After finishing the call with Orel, Yakup put down his earphones and microphone, raised his hand to salute Lin Hua, and said: "Comrade Lieutenant, Captain Yakup, commander of the automatic sled company directly under the 16th Group Army, reports to you, Our company is ordered to accept your command, please give instructions!"
"We are comrades who have fought side by side, so there is no need for such etiquette." Lin Hua pulled Yakup's hand from his forehead and said with a smile: "I have an important task now, and I need your help to complete it. .”
Although Lin Hua said this in a very easy-going tone, Yakup still said respectfully: "Comrade Lieutenant, please give the order!"
"Comrade Captain, it's like this. We still have a dozen soldiers left in the village." Lin Hua said to Yakup: "Do you still remember?"
"I remember." Yakup nodded, expressing his approval of Lin Hua's statement, and then asked: "Comrade Lieutenant, are you going to send me back to pick them up?"
"That's right, you immediately send ten sleds back to pick up all the soldiers who stayed in the village." After Lin Hua gave him a positive answer, he also specifically warned: "There are several wounded among them who cannot stand. Blow cold air on the skids. Among the dispatched sleds, except for two equipped with machine gunners, the crew compartments of the other eight were left open for the wounded to ride."
As soon as Lin Hua finished speaking, Yakup immediately replied unambiguously: "Understood, Comrade Lieutenant, I will immediately follow your order."
Just when Yakup arranged for the deputy company commander to take people back to the village to pick them up, three platoon leaders, Vanya, Andrei, and Vasily, came over and asked Lin Hua: "Comrade company commander, don't you know what your superiors are doing?" What tasks have been assigned to us?”
"The superiors have arranged a good task for us." Lin Hua smiled and said to the three platoon leaders: "Let us go pick up the foreign food."
"Pick up the ocean?" After hearing what Lin Hua said, the three platoon leaders looked at each other with confusion on their faces. Finally, Vanya asked: "Comrade company commander, we don't understand what 'picking up foreign goods' means."
Hearing Vanya's question, Lin Hua immediately realized that there was no such statement at this time, and quickly introduced to them: "When the German army fled, they discarded a large number of weapons and equipment and various military supplies. The mission of our company is Collect everything the Germans discarded.”
After understanding the troops' next mission, Andre couldn't help but ask: "Comrade company commander, there are more than a hundred prisoners here. What should we do with them? We can't just shoot them all, right?"
"No, Comrade Andre, absolutely not." Lin Hua glanced at the prisoners under the guard of the soldiers and saw that they all had numb expressions, holding their shoulders and stomping on the spot to avoid freezing. . He said decisively: "They have laid down their weapons. We cannot massacre the prisoners."
Yakup, who had just finished assigning the task, happened to come over. Hearing Lin Hua's words behind him, he couldn't help but interrupt and asked: "Comrade Lieutenant, we are going to carry out the task. It is not convenient to bring so many fascists." No..." At this point, he stopped and raised his hand to wipe his neck.
Lin Hua did not answer directly, but asked the question to the other two platoon leaders: "What are your opinions?"
Vanya shook his head and said to Lin Hua: "Comrade Company Commander, I do not agree to execute the prisoners on the spot. After all, they have laid down their weapons and surrendered to us."
Vasily said ambiguously: "I obey everyone's opinion."
Although most people's opinions were to get rid of these prisoners, Lin Hua was unwilling to massacre the enemies who had laid down their weapons. After thinking for a moment, he said to a few people: "The way I see it, let's collect supplies anyway. We also need manpower, so why not bring these prisoners over to work as coolies." At this point, he stopped, glanced at the faces of the four people, and raised his voice and asked, "Do you have any different opinions?"
"No!" After hearing that there was no need to kill the prisoners, Vanya immediately agreed: "I agree with Comrade Company Commander's opinion."
Seeing that Lin Hua was not prepared to kill the prisoners and proposed such a plan, Yakup thought for a while and then said: "I obey the order of Comrade Lieutenant!"
Seeing that no one raised any objections, Lin Hua looked at Vasiya and said: "According to the report from superiors, the Germans have laid mines near these discarded weapons and supplies. Second Lieutenant Vasiya, you once served as an engineer. Later, you can follow me to observe on the spot."
After Vasiya nodded in agreement, Lin Hua continued: "Second Lieutenant Vasiya and I took ten soldiers and rushed to the designated location on a sled. Lieutenant Vanya, after I leave, you will be fully responsible for this place. You and Andre led his troops to escort the prisoners and came over later!"
After Yakup waited for Lin Hua to complete the mission, he quickly reminded: "Comrade Lieutenant, we still have eight machine gunners. Do you want to leave on the sled as well, or escort the prisoners with your people?"
"We have enough manpower," Lin Hua replied casually: "Let them stay and help escort the prisoners."
Before setting off, Yakup offered to let his machine gunner make way for Lin Hua, but Lin Hua refused. Lin Hua still stood on the crowbar. After all the designated soldiers got on the crowbar, he knocked hard on the cab door and shouted to Yakup sitting inside: "Let's go!"
As soon as Lin Hua and the others left, Vanya ordered the soldiers to drive the prisoners toward the area where the German army had abandoned supplies. Unexpectedly, after the order was issued, the angry curses of the soldiers and the screams of the prisoners could be heard not far away. , Vanya quickly walked over and saw Zheliya, the fifth squad leader of the second platoon, kicking a prisoner lying in a snowdrift, and asked him: "Comrade Corporal, can you tell me, something happened here?" What's the matter?"
Zheliya pointed at the German soldier rolling in the snow and said angrily: "This damn German guy, I asked him to stand up. If he doesn't stand up, forget it, and he scolds me. When I get angry, I'll beat him. Hit him a few times."
Vanya also did not understand German, and he could not verify with the prisoner what Zelia said. But he was more attentive and noticed that the prisoner rolling in the snow didn't look like he was pretending to be in pain. He quickly squatted down and took a closer look. At this glance, I really saw the problem. There was a brown stain on the knee of the prisoner's pants, which was obviously blood from injury.
After figuring out what was going on, Vanya stood up and said to Zheliya: "We've figured it all out. His leg is injured and he can't walk independently. Take someone to get a stretcher and carry him."
After hearing what Vanya said, Zhelia felt it was necessary to let him understand the current situation, and quickly reported to him: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, it is not easy to carry the wounded in the snow. We have few manpower to begin with. If we select a few more people to carry stretchers, there will be even fewer people to escort the prisoners."
Vanya glanced at the captive wounded soldier lying in the snowdrift, and said in a disgusted tone: "Let the prisoner carry him, he has no right to let our soldiers waste energy on him."
When Zheliya heard Vanya's words, he immediately agreed excitedly: "Understood, Comrade Second Lieutenant, I will arrange for someone to put up a stretcher and let the prisoners carry their own people and set off with us. "
