I don't know how long I sat on the edge of the bed, and before I saw the operator and Sapochuk return, I couldn't help but get up, open the door and go outside.

Standing on the snow outside the house, I saw a number of fires in the northeast direction, reflecting the sky purple red, and from time to time there was the rumbling of cannons, rolling in the sky like summer thunder. But I can't know the real situation of the war, and I don't know if this is a cannon fired by our army or the Germans.

There was the sound of clattering footsteps on the snow behind him, from far and near. I turned my head and saw that Sapochuk was the only one walking by by the light in the room. There was neither the operator behind him, nor the old lady she had just had. "Where's my operator Orlov?" I asked him in a loud voice.

He pointed to a house in the distance and said, "We have sent the old lady back to her house, and Orlov is accompanying him, and I am afraid that you will be worried, so I will come back and report to you first." ”

"What do you think I should do with Aggie?" When I saw that there were no outsiders around, I didn't go around in circles and asked him straight to the point.

"Dispose of Aggie? Why do you want to dispose of Aji? When he heard my question, he stared at me with some surprise, and said disapprovingly, "Aggie just killed a woman who slept with the Germans, and he didn't become a deserter on the battlefield." You've locked him up, and this punishment is enough, what are you going to do with him? ”

Hearing him say this, I also closed my mouth in amusement, the cultural differences are too great, and the national conditions are also different, so the way many things are handled is also very different. If I were in another army, I would have been familiar with the way Aggie was handled, that is, I first summoned the whole village to the barnyard and tearfully reviewed to them that I was not strict with my subordinates, so that such a distressing thing happened, and the murderer must be severely punished for the sake of strict military discipline. Then, with a wave of his hand, two warriors would immediately escort Aji, who had been tied up, and when I had counted the crimes he had committed, I would take them aside and shoot them to the detriment of the people. Although there will be people who intercede for him, let me see that he has made great military exploits, and I hope that the merits will be offset and spare him a death, and give him a chance to make meritorious contributions. At this time, some villagers may be moved and stand up to intercede for him. But in order to reflect the strict discipline of our army, I will still cry and kill Ma Jian after the worst, and he will always be unable to escape death. However, before he died, he usually shouted a few clichés such as "Brothers, help me kill a few more devils," and "Burn a few pieces of paper on my grave every Qingming time." But in this country, this kind of thing happens, and the heaviest punishment for the murderer is only a few days of confinement, and then a bad scolding. The number of people who died in the war is in the tens of thousands, and who would make a big fuss about the death of an insignificant woman.

I sighed and said to Sapochuk weakly, "Go back and rest, tomorrow you will set off to reconnoitre." He saluted me and turned to leave, when I quickly added, "Remember to wake me up at four o'clock." ”

Back in the house, I looked at the wooden bed I had sat on in a daze, it was one thing to sit, but it was another thing for me to lie down and sleep. Although the bodies of the German corporal and the young girl had been removed, and the blood stains on the bed and floor had been cleaned, I still felt a strong smell of blood in the room. If I were to sleep in this bed where someone had just died, or a murderer, I wouldn't have the guts, and I would have nightmares in the middle of the night. After thinking about it for a long time, I still sat down in the lap chair in front of the telegraph, and then lay on the table and closed my eyes to recuperate.

Sergeant Lukin woke me up at the appointed time, and after a brief wash, I went outside the house and saw that the team had been assembled. Except for Aji, who was imprisoned, the rest of the eight warriors were here.

I walked back and forth in front of the neat line with my gun in my hand, and suddenly felt that I didn't need so many people to go to the reconnaissance, so I began to issue a series of orders to them: "Orlov, you don't have to go to the reconnaissance this time, stay and keep in touch with the army headquarters at any time." ”

"Yes." He replied to me loudly.

"Saska, Leondev," I called the names of the other two fighters at the end of the line.

"Here!" The two agreed in unison, taking a big step forward.

"You two stay in charge of guarding Aggie, and don't let him leave. Do you understand? "I arranged this way because these two fighters have been with Aggie all the time, and the relationship between them is relatively better, let them take care of Aji, and I believe that the two will not embarrass Aji.

