Rested overnight at the division headquarters.

Early the next morning, I bid farewell to Commissar Yegorov and General Leviakin, took Ramis with me, got into a jeep driven by Grisa, and headed for Moscow.

Because it was driving to the rear, the two people sitting in the front row looked very relaxed and even joked. Ramis asked Grissa: "Hey, I said comrade soldier, can you drive this car to the city?" Don't break down halfway, Comrade Commander and I have to walk into the city. ”

"Don't worry, Comrade Lieutenant!" Grissa took off the cigarette butt from his mouth and flicked it out the window, "Don't talk about Moscow, even if you drive to Vladimir." When I came back yesterday, I went to the pit stop to change the window glass, and I had two full barrels of gasoline on hand, and I had no problem driving as far as I wanted. ”

When I heard Grissa mention of Vladimir, I knew that this was a small city two hundred kilometers east of Moscow, and I couldn't help but ask curiously in the back row: "Grisa, are you from Vladimir?" ”

"Sort of." Grissa glanced back at me, then immediately turned her head back and concentrated on driving.

"Yes, yes, no, no, what do you mean by almost?" Ramis, who was sitting in the co-pilot's seat, was not idle, and raised the bar with him.

"My home is not far from Vladimir, I was born in a nearby town called Gusikhrustaline, and both parents worked in the town's glass factory."

"Crystal goose?!" Ramis said curiously, "The name of the town is interesting. Comrade soldier, do you know where the name came from? ”

I knew that the literal translation of "Gusikhrustaline" is "crystal goose", and such an interesting name must have a lot of stories, so it immediately piqued my interest. I sat up straight, patted Grissa on the shoulder from behind, and said, "Grisa, there's nothing to do on the road anyway, so tell us the origin of the town's name." ”

Grissa agreed, and as she carefully drove around the craters on the road, she began to tell us about the origin of the "Crystal Goose". "It's a long story, our town is named after the river. As early as the Tsarist era, probably in the fifties and sixties of the eighteenth century, there was a crystal merchant named Akim Malizov, he was the largest crystal merchant in Russia at that time, after obtaining the permission of the royal family, he engraved the 'M·B' trademark on his crystal products, 'M·B' was taken from the two letters before and after the surname of Malizov, which is a symbol of the quality and reputation of crystal glass products.

His crystal factory, originally located in Mozhaisk, a suburb of Moscow, was doing brisk business and its products were well-known in Russia. But the good times were short-lived, as the St. Petersburg Academy warned the tsarist government that the forests of the Moscow region were being severely damaged by excessive logging. In order to protect the ecological environment, the tsarist government decreed that no iron and glass factories should be built within a radius of 200 kilometers in the Moscow region. In this case, Malizov's crystal glass factory was also notified to move out of Moscow within a certain date.

In search of a new site, Malizov went to a place called Meshola, more than 200 kilometers east of Moscow, because of the dense jungle and sparsely populated area. Malizov did not know where he had arrived, but in the dense forest a small clear river meandered by, and several beautiful white geese were frolicking on the river. Malizov asked an old lady in the laundry room by the river, what is this place? The old lady replied: It is the Guxi River, that is, the 'Goose' River.

Malizov, who came to inspect the environment, felt that it was an ideal place for firing glass, with its abundant timber resources, pure river sand, and beautiful scenery. So he moved his crystal glass factory here, and with the factory came a large number of serfs. In this way, our originally inaccessible place became a famous crystal town. ”

"Humph!" Ramis snorted a little unconvinced, and said, "You say that if you are famous, you are famous, how come I have never heard of it!" Don't say that I don't know the way, it is estimated that even the comrade division commander does not know the way. As he spoke, he turned his head and asked me, "Comrade Division Commander, am I right?" Have you heard of this place before? ”

"I've heard of it." I nodded and replied, "It's not a lie, I've been famous for this place for a long time in later life, and I know that there are famous crystal products there, but unfortunately I have never had the opportunity to go there." I explained, "I've heard from friends that the wine utensils, vases and other crystal products produced there are good, but unfortunately I've never been there. Then I asked Grissa: "Is the glass factory still producing crystal?" ”

