Chapter 1943 Praying mantis catching cicada and oriole behind (Part 1)

  After assigning combat missions, Sokov planned to go back to his room to rest. Unexpectedly, as soon as he walked out of the headquarters, he ran into Captain Koshkin who had just been promoted to the commander of the guard battalion.

   "Comrade Commander," Koshkin said anxiously when he saw Sokov, "Lyudmila and Vasily want to see you and say they have something important to do."

  Knowing that the two sniper instructors wanted to see him, Sokov couldn't help being a little stunned, thinking to himself, could it be that something went wrong in the sniper school that made them rush over to see him?

   "Where are they?"

   "I'm waiting for you in the conference room."

   "Take me there."

   Walking into the meeting room, Sokov found that regardless of Lyudmila and Vasily, even the ninety-year-old old man Morozov was present.

   Seeing that the three heads of the sniper school were all there, Sokov decided in his heart that there must be something wrong with the sniper school.

   Seeing the three of them stand up and salute to him, he raised his hand in return and asked the other to sit down, then straight to the point and asked: "The three of you came here specially to see me today, did something unhandleable happen in the sniper school?"

  According to Sokov's idea, Liudmila, Vasily and the old man combined, let alone himself, even the commanders of the front army like Zhukov and Konev should give them some face. What none of them could handle, turned out to be very serious.

  Unexpectedly, as soon as Sokov's words came out, the three of them were stunned. After looking at each other, Lyudmila replied on behalf of everyone: "Comrade Commander, the sniper school is doing well, nothing happened."

  This time it was Sokov's turn to be puzzled: "Since nothing happened in the sniper school, why did the three of you come to see me together?"

"Comrade Commander, you have misunderstood." Lyudmila explained: "We are in a hurry to meet you today, not because there is something wrong with the sniper school, but because we found that the enemy may have sent snipers over and will attack you. unfavorable."

   "The enemy sent a sniper?" Sokov asked somewhat unexpectedly, "Is it a German or a Romanian?"

"I don't know for the time being." Lyudmila shook his head first, and then explained to Sokov: "When we were organizing sniper training yesterday, Vasily accidentally discovered that there was a window in an attic 300 meters away from the headquarters. Question, after inspection, I found traces of someone staying in the attic..."

   "Wait a minute, Lyuda." Sokov heard this, and interrupted Lyudmila's words: "Isn't it normal for someone to live in the attic? What's so strange?"

"But it is an attic that has been abandoned for a long time," Vasily explained: "You know, our snipers have the keenest observation ability. When the sniper school was first established, I carefully surveyed the surrounding terrain. I know I clearly remember that the attic windows were closed, and the glass was covered with dust."

  Vassily’s words aroused Sokov’s interest. He knew that snipers have strong observation skills and can notice details that ordinary people can’t notice, so he nodded to Vasily and said in an encouraging tone: “Go ahead.”

   "During the sniper training yesterday, I stood at a commanding height and observed the surrounding environment with a telescope. I accidentally discovered that the windows of the attic were falsely concealed, and the glass of the windows had been wiped clean."

   "Maybe the owner of the house came back and was going to live in the attic, so he cleaned up and cleaned the window glass by the way."

   "That's what I thought about it at the beginning." Vasily said: "But after I took someone to check, I found that the attic was full of dust and cobwebs. Only the parts near the windows have been carefully cleaned."

   "Vassily, what can you see from the window?"

   "You can see the entrance and exit of the headquarters."

  After listening to Vasily's answer, Sokov immediately understood that such a sniper did exist. He was lurking in an attic several hundred meters away from the headquarters, planning to snipe and kill important people who entered and exited the headquarters from there. And I happen to be the most important person in the headquarters.

   "Then what measures have you taken?"

"I personally brought two soldiers to lurk last night, but nothing was gained." Vasily said: "I think this matter is of great importance, so I went back and told the old man and Liu Da about it, and then came directly to report to you. "

After confirming that the enemy's snipers might be infiltrated in the city, and that the attack targets were important commanders including himself, Sokov scratched the back of his head in some embarrassment, and said, "Are the enemy's snipers Germans or Romanians?" , what it looks like, we don’t know anything, even if we want to check, we can’t find out.”

