red moscow

Chapter 2798 An unexpected reunion

When Sokov came out of his office, Alina immediately came up to him and asked anxiously, "How is it, what did General Zhukov say?"

"General Zhukov asked me to go to the Chief of Staff, General Sokolovsky," Sokov turned his head to look at Zhukov's office and whispered to Alina, "He will provide us with the planes we need."

Alina handed over the military coat in her hand: "It's cold, put on the coat quickly, otherwise you will catch a cold."

But Sokov waved his hand and said, "Don't worry, it won't be too late to give me the military coat after I meet General Sokolovsky."

After saying that, Sokov quickly walked into the command center next door.

When Alina saw Sokov walk into the command center, she hesitated for a moment and followed him in.

After Sokov entered the command center, he quickly scanned the room and soon locked onto Sokolovsky's location. After all, he had dealt with the other party many times in his previous life, so it was not surprising that he could recognize him at a glance.

"Hello, Comrade Chief of Staff of the Front." Sokov came to Sokolovsky, raised his hand to salute him, and said respectfully: "I am here to see you on the orders of General Zhukov."

Hearing what Sokolov said, Sokolovsky raised his eyebrows and asked in surprise: "Major, I see you look unfamiliar. You should not be a member of the headquarters? Why would General Zhukov let a stranger like you convey an order?"

"Comrade Chief of Staff of the Front, I am indeed not a member of the Front Command, but Major Sokov, the adjutant of General Potapov, the commander of the 5th Army." Sokov explained to Sokolovsky: "The reason I am here is that I have something important to discuss with General Zhukov. And he asked me to come to you, saying that you can help me solve the problem."

Sokolovsky was naturally not clear about what Sokov said. He picked up the phone on the table, dialed a number, and said into the microphone: "I am Lieutenant General Sokolovsky, Chief of Staff, please connect me to General Zhukov's office."

But the next moment, the signalman in charge of the call politely told him: "I'm sorry, Comrade Chief of Staff, the commander's call is temporarily unavailable."

Upon learning that the call could not be connected, Sokolovsky dropped the subject and said to Sokov: "You wait here and you are not allowed to go anywhere until I come back." After that, he walked straight out of the command center.

Seeing this, Alina asked Sokov curiously: "Comrade Major, where is General Sokolovsky going?"

"Where else can we go? Of course we have to go next door." Sokov looked at the door of the headquarters and said calmly, "He must have gone to personally verify our identities with General Zhukov."

A few minutes later, Sokolovsky walked in quickly from outside and said to Sokov, "Major Sokov, I have learned from General Zhukov that you are going to pick up the plane. I want to ask you, how many people do you have?"

"Four people." Sokov held up four fingers, then pointed at himself and Alina: "In addition to me and Lieutenant Alina, there are two other comrades from the Ministry of Internal Affairs."

"I want to ask you, do you have any experience in skydiving?"

"I don't have any." After saying this, Sokov turned around and asked Alina behind him: "Lieutenant Alina, what about you? Do you have any parachuting experience?"

When Alina heard this question, she smiled bitterly and shook her head, indicating that she had no skydiving experience either.

Sokolovsky frowned. "You all have no experience in parachuting, but you want to do a night parachute jump in an unfamiliar area. This is tantamount to suicide. Please forgive me for not being able to provide you with a plane. I can't watch you die."

"Comrade General," Alina became anxious after hearing what Sokolovsky said, "We have been ordered to go to Mogilev to carry out a special mission. If we can't take a plane, it will take us at least ten days or half a month to reach our destination, which may waste precious time. I beg you to think of a solution for us, okay?"

Beauty is justice, and this sentence is sometimes very reasonable. After listening to Alina, Sokolovsky stared at her beautiful face for a long time, then nodded slowly: "Okay, Comrade Lieutenant, since you said so, I will find a way to solve the problem of the plane for you."

After Sokolovsky made a phone call, an Air Force colonel soon arrived at the headquarters.

