Soul to the Rhine

Chapter 128 Captive
The tank I saw just now on the street aimed its direction, and a shell hit it. A nearby house was hit and collapsed instantly. A big hole was broken in the wall, and countless rubbles poured in crazily.Rosia had experienced a lot, and her body reflexed, and she ran to the exit of the alley almost before the sound of the shelling fell.

Just as she was about to rush out, Heinrich grabbed her collar and stopped her movement.Immediately afterwards, there was a burst of fire on the side of the alley, and the eaves of the nearby houses were swept to pieces in the blink of an eye.

Rosia shuddered for a while, she clutched the small bag in her hand and turned to look at Heinrich.I haven't seen him for more than a year. This guy is getting skinnier and skinnier, but his devilish demeanor is not missing at all.

I don't know why, but in such a dangerous situation, when the German army is certain to be defeated, she feels inexplicably safe when she sees him. She can't figure out why, but she just feels safe.

"Why are you here? Aren't you on the front line?" Rosia had to open his mouth to shout loudly because of the loud gunfire.

However, Heinrich froze, quickly reached out to cover her mouth, and pressed against the wall while looking out with a vigilant expression.

Street fighting is often the most serious casualty and the highest risk factor. At this time, the Soviet army is invading crazily and the German army is fighting back desperately. In such a small area, neither side can gain much benefit.

Rosia knew this, so she didn't dare to make a sound, and obediently leaned against the wall.After a while, Heinrich let go of his hand, walked to the wall, took a grenade from his waist, pulled off the ring, and threw it out.

Almost instantly, the artillery fire from the opposite side locked onto this position. Heinrich grabbed Rosia's arm and ran out quickly in the opposite direction.

Back to the original place, Heinrich seemed to be more familiar with her than she was, and he pulled her without hesitation and continued to run around the corner.With the roar of artillery in her ears, the bursts of gunfire, the smoke billowing in front, and the flames of war, Rosia didn't feel any danger at all, and even felt as ridiculous as running on the playground.

Of course, this feeling only lasted for a moment. When the artillery fire hit the buildings on both sides, all the random thoughts disappeared, replaced by the fear of facing destruction.

As she was being dragged and staggering away, she glanced back in a panic. The hospital not far away had been bombed. The big red cross on the top of the building had been blown to pieces, leaving only the red cross. sawdust.The front of the hall has collapsed, and the people on the street have already dispersed, hiding somewhere.

Minsk has experienced several days of bombing, and the air-raid shelters built by local civilians are not very strong. Usually, before the bombers arrive, the houses here are so shaken that they collapse, causing the people hiding inside to cry for their mothers. .

Heinrich didn't want her to hide inside. After the two quickly arrived at another building, Rosia discovered that there were dozens or hundreds of German soldiers there, seemingly preparing for a big ambush.

The leader made a gesture to Heinrich, and then a lieutenant officer ran out from behind the team, who seemed to be Heinrich's new adjutant.

"It is the Soviet and Belarusian guerrillas who have cut off the main transportation routes. The main force of the army is surrounded in the north of Minsk, and the rest are trapped in Brest-Litovsk."

"Where is the front?"

"There is a front all around, and we are being surrounded by Soviet troops."

Heinrich was silent for a while, and took out a gun from his waist. With a "click", he looked back at Rosia, as if he didn't know where to put her. In the end, he could only say briefly : "Follow me."

Rosia nodded quickly.

Looking at the expressions of these soldiers and their conversations, even if she didn't understand military matters, she should have understood that they were separated from the main force. She didn't know whether they were leading the battle or supporting the troops. Anyway, they were now isolated and helpless in the west of Minsk.It is said that God will never be on her side, and when life and death are unpredictable, she has no intention of talking to Heinrich.

Although the team of less than a hundred people was able to fight against the influx of Soviet troops, it was still a huge target for so many people to gather together. In order to reduce the chance of being discovered, they were divided into five teams, with a dozen people in each team.No one cared about her, so Rosia could only follow Heinrich step by step.

When they set off, Heinrich's adjutant was still confused about her identity, but he didn't say anything.More than a dozen people crawled all the way up to the second floor of a dilapidated factory building. The gray autumn color, the dust floating all over the room, and the broken walls made people doubt whether it could survive. A human roar.

The second floor of the factory building is connected to a large workshop on the opposite side, with a crumbling overpass in the middle.Heinrich stopped by a very dilapidated and hidden window. He looked back at Rosia, and then silently waved to the dozen or so people. Three or four people immediately rolled out and crawled on their knees. Climbed over the overpass.

