Chapter 1524 Special order

Knowing that Sokov was going to inspect the north side of the fortress, Samoilov, who was working as a guard, did not dare to neglect, and set up a security circle around Sokov and Lunev. With the surrounding environment.

   When Sokov came to the river where the female soldiers died, more than half an hour had passed. Samoilov saw a lot of commanders and soldiers surrounded by the river, so he called two soldiers to evacuate the crowd, but Sokov stopped them: "Comrade lieutenant, don't be nervous, the enemy's sniper The hand has been wiped out, and it should be safe here at the moment."

  Among the onlookers, someone shouted: "Comrade Commander and Comrade Military Commissioner are here!"

   Following the shout, everyone's eyes turned to the direction Sokov came from. Soon, the crowd left a passage, and the division commander Khokhlov and political commissar Shepilov walked out of the passage.

Because of the sniper incident that just happened, the two came to Sokov and Lunev, and instead of raising their hands in salute, they straightened their bodies and reported: "Comrade Commander, Comrade Military Commissar, Commander of the 182nd Infantry Division (Political commissar) Colonel Khokhlov (Shepilov) reports to you that the troops have just completed the task of destroying the German snipers, please give instructions!"

   "There is nothing to instruct," Sokov felt somewhat unhappy seeing so many commanders and soldiers surrounded by the river: "Where are the remains of the four female soldiers?"

   "It's by the river." Khokhlov replied, "Come with me, please."

   Khokhlov led Sokov and Lunev through the crowd and came to the river.

  Sokov saw four bodies lying on the grass by the river, all covered with white cloth. He walked forward quickly, bent down to remove the white cloth covering the body, but was stopped by Lunev who rushed to him: "Comrade commander, please wait a moment."

  Hearing Lunev call him, Sokov turned his head and looked at Lunev in surprise, not knowing what the other party was going to say to him.

   "Comrade Commander," Lunev said to Sokov in a low voice, "There are too many people around. Let them disperse first, and then you can check the remains of the female soldiers."

  After being reminded by Lunev, Sokov felt that it was very reasonable, so he stood up and said to Khokhlov: "Comrade Major, there are too many people around, you should evacuate immediately."

   "Okay, Comrade Commander." Khokhlov agreed, and called a staff officer, and asked him to evacuate the crowd so that Sokov could check the remains of the female soldiers.

   Taking advantage of the time to evacuate the crowd, Sokov asked Khokhlov somewhat puzzled: "Comrade Colonel, are these female soldiers from the communications battalion of the division?"

   "Yes, they are all from the Division Communication Battalion."

   "Then can you tell me why they ran to the river to take a bath?"

"This is because there is no dedicated women's bathhouse in the division. They can't find a place to take a bath, so they can only come to the river." Khokhlov pointed to the other side of the river with his hand: "Look, there is a forest on the other side of the river. There are also grass and shrubs on our side, which has a certain degree of concealment, so they choose to come here to take a bath."

After Khokhlov finished speaking, Lunev turned his head and looked at the ruins of the fortress tens of meters away, shook his head with a wry smile, and said solemnly: "Colonel Khokhlov, that is to say, if they can find a bath They will not choose to come to the river, so they will not lose their lives in vain like now."

   "Yes, Comrade Military Commissar." Shepilov waited for Lunev to finish speaking, and quickly added: "We will learn from this lesson and strive to prepare a bathhouse for female soldiers as soon as possible."

  The staff quickly evacuated the onlookers, leaving only the guard platoon led by Samoilov, but they all turned their backs to Sokov and others, and stood more than ten meters away to serve as guards.

  Sokov squatted down next to the bodies of the female soldiers again, gently lifted the white cloth covering them, and found that they were all wearing only white underwear, and the bullets were shot on their foreheads or temples. The soldiers who collected their bodies wiped the blood off their faces, making them look like they were asleep.

  When Sokov covered the white cloth, his movements were very gentle, as if worried about surprising the sleeping female soldiers. As soon as he stood up straight, he inadvertently saw a mass of black flesh beside the bushes not far away. This mass of flesh had lost his hands, and he couldn't tell where it was minced meat and where it was cloth.

   "Colonel Khokhlov," Sokov pouted at the mass of flesh and blood, and asked with disgust, "What is that, why does it look so disgusting?"

