The two left the machinery factory and returned to the guest house of the engine factory. Just when the two were about to go to the restaurant to have something to eat, they were stopped by a waiter on duty. She came to Yakov and handed him a square piece of paper. At the same time, she said: "Comrade Captain, an Air Force Captain came here two hours ago. You. Seeing that you were not here, I left this note."
After Yakov thanked the waiter, he unfolded the note. After reading it for a moment, a knowing smile appeared on his face: "This guy actually came to Nizhny Novgorod."
He stuffed the note into his pocket, turned to Sokov, who was about to walk towards the restaurant, and said, "Misha, we won't be dining in the restaurant today. I'll take you to meet someone." After he said this Finally, seeing that there was no change in the expression on Sokov's face, he added, "He is an old friend of both of us."
"Our common old friend?" Sokov couldn't help but be surprised when he heard what Yakov said. He secretly thought that the person who left the note to Yakov could be the child of another leader, otherwise it would definitely not be him. A mutual friend with Yakov. Thinking of this, he asked continuously: "Who is it?"
But Yakov did not answer, just smiled, and then said: "You will know when you meet the person."
The two came out of the guest house and saw the driver standing on the roadside chatting with a woman wearing a headscarf. When he saw the two people coming out, he spoke quickly to the woman, then ran over and asked respectfully: "Comrade commanders, do you still want to go out?"
"Yes, we need to go out immediately." Yakov asked tentatively: "Do you know how to get to the Dobrolyubov Memorial Hall?"
"Of course I know." The driver nodded and gave an affirmative answer. He looked at Yakov and asked tentatively: "Comrade commander, do you plan to visit the memorial hall?"
"No," Yakov shook his head and said, "We are going to visit a friend who happens to live near the Dobrolyubov Memorial Hall."
"Understood, Comrade Commander." The driver turned sideways and made a gesture of invitation to Yakov and Sokov: "Please get in the car, and I will take you there right now."
The jeep soon arrived near the Dobrolyubov Memorial Hall. The driver parked the car on the side of the road, then turned to ask Yakov for instructions: "Comrade commander, where should we drive next?"
"We'll get off here." When Yakov opened the door and prepared to get out of the car, he raised his hand to look at his watch and said to the driver: "Comrade driver, we have to visit a friend nearby, and it may take a long time. You can just pick us up here at eight o'clock in the evening."
"Understood, Comrade Captain." The driver nodded vigorously and replied, "I will arrive on time!"
After the two got off the car, Yakov looked around, then chose a direction, pointed forward with his hand, and said to Sokov: "Misha, the place we want to go is right in front. Let's go Bar!"
The two walked forward for a while. Sokov saw a life-size bronze statue on the side of the road, and secretly guessed that this was probably Dobrolyubov, the most famous literary critic in Russia in the 19th century. Behind the bronze statue are two closed wooden doors. There is also a somewhat discolored notice posted on the door. Unfortunately, it is too far away and it is impossible to see what is written on it.
Yakov noticed that Sokov was constantly looking at the two closed wooden doors, so he said to him: "Misha, don't look, the Dobrolyubov Memorial Hall was closed shortly after the war broke out. Please do. If we want to open it again, we probably have to wait until the war is over.”
The two passed the memorial hall, walked forward for a while, and finally came to a residential area. Yakov took out the note just now from his pocket, carefully checked the content behind it, raised his head and said to Sokov: "Misha, the place we are going to visit is in Building 17, please look carefully Look for it and see where it is."
Hearing what Yakov said, Sokov quickly carefully checked the numbers of nearby buildings. After looking at it for a while, he said to Yakov: "The buildings here are all even-numbered and should be in the opposite direction."
So the two of them turned around and walked back. When they passed the Dobrolyubov Memorial Hall again, Yakov said with a wry smile: "It seems that I made a mistake. I thought that the building with the odd number should be in the direction just now, but who knows?" In the opposite direction.”
