This time I went to Yakovlevo, in addition to the driver, with three guards. They were all sitting in the back, and I was in the passenger seat. Sitting in the violently bumpy car, I was in a particularly unhappy mood, and I couldn't help but curse Apanashchenko countless times, if it weren't for his self-righteousness, I wouldn't have risked my life to go to the most dangerous places.

When the jeep was halfway through, the driver turned his head to look at me several times, but stopped talking. My heart tightened, knowing that something must be wrong, this driver was very cautious, his reaction like this, did he find something wrong?

He looked at me a few more times, as if trying to convey something to me with his eyes. I first looked around the window vigilantly, saw that there was nothing unusual, and then turned my head sideways and asked him, "Comrade driver, what do you want to say?" ”

When the driver saw that I took the initiative to ask, he coughed and said to me: "Comrade commander, didn't you notice that something was wrong?" ”

"What's wrong?" When I asked this, my eyes couldn't help but glance out the window again. I saw that the sides of the dirt road were empty, and I couldn't even see a human figure. The farther forest, too, is quiet.

"Listen to the sound of artillery outside." The driver saw that I looked outside for a long time, but I didn't see the reason, so he reminded me.

Hearing the driver say this, I immediately noticed that in addition to the rumbling cannon sound from the front, there were cannon shots coming from the left and right sides of the road, and even from behind. It made me feel as if there was a fierce battle going on in all parts of the entire defense zone.

The jeep drove some way forward, and I saw a sparse array of our commanders and fighters in front of me. Judging by the way they walk. They should all be wounded. Some of them are alone. Some were in groups of seven or eight people, and there were even people carrying stretchers and walking towards us on one side of the road.

As we approached them, I asked the driver to pull over to the side of the road, poked his head out and asked the wounded man passing by: "Hey, comrade soldier, how is the situation ahead?" ”

A sergeant with his left arm on his chest saw me and hurried a few steps. He came to me, raised his hand and saluted, and replied: "Report to Comrade Commander, there is a battle ahead." ”

"Where are you fighting?" I asked out loud.

The sergeant shrugged his shoulders and replied: "There are battles all over the Yakovlevo region, everywhere there are gunshots, explosions, our people are bleeding, but the enemy is also quite a few. Our men showed tenacity and did not allow the enemy to move a step forward in many places. "When he finished his disorganized report, he raised his hand and saluted me, turned and walked into the queue of wounded. Continue to the rear.

The sergeant replied in general terms, except that I knew that there was a battle ahead. Nothing useful was obtained. The driver also heard the sergeant's words clearly, and couldn't help but hesitate to ask: "Comrade commander, are we still driving forward?" ”

Although my heart has been retreating, but at this moment in front of myself, I can't show timidity, I glared at him and said, "Nonsense, keep going!" ”

When the driver heard me say this, he didn't object, just nodded, stepped on the accelerator, and the jeep continued to move forward.

At this time, one of the guards sitting in the back row suddenly shouted: "Not good, there are enemy planes!" ”

"Enemy aircraft?!" Hearing the guard say this, I immediately looked up into the sky, but I saw nothing but the gray sky and patches of cumulus clouds. I turned my head and asked the guard sitting in the back row: "Where are you talking about enemy aircraft?" ”

The soldier who sat on the right side of the back row and the guard in the middle turned his gaze to the fighter on the far left, and the soldier couldn't help but feel a little nervous when he saw that the eyes of several of us were focused on him, and he muttered: "Comrade commander, I vaguely hear the roar of the motors of enemy planes in the air. ”

I knew that some people had an extraordinary sense of hearing, so I turned around and looked into the sky again, but there was still no sign of the enemy plane. I also listened attentively, and apart from the rumbling of the cannon and the roar of the motors of our jeeps, I did not hear the sound of the aircraft motors that the fighters were talking about.