Rosia didn't understand what they were doing here at all. Shouldn't they try their best to join the main force at this time?In this situation where the enemy is outnumbered and we are outnumbered, if we can't defeat them, we should run away quickly. Strategy 36 is the best way to go.

It's a pity that she didn't dare to say this. The factory was quiet and the atmosphere seemed very tense. Rosia didn't even dare to breathe, so she squatted against the wall and under the window.

After a while, a huge machine gunshot suddenly erupted from the workshop on the other side of the overpass, and then a bundle of grenades was thrown out and landed on a building in the distance.

Soviet guerrillas were ambushed there. The team members in the workshop exposed their targets and were soon counterattacked by the guerrillas.As expected, this dilapidated overpass could not support any firepower at all. After the barrel of the gun was swiped, and after several loud impacts, there was a dull crack on the overpass, and then it cracked from the middle, and large chunks of cement The bricks fell quickly, and the extremely fragile steel bars in the middle began to break. In less than five seconds, the entire overpass was completely separated from both ends, and crashed down with a loud bang.

The lives of those three or four soldiers were also uncertain.

Rosia was a little unable to react. She had only seen such an intensity of attack in Stalingrad.However, the matter was not over yet. Those three or four people took the risk to lure the guerrillas to expose their position. As soon as the overpass collapsed, several soldiers lying in wait elsewhere fired a barrage of fire. Within a minute, the opponent was Already misfired.

At this time, Heinrich had already picked up the gun, and his whole body was tense, as if he was preparing for what was about to happen.

Sure enough, things changed again. After the guerrillas failed to fire, shots were fired from another camp, pointing directly at the people who had just been ambushing.The tactics they use are also used by the other side.

And Heinrich was waiting for this moment. At the moment when the gunshot sounded, he quickly fired. A black figure behind the window of the building opposite paused and suddenly fell to the ground.

After many twists and turns and three ambushes, the main force of the guerrillas was finally eliminated. No more artillery fire attacked his side. Rosia and Heinrich both breathed a sigh of relief at the same time.

The atmosphere became quiet again, and the two looked at each other speechlessly. After a few seconds, Heinrich glanced at the small bag she had been holding tightly in her hand: "What is it?"

"Uh, the military badge you gave me." After a pause, "Also, the suicide note."

Heinrich seemed a little speechless: "You just go out with this thing?"

"That's not the case!" Rosia countered. If she really wanted to bring these unlucky things, don't send them over if you can. She also specifically added instructions asking her to keep them.

Heinrich was speechless for a moment. His face and body were all covered in ash, and he didn't know where he had stolen the Wehrmacht uniform. It was gray from beginning to end. He dropped his pistol, as if he wanted to say something, but at this moment, his feet But there was an earthquake-like tremor, followed by a heartbreaking reminder from downstairs.

"Hidden upstairs!"

Accompanying this sad sentence in German, a cannonball came rapidly from a distance, and the scorching temperature almost covered the ground.Heinrich's expression suddenly changed, he immediately wrapped his arms around her body and rolled her to the farthest corner.

But the speed of people can never match the cannonballs. There is only a loud bang, and the cannonballs hit the window where they were standing just now, with a crackling sound, followed by a sudden collapse of the wall.

Rosia, who had never experienced an earthquake, could not describe the fear at this time. She only felt that her whole body was shaking with the building. In fact, this already very dilapidated building was collapsing.She was imprisoned in Heinrich's arms. She saw the dirt on his face and saw his body leaning downward.Then in an instant, the corner where they were standing fell down and hit the first floor.

After the loud noise, Rosia was stunned. She blinked and her eyes were covered with gray. She couldn't see anything but dust.

Because this was a tripod-shaped corner, the roof luckily fell to the side and did not hit them.But the situation was still not good. Putting aside the pain that felt like they were falling apart, all kinds of sounds that they couldn't hear clearly now seemed to be in their ears.

Various sounds were mixed together on the streets, including roaring German, curses in Russian, the sounds of various artillery fires, the constant bursts of gunfire, the roar of heavy tanks rolling over, plus the sounds of air raids. The world seemed to be noisy and going crazy all of a sudden.

Because of Heinrich's cushion, Rosia seemed to feel nothing but pain. Heinrich seemed fine, but he was stunned for a moment and immediately got up from the ground.

When he looked outside through the ruins, his face became even more solemn. There were no guerrillas outside, but regular Soviet troops. The Soviet troops were crushing them so fast.

However, the German troops here still did not surrender, and the few teams he had arranged before were still resisting.The sounds of various machine guns continued to sound, and grenades exploded in a certain building from time to time, but they had obviously reached the end and were at the end of their strength.