   "Comrade Commander, what you saw," as soon as Sokov finished speaking, Shepilov stepped forward and reported, "It's that German sniper."

   "What, a German sniper?" Sokov looked at the disgusting mass of flesh and blood, and asked in surprise, "How did he become like this?"

"When the 1st Battalion of the 546th Regiment was searching for him, another five soldiers fell under his guns." Khokhlov said through gritted teeth: "Because he is hiding in a very dangerous position, if we launch a strong attack, It is bound to pay a heavier price. Therefore, Captain Relia, the commander of the second company of the first battalion, dispatched an anti-tank team and used rocket launchers to destroy the hiding place of the snipers."

   Lunev heard what Khokhlov said, and asked in surprise: "Could it be that he was blown up like this by a rocket launcher?"

"After being attacked by the rocket launcher, his hands were blown off, and even one of his eyes was blind." Khokhlov went on to explain: "When Zhelia ordered people to go up to arrest him, the soldiers thought of the victim who died. The female soldier and her comrade-in-arms could no longer control the anger in their hearts, and stabbed them randomly with bayonets, and they became what they are now."

  After listening to the explanation, Sokov finally understood what was going on: "It turned out to be like this."

   "What do we do with his body?"

   "Just stay here." Sokov thought of the most common bird in Russia, which is the crow. Leave the broken body of the sniper here, and I believe it will not be long before it will be eaten up by crows flying from all directions: "Leave it to the Russian crows to deal with."

After saying this, Sokov stared at the remains of the four young female soldiers covered under the white cloth, and told Shepilov: "Comrade Commissar, please find four coffins and bury these female soldiers properly. Bar."

   "Don't worry, Comrade Commander." Shepilov patted his chest and said, "I will immediately arrange people to bury them."

   "And you, Colonel Khokhlov." Sokov turned to face Khokhlov and said, "I'm going to give you a special order now."

   "Special order?" Khokhlov quickly straightened his body and replied, "Comrade Commander, please issue an order. I will definitely not let you down."

"I'll give you an hour." Sokov stretched out a finger and said to Khokhlov: "Within one hour, build a new bathroom for the female soldiers, so that all the female soldiers in the division can wash Take a hot shower."

   "One hour?" Hearing Sokov's special order, Khokhlov couldn't help showing a embarrassed expression: "Comrade Commander, this time is too short."

  Sokov remembers that in "The Dawns Here Are Quiet", Warrant Officer Vaskov only spent a few hours building a bathroom for the female soldiers to take a bath in. Now the 182nd Division has thousands of people, and there are many houses in the fortress that are suitable for transformation into bathhouses, so Khokhlov was only given an hour.

"Why, Comrade Colonel, are you unable to complete this task?" Seeing Khokhlov's delay in speaking, Sokov showed a displeasure expression on his face: "If you really cannot complete it, you can just say so, I You can arrange another manpower."

"No, there is no need to arrange other people." Hearing that Sokov said that he was going to arrange other people, Khokhlov hurriedly waved his hands desperately, and said emotionally: "Comrade commander, please rest assured, I will definitely Complete the construction of the women's bathhouse within the stipulated time."

   Seeing that Khokhlov reluctantly agreed, Sokov stopped talking nonsense, and only said to him: "Comrade Colonel, I will call you in an hour, and I hope to hear a satisfactory answer then."

After Sokov left, Khokhlov stomped his feet anxiously, and said to Shepilov repeatedly: "Comrade Commissar, isn't the commander embarrassing me? Is it so easy to build a bathhouse? Don't tell me An hour, even a day, I am afraid it will not be completed."

"Comrade commander, don't worry." Seeing that Khokhlov was a little confused because of such a trivial matter, Shepilov quickly comforted him and said, "Aren't there many bathhouses in the area controlled by the division now? As long as we Choosing one of them as a bathhouse for female soldiers won’t solve the problem?”

A word awakened the dreamer, and Khokhlov's eyes lit up at Shepilov's words. He slapped his thigh hard and said excitedly: "Yes, why didn't I think of this, as long as a certain men's bathhouse is given to If the female soldiers use it, won't they complete the special mission assigned to us by the commander?"

