Red Moscow

  Chapter 1733

   Koshkin was obviously familiar with the terrain in this area. After driving for less than ten minutes, Sokov, who was sitting in the co-pilot position, saw a military store appearing on the side of the road ahead.

  Sokov thought Koshkin would park his car in front of the store, but unexpectedly he drove straight past. Sokov thought he hadn't seen it, so he quickly reminded him: "Lieutenant Koshkin, there was a military store just beside the road, why didn't you stop?"

   Koshkin quickly glanced sideways at Sokov, and said, "Comrade General, that's an ordinary military store. Given your rank, you should go to the officer's store."

   This was the first time Sokov heard of the officer store. He was stunned for a moment and asked, "What's in the officer store?"

   "How should I put it, Comrade General." Kosh said carefully: "Anyway, the goods inside are more abundant than the military stores we often go to."

  Sokov has gone to the military store to buy things several times. Although there are many types of goods, there is no comparison with the supermarkets he visited in later generations. At this moment, Koshkin said that the products in the officer's store are more abundant than those in the military store, and he couldn't help but aroused his curiosity.

  Nina, who was sitting in the back row, also heard what Koshkin said, and couldn't help asking Assia curiously: "Assia, have you ever been to the officer's store?"

   "No." Assia shook her head and said, "I heard that only colonel-level officers are eligible to shop in an officer's store. I always shop in ordinary military stores, and I have never been to an officer's store."

"Misha." Nina waited for her daughter to finish speaking, then smiled and said to Sokov who was sitting in the front row: "I really didn't expect that when we met for the first time, I would be able to take advantage of you and go see you." What the fabled officer store was like."

  Sokov laughed dryly, and said a little embarrassedly: "Nina, I have never been to an officer's store, and I don't know what's going on there."

When the car came to a stone building with obvious European style, Sokov saw a sign above the glass door at the entrance, which read "Officer's Shopping Specialty Store", and two sentries stood guard at the door , there was a wooden table beside them, but there was no one behind the table.

   When Sokov and the others got out of the car, they followed Koshkin to the entrance of the officer's shop.

  Seeing that Sokov and others wanted to enter the store, an officer opened the store from the inside. He came to Sokov, raised his hand and saluted, and said politely: "Comrade General, please show your ID!"

   Checking documents has always been a tradition in Russia. Even Lenin had his documents checked many times on the road, let alone an ordinary general like himself. So Sokov cooperatively took out his ID and handed it to the other party.

  The officer took Sokov's ID, sat behind the desk, opened the book and began to record the information on Sokov's military ID. After he finished registering, he looked up at Koshkin, Assia and the others and said, "Where are your documents?"

"Comrade Second Lieutenant," as an officer of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Koshkin is not afraid of officers with higher ranks than himself, let alone officers with lower ranks. : "Your duty is to register at the gate, why didn't you just go to your post?"

The officer saw clearly at this moment that the officer following Sokov was actually wearing the blue cap of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and was suddenly frightened into a cold sweat. He quickly stood up and replied respectfully: "Comrade Lieutenant, Mrs. It's cold, you go indoors to warm up..."

   But Koshkin said relentlessly: "You are leaving your post without permission, do you know that?"

   Sokov agrees with Koshkin's statement. From the current situation, the officer's duty is to register the information of the personnel entering the store. But he wasn't at his post just now, and there was nothing wrong with saying he was AWOL. As for the reason for leaving the post, it is even more unreliable. He is afraid of the cold, so the two sentinels standing guard at the door, aren't they cold? They have not left their posts, why can you be special?

  If it was normal, Sokov would probably teach the other party a few words when he saw this situation. But he came here for shopping today, so there is no need to make extra troubles, so he calmed down and said, "Lieutenant Koshkin, I think the second lieutenant is also the first offender, so there is no need to hold him accountable."

   "That's right, that's right, Comrade General." The officer said respectfully while returning the general's certificate to Sokov with both hands, "I am indeed a first-time offender, and I will never leave my post again."

