Chapter 109 The origin of the flag

Belkin raised his hand to wipe away his tears, walked up to the girl, first raised his hand and saluted the other party with a solemn military salute, then bent down and asked, "Girl, can you tell me what your name is? Where did you get it from?"

  Sokov heard Belkin's question and thought to himself: This girl has been here with Seryozha for a long time, and you don't even know her name.

Seeing a commander salute herself, the girl quickly stood up and replied, "My name is Maria, and I live in a small village more than twenty versts to the south. This flag was given to me by a guerrilla." .”

   "Guerrillas?" Belkin heard this, and couldn't help asking strangely: "What guerrillas, why does he have our army's flag in his hand?"

"Comrade commander, please listen to my explanation." Maria quickly explained to everyone: "I didn't make it clear just now that there was a guerrilla group operating near our village, and the members of this group were all dispersed. The regular army. There were only a dozen of them at the beginning, and their number increased to more than 200. They continued to attack the German transportation line, burned countless trucks, and killed at least Hundreds of German soldiers also intercepted the food that the Germans robbed from the villagers many times, and returned the food to the villagers..."

Sokov stood aside, listening quietly to Maria's description of the many victories the guerrillas had achieved in this area. At that time, they did not carry out active countermeasures?"

Maria continued: "...the Germans feared and hated them. In order to pass through their active areas smoothly, they had to increase the strength of the convoy convoys, and even each convoy was equipped with armored vehicles. But even so, we The guerrillas still successfully attacked the enemy's transport convoy time and time again..."

  Hearing this, Sokov couldn't help asking: "Maria, I want to ask, where is this guerrilla now?"

   "No, they are all dead." Maria shook her head and replied sadly.

   "They're all dead?" Hearing the news, Sokov couldn't help but turned his head and exchanged glances with Belkin, both of them saw surprise in each other's eyes. Belkin frowned and asked, "Didn't they beat the Germans to death? How could they all be killed so easily?"

"That's right, Comrade Commander." Maria replied, "They used to live in the forest and their whereabouts were uncertain. Even if the Germans tried to wipe them out, they couldn't find them. But as the weather became colder and colder, the forest They couldn’t stay with people at all, so they had to go to the nearby villages to find a place to keep out the cold. In order to eliminate them, the Germans put up notices everywhere, saying that as long as someone can provide the whereabouts of this guerrilla, they will reward 3,000 rubles.”

Hearing what Maria said, Belkin guessed the reason why the whole guerrilla army was wiped out. After snorting heavily, he said angrily: "Someone must have coveted the bounty of the Germans and killed the guerrilla army." Whereabouts, leaked to the Germans."

Regarding Belkin's speculation, Maria nodded in affirmation: "Yes, that's how it happened. That day the guerrillas attacked a German transport convoy during the day, killing more than 20 soldiers and burning seven. Eight trucks. The comrades of the guerrillas were so tired that they lay down as soon as they returned to the house. It didn't take long for most of them to fall asleep. Even the sentinels dozed off at their post.

  The Germans learned of the village where the guerrillas lived, and immediately dispatched two or three hundred people, with the cooperation of tanks and armored vehicles. After they surrounded the village, they bombarded the village with tank artillery and shot those who escaped from the village with machine guns. Many guerrillas were killed by shells in their sleep. Some team members who reacted by chance were also swept down by machine guns when they rushed out of the village..."

   "Crack!" Belkin couldn't help but slapped the pillar next to him heavily when he heard this, causing the snow on the roof to fall from the gaps in the logs, covering everyone's heads and bodies. He cursed viciously: "Damn traitor, for the bounty of the Germans, he actually killed so many of our comrades. If I catch him, I will tear him to pieces."

Maria smiled bitterly and said: "No one knows who betrayed the guerrillas until now. But not all of them died, and a few guerrillas managed to escape from the village. The German army heard that the guerrillas The guerrillas had a military flag. After occupying the village, they searched for the flag everywhere, but they could not find it. The Germans posted a notice saying that anyone who could find the flag and hand it over to the German army headquarters would be given the flag. A bonus of up to ten thousand rubles.

  The guerrillas who broke out from the village consisted of five people, a second lieutenant and four ordinary fighters. They moved in the forest for two or three days. Because they were cold and hungry, they had to look for food near the village, but they encountered the SS search force. In order to cover the second lieutenant leaving with the flag, the four soldiers who were broken were captured alive by the Germans after they ran out of bullets.

  In order to get the flag they wanted, the Germans tortured the captured soldiers. The soldiers were beaten and bruised, and no one told the Germans where the flag was going. The German commander came up with a vicious move. He ordered the soldiers to be tied to the outdoor pillars, and then poured cold well water on the soldiers in front of the villagers, forcing them to confess the whereabouts of the flag. I watched the soldiers, frozen into ice sculptures in the cold weather..." At this point, Maria couldn't bear it anymore, she covered her face and burst into tears.

  Axia on the side quickly embraced her, wiping her tears while persuading Maria in a low voice, trying to stabilize her mood.

After a long time, Maria's crying finally stopped. Instead of wiping the tears from her face, she continued to tell the origin of the flag: "That night, I heard someone knocking on the door of my house. I opened it and saw that it was the flag. An escaped second lieutenant. He was worried about his comrades and came back specifically to inquire about the news. Unexpectedly, his comrades had been frozen into ice sculptures by the Germans...”

   "Maria," Sokov asked cautiously, "Did the second lieutenant hand over the flag to you under such circumstances?"

Maria nodded and continued: "He said he couldn't just sit and watch the corpses of his comrades, which were treated as ice sculptures by the Germans and placed outside the headquarters. Before he left, he handed the flag to me and said Let me love this flag as I love my own eyes...

  The second lieutenant died in the battle with the Germans. The Germans did not find the flag they wanted from him, so they sent people to conduct a large-scale search in the village. Fortunately, I wrapped the flag around my body at that time, so I was lucky not to be discovered by the Germans. ..."

After hearing about the origin of this flag, Belkin stepped forward and hugged Maria, and said emotionally: "Thank you, Maria! Thank you for saving this glorious flag for my comrades-in-arms. On behalf of their heroic spirits , thank you!"

  Sokov also stepped forward to give Maria a warm hug: "Maria, you are doing well! I believe that after the reorganization of the 24th Infantry Division, all commanders and fighters in this division will be forever grateful to you."

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  (end of this chapter)