Seeing the arrival of the Air Force Colonel, Sokolovsky shook hands with him and then introduced Sokov and others to him: "This is Major Sokov of the 5th Army. He has been ordered to go to Mogilev to perform a special mission and needs to go by plane. None of them can parachute. Do you think there is any way to send them to Mogilev safely?"

The Air Force colonel was embarrassed when he heard what Sokolovsky said: "Comrade Chief of Staff, that place is already occupied by the enemy. If they can't parachute, how can we safely send them to their destination? Should we find a place to land directly?"

"That's a good idea," Sokolovsky said to the Air Force colonel. "It's undoubtedly the best way, but it's a test for our pilots. If they're not careful, I'm afraid they won't be able to come back."

"That's right." The Air Force colonel agreed with Sokolovsky's statement: "Even if the pilot is lucky and is not chased by German fighters or hit by ground anti-aircraft artillery on the way to the destination, after landing, he may attract German ground forces, and then his life will be in danger."

"Comrade Colonel, this special mission is very important." Zhukov might have said something to Sokolovsky when he just went to Zhukov to verify Sokov's identity, so he seemed to be particularly concerned about this matter: "So please think of a way to get them to their destination safely."

After hearing what Sokolovsky said, the Air Force colonel showed a solemn expression on his face. He frowned and seemed to be thinking of a foolproof plan.

After a while, the Air Force colonel said to Sokolovsky: "Comrade Chief of Staff, two days ago, my men received a pilot who escaped from the Kiev direction. It is said that this man has good flying skills. If you allow, I plan to send him to take these comrades to Mogilev."

"Then let's do this." Sokolovsky turned to Sokov and the other two and said, "You follow this colonel, he will arrange a plane for you to Mogilev."

A few people came outside, and after meeting up with Basco and Sandor who were waiting at the door, they followed the Air Force colonel toward a wooden house not far away.

The wooden house is a liaison office of the Air Force. If the front army headquarters has any orders, they will call here directly, and the people here will convey the content to the Air Force Army Command.

When the Air Force colonel entered the room, a captain immediately came up to him and asked with concern: "Comrade Colonel, I wonder what important matter the chief of staff wants to see you about?"

"This is Sokov and his action team." The Air Force Colonel pointed at Sokov and said to the captain: "The Chief of Staff asked us to send a plane to send them to Mogilev. Since they can't parachute, the plane that sends them can only force a landing in Mogilev, which is controlled by the German army." "What? Let our plane force a landing in Mogilev?" Hearing what the Air Force Colonel said, the captain showed a shocked expression on his face: "Won't our pilots be in danger?"

"Yes, this flight mission is very dangerous, so we must find an excellent pilot to carry out this risky flight."

"Who are you looking for, Comrade Colonel?" the captain said unhappily, "I can't tell everyone that this is a death flight, can I?"

"Didn't we receive a pilot who escaped from Kiev two days ago?" The Air Force colonel said, "Call him here immediately and I'll assign them a task."

After the captain left, the colonel asked Sokov and others to sit down in an empty room and wait, and sent someone to bring them tea. Then, the colonel said that he still had work to do, and turned and walked out.

"Comrade Major," after the Air Force colonel left, Alina looked at Sokov and asked a question that puzzled her: "Major Sokov, have you ever met General Sokolovsky before?"

"No." Sokov shook his head and replied, "Why are you asking this?"

"Since you have never met General Sokolovsky, how come you recognized him immediately after entering the headquarters?"

Seeing that Alina was surprised at how he could recognize Sokolovsky at first sight, Sokov had already thought of the answer in his mind: "It's very simple. When I was in General Zhukov's office, he asked me to find the Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Sokolovsky. After I entered the headquarters, I found that only one person had three gold stars on his diamond collar badge, so I can confirm that he is the Chief of Staff General Sokolovsky mentioned by General Zhukov."

