artillery arc

Chapter 664 The Night Before
July 7, 30, on the outskirts of Shepetovka.

Suddenly, a loud shout came from the darkness: "Stop, don't move!"

Then someone stood up and shouted, "I am a worker from the Shepetovka Textile Factory, and I am here to contact you on behalf of the Workers' Factory Protection Team!"

The sentry stood up and turned on the flashlight. In the light, an old worker raised his hand to cover his eyes.

The sentry turned off the flashlight and shouted to the back: "Go quickly, inform the platoon leader - no, inform the company commander that an old worker has arrived!"

The old man hurried up to the sentry and said, "Young man, judging from your accent, you are from Vyshensk, right? Do you know Alyosha?"

"There are many people named Alyosha," the sentry laughed. "Our front commander's nickname is also Alyosha. Which Alyosha are you talking about?"

"Alyosha from Vyshensk!" The old worker grabbed the sentry's hand. "When he left, he was still a private, about your age. Do you know him?"

The sentry shook his head and said, "Old man, in the past two years, many of us have been injured and have returned to the front line. We have been constantly assigned to different units. Sometimes our old units were eliminated, and sometimes they were transferred to faraway places and could not be joined again.

“Maybe when we left, we were all in the regiment formed by the Vyshensk people, but now we have been scattered throughout the army.”

In fact, the sentry did not reveal the cruelest possibility: that Alyosha, like thousands of other Alyoshas, ​​had turned into a flock of cranes and flown away into the distance.

The old worker gritted his teeth and changed the subject: "You are right, kid, let's talk business. Why don't you go into the city? All the Prosens in the city have fled. First they ran to Agsukov, and then they went north. Now the whole Shepetovka is an empty city!"

Sentry: "We stopped to rest. After all, we have been fighting for a month and our hair and faces are unkempt. Today, the quartermaster issued new uniforms. Tomorrow, we will go into the city clean and tidy."

Old worker: "Why are you so particular about this? You stopped outside the city, and everyone was surprised! After waiting for a day, rumors were flying around, saying that the Prosen people spread the plague, so they stopped outside the city! We had a hard time suppressing the rumors!"

The sentry was about to answer when he heard someone shouting in the distance: "The company commander and battalion commander are here, and the chaplain is here too!"

In the distance, a large group of people came over with flashlights.

The camp chaplain stepped forward and shook the old worker's hand: "Old man, you didn't get embarrassed by the Prosen people on the way here, did you?"

"There are no Prosen people left! You guys didn't even send a liaison team into the city!" The old man complained immediately, "At least send a priest in! The Prosen people burned and killed people everywhere before they retreated. Our factory protection team paid a huge sacrifice to stop them. Many people are still alive today. They just want to take a last look at the decent priest!"

Priest: "I'm sorry, our field hospital hasn't come up yet, and the medical staff have just restocked the medicines. I will mobilize the medical staff and field medical clinics of the entire battalion to go into the city overnight."

The old man shook the priest's hand and said, "That's good, that's good! By the way, Father, from your accent, you are also from Vyshensk, right?"

"No, I am a native of Agsukov, like General Rokossov," said the priest.

“I see.” The old man lowered his eyes. “I’m old. I heard it wrong. Sorry.”

Priest: "What happened to Vyshensk? If you are looking for someone, I can help you check."

"Alyosha of Vyshensk, no, Alexey Vasilyevich Lubitsev, is my grandson. He joined the army in August 914 and followed the retreat."

The priest nodded: "Okay, I will check it out."

The old man: "Even if he died in battle, please tell me where he died. I will go to see him when the war is over."

At this time, a powerful voice came from afar: "Old man, don't be too sad. Maybe he turned into a flock of cranes and flew away with other warriors."

Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw a larger group of people walking towards them from a distance. Perhaps to hide, they did not turn on their flashlights.

The leader was wearing the newly adopted new military uniform with a long row of stars on the new epaulettes.

