Sokov and Anne were in the Lenin library and waited until lunch time before getting up and leaving.
After leaving the library, Sokov felt a little hungry, so he turned his head and asked Annie: "Annie, let's go to eat something."
"Misha, come with me!" Anne took the initiative to hold Sokov's hand, grabbed him and walked forward, and said, "I know there is a place where the roasted potatoes taste so delicious, I'll take you to eat."
Baked potatoes are a Russian-style snack. Usually, first wash the potatoes, wipe them dry, use a fork to make some small eyes on the surface of the potatoes, and apply them with corn oil and salt to the surface of the potatoes. Wrap the potatoes in tin foil and bake them in the oven for an hour and a half until they are soft. When you want to eat, open the tin foil wrapped around the potatoes, cut the potatoes in half with a knife, put a piece of butter on the surface, stir well with a spoon, and then put in a vegetable salad for a while.
Sokov often ate this kind of roasted potato in later generations, and naturally he liked it very much. At this moment, he heard Anne say that she would take her to eat roasted potatoes, and she didn't keep her index finger from moving.
After passing through a street, we arrived at the famous Arbat Street. When Sokov and Anne were walking forward hand in hand, a patrol team came towards us. The second lieutenant who led the team glanced at Sokov, then stopped him, raised his hand to salute, and said politely: "Comrade Colonel, please show your ID!"
Sokov quickly let go of Anne's hand, untied the military coat, took out the military certificate from the pocket of the hooded shirt, and handed it to the lieutenant officer.
The officer took the military certificate and opened it and checked it. He asked casually: "Comrade Colonel, where is your troops stationed?"
When Sokov heard this question, he asked alertly: "Secretary, what are you asking for this?"
The lieutenant looked up at Sokov, pointed his hand at the epaulette on his military coat and said, "Comrade Colonel, have you not noticed that we are wearing new military ranks?"
After the second lieutenant reminded him, Sokov discovered that the patrol team next to him, from officers to ordinary soldiers, all wore new military ranks. Their ranks were all worn on eaves and their own ranks were also worn on collars, which seemed a little out of place.
Sokov laughed dryly and replied, "Lieutenant, my troops are in Stalingrad, I am ordered to return to Moscow to carry out the mission."
When he heard that Sokov was back to Moscow to perform a mission, the second lieutenant frowned slightly and asked in an official manner: "Comrade Colonel, since you said you were ordered to return to Moscow to perform a mission, what about your business trip certificate?"
"I'm sorry, I don't have a business trip certificate." Sokov was temporarily recalled to Moscow, so why did he have a business trip certificate? He could only say with a tough bullet: "I was temporarily recalled to perform a secret mission, and there was no business trip certificate at all."
"No business trip certificate?!" The second lieutenant was not affected by Sokov's military rank being much higher than him. He said in a stern manner: "Comrade Colonel, since you don't have a business trip certificate, you may have to follow us."
When he heard that the lieutenant was going to take Sokov away, Anne immediately stopped the lieutenant and said loudly: "Why, he is a hero who defends Stalingrad, you can't take him away."
"Second Lieutenant," Sokov frowned slightly and said to the Lieutenant: "Where is your superior? I want to talk to him."
"You follow me and you will naturally see your superior." The lieutenant put Sokov's military test in his pocket and said in an official voice: "Let's go, comrade colonel, we will let you back after we figure out what's going on."
"What's going on? What's going on here?" Just as the two sides were in a stalemate, a loud voice suddenly came from a distance: "Why did the patrol stop?"
"Comrade Lieutenant," the lieutenant turned around and saluted in the direction of the voice, and replied loudly: "There is a commander here who said he came back from the front line to perform his mission, but he did not have a business trip certificate."
Sokov followed the sound and looked ahead of the street. He saw a lieutenant in his thirties, carrying two soldiers carrying submachine guns, walking towards his place.
The lieutenant came near, looked at Colonel Sokov, unexpectedly raised his hand and saluted, and said respectfully: "Hello, Comrade Brigade Commander!"
When he heard the other party call him his brigade commander, Sokov guessed that the other party might have been his subordinate before. After carefully looking at the other party, he found that he had a strange face and asked tentatively: "Comrade Lieutenant, were you my subordinate before?"
