red moscow

Chapter 2637 A familiar figure from behind

Yakutsk is located in the heart of the Siberian continent. Because the city is built on permafrost, it is also known as the "Ice City." It has a continental climate, with long and cold winters, with an average temperature of -38.6℃ in January and an extreme minimum temperature of -64.4℃. The summer is short and warm, with an average temperature of 19.5℃ in July and an extreme maximum temperature of 38.4℃. The absolute temperature difference exceeds 100℃, making it the most typical city in the world with a continental climate.

On the outskirts of this city, there were several prisoner-of-war camps, where prisoners from Germany and the Sakura Country were held. At its peak, there were about 100,000 prisoners. However, due to the harsh climate and insufficient food supply, many prisoners died every day, and the total number of prisoners was constantly decreasing.

The train arrived in Yakutsk in the afternoon of the fifth day.

As soon as Sokov and his companions, Vaserigov and others, got off the train and stepped onto the platform, an officer wearing a long military coat and a cotton military cap, with a purple face from the cold, came up to Sokov and asked respectfully, "Comrade General, are you General Sokov from Moscow?"

"Yes, I am Sokov." Sokov looked at the strange officer in front of him and asked cautiously: "Comrade officer, who are you?"

"I am Captain Yasenko, and I have come to greet you on the orders of General Lukin."

"Please lead the way."

Led by Yasenko, the group left the train station and got on two jeeps parked on the roadside.

Yasenko sat in the passenger seat of the first car, Sokov and Vasherigov sat in the back seat, and the other two fighters sat in the second car.

After the car started, Vaseligov couldn't help but say, "Comrade Captain, it's really cold here. Although it's still winter in Moscow with ice and snow, the temperature is still a few degrees below zero every day."

"Comrade Major," Yasenko said, half turning around, "the coldest months here are January and February, when the temperature is around -35 degrees Celsius every day. Today's temperature is -20 degrees Celsius, which is quite warm compared to last month."

Hearing that the weather here was so cold, Sokov could not help but worry about Lukin. He asked tentatively: "Comrade Captain, how is Lieutenant General Lukin's health?"

Yasenko hesitated for a moment, then replied, "Not very well. He has been coughing a lot since winter. After the doctor examined him, he said he should go to a relatively warm place for recuperation, otherwise his body would not last for a few more years."

Sokov thought what Yasenko said made sense. Not long after Lukin was rescued from the German POW camp, he went to the Far East with him to participate in the August Storm Operation. Now he was sent to a bitter cold place to look after the prisoners of the Kwantung Army, which was very bad for his health. He began to consider whether he should suggest to Zhukov to transfer Lukin back to Moscow and arrange a relatively leisurely time for him after he returned to Moscow. Otherwise, with his physical condition, he would not survive for a few years in this cold place.

Because the road was covered with snow and ice, vehicles were traveling very slowly, at a speed not exceeding 30 kilometers per hour.

Sokov turned his head and looked out the window, but found that the window glass was covered with a thick layer of ice, and he couldn't see clearly what was happening outside. He took off his gloves and used his fingernails to scrape the ice off the glass. It took a lot of effort to scrape away a palm-sized area, so that he could barely see the pedestrians walking on the street outside.

Among these pedestrians, there were soldiers and civilians, all of them wearing thick cotton jackets, cotton hats or dog-skin hats, and their faces were covered tightly to prevent frostbite. There was snow and ice on the sidewalk, so they did not walk very fast, but moved forward slowly.

Vaseligov glanced out the window and said with emotion: "The climate here is extremely cold all year round. It's really not easy for the residents."

"Yes, when I first came here, I couldn't stand the severe cold here, but as time went by, I gradually got used to it."

"Then the prisoners of war detained here, can they adapt to this climate?"

"Even if they are not used to it, they have to learn to adapt, otherwise death will be waiting for them." Yasenko said: "Last year, just after December, the temperature suddenly dropped to -12 degrees Celsius. The Kwantung Army prisoners of war from the Far East lived in ordinary wooden houses without fires. More than 38 people froze to death overnight."

