After settling the soldiers, Guchakov left two soldiers standing guard at the door, then called the remaining people in front of him, and said to everyone with a serious expression: "Comrades, starting from today, we We will settle in this village and then send out manpower to conduct reconnaissance around the area to find targets worth attacking."
Having said this, Guchakov deliberately paused for a moment and after scanning the soldiers one by one, he continued: "But there is one thing I need to remind everyone. The enemies stationed in the village, except those who led us here, Except for the corporal, the rest of the men were not Germans, but Ukrainians who acted as lackeys for the Germans."
"What, Ukrainians?" Guchakov's words startled everyone. After a brief silence, everyone began to talk about it: "These traitors to the motherland actually work for the Germans."
"I heard that there was an Eastern Battalion in the German army, and its members were all renegade prisoners of war, or people who were willing to serve the Germans."
"This bunch of damn traitors will be a disaster if they stay here. We will go over and eliminate them..."
"..."
Facing the fierce public sentiment among the soldiers, Guchakov did not speak, but remained silent. After everyone gradually calmed down, he said: "Comrades, I feel the same as you. When I learned that there were traitors working for the Germans in the village, I wanted to eliminate them immediately. But that's not possible, comrades, we have to kill them. It was quite simple for them. They found a reason to call them all to the barn, and then used the machine gun on the armored vehicle to shoot them all. But in this way, our whereabouts were also exposed, and it was very difficult for us. The actions that follow are very detrimental."
After Guchakov finished speaking, the soldiers fell into silence. They were all thinking hard about what Guchakov said, and found that what the lieutenant said was quite reasonable. It was quite simple to kill these traitors, but exposing their whereabouts would have an adverse impact on the next actions.
After a while, a sergeant in the team asked Guchakov loudly: "Comrade Lieutenant, what should we do next?"
"Since we are pretending to be Germans, we have to pretend to be more like them." Guchakov thought for a while and then said: "I just took a look when I entered the village. The village was almost full of old, weak, women and children. In order not to To arouse the enemy's suspicion, we can ask the women in the village to cook and wash clothes for us..."
"Comrade Lieutenant, I'm worried about one thing." Samoilov waited for Guchakov to finish and then raised his own concern: "You let the women in the village cook for us. If they eat our food... What should we do if we spit in the soup we drink or even defecate?”
Samoilov's words caused a burst of laughter around him, but the soldiers soon fell silent. They knew that the ensign was not an alarmist. As far as they knew, some women who were forced to cook for the Germans did so in private. They did not want special ingredients added to their meals or soups. .
"Comrade Second Lieutenant, tell me." Guchakov asked Samoilov with a headache: "What should we do to be more like the Germans?"
"I think it's best not to interact with the people in the village." Samoilov said cautiously: "If the villagers give wine to our soldiers, and they accidentally speak Russian after getting drunk, their identities will be exposed. Therefore. The best way is to treat the barn as a restricted area and drive away anyone who approaches."
"Okay, Comrade Second Lieutenant." Guchakov thought over Samoylov's words and felt that they made sense. If the soldiers really come into contact with the villagers, there is indeed the possibility of exposing their identities. The safest way is to let the soldiers stay in the barn to reduce the risk of exposure: "As you said, in addition to going out for reconnaissance, Outside of our small group, the rest of us stayed in the barn and weren’t allowed to go anywhere.”
"Also." Samoilov continued: "I think the people in the village may have connections with the guerrillas outside. We also need to set up hidden sentries near the barn to prevent sneak attacks by the guerrillas."
Guchakov disagreed with Samoilov's worries: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, you are too cautious. If the guerrillas wanted to attack the garrison in the village, they would have come long ago. Don't look at the guerrillas. The fighting ability is not good, but it is not a problem to deal with the twenty or so Ukrainians."
