Chapter 508

A few kilometers away from the headquarters of the group army, we saw a large number of troops on the grassland in the distance. From their drooping flags and tired steps, as well as the scattered formation, I immediately judged that this was another German defeated and retreating army.

He looked in that direction for a while and then told the driver, "Comrade driver, drive over." The driver nodded, swung the steering wheel and drove towards the defeated army.

Seeing the jeep coming, the retreating commanders and fighters flashed to both sides to make way for our car. After the jeep went a little further, trakov ordered the driver to stop.

After I got off at trekov, I got off. I went up behind trekov and, like him, stood by the car without saying a word, quietly watching the officers and men who were powerless to walk past us. I saw that there was a tank in the crowd in the distance. The tank obviously had no fuel. Several tank soldiers climbed out of the hatch, looked around for a while, jumped off the tank and mixed into the infantry.

I was about to point out the abandoned tank to trakov when a clear shot came from the side. The sound of the gun suddenly made my nerves nervous. Although there were our commanders and fighters all around, I still grasped the submachine gun in my hand and looked around warily to find out the location of the gun. But the officers and men didn't respond to the gunfire. They just gave us a blank look and continued to drag their tired feet forward.

Trekov heard the shot, looked on both sides, and walked forward without hesitation. I thought he was going to find out why the tank soldiers abandoned their tanks, so he followed up with his submachine gun.

We walked a distance through the crowd. Before we got to the tank, there was another shot. Trakov stopped, looked left and right again, then turned left and pushed out of the crowd. As soon as I stepped out of the crowd, my vision suddenly brightened, and I saw a group of people standing on the grass in front of me. Without any intention, trakov led me to them.

After walking towards them for two steps, I was startled to hear another gunshot. After a quick examination, I found that a row of soldiers with boat shaped hats were standing there with their hands tied back and their heads lowered. Five or six officers and soldiers of the interior department were standing behind them. An officer like man, holding a pistol, walked to the back of a soldier in no hurry, He raised his gun and aimed it at the back of his head, ready to pull the trigger.

At this moment, trikov roared angrily, "stop! Stop it

Hearing the voice of trakov, the interior officer did not turn around, but turned his head. The pistol was still on the back of the soldier's head. After looking up and down trakov, he asked in surprise, "Comrade General, do you have any instructions?"

"What are you doing?" Trekov asked sternly as he quickened his steps towards them.

As I walked down behind trakov, I saw on the ground to the right of the soldiers standing in the row, several soldiers' bodies were lying on the ground. It seemed that they all died under the gun of this officer. The sound of the gun we heard was that he was shooting these soldiers.

Trikov came up to him, pulled the gun away from the back of the soldier's head, looked at his rank on his badge, and asked discontentedly, "Comrade lieutenant, what's going on here?"

The second lieutenant put the pistol in the holster, even disrespectfully, and said, "report to the general, we are shooting the cowards. These cowards from Kazakhstan left their weapons to the Germans when they retreated."

Hearing the conversation between trakov and the second lieutenant of the interior department, the soldier who was almost shot turned his head and begged in poor Russian: "please, don't kill us. We will make atonement. We will make atonement. "

When we heard that someone was begging for mercy, the remaining soldiers turned around and said to us in stiff Russian, "please, please! All right

Trekov raised his hand, pointed to the soldiers, and said to the lieutenant, "let go of all their hands."

The second lieutenant turned to look at the soldiers who almost became the souls of the dead, and the subordinates who began to be released by them. He said to trikov discontentedly, "Comrade General, you don't have this right. I'm the leader of the internal affairs department's supervision team."

"And I, trakov, am the commander of the group army. I need soldiers for the patriotic war. I can't watch you kill them all." For the second lieutenant's protest, trakov directly raised his identity to suppress him. Although he didn't show any obvious anger, the fierce look between his eyebrows made the interior lieutenant who wanted to continue to say something scared. He opened his mouth to trikov, but he didn't dare to speak, so he had to watch his subordinates let the soldiers go.

Seeing the back of the soldiers who left us after thanking us again and again, trikov slowed down and said to the second lieutenant, "Comrade second lieutenant, let me remind you again, don't kill people casually." Then he said to me, "come on, commander oshanina, let's go back to headquarters."

We just walked out a few steps, and we heard the second lieutenant roar unconvincingly in the back: "I'm going to report to the superior and accuse you of such abuse of power."

Trekov stopped, turned his head, looked at the notorious Lieutenant with scornful eyes, snorted softly, and went on.

