Sokov, who was far away in Brest, had no way of knowing the conversation between Zhukov and Rokossovsky. At this moment, he received a call from Major Sukhalev, commander of the 109th Infantry Brigade: "Comrade Commander, I found something in the fortress west of Brest Fortress. Can you come and take a look?"
Upon hearing this, Sokov guessed that the other party might have discovered the battle traces left by the defenders of the fortress, and said readily: "Comrade Major, I will rush over as soon as possible. You will send someone to pick me up at the door later." one time."
After putting down the phone, Sokov said to Ponedelin: "Comrade Deputy Commander, Major Sukhalev said that he found something special. I think we need to take a look."
"Comrade Commander," Sidorin interrupted before Ponedelin could speak and asked, "Can I go?"
Sokov thought that every time he went out before, he always asked Sidorin to stay behind to look after the house. The fortress he went to this time was only a few kilometers away from the headquarters. Even if something big happened, he could still rush back to deal with it in time, and he was very happy. He simply agreed to Sidorin's request: "Okay, Comrade Chief of Staff, you can come with us this time."
Although the fortress is only a few kilometers away from the city, Sokov still remembered that not long ago, two of his brigade commanders ran to the fortress to inspect the battlefield just after the battle, and were beaten by wounded German soldiers. A cold shot, a life lost in vain. So when he traveled, he specifically asked Koshkin to bring a security company to escort the three of him to the fortress.
After the convoy entered the fortress and drove for a certain distance, a lieutenant with two soldiers appeared on the side of the road. It seemed that he was here to greet him. Sokov quickly ordered the car to stop, and then asked Koshkin to ask if he was coming to pick him up. my own.
Koshkin opened the door and got out of the car and walked towards the lieutenant. Still far away, he asked loudly: "Hey, Comrade Lieutenant, which department are you in?"
When the lieutenant saw Koshkin walking towards him, he quickly stood at attention and raised his hand in salute: "Hello, comrade lieutenant. I am from the 109th Infantry Brigade. On the order of the brigade commander, Major Sukhalev, I came here to greet him. The commander’s.”
After confirming the identity of the other party, Koshkin took the lieutenant to the car and reported to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, this is the guide sent by Major Sukhalev."
Sokov pushed out the door, stepped forward, shook hands with the lieutenant, and asked politely: "Comrade Lieutenant, where is Major Sukhalev?"
"Comrade Commander, please follow me," the lieutenant said, "I will be your guide."
Sokov called Ponejelin and Sidorin in the car behind him, and followed the lieutenant towards a half-collapsed red building not far away. This building was turned into a building due to bombing and shelling. In this way, you can clearly see the holes in the wall, the exposed stairwells, the platforms of the few remaining undamaged rooms, and the preserved furniture.
The lieutenant led them into the building, down a narrow escalator illuminated by a gas lantern hung on the wall, its chipped steps strewn with stone chips and broken bricks.
In the corridor under the escalator, beside an open metal door, stood a soldier. When the soldiers saw the lieutenant and several generals coming down the escalator, they quickly stood at attention, straightened their backs, and paid attention to everyone.
"Is Major Sukhalev here?" Sokov asked.
"Here, comrade general." The soldier standing guard was obviously new to the army and did not recognize the general in front of him who was asking questions. He was the group army commander Sokov. However, he still added: "In addition to the brigade commander, the brigade chief of staff is also here. .”
Sokov nodded to the warrior and stepped into the room.
In this damp basement, Sokov saw Sukhalev and another bald major without a hat squatting in front of a wall, shining a flashlight on the wall, as if they were checking something.
Sokov stood for a while. Seeing that Sukharev did not notice him, Sokov walked over and raised his voice and asked: "Comrade commanders, what are you doing?" Because the room was empty, his voice echoed.
Upon noticing Sokov's arrival, Sukhalev quickly stood up and saluted: "Hello, Comrade Commander."
After shaking hands with Sukhalev and his chief of staff, Sokov repeated the question again: "Major Sukhalev, what are you looking at?"
"Comrade Commander, please look at the words engraved on the wall." Sukhalev led Sokov to the wall, shined a flashlight on the wall and said, "I think you will be interested."
