In order to prevent exposure, I did not send troops to attack the German camp again. Besides, I learned that basmanov's motorcade had returned to our defense area safely, so I had a good sleep.
All night long.
Just after daybreak, I heard someone knocking at the door. Then I heard Shula's voice sleeping outside: "Comrade teacher, comrade teacher, are you up?"
I quickly rolled out of bed, went to open the door, and asked Shula standing at the door, "Shula, what's the matter?"
Maybe Shura didn't expect that I would open the door quietly. She was startled. She stepped back, stabilized herself, and reported to me, "Comrade division, commander Oleg is outside."
"How long has he been here?" I asked as I dressed
"About half an hour."
"Then why don't you wake me up at once?" Hearing that Oleg has been here for so long, I can't help blaming Shura.
"I wanted to call you, but Lieutenant Colonel Oleg told you to sleep a little longer, so it's been put off till now."
I nodded and said to her, "Shula, go get commander Oleg in."
By the time commander Oleg came in, I was sitting in my seat, looking up at him, and asked with a smile, "commander Oleg, what's the matter with you coming to me so early?"
Oleg sat down in the chair opposite me and said hesitantly, "Comrade division, you should have guessed my purpose, right?"
When he said that, I could not help frowning slightly, and asked, "what you want to say is that I allowed the German prisoners to meet the German troops with captain gramus?"
Oleg nodded hard and said with certainty, "yes, sir, that's what I want to say. You should know that two German soldiers had already escaped while on duty yesterday. If we let the rest of them meet the German troops today, we will be exposed once anyone comes out and shouts out while we are not prepared. "
What Oleg said is also what I am worried about. To let the German prisoners who have just been released follow captain gramus to meet the new German troops outside the station will inevitably make the prisoners have illusions, and even some brave people rush to warn the new German. Although the risk of doing so is great, under the current situation, the risk has to be taken again. In order to stabilize Oleg's mood, I patiently explained to him, "Comrade commander, don't I know the risk of doing so? If a German prisoner shouts at the new German company, we will be exposed. But it is obviously unrealistic not to let them meet. You know, the new German may be quite familiar with gramus' company. If they find that there are no other acquaintances except gramus in the reception team, and the officers and soldiers on duty at the station are all strange faces, they will not be suspicious at that time, which will lead to the complete exposure of our disguise. "
When I said this, I saw Oleg's sullen expression, and then said, "although it's risky, we have also formulated necessary preventive measures. For example, when greeting the new troops, the German prisoners lined up in the square were all empty guns without bullets on their backs; Secondly, we have several times as many people around these prisoners. Even if they want to do something, they can stop it at the first time. The most important point is the troops hidden on the second floor of the waiting hall. They are our last card. Once exposed, they will open fire decisively and cooperate with the troops in the square to wipe out all the new German soldiers. "
When I said that he was going to give the Germans a thunderbolt at the critical moment, Oleg's eyes brightened and his face brightened. He was surprised and asked, "Comrade division, are you going to completely solve this new German company?"
"Yes, if we don't solve it, they will always be a disaster to us. However, we have to consider how to solve this problem. It's better not to shoot if we can, because we still have to stick to this station for a while. Premature exposure is not a good thing for us. "
Oleg quickly stood up and asked me to take the initiative: "let me command the troops lying in ambush on the second floor. I promise you that as long as I open fire, I will never let a German run away."
I waved to him and said, "commander Oleg, the troops on the second floor are under the command of me and commissar verol. And your task is to follow gramus to meet the Germans with Lieutenant Mikhail. Remember you have to be around him all the time. Once he does something wrong, "I hesitated for a moment, then ordered in an emphatic tone," kill him without hesitation. "
"Yes Oleg gave a loud promise, and then asked me respectfully, "Comrade division, can I go back? There is still some preparation work to be done. "
"Then what are you doing standing here? Go I waved him out of the headquarters.
After a simple wash, I left the headquarters to look for verol without even having breakfast. I didn't expect that I met captain Grimes and lieutenant gretka just after I went out.
When I saw them coming together, and knew that there must be something for me, I stopped and said to them, "Hello, Captain Grimes, Lieutenant gretka!"
After they raised their hands to salute me, Lieutenant gretka politely said to me, "Sir, I don't know if it's convenient for you now, because the captain and I have something to talk to you about."
Seeing that they had something to look for me, I gave up the idea of looking for verol. I waved my head to them and said, "this is not a place to talk. Let's go and talk to my headquarters."
