Chapter 1299

Standing in a room full of oil paintings, I muttered to myself, "these paintings are priceless. Don't mention 60 tons of gold. Even if you give me 600 tons of gold, I won't change it."

Although the whole base is under our control, and there are several soldiers standing guard outside the gate, my heart is still not secure. I called Carmela to him and told him: "Comrade commander, this batch of cultural relics is very important. The number of people outside the gate is far from enough. You should transfer more people to take charge of the security work as soon as possible."

"Don't worry, comrade commander." Carmela said with a relaxed expression: "as soon as the base is cleaned up, I'll transfer the guard company and let them take charge of the guard work here."

It's said that Carmela's guard company will be responsible for the security work here, so I feel more secure at last. Standing in front of the oil painting "the TrackMan of the Volga River", I carefully studied the world famous painting and asked casually, "Comrade commander, is there anything important besides gold and oil painting?"

I just asked casually, and I didn't expect Carmela to give me any more detailed answers. Unexpectedly, after hearing my question, he nodded his head and replied, "yes, comrade commander, at the end of the corridor, there are two large rooms, which are also full of cultural relics."

Even if a shell fell on my side and exploded at the moment, it was not as shocking as Carmela's words. I grabbed him by the arm and stammered, "commander, what do you say? There are two... Two big rooms left?"

Carmela nodded hard and said definitely, "yes, comrade commander, please let me show you the way." With that, he reached out sideways and made a gesture of invitation.

I followed him nervously along the corridor to the door of another room guarded by many soldiers. I saw him stop and asked, "is it right here?"

"Yes, right here." With that, he opened the door and took me in.

He groped around the wall and turned on all the lights in the room. In the bright light, I saw hundreds of wooden cases piled up neatly in this room, which is more than 200 square meters wide and seven or eight meters high. I asked tentatively, "commander, what's in this box? Is it also gold?"

"It's not gold, but it's like gold leaf." Carmela said, went to a wooden box on the ground alone, uncovered the wooden cover, carefully rushed inside and took out something, turned to me and said, "Comrade commander, please see, we have checked and found that there are several rows of wooden boxes outside

I took what he was holding and looked at it carefully. It was a clock with exquisite workmanship. Except for the gold-plated body, the angel sculptures on the top of the clock were all pure gold. After watching it, I handed it back to Carmela, and then asked, "Comrade commander, what's in all the boxes except the bell?"

Carmela put the golden bell back into the wooden box and replied, "statues and vases of ancient Greece and Rome. By the way, the most precious one is Michelangelo's sculpture the boy in a huddle. "

"Michelangelo's sculpture?" When I heard the name of the master, I couldn't help taking a breath. It took me a long time to come back to me and asked tentatively, "how can his works be here?"

Carmela shrugged, spread his hands and said, "I don't know why I'm here. As far as I know, this work should be in the Hermitage Museum. It's a treasure of the winter palace. "

We were just talking when yershov, who had just sent a telegram, found us. He first looked at the wooden boxes in the room, and then said to me, "commander, I have received a call back from Comrade kirilov, the military Commissar. He asked me to tell you that these things are of great importance. In order to prevent the German army from seizing again, he has sent a report to the headquarters of the front army, and at the same time, he has urgently mobilized the 89th division of the guards to rush here."

When I heard that it was kirilov, not chisgakov, who mobilized the troops, I realized that the value of these cultural relics was far beyond my imagination. It seemed that it was necessary to deploy them immediately to prevent them from being taken away by the German army. Therefore, I immediately solemnly ordered yershov and Carmela: "two comrades, you should immediately take the base as the center to build defensive positions to prevent possible German attacks."

When they were about to leave, I suddenly remembered that it was less than 20 minutes since yelshov left. I stopped him and asked, "Comrade commander, where did you send the telegram just now? Why did you come back so soon?"

"Well, comrade commander." Yelshov pointed out casually with his hand and said, "there is a telecommunication room in the base. The messenger has just set up our radio station there, so I can receive a call back from the headquarters of the group army in such a short time."

A few hours later, kirilov arrived with a company of guards. Accompanied by me, he visited the rooms where gold, oil paintings and various cultural relics were stored. He said with emotion, "these damned Germans have robbed so many of our precious cultural relics. Fortunately, God forbid them to take these things away, otherwise it will not be so easy for us to chase them back in the future. "

"Yes, once these cultural relics are transported away, even if we beat the Germans, some cultural relics will be sent to the people, and it will be very difficult for us to collect them." I said to kirilov with some worry: "before they found this base in travkin, they didn't know how many cultural relics were carried away by the Germans."

"Don't worry, we'll find out soon." Kirilov raised his hand, patted me on the shoulder and said, "Rita, after receiving the telegram from lieutenant commander yershov, I immediately reported this to vatukin and Moscow. The senior general said that he would be here soon."

Kirilov reported this to vatukin. I know, but I don't know. He also reported this to the relevant authorities in Moscow. After hearing this, I was surprised and asked, "Comrade military commissar, I don't know which department in Moscow you reported this matter to?"

Kirilov gave me a smile and said, "Rita, do you forget that I'm from the Central Committee? Of course, I will report this to the person in charge of my former unit. I believe that he will let Comrade Stalin know about it through Comrade bosklebshev. "

After listening to what he said, I immediately nodded and said with approval: "not only do we have no right to dispose of such a large number of gold and cultural relics, but even general watujing may be in a dilemma. Therefore, it is most appropriate to report this matter to the higher authorities and let them decide how to deal with it."

