Chapter 2312

 Two days and three nights later, the train arrived in Chelyabinsk.

Although the carriage where Sokov and others were staying was spacious, he still felt suffocated after sitting in the car for so long. After getting off the car, he wanted to find a place to breathe before taking the car to the airport.

Yakov, who followed him out of the car, handed a cigarette to Sokov, lit it for him and said, "Misha, we have to catch a plane. Let's go after finishing this cigarette."

Sokov nodded and saw Lukin, who was sitting in a wheelchair, being lifted out of the carriage by two soldiers. He quickly stepped forward to take the wheelchair from the opponent's hand, pushed it to where Yakov was, and said to Yakov said: "Yakov, give one of your cigarettes to the deputy commander."

Yakov quickly took out the cigarette case from his pocket and handed it to Lukin. But Lukin waved his hand and said: "Thank you Yakov, I have smoked too many cigarettes in the past two days and I don't want to smoke anymore." Then he turned to Sokov and asked: "Misha, when do we leave for the airport?"

"No rush, Comrade Deputy Commander." Sokov said calmly: "After two days of riding in the car, I feel uncomfortable all over. I will wait until I stand here to breathe fresh air. Don't worry, we are not going to the airport. , the plane won’t take off.”

Bezikov came over and said to Sokov: "Comrade General, I will send someone to find the vehicle now. Once the vehicle is found, we will take the vehicle to the airport."

While Bezikov was looking for a car, a black car drove onto the platform and stopped not far from the three of them. The car door opened, and a lieutenant colonel officer walked out of it. He quickly came to the front of the three people and asked tentatively: "Is this General Yakov from Moscow?"

"Yes, I am Yakov." Yakov heard the other party saying his name and quickly asked: "Are you here to pick us up?"

"Yes, Comrade General." The lieutenant colonel glanced at Lukin in a wheelchair and Sokov in a major uniform, and continued to say to Yakov: "I have been ordered to take you to the airport, please come with me. "

Yakov raised his hand holding the cigarette and said politely to the lieutenant colonel: "Comrade lieutenant colonel, can you wait until we finish smoking before leaving?"

"Yes, of course." After hearing what Yakov said, the lieutenant colonel smiled and said, "The pilot received an order to send you to Khabarovsk. If you don't board the plane, the plane won't be able to take off. .”

While the lieutenant colonel was waiting for the two of them to smoke, he kept glancing at Sokov from the corner of his eye, and thought unhappily: "What's going on with this major? Doesn't he understand the rules of the army? Seeing that I am better than him?" It's outrageous that a high-ranking officer doesn't take the initiative to salute." But seeing Yakov talking and laughing with the other party, even if he had any dissatisfaction in his heart, he could only hide it in his heart and did not dare to express it easily. come out.

 “Catch them, catch them!” A shout suddenly came from not far away.

Sokov looked in the direction of the sound and saw two little boys of six or seven years old running along the platform towards where he and others were, followed by several soldiers with guns chasing after them. . Although he didn't know why these soldiers wanted to catch the little boy, when the two boys passed by him, he still caught them one by one.

 While the two boys were struggling desperately, the warriors chasing behind them arrived. They looked a little nervous when they saw that there was a lieutenant general, a major general, a lieutenant colonel and a major here. After raising their hands and saluting everyone, they took the boy in Sokov's hand.

Sokov asked the soldier curiously: "Comrade soldier, why did you arrest these two children?"

"Report to Comrade Major." A corporal raised his hand to salute Sokov and reported: "While we were patrolling, we found these two children trying to climb onto a parked freight train. We were worried that they were German spies, so Prepare to take him back for interrogation."

"Comrade Corporal." Sokov sneered and said: "The Germans surrendered a month and a half ago. Besides, your place is more than 2,000 roads away from the front line. Even if there are spies sent by the Germans, it is impossible to penetrate into such a far city. .”

The corporal did not dare to reply. He could only lower his head and accept Sokov's criticism honestly.

After scolding the corporal, Sokov knelt down and asked the two boys: "Children, tell me, why are you going to climb the train?"

A boy who looked younger said: "Comrade commander, our father has gone to the front line, and we want to find him."

