Oshanin paused at this recollection, his eyes were red, and tears were rolling in his eyes.

What is he uncomfortable with? I know it all in my heart. Although the loss of the fortress was already expected by me, I still couldn't help but feel a little sad when I heard the news suddenly, after all, I have been in this era for a few months, how can people be ruthless and ruthless? I stood up, walked behind him, leaned down and hugged his body from behind, my cheek gently rubbing against the scar on the right side of his face, and asked softly, "What happened later?" ”

Oshanin took a deep breath and calmed his excitement before continuing: "I am the only one left in the building, and many of the rest of the people have been captured. The Germans found that there were still people fighting in the building, and instead of sending their infantry to the death, they directly bombarded them with artillery. The building was already blown to pieces, and dozens of shells were fired before it collapsed, and I was buried alive in the smoke and dust......"

Although he was alive in front of me at the moment, I couldn't help but let out a soft "ah" when I heard him say that he was buried alive in the building.

"I don't know how long I was in a coma, until I was stirred up by the cold rain, and I was a little more conscious. I looked around me and found that above where I was lying, there was a huge cement slab leaning on the pillar, blocking the falling masonry, leaving a small safe space in between, and because of this, I was not stoned to death by the masonry. I struggled out of the rubble until I got to where Sasha had saved me. It was almost all my strength, and the sharp pain in my right cheek and the shrapnel wound on my body made me faint again. ”

I straightened up, gently stroked the long scar on the right side of his face, and asked, "Does it still hurt?" ”

He grabbed my hand, shook his head, and continued: "It didn't take long for me to feel someone shaking my body and shouting in Russian: 'Comrade, wake up!' Wake up, comrade! When I opened my eyes, I saw a Soviet soldier crouching in front of me who was in tattered clothes, his face covered in gunsmoke and covered in blood. Seeing that I was awake, he beckoned to the side, and soon ran past another warrior, also in rags, who, without saying a word, lifted me up from the ground and helped me forward. I asked them in confusion, 'Where are we going?' ''Comrade Commander,' replied the soldier with a serious expression, ''the fortress has been taken by the Germans, and we are going to take prisoners!'' ’……”

"You're captured?" I asked, surprised.

He nodded, and continued his story: "Hearing this, I tried to break free from the support of the two warriors, and shouted loudly: 'Let me go, I will never be a prisoner!' But my wounded body was weak, and I struggled a few times and could not break free from the fighters. 'Please be quiet, Comrade Commander. The soldier suddenly said to me in a serious and serious manner: 'The communication between the fortress and the rear has been completely cut off, and we are now alone and helpless, and we cannot make unnecessary sacrifices.' ''I will not be a prisoner!'' I yelled in a low voice. 'Nobody wants to be a prisoner, comrade commander. The soldier looked left and right, then frowned and said: 'We are blocked by the Germans on all sides, and we can't get out at all, and if we want to get out of here, we have to be prisoners.' I snorted and didn't speak. The soldier explained to me: 'The Germans are trying to surrender again, and we are going to fake surrender and then look for an opportunity to escape.' Got it, Comrade Commander! When he said this, I didn't say anything more, and honestly let the two warriors support me and join the group to surrender. ……”

"Wait a minute," I couldn't help but interrupt him, expressing the doubts in my heart, "Didn't you say that you were the only one left?" So where did the others come from? ”

"There are a lot of buildings inside the fortress, and in each building there are troops on the defensive. Although the building I was in was destroyed by the Germans and the commanders and fighters inside were killed, there were still many defenders in the building who were still fighting heroically. Seeing that the assault was not working, the Germans switched to a propaganda offensive, calling on our fighters to lay down their arms and surrender. ”

"Oh, I see. Go on. I thought to myself that this German commander was quite capable, understood the principle of "surrendering without a fight", and knew how to launch a propaganda offensive against the stubborn defenders.

"When we entered the German position, two German soldiers with submachine guns came up, and after a brief search of us, they escorted us out of the fortress. After walking west from the fortress for about ten minutes, we came to the town, where four or five hundred Soviet prisoners of war gathered, most of whom were in tattered clothes and looked depressed. The two German soldiers pushed us hard into the crowd and turned around and walked away. I took a look at the environment and found that there were only about 30 German soldiers on guard around us, and we were not strictly guarded. ……”

"How did you escape?" I was so eager to see how he got out of danger that I couldn't help but interrupt him again.

"We were locked up in the town overnight, and the next morning the Germans escorted us to the border. Perhaps because of the lack of troops, the number of German soldiers escorting us was small, less than fifty men, all on motorcycles.

By noon, we approached the border and walked to the edge of a forest, where the German officer leading the group told the troops to stop and rest. The prisoners of war braved the scorching sun for a full morning's journey, and many would not have been able to hold out halfway had it not been for the Germans with guns. Now that they had finally arrived at the place, the prisoners of war did not care about what they were doing or not, and they sat on the ground and gasped. Except for seven or eight men left to guard them, the remaining German soldiers hid in the forest for lunch, leaving the tired and hungry prisoners of war in the open to endure the scorching sun.

