Orlov, the telegraph operator, sat at his desk, set up the Hakata telegraph with his hands and feet, then looked up at me and asked, "Can you start?" Comrade Commander! ”

I nodded and said, "Let's get started." ”

The operator's fingers twitched nimbly on the telegraph's keys, and a long line of "Anyone?" appeared in the long and narrow note. Anyone? Anyone? ”

The reply quickly appeared on a long and narrow note: "Comrade Rokossovsky, commander of the army group, will be talking to you, please wait a moment." ”

After waiting for a minute or two, the telegraph came alive again, and the note that was spit out read: "Hello! ”

"Hello!" Without my command, Orlov immediately replied to the other party. Seeing such a scene, I found a little bit of the feeling of chatting QQ, the operators on both sides conveyed the content we wanted to talk to each other verbatim through the telegraph, and the narrow note spit out by the telegraph machine showed all our chat records.

"Comrade Oshanina, where have you and your squad arrived?" Rokossovsky asked straight to the point.

"We have reached a small village near Yasnaya Polyana and will be able to carry out reconnaissance work tomorrow."

"Did it go well?"

"We had a good time on the road, except for two small battles with the Germans."

"Are there any casualties?" The commander asked again with concern.

"No, not a single casualty. After these two battles, we have eliminated twenty or so German devils, and rescued hundreds of captured soldiers, and I have arranged for the fighters of the small detachment to lead them back to our fortified positions. ”

"Well done! But don't be proud, you have to organize your reconnaissance work carefully, and be sure to provide accurate information about the battle we are about to take. ”

"Understood!" After I finished replying to the other party, I suddenly remembered the huge convoy I had seen on the road during the day, so I dictated to the operator: "We met a German mechanized unit on the road today, judging from the size of the convoy, it should be an armored division, they are advancing in the northeast direction, and it is estimated that they are planning to launch a new round of attack on our army's positions." ”

The telegraph was suddenly silent, and there was no response, and after a long time, the note began to crawl again. I grabbed the note and saw that it read: "According to your estimate, in what position will the Germans launch a new offensive?" ”

Rokossovsky's question stopped me at once, and this German unit is not under my command, where can I guess where they intend to attack? However, since the commander had asked like this, I couldn't answer it, and after thinking about it for a while, I replied vaguely: "I estimate that the focus of the German offensive is still in the defensive position of the Panfilov division." "I say this not without purpose, for in the history of my knowledge, the Panfilov Division, although it was not formed for a long time, became famous through the Battle of Moscow. As the main force of the 16th Army in the battle against the German army, they fought in almost all the defensive areas of the army, and repeatedly inflicted heavy losses on the German army.

"You are right, the Germans formed a powerful tank assault group with 125 tanks during the day today, and with the support of aviation, launched a frantic offensive on the Volokramsk road defended by the Panfilov division. Although the fighters fought stubbornly, the disparity between the enemy and the enemy was great, and by the evening the station in Volokramsk was occupied by the Germans. Now General Panfilov is organizing a counterattack, trying to drive the Germans who occupied the station out of the city. ”

"With the current strength of the 316th Division, even if the Germans are driven out of the station, it will be difficult to hold it."

"Do you have any good suggestions?" He humbly consulted my opinion, without the slightest domineering attitude of superiors to subordinates.

"After such a long battle, the artillery of the 316th Division has suffered heavy losses and is no longer enough to deal with the part of the German army that has been put into the battlefield. I felt that it was necessary to replenish the new artillery units as soon as possible in order to stop the attack of the German armored forces. ”

"I spoke with Zhukov on the phone in the morning, and two regiments of 37-mm anti-aircraft artillery were already secured from him. The commanders of these two regiments have just reported to me and are waiting in the headquarters for my next order. ”

"The 37-mm anti-aircraft gun was enough for the German tanks."

"Well, I'll send an anti-aircraft artillery regiment to the Panfilov division right away. So be it, good luck and a triumphant return soon. Then the telegraph note stopped, meaning that the communication was officially over.

"Comrade commander," had just finished contact with the headquarters of the army group, when he suddenly heard Sapochuk's voice, and when he looked back, he was standing at the door with an old lady in a turban. Seeing that I had noticed him, he continued, "I have found this aunt from the village, and she can provide you with some useful information. ”

I let the old lady into the house, brought a chair to me, beckoned her to sit down, and poured her a cup of tea, before I asked, "What shall I call you, old lady?" ”

"My name is Ayouna, and I am from this collective farm."

"How many people are left on the farm?"

"Most of the people have been evacuated to the rear, and there are still a dozen families left in the farm."

I let out an "oh" and asked, "How long have the Germans occupied here?" "According to my thoughts, the next part of the bridge should be that the people in the occupied areas saw their troops and immediately cried in front of their own people with snot and tears about the enemy's persecution of them, etc. My mind was thinking about how I would comfort the old lady later.

"It's been almost a week." Unexpectedly, she replied to me with an indifferent expression.

"It's been a hard time, isn't it?" I tried to guide her ideas to the point I had envisioned, so that when I inquired about the German army, she would know everything.

"How so?" She said with some dissatisfaction, "What's wrong with the Germans, after they came, not only did they not steal or rob, but they also sent people to help me jump into the water and chop wood every day when they saw that I was a lonely old woman. ”

"Huh?!" Her words scorched me so much that I couldn't help but wonder if it was the German fascists who occupied the village. How do I feel that those people in her mouth are like soldiers of the people.

I coughed, digressed from the subject, and asked, "How many Germans are there in the village?" ”

"There seem to be a dozen of them, and they live in the house next to them." As if remembering something, she stood up, looked around, and cried out in a loud voice, "Ivana! Egjana!! Where are you? After shouting a few times, seeing that no one answered her, she began to say to herself, "It's so late, where will Iyana run?" She's usually at home at this time. ”

Yjana, hearing this name, I couldn't help but gasp, thinking that it couldn't be the young girl who was killed by Aggie, right? Then he stepped forward and grabbed the old lady and asked, "Ayuna, who is Yjana?" ”

"Who else could it be?" Dissatisfied, she replied, "You live in her house, don't you know who she is?" Then he said to himself: "She rarely goes out, why is she not at home today?" Could it be that something was wrong? ”

Hearing her say this, I couldn't help but panic, it turned out that the girl who was killed by Aggie just now was really the Yiyana in her mouth. I hurriedly digressed the subject and said, "Maybe something happened to her temporarily, maybe she'll be back in a while." ”

The old lady stared at me for a while, and saw that I was more and more flustered, and when she saw that I was so nervous, the old lady suddenly realized, and then rushed over and grabbed me by the collar, shook it vigorously, and asked me in a loud voice: "I see, you must have found out that she was dealing with the Germans, so you killed her." You say yes or no! Isn't it? You brutes! ”

In the face of the angry old lady, I was speechless for a while, and could only listen to her tightly grasp my collar. Seeing this, Sapochuk and the newspaper operator next to him rushed over and grabbed the old lady, desperately trying to pull the old lady's hand away.

The two of them dragged the old lady out of the room, and I sat down on the edge of the bed without a word, at a loss, what should I do with Aggie who has caused such a monstrous disaster?