"Yes, comrade brigade commander." The lieutenant straightened his back and replied respectfully: "I turned out to be from the Fourth Company of the Second Battalion. Shortly after the Battle of Stalingrad began, I was sent back to Moscow due to injuries. After healed, I was incorporated into the garrison in Moscow."
"So it's you, Lieutenant Kauqin." Anne, who was standing beside him, said in surprise: "I didn't expect to meet you here."
"Hello, Comrade Nurse." The lieutenant known as Kauqin turned his head and saw Anne next to her. After nodding at her, he explained to Sokov: "Comrade Brigade Commander, I have treated my injuries in the military hospital on Lenin Street. This nurse Anne usually takes care of me."
Sokov remembered that he had heard Donia and Anne mention last night that a group of wounded people from Stalingrad had been admitted in the military hospital. The Lieutenant Kaugen in front of him should be one of them, but he was still a second lieutenant at that time. After being discharged from the hospital, he was assigned to the garrison and promoted to lieutenant.
"Lt. Kauqin," Sokov said to his former subordinate: "Your subordinate said I have no business trip certificate and I want to take me back for review. Look, how should I deal with this matter?"
"Nothing is just nonsense." Kauqin walked to the lieutenant and said to him with a stern face: "Didn't you always want to know the brigade commander who commanded us to stick to Mamayev's post and prevent the enemy from moving forward? Well, he is in front of you at this moment, but you doubt him."
After hearing Kaugene's words, the lieutenant was shocked and asked at Sokov: "Are you Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, the commander of the 73rd Infantry Brigade?"
"Yes, when I was the brigade commander, I did have the rank of lieutenant colonel." Sokov nodded and replied as usual: "I was promoted to the rank of colonel after becoming the division commander."
"Braft Commander, no, comrade Commander." Kauqin said with a smile: "I apologize to you for the recklessness of my subordinates. Please forgive his recklessness."
"I do not have a business trip certificate," Sokov felt that it was necessary to explain to Kauqin why he did not have a business trip certificate: "Because it was an emergency recall by his superiors, he had no time to apply for a business trip certificate."
Kauqin believed Sokov's statement. He walked to the lieutenant and stretched out his hand: "Col. Sokov's ID is in your hands? Leave it to me."
When the lieutenant learned that the person in front of him was Sokov, he realized that his behavior had just been a bit rash. At this moment, seeing Kayugen ask him for the ID, he quickly took out Sokov's military certificate from his pocket, respectfully handed it back to Sokov, and said apologetically: "Comrade Colonel, I apologize for the inconvenience I caused to you, please forgive me!"
When the patrol continued to patrol along the street, Kauqin was still standing there without moving. He asked Sokov with a smile: "Comrade Commander, where are you going next?"
Sokov glanced at Anne standing next to him and said, "I want to go nearby with Anne to eat roasted potatoes. If you have any trouble, just go and do it."
"It's okay, comrade Commander." Kaugene waved his hand and said, "I have nothing to do anyway, so I will accompany you everywhere. If I encounter a patrol team checking the documents again, I can say a few more words for you."
Sokov considered that Arbat Street was close to the Kremlin, and the patrol was the most stringent, and he did not have a business trip permit, so it would be very troublesome if he was stopped. With Kauqin, a lieutenant of the garrison, by his side, many problems could be solved.
"Okay, let's go together." Sokov nodded at Kauqin and said, "It's just right to talk about the past while eating."
Seeing that Sokov agreed to let him accompany him, Kaugene was overjoyed. He quickly said to the two soldiers behind him: "I want to accompany Colonel Sokov around, so you two don't have to follow me."
Under Annie's leadership, the three of them came to a coffee shop at the end of the street. As soon as Annie pushed the door in, she said to the old lady standing behind the counter: "Aunt Natasha, give us three servings of baked potatoes."
"Okay, Anne." The old lady, known as Aunt Natasha, said with a smile: "Please make it for a few minutes first, and the potatoes will be ready soon."