Just as I turned around and wanted to ask the soldier again if he had heard me wrong, the driver suddenly shouted: "Enemy plane, hell, it's a German plane!" ”

I turned my head to look out the front window of the car, just in time to see an enemy plane swooping down from the clouds, and at the same time the on-board machine guns were firing loudly, and the mud stirred up by the bullets was like two ferocious vipers rushing towards our jeep. Before I could shout, the driver struck the steering wheel and the body made a sharp turn on the spot, narrowly avoiding the first strafing of the enemy plane.

"Go to the forest!" Seeing the wounded on the side of the road either lying on the spot or turning around and running towards the forest in the distance, I gave the same order to the driver.

The driver looked out the window and saw that the road leading to the forest on the right was blocked by the wounded who were running around, so he decisively turned around and rushed towards the forest on the left.

The first attack by the enemy aircraft was ineffective, and after pulling up, it dived down again. Our jeep, which was only there, was the target of its attack. The driver drove the vehicle to dodge the bombs dropped by the enemy planes, and drove the car into the forest in a thrilling way through the fountain-like pillars of earth raised by the explosions to the left or right.

After losing this target of ours, the enemy planes, after making several circles in the air, turned around and flew over the road where the wounded were hidden, strafing and bombing, until they had exhausted the ammunition on board, and then staggered into the distance.

After the enemy plane had flown away, our jeep drove out of the forest again. The wounded on the side of the road, seeing that the enemy plane had flown away, also got up from the ground one after another, supported each other and continued to walk towards the rear. Of course, there are still many wounded who are still lying motionless on the ground, and they have all fallen victim to the air raid just now.

I looked at the ranks of wounded not far away, sighed, and then ordered the driver: "Let's go, comrade driver, let's go to Yakovlevo." ”

The further the car goes, the more obvious the traces of the war become. Not to mention the bomb craters everywhere on the road, the wreckage of destroyed and burned vehicles can be seen from time to time on the side of the road and even in the middle of the road, and the remains of our commanders and fighters who have not had time to take them away are still lying around. Maybe it's because I'm used to seeing life and death. For all this. I became apathetic. Just expressionlessly instructed the driver to speed up.

We drove forward for another ten minutes or so, and the line of wounded that we could still see suddenly disappeared. Seeing this, I couldn't help but raise my vigilance, thinking that this should be close to the battlefield, and at the same time unconsciously put my hand on the holster, so that if I encountered the Germans, I could draw my gun and meet the battle.

At this moment, a soldier suddenly jumped out of a bomb crater on the side of the road. After rushing to the middle of the road, he waved his hands desperately while shouting. The driver hurriedly applied the brakes and stopped only two or three meters away from the fighters. As soon as I poked my head out and asked what was going on, the soldier rushed to my car door and shouted at me, "Comrade General, help, help, we have an important military mission." ”

The words of the warrior confused me. I pushed the door open and got out of the car and took him a closer look. Surprised, he asked, "Comrade soldier, I don't know if I have anything to help you?" ”

"That's right, Comrade General." The fighter said very quickly: "We are the 39th transport team, and we are delivering ammunition to the front. As a result, as soon as we encountered an enemy air raid on the road, our convoy took refuge in the forest......"

"Wait, comrade warrior." Although the warrior's name, which sounded familiar to me, interrupted him and interjected, "Is your captain Lieutenant Morozov?" ”

"That's right, Comrade General. You're right. The warrior nodded vigorously and affirmed, "Our captain is Lieutenant Morozov. ”

"Go on!" After figuring out that the other party was a unit I knew, I told him to continue in order to find out what was going on.

“…… The soil in the forest was so soft that the truck that rushed in at the end got stuck in a pothole, blocking the way for the other vehicles to come out. Seeing that I seemed to know their captain, the soldier became more emotionally stable, and he clearly reported: "We have tried many things, but we can't move the car that is in the way, so the lieutenant ordered me to come and stop the car on the road, hoping to find a car to pull out the truck that has fallen into the mud puddle." ”

"Take me to see it." As I spoke, I got back into the car, closed the door, and told the soldier, "Come up too." The soldier said yes and stood next to me with the door hanging from the door.

