red moscow

Chapter 2627

  The ambassador yelled for a long time, but in the end nothing came of it. The people in the embassy tried to get out of the building, but were blocked by Sokov's men. They couldn't even get out of the embassy, ​​so they naturally couldn't see Molotov. Who could they protest to?

The counselor came up with a bad idea. He asked the military attaché to lead the soldiers in the embassy to force a path through the building so that the ambassador could leave.

But as soon as he said this, he was refuted by the military attaché: "Mr. Counselor, do you understand what you are saying? If my men had not had a conflict with the soldiers outside, and had been allowed to lead the ambassador out, they might have been able to complete their mission. But now, they see the soldiers outside who have beaten them before. Even if you whip them, they dare not go out of the building, let alone cover the ambassador and rush out of the building."

"Forget it, stop talking." The counselor wanted to say a few more words, but the ambassador raised his hand to stop him: "Since the military attaché said that the problem cannot be solved by force, then we can only continue to wait."

"How long do we have to wait?" asked the counselor.

"I'm afraid the blockade of the embassy will only be lifted when their superiors have calmed down."

The soldiers on duty outside were divided into three groups, changing shifts every two hours. The soldiers who were off duty would go to the tents to keep warm and dispel the cold.

Sokov also ordered Bezikov to call in the team doctors and have them check the soldiers who were laid off in the tent to see if anyone had frostbite. As a member of the team doctors, Asiya naturally participated in it. The only difference was that other team doctors had to stay here all the time, while Asiya could go home after dark.

When it was dark, Sokov came to the tent where Asiya was and said to her, "Asiya, you are too weak. If you finish your duty here, I am worried that you will not be able to bear it. You should go home with the people I have arranged."

Asiya knew that this was Sokov's care for her, and she did not reject his kindness. She took the car arranged by him and went home.

After Asiya left by car, Yakov said to Sokov: "Misha, Asiya's physical condition has not been ideal since the last car accident. Anyway, we will not go to London again, the workload of the team doctor has been greatly reduced, and we have enough manpower. Why not let Asiya rest at home?"

"Yasha, do you think I don't want Asiya to rest at home?" Sokov sighed and said, "If I don't give her something to do, she'll be thinking about random things all day long. I'm worried that if this continues, she might have a problem with her nerves."

"Hey, if it weren't for that damn car accident, your child would have been born by now."

"Yes, the due date is in the next two days." Sokov's nose felt sore when he talked about the child who died before being born, but he suppressed his grief and said, "This may be fate."

"Although Asiya's child is gone." Yakov looked around and saw that there was no one around, so he lowered his voice and said, "But don't you still have a child? When is the due date for Karina from Vladimir?"

Sokov calculated in his mind for a while and replied, "If nothing unexpected happens, it will be mid-July." After saying this, he put his hands together and began to pray, "God bless me, bless my second child to be born smoothly and grow up safely."

"Misha, don't worry." Yakov raised his hand and patted Sokov on the shoulder, comforting him, "Karina is different from Asiya. Her activities are between her home and the municipal building, which are only three or four hundred meters apart. The possibility of another car accident is infinitely close to zero. I believe she will be able to help you give birth to the baby smoothly."

"I hope so." Sokov thought to himself that after this busy period, he would go to Vladimir to see Karina. After all, she was about to become the mother of his child, and he couldn't just ignore her.

…………

The next morning, Asia showed up at the embassy with a look of panic on her face.

When Sokov saw her expression, his heart skipped a beat. He thought to himself that maybe something had gone wrong again, otherwise Asiya wouldn't be so worried.

"Ashia," Sokov asked cautiously, feeling uneasy, "Did something happen?"

Asiya nodded vigorously and then said, "Yes, before I came, I received news that Marshal Rokossovsky was ill and in a very dangerous condition."

"Ah, Marshal Rokossovsky is ill?" Sokov asked in surprise. "Where is he living now?"

"It's the underground hospital where you were hospitalized last time." Asia explained, "The hospital opposite the Lubyanka Building."

"Well, I'm going to go see him then."

