red moscow

Chapter 2712 Return to the War Era
Blinded by the mud, Sokov sat up with difficulty, gasping for air. Although he could not see anything for the time being, he could smell the smell of gunpowder and even a strong smell of blood.

"What on earth is going on?" Sokov thought to himself, "Is there really a biological laboratory underground, and there was an explosion not long ago? Otherwise, why would the air be filled with smoke and the smell of blood?"

He tried hard to recall what happened not long ago. When Sasha returned to the surface, he and Victoria dug a tunnel and went in. After walking along the tunnel for more than ten or twenty meters, the ground under his feet suddenly collapsed and he fell directly down. Then, Victoria, who followed closely behind, also fell down and hit him, making him lose consciousness.

He carefully cleared the dirt from his eyes, opened them with great effort, and looked around.

Even though he was knowledgeable and experienced, he was still shocked when he saw his surroundings clearly.

I was sitting on the side of a dirt road. There were black bomb craters everywhere on the road. Inside and outside the craters were corpses of various shapes and sizes. Among these corpses, who were wearing ordinary people's clothes, there were men and women, old people and children. Their flowing blood had already solidified the soil beneath them into reddish-brown lumps.

The carriages that leaned on the roadside, the dead horses, the messy suitcases and parcels… It was just like a group of civilians fleeing and suffering from the attack. But according to Sokov’s experience, everything in front of him was real, and it was definitely not the set of a TV drama.

Sokov stood up and took two steps, but a feeling of drunkenness came over him, forcing him to sit down again to avoid falling to the ground.

Not long after, Sokov saw a group of people carrying large and small bags, the elderly and children, walking along the road towards where he was. Although there were corpses everywhere, the expressions of these refugees were numb, as if they were used to such scenes.

When those people passed by Sokov, he struggled to stand up, grabbed a middle-aged man pushing a bicycle, and asked politely: "Friend, where is this place?"

"On the outskirts of Brovary," the man said, dragging his bicycle and preparing to move forward.

"What, Brovary?" Sokov was stunned when he heard the name of the place: "The Brovary east of Kiev?"

The man looked at Sokov with a strange look and said unhappily, "You already know everything, yet you still ask."

"What's today's date?"

"May 8th."

"Which year?" Sokov asked impatiently.

"Of course it was 1941." The middle-aged man muttered "crazy" in a low voice, broke free from Sokov's hand, and continued to push the cart forward.

Looking at the group of refugees going away, Sokov finally realized that he had traveled through time again.

If I could travel through time, I could go back to Vienna in 1946 and help the unconscious Sokov regain consciousness. But God was not fair and sent me to the vicinity of Kiev where the war was about to break out. I thought that in a few days, the Germans would launch the largest-scale encirclement and annihilation war in human history. If I didn't leave this dangerous place as soon as possible, I might be in danger of my life.

He felt that his physical discomfort had disappeared, and he wanted to catch up with the refugees and leave here as soon as possible. After walking a few steps, he thought of a question: after he fell into the pit, he crossed over. What about Vika? Did he cross over with him?
He stopped, turned around and shouted in all directions: "Vika, Vika, where are you?"

After shouting for a while and hearing no movement, he began to check the bodies lying near the bomb crater to see if Victoria was among them.

While checking the body, he shouted Victoria's name loudly, but when his voice was almost hoarse, there was no response.

Sokov stopped searching and came to two conclusions: one was that he was the only one who came through, and Victoria remained in the original time and space; the other was that Victoria and he came through together, but they might have landed in other areas.

No matter what the correct answer is, it is obviously unwise to continue staying here. In less than a week, the Germans will launch a full-scale attack on the Soviet army in Kiev. No one can guarantee that there are no small German troops nearby. If you are unlucky and encounter them, then there is only one way to go, and that is death.

While fleeing, they passed a stream and Sokov quickly ran to the water to wash his face.

After seeing his reflection in the water, Sokov was shocked to find that his appearance had changed again. He had become a blond boy in Khimki, but now he was a black-haired Ukrainian boy wearing a stained white pullover.

Sokov grabbed his hair with both hands, thinking painfully: It's over, it's over, my appearance has changed again. Even if Victoria really came with me, she would not recognize me now.

"Don't move, put your hands up!" Sokov was startled by the sudden shout from behind.

He hurriedly raised his hands, slowly turned around and looked behind him, and saw two Soviet soldiers with backpacks on their backs, pointing their Mosin-Nagant rifles at him.

He asked cautiously: "Comrades, what's going on? Why are you pointing guns at me?"

"Who are you?" asked an older soldier. "What are you doing here?"

"Comrade soldier," Sokov looked at him and answered, "I am a refugee who happened to flee here."

The soldier looked Sokov up and down and said, "What's with the blood on you?"

"I was bombed by enemy planes on my way to escape." When Sokov was checking the bodies, he judged based on his experience that the craters were caused by enemy planes bombing. "Everyone who was traveling with me died, and I was the only one left."

"Is that so?"

"Yes, that's it."

The soldier stepped forward, grabbed Sokov by the collar, and dragged him forward: "Then come with us."

Escorted by two soldiers, they soon arrived at a forest.

After entering the woods, Sokov saw many soldiers sitting and resting by the trees. Judging from their clothing and mental state, they should be small groups of troops that had just escaped from the enemy's encirclement.

Two soldiers brought Sokov to a captain who was sitting on a fallen tree trunk. They saluted and reported, "Comrade Captain, we caught a suspicious person by the river." The middle-aged captain, who had a scruffy beard and looked a little haggard, stood up and walked to Sokov. After taking a closer look at him, he asked, "What's your name? Where are you from? Why are you by the river?"

