red moscow

Chapter 2761

When Sokov heard Vlasov's order, he immediately sent a signal to the soldiers around him, asking them to prepare for the transfer. As for the plane that came to pick him up, he had no time to care about it. If there were enemy planes patrolling the nearby airspace, this plane would probably be doomed.

When Colonel Del saw the troops begin to move, he asked Vlasov hesitantly, "Comrade Commander, are you really not going to contact the front headquarters and ask them to withdraw the plane that is supposed to pick us up?"

Vlasov hesitated for a moment about Colonel Del's proposal, and then made a difficult decision: "Chief of Staff, send a telegram to the front headquarters immediately, saying that the agreed rendezvous point has been discovered by a German reconnaissance plane. If the planes sent here land as planned, there may be danger. Please withdraw the planes immediately."

After that, Vlasov gave another instruction: "Chief of Staff, after sending the telegram, move immediately, understand?"

"clear."

A few minutes later, the communications chief sent a telegram to the front headquarters and packed up the radio station to prepare for the move. But at this time, the German bombers that had heard the news had already arrived above the forest. They swooped down from the sky one after another, dropping bombs and strafing at the still smoking fire, which frightened the chief of communications staff to death. But he was afraid, and when he moved, he still did not forget to carry the radio that could keep in touch with the outside world.

After bombing the clearing in the forest, the enemy planes bombed the nearby forests.

Seeing that the trees not far away were blown in half, the troops that were on the move fell into chaos, and many soldiers broke away from the neat formation and began to flee in all directions.

Sokov did not stop this situation. He knew that in this situation, no one could gather the troops in chaos. The only thing he could do was to get out of the German bombing area as soon as possible and find a safe place to regroup the troops, no matter how many he could.

The enemy planes' bombing lasted for more than ten minutes and then ended.

Looking at the enemy planes flying away in the sky, Sokov finally breathed a sigh of relief, then called Konstantin over and told him, "Comrade Lieutenant, when the enemy planes bombed just now, many of our soldiers left the troops out of fear. Now you go with Chulxin and Zub to gather the troops. Gather as many people as you can. I can only give you half an hour. When the time is up, we must move immediately."

"Transfer?" Constantine asked in surprise, "Comrade Captain, are you worried that the enemy planes will bomb again?"

"I'm not sure if the enemy will bomb again." Sokov said with a wry smile, "But it is possible that the enemy will send ground troops to search this area. If we don't move, we may have to engage in direct fire with the enemy. Do you think we can defeat the enemy with our current strength?"

"We can't win." Constantine was aware of this and said, "I will go and gather the troops immediately."

Vlasov saw Sokov stopped moving, walked over and asked, "Captain Sokov, why did you stop?"

"Comrade Commander," Sokov replied, "many of our troops were scattered during the bombing just now. I asked Lieutenant Konstantin to gather them. Otherwise, with just our few men, if we encounter the enemy, we will not be able to win."

"Comrade Commander," Colonel Del came over hurriedly and said in a panic, "We should leave here as soon as possible. I'm worried that the enemy planes will come back soon."

"Comrade Chief of Staff, don't worry too much." Seeing Colonel Del's worried look, Sokov quickly comforted him, "Enemy planes won't come. Even if they come again, it won't be easy for them to bomb the troops in the forest."

"Comrade Commander!" Colonel Del asked Vlasov with a bitter face, "The plane that will pick us up will definitely not come. What should we do next?"

"We continue to head northeast," Vlasov said. "About 50 kilometers further, we will reach Sumy. There must be our troops there."

Half an hour later, Konstantin reported to Sokov: "Comrade Captain, we have tried our best, but there are still seven or eight soldiers missing. They must have fled to other areas during the bombing."

"Comrade Lieutenant, we can't take care of them." Sokov waved his hand and said, "We will continue on our journey as planned and try to get out of the German encirclement as soon as possible."

The assembled troops moved forward in the direction indicated by Vlasov again.

