red moscow

Chapter 2716: Alarming the Snake
The captain was woken up by Sokov and seemed very impatient: "Comrade Sokov, what's the noise outside that's worthy of making such a fuss? Since the sound comes from the east, it may be a tank unit sent from Moscow. If you don't want to go back to sleep, I can arrange for you to stand guard."

Returning to this era inexplicably was already a matter of concern to Sokov. Moreover, in a few days, the largest annihilation war in human history would be launched in this area. He was thinking about how to escape danger in his dreams. Unexpectedly, when the captain heard the noise coming from outside, he not only did not raise the necessary vigilance, but also wishfully believed that the roar of the engines of tanks and armored vehicles outside was the tank troops of the Soviet Army.

Thinking of this, Sokov temporarily forgot the difference in status between himself and the captain, and said with a straight face: "Comrade Captain, let me remind you. Although the noise came from the east, it may not be our tank troops. It may be troops sent by the Germans from other directions, preparing to encircle our army."

The noises of the two woke up Andrei who was sleeping nearby. He rubbed his eyes and said sleepily, "Comrade Sokov, you must have been confused in the middle of the night to come here and quarrel with the captain. I think you should go back and rest quickly, so as not to disturb the rest of the comrades."

Several soldiers sleeping nearby were also awakened by the voices. When they opened their eyes and saw that the person who had a conflict with the captain was Sokov, they were all surprised. Although Sokov was a new soldier, he had found accommodation and food for everyone today, which was a favor to everyone. If he and the captain really quarreled, they would have to help or not. Since they were in a dilemma, they might as well close their eyes and pretend to sleep, pretending that they did not see what was happening in front of them.

"Captain," Sokov didn't think that as a new recruit, he could command more than 70 people in the company, so he had to find a way to persuade the captain to immediately issue a combat alert and let everyone prepare for battle, so as not to be caught off guard by the Germans: "Now is war time, even if the troops coming from the east may be our own people, but we can't rule out the possibility that they are Germans. If we don't prepare the soldiers for battle, if the Germans sneak up, we may be wiped out. Do you intend to be a prisoner of the Germans?"

Sokov's last words successfully angered the captain. He stood up suddenly and said angrily: "What? You said I want to be a prisoner of the Germans? If I had such an idea, I would not have led the troops with no ammunition and food to break out of the German encirclement."

Andrei saw that the two were about to quarrel again, so he stood up and tried to smooth things over: "Captain, Captain, don't worry, I think what Sokov said makes sense. If the Germans are really coming, we might be caught off guard by the enemy if we stay in the bunker and don't move."

"Andrei, wake everyone up." Seeing the captain standing there without saying anything, Sokov bypassed him and gave orders to Andrei directly: "Let everyone prepare for battle. If it is really one of our own, I am willing to apologize to the captain." After saying that, he turned around and walked out of the bunker without waiting for Andrei to finish. His idea was simple. He would go back to his bunker first and let the people inside prepare for battle. Even if Andrei refused to cooperate with him, when the Germans came up, he could suppress them with heavy machine gun fire.

When Sokov returned to his bunker, Alexei and others inside had already woken up.

Seeing Sokov coming back, Alexey asked curiously: "Comrade Sokov, I just saw you get up and run out directly. What happened?"

Sokov said with a serious face: "If my guess is correct, there are Germans near us."

"Ah, there are Germans near us?" In this bunker, except for Sokov who had combat experience, the rest of the people were new recruits who had just joined the army. When they learned that there were Germans nearby, they inevitably became a little panicked: "Will they find us?"

"If the Germans are just passing by, they may not pay much attention to this place." Sokov said to everyone, "What I am worried about is that they will use this place as a stronghold and will definitely send people to occupy it. At that time, a battle with them will be inevitable."

Alexei waited for Sokov to finish speaking, then asked tentatively: "Sokov, does the captain know about this?"

"What do you think I did when I went out just now?" Sokov stared at Alexei and said, "I just heard the noise outside, so I ran over to inform the captain and asked him to immediately sound the combat alert and let everyone get to their respective combat positions."