After they sat down in front of me, I looked at lieutenant gretka and asked, "Mr. lieutenant, I don't know you two came to see me so early. What can I do for you?"
Second lieutenant gretka was obviously authorized by gramus. Without asking the captain any more questions, he said frankly, "Sir, I and the captain want to know what you are going to do with us after yesterday's unexpected escape? Exactly what happened to me, Captain Grimes, and the other 35? "
I shrugged my shoulders and said, "if you don't make trouble for me any more, I will treat you as my friends and comrades in arms. At that time, you will not only be able to go in and out of the station as you are now, but you will even be able to match your weapons with bullets. "
"Aren't you afraid that when there are bullets in our guns, you will immediately turn the muzzle and shoot at you?"
Although my heart trembled when I heard him say this, I still kept calm on the surface. I said with a smile: "if you turn the muzzle of the gun, I can only blame that I believe in the wrong person. But if you think you have the possibility of recapturing the station, I'll tell you that you are very wrong. We have many more people than you
Gretka's face was embarrassed. He tried to squeeze out a smile and said to me, "Sir, please don't get me wrong. I'm just joking with you. You know what you said yesterday touched us a lot. After going back at night for discussion, we reached a consensus that as long as you don't treat us as prisoners of war and trust us, we are willing to cooperate with the Soviet army and serve you. "
"First of all, you should ensure that there will not be any similar desertions in the future; Secondly, in today's welcome ceremony, you should cooperate closely with my people, and never show any flaws, so that the new German company can realize that this station has been occupied by us. Can you do what I said about these two places? If you can, I can assure you that in my independent division, you are no longer our enemy or prisoner of war, but our comrades in the same trench. "
Gretka was stunned at what I said. Captain Grimes, who didn't understand us, was a little worried. He began to chatter at gretka. Gretka heard the captain's voice, shook his head, and quickly translated our conversation to his captain.
After listening to gretka's translation, Captain Grimes stood up, raised his hand, saluted me solemnly, and said a few more words. Gretka quickly translated for him: "Comrade division, with the honor of German soldiers, I promise you that from this moment on, my subordinates and I will unswervingly stand on your side and become your loyal subordinates."
Instead of paying him back, I reached out to him and said with a smile, "Captain Grimes, I sincerely welcome you and your men to be one of us."
After taking his seat again, Grimes asked, "what are you going to do with this new company, sir?"
Instead of answering his question directly, I asked, "Captain Grimes, if you are in my position, what are you going to do with these German soldiers?"
Grimes thought for a moment and replied, "when the new troops get into the station, I'll send my deputy, second lieutenant gretka, to take the soldiers to the warehouse to rest, and I'll take the commander of this troop to the headquarters on the platform myself. You can ambush your hands in it first, and when the commander follows me into the room, you can quickly control the other party. "
"How sure are you about that?" I thought Grimes' suggestion was feasible, so I went on to ask, "can you make sure they don't alert your superiors?"
Grimes shook his head and said, "I don't think they have a chance, because I will control the signalmen following the commander at the first time. In this way, they will not have a chance even if they give an alarm to the commander. In addition, I suggest that troops should also be ambushed around the warehouse. When the new troops enter the warehouse and are not ready, commander Oleg or other people should rush in unexpectedly and disarm all the people inside. "
Hearing that gramus' suggestion coincided with my original idea, I nodded with satisfaction and said to him, "this is a good plan, Captain gramus. Then we'll arrange it according to your plan."
"There is another problem, comrade division commander."
"Come on, what's the problem?"
"How many people are you going to let me take out when I go to meet the friendly troops?"
"You and your subordinates are 37 people in total. Then all of them will go up to the square and line up to greet you. As for our people, I'm going to send a company. "
"A company?" Grimes listened to me and waved his hand and said, "no, no, that's not going to work."
"Why?" I asked in response.
"Sir, you don't know something." This time, it was lieutenant gretka who said, "after two times of fighting, when our company entered the station, there were only 95 people in total. If you are sending a company with us, then we have nearly 140 people. In this way, it is easy to arouse the suspicion of the other party. "
"What do you say to do?" I asked without thinking.
Lieutenant gretka thought for a moment and replied, "well, sir, we're 37. You can send 50 more. When the commander of the other side comes to see that there are only more than 80 troops meeting them in the square, he will guess that the rest of them are on duty in the station, so that he won't doubt it. "
"It seems that you have considered it very comprehensively, comrade lieutenant." When the second lieutenant finished, I couldn't help praising him.
Lieutenant gretka laughed, and then asked, "Sir, it's all over. Can captain Grimes and I leave?"
