It was still half dark, the forest was silent, and the only sounds we could hear were our footsteps in the snow.

The scene I had just seen affected my mood so badly that I did not say a word during the march, but mechanically moved forward on the footprints left by the soldiers in front of me.

Lukin was at the front of the line, and he stopped from time to time to check with his compass to see if we were heading in the right direction.

Marching in knee-deep snow was a tiring thing, and I was in a heavy mood and depressed, and as I walked, I felt so tired that I couldn't breathe, so I hurriedly walked a few steps, caught up with Lukin in front, and asked, "How long have we been walking?" ”

Lukin stopped, looked up at the watch on his wrist, and replied, "In forty minutes, we have walked about two or three kilometers, and the distance in a straight line is about a kilometer. ”

"And how long do we have to get to Jasnaya Polyana?"

"If we continue at this pace, it will take about two hours."

Two hours?! When I heard this time, my head was big, let alone two hours, even two minutes I couldn't hold on. I happened to see a fallen birch tree in front of me, and hurriedly gave an order to the detachment: "The troops stop advancing and rest in place!" With that, I went straight to the birch tree, swept away the snow from it with my hands, and then sat down on the cold trunk without a clear image, gasping for air.

Hearing my order, everyone stopped and looked around for a place to sit and rest. Agumint looked left and right for a long time, walked up to me, and asked, "Can you sit down here?" Comrade Commander. After nodding my head in agreement, he followed my example and sat down after dusting off the snow from the tree trunk. After he sat down, he first laid the rifle with the scope flat on his lap, and then took out half of the flattened bread from the pocket of his military uniform and nibbled it.

Seeing that he was eating with relish, my stomach also rumbled very cooperatively, and I remembered that I hadn't had breakfast today, so I quickly opened the satchel I was carrying and took out a bag of rusks from it. As soon as I took the first bite, I felt that the frozen rusks were so hard that I couldn't swallow them even after chewing them in my mouth for a long time. I wanted to learn from the volunteer soldiers, and after eating a bite of fried noodles and a mouthful of snow like they did, I bent down and grabbed a handful of snow from the ground, trying to swallow it in a ball. The weather was too cold, I pinched it for a long time, but I couldn't knead the snow powder in my palm into a snow ball, so I could only stuff it directly into my mouth. Unexpectedly, as soon as I entered my mouth, I accidentally choked, and immediately coughed violently, and squirted out with bread crumbs in my mouth. Agumint leaned his rifle against the trunk of the tree, reached over and gently tapped my back, and Resdaev, who was sitting opposite, handed me the kettle he was drinking.

I took the kettle and sniffed the spout to see what was inside. Seeing this small action of mine, Rysdayev said with some embarrassment: "Comrade commander, don't worry, this pot is filled with water, and I never drink alcohol when I am on duty. ”

Hearing him say this, I was a little embarrassed, so I quickly picked up the kettle and poured a few sips from the spout. As soon as the warm water entered the throat, it immediately diluted the feeling of coughing. After a few more sips, he flushed the remaining crumbs of bread in his mouth into his stomach, closed the lid of the kettle, handed it back to Rysdayev, and said: "Thank you!" ”

"Comrade commander, someone is coming this way!" Lukin's voice suddenly came from the side.

"Hidden!" I don't know who shouted in a low voice, so everyone fell on the snow.

"From which direction?" I crawled up to Lukin's side and asked anxiously.

"It's southwest." We had been marching in a south-west direction, so as soon as he told him the direction, he immediately knew what he was talking about. It seemed that the place where we had collectively fallen was correct, and the fallen tree trunk provided us with cover, and I peeled off the snow directly from the trunk and the ground, and observed the situation in the forest through the gap with a telescope.

In winter, the birch forest is unobstructed, and the field of vision is wide, and I can see far away, but I have been looking for a long time, and I have not seen a moving figure. After listening for a while, there was still silence. I couldn't help but complain that Lukin was making some fuss, maybe he heard the sound of snow falling from the treetops as the sound of someone walking.

"Where's the people? How I can't see. Did you just hear it wrong? I asked Lukin dissatisfied.

"You can't be wrong, I vaguely hear footsteps walking in the snow." He answered me in the affirmative, then took the telescope from my hand and leaned down on the trunk of a tree to carefully observe the movement in the forest.

After less than ten seconds, he suddenly said excitedly: "I see, there are four people coming in this direction." Then he handed me back the telescope, pointed ahead and said, "It's at ten o'clock." ”

I raised my binoculars, half-crouched in the snow, and looked in the direction Lukin had said, and there were indeed a few people moving rapidly in this direction two hundred meters away. I counted, no more, no less, exactly four people. Because their silhouette was blocked from time to time by birch trees, I could not tell whether they were their own people or Germans.

Without waiting for my command, Agumint set his sniper rifle on the trunk of the tree. I estimated the contrast between the strength of the two sides, and felt that these four men, even if they were enemies, could kill them all, so I whispered an order to Aguminte: "Get ready to shoot." As soon as I gave the order, I opened fire. ”

I handed the binoculars to Lukin and instructed the others: "Be ready for battle, not a single one can be let go." ”

The reply was very brief: "Yes!" ”

"Comrade Commander!" Lukin called me softly suddenly.

