red moscow

Chapter 2618

Since Bakanidze had made up his mind to go home, Sokov couldn't stop him and drove him back to the instrument factory.

As the car entered the town and passed a small church, Bakanidze suddenly shouted, "Misha, stop the car! Stop the car quickly!"

Sokov thought he had run into someone he knew, so he stepped on the brakes and pulled the car to the side of the road. He tilted his head and asked, "Did you run into someone you know?"

But Bakanidze shook his head and said, "No, I saw a church here and wanted to go in and pray for Asia."

Sokov knew that after the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, many churches that were previously closed had been reopened. During the war, although he liked to set up his headquarters in churches, they were all vacant churches, and he had never seen what a reopened church looked like. Since Bakanidze mentioned it, he decided to go and take a look, just to broaden his horizons.

Walking into the church, Sokov found it was pitch black inside. Not even the lights were on. There were only two very thin candles lit in the hall, barely illuminating an area about four or five meters wide, so that it was not pitch dark.

With the help of the weak candlelight, Sokov saw that the front wall was covered with gilded statues of various gods. Bakanidze came to these statues, knelt on one knee, bowed his head and made the sign of the cross on his chest, and muttered something in a low voice. Although he couldn't hear what he was saying, Sokov knew in his heart that he was praying for Asia.

After a long time, Bakanidze stood up, came to Sokov, sighed softly, and said, "Misha, let's go."

When Sokov sent Bakanitze home, looking at the deserted house, he suddenly remembered something and quickly went to the room that Bakanitze and his wife had prepared for Asia.

When I opened the door, I saw that the furnishings in the room were very simple. There was no furniture except a bed, a desk and two armchairs.

"Misha." Bakanidze saw Sokov come in and ran straight to the room prepared for Asia. He quickly followed him and said apologetically: "Asia is back less often, so there is not much furniture in the room prepared for her. If you think it is too simple, I can buy some new furniture recently..."

But before he could finish, Sokov waved his hand: "No, no, no, I'm not talking about furniture."

Bakanidze asked in confusion; "So what are you going to say?"

"I want to ask, if the flour is packed in bags and stored at home, how long can it last?"

Bakanidze felt strange when he heard Sokov's question, but he answered truthfully: "If the bag of flour is not opened, it can theoretically be stored for five years. As you know, the winter here is relatively dry, so the flour can be stored for eight years or even longer."

"How much food can you and your wife eat in a year?"

Bakanidze thought for a moment and then replied: "We eat 40 kilograms of bread, two kilograms of cheese, eight kilograms of meat and ten kilograms of sugar a month."

Sokov calculated in his mind for a while, then said: "So you eat about 500 kilograms of bread, 24 kilograms of cheese, 96 kilograms of meat and 120 kilograms of sugar a year, right?"

"That's about right." Bakanidze finally felt something was wrong. Why would his son-in-law ask about this for no apparent reason? He asked back, "Misha, has something happened? Why are you asking about grain storage?"

Sokov did not answer immediately, but continued to talk to himself: "A bag of flour is 25 kilograms. You need to eat 20 bags a year, which means 100 bags in five years. Asiya's room is relatively spacious, so even if you put 200 bags of flour, it won't be a big problem."

"Misha, what do you want to say?" Bakandze couldn't help but yelled at Sokov: "When I hear you say that, it feels like a famine is about to happen."

"Not as if, but definitely." Sokov turned to look at Bakandze and said seriously, "You are Asiya's father and my father-in-law. There is something I think I need to tell you in advance so that you can be mentally prepared. Perhaps starting this summer, a severe famine will break out and the normal food supply may be interrupted, so you should store food in advance to survive the coming famine."

"What? There's going to be a famine?" Bakanidze asked in disbelief. "Where did you hear this news?"

"Don't worry about how I got the news, but I can tell you responsibly that the source of the news is absolutely reliable." Sokov said to himself, I saw it from historical materials of later generations, and the authenticity is beyond doubt, but I can't tell you the truth, so as not to scare you: "So from now on, you have to start hoarding food to cope with the upcoming famine."

"Great famine?" Hearing the word Sokov said, Bakanidze was shocked and asked, "How big can it be?"

Sokov was silent for a moment, and decided to tell him part of the truth, so that he would not be distracted when hoarding food and fail to store enough food to survive the famine years: "In this famine, tens of thousands of people may die of hunger. You are Asiya's parents, and I can't watch you get into trouble because of hunger."

If anyone else had said this, Bakanidze would have certainly still been skeptical, but since it was Sokov who said it, he had to take it seriously. After all, Sokov's status and position were different, and he could understand many things that he was not qualified to know.

It was with this in mind that he asked cautiously, "Misha, how much food do you think we should stockpile?"

"Of course the more the better." Sokov returned to the living room and continued to ask, "I remember that your family has a basement. How is the environment inside? Is it dry?"

"Of course." Bakanidze said in a positive tone: "When this house was built, it was adequately moisture-proof, so our basement can be used to store things for a long time."

"In addition to flour, I suggest you stockpile a large amount of potatoes and corn. After all, these two things can be stored for a long time." "Misha, please tell me truthfully how long I have been storing food." Bakanidze believed Sokov's statement, but he also raised a question: "If I stockpile a large amount of food in a short period of time, it will be easy for others to find out. If a large-scale famine really occurs, someone will definitely report me to the superiors for hoarding food, and then maybe a grain collection team will come to my house to confiscate my food."

