"Comrade Chief of Staff, you guessed it right." Sokov nodded and said in a positive tone: "The news I want to say is indeed related to your son. When he returned from a reconnaissance mission, he was attacked by the Germans
During the shelling, he was unfortunately seriously injured..."
Before Sokov finished speaking, he saw a few pieces of paper in Sidorin's hand slipping and his body swaying. If Ponejelin hadn't supported him in time, he might have fallen down.
on the ground.
After Sidorin was helped by Ponejelin to sit down at the table, he immediately looked up at Sokov and asked: "Comrade Commander, was my son sacrificed?"
"No, no." Sokov didn't expect that the news would hit Sidorin so hard. No wonder Chuikov had to go in such a big circle to call. It seemed that he knew Sidorin better than he did. He hurriedly waved his hands and said to
Sidorin said: "Comrade Chief of Staff, I did not specifically give you a death notice. Your son, Little Sidorin, was shelled by the Germans and was indeed seriously injured, but after several hours of rescue, he has escaped now.
Danger. According to General Chuikov, you will wake up tomorrow morning at the latest."
Hearing Sokov mention Chuikov, Sidorin immediately understood why Sokov had to avoid himself and Ponedelin when he was talking to Chuikov on the phone. It seemed that the two of them were talking about his son at that time. To be precise,
, Sokov only wanted to evade himself alone at that time, but since Ponedelin was also there, he had no choice but to evade both of them in order to avoid being part of the gang.
After thinking about this, he asked tentatively: "Comrade Commander, if I guessed correctly, when you asked me and the deputy commander to avoid it just now, you and General Chuikov were talking about my son, right?"
"That's right." Now that the matter has been made clear, Sokov has no need to continue to conceal it. He nodded and answered affirmatively: "At that time, Little Sidolin was performing rescue operations in the operating room. Whether he can be rescued or not is still a question.
It’s unknown, so I dare not tell you to avoid irritating you.”
"Comrade Commander, you look down on me so much." Sidorin tried his best to squeeze out a smile on his face and said: "I have experienced hundreds of battles and am used to life and death. If other people's children can die on the battlefield, how can I
Can’t your child?”
Ponyjelin put a cup of hot tea in front of Sidorin and said softly: "Chief of Staff, drink some water, I heard your voice has become hoarse."
Although everyone knew that Sidorin's hoarse voice was caused by being too excited, no one exposed it. Sidorin took a sip of tea and said with a wry smile: "If my son died like this,
I don’t know how he will look when he goes underground in the future to see his mother.”
Although Sokov and Sidorin have been partners for a long time, they have never heard each other talk about his family affairs. At this moment, he heard Sidorin mention his wife and asked tentatively: "Chief of Staff, your
Did your wife pass away long ago?”
"Yes." Sidorin nodded and said: "My wife is a bus conductor. Once, the bus she was working on had a flat tire while driving and hit a tree on the side of the road.
When I heard the news and rushed there, she was already dead. She held my hand tightly, and the last words she said were: take good care of our son, raise him up, and marry a beautiful wife in the future.
.”
"How many years has it been since your wife died?" Ponejelin asked from the side. He obviously did not understand the situation in Sidorin's family.
"Ten years." Sidorin replied: "My son was only eight years old at the time and had just entered the second grade. I did not dare to tell him the news of my wife's death. I only said that his mother had gone far, far away.
This is a place where I will not come back for the time being.”
"Comrade Chief of Staff," Sokov couldn't help but ask curiously: "It's been ten years since your wife passed away. Haven't you thought about finding another one?"
"I thought about it, but nothing suitable."
Hearing this, Sokov laughed: "Comrade Chief of Staff, don't be ridiculous. With your handsome appearance and decent conversation, I don't believe that no girl is attracted to you."
"How should I put it, there was a girl I liked before." Xi Duolin held the teacup in both hands, stared at the map in front of him, and started his meeting: "She is Xi Duolin's music teacher. For a while, I
She was so busy that she didn’t have time to pick up the kids even on weekends, so she would take them home. Once or twice was fine, but if it happened too many times, I would be embarrassed. At that time, I said that I could give her some money, and that would be a good thing.