"Nope." Grissa's head shook like a rattle, "Since the outbreak of the war, the glass factory has not produced crystal, and has collectively switched to producing Molotov cocktails that are urgently needed on the front line. ”

Hearing him say this, Ramis did not raise the bar with him again, but said with some regret: "It is a waste to use crystal bottles of gasoline to bomb German tanks." ……”

Before he could finish his sigh, the car shook violently, and then stopped with the screeching sound of brakes, and I was unprepared, and my body slammed forward, almost hitting the seat in front of me. Ramis wasn't as lucky as I was, as his head slammed into the windshield. He sat up straight, rubbed his forehead, and asked Grissa: "Comrade soldier, what are you doing, why did you suddenly brake?" ”

"Checkpoint!" Grissa replied lightly, "They signaled us to stop." ”

I looked through the windshield and saw an officer in a brimmed hat and two soldiers in steel helmets and bayonet rifles approaching us from an improvised checkpoint.

The officer walked up to our car, bent down slightly and said to Ramis through the glass: "Comrade lieutenant, please show your ID!" He glanced at me, and continued: "And you, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel." ”

When I was about to take out my papers, Ramis opened his mouth first, and said dissatisfiedly to the officer at the checkpoint: "We are from the 8th Guards Division, and we must rush back to Moscow immediately, please do not delay our time." ”

Unmoved, the officer put his hand straight into the window and said coldly: "Your documents!" The two warriors behind him also took off their spears from their backs, their hands flat, their guns pointed at us.

I saw that Ramis still wanted to argue with the officer, so I hurriedly stopped him and said, "Ramis, this comrade officer has done the right thing, this is his duty, you should quickly take out your papers." As I spoke, I took out my papers and handed them to the officer.

The officer took his ID and looked at it for a moment, then closed it, took a step back, and saluted us. After waving his hand to let the two soldiers put down their guns, they held their documents in both hands, walked to the car window, respectfully handed them back to me, and said with a smile on his face: "Lieutenant Colonel Oshanina, I'm sorry, I didn't know it was you." ”

"Then you can't check my documents?" Ramis, who was sitting in the passenger seat, asked angrily.

"No more checks, no checks. We have just received an order to let Lieutenant Colonel Oshanina's car pass through as soon as we see it, and we must not deliberately obstruct it. With that, he stood up, waved his hand in the direction of the checkpoint, and shouted: "Open the fence." After shouting, he made a gesture of invitation to us.

With the shouts of the officers, the wooden fence at the intersection was quickly removed, and the soldiers on duty saluted us as our car passed through the checkpoint.

On the next road, there were several checkpoints in a row, and Ramis had experience, and when someone wanted to check his documents, he pointed directly at me, who was sitting in the back row, and said to them: "We are from the 8th Guards Division, and this is our division commander, Lieutenant Colonel Oshanina. "I really didn't expect that this would be unimpeded, and I could pass through more than 20 large and small checkpoints without any inspection and enter the city smoothly.

Another checkpoint has appeared ahead. The checkpoints were all temporary in nature, usually two simple sandbag fortifications, a wooden sentry box, and one or two military tents for the soldiers to rest, which were all the facilities of these temporary checkpoints. At first glance, the checkpoint is much more formal, with concrete bunkers built on both sides of the road, and in addition to trucks carrying soldiers, you can even see armored vehicles. A short distance behind the checkpoint is the trenches around the city, and you can faintly see the shaking steel helmet.

Grissa slowly parked the car about ten meters away from the fence and waited for the personnel at the checkpoint to come up and inspect it. As soon as the car stopped, a young officer trotted over from inside the station, ran to the window, bent down, and asked me, "Is that Lieutenant Colonel Oshanina?" ”

"Yes." I looked at the strange officer in front of me, and although I didn't know him, I gave an affirmative answer.

The officer raised his hand to his sideburns, saluted me, and introduced himself: "I am Seryosha, a lieutenant of the Central Guard Regiment, and I have been ordered to come and pick you up. ”

"On whose orders? Where are you going to take me? ”

"On the orders of Colonel Bezikov, you will be sent to the designated hospital to recuperate."

