In the evening, Sokov took Selyosha's guard company and rode a few armored vehicles, cars and motorcycles from the division, left Mamayev hill and headed towards Luhansk.
Originally, he was preparing to set off with Cuikov, but two hours ago, Cuikov received the order from Rokosovsky and had more important tasks to be carried out, so he canceled the trip to Luhansk.
Sokov sat in the armored vehicle and kept in touch with Selyosau in front through the on-board radio station: "Shelyosau, it's already dark, find a place to stop and rest."
Seryosha originally had different opinions on Sokov's journey overnight. At this moment, he heard Sokov take the initiative to find a place to spend the night, so he agreed.
A few minutes later, Seriosha told Sokov via radio: "Misha, the motorcycle rider who had just explored the road ahead, said that there was a field camp of our army three or four kilometers away from us, so why not spend the night there tonight?"
"Yes." Sokov naturally agreed to Selyosha's proposal, but in order to avoid misunderstandings, he still reminded the other party: "Shelyosha, it's already dark. In order to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings, you can send someone to contact us first. It's not too late to go there after the other party is ready."
What Selyoshe discovered was the garrison of a platoon-level unit, which was part of the 57th Army. When the platoon leader saw a convoy coming towards him, he was very nervous and thought it was a German. Fortunately, Selyoshe followed Sokov's warning and sent soldiers to contact them, otherwise it would be possible to fight.
After meeting the lieutenant platoon leader, Sokov asked curiously: "Comrade lieutenant, you are very vigilant. If I hadn't sent someone to contact me, both sides might have started fighting."
When the platoon leader heard Sokov say this, he replied with a wry smile: "Comrade Colonel, you don't know that there are really Germans around our platoon's station."
"German?" Sheryossa couldn't help but interrupt and asked, "The Paulus group has been eliminated, where did the Germans emerge?"
"I think it may be that after Paulus surrendered, the German soldiers who survived escaped here." The platoon leader reported to Sokov: "But their number should not be large."
"Comrade Lieutenant, you are very confident." Selyosha started arguing with the other party: "How do you know that the other party is not large?"
"That's right, Comrade Captain." The platoon leader glanced at Seryosha's rank and replied respectfully: "We didn't know there were Germans at the beginning. It was not until two days ago that a post on duty on our night was attacked that I knew there were Germans nearby."
"How did you attack?"
"The sentry was cut off with a dagger," the platoon leader explained. "Weapons, short fur coats and some food on them were taken away. After the investigation, I think it was the Germans who did it. They should not be large, otherwise they would definitely take advantage of the opportunity when the sentry was killed by them and launch a sneak attack on us, but they did not do so."
"You have made a very reasonable analysis, Comrade Lieutenant." Sokov felt that the platoon leader's analysis was still somewhat reasonable. After praising him, he ordered Selyosha: "Shelyosha, at least four people are required to be in a group of people tonight, do you understand?"
"I understand." Xie Liaosha's guard company had nearly 200 people. Even if there were three or four groups of guard posts, there were only a dozen people. Therefore, he agreed readily: "I'll make arrangements immediately."
In the middle of the night, Sokov, who was sleeping in an armored vehicle, was woken up by someone. He opened his eyes in a daze and saw that the person who woke him was Selysha, so he asked casually: "Selysha, what's the matter? Is it dawn?"
"Not yet, Misha." Selyossa leaned into his ear and said, "I found that there seemed to be movement nearby."
"Is there any movement?" Sokov's sleepiness disappeared without a trace when he heard Selyosha say this. He sat upright and asked, "Shelyosha, have you found something?"
"Misha, look." Selyosha pointed to a forest in the north and said to Sokov: "You can vaguely see fire in the forest over there, and someone should be there."
"Who would it be?" Sokov asked back, "It wasn't the sentry arranged by the platoon leader, right?"
"I've asked the platoon leader, and he said no." Selyosha obviously guessed what Sokov was going to ask and took the initiative to say: "According to my estimate, it should be the Germans lurking nearby. Because the weather is too cold, they hid in the forest to keep warm, but they didn't expect to be discovered by us."
"Seryosha, bring a platoon immediately and see what's going on." Sokov told Seryosha: "If it's really a German, take them or destroy them."
"I don't need to do such a small matter." Selyosha said, ordering a soldier to call three guard platoon leaders, and he said to the three of them: "Comrades, there is a fire coming out of the forest in the distance. It must be the enemy who escaped from Stalingrad, hiding there to keep warm. Who would you like to take people to catch them?"
As soon as Selyosha finished speaking, the three platoon leaders raised their hands in unison. Selyosha smiled satisfied at the performance of the three of them, pointed to a platoon leader casually, and said to him: "One platoon leader, you will go to the forest to see the situation. If it is really an enemy, then capture them or eliminate them. Do you understand?"
"I understand, comrade commander." A platoon leader agreed and turned around and sent him to gather the team.
While waiting, Selyosha suddenly remembered an important thing and asked Sokov curiously: "Misha, there is one thing I want to ask you for a long time."
"What's the matter?"
"I heard some time ago that my superiors planned to establish a guard in our army, consisting of guards 37th, 39th and our guards 41st." Selyosha asked curiously: "There have been rumors in the battalion that you may take up the position of this army commander. But after so long, why has the establishment of the guards not been put into operation yet?"
"Seryosha, you don't know, the situation has changed." Sokov explained to Seryosha: "According to the order of the superior, the 62nd Army only retained three guard divisions, and the rest were transferred."
"What, only three divisions are reserved for the 62nd Army, and all the rest of the troops are transferred?" After hearing this amazing news, Selyosha asked in confusion: "Why do you do this?"
"According to my guess," Sokov tried hard to recall what he had learned in later generations and translated it into his own understanding: "The superiors did this because the heroic troops who participated in the defense battle had rich combat experience and bravery and tenacious spirit. By dispersing them to various armies, they could become new combat backbone forces. In the following days, they could use them in the main assault direction to implement breakthroughs in the offensive battle; in the defensive battle, they could use them to implement counterattacks."
After listening to Sokov's explanation, Selyosha nodded with a sudden enlightenment and said with emotion: "So that's the case. The superiors consider the problem more comprehensively than us."
After pausing for a moment, Selyosha said another thing that was thinking in his heart: "Misha, there is another thing, I want to ask you. Why should we break up the reduction regiment and join the three guard regiments? You know, this is your direct troops, and it would be a pity to break them apart like this."
"Seryosha, you are right. The shrinking regiment is my direct unit. Commanders at all levels can also understand my combat intentions during battles." Sokov said with a smile: "Scattering them into various guard regiments is to use their influence to let the commanders and fighters of the entire guard division learn how to understand my intentions in battles and master my tactics."
"So that's the case." Seryosha nodded and said, "Misa, you're so thoughtful."
As the two were talking, gunshots and explosions suddenly came from the forest in the distance. The awakened soldiers immediately held the weapons in their hands, stared at the direction of gunshots and explosions, and anxiously waiting for the orders issued by Sokov.
Sokov listened for a moment and turned his head to ask Selyosha: "Shelyosha, do you think your subordinates can deal with this enemy hiding in the forest?"
"There should be no problem." Selyosha replied confidently: "To answer, the troops of the guard battalion are also your direct line. Their combat effectiveness should be the strongest in the entire division. There should be no problem dealing with a few scattered soldiers and wandering soldiers."
As soon as Selyosha finished speaