Red Moscow

  Chapter 202 Mutual "Old Friends"

   The two left the machinery factory and returned to the guest house of the engine factory. Just when the two were going to eat something in the restaurant, they were stopped by a waiter on duty. She came to Yakov, handed a piece of paper folded squarely to him, and said at the same time: "Comrade Captain, two hours ago, an Air Force captain came here to find You. Seeing that you are not here, I left this note."

   After thanking the waiter, Yakov unfolded the note. After reading it for a while, a knowing smile appeared on his face: "This guy actually came to Nizhny Novgorod."

He stuffed the note into his pocket, turned his head and said to Sokov who was about to walk towards the restaurant, "Misha, we won't be eating in the restaurant today, I'll take you to meet someone." After he finished speaking Afterwards, seeing that the expression on Sokov's face did not change, he added, "He is an old friend of both of us."

"Our mutual old friend?" Sokov couldn't help being surprised when he heard Yakov say this, and secretly said that the person who left the note for Yakov was the child of some leader, otherwise it would definitely not be him A mutual friend with Yakov. Thinking of this, he continued to ask: "Who is it?"

   But Yakov didn't answer, just smiled, and then said: "You will know when you see someone."

   The two came out of the guest house and saw the driver standing on the side of the road, chatting with a woman in a headscarf. When he saw the two people coming out, he speeded up his speech and said a few words to the woman, then trotted over and asked respectfully, "Comrades, two commanders, do you still want to go out?"

   "Yes, we need to go out immediately." Yakov asked tentatively: "Do you know how to get to the Dubrolyubov Memorial Hall?"

   "Of course I know." The driver nodded and gave an affirmative answer. He looked at Yakov and asked tentatively: "Comrade commander, are you going to visit the memorial hall?"

   "No," Yakov said, shaking his head, "we're going to visit a friend who happens to live near the Dobrolyubov Memorial."

   "Understood, Comrade Commander." The driver turned sideways and made a gesture of invitation to Yakov and Sokov: "Please get in the car, and I will take you there right away."

  The jeep soon arrived near the Dobrolyubov Memorial Hall. The driver parked the car on the side of the road, then turned his head to ask Yakov for instructions, "Comrade commander, where shall we drive next?"

"We'll get off here." When Yakov opened the door and was about to get off, he looked at his watch and said to the driver: "Comrade driver, we're going to visit a friend nearby, and it may take a long time. You can pick us up here at eight o'clock in the evening."

   "Understood, Comrade Captain." The driver nodded vigorously and replied, "I will be there on time!"

After the two got out of the car, Yakov looked around for a while, then chose a direction, pointed forward with his hand, and said to Sokov: "Misha, the place we are going to is just ahead. Let's go Bar!"

   The two walked forward for a certain distance. Sokov saw a life-sized bronze statue on the side of the road, and secretly guessed in his heart that this was probably the most famous Russian literary critic Dobrolyubov in the 19th century. Behind the bronze statue are two closed wooden doors, and there is a discolored notice posted on the door, but unfortunately the distance is too far, and it is impossible to see what is written on it.

Yakov noticed that Sokov was constantly looking at the two closed wooden doors, so he said to him: "Misha, don't look, the Dubrolyubov Memorial Museum was closed shortly after the war broke out. If you want to open it up again, you probably have to wait until the end of the war.”

  The two passed the memorial hall, walked forward for a further distance, and finally came to a residential area. Yakov took out the note just now from his pocket, checked the content behind it carefully, looked up and said to Sokov: "Misha, the place we are going to visit is in Building 17, you look for it carefully. Look for it and see where it is."

  Hearing what Yakov said, Sokov quickly and carefully checked the numbers of the nearby buildings. After looking at it for a while, he said to Yakov: "The buildings here are all double numbers, and they should be in the opposite direction."

So the two turned around and walked back. When they passed the Dobrolyubov Memorial Hall again, Yakov smiled bitterly and said: "It seems that I made a mistake. I thought the building with the odd number should be in the direction just now. in the opposite direction."

