Sokov never dreamed that the rockets distributed to Vasily were not put into use for a long time was entirely because Vasily distrusts this kind of rocket. In his impression, rockets were all those that were more than one person tall and needed to be launched with rocket launchers. However, like this so-called new rocket, it only had a simple launcher. He had a question about whether the rocket could be launched.
However, in front of Sokov, he certainly could not express his true thoughts. After hearing Sokov's arrangements, he also casually said: "Don't worry, comrade brigade commander, once you find that the German army is gathering opposite the square, we will use this rocket launcher to hit them."
He said this, but he was thinking in his heart: after dawn, the brigade commander will definitely leave, and in a short period of time, he will not appear in the building again. This new rocket will be temporarily found a place to put it on, and it will not be too late to fire at the enemy when the brigade commander comes next time.
Sokov could not guess Vasily's thoughts. Seeing Vasily promised so readily, he proudly said to Yakov: "Yakov, let's wait until dawn here to see with your own eyes how this new rocket hit the Germans so much that they howled."
Vasily, who was standing beside him, heard Sokov say this, his smile immediately froze on his face. He never dreamed that Sokov would stay here and see the power of the new rocket with his own eyes. After thinking for a while, he gritted his teeth and said to Sokov: "Comrade Brigade Commander, this place is too dangerous. The Germans may launch an attack at any time. I think you should go back to the command center first."
Sokov did not notice Vasily's strangeness, and thought he was worried about his safety, so he waved his hand and said, "It's okay, when the enemy comes to attack, we can see with our own eyes how you fight." Speaking of this, his eyes swept the room, but did not see the shadow of the new rocket, so he asked curiously, "By the way, where is that new rocket? Why didn't I see it?"
"In the basement," Vasily said in an extremely embarrassing manner: "I am worried that when the enemy bombards or bombs the building, the rockets will explode, so I will temporarily store them in the basement."
Hearing Vasily say this, Sokov immediately realized that something was wrong. How could he store the rockets in the basement just because he was worried that the rocket would explode in the enemy's shelling and bombing? However, he did not expose Vasily's lies, but said expressionlessly: "Comrade Sergeant, take us to see."
This time when Vasily took Sokov and his friends to walk on another staircase. They soon arrived at the entrance of the basement and saw the closed iron door. Vasily turned his head and said to Sokov: "Comrade Brigade Commander, please wait for a moment, and I will tell them to open the door immediately."
After getting Sokov's permission, Vasily stepped forward and punched the iron gate twice, shouting inside, "Open the door, open the door quickly, I'm Vasily, I have something urgent to go in."
After a while, the iron gate was pushed open from the inside. A soldier rubbed his eyes and leaned out from inside. After seeing Vasily standing at the door, he asked weakly: "Comrade Sergeant, we are all sleeping. Are you doing anything?"
"Sergeant Sobugaida," Vasily turned his head quickly and looked at Sokov next to him, and said to the other party: "Comrade Brigade Commander is here!"
"Comrade Brigade Commander is here?" Vasily's words frightened the man. After seeing clearly Sokov and Yakov standing beside Vasily, he quickly pulled the hem of his military uniform with both hands, then raised his hand to salute, and said dryly: "Hello, Comrade Brigade Commander, Sergeant Sobugaida of the Anti-tank Team, reports to you that we are resting here, please instruct!"
Sokov felt very sorry for disturbing the rest of Sergeant Sobugaida and his subordinates. However, he was eager to see the rocket launcher he gave to Vasily, so he could only apologize to Sobugaida: "I'm sorry, Sergeant, we are here to check the new rockets. I didn't expect it to disturb you to rest. I'm so sorry."
This is probably the first time Sobugaida encountered a superior commander apologizing to him, and he quickly replied in a panic: "Look at what you said, comrade brigade commander, you are also doing business. Please come in quickly."
As soon as Sokov walked into the basement, he felt a strange smell inside. He frowned slightly and asked Vasily who was following him: "Comrade Sergeant, is the ventilation here not good?"
"Yes, comrade comrade commander." Vasily replied quickly, "One of the vents is covered by bricks and rubble, so if you stay here for a long time, you will feel a little bored."
"Shouldn't there be residents in the building?" Sokov saw clearly that there were more than a dozen people lying on the floor to rest in the basement, but they were all dressed up by soldiers. Without seeing a single person in casual clothes, he asked curiously: "Where have they all gone?"
"Comrade Brigade Commander," Vasily quickly explained, "There are three basements in this building, which are used for our soldiers to rest. There are two more, one for the wounded and sick, and the other is the place where the residents usually stay." After introducing the situation, he asked tentatively, "Do you need me to take you over and see?"
"No need." Sokov thought that this was the time when people were most sleepy. The residents in another basement must be sleeping soundly. There was no need to disturb their rest. So he waved his hand and said, "They should be resting at this moment, so we should not disturb them."
Sokov paused for a moment and asked Vasily: "Where is the rocket?"
Vasily pointed at the corner of the wall and said, "Everything is there!"
Sokov walked to the box in the corner, opened a wooden box, saw what was inside, turned his head and asked Yakov who was following him: "Is it the rocket you brought?"
"That's right." Yakov only glanced at it and replied with certainty: "It was the rocket I brought."
"Comrade Sergeant." After Sokov closed the wooden box, he ordered Sokov: "Immediately send someone to carry the rocket to the fourth floor and find a suitable location to arrange the launching position. Maybe it will be used soon."
"Comrade Brigade Commander, can I ask a question?" Before Vasily answered, Sergeant Sobugaida interrupted and asked, "This kind of rocket is different from what we have seen in normal times. Can it be launched?"
