Soul to the Rhine

Chapter 116 Escape from Hell ([-])

The next day, when the moon set and the sun rose, when the light once again shone in the dark corners of Stalingrad, Rosia finally saw two dilapidated houses.

Houses for Soviet refugees.

She dragged the unconscious Heinrich all the way here, and happened to bump into a Soviet peasant woman in gray clothes who was as thin as a skeleton. She quickly ran over, and the peasant woman caught a glimpse of the military uniform on Heinrich's body. , but quickly closed the door as if seeing something scary.

"Wait a moment."

Rosia quickly reached out to block the gap in the door frame and said in the few Russian words she knew: "Sorry, we are refugees who escaped from Stalingrad. Can you give us some hot water?"

The peasant woman didn't believe it at all. She closed the door again and cursed, speaking so fast and urgently that Rosia couldn't understand it at all. She only captured the word "German Army" in these sentences.

"No, you misunderstood." Rosia stretched her arms inward a little more, and said nothing to let her close the door, explaining: "We are not the German army, it's just that it was too cold, so we wore their clothes. "

She doesn't know Russian, and she hasn't said a few words with the German soldiers all the time. Now she can only piece together the few words she knows. A sentence is full of grammatical errors, and she doesn't know if the Soviet peasant woman can understand it.

The Soviet peasant woman looked behind her again, but still wanted to close the door. Rosia became anxious and immediately shouted: "Let's exchange food for hot water, okay?"

After closing the door for a while, the Soviet peasant woman's deep eyes kept staring at her for a long time before she turned around and entered the door. After a while, she was handed a water bag filled with hot water.

Rosia breathed a sigh of relief, quickly thanked him, took out a piece of black bread from the medicine box and handed it over.

"Um, if you're injured, let me borrow your place, okay?" she asked again.

This time, the Soviet peasant woman did not ignore it. Perhaps it was because of the life-saving bread. She walked out and opened another dilapidated farmhouse next to the house. It was bare, with nothing except a wooden bed.But even that was better than lying on the ground.

The Soviet peasant woman muttered a few more words in her ear. Rosia could only piece together what she meant based on the sporadic words in it. It seemed that this was the room where her son once lived, and her son was now fighting in the war. Specialized in fighting the Germans.

Regarding this, Rosia was so frightened that she broke out in a cold sweat. She quickly emphasized again that they were not German soldiers.

Fortunately, the Soviet peasant woman got the bread and couldn't wait to go back to deal with it. She didn't stay here longer, said a few words and left.

Rosia closed the door, found a stick and pushed the door shut. After shaking it to make sure it wouldn't be easily pushed open, she quickly walked to the bed and removed the gauze from Heinrich's shoulder.

The infection situation has improved, but the wound is still not optimistic. He didn't know when he broke free, and the blood oozing out of it had already stained the gauze red.It was freezing cold after walking all night, and he didn't look that good either.

Rosia tested the temperature of the water, gave him some to drink first, and used the rest to clean the wound.

After re-bandaging, she was afraid that Heinrich would put pressure on the wound again, so she simply let him lie down like this.

The Soviet peasant woman does not live here alone. She also has two young sons, the youngest of whom is only 4 years old.The food shortage here is terrible. All the poultry and animals she raised before are used to feed her children, but she still cannot survive this winter.

So even though she still suspected that the origins of Rosia and the two were wrong, she still let people stay here in order to exchange for life-saving bread.

However, Rosia cannot stay here for long. January is already halfway through, and around the beginning of February, the Sixth Army will surrender. If they cannot escape before then, they will never be able to escape.

At night, Rosia planned to spend the night here, and then leave early the next morning to find a new way out.But just when she was about to take a nap, the Soviet peasant woman came over again with a bag of hot water and wanted to exchange food with her.

This deal was not worth it. Rosia didn't want to agree to it at first, but seeing the hungry cat-like child behind her, she couldn't help but took out another piece of black bread.

She didn't have much in her own food storage, so she had no right to waste it. This was her last act of kindness and warning to herself.

Because of the incident with the Soviet female soldiers, her understanding of human nature has gone up to several levels, so she is also wary of Soviet peasant women.After taking the hot water bottle, she sent it away without saying anything.

After walking outside the door, the Soviet peasant woman asked her again: "Where are you going?"

This sentence was relatively simple, and Rosia understood it: "We are going to Rostov, and I heard that there is a refugee camp there." She answered half-truthfully.

"Then do you have a refugee certificate?" the Soviet peasant woman asked again.

Rosia was stunned. The refugee certificate seemed like something she had never thought of from the beginning.Do even refugees need documents to leave the Stalingrad checkpoint?

