Red Moscow

  Chapter 99 Unstable people

   After the shelling ended, Sokov, who came out of the communication trench, followed Chernyshov and walked in the direction of the division headquarters. The buildings along the way were burning, and the flames of the black smoke came out of the windows, making the air in the whole street scorching hot.

  Sokov looked at the buildings on both sides while walking, and thought to himself: "There is no fire brigade in the city to put out the fire caused by the shelling. We can only watch these houses burn down."

Before reaching the division headquarters, Sokov suddenly saw a group of residents appearing in front of him. There were men, women, old and young. All their luggage was piled on trolleys or bicycles, and everyone's faces were full of horror, and they were walking quickly along the streets that were not blocked by fire.

Seeing that the residents were about to flee, Chernyshov quickly walked over and shouted at them: "Comrades, wait a minute, comrades, who can tell me that you are going to flee?" Where to go?"

   "Everyone wait a moment." Hearing Chernyshov's shout, an old voice immediately came from the crowd: "The commander has something to tell us."

When the residents stopped in place, Chernyshov stood in front of them and repeated his question aloud again: "Comrades, can any of you tell me where you are going? "

"Comrade General," an old man with a goatee squeezed out from the crowd, came to Chernyshov, and said to him: "You have also seen how fierce the German bombardment is. If we continue to If you stay in the city, you will be killed by shells sooner or later, so we must leave here as soon as possible."

After scanning the crowd with his eyes, Chernyshov saw that everyone was looking at him eagerly, so he said: "Comrades, our army will eliminate the enemies near Sukhinich as soon as possible, so I beg everyone to stay behind." Next, let the factories in the city resume work and the stores open as soon as possible, so that all life can get back on track..."

"Comrade commander, please let us go." The old man said hoarsely before Chernyshov finished speaking, "If we stay here, we will be killed by shells sooner or later, please let us go." leave."

   "Yes, Comrade Commander." As soon as the old man finished speaking, there was an echoing voice from the crowd: "We can't wait here to die in vain. Please, let us go!"

Sokov, who was standing behind Chernyshov, thought to himself: "If I change places, I am also one of these ordinary residents. What I have to do at this moment is to find ways to escape from the city. I will not stay here to die. If I were Chernyshev, what would I do about the behavior of the residents?"

   Before Sokov could come up with a good solution, Chernyshov asked again: "Comrades, there is ice and snow everywhere outside the city. Where are you going to go in such cold weather?"

   "We are going to Kaluga." The old man replied on behalf of the crowd, "I heard that it has been occupied by our army long ago. There are no Germans nearby, and there are many empty houses in the city."

Chernyshev was patient, and after the old man finished speaking, he said to everyone: "Comrades, it is almost ninety kilometers from Sukhinich to Kaluga. It takes two days to walk. You are either old people or women and children. Can your body survive walking in such cold weather for two days? Also, have you brought enough food and warm clothes?"

  Chernyshov's words made the residents quiet. After a while, seven or eight elderly women came out and said loudly: "Comrade Commander is right, it takes two days to walk to Kaluga, we may not get there, and we will be killed alive." Frozen to death or exhausted. Anyway, it is a death, so I would rather die in my own home."

  With a leading role model, more than a dozen people walked out of the crowd one after another, but most of them remained in the line without moving. Seeing that everyone was determined to go, Chernyshov waved to them and said, "Since you don't want to stay, go. I wish you good luck!" See cut Ornyshov didn't make it difficult for himself any more, and the residents immediately turned around and walked out of the city.

At this moment, a soldier wearing a steel helmet ran quickly along the street, shouting loudly as he ran: "General Chernyshov, where are you? General Chernyshov, you Where?…"

   "I'm here." The soldier Chernyshov recognized was the communications soldier of the Army Group Headquarters, and he hurriedly went up to him and asked, "Do you have any orders, Comrade Commander?"

"Yes, Comrade General." The signalman nodded and said to Chernyshov: "It is a verbal order from Comrade Commander. He asked me to tell you that if any residents want to leave the city, they are allowed to leave freely." Go, don't stop."

"I see, Comrade Signal Corps." After the signal soldier finished speaking, Chernyshov explained to him: "Did you see the residents who were leaving? Long before the order from Comrade Commander, I had already It was agreed that they left the city. Do you have any other orders, Comrade Commander?"

  The communications soldier nodded vigorously, and then said: "He asked you to go to the headquarters of the group army immediately, saying that there is something important to discuss."

Sokov, who was standing not far away, heard that Rokossovsky was going to recruit Chernyshov to the headquarters, and secretly planned in his heart that after Chernyshov left, he would go back to find Asya immediately. After saying goodbye to her, I returned to the unnamed highland. It was really scary to stay here in the city. No one knew when the German shells would fall on the city again.

Unexpectedly, his wishful thinking soon came to nothing, Chernyshov turned his head to look at him and said, "Lieutenant Sokov, you go to the headquarters with me and report to the commander about the battle last night." When Chernyshov said this, Sokov immediately had nothing to do. He could only bite the bullet and agree, and prepared to go to the headquarters to meet Rokossovsky.

But before Chernyshov left, he called his chief of staff over and told him: "Comrade chief of staff, you have to do two things now: one is to organize manpower to fight the fire, and put out those fires that can be controlled. Residents in the city are homeless; the second is to dig more bomb shelters near the headquarters, so that even if we are bombarded by the enemy again, we can have a nearby place to hide."

  After hearing the chief of staff's loud promise, Chernyshov nodded in satisfaction, and then greeted Sokov: "Captain Sokov, follow me to the army headquarters."

  (end of this chapter)