"What's the matter?" I looked back at him and asked.

"It's our own people, you see, they are all in the uniforms of our army." As he spoke, he handed me the binoculars again.

"Your own people?!" When I took the telescope, I asked in a skeptical tone, "Are you sure you're not mistaken?" ”

"That's right, Comrade Commander." It wasn't Lukin who answered me, but Agumint, who was lying on his side. He closed the safety of his sniper rifle and said to me in an affirmative tone: "I can clearly see from the scope that it is my own people, and one of them is a second lieutenant of our 316th Infantry Division." ”

"I went and called them, lest they go far later." Lukin tried to stand up as he spoke. I grabbed him on the shoulder and whispered, "Don't worry, wait until they come." They are in a state of high tension at this time, and they may see you suddenly appear and shoot at you without saying anything. When Lukin heard me say this, he didn't insist, and continued to lie on the trunk of the tree in his original position, waiting for the arrival of the four of his own people.

As the clicking sound of stepping on the snow became louder and louder, even without a telescope, the faces of the four people could be clearly seen. Dressed in short khaki fur coats and rifles with bayonets in their hands, they looked around vigilantly as they went.

When they came to a distance of less than twenty meters from us, suddenly a voice came: "Hidden! The four men immediately dispersed and hid behind the birch trees. After a while, I heard another voice asking, "Comrade Second Lieutenant, what's wrong?" ”

"There are footprints in the snow ahead, there must be someone nearby." The second lieutenant, hiding behind a tree, answered the questioning soldier.

"Hey! Comrades! Lukin shouted, but did not rise hastily.

There was a clatter of bolts from behind the tree, and then someone shouted, "Who?" Don't move! ”

Lukin turned his head to look at me and whispered for my opinion: "Comrade commander, can I pass?" ”

"Go ahead."

Perhaps seeing that there was no answer from our side, the second lieutenant's voice on the other side sounded again, repeating what he had just said: "No one is allowed to move, only one person is allowed to come over." ”

Lukin stood up with his hands raised and said loudly: "Comrade Ensign, please don't shoot, it's your own people." Then he stepped over the trunk of the tree and walked towards the birch tree where the other party was hidden.

"Lukin, is that you?" As I saw him walk over, a voice of surprise suddenly sounded on the other side, and the voice was the first person to speak, and then I saw a man emerge from behind the invisible birch tree, put the handle of his rifle on his shoulder, and ran quickly towards Lukin. The two soon embraced, and I heard Lukin in a loud voice from afar: "Isayev, my friend, I am glad to see you." ”

The reunion of the two friends immediately resolved the vigilance between the two sides. First, the three men hiding behind the birch trees stepped forward and carried their guns to their shoulders. Then the people on our side also stood up and walked over the trunk of the tree towards them.

The second lieutenant stepped forward and shouted at us, "Ah! I said, "Where did you come from?" ”

Lukin let go of his friend, stepped forward to salute the second lieutenant, and reported loudly: "Report to Comrade Second Lieutenant, our scouts of the Sixteenth Army, who have been ordered to reconnoiter the rear of the enemy. ”

"Scouting?" The second lieutenant muttered, "There's not even a single enemy here, what is there to scout?" ”

"What did you say?" When I heard what he said, I walked a few steps faster and asked him, "What did you just say?" Are you saying that there are no enemies around here? ”

He didn't answer me, but looked me up and down, and then asked coldly, "Who are you?" ”

"This is the commander of our reconnaissance squad, Lieutenant Colonel Oshanina." Lukin offered to introduce my identity to the second lieutenant.

The second lieutenant's face was flushed with shame, and he quickly stood up in front of me and saluted, and said in an apologetic tone: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I'm sorry, I didn't see your rank marking. I am the engineer platoon commander and second lieutenant Feltov of the 316th Infantry Division, and I have just led my troops out of the encirclement of the fascist bandits. ”

"What did you just say?" I didn't pay attention to the change in his attitude towards me, but continued to ask the question: "You say there are no Germans in this area?" ”

"Yes, Comrade Commander." Standing in front of me, he replied respectfully: "Not only in this vicinity, but also in the dozens of kilometers we have traveled in the forest, and we have not seen any Germans. ”

When I heard him say this, I was stunned for a moment, and then I understood what was going on, the movement of the German army was completed by road, and the German army had no time to take care of such an inaccessible forest. After a pause, I asked again, "How many men do you have?" As soon as these words came out, I felt a little regretful, and felt that I was a bit of a snake to add to the suspicion, aren't they just four people, why bother asking more.

"There are four hundred of us." I was taken aback by his answer.

"Four hundred...... Four hundred?! There are so many people? "Not only me, but also a few of the surrounding warriors were very surprised.

"Yes, they are resting three hundred meters away, we are here to explore the way."