"How many?" Sokov, who was looking at the street scene, became interested when he heard what Yasenko said: "Comrade Captain, how many prisoners of war did you say were frozen to death?"

"More than 4652." Yasenko felt a little nervous when he heard Sokov ask about this. "To be precise, people froze to death. When Lieutenant General Lukin learned about this, he was furious and immediately arranged for people to add warming facilities to the wooden houses where the prisoners lived. But even so, hundreds of people still froze to death every day. It was not until March, when the temperature rose, that the number of prisoners frozen to death basically disappeared."

After hearing what Yasenko said, Sokov couldn't help but feel it was a pity. If the severe cold continued for another two months, thousands or even tens of thousands of Japanese soldiers would be frozen to death. Letting them survive like this was simply too easy for them.

"So many Kwantung Army prisoners of war died. How did you deal with them?" Sokov said casually, "Bury their bodies in the potato fields. Can the potato production double next year?"

Unexpectedly, Yasenko was surprised when he heard this: "Comrade General, it's too cold here to grow crops. The food the residents need is shipped from other places."

This time it was Sokov's turn to be curious: "Since crops cannot be grown here, how do people here survive?"

"The main industries in Yakutsk are building material processing, wood collection and processing, leather manufacturing, food processing, coal mining, water conservancy and energy development, electric power industry, fishery processing, hunting, and horse breeding and animal breeding." Yasenko explained to Sokov: "Due to the cold climate, the bodies buried in the ground do not decay all year round. Even the bodies of mammoths tens of thousands of years ago are still as fresh as new when they are unearthed."

When Sokov and Yasenko were chatting, they turned around and saw a soldier walking towards them from the front of the car. Although he was wearing a military coat, a cotton cap, and his face was tightly covered, Sokov felt that he looked familiar.

Just as Sokov was wondering why the man looked so familiar, the man had already passed by the jeep and walked towards the rear of the car. Sokov quickly turned his head to look at the rear window glass, wanting to confirm again whether the man's figure was familiar, but he found that the window here was also covered with ice, and he couldn't see the outside at all. Sokov tapped it twice with his fingers, but only a small piece of ice came off, and he still couldn't see what was outside the car.

"Stop the car!" Sokov turned and shouted at the driver, "Stop the car quickly!"

The driver didn't know what was going on, but since the general ordered him to stop, he naturally stopped the car.

As soon as the car stopped, Sokov opened the door and jumped out of the car. He looked behind the car, trying to find the familiar figure and figure out who he was. He saw that person walking slowly along the sidewalk about ten meters away. Sokov quickened his pace to catch up with him, hoping that he would turn around and take off the face covering so that he could see who he was. But he stepped on a piece of ice on the ground and fell on his back after just two steps.

"Comrade General, are you okay?" Seeing Sokov fall, Vaseligov, who had just gotten off the car, was frightened. He quickly walked to Sokov's side, squatted down, helped Sokov sit up, and then asked with concern: "Are you injured?"

Sokov looked up at the man in front of him and saw his back turning into an alley. He quickly pointed ahead and told Vaserigov: "Major, there is a man in a military coat who just turned into the alley ahead. Take someone to bring him over immediately."

"Okay, Comrade General." Vasherigov stood up, called a guard who had just got off the car, and told him, "Take good care of the general!" Then he said to another guard, "Come with me!"

At this moment, Yasenko also came to Sokov's side, helped the guard to lift Sokov up from the ground, and asked with concern: "Comrade General, are you not injured?"

"No." Sokov shook his head and said, "I just fell, but I'm not hurt."

"Comrade General, who did you see just now?"

"Just now there was a soldier passing by the car," Sokov explained. "Although he was wearing a hat and covering his face with a cloth, I felt that his figure was very familiar, like someone I knew, so I got out of the car to take a look. After I fell, he turned and walked into the alley ahead. I had already caught up with Major Vaseligov and his men."

As he was talking, Sokov saw Vaseligov and his guards coming out of the alley. After the two of them came out, no one else appeared beside them. Sokov immediately realized that they must not have caught up with the person they were looking for.

