While Akhromeyev was reporting to Chuikov and Rodimtsev, I quietly stepped aside and beckoned Pavlov to come over, intending to tell him some defensive tips so that he could be of use in the rest of the battle.

Pavlov came to my side, glanced at Chuikov and them, and then asked respectfully: "Colonel Oshanina, do you have any instructions for me?" In the tone of his voice, I obviously felt less close, more polite, and even a little awe of me, which was unimaginable before.

I couldn't help frowning slightly at the change in his attitude, but I still patiently told him my thoughts: "Comrade Sergeant, I'll give you a suggestion." In order to better command the troops in the building, you should have your soldiers penetrate the walls of the basement and the floors that can only be found on the floors, and dig a communication trench to the location of other allies. In this way, even in the case of German air raids and artillery bombardments, it can ensure that communication with the outside world will not be interrupted, and all kinds of supplies and reinforcements can enter the building through the trenches, which will be conducive to your long-term defense. ”

"Colonel Oshanina's construction is good." Although Rodimtsev was extremely dissatisfied with me because of the supplies in the warehouse, when he heard that I had enthusiastically proposed to his subordinates the rationalization of the project, he still spoke to me in a friendly manner: "Sergeant Pavlov, let's do as the colonel arranges." ”

"Commanders, please have tea!" Suddenly, a crisp voice came from the direction of the door.

I turned around at the sound of the voice, and I saw a little girl about four or five years old, with a triangular headscarf on her head and big eyes. He was carrying four teacups full of steaming tea on a tray. Staggered in.

Hurriedly greeted him. Squatted down and took the tray from the little girl's hand. Looking at the little girl in front of me, who was somewhat similar to the "Alenka" on the milk chocolate packaging of the "Red October" in later generations, I held the tray with the teacup with one hand, gently stroked her head with the other hand, and asked in an amiable tone: "Little girl, what is your name and why are you here?" ”

The little girl raised her head and said to me with a smile: "Comrade female commander." My name is Alenka, and my family lives in this building. When the Germans came two days ago, my grandmother and I, along with many other neighbors, were hiding in the basement. It wasn't until last night that our troops came back that we came out of the basement. ”

Seeing such a cute little girl, Chuikov and Rodimtsev also came over, bent down to greet Alenka, and touched her head by the way. Chuikov also asked with concern: "Dear Alenka, this place is so dangerous, why do you want to stay here and not transfer?" ”

Alenka looked like a smart little girl. Hearing Chuikov ask her this, he quickly replied: "Uncle Commander." Some time ago, my grandmother took me out of here, intending to take a boat from the pier to the other side of the river. I didn't expect there to be a lot of people there, we waited for two days and didn't get on the boat, so my grandmother brought me back again. ”

After listening to this, Chuikov straightened up and asked Pavlov, who was standing next to him: "Comrade sergeant, what the hell is going on?" ”

Pavlov hurriedly replied: "That's so, Comrade Commander. When we seized the building last night, we found more than thirty residents in the basement, including little Alenka and her grandmother. I gave weapons to everyone else and armed them all. But little Alenka and her grandmother were old, and they were obviously not able to take part in the fight, so I mobilized them to get out of here. But the old grandmother stayed and took the initiative to cook for us. ”

Chuikov nodded, and then instructed Pavlov: "Comrade Sergeant, since Alenka and her grandmother are in this building, you have to make sure that they are safe, can you do it?" ”

When Pavlov heard this order from Chuikov, he did not immediately reply, but appeared hesitant. As for why Pavlov reacted like this, I know very well in my heart that Pavlov may be thinking about how to protect the old people and children left in the building because their own lives cannot be guaranteed in the next brutal battle. He hesitated and said, "Comrade commander, I'm sorry, I may not be able to carry out this order of yours. You know, the next battle may be tough, even if we hold on here and can repel the attack of enemy tanks and infantry, but we will not be able to stop the bombardment of enemy aircraft and artillery. So I boldly ask you to let Alenka and her grandmother get out of here, for their safety. ”

After hearing Pavlov's words, Chuikov had a displeased expression on his face, which, as I know him, is a precursor to his imminent anger. In order to prevent Pavlov from being reproached, I quickly stood up, handed the tray in my hand to Chuikov, and at the same time said: "Comrade commander, please have tea." This was brought to you by Alenka's children. ”

Hearing me mention Alenka, a smile appeared on Chuikov's tense face, and after he picked up a cup of tea, he touched Alenka's head with his free hand, and said to her with a smile: "Thank you, Alenka!" ”

I then handed the tray to Rodimtsev and Akhromeyev. Akhromeyev hurriedly picked up a cup of tea from the tray and respectfully handed it to Rodimtsev before serving his own cup of tea.

