Early the next morning, Colonel Khokhlov, commander of the 182nd Division, and Colonel Shepilov, political commissar, appeared at Sokov's headquarters.
Seeing the appearance of the two men, Sokov's first reaction was that they must have felt uneasy when they saw other troops making achievements while his own troops were doing nothing, so they came to him specifically to request the mission.
Before the two of them could speak, Sokov said first: "Colonel Khokhlov, Colonel Shepilov, I know why you two are here. Although I know that the troops currently used for combat are insufficient, I also want to You are sent up to deal with the enemy. But it won't work. Your division has just added thousands of new recruits who have not had any combat, which has seriously weakened your combat effectiveness. If you are sent to the battlefield at this time, it will be like letting those new soldiers die.
I think you should not come to me to request any missions from now on. I will not arrange combat missions for you for the time being. If you have time, you'd better pay attention to the training of new recruits, and strive to restore the combat effectiveness of the army to its previous state before the end of the year. "
Unexpectedly, after listening to Sokov's words, Khokhlov and Shepilov didn't say anything, they just looked at each other and smiled.
Seeing the expressions of the two men, Sameko asked curiously: "Comrade Colonels, why are you laughing? Didn't Comrade Commander just express it clearly enough? Your troops' combat effectiveness is too weak, even if you spend time at the headquarters every day Here, we will not arrange any combat missions for you in a short period of time."
"Comrade Chief of Staff, you misunderstood." Seeing that Samyko misunderstood his smile, Khokhlov quickly explained to him: "Actually, we are here today not to request any combat mission from Comrade Commander, but to Not long ago, an interesting thing happened, and I felt the need to report it personally to Comrade Commander."
"Interesting thing?" Khokhlov's words aroused Sokov's curiosity: "What is it? Tell me."
"Comrade Commander, do you remember Second Lieutenant Serelkov?" Shepilov asked with a smile.
"Second Lieutenant Serelkov?!" Sokov repeated the name he seemed to have heard before, then frowned and asked, "Who is he? I don't seem to recognize him."
"Comrade Commander, why have you forgotten?" Seeing that Sokov could not remember who Serelkov was, Shepilov quickly reminded him: "He was a veteran of the batch of recruits you added to us last time. At that time, you After chatting with him for a few words, he was directly appointed as a second lieutenant."
After Shepilov reminded him, Sokov immediately thought of this person: "Oh, is he the veteran who fought with Marshal Tukhachevsky?"
"Yes, that's him."
In Sokov's mind, older soldiers like Serelkov must know how to abide by military regulations, and violations of military regulations must have nothing to do with him. In order to find out what was going on, he asked tentatively: "Colonel Khokhlov, I wonder what trouble Second Lieutenant Serelkov got into?"
"Comrade Commander, you are mistaken." Hearing Sokov's question, Khoklov quickly waved his hands: "Not only did he not make any mistakes, on the contrary, he also made great contributions."
"Has he made great achievements?" Khokhlov's words made Sokov even more confused: "Comrade Colonel, you have confused me. Tell me quickly, what great achievements has he made?"
"Comrade Commander, the situation is like this." Khokhlov said: "Didn't the superiors distribute vodka to every soldier? Second Lieutenant Serelkov is responsible for transportation and distributing vodka to every soldier."
Although Sokov was anxious to find out what was going on, he did not interrupt Khokhlov, but listened patiently to his explanation.
"Last night, Second Lieutenant Serelkov and a soldier named Lulik pulled a cart of vodka, preparing to move it to a new station and distribute it to the soldiers. Unexpectedly, it was too dark, and Second Lieutenant Serelkov, who was in charge of driving, left I took the wrong road and drove into the enemy's defense zone unknowingly..."
"What, drove the car into the enemy's defense area?" When Sameko heard this, he shouted in surprise: "They were not captured by the enemy, were they?"