We came to the place where the truck had fallen into a mud puddle and saw a group of commanders trying to get the truck out of the pit. They carried it on their shoulders and pushed it with their hands, but the wheels were still whirring and idling, and there was still no possibility of driving out.

Lieutenant Morozov, who was carrying the car under the command, saw my arrival, hurriedly ran out of the crowd, stood in front of me covered in mud, raised his hand and saluted: "Hello, Comrade Commander, the 39th transport team is on a mission, please instruct!" ”

I pointed to the truck that was stuck in the pit not far away and asked, "Comrade Lieutenant, is there anything I can do for you?" ”

Lieutenant Morozov looked behind me and said carefully: "Comrade commander, I wonder if you can use your car to help us tow it?" ”

"No problem." I readily agreed to the lieutenant's request, and turned around and instructed the driver: "Comrade driver, drive the car over and help the lieutenant and them." ”

Seeing that a jeep came to help, the commanders and fighters immediately cheered, and they connected the two cars with iron chains. Seeing that it was ready, Lieutenant Morozov waved his hand, and my driver started the jeep in an attempt to pull the truck out of the pit.

The jeep's motors spun and roared, the chains clanged, and the thick mud rattled. But the truck only moved forward a moment, and sank deeper into the mud puddle and did not move.

Seeing this, the driver leaned out and said to me with a sad face: "Comrade commander, our car horsepower is too small to pull out such a heavy car. ”

Hearing what the driver said, I had no choice but to ask Morozov: "Comrade lieutenant, is there any other way?" ”

Lieutenant Morozov thought for a moment, and finally gritted his back molars and said: "Comrade commander, if there is really no other way to think of it, we can only unload the car. ”

"What, unload all the ammunition from the car?" I looked at the mountains of ammunition piled up on the truck, and said worriedly, "If you unload so much ammunition, you won't be able to finish it in an hour or two." There is fierce fighting on the front line, ammunition is depleted, and you are in dire need of replenishment......"

Halfway through my sentence, I came to an abrupt end as I saw the weary and desperate commanders and fighters standing around the truck, their hands hanging from head to toe in the mud. They were all focused on me, as if hoping that I, the commander, would come up with something good for them.

Just when everyone was helpless, the guard, who had spotted the plane in advance, suddenly shouted: "Tank, our tank is coming!" ”

Hearing the shouts of the guards, hope was rekindled in everyone's hearts, and everyone looked around, listening to the movements around them. Soon sharp-eyed warriors shouted: "Look, tank!" Our tank, there's a tank of ours over there! ”

I looked in the direction where the roar of the tank motor was coming from, and I saw a T-54/55 tank slowly approaching the direction we had just come. The roof of the tank's turret was open, and a soldier in a tank uniform was half exposed.

Without waiting for my orders, Lieutenant Morozov ran in the direction where the tank came from, and the commanders and fighters who had been surrounding the truck also rushed to the tank with cheers.

I turned back to the three guards standing behind me and said, "Let's go, let's go and have a look." ”

"Comrade Commander, what should I do then?" When the driver saw that we were leaving, he leaned out and looked behind him, and asked anxiously, "My car is still tied to the truck behind me." ”

I smiled and said to the anxious driver, "Comrade driver, you just wait here for a while, we will be back soon." Now that we have a tank, I believe it should be no problem to pull the truck out of the mud pit. ”

As I approached the tank, I heard Lieutenant Morozov and his men babbling to the tankmen: "Help, friend, we have a truck stuck in the mud...... Help, we have an important military mission,...... Help, help us tow the car out! ”

However, the tank soldier, who was half-exposed, waved his hand impatiently after listening absentmindedly to the request of the transport soldiers, and said: "No, no, we also have important tasks to perform, how can we help you tow the truck?" (To be continued.) )