Chapter 1298

Since I knew that the soldiers had rushed into the German base, I couldn't sit still in the headquarters, and urged yershov to take me to the front. Yeershoff used the telephone to talk with several forward commanders continuously. After confirming the safety of the front, he took me away from the headquarters and went to the position where I could see the situation of the base clearly.

After walking in the forest for about 200 meters, our sight suddenly brightened. I saw in the open space hundreds of meters in front of us, there was a soil slope more than 20 meters high, with reinforced concrete structure on the front. Two big iron doors were opened, each of which had been blown up a hole. From time to time, there were puffs of smoke and explosions.

Yershov held me and said, "Comrade commander, the fighting in the base has not stopped. For your safety, we can't go any further. We'd better go to the observation post."

I didn't want to embarrass yershov, so I readily agreed to his request and followed him to a nearby observation station. Standing in front of the lookout, I raised my telescope and looked into the distance. Yershov next to me began to introduce the situation: "Comrade commander, according to the architectural style of this base, it should be built by us. In order to clear the shooting boundary, the German army cleaned up the trees within a few hundred meters around the base. Therefore, as soon as our offensive troops leave the forest, they will be exposed to the enemy's fire. "

I first looked through my telescope at the destroyed and smoke blackened fire points, and then asked, "Comrade commander, I don't understand. Why don't you attack from the rear of the base?" I pointed to the slope with my hand, "the enemy's defense is aimed at the front. If you approach the gate of the base from the left and right sides, you can reduce a lot of unnecessary casualties."

"Comrade commander, please have a look!" Yershov pointed to the right side of the base and said to me, "after the attack, I sent a company to detour from the flank to the enemy's firepower point and destroy them, but..."

Although he didn't finish his words, I could see clearly that where the trees had been cut down and the weeds and rocks had been cleared, there were several craters still smoldering with smoke, and many of our commanders and fighters were lying around the craters. Seeing this, I immediately understood what was going on. I couldn't help being surprised and asked, "did the enemy lay a minefield behind the base?"

"Yes, comrade commander." Yelshov replied with a wry smile: "the German army not only laid ordinary pressure and trip mines, but also electric detonating mines. I sent a company, and when it was removed, there was less than one class left. "

The German minefields were severe, and the two Guard regiments were not equipped with engineers, so there was no reason for them to attack from the front regardless of casualties. In order to ease the awkward atmosphere in the observation center, I changed the topic and asked, "Comrade commander, what do you think there will be in this base?"

Yeershoff replied very simply: "there is something in it, I can't think of it. But since the German army has chosen this hidden base, I think there must be something very important in it. " After a pause, he asked, "Comrade commander, what do you think the Germans will put in it?"

When I heard his question, I shook my head with a bitter smile and replied, "Comrade commander, to tell you the truth, I don't know. I knew that the German army often sent covered convoys escorted by armored vehicles to transport things from here

"The battle is almost over." Yelshov listened to the sparse gunfire in the distance, turned to me and said, "after we have eliminated the enemy, we can go in and solve the mystery."

Time in our anxiously waiting, a second to the past. Just when I was about to lose patience, yershov suddenly pointed to the distance and said to me, "Comrade commander, look, a motorcycle is coming towards us."

I looked in the direction of his fingers and saw a tricycle coming towards us. In addition to the motorcyclist, there was a commander with submachine gun and helmet in the sidefight. I put down my telescope and said to yershov, "come on, let's go out and have a look."

The commander in the straddle, seeing us coming out of the observation station, raised his voice and yelled to the motorcyclist, "stop, stop, stop here!"

As soon as the motorcycle stopped, the commander jumped out of the straddle and trotted all the way to us. After raising his hand and saluting, he excitedly reported to me, "Comrade commander, our team leader has found something good in the base. Let me invite you to have a look."

I knew from the tone of his voice that he was the commander of the sixth mopping regiment of the guards. I looked at the rank on his shoulder and asked curiously, "Comrade lieutenant, don't you know what's good in the base?"

Unexpectedly, the lieutenant shook his head and replied, "I'm sorry, comrade commander. I was commanding the soldiers to clean the battlefield near the gate, but suddenly the commander came to me and said that he found a lot of good things in the base. Let me invite you to have a look. " After he finished, he stopped for a moment and added, "the head said you would be very interested in what's inside."

I looked back at yershov and asked him with a smile, "how are you, comrade commander? Do you want to go and have a look together?"

"Of course, comrade commander." Yelshov said, then turned to a soldier next to him and said, "go and ask the driver to drive the jeep."

As our jeep followed the motorcycle and headed for the gate of the base, yershov shook his head and said, "this Colonel Carmela doesn't know what's going on. It's mysterious."

At this time, I knew that the head of the sixth mopping regiment of the guards was Carmela. I could not help but secretly despise myself. When I used to be a division commander, I even remember the name of the platoon leader clearly, but now I don't even know the name of one of my commanders.

The jeep stopped in front of the damaged gate. Commander Carmela, who had been waiting here, quickly came up and opened the door for me. He said respectfully, "Comrade commander, please follow me. I'll show you something unexpected."

"Colonel Carmela, what the hell are you up to?" Yeershoff, who got off the car from the other side, said discontentedly, "if you find anything, you can say it directly. It's so mysterious."

