He bent down, put his arms on his knees, held his head in pain, and began to tell me about the unbearable past:

On Sunday, June 22, 1941, at 3:40 a.m., 20 minutes before the outbreak of the Soviet-German war, Checkpoint No. 6 northeast of the Red Guard Fortress.

From the Red Guards where Lida and Oshanin lived, there was a road leading directly to the fortress, and in order to ensure the safety of the fortress, the military set up several checkpoints on the road, and checkpoint No. 6 was one of them, which was only three kilometers from the fortress. Because it is a permanent checkpoint, in addition to a two-story military dormitory building, reinforced concrete bunkers with walls up to one meter thick have been built on each side of the road.

Two squads of troops were permanently stationed at the checkpoint, and the supreme commander was a lieutenant, who was tasked with checking the pedestrians and vehicles entering and leaving the fortress every day to prevent saboteurs from mixing into the fort. Originally, according to the regulations, double posts were to be deployed every night, and at the same time, one or two machine gun shooters in the pillbox must also be on duty. But the long period of peace had made them slack, and now only one sentry was on duty each night, and the rest, including the machine gunners, went back to sleep in the dormitory.

On duty that day was a recruit named Vasily, who was carrying a rifle with a bayonet on his back, and walked listlessly to and fro in front of the wooden railings blocking the road. Finally, it was the weekend, but it was my turn to be on duty, and I watched my comrades-in-arms drinking and drinking, but I could only watch it.

He walked for a while, feeling a little tired, then stopped, leaned against the railing, took a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket, took one out of his mouth, and struck a match. Just took a beautiful breath, and suddenly heard a rush of footsteps from the direction of the fortress.

In the Russian summer, the sky dawns early, although it is not yet four o'clock, but the light is enough to see the scenery from a distance of one or two hundred meters. Seeing a small detachment approaching the checkpoint, Vasily hurriedly threw away the cigarette in his hand, removed the rifle from his back, and stepped forward with both hands flat. When the two sides were still a dozen steps apart, Vasily shouted: "Stop, password!" ”

Although the detachment stopped, the leading officer walked straight to him, walked in front of him before stopping, took out his ID card from his body, handed it to him, and said: "I am Lieutenant Sobyanin, and I have been ordered to go to checkpoint No. 6 to assist you in strengthening your defenses. Because I was in a hurry, the fortress didn't have time to tell me the password for tonight. ”

Vasily compared the photo on the ID with the lieutenant in front of him, and felt that he had a certain point, so he dispelled the doubts in his heart, handed the ID back to the lieutenant, and kindly reminded him: "Comrade commander, it is better to ask for the password before coming next time, so as not to have unnecessary misunderstandings." ”

"Got it! Thank you for the reminder. The lieutenant tucked his papers into his pocket and thanked the little soldier gratefully. Vasily put the rifle back on his shoulder, suddenly saw the lieutenant's eyes glance behind him, and then in a shocked manner, he pointed to his back and said: "What is that?" ”

Without thinking, Vasily turned around and looked over the road. At this moment, the lieutenant rushed behind him with an arrow, holding his head with both hands and twisting it vigorously, only to hear a crisp "click", Vasily's neck was twisted violently, his head hung down weakly, and his whole body collapsed limply. The lieutenant quickly held him up, gently placed the body on the ground, and then gestured to the detachment that was stopped not far away. Seeing the signal, more than a dozen soldiers immediately ran over quickly. Without waiting for his orders, they rushed into the two pillboxes with the weapons in their hands.

A sergeant ran up from the bunker and reported to him in a low voice: "Mr. Captain, there is no one in the bunker. ”

If Vasily, who was lying on the ground at the moment, was still conscious, he would have been shocked to hear what the sergeant said, because the sergeant spoke not Russian, but another foreign language that he did not understand at all. Unfortunately, at this moment he has become a corpse that is gradually becoming cold, and it is impossible to hear what the sergeant said, and it is impossible to know that these people are all German devils wearing Soviet uniforms and specially going to the rear to carry out sabotage activities.

The lieutenant nodded, looked at the dormitory building on the side of the road, and whispered to the sergeant, "You go and kill all the people in the building." Remember, don't shoot, try to solve with a knife! ”

"Yes!" The sergeant agreed, and hurried to the dormitory building with a dozen or so people who had just come out of the bunker.

Two soldiers came out of the pillbox on the right, came to the lieutenant, saluted, then bent down to lift Vasily's body and stumbled towards the pillbox. The lieutenant walked alone to the middle of the two pillboxes, stood in front of the wooden railing with his hands behind his back, and silently looked at the empty road.

The sergeant ran out of the building panting, holding a blood-stained dagger in his left hand, and as he ran, the blood dripped down the tip of the knife to the ground. Running behind the lieutenant, he stood up and reported loudly: "Report to Mr. Captain, the enemy at the checkpoint has been completely cleared by us, please instruct the next mission." ”

The German captain wearing the uniform of a Soviet lieutenant turned around, looked at the soldiers who came to report, frowned slightly, and asked uneasily: "Have you confirmed it, have you missed the net?" ”

"We have carefully checked that there are 25 officers and soldiers at the checkpoint, and we have eliminated all of them, and none of them have escaped. Here's their roster. The sergeant said as he handed over a booklet. The officer took the roster, flipped through it casually, and returned it to the soldier, while saying: "Let everyone enter the battle position, maybe after the war begins, the Russians will send reinforcements!" ”

"Yes!" The sergeant saluted and was about to turn away, when suddenly an earth-shattering explosion suddenly sounded from the direction of the fortress, and the fire that rose from time to time reflected half of the sky.

