red moscow

Chapter 2876

"How do you help them?" Sokov asked in a teasing tone, "Do you need me to send a troop to escort them into the German-occupied area?"

Alina showed a surprised expression on her face: "Since you said so, you must send troops to escort them through your defense zone."

Sokov's smile froze on his face. He didn't expect that Alina would actually go along with it and make such a request. For a moment, he didn't know how to respond to her.

Unexpectedly, the next moment, Alina raised her hand and punched Sokov on the shoulder, and said with a smile: "Misha, I was just teasing you. If we really send troops to escort them, wouldn't it be the same as telling the Germans that there is something wrong with these prisoners who escaped from our POW camps?"

Sokov said nothing, but just grinned.

Alina continued, "Misha, in order to prevent the enemy from doubting Comrade Kutsenko's identity, you should send troops to escort these prisoners of war when they pass through your brigade's defense zone." As soon as she finished speaking, she saw a puzzled expression on Sokov's face, and hurriedly explained, "Don't get me wrong, when I said 'escort', I meant that you should send people to chase them. This will make it seem more realistic."

"No problem." After figuring out what was going on, Sokov answered very straightforwardly: "I'll let Lieutenant Zhukov lead the team to conduct a fake pursuit until they successfully pass our defense line and enter the German-occupied area."

After discussing the details with Sokov, the two turned around and walked towards the tent.

On the way, Alina suddenly asked: "Misha, do you know Vasily Ivanovich Chapayev?"

Sokov was stunned after hearing this and wanted to ask who Alina was talking about. Suddenly, he remembered a famous movie in later generations called "Xia Boyang". Xia Boyang is the Chinese translation of the name, and the protagonist's real name is Vasily Ivanovich Chapayev.

He asked tentatively: "Alina, are you talking about the outstanding commander during the civil war?"

"Yes, I am talking about him."

"He was a good commander, but unfortunately he died in the battle on September 1919, 9. Otherwise, even if he could not become a marshal, he would at least become a general."

"Although history books say that he died heroically in battle," Alina sighed softly and said, "His division headquarters was attacked by the enemy during the battle, and he disappeared while leading members of the division headquarters to swim across the Ural River. His whereabouts have been unknown since then. Although everyone says he died, I sometimes wonder if he is still alive."

Alina's words shocked Sokov. He asked in confusion: "If Chapayev is still alive, why has he never shown up in the past few decades?"

"Misha, do you think there is such a possibility?" Alina said, "He did succeed in breaking through, but he lost his memory due to the injury and forgot his true identity, so people mistakenly thought he had died?"

After hearing this, Sokov's mouth twitched. He wondered if Alina was making up a secret history about Chapayev. However, even if Chapayev were still alive, he would not be able to adapt to the current war and become an excellent commander. Budyonny, Voroshilov, Timoshenko and other people of his time were all entrusted with important tasks by Stalin at the beginning of the war, but as time went on, they were gradually marginalized.

Just when Sokov was about to express his opinion, Romanov ran out of the tent, walked quickly to Sokov, and reported to him: "Comrade Brigade Commander, your call." Perhaps to attract Sokov's attention, he also emphasized: "It's the commander who called."

Sokov was shocked when he heard this. He thought that he had always communicated with the army headquarters by telegram. How come they could use the telephone now? Before he left, he said to Romanov, "Romanov, take Lieutenant Alina to the guard company and let Captain Bobrikov listen to her instructions."

Although Romanov didn't understand why Sokov gave such an order, he still agreed without hesitation, and then said to Alina: "Comrade Lieutenant, please follow me, I will take you to the guard company."

Sokov returned to the tent and saw the microphone on the table. He didn't bother to figure out how he could suddenly contact the headquarters by phone. He just walked over, picked up the microphone, put it to his ear, and said, "I'm Sokov!"

"Hello, Misha, I'm Rokossovsky."

"Hello, Comrade Commander." Sokov asked cautiously, "What instructions do you have?"

