Chapter 1875 Two snipers

   Accompanied by the director of personnel, Vasily followed the young man to the factory office, and he saw a microphone placed on the table in the room.

   "Comrade Vasily," the young man pointed to the microphone on the table, and said to him, "I hope the other party hasn't hung up on your call."

  Vassily thanked the young man, went to the table, picked up the microphone, and put it in his ear: "I'm Vasily Zaitsev, who is looking for me?"

   "Hello, Comrade Vasily." A familiar voice came from the receiver: "I am Major Lapko from the Military Service Office of the Eastern District of Moscow."

"Hello, Comrade Major." Vasili heard that someone from the military service office was looking for him, thinking that there was something wrong with his retirement procedures, and quickly explained: "I left after completing all the retirement procedures according to the regulations. Is there something wrong with reporting from Moscow to the Kuibyshev metallurgical plant?"

   "Yes, something went wrong, and you need to return to Moscow immediately."

   "Returning to Moscow now?" Vasily said with some surprise: "But I just finished my report at the metallurgical plant. Even if I want to go back to Moscow, I have to wait until the plant rests."

   "Your work problem, someone will discuss with the metallurgical plant." Lapko said in an unquestionable tone on the phone: "You must return to Moscow immediately."

Vasily felt a little uneasy about urging himself to return to Moscow in such a hurry. He tried his best to avoid returning to Moscow, so he found a new reason to refuse: "Comrade Major, I don't know when I will be able to buy a return to Moscow." ticket."

   "You don't have to worry about this." Major Lapko said on the phone: "I will immediately send someone from the local military service office to pick you up, and then send you back to Moscow directly. Are you in the metallurgical plant now?"

   "Yes, I am at the metallurgical plant at the moment."

   "Where is the metallurgical plant located?"

   "Factory Office."

   "Okay, Comrade Vasily. Listen, you can't go anywhere until the people from the local military service office arrive, understand?"

   "Understood, Comrade Major."

  As soon as Vasily put down the phone, the director of personnel couldn't wait to ask: "Comrade Vasily, what happened?"

Vasily was also at a loss at the moment, and he replied: "I don't know what happened. The people from the Moscow military service office asked me to return to Moscow immediately, and said that they would send people from the local military service office to pick me up and drive directly. Send me back to Moscow."

"Send you back to Moscow directly by car?" The personnel director said a little surprised: "Comrade Vasily, I think you will not be able to stay in the metallurgical plant any longer. But before you leave, let's say hello to Comrade Director. "

  Vassily thought it was the factory manager who took him into the factory. Now that he is leaving, it is a basic courtesy to say hello to the other party. "Comrade Director," he looked at the director of personnel and asked, "Can you take me to the factory director's office?"

At the beginning, the factory director handed Vasily over to the director of personnel. Now that Vasily wants to see the director, the director of personnel is naturally obliged: "Okay, Comrade Vasily, come with me, and I will take you to see the director. .”

   In this way, under the leadership of the director of personnel, Vasily came to the factory director's office on the third floor.

The director of the factory, Libinvich, who was sitting in the office, saw the director of personnel walking in with Vasily, and his face showed a surprised expression: "Didn't I ask you to take him to the warehouse? What are you doing here?"

"Comrade director, things have changed a little bit. I'm afraid Comrade Vasily can no longer work in our factory." Speaking of this, he turned to Vasily and said, "Vassily Comrade, I think you should report to Comrade Factory Manager yourself.”

   "Comrade Vasily," Ribinevich looked up at Vasily, urging him with some urgency: "Tell me quickly, what's wrong?"

"That's right, Comrade Factory Director." Vasily replied: "In a few minutes, I received a call from the Moscow Military Service Office, saying that there was something important and I needed to return to Moscow immediately. And listening to the tone of the other party, I There may be no chance to continue working in the metallurgical plant in the future."

   "How could this be?" Ribinich said in surprise, "Is there something wrong with Moscow?"

"I'm sorry, Comrade Factory Director, I don't know either." Vasily felt ashamed of his inability to answer the question raised by Ribbenvich: "The other party just asked me to return to Moscow as soon as possible. I originally wanted to delay for two days. After figuring out what is going on, I will decide whether to return. But the other party said that the local military service office personnel will be sent to find me soon, and I will be sent back to Moscow by car.”