While in the car, trekov said to me thoughtfully, "o'shanina, you were right. Many soldiers from Central Asia do not know Russian, so it will be very difficult for political workers to communicate with them, and they can not effectively overcome the fear of facing the enemy. After going back, I will have a good talk with general shumilov and two comrades of the military commissar to see if we can find an effective solution to this problem. "

When we went back to the headquarters of the group army, we found that in addition to commander shumilov, military commissar sheldyuk and Abramov, and chief of staff Raskin, there was also a lieutenant commander in the room with no military cap and bandage on his forehead. The first impression that the lieutenant commander gave me was not that he was here to report his work, but that he was sent here for trial, because behind him stood a lieutenant in the interior department wearing a blue cap and two soldiers with submachine guns.

"Comrade trekov is back." Seeing us coming in, shumilov quickly got up from his seat, shook hands with trikov, and asked with concern, "how are things going?"

Trikov nodded and replied in a low voice, "Comrade commander, I have been ordered to remove general lopagin from his post, and to have messenger sidtorin take him to the front army headquarters in Stalingrad."

"How many troops have you brought back?" Shumilov asked directly.

Trekov shook his head and said bitterly, "Oh, forget it. Lopagin, the black sheep of the family, has ruined tens of thousands of troops. When I got to him, there was only one platoon and a dozen signalmen left. Later, when the enemy attacked, all the officers and men of this platoon had died in honor to cover our retreat. "

Shumilov was startled by trakov's words, and his face showed an incredible expression: "tens of thousands of people are gone?"

"Yes, it's all gone." Without thinking, trakov gave him a positive answer.

As they spoke, they unconsciously came to their seat. Before sitting down, trikov pointed to the commander and asked, "Comrade commander, what's the matter with this commander?"

Standing straight behind trakov, I heard shumilov say in an angry voice, "this is Lieutenant Colonel Gorman, the head of the 1077th antiaircraft artillery regiment. He knows that the Supreme Command's order No. 227 once said that troops are not allowed to retreat in battle. However, he defied orders and allowed more than 30 soldiers to flee the battlefield without authorization. As a result, most of those deserters were shot and killed by the supervision team under the command of lieutenant sharov, and the remaining five deserters were also arrested and will be executed soon. "

After listening to this, trikov slapped the table angrily and said in a loud voice: "for those deserters who are afraid of death, we must not be soft handed and shoot as many as we can catch. This lieutenant commander Gorman can't be spared. He will be sent to the military court immediately. "

Shumilov, after listening to trakov's statement, nodded with a smile, turned to serdyuk, who was sitting on his right, and said, "Comrade serdyuk, just before Comrade trakov came back, we discussed whether to transfer the commander to the military court. You are the only one who opposes it. Now that Comrade trakov is back, he also resolutely says that he wants to send the commander to the military court. Do you have any comments? "

Sheldyuk sighed. As soon as he wanted to say something, he suddenly caught a glimpse of me standing behind trekov. With a flash in his eyes, he quickly proposed to shumilov: "Comrade commander, I suggest you ask commander oshanina about this matter again. What do you mean? "

I'm a little nervous about sheldyuk's sudden move to pull me into the water. I don't know the whole story of the antiaircraft artillery commander's letting his men become deserters. How can I express my position? I prayed to myself that shumilov would never agree to sheldyuk's proposal, otherwise I would not know what to do.

Shumilov's face was embarrassed by sheldyuk's proposal. It seemed that he wanted to refuse and was afraid of hurting the face of the military Commissar. After hesitating for a moment, he turned his head to trakov and asked, "Comrade trakov, what do you think?"

Trikov turned to look at me, nodded and said, "since comrades of the military commissar say so, let's ask for comrades o'shanina's opinions." At this point, he turned, looked up at me and asked sincerely, "o'shanina, talk about your opinion on this matter."

I looked at the elderly lieutenant commander, only to see his face blackened by smoke, showing not panic expression, but an indescribable look of pain. I don't think he should be a greedy person. This may not be as simple as I heard. It must be something else.

I took a deep breath and said, "Comrade commander, please allow me to ask this commander what happened at that time, OK?"

Seeing shumilov and trakov nodding in agreement, I strode up to the commander and gazed into his eyes. Looking at the endless sadness in his eyes, I took a deep breath and asked, "commander Gorman, can you tell me why you want dozens of your men to withdraw from the battle?"

Commander Gorman's mouth twitched a few times, and suddenly burst into tears: "my girls, I'm sorry for you. I killed you."

All the people in the room were startled by his sudden cry. While everyone was staring at him, the lieutenant sheroff standing behind him raised his arm and hit him heavily on the back. The commander was beaten to stagger, and the cry stopped abruptly.

Although I think there is something else hidden, the performance of the commander made me feel a little dissatisfied with you. When I saw him wipe the tears from his face with his hands, I asked unhappily, "commander Gorman, please answer my question. Why do you want to let dozens of soldiers out of the battlefield?"