"Bezkov?!" Hearing this familiar name, I couldn't help but light up and excitedly asked: "He has now returned to work in the Kremlin?" ”

"Yes." The lieutenant replied in the affirmative: "The colonel has been reinstated in the last week and transferred back to the Kremlin to continue his old post." ”

I looked outside, but I didn't see the familiar black Em sedan, so I asked curiously: "Comrade Lieutenant, don't you have a car?" ”

The lieutenant said with some embarrassment: "Yes, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel. It broke down on the way here, and it was being repaired at the checkpoint. Otherwise, you wait and wait for the car to be repaired before leaving. ”

I poked my head out and took a look at my surroundings, and saw that all around me was a bare open field, and there was not even a place to hide if I encountered an air attack by enemy planes. I looked at the sky again, and it was gray and there was no snow, and it was a good weather for flying. I thought about it for a moment, and then said to the lieutenant, "Since your car is not repaired, then you don't have to wait, just take my car and go." ”

Seeing that the lieutenant was still hesitating, I urged: "Don't think about it, get in the car, comrade lieutenant." Then he ordered Ramis: "Ramis, give up your place to Comrade Lieutenant, and you come and sit in the back row." ”

Seeing that Ramis was already sitting in the back row, Lieutenant Seryosha was embarrassed to stand outside the car again. Directly pulled the car door and stood in, sitting in the passenger seat.

After entering the city, more and more inspections were encountered, both at checkpoints and patrols. Whenever this happens, Lieutenant Seryosha just pokes his head out, glares at his hands and eyes, takes out the red pass and shakes it, and says: "I am from the Central Guard Regiment and am on a mission." The inspector immediately stepped aside and gave us a way to get out of the way, all the while standing up and saluting.

I didn't know how long the car would last, so I was a little sleepy, threw my head back, leaned back in the chair and began to doze off. In a daze, Ramis and Seryosha seemed to be chatting.

Half-asleep and half-awake, I seemed to hear someone saying "Gonchamoniskaya", hearing this place name, I suddenly woke up, sat up straight and asked Seryosha in front: "Comrade lieutenant, just now I seem to have heard you and Ramis talking about Gonchamoniskaya, where do you live?" ”

Seryosha was stunned for a moment and said: "No, I am not from Muscovites, I am from St. Petersburg." ”

Ramis snickered next to him, and I looked at him disapprerovantly and asked him, "What are you laughing at?" ”

He stopped smiling and explained to me: "You heard me wrong, I was just asking Lieutenant Seryosha if he was a member of the party. He replied that he was a member of the league, not a party member. ”

I only knew that the "Gonchamoniskaya" that I had been to before meant "Komsomol", and when I heard Ramis say this, I realized that "Komsomol" and "league member" are the same word, no wonder I am mistaken.

"Woo! ~~~ Woo! ~~~" The sharp air raid sirens suddenly sounded, "Hell! The Germans' planes are coming! Comrade Lieutenant, where is there a place where you can hide? Grissa looked ahead and asked Seryosha beside him in a loud voice.

"Keep driving forward, see the first intersection turn right, drive two hundred meters ahead and you will see a newly built shelter." Almost without thinking, Seryosha turned his head and yelled at Grissa.

As soon as Grissa stepped on the accelerator, the car accelerated forward. Turning right at the corner of the street, I saw a barricade in front of me, Seryosha pointed to the position, and said in a loud voice: "There it is, drive the car over." ”

The car stopped in front of the barricade, and Seryosha jumped out of the car first, shouting anxiously below: "Quick! Get out of the car! "As soon as we all came down, he led the way in front and led us around the fortifications made of sandbags and wood and stones.

When I came to the back of the barricade, I saw a passage leading down the steps, and before I could speak, Seryosha had already taken the lead and walked down the steps. The three of us followed him. Following a massive arched passage, one enters a hall supported by columns and square columns.

In my experience, it's a metro station. Habitually looking at the place on the wall to find out what it was, I saw a wooden sign hanging on the snow-white marble wall, on which was written in red letters "краснопреснерская".