Red Moscow

Chapter 2581

Before Sokov left Zhukov's office, he remembered the double who was locked in the basement, so he stopped and asked: "Comrade Marshal, I would like to ask, what do you plan to do with the people locked in the basement?"

In response to Sokov's question, Zhukov did not answer, but waved his hand and said: "From now on, this person's life and death has nothing to do with you and me. How to deal with him will naturally be decided by Sokolov, who succeeded me. Mr. Ski will decide in the future.”

Sokov did not speak, but he knew very well in his heart that it would not be long before the double who was being held tightly would disappear from the world. But that man's life and death had nothing to do with him. It was better to mind his own business. He raised his hand and saluted Zhukov, turned around and walked out of the office.

After returning to the hotel from the headquarters, Sokov locked himself in the room, turned his ears away from what was happening outside the window, and was busy writing novels.

Unconsciously, it got dark, and the light in the room made it difficult for Sokov to see the words on the paper. He stopped writing and raised his hand to look at the time. It was already six o'clock in the evening. He hadn't eaten all day. , my stomach was already growling with hunger. He sorted out the manuscripts on the table, put them away, and walked out of the room, preparing to go to the restaurant for dinner.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he walked into the hall, he saw three familiar figures, not only Hosenfeld, Ernst and Bayer. When he saw this, he quickly walked over.

“Comrade General,” the three of them saw Sokov walking toward them, and they quickly stood at attention and raised their hands to salute him.

After raising his hand to return the salute, Sokov asked curiously: "Why are you here?"

“Comrade General,” Ernst, the only one of the three who knew Russian, said, “you helped my cousin find his wife and children. He came here specifically to thank you.”

After hearing this, Sokov waved his hand: "Captain, if you want to thank you, you should still be Officer Shai Baier. During our stay in Nuremberg, he and his son Zolda were the ones who were looking around for the whereabouts of your wife. Without them, Father and son, it may not be easy to find your wife and children."

"Comrade General, I have already expressed my gratitude to him." Hosenfeld said: "But without you taking him to Nuremberg, I am afraid I would not have the chance to see Leoni and the children. Therefore, after learning that you returned to Berlin , I came here specifically to thank you.”

“We are all so familiar, so there is no need to say polite words.” Sokov asked the three of them: “Have you had dinner?”

 The three of them shook their heads, indicating that they had not had dinner yet.

“That’s right, I’m going to the restaurant for dinner, so you can come together.”

Sokov brought the three of them to the restaurant. A waiter immediately came to greet him and asked politely: "Comrade General, what are you planning to eat tonight?"

“Just follow my usual menu and serve four portions.”

As soon as the waiter walked away, Sokov said to the three people: "I heard that the security team has started to perform patrol duties. How is it? Did you encounter any difficulties?"

"No." Hossenfeld shook his head and said with some excitement: "Since the end of the war, Soviet troops have been patrolling the streets. The residents of the city suddenly saw an army of their own appearing on the streets. Naturally, There was a sense of intimacy. Some residents even stopped our patrols to ask us about the whereabouts of their relatives.”

"Their relatives were either killed in the war or locked up in prisoner of war camps." After Ernst translated what Hosenfeld said, he continued to himself: "Hearing these questions asked by the residents, I don’t even know how to answer?”

"Of course, answer truthfully, so that they can know what they are aware of." Sokov said: "But I estimate that it will take several years for the prisoners of war in the prisoner-of-war camps to be released."

Although before coming here, Hossenfeld and others knew that the prisoners imprisoned in the prisoner of war camp would have to wait a long time to be released, but they did not expect that this time would last for several years, so the three of them After looking at each other, Hosenfeld asked again: "Comrade General, can this time be shortened?"

"No," Sokov shook his head and said, "You should know that although I have a high military rank, I do not hold any position here in Berlin. Therefore, even if I want the prisoners held in the prisoner of war camp to be released early, Don’t have any say.”

Sokov’s words caused the three of them to fall into silence.

After a long time, Ernst was the first to break the silence: "Comrade General, actually, we came to see you today and there is one more thing we want to ask for."

 “What’s going on?” Sokov asked.