Heinrich walked back a few steps, grabbed Rosia's shoulder, and his expression was almost ferocious: "Listen now, Rosia, the Soviets are coming soon. Your hunch is true, maybe Everything you think will be true in the future, but now, you have to get out of here, go out, and remember to live. You can use your Chinese identity, your French identity, or your Red Cross identity. Remember to be alive. If you want to live, leave here, France, Poland, wherever you go, get out now and don’t let me see you on the battlefield again.”

Rosia was so shaken by him that she was dizzy. Seeing his ferocious expression as he almost confessed his last words, her mind could hardly turn around. She waved Heinrich's hand down and said, "Do you still want to stay here alone? You used to What did you promise me?"

Heinrich moved his lips, hesitant to speak, but Rosia did not give him another chance: "Yes, Germany is about to lose now, your retribution is coming, the war will end soon, but before it ends A lot of people will die. The Soviets are outside now, and I can't live without being here."

Now that the artillery fire is raging, there is no room for people to escape. She is alone and helpless. Even if she runs out, she may become the next corpse under the Soviet gun.To put it bluntly, they are all on the verge of danger now. If Heinrich still puts his faith first and does not believe what she said, then she will never believe him again.

Because time is tight and there will never be another chance to make another commitment!

Even if Germany is defeated, will you survive?

...even if defeated.

The heavy promise is still in my ears. He once said that he would live and walk together.They will survive whatever the cost.

Even if the silence lasted only one second, it still seemed very, very long in the midst of the artillery fire. Rosia stared at him without flinching.Originally, she was just staring into his eyes, but she saw a stream of blood slowly sliding down from his forehead, along the eyebrow arch, bridge of nose, lips, sharp chin, and dripping to the ground little by little.

Her heart trembled slightly, and she calmed her gaze, only to see that the military uniform on his body was in tatters, and blood was oozing out from countless wounds, flowing out bit by bit.

He just fell from the second floor, and he was at the bottom. Although the fall on the second floor would not kill anyone, there were many sharp stones in the ruins on the first floor, and his whole body had already been covered with wounds.But he seemed unaware. He just looked at Rosia, and then after a few seconds, he said: "When will the war end?"

Rosia was stunned for a moment, and then replied: "Today." She subconsciously thought he was talking about this war. Minsk was liberated by the Soviet Union on July 7, today.

"I'm talking about war. All my brothers have been killed for so many years, and they still fail now. Damn war!" He couldn't help but raise his voice, almost roaring.While he was speaking, another building collapsed outside, a German team was destroyed, and the shouting Russian language covered the area. The army was already close in front of them, as if they would rush in the next second.

Rosia didn't understand why he asked this. She thought Heinrich knew something, but the expression on his face now was full of impatience, as if he was going crazy. She could only say vaguely: "Next summer, it will be In 1945."

"Yeah, it won't be long." He straightened up, looked at the ruins in the darkness, and suddenly smiled. He was covered in blood. The smile was painful, but unusually bright.Over the years, she had seen all kinds of cynicism and cold and frightening smiles from him. This was indeed the only smile that was unadulterated and filled with warmth.

There were heavy casualties outside, and some German troops who could no longer resist made weak sounds of surrender, but the artillery fire did not seem to stop, and there was a faint sound of Soviet troops joking in the background.

It was already noon, and the short day was about to pass. It was only a matter of time before the Soviet army occupied the entire Minsk, and the German army had no room for recovery.

Heinrich reached out and touched his waist and took out another pistol from his waist. At the same time, he also touched his hands full of blood.Rosia watched blankly as he threw the gun into her hand, pulled down the dusty military uniform, and then raised his hands.

"I surrender." He still smiled with pain in his balls: "Capture me."

Rosia slowly took the gun, her trembling hands almost unable to lift it.For so many years, she had been pointed at with various threats by him with this gun, and now it was finally her turn to "feel proud", but she was not happy at all. Her eyes were gray and blood-red, sour, painful, and hazy, and she couldn't open her eyes. Eye.

"Don't cry, I put my life in your hands, you want me to live." He said calmly, then turned around and walked out with his hands raised.

Only then did Rosia realize that her tears had fallen down at some point, leaving two clear lines on her dusty face.She took a breath with a sob, stretched the fingers of her right hand, grasped the handle of the gun again, and pointed him out.

This factory building had long been in ruins, and it looked completely collapsed on the outside. The Soviet army did not expect that there were still living people inside. When they saw two large living people coming out, they immediately pointed their guns at them with vigilance.

"who?"

Rosia tried hard to suppress her tears. She pointed her gun tremblingly at the back of Heinrich's head and shouted out a Russian word indistinctly.