"Go on, go on, you go back and think about it, see if there is anything missing, try not to show any flaws in front of the new troops. Otherwise, "I said solemnly," our army will not be responsible for any serious consequences. "
After captain Grimes and them left, I went out with them to find verol, and I wanted to discuss with her how to arrange the firepower on the second floor of the waiting hall. Verol had known my plan from Oleg for a long time. She was not surprised to see me coming. She just led me silently to the second floor along the stairs with several holes in the explosion.
After going upstairs, verol pointed to the soldiers squatting by the wall on the other side of the square and said to me, "Sir, please see, those are all machine gunners. If they fire, our firepower can cover the whole square in an instant, and the Germans will not have the slightest fight back."
As soon as the machine gun goes off, you have a good fight, but we are also exposed. What I had received was to stick to it for five days. If I lost the station in just two days, even if I didn't die at the station, I might be sent to the military court for trial after I went back. Based on this consideration, I still intend to eliminate these new arrivals with no blood, and also intend to make use of their radio stations to ensure that we can continue to disguise at the station.
Thinking of this, I asked veroll: "political commissar veroll, is there a sharpshooter here?"
Verol was stunned by my question for a moment, but she soon regained her mind, nodded, and then beckoned to the soldiers standing in the distance to come to us. When these soldiers came to us and stood in a row, verol introduced them to me and said, "Comrade division, these soldiers are from Siberia. They used to be hunters with good shooting skills. Do you have any instructions for them? "
When I saw these sharpshooters in front of me, I thought that these soldiers would become snipers in Stalingrad city in the near future. Today, I just gave them a chance to practice. So I said to them, "comrades, I believe we are all good marksmen. In a few hours, a group of Germans will come to our station. My task is to monitor them. As soon as you get my firing order, you'll give priority to killing all their officers. Are you confident? "
"Yes!" The sharpshooters roared in unison.
Seeing their imposing manner, I nodded and said with satisfaction: "very good. I'm very satisfied to see that everyone has high fighting spirit. As for the level of everyone, I think I will know soon
After noon, Captain Grimes and his troops lined up in the station square to welcome the new troops. Verol and I were standing on the second floor of the waiting hall, watching everything in the square carefully. More than 30 subordinates of Grimes were scattered by us. Almost everyone was surrounded by two of our commanders and fighters.
At two o'clock, verol suddenly pointed to the distance and said in a low voice, "Sir, look, the Germans are coming." I followed the direction of her fingers and saw a convoy of more than ten trucks coming towards us. At the beginning is an open car with the commander of the army.
The team stopped at the place where there were more than 20 people left in the welcome team of gramus, and gramus immediately came forward with five or six people. I can see through the telescope that on the right side of gramus is lieutenant mihayev, followed by Lieutenant Oleg, and on the left side is his confidant, Lieutenant gretka. Although the other people look strange, they are also our soldiers.
Seeing the machine guns on the top of the bridge of the truck and the machine gun shooters in the back, I couldn't help whispering orders to the sharpshooters: "sharpshooters, take aim at the machine gun shooters on the truck."
Almost at the same time as I gave the order, verol also gave the order to the machine gunners: "the machine gunner is ready to shoot as soon as the enemy shoots." But what happened next gave me a sigh of relief. Grimes went to the car, raised his hand to give a military salute to the people on the car, and the other side also pushed the door open, jumped out of the car and raised his hand to him in return. Then they shook hands and walked shoulder to shoulder toward the waiting hall of the station. I don't know if it was my words yesterday that really shocked those German prisoners, or the thunder method of shooting two deserters yesterday scared them. Anyway, the prisoners in the queue showed great cooperation. They just stood in the line honestly and didn't do anything strange. The commander of the German army followed gramus to the station. Another officer who jumped off the car ran to the front of the motorcade and yelled a few words. Seeing the soldiers on the truck start to get off, he turned and trotted to catch up with his commander and came to us. Seeing the German soldiers jump out of the car and line up beside the truck, verol asked in a low voice, "Sir, do you want to shoot?" I shook my head and replied, "the Germans didn't see us. Don't shoot."“ However, you can see how orderly the German line is. There is no better target. If I fire, I want to kill them all in five minutes. " I looked at her discontentedly, and said in a stern whisper, "commissar verol, I repeat, no one is allowed to shoot without my order. If anyone shoots without permission, I will punish her even if all the Germans are wiped out. " When verol heard my stern order, he had no choice but to say, "yes." Then she told her men, "watch out for the enemy in the square. No one is allowed to shoot without orders."