After the shelling, Sokov came out of the communication trench and followed Chernyshev towards the division headquarters. The buildings along the way were burning, with large plumes of black smoke coming out of the windows, making the air on the entire street scorching.
As he walked, Sokov looked at the buildings on both sides and thought to himself: "There is no fire brigade in the city to put out the fires caused by the shelling. We can only watch these houses being burned to the ground."
Before reaching the division headquarters, Sokov suddenly saw a group of residents in front of him. There were men, women, old and young. They were all empty-handed. Except for the suitcases in their hands and the baggage on their shoulders, there were no extra items. Their luggage was piled on trolleys or bicycles, and everyone's face was filled with panic as they walked quickly along the streets that were not blocked by fire.
Seeing that the residents looked like they were about to flee, Chernyshev quickly walked over and shouted to them: "Comrades, wait a minute, comrades, can any of you tell me what you are trying to do?" Where to go?"
"Everyone, wait a minute." Upon hearing Chernyshev's shout, an old voice immediately came from the crowd: "The commander has something to say to us."
When the residents stopped where they were, Chernyshev stood in front of them and repeated his question loudly: "Comrades, can any of you tell me where you are going? "
"Comrade General," an old man with a goatee squeezed out from the crowd, came to Chernyshev and said to him: "You have also seen how powerful the German shelling is. If we continue If we stay in the city, we will be killed by artillery shells sooner or later, so we need to get out of here as soon as possible."
After Chernyshev scanned the crowd with his eyes, seeing everyone looking at him eagerly, he said: "Comrades, our army will eliminate the enemies near Sushinich as soon as possible, so I beg everyone to stay." Next, let the factories in the city resume work and shops open as soon as possible, so that all life can get back on track..."
"Comrade commander, please let us go." The old man didn't wait for Chernyshev to finish speaking, and said hoarsely: "If we stay here, we will be killed by artillery shells sooner or later. Please let us go." leave."
"Yes, Comrade Commander." As soon as the old man finished speaking, echoing voices came from the crowd: "We can't wait to die here in vain. Please, let us leave!"
Sokov, standing behind Chernyshev, thought to himself: "If I were to change places, I would be one of these ordinary residents. What I have to do at this moment is to try every means to escape from the city. Absolutely I will not stay here to die. If I were Chernyshev, what would I do about this behavior of the residents?"
Before Sokov could come up with any good ideas, he heard Chernyshev asking again: "Comrades, there is ice and snow everywhere outside the city. Where are you going to go in such cold weather?"
"We are going to Kaluga." The old man replied on behalf of everyone: "I heard that it has been occupied by our army for a long time. There are no Germans nearby, and there are many empty houses in the city."
Chernyshev patiently waited for the old man to finish speaking, and then said to everyone: "Comrades, it is almost ninety kilometers from Sushinich to Kaluga. Without transportation, at least it takes It will take two days to walk. You are either old people or women and children. Can your body handle walking for two days in such cold weather? Also, have you brought enough food and enough warm clothes?"
Chernyshev's words silenced the residents. After a while, seven or eight elderly women came out and said loudly: "Comrade Commander is right. It takes two days to walk to Kaluga. We may not be able to reach the place before we will be killed alive." Either freeze to death or die from exhaustion. Either way, I'd rather die in my own home."
With the example of taking the lead, more than a dozen people walked out of the crowd one after another, but most of them continued to stay in the team without moving. Seeing that everyone had made up their mind to go, Chernyshev knew that there was no use in talking about it, so he waved to them and said: "Since you don't want to stay, then let's go. I wish you good luck!" Ernyshev did not embarrass himself any more, and the residents immediately turned around and walked out of the city.
Just then, a soldier wearing a steel helmet ran quickly along the street, shouting loudly as he ran: "General Chernyshev, where are you? General Chernyshev, are you?" Where?……"
"I'm here." The soldier Chernyshev recognized was the communications soldier from the Army Group Headquarters. He quickly went up to him and asked, "Comrade Commander, do you have any orders?"
"Yes, Comrade General." The communications soldier nodded and said to Chernyshev: "This is a verbal order from Comrade Commander. He asked me to tell you that if any residents want to leave the city, they can leave freely. Go, don’t stop me.”
"I understand, Comrade Signal Corps." After Chernyshev waited for the Signal Corps member to finish speaking, he explained to him: "Did you see the residents who were leaving? Long before Comrade Commander's order arrived, I had It is agreed that they should leave the city. Does Comrade Commander have any other orders?"
The communications soldier nodded vigorously and continued: "He asked you to go to the army headquarters immediately, saying that there are important things to discuss."
Sokov, who was standing not far away, heard that Rokossovsky wanted to recruit Chernyshev to the headquarters. He secretly planned in his heart that after Chernyshev left, he would immediately go back to find Asya. After saying goodbye to her, he returned to the unknown heights. It was so scary to stay here in the city. No one knew when German artillery shells would fall on the city again.
Unexpectedly, his wishful thinking soon came to nothing. Chernyshev turned to look at him and said: "Captain Sokov, come with me to the headquarters and report last night's battle to the commander." When Chernyshev said this, Sokov was immediately at a loss what to do. He could only bite the bullet and agree, and prepared to go to the headquarters to meet Rokossovsky.
However, before leaving, Chernyshev called his chief of staff over and told him: "Comrade chief of staff, you have to do two things now: First, organize manpower to put out the fire and put out the fires that can be controlled. The residents in the city are homeless; secondly, we need to dig more bomb shelters near the headquarters so that even if we are bombarded by the enemy again, we can have a nearby shelter."
After hearing the chief of staff's resounding agreement, Chernyshev nodded with satisfaction, and then called to Sokov: "Captain Sokov, come with me to the army headquarters."
