red moscow

Chapter 2651

Watching Maxim leave, Seryosha muttered, "This man is really annoying. Who Kopalova wants to live with has nothing to do with him?"

"Comrade General," Vaserigov heard Seryosha say, and an embarrassed expression appeared on his face. He looked at Sokov and asked, "Seryosha and I will go back to the next carriage now and not disturb your reminiscing."

"Don't leave yet, sit down and chat for a while." After Sokov said this, he saw the puzzled look on Seryosha's face and added, "Maybe he is standing somewhere outside the door right now. If he sees you two follow him out right after he leaves, he will definitely become suspicious."

After hearing what Sokov said, Vaseligov sat down again and began to think about what he should talk to Sokov about.

Just when he was in a dilemma, Sokov said, "Major, if you have time, please ask the conductor how long our train can stay in Budapest. If the time is long enough, I want to go shopping in the city."

Vaseligov wanted to ask Sokov what was there to see in a city destroyed by artillery fire. But he caught a glimpse of Kopalova sitting next to Sokov and immediately realized that it was Kopalova, not Sokov, who wanted to go to the city for a walk. He nodded and said, "Okay, Comrade General, I will go to the conductor and ask him how long we can stay in Budapest. I will tell you tomorrow morning if I have the result."

Sokov was very satisfied with Vaserigov's answer, especially the last sentence he said, "After understanding the situation, report to me tomorrow morning." He must be worried that after getting the news from the conductor, he would rush to report to him and open the door of the compartment and see something he shouldn't see. So the best way is to wait until tomorrow morning to report to him what he has learned.

They chatted for more than half an hour. Seryosha thought that even if Maxim was watching from the door, he might have left by now. He stood up and said goodbye to Sokov: "Misha, it's getting late. The major and I will go back to the box next door. You should go to bed early."

"Yes, yes, yes, Comrade General, you should go to bed early." Vaseligov also said, "I still need to go find the conductor."

After Seryosha and Vaserigov left, Sokov asked Kopalova with concern: "Kopalova, are you sleepy? If you are, go to bed early."

"I'm not sleepy, not sleepy." Kopalova shook her head and said, "I slept for so long in the afternoon, I don't want to sleep any more. Let's chat."

"Okay, let's chat." Sokov got up and sat on the bed opposite, lying on it, and said, "Whatever you want to say, I'll accompany you."

"Come lie down with me and talk."

Sokov felt his lower back ache again. He didn't want to repeat the sleeping position he had in the afternoon, as it would easily cause lumbar muscle strain. So he waved his hand and refused: "It's convenient to chat like this. Maybe I'll fall asleep while chatting."

"Misha, I remember you had a good friend, you called him Yasha." Kopalova was lying on her bed, looking sideways and asked Sokov: "What is his background?"

"He was Comrade Stalin's eldest son," Sokov explained. "I had a close relationship with him when I was a child. After my father passed away, I basically had no contact with his family. We met again when I led the troops to liberate a German prisoner-of-war camp. Among the officers and soldiers rescued was Yasha."

"Ah?! Misha, what did you just say?" Hearing what Sokov said, Kopalova sat up suddenly and asked in surprise: "You said that Stalin's son was captured by the German army and became a German prisoner of war camp. Is this true?"

"Of course it's true." Sokov nodded slightly and said in an affirmative tone: "You may not know that when Comrade Stalin learned that his son was captured by the German army, he sent a special agent team to rescue his son. But because the enemy transferred Yakov, the rescue team came up empty-handed.

I led my troops to capture a German prisoner-of-war camp at the beginning of the counterattack outside Moscow and rescued Yakov from it. At that time, I only knew that he was Stalin's son, but I didn't remember that he was my best friend when I was a child. It was because of my amnesia that I couldn't even remember my old friends. If he hadn't told me about it, I wouldn't have known that he was my good friend when I was a child. "

When Sokov mentioned amnesia again, Kopalova felt relieved. She clearly remembered that when she met Sokov in Stalingrad, he was amazed by her beauty and looked at her as if she were a stranger. Although Sokov mentioned amnesia many times later, she thought he was just making excuses to fool her. Looking back now, she thought too much.

