Red Moscow

  Chapter 43 Automatic Sledge

When all three companies entered the village, Vanya said to Lin Hua: "Comrade company commander, we have two problems now: the first is the problem of accommodation. If we disperse to the homes of ordinary people, once there is any enemy situation in the middle of the night, it will be very difficult. Organize effective resistance; the second is the issue of guard posts. Although the village is small, it has three entrances. To be on the safe side, I suggest placing a guard post in each direction.”

  As soon as Vanya finished speaking, Andrei and Vasily, who had passed the night battle in Kryukovo Village, said in unison: "No, there are too few sentry posts, and another secret post must be arranged."

  Vanya was very surprised by what the two said. He couldn't help turning his head to look at the two, and then turned his gaze to Lin Hua, listening to him make the final decision.

"Just as the second and third platoon leaders said, add another secret sentry in each direction." Lin Hua immediately expressed his support to Andre and Vasily without hesitation: "In this way, no matter where the enemy comes from We can find out in time when we come in from the direction. The troops are organized into squads and live in the homes of ordinary people. Said, "Go and carry out the order."

After    and other soldiers took squads as units and went to find a place to live, Lin Hua took Asiya, Pavel, Seryozha, and the prisoner Ernst into the office of the village Soviet.

While Pavel and the others were preparing food, Ernst asked Lin Hua: "Mr. Lieutenant, I don't understand, shouldn't you send me to a prisoner-of-war camp? Why did you bring me here? Aren't you afraid that I will Looking for a chance to escape?"

"Mr. Ernst," Lin Hua said with a smile to Ernst's question, "If I handed you over to the friendly army, you must have been sent to a prisoner of war camp by now. To be honest, the conditions in the prisoner of war camp are not good. Well, I don't want future musicians to die from malnutrition, that might be a huge loss to the music industry."

  Lin Hua's words narrowed the distance between the two. Ernst grinned and said, "Mr. Lieutenant, since you trust me so much, if you need me in the future, just ask, and I will fully cooperate with you."

   After dinner, Pavel, Seryozha and others fell asleep leaning against the wall. Assia was sitting by the fire, and by the light of the candle, repaired the hole in Lin Hua's army coat. While mending, she said to Lin Hua: "Misha, you are now the company commander, and you can no longer always rush to the front like you used to be the squad leader, understand?"

   "Don't worry," Lin Hua said carelessly after hearing what Asiya said, "I haven't made a bullet that can kill me yet."

  Unexpectedly, as soon as he finished speaking, Assia trembled all over, and the sewing needle in her hand stuck into her fingertips. "You pricked your hand." Seeing the blood on the fingertips, Lin Hua hurriedly grabbed Asiya's hand, put the fingers in his mouth, sucked the blood from the fingertips, and said angrily, "Why are you so rude?" be careful."

Assia took advantage of the situation and threw herself into his arms, pressed her face tightly against his chest and said, "Misha, you promise me that you must be more careful on the battlefield so that no accidents will happen. If you have anything Three long and two short, what can I do?" After speaking, he sobbed softly.

  Pavel is a scout, and he is very vigilant. Even when he sleeps, he keeps one eye open. When he heard a slight cry in the room, he quickly opened his eyes. When he saw that it was Asiya crying in Lin Hua's arms, he first smiled slightly, then closed his eyes, pretending to be sound asleep.

  Lin Hua and Asiya hugged each other like this, and sat by the fire all night.

  When it was just dawn, a gunshot suddenly came from the east of the village. Lin Hua's first reaction when he heard the gunshots was that the sentries were firing warning shots. When he was about to push Asiya away and get the rifle leaning against the wall, Pavel, who was sleeping not far away, had already rushed out with a submachine gun.

  Seryozha's reaction was not as fast as Pavel's. When he picked up the submachine gun and was about to rush out, Lin Hua stopped him: "Seryozha, you and Asiya stay here. I'll go out and have a look!"

  Lin Hua picked up the rifle leaning against the wall, and when he got up and walked outside, Assia hurriedly warned: "Be careful and be safe."

  When Lin Hua arrived at the east end of the village, he saw that the three platoon leaders and many soldiers had already arrived, but they did not enter the combat positions, but crowded at the entrance of the village, pointing in the distance.

   "What's going on here?" Lin Hua asked sternly as he pushed his way from the crowd to the entrance of the village, "Why didn't you enter the fighting position?"

   "Comrade Company Commander," a soldier in the crowd said loudly, "It was the sentinel who made a mistake, and it was our own people who came."

  My own people? ! When Lin Hua heard what the soldiers said, he couldn't help raising his eyebrows, thinking, could it be that the superiors sent us reinforcements? He came to the side of Vanya and Vasily, and asked with a serious expression: "Comrades three platoon leaders, what's going on?"

   "Comrade company commander, look over there." Vanya pointed to the distance with his hand, and said, "Our automatic sled unit is coming."

"Automatic sled troops?" Hearing this strange name, Lin Hua asked with a blank face: "What is an automatic sled?" He asked, but his gaze involuntarily looked towards the direction Vanya pointed, I saw a white armored vehicle approaching my position at high speed.

   "Damn," Lin Hua couldn't help opening his mouth in surprise when he saw the armored vehicle speeding in the snow, "How could the armored vehicle run so fast on the snow?"

As the armored car got closer and closer to him, Lin Hua finally saw the true face of Lushan clearly. This armored car has neither tracks nor wheels. There are only four long sled boards below to support the body, and a propeller is installed at the rear of the car. . The body is driven on the snow by the power generated by the high-speed rotating propeller.

  The automatic sled started to slow down when it was more than a hundred meters away from the village. But even so, they rushed to a place only four or five meters away from Lin Hua and the others before stopping, and the snow powder kicked up scattered all over everyone.

  Lin Hua stared intently at the automatic sled, and found that the front was a closed cab, and the driver observed the movement outside through the switchable lookout. The rear part houses a machine gun, controlled by a soldier in a white camouflage suit, goggles and tank cap.

  After the door of the cab was opened, an officer in the same attire jumped out from the inside. He pushed the windshield to the top of his head, stood in the distance and looked at everyone, and then walked quickly in front of Lin Hua. While raising his hand to salute, he said with a smile: "I am Captain Yakuf, the commander of the automatic sled company. Are you the supreme commander here?"

  Lin Hua quickly raised his hand to salute the other party, and said politely: "Hello, Comrade Captain, I am Lieutenant Sokov, the company commander of Istria Company!" After speaking, he took the initiative to extend his hand to the other party.

When Yakup and Lin Hua shook hands, without waiting for the other party to ask, he took the initiative to say: "Comrade Lieutenant, our company's mission is only to scout the enemy's movements and attack the enemy's transportation lines when necessary. I hope to get your cooperation." !"

"No problem, no problem. Comrade Captain, our company will definitely cooperate with your actions." After Lin Hua said this, he glanced at the automatic sled behind Yakup and asked tentatively: "But I don't know you How many of these vehicles are there?"

"There are 15 such sleigh vehicles in the whole company, and each vehicle is equipped with a driver and a machine gunner." Yakup introduced to Lin Hua: "I heard the report from the scouts that there were people in this village. activities, it may be our own people, so we drove here to have a look.”

  (end of this chapter)