When Valoja heard Sokov's question, he was like a life-saving straw that fell into the water. He grabbed Sokov's other hand and shook it hard and said, "Uncle Commander, the Germans locked up all the people in our village in the church, saying that after it was dark, they would kill them all. We crawled out of the drainage ditch. Please, go and save them."
"What? The Germans want to kill all the people in your village?!" When Varoja said this in a crying voice, Vasily, who was standing beside him, immediately became anxious and hurriedly urged Sokov: "Comrade Battalion Commander, we must hurry over as soon as possible, otherwise the villagers will be killed by the Germans."
When Sokov heard that the villagers were about to be massacred by the German army, he was very anxious, but he did not lose his position. As the saying goes, sharpening the knife will not delay the chopping of wood. He wanted to learn more about the deployment of the German army from Valoja, so he continued to ask: "Valoja, tell me how many Germans are there in the village, what equipment do they have, and what kind of firepower deployment is like?"
Faced with Sokov's series of questions, Valoja was a little confused. He hesitated for a long time before answering: "They have more than a hundred people. But, uncle of the commander, what is equipment and what is firepower deployment?"
Valoja's words made Sokov realize that he had made a common sense mistake. The military terms he said inadvertently, let alone a seven or eight-year-old child, even an adult who had not received any military training may not be able to understand. In order to give Valoja a more vivid understanding, he quickly stood up and shouted at the marching force: "Stop moving forward!"
With Sokov's order, the troops walking outside the village stopped. The soldiers didn't know what was going on, but just stared at Sokov with curious eyes and the two children he was holding.
Sokov brought Valoja and Anton to the queue, pointed at the weapons in the hands of the soldiers, and asked, "Children, look at the guns in the hands of the uncles, who are the Germans in the village?"
The soldiers of Istria were all German-style equipment, so the two children easily recognized the weapons they had seen. After Valoja and Anton muttered a few words, Valoja wanted to run to a soldier carrying a machine gun, pointing to the MG34 machine gun and said, "The Germans built a small wooden house in the ditch dug at the entrance of the village, and this one was inside."
Although Valoja's expression was not accurate enough, Sokov understood: the German army had a civil fire point at the entrance of the village, and there was such a machine gun inside. He nodded slightly and said encouragemently: "Valoja, continue talking."
After figuring out the general distribution of the German army, Kov suddenly thought of a key question and asked Valojia curiously: "Valojia, how do you know that there are troops of your own in this village? Who told you?"
"No one told us." Valoja shook his head and said, "I just heard that our troops came to Sushinic City, so I climbed out of the drainage ditch and prepared to go to the city to find our troops. As soon as I got here, I met you."
Vasily came over and reported to Sokov: "Comrade Battalion Commander, the troops have been assembled outside the village. Please tell them a few words, just to boost morale."
Sokov nodded, quickly came to the square formation, and shouted at the soldiers with their heads raised and their chests: "Comrades, I just got the information that the German army is about to massacre our villagers. Tell me, what should we do?"
Sokov's words were like a handful of salt poured into a red-hot iron pot, and they exploded. The soldiers said in a lingering manner: "Comrade Battalion Commander, we must stop the Germans and not let them kill our villagers."
"Battery Commander, please understand. Let's set out now and eliminate the Germans."
...
Faced with the fierce crowds of the soldiers, Sokov remained silent. Instead, he waited for the team to calm down again, and then continued: "There is about ten kilometers from here to village No. 4, and it takes at least three hours to walk. But in order to stop the Germans from massacre of the villagers, I hope everyone can speed up the marching and arrive at village No. 4 within two hours. Can everyone do it?"
After Sokov finished speaking, the team was silent at first, and then there was a roar of roars like mountains and seas: "Yes, we can do it!"
In response to the soldiers' replies, Sokov nodded with satisfaction, then waved his hand and announced: "Go!" As the order was issued, the soldiers of the machine gun company immediately formed a four-way column and walked vigorously towards the direction of village No. 4 like an enclave.
Considering that the journey was long and did not want Valoja and Anton to suffer, Sokov planned to keep them in the village. Unexpectedly, when the two children heard Sokov say this, they became stubborn and insisted on following the troops. Valoja also said with confidence: "Uncle Commander, don't worry, we know that we will not get lost even if we can't keep up with you." It was because of hearing Valoja say this that Sokov finally made up his mind to take the two children to Village No. 4.
At the beginning, Sokov was worried that his two children would not be able to keep up with the team. After walking two or three kilometers, he turned around and unexpectedly found that the two children had been following about ten meters behind the team. He couldn't help but sigh in his heart: It's a fighting nation, even a seven or eight-year-old child is so strong.
Sokov accelerated his pace and walked to Vasily, saying to him with some breath: "Captain Vasily, I feel uneasy to leave a soldier to take care of these two children and throw them alone in this wilderness."
Vasily nodded, called out a burly warrior from the team, pointed at the two children who were behind the team, and explained to him a few words. The warrior who accepted the order raised his hand and saluted Vasily, turned around and walked towards the children.
After two hours of rapid march, Village No. 4 finally appeared in everyone's sight. Vasily asked Sokov for advice: "Comrade Battalion Commander, the soldiers were exhausted after a long-distance marching. Look, should we let them rest for a while before we launch an attack?"
Sokov stared at Vasily and said, "Captain Vasily, the villagers may be massacred by the Germans at any time. The longer we delay here, the greater the danger they face..."
Chapter completed!