The Soviet peasant woman knew at a glance that she did not have one, so she took out two yellowed notes from her pocket: "If you can give me another piece of bread, I will give them to you. This is my son's refugee card. The other one is for my daughter-in-law, but she died in Leningrad before I even saw her. You can fill in your name, but there is no stamp on it."

What she said was very long, and Rosia only half-understood it, but she understood that this Soviet peasant woman wanted to exchange food with her.

Two pieces of paper that were not money in exchange for food were not cost-effective in any way. She struggled at the door for a long time, then looked inside the room, and finally decided to change it.

If they were really blocked by the Soviet army and their identity was found out, their death would be too worthless. At worst, she would only drink water and not eat anything tomorrow.

The son of a Soviet peasant woman was named Reagan Vav. In fact, there was a long string of Russian words after his name, which she didn't even recognize.Reagan applied for a refugee certificate but did not use it. He was quickly recruited into the army and became a soldier. Naturally, the refugee certificate was useless. The other piece of paper was blank with nothing written on it. , there is no chapter yet.

It seems a bit uneconomical to replace it.

Rosia felt a little sick just thinking about it, so she had to put it down for the time being. She poured a little of the bag of hot water into a bowl, took out an egg from the medicine box and put it in the bowl to boil.

This was the only egg she had. It was given to Heinrich by an old soldier on the road, but he never had the chance to eat it.Since there is hot water now, let’s boil it first.

The water temperature did not last long in the Soviet Union. She poured water several times before she could barely boil the eggs.After peeling the shell, she was about to cut it open with a spoon when an image suddenly flashed in her mind.It was a familiar scene, very similar to the scene in front of me.

Eggs, refugee cards...

An idea flashed before her eyes, and she suddenly remembered something, and carefully pasted the egg on the red seal of the Reagan refugee card.A few seconds later, she picked up the egg again, pointed it at the same position on another blank refugee card, and carefully rolled the egg up.

The identical red seals were printed bit by bit on the yellowed paper. When Rosia picked up the eggs, except for the different words on the two certificates, it was basically impossible to tell whether they were genuine or not.

Relieved, she quickly put the eggs back into the bowl and poured some hot water to wash away the red color on them.After she finished it, she was speechless to find that the hot water exchanged for a piece of bread had been so completely ruined.

Fortunately, she had finally finished falsifying the identity issue. She cut the egg bit by bit and stuffed it into Heinrich's mouth. Then she took out a pen and filled in her name on the refugee card.

The next day, Rosia left with Heinrich early in the morning. It was still snowing heavily outside, but after a night's rest, she could still hold on.Following the path Heinrich pointed out when he woke up, she walked all the way. At noon, she unexpectedly saw a refugee concentration camp not far from the checkpoint set up by the Soviet army. There were many Soviet refugees there, and everyone was horribly thin. He walked like an unconscious zombie.Heinrich didn't react at all when he saw Heinrich wearing a German uniform. He still walked on his own and was busy with slow movements.

This picture really looks like Resident Evil, which makes people's hair stand on end.

Rosia really didn't dare to show her "wealth" in a place like this. She could only find a piece of black bread as hard as a rock, and went to the refugees to change clothes pitifully.

Heinrich's military uniform was too conspicuous, and he was a mobile target when walking in the Soviet Union. Now they encountered only ordinary civilians, and they would definitely not be able to wait until they passed the checkpoint.

Obviously food was the most important thing in the world in the Soviet Union. Rosia only used a piece of bread to exchange for a set of refugee clothes. The clothes were very tattered, but they were still very clean because they had just been washed.

After long-lasting antibiotics, Heinrich's wounds showed signs of improvement, but he still had little ability to move.He was very dissatisfied with wearing such thin, tattered and aesthetically pleasing clothes, and was unwilling to change. In the end, Rosia forced him to change.

"You'd better be honest with me. This is not Germany or Paris. You are a refugee from the Soviet Union now. Don't act like a commander, otherwise we will never get out." Rosia was afraid that this guy would be arrogant and arrogant. When he met Su Junzai couldn't help but sarcastic and stumbled at the critical moment, so he had to warn him in advance.

Heinrich remained silent and looked at her accusingly with his ice-blue eyes.

"It's useless to protest. Don't you know Russian? I heard that the Slavs in Russia look very similar to you. Then you can just say that you are a fleeing Slav."

Obviously, these words made a certain German officer who considered himself of noble blood and superior race very unhappy. Rosia glanced at him worriedly and said: "No, let me tell you. You are too dangerous."

Heinrich snorted.

