Although Rokossovsky took over the command of the 109th Infantry Division and the 116th Tank Regiment from Lukin's hands, he knew in his heart that it would be tantamount to a fantasy to block the large forces of the German army with only this amount of troops, so the first task at present is to find ways to replenish the troops. With enough troops, together with the weapons and ammunition in Shepetovka's warehouse, it will soon be possible to organize a large contingent.

Now that the 109th Division was under his command, he unceremoniously gave Krasnoretsky the first order: "Comrade Colonel, have your men set up checkpoints at all the junctions west of Shepetovka, contain the scattered small units of our army, and integrate them into the companies. ”

Hearing Rokossovsky's order, Krasnoretsky hesitated for a moment, and then asked: "Comrade General, what should we do if we encounter the commander of the unit who refuses to accept the reorganization?" ”

Rokossovsky pondered for a moment, and then continued: "Anyone who discovers that among the commanders who have left the unit is a commander of the rank of major or above, without examination, will be shot on the spot as deserters. ”

Rokossovsky's order frightened Krasnoretsky and Novikov into almost sitting on the ground, and both of them were thinking in their hearts: This is too ruthless, right, just break away from the army, and shoot in the name of deserters?

Seeing Krasnoretsky standing in a daze, Rokossovsky frowned and asked with some dissatisfaction: "What's the matter, Comrade Colonel, don't you know my orders?" ”

"Hear me clearly!" Krasnoretsky hurriedly replied loudly.

"Now that you've heard it clearly, let's do it!" Rokossovsky did not want to talk to him too much, and ordered bluntly: "This order must be conveyed to the commander of each checkpoint, and if anything goes wrong, I will only ask you." Do you understand? ”

"Understood, Comrade Commander." Krasnoretsky agreed in a panic, grabbed the phone on the table and called several of his regimental commanders.

When several regiment commanders received Krasnoretsky's call, they all reacted in the same way, thinking that the order given by their division commander was wrong. The regiment commander with the best relationship also deliberately asked: "Comrade division commander, did you really find that a commander above the rank of major had left the unit and shot him directly after being caught?" ”

"That's right, shot." After Krasnoretsky heard the question of the regiment commander, he secretly glanced at the identity of the passenger standing in front of him, and then raised his voice and said: "There is no need for trial, and the crime of escaping from the battle will be shot on the spot." ”

After assigning the task of containing the stragglers, Rokossovsky turned and walked towards the door, and Novikov hurriedly followed. When the two came to a secluded place, Novikov opened his mouth and shouted: "Comrade commander! He wanted to ask Rokossovsky why he had just given such a stern order, but he found it difficult to ask, and he opened his mouth and finally made no sound.

However, Rokossovsky guessed what he wanted to ask from his expression, so he preemptively asked: "Comrade division commander, do you want to ask why I gave such an unbelievable order?" Seeing Novikov nodding, he continued, "I used to read a book about the Red Army during the Civil War, when it was fighting with foreign intervention forces, many people became deserters because of their weakness. In order to stabilize the morale of the troops, a senior commander issued this order: All commanders at the rank of major and above who leave the unit alone will be shot on the spot as deserters. ”

Hearing Rokossovsky say this, Novikov felt as if he had read the book before, but he couldn't remember what the title was.

Before the two knew it, they came to the place where the commanders and fighters of the motorized battalion were. Still far away, Rokossovsky saw a lot of commanders and fighters around several motorcycles parked on the side of the road, judging from their clothing, since there were tankmen of the 35th Tank Division and commanders and fighters of the 109th Infantry Division.

"What's going on?" Rokossovsky slowed down, turned his head and asked Novikov. Seeing that he also shook his head with a puzzled face, he added, "Let's go, let's go and see what's going on?" ”

As they approached the crowd, they heard someone inside saying, "...... Looking at the open city gate, everyone must be rushing outward. Who knew that the damned Germans set up machine guns outside and opened fire on the crowd in the doorway. The soldiers and military families who rushed to the front, after being hit by bullets, fell directly screaming, but the people behind didn't know what was happening in front of them, and they were still rushing outside, and their footsteps couldn't stop at all. In this way, the people in front fell, and the people in the back continued to rush forward like headless flies. It didn't take long for the entire doorway to be filled with the corpses of soldiers and family members. I saw a little girl who had run away from her parents, sitting on the ground crying, stopping to hug her, and luckily not dying. ”

"Hey, where is that little girl?" One of the fighters, standing in front of Rokossovsky, asked loudly.

"I don't know, I saw that the road ahead was blocked by German machine-gun fire, so I carried her back to the basement." The first to speak replied, "Anyway, when I left, she was still there with a group of military dependents, who may have been captured by the Germans now." ……”

"What's going on, what is he talking about?" Confused, Novikov patted the fighters in front of him and asked in a low voice: "Tell me what happened somewhere?" ”

"Brest Fortress," the warrior in front of him just tilted his head slightly, and did not look at who was being questioned behind him, and explained in a low voice: "This warrior who spoke is from the Brest Fortress, and he is telling you the story of what happened in the fortress." ”

I don't know whose eyes are sharp, but I immediately found Rokossovsky and Novikov standing behind the crowd, and hurriedly shouted: "The commander is here!" Attention! ”

Following his command, everyone hurriedly stood upright and held their heads high, standing still like a statue. Rokossovsky walked into the crowd with Novikov and came to the fighter who had just told the story. He looked at the warrior, who was about the same height as himself, and asked, "Comrade warrior, are you from the Brest Fortress?" ”

When the soldier saw the two generals standing in front of him, he was so frightened that he was about to cry, and he quickly admitted his mistake and said: "I'm sorry, comrade general, I was wrong, I shouldn't have said these things in front of everyone that shook the morale of the army......

Rokossovsky did not wait for him to finish, interrupted his later words, turned to face the other fighters, and said loudly: "No, you have to speak, you should also speak!" You have to tell all the commanders and fighters what you have seen, so that everyone knows how brutal the fascist aggressors are and the heinous crimes they have committed against our motherland and people. We must keep this blood debt firmly in mind, and sooner or later, we will demand this blood debt from the Germans. ”