   When Ribinovich heard that Vasily said he was going back to Moscow, the first thought that popped into his mind was that something happened to Vasily, and he would definitely be punished when he returned to Moscow this time. Should he stay away from him so as not to be implicated? But after thinking about it, Vasily is the winner of the Gold Star Medal and the honorary title of Hero of the Soviet Union, so he probably won't have anything to do.

   "Comrade director," the personnel director called out to Ribbenvich when he saw him sitting behind his desk in a daze, "how should we deal with the working relationship of Comrade Vasily?"

  Ribenvich looked at the Director of Personnel and said, "Isn't the data not in the file yet? Just destroy it."

"Comrade Vasily," Ribinevich stood up, came out from behind the desk, and took Vasily's hand: "I think the superior called you back to Moscow urgently, maybe there is more important work to be entrusted to you, you But don’t worry about it.”

   "I am disabled, what important job can you arrange for me?" Vasily said with a wry smile, "If I had to choose, I would rather stay in the metallurgical plant."

No matter how much Ribinvich wanted to keep Vasily, he could only reluctantly part with him at this moment. He raised his hand and patted Vasily's shoulder twice, and asked, "People from the local military service office, where are you going?" came to see you?"

   "I told them that I was in the office of the factory department." Vasily replied, "The other party will look for me there later."

   "Since the other party wants to find you in the factory office, let's go there and wait for him." After speaking, Ribbenvich walked outside with his hands behind his back.

   And Vasily, out of politeness, was going to wait for Ribinvich and the director of personnel to leave the office, and it would not be too late to follow them out. But Ribinovich took two steps and found that Vasily was still standing there, so he came over and put an arm on his shoulder, and led him outside: "Comrade Vasily, what are you doing?" Well, didn't you hear what I said?"

  Vassily really couldn't adapt to the other party's enthusiasm, and replied with some embarrassment: "I want to wait until you go out before going out."

   When we came to the office of the factory, the young man hurried forward to say hello: "Comrade factory director, why are you here?"

"I heard that Comrade Vasily is going to leave later, and I came here specially to see him off." After Ribbenvich greeted Vasily to sit down, he told the young man: "What are you doing in a daze, why don't you hurry up?" Tea."

  While waiting for the young man to pour tea, Ribbenvich said to the director of personnel: "Comrade director, you have nothing to do here, you can go back to the office."

   "Comrade Factory Director," said the Director of Personnel with a smile, "Anyway, I have nothing to do when I go back now, so I will stay here and listen to Vasily's story about defending Stalingrad before.",

  Ribenvich heard exactly what he meant. The reason why I accompanied Vasily to the office of the factory headquarters was to listen to the story of the defense of Stalingrad while waiting for the staff of the military service office.

"Comrade Vasily," Ribinevich said to Vasily with a smile on his face: "Although we have heard many stories about you, they have been processed by newspapers and radio, and we hope to hear about you in person. that legendary experience."

   Faced with Ribbenvich’s kindness, Vasily couldn’t postpone it. Anyway, he didn’t know when the personnel from the local military service office would arrive, so he began to tell the two the story that happened during the battle of Stalingrad.

  At the beginning, there were only Ribbenvich and the director of personnel in the audience, and then the young people who poured tea also joined in. I don’t know how the news got out, saying that Vasily, who killed more than 200 German soldiers in the Battle of Stalingrad, was in the office of the factory at the moment, so everyone in the building put down their work and ran to Come upstairs to hear the story.

   When the lieutenant of the military service office arrived, he found that the corridor leading to the factory office was crowded with people. Although there were a lot of people, no one spoke. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would have thought that there was no one in the corridor.

  The lieutenant patted a worker in front, and asked tentatively: "Hey, I said man, what are you doing here?"

  The worker turned around and glanced at the lieutenant, and then put a finger in front of his lips: "Shh, keep your voice down, we are listening to the story of the sniper Comrade Vasily, do you understand?"

Hearing that Vasily was telling a story inside, the lieutenant who was ordered to pick up Vasily couldn't wait any longer. While pushing aside the people in front of him, he said loudly: "Please step aside, please step aside, I am Ordered to fetch Comrade Vasily."