Rosia suddenly became desperate: "Forget it, don't say anything, just lie on the sled and pretend to be dead."

"..."

Less than three miles away from the refugee camp, there is a checkpoint set up by the Soviet army in Stalingrad. It is also one of the railway stations in Stalingrad. The city that the Soviet army has recaptured is now being opened to traffic.

She originally planned to walk out of Stalingrad on two legs, but since she learned that the place was open to traffic, she gave up the idea.Anyway, we have to deceive the Soviet army to pass the checkpoint. It would be better if we could make a train.

But since you are passing the border as a Soviet refugee, you must throw away everything related to your German identity.For Heinrich, once the military uniform was taken off, there was nothing left that could not be thrown away.There aren't many bullets in the gun, so it doesn't matter if you throw it away.

The only thing he couldn't throw away was his Nazi officer ID card, which was his identification in the army. If he lost it, no one might recognize him when he returned to Rostov.Rosia thought for a long time and only thought of stuffing the certificate into the bottom of her shoe. Her own field doctor certificate was nothing, but if it was detected, it would inevitably cause a lot of trouble, so she had to hide it inside.

In the afternoon, she dragged Heinrich to wait in line for inspection. Originally, she planned to let the guy pretend to be dead, but he actually fainted, and she was the one to tell the lie again.Thinking of her extremely broken Russian gave me a headache.

After arriving at the train station, I found that the queue there was so long that I couldn't even see the end.Although refugees and civilians accounted for the vast majority, the Soviet army's inspections were still very strict. They not only had specialized interrogators, but also specially inspected personal belongings. Apparently they were afraid that soldiers or spies from other countries would be mixed into them.The train station and the platform are separated by a large iron net, with a small door in the middle. Only through layers of checks can one pass through.

As soon as she saw this battle, Rosia was trembling nervously.Both of their documents were complete, but her language and whether Heinrich's injuries would be found to be suspicious by the Soviet army were still unknown.

She didn't know how to answer the question why a Soviet refugee had sniper rifle wounds.

The line in front was getting shorter and shorter, and Rosia's heart became more and more tense. Her hands holding the sled rope were sweating.Finally, after the refugee in front passed by, it was her turn.

"Where are you from?"

Rosia tried to be calm and said in a normal tone: "Stalingrad."

The soldier suddenly frowned, and Rosia looked at his dark face before she realized that she had said a stupid answer, because this was Stalingrad now, and she was talking nonsense.

"Industrial area." She quickly added.

"Chengnan Industrial Zone?" The soldier frowned even more tightly and looked at her with an unkind expression: "There's not a war going on there, how could you come out from there?" As he said that, he lowered his head and saw her lying on the sled being dragged behind her. Heinrich, who was stunned, suddenly raised his voice: "Who is he? What's going on? What's your relationship? Is he a deserter on the battlefield?"

This series of questions was spoken quickly and urgently, with a harsh voice. It was obviously an interrogation technique.But Rosia was so confused by his grammar that it took her a long time to figure out which one was which.

"Who are you?" The Soviet soldier seemed to sense something was wrong and kept his hand on the gun at his waist.

"We are just ordinary refugees." Rosia's heart suddenly shrank, and she calmly handed over the two refugee certificates she had prepared early in the morning: "He is my husband. He was injured by the Germans while fleeing. It’s not healed yet.”

"What's the injury?" This man seemed to be very alert. He looked at Heinrich as if he didn't look like an ordinary refugee. He squatted down and pulled off the clothes on his shoulders, revealing criss-crossing scars.There are many cuts and scratches on it, old and new, but it’s hard to tell how they were injured.

Rosia's heart skipped a beat when she saw him standing up with a frown on his face: "How could he be injured so seriously?"

He only looked at one shoulder, so he didn't see the sniper bullet wound on the other side.Rosia breathed a sigh of relief in her heart and tried to use short words: "While fighting for food..."

As soon as these words came out, the soldiers understood immediately.There was not enough food in the entire Soviet Union. Even their soldiers were hungry sometimes, let alone these refugees.He lowered his head and looked at the two yellowed refugee certificates and red seals in his hands. They were both genuine and dated.

"Where are you going by car?"

"Rostov."

There is a refugee shelter in Rostov, where most of the refugees fled.The soldier looked at them carefully again and glanced at Heinrich's face several times. If it weren't for the lack of such things in this era, Rosia would have thought that he was planning something evil against Heinrich.

"Then, you can go through, remember to go to the left to get checked." He said, waved his hand, handed over the two refugee certificates, and then went to check the next one.

Rosia took it respectfully, and the big stone in her heart finally fell to the ground.