"Is the elimination of more than 20 Ukrainians the same as the elimination of more than 20 German soldiers?" Samoilov sneered and said: "Maybe someone has quietly left the village at this moment and went to the nearby guerrilla station to spread the news. went."
Guchakov originally planned to retort, but when Samoylov finished speaking, he felt that what the other party said was very reasonable. For the guerrillas hiding in the forest, killing more than 20 Ukrainians would be of no use. How significant it is that it will lead to a clearing up by the German army. But if twenty or thirty German soldiers were eliminated, the nature would be different. Even if they could not stay here any longer and were forced to evacuate into the city, this matter would still be a great achievement for them.
He asked Samoilov with a solemn expression: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, tell me, if the guerrillas really come for a sneak attack, what should we do? We can't wipe them all out, right?"
"We have three armored vehicles. As long as the guerrilla commander is not too stupid, he will definitely not send a large force to attack. Because they lack the heavy weapons to deal with the armored vehicles, and once they cannot eat us in a short time, the Ukrainians stationed in the village will They will rush over to support us." Samoilov said confidently: "So, I think they may only send two or three people to throw Molotov cocktails at the barn where we live and burn us to death."
"Yes, Comrade Second Lieutenant, you are right." After Samoilov's analysis, Guchakov seemed to see several guerrillas crawling to the vicinity of the barn after dark, and then The scene where the Molotov cocktail was thrown decisively made me shudder: "If you want to deal with the people living in the barn, the Molotov cocktail is the most effective weapon."
He asked Samoilov again: "What should we do?"
Samoilov smiled lightly and replied: "It's very simple, Comrade Lieutenant. We will ambush the sentry near the barn and wait for the sneak attack guerrillas to arrive and catch them."
…………
After dark, Samoilov personally took Tavlin and lurked behind the wooden piles on the west side of the barn.
Tavlin asked Samoilov in a low voice: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, will the guerrillas really come?"
"Yes." Samoilov affirmed: "What would you do if you were a guerrilla and learned that a group of German soldiers lived in a barn?"
"Needless to say," Tavlin replied without hesitation: "I will definitely send people to kill the barn and burn all the Germans living in it."
"You are right." After Samoilov waited for Tavlin to finish speaking, he nodded slightly and said, "I guess the nearby guerrillas must have the same idea."
The two of them were talking in a low voice when Samoylov suddenly heard a sound in the distance, like a slight clicking sound made by someone stepping on a dead branch on the ground. He quickly made a gesture to Tavlin beside him and said in a whisper: "Don't talk, the guerrillas seem to be coming."
Not long after, the two heard someone whispering not far away: "...You two go over and burn down the barn with incendiary bombs and burn all the Germans living in it to death..."
After the man's voice disappeared, the clicking sound of his feet on the dead branches became clearer. It was obvious that someone was speeding up and heading towards the barn. In a short time, Samoilov saw two people in civilian clothes appearing in his sight. The two stopped more than thirty meters away from the barn, squatted on the ground, and one of them took out a Molotov cocktail. Another man began to strike a match, trying to light the rag on the bottle.
"Action!" Samoilov growled at Tavlin, and then rushed out first with a submachine gun. He quickly rushed in front of the two men, pointed his gun at them, and said: "Put down what you are holding, or I will shoot!"
The man who was striking a match heard someone talking behind him. He turned around and found a German soldier pointing a submachine gun at him. He quickly threw the lit match on the ground and reached out to touch the pistol on the belt around his waist. Unexpectedly, as soon as his hand touched the pistol and before he could pull it out, a cold object was pressed against the back of his head. Then he heard a voice saying: "Remove your hand from the gun, or I will call you Your brain is blooming."
With Taflin's gun pressed against his head, the man could only take his hands away from his waist obediently. He thought angrily in his heart: "Why is there a German secret sentinel here? It seems that our mission has failed."
Seeing the two people squatting on the ground, Samoylov said to the man holding the Molotov cocktail: "Where is the person you are leading? Go over and call him over. I have something to say to him."