“That’s right, my cousin has a neighbor who wants to join our police force.” Ernst said hesitantly: “We want to ask if it’s okay?”

 “Is he also from the Wehrmacht?”

“Yes,” Ernst answered the question, realizing that he might not have expressed it accurately enough, and quickly added: “But he left the army long after the Night of Long Knives.”

Hearing what Ernst said about the "Night of the Long Knives", Sokov remembered that this was Mustache's purge of the stormtroopers headed by Röhm. Could it be that Hosenfeld's neighbors were originally stormtroopers? With this question in mind, he asked Hosenfel: "Captain Hosenfel, your neighbor turned out to be a stormtrooper under Röhm?"

After hearing Ernst's translation, Hosenfeld was stunned for a moment, then realized that Sokov had misunderstood what he meant, and quickly explained to him: "Comrade General, you have misunderstood. My neighbor was removed from the army He came out not because he was a member of the SA, but because he was a Jew."

"What, Jews?" Sokov's eyes widened in surprise. He did not expect that after the "Night of Long Knives", the Jews in the army were also purged. "As far as I know, the Jews in Germany were not deported. How did he survive even though he died in a concentration camp?”

"Comrade General," Hosenfeld explained to Sokov, "my neighbor's name is Bachner. Before he was expelled from the army, he was a second lieutenant in the Wehrmacht. When the country began to clean up the Jews on a large scale, he was also arrested. Sent to Auschwitz because of his strong health, he was not immediately sent to the gas chambers, but was engaged in heavy labor in the camp.”

When he heard about the Auschwitz concentration camp, Sokov couldn't help but frowned, thinking that this was a notorious death concentration camp. Almost no one who went in survived. And what happened to this former Wehrmacht second lieutenant named Bachner? What about those who survived? "Captain Hosenfeld, as far as I know, most of the Jews who entered Auschwitz in the early days were basically massacred. How did he survive?"

"Comrade General, what I just expressed was not very clear." Hossenfel continued: "Actually, there is another concentration camp a few kilometers away from Auschwitz, called Auschwitz 2. , also known as Birkenau concentration camp, Bachner was sent to this concentration camp.”

Hosenfeld's words aroused great interest in Sokov. He looked at the other party and asked: "Captain, tell me, how did Bachner escape from danger?" "Bachner first did hard labor in the concentration camp. After a while, he was transferred to the corpse transport team, which was to drag the corpses of the poisoned Jews out of the gas chambers, put them on flatbed trucks and drag them to the incinerator for burning. This work is not permanent. Every three months, the guards will replace a new group of prisoners, and the original prisoners will be dragged nearby and shot.

When it was their turn to be shot, due to their large number, they were shot in three batches, and Bachner was assigned to the third batch. When the guards finished shooting the first batch of prisoners and began to clean up the bodies, he secretly escaped into a nearby public toilet and hid in a cesspit while others were not paying attention. He endured the stench and hid in the cesspool for three days, with feces falling from above covering his neck. But in order to survive, he gritted his teeth and persisted.

On the evening of the third day, it rained heavily. He crawled out of the pit and ran to the barbed wire fence. He dug a passage under the barbed wire fence that could allow one person to pass through and escaped from the Birkenau concentration camp. After escaping, he walked along the railway in the direction of Germany. When he passed a farmhouse on the road, he was discovered by a kind farmer. Not only did he put him in clean clothes, he even hid him in his cellar until Poland was conquered. until Soviet occupation. "

 Sokov waited for Hosenfeld to finish his story and then asked: "Then when did he return to Berlin?"

 “Just a few days ago.”

"What, you just came back a few days ago?" Sokov frowned: "Even if he waited until the war was completely over before leaving Poland and returning to Germany, he couldn't have arrived now."

