Red Moscow

  Chapter 295 The first disagreement

  Sokov and Belkin came to the meeting room on the first floor under the guidance of Sergey. When he entered the door, Sokov saw many women wearing turbans sitting on both sides of the conference table, including elderly women and young girls in their prime.

   "Women comrades," Seryozha said to everyone after entering the room: "Our brigade commander and political commissar are here. If you have anything to say, you can tell them."

   Knowing that the brigade commander and political commissar he was waiting for had arrived, the women sitting at the conference table all stood up. Perhaps seeing that Sokov was too young and not familiar with military ranks, the women surrounded the old-looking Belkin. An old lady with a hunched back grabbed Belkin's hand and began to speak hastily and excitedly.

Sokov, who was standing outside the crowd, heard clearly every word the old lady said: She has three sons, and the big one is serving in Belarus. After the war broke out, he lost his whereabouts. I don’t know if he was captured or sacrificed. All in all, nothing was heard; but when the Germans approached Kursk, her second son joined the army. When Kursk was recovered, she sent her third son into the army.

   At first Sokov thought that the old lady wanted Belkin to help her find her unaccounted-for son, but after hearing later, he realized that his guess was wrong. I only heard the old lady say: "...comrade commander, because my third son heard that the troops were going to be transferred, and he didn't want to leave my old lady alone, he planned to leave your army and go to another army so that he could stay in the city. Unexpectedly, he was regarded as a deserter and was almost shot."

  Hearing the old lady say that her son was almost shot as a deserter, Sokov began to recall the five soldiers who were **** in his mind, guessing which one was the old lady's third son. Before he could figure it out, Belkin had already asked: "Old man, I don't know who is your son among the five soldiers."

   "Elizaveta," the old lady hurriedly replied when she heard Belkin's question, "He performed well in the previous battle and was promoted to sergeant..."

   What else did the old lady say later, Sokov didn't hear it, and he was thinking about Sergeant Elizaveta in his heart. Under the circumstances at that time, the other soldiers all looked like they were waiting to die. Only this sergeant dared to boldly explain the reason to himself and Belkin to avoid an unjust case from happening. Not long after the expansion of the army, there is a shortage of commanders at all levels. I will call Grisa later and ask him to focus on training this sergeant, and he will be assigned to the position of squad leader in the future.

  The other women are relatives of the other four soldiers. When they learned that their relatives would be shot as deserters, they felt like the sky was falling. They knew very well in their hearts that if their relatives really became deserters, not only would they be shot, but their family members would also be implicated and sent to other places for punishment.

  Because of this, when they heard that because of the brigade commander and the political commissar, their relatives all escaped death. So they made an appointment to come to the brigade headquarters to express their gratitude to their benefactor.

After sending off the group of women who were grateful to him, Belkin said to Sokov: "Comrade Brigadier, judging from today's situation, many soldiers in our army are reluctant to leave their hometown. You see, whether to send someone to the army to consult everyone's opinions, see if anyone wants to stay, anyway, there are a lot of troops here, we can arrange soldiers who don't want to leave into these troops."

   "No, absolutely not." As soon as Belgin's proposal was announced, Sokov objected. Sokov said bluntly: "Comrade Commissar, we are an army with strict discipline. Whether the troops stay in Kursk or go to other areas, they must resolutely obey the orders of their superiors. Soldiers choose whether to stay or go with us? In this way, wouldn’t it be messed up?”

After a pause, Sokov continued: "When we inspected the companies just now, we also found that many soldiers were unwilling to leave their homes. Fortunately, after the persuasion of the political workers below, they changed their minds. If You announced to let the fighters make their own choices, and I can assure you that there will never be more than 30% of the fighters left."

Sokov's words startled Belkin, he widened his eyes, and murmured: "No way, I will leave the choice of whether to go or stay to the soldiers, and most of them will not want to fight with you." shall we leave together?"

"That's right, that's right." Sokov continued: "Even if the rest of us leave Kursk with us, the morale of the army will be unstable. Once on the cruel battlefield, some of these people will There are a lot of deserters, and even if we want to remedy it, it will be too late."

"Could it be that if we take all the soldiers to Stalingrad, there will be no deserters?" Belgin waited for Sokov to finish speaking, and said a little unconvinced: "You know, the superior asked us to go there I am resting, once I have nothing to do, I am worried that some soldiers will be homesick, which will lead to low morale and a lack of morale. Instead of waiting for the situation of unstable military morale at that time, it is better to nip the problem in the bud now."

"Comrade my political commissar, you don't need to say any more." Seeing Belkin's stubbornness and wanting the soldiers to choose to stay or leave, Sokov couldn't help being a little anxious, so he revealed his identity and said: "I am an infantry soldier. As the military chief of the brigade, I have the final say on military affairs. The commanders and fighters of the whole brigade, whether they are veterans or recruits who joined the army in Kursk, must go to Stalingrad one by one."

"What should we do if there are deserters after arriving in Stalingrad?" Belkin and Sokov have been partners for more than half a year, and this is the first time they have had a dispute over work. The person who accepted the defeat, therefore stuck his neck and asked: "If the superior blames it for this, what should we do?"

Sokov was a little anxious: "If anyone dares to be a deserter after arriving in Stalingrad, he will shoot one if he finds one, and shoot one squad if he finds one." At this point, he paused again, took a deep breath, and added Said, "If a company wants to be a deserter, they will all be shot. If the superior wants to blame, I will bear all the consequences!"

Hearing Sokov say these words in such a domineering tone, Belkin knew that if he continued to argue, he would not be able to take advantage of it, so he exhaled and said: "Okay, Comrade Brigadier, since you Having said that, I will do as you say and take everyone to Stalingrad. But as your political commissar, I reserve my opinion."

  (end of this chapter)