Sokov waited in the headquarters for almost two hours before he saw Ponedelin walking in from the outside. He quickly stood up to greet him and said, "Comrade Deputy Commander, you are back!"
Seeing Sokov appearing in the headquarters, Ponedelin also had a surprised expression on his face: "Comrade Commander, when did you come back?"
"I've been back for a few hours." After Sokov answered briefly, he asked directly: "I heard that Colonel Kirillov's search team found something good?"
"Yes, Comrade Commander, it is indeed a good thing."
Ponejelin's words aroused Sidorin's curiosity, and he couldn't wait to ask: "Comrade deputy commander, what is it? Is it another batch of gold?"
"Comrade Chief of Staff, although it is not gold, it is more precious than gold."
This time, Sokov could no longer hold his temper: "Comrade Chief of Staff, please tell me quickly, what is it?"
"Comrade Commander, I didn't expect you to be so impatient." Ponedelin said with a smile: "What Colonel Kirillov found was jewelry, more than a dozen boxes of jewelry."
"Jewelry?!" Sokov said in confusion after hearing this: "How could more than ten boxes of jewelry be found in a place like this?"
"Comrade Commander, I know." As soon as Sokov finished speaking, Sidorin rushed to say: "It must be buried here by the Tsarist nobles, and they will be taken out when the time is right."
"Comrade Chief of Staff, your words are only half right." Ponedelin said: "Most of these jewels were left by the tsarist nobles, but they were not buried by them."
"Okay, Comrade Deputy Commander, don't keep talking in circles, tell us quickly what's going on." Sokov deliberately pushed Sidorin out as a shield: "Didn't you see that the Chief of Staff was so anxious? What is it like?"
"Okay, then I'll tell you." Seeing that both of them wanted to know the origin of the jewelry, Ponjelin was about to say something when he saw Colonel Belkin sitting beside him and couldn't help but curiously asked. Question: "Comrade Commander, who is this colonel?"
When Sokov heard Ponedelin's question, he realized that the other party saw a stranger here and was unwilling to reveal this important secret easily, so he introduced him: "Comrade Deputy Commander, let me introduce it to you. , this is Colonel Belkin, who used to be my partner when I was the battalion commander. Now he has been transferred to the Weapons and Equipment Department to take over the post of General Yakov."
"Hello, Colonel Belkin." After listening to Sokov's introduction, Ponedelin stretched out his hand to Belkin and said friendly: "Welcome to us."
"Comrade Deputy Commander, you'd better talk about the jewelry first." Sidorin urged.
"When the Soviet was first established, our entire country was in great difficulty due to the blockade by hostile foreign forces. At this time, Comrade Lenin issued a decree asking people to donate gold, silver and jewelry at home." Ponejelin said: "At that time, I Although he is only in his early twenties, he also participates in accepting jewelry donations from citizens.”
When Belkin heard this, he couldn't help but interjected: "Comrade Deputy Commander is right. I also worked in the same job for a period of time."
"Bergin, don't interrupt, let Comrade Deputy Commander continue." Sokov stopped Belgin from continuing, and urged Ponedelin: "Hurry up and continue."
"After these donated jewelry are collected, the Soviet will send special personnel to be auctioned abroad." Ponejelin continued: "The funds obtained from the auction will be used to support the construction of the country. I estimate that the batch of jewelry discovered today The jewelry was sent overseas for auction back then. Maybe the escort had an accident on the way, so they hid the jewelry. It was not until today that they were able to see the light of day again."
"Comrade Deputy Commander, what you say makes sense." Since gold can sink into the swamp during transportation, why can't jewelry be hidden by the escort during transportation? Therefore, Sokov agreed with Ponejelin's speculation: "Maybe the escort encountered an accident on the way, and they had no choice but to hide the jewelry and wait for the right time." I’ll pick it up later.”
Sidorin asked curiously: "If that's the case, why didn't they go get it later?"
"There is only one possibility, that is, after the escorts hid the jewelry, they were all killed by the attackers." Sokov said casually: "Everyone involved is dead, so the whereabouts of these jewelry will naturally become unknown."
"So that's it." After listening to Sokov's words, Sidorin agreed with his speculation: "I think Comrade Commander's analysis is very reasonable."
