Romanov had a good impression of Sokov, so he invited him to ride with him when traveling to the Kozelsk region. Perhaps because he often did political propaganda work for commanders and fighters, Romanov was very talkative. During the more than an hour-long drive, he was almost the only one talking, and Sokov couldn't even get a word in.
From Romanov's small talk, Sokov learned a lot of things that did not involve leaks, but that he could not understand at his level. For example, Sokov only knew that the left wing of the Western Front advanced too fast and was cut off from its supply line after the Germans occupied Sushinich, thus falling into an encirclement by the Germans, but he did not know which unit it was. force.
After Romanov's introduction, he finally figured out that the troops west of Sushinich were the 322nd and 323rd Infantry Divisions of the 10th Army commanded by General Golikov. But with Golikov's dismissal, these troops have been assigned to the command of Rokossovsky. Now the troops of the 10th Army are newly added to the base camp and are commanded by General Popov.
Hearing this, Sokov couldn't help but smile and said to Romanov: "Comrade political commissar of the battalion, the left wing of the army is the 10th Army commanded by General Popov, and the right wing is the 61st Army commanded by General Popov. We’re in between two Popovs, it’s so fun!”
"That's right!" Romanov nodded and said: "We are between two Popovs. This is exactly what the old saying says: a good omen."
Sokov was about to ask in a subtle way why being between two Popovs was a good omen, but the car stopped. He quickly looked out the window and found that he had arrived at his destination.
The person in charge of the prisoner of war camp is a major. He has received orders from General Popov and is very enthusiastic about Romanov and his party. After simple greetings, the screening of prisoners of war began.
There were five small tables outside a large wooden house, and hundreds of people lined up in front of each table. The political workers brought by Romanov sat behind these tables. They asked the prisoners expressionlessly about their names, ages, previous units, and the reasons for their capture, and recorded them one by one. Prisoners of war who pass the review will receive a small piece of paper with their name written on it and go to the wooden house for a physical examination; for those prisoners of war who fail the review, the political workers only need to wave their hands, and soldiers on duty will take the prisoner of war. Get out of here.
It must be said that the Romanov team's work efficiency is still very high. In just one hour, they completed the screening of thousands of prisoners of war in this prisoner of war camp. After selecting the prisoners of war, Romanov arranged for two staff officers to take these prisoners of war back to Sushinich, while he took the rest of the people and continued to the new prisoner of war camp. In this way, before dark, Romanov selected 8,000 qualified soldiers from six prisoner-of-war camps in the Kozelsk area.
Seeing the staff and political workers gathering prisoners of war and preparing to return to Susinich, Sokov finally asked the question he wanted to ask: "Comrade political commissar at the battalion level, I wonder how much our battalion can get from these rescued commanders and fighters. Replenishment of troops?"
Several prisoners of war who stood relatively close to Sokov couldn't help but get wet when they heard that the other party did not use the humiliating "prisoner of war" to address them, but used the word "commander and combatant". They secretly thought in their hearts: How great it would be if we could follow this captain.
Sokov naturally couldn't guess what the prisoners of war were thinking. He was waiting for Romanov's answer. Unexpectedly, Romanov hesitated for a moment and replied: "Captain Sokov, I really don't know this. I am only responsible for screening and selecting prisoners of war. As for the allocation of troops, Chief of Staff Malinin should be responsible."
Romanov's answer made Sokov a little disappointed. He was worried that he would be in vain, so he asked tentatively: "Comrade political commissar at the battalion level, can I recruit a group of commanders and fighters here myself?" He turned away and looked away. The prisoners of war who were screened out everywhere took a look and continued, "If you agree, I would like to select from those officers and soldiers who were screened out."
"That's no problem." Regarding Sokov's request, Romanov readily agreed: "I'll talk to the commander in charge of the prisoner of war camp, and there should be no problem."
Romanov invited the captain in charge of the prisoner of war camp and told Sokov that he wanted to select another group of prisoners of war. After hearing this, the captain scratched the back of his head and said to Sokov in a consultative tone: "Comrade Captain, after the screening just now, there are still 617 prisoners of war left in the prisoner of war camp. Otherwise, you can take them all away, and I You can also return to the army sooner."
Sokov participated in the entire screening process and knew the reason why these more than 600 prisoners of war were screened out. It was because they obeyed the orders of their superiors during the battle and did not resist, so they laid down their weapons and surrendered to the German army. At that time, Sokov felt quite regretful when he saw so many able-bodied prisoners of war being screened out. When he heard the captain say this, he couldn't help but feel ecstatic. However, he did not have the right to make his own decisions in this matter, so he could only cast an inquiring look at Romanov.
"Captain Sokov," Romanov said reasonably: "If you think you can control these prisoners of war, integrate them into your camp." Hearing Romanov's permission, Sokov couldn't help but be overjoyed. , quickly pulled the captain and walked towards the group of prisoners of war.
The prisoners of war who were screened out were already in despair and did not know what kind of fate awaited them next. Seeing that Captain Sokov was willing to recruit him, he agreed without hesitation.
Since it was getting late, Sokov stayed in the prisoner of war camp for the night, and had a heart-to-heart talk with the commanders and fighters who were about to become his subordinates to increase their sense of identity with him.
Early the next morning, Sokov pestered the captain in charge of the prisoner of war camp and asked him to provide him with thirty trucks to transport these commanders and fighters to the unknown highlands. Fortunately, there were still many vacant shelters in the position at the foot of the mountain, so Sokov placed them all there and sent people to bring them food and water.
Seeing that the battalion commander went out and brought back hundreds of people, the company commanders of each company could not sit still and ran to the battalion command post to find Sokov, hoping to add soldiers to their companies.
Thinking that more than 600 soldiers had been added to the camp, Sokov showed a rare act of magnanimity and announced in public: "From now on, the quota of soldiers for each company will be 200. Later, the company commanders of each company will select people."
When the company commanders heard Sokov's decision, they immediately cheered and shouted in unison: "Ula! Ula!"
After everyone calmed down, Belkin asked curiously: "Comrade Battalion Commander, you have brought back more than 600 people this time. Even if the number of people in each company is increased to 200, there are still many people left. What are you going to do?" arrange?"
As for how to distribute the issue, Sokov had already thought about it on the way back: "The guard platoon and engineer platoon will be increased to fifty people; in addition, soldiers who have served as health workers and communications troops will be selected to be added to the health team respectively. And the communications class." At this point, he glanced at Maxim sitting in front of the walkie-talkie, raised his voice and said, "The communications class was upgraded to a communications platoon, and Corporal Maxim served as the platoon leader."
"In addition, we also need to select soldiers who have served as artillery and tank soldiers," Sokov continued enthusiastically: "organize artillery platoons and tank platoons..."
"Wait a minute, comrade battalion commander." Belkin felt that Sokov was getting more and more ridiculous, so he quickly interrupted him and reminded him carefully: "We don't have artillery and tanks at all now. We have established artillery platoons and tank platoons. Is it unnecessary? Besides, with your expansion method, will your superiors agree?"
Regarding Belkin's worries, Sokov said with a smile: "Comrade Deputy Battalion Commander, don't worry. Although we now have artillery and tanks, we will have them sooner or later. Instead of waiting to form troops with these equipment, it is better to put them first Once the troops are formed and equipped, my troops can immediately go into battle. As for whether the superiors will have any objections to our expansion, you don't have to worry. Once the blame comes from above, I will bear all the responsibilities. "
