Following Sokov's order, Grisa's first company withdrew from their defensive positions at noon that day, and Zhelia's second company took over their defense. After withdrawing from the position, Grisa went straight to Sokov's brigade headquarters to seek an explanation from him.
After listening to Grisa's complaints, Sokov sneered and asked: "What, Lieutenant Grisa, you want to ask me for an explanation?"
"That's right!" Grisa nodded vigorously and said firmly: "Although the number of recruits in our company is a bit too many, we have blocked the German attack after all. When the morale of the troops is high, you put us Withdraw, so that the soldiers have emotions in their hearts."
"I think you are the one with the emotions, right?" Sokov unceremoniously exposed Grisa's lies, "Since I removed you, I must have had my considerations. But you, as the commander of the company, Not only did you not stay in the army to appease the soldiers, but you came to me to protest and ask for an explanation. You are really capable."
"But, Comrade Brigadier." Grisa said unconvinced, "You must give me a reason to convince the soldiers!"
"Reason?!" Sokov sneered after hearing what Grisa said: "In a small battle, your company consumed nearly 50,000 rounds of ammunition. Fortunately, we seized it from the enemy's warehouse not long ago. There are a lot of weapons and ammunition, otherwise after this battle, the weapons in the hands of the soldiers will turn into fire sticks because there are no bullets, and in future battles, they will have to fight with the enemy with bayonets."
Hearing Sokov mention that a battle consumes 50,000 rounds of ammunition, Grisa suddenly lost confidence. After being silent for a long time, he murmured: "Comrade Brigadier, even if our company is in this battle, the ammunition will be exhausted." It consumes too much, but there is a reason for it, after all, there are too many new soldiers..."
"There are too many new soldiers. This is not a reason. There are also many new soldiers in the third battalion, but in the first two days of fighting, they blocked two strong attacks by the German army and consumed less than one-third of the ammunition you did." Sokov told Grisa: "Lieutenant Grisa, I order you to return to the company immediately, comfort the soldiers, and let them seize the time to practice shooting to avoid wasting ammunition in the next battle."
"Comrade Brigadier, you'd better evacuate me," Griza said angrily, "I don't have the ability to appease the soldiers' emotions."
Sokov was really angry and funny when he saw Grisa actually giving up his choice because of his few words. After walking twice around the room with his hands behind his back, he stopped and said to Grisa: "Lieutenant, you go back to the army first. I will go to your company to inspect it in the afternoon. I'll talk about anything later."
After Grisa turned around and left, Belgin, who had always remained silent, asked: "Comrade Brigadier, do you have any good way to calm the soldiers' emotions and let them concentrate on training down-to-earth?"
Sokov smiled lightly and said: "Comrade Political Commissar, I have a way to stab you."
Sokov's words made Belkin's eyes light up: "What can we do?"
"Find two new recruits who have just joined the army and compare their marksmanship with the soldiers of the first company." Sokov said with a smile: "As long as the soldiers of the first company find that their skills are inferior to others, they can be stimulated to be competitive, thus achieving the goal of military training. Effect."
"Recruits?!" Belkin asked in surprise: "Are there any such people among the recruits who joined the army at the same time as the soldiers of the first company?"
"Yes, Comrade Political Commissar." Sokov nodded and said affirmatively: "Come with me to the First Company in the afternoon, and I will let you witness it with your own eyes."
In the afternoon, when Sokov and Belkin brought a guard squad to the station of the first company, the soldiers of the first company had already assembled and formed three neat square formations in the open space. Grisa, who was standing in the queue, saw Sokov and his companions arriving and shouted loudly: "Everyone, listen to my command: stand at attention!"
When all the soldiers completed this action, Grisa ran out of the queue and came to Sokov and Belkin. After raising his hands in salute, he shouted loudly: "Report to the brigade commander and political commissar comrades, All soldiers of the first company have been assembled, please give instructions!"
Sokov and Belkin raised their hands in return and said, "Please rest a moment!"
Grisa agreed loudly, ran back to the queue, and shouted to the soldiers: "Take a break!"
Sokov came to the front of the queue and saw more than 400 soldiers paying attention to him, so he said loudly: "Hello, comrades!" As soon as he finished speaking, the soldiers immediately cheered in unison. The ground stood at attention.
"Please rest a moment!" Sokov waited for the soldiers to rest again and continued: "During the battle that took place early this morning, you made preparations for defense in a timely manner. Facing the enemies who rushed into the trenches, you did not He wavered, did not run away, and managed to eliminate them all.”
After praising the soldiers, Sokov suddenly asked: "Many of you must be thinking, since we performed so well, why did our superiors remove us?"
"Why?" As soon as Sokov finished speaking, several questioning voices came from the queue. ,
"That's a good question. Why should I remove you from the position to rest? I'll tell you the answer now." Sokov said to the soldiers without changing his expression: "You consumed too much ammunition during the battle. . Do you know how many bullets you knocked out in this small-scale battle?"
Although Grisa had statistics on the ammunition consumption by the troops, except for a few handlers, most of the commanders and fighters did not know how much ammunition was consumed. So after hearing Sokov's question, everyone began to whisper in the queue: "Do you know how much ammunition we consumed?"
"I don't know, do you know?"
"I don't know either. Who knows how many bullets were consumed?"
…………
Seeing the soldiers chattering in the queue, Grisa's face became a little uneasy. He turned to face his soldiers and shouted loudly: "Stand at attention!" Following his command, the soldiers came again. Standing at attention, the chatter in the queue suddenly stopped.
Seeing that the team became quiet again, Sokov continued: "Comrades, in the battle early this morning, you consumed a total of 49,000 rounds of ammunition. You know, the third battalion standing in the eastern suburbs, After fighting the Germans for two days, the bullets consumed were only one-third of yours..."
"Oh my God, so many bullets." As soon as Sokov said this, the discussion in the team started again: "I really didn't expect that so many bullets were used in the battle early this morning."
"Is this data reliable? Our troops participating in the battle are only two platoons, can they consume so many bullets?"
"How is it impossible?" As soon as the questioning voice came out, he was immediately rebutted: "Several recruits in our class who used submachine guns would not let go of the trigger, and in a short time they fired all the bullets in the drum. .…”
In the face of such a lively discussion, Sokov deliberately remained silent. Even when Grisa wanted to stop him again, he raised his hand and stopped him. He wanted the soldiers to fully express their true opinions.
