red moscow

Chapter 2743

When Sokov and his men rushed to the theater, they saw Konstantin commanding the soldiers to carry out several charred bodies with canvas.

Seeing Sokov and his men coming, Konstantin hurriedly stepped forward to salute and reported: "Comrade Company Commander, we found the bodies of several staff members in the theater. After inspection, it seems that they were killed."

"Yes, I know." Sokov nodded and said, "We also found several bodies in the public bathroom. Except for one staff member, the rest of the dead were our soldiers. Their uniforms were missing. They must have been replaced by saboteurs."

"Comrade, this is a bit difficult to handle." Hearing what Sokov said, Konstantin scratched the back of his head and said with embarrassment: "If the saboteurs are wearing the uniforms of our soldiers, how can we find them? We can't just stop and check people in military uniforms as soon as we see them. If we do so, it will not only take up a lot of energy and time, but also be terribly inefficient."

"Lieutenant Constantine, you are right." Sokov knew what the other party was talking about, and said helplessly: "Not to mention that those saboteurs have already found a place to hide after completing the arson mission. Even if they didn't hide, it would not be easy for us to find them with so few people."

"Comrade, our company is too short," Konstantin reminded Sokov. "Do you think we should ask our superiors for more manpower?"

"It's not easy, Comrade Lieutenant." Sokov shook his head and said helplessly, "If I hadn't persuaded them, the superiors wouldn't even assign your platoon to me, and would have asked me to take charge of the headquarters' security with dozens of old, weak and disabled soldiers."

After hearing Sokov's complaint, Constantine was silent for a long time, as if he was helping Sokov find a way to solve the current problem of insufficient manpower.

While Constantine was thinking, Sokov was also thinking that when he was commanding a unit alone, the reinforcement of troops usually came from taking in small units that were scattered, or liberating prisoners of war in prisoner-of-war camps. But now he was just a small company commander, and his activity area was in the center of the city. Even if there were small units that were scattered, they could not reach his area at all, let alone recruit them.

"Comrade Captain," Constantine suddenly shouted, "I have thought of a good way to quickly expand the strength of my company."

Sokov's eyes lit up after hearing this, and he quickly asked, "Tell me quickly, what's the good idea?"

"It is obviously impossible to ask our superiors to transfer experienced veterans to supplement our troops." Constantine said, "But we can recruit from the new soldiers."

"Recruit from the new soldiers?" Sokov looked at Konstantin and asked puzzledly: "Where can we recruit new soldiers?"

"Of course it's the recruitment office." Constantine said, "As far as I know, new recruits who have just signed up for the army will not be added to the army immediately, but will be settled near the recruitment office. When a certain number of recruits are gathered, they will be organized and assigned to various combat units."

"Well, that's a good idea." Sokov thought that since his troops would not be fighting in the short term, it would not matter if they added a batch of new soldiers, so he agreed to Constantine's proposal: "After daybreak, I will go to the commander and the chief of staff and ask them to allow me to add soldiers from the new soldiers."

After daybreak, Vlasov and Colonel Del were found at the temporary headquarters of the front, where they were severely criticized by Chief of Staff Tupikov: "General Vlasov, Colonel Del, since you knew yesterday that the Germans might bomb the headquarters, why didn't you report it to us when you were moving, resulting in heavy losses of headquarters personnel in the German bombing?"

Vlasov and Colonel Del looked at each other, and both saw helplessness in each other's eyes. Then Colonel Del reported to Tupikov: "Comrade Chief of Staff, it's not that we don't report, but we can't confirm the accuracy of the intelligence, so we dare not report it casually."

"Since you couldn't confirm the authenticity of the intelligence, why did you order everyone in the building to evacuate and hide in the air-raid shelter?" Tupikov slapped the table hard and said viciously, "I didn't expect you to come up with such a lame excuse to shirk your responsibility."