Sure enough, when Vaseligov came to Sokov, he said apologetically: "I'm sorry, Comrade General, we didn't see anyone when we chased him into the alley."

"How deep is this alley?" Sokov asked in return, "Did he disappear in the blink of an eye?"

"Comrade General, this alley is about 50 to 60 meters deep." Vaseligov replied, "There are many residents in the alley, but the doors are all closed. I think the man may have entered a house after entering the alley. There are only two of us, and we don't know what the man looks like, so we can't find him."

After hearing what Vaseligov said, Sokov could only sigh secretly, then waved his hand and said, "Everyone get in the car. I think Lieutenant General Lukin must be waiting anxiously."

The vehicle got back on the road and drove for more than half an hour before entering a yard and stopping next to a three-story building.

After the car stopped, Yasenko turned to Sokov and said, "Comrade General, we're here!"

"Lead the way."

When Sokov followed Yasenko into the building, the two sentries standing at the door saluted him with their guns and did not stop Vaseligov and others who followed him.

Led by Yasenko, Sokov and others came to the door of an office on the second floor.

Yasenko raised his hand and knocked twice on the tightly closed double doors. Without waiting for any sound to come out from inside, he raised his hand, pushed open one of the doors, walked straight in, and closed the door casually.

A moment later, Yasenko came out of the door and opened it wide, then said to Sokov respectfully, "Comrade General, please come in!"

Sokov turned around and said to Vaseligov behind him, "You stay here and wait for me." Then he walked into the office.

As soon as he entered the house, Sokov was stunned by the scene in front of him. Lukin, who usually sat in a wheelchair, was now standing steadily in the middle of the house.

Seeing Sokov coming in, Lukin opened his arms and said warmly: "Misha, welcome to Yakutsk!"

Sokov walked up to Lukin and gave him a warm hug, then asked curiously, "Lukin, how did you get up?"

Hearing Sokov's question, Lukin chuckled twice and then said, "After you and Yasha left the headquarters, Marshal Vasilevsky came to inspect our troops. When he saw me receiving him in a wheelchair, he said unhappily, 'How can we let our hero sit in a wheelchair all the time?' Then he called an officer and whispered a few words to him. Two days later, I received the prosthesis sent by Vasilevsky. After more than half a year of practice, I have basically gotten rid of the wheelchair and can walk freely without crutches."

Although Lukin said he could walk on his own, Sokov knew very well that no matter how exquisitely the prosthetic limbs of this era were made, it would still be impossible for the user to walk as freely as a normal person, so he helped Lukin sit down on the sofa.

"Misha, I didn't expect you to come so soon after receiving my telegram," Lukin said with some surprise. "I thought you would wait until the weather warms up in June or July before coming."

Sokov was in a state of confusion at the moment. He couldn't tell the other party that he didn't know it was so cold in Yakutsk, otherwise he would definitely wait until summer to visit you. But he could think about it in his mind but couldn't say it out loud, so he found a plausible reason: "Lukin, the situation is like this. Our army will hold a large-scale military exercise in Europe in late April, and I may also participate in this exercise. If I don't come to visit you before the exercise, I can only wait until July or August, and I don't want to wait until Nanchang."

When Lukin heard Sokov say that a large-scale military exercise would be held in Europe in late April, he couldn't help but ask curiously: "Misha, the war is over, why is our army holding a military exercise at this time?"

"Lukin, you may not know that this military exercise is intended to deter the West." Sokov knew that Lukin had no chance to hear Churchill's speech, so he told him about Churchill's "Iron Curtain" theory, and finally said, "Just think about it, if we don't take a tough attitude to deal with this matter, Western countries will think we are weak and can be bullied, and will intensify their efforts to deal with us in the future."

"Misha, I think Marshal Zhukov's approach is the other side's." Lukin nodded and said, "When the opponent waves his fist at us, we should not smile at him, but pick up an axe and swing it a few times to let him know that we are not easy to bully."