Commander Gorman wiped away his tears, straightened up and said, "report commander, there is a women's anti-aircraft artillery camp of 300 people in my anti-aircraft artillery regiment..." when I heard about the women's anti-aircraft artillery camp, my heart suddenly thumped, and I immediately understood why there were more than 30 deserters. He continued: "originally, our regiment was for air defense, but we found that more than 100 tanks of the enemy were coming towards our position. I decisively ordered the women's anti-aircraft artillery battalion to fire anti-aircraft guns at the tanks. After a fierce battle, the anti-aircraft guns of the whole battalion were destroyed by the enemy's fire, leaving only more than 30 women soldiers. Comrades in command, if all the male soldiers of the regiment and I have died, we will never have any complaints. It is worth the price to defend our motherland. But these women soldiers are still teenagers. A month ago, they were all students in Grade 10. I couldn't watch them die on the battlefield, so I ordered the remaining women soldiers to leave the battlefield immediately and go back to Stalingrad. Unexpectedly, they did not sacrifice under the enemy's artillery, but they died under the muzzle of those overseers. " With that, Colonel Gorman covered his face and began to cry again.

When I heard that more than 30 young female soldiers were killed by lieutenant sharov and his subordinates behind the lieutenant commander, I rushed to shine on him with a loud slap in the face. At the same time, I scolded: "you damn beast."

Sharov was slapped in the face by me. After a while, he immediately reached for his gun. Before he could get the gun out, I grabbed the handle of the submachine gun and swung it up to his chin. The two soldiers next to him took the loss of their lieutenant and quickly turned the gun at me. Lieutenant Gorman quickly stood to my right and blocked the muzzle of the two soldiers for me.

At this moment, there was a loud bang. Trikov clapped his desk and yelled, "what are you going to do? Do we fight with each other? This is the headquarters of the group army, not the place where you use knives and guns. Put down your guns. "

Hearing this, I quickly put away my submachine gun, put it on my shoulder again, and stepped back. Lieutenant sharov, seeing that he was free from my threat, waved to the two soldiers and asked them to put away their guns.

When shumilov heard the truth, he was very angry. He quickly walked up to lieutenant sheroff and asked angrily, "Comrade lieutenant, why didn't you just tell us that the deserters you killed were all young women soldiers?"

Shirov said with disapproval: "Comrade commander, I am the leader of the supervision team. My duty is to eliminate those deserters. Now that they have left the battlefield, they are deserters. I don't care whether they are men or women. "

Shirov's arrogant attitude made shumilov tremble with anger. He pointed to the lieutenant from the Ministry of interior and was too angry to speak.

Abramov, a military commissar who had not spoken for a long time, got up and went to the door, shouting to the outside, "come on, come on!"

With his shouts, five or six sentinels at the door clattered in. After saluting Abramov, the second lieutenant asked politely, "Comrade military commissar, do you have any instructions?"

Abramov pointed to the three of them with his hand and said to the sentry, "take their guns down, take them out and shut them up. We will deal with them after we have consulted the headquarters of the front army. "

Although the Ministry of internal affairs is a unit that makes people turn pale, they are now on our territory, and they are very weak. For our soldiers, they are just a group of lambs to be slaughtered. Several sentinels agreed, rushed up immediately, handed in their guns, and twisted their arms to escort them out.

Seeing that the people in the interior department were taken away, shumilov's mood stabilized. He patted commander Gorman on the shoulder and said in a friendly way, "commander Gorman, you are wronged. Please sit down."

After the group commanders were seated, I sat down side by side with colonel Gorman.

Trikov looked at me and reproached me in a tone of hate: "Comrade oshanina, I want to criticize you severely. You are so impulsive. How can you beat the people in the interior department and point a gun at them? You know, just a word from them can put you in a hopeless situation. "

Shumilov raised his hand and patted trakov on the arm, persuading: "Comrade trakov, don't be so excited. Lieutenant commander o'shanina is young and impulsive. What's more, the people in the Ministry of internal affairs did something wrong today. They killed dozens of young girls without asking for any details. It's too much. I want to report this matter to the headquarters of the front army immediately, so that they can seriously deal with these supervisors. "

When shumilov finished, the chief of staff Raskin asked cautiously, "Comrade commander, just now lieutenant sheroff said that there were five girls in their hands. You see, should we send someone to rescue them at once? If it's a little later, they may be worried about their lives. " Sheldyuk nodded approvingly and proposed again: "I agree with the chief of staff. I suggest that the task of rescuing female soldiers should be carried out by lieutenant commander o'shanina. "