A few minutes later, three steaming potatoes were placed in front of Sokov and the others. Natasha said with a look of her face: "Anne, there are two commanders, you can eat slowly. After you finish eating, you still want to eat, I will make it for you." After that, she turned around and left.
"Anne," Sokov asked, looking at Anne, "Do you come here often?"
"Every time I go to Lenin Library to read, I will come here to eat a little." Seeing that neither of them moved their forks, Anne urged, "Eat quickly, if it is cold, it will not be delicious."
"Comrade Commander," Kaugene saw that there were no customers in the store except for the three of them, so he lowered his voice and asked Sokov: "How is our army's counterattack in the Stalingrad region going well? Can we defeat the enemy?"
"Lieutenant, have you not listened to the radio from the Soviet Intelligence Agency?" Sokov asked strangely: "Our army's counterattack in the Don River Basin was going very smoothly. Paulus's troops were surrounded by our army in the Stalingrad region."
Kaugene was a man who had been on the battlefield and had a certain understanding of the German technical and tactical level. He frowned and asked, "Comrade Commander, even if our army surrounded Paulus's troops, do you think we have the ability to annihilate them?"
Sokov knew very well that Kauqin's concerns were not an unfair concern. The Soviet army had encircled the German army many times before, but in the end, not only did not eliminate the enemy, but he suffered heavy losses. Now Paulus's Sixth Army was trapped in the Soviet army's encirclement. Those who have some understanding of the German combat effectiveness do not have much confidence in whether they can annihilate this enemy.
"Comrade Lieutenant," although there was something that could not be said, Sokov still said carefully: "If it were in the early stages of the war, I think your concerns would make sense. But what is the situation now? After a year and a half of war, our commanders and soldiers have become mature. The inability to eliminate the besieged enemies in the past does not mean that they cannot be eliminated now. Just watch, it is not easy for Paulus troops, which are surrounded by our army, to break through. Even if they resist stubbornly, we will sooner or later destroy them."
As Sokov's old subordinate, Kayugen admired Sokov very much and always believed in what Sokov said. At this moment, he heard Sokov say that the besieged Paulus troops would eventually be annihilated, and he couldn't help but smile: "Comrade Commander, if Paulus' troops were really annihilated, then the Germans would have one less general who could fight, and we would have become much easier in the next battle."
"Lt. Kaugen, you must not underestimate the enemy." Sokov saw that Kaugen had a tendency to underestimate the enemy, so he reminded him: "Paulus is not a general who can fight in the German army. Even if we eliminated his troops and captured him, the next thing we wanted was Manstein, who was known as the "Sevastopol Conqueror", who was much better than Paulus."
"What's so great about that?" Kaugene said carelessly: "If we can capture Paulus, then we can capture Manstein. Once all the generals and marshals who can fight the enemy will be completely defeated, the Germans will be vulnerable. Then we will be much easier to defeat them."
"Misha." While the two were talking, Annie interrupted and asked, "How many days can you stay in Moscow?"
"It's hard to say, it depends on how the superior arranged it." Sokov replied with a wry smile: "Maybe I will stay here for ten days and half a month, or maybe I will return to Stalingrad tonight."
"Comrade Commander." Kauqin asked in surprise when he heard the conversation between Sokov and Anne: "Who will command the troops when you have returned to Moscow?"
"When I am not in the army, I am usually commanded by the chief of staff and deputy division commander." Sokov replied: "Besides, in urban areas, due to insufficient troops, it is impossible to launch a counterattack against the enemy except for defensive wars. Therefore, even if I am not in the army, there will be no impact."
"Comrade Commander, I have a request." Kauqin said to Sokov with some embarrassment: "I hope you can get your help."
"Whatever you do, just say." Sokov did not agree to Ka Eugene with a lot of money, but said cautiously: "As long as it is within my ability, I will definitely help you."
"Comrade Commander, I want to go back to your army." Kaugene mustered up the courage and said, "I wonder if you can help me?"
"Go back to my troops?" Sokov asked in surprise: "You stayed well in the garrison, why do you want to go back to the combat troops?"
"Comrade Commander, this is the situation." Kayugen said with an awkward expression: "In the garrison, although it is safer than at the forefront, there are fewer opportunities to make meritorious service..."
Chapter completed!