Fortunately, Vlasov didn't know that before the air raid, the personnel of the front headquarters had already noticed the movement here, but because the three front commanders thought that Vlasov and his men were panicking, the German bomber formation could not find the accurate bombing coordinates even if it reached the sky above the city, let alone the location of the front headquarters. As a result, just half an hour later, reality slapped them in the face. Most of the bombs dropped by the German bombers fell on the building where the front headquarters was located. This was the real reason for the huge casualties.

If Vlasov knew about this, he would definitely argue with Tupikov. But at this moment, he could only patiently say: "Comrade Chief of Staff of the Front, last night, Captain Sokov, the commander of my special company, told me that there were three buildings on fire around the headquarters. It may be German saboteurs who sneaked into the city. In this way, they indicated the targets for the upcoming bomber formation. Although we don't really believe his statement, for safety reasons, I still ordered all personnel to evacuate the building and hide in the nearby air-raid shelter. To be honest, until the moment when the bombs dropped by the German bombers landed and exploded, I doubted whether Captain Sokov's judgment was correct."

"General Vlasov, it seems that we have wronged you." Just as Vlasov finished speaking, a deep voice came from the door next to him, and then a tall figure appeared at the door.

After seeing clearly that the person coming was Kirponos, Vlasov and Colonel Del quickly stood up from their seats, stood at attention, and raised their hands to salute each other.

"Sit down, everyone." Kirponos raised his hand and pressed it down, motioning the two to sit down, then he pulled over a chair and sat opposite them, and then said, "You said that the reason why we ordered everyone to evacuate the building and hide in the air-raid shelter last night was because we trusted the judgment of a company commander?"

"Yes, Comrade Front Commander," Vlasov said a little embarrassedly, "In fact, I was always skeptical about what he said. It was not until I hid in the air-raid shelter and felt the fierce bombing outside that I was sure that what he said was completely correct."

"General Vlasov, I never thought you had such a capable person under your command." Kirponos couldn't help but become interested in Sokov: "How many years has this company commander you mentioned been in the army? What battles has he participated in?"

"He has been in the army for less than a week," Vlasov replied awkwardly, "but because of his outstanding performance on the battlefield, he was awarded the Order of Lenin, the highest honor, by the Supreme Command and was promoted to the rank of captain."

As the commander of the front, Kirponos had also heard about Sokov's story, but he didn't know the details. He turned his head to look at Tupikov beside him and asked curiously: "Comrade Chief of Staff, do you know the deeds of this captain?"

Tupikov had a good memory. He had seen Sokov's deeds in his superiors' reports. When Kirponos asked him about it, he quickly told him everything he knew in detail. Finally, he looked at Vlasov and said, "I never thought that such a hero was actually a member of the Third Army Command."

"It's amazing that he saved so many lives by himself." Kirponos said with emotion: "If he was in our front headquarters, perhaps the loss last night could have been avoided."

After resolving the misunderstanding, Kirponos asked Vlasov how to strengthen security in the city to prevent similar incidents from happening again.

"Comrade Front Commander," Vlasov replied cautiously, "There are hundreds of thousands of troops and hundreds of thousands of residents gathered in Kiev today. It is probably not easy to find the hidden saboteurs among so many people. For the sake of safety, I suggest that the Front Command should move to a new location and strengthen the defenses around it to avoid being attacked by the German army again."

"The headquarters will be moved soon," Kirponos said to Vlasov. "As the garrison commander of Kiev, I will leave the security of the city to you."

Coming out of the temporary headquarters, Colonel Del met an acquaintance, and the two stood on the roadside and started chatting. Vlasov was anxious to get back to his headquarters, so he said to him: "Comrade Chief of Staff, you can chat slowly, I'm going back first." As soon as Vlasov returned to the headquarters, a staff officer reported to him: "Comrade Commander, Captain Sokov just came and said he had something important to talk to you about. At that time, you and the Chief of Staff were not here, so I let him leave first."

Vlasov knew very well that Sokov would not come to him if he had nothing important to do, so he ordered the staff officer: "Go and find Captain Sokov immediately. I want to ask him in person what he wants from me."