When passing by an officer's shop, Sokov suddenly remembered that if he wanted to visit someone else's house, he couldn't go empty-handed, so he stopped and said to Yakov, "Yakov, it's not appropriate for us to come to the door empty-handed like this." Let's go." He pointed to the nearby store with his hand, "Why don't we buy something here."

   Yakov immediately agreed with Sokov's proposal. He came to the door first, pushed open the glass door and walked in. The salesperson who was chatting in the store saw two handsome young officers walking in from the outside, and hurriedly greeted him, "Two commanders, do you need anything?"

   "Is there any vodka?" Yakov asked briefly.

  Unexpectedly, after hearing Yakov's question, the salesperson was silent for a moment, and then asked: "Comrade Captain, do you have a letter of introduction from your superior?"

   "Letter of introduction, what letter of introduction?" Yakov looked at Sokov with a strange look, and then asked the salesperson in puzzlement, "I just want to buy a few bottles of vodka. Do I need any more letters of introduction?"

   "Yes, Comrade Captain." The salesman said in a positive tone: "Because alcohol is included in the special supplies, except for general-level officers who can purchase it directly, officers of other ranks need to issue a letter of introduction."

   "Damn, this is a hell." Yakov may have encountered a situation where a letter of introduction was required for buying something for the first time. He asked a little bit dumbfounded: "Then what products do you have here that don't need a letter of introduction?"

  The tall and thick salesman turned his body to one side, pointed to the shelf behind with his thick palm, and said, "Comrade Captain, you don't need a letter of introduction for the canned vegetables on this shelf."

Hearing that canned food doesn’t cost money, Yakov pointed to canned cucumbers, tomatoes, mushrooms, etc., and said, “Give me two of these kinds of canned fruits. In addition, butter and cheese give me two each. hundred grams..."

   After shopping, Yakov and Sokov carried things in both hands and walked towards the residential building not far away. When going upstairs, Sokov remembered a joke from later generations: "When someone invited a friend to his home, he specifically told his friend: When you come, just kick the door with your feet. The friend asked puzzledly. : Why do you kick the door with your feet? Someone replied: Because you are holding things in both hands, you can’t spare your hands to knock on the door.”

  The two came to the door of the person they wanted to visit, and turned the jokes on the Internet into reality. When a young air force captain heard the knock on the door and opened the door, he looked at Yakov and Sokov who were carrying big bags outside, and asked curiously: "Yakov, why do you use your feet?" What about kicking the door?"

"Nonsense, don't you see that I'm carrying things in both hands?" After Yakov finished speaking angrily, he stuffed the things in his hands into the opponent's hands and said, "Hurry up, let's go in." Almost starving."

  The air force captain looked at Sokov who was standing aside, and asked curiously: "Yakov, is this major...?"

  Yakov walked into the house without looking back, and said, "He is Misha, a good friend of yours and mine."

"You are Misha?!" The air force captain had a surprised expression on his face. He originally wanted to reach out to shake Sokov's hand, but when he saw the pile of things in his hand, he smiled shyly, and then politely Said: "Come in, please!"

  When Sokov walked into the living room, he saw a long wooden table in the middle of the room. The wooden table was filled with all kinds of food and drinks. Sitting around the table was an Air Force lieutenant and four young and beautiful girls. Perhaps seeing that Sokov was carrying a lot of things in his hand, the lieutenant took the initiative to take the things and put them in the right place.

  Yakov went to the bathroom as soon as he entered the door. Seeing that there were strangers present, Sokov couldn't help but feel a little restrained. The air force captain came up to shake Sokov's hand and said, "Misha, do you remember me?"

  After looking at the captain's execution, Sokov shook his head and said apologetically, "I'm sorry, Comrade Captain, I really can't remember who you are."