The man looked up at Samoilov who was speaking, and couldn't help but be shocked. He thought to himself: This German speaks Russian so well that he can easily mistake it for the real thing.
Seeing the man squatting on the ground in a daze, Samoylov was so angry that he kicked him and urged: "Hurry up and call your person in charge. Don't make too much noise, so as not to be noticed by the enemies in the village. .”
The man was stunned for a moment when he heard Samoylov talking about the enemies in the village. Then he thought of a possibility, with an expression of surprise on his face. He said excitedly: "You...you are...are..."
"Go and call your person in charge. I have something to say to him." After Samoylov finished speaking, he turned to Tavlin and said: "Comrade Sergeant, put down the gun."
Just a minute or two later, the man who had just left came over with a middle-aged man wearing a peaked cap, an armed belt around his waist, and holding a carbine in his hand. The man came to Samoilov, looked him up and down, and asked: "Which part do you belong to?"
"This is not the place to talk. Let's go to the barn." After Samoylov finished speaking, he made a gesture of invitation to the middle-aged man: "Please."
Three partisans followed Samoilov into the barn. Guchakov, who was assigning tasks to the soldiers inside, saw Samoylov bringing in three strangers, and frowned and asked: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, who are they?"
"Report to Comrade Lieutenant!" Samoilov reported to Guchakov: "These three guerrilla comrades were coming to burn down the barn, and I brought them here." After learning that these three people It was the guerrillas who were preparing to burn down the barn. The soldiers gathered around to get a clear look at each other.
The leading guerrilla raised his head and said to Guchakov: "Comrade Lieutenant, I am the deputy captain of the guerrillas Ruzsky. Can you tell me your identity?"
"We are from the 41st Guards Division," Guchakov saw the three of them surrounded by his own soldiers and did not worry at all that the other party would escape, so he replied carelessly: "We were ordered to perform tasks behind enemy lines. Comrade Ruziski, I would like to ask, why did your guerrillas attack us?"
"It's very simple. Our informant who stayed in the village secretly came to report to us in the afternoon, saying that a group of Germans came to the village and lived in the barn." Ruziski looked to the left and right and saw all the soldiers looking at him eagerly. Staring at himself, he could not help but reply with a guilty conscience: "So the captain asked me to lead two people into the village at night, burn down the barn with Molotov cocktails, and burn the Germans living in it to death."
After listening to Ruzsky's statement, Guchakov turned to look at Samoilov and said in a grateful tone: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, your judgment is correct. The guerrillas did come to attack us tonight. What if If it weren't for you and Sergeant Tavlin to guard the outside, I think our group would have perished in the flames."
"I'm sorry, Comrade Lieutenant." After Guchakov finished speaking, Ruzsky immediately apologized to him with a red face: "We didn't know that the people living in the barn were actually our own people. We were wrong. "
"It's okay, comrade vice-captain." Guchakov raised his hand and patted the opponent's shoulder twice, and said pleasantly: "You don't know that the enemy is us in disguise. You are doing this to destroy the enemy. What's more, A good place to fight against the invaders of Faxi Temple."
After clearing up the misunderstanding, Ruziski asked tentatively: "Comrade Lieutenant, I would like to ask, what are you doing here? Is there anything we can do for you?"
Guchakov looked at Ruzsky and thought for a moment. He felt that since the other party was a guerrilla operating in this area, he must know the enemy's situation very well. He smiled and asked: "Comrade Ruzsky, I want to ask Ask, are you familiar with the nearby terrain?"
"It goes without saying," Ruzsky said proudly after hearing Guchakov's question: "We are locals and we are extremely familiar with the surrounding environment. Even if we walk with our eyes closed, You won’t get lost.”
"That's great." Guchakov couldn't help but be overjoyed to learn that Ruzsky was familiar with the nearby terrain. He quickly asked: "Do you know what important facilities the Germans have nearby?"