"Yes." The two replied very simply.

Not long after the team walked in the forest, the sky began to snow. It was so cold, and the wind was hitting my face with snow particles like needles and knives, and we struggled through knee-deep snow. What awaits us on this long road? What kind of hostility will you encounter? What kind of enemies will you meet, cunning or stupid? This was not foreseen.

"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, let's take a break. It's easy to get lost when we brave the snow in the dark. Sergeant Lukin leaned into my ear and whispered a reminder to me.

I looked back at the fighters behind me, and although I couldn't see everyone's faces clearly, I could clearly hear the heavy wheezing of the fighters behind me, and it seemed that everyone was tired enough. So I resolutely gave the order to the back: "Rest where you are, and wait until dawn before leaving." ”

The warriors tore the snow away and began to build a wall of snow. I looked at the terrain in the distance with my binoculars and vaguely saw that there seemed to be a road ahead, but it was quiet, and there were no vehicles or pedestrians. After the low snow wall was built, we all crouched behind to shelter from the cold wind. After a brief silence, someone began to whisper to pass the time for dawn.

"Sergeant Lukin, how long have you been in the army?" Because it was close to the road, there was no traffic for the time being, but I kept my voice down to prevent the target from being exposed.

"It's been three years." Lukin replied in the same low voice.

"Have you fought before? I mean, did you fight before this war broke out? ”

"I've fought, and I've been wounded in battle."

"Where did you fight? Is it the Halaha River? "Hearing him say that he had fought before, I naturally thought of the Battle of Nomenkan, which made Zhukov famous in the first battle.

"No, it's in the Brest region."

"Brest? What did you run there to do, hit the Germans? "I was so impressed by the place of Brest that the defenders of the fortress were fighting to the last of their lives, and they were still fighting, so I was amazed to hear the name of the place.

"On the contrary, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel. We did not go there to fight the Germans, but to join forces with them and destroy our common enemy - the Polish fascists. At this point, he began to try to recall: "I remember that day was September 17, 1939, when we and the Wehrmacht triumphantly joined forces in Brest, captured tens of thousands of Polish soldiers, and held a joint military parade on the 25th. ”

"Ahh I was blown away by everything he said, what was going on? How could the Soviet-German armies meet on the territory of Poland? Didn't the Brest Fortress always lead the Soviet Union?

Before I could come up with a reason, the sound of a car's motor coming from far and near interrupted my train of thought. I quickly stood up and followed the prestige, only to see several covered trucks coming from a distance, and the strong headlights shot far away in the dark night. The trucks drove down the road for a while, and then suddenly turned around and drove straight towards where we were hiding.

"Strange, what are these Germans trying to do?" I couldn't help but say to myself.

"No, we decided to hide here on the spur of the moment, and the Germans would never have guessed that we would be here." Lukin lay down beside me, keeping his eyes on the enemy's vehicle, and whispered to me while turning on the safety of the submachine gun in his hand.

I lowered my head and whispered to the warriors crouching behind the snow wall: "Prepare for battle, everyone!" ”

"Yes!" The warriors agreed, went around the snow wall and lay on the snow, and opened the safety of their weapons one after another.

"No one is allowed to shoot without my orders." Although I have just ordered everyone to prepare for battle, I don't know how many people are in these German trucks, and I am worried that anyone will be tempted to shoot rashly, and once our hidden location is exposed, then we will have to fight a hard-to-hard encounter with the superior German army, which will be a bit more than worth the loss. That's why I'm going to add that I'm going to observe the situation before I can act on it.

With the help of the lights of the car, I was surprised to find that there was such a large open field in the middle of the forest.

The truck staggered for some distance before coming to a stop. The four trucks lined up, none of them turning off their headlights, shining a wide pale fan on the snow in front of them.

The car stopped steadily, and immediately jumped out of the car, many German soldiers wearing military coats, steel helmets, and submachine guns, and after they got out of the car, they quickly ran to the front of the car and stood in a row.