Two people from the Soviet army came forward immediately, but their expressions were very wary, and their guns were pointed at them. Two people suddenly emerging from such ruins were very suspicious, let alone a female prisoner. man.This kind of deception is not uncommon in wars, so naturally they will not believe it easily.

Heinrich's face was expressionless and he kept looking at the ground. Rosia's expression was stiff and she couldn't tell whether she was crying or laughing. She was uglier than a zombie, but her heartbeat was already very fast. She was afraid that these Soviet troops would not even take prisoners. Just shoot people directly.

Just when the two soldiers were about to come over, two more figures appeared in the ruins on the opposite side. The soldiers behind them immediately pointed their guns at the sound.

Heinrich still didn't move, as if nothing happened to him.Rosia couldn't help but look over, and she couldn't help being shocked. The two people turned out to be Elana and MacArthur, whom she hadn't seen for a long time.

But that's not the most important thing. What's important is that their postures at this time are the same as the two of them. Ilana's gun is pressed against MacArthur's lower back, and MacArthur walks out with his hands raised with a calm expression.

The two of them were already very suspicious, but another pair appeared at this time.The Soviet army has long heard of the situation encountered when the Allied forces landed. At that time, many wives of German officers pretended to capture their husbands and then saved themselves.Those British and Americans pay attention to the so-called gentlemanly demeanor and humanitarianism and turn a blind eye. But when this happens on the Eastern Front, the situation is definitely not good.

Rosia's heartbeat was already very fast. Although her face was still stiff and there was no trace of panic, the emotions in her chest were actually about to collapse.

MacArthur on the opposite side seemed quite surprised to see the two of them and raised his eyebrows slightly. Elana was still crying.The two Soviet soldiers had already returned to the team. The leader glanced at them carefully, and they couldn't hear what they said, but judging by the soldiers' expressions, it would definitely not be a good thing. execution.

Rosia's heart almost rose to her throat. When the two soldiers walked forward again, she thought about whether they were certain to die, but at this moment, a scream suddenly came from the opposite side.

She looked over, but MacArthur turned around without warning, grabbed the muzzle of the gun in Ilana's hand, made a fist with his right hand, and hit Ilana hard in the abdomen.The sound of the impact was clearly audible, and the screams were even more shrill. Ilana didn't react to anything. She only felt a crazy churning in her stomach, and then heat surged up, and a fishy-sweet taste spread in her mouth. , blood gushes out all of a sudden.

This incident happened so suddenly. MacArthur seemed to have said something very loud, then snatched the gun from Ilana's hand, turned around and was about to fire at the Soviet soldiers. At this time, the two Soviet soldiers The machine gun in his hand had already swept over, and there were a few gunshots. Several blood holes appeared on MacArthur's chest. His movements paused in the air, a line of blood spilled from the corner of his mouth, and then he slowly fell down.

Then, behind him, Ilana also fell to the ground with a pale face. A Soviet female soldier quickly ran over to see Ilana's condition, and here, the two Soviet soldiers also left. He came over, grabbed Heinrich, pulled him into the group of prisoners of war behind him, raised his foot and kicked him in the crook of the leg. He immediately became unstable and knelt on one knee on the ground.

Heinrich's face was indifferent, as if he didn't feel anything. He didn't even look at Rosia again, as if he didn't know her at all. He raised his hands and was roughly pushed away by the Soviet army. .

Rosia had no idea that a dead end would end like this, and in the end only MacArthur died.She subconsciously didn't want to believe that what he just did was sincere, because Ilana had never liked him, but she had never really hated him, let alone offended him.

Rosia walked towards Ilana with stiff steps. She was stiff everywhere now, and it seemed that she even froze in breathing.

Ilana's condition was very bad. She was bleeding from the corner of her mouth. The Soviet female soldier was not a doctor and had no nursing skills, so she was helpless.Seeing her coming, he quickly asked: "Are you a nurse? Can you see how she is doing?"

She was still wearing a white coat, although it was already tattered and covered with plaster, making it difficult to identify, but the Soviet female soldiers managed to recognize her.

She nodded numbly, took out her Red Cross certificate from her pocket and handed it to the female soldier, then squatted down and took Ilana's body.

"Save me, Xia, save me!" Ilana stretched out a hand and grasped her sleeve tightly, her face stained with tears and blood. Rosia looked at MacArthur's body lying next to her, and tears flowed down her face again.

　It’s coming, it’s coming, the internet was disconnected today, I was struggling, but it’s finally posted. I’ll change the typos and sentences later, so you just have to make do with it.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)