Chapter 666

While akhromeyev was reporting to trikov and rodimzev, I quietly stepped aside and waved Pavlov to come over, intending to tell him some defensive experience, so that he could be used in the next battle.

Pavlov came up to me, glanced at them, and then asked respectfully, "Captain oshanina, do you have any instructions for me?" In the tone of his speech, I obviously felt less closeness, more politeness, and even a little awe towards me, which was unimaginable before.

As for his attitude change, I could not help frowning slightly, but patiently told him what I thought: "Comrade sergeant, I'll give you a suggestion. In order to better command the troops in the building, you should arrange for the soldiers to break through the basement walls and floors, and dig a communication trench leading to the location of other friendly forces. In this way, even in the case of German air strikes and shelling, it can also ensure that the contact with the outside world will not be interrupted, and all kinds of supplies and reinforcements can enter the building through the trenches, which is conducive to your long-term defense. "

"That's a good suggestion from Colonel o'shanina." Although rodimzev was extremely dissatisfied with me because of the materials in the warehouse, when he heard the rationalization proposal I enthusiastically put forward to his subordinates, he said friendly words for me: "Sergeant Pavlov, just follow the arrangement of the colonel."

"Comrades, please have tea!" Suddenly, a crisp voice came from the door.

I turned around with my voice and saw a little girl, about four or five years old, with a triangular scarf on her head and big eyes, staggering in with four cups full of hot tea on a tray.

Hastily meet in the past, squat down the body, the little girl's hand took the tray. Looking at the little girl in front of me who is somewhat similar to the "alenka" on the milk chocolate package of "Red October" later, I hold the tray with a teacup in one hand, and touch her head gently with the other hand. I asked in an amiable voice, "little girl, what's your name and why are you here?"

The little girl raised her head and said to me with a smile, "Comrade commander, my name is alenka. I live in this building. When the German devils came two days ago, my grandmother and I had many neighbors hiding in the basement. It wasn't until last night when our troops came back that we came out of the basement

At the sight of such a lovely little girl, trikov and rodymzev also came over, bent down to say hello to alenka and touched her head. Trekov also asked with concern, "dear alenka, it's so dangerous here. Why do you want to stay here and not transfer?"

As soon as alenka saw that she was a smart little girl, she heard that trikov asked her, and quickly replied, "Uncle commander, grandma once took me away from here some time ago and planned to take a boat to the opposite side of the river at the wharf. I didn't expect that there were so many people there. We didn't get on the boat after waiting for two days, so grandma brought me back

After hearing this, trikov stood up straight and asked Pavlov standing beside him, "Comrade sergeant, what's going on?"

Pavlov quickly replied, "well, comrade commander. After we seized the building last night, we found more than 30 residents in the basement, including little alenka and her grandmother. I've armed all the others and armed them. But little alenka and her grandmother, old and small, were obviously unable to fight, so I mobilized them to leave here. But the granny stayed and took the initiative to cook for us. "

Trekov nodded, and then told Pavlov, "Comrade sergeant, since alenka and her grandmother are in this building, you have to ensure their safety. Can you do that?"

When Pavlov heard this order from trakov, he did not reply immediately, but hesitated. As for why Pavlov reacted like this, I know very well in my heart that Pavlov may be thinking about how to protect the elderly and children left in the building when their own lives cannot be guaranteed in the next cruel battle. He hesitated and said, "I'm sorry, comrade commander. I may not be able to do your order. You know, the next battle may be very hard. Even if we stick here, we can beat back the attack of enemy tanks and infantry, but we can't stop the bombardment of enemy planes and artillery. So I dare to ask you to let alenka and her grandmother leave here for their safety

After listening to Pavlov's words, trakov had an expression of displeasure on his face, which, as I know him, is a precursor of his impending anger. In order to prevent Pavlov from being blamed, I quickly stood up, handed the tray in my hand to trekov, and said, "Comrade commander, please have tea. This is from the Alinka kid himself. "

When I mentioned alenka, there was a smile on his tight face. He took a cup of tea, touched her head with his free hand, and said with a smile, "thank you, alenka!"

I then handed the tray to rodimzev and akhromeyev. Akhromeyev snatched a cup of tea from the tray, respectfully handed it to rodimzev, and then brought his own cup of tea.

