Red Moscow

  Chapter 8 The General Visits

   While shaking hands with the two monitors, Lin Hua noticed the sadness in Griza's eyes, as if something happened not long ago that made him sad. I wanted to ask what was going on, but it was very impolite to ask such private questions during this meeting. Lin Hua made a gesture of invitation to the church, and said to the three of them, "Come on, let's go to the bell tower first."

  They walked through the church hall, up the narrow spiral staircase, and came to the top bell tower. The structure of the bell tower is an onion-like dome supported by four pillars. A rusty copper bell is hung on the top beam. The long rope pulling the bell hangs down and sways with the wind.

  The bell tower has a wide view, standing here, you can have a panoramic view of the entire Khimki town. Lin Hua pointed to the town below and said to Andre: "Comrade deputy platoon commander, you can see that this is the town of Khimki. In order to prevent the Germans from launching another surprise attack, we must strengthen our vigilance. From today In the beginning, mobile sentries will be dispatched in four directions of the town, in groups of two, to conduct uninterrupted patrols."

   "I understand." Andre agreed, then turned and told Griza: "First squad leader, your squad will be in charge of the first patrol, and comrades from the second squad will take over after four hours."

  Griza saluted Lin Hua and Andre, then turned around and walked down the bell tower along the spiral staircase. After his back disappeared, Lin Hua asked Andre cautiously: "Comrade deputy platoon leader, what happened to the first squad leader? I looked into his eyes, and they were still quite sad."

  But Andre obviously didn't notice this, but turned his attention to Gelia who was aside: "Gelia, you and Griza have a good friendship, do you know what happened?"

   "Before we set off," Gelia said with some embarrassment, "someone told him that his mother and sister were killed in the German bombing."

  As soon as Zelia's words came out, everyone fell silent. After a long time, Andre said in a dry voice: "You know, we died a lot of people. This is a war after all."

"Comrade deputy platoon leader, we will pay back the blood debt owed by the Germans sooner or later." After Lin Hua finished speaking, he turned to Gelia and said, "Comrade Gelia, please tell Grisa , the best way to relieve grief is to work hard. Only by defeating the Japanese invaders can we avenge our dead relatives!"

   Seeing that the work had been arranged properly, Lin Hua was about to go downstairs when Gelia suddenly said, "Comrade platoon leader, I have an idea."

  Lin Hua stopped in his tracks, turned his head and asked Gelia: "Comrade Gelia, what do you think, let's hear it!"

Gelia pointed to the ground with her finger and said to Lin Hua: "Comrade platoon leader, the view from the bell tower is wide and you can have a panoramic view of the whole town. If we arrange a sentry here to cooperate with the mobile sentries patrolling around, Presumably the town can be better defended."

   Regarding Gelia's proposal, Lin Hua did not immediately make a decision, but asked Andre with a smile: "Comrade deputy platoon leader, do you think this will work?"

Seeing that Lin Hua took the initiative to ask for his own opinion, Andre was a little surprised. He frowned and thought for a while, then nodded with his hands behind his back and said, "Comrade Platoon Leader, I think Gelia's suggestion is good, we should arrange a meeting here. He is a sentry. If he finds anything unusual, he can ring the bell in time to call the police, so that we can prepare for battle as soon as possible."

Lin Hua also thought about setting up a sentry on the bell tower yesterday, but firstly, he had too few soldiers and he only had four people; secondly, the wind was strong on the bell tower, and the sentries were easily frozen when they were on duty in such a cold day. bad. But now that there are newly added troops, there is no problem in arranging sentries on the bell tower. Thinking of this, he told Andre: "Comrade deputy platoon leader, it's too cold on the bell tower. The sentries on duty change their guards every half hour to avoid freezing. Do you understand?"

   "Understood!" Andre quickly replied: "I will arrange a group of three to come up on duty in turn."

   Just when the three were about to go downstairs, Zelia, who was walking at the end, shouted again: "Comrade platoon leader, it seems that some people are coming towards us."

  Lin Hua, who had already walked down the spiral staircase for a few steps, heard Gelia's voice, hurried back again, and asked, "Where is it?"

"There!" Zelia said, pointing to the east: "Comrade platoon leader, you see, there are five people in total. Three soldiers and one civilian policeman, and another person wearing a military overcoat without a rank, perhaps It's the militia..."

  Lin Hua looked in the direction of Gelia's finger, and sure enough, he saw several people walking slowly towards the church on the snow-covered street. He stared intently, and quickly saw clearly that the ordinary man walking on the far left without any rank marks on his military coat was Kochetov, a member of the town Soviet; the policeman walking beside him was Lieutenant Fei Ding, the director of the police station. . Among the other three soldiers, the one who walked in the front was a commander with three gold stars inlaid on the bright red diamond-shaped collar patch, which turned out to be a general; the two soldiers following him should be his bodyguards.

   What is going on here, how could a lieutenant general appear here? In order to find out what was going on, Lin Hua hurriedly took Andre and the others down the bell tower, called all the soldiers staying in the church outside, and asked everyone to line up to welcome the coming general.

When the general accompanied by Kochetov approached, Lin Hua quickly stepped forward and raised his hand to salute: "Comrade General, Khimki's special garrison platoon leader Sokov reports to you, welcome to our place Inspection!"

  The general raised his hand to return the salute, and said, "Slow down!" Then he turned his head and asked Kochetov, who was beside him, "Comrade Kochetov, since he is the platoon leader of the garrison, why is he still the rank of corporal?"

"Comrade General," Kochetov explained with a smile: "Yesterday the garrison commander, General Artemyev, personally appointed him as the commander of the newly established garrison platoon and promoted him to the rank of sergeant. Due to the rush of time, He probably hasn't had time to change his rank insignia yet."

Kochetov turned to look at Lin Hua, and said to him: "Misha, you may not know this general yet. Let me introduce you. He is Lieutenant General Rokossovsky, commander of the 16th Army Group , I just passed by after a meeting in Moscow. Because I heard about your deeds, I came to see you."

Knowing that the tall and handsome middle-aged general in front of him was a generation of famous Soviet generals who stood out in the Great Patriotic War, he was called one of the troika of the Soviet Army along with Zhukov and Konev. When Rokossovsky was hailed as the "hero of adversity" by later generations for his outstanding achievements in times of adversity, Lin Hua's blood welled up on his face. He raised his hand again and saluted with The voice hoarse because of excitement said: "Hello, General Rokossovsky, on behalf of all the soldiers of the garrison platoon, I welcome you!"

Rokossovsky and Lin Hua shook hands, and said in a friendly tone: "Hello, Comrade Sokov! I heard Kochetov mention your deeds, so I wanted to come here to take a look. I want to see What kind of commander is it like to take a few recruits and block the twenty-odd German soldiers who are armed to the teeth."

  Hearing Rokossovsky's praise to him, Lin Hua couldn't help being flattered. He wanted to say a few words, but he didn't know what to say in a hurry, so he could only grin slyly.

  (end of this chapter)