  Hearing Sokov say that he didn't know him, the air force captain showed a disappointed expression on his face. It happened that Yakov came out of the toilet and said to the captain: "Leonid, you can't blame Misha. He suffered a head injury a few months ago, which caused amnesia. Don't say it's you, he even I don't even recognize it."

  Yakov walked up to Sokov, pointed to the air force captain named Leonid, and introduced to Sokov, "This is Leonid, and his father is Khrushchev."

"Khrushchev's son?!" Sokov said that although he had already guessed that Leonid might be the son of a leader, he didn't expect it to be Khrushchev's son. He jumped up and asked in surprise, "Are you Khrushchev's son?"

"Yes, my father is Khrushchev." Although Leonid felt that Sokov's reaction was a bit exaggerated, he still replied truthfully: "You, I and Yakov were very close when we were young. My friend, but we separated for various reasons later on. I didn’t expect that your amnesia is so severe that you don’t even recognize me.”

Next, Leonid introduced five other guests to Yakov and Sokov: Air Force Lieutenant, Lieutenant Victor, his wingman pilot; Erka and Vera, they are neighbors in the building.

  Looking at Leonid sitting opposite, Sokov began to mutter in his heart. He clearly remembered that after the Battle of Stalingrad began, Leonid was sent to a military court for shooting and killing his colleagues by mistake after drinking. Probably for his father's sake, he was not sentenced to death, but was stripped of his rank and reduced to a private.

   After the Battle of Stalingrad, he disappeared during a liftoff. There are two completely different versions of his disappearance. One is that he defected to the Germans by plane, and was later captured and shot by Stalin's men; the other is that he died heroically in an air battle.

  Sokov believed in the theory of defection before, but after coming to this era, his thinking has changed. He clearly remembered that before he shot and killed his colleague by mistake, Leonid had also participated in the Battle of Kharkov. During the battle, his plane was shot down and he was injured. When he was sent to the field hospital, the doctor saw that his leg was seriously injured and planned to amputate him. After he discovered the doctor's attempt, he put a gun to the other's head and ordered him to send himself back to Moscow for treatment, and successfully saved the leg.

  If the defection incident occurs before the end of the Stalingrad Defense War, there is still a certain possibility. On the day the Leonid fighter plane disappeared, the battle called a meat grinder had ended for a month. Manstein near the Dnieper River was beaten to the point of crying by the Soviet army. Unless Leonid's brain was flooded, he would never do such a stupid thing.

   After everyone took a drink from the glasses in front of them, Yakov asked curiously: "Leonid, how did you know that I live in the guest house of the engine factory?"

"It's a coincidence." Leonid said after filling the wine glass in front of Yakov, "Victor and I went to the engine to perform a mission, and accidentally met a few officers from Moscow. I and One of them knew each other. During the chat, I overheard him mentioning that you were among the people who came to Nizhny Novgorod with them. Thinking that I have never seen you since the outbreak of the war, I I deliberately ran to the guest house to look for you. Seeing that you were not here, I left you a note with the address here, and asked you to come as a guest. "

The two drank a few more glasses, and Leonid suddenly asked a very embarrassing question for Yakov: "Yakov, I once heard the propaganda from the Germans that you were captured by them. What's going on, is it a rumor?"

"That's right, it's a rumor." Seeing Yakov's embarrassed expression, Sokov quickly opened his mouth to help him: "Yakov was wounded in the battle, and he hid in a local collective farm to recuperate. The German army may have seen Yakov's name from the captured roster, and spread rumors that Yakov was captured in order to destroy the morale of our army."

Seeing that Sokov made a rescue for himself, Yakov showed a grateful expression on his face. He followed Sokov's words and continued: "I have been in the farm for almost half a year. After the injury improved, it happened to catch up with me. Seeing our army's victories, I couldn't stay any longer, so I immediately set off to return to the army. Coincidentally, the place where I crossed the front line happened to be Sokov's defense zone, so he sent someone to Returned me safely to Moscow."

  (end of this chapter)