When passing an officer's store, Sokov suddenly remembered that if he was going to be a guest at someone else's house, he couldn't go empty-handed, so he stopped and said to Yakov: "Yakov, it's not appropriate for us to come to the door empty-handed like this." Well." He pointed to the nearby store with his hand, "Why don't we buy something here."
Yakov immediately agreed with Sokov's proposal. He came to the door first, opened the glass door and walked in. The salesperson who was chatting in the store saw two young and handsome officers walking in from the outside, and quickly greeted him: "Two comrades, commanders, do you need anything?"
"Is there any vodka?" Yakov asked briefly.
Unexpectedly, after the salesman heard Yakov's question, he was silent for a moment and then asked: "Comrade Captain, do you have a letter of introduction issued by your superior?"
"A letter of introduction, what kind of letter of introduction?" Yakov looked at Sokov with a strange look, and then asked the salesperson in confusion, "I just want to buy a few bottles of vodka, do I need a letter of introduction?"
"Yes, Comrade Captain." The salesperson said in a positive tone: "Since alcohol is included in the special supplies, except for general-level officers who can purchase it directly, officers of other levels need to issue a letter of introduction to purchase it."
"Damn it, this is hell." It was probably the first time that Yakov encountered a situation where a letter of introduction was needed to buy something. He asked with a bit of laughter and laughter: "Then what products do you have here that do not require a letter of introduction?"
The tall and tall salesman turned his body to one side, pointed to the shelves at the back with his thick palm, and said: "Comrade Captain, the canned vegetables on this shelf do not require a letter of introduction."
Hearing that canned food is free, Yakov pointed at canned cucumbers, tomatoes, mushrooms, etc., and said: "Give me two of these canned fruits. In addition, give me two of each of butter and cheese." Hundred grams..."
After buying things, Yakov and Sokov walked towards the residential building not far away with their things in both hands. While going upstairs, Sokov remembered a joke from later generations: "When someone invited friends to his home, he once specifically told his friends: When you come, just kick the door with your feet. The friend asked in confusion : Why are you kicking the door with your feet? Someone replied: Because you are carrying things with both hands and can't free your hands to knock on the door."
The two came to the door of the person they wanted to visit and turned the jokes on the Internet into reality. When a young air force captain heard the knock on the door and opened the door, he looked at Yakov and Sokov carrying large and small bags outside and asked curiously: "Yakov, why are you using your feet?" Where's the kick in the door?"
"Nonsense, didn't you see that I was holding something in both hands?" After Yakov finished speaking angrily, he stuffed the things in his hand into the other person's hand and said, "Hurry in, I I’m almost fainting from hunger.”
The air force captain looked at Sokov standing aside and asked curiously: "Yakov, who is this major...?"
Yakov walked toward the house without looking back and said, "He is Misha, a good friend of yours and mine."
"Are you Misha?!" There was an expression of surprise on the air force captain's face. He originally wanted to reach out and shake hands with Sokov, but when he saw the pile of things in his hands, he smiled sheepishly and then said politely. Said: "Please come in quickly!"
When Sokov walked into the living room, he saw a long wooden table in the middle of the room. The wooden table was filled with all kinds of food and drinks. Sitting around the table were an air force lieutenant and four beautiful young girls. Perhaps seeing that Sokov was carrying a lot of things, the lieutenant took the initiative to take the things and put them in the right place.
As soon as Yakov entered the door, he went to the toilet. Seeing that there were all strangers present, Sokov couldn't help but feel a little nervous. The air force captain came over and shook Sokov's hand and said, "Misha, do you remember me?"
After taking a look at the captain, Sokov shook his head and said apologetically: "I'm sorry, comrade captain, I really can't remember who you are."
When Sokov said he didn't recognize him, the air force captain had a disappointed look on his face. It happened that Yakov came out of the toilet and said to the captain: "Leonid, you can't blame Misha. He suffered a head injury a few months ago, which caused amnesia. Don't say it was you, he even I don’t even recognize him.”
