After two days and three nights, the train arrived in Chelyabinsk.
Although the carriage where Sokov and others were staying was spacious, he still felt suffocated after riding in the car for so long. After getting off the car, he wanted to find a place to breathe before taking the bus to the airport.
Yakov, who followed him out of the car, handed a cigarette to Sokov, lit it for him and said, "Misha, we have to catch a plane. Let's go after smoking this cigarette."
Sokov nodded and saw Lukin, who was sitting in a wheelchair, being lifted out of the carriage by two soldiers. He quickly stepped forward to take the wheelchair from the opponent's hand, pushed it to where Yakov was, and said to him
Yakov said: "Yakov, give the deputy commander one of your cigarettes."
Yakov quickly took out the cigarette case from his pocket and handed it to Lu Jin. But Lu Jin waved his hand and said, "Thank you Yakov, I have smoked too many cigarettes in the past two days and I don't want to smoke anymore."
Then he turned to Sokov and asked: "Misha, when will we leave for the airport?"
"No hurry, Comrade Deputy Commander." Sokov said calmly: "After two days of riding in the car, I feel uncomfortable all over. I will wait until I stand here to breathe fresh air. Don't worry, we are not going to the airport.
, that plane won’t take off.”
Bezikov came over and said to Sokov: "Comrade General, I will send someone to find the vehicle now. Once the vehicle is found, we will take the vehicle to the airport."
When Bezikov was looking for a car, a black car drove onto the platform and stopped not far from the three of them. The door opened and a lieutenant colonel walked out of the car. He quickly walked to the three
In front of the person, he asked tentatively: "Is this General Yakov from Moscow?"
"Yes, I am Yakov." Yakov heard the other party saying his name and quickly asked: "Are you here to pick us up?"
"Yes, Comrade General." The lieutenant colonel glanced at Lukin in a wheelchair and Sokov in a major uniform, and continued to say to Yakov: "I have been ordered to take you to the airport, please come with me.
"
Yakov raised his hand holding the cigarette and said politely to the lieutenant colonel: "Comrade lieutenant colonel, can you wait until we finish smoking before leaving?"
"Yes, of course." Hearing what Yakov said, the lieutenant colonel smiled and said, "The pilot received an order to send you to Khabarovsk. If you don't board the plane, the plane won't be able to take off.
.”
While the lieutenant colonel was waiting for the two of them to smoke, he kept glancing at Sokov from the corner of his eye, and thought unhappily: "What's going on with this major? Doesn't he understand the rules of the army? Seeing that I am better than him?"
It's outrageous that a high-ranking officer doesn't take the initiative to salute." But seeing Yakov talking and laughing with the other party, even if he had any dissatisfaction in his heart, he could only hide it in his heart and did not dare to express it easily.
come out.
"Catch them, catch them!" A shout suddenly came from not far away.
Sokov looked in the direction of the sound and saw two little boys of six or seven years old running along the platform towards where he and others were, followed by several soldiers with guns chasing after them.
.Although he didn't know why these soldiers wanted to catch the little boy, when the two boys passed by him, he still caught them one by one.
While the two boys were struggling desperately, the soldiers chasing behind them arrived. They saw that there was a lieutenant general, a major general, a lieutenant colonel and a major here. They couldn't help but look a little nervous. After raising their hands and saluting everyone,
He took the boy from Sokov's hand.
Sokov curiously asked the soldier: "Comrade soldier, why did you arrest these two children?"
"Report to Comrade Major." A corporal raised his hand to salute Sokov and reported: "While we were patrolling, we found these two children trying to climb onto a parked truck. We were worried that they were German spies, so
Prepare to take him back for interrogation."
"Comrade Corporal." Sokov sneered and said: "The Germans surrendered a month and a half ago. Besides, your place is more than 2,000 roads away from the front line. Even if there are spies sent by the Germans, it is impossible to penetrate into such a distant city.
.”
The corporal did not dare to reply, so he could only lower his head and accept Sokov's criticism honestly.
After scolding the corporal, Sokov knelt down and asked the two boys: "Children, tell me, why do you want to climb the train?"
A boy who looked younger said: "Comrade commander, our father has gone to the front line, and we want to find him."