"No, Comrade Chief of Staff, they were not discovered by the enemy." After answering Samyko's question with a smile, Khokhlov continued: "After the truck entered the camp, Serelkov overheard someone outside the truck. He was talking in a language he didn't understand, and he immediately realized that he might have strayed into the enemy's camp.
Just as he was thinking hard about how to escape, he unexpectedly discovered that there were more than 20 trucks with tarps parked in the open space in front of him, so he drove over and stopped.
After the car stopped, Serelkov and Lulik sat in the car and waited for a while. They found that no one came to check on them, and there was not even a patrol nearby. They couldn't help but secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
In order to find a way to escape, Serelkov asked Lulik to stay in the car and quietly got out of the car to check the German trucks parked nearby to find out what was in the compartments. He secretly thought that even if he couldn't escape, he would still find a way to blow up all these German trucks.
When he opened the tarpaulin behind a truck, he was surprised to find that the compartment was full of German soldiers. When he was frightened out of his mind, he unexpectedly discovered that the German soldiers in the car were fast asleep and seemed to have been transferred from other places.
After discovering this unexpected situation, a bold idea came to his mind, which was to drag these Germans back to our defense zone and make them prisoners directly. After thinking about it, he returned to his car, called Lulik, and drove a truck full of German soldiers toward our defense zone. "
When Sokov heard this, he couldn't help breaking out in a cold sweat: "Comrade Colonel, this Serelkov is really bold. He actually pulled a car of Germans back. Isn't he afraid that the Germans will wake up halfway and attack them from behind?" One shot? Also, even if the Germans don't shoot from behind, when their vehicles enter our defense area, if the soldiers on duty at the checkpoint see a vehicle full of German soldiers, they will definitely regard them as spies. "
"When they passed the first checkpoint, Serelkov got out of the car and told the officer on duty that they had pulled a car of German soldiers. The officer also went to the car behind to take a look, and then told him that he had only One squad of people cannot deal with so many enemies. Let him continue driving to the second checkpoint, and they will help him contact the troops there to prepare.
Since the number of troops at the first checkpoint was insufficient, Serelkov did not stop and continued to move forward. When they arrived at the second checkpoint, they found that the place was already heavily fortified. There were two machine guns set up in the sandbag fortifications next to the checkpoint, and there were more than 50 commanders and soldiers nearby who were ready for battle.
After Serelkov contacted the officer on duty at the checkpoint, he learned that all preparations had been made here, so he parked the car on the side of the road and asked the soldiers who had been waiting for a long time to drag out the sleeping German soldiers one by one.
When the German soldiers were dragged out, they thought their sleep had been disturbed by their own people. They didn't even open their eyes and began to complain. When they saw the muzzles of our army's guns all around, they were immediately frightened. Our comrades counted the number of people and found that there were eighteen of them, among whom the highest-ranking one was a lieutenant. "
After Khokhlov finished speaking, everyone burst into laughter. But Sokov began to think deeply. Serelkov exchanged a car of vodka for eighteen German prisoners. Although it was a gratifying thing, it also exposed some problems in the army.
Seeing Sokov's silence, Samek couldn't help but asked curiously: "Comrade Commander, what are you thinking about?"
"Colonel Khokhlov," Sokov did not immediately answer Samyko's question, but told Khokhlov: "Call and invite Second Lieutenant Serelkov here. I want to ask him something."
"Yes, Comrade Commander." Khokhlov quickly replied: "I called him immediately and asked him to report to the headquarters."
"Comrade Chief of Staff," Sokov said to Samyko while Khokhlov was on the phone: "I was thinking that exchanging a cart of vodka for a cart of prisoners is indeed a good thing. It’s a good deal. But it also exposes a lot of the problems we have today.”
"Many problems were exposed?" Samyko repeated Sokov's words and asked puzzledly: "Comrade Commander, I don't understand what you mean."
"The reason why Second Lieutenant Serelkov drove his car into the enemy's defense area was entirely because the troops responsible for traffic management failed to mark important areas, and such a mistake occurred." Sokov said with a straight face: "Second Lieutenant Serelkov and the others were able to return safely from the enemy's defense zone. It was purely due to their good luck. But if they were noticed when they entered the enemy's camp, do you think they could survive?