Yakov walked up to Sokov, pointed to the air force captain named Leonid, and introduced to Sokov: "This is Leonid, and his father is Khrushchev."
"Khrushchev's son?!" Although Sokov had already guessed that Leonid might be the son of a certain leader, he didn't expect that it was actually Khrushchev's son. He suddenly jumped from his seat. He jumped up and asked in surprise: "Are you Khrushchev's son?"
"Yes, my father is Khrushchev." Although Leonid felt that Sokov's reaction was a bit exaggerated, he still answered truthfully: "You, me and Yakov were very good friends when we were young. We were friends, but we separated later due to various reasons. I didn’t expect that your amnesia was so severe that you couldn’t even recognize me.”
Next, Leonid introduced five other guests to Yakov and Sokov: the air force lieutenant, his wingman pilot Lieutenant Victor; the other four girls were Shula, Alla, and Jia. Erka and Vera, they are both neighbors in the building.
Looking at Leonid sitting opposite, Sokov began to murmur in his heart. He clearly remembered that after the Battle of Stalingrad began, Leonid was sent to a military court for accidentally shooting his colleague while drunk. Perhaps for his father's sake, he was not sentenced to death, but was stripped of his military rank and demoted to a private soldier.
After the Battle of Stalingrad, he disappeared during a launch mission. There are two completely different accounts of his disappearance. One is that he defected to the Germans in a plane and was later captured and shot by Stalin's men; the other is that he died heroically in an air battle.
Sokov used to firmly believe in the theory of defection, but after coming to this era, his mind changed. He clearly remembered that before he accidentally shot his colleague, Leonid had participated in the Battle of Kharkov. During the battle, his plane was shot down and he himself was wounded. When he was sent to the field hospital, the doctor saw that his leg was seriously injured and planned to amputate it. After discovering the doctor's attempt, he put a gun to the other's head and ordered him to be sent back to Moscow for treatment, and successfully saved the leg.
If the defection occurred before the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, there is still a certain possibility. On the day the Leonid fighter plane disappeared, that meat grinder battle had been over for a month. Manstein near the Dnieper River was beaten to the point of crying by the Soviet army. In this situation where the Soviet army had the upper hand Defecting under such circumstances, unless Leonid's brain was flooded, he would never do such a stupid thing.
After everyone took a drink from the wine glass in front of them, Yakov asked curiously: "Leonid, how did you know that I live in the guest house of the engine manufacturing plant?"
"What a coincidence." Leonid said after filling the wine glass in front of Yakov: "Victor and I went to the engine to perform a mission and accidentally met several officers from Moscow. I and One of them knew each other, and while chatting, I overheard him mention that among the people who came to Nizhny Novgorod with them, there was actually you. Thinking that I have never seen you since the outbreak of the war, I I went to the guest house to look for you. Seeing that you were not there, I left you a note with the address here and asked you to come as a guest. "
The two drank a few more drinks, and Leonid suddenly asked a question that made Yakov extremely embarrassed: "Yakov, I once heard the German propaganda that you were captured by them. What on earth is this?" What’s going on? Is it a rumor?”
"Yes, this is a rumor." Seeing the embarrassed expression on Yakov's face, Sokov quickly spoke to help him: "Yakov was injured in the battle and hid in a local collective farm to recuperate. The German army may have seen Yakov's name on the captured roster and spread the rumor that Yakov was captured in order to undermine the morale of our army."
Yakov's face showed emotion when he saw Sokov rescuing him. He followed Sokov's words and continued: "I have been recovering from my injury at the farm for almost half a year. After the injury improved, it was just in time for our army to start. The great counterattack, seeing our army's successive victories, I couldn't stay any longer, so I immediately set off to return to the army. Coincidentally, the place where I crossed the front happened to be Sokov's defense zone, so he sent someone to move me Returned safely to Moscow."