After several hours of marching, in the evening, Sokov asked Vlasov: "Comrade Commander, we have walked almost 20 kilometers, and the soldiers are exhausted. Should we camp and rest here?"

Hearing Sokov's words, Vlasov frowned slightly. According to his idea, he wanted the troops to march all the way to Sumei City, but at this moment he felt that he was exhausted and could not continue to walk. So he agreed to Sokov's request: "Okay, Captain Sokov, we will rest here. Remember, there may be Germans nearby, so be on guard."

"Don't worry, Comrade Commander." Sokov nodded and said, "I will arrange the security."

After Sokov left Vlasov, he called Konstantin and two other lieutenants and said to them, "Comrade commanders, the soldiers have been traveling all day and are exhausted. We have decided to camp here and rest, and continue our journey tomorrow morning. However, for safety reasons, we will send out sentries all around. We will send out a double sentry post in the east, west, south, and north, so that if there is any movement, we can issue an alarm in time."

A lieutenant heard what Sokov said and immediately questioned: "Comrade Captain, the soldiers have been traveling all day and are already exhausted. If we follow your arrangement and set up two guards in each of the four directions, plus the soldiers who change guards at night, it means that 16 soldiers will not get a good rest, which is very disadvantageous for their journey tomorrow."

"Comrade Lieutenant," Sokov said dissatisfiedly, looking at the lieutenant who questioned him, "I know everyone is very tired after a day's journey. But there is no way. There may be enemies nearby. If we don't raise our vigilance and strengthen our alertness, what if the Germans come over at night? Do you think our soldiers who are tired and sleeping soundly have the strength to defeat them?"

After hearing what Sokov said, the lieutenant hesitated for a moment, then shook his head and said, "It should be impossible to defeat them. After all, our soldiers were all asleep when the enemy attacked. I'm afraid many of them would die under the German guns before they even had time to open their eyes."

"Since you understand this, then go and carry out my orders." Sokov said to the lieutenant in a slow tone, "If you encounter any soldiers who don't understand this arrangement, you must explain it to them. Do you understand?"

"clear."

After setting up the guard post, Sokov was determined to report the matter to Vlasov, so he walked towards the place where Vlasov and others were resting.

As I walked over, I saw the communications officer directing two soldiers to set up an antenna, apparently preparing to send a telegram.

"Comrade Commander," Sokov walked up to Vlasov and asked, "Are you planning to send a telegram to the front headquarters?"

"Yes, Captain Sokov." Vlasov nodded and said, "I need to report my situation here to the front headquarters."

Sokov said nothing about Vlasov's plan. The troops were now located deep in the forest. Even if the German telecommunications personnel intercepted the telegram, it would not be easy to find his small unit in the vast forest.

Soon, the antenna was set up and the communications staff began to send messages. If this was a regular headquarters, Sokov would have hidden far away. But now, there were only Vlasov, Colonel Del, Nikolsky and a communications staff in the so-called headquarters. As the head of the guard force protecting the headquarters, Sokov should definitely stay here.

Shortly after the telegram was sent, a reply from the front headquarters arrived.

After reading the above content, Colonel Del handed the telegram to Vlasov and said, "Comrade Commander, the plane that came to pick us up was hit by ground anti-aircraft fire while flying over Romny and has been destroyed."

Vlasov was terrified when he learned that the plane that came to pick him up was destroyed. He thought that if he had not been discovered by the German reconnaissance plane and bombed by the bomber, he would have been on that plane. If he had been shot down over Romny, he would have certainly died.

"That was a close call, Comrade Commander." Military Commissioner Nikolsky came over to read the contents of the telegram and was also shocked and broke out in a cold sweat: "Fortunately, we were not on that plane, otherwise if it was shot down, there would be no hope of survival at all."

"Yeah, it's dangerous."

"Comrade Commander," Colonel Del thought for a while, and then made a suggestion to Vlasov: "How about we send out a reconnaissance team to conduct reconnaissance nearby and find out where we are now. Only by confirming our position can we march aimlessly tomorrow."