Since Sokov didn't pursue the matter, Koshkin couldn't say anything more. He nodded at the officer with his hand, snorted heavily, stretched out his hand and pushed open the closed glass door, and then told Sokov : "Comrade General, please come in!"

   Walking into the store, Sokov immediately saw the difference between this place and other places. The products here are not placed on the counter, but on open shelves, and customers can choose the products they want at will.

  To match it, the salespersons in the store are all young and beautiful, but have a warm attitude. Seeing Sokov coming in with a cane, a salesperson suddenly felt his eyes light up, and hurried up to greet him politely and asked, "Hi, Comrade General, may I help you."

  Sokov hadn't seen clearly what products were in the store yet, so he didn't know what to buy, so he could only say perfunctorily, "I want to see and tell you if there is anything I need."

   "Okay, Comrade General." The salesman said with a smile: "If you need anything, please feel free to ask, I will do my best to serve you."

"Assia," Sokov turned to Assia and said, "You and Nina walk around the store to see what you can buy." Before Assia could answer, he said to Koshkin , "Koshkin, you are also looking around, but is there anything you want to buy?"

After Asya, Koshkin and the others had left, the salesperson saw that Sokov didn't want to walk around because of his inconvenient legs, so he took the initiative to say: "Comrade General, I think your leg has been injured. You must be very tired, why don't you go to our rest area to rest for a while."

   Sokov did not refuse the salesperson's kindness, and followed her to the rest area beside her.

  Sokov never dreamed that there would be such a comfortable rest area in the store, not only with comfortable sofas, expensive coffee tables, but even free refreshments.

  The salesperson put hot tea in front of Sokov, put another plate of biscuits, and asked politely, "Comrade General, is there anything else you need?"

   "No need for now," Sokov politely replied after seeing the name on the other party's badge, "Lena, thank you! If you have something to do, go and do it, don't worry about me."

"Comrade General," Lena stood still and said to Sokov, "Your leg is injured and you cannot move. I'd better stay and take care of you. As for your wife, she is also accompanied by a special person. "

   Hearing what Lena said, Sokov looked towards Assia and the others, and sure enough, he saw Nina, Assia's mother and daughter, each followed by a salesperson. There were no shopping carts in the store at this time, so the two salesmen followed behind with baskets in their hands. Once they saw that they had something they liked, they took it and put it in the basket.

   Seeing this, Sokov nodded slightly, squeezed a smile on his face, and said to Lena: "Lena, your service is really thoughtful, thank you so much."

   "Look at what you said, Comrade General." Lena replied with a smile: "It is our job to provide you with the best service."

   "Please sit down, Lena." Sokov felt that Lena was standing in front of him, and she had to look up to talk to her, so he beckoned her to sit down: "Let's sit down and talk slowly."

  Lena was not hypocritical when she heard what Sokov said. After thanking her, she sat down on a sofa next to her.

   "Comrade General," Lena asked after she sat down, feeling that she needed to chat with the young general, "May I ask how your leg was injured?"

Sokov smiled wryly and replied: "On the way to the frontier for inspection, I encountered a small German army disguised as our army. They pretended to be engineers and said that there were mines on the road ahead. They asked me to go to the next room. Rest. Unexpectedly, in this room, they had already placed a bomb in advance. When I found something was wrong, I immediately jumped out of the window and escaped, but I was still a step too late. I was seriously injured by the bomb. I stayed in the hospital for four or five months before the injury was generalized. Healed, but it will take a while to recover from the leg injury."

   "You are so lucky," Lena said with emotion, "If it were someone else, he might have been bombed to death in the house by the Germans."

   "Lena, how long have you been working here?"

"It's been about a year and a half." Lena heard Sukov's question, and the expression on her face suddenly became sad: "Since my husband died, the superior arranged me to work here in order to take care of me .”

   "I'm so sorry, I reminded you of sad memories."