"That's it, Comrade General." Hosenfeld said: "He was captured by the Soviet sentry when he was passing through the Polish-German border. Thinking that he should be a German soldier who slipped through the net, he was imprisoned in a prisoner of war camp. Until Last month, he met a general who was inspecting the prisoner of war camp. He revealed his identity to the other party and showed him the prisoner number stamped on his wrist, and then he was released from the prisoner of war camp. "

"Oh, that's it." After Sokov figured out what was going on, he nodded slowly, and then asked Hosenfeld: "Captain, if you let him join the guard force, what position do you plan to let him hold? "

"I can let him serve as my deputy." After Hosenfeld said this, seeing Sokov's expression a little unnatural, he quickly added: "He has been away from the army for too long and is not suitable for specific positions. Therefore, I think it is okay to keep him in the garrison to assist me in my work. Comrade General, are you willing to see him? If you agree, I can bring him to see you. "

Sokov immediately thought of the scene where the other person was covered in feces, and suddenly felt something in his stomach rushing directly to his throat. He quickly covered his mouth to prevent him from vomiting it out in public and damaging his image. After his mood stabilized a little, he released his hand covering his mouth and waved to Hosenfeld: "Captain, since he won't be assigned a specific position, if you are willing to keep him, then just keep him."

The reason Sokov agreed so readily was because he was about to leave Berlin. As for the person in charge later, if the personnel arrangements for the guard force had nothing to do with him, he would just do it as a favor and leave one for Hosenfeld and others. Good impression.

　　The news that Sokov was leaving Berlin was known to only a limited number of people, so naturally Hosenfeld and others would not know about it. When he heard that Sokov agreed to keep Bachna, he quickly stood up, saluted Sokov, and expressed his gratitude to him.

A few people finished their dinner, chatted for a few more words, and then dispersed.

Sokov returned to his room, intending to finish the rest of the novel, but for some reason, he couldn't concentrate.

Seeing that he could not calm down to write the novel, Sokov simply threw the pen on the table, went directly to the bed, lay down, and began to close his eyes and meditate.

 Soon, he fell asleep without realizing it.

 In his dream, he dreamed that he followed Zhukov back to Moscow. The first thing he did when he arrived in Moscow was to rush home and reunite with Asya.

Asiya was very happy when she saw Sokov's return. She went up to him and gave him a hug. She also asked him with concern: "After you come back this time, you won't leave again, right?"

“Don’t leave, don’t leave.” Sokov answered simply: “I will never leave your side again until our child learns to walk.”

Unexpectedly, Asiya straightened her face and said with some displeasure: "When you stay with me, will you miss that woman far away in Berlin?"

When Sokov heard what Asiya said, he was suddenly startled into a cold sweat. He thought, could Asiya know about what happened between him and Agelina?

Just when he was panicking, Asiya pointed to the door and said to him: "Go and open the door quickly. The woman you are missing is here to find you!"

 The next moment, there was indeed a loud knock on the door.

Sokov woke up suddenly from his dream, sat on the bed and gasped for air to relieve his nervousness.

Soon, Sokov's mood slowly stabilized, but the knocking on the door he heard in his dream did not stop, and was still knocking rhythmically. Sokov looked at the door with horror on his face, wondering whether he was dreaming or awake. Why hadn't the knocking on the door stopped yet?

He calmed down and realized that he had woken up. The knocking on the door was not an auditory hallucination caused by himself, but someone was indeed knocking on the door.

He got out of bed, and without even having time to put on his boots, he walked barefoot to the door and asked outside, "Who is it? Who is outside the door?"

 “Misha!” A familiar voice came from outside the door: “It’s me, I’m Agelina!”

After hearing clearly that it was Agelina's voice, Sokov opened the door without hesitation, and sure enough he saw Agelina standing outside the door.

Behind Adelina, Vaseligov also followed. When he saw Sokov opening the door, he quickly raised his hand to salute, and reported respectfully: "Comrade General, I have brought Adelina back safely, and I have specially paid tribute to You come back to life."

"Thank you, Comrade Major." Sokov nodded to Vaserigov and said in a grateful tone: "Thank you for sending Agelina back."

After Vaserigov left, Sokov pulled Agelina into the room and closed the door with his heel: "Agelina, aren't you supposed to arrive in Berlin tomorrow morning? Why are you so early? arrive."

Agelina stood on tiptoes, kissed Sokov on the cheek, and then said: "After you set off, Major Vaserigov said that you might be in danger when you return to Berlin and there is no one around you to protect you. , so we set off overnight, except for two stops for meals on the way, and finally returned to Berlin half a day early.”