Looking at the remaining German soldiers and whispering with some dissatisfaction, Ivanov, the soldier who saved me, had a smile on the corner of his mouth, and he leaned close to my ear and whispered: "Comrade commander, you see, these German devils are starting to complain, as long as they let their guard down, we can find an opportunity to escape." ''Escape?'' Puzzled, I asked him: 'Where are you going?' He pointed to the side of the forest where there were no German soldiers and said, 'Run into the forest, if you run into the forest, the Germans will not be able to catch us.'

After observing the surroundings, I quickly rejected his proposal, shook my head slightly, and said, 'We are at least fifty meters from the edge of the forest, how much hope do you think we can run there and not be discovered by the Germans?' Hearing that I had rejected his proposal, he was a little anxious: 'Rushing through here, you can rush into the forest in fifteen seconds at most, and if you don't act, you won't be able to run if you want to cross the border.' ’

'If it were night, we would have had a better chance of escaping from here, but now running away would be a death ......' at this time. As if to prove my word. A warrior not far from us suddenly jumped up and ran towards the forest a few dozen meters away.

The man had only run a dozen meters away, and the German soldiers in charge of the guard had already spotted him. There was no warning at all, several submachine guns were already firing at the same time. Although the dirt around the man was splashed everywhere by bullets, he was determined to escape from the grasp of the German soldiers, so he still ran forward without the slightest intention of stopping. However, there is a limit to one's luck, and although the man managed to approach the edge of the forest, he was eventually hit by a bullet. I only saw a few blood flowers coming out of his body, and then he reached out into the air with his hands as if trying to grab something, but finally fell to the ground.

After hearing the gunshots, the German officer rushed out of the forest with a group of people to see what was going on. He didn't show much surprise when he learned that a prisoner of war was killed trying to escape. Clearly, he had anticipated that someone would try to escape. And I'm sure no one will be able to run away.

He stood in front of the queue with a blank face and said lightly: 'Gentlemen, remember who you are, you are prisoners of war!' When you arrive at the prisoner of war camp, we will give you the treatment you deserve. If anyone tries to escape, they will end up in the same fate as this person. Then he glanced at the team, and then said, 'Now I need a couple of volunteers to come out and bury this guy.' ’

After listening to the words of the German officers, all the prisoners of war remained silent, and no one took the initiative to stand up as the volunteers. The main thing is that everyone is tired and hungry, and no one is doing such physical work as burying the corpses.

Is it true that no one wants to be a volunteer? Seeing that there was no response to his offer, the officer's face began to darken, and his hand involuntarily touched the pistol at his waist.

Seeing that no one was making a sound, I pulled Ivanov next to me, then stood up and said, 'I'll come.' ''And me. Ivanov then stood up.

'Guard, bring them two shovels, and hurry up and bury the body, so that we can hurry.' Seeing that someone had finally stood up, the officer asked two soldiers to escort us to bury the body, and then he took the men back to the forest to eat.

Ivanov and I carried the crater-riddled corpses into the forest, and after walking about 20 meters, the Germans stopped us and handed us two sapper shovels and told us to dig the pit on the spot.

While digging the pit, I whispered to Ivanov: 'When the earth is filled, use this sapper shovel to kill the German soldiers while they are not looking.' Ivanov softly agreed, and then buried himself in the pit.

It took half an hour of digging to barely dig a shallow pit that could hold the corpses. After dragging the body into the pit, we began to slowly fill the pit with earth. At first, the two German soldiers were watching us closely, but after a long time, they relaxed their vigilance and stood by the pit and chatted. Seeing that the time was ripe, I glanced at Ivanov, and then scooped up a shovel of dirt and hurled it towards the German soldiers. Taking advantage of the fact that they were blinded by the dust, we rushed over with lightning and slashed down with the sapper shovels in our hands. The two German soldiers did not even say a word, and fell straight to the ground. We picked up our submachine guns on the ground and ran deep into the forest. ”

"You're so lucky." I couldn't help but say with emotion: "Fortunately, the German officer asked you to bury the dead prisoners of war on a whim, so that you have a chance to escape." If he ignores the corpses that died on the side of the road, and instead takes you directly to the prisoner of war camp, it is estimated that you will be more than lucky by now. ”

"We walked in the forest for a week, and during this time we were all hungry for wild fruits, and if we hadn't been saved by the scouts of the Transbaikalki Division, maybe we would have died in the forest. After the Battle of Smolensk, my company was transferred to the outskirts of Moscow for recuperation. In September, someone came to the army to recruit military dog trainers, and because I had experience in this area, I took the initiative to sign up for this mysterious unit. It wasn't long before we were transferred to the north of Moscow for closed training. Yesterday we received a notice from our superiors that the Western Front lacked sufficient anti-tank strength at present, so we assigned our company to the Front. Oshanen grabbed my hand tightly, looked up at me, and said excitedly: "I didn't expect to meet you here, this unexpected reunion is so happy." ”