   "It's nothing," Liena replied with a smile on her face, "Since it's a war, death is inevitable. Besides, not only me, almost all the salesmen working here have their relatives sacrificed on the battlefield."

   "Do you have children?" Sokov asked tentatively.

Unexpectedly, Lena shook her head, and said frankly: "I met my husband when I was drinking coffee with some friends in a coffee shop. At that time, the army he was in was about to go to the front line. The marriage registration office registered the marriage, and after getting the marriage certificate, he returned to the front line without even saying a few words."

What Lena said reminded Sokov that when he and Asiya got married in Stalingrad, the situation was similar. They just went through the marriage formalities at the marriage registration office, but so far, the relationship between him and Asiya It is also only the name of husband and wife, but not the reality of husband and wife.

Sokov couldn't help looking at Asiya who was picking products in the distance, and thought to himself: If he was not rescued after the explosion, when Asiya remarried again, there would be no Child's drag.

"Comrade General, Comrade General." It may be that he was so engrossed in thinking that Lena shouted several times before Sukov heard him, and he quickly turned his head, looked at Lena and asked, "What's the matter? "

   "I want to ask, which army commander are you?" Lena said cautiously to Sokov, "Maybe my husband is still your subordinate."

   "Which army did your husband belong to?"

   "He belongs to the 38th Army." Lena said hesitantly, "I don't know which division or regiment it is."

   "Have you not been in touch since you separated?"

"Yes, we have been in touch." Lena nodded vigorously, and explained to Sokov: "We usually communicate through letters. But you also know that the letter inspection agency in the field is very strict. And the specific location, all will be blotted out, so that I only know my husband's field mailbox number, but not his unit number."

"Lena, I have served as the commander of the 21st and 27th Army, but I have never dealt with the 38th Army." Sokov waited for Lena to finish speaking, and said apologetically: "So , I should not know your husband."

Sokov's answer was obviously beyond Lena's expectation. After listening to her, she nodded slightly and said sadly: "I just want to know how my husband died and where he was buried. .If there is a chance, I would like to visit his grave."

"Can you tell me his name, military rank, and the mailbox number of the army he is in?" Seeing Lena's expression, Sokov couldn't help feeling pity, and said to Lena: "Maybe I can find a way to help you find out. Take a look and see if you can find information about your husband."

   "Great, this is really great." Lena has worked in the officer store for so long, and has asked many officers for help. But after hearing her story, those military officers felt that finding such a small person who had died long ago was tantamount to finding a needle in a haystack, so they rejected her request without exception.

  Hearing that Sokov was willing to help her find out information about her deceased husband, Lena couldn't help being overjoyed. She took out a pen and paper, and quickly wrote down her husband's name, military rank, and combat mailbox number. Seeing that she finished writing, Sokov was about to reach out to pick up the small note when Lena suddenly said, "Wait a minute, Comrade General, I want to write the code of the death notice on it, so that it may be helpful for finding his whereabouts. will help."

"Then write it down." Sokov felt that the code of the death notice might be the main breakthrough. After all, when the civil affairs department dispatched the death notice, they must know some information that Lena didn't understand, so he said casually: " Maybe this code will provide us with useful clues to find your husband."

  After Sokov and Lena reached an agreement here, Assia and her mother also completed the purchase of goods. Sokov looked at the overcrowded basket, which contained not only vegetables, but also fruits, ham, smoked fish, coffee and other commodities. These things might not be rare before the war, but during the war, if you didn't come to this military officer's store, if you want to get these things, you can only buy them at a high price on the black market.

  After everyone got into the car, Assia suddenly asked, "Misha, I see that you and that salesperson had a very speculative conversation. What did you talk about?"

  Sokov felt that there was nothing he could not tell others about the conversation between himself and Lena, so he repeated it to Asiya. After he finished speaking, he thought of searching for someone. Koshkin was undoubtedly the best candidate, and handed the note that Lena had handed over to Koshkin: "Lieutenant Koshkin, please leave the job of searching for people to is you."

  (end of this chapter)