"What did the Captain say?"

"The captain seemed to be unconvinced by what I said and said I was making a fuss."

"What should we do then?" Alexey asked.

"The view from our bunker is very good, and we can use machine gun fire to prevent the enemy from approaching the bunker group." Sokov said, "As soon as our guns sound, the captain will understand that I did not lie about military intelligence." Then, Sokov began to arrange for everyone to prepare for battle.

Seeing Sokov giving orders in the bunker, Alexei couldn't help but say with some concern: "Comrade Sokov, is it appropriate for us to prepare for battle before receiving orders from our superiors?"

"Alexei," Sokov knew very well that if he wanted everyone in the bunker to obey his orders, he had to convince deputy gunner Alexei first: "Without orders, can we just watch the Germans occupy our positions and make us all their prisoners?"

After hearing Sokov's words, everyone fell silent. Although the Soviet army had been losing ground since the outbreak of the war, no one was willing to take the initiative to be a prisoner.

After a long while, Alexei said, "Comrade Sokov, I will listen to you. I will prepare for battle now. When the Germans come up, I will cooperate with you to eliminate them."

Ten minutes later, eight three-wheeled motorcycles appeared in sight, filled with German soldiers.

Sokov was thinking in his mind that when he opened fire, he would first shoot down the motorcycle in front, then the one at the back. After the passages in front and behind were blocked, he would use machine gun fire to slowly deal with the remaining enemies.

The motorcycle team stopped on the road. Except for the motorcyclists, the rest of the soldiers got off the motorcycles and surrounded a man who looked like an officer, seemingly waiting for his orders.

The officer took two steps toward the roadside and looked toward the bunkers, seemingly wondering if there was anyone inside.

After standing by the road and watching for a while, the officer waved to the soldiers, signaling them to go and take a look at the group of bunkers.

Seeing the soldiers approaching the bunker with guns drawn, Sokov pulled the trigger without hesitation.

Amid the sound of gunfire, five or six German soldiers fell down while walking. The rest, seeing the situation was not good, immediately lay on the ground. Because there were weeds half a man high on the roadside, Sokov could not see their exact position when they lay down.

But this was not a problem for Sokov. Since the Germans could not see their positions clearly after they lay down, he changed his target to those motorcyclists who were still on their motorcycles. The bullets fired by the heavy machine guns were like a plow plowing the land, plowing from the first motorcycle to the last one. Except for two clever motorcyclists who jumped out of the motorcycle in time to escape, the other motorcyclists were all killed. The officer lying on the side of the road saw that only the westernmost bunker in the entire group of bunkers was firing, and thought that there was no one in the other bunkers, so he gestured to the nearby subordinates to disperse and try to approach the bunker where Sokov was from different positions.

However, not long after they stood up, the other bunkers also started firing. The sudden barrage of light machine guns and rifles knocked down another seven or eight people.

The officer never dreamed that there were people in the bunker that had been silent not long ago, and the firepower was even more fierce. Seeing that most of his men had been killed, he was afraid that no one would be able to escape if the battle continued, so he quickly issued an order for the surviving soldiers to retreat.

As soon as the Germans below began to retreat, Sokov saw some people rushing out from the nearby bunkers and directly attacking the remaining German soldiers on the road.

Facing the charging crowd, Sokov was speechless. Not only were so many people crowded together, but they also blocked his shooting range. In order to avoid accidentally hurting his own people, Sokov had no choice but to stop shooting.

Seeing that Sokov had stopped shooting, Alexei asked in confusion: "Comrade Sokov, why don't you shoot?"

"There's no way to fight anymore." Sokov pointed at the mob that was rushing towards the Germans and said helplessly, "Look, they're blocking my shooting range. If I continue to shoot, I'm not sure if I can hit the enemy, but I'm sure I'll hurt our own people by mistake. In order to avoid accidentally hurting our own people, I can only choose to cease fire!"