"Misha, what on earth is going on? Marshal Rokossovsky was fine a few days ago, how could he suddenly fall ill?"

Sokov did not answer Yakov's question immediately, but asked in return: "Yasha, let me ask you a question. Why can't ordinary people command large troops in combat?"

Yakov didn't even think about it, and instinctively asked: "Why?"

"Let me give you an example," Sokov said to Yakov, "Suppose you are the principal of a school and you want to organize thousands of teachers and students to walk from Moscow to Leningrad. In the process, you not only have to plan different routes, but also coordinate the departure time of each class, transfer and rest places, as well as tents, dry food and water needed for the trip. In addition, you must also estimate the risks and accidents that may occur on the road in advance. If you can successfully bring people there, God bless you."

Yakov didn't say anything, but just nodded slightly to show his agreement with Sokov's words.

"By the same token, senior commanders on the battlefield are not commanding a few thousand people, but tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of people. The pressure they will be under will be enormous. Taking these troops to fight, a wrong decision will result in the deaths of tens of thousands of people. Can ordinary people bear such pressure?" Sokov continued: "During the Battle of Moscow, the 16th Army commanded by Marshal Rokossovsky was in danger of being surrounded because the friendly forces on the left and right wings were repelled by the German army and their flanks were exposed to the enemy. Therefore, he proposed to Marshal Zhukov in this situation that the troops retreat to the Istra Reservoir area, use the terrain there that is easy to defend and difficult to attack, build a new defense, and at the same time, as the defense front is reduced, he can have more troops as reserves.

However, his request was rejected by Marshal Zhukov. Even after asking for permission from the Supreme Command, Zhukov stopped the retreat to the Istra Reservoir. We may think that Marshal Zhukov was unkind and put Marshal Rokossovsky's troops in danger. But as the commander of the Western Front at the time, Marshal Zhukov was under tremendous pressure. He considered the overall situation, not the local situation. As long as he could stabilize the defense line, he would not hesitate to sacrifice the 16th Army. "

Yakov was confused when he heard this. He just asked why Marshal Rokossovsky was hospitalized, but Sokov told him a lot of inexplicable things. When he was about to interrupt him, he heard Sokov continue: "Because senior commanders are under tremendous mental pressure on the battlefield, after the war, they will have different degrees of physical problems due to exhaustion. Marshal Rokossovsky was seriously injured in the Moscow counterattack. I think his hospitalization this time may be due to excessive mental pressure, which caused the recurrence of old injuries."

"Oh, I understand what you mean." Yakov nodded and said, "You mean, Marshal Rokossovsky suffered tremendous pressure during the war, which caused his old injury to relapse. Am I right?" "Yes, that's what I mean." Knowing that his old superior, Marshal Rokossovsky, was hospitalized for an emergency, Sokov was determined to visit him. He said to Yakov, "After I hand over the work here to Lieutenant Colonel Bezikov, we will go to visit Marshal Rokossovsky, okay?"

"Of course." Yakov nodded and said, "He was once my superior. He is in the hospital due to illness. It is natural for me to visit him."

After handing over the work at the embassy to Bezikov, the two drove to the hospital where Rokossovsky was hospitalized.

However, when he arrived at the gate of the underground hospital in Lubyanka, he was told that Rokossovsky was actually staying in another hospital, so Yakov turned around and drove towards the new destination.

When the car arrived at the hospital, Sokov saw that the parking lot outside was full of various cars. It seemed that they were all here to visit Rokossovsky.

When Sokov and Yakov arrived at the door of the inpatient department, they found that the place was full of shining generals. The dozens of officers standing outside, the lowest of whom was a major general, were blocked by a dozen sentries on duty at the door.

The two men walked through the crowd and headed straight for the door, but were stopped by a second lieutenant on duty: "I'm sorry, Comrade General, Marshal Rokossovsky is in poor health and cannot see outsiders. Please go back."

"I'm Admiral Sokov." After revealing his identity to the other party, Sokov asked directly: "I'm an old subordinate of Comrade Marshal. I heard that he was in the hospital, so I came here to visit him. Please make an exception and let me in."

