Samoilov approached Sokov and said in a low voice: "Comrade Commander, what are you going to do with this kind of person? It's better to just drag him to a corner and shoot him, and save yourself the trouble."
"No, he can't kill." Sokov saw many pedestrians on the nearby streets. They all saw what happened here. If he shot an unarmed man in front of them,
What does that have to do with the brutal Germans? So he emphasized: "Then take him with you first, and we will go find the military commissar."
The action of arresting the ticket seller was not only seen by the surrounding pedestrians, but also alerted a patrol that happened to be passing nearby. The leader was a young second lieutenant. He saw that there were many people gathered here, so he guessed
Maybe something happened, so he rushed over with his own people.
"Stop!" When he saw Sokov and others trying to leave, he shouted loudly: "We are a patrol team, please show your ID."
Seeing that the patrol had been alerted, Sokov was worried that his leaving like this might cause unnecessary misunderstandings, so he quickly said to everyone: "Let's take a rest here and wait until we explain the matter clearly to the patrol before leaving."
The patrol came in front of everyone. After the captain looked at everyone, he targeted Sokov and Managarov, because except for them, everyone present was wearing casual clothes.
The second lieutenant captain came to the two men, stretched out his hand, and said expressionlessly: "Your IDs!"
Seeing Managarov preparing to take out his ID, Sokov quickly stopped him: "No, my ID alone is enough to handle everything."
Hearing what Sokov said, the second lieutenant sneered: "Your certificate can handle everything. What a big statement. Do you think you are the commander of the group army?"
Faced with the second lieutenant's doubts, Sokov did not speak and just handed over his ID. The second lieutenant took the military ID card and opened it, preparing to find out the other party's name and unit, and then go to the other party's superiors to complain.
After seeing the contents of the military ID card clearly, his expression suddenly changed. He stood up at attention and saluted: "Comrade Commander, I'm sorry, I didn't know it was you. If there is any offense, please forgive me."
Please forgive me."
Sokov took the military ID card from the opponent's hand, put it back into his pocket, waved with a smile, and said to the second lieutenant: "You can continue to patrol."
Although Sokov asked the second lieutenant to continue patrolling, the other party was not willing to leave Sokov at this time. He smiled and said flatteringly: "Comrade Commander, although our army has occupied the city, there are still some areas that have not been eliminated."
Stragglers. For your safety, let us protect your safety."
Sokov thought that when he came out, he forgot to ask Tsarev where Lunev and the others were, so he took the opportunity to ask the second lieutenant: "Comrade second lieutenant, do you know where the military commissar and the others are?"
"I know!" Unexpectedly, the second lieutenant nodded vigorously and said in a positive tone: "They are distributing food and daily necessities to the residents of the city at the Workers' Cultural Palace not far from here."
After hearing what the second lieutenant said in such detail, Sokov felt that it would be a good choice to let him be his guide, so he said to him: "Okay, comrade second lieutenant, you will be our guide and take us to the military commissar.
.”
"Okay, Comrade Commander." The second lieutenant agreed. He was about to lead the way when he saw the man caught by Samoylov and others, and asked Sokov curiously: "Comrade Commander, do you know who he is?"
What mistake did you make?"
"Reselling ration certificates and trying to make a profit from them."
"It's so abominable that you dare to resell the ration certificates." The second lieutenant said, directly pulling out his pistol and aiming at the man: "Comrade Commander, what can you be polite to this kind of person? Let's execute him on the spot?"
"No, we can't kill him for the time being." Sokov waved his hands and said, "I still have something important to ask him."
When Sokov saw the second lieutenant put away his pistol, his eyes were red, and he seemed to be sad about something, so he asked with concern: "Comrade second lieutenant, what happened to you?"
The second lieutenant shook his head with red eyes and said insincerely: "It's okay, nothing happened."
"Comrade Commander, I know what's going on." A veteran in the patrol said unexpectedly: "The second lieutenant thought of his family."
"His family?!" Managarov next to him couldn't help but became interested when he heard what the veteran said, and quickly asked: "Comrade soldier, what on earth is going on?"
