red moscow

Chapter 2925

Captain Olga led his company and quietly moved towards the enemy's position.

Sokov held up the telescope and stared at the troops intently. Not long after, the black shadows that were originally moving in the open space disappeared from the position. They must have jumped into the trenches and started to clear out the enemies who were still sleeping in the fortifications.

It was calm at first, but soon gunshots were heard.

At first there were sporadic gunshots, mostly the sound of the Soviet Mosin-Nagant rifles firing, but soon the gunshots became dense, mixed with the sound of MP40 firing, and even sporadic grenade explosions. It should be that Olga and her group were discovered by the enemy, and the two sides began to exchange fire.

Although he learned from the German soldiers that there were not many enemies on the position, Sokov was worried that something might happen to Olga, so he quickly sent two more companies to support her, hoping to quickly occupy the position before the enemies in other places noticed it.

With the addition of fresh troops, the battle on the position was quickly over.

Seeing that the battle was over, Sokov led the officers and soldiers hidden in the forest to the battlefield to meet up with Olga and others.

"Comrade Commander." Seeing Sokov coming, Olga, whose face was blackened by the smoke, raised her hand to salute and said excitedly, "We have eliminated all the enemies on the battlefield."

"Well done, Comrade Captain." Sokov pulled Olga's hand down from her forehead, shook it vigorously a few times, and said, "After we complete this mission, I will definitely report your achievement to my superiors."

Olga grinned and then asked, "Comrade Brigade Commander, where are we going next?"

"Of course, we will continue to advance towards the Ruza River."

"What about this position?" Olga asked Sokov, "Do we need to send troops to guard it?"

Sokov thought to himself that he only had more than 1,500 troops to participate in the counterattack. If he wanted to stay here and hold on, with too few troops, he would definitely not be able to stop the German counterattack; but if he left too many troops, it would inevitably affect the counterattack.

After thinking it over again and again, Sokov made a decisive decision: "Comrade Captain, our mission is to recapture Borechevo on the north bank of the Ruza River. If we leave troops to hold on, it will definitely weaken our offensive capabilities."

Olga heard what Sokov said and quickly reminded him: "Comrade Brigade Commander, if we don't leave troops here to hold on, the enemy will rush over and easily occupy this place, and then our retreat will be cut off by the Germans."

"Comrade Captain, if we leave troops here to defend, it will inevitably weaken the strength of the counterattack force." Sokov said, "Besides, how many troops do you think are appropriate to leave here to defend? One company or two companies? If we leave too few troops, we will not be able to stop the enemy's attack; if we leave too many troops, it will weaken our combat power."

Olga kept silent. She felt that Sokov was right. Since he was the highest commander of the army, she had to do whatever he said. As his subordinate, she must unconditionally follow his orders.

As the troops continued on their way, Khabarov walked side by side with Olga, and even took the initiative to talk to each other: "Comrade Captain, where are you from?"

Olga didn't expect Khabarov to ask her a question, and she couldn't help showing a surprised expression on her face. But then she thought that this ordinary soldier had a good relationship with the brigade commander, and she couldn't be too cold to him. So she responded: "I am from Smolensk."

Khabarov was surprised to hear this and said, "What a coincidence! I am also from Smolensk. It was not until my father's generation that we moved to Moscow."

"Oh, where did your family live in Smolensk?" Olga asked curiously.

"Apartment 17, third floor, 305 Smolensk Street, on the south bank of the city." Khabarov said without hesitation: "What about you?"

Olga stopped, stared at Khabarov with wide eyes and asked, "Where did you say you live?"

Khabarov repeated the address and added: "From my window, I can see the Kremlin not far away."

"You must be mistaken, Comrade Soldier." Olga continued, "My family lives in the place you mentioned, but I don't think I have ever seen you."

Sokov, who was following behind the two men, couldn't help but shudder when he heard their conversation.

He clearly remembered that Olga's last name was Khabarov. Since he and Anton Khabarov had the same address in Smolensk, were they related? Perhaps Olga was Khabarov's predecessor, and according to age, she should be his great-grandfather.

