Red Moscow

  Chapter 2109 Temporary inspection

  Not long after the meeting here, Nikitin received a call from Sokov: "General Nikitin, I'm Sokov, what are you doing?"

"I just convened a military meeting with commanders above the battalion level, and made a summary of what happened today." Nikitin reported to Sukov: "And told all the commanders, if the future If you find yourself near our defense zone again, don't be polite, no matter how many they come, we will eliminate as many as possible."

Sokov was very satisfied with Nikitin's remarks. He nodded and continued: "As for today's incident, Comrade Marshal criticized your division by name. After listening to me do a lot of self-criticism, I finally agreed to stop Prosecution. But this matter is not over, because Comrade Marshal will conduct spot checks on you at some point, if anything happens, even I can't keep you, understand?"

"Comrade Commander, please rest assured." Nikitin has no doubts about Sokov's statement. You must know that he is a representative from the headquarters of the Front Army. He acted for the division commander because the previous division commander was injured. duty. As a member of the Front Army Command, Rokossovsky knew himself, but he didn't seem to give himself a good face today, proving that the other party was dissatisfied with him: "I will never let you down."

After dark, Nikitin lay on the camp bed, tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep. He didn’t expect that he, as the acting division commander, hadn’t been in office for a long time. Impression, if this development continues, I am afraid that it will be very detrimental to my future prospects.

He opened his eyes and saw the division chief of staff sitting at the table with his back turned to him, so he turned over and got off the camp bed, walked to the table, picked up the cigarette case on the table, took out a cigarette, put it in his mouth, and asked Said: "Chief of Staff, what's the latest situation?"

"Everything is calm." The chief of staff of the division replied, "However, the head of the 310th Artillery Regiment called not long ago, saying that they are short of manpower. It may be difficult to send people to serve as secret sentries at night while on duty. .”

Nikitin became angry when he heard it. He took down the cigarette in his mouth, threw it heavily on the ground, and said angrily: "It's just one or two secret whistles. How could there be a shortage of manpower? You know, the enemy is far away from us." So close, who can guarantee that the enemy will not come over in the middle of the night, if the enemy kills our bright post and then sneaks up on the sleeping commanders and fighters, it will cause us huge losses."

   "Then I'll call the regimental commander," said the division chief of staff, "and convey your thoughts to him."

   "Yes." Nikitin nodded and said, "I am afraid that apart from the artillery regiment, the other infantry regiments also have similar problems. Don't take the secret sentry seriously."

   "Then what are you going to do?"

  Nikitin thought for a while, and said: "I plan to check the sentries tonight to see if the regiments have deployed secret sentries in the defense area in accordance with the regulations of the division headquarters."

  The chief of staff of the division looked out the window, then frowned and said, "Comrade commander, it's getting dark, I think we should go at another time."

   "Another time, what time?" Nikitin said dissatisfiedly: "Should I wait until after dawn, and then go on patrol to see if the regiments have deployed secret sentries according to my regulations?"

Hearing what Nikitin said, the chief of staff of the division obediently shut his mouth. He knew that today's incident would not be too irritating to Nikitin, and the 310th Artillery Regiment unfortunately hit the muzzle of the gun. If he continued to talk, maybe the other party would Blame yourself.

   "Guard!" Nikitin yelled at the dozing guard sitting in the corner, "Take your gun and follow me outside."

  After the guard was awakened, he was still in a daze. After a while, he understood what the teacher had expressed. He hurriedly picked up the submachine gun at his feet and followed Nikitin to the outside.

  Out of the division headquarters, the guard approached Nikitin and asked tentatively, "Comrade commander, it's so late, where are we going?"

   "Follow me to check the sentry!" Nikitin said briefly.

   "Check the sentry?!" The guard has never carried out the task of checking the sentry at night since he joined Nikitin. Now that he heard that he was going to check the sentry, he couldn't help but feel a little confused: "How to check?"

   "Let's go to the defense areas of the nearby troops to have a look." Nikitin explained: "See if they have deployed the secret posts we stipulated in addition to the normal clear posts."

   "Comrade Commander," after figuring out what was going on, the guard asked tentatively, "Which unit do you plan to check out?"

  Although Nikitin was well aware of the defense situation of each unit, he still deliberately asked his guards: "Which unit is the closest to here?"