   "Comrade Commander," Lyudmila said, "We can investigate this matter. After all, snipers are better at observing and feeling things than ordinary people."

   "Yes." Sokov readily agreed: "I will entrust the three of you to investigate this matter."

"There is no problem with this." Lyudmila said: "But it may be difficult to catch the snipers sent by the enemy. Our manpower is too small. So far, there are only 38 students in the sniper school. Even if we send them all out, it may not be enough."

"No, you can't send snipers to carry out such ordinary search tasks." Sokov knew how difficult it is to train an excellent sniper, and if he sent them to carry out such ordinary tasks, it would be a waste of time. This is a waste of resources, so he simply rejected Lyudmila's proposal, but said to himself: "If there is not enough manpower, I can draw from the security forces. All snipers are treasures. If there are casualties during this kind of ordinary mission, it is not worth it."

   "Captain Koshkin!"

   "Here!" Koshkin who was next to him quickly and loudly agreed.

   "Deploy a company from your battalion to assist Liuda, Vasily and the old man in eliminating the enemies hidden in the city."

"yes!"

   After assigning the task, Sokov went straight back to his room to rest.

   And Koshkin dispatched one of the most elite companies from the guard battalion he was in charge of to assist Lyudmila and others in hunting down the enemies hiding in the city.

In the afternoon, a young woman wearing a headscarf hurried into the office of the sniper school, and Lyudmila said anxiously: "Comrade female commander, I went to work outside the city today. , I saw Germans appearing in the forest by the roadside."

They organized troops to search for half a day, but there was no clue. They were worried. When they heard the young woman's words, they suddenly felt their eyes light up. After Lyudmila asked the woman to sit down, she asked with concern: "This girl, I don't know what to call you?"

"My name is Katerina, and I am a seamstress in a tailor's shop in the city." The young woman replied: "The boss sent me today to deliver clothes to a customer outside the city. A few German soldiers, after they saw me, hurriedly hid in the forest. I felt something was wrong, so I came to report to you immediately."

   "Katerina," came the old man's voice from the corner: "How did you come here to report?"

   "I usually see a lot of soldiers coming in and out here, so I guess it might be a command post." Katerina replied, "Since it might be the command post, then I should come in and try my luck."

   "Katerina," knowing that German soldiers appeared in the forest outside the city, Koshkin couldn't sit still, and quickly asked Katerina: "Can you show us the way to find the Germans?"

   "Okay, I'll take you there now." Katerina said enthusiastically, "You have to act fast, if you are late, they might run away."

  When everyone got up and was about to leave, Koshkin said to the old man: "Old man, you are old, and you don't have to participate in such an action."

   Hearing what Koshkin said, the old man didn't argue, but nodded, and sat back in the corner again.

  In order to prevent the German soldiers from noticing and escaping in advance, Koshkin quickly dispatched eight trucks, carrying soldiers from the guard company, to the area Katerina said.

  After arriving at the place, Katerina pointed to the forest and said, "I was here just now. I saw the German soldiers, and then they walked towards the depths of the forest."

   "Is there any hiding place in the forest?" asked Koshkin.

   "Yes," Katerina nodded, and said, "Walking four or five hundred meters inside, there is a forester's hut. I think the Germans should be hiding there."

   "Comrade Katerina, thank you so much." Koshkin waited for Katerina to finish speaking, and thanked her: "It's too dangerous here, I'll send someone to take you back."

  Unexpectedly, Katerina hesitated for a moment, but said: "No, with you by my side, how can there be any danger. I will personally take you into the forest to find the forester's hut."

Seeing that Katerina volunteered to take the initiative and was willing to lead the way to see the forester's hut, Koshkin was not good at dampening her enthusiasm, so he said to Lyudmila: "Lyuda, you come to take care of Katerina, make sure that she safety."