The veteran already knew Sokov's identity. Seeing that this elderly soldier was wearing the uniform of an ordinary soldier, he knew very well that his position must be high, so he replied respectfully: "At the end of last year
When the second lieutenant's father went to collect food rations, the ration card he was carrying was stolen by a thief. You must know that it is the ration card for the whole family. Without the ration card, it means that there will be no food and the whole family will be killed.
starve.
When he was anxious, a man suddenly came over, pulled him aside, and asked him in a low voice if he needed a ration card. If he wanted it, he could get one for him through special channels..."
"Comrade soldier," Sokov couldn't help but interrupt after hearing this: "I'm curious, can such a precious ration certificate be bought with money?"
"Of course you can't buy it." The veteran shook his head and replied: "The man told the second lieutenant's father that the ration certificate was too precious and could not be bought with money. If you want, you can exchange it with the gold and jewelry at home. The second lieutenant's
My father thought that if he didn’t have the ration card, his family would starve to death, so he immediately went home to get the jewelry he had treasured for decades and exchanged it for two ration cards from the man.”
When Sokov heard this, he thought to himself that it was such a loss to exchange the jewelry he had treasured for decades for two ration certificates that were only valid for one month. No wonder the second lieutenant was so angry.
Unexpectedly, the veteran went on to say: "The second lieutenant's father took the ration certificate he bought at a high price and went to the designated place to collect food. However, he was told that the certificate he used was a fake one. He immediately became furious and fell down. Although he was sent to the hospital,
, but was not rescued. And his mother, two sisters and one brother, because the ration card was lost and they could not get food, they all starved to death in the end."
A few ration cards actually cost a few lives! When Sokov heard this, he couldn't help but be filled with indignation. He reached for his waist, but found nothing. He remembered that he was disguised as a soldier when he went out this time. Naturally,
It was impossible to carry a pistol, so he shook his head with a wry smile, looked at the man on the side, and thought to himself: "You are lucky, if I had a gun on me, I would have been shot dead by you."
Seeing that everyone was looking at him, the man couldn't help but panic. He kept saying: "It's not me, it's definitely not me. I have never left Klementchug, and at the end of last year, this city was occupied by the Germans.
It’s under control, why do you have a ration card?”
Amid the man's shouting, Sokov suddenly smelled a pungent smell of urine, and frowned and asked, "What smells so bad?"
Samoilov looked around, then smiled and said to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, the boy we arrested was so frightened that he peed his pants." His words immediately aroused laughter from all around.
"Comrade Lieutenant," Sokov raised his hand and looked at the time. He found that he had been delayed here for more than ten minutes without realizing it, and ordered Samoylov: "Take him with you and let's go find the military commissar together."
"Okay, Comrade Commander." Samoilov agreed and made a gesture to his subordinates, telling them to take the man away. But the man had already been paralyzed with fear, and the two soldiers could not drag him away.
Seeing this, Samoilov stepped forward and gave him a kick, and cursed: "Coward, you were so scared that you wet your pants after just a few words. Don't worry, our commander said we won't shoot you. You
Just follow us honestly."
Hearing that he would not be shot, the man suddenly became energetic. His waist and legs no longer hurt. As soon as the soldier holding his arm made a slight movement, he immediately cooperated and moved forward.
The second lieutenant led everyone to the front of the Workers' Cultural Palace. Sokov was immediately stunned by the endless line of people in front of the door. Moreover, the line made several turns in the middle. It was visually estimated that there were at least seven or eight thousand people.
The second lieutenant came to an officer on duty, and after murmuring a few words with him, the officer came over and saluted Sokov and Managarov.
"Comrade Captain," Sokov glanced at the rank of the officer on duty and asked, "Where is Comrade Military Commissar?"
"In the manager's office." The officer on duty said respectfully: "Comrade Commander, please come with me."
Runev and Gorokhov were standing at the window, looking at the distribution of rations below, when they suddenly heard someone opening the door from outside.
Hearing the sound of the door opening, Lunev couldn't help but frowned, thinking to himself, who is so rude? He knew we were inside and came in without even knocking on the door. He turned around suddenly, wanting to teach him a lesson.
