, the troops have assembled outside the village. Please say a few words to them, as a morale booster."

Sokov nodded, walked quickly to the front of the phalanx, and said loudly to the soldiers with their heads held high: "Comrades, I just got the information that the German army is about to massacre our villagers. Tell me, what should we do?"

  Sokov's words were like a handful of salt sprinkled into a red-hot iron pot, and it exploded immediately. The soldiers said in a hurry: "Comrade battalion commander, we must stop the Germans, and we cannot let them kill our villagers."

   "Battalion Commander, please understand, let us set off now to destroy the Germans."

  …

   Facing the ferocity of the soldiers, Sokov remained silent. It was only after the calm in the team was restored that he went on to say: "It is about ten kilometers from here to Village No. 4, and it takes at least three hours to walk. But in order to prevent the massacre of the villagers by the Germans, I hope Everyone can speed up the march and reach Village No. 4 within two hours. Can everyone do it?"

  After Sokov finished speaking, there was silence in the team first, and then there was a shout like a tsunami: "Yes, we can do it!"

In response to the soldiers' answers, Sokov nodded in satisfaction, then waved his big hand and announced: "Let's go!" Following the order, the soldiers of the machine gun company immediately formed a four-way column and walked towards No. Go in the direction of the village.

  Considering the long distance, Sokov didn't want Valoja and Anton to suffer, so he planned to keep them in the village. Unexpectedly, after hearing what Sokov said, the two children became stubborn and insisted on acting with the troops. Volodya also said with certainty: "Uncle Commander, don't worry, we know the way home, even if we can't keep up with you, we will not get lost." It is precisely because of what Volodya said, Sokov finally made up his mind to take the two children to Village No. 4 together.

  At the beginning, Sokov was worried that the two children would not be able to keep up with the team. After walking two or three kilometers, he turned around again, only to find that the two children had been following the team about ten meters away. He couldn't help feeling secretly in his heart: After all, it is a fighting nation, even a seven or eight-year-old child is so tough.

Sokov quickened his pace, walked to Vasily's side, and said to him with some breathlessness: "Captain Vasily, leave a soldier to take care of these two children, and leave them alone in this wilderness. Unreliable."

  Vassily nodded, called out a burly soldier from the team, pointed to the two children behind the team, and explained a few words to him. The soldier who accepted the order raised his hand to salute Vasily, then turned and walked towards the children.

  After two hours of rapid march, Village No. 4 finally appeared in everyone's sight. Vasily asked Sokov for instructions: "Comrade Battalion Commander, the soldiers are exhausted after a long and rapid march. Look, should we let them rest for a while before we launch an attack?"

   Panting heavily, Sokov stared at Vasily and said: "Captain Vasily, the villagers may be massacred by the Germans at any time. The longer we delay here, the greater the danger they will face..."

   Before he could speak, a row of gunshots came from the direction of the village. Hearing this voice, Sokov's face changed drastically, and he ordered Vasily in an unquestionable tone: "I order, the machine gun company will attack immediately!"

  (end of this chapter)