It was her reward for helping me take care of my children, but she refused."
"Rejected by her?" Ponejelin said with some surprise: "Why?"
"She said that she was a teacher, and it was her job to take care of the children. Besides, she had already received a salary from the school, so it was impossible for her to charge me extra fees." Sidorin continued: "She also said that little Sidorin
He has musical talent, so she brought him home just to make it easier to tutor him."
After hearing this, Sokov thought to himself, if this kind of thing happened in his own country decades later, it would be a fantasy. Don't ask me to help you take care of your children, if you don't let your children enroll in my tutoring class, I will treat you badly.
The children at home ignored me. However, in the Soviet Union, this kind of thing was a very common trivial matter.
"Comrade Chief of Staff, I'm very curious. Since this female teacher is very good to you and the children, why didn't you get together in the end?" Sokov asked puzzledly: "Is there any problem between you two?
?”
Sidorin was silent, with a painful expression on his face. It seemed that Sokov's question had brought back his sad past.
"Comrade Chief of Staff, did this female teacher later go to Siberia?"
A word that woke up the dreamer. Ponedelin's understatement reminded Sokov that Sidorin's wife died in a car accident ten years ago, which should be between 1934 and 1935. And he knew that woman.
The teacher's time should be one or two years later. I believe everyone will still remember what happened at that time.
After listening to Ponejelin's question, Sidorin nodded slowly and said: "Comrade Deputy Commander, you are right. Her father was dismissed from his position as factory engineer because of some suspicion, and the whole family was
Exiled to Siberia."
"After so many years, you have never contacted me again?" Sokov asked.
"I once wrote letters to the labor camp, but the letters were all returned." Sidorin said with a wry smile: "The reason was that no such person could be found."
When it came to finding out this person, Sokov knew in his heart that the two of them would never have the chance to meet again. After all, not everyone who entered the labor camp could come out alive. But in order not to affect Xi Duo
Despite Lin's mood, he still comforted the other party and said: "Chief of Staff, I have a hunch that maybe after the war is over, you will have a chance to meet again."
A spark of hope flashed in Sidorin's eyes, but it extinguished after a moment: "I think this possibility is unlikely. After all, there has been no contact for eight years. Whether she is still alive or not is unknown."
Seeing that Sidorin said what he was thinking, Sokov didn't know what to say for a while. Fortunately, Ponedelin came to the rescue in time: "Comrade Chief of Staff, your mental state is not good today.
, let me take your place on duty at night."
When Sokov heard this, he quickly said: "Comrade Deputy Commander, I'll be on duty tonight."
"No, no, no." Sidorin waved his hands and said, "I'm fine and can be on duty normally, so don't worry."
Sokov and Ponedelin gave in a little more, but seeing Sidorin's firm attitude, they couldn't say anything else and could only agree that he would continue on duty tonight.
A night of silence.
Early on the first morning, Sokov came to the headquarters and asked Sidorin, who was about to leave: "Chief of Staff, did anything happen last night?"
"No, Comrade Commander." Sidorin shook his head and said, "It was peaceful all night, and nothing happened."
After Sidorin left, Sokov was about to call Koshkin and ask the soldiers he sent to perform surveillance missions if they had discovered anything, when Koshkin walked in from outside.
"Captain Koshkin." Sokov asked the other party: "Did the soldiers sent to monitor yesterday find anything?"
"Comrade Commander, I am just going to report to you."
Sokov quickly took out a pen and paper, then raised his chin at Koshkin, who was standing in front of him, and said, "Say it!"
"I really didn't expect that New Year celebrations in Poland are the same as ours." Koshkin said with a smile: "After the New Year bell rings, they start to bring gifts to neighbors' houses and start visiting. The scene is really lively.
Already."
"Captain Koshkin," Seeing that Koshkin actually told him something irrelevant, Sokov said with some displeasure: "We can discuss the difference between the customs in Poland and our country at another time. Now I want to know
, did the soldier who was in charge of surveillance last night find anything?"