This rash intruder unexpectedly saw Sokov and Managarov, dressed in ordinary soldier uniforms, standing not far from him.
"Comrade Commander, why are you here?" Lunev asked in surprise: "And you, General Managarov, are also here with our Commander."
Gorokhov had been staring out the window, but when he heard Runev mention Managarov's name, he quickly turned his head and met Managarov's eyes. "Comrade Commander, you are here!"
Gorokhov came up to him and asked in surprise: "Why are you wearing the uniform of an ordinary soldier?"
The question asked by Gorokhov was also what Runev wanted to ask. His eyes were fixed on Managarov, wanting to hear his answer.
"That's it." Managarov explained to everyone the reason why he wore a soldier's uniform just as Lunev imagined: "General Sokov said he wanted to get a true understanding of the distribution of ration materials, so he suggested
We wear ordinary military uniforms and go out for a walk, so that we can see many things that we usually can't see."
"Comrade General," Lunev asked with a smile, "did you see what you wanted to see?"
"I did see some things that I can't usually see." Sokov interrupted. He took out the ration certificate collected from the man from his pocket and handed it to Lunev: "Comrade Military Commissar, look at these rations."
certificate."
Runev took the ration card and looked at it over and over for a while. A trace of doubt flashed in his eyes. He then handed the ration card to Gorokhov and said: "Comrade Gorokhov, come and take a look at these."
Ration card.”
"This is a fake," Gorokhov only glanced at it and replied without hesitation: "Although it is very delicately forged, you can tell it is fake at a glance."
"Comrade Gorokhov, you are right. I also think that these ration cards should be fake." Lunev asked puzzledly: "But I have never found a flaw. How did you identify that these ration cards are fake?"
Where’s the fake one?”
"It's very simple." Gorokhov picked up two ration certificates from Lunev's hand, put them on his palm and showed them to everyone: "Although these ration certificates are very good imitations, the numbers on them are exactly the same.
of……"
Sokov came over and took a look. Not only did the two ration certificates in Gorokhov's hand have the same number, but even the remaining ration certificates in Lunev's hand also had the same number.
"Also," Gorokhov continued: "Our ration card numbers start with two Russian letters, followed by seven-digit Arabic numerals. But these ration cards have three Russian letters.
and six numbers, presumably those who resell ration certificates deliberately did this in order to distinguish between genuine and fake ones."
"Comrade Commander," Runev asked curiously after Gorokhov finished speaking: "Where did you get these fake ration certificates?"
"Today General Managarov and I were chatting with citizens in line and asked if we could buy ration certificates. As soon as we left the queue, a man came to us and said that we had extra ration certificates.
Sell it to us."
"Although we have liberated the city for some time, we are still unable to replace the German mark with rubles." Runev then asked: "He wants to sell you ration certificates. What are you going to use to pay for it?"
"Guns and bullets."
"Where is he?" Luniev learned that the ticket seller actually wanted the buyer to use a gun and bullets in exchange for a ration certificate. He was filled with indignation and asked in a stern tone: "Has he been arrested and shot?"
"Comrade Military Commissar, I think he is useful to us, there is no need to shoot him." Sokov said, pointing to the door: "He is outside the door now. Lieutenant Samoilov!"
Upon hearing Sokov's shout, Samoilov immediately poked his head in from the door: "Comrade Commander, what can I do?"
"Bring in the man who is reselling tickets. I have something to ask him."
Soon, the man was escorted by two plainclothes soldiers into the office.
Sokov sat behind his desk, looked at the man and asked, "Tell me, what is your name and what do you do?"
The man knew that whether he could survive or not depended on Sokov's thoughts, so he quickly and respectfully replied: "Comrade commander, my name is Gorel, and I am a printer."
"Are you a printer?! So you printed these fake ration certificates yourself?"
"Yes, I printed them all myself."
"Where did you get the template?" Lunev asked angrily.
"I carved a template myself based on the ration card you issued." Guoliel replied: "Unfortunately, the resources I can use are limited, and the ration cards printed out all have the same number."