"Your father went to the front?" Sokov asked softly: "Do you know his name, which army he belongs to, and where the army is stationed?"

Facing a series of questions raised by Sokov, the two children looked at each other, shook their heads in unison, and said, "I don't know."

"Then what is your father's name? You know it, right?"

 But the two children still shook their heads to show they didn’t know.

Yakov asked curiously: "Children, what does your mother usually call your father when you are at home?"

This question obviously did not trouble the two children. They answered in unison: "Mom usually calls her child his father."

 The two children’s answers immediately aroused good-natured laughter.

Sokov knew very well that he might not be able to get any useful information out of the mouths of these two boys, so he said to them: "Children, you don't even know your father's name or which army he serves in." You know, how to find him? Maybe your father will be back home just after you left on the train. If he can't see you, I don't know how anxious he would be."

Sokov stood up straight again and said to the corporal: "Comrade corporal, I estimate that these two children are from nearby villages. You lock them up first, and then send people to the villages to find their relatives and let their families know Come to the station and take them home.”

The corporal did not respond to the order given by Sokov. He kept glancing at Lukin in the wheelchair and Yakov standing next to him, thinking that there was another lieutenant general here. And Major General, when was it your turn as a Major to give orders?

Seeing that the corporal did not move for a long time, Lu Jin saw something fishy and said with a smile: "Comrade corporal, Major Matevosyan has given you an order, why don't you execute it?"

Since it was Lu Jin, the highest-ranking military officer present, who spoke, the corporal did not dare to be negligent. He quickly agreed loudly and called his subordinates to take the two children away.

After taking care of the affairs of the two children, Sokov said to Yakov: "Yasha, it's getting late, let's set off." "But Major Bezikov hasn't come back yet." Yakov hesitated. said.

"It doesn't matter. If he sees that we are not here, he will take someone to the airport to find us."

The two of them carried Lu Jin into the car first, then stuffed the wheelchair into the trunk, and then got into the car. After closing the car door, Sokov said to the lieutenant colonel sitting in the front row: "Comrade lieutenant colonel, let's go."

When the car left the train station and drove towards the airport, Sokov, who was sitting in the back seat, couldn't help but tilted his head and looked into the sky. He remembered that in later generations, a huge meteorite once appeared in Chelya. Over Binsk, but still flying, it was hit by a mysterious object flying from behind and quickly disintegrated in the air, avoiding a disaster. Despite this, 1,500 people were injured and more than 7,200 buildings were damaged.

“Comrade Major,” the lieutenant colonel saw Sokov looking through the rearview mirror at the sky outside the window. He couldn’t help but asked curiously, “What are you looking at?”

“I didn’t see anything!” Sokov quickly sat up straight and said, “I just thought the scenery outside the window looked similar to Moscow, so I couldn’t help but take a few more glances.”

The lieutenant colonel looked out the window and saw nothing but forests passing by on both sides. He said self-righteously: "Comrade Major, are you talking about the forests on both sides of the road? In fact, this is not only the case in the suburbs of Moscow, many are surrounded by forests." The suburbs of cities all have similar scenery."

 The car arrived at the airport quickly and drove directly to a transport plane parked on the runway.

After the car stopped, the lieutenant colonel turned to Lukin and Yakov and said: "Comrade generals, we are here, please get out of the car." As for Sokov, the commander with the rank of major, he was directly Ignored.

Sokov first opened the door and got out of the car, opened the trunk, took out Lukin's wheelchair, and quickly pushed it to the open rear door, waiting for Yakov to lift Lukin out of the car. After Lukin sat in the wheelchair, he did not board the plane immediately. Instead, he asked Sokov to push his wheelchair aside: "Misha, let's wait here for Major Bezikov. I believe they can't use it. How long will it take to get there?"

When the lieutenant colonel saw the three people standing next to the car but not boarding the plane, he asked with some confusion: "Two comrades, generals, why haven't you boarded the plane yet?"

“Comrade Lieutenant Colonel,” Sokov said casually, “Our security forces haven’t arrived yet. When they arrive, it won’t be too late for us to board the plane.”