The battalion commander was the first to react: "General Rokossov!"

Everyone tensed up at once. Soldiers and officers all stood at attention, held their heads high and saluted the general.

Ant's salute requires the chin to be raised, the nose to the sky, and looks particularly imposing. General Rokossov walked all the way to the old man and said, "Old man, I have to tell you the truth. Your grandson is probably sleeping in a corner of the motherland.

“We have made huge sacrifices over the past two years. Even my closest adjutant was killed. He was a young man who had just become a father and had never seen a child before!
“After the war, we will build a monument in the square of Yeburg, and in the middle of the base of the monument, we will light a flame that will never go out.

"I have already thought of the inscription: 'No one knows your names, but your achievements will live forever.'"

Tears welled up in the old man's eyes: "General, my grandson is Alexei Vasilyevich Lubitsev, my daughter's first child."

General Rokossov: "I will remember this, and I assure you that the Commission of Missing Fighters will not stop searching for him unless we know for sure that he has been killed."

The old man nodded repeatedly: "Okay, you are the reincarnation of Kutuzov, the hero of Ant."

General Rokossov patted the old man on the shoulder and then ordered: "Send him to my command vehicle to rest. Send a liaison team into the city immediately to arrange the funeral of the soldiers who died defending the city and provide assistance to the wounded."

The old man said, "I can take you back. I know the way well! I have led the guerrillas countless times in the past two years and have never been caught by the Plosson patrol!"

General Rokossov smiled and said, "Old man, the Prosens have been defeated. There are no more patrols. The liaison team can go in via the main road."

"Oh! Look at my head, I'm so confused!"

General Rokossov nodded and handed the old man to the sergeant behind him: "Take the old man into my command vehicle to rest."

The sergeant immediately lifted the old man up with his strong hands and led him back.

As the old man walked, he looked back and watched General Rokossov walk up the slope where the secret sentry was hidden and look towards Shepetovka, which was sleeping in the night.

The old man suddenly said, "I thought the general was almost sixty years old, but it turns out he is about the same age as my grandson!"

The sergeant laughed, "Yeah, when the war started, the general was just a little kid, but now he's become an old man."

The old worker turned his head and looked at the sergeant-major: "Are you familiar with the general?"

"I am the captain of his personal guard. In the past, I would have been made a baron, a baron knight or something. Now, I am just a senior sergeant major."

Just as the old man was about to speak, he saw a huge tank lying in the darkness in front of him, and several tank soldiers were painting it with new camouflage.

Someone else climbed up the rack and hung a red flag on the tank's antenna.

The old worker suddenly said, "Wait a minute! That flag! Is there any writing on it?"

Sergeant Major: "Yes, that was the flag that the textile workers gave to the general when he left Shepetovka! He has been carrying it with him for so many years. Whenever he was about to go into battle, he would hang the flag on the antenna of his tank."

The old worker stopped and couldn't help covering his mouth, crying: "Oh my God, my old friends, did you see it? The general has been carrying that flag! Misha, Protov! Did you see it? Our flag has been accompanying the general in battle!"

The old man stepped forward, lay down beside the tank, and pounded on the tank's skirt with his hands: "Did you see that? The general got a new tank and commanded an army. He is also flying the flag we made for him!"

The tank driver next to him stopped painting for a moment: "Tomorrow, the general will be the first to enter Shepetovka with this flag! The general will liberate Shepetovka with his own hands!"

"One day," said another voice, "the general will march into Prothenia with his tanks under this banner."

The old man was a little surprised because the voice just now was a female voice, and a very young girl's voice.

Although young, it is full of vicissitudes, like a rock.

He looked up and saw a little girl in a maid outfit standing on a tank, holding the antenna with her hand, and a red flag on the antenna fluttering above her head.

The sergeant major introduced, "This is the general's personal maid, Ms. Nellie. Ms. Nellie, the general ordered this old man to be taken to his command vehicle to rest."

(End of this chapter)