The guard thought for a while, and then replied, "It's the station of the 2nd Battalion of the 334th Guards Regiment." He pointed forward with his hand, and said, "Go along this road, and you can see it at the edge of the town. their sentry."

After listening to the guard's answer, Nikitin nodded in satisfaction and said, "I didn't expect that, you are quite familiar with the nearby troops. How about it, let's go to the Second Battalion of the 334th Regiment to check the posts and see what their posts are like." Duty situation."

  The two walked along the street, and when they were still a hundred meters away from the entrance of the town, a low voice suddenly came from the alley next to them: "Stop, password?!"

  Nikitin came out temporarily to check the sentry. He didn't know the password of the night sentry, so he froze in place. Seeing that the situation was not going well, the guard hurriedly stood in front of Nikitin, and said to the people in the alley, "The person behind me is the teacher, who are you?"

  People in the alley heard that the person outside was the division commander, so they came out cautiously, shone a flashlight on Nikitin's face, and hurriedly moved away. Soon, Nikitin heard the sound of the heels of his boots touching, and it was obvious that the man stood at attention, "Excuse me, Comrade Commander. I didn't recognize you."

   After the soldier came out of the alley, Nikitin used the light of the moonlight to see clearly that the soldier was a middle-aged soldier, and the military rank on his shoulder strap was corporal. Then he said politely: "Comrade Corporal, hello! What are you doing here?"

   "Report to Comrade Commander." Hearing Nikitin ask himself, the corporal quickly replied: "I am the secret sentry arranged by the company commander, and the clear sentry is outside the town."

  Nikitin looked in the direction of the opponent's finger, and sure enough, he saw a soldier walking back and forth with a rifle at the entrance of the town. "Comrade Corporal," Nikitin couldn't help frowning after finding out the other party's identity: "Since you are a secret whistle, then you should hide in the dark and observe the situation carefully. How can you expose the target casually?"

  The sentinel blushed and said, "I'm sorry, Comrade Commander, I was wrong!"

   "Forget it this time, and don't make similar mistakes next time." Fortunately, Nikitin was reasonable and didn't care about it. Instead, he said kindly to the corporal, "Go ahead and hide."

   Dark Whistle agreed, raised his hand to salute Nikitin, then turned around and was about to enter the dark alley. But Nikitin stopped him: "By the way, Comrade Corporal, what is the password for tonight?"

"Destroy the invaders!" The sentinel knew that Nikitin would go on inspections in many places. If he didn't know the password, he might have a misunderstanding with the sentinel, so he quickly reported the password he knew to the other party: "The reply is: The Guards will win!"

  Nikitin nodded after hearing this, and said with emotion: "Very good password. Comrade Corporal, go on duty."

  When Nikitin led the guards towards the entrance of the town, he was still thinking: In addition to the clear sentries, a few more hidden sentries should be deployed. Even if the enemy's sneak attack eliminates the clear sentry, the hidden sentry hidden in the dark can still issue an alarm in time, allowing our troops to respond in the first place.

  Because he knew the password at night, Nikitin and the guards successfully approached the sentinel at the entrance of the town. He asked politely, "Comrade soldier, where is your company headquarters?"

  The sentinel pointed to a brightly lit room tens of meters away, and said, "Here, Comrade Commander, it's right there."

  Under the guidance of the sentry, Nikitin arrived at the lighted company command post smoothly. When he stepped into the room and opened the door, he was surprised to find that the second battalion commander was also here. The commander in the room was sitting around the table and chatting. When he saw Nikitin suddenly entering the door, he hurriedly stood up from his seat, straightened his body and saluted him.

  Nikitin walked up to several commanders who were standing upright, and asked the second battalion commander, "Comrade Major, what are you doing here in the company without going to bed in the middle of the night?"

The major glanced at Nikitin and replied loudly: "Report to Comrade Commander, I am here to check the defense of each company to prevent them from being attacked by the German army at night. After all, enemies often appear near the town. If you don't raise your vigilance, Once we encounter their sneak attack, we may suffer a big loss."

   "How's the result of the inspection?" Nikitin was very satisfied with the answer of the second battalion commander, and he asked with a smile: "Have you found the enemy who attacked?"

Nikitin's ridicule immediately relaxed the atmosphere in the room. The commander of the second battalion was no longer as restrained as before, and he also relaxed and said: "Report to the commander, everything is safe now, and no abnormalities have been found for the time being." Afterwards, he He also took the initiative to introduce several commanders standing beside him to Nikitin, all of whom were company commanders, instructors and deputy company commanders in this company.