When I walked into the base, I found that there was a special hole here. The passage was made of concrete. Maybe there was a generator somewhere inside. The electric light installed on the top of the passage illuminated the whole passage clearly. I saw many spacious rooms on both sides of the passage. I looked into one of the open rooms and saw that it was empty and nothing.

Carmela noticed that I was looking around from time to time and reminded me: "Comrade commander, dozens of rooms outside are empty. The things originally stored here should have been carried away by the Germans."

In the passage, we constantly meet the soldiers who are escorting the prisoners and cleaning the battlefield. When they see us, they slow down or stop their work and salute us.

After another 20 or 30 meters, Carmela stopped in front of the room where a soldier stood guard, turned to me and said, "Comrade commander, here it is." Then he pushed the door open and went in.

I followed him and walked into the room, where I saw a pile of wooden boxes stacked neatly. I was guessing when these boxes would be put, when yershov asked Carmela, "Comrade commander, did you call us here to see the German ammunition stored here?"

"Munitions?" Carmela repeated the word, raised her eyebrows, and said with some pride, "commander yershov, how can I call the commander and you here for a room full of ammunition?"

Then he stepped forward, lifted the lid of a wooden box, picked up a rectangular object that looked like a brick from inside, turned and handed it to me, and said, "Comrade commander, look what this is." See my hand to pick up, quickly added, "be careful, a little heavy, be careful to hit the foot."

I carefully took the brick like object from his hand. I just felt that it was very heavy. If Carmela hadn't just reminded me, it might have hit my foot. I carefully looked at the object in my hand. After seeing it clearly, I was surprised: "commander, is this a BRIC?"

"What, BRICs?" When yelshov heard me say this, he was also surprised. He took the gold brick from my hand, looked it over and over carefully, and finally said in surprise, "my God, it's really a gold brick." Then he looked up and asked Carmela, "commander, where did you get this thing from?"

"Where else, here, of course." After answering yershov, Carmela reported to me: "Comrade commander, after our commanders and fighters rushed in, they found that there were not many enemies in the base, only about one company, but their resistance was very tenacious. It took us nearly an hour to completely occupy it. "

"Comrade commander, how many BRICs are there?" But I'm sure that when I put hundreds of boxes in front of me with gold in them, I couldn't help breathing, "have you ever done any statistics?"

"A piece of gold brick weighs ten kilograms, and there are forty such gold bricks in a wooden box." Carmela, like an accountant, reported to me the amount of gold in the house: "there are 150 wooden boxes in the whole house, which means there are 60 tons of gold."

"What, 60 tons of gold?" Hearing this number, my heart beat faster, but yershov was even worse. He just sat down on the ground and murmured, "I'm not dreaming. I can see so much gold."

"Commander Carmela," when I learned that there were 60 tons of gold in this room, my mood suddenly became nervous. I was deeply afraid that someone might have some wrong ideas. I said to Carmela with a serious expression: "we must strengthen the guard here. There are too few sentinels at the door. At least one class should be sent."

"Comrade commander, just 60 tons of gold, I think a sentry is enough." After listening to what I said, Carmela said with disapproval: "I think we should use the security forces in more important places."

"Comrade commander," I heard him say, and I couldn't help laughing bitterly, "what else do you think is more important than a room with 60 tons of gold?"

"Yes, comrade commander." Carmela said confidently: "if you look at the things in the other rooms, you will think that 60 tons of gold is nothing. Please follow me. I'll show you

I followed Carmela and walked out of the room where the gold was stored, muttering to myself: it's really a toad yawning - it's a big breath, unless there's a room full of diamonds, there's nothing worth more than 60 tons of gold. But when I followed him around the corner and walked into the room with four soldiers on guard, I knew I was wrong, and it was a big mistake. In the spacious room, there are hundreds of half person high picture frames. When Carmela asked the two soldiers who came in with me to lift a picture frame in front of me and tear off the kraft paper tied outside, I recognized it as the famous "the trackers on the Volga River" at a glance. Even without looking at the scribbled signature of the painter in the lower right corner, I knew it was a famous work by Lebin. I hold my breath, stare at the oil painting in front of me, and carefully look at this familiar world famous painting. But after confirming that this is definitely not a fake, I asked tentatively, "Comrade commander, besides the works of Liebin, are there any other works of famous painters?"“ Yes, comrade commander. " Carmela nodded his head and said: "in addition to Lebin's works, there are also a large number of Leviathan's works, of which four are his peak works: Vladimir Road, by the abyss, evening bell and above the cemetery. This is his exploration of expressing the flavor of the times in landscape paintings. It is totally different from the praise of Russian natural scenery in his early Volga group paintings, which deeply expresses the repressed social emotions at that time. Vladimir Road, known as Russian historical landscape painting, describes a road formed by Tsar's dark rule. The lonely tombstones and road signs at the crossroads, the cloudy sky and the moving clouds strengthen the pathos and desolation of the picture《 "Beside the abyss" reflects the story of a girl who died in a dead pool for love. The whole picture is silent and terrifying, with legendary color《 The painting of "evening bell" is a corner of the ancient city of Russia, which contains depression in the bright color, conveying people's spiritual sustenance for the ancient past. Two years later, Leviathan painted "over the cemetery", which combines the association and emotion of the first three works, depicts the moment when thunderstorm is coming and wind is blowing in a monumental composition. The whole picture has a grand and vigorous melody... "I listened to Carmela's popularization of science, and after he finished, I immediately told yershov:" Comrade commander, send a report to the group army headquarters immediately, and report our findings here to them. "