"Oh, so that's how it is." Alina thought Sokov's explanation made sense: "So you directly locked on the person you were looking for based on his military rank. Your observation skills are really strong. If you come to our Ministry of Internal Affairs, you may achieve great success in the future."

Sokov had no good impression of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and simply chose to ignore Alina's words.

After a while, there were footsteps at the door.

Soon, the Air Force colonel appeared at the door: "Major Sokov, I brought you the pilot who will take you to Mogilev."

When the pilot brought by the Air Force Colonel walked into the room, Sokov felt that he was dazzled and rubbed his eyes vigorously. That's right, the pilot who was going to send him and others to Mogilev was Lieutenant Yegor who had lost contact in the Yagotin area.

Sokov took two steps forward and said to the other party: "Yegor, is that you?"

Yegor, who had a blank expression on his face, looked in the direction of the voice in confusion when he heard someone calling his name. When he saw clearly that the person calling him was Sokov, he couldn't help but widen his eyes in surprise: "Captain Sokov, is that you?"

"Yes, it's me." Sokov opened his arms to Yegor and said with a smile: "For our reunion, shouldn't we hug each other?"

As the two hugged, Yegor said excitedly, "Just now, when the colonel told me that he was sending a Major Sokov and his men to Mogilev, I was still wondering how I could meet someone with the same last name as you here. Who knew that when I came here, it turned out to be you."

Yegor let go of Sokov, took a step back, and asked curiously: "When did you become a major again?"

"It happened a few days ago," Sokov said briefly. "I performed a small service in battle, and was promoted to major by the Supreme Commander himself."

Everyone could not help but respect Sokov when they heard him say this. During the war, promotions were common, but Stalin himself personally promoted a little-known person. Such an honor was really enviable.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, the two men got down to business and discussed how to get to Mogilev.

"Egor," Sokov asked tentatively, "are you sure you can land the plane safely in an unfamiliar area at night?"

Hearing Sokov's question, Yegor thought for a moment, then shook his head and said, "I'm sorry, Comrade Major, I can't do it."

Although he had guessed that Yegor would say this, Sokov felt disappointed when he heard him say it in person.

But just when he was extremely disappointed, he heard Yegor say again: "If it were daytime, I could definitely find a suitable place to land the plane safely."

"Are you crazy?" As soon as he said this, he was questioned by the Air Force colonel: "Going to Mogilev during the day, even if you can avoid the German fighters and anti-aircraft artillery fire on the ground, have you ever considered that after you land, you will attract nearby German ground forces? It's too risky for you to do this. I can't let you go to die."

"Comrade Colonel, you can rest assured about this." Seeing that the colonel was against taking the risk, Yegor explained to him: "I can choose to set off before dawn. At this time, it will be difficult for enemy planes and ground anti-aircraft artillery to find me. When my plane reaches Mogilev, it will be dawn, and then I can choose a suitable place to land."

After listening to Yegor's idea, Sokov immediately asked the Air Force colonel: "Comrade Colonel, I think Yegor's idea is very good. What do you think?"

"Okay, Yegor, let's do as you say." After thinking for a while, the Air Force colonel compromised: "Then we will set off an hour before dawn tomorrow. When you enter the Mogilev area, it will be daylight. Then you can choose a suitable place to land based on the actual situation."

After the Air Force Colonel left again, Alina asked Sokov curiously again: "Comrade Major, when did you get to know this pilot?"

Sokov knew that people like Alina from the Ministry of Internal Affairs were skeptical about many things. When he heard her ask, he quickly explained, "Comrade Yegor used to be my subordinate. After Kiev fell, we got separated during the breakout. I thought he had died, but I didn't expect to meet him here again. It really surprised me."

Since Sokov had already said that Yegor had been his subordinate, Alina knew that if she continued to question him, both sides would probably harbor grudges, which would be very detrimental to the future cooperation. Therefore, she shut up and chose to remain silent.

(End of this chapter)