I picked up the cup of tea that was left in the tray, tested the temperature, thought it was about the same, and drank it up. Although the black tea is sweetened, it is not sweet at all, indicating that the white sugar in Alenka's house is almost used. Since the white sugar at home is almost gone, it is believed that there are not many other daily necessities left, and when I go back later, I will send someone to send something to her house.

After a few of us finished our tea, we put all the teacups on the tray and handed them to Pavlov. Chuikov raised his hand to look at his watch, then turned to us and said, "It's not early, let's go back." ”

When the four of us went down to the second floor, Rodimtsev suddenly stopped Chuikov: "Comrade commander, I have something important to talk to you about, is it convenient for you now?" ”

Chuikov stopped, looked left and right, pointed to an empty room next to him, and said, "Let's go inside and talk." ”

I heard that the two leaders had something important to discuss. In order to avoid suspicion. I hurriedly said to Chuikov: "Comrade commander. You and General Rodimtsev have important matters to discuss, so Akhromeyev and I will go downstairs and wait for you. ”

Instead of acceding to my request, Chuikov directly instructed me: "You come in and listen too!" ”

Watching the two of them enter the room, I turned my head and said to Akhromeyev with a wry smile: "Comrade Chief of Staff, please go downstairs and wait for me, I will go down in a while." After saying that, he also walked quickly to the room.

Walking into the room full of rubble and broken furniture, I saw Chuikov and Akhromeyev standing at the window. Hurriedly walked over and stopped beside the two to listen to what they were talking about.

I only heard Rodimtsev say: "Comrade commander, when I see the little girl Alenka, I think of the residents who are still trapped in the city. While finding shelter is a priority for them, the ultimate challenge is that they simply can't find food and water. I saw in my headquarters that during each interval of bombardment, women and children crawled out of their burrows and cut some flesh from dead horses before wild dogs and rats. The main force of the food search team is children like Alenka. They are young and small. Agile and flexible, which greatly reduces the likelihood of them being targeted. The children slipped away at night near the huge burned barn in the enemy-occupied Volga region. I wanted to take advantage of the fact that the German guards were not paying attention, fill the burnt wheat with all kinds of packages, and then secretly bring it back to my family to eat. However, according to my scouts, the German sentries guarding the barns killed quite a few children, and not only that, but also many of the children who tried to steal some food from the German garrison. ”

After hearing this, Chuikov did not speak, but nodded silently.

Rodimtsev continued: "The German soldiers themselves also used the children in Stalingrad. It is important to know that the daily work of the aggressor, such as filling the kettle, is also very dangerous, because our snipers are hidden in the shadows, ready to shoot any moving target. So, with the promise of a small slice of bread, they were able to drive a little Soviet boy or girl down to the Volga to fill them with water. My subordinates have reported to me that some of the troops, aware of the situation, ordered our soldiers to kill many children on similar missions. I believe that such inhumane things should be ordered to be stopped immediately. ”

Chuikov looked up to the sky and sighed, and said helplessly: "Comrade Rodimtsev, this is war. Something similar happened in the early days of the siege of Leningrad, when German troops attacked our positions using the population as shields. Immediately upon learning of this, Comrade Stalin issued an order to our troops: to destroy any inhabitants who obeyed the command of the Germans, even if they were forced to do so. What you are saying is nothing more than the fact that this directive was carried out in Stalingrad in the same way.

Just the day before yesterday, the 35th Guards Infantry Division reported to the command that the enemy had captured a large number of residents and forced them to drag the bodies of dead German officers and soldiers. At that time, the order given to them by the comrades of the military commissar was: whoever he is, as long as he wants to remove the dead body of the fascist, our commanders and fighters will open fire on him. ”

The conversation between the two made me shudder, and I couldn't help but worry about the fate of the residents of the city who had not yet had time to move, and who would have been lucky if they were in the Soviet defense zone. If it is in the German-occupied area, it may become a human shield.

It may be Chuikov's words that reminded Rodimtsev of Alenka, who had just brought us tea and water, and said with deep feeling: "Alenka is much luckier than the children I just mentioned, she can follow our troops and can take on the tasks of a communications soldier, a scout, or a spy, and can play a role that adults can't play." ”

Chuikov took out a cigarette from his pocket, gave way to Rodimtsev, and when he saw that the other party waved his hand and refused, he directly put one in his mouth, lit it with a match and asked: "Is there anything else besides what you just said?" ”

Rodimtsev whined to Chuikov: "You have put me in command of all the troops north of the city, and from the present situation, except for the separate division and my 13th Guards Division, the remaining troops are numbered but not many remaining, and now the main forces that fill these gaps in the defense are workers from the factories in the north of Stalingrad. You also know that these workers, although they are very enthusiastic about fighting, are not regular troops after all. The combat effectiveness is relatively weak. Face the enemy's ferocious onslaught. It is inevitable that there will be some wavering elements who are not firm in their will. There are even cowards who are greedy for life and afraid of death. When the Front Command learned of this situation, not only did it not send troops to strengthen our defensive line, but instead formed a supervisory team of well-equipped Komsomol volunteers or troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and deployed them behind the militia units to prevent them from escaping. ”