I picked up the remaining cup of tea in the tray, tried the water temperature, thought it was almost the same, then I drank it up. Although the black tea has sugar, it is not sweet at all, which means that the white granulated sugar in alenka's family is almost used. Now that the white granulated sugar in the house is almost gone, I believe there are few other daily necessities left. When I get back later, I will send someone to send something to her home.

Several of us finished our tea, put the cups on the tray and handed them to Pavlov. Trekov raised his hand and looked at his watch. Then he turned to us and said, "it's late. Let's go back."

When the four of us went down to the second floor, rodymzev suddenly stopped trikov: "Comrade commander, I have something important to talk with you. Is it convenient for you now?"

Trekov stopped, looked left and right, pointed to an empty room nearby, and said, "let's talk inside."

When I heard that the two leaders had something important to discuss, in order to avoid suspicion, I quickly said to trikov, "Comrade commander, if you have something important to discuss with general rojimtev, akhromeyev and I will go downstairs first and wait for you."

Instead of answering my request, trakov told me directly, "come in and listen to me, too!"

As they entered the room, I turned to akhromeyev with a wry smile and said, "chief of staff, please wait for me downstairs. I'll be down in a moment." With that, he quickly walked to the room.

Walking into the room full of rubble and broken furniture, I saw trakov and akhromeyev standing at the window, quickly walked over and stopped beside them to listen to what they were talking about.

Just listen to rojmzev said: "Comrade commander, when I see the little girl alenka, I think of the residents who are still trapped in the city. Although finding shelter is their priority, the ultimate problem is that they can't find food or water at all. I saw in my headquarters that during the interval of each bombing, women and children would climb out of the burrow and cut some meat from dead horses before wild dogs and mice. The main force of the food search team is children like alika. They are young, small and agile, which greatly reduces their chances of becoming a target. At night, the children sneaked to the huge burned barn in the enemy occupied area of Volga River, trying to fill all kinds of packages with burnt wheat when the German guards didn't pay attention, and then sneak back to their families to eat. But according to my scouts, the German guards guarding these barns killed quite a few children. Not only that, but also those who tried to steal some food from the German garrison

After listening, trakov did not speak, but nodded silently.

Rodimzev went on: "the German soldiers themselves also used these children in Stalingrad. It is also very dangerous for the invaders to fill the kettle with water, because our snipers are hiding in the dark, ready to shoot any moving targets. So, by promising a little piece of bread, they could drive little Soviet boys or girls down to the Volga River to fill them with water. According to my subordinates' reports to me, some troops, having noticed this situation, ordered our soldiers to kill many children on similar missions. I think that such inhuman things should be stopped immediately. "

Trikov looked up at the sky and sighed, saying helplessly: "Comrade rojimtev, this is war. Similar things happened in the early days of the siege of Leningrad. The German troops used the residents as shields to attack our positions. After learning of this situation, comrade Stalin immediately issued an order to our army: eliminate any residents who obey the command of the German army, even if they are forced to act. What you have said is that this instruction was carried out in the same way in Stalingrad.

Just the day before yesterday, the 35th division of the guard infantry also reported to the headquarters that the enemy had captured many residents and forced them to drag the bodies of the dead German officers and soldiers. At that time, comrades of the military commissar issued an order to them: no matter who he is, as long as we want to remove the corpse of the Communist Party, our commanders and fighters will open fire on him. "

I felt chilly when I heard the conversation between them. I could not help worrying about the fate of those residents in the city who had not yet had time to move. If they were in the Soviet defense area, they would be lucky. If it is in the German occupied area, it may become a human shield.

Perhaps it was trekov's words that made rodymzev think of alenka, who just brought us tea and water. He said with deep feeling: "alenka is much luckier than the children I just mentioned. She follows our troops, and can undertake the tasks of signalman, Scout or spy. She can play a role that adults can't play."

Trikov took out a cigarette from his pocket and gave way to rodymzev. Seeing that the other side waved his hand to refuse, he took one directly in his mouth, lit it with a match and asked, "is there anything else besides this one you just said?"