The Soviet Union was a vast country with tectonic plates stretching across the Eurasian continent. There were more than 100 ethnic groups with different languages, clothing, looks, and living habits. Even their own people couldn't tell who was who.So she kept her words short and avoided grammatical errors, and she managed to get through this hell.

Rosia continued to drag Heinrich forward to check the belongings, but she didn't want the soldier's voice to come from behind again.

"and many more."

Rosia stiffened, turned around, and looked at her with a flattering and puzzled look.

"What is this?" The soldier's expression turned serious. He walked over and squatted down in front of Heinrich's waist pocket.

Rosia looked over nervously, only to see a bit of black and white ribbon exposed from the tattered pocket. Her head suddenly became blurred and her heart beat wildly uncontrollably.

The soldier pulled his hand and pulled it out. It turned out to be a Knight's Cross of Iron Cross.

"A refugee actually has a German officer's medal on his body?" The soldier stood up with a cold and stern expression, his eyes shooting sharply like an eagle.

Rosia's scalp was numb at the sight of him. She really couldn't understand how Heinrich could keep this thing on his body after he had thrown away everything, even his gun.

At Hitler's request, recipients of the Knight's Cross would receive special attention from the Third Reich's propaganda machine, and newspapers and other propaganda media would repeatedly broadcast their deeds to people to highlight the glory of Germany.Not only that, the Third Reich government also issued postcards with their portraits printed on them, and these postcards were widely collected in wartime Germany.

Werner was awarded this medal posthumously, his name is engraved on the Heroes' Monument in Berlin Square, and there is a postcard in Aunt Mesa's house.I don’t know when Heinrich obtained it, and whether his face has ever been seen by these Soviets.

Rosia had a headache. When she met the soldier's questioning gaze, she had no choice but to bite the bullet and said, "We picked it off a dead officer. My husband said it was made of sterling silver and can be exchanged for food..."

This is quite a refugee answer. For some real refugees, they really don’t know what it is. They just think it is a simple valuable decoration and get it from the dead. And Rosia’s current image and expression are also very It fits what she said.

The soldier glanced at her and was about to ask again, but another soldier beside him became impatient: "Okay Hans, you are too nervous. This is the German knighthood, which this person can have. Hurry up. Well, there are still a lot of people behind us, and we still have to catch up with today’s dinner.”

The soldier glanced at her a few more times and seemed to think it made sense, but he was unwilling to return the medal to her.

"Okay, you guys go check it out quickly, we have confiscated this thing."

Rosia was eager to leave quickly, regardless of whether he took it or not, she immediately turned around and pulled the sled through the door.

The Soviets' screening was very strict. You couldn't get on the train directly after passing the immigration. There was a large open space behind the iron fence. There were several soldiers there checking their belongings one by one. But what could be brought with the refugees? They just searched them. , check to see if there are any weapons or anything like that.

When it was Rosia's turn, one of the soldiers lowered his head to look at her face, suddenly smiled, and whistled loudly above her head.Rosia involuntarily took a step back, but the soldier squatted down to check Heinrich first.

Heinrich had nothing on him, and there was nothing for a grown man to touch. He just patted his pockets and legs casually, and walked over without finding anything.

Rosia was a little nervous. She was afraid that the thing she was stepping on would be discovered, so she didn't dare to do anything strange on the surface. However, she also felt that the soldier's attitude towards her was a bit strange, as if she blamed her uncle for teasing the little girl.

"Is this man your lover?" the soldier asked, pretending to reach out to pat her leg.

Rosia held back her discomfort and looked at the ground: "He is my husband."

The soldier picked up his hand and patted her waist again, but said: "He looks like he is about to die."

"He's just injured." Rosia frowned and couldn't avoid him. Fortunately, she was wearing thick clothes in winter. She also had a refugee's tattered coat on top of her cotton-padded jacket, so she didn't feel much about that hand.

The soldier's hand moved up little by little and stopped at her chest. Rosia raised her head suddenly, only to see his other hand stretched out and placed on her neck, and his thumb lifted her chin up.

"What's in your mouth?"

Rosia stretched out her hands and pushed him away: "Nothing, have you finished checking?"

The soldier shook his head, with a sly smile on his lips, looking vulgar for no reason. He pulled Rosia back again, and quietly inserted his hand from the collar of the cotton coat, but his eyes kept falling on her lips, and he said: " I saw you had something hidden inside.”

This is nonsense. She only hid two documents under her feet and had nothing on her body. This soldier just wanted to do something.

Rosia's head was spinning for a while. She struggled hard but failed to break away. Looking around, several other soldiers looked at her with interest, as if they didn't pay attention to the husband on the ground at all.