However, Belkin raised a new question: "I think there is another possibility, that is, this batch of jewelry was hidden by the Tsarist Russian nobles, and was ready to be dug out when they came back with the foreign intervention forces. Who knew that something unexpected happened in the end? , none of their family members survived, so this batch of jewelry was completely lost?"
"Colonel Belkin, your speculation is unfounded." Ponedelin took out a discolored envelope from his briefcase and handed it to Sokov: "I found this in one of the boxes. The pass was issued by a Cheka."
Sokov took the envelope and opened it. Inside was a pass. Perhaps because of its age and being buried underground for too long, many of the handwriting on the pass had become unclear, but Sokov still Being able to understand what is written above proves that these people are carrying valuables abroad to perform special tasks, allowing checkpoints along the way to let them pass.
After reading the pass, Sokov had a general understanding of the origin of this batch of jewelry. He stuffed the pass back into the envelope, looked at Ponejelin and asked: "Comrade Deputy Commander, do you think this batch of jewelry should be How to deal with it?”
"Needless to say, it is of course handed over to the country." Ponyjelin replied without hesitation: "We are still fighting, and our country is in a difficult period. If we get this batch of jewelry, we can help it to a certain extent." Relieve stress."
"Well, just hand over this batch of jewelry." Sokov felt that if the jewelry really had to be handed over, it would be a rare opportunity for Kirillov. Maybe he could be reinstated, so He took the initiative and said, "I think we should send Colonel Kirillov to escort these jewels back to Moscow."
"I agree!" Naturally, Ponejelin was the first to agree with Sokov's proposal.
Sidorin hesitated for a moment, then nodded and said, "I have no objection."
Seeing that the opinions were unanimous, Sokov made the final decision: "Since there is no objection, then send Colonel Kirillov and his people to escort this batch of jewelry to Moscow as soon as possible."
"Comrade Commander, this matter is of great importance. Do you think it is necessary to inform Comrade General?"
Sokov agreed very much with Sidorin's proposal: "Yes, Comrade Chief of Staff, this matter is of great importance. If you don't say hello to the front army headquarters and directly send Colonel Kirillov to Moscow, I'm afraid it will make people unhappy." If Comrade General has any bad thoughts, I will call him later."
But before making the call, Sokov wanted to see with his own eyes what more than a dozen boxes of jewelry looked like, so he tentatively asked Poniejlin: "Comrade Deputy Commander, where are those jewelry? I want to see it."
"It's in a building not far away," Ponejelin said cheerfully: "If you want to see it, I can take you there to have a look."
Ten minutes later, the group arrived at a nearby church.
The outside of the church was heavily guarded. In addition to a dozen soldiers standing guard at the door and sandbag fortifications, there were also patrols walking back and forth around the church.
Seeing this situation, Sokov couldn't help but smile and said to Sidorin next to him: "Chief of Staff, look, the security here is tighter than that at the headquarters. If someone doesn't know the inside story, they would think it's me here. Where is the headquarters.”
After receiving the notification, Kirillov hurriedly ran out of the church and saluted Sokov and others.
Sokov returned the courtesy and asked, "Where is the thing?"
"Just in the church." Kirillov turned sideways and made a gesture of invitation: "Comrade Commander, please!"
Arriving at the church, Sokov saw a dozen boxes the size of microwave ovens placed on the long altar table. He couldn't help but shrink violently. He turned to ask Kirillov beside him: "Colonel Kirillov, what are you doing?" Aren’t you going to tell me that those small wooden boxes are filled with jewelry?”
"Yes, Comrade Commander." But Kirillov obviously misunderstood Sokov's meaning. He nodded, and then replied in a positive tone: "The jewelry is all in the box, and we did not take even a single piece out. A piece of jewelry.”
Sokov realized that the other party had misunderstood what he meant, but he did not explain. Instead, he walked to the table and stared at the jewelry box on the table in a daze. He thought to himself that he had been poisoned by domestic film and television dramas, and thought that the boxes containing jewelry were all large boxes half a person's height. It was probably that they were only large boxes specially used to enhance the visual effect of the audience. They were real jewelry. The box is just as compact as it should be.