"How is the situation there?" Rokossovsky asked. "Has the enemy's attack been repelled?"

"Yes, we have crushed the enemy's attack," Sokov replied vigorously. "Seven tanks and fifteen armored vehicles were destroyed, and more than three hundred German bodies were left in front of the position."

"Well done, good job!" Rokossovsky praised and then asked: "What are the casualties?"

Hearing Rokossovsky's question, Sokov was silent for a moment, and then replied in a heavy tone: "The Fourth Battalion originally had 600 people, and 600 people were killed or wounded in the battle. Now the strength is still 600 people."

"What, what, what did you say?" After listening to Sokov's report, Rokossovsky asked in confusion: "The Fourth Battalion originally had 600 people, and 600 people were killed or wounded in the battle. Where did the current 600 people come from?"

"Comrade Commander, the situation is like this." Sokov explained: "My deputy brigade commander, Lieutenant Colonel Belkin, deployed with the reserve troops in the forest behind the Fourth Battalion's position. When he learned that the Fourth Battalion had suffered serious casualties, Lieutenant Colonel Belkin promptly transferred personnel to supplement the Fourth Battalion, so that there were always enough troops on the position to resist the German attack."

"How many people are in your reserve team?"

"There are two thousand people in the reserve." Sokov replied, "Originally I was planning to form five and six battalions, but I found that the troops deployed on the front line would suffer heavy casualties after each battle. After research by the deputy brigade commander, chief of staff and I, we decided to cancel the plan to draw personnel from the reserve to form the fifth and sixth battalions. Once we find that any troop on the front line has suffered too much loss, we will immediately replenish it." "So that's how it is." After figuring out what was going on, Rokossovsky smiled and nodded, "Misha, I really envy you for having so many reserves. You know, as the commander of the army group, I have no extra troops except for the members of the headquarters and two guard companies. I sometimes wonder, if the enemy breaks through the defense line of my army group and rushes to the vicinity of the headquarters one day, we will have no strength to contend with them, and we will have to find a way to retreat."

"Comrade Commander, if you are in danger, please inform me immediately." Sokov said to Rokossovsky: "I will lead the troops to rescue you."

"If that's the case, that's great."

The conversation between the two was originally just a joke, but they didn't expect that it would become a fact a few days later. But that's a story for later.

After dark, Alina came over to say goodbye to Sokov: "Misha, I'm taking my men to carry out the mission."

Sokov knew that the mission she was talking about was to lead a group of people to pretend to hunt down fleeing German prisoners of war so that Kutsenko would not arouse the enemy's suspicion after following the enemy into the German-occupied area. He nodded to Alina and said, "Be safe, I'll wait for your safe return!"

Alina grinned and said, "Don't worry, I have been able to come back alive from missions that are more dangerous than this, not to mention this mission, there is no danger at all."

Sokov recalled the TV dramas he had watched in later life. If a character said that this was his last mission and he would not encounter any danger, then the chance of him dying was basically 100%. Alina was a comrade who had fought side by side with him. He naturally did not want her to have any accidents, so he said with a straight face: "Lieutenant Alina, if you think this mission is easy and take it lightly, maybe..."

Before Sokov could finish, Alina restrained her expression and said seriously, "Misha, I understand what you mean. I will be careful in tonight's operation."

After Alina left with Zhukov and a platoon of guards, Karsokov couldn't help but ask Sokov with some concern: "Comrade Brigade Commander, are they in any danger?"

"I don't think so." Sokov shook his head and said, "After all, they are carrying out a mission within our brigade's defense zone, and the chance of encountering danger is not high. I just warned Lieutenant Alina because I was worried that she would underestimate the enemy and cause an accident."

"I see." Karsokov nodded and asked Sokov, "Comrade Brigade Commander, the Fourth Battalion is repairing its fortifications overnight to prepare for a new enemy attack. However, Lieutenant Artyom, the artillery staff, reported that the artillery has few shells left, especially the 122mm heavy artillery of the Second Artillery Battalion. Each gun has less than ten shells left. I'm afraid we won't be able to provide strong artillery support for the Fourth Battalion tomorrow."

