Today's trip was an eye-opener for Yevlov, the fertilizer plant and the mines, and not the numerous reports written on paper, where he personally came and realized the source of the strength of the partisan republic.

Every day, a large amount of yellowish-white sulphur ore is pulled back by horse-drawn carts. They first arrived at the nearest woods to the mine, the ore loading yard and the overseers' quarters.

The 63rd Army only had a regular number, and its internal organization was very casual, for example, there were some militia battalions here.

The army developed almost all of the labor force in the area under its control into soldiers, who worked as soldiers in their spare time for agricultural warfare. And those who are too old, they can only be used as the last combat power, and they will not be sent to the scene at all. Most of these men were engaged in the production of simple munitions, and as the labor force of all was to be developed, some sixty-year-olds also took up rifles and came to the sulphur mines as overseers.

Standing in the larger dormitory area in the forest, Yang Mingzhi had to sigh: "This is the residence of the huge overseer force mentioned in the report, which is really much larger than more than a month ago. ”

Joshua, who accompanied her, not only had to participate in the escort of the commander, but also had to be the "advisor" of the garrison, explaining to the commander himself the changes in the mine for more than a month.

She replied: "There are indeed a lot of changes in the mine today, and those special overseers who are not part of the combat sequence were also temporarily formed ten days ago. The superiors retrained all the existing overseers and added some manpower, and now the overseer battalion in charge of the mine has reached 400 people. ”

"There are still a lot of troops! Combat effectiveness can be terrible. ”

After all, Joshua has personally fought many times on the battlefield, and it is inevitable that he has a great prejudice against these so-called "overseer battalions".

And she knew that the commander had a lot in common with that Salinchkin, so she boldly said: "Comrade commander, with all due respect, even if these overseers pick up their rifles, I am really afraid that the recoil will break their shoulders. They were so old that instead of being overseers, they would have picked up a hoe and plowed the ground, or at least it would be easier to grow potatoes. ”

"Maybe!"

Seeing that the commander didn't say much, Joshua became even more bold: "To tell you, I'm a little dissatisfied with the arrangement of those people, they are not soldiers after all, and I don't know that as the garrison of the mine, we are facing more pressure!" The number of prisoners of war is no longer 200, and the total number of prisoners digging for sulfur in the mines is as high as 900! It is indeed not enough to rely on the care of our women's barracks, which has been damaged in numbers! Don't! Are those old men okay? They were all old people, and if the prisoners of war decided to flee en masse, would their emaciated bodies be able to resist them? ”

Admittedly, Yevlov had some complaints about some of the day-to-day arrangements of Salinchkin and Lyudbalev, especially some of their inevitable criticisms of the army. So, he was happy to listen to Joshua's criticism of them, but when it came to the overseers themselves, something was wrong.

Yevlov coughed twice and spoke: "Comrade battalion commander! Maybe you shouldn't question those old people, they're your fathers! The reason why these people came to work as overseers and took up arms is because they were all Red Army soldiers in the civil war more than twenty years ago. I also have some complaints about the arrangement of those people, but you shouldn't question these old people! They weren't old enough to even lift a gun.

Let me tell you, this country was founded by these old men, and if it weren't for their bloody battles more than 20 years ago, there would have been no Soviet Russia, let alone the Soviet Union, and Belarus was completely annexed to Poland more than 20 years ago! ”

After this reprimand, Joshua bowed her head and remained silent. She was not very wary of Commander Yang Mingzhi, and she was always in awe of the junior officer and even afraid of the deputy commander Yevlov.

Seeing that the scene was a little stiff, Yang Mingzhi hurriedly stood up and played a round.

He talked freely: "Twenty years ago, many old people in the guerrilla republic have experienced those wars, especially the original villagers of the blacksmith village, if they hadn't been in order to support the Red Army and fight against the White Army and foreign intervention forces twenty years ago, they would not have been able to get those old machine tools. Today, these industrial machines support the manufacture of our conventional weapons and the defense of our guerrilla republic. So we still support the work of these old people, and I don't think they will serve the old either. ”

Qiao Shuya liked to listen to this, she did not apologize for the discriminatory remarks just now, but continued to complain: "Comrade Commander, I admit that the hundreds of uncles picked up the guns, but you should also see that there are now more than 900 prisoners of war, and most of them are working in the mines with draft axes, once they suddenly riot, I am really worried!" After all, I'm the battalion commander of the garrison here, and I'm responsible for what happened. ”

"Stupid! Do your machine guns lack bullets? ”

Yevlov burst into foul language, and Yang Mingzhi immediately interrupted: "Alas! You don't swear at women, after all, there are as many as nine hundred prisoners of war...... What the?! Suddenly, Yang Mingzhi realized that this was a very magical number, and immediately stopped, staring at Qiao Shuya, who was also surprised in front of him.

"Commander...... Comrade Commander, did I say the wrong thing? I apologize! I want those old people to apologize. ”

"Yes, you did say the wrong thing." Yang Mingzhi asked: "Now tell me how many prisoners of war are there in the mining here?" ”

"Nine hundred and twenty in all! Comrade Commander! ”

In Russian, a large number syllable is very long, so Yang Mingzhi is sure that she is indeed talking about nine hundred and twenty people.

"So many?! So much so? ”

"Comrade Commander, that's so many!" As she spoke, Joshua counted her fingers with a well-behaved face and read the words: "Among these prisoners of war, there are Germans, Ukrainians, and Romanians. Especially those Romanians, who have the most people and are the most difficult to manage. If it weren't for the fear of the machine guns we had erected, they might have fled en masse on the first day they arrived! ”

"Hell! There are still Romanians! Hearing this, Yang Mingzhi suddenly closed his eyes and recalled what happened a few days ago.

The source of these Romanians was the surrender of the infantry regiment that was wiped out, and the officer headed by Yang Mingzhi also remembered the name, called Brimayo.

"So, is that officer named Brimayo also mining?"

"What...... What the? Joshua was in a trance.

"That person is a Romanian officer, or a deputy regiment commander, is this person also there? His name is Brimayo. ”

After this emphasis, Joshua quickly remembered: "Yes, I know this person. But this man was very uncooperative, and as soon as he appeared in the group of prisoners of war and said something I did not understand, the Romanians were collectively passive and slack. So I just locked him up, anyway, this person was also injured, so he was not suitable for mining. ”

"Alright! You're in the right place! Yang Mingzhi grinned, "That person is indeed injured, and it is unrealistic to expect him to mine." As for the reason for his non-cooperation, it is simple, because on the battlefield our army is to persuade them to surrender, and I promise these Romanians that their job as prisoners of war is to dig the ground and grow potatoes, and I will not abuse them. It seems that I ought to have returned the day before yesterday to investigate the fate of all the prisoners of war. So you get the idea, those Romanians are working in the smoky mines, it's not strange that it's not abuse! ”

Joshua didn't seem to understand, "That officer knew a little Russian, and he did complain to me, saying that this is not the same as saying good, that our Red Army deceived them Romanian Army, accusing us of being inhumane, and so on." ”

"There's some truth to his complaints." Yang Mingzhi continued: "Fortunately, you didn't abuse them further, since that Brimayo is still being detained, maybe his attitude can be better when he sees me in person." In a moment, you will immediately send for him to me. That's right! There is also the German Henschel, who is also very valuable to use. ”