After the shelling, Sokov, who came out of the traffic trench, followed Cherneshov towards the direction of the division command. The buildings along the way were burning, and large flames of black smoke came out of the windows, making the air on the entire street hot.
Sokov looked at the buildings on both sides as he walked, thinking to himself: "There are no fire brigades in the city to put out the fire caused by the shelling. We can only watch the houses burned out."
Before he could reach the division headquarters, Sokov suddenly saw a group of residents appearing in front of him, including men, women, old and young. They were not empty. Except for the suitcases in their hands, the bags carried on their shoulders, and the extra luggage piled on their trolleys or bicycles. Everyone's faces were filled with fear and were walking quickly along the streets that were not blocked by fire.
Seeing the residents looking like they were about to escape, Chernesov quickly accelerated his pace and shouted at them, "Comrades, wait a moment, comrades, who can tell me where you are going?"
"Wait for a moment." Hearing Chernesov's shout, an old voice came from the crowd: "The commander has something to say to us."
After the residents stopped in place, Chernesov stood in front of them and repeated his question loudly again: "Comrades, who can tell me where you are going?"
"Comrade General," squeezed out an old man with a goatee from the crowd. He came to Chernesov and said to him: "You have also seen how powerful the German bombardment was. If we continue to stay in the city, we will be killed by shells sooner or later, so we must leave here as soon as possible."
After Chernesov glanced through the crowd with his eyes, he saw that everyone was looking at him, and he spoke: "Comrades, our army will eliminate the enemies near Suxinic as soon as possible. Therefore, I beg everyone to stay and let the factories in the city resume work and shops open as soon as possible, so that all life will be back on track..."
"Comrade Commander, please let us go." The old man said hoarsely without waiting for Chernesov to finish his speech: "If we stay here, we will be killed by shells sooner or later, please let us leave."
"Yes, Comrade Commander." As soon as the old man finished speaking, a voice of agreement came from the crowd: "We can't wait for death here for nothing. Please, let us leave!"
Sokov, who was standing behind Chernesov, thought to himself: "If I had been in a different place, I would be one of these ordinary residents. What I had to do at this moment was to try my best to escape from the city and would never stay here and wait for death. If I were Chernesov, what would I do with the residents' actions?"
Before Sokov could come up with any good idea, Cherneshov asked again: "Comrades, there are ice and snow everywhere outside the city. Where are you going in such a cold weather?"
"We are going to Kaluga." The old man replied on behalf of everyone: "I heard that there had been occupied by our army long ago, there were no Germans nearby, and there were many empty houses in the city."
Chernesov patiently and after the old man finished speaking, he said to everyone: "Comrades, there are almost ninety kilometers from Suxinic to Kaluga. Without transportation, you have to walk for at least two days. You are either old people or women. Can you eat and eat for two days in such cold weather? Also, have you brought enough food and clothes to keep warm?"
Chernesov's words calmed the residents. After a while, seven or eight older women came out and said loudly: "Comrade Commander is right. If we have to walk to Kaluga for two days, we may not be able to walk to the place, and we will be frozen to death or exhausted to death. Anyway, it is all one, so I would rather die in my own home."
With the example of taking the lead, more than a dozen people walked out of the crowd one after another, but most of them continued to stay in the team without moving. Seeing that everyone's intention to go, Cherneshov knew that it would be useless to say anything, he waved to them and said, "Since you don't want to stay, then leave. I wish you good luck!" Seeing that Cherneshov did not make things difficult for him anymore, the residents immediately turned around and walked out of the city.
At this moment, a soldier wearing a steel helmet ran over quickly along the street, shouting loudly while running: "General Cherneshov, where are you? General Cherneshov, where are you?..."
"I'm here." The soldier recognized by Chernesov was the correspondent of the Army Command, and hurriedly came forward and asked, "Does the commander have any orders?"
"Yes, Comrade General." The correspondent nodded and said to Chernesov: "It was the commander's verbal order. He asked me to tell you that if any residents want to leave the city, they will leave freely and will not be stopped."
"I understand, Comrade of the Communications Soldier." After Chernesov and other communications Soldiers finished speaking, they explained to him: "Do you see the residents who are leaving? I had agreed to leave the city long before the command of Comrade Commander arrived. Does Comrade Commander have any other orders?"
The communications soldier nodded vigorously and continued, "He asked you to go to the Army Headquarters immediately and said that there are important things to discuss."
Sokov, who was standing not far away, heard Rokosovsky wanting to call Chernesov to the headquarters, and he secretly thought in his mind that after Chernesov left, he immediately went back to Asia, said goodbye to her, and returned to the nameless highland. It was so scary to stay in the city here. No one knew when the German shells would fall into the city again.
Unexpectedly, his wishful thinking was soon lost. Cherneshov turned his head and looked at him and said, "Captain Sokov, go to the headquarters with me and report last night's battle to the commander." Cherneshov said this and immediately left Sokov helpless. He could only agree and prepare to follow the headquarters to meet Rokosovsky.
However, before leaving, Chernesov called his chief of staff and told him: "Comrade Chief of Staff, you have to do two things now: one is to organize people to put out fires and put out the controlled fires, so that the residents in the city cannot be homeless; the other is to dig more bomb-avoiding trenches near the command center, so that even if they are bombarded by the enemy, we can have a place to hide nearby."
Chapter completed!