"What are they going to do?" Lukin asked softly in my ear.

Seeing the formation of the German troops, I was also confused, I couldn't figure out what they wanted to do, I just held the submachine gun in my hand tightly and stared at the German soldiers in front of me without saying a word.

At this moment, five ragged people came out from behind the car, and because of the distance and the dim light, they could only barely see that it was our soldiers, and as for who they were, they could not see clearly. Some of them had bandages on their heads, some of them were on crutches, and they were forced by the Germans to walk with great difficulty in the knee-deep snow, walking very hard and slowly.

"Ahh They want to kill, what are we going to do? Lukin's low, anxious voice rang out again.

I just stared ahead, still not saying a word. I knew exactly what task I was taught, and what I should and shouldn't do in this situation. There were at least fifty Germans in front of us, and with six of us, could we beat them? If you let your emotions go, the consequences are unimaginable. But when I saw everything in front of me, I couldn't help but beat faster, and the hand holding the submachine gun trembled with nervousness.

Five people stood in a row in front of the German trucks with their backs to us. At this time, the door of the cab of the first truck on the right opened, and from above came an officer wearing a large-brimmed hat and walked towards the captured soldiers of our army. I visually measured the distance, no more than forty meters, and any of us here could easily knock him down if he opened fire. As I watched him get closer and closer to us, I almost couldn't resist giving the order to fire at Aguminte, who was hiding nearby. But I finally held back, and I whispered to the soldiers around me what I had just ordered: "No one is allowed to shoot without my order." ”

The German officer walked in front of the captured soldier and looked at it, then turned and walked to the side, raised his right hand and gave a loud command to his soldiers. With his orders, the German soldiers raised the muzzles of their submachine guns.

"The enemy is going to shoot, what are we going to do?" Lukin's anxious voice came again.

"No one is allowed to shoot without my orders." I have the strength to repeat this empty order, these people who are about to fall under the guns of the enemy, are their own people, they are all our comrades. What could be more painful than watching one's comrades being brutally murdered by the enemy and not being able to rescue them? ……

As the German officer's right hand slashed down, the soldiers' submachine guns opened fire violently. The five warriors convulsified violently and collapsed headlong into the snow.

"Damn the Germans." I heard Lukin beside me curse in a low voice, and when I turned my head to look, I saw that he had his submachine gun mounted on the snow, and with one eye closed and aimed at the enemy in front of him, he was about to fire. I grabbed the barrel of his gun and whispered to him, "Didn't I say that you are not allowed to shoot without my order?" Do you want to disobey orders? Hearing me say this, he feebly let go of the submachine gun in his hand, slammed his fist into the snow, buried his head in the snowdrift and sobbed silently.

When the Germans had finished their execution, the officer stepped forward again, drew his pistol and shot at each of the soldiers who had fallen to the ground. After making sure that no one would survive, he turned around and beckoned the soldiers to get into the car. After all the Germans were on board, the truck turned around and drove off the same way.

I watched the truck get onto the road, drove about two or three hundred meters away, and immediately jumped up from its hidden place, rushed forward with a submachine gun in his hand, and pounced on the bodies of several soldiers who had been shot and killed.

Several warriors lay on the faintly glowing snow, the blood stains under them slowly expanding. Lukin stepped forward and lifted up and lowered the body of the first warrior, and lifted and lowered the body of the second warrior,...... After rummaging through the bodies of the five warriors, he sat down on the snow and cried, "They all died." Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, why don't you let me shoot? As he said this, I caught a glimpse of the disgruntled faces of several of the warriors around me, and they all clenched their weapons in their hands.

"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel did the right thing," and without waiting for me to speak, someone next to me began to defend me first: "Under the circumstances at that time, the Germans were several times more numerous than us, and even if we fired, we might not be able to save them, and we put our small detachment in vain." "I looked at the person who was speaking, and it turned out to be Sapochuk.