Rodimzev grumbled angrily to trikov: "you asked me to command all the troops in the north of the city. From the current situation, except for the independent division and my guards, 13:00, the rest of the troops have many numbers, but there are not many left. Now the main forces to fill these defensive gaps are workers from the factories in the north of Stalingrad. As you know, although these workers are very enthusiastic in fighting, they are not regular troops after all, and their combat effectiveness is relatively weak. In the face of the fierce attack of the enemy, it is inevitable that some wavering elements with weak will will will appear, and even some cowards who are greedy for life and afraid of death will flee. After learning about this situation, the headquarters of the front army not only did not send troops to strengthen my defense line, but also organized well-equipped volunteers of the Communist Youth League or troops of the Ministry of internal affairs to form a supervision team behind the militia forces to prevent them from escaping. "

After hearing this, trikov could not help but say in surprise: "what, the headquarters of the front army is in your rear, deploying the overseers? When did it happen? Why don't I know? " Rodimzeff looked at trikov suspiciously. Seeing that he didn't seem to be pretending to be confused, he quickly added: "I saw ten people in each team yesterday afternoon. The captain was wearing a black leather jacket and holding a revolver. In addition to submachine guns, soldiers also have rotary machine guns and heavy machine guns. There were two soldiers of the 42nd brigade who had been ordered to get their own food. As a result, because they had crossed a white line they had drawn on the ground, they were shot and killed by the regiment. " After hearing this, trakov said solemnly, "I will report this matter to the headquarters of the front army in person later. Our soldiers can't die in their own hands."“ In addition, there are all kinds of military materials. " When he said this, he turned to look at me, and his face showed his disgust for me. He only heard him say: "only one third of the soldiers in my army have winter clothes. Originally, he wanted to distribute winter clothes to the soldiers after taking back the military material warehouse near the flour mill. I didn't expect that captain o'shanina's action was so fast. As soon as he took down the warehouse in front of him, he organized people to load thousands of winter suits and carry them away. "“ Comrade general, "I said weakly to myself after hearing his accusation," my troops don't have any winter clothes before dawn. If we don't distribute winter clothes to them as soon as possible, once the cold winter comes, our division will suffer from non combat casualties such as frostbite due to the lack of winter clothes. What's more, I didn't transport all the winter clothes, food, weapons and ammunition in the warehouse, leaving you a lot. "“ What's so much? " Rodimzeff said angrily, "we have 500 winter suits, 100 cases of dried bread and weapons that can only be equipped with two companies."“ All right, "said trakov, stopping the argument between us. He said impatiently," it's all friendly forces. Don't argue about these things any more. "“ But what should we do with the supply of our division? " Rodimzev retorted discontentedly. Trikov looked at me and then at rodimzev. For the sake of defending me, he said to rodimzev, "Comrade rodimzev, at present our supply situation is very bad. At present, new boots, new uniforms and new equipment are all left to the new regiments formed in the rear. At present, the support materials for Stalingrad's front-line commanders and fighters no longer come from the Quartermaster department, but from the dead comrades' bodies. The 57th and 64th army, which are just as difficult as ours, do not waste anything when burying the bodies of their comrades. They will only bury the bodies in their underwear. Therefore, your division should learn from the friendly forces in the way of supply. There are battles all around your division's defense area at any time. It should not be difficult to get winter clothes and weapons. " Trikov's partiality for me left rodymzev speechless. Standing beside me, I knew that if I didn't say anything at this time, I would have offended rodimzev to death. So I quickly said: "Comrade General, although we can't support your division in winter clothing, we can support you with surplus weapons and ammunition. After all, we are friendly forces." At the end of my speech, there was a little ugly smile on rodymzev's face: "well, since you say so, I will not argue with you about the military supplies incident any more. But I want to tell you that Soviet street is the defense area of the 13th division of the guards. I hope your troops will hand over their defense to the 42nd regiment of Colonel Yelin as soon as possible. "“ No problem, Comrade General. " Last night, in order to capture the Soviet street, I mobilized two battalions. At present, the troops in the direction of mamayev post seem to be a little thin. When I heard that rodimzev asked my troops to hand over defense to him, I really couldn't wait for it, so I readily agreed: "when I go downstairs later, I will give an order to major akhromeyev, Let them hand over defense to you. " Seeing that we were no longer arguing about military supplies, trikov nodded with satisfaction and said to me, "Comrade oshanina, let me remind you. The independent division is not only friendly to the 13th division, but also at the command of general rodimzeff. So after the defense of the Soviet street is transferred, you can't ignore it. Once something unexpected happens, you have to send troops to support it. Do you understand? "“ Understand I understand the truth that even if trekov doesn't say anything, even if they don't say anything, I will send troops to reinforce the 42nd regiment of the guards when it's in the most critical situation. So after listening to trekov's order, I agreed very readily.