The people who were standing in the corridor were not happy when they were interrupted to listen to the story, but when they heard that he came to pick up Vasily, they all made way for him and let him come smoothly. At the door of the factory office.

  After the lieutenant entered the door, seeing that the place was also crowded with people, he couldn't help sweating and asked repeatedly: "Vassily, where is Comrade Vasily?"

   "I am here." A young man in military uniform stood up beside the table and said to the lieutenant, "I am Vasily."

"Hello, Comrade Vasily." Although Vasily has taken off his military uniform, he is the winner of the Gold Star Medal and the honorary title of Hero of the Soviet Union, so the lieutenant saluted him across the crowd and said respectfully: " I was ordered to send you to Moscow."

  When the lieutenant took Vasily away, all the people present were discussing: "What's going on, why did you send Vasily to Moscow, did something happen to him?"

   "How is this possible? Now that the war is not over, if he is to return to Moscow urgently, there must be more important tasks for him."

   Not only the workers of the metallurgical plant did not know the reason why Vasily returned to Moscow, but even Vasily and the lieutenant who drove him did not know the reason. The lieutenant thought very simply. My mission is to send Comrade Vasily to Moscow. As for what happens next, it has nothing to do with me.

  The distance from Kuibyshev to Moscow is more than a thousand kilometers. The current road conditions are not ideal. The jeep got stuck in the quagmire on the side of the road several times, and Vasily had to get out of the car to help push the cart.

   In this way, he arrived in Moscow the next evening and was driven by the lieutenant to the military service office.

   The extremely tired lieutenant and Vasily walked into the building where the military service office was located, and under the guidance of others, they found the office of Major Lapko.

   When the two came to the office, the lieutenant stepped forward to salute Lapko and said: "Comrade Major, I have been ordered to send Comrade Vasily back to Moscow."

"Good job, Comrade Lieutenant." After complimenting the other party, Lapko said with concern: "You must be very tired after driving all day and night. Go out and rest first, and after you have a good sleep, Come find me here again."

After the lieutenant left, Lapko asked Vasily to sit down, poured him a cup of tea, and said, "Comrade Vasily, you must feel very strange, since you have been arranged to retire, why are you in such a hurry to call you back?" .”

   "Yes, Comrade Major." Vasily acquiesced to Lapko's statement, but then asked: "Can you tell me the reason for recalling me?"

   "The reason is very simple, someone wants you to return to the army?"

  As soon as he heard that he could return to the army, Vasily's heart beat faster, and he asked in a slightly trembling voice: "Comrade Major, can you tell me who it is?"

"It stands to reason that this is a military secret, so I can't tell you casually." Lapko said reasonably, "but you will know the answer tomorrow at the latest, and it's okay for me to tell you in advance. People who want you to return to the army , is your old superior—General Sokov!"

"Is it General Sokov?" Hearing that it was Sokov who wanted him to return to the army, Vasili was naturally overjoyed, but after thinking about it, one of his eyes was already disabled, and he couldn't continue to serve as a sniper, so he couldn't help feeling It dimmed again: "I am like this now, even if I go back to the army, what is the use?"

"Comrade Vasily, I know your situation very well." Major Lapko, who personally helped Vasily with the retirement procedures, naturally knows Vasily's situation well: "Although you have a problem with one eye, you can no longer serve as a sniper. , but it can be used as a teacher to train more snipers for the troops."

  Knowing that Sokov intends to let him serve as an instructor to help train snipers, Vasily rekindled hope in his heart. He stood up abruptly from where he was sitting, looked at Lapko and asked, "Comrade Major, when will I be able to return to the front line?"

"Don't worry, Comrade Vasily." Lapko waved his hand at him and said with a smile: "You have to go to the General Staff Headquarters tomorrow to meet General Shtemenko. Another sniper handed over the mission."

   "Another sniper?!" Vasily captured the key words from Lapko's words: "So, I am not the only one who returned to the front line, but another sniper?"

   "Yes, Comrade Vasily." Lapko nodded and said, "It is said that the man is also an excellent sniper, and he has killed more than 300 enemies back and forth."

  (end of this chapter)