"Did our superiors send us weapons, ammunition and supplies?"

"No." Karsokov shook his head. "The weapons, ammunition and various supplies we used were all obtained from the two arsenals."

Sokov did not say anything after hearing this, but tapped his fingers lightly on the table. He knew very well that Malinin had told him that the supply from the rear was infrequent and slow, and could not meet the needs of all the troops. Therefore, the weapons, ammunition and various materials that were supplied could only be given priority to those important areas where the fighting was fierce, and the ammunition and materials needed by the infantry brigade could only be solved by themselves.

"Comrade Brigade Commander," Karsokov was a little anxious when he saw Sokov was slow to speak. "The ammunition and supplies we have now can only last for two or three days at most. If we can't get them replenished, when the enemy attacks us again, our officers and soldiers will have no choice but to fight the enemy with bayonets."

Karsokov's words reminded Sokov of the last time he traveled through time. He led his troops to defend Mamayev Kurgan. Because they were out of ammunition and food, they could only fight hand-to-hand with the enemy who surged in like a tide. Although they repelled the enemy's attack with their tenacious fighting will, the troops also paid a heavy price. He didn't want the same thing to happen again in his next life.

Thinking of this, he said to Karsokov: "Comrade Chief of Staff, we cannot rely on the army headquarters for supplies. We must rely on our existing forces to solve the problem."

"How should we solve this problem?" Karsokov asked in return, "Should we continue to search for the arsenals hidden in the forest?"

"Comrade Chief of Staff, maybe this is the only way for us to solve the supply problem." Seeing Karsokov's bitter face, Sokov quickly explained to him: "As far as I know, in order to resist the German attack, many secret arsenals were built in the forests near Moscow. We only found two of them. If we send people to search carefully, we will definitely find more arsenals."

"Comrade Brigade Commander," Karsokov said with a bitter face, "other cities have green areas in the urban area, but Moscow is a city in the forest. The forest coverage area in the urban area exceeds one-quarter, not to mention the dense forests in the suburbs. It is not easy to find a hidden arsenal in the forest."

"Comrade Chief of Staff, I also understand how difficult it is to find one or several hidden arsenals in such a vast forest." Sokov sighed and said helplessly: "But other than that, we can't get supplies. We can't send people deep behind enemy lines to rob the Germans' material transfer points, right?"

Sokov just said it casually, but Karl Sokov's eyes lit up after hearing it: "Comrade Brigade Commander, this is a good idea. If we can seize the German material transfer point, we can not only replenish the weapons, ammunition and various materials needed by the troops, but also weaken the German strength."

"We once sent people to attack the enemy's material transfer point. In order to avoid a similar situation, they must have strengthened their defenses." Sokov shook his head and said, "It is simply impossible to seize supplies from their material transfer point."

"How can we know if we don't try?" Karsokov had already determined that as long as he found the German supply point, he could obtain weapons, ammunition and supplies from there to replenish the troops, so he said stubbornly: "I suggest that we immediately send a reconnaissance team to the German-occupied area to find out where the enemy's supply transfer point is."

Sokov looked at Karsokov and asked, "Comrade Chief of Staff, even if our scouts find the enemy's material transfer point, it is too far away from us and the weapons, ammunition and supplies inside cannot be transported back. What should we do?"

"That's easy." Karsokov answered without hesitation: "If the material transfer point discovered by the scouts is very close to us, we can naturally find a way to transport it back. Even if it is far away, it doesn't matter. We can just blow it up. We can't get it, and we can't let the Germans get it. After blowing it up, we can also weaken their strength."

Seeing that Karsokov was so persistent in his opinion, Sokov thought for a while and came up with a compromise: "Comrade Chief of Staff, I think we should do this. We will continue to send people to search the nearby forests for the arsenal left by our army, and at the same time send scouts to the German-occupied areas to find out where their material transfer points are. What do you think?"

(End of this chapter)