After Nikitin shook hands with his commanders one by one, the commander of the second battalion proposed to Nikitin: "Comrade commander, since you are here to inspect the defense, why don't you let me walk around with you and take a look at other places?" The deployment of the two companies."

  Naturally, Nikitin would not object to the proposal of the Second Battalion Commander. The purpose of his coming out tonight was to inspect the night duty of each unit on the spot. So he readily agreed, "Okay, Comrade Major, please be my guide and show me around."

  The major took Nikitin and his guards out of the trench and walked towards the direction of the battalion headquarters. Nikitin looked in the direction, and found that in a few minutes, he would pass by the location where the secret whistle was just now, but he didn't know if the secret whistle would come out again this time to interrogate himself.

   Just as he was thinking wildly, a soldier in a helmet walked up to him. At first he thought it was the secret whistle who came out again, and was about to criticize the other party a few words. But upon closer inspection, it was found that the opponent's figure was much shorter. Seeing several commanders walking towards him, the soldier quickly put the rifle in his hand on his shoulder, stood on the side of the road and raised his hand to salute them.

Nikitin didn't speak, but just glanced at the other party blankly, thinking that according to his own regulations, the secret sentry is on duty all night. Could it be that this person came to change the guard, but why didn't he see the original secret sentry leave? ?

  When they were parallel to the person who came and were about to separate in the opposite direction in a while, he suddenly smelled a faint smell of blood coming from nearby, and an ominous premonition suddenly surged in his heart. He clenched his pistol tightly, and shouted at the soldier who was about to leave, "Hey, comrade soldier, please wait a moment!"

The soldier who was stopped by Nikitin was actually not a Soviet soldier, but a German scout named Masuchi. Two days ago, he received an order from the commander to sneak into the 120th Guards Division after putting on makeup. The defense zone, to carry out reconnaissance of the deployment of the Soviet army.

  Tonight, Ma Suqi took the reconnaissance map he had drawn, and was going to pass through the Soviet defense line without anyone noticing, and go back to his own side. Unexpectedly, as soon as he left the hiding place, he saw two Soviet soldiers walking forward along the road ahead, one of them was wearing a big-brimmed hat. According to his knowledge of the Soviet army, the person who came out with a guard must be an officer with a high rank.

  Just as he was thinking about **** the two of them without alarming others, he saw a person jumping out of the dark alley by the side of the road, blocking their way. Although the distance was too far, he couldn't hear what a few people said, but he guessed that the person who came out to investigate must be a secret sentry of the Soviet Army.

  He hid in a corner, staring intently at the three Soviet officers and soldiers in the distance, thinking about what he should do next. When Nikitin led his guards towards the entrance of the town, Ma Suqi still stood by the wall without moving.

  He secretly guessed in his heart that this Soviet officer must have come to check the post, and it seems that his vigilance is not high. If he can be killed when he returns. Then, coupled with the Soviet army's defense map on his body, after returning to his army, not only can he get medals and promotions, but maybe his superiors can give him a precious vacation so that he can return to his country to reunite with his family.

  Thinking of this, Ma Suqi decisively made up his mind, and prepared to send the Soviet officer to see God when he returned. But before implementing this ambush operation, it is necessary to eradicate the secret sentry of the Soviet army, so as to prevent his plan from failing.

   But where in the alley was the secret post of the Soviet army hidden, because the sky was too dark, Ma Suqi really couldn't find it for a while. What he can do now is to stick to the wall and quietly approach the place where the dark sentry appeared, and kill him before the other party finds him.

  After returning to his concealed position, the corporal serving as a secret sentry stared at the street outside the alley with vigilant eyes, unaware that the danger was approaching him.

  In fact, the distance between Ma Suqi and the secret sentry was only less than 20 meters apart, but due to the barrier of the house, he couldn't see the specific location where the secret sentry was hidden. In order not to disturb the whistle, he leaned against the wall and listened quietly to the movement in the alley.

  But after listening for a long time, he didn't hear any movement, as if there was no secret whistle around him at all. If Ma Suqi hadn't seen the secret sentry coming out of this area with his own eyes and stopped the officer to conduct interrogation, he almost thought that there was no Soviet secret sentry here at all.

  (end of this chapter)