Sokov had checked his trouser pockets and found no documents that could prove his identity. When he heard the captain's question, he told the name he had used the last time he traveled: "My name is Mikhail Mikhailovich Sokov, I am from Zhitomir. I fled with a group of refugees and was bombed by enemy planes. Everyone else died, but I was the only one who survived. When your men found me, I was washing my face by the river. Although I survived the bombing, my face and hands were covered with mud and needed to be washed clean."

"So that's how it is." The captain nodded after listening, and then said: "Comrade Sokov, I officially inform you that from now on, you don't have to flee anymore."

"No need to flee?"

"Yes, because from now on, you are a soldier of our company." The captain stared at Sokov and said, "As a soldier, what you need to do is to take up arms and protect our motherland and people, instead of just thinking about running away like a coward."

Sokov didn't expect that the captain would assign him to his team just after he reported his name, and a look of surprise appeared on his face.

Seeing that Sokov didn't say anything, the captain asked back with some displeasure: "Why, Comrade Sokov, seeing your country being attacked by the enemy, do you want to choose to stand by and watch?"

Such a big hat put on him made Sokov shudder. It was wartime now, if he refused to join the army, the captain would order him to be shot, and he would deserve to die, and no one would show sympathy.

Sokov nodded vigorously and replied hastily: "Comrade Captain, I am willing to join the team and take up arms to fight the invaders."

The captain nodded with satisfaction at Sokov's answer, and then said, "Well, from now on, you are a part of our company."

"Comrade Captain, since I am already your subordinate." Sokov may know the current situation near Kiev better than the commander of the front, Admiral Kirponos. Although this location is east of Kiev, it is very likely that the vanguard of the German army has arrived nearby. Since he wants to participate in the battle, he must first arm himself: "I wonder when you can give me weapons and uniforms."

"Andrei!" The captain called over the soldier who had captured Sokov and told him, "Go get weapons and uniforms for the new comrade."

Soon after Andre walked away, he came back with a Mosin-Nagant rifle and a military uniform.

When the captain saw Andrei coming, he signaled him to hand over his weapons and uniform to Sokov.

Sokov took the uniform first and found several bullet holes on it. There were brown bloodstains around the holes. It was obviously a bloody uniform taken from a fallen soldier. He asked in surprise: "Comrade Captain, why is it an old uniform?"

"Comrade Sokov, we have lost contact with our superiors and cannot get any supplies for the time being, so we have to ask you to wear the old uniform of your fallen comrade for the time being. Once we get supplies again, we will definitely give you a new uniform."

After taking the Mosin-Nagant rifle from Andrei, Sokov did not see any bullets from him. He quickly reminded him, "Andrei, you haven't given me any bullets yet."

"Sokov, I've already said this." The captain next to him continued, "We won't get any replenishment until we get back in touch with our superiors. But I assure you, once we get replenishment, you'll have the new uniforms and ammunition you want."

Sokov held the rifle without bullets and the old military uniform stained with blood, and couldn't help but smile bitterly. He didn't expect that he would travel back to the Great Patriotic War again and join a small unit with serious shortage of ammunition. If he encountered the German army, he would probably not be able to escape the fate of being annihilated.

"Okay, Sokov, go and rest." The captain said to Sokov, "We still have to travel later."

Andrei took Sokov to a deserted place nearby, sat down against a tree, and then asked Sokov curiously: "Sovkov, what did you do before?"

"A worker in a machine shop."

"Can you use weapons?"

Although Sokov could disassemble the Mosin-Nagant rifle with his eyes blindfolded, he shook his head and said, "No. The war broke out too suddenly. Our unit didn't have time to organize everyone to learn how to use weapons. The enemy reached the edge of the city, and then I escaped."

Andrei was a kind-hearted man. Seeing that Sokov did not know how to use a weapon, he patiently explained to him how to use a Mosin-Nagant rifle. At the end, he emphasized, "Sovkov, if you learn to use a weapon earlier, you will have a higher chance of surviving on the battlefield."

"Andre, can you tell me where you were evacuated from?"

"Uman." Andre said solemnly, "Our division was surrounded by the German army in the Uman area. After a series of fierce battles, only a few troops broke through the encirclement. Our company originally had more than 150 people, but no more than 20 of them made it here alive."

Sokov thought about it and realized that he had definitely seen more than 20 people since he entered the forest. He asked curiously, "But when I just entered the forest, I saw more than 20 people?"

"I said that there are less than 20 original members of our company alive now." Andre explained: "Now the entire company has more than 70 people, all of whom were added along the way. Some are disbanded combat teams, and some are temporary recruits like you."

After listening to Andrei, Sokov could not help but frown. He was not optimistic about the prospects of this small unit. The ammunition was insufficient, and the quality of the soldiers was uneven. Although Andrei did not say how many new soldiers were recruited, they must have accounted for a large proportion. These new soldiers who had never received military training and had no combat experience,

Seeing Sokov's sad face, Andrei thought he was afraid of going to the battlefield, so he raised his hand and patted him on the shoulder, smiling and said: "Sokof, when we go to the battlefield, just stay by my side, I will take care of you."

Sokov was thinking, if he was killed on the battlefield, would he return to the future world again? Hearing Andrei say this, he felt warm in his heart. Although the other party had captured him here and forced him to be a soldier, from what he said, he was still a kind-hearted person.

"Andrei, thank you so much." Sokov said gratefully, "I will rely on you when we go to the battlefield."

A soldier ran over, and after seeing Andre, he asked loudly: "Andre, have you seen where the captain is?"

Andre pointed in the direction of the captain and asked curiously, "You look so panicked, what happened?"

"Germans," the soldier replied breathlessly, "We found Germans on the road to the east."

(End of this chapter)