red moscow

Chapter 2641

The officer took the gun, weighed it in his hand, and then said, "General, if I just want to shoot these damn escapees, one gun is enough. But if I want their death to scare others, I need more guns."

"How many guns do you want?" Sokov asked.

The officer counted the Kwantung Army prisoners who were about to be punished and said, "I need 11 pistols, three bullets in each, and a phonograph."

"Lukin," Sokov turned to Lukin and said, "Please find him 11 more pistols and a phonograph."

"Misha, what are you doing?" Lukin frowned and asked, "Giving so many guns to the prisoners, aren't you worried that something might happen?"

"Don't worry, Lukin." Sokov said with a smile, "I believe this SS officer will be able to play some new tricks for us."

Since Sokov had already said so, it was useless for Lukin to object, so he simply found 11 pistols and a phonograph, placed them in front of the officer, and then stepped aside, wanting to see what tricks this officer could play.

The officer walked up to the prisoners, picked out 12 of them, asked them to stand in a circle, and gave each of them a pistol. He said loudly: "I will now play music on the phonograph. When the music stops, you will pull the trigger. There are three bullets in each gun. Whether you can survive depends on your luck."

A Japanese translator standing nearby kept translating what the German officer said to the 12 selected prisoners of war.

After Sokov understood the rules set by the officers, he always felt that he had seen such a death game somewhere before.

Soon, the game began.

As the music started, the Kwantung Army prisoners gathered together, each holding a pistol in his hand, pointing the muzzle at the head of a companion in front of him. Although there were several fires burning around them, it was clear that everyone was trembling.

After the music played for a while, the German officer suddenly moved the needle away, and the music from the phonograph suddenly stopped.

At the same time, two dull gunshots rang out in the field, and then two prisoners of war fell softly to the ground, and the blood flowing from the back of their heads quickly dyed the snow on the ground red. The soldiers surrounding them immediately stepped forward, dragged the bodies out, and made the gap in the circle smaller, and continued to play the death game.

After three rounds of the game, there were only three prisoners left out of the 12 prisoners. Two of them were so scared that they wet their pants, and one was simply scared crazy.

"Well done." Sokov nodded to the German officer, and then ordered a soldier, "Give him another 500 grams of bread and 100 grams of sausage."

"Misha," Lukin looked at the group of prisoners and thought that killing a chicken to scare the monkeys should have the effect of a small punishment and a big warning, so he said to Sokov: "How about letting those prisoners go back to their respective barracks?"

"Don't be anxious, the show has just begun." Sokov turned his head and said to Lukin, "The Germans used many tricks to treat the Jews and our prisoners of war in the concentration camps. Today I will let them use all these tricks on the prisoners of war of the Kwantung Army to make them understand what the consequences will be if they try to escape again."

After saying this, Sokov came to the German prisoners again and asked them, "Do you have any other ways to play the game?"

As soon as the translator translated his words, all the German prisoners of war raised their hands. They wanted to exchange their performance in front of Sokov for food to fill their stomachs.

After Sokov's eyes swept over the prisoners, he pointed at a corporal and said, "Corporal, come out."

The German corporal named by Sokov walked out of the line happily and looked at Sokov expectantly, wondering when the other party would give him a reward.

Sokov had someone give the corporal a piece of bread, and then asked, "How do you plan to punish these prisoners? I remind you that the method you just used must not be repeated, understand?"

"Understood, Mr. General." The corporal swallowed the small piece of bread as quickly as possible and assured Sokov, "I will definitely not let you down."

After saying that, the corporal ran to the remaining dozen or so Kwantung Army prisoners of war and yelled at them loudly.

Because they were quite far away and the corporal spoke very quickly, neither Sokov nor Lukin could hear clearly what the other was shouting.

But the next moment, they saw five Kwantung Army prisoners of war leave the queue waiting to die and walk towards the large group not far away.

After a while, they walked out of the crowd, each holding two prisoners, and returned to the queue to wait for death.

"What's going on?" Lukin asked in surprise.

After a brief moment of shock, Sokov immediately recalled the history he knew and explained to Lukin: "I think the German corporal must have told the Kwantung Army prisoners of war who were doomed to die that each of them must go to the queue and pick two prisoners with whom they have a good relationship to die together with him."

"Are the prisoners of war of the Kwantung Army so obedient?" Lukin asked in surprise.

"If I'm not mistaken," Sokov continued, "the German corporal should have told them that each person must pick two companions to die together. If anyone does not do so, he will randomly pick ten times as many people and execute them. These Kwantung Army prisoners of war had no choice but to pick people from the queue to prevent more people from dying."

"But why did only five prisoners go to pick people, while the rest just stood there?"

"I think the corporal only picked five people."

Sure enough, the fifteen prisoners were quickly driven aside.

The German corporal ran over and said respectfully: "General, please give the order to shoot these 15 people."

For Sokov, only dead enemies were good enemies. He turned to Lukin and said, "Let someone shoot all 15 prisoners of war."

Next, the German prisoners of war proposed many disposal plans, but they were all rejected by Sokov.

The only plan that interested Sokov was to dig a pit and bury all the Kwantung Army prisoners of war to be executed in the soil, leaving only their heads outside, and then smash their heads with wooden sticks like smashing watermelons. But unfortunately, it was not easy to dig a pit in such a cold place, and the frozen soil had to be blasted open with a howitzer, so the remaining few devils could only be dealt with in other ways.

When Lukin returned to his headquarters and sat down, an officer came in from outside and reported to him, "Comrade General, the commander who will take over your position has arrived and is outside."

"Quick, please invite him in."

After the officer left, Sokov stood up and said to Lukin, "Lukin, I'll go sit next door first so as not to disturb your handover." "Okay, Misha." Lukin thought Sokov made sense, so he nodded and agreed, "I'll come back to you after I finish handing over my work."