With the help of the flashlight light, Sokov saw the words carved on the wall. He quickly bent down and looked carefully. He saw that it read: "I am about to sacrifice, but I will never surrender. Farewell, motherland!" Behind it! The signature is unclear, but there is a clearly legible date at the bottom - "July 20, 1941."
Ponejelin, who followed in, also saw the writing on the wall clearly, and said with some surprise: "Comrade Commander, according to the captured German information, the German army occupied this fortress a few days after the war broke out. But. If the inscriptions on the wall are true, it means that the defenders in the fortress resisted for much longer than the Germans said."
"That's right." Sokov clearly remembered that the defender of the fortress, Major Zavrilov, was only captured by the Germans for being wounded one month after the war broke out, so he had no idea about the authenticity of the inscriptions on the wall. There was no doubt at all: "The German army only occupied this fortress in name, but the defenders of our fortress are still fighting desperately against the enemy in every corner."
"I wonder what happened to the people in the fortress in the end." Sidorin interjected.
"Needless to say, they must have been killed by the Germans." Sukharev said: "I heard that the defenders were short of water and food. In order to prevent the women and children in the fortress from suffering with them, they asked them to go to the Germans. Surrendered. As a result, the Germans killed all these women and children the next year."
"Comrade Major," Sidorin heard this and couldn't help but interrupt Sukhalev: "If the defenders are to run out of food, I think it is still possible. When it comes to running out of water, this is simply impossible. You know , Brest Fortress is a fortress surrounded by rivers, and it is very easy for the defenders to get water."
"Comrade Chief of Staff," Sokov felt the need to speak out: "According to what I know, the defenders of those fortresses are trapped far away from the river, and the water supply system in the fortress has also been damaged. It was completely possible that the Germans would destroy it, so they would cut off the water supply.”
"Comrade Major," Ponedelin did not participate in the argument, but asked Sukhalev curiously: "Besides this place, are there any other inscriptions?"
"In the next room, there are many places on the wall with words engraved on it." Sukhalev said with some regret, "It's a pity that the content on it can't be identified."
"How is that possible?" Ponejelin asked with some confusion: "Even if three years have passed and the basement is damp, it will have a corrosive effect on the words engraved on the wall, so it won't be unrecognizable."
"Comrade Deputy Commander, the situation is like this." Sukhalev explained to Ponedelin: "It can be seen from the traces left that the Germans used a flamethrower in the next room, and the high temperature caused the The lettering became unclear..."
"Damn old German," Ponejelin couldn't help but gritted his teeth when he heard this: "He actually used a flamethrower in the basement, which means that the defenders in the next room will not have survivors. "
Sokov listened to the conversation between Ponedelin and Sukhalev and thought to himself: "Major Zavrilov is currently staying in a German prisoner of war camp. If he is lucky, he can If he is rescued, then he can be appointed as the regimental commander and let him lead the troops to avenge and wash away the shame left to him by the Germans."
"Comrade Commander," just as Sokov was thinking, Ponedelin touched him with his elbow and asked curiously: "What are you thinking about?"
"I was wondering," Sokov said casually: "Are there any survivors among the defenders of these fortresses?"
"There must be survivors." Sidorin said: "No matter how tightly the Germans encircle them, there will always be people who escape from the encirclement. As for whether they are still alive now, it is still unknown."
"Shortly after the war broke out, the troops of the Western Front were defeated by the German army." Ponedelin said slowly: "Later, after Marshal Timoshenko accepted the command of the army, he successively took in two soldiers who escaped from the German encirclement. More than 100,000 troops. Since other troops surrounded by the Germans were able to escape successfully, I think some of the defenders in the fortress should also be able to escape."
Several people came out of the basement and came to the door of the Terespol Gate.
Sokov thought of a movie he had seen before, in which the defenders of the fortress stood firm here to prevent the Germans from entering the fortress through the bridge. The despicable Germans escorted a group of captured wounded soldiers and medical staff over, trying to let these people block bullets in front so that they could smoothly rush into the fortress.