"Misha, I'm sorry."

Sokov, who had closed his eyes to rest, was about to fall asleep when he suddenly heard Kopalova say sorry to him. He opened his eyes and asked in confusion: "Kopalova, why are you saying sorry to me? Did you do something wrong?"

"I apologize to you because I misunderstood you for such a long time. I thought you were tired of me and didn't want to marry me, so I pretended to have amnesia and pretended not to know me, so that you could legitimately marry another woman as your wife." Kopalova said in a heavy tone, "But I just found out that you did lose a lot of memories after you were injured. Not only the memories related to me, but also your best friend Yakov when you were a child. You don't remember him."

After figuring out why Kopalova apologized to him, Sokov closed his eyes again, waved his hand in Kopalova's direction, and said, "It's good that you know. Don't say that I pretended to have amnesia and didn't want to pay attention to you. Do you hear me?"

"I heard it!" Kopalova replied reluctantly, "From now on, I will believe whatever you say. Are you satisfied now?"

The box fell silent.

Hearing Kopalova not speaking, Sokov began to feel drowsy.

Just when he was about to fall asleep, he suddenly felt Kopalova crawling over to him, leaning close to his ear, and whispering in his sweet voice: "Misha, your wife had a miscarriage, and she may not be able to have children for a long time. If you don't mind, why don't we give it a try? Maybe before you return to Moscow, you can have a child of your own?"

"Just give it a try, who's afraid of who?"

…………

After several days of driving, the train finally entered the train station in Budapest.

Sokov sat by the window, looking at the scenery outside, and had a bad feeling in his heart. The city had suffered heavy damage in the war that had just ended, and many places of interest might have been destroyed in the war. The Chain Bridge that Kopalova had been thinking about might no longer exist.

After the train stopped, Seryosha and Vaserigov came in from outside and said to Sokov: "Misha, we have arrived in Budapest. The train will stay here for fifteen hours. You have enough time to visit this beautiful city."

After Seryosha finished speaking, Vaseligov also asked tentatively: "Do you need me to bring all the guards with me?"

"No need." Sokov shook his head and said, "We have troops stationed in this city, and the Hungarians are very friendly to us. I don't think there will be any danger. It's enough to have Seryosha by my side."

Vaserigov knew that Seryosha had been responsible for protecting Sokov. When Sokov asked Seryosha to accompany him to visit Budapest, he said respectfully, "Okay, Comrade General, I will stay on the train with the two guards. If you don't return to the train in time, I will stop the conductor from driving ahead of time." "Kopalova," Sokov touched his sore lower back, stood up, took Kopalova's hand, led him out, and then called Seryosha, "Seryosha, let's go."

Coming out of the train station, you can see a lot of Soviet patrols on the streets.

When the patrolmen passing by saw Sokov standing at the entrance of the train station, they would stop, salute him, and then continue walking forward.

Sokov turned to Kopalova and asked, "Kopalova, do you know where the Chain Bridge is?"

Kopalova shook her head and said, "I don't know. Everything I know about Budapest comes from books. And the common knowledge about the Chain Bridge also comes from books. I know it is the first bridge across the Danube in Budapest, but I have no idea where it is located."

Seeing that Kopalova could not be relied upon, Sokov could only turn his attention to the patrol teams.

When another patrol team passed by him and stopped, the commander raised his hand to salute him and asked politely: "Comrade Lieutenant, I want to ask where the most famous Chain Bridge in Budapest is. I want to go there and take a look."

"Comrade General," the patrol commander said respectfully, "if you want to see the Chain Bridge, I advise you not to go."

Sokov asked in confusion: "Why?"

"In order to consolidate their fortress on Castle Hill, the Germans blew up all the bridges over the Danube in 1944, and the Chain Bridge was one of them."