Sokov came to the next room, and Seryosha and Vaseligov, who were chatting, immediately stopped talking and stood up.

"Sit down, sit down, sit down." Sokov asked them to sit down and asked curiously, "What are you two talking about?"

"Misha, we are talking about the methods you just used to deal with the Kwantung Army prisoners of war. Aren't they a bit too cruel?"

"Seryosha, you have to remember that these Kwantung Army soldiers held in the prisoner-of-war camp are not prisoners of war, but a group of enemies who have laid down their arms." Sokov said with a serious expression: "To deal with the enemy, we must use all available means to send them to hell."

"Misha, when will Lieutenant General Lukin be able to hand over his work?" Seryosha said anxiously, "I don't know why, but since I saw you, I can't wait to return to Moscow immediately."

"Don't worry, Seryosha. It won't take long for Lukin to hand over his work." Sokov comforted him, "We can set off back to Moscow tonight at the latest."

"It takes five or six days to get there by train." Seryosha sighed, "It would be great if we could take a plane. It would only take half a day to get to Moscow."

Sokov laughed. "You've waited for so long, do you still care about just five or six days?"

"Misha, I'm thinking about one thing. I'm sure my old home is gone." Seryosha said with a look of hesitation: "I don't know where to live after I go back?"

"It's okay, you can stay at my place." Sokov said with a smile, "My place is big, even if there are a few more people, there will be enough space."

"Really?" After Seryosha and Sokov reunited, he was busy reminiscing about the past and had no time to ask Sokov about his current situation. Now that he heard that the other party wanted him to stay at his house, he naturally had to be more cautious: "If there is no room, don't force it."

"It's not a stretch at all. I have enough space at home." Sokov said, "Major Vaseligov can testify for me. He and his men now live in my home."

Seryosha asked in surprise: "Misha, how big is the house you live in now? It can accommodate so many people?"

"I live in a villa now. It has two floors and a basement." Sokov said with a smile, "It can accommodate more than ten or twenty people."

"Oh, you've moved into the villa now." Seryosha said in surprise, "I never thought I could enjoy the feeling of living in a villa in my lifetime."

After the three of them chatted for a long time, Lukin came in from outside and said to Sokov, "Misha, I have handed over my work. You can leave at any time. What time do you plan to take the train to leave here?"

"Of course the sooner the better." It was too cold here. Even if he stayed in a heated room, Sokov felt cold all over, so he hoped to leave here as soon as possible.

"I just checked the train schedule," Lukin said with a smile, "There is a train to Moscow at 4 o'clock this afternoon. If you don't mind, we can take this train back to Moscow."

"Well, I think the 4pm bus is good, let's take this one."

A few hours later, as the train started and slowly left the station, Lu Jin, who was sitting on the bed, sighed softly: "I have worked here for more than half a year. I am somewhat reluctant to leave."

"The weather here is too cold, which is very bad for your health." Sokov said, "Now that the war is over, don't you want to live a few more years and take a good look at the changes in this country?"

"Of course I want to see it, but I don't know how long I can live."

Sokov remembered that Lukin lived in Moscow for more than 1970 years and died in May 5, living longer than Rokossovsky. He quickly comforted him, saying, "Don't worry, Lukin, I believe you will live a long time."

"I hope so."

After a week of telegrams, the train finally arrived at the railway station in Moscow.

As soon as everyone got off the car, a colonel officer came over, saluted Lukin, and said politely: "Hello, Comrade General, I am sent by Marshal Zhukov to pick you up. The car is waiting outside, please follow me."

"Comrade Colonel," Sokov, who was standing nearby, interrupted and asked, "Do I need to go see Marshal Zhukov as well?"

The colonel shook his head and said, "I'm sorry, General Sokov, Marshal Zhukov didn't say he wanted to see you. You should go home first."

Since Zhukov was unwilling to meet him, Sokov naturally would not force him. He walked up to Lukin, shook hands with him, and then said: "I have told you my home address. Please come to my house when you are free."

"No problem, no problem." Lu Jin nodded and said, "When I have time, I will definitely visit your home."

After Lukin left with the colonel, Sokov turned to Vaseligov and Seryosha and said, "We have too many people. Let's find two cars and go back."

"Comrade General, leave this matter to me," Vaserigov said, "I will arrange a vehicle to pick us up."

As Zhukov's subordinate, Vaseligov had extensive connections. After he made a phone call, two black cars drove directly to the platform in less than twenty minutes.

Seeing the car coming, Vaseligov came out of the station duty room, chatted with the driver, then turned to Sokov and said, "Comrade General, the car has arrived, we can set off now."

Two cars left the train station and drove directly to the villa area where the Sokov family lived.

When the car stopped at the door of the villa, two soldiers in the duty room hurried over, opened the door of the villa and invited everyone in.

Seryosha looked around and said with envy, "Misha, I never thought you would live in such a big villa and have such a big yard. It would be such a waste if you don't plant some flowers and plants in the yard."

"Seryosha, you don't know that there were originally many flowers and plants planted in the yard, but since the original owner evacuated to another place, no one has taken care of it for a long time, and they have all withered." Vaserigov said, "After the spring, we will plant a new batch of flowers and plants, and then the yard will be even more beautiful."

When Vaserigov told Seryosha to plant flowers and plants in the yard, Sokov was thinking, seeing that the great famine was coming, could he use the open space in the yard to plant some potatoes? In this way, even if the supply decreased in the future, there would still be potatoes to eat. The only regret is that there is no crop like sweet potato here, otherwise he must plant more.

"Comrade General," Vaserigov said to Sokov, "I know someone in the Gardening Bureau. Do you think you can ask them to come and help you plant some flowers and plants when the weather warms up?"