At the critical moment, political commissar Fomin came out to negotiate with the Germans alone. He took advantage of the fact that the Germans did not understand Russian. When approaching the captured wounded and medical staff, he loudly shouted for everyone to get down. The wounded and medical staff heard his shouts and immediately fell down on the spot, while the soldiers in the fortress behind Fomin immediately opened fire on the German troops exposed in the open ground. Although some wounded and medical staff died, most of them were rescued, and the small German team that tried to capture the Telespol Gate was completely annihilated.
Sidorin was not a roundworm in Sokov's belly. Seeing Sokov staring at the river in a daze, he asked curiously: "Comrade Commander, I see you keep staring at the river. I wonder what you are thinking about?"
Sokov pointed towards the river and said: "I seem to have heard that in order to break out, the defenders of the fortress once used gas masks to dive and try to escape from the fortress underwater."
"Diving with a gas mask?" Sukhalev said with some surprise after hearing this: "Comrade Commander, this is unlikely. You know, I am from the Navy and am not familiar with gas masks, but I also know very well how to use them. Semi-closed gas masks will leak, even fully-sealed gas masks will not work. Because the mouth and nose of the gas mask cannot balance ear pressure, earache will start about 3 meters underwater, and if you continue to go deeper, you may perforate the eardrum."
After listening to Sukharev's very professional explanation, Sokov said with a smile: "Comrade Major, it is precisely because you were born in the navy that you fell into misunderstandings in your thinking."
When Sukhalev heard what Sokov said, a surprised expression appeared on his face: "Comrade Commander, I don't quite understand what you mean. Can you explain it to me?"
Fortunately, the soldiers walking nearby were carrying gas masks, so Sokov ordered someone to bring one. Then he saluted Sukhalev and said, "Major, I believe its sealing is very good!"
"Yes, of course!" Although Sukharev didn't understand the reason why Sokov said this, he still answered truthfully: "It is used to prevent gas. If the sealing is not good, it will not work." Anti-virus effect.”
"We can observe the outside situation through these two pieces of glass." Sokov said, pointing to the two pieces of glass at the eyes of the gas mask: "I don't know what its exact name is."
"Window," Ponedelin interrupted: "Round window!"
"Yes, window!" Sokov continued: "In addition to this kind of gas mask with a filter tank, there is also a kind of gas mask with a long extension tube."
Sukharev became more and more confused, thinking that the commander was not teaching him how to wear a gas mask, right? But he did not dare to interrupt the other party, so he could only listen patiently.
Sokov gestured with the gas mask and said: "Since the gas mask has good sealing and viewing windows, as well as an extension tube, our soldiers can use it to breathe underwater."
When Sidorin heard this, he laughed and said to Sukharev: "Comrade Major, you may not know that we used this tactic when we were fighting across the river before, asking the soldiers to wear extension tubes. wearing a gas mask and quietly approaching the enemy's position from the bottom of the water."
Sukhalev was stunned for a while with his mouth half open. Finally he figured out what was going on. He slapped his leg hard and said excitedly: "Genius, Comrade Commander, you are simply a genius."
Although Sukhalev wanted to understand what was going on, Ponedelin did not yet understand what was going on. Sidorin explained to him: "Comrade Deputy Commander, we take out the end of the extension tube and fix it on a wooden block so that it always floats on the water so that the soldiers wearing gas masks can breathe underwater. The air is gone.”
After listening to Sidorin's explanation, Ponejelin finally understood, but he still raised his own question: "What if the water is too deep? The length of the extension tube may not be enough."
"This is not a problem." Sidorin explained: "We can lengthen the extension tube a little further, so that we can ensure that the soldiers wearing gas masks can still breathe the outside air when they are in the water." Nejerin asked again, and he added, "Since the soldiers carry weapons and equipment of sufficient weight, there is no need to worry about them being unable to maintain their balance in the water."
"Comrade Commander, I don't understand." Sukhalev interrupted again: "Since they can use gas masks to walk underwater, why can't they escape from the German encirclement?"
"It is said that the Germans deployed barbed wire under the water," Sokov sighed softly and said with doubt on his face, "This blocked the way for the defenders of the fortress to escape." After speaking, he waved his hand. "It's getting late, let's go back."