"That's right, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel." Lu Jin is a smart man. He noticed that Sokov has become ordinary since he changed his military uniform. Even the Lieutenant Colonel who was responsible for picking him up did not put him on the list. In his eyes, so he waited for Sokov to finish and immediately added: "This guard force was personally sent by Comrade Stalin. We will not board the plane easily until they arrive."

Originally, the lieutenant colonel was very dissatisfied when he heard that the three-man guard force had not arrived yet. First, he felt that Sokov was rude to him, and now he felt that the other party's security forces had no sense of time and did not follow the commander they wanted to protect at all times. But after he learned that this guard force was actually sent by Stalin himself, his attitude suddenly changed. Not to mention being late for a while, even if he was late for a day, he felt it was nothing special.

 After waiting for more than 20 minutes, two trucks full of soldiers arrived at the airport.

The truck came to a stop not far from the black car. The passenger side door of the first car opened, and a major officer wearing a blue hat came out. He came to Sokov and raised his hand. After saluting, he said: "I'm sorry, Major Matievosyan, we were delayed a little while looking for a car. I hope we didn't delay the takeoff of the plane."

The lieutenant colonel next to him looked at it and his eyes widened in surprise. According to his understanding, after the major got off the bridge, shouldn't he have saluted the lieutenant general sitting in the wheelchair or General Yakov next to him? How could that be? What about saluting a major with the same rank as himself? What surprised him even more was that neither the lieutenant general nor the major general had any reaction to Bezikov's actions. It seemed that it was natural for the other party to do so.

Sokov did not notice the abnormality of the lieutenant colonel. After raising his hand to return the salute to Bezikov, he ordered him: "Comrade major, call a few soldiers to come over and carry the wheelchair of comrade deputy commander onto the plane."

Bezikov agreed, called four tall and round soldiers, and ordered them: "The four of you carry Lieutenant General Lukin's wheelchair onto the plane."

The four soldiers agreed. After pushing the wheelchair to the side of the plane, they worked together to lift the wheelchair and the pilot, and asked the pilot above to help lift Lu Jin into the plane.

 After Sokov and others boarded the plane, the plane's propellers began to rotate at high speed. The lieutenant colonel quickly ordered the driver to pull the car off the runway so as not to affect the plane's takeoff.

 When the plane rises into the air and flies farther and farther away, the lieutenant colonel's pick-up and drop-off mission will be completed. He turned to the person in charge of the airport next to him and said: "Comrade commander, I have never seen such a rude commander. It's just that he didn't salute when he saw me, but in front of a lieutenant general and a major general, he actually Pointing fingers and giving orders to soldiers in other units, I really think of myself as the number one person."

However, the person in charge of the airport did not think about the problem as one-sidedly as the lieutenant colonel. After he waited for the other party to finish speaking, he smiled lightly and then said: "Comrade lieutenant colonel, sometimes what we see with our eyes may not be true."

The lieutenant colonel was stunned after hearing this, and then asked: "What do you mean?"

"Several groups of commanders have transferred from here to Khabarovsk in the past few days." The person in charge of the airport said: "There is a big shot among them who I have met several times. He is obviously a marshal, but I I heard people call him admiral, but his name also changed to other people's names."

The lieutenant colonel asked tentatively: "Could it be that you recognized the wrong person?"

“How is this possible?” the person in charge of the airport said with a sneer: “Not only do I have his photo hanging in my office, but I have also seen him in person many times. It is simply impossible to admit my mistake.”

"But what does it mean?" The lieutenant colonel became more and more confused as he listened. He asked in confusion: "What is the reason for this?"

"The reason is very simple. It may be to prevent leaks, so the big shot I mentioned used a pseudonym, and his military rank was also adjusted." The person in charge of the airport was talking about the former Chief of General Staff Vasilevsky marshal. Although he did not know Sokov, he guessed from the appearance and temperament of the other party and the silence shown by the other two generals when giving orders that he should be a big shot. In order to prevent leaks, he used a pseudonym and a new military rank. .

After hearing this, the lieutenant colonel finally understood something: "You are saying that this major is not a real major. He may be a general, and his military rank is higher than that of the other two generals. Is my understanding correct? ?”

The person in charge of the airport looked at the lieutenant colonel and said word by word: "Comrade lieutenant colonel, apart from this, I can't think of any more reasonable explanations."

 (End of this chapter)