Kirillov stepped forward and opened the jewelry box, and Sokov immediately felt an earthy smell coming towards him. The box was filled with necklaces, rings and other jewelry. It may have been buried in the soil for too long, and the items had temporarily lost their original luster.
"Colonel Kirillov," Sokov was not very interested in these jewels. After casually looking at them for a few times, he raised his head and said to Kirillov: "This batch of jewels is very important. I plan to send someone to To Moscow. I wonder if you would be willing to take on the responsibility of transporting it?"
Kirillov couldn't hear what Sokov was saying. He nodded hurriedly and said with some emotion: "Comrade Commander, I will resolutely obey your order and personally escort this batch of jewelry to Moscow."
"Then make preparations and dispatch a few capable subordinates to accompany you." Sokov said: "I will send someone to inform you after I have arranged everything."
After returning to the headquarters, Sokov felt that the matter could not be delayed, so he immediately called Rokossovsky, "Comrade General, I have an important matter that I need to report to you."
When Rokossovsky heard this, it was important. You had just returned from the front headquarters. What important things could you have done? However, he still said politely: "Misha, if there is anything important, just say it."
"Comrade General, the situation is like this. Not long ago, I sent Colonel Kirillov to form a search team to search the defense area to see if we could find our pre-war warehouses." Sokov said into the microphone. : "Although they did not find the military warehouse during their search, they unexpectedly found a batch of special things."
"Misha, how is it possible that there are military warehouses of our army in your defense area?" Rokossovsky said with a smile: "In such a humid area, even if one or two military warehouses are barely built, it will not take long. , the materials inside will get moldy and rusty, so no one would ever choose a location to build a warehouse near a swamp."
After a pause, he suddenly realized that Sokov had called him. The focus seemed not to be about the warehouse, but about the discovery of something special. He quickly asked: "Did you just say that you found something special?"
"Jewelry, Comrade General." Sokov said: "Twelve boxes full of jewels."
"Jewelry?!" Rokossovsky was stunned and asked with some confusion: "What the hell, where did these jewelry come from?"
"Comrade General, after careful inspection by the deputy commander, a pass from more than 20 years ago was found in the jewelry box, which was issued by the Cheka at that time." Sokov explained: "Obviously, this batch of The jewelry is going to be sent to foreign countries for auction.”
"Jewelry sent for auction abroad?" Rokossovsky hesitated for a long time, then suddenly remembered the old events of more than 20 years ago, and suddenly realized: "I remembered that in the early 1920s, the state organized citizens to donate money to their homes. The gold and silver jewels were collected and sent abroad for auction, and the funds obtained were used to build the motherland. In this way, the jewels you discovered were part of the jewels prepared for auction back then."
"That's right, Comrade General." Sokov nodded and said affirmatively: "From various indications, the jewelry we found was intended to be sent abroad for auction. The escort may have encountered some attack on the way. , in order to prevent these jewels from falling into the hands of the enemy, they buried the jewels on the spot."
"Misha, what do you plan to do with these jewels?"
"I am going to ask Colonel Kirillov to send this batch of jewelry to Moscow." Sokov replied: "Considering the high stakes at this time, I feel it is necessary to report to you first."
"Have you contacted Moscow?"
"Not yet, Comrade General." Sokov knew very well that the most taboo thing for superior leaders was for subordinates to step over him and leapfrog him to do something, so he took the initiative and said: "How can I do something good without reporting it to you?" It’s a proposition.”
Sokov's answer made Rokossovsky very satisfied. He nodded and said: "Misha, ask Colonel Kirillov to bring the things to the front army headquarters, and I will personally send someone to deliver them." He returned to Moscow by plane."
"Okay, Comrade General, I will arrange for Colonel Kirillov to go to your headquarters as soon as possible." After Sokov said this, he asked tentatively: "I also want to ask, is the jewelry this time Kirillov Colonel Love discovered it, and he escorted it back to Moscow. I wonder what reward his superiors will give him?"
When Rokossovsky heard this, he guessed Sokov's thoughts and said with a smile: "Misha, you don't have to worry about this kind of thing. I can tell you this, Colonel Kirillov will definitely be able to Get corresponding rewards.”