The Soviet Union was in a world of ice and snow, and they had fought wars for a long time. Except for aunts and peasant women, few women were seen here.A refugee with no background is the best person to handle.

Rosia had never seen anything like this in her life, and she was so angry that she felt dizzy. She stretched out her hand and pulled the pig's hand off, and was about to slap the soldier, but was caught by another soldier. Stopped.

"Let go."

"Let me see what you have hidden inside!"

The Soviet soldier actually used force when she was blocked. He grabbed her and dragged her to the side path.She suddenly panicked. At this moment, Heinrich rolled over and sat up from the sled, and suddenly pulled the Soviet soldier's leg.

She lowered her head in panic, just in time to see a fierce and ferocious light flashing in his ice-blue eyes, just like the way he looked when he killed people in Warsaw.He fought bloody battles on the battlefield, his body filled with murderous aura, and the change in his face was already terrifying.The Soviet soldier took a step back and was about to lift his foot to throw away his hand, but Heinrich used the strength to stand up, made a fist with one hand, and hit him hard in the face.

There was a crisp sound of bones moving in the field, and the soldier suddenly staggered, unable to stand, and fell to the ground.But this alerted several other soldiers, who immediately came over with guns in hand.

Heinrich seemed to be still angry. He bent down and grabbed the soldier's collar, picked him up and punched him again. Nosebleeds suddenly flowed from the soldier's nose, and he let out a scream.

How could it be possible to beat someone in front of so many Soviet soldiers under the eyes of the Soviet soldiers?Rosia stared blankly as he looked fierce and wanted to hit someone again, and hurriedly went up to stop him, but she didn't expect that the Soviet soldiers had already rushed over, grabbed Heinrich's arm and pushed him to the ground.

One soldier kicked him in the leg socket, and the other picked up the butt of his rifle and hit him on the back.

There is a gunshot wound...

Rosia trembled and rushed forward, but she happened to meet Heinrich's gaze.It was full of anger and unconcealable murderous intent.

How could this be the look in the eyes of an ordinary refugee? There is no need to investigate at all. They will be arrested immediately with just this look.Rosia quickly wrapped her arms around him, covering his eyes and blocking these people from invading his wounds.

"He's injured, please stop, don't hit him..." Rosia hugged Heinrich and didn't let go, all those punches and kicks fell on her body, and she felt that the hand she was holding was hit by the butt of the gun. , with their fingers connected to their hearts, her tears fell instantly from the pain, dripping down her cheeks and onto the face of Heinrich in her arms, and then slipped from his face to his collar.

Heinrich's body was shaken, as if he had been burned. At that moment, he felt an unprecedented tremor, as well as a clear tremor in the arms holding him.He looked hard and wanted to stand up again, but Rosia hugged his neck tightly and suppressed his movements.

Several soldiers struck a few more times, but when they saw that they all fell on Rosia, they had no choice but to stop.Just as he was about to lift Heinrich off the ground, he saw a commotion outside the iron gate. Two officers walked over with serious expressions under the fearful eyes of countless refugees.

The expressions of several soldiers changed and they immediately stood up straight.

"What are you doing?" The officer walking in front glanced at the appearance of the people present and knew what was going on. His face was terrifyingly dark, and he glanced at Rosia, who was kneeling on the ground crying with a broken heart, and Rosia, who had a heartbroken expression on his face. The gloomy Heinrich looked at the group of people around him who were staring at this place, and his lungs suddenly exploded with anger.

"A dignified soldier is actually doing such banditry. Do you still look like a soldier? Are you a member of the Fourth Army?" The officer roared, and Rosia looked over with tearful eyes, only to realize that he was a Soviet Red Army soldier.

"Get out of here and patrol the mountains. Where's Rolfsky? Find someone new to take his place." The officer seemed to have been fed by gunpowder and was greatly disappointed with the behavior of his men. He turned his head and glanced at Luo Luo on the ground. Xia couldn't say anything and left with a sigh behind her back, without letting anyone continue to investigate them.

It must not be a good job to patrol the mountains in this weather. Several soldiers went out dejectedly, and a soldier who looked like an adjutant ordered a few more people over.

At this time, an elderly couple waiting in line behind Rosia to get on the bus came over, helped them up from the ground, and patted the snow off their bodies.

Rosia whimpered and put down her hand, only to realize that the hand on Heinrich's back was covered in blood, but it was not her own.

She looked at the bright red between her fingers in horror, but Heinrich pulled her in front of him as if nothing was wrong, and walked towards the long-awaited train that would take them away from this hell.

　Two in one, leaving Stalingrad...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)