"This is for sure, Comrade Sergeant." In order to let the other party better understand this rocket, Sokov opened the wooden box lid again and explained: "This new type of rocket is flying with the driving force of its own engine. Each of the six nozzles at the tail has a certain deflection with the axis of the bullet body, which can ensure that the rocket launcher rotates at high speed and flows stably."
Although Vasily and Sobugaida still had questions about this kind of rocket, since Sokov ordered them to move to the fourth floor, they did not dare to disobey the order. Sobugaida quickly woke up his subordinates and asked them to move the rockets and launchers to the fourth floor.
While the soldiers were carrying rockets, Sokov asked Vasily: "Comrade Sergeant, take advantage of the time now, please introduce me to the defense situation in the building."
Seeing that Sokov wanted to know the deployment situation in the building, Vasily immediately began to report: "In order to defend this building, in addition to setting fire points on each floor, we arranged anti-tank positions on the top floor, and also dug trenches outside the building, pulled barbed wire and laid minefields..."
After listening to Vasily's introduction to the situation patiently, Sokov asked back: "Comrade Sergeant, if I'm not wrong, the entrance to each unit and the windows on the ground floor are not closed, right?"
"No."
"Have you ever thought that if the Germans attacked from several directions at the same time, with so many windows and doors, you would not have sent people to hold on so that the enemy could break into the building directly through the window or door." Sokov pointed out to Vasily's shortcomings in their defense: "Are you really going to put the enemy into the building and fight layer by layer?"
"Comrade Brigade Commander," Vasily said with some embarrassment when he heard Sokov point out the weak spots in his defense: "We have limited troops and cannot defend so many positions at the same time."
"Since you have insufficient troops, you have to find a way to make up for this."
"What should I do?" Vasily asked humbly.
"It's very simple. You immediately send someone to block the unit gate and all the windows on the first floor with bricks." Sokov said unambiguously: "That way, the enemy will not be able to enter the building through these places."
"But, comrade comrade," Vasily said with some amusement when he heard Sokov say this: "If we really block the doors and windows on the first floor with bricks, the Germans will certainly not be able to enter, and we will also not be able to enter or exit."
"Comrade Sergeant, have you forgotten that you still have a few traffic trenches?" Seeing Vasily's anxious look, Sokov smiled faintly and said, "After blocking all the doors and windows, you can enter and exit freely through the traffic trenches."
"Through the traffic trench?" Vasily said in confusion: "The doors and windows are closed. How can we enter and exit through the traffic trench?"
Vasily's answer made Sokov almost fall to the ground. He thought to himself: Although Vasily is a master of sniper, his level is still a little worse when it comes to leading troops to fight. He has already made the words so clear, but he still doesn't understand. Just as he was about to introduce a few words to him, Yakov, who was standing next to him, spoke: "Comrade Sergeant, don't you understand what your brigade commander means yet? For example, your traffic trench can directly lead to the door of a certain unit, then lay wooden boards on it, and then piled up bricks and stone rubble. In this way, the Germans looked from a distance and found that the entrance of the unit had been sealed by bricks and stones, but they could never dream of it. There were traffic trenches below that could directly enter the building."
After Yakov's explanation, Vasily suddenly realized: "So that's the case. I understand. In this way, I only need to send a few soldiers to guard the entrance of the traffic trench to prevent the Germans from breaking into the building."
"Also," Yakov, after Vasily finished speaking, continued: "Even if the doors and windows on the first floor are blocked with bricks, you can also open some shooting holes and shoot from here to the enemy rushing towards the building..."
When Yakov talked to Vasily, Sokov figured out one thing. No matter how he looked at Vasily, he was a recruit who had just joined the army. It was normal for him to lack military knowledge. If he didn't tell them more details, there might be many problems in the defense of this building. In history, the Pavlov building has been held for nearly two months. Don't change it to the Vasily building, and it can't hold on for even a month.
After understanding this truth, he said to Vasily: "Comrade Sergeant, leave more shooting holes on the first floor. When the enemy's offensive is fierce, the soldiers who should have rest can use these shooting holes to shoot at the enemy rushing to the building. As for the second and third floors, if conditions permit, machine gun positions can be established and enemy infantry can be fired. And the fourth floor is mainly used as positions for mortar teams and anti-tank teams..."
When Sokov said this, Vasily nodded constantly while silently recording the key points of defense in his heart. After Sokov finished speaking, Vasily looked up at Sokov and said, "Comrade Brigade Commander, I think I am a sniper material and I know nothing about military command. You should send someone else to command the troops here."
Changing generals at the last stage is a taboo in the army. Vasily has always had the final say here. Even if there is a lieutenant in the defender, Sokov once said hello to make him obey Vasily's command. If the commander is replaced at this time, it will inevitably cause some turmoil and be unfavorable to the defense. Sokov did not hesitate to reject Vasily's request: "No, Sergeant Vasily. I'll tell you here that as long as Stalingrad has not been cleared for a day, you must command the troops in this building for me. Do you understand?"
Although Sokov showed great trust in Vasily, Vasily still said with some confidence: "Comrade Brigade Commander, I feel that I really don't have the ability to command this army, so you can change people."
"Sergeant Vasily," Sokov raised his hand and patted Vasily's shoulder a few times, saying, "Based on the situation during this period, you are a commander who is very competent. No one was born with the talent to be a commander, and they all grew up slowly in war. There are many commanders in this building with higher ranks than you. If you encounter something you don't understand, you can ask them for advice."
Chapter completed!