Just as we were talking, a soldier brought by kirilov came in and reported to us: "commander, military commissar, we received a phone call from the observation post above the base, saying that there was a motorcade coming towards us in the distance, with three armored cars and seven or eight trucks, full of our soldiers."

When kirilov finished listening, he turned to me and said, "Rita, I think commander vatukin is here. Come on, let's go out and meet them. "

We walked out of the gate of the base and saw the approaching motorcade stopping 50 or 60 meters away. Among them, the door of the armored car was opened first, and a commander jumped down from it. I recognized it as general watujing with my sharp eyes. I quickly said to kirilov, "it's the senior general." With that, he trotted to watujing.

I came to watujing and raised my hand to salute. According to the regulations, I reported to you, "senior general, commander of the sixth group army of Jinwei, lieutenant general oshanina, i..."

"Come on, comrade oshanina, don't be so polite." Vatukin interrupted me, pulled my hand down from my forehead, held it tightly, shook it a few times and said, "Comrade Stalin is very happy to know that you have seized the cultural relics looted by the German army. Let me especially convey his thanks to you."

"Serve the Soviet motherland!" Hearing this, kirilov and I, who arrived later, straightened up and replied neatly.

At this time, through the door of the armored car, an old man with a hat, a suit, a pair of round eyes and a goatee on his chin emerged. As soon as he got out of the car, he asked, "where is it?"

Watujing gave me a little embarrassed smile, and then introduced me to him, saying, "Comrade oshanina, let me introduce you. This is the curator of the almitash Museum."

When watujing finished speaking, I reached out to the curator and politely said, "Hello, curator. Nice to meet you here!"

I didn't expect that the curator didn't answer me at all. He repeated the question: "where is the thing?"

"Comrade curator, are you talking about the cultural relics we seized?" Kirilov asked politely. Seeing that the other party nodded in affirmation, he made a gesture of asking and then said, "please follow me. I'll take you to see the cultural relics captured by our army."

Seeing the curator and kirilov walking shoulder to shoulder towards the gate of the base, I shook my head with a wry smile. Just as I wanted to follow, I heard a familiar voice behind me: "Hey, why don't you say hello to me, Rita, don't you know me?"

I looked back and saw a tall and handsome general standing at the door of another armored car. I immediately recognized the general, who is my most familiar rokosovsky. I quickly opened my arms and walked towards rokosovsky. At the same time, I cried out excitedly: "Hello, comrade general, what's the matter with you? I'm so glad to see you here. "

Rokosovsky and I gave a hug, and then politely kissed each other on both sides of my cheek. Then they let me go, looked at vatukin, and said helplessly: "I was commanding the battle in the headquarters, but I received a call from Marshal Zhukov, who ordered me to report to vatukin's headquarters immediately, saying that there was something important. Only when I arrived did I know that you found a German underground base in the Forest east of Zhitomir. As the base was built under my command, the marshal said that I knew the situation here, so he asked me to come with Comrade watujing. What's the matter? Did you find anything in the base? "

Rokosovsky's words surprised me. I asked with wide eyes, "why, comrade general, don't you know what's in the base?"

"Don't say Comrade rokosovsky doesn't know, even I don't know." Watujing came up and said, "from your message, I know that you have seized 60 tons of gold and at least thousands of precious oil paintings. I don't know what else. "“ Let's not stand here. Let's talk as we walk. " Seeing that kirilov and the curator were going to enter the gate, rokosovsky urged us: "Comrade watujing, let Rita tell you the specific situation slowly on the way." As I walked between the two commanders of the front army, I looked at vatukin and said, "in addition to the oil paintings and gold you know, there are also two large rooms in which ancient Greek and Roman sculptures and vases are found in wooden boxes..." Rita, are the two large rooms in the deepest part of the base Rokosovsky suddenly interjected. Seeing that I nodded my approval, I explained to watujing, "those two rooms are used to store grain, ammunition and drinking water, so they are very large. I didn't expect that after the German occupation, it was used to store looted cultural relics. " When we came to the room where the oil paintings were stored, we saw the curator holding the oil painting "the boatman of the Volga River" with tears streaming down his face and muttering to himself, "yes, yes, that's it, that's it..." "Comrade General, what's the matter?" Seeing the impolite curator, I quietly asked watujing next to him, "where did you find him?"“ Comrade oshanina, let me tell you a secret. " "He came here to get information that the German had met Kiev from the" Amber Room "in the palace of St. Petersburg in Leningrad. So when he learned that we had liberated Kiev, he flew from Leningrad to Moscow and from Moscow to Kiev. I just heard that you found the German base for storing gold and oil paintings, so he came with us. " Amber, I've seen, is resin wrapped with insects or leaves, buried underground for thousands of years, and fossilized under the action of pressure and heat. But the biggest amber I've ever seen is only the size of a fist. I can't think of what kind of room is built with such high-end things, so I can't help but ask curiously, "what is an amber room?" Hearing that I knew nothing about the amber room, the kind-hearted rocosovsky popularized science to me: "in 1709, King Frederick I of Prussia ordered the most famous architect of Prussia to build the" Amber Room "in order to imitate the luxurious life of King Louis XIV of France. The whole "Amber House" covers an area of about 55 square meters. It has 12 wall panels and 12 plinths. All of them are made of amber, which was 12 times more expensive than gold at that time. The total weight of the "Amber House" is at least 6 tons. At the same time, it is decorated with diamonds, gemstones and silver foil. It can be assembled into various shapes at will. After being built, it is dazzling and magnificent. It is known as "the eighth wonder of the world". In 1716, King William I of Prussia presented this rare treasure to Tsar Peter the great in order to form an alliance with Russia. "