"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, if it weren't for your repeated orders not to shoot, I would have killed at least a couple of damned German devils!" Maybe it was because he saw his comrades sacrifice in front of him, and his anger and sadness overwhelmed him, that his emotions became so uncontrollable and impulsive, and he dared to confront me, who was much higher in rank than him.

"You're a veteran, don't be as impulsive as a recruit." I criticized him in a low voice.

He stood up, stared at me viciously, and yelled, "Didn't you see what the damn German devils had just done?" ”

"Take my submachine gun," I threw the submachine gun with the safety open in my hand to him, and said with a sneer: "The German devil's truck hasn't gone far yet, you can catch up and kill it, I'll take all the soldiers to cover you!" Go, go kill them all, and avenge these comrades who were killed. ”

Lukin's hands trembling as he clenched his submachine gun, and I continued: "Go ahead, don't think about the tasks we will carry out in the future, and don't think about the rest of the squad, they will take care of themselves." ”

Lukin looked around, and the warriors who had supported him shook their heads at him when they saw his gaze on them. He looked at me helplessly, threw his gun into the snow, squatted on the ground with his head in his hands, and shouted, "They are not people, they are just a bunch of brutes!" ”

Sapochuk bent down and picked up the submachine gun, patted Lukin on the shoulder, and whispered: "Get up, friend!" Now is not the time for grief, our comrades will not die in vain, we will definitely avenge them. Now there are more important tasks to be done. ”

"Understood!" Lukin gritted his teeth and stood up, wiped the tears from his face, walked up to me, stood up and saluted, and apologized to me, saying, "I'm sorry, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel! I was too impulsive just now, and I will definitely obey your orders resolutely in the future. He took my submachine gun from Sapochuk, and when he handed it to me, he added: "I will never let go of those German brutes." ”

"Aguminte, who are the sacrifices?" Seeing that Lukin had been pacified, I asked the sniper who was crouching on the ground to check the identity of the fallen soldier.

"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, judging from their collar badges, they are all political workers, and there is also a regimental political commissar among them." Agumint looked up and answered me.

Hearing that it was a political worker, everyone fell silent. I understand the reason for the sudden silence, for throughout the Soviet-German war, the political workers were always a thankless character, who knew nothing about military affairs, but who had absolute command of the army. The reason why some battles were lost so badly is inseparable from the blind command of some political workers on the battlefield.

I remember when I was recuperating in a military hospital in Leningrad, I met a tank lieutenant in the cafeteria. He once told me about the blind command of political workers. At that time, their regiment was ordered to counterattack the Germans, but due to the lack of fuel and ammunition, the troops were unable to launch an offensive after they were assembled. At this moment, a political commissar came to the troops, called the regimental commander involuntarily, scolded him and shot him, and then let the deputy regiment commander take over the command of the regiment and immediately launched an attack on the German positions. The deputy regiment commander had no choice but to lead all the tanks to launch a suicidal charge. Halfway through the drive, many tanks were forced to stop in the middle of the battlefield because they ran out of fuel, and became targets for German aircraft and anti-tank fire. The tank piloted by the second lieutenant was also blown up by German anti-tank fighters, and the rest of the crew was killed except for him. The day after I told the story, the tankman ensign disappeared and I didn't hear anything from him until I was discharged from the hospital.

"What should we do?" Lukin asked, perhaps realizing that the people who had just died were unpleasant political workers, so he also became hesitant.

"After all, they are all our comrades," although I hate these political workers in my heart, but as a colonel-level officer, I still have to say a lot of things that should be said: "Dig a pit and bury them." ”

I arranged for Agumint and Sapochuk to go to the side of the road to stand guard before letting the rest of the men dig the hole. Together, Rysdayev and Sgoria dug through the thick snow with a sapper shovel and then chiseled through the frozen ground, barely digging a shallow pit for five people. Lukin stepped forward and put the bodies of the five political workers into the pit one by one.

Their bodies were buried and marked on the grave so that they could be identified in the future. After all this, I gathered the squad. Standing in front of the grave, I took the lead in silently giving a solemn military salute to the fallen comrades, and only after the others had finished saluting did I lead the detachment to continue its march towards the unknown destination.