"I think it's possible, but the reconnaissance team must return after daybreak. If they return too late and we have already set off, they may not be able to find us." After saying this, Vlasov turned to Sokov and asked, "Captain Sokov, how long will it take to send out the reconnaissance team?"

"Comrade Commander, if we want to send out a reconnaissance team, it will only take a few minutes." Sokov asked in return: "The question is, in which direction should we conduct reconnaissance?"

"Of course it's northeast." Colonel Del answered without hesitation: "According to the map, as long as we keep going northeast, we can reach the Sumei area."

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"Okay." Since Colonel Del had already indicated the direction of the reconnaissance, Sokov naturally knew how to execute it: "I will arrange the personnel immediately."

Sokov quickly found Chulxin and said to him, "Chulxin, I have an important task for you. I will give you three soldiers to form a reconnaissance team. Go to the northeast of the camp to scout and find out our exact location."

"No problem." Churxin readily accepted the task, and at the same time asked: "Do we need to catch two tongues?"

"It's not necessary." Sokov shook his head and said, "We can't take them away after we've interrogated them. We'll have to kill them right there. Why bother?"

"Well, I understand. Is there anything else you want to ask?"

"Churxin, I think you should understand that we don't have a fixed base in the forest and we are always moving." Sokov stared at Churxin: "You must come back before dawn tomorrow, otherwise you may not be able to find us, understand?"

"Understood." Chulxin nodded again and said, "I will definitely be back before dawn."

Sokov extended his hand to Chulsin and said in a friendly tone: "Good luck to you!"

…………

In the middle of the night, Sokov was awakened by Konstantin, who was sleeping: "Comrade Captain, Comrade Captain, please wake up!"

Sokov was awakened and shuddered. He thought that maybe the Germans were approaching, and asked hurriedly, "Comrade Lieutenant, what happened?"

"The sentry in the north is reporting," Constantine said. "There is movement in that direction. It seems someone is moving towards this side. Comrade Captain, how should we deal with it?"

"Wake everyone up." Sokov woke up a soldier who was sleeping near him and told him, "Be prepared to fight and move, as the enemy may be approaching."

Seeing the soldier opening his mouth to shout, Sokov quickly stopped him: "Wake him up quietly, but don't make too much noise, or you might alert the enemy in the distance."

After the soldiers woke up the sleeping soldiers one by one, Sokov said to Konstantin: "Come on, Comrade Captain, take me to have a look."

Constantine nodded, and then acted as a guide for Sokov, leading him to the northern guard post.

Soon, the two arrived at the lurking position of the guard post.

Sokov cautiously came to the guard post, lay down beside him, and asked in a low voice: "What's going on here?"

The sentry pointed to the forest ahead and said, "I heard some noise ahead. It was the sound of branches being broken by feet. I listened carefully for a while and found that there were at least a dozen people active in that area, or even more."

"Comrade Captain," Konstantin knew that Sokov had sent out a reconnaissance team. He was worried that the sentry on guard might make a mistake, so he asked Sokov cautiously, "Could it be that Chursin and the others are back?"

"Impossible." Sokov shook his head and said, "Churxin and his men won't be back until dawn. And even if they come back early, there are only four of them, so it's impossible for them to make too much noise. There must be another army in the forest ahead. I just don't know if they are Germans or our own people."

"How about we send someone to contact them?" Constantine suggested.

But his suggestion was quickly rejected by Sokov: "It's pitch black here. If we rashly send people over, I'm afraid the enemy will open fire without hesitation, which will cause us unnecessary casualties."

"What should we do then?" Seeing that his proposal was rejected by Sokov, Constantine couldn't help but feel anxious: "Are we just going to sit there and wait?"

"Second Lieutenant, send a few more people over here." Sokov said, "It would be best to set up a machine gun here. If the enemy rushes over, we can suppress them with firepower."

(End of this chapter)