As soon as Sokov finished, the captain rushed into the bunker and asked sharply: "Sokov, why did you stop shooting?"

"Captain, it's not that I don't want to shoot, but there is no way to shoot." Sokov could only repeat what he had just said to Alexei to the captain, and finally said: "The soldiers in our company are all newly recruited. They have not received military training and have no combat experience, so they will be in chaos when charging. The enemy below has basically lost its resistance. They will definitely win if they rush down. But if they encounter organized resistance from the Germans, I'm afraid they will pay a heavy price."

After listening to Sokov's words, the captain was silent for a long time before he spoke: "Sokov, you are right. Our soldiers lack training, which makes it easy for us to suffer losses on the battlefield. After we eliminate these enemies, I will organize everyone to train."

When the captain was leaving the bunker, he stopped and turned to Sokov and said, "Comrade Sokov, I apologize for what happened not long ago. You were right. If you hadn't shot decisively, we might have suffered a great loss."

The battle on the road ended quickly without any suspense.

Except for two German soldiers who were taken prisoner, the rest were killed. Three members of the company were killed and five were wounded. Seven submachine guns, one pistol and 24 rifles were seized.

After learning the results of the battle, the soldiers in the bunker were all smiling, but Sokov was frowning. His side occupied the advantageous terrain, had the advantage in numbers, and was ambushed, but suffered such heavy casualties. If they encountered an enemy of equal strength, they would probably be in danger of being wiped out.

Not long after, Andrei came to the bunker and said to Sokov, "Comrade Sokov, the captain is calling you, please follow me."

Arriving at the bunker where the captain was, the captain, who was in a good mood, came over and shook hands with Sokov, and said with a smile: "Comrade Sokov, you have made an indispensable contribution to our victory. When there is a chance in the future, I will definitely ask my superiors for credit for you."

According to the captain's idea, the Soviets who valued honor more than life would be moved to tears after hearing what he said. But Sokov, who was standing in front of him, showed a calmness that was inconsistent with his age.

"Comrade Sokov," the captain asked tentatively, "We won the battle, but you don't seem happy."

"Comrade Captain, before the battle started, I heard the roar of armored vehicles in the distance." Seeing that the captain was complacent about this small victory, Sokov quickly reminded him, "But we only killed a few dozen soldiers on motorcycles."

After hearing what Sokov said, the captain also realized the seriousness of the problem: "Comrade Sokov, are you saying that these soldiers we killed were just reconnaissance teams sent by the German armored forces?"

"I think this possibility is very high. I think the German armored forces may feel a little tired after marching all night, so they stopped to rest not far from us." Seeing that the captain understood his intention, Sokov nodded and said, "And this motorized unit is just a scout sent by them. Once we fired guns here, the enemy in the distance will definitely hear it. I believe it won't be long before the German armored forces will arrive here, and then we will face an extremely brutal battle."

"So what should we do?" asked the captain.

"Let the soldiers hide in the bunkers." Sokov said helplessly: "I have carefully checked, the bunkers are reinforced concrete buildings one or two meters thick. Even if the German army bombards with tank guns, they cannot destroy the bunkers. It should be safer to hide in them."

He turned his gaze to Andrei beside him: "Of course, we can't just passively defend. Don't we have a 45mm anti-tank gun now? We can use it to destroy the invading German tanks and cause huge losses to the enemy."

Andrei waited for Sokov to finish speaking, then asked worriedly, "Sokov, do you think we will die here?"

"Andrei, to be honest, I don't know." Sokov shook his head and said, "We have lost contact with our superiors and probably won't get any support. With our current strength, all we can do is try to slow down the enemy's advance so that he can't advance quickly into the Kiev area and buy more time for our main force."

"So, what awaits us is the fate of sacrifice." Andre said with a gloomy expression: "Maybe the next battle will be our last battle. Right?"

"Andrei, what you said is very likely true." Sokov said, "So we must be mentally prepared and be ready to sacrifice at any time."

(End of this chapter)