"Your father went to the front line?" Sokov asked softly: "Do you know his name, which army he belongs to, and where the army is stationed?"
Facing a series of questions raised by Sokov, the two children looked at each other, shook their heads in unison, and said, "I don't know."
"Then what is your father's name? You know it, right?"
But the two children still shook their heads and said they didn't know.
Yakov asked curiously: "Children, what does your mother usually call your father when she is at home?"
This question obviously did not trouble the two children. They answered in unison: "Mom usually calls her child his father."
The two children's answers immediately aroused good-natured laughter.
Sokov knew very well that he might not be able to get any useful information from the two boys, so he said to them: "Children, you don't even know your father's name or which army he serves in."
You know, how to find him? Maybe your father will be back home just after you left on the train. If he can't see you, I don't know how anxious he would be."
Sokov stood up straight again and said to the corporal: "Comrade corporal, I estimate that these two children are from nearby villages. You lock them up first, and then send people to the villages to find their relatives and let their families know
Come to the station and take them home."
The corporal did not react at all to the order issued by Sokov. He kept glancing at Lukin in the wheelchair and Yakov standing next to him, thinking that there was another lieutenant general here.
And Major General, when will it be your turn as a Major to give orders?
Seeing that the corporal did not move for a long time, Lu Jin saw something fishy and said with a smile: "Comrade corporal, Major Matevosian has given you an order, why don't you execute it?"
Since it was Lu Jin, the highest-ranking military officer present, who spoke, the corporal did not dare to be negligent. He quickly agreed loudly and called his subordinates to take the two children away.
After handling the affairs of the two children, Sokov said to Yakov: "Yasha, it's getting late, let's set off."
"But Major Bezikov hasn't come back yet." Yakov said hesitantly.
"It doesn't matter. If he sees that we are not here, he will take someone to the airport to find us."
The two first carried Lukin into the car, then stuffed the wheelchair into the trunk, and then got into the car. After closing the car door, Sokov said to the lieutenant colonel sitting in the front row: "Comrade lieutenant colonel, let's go
.”
When the car left the train station and headed towards the airport, Sokov, who was sitting in the back seat, couldn't help but tilted his head and looked into the sky. He remembered that in later generations, a huge meteorite once appeared in Chelya.
In the sky over Binsk, but while still flying, it was hit by a mysterious object flying from behind and quickly disintegrated in the air, averting a disaster. However, 1,500 people were still injured.
, and more than 7,200 buildings were damaged.
"Comrade Major," the lieutenant colonel saw Sokov looking through the rearview mirror at the sky outside the window, and couldn't help but curiously asked: "What are you looking at?"
"I didn't see anything!" Sokov quickly sat up and said, "I just thought the scenery outside the window looked similar to Moscow, so I couldn't help but take a few more glances."
The lieutenant colonel looked out the window and saw only the forests passing by on both sides. He said self-righteously: "Comrade Major, you are talking about the forests on both sides of the road, right? In fact, this is not only the case in the suburbs of Moscow, many are surrounded by forests.
The suburbs of cities all have similar scenery."
The car quickly arrived at the airport and drove directly to a transport plane parked on the runway.
After the car stopped, the lieutenant colonel turned to Lukin and Yakov and said: "Comrade generals, we are here, please get out of the car." As for Sokov, the commander with the rank of major, he was directly
Ignored.
Sokov first opened the door and got out of the car, opened the trunk, took out Lukin's wheelchair, and quickly pushed it to the open rear door, waiting for Yakov to lift Lukin out of the car. Lukin sat in the wheelchair
After that, he did not board the plane immediately, but asked Sokov to push his wheelchair aside: "Misha, let's wait here for Major Bezikov. I believe it won't take long for them to get there.
Arrive."
When the lieutenant colonel saw the three people standing next to the car but not boarding the plane, he asked with some confusion: "Two comrades, generals, why haven't you boarded the plane yet?"
"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel," Sokov said casually: "Our security troops have not arrived yet. When they arrive, it will not be too late for us to board the plane."
"That's right, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel." Lu Jin is a smart man. He noticed that Sokov has become ordinary since he changed his military uniform. Even the Lieutenant Colonel who was responsible for picking him up did not put him on the list.