When Chuikov heard him say this, he couldn't help but say in surprise: "What, the front headquarters is in your rear, and the overseers have been deployed?" This is a matter of when. How did I not know? ”

Rodimtsev looked at Chuikov suspiciously, and seeing that he didn't look like he was pretending to be confused, he quickly added: "What I saw yesterday afternoon, there were ten people in each team, and the captain was wearing a black leather jacket and carrying a revolver. In addition to submachine guns, the fighters also had turntable machine guns and heavy machine guns. Two soldiers of the 42nd Brigade, who had been ordered to receive food from their troops, were shot and killed by the Warseers for crossing a white line they had drawn on the ground. ”

After hearing this, Chuikov said with a solemn expression: "I will personally report this matter to the Front Army Headquarters later." Our warriors cannot die at the hands of their own people in no apparent terms. ”

"In addition, there are all kinds of military supplies." As Rodimtsev said this, he turned his head to look at me. His face showed disgust for me, and he said again: "Only a third of the soldiers of my army currently have winter clothing, and I originally wanted to distribute winter clothing to the soldiers after retaking the military supply warehouse near the flour mill." I didn't expect Colonel Oshanina to move so fast, just took the warehouse in front, and then organized people to load thousands of sets of winter clothes and transport them away. ”

"Comrade General," I weakly asked myself to justify his accusations, "my troops did not have a single winter coat before dawn. If we don't give them winter clothes, once the cold winter comes, our division will have non-combat attrition such as frostbite because of the lack of winter clothes. Besides, I didn't transport all the winter clothes, food, weapons and ammunition in the warehouse, and I left you a lot. ”

"What's not a lot?" "We were left with five hundred sets of winter clothes, a hundred boxes of rusks, and weapons and equipment that could only be equipped with two companies," said Rodimtsev. ”

"Alright," said Chuikov, who stopped the argument between the two of us, said impatiently, "we are all allies, so stop arguing about these things." ”

"But what about my division's supplies?" Rodimtsev retorted dissatisfiedly.

Chuikov looked at me, and then at Rodimtsev, and for reasons of defending me, he said to Rodimtsev: "Comrade Rodimtsev, at the moment our supply situation is very bad, and at the moment all new leather boots, new uniforms and new equipment are left to the new army groups formed in the rear. At present, the support materials for the commanders and fighters of the Stalingrad front no longer come from the quartermaster department, but from the corpses of dead comrades. The 57th Army and the 64th Army, which were just as difficult as ours, did not waste anything when burying the bodies of their comrades, they would strip the corpses until they were only buried in their underwear. Therefore, the supply methods of your division should also be learned from friendly troops. Battles are taking place all around your division's defense area at any time, and it should not be difficult to get winter clothes and weapons and equipment. ”

Chuikov's partiality for me left Rodimtsev speechless. Standing next to me, I knew that if I didn't say anything at this time, I might have completely offended Rodimtsev to death. So I hurriedly said: "Comrade General, although we can't support your division in terms of winter clothing, we can support you with extra weapons and ammunition, after all, we are friendly troops." ”

After I finished speaking, a little ugly smile appeared in front of Rodimtsev's face: "Well, since you say so, I will no longer quarrel with you about the incident with military supplies." But I would like to tell you that the Avenue of the Soviets is the defense area of the 13th Guards Division, and I hope that your troops will do their best to hand over the defense to the 42nd Regiment of Colonel Yellin. ”

"No problem, Comrade General." Since I had mobilized two battalions of troops last night in order to capture Soviet Street, and the forces in the direction of Mamayev were a little thin at present, I could not ask for it when I heard that Rodimtsev had asked my troops to hand over the defense to him, so I readily agreed: "When I go downstairs, I will give an order to Major Akhromeyev to hand over the defense to you." ”

Seeing that the two of us were no longer arguing about military supplies, Chuikov nodded with satisfaction, and specially said to me: "Comrade Oshanina, let me remind you. Not only will the Independence Division be friendly with the 13th Guards Division, but you will also have to follow the orders of General Rodimtsev. So after the transfer of the defense of Soviets Street, you can't just ignore it, and if something unexpected happens, you have to send troops to support it, understand? ”

"Understood!" I understand the truth of the cold lips and teeth, even if Chuikov doesn't say it, the 42nd Guards Regiment is at its most critical, even if they don't say anything, I will still send troops to reinforce it, so after listening to Chuikov's order, I agreed very quickly. (To be continued......)

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