"I'm sorry, Comrade General." But the lieutenant said sternly, "Our mission is to not allow anyone to enter the hospital ward so as not to disturb Marshal Rokossovsky's rest. Please retreat behind the cordon and don't make things difficult for us."

"Didn't you hear my identity clearly?" Sokov became angry when he saw that the lieutenant still refused to let him in.

"Of course I heard it clearly, General Sokov." The lieutenant said calmly, "Look, there are three or four generals who were stopped by us at the door. We didn't let any of them in, and you are no exception. Please understand my difficulties and don't make things difficult for us."

Sokov wanted to say something else, but was pulled back by Yakov.

"Misha, it's useless." Yakov said, "Other generals came earlier than us, and they couldn't get in, let alone us."

"What should we do?" Sokov said unhappily, "Are we just going to go back in disgrace?"

But Yakov smiled and leaned close to Sokov's ear and said, "Misha, we can't get in through the main gate, can't we get in from other places?"

Yakov's words awakened Sokov: Yes, there are sentries guarding the main gate, so you can't get in at all, but you can go around to other directions of the inpatient department and find other doors to enter. Even if you can't find the door to enter, you can consider entering through the window.

Thinking of this, Sokov immediately pulled Yakov away from here and prepared to go around to the back of the inpatient department to find a new entrance.

But when the two of them arrived at the back door, they found that they had thought the problem too simply. There were also four sentinels standing guard at the back door. They did not check people coming out from the inside; but if you wanted to go in from the outside, they would carefully check your ID even if you were wearing a white coat.

"Misha, what should we do?" Yakov was a little disappointed when he saw this: "It seems that we can't enter the inpatient department through the back door either."

"Then there is only one last way." Sokov gritted his teeth and said, "Find a place where no one is paying attention and climb through the window to enter the inpatient department. Although there are sentries guarding the front and back doors of the inpatient department, they can't arrange a soldier behind every window."

In this way, the two found an empty area and, with the cover of the green belt, quietly approached an open window.

Sokov came to the window, turned his head and said to Yakov who was following behind him: "Lie down, I'll step on your back and see if there is anyone in the room."

Without saying a word, Yakov immediately bent down and squatted on the ground, letting Sokov step on him. After the other party stood firm, he slowly stood up with the help of the wall, gritted his teeth and asked Sokov: "Misha, is there anyone in the room?"

"This should be a utility room. There's no one inside." Sokov said, "I'll crawl in first and then pull you in."

Sokov climbed into the window using his hands and feet, then turned over and stretched out his hand to pull Yakov outside. Yakov grabbed Sokov's hands with both hands, kicked his feet against the wall, and after a few hard kicks, he climbed up the window.

After the two entered the room, Sokov said with emotion: "Fortunately, the window of this room is open, otherwise we would not be able to enter the inpatient department at all."

"Yes, the windows are all closed in winter, not to mention the first floor, even the windows on the second and third floors are also closed." Yakov said: "If the windows are not opened, we can't enter the building at all."

"The next step is to find Marshal Rokossovsky's ward." Sokov asked Yakov: "Do you have any good suggestions?"

"Although the inpatient department is not big, if we run around like headless flies, we might not find anyone but be discovered by the soldiers on duty in the building and be driven out." Yakov said self-deprecatingly: "If General Sokov and General Yakov are driven out of the inpatient department by the sentries, it will become the biggest news in Moscow tomorrow, and we will become the laughing stock of others."

"Don't talk nonsense. Do you have any good ideas to find Marshal Rokossovsky's ward in the shortest possible time?"

Yakov pinched his chin and thought for a while, then said: "The easiest way is to go directly to the nurses' duty room and look at their registration records. This way, we can find Comrade Marshal's ward in the shortest time."

"What if, I mean what if," Sokov said, "What if there are soldiers in the nurse's duty room who are responsible for protecting the marshal's safety? In that case, wouldn't we be walking into a trap by doing this?"

Seeing that Sokov rejected his proposal, Yakov said with a sad face: "Misha, do you have any good ideas?"