"Okay, Koshkin." Although Lyudmila's military rank is higher than Koshkin's, Koshkin is Sokov's confidant, and the soldiers around him are all his subordinates, so she is very cooperative: "I'll take care of Katerina."

   Koshkin left a squad of soldiers to guard the car, and then issued an order to the rest of the soldiers to spread out and go deep into the forest.

  Not long after walking, they found the forest watcher's hut in front of them. It was built of logs and looked very solid. But there was no sentry outside the door, and it was unknown whether the German soldiers seen by Katerina were hiding here.

  Koshkin ordered the troops to stop advancing, and sent two soldiers to reconnaissance, trying to find out whether there were Germans hiding in the woodman's cabin.

  But the two soldiers were still more than 20 meters away from the forest watchman's cabin, and the barrel of a submachine gun protruded from the window, and began to shoot wildly at the two soldiers.

  A soldier was caught off guard and fell down on the spot, while the other soldier saw that the situation was not good, fell to the ground, and raised his hand to fight back at the window. The two sides immediately started a shootout.

   Koshkin saw that there were indeed Germans hiding in the woodman's hut, and quickly ordered the soldiers to shoot. All of a sudden, bullets fired at the wooden house from all directions, sending sawdust flying. It's a pity that the wooden house was built of logs. Although the shooting outside was fierce, the German casualties inside the house were very small.

"Liuda," although the guard company's fire could hardly cause casualties to the German soldiers in the wooden house, but they successfully suppressed the enemy's firepower. Koshkin felt that Katerina's mission had been completed, and there was no need to let her Staying here to take risks, he said to Lyudmila: "It's too dangerous for Katerina to stay here, take her back to the city first."

"Captain Koshkin," but Lyudmila said to Koshkin instead of lying on the spot, "the wooden house is too strong, and it may be difficult to drive the enemy out of the house without heavy weapons. I stayed in the Here, maybe it can play a bigger role.”

   Koshkin felt that what Lyudmila said made sense. The continuous shooting of the guard company, although the wood chips flew straight from the wooden house, could not effectively penetrate the wall. On the contrary, Vasily, who was hiding in another corner, succeeded in killing a German soldier the moment he poked his head out of the window.

Considering that in such a battle, snipers can play more than a platoon of soldiers, Koshkin changed his mind and called a sergeant to **** Katrin with a squad of soldiers. Na went back to the city. When you come back, bring some offensive weapons such as rocket launchers to destroy the enemies hiding in the wooden house.

  The sergeant took his subordinates to cover Katerina to leave the firefighting area and returned to the parking place.

   "Girl," the sergeant asked Katerina politely after the car started, "Where is your home? I'll take you home?"

   "At the corner of Shevchenko Street, there is a coffee shop where I work." Katerina smiled and said to the sergeant: "Comrade commander, just put me there."

  Hearing that Katerina called herself a commander, the sergeant explained with some embarrassment: "Girl, I'm just a soldier, not an officer. It's not appropriate to call me a commander."

  Unexpectedly, Katerina smiled sweetly and said: "You are still so young, it will be a matter of time before you become an officer. There should be nothing wrong with calling you commander."

  The sergeant knew very well that if he was in a combat unit, as long as he didn't sacrifice himself, it would be easy to become an officer. But now that he is a sergeant in the guard battalion, there are not many opportunities for promotion, and it is unlikely that he can become an officer. But he would not say such disappointing words to Katerina, but diverted the topic in time: "Shevchenko Street, in memory of the famous Ukrainian poet and painter Taras Shevchenko, And the main street named after him?"

"Yes, yes, Comrade Commander." Katerina said with a smile on her face: "The reason why this street became Shevchenko Street is to commemorate the famous poet and painter Taras Shevchenko, You know so much."

  Katrina's compliment made the sergeant a little elated. So much so that she didn't arouse the necessary vigilance for the question she asked next: "Comrade commander, are you responsible for protecting the safety of the headquarters?"

   "Yes," the sergeant nodded and said, "Our first battalion of guards is stationed at the headquarters to closely protect the safety of the important commanders of the headquarters. The other two and third battalions are stationed on the periphery."

  (end of this chapter)