Sokov remembered that Budapest was a city divided into two parts by the Danube River. If there was no bridge, what would the residents on both sides do? "Comrade Lieutenant, the bridge on the Danube has been blown up. What should the residents on both sides do if they want to travel back and forth?"

"There is a simple floating bridge on the river, and there is also a ferry." The commander said: "If residents want to go to the other side of the river, they can only take the ferry or cross the floating bridge."

After thanking the commander, Sokov turned to Kopalova and said with a wry smile: "Kopalova, you heard it all, the Chain Bridge has been blown up by the damn Germans. We can't see it even if we want to."

"Even if the bridge was blown up, I still want to see the lions on the bridge." Kopalova said a little stubbornly: "I don't believe that the Germans even blew up the stone lions."

"Okay then, let's go see the remains of the Chain Bridge."

But before setting off, Seryosha remembered something and quickly reminded the two: "Do you understand Hungarian?"

Sokov and Kopalova looked at each other, then shook their heads in unison: "I don't understand!"

"If you don't know, how can you ask for directions?" asked Seryosha.

Sokov thought for a moment and said to Seryosha, "Seryosha, I am indeed worried about not knowing Hungarian, but now I find that our patrols are everywhere on the streets. If we want to go somewhere, we just need to ask those patrols. I believe that they are no less familiar with the terrain than the locals."

Sokov's words made Kopalova's eyes light up: "Misha, you are right. Although we don't understand Hungarian, our patrol teams are everywhere on the streets. If we want to go somewhere, we just need to ask them. Do we still have to worry about not being able to find the place we want to go?"

In this way, the three of them kept asking patrols along the way for directions. With the help of many patrols, they finally arrived near the destroyed Chain Bridge.

Although the bridge was blown up, the two huge stone lions at the bridgehead are still there.

"Misha, look," Kopalova said to Sokov, pointing at the stone lions. "The huge stone lions on both sides of the bridge are like guardian gods guarding the bridge day and night. The lions look up into the distance with majestic bearing, symbolizing the Hungarian people's unyielding historical courage."

Sokov suppressed his laughter and thought to himself, "It's a pity that the bridge has been blown up by the Germans. Will the stone lions at the bridgehead continue to guard this broken bridge?"

"Misha, there is another story about these two stone lions," Kopalova continued. "After the lion sculptures were placed at both ends of the Chain Bridge, some people said that there was no tongue in the lion's mouth. The sculptor was so ashamed of the people's ridicule that he jumped into the Danube and committed suicide."

Sokov looked up at the stone lion in front of him and asked curiously, "Does the lion have a tongue in its mouth?"

"Of course there is." Kopalova nodded angrily: "There is a tongue in the lion's mouth, but if the angle is not right, it is not easy to see."

Sokov squinted his eyes and observed from several angles. Sure enough, he saw the tongue in the lion's mouth: "Yes, I saw it. There is indeed a tongue in the lion's mouth." Thinking of the designer who died unjustly, he couldn't help shaking his head and sighing, "The designer's psychological quality is too poor. He jumped into the river and committed suicide after being criticized by others. If it were me, I would definitely bring those gossipers here and let them see with their own eyes whether there is a tongue in the lion's mouth."

"We've finished looking at the Chain Bridge, let's go to the restaurant and try some Hungarian food."

"Good, good, that's great." Sokov thought of the Hungarian delicacies that Kopalova had mentioned, and he couldn't help but drooling. He urged, "Let's go now. My stomach is growling with hunger."

"I saw a few restaurants on the way here." Seryosha said nearby, "Why don't we go there?"

Sokov asked jokingly: "Seryosha, you don't know Hungarian, how do you know that's the restaurant?"

"Although I don't know Hungarian, the signs all have knives and forks drawn on them, which are obviously the logos of restaurants." Seryosha pointed at his nose and said proudly, "More importantly, when I passed by there, I smelled the fragrance coming from inside. Believe me, my nose has always been very sensitive."

"Kopalova, since Seryosha said he can find a restaurant, let's follow him." Sokov said to Kopalova with a smile, "I want to see if there is any real Hungarian food there."