Sokov was staying in a nearby room. When he heard his staff officer come to see him and say that Vlasov had returned, he immediately came to see him.

"Comrade Commander," Sokov saluted Vlasov and said straight to the point, "Our company is too short-handed to protect the headquarters. I hope you can give me some extra manpower."

"How many people do you have now?"

"Including me, there are 86 people in total, and half of them are old, weak and disabled."

Hearing the number Sokov said, Vlasov was stunned: "Damn it, why are there only so few people?"

"There's nothing we can do, Comrade Commander." Sokov said with a bitter face, "The head of the security department told me that the headquarters' security forces are already understaffed, and it's simply impossible to transfer enough personnel to form a new special company."

Vlasov frowned after hearing this. "With just over 80 people, what effect can they have in such a big city? Captain Sokov, please sit down for a while. When the chief of staff comes back, I will ask him to give you some more manpower."

Sokov nodded, then found a corner and stood there waiting.

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After waiting for more than ten minutes, Colonel Del finally appeared in the command center.

"Chief of Staff, you're back." Vlasov, who was looking at a map, looked up and said to him, "Captain Sokov wants to see you."

"Captain Sokov," Colonel Del came to Sokov, looked at him and asked, "What do you want to talk to me about?"

"Comrade Chief of Staff, the situation is this." Sokov said to Colonel Del: "My special company is a little short of manpower, I hope you can give me some reinforcements."

"How many people are there in your company?"

"86 people, including me."

"What's going on? Didn't I ask the chief of security to assign you more people? How is it possible that there are only more than 80 people?"

"There are really only more than 80 people." Seeing that Colonel Del didn't seem to believe him, Sokov quickly added: "If you don't believe me, you can call the chief of security and you will know whether what I said is true or not."

Colonel Del picked up the phone and called the chief of the security department. He asked directly, "Comrade Chief, I want to ask, how many people are there in the special company directly under the headquarters? ... What, how many people are there? ... Oh, I see."

When Colonel Del hung up the phone, Vlasov asked, "What did the chief of security answer?"

"Comrade Commander, Captain Sokov is right. The special company does have only about 80 people." Colonel Del glanced at Sokov and said with some lack of confidence: "It seems unrealistic to want to strengthen the headquarters' defense with just over 80 people."

"Comrade Commander, Comrade Chief of Staff." Seeing that the time was right, Sokov stepped forward and said to the two men, "I do have a way to quickly replenish the troops. I can replenish the special company's troops as quickly as possible, but first I must get your consent."

"What way?" asked Colonel Del.

"Directly recruit troops from the new recruits." Sokov was worried that Colonel Del would object, so he deliberately said: "As far as I know, since new recruits will not be added to the army until a certain number of them are reached, before that, those new recruits who have just joined the army are placed near the recruitment office. Do you think it is possible for me to directly select suitable personnel from the new recruits and add them to the special company?"

After hearing this, Vlasov did not immediately express his attitude, but turned to Colonel Del and asked: "Comrade Chief of Staff, what do you think about this matter?"

Colonel Del thought about it, then nodded and said, "Comrade Commander, I think it's okay. If we recruit directly from the new soldiers, I think it won't be a problem to get 300 or 400 people for the special company, let alone 100 people."

"Since you have no objection, you should immediately draft an order and have Captain Sokov go to the recruitment office to recruit people."

While Colonel Del was writing the order, Sokov added: "Comrade Chief of Staff, it is not enough to have new recruits. We must also provide them with uniforms and weapons so that my special company can effectively assume the responsibility of protecting the headquarters."

"Comrade Chief of Staff, just do as Captain Sokov said. In addition to the new recruits, give them uniforms and weapons and arm them as soon as possible." Vlasov said with emotion: "Maybe one day in the future, we will rely on them to protect our headquarters."

"Captain Sokov," Colonel Del handed the written order to Sokov, "Take this order to the recruitment office, and you can get what you want."

(End of this chapter)