Khabarov obviously noticed this, and he turned his head to look at Sokov who was following behind him, and then asked tentatively: "Comrade Captain, what is your last name?"

"My last name is Khabarov." Olga answered without hesitation: "Olga Khabarov. What about you?"

At this point, not only Sokov, but even Khabarov understood that the captain in front of him was none other than his great-grandfather. Khabarov laughed awkwardly and said, "Comrade Captain, you are right. Maybe I am wrong. Before my family moved to Moscow, we did not live in the place I mentioned. I only remember that I could see the Kremlin from the window. That was the filming location of the movie "War and Peace."

Olga's expression froze after hearing this, and she immediately asked, "Has our country ever made the movie 'War and Peace'?"

"Comrade Captain, Anton was not able to express himself clearly." Upon hearing this, Sokov quickly came out to smooth things over. "He probably mistook filming a documentary for a movie."

Seeing Sokov trying to smooth things over for him, Khabarov quickly agreed: "That's right, I should have treated making a documentary as making a movie."

When Olga was about to say something else, a soldier in front ran over and whispered something to him.

After listening to the soldier's words, Olga apologized to Sokov, "Comrade Brigade Commander, there are some minor accidents ahead. I need to go over and deal with them. Can you allow me to leave?"

Sokov was just about to have a private conversation with Khabarov. When he heard what Olga said, he nodded in agreement: "Yes, of course."

As soon as Olga left, Sokov pulled Khabarov aside and whispered to him, "Anton, what's wrong with you? You didn't pay attention to what you said. You almost got caught. Fortunately, I came out to help you smooth things over."

"What went wrong?" Khabarov asked.

“You said the Smolensk Kremlin was the setting for the movie War and Peace.”

"Yes, that's the location where the movie was shot." Khabarov asked in confusion, "Am I wrong?"

"The earliest version of War and Peace was shot and released by Americans in 1956. Hepburn played Natasha Rostova, the daughter of Count Rostov. The Soviet version was not released until 1966 years later, in 1941." Sokov quickly explained, "Don't forget that it's only now, and there is no movie called War and Peace."

"Oh, so that's how it is. I was negligent."

After a pause, Khabarov continued, "Misha, based on the conversation I just had with him, I can basically confirm one thing. He is my great-grandfather Olga Ivanovich Khabarov."

After confirming his guess, Sokov nodded slightly, and then he asked a question that concerned him: "When did your great-grandfather die?" "In July 1965, he died of liver cancer."

When Sokov heard Khabarov tell him the date of Olga's death, he breathed a sigh of relief. This meant that the final result of the counterattack would not be the annihilation of the entire army. At least Olga survived.

At dawn, the troops arrived near the Ruza River.

Olga, who was at the front of the team, ran over again to report to Sokov: "Comrade Brigade Commander, we found a small town by the Ruza River ahead, and there is a bridge across the river on one side of the town."

"Comrade Captain, are there any enemies in the town?"

"Yes." Olga nodded and replied, "The enemy has built two sandbag fortifications at the entrance of the town, which can block the road into the town with firepower."

"Chursin," Sokov turned and called Chursin who was accompanying him, and told him, "Go and notify the artillery immediately and ask them to come over immediately. It will be their turn to go into action soon."

Not long after Churxin left, he came running over with an artillery lieutenant.

The artillery lieutenant raised his hand to salute Sokov and asked respectfully, "Comrade Brigade Commander, do you have any instructions?"

"Where's your artillery?" Sokov asked.

"Still behind." The artillery lieutenant replied, "I came here first to find out what the mission is."

"There is a town by the river not far ahead, and on one side of the town is a bridge across the Ruza River." Sokov said, "The enemy has built two machine gun fortifications made of sandbags at the entrance of the town. Your mission is to destroy the enemy's firepower points with artillery fire and clear the way for the attacking troops. How about it, can you do it?"

"No problem, Comrade Brigade Commander, we can do it." The artillery lieutenant asked cautiously, "Where is the exact location of the enemy's machine gun position?"