   "Comrade Commander, let's split up." Shepilov said to Khokhlov: "You are responsible for arranging the bathroom for female soldiers, and I will stay and install the female soldiers who died."

When Shepilov mentioned the sacrificed female soldiers, Khokhlov's expression became gloomy again. He nodded and said to Shepilov: "I asked Captain Zelya's second company to assist you. Get this job done."

"Comrade Commander," Shepilov worried that Khokhlov thought the matter was simple and left it to others to handle it. He also specially reminded him: "Don't forget one thing, Comrade Commander's wife, Asya, used to Worked in our field hospital, and was even unfortunately captured by the German army. Although the commander quickly launched an attack and rescued his wife, I think he still has anger towards you in his heart, otherwise in Kursk In the later stage of the battle, why did you only let us serve as the reserve team instead of assigning us combat missions?"

"At that time, we recruited thousands of new recruits without any combat experience. I think the commander probably felt that our combat effectiveness was diluted, so he didn't assign us combat missions..." When Khokhlov said this, he suddenly trembled. , Then I figured out what was going on, and asked Shepilov in a panic: "Comrade Political Commissar, you mean that the commander has objections to our division because of his wife's capture, so he doesn't arrange any important arrangements for us?" combat mission?"

"Besides this, I can't think of any other more convincing reason." Maybe seeing that Khokhlov wanted to refute, he added: "If it is said that there are a large number of people who have not received military training and have no combat experienced recruits, resulting in the dilution of the combat effectiveness of the troops.

   This reason sounds reasonable, but if you think about it carefully, the recruits recruited by other group armies, except for a few veterans who were discharged from the hospital, are all recruits who have not been trained and have no combat experience. But those troops can go into battle as soon as they are replenished, why can't we? "

After listening to Shepilov's detailed analysis, Khokhlov felt that it was very reasonable, and he quickly said: "Comrade Commissar, then I will rush back to arrange the matters of the bathhouse, and I will leave the matter here to you. Captain Zelia's troops are here to assist you as soon as possible."

   Sokov, who was on his way back to the headquarters, didn't know that Khokhlov and Shepilov were talking about him. From today's tragedy, he realized that a lot of work within the group army hadn't been carried out well.

Seeing that he was about to arrive at the headquarters, he slowed down and said to Lunev beside him: "Comrade Military Commissar, I think it is our negligence that there is no special bathroom for female soldiers. We should come up with a plan as soon as possible to solve this problem." to prevent similar tragedies from happening again."

"Comrade commander, what you said is very reasonable." Lunev agreed with Sokov's statement: "As our army grows, the number of female soldiers is increasing. In the past, there were only female health workers and female soldiers. Communication soldiers, now there are more female scouts, female anti-aircraft gunners and female tankers. If they do not prepare special bathhouses for them, they can only choose rivers and lakes as bathing places. In this way, the tragedy like today will happen again The chances are very high, I think when we return to the headquarters, we will immediately issue a special order to the commanders of the divisions and brigades, asking them to find ways to solve the problem of the bathhouse for female soldiers."

   The two walked into the headquarters unknowingly while chatting.

  Sameko, who stayed at the headquarters, was going crazy at the moment. He kept worrying about the safety of Sokov and Lunev. At this moment, seeing the two men walking in from the outside in full length, they rushed up to greet them, and asked with concern: "Comrade Commander, Comrade Military Commissioner, are you alright?"

   "What can we do?!" Sokov casually replied, and then asked: "During the time we were away, did anything happen at Klemenchug?"

   "No, Comrade Commander." Sameko replied truthfully: "So far, everything is calm there, nothing happened."

Seeing that there was no fighting at the front, Sokov told Sameko what he and Lunev had seen and heard, and finally said with emotion: "Comrade Chief of Staff, if the 182nd Division has a special bathroom for female soldiers, the four A female soldier would not go to the river to take a bath, and she would not die in vain at the gunpoint of German snipers. On the way back," Sokov turned his head and looked at Lunev who was sitting beside him, "I After discussing with the military commissioner, you will issue orders to the divisions, brigades, and regiments of the group army, ordering commanders at all levels to prepare bathhouses for female soldiers as soon as possible, so as to avoid similar tragedies from happening again."

  (end of this chapter)