Also, if a vehicle with a division commander mistakenly enters the enemy's defense area due to unclear road sign instructions and becomes a prisoner of the enemy, how much loss will this cause to us? "
"Comrade Commander, I think this is unlikely." Sameko quickly defended: "When a division commander goes out, he must bring at least one soldier from the guard squad with him. Even if they encounter the enemy, they will have a chance to escape. .”
"Comrade Chief of Staff, you are taking chances." Sokov retorted rudely: "If you accidentally enter the enemy's defense area and are discovered by the enemy, let alone the division commander who will only have one guard squad next to him. , even if there is a security platoon or a security company, whether we can escape safely is still a problem."
Hearing what Sokov said, Samyko immediately realized that he had oversimplified the problem and quickly admitted his mistake: "Comrade Commander, I was wrong. I immediately ordered the relevant personnel to check the signs set up at each intersection. sign to prevent something like this from happening again.”
"Also," Sokov waited for Samyko to finish, and then continued: "As the first checkpoint closest to the enemy's defense area, why is only one squad of troops arranged? If Second Lieutenant Serelkov is unlucky, As soon as we arrived at the first checkpoint, the enemies sleeping in the car woke up. Couldn't they easily occupy our checkpoint?"
"I understand." This time there was no need for Sokov to emphasize anything, Sameko took the initiative and said: "I will immediately notify the troops below that the number of troops deployed at the first checkpoint must not be less than one platoon."
After Sokov stated all the problems he was thinking about and came up with corresponding solutions, he said to Khokhlov and Shepilov who stood aside and did not dare to speak: "Comrade Colonels, , although there are still many loopholes in our deployment, we will still commend Second Lieutenant Serelkov for his meritorious service."
Having said this, Sokov turned around and asked Lunev who was sitting next to him: "Comrade Military Commissar, tell me, what reward should we give Second Lieutenant Serelkov?"
Lunev stood up and said with a smile: "Before dark, the front army headquarters sent a batch of bravery medals. I think the performance of Second Lieutenant Serelkov and Lulik are fully worthy of this medal. "
"You are right, their performance is fully worthy of this medal." Sokov struck while the iron was hot and said: "Comrade Military Commissar, when Second Lieutenant Serelkov and soldier Lulik arrive, you will be in charge. Declare them.”
When Serelkov and Lulik appeared at the headquarters, Sokov took the initiative to shake hands with the two: "Second Lieutenant Serelkov, I really didn't expect that we would meet again so soon. I heard that you two last night You have made a great contribution, and I would like to express my heartfelt congratulations to you."
"And you, little guy." After Sokov let go of Serelkov's hand, he held Lulik's hand and said to him with a smile: "I didn't expect that you and Comrade Second Lieutenant behaved very differently. It's so simple. You were able to pull out a carload of German soldiers from the enemy's camp. Tell me honestly, were you afraid at that time?"
Unexpectedly, this question Sokov asked casually made Lulik panic: "I...I...I"
Seeing that Lulik was speechless for a long time, Sokov realized that under the circumstances at that time, let alone a child who had just joined the army, even an adult who had been in the army for two years would probably... scared. Then he said to him in an encouraging tone: "Comrade Lulik, don't be afraid, you just need to tell me truthfully, how did you feel at that time?"
"Comrade Commander, you are right, I was really scared at the time." Lulik replied truthfully: "When our truck mistakenly entered the German barracks and saw the German soldiers walking back and forth outside the truck, I was really scared and even thought about getting out of the car and running away.”
"But you did not run away at that time, which shows that you are a brave warrior. Since you and Second Lieutenant Serelkov are both brave people, then you will receive the honor that belongs to you." Sokov said here, He turned to Lunev who was standing aside and said: "Comrade Military Commissar, now it is your turn to award our two brave commanders and combatants with their own bravery medals in recognition of their merits."