"Captain Olga knows the exact location." Sokov said to Olga, "Comrade Captain, please take this lieutenant over to check and confirm their target."

"Okay, Comrade Brigade Commander." Olga nodded and agreed, then said to the artillery lieutenant, "Comrade Lieutenant, please follow me. I will take you to see where the enemy's fortifications are."

When the troops approached the town, they were immediately discovered by the enemy in the town. The two machine guns set up at the entrance of the town immediately began to fire wildly, trying to block the Soviet army's advance.

The five cannons that had been set up long ago aimed at the location of the machine gun and fired a salvo, directly blowing it to ashes.

Seeing that the firepower point at the entrance of the town had been eliminated, the infantry immediately launched an attack on the town.

There were not many enemies in the town, and facing the overwhelming Soviet commanders and fighters, their resistance seemed so insignificant.

Soon, Sokov saw groups of enemies fleeing the town, running onto the bridge and fleeing to the other side.

Seeing the enemy fleeing, Sokov couldn't help feeling a little anxious. If the enemy fled to the other side and set up defenses there, his troops would inevitably suffer considerable casualties if they wanted to rush across the bridge.

The artillery deployed outside the town were not to be trifled with. When they saw the enemy fleeing to the other side, they immediately aimed at the fleeing enemy and fired without waiting for Sokov's order.

The German officers and soldiers who were originally planning to gather on the other side and rebuild their defenses were stunned by the fierce artillery fire. They dared not stay any longer and fled far away. The Soviet officers and soldiers who chased them out of the town rushed to the other side in one breath and quickly established a bridgehead position to prevent the enemy from counterattacking.

Sokov waited outside the town for a while. Only after the gunfire and explosions inside stopped completely did he feel safe and bold enough to enter the town.

As soon as they entered the town, a lieutenant ran over and reported to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, we found a large amount of ammunition in the church ahead."

Upon learning that a large amount of ammunition had been found in the church in the town, Sokov was overjoyed and quickly ordered the other party, "Lieutenant, take me to have a look quickly."

The group followed the lieutenant to the church in the town center, and saw that the hall was filled with various wooden boxes. The words written on them were not German but Russian. They should be Soviet ammunition captured by the German army from somewhere and temporarily stored here.

Sokov pointed at the box and said, "Lift the box down and see what's inside."

Chulxin agreed, moved forward to move a box, and found a crowbar to pry it open.

After seeing clearly what was inside, Chulxin's face changed drastically: "Comrade Brigade Commander, it is filled with explosives."

Sokov couldn't help but frowned when he heard this, and then ordered: "Open two more boxes and take a look."

Khabarov and Chevaryag stepped forward and each carried a wooden box. After opening it, they found that it was still filled with explosives.

"Comrade Brigade Commander, what's going on?" Zhu Kewen asked curiously, "Why are the boxes filled with explosives?"

Sokov thought about it and came up with a guess: "These explosives may be what our army is going to use to blow up the bridge over the Ruza River. Because the enemy came too fast, our engineers didn't have time to place the explosives on the bridge, and the enemy occupied it."

When everyone heard Sokov's guess, they couldn't help but nod their heads, because this explanation was the most reliable. An engineering unit was preparing to carry out the task of blowing up the bridge, but the enemy broke in. Seeing that they could not complete the task, the engineers abandoned the batch of explosives and transferred them.

"Then what should we do with this batch of explosives?" asked Zhu Kewen.

"Let's move the explosives out first." Sokov said, "I plan to use this place as a temporary command post. I don't feel safe with so many explosives around me."

As soon as Sokov finished speaking, Zhukov called for help and started moving the boxes of explosives piled up in the hall out of the church.

At this moment, a soldier who was standing on top of the box and handing the box down accidentally dropped the box from his hand and it fell directly to the ground with a loud bang.

The huge noise stunned everyone in the church.

Everyone stood there in a daze for a while, and when they found that the explosives did not explode, they let go of their worries and continued to carry the boxes of explosives out.

In order to avoid similar situations, Zhu Kewen also specifically reminded everyone: "Be careful, don't let the box fall to the ground."

(End of this chapter)