In his eyes, so he waited for Sokov to finish and immediately added: "This guard force was personally sent by Comrade Stalin. We will not board the plane easily until they arrive."
Originally, the lieutenant colonel was dissatisfied when he heard that the three-person security team had not arrived yet. First, he felt that Sokov was rude to him, and now he felt that the other party's security team had no sense of time and did not follow him at all times to protect him.
But after he learned that this guard force was actually sent by Stalin himself, his attitude suddenly changed. Not to mention being late for a while, even if he was late for a day, he felt it was nothing special.
After waiting for more than twenty minutes, two trucks full of soldiers arrived at the airport.
The truck came to a stop not far from the black car. The door on the passenger side of the first car opened, and a major officer wearing a blue hat came out. He came to Sokov and raised his hand.
After saluting, he said: "I'm sorry, Major Matievosyan, we were delayed a little while looking for a car. I hope we didn't delay the plane's departure."
The lieutenant colonel next to him looked at it and his eyes widened in surprise. According to his understanding, after getting off the bridge, the major should not have saluted the lieutenant general sitting in the wheelchair or General Yakov next to him. How could that be?
How about saluting a major with the same military rank as him? What surprised him even more was that neither the lieutenant general nor the major general had any reaction to Bezikov's actions. It seemed that it was a natural thing for the other party to do so.
However, Sokov did not notice the abnormality of the Lieutenant Colonel. He raised his hand to return the salute to Bezikov and ordered him: "Comrade Major, call a few soldiers to come over and carry the wheelchair of Comrade Deputy Commander onto the plane."
Bezikov agreed, called four burly soldiers, and ordered them: "The four of you carry Lieutenant General Lukin's wheelchair onto the plane."
The four soldiers agreed, pushed the wheelchair to the side of the plane, and worked together to lift the wheelchair together with the pilot above to help lift Lu Jin into the plane.
After Sokov and others boarded the plane, the plane's propellers began to rotate at high speed. The lieutenant colonel quickly ordered the driver to pull the car off the runway to avoid affecting the plane's takeoff.
When the plane rose into the sky and flew farther and farther, the lieutenant colonel's pick-up and drop-off mission was completed. He turned to the person in charge of the airport next to him and said: "Comrade commander, I have never seen such an rude commander. See you.
It’s okay that I don’t salute, but in front of a lieutenant general and a major general, I still point fingers and give orders to the soldiers of other troops. I really think of myself as the number one person.”
However, the person in charge of the airport did not think about the problem as one-sidedly as the lieutenant colonel. After he waited for the other party to finish speaking, he smiled lightly and then said: "Comrade lieutenant colonel, sometimes what we see with our eyes may not be true."
The lieutenant colonel was stunned after hearing this, and then asked: "What do you mean?"
"Several groups of commanders have transferred from here to Khabarovsk in the past few days." The person in charge of the airport said: "There is a big shot among them who I have met several times. He is obviously a marshal, but I
I heard people call him admiral, but his name also changed to other people's names."
The lieutenant colonel asked tentatively: "Could it be that you recognized the wrong person?"
"How is this possible?" the person in charge of the airport said with a sneer: "Not only does his photo hang in my office, but I have also seen him in person many times. It is simply impossible to admit my mistake."
"But what does it mean?" The lieutenant colonel became more and more confused as he listened. He asked puzzledly: "What is the reason for this?"
"The reason is very simple. It may be to prevent leaks, so the big shot I mentioned used a pseudonym, and his military rank was also adjusted." The person in charge of the airport was talking about the former Chief of General Staff Vasilevsky
Marshal. Although he did not know Sokov, from the appearance and temperament of the other party and the silence shown by the other two generals when giving orders, he guessed that this should be a big shot. In order to prevent leaks, he used a pseudonym and a new name.
military rank.
After hearing this, the lieutenant colonel finally understood something: "You are saying that this major is not really a major. He may be a general, and his military rank is higher than that of the other two generals. Is my understanding correct?
?”
The person in charge of the airport looked at the lieutenant colonel and said word by word: "Comrade lieutenant colonel, apart from this, I can't think of any more reasonable explanations."