"Comrade Commander, don't worry, I'm preparing to report on this matter."
"Then tell me quickly."
"Early this morning, villagers in the village also began to move around each other." Koshkin reported to Sokov: "58 people entered the home of Chief Djemon, and 6 people entered Odzhansky's home."
"It seems that not many people visit Odzhansky." Sokov said while recording: "So, the old man's popularity in the village is not very good, and there are not even many people who go to pay him New Year's greetings.
indivual."
"I think these people who come to visit me for New Year's greetings are probably some of them who have a very good relationship. They have to pay a visit out of face."
"Apart from these few people, no one comes to visit you anymore?"
"Yes, Comrade Commander." Koshkin continued: "At about four o'clock in the morning, that is, after the New Year's greetings, two black figures came in from outside the village. After they arrived at Odzhansky's door,
After looking around for a while, we entered the yard and knocked on the door. After a while, the door opened. With the help of candlelight, our soldiers saw that the person who opened the door was Odzhansky's wife. She stood at the door and talked with the two of them.
After saying a few words, she let them into the room. Before closing the door, she looked around, as if she wanted to find out if anyone around had seen her guests."
"Captain Koshkin, I think there is something wrong with these two people." Sokov put down the pen in his hand, looked up at Koshkin and said, "Where did they go?"
"My people waited for almost half an hour, and then they saw a man coming out of the house. He stayed at the door for a moment, and then walked towards the house of Chief Jiemeng."
"Did he enter the house?"
"Yes, let's go into the house."
"I understand." Sokov nodded and said: "This man should be Djemon's son. He came back with his brother-in-law. Captain Koshkin, do you think they suddenly appeared on New Year's Eve?"
What’s the reason?”
As a former member of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Koshkin naturally has his own unique side in analyzing many things. At this moment, when he heard Sokov asking himself, he tentatively said: "I think it was the Germans who discovered their scouts.
Contact was lost. In order to find out what happened, the sons of Odzhansky and Germon were sent back. Their purpose was twofold, one was to find out the whereabouts of the German scouts; the other was to find out the whereabouts of the German scouts;
The second one is that after discovering that the German scouts had an accident, they came to take over the reconnaissance work."
Sokov agreed with Koshkin's analysis: "You are right, Comrade Captain, the situation should be like this."
Hearing that Sokov agreed with his analysis, Koshkin was not complacent, but asked: "Then what should we do next, arrest these two people?"
"Don't be anxious, Comrade Captain." Sokov shook his head and said: "If we arrest these two people now, the Germans will send new people to perform reconnaissance missions. I think we can do it with these two people.
Make a fuss about yourself."
Before Koshkin could ask any more questions, Ponedelin's voice came from the door: "Comrade Commander, what article are you planning to write?"
"Comrade Deputy Commander, you came just in time." Sokov called Ponedelin in front of him, recounted Koshkin's report to him, and finally said: "Just now, Captain Koshkin asked me if I
Both of these people should be arrested. But I think we can use these two people to make a fuss and see if we can get useful information from them."
"Well, that's right, we can't touch these two people for the time being, we just need to monitor them." Ponejelin also expressed his own opinion: "Judging from the situation of the German army mobilizing troops yesterday, they may want to take some measures recently.
What kind of action is this, so we will strengthen the reconnaissance work on our group army's defense area to figure out our defense deployment. If we arrest these two people in a hurry, the Germans will definitely send other scouts to perform this task.
You know, we don’t know when the Germans will send new scouts and from what position they will pass through our defense zone. By then we will be passive, so it is better to let these two people move freely for the time being. Our people are here
Just spy on it secretly."
"Captain Koshkin, do you understand everything?" Sokov waited for Ponedelin to finish speaking, then turned to look at Koshkin and said: "As long as you send someone to closely monitor the whereabouts of the two people, there is no need to worry about it for the time being.
They arrested them."
"Then, shall we continue to monitor the houses of the village chiefs Odzhansky and Djemon?" Koshkin asked Sokov for instructions.
"The surveillance of the two families will continue." Sokov said: "No one knows whether there are new German scouts stationed in the two families."