"Great! We're on the offend! Seeing this, the sergeant couldn't help but shout excitedly.

The lieutenant looked at the fortress in the distance, which was shrouded in fire and smoke, and smiled with satisfaction. He patted the sergeant on the shoulder and said, "Go and give the soldiers a good position, if we encounter an enemy who has escaped from the fortress, we can stop it." ”

The German shelling and bombardment of the fortress lasted for two hours and began to slowly weaken. From time to time, sporadic Soviet soldiers retreated from the direction of the fortress, some driving, on horseback, and even on foot, but when they passed through the checkpoint, they were all detained by disguised German soldiers, and soon they all turned into corpses and were piled up in the dormitory of the dormitory building. The lieutenant was still a little far from the dormitory, but he could smell the thick smell of blood in the air.

In the distance, the roar of automobile motors sounded, and military vehicles drove along the highway from far to near.

"One, two, three...... Nine, ten, a total of ten military vehicles. The sergeant stood beside the lieutenant and counted quietly, and then asked worriedly, "The enemy should have gone to reinforce the fortress, the number is almost two hundred, but we are only fifteen, can we stop them?" ”

"Shut up! I know it. The lieutenant glared at him fiercely. Seeing that the sergeant obediently closed his mouth, he continued to order: "Tell the machine gunners to be ready, and I will trick them out of the car later, and when they are concentrated in the open space in front, you will order the machine guns to fire." As long as most of them are eliminated, the rest will not even want to pass through the checkpoint. ”

The ten trucks loaded with Soviet soldiers came out of the Red Guard city. Oshanin sat in the cab of the sixth truck, and although the driver drove the car fast, he still felt that the car was driving slowly, and he wanted to get to the post early to see what was going on. Did the war really break out, or did the duty officer who informed him panic and mistook the saboteurs' blow up of the arsenal as an enemy attack?

As he got closer and closer to the fortress, his suspicion began to waver, and the dense explosions coming from the front did not sound like just an explosion of an arsenal, did the Germans really dare to defy the condemnation of the world, tear up the non-aggression pact between the two sides, and brazenly launch a barbaric aggression against the Soviet Union?

The car suddenly began to slow down and then slowly stopped to the side of the road. "What's going on? Why stop for what? Oshanin asked the driver dissatisfiedly, knowing that everyone was rushing back to the fortress after their vacation, and they couldn't delay time on the road.

"The checkpoint has arrived!" The driver simply pointed to the checkpoint not far ahead, and then added: "It was the people at the checkpoint who stopped our car." Oshanin smiled apologetically at the driver, opened the door and jumped in, walking in the direction of the checkpoint.

The lieutenant, who came out of the checkpoint, shouted as he walked: "All the people get out of the car and assemble in front of the checkpoint." Everyone has their documents ready to be inspected by us. ”

Oshanin stood next to the cab and looked around, seeing the soldiers jumping out of the carriages one after another, waiting in a long line to assemble in the open space at the checkpoint. He took Sasha, the military dog who had just jumped out of the carriage, in his hand, and was hesitating whether to join the soldiers, but he heard a quarrel from the front: "We are in a hurry to rush to the fortress, why are you stopping us?" ”

Oshanin saw that it was one of his lieutenants, who was arguing with the lieutenant at the checkpoint. The lieutenant said with a serious expression: "There is an order from above, all vehicles and personnel entering and leaving the fortress must be strictly checked, and no one is exempt. ”

Oshanin took two steps forward, trying to persuade the lieutenant to calm down, and by the way, he reminded the lieutenant that everyone could also check their documents while they were in the car, and that gathering everyone together for inspection would delay the movement of troops. He was about to speak, but when he looked down and saw that the lace of the lieutenant's right boot was loose, he kindly reminded him: "Comrade lieutenant, your lace is loose." ”

Hearing Oshanin say this, the lieutenant looked down at his feet, and saw that sure enough, the shoelaces were open, so he squatted down to tie them. The second lieutenant who had quarreled with him looked down angrily at the lieutenant who was squatting next to him, inadvertently looked at the upturned sole of his left foot, and immediately shouted in shock: "They are Germans!" They are Germans!! ......" shouted as he reached for his waist and drew his gun. But the lieutenant, who had been in high nervous tension, moved much faster than him, and he drew his pistol and fired two shots at the second lieutenant's position without looking back, and the second lieutenant's shouting came to an abrupt end. The unexpected turn of events stunned everyone, and all eyes were fixed on the second lieutenant, only to see him bow his head, his body trembling slightly, his knees slowly bent, and finally he knelt down, and then shook a few times, and finally lay down to the left, and the blood from the wound flowed to the ground, accumulating into a small red mess.

The lieutenant turned the muzzle of the gun again, aimed at Oshanin standing in front of him, and was about to pull the trigger, Sasha pounced, bit the lieutenant's wrist holding the gun, and the loaded bullet flew directly into the sky. At this moment, Oshanin also came to his senses, he drew his pistol, and pulled the trigger at the lieutenant repeatedly, hitting him all over the face.

The lieutenant lay on his back on the ground, and Oshanin crouched down and carefully examined the soles of his shoes, and then understood why the second lieutenant could recognize the lieutenant at once as an enemy fake. The spikes on the bottom of the boots of the Soviet army were generally round, while the boots of the Germans had the same appearance, but their soles were square.

"Da ......" The machine guns in the bunker suddenly roared, and the fighters near the checkpoint almost did not come to their senses before they fell under the guns one after another.

"Lie down! Lie down! Oshanin shouted loudly, then fell to the ground and fired two shots at the pillbox.