"I just said that famine occurs in the summer, around July and August, when food shortages will occur." Sokov sighed and said, "Even though the rationing system has been abolished now, it will definitely be restored as food shortages occur, so you have to be prepared in advance."

Bakanidze frowned and thought for a while, then continued, "Misha, even if I have half a year to stockpile food, if I buy a lot of food nearby, it will probably attract other people's attention. Do you have any good ideas to stockpile food without being discovered by others?"

"Unless you have your own house in the forest in the countryside," Sokov said with a wry smile, "there are almost no people there. Let alone one or two tons of food stored at home, even if you store one or two hundred tons, it will not attract other people's attention."

"We have a house in the country, but we haven't retired yet. We can live there occasionally, but we can't live there for a long time."

"Can you take me to see it?" Sokov asked tentatively.

"Of course, of course." Bakanidze said, "I'll take you to the villa in the countryside first, and then I'll find someone to investigate the scene when I come back."

Hearing Bakanidze say that he would find someone to investigate the accident scene, Sokov's mouth twitched violently. He didn't expect that Bakanidze still remembered this matter. But at the moment, he was in a hurry to go to the villa in the country, so he didn't care about this matter.

Bakanitze's villa was only 20 kilometers away from the town of Khimki, and it only took Sokov minutes to drive there.

The car stopped outside a yard surrounded by a wooden fence. Bakanidze got out first and opened the closed door with the key. He explained to Sokov, "This villa originally belonged to a colleague of mine. He and I went to the front line to do maintenance work, but unfortunately he died. Not long after I came back, his wife sold this villa to me."

Walking into the yard, Sokov saw a two-story wooden house with a sloping roof. Next to the house was a downward passage, which should be the basement of the villa.

Sure enough, after closing the gate, Bakanidze took Sokov into the basement and introduced, "Misha, this basement has two rooms with an area of ​​about 50 to 60 square meters. If it is used to store grain, it will be no problem to store one or two hundred tons."

Sokov carefully checked the empty basement and thought it was convenient to store food, potatoes, corn and the like here. Even if he stored one or two hundred tons, he didn't have to worry about being discovered because there were almost no houses nearby. The next thing to consider was where to buy food and then store it here without anyone noticing, so that it could be used when the famine came.

Although Sokov had carefully observed the surrounding environment on the way here and didn't see any houses, he still asked worriedly: "Will this place not be discovered by others? If we store the food here, but no one lives in the house, if someone breaks in, they can just swagger away and take away all the food."

"Misha, your worry is justified. This is what I am worried about as well." Bakanidze said worriedly, "If the food we have worked so hard to store is taken away by others, we will starve when the famine comes."

"So for safety reasons, we can't store all the food here. We need to store some food in the houses in the family quarters of the instrument factory." Sokov said, "When the food stored in the family quarters is almost eaten, we can come back here to get food."

"Misha, you haven't answered my question yet. How can we prevent someone from stealing the food stored here?" Bakandze reminded Sokov: "If the great famine you mentioned happens, the large amount of food will be enough to turn kind people into vicious criminals."

"What can I do?" Sokov said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "I can't arrange two soldiers to be on duty there and plant mines around the villa wall to kill those who try to break into the villa."

"Forget it." Seeing that Sokov was helpless in preventing thieves, Bakandze stopped making things difficult for him and changed the subject: "Can you think of a way to buy food?"

  "Well, let me think of a way." While driving, Sokov thought to himself, where should he go to purchase enough food and store it?

After returning to the family quarters, Bakanidze said sympathetically: "Misha, I think you must be tired. Why don't you take a rest first? I'll go out and find some friends. When they come, it won't be too late for us to go to the scene."

"Yeah, okay." Sokov nodded, then lay down on the sofa and closed his eyes to rest.

Although he hadn't slept for even a few minutes since yesterday, because so many things had happened, his cerebral cortex was always in an excited state, so he couldn't fall asleep even after lying down for a long time.

  Since he couldn't sleep, Sokov simply sat up and began to think about what he was going to face next. Since Bakanidze said he would find someone to investigate the scene, the person he found must have some criminal investigation experience. Maybe after they go there, they will find out the truth. How should he explain to Bakanidze then?

But after waiting for a long time, Bakanidze still did not come back. Sokov even had an illusion that Bakanidze was worried that it would affect his rest, so he took people directly to the scene of the car accident for investigation?

Just when he thought this guess was correct, the door was opened from the outside, and then Bakanidze walked in. But Bakanidze did not come back alone, and there were two men of about his age following him.

Seeing Sokov sitting on the sofa in a daze, Bakanidze asked in surprise: "Misha, why are you sitting here in a daze instead of sleeping?"

Sokov looked at him and said, "Today, too many things happened. My mind is in a mess and I can't sleep at all." When he said this, he looked at the two men who followed Bakanidze in: "What are the names of these two comrades?"

"They are all my good friends." After introducing the two names to Sokov, Bakanidze continued, "They all worked as criminal investigators in the police department before, and they have their own unique way of investigating the scene. Misha, if you are sleeping now, how about taking us to the scene?"

"Okay." Sokov stood up and said cheerfully, "Let's go now."

After the four of them got in the car, a man in a peaked cap said to Bakanidze, who was sitting in the passenger seat: "Bakanidze, I never thought that we could have a general as our driver. I can brag about this for years."

"Yuri," Bakanidze said to the man, "You are right. It is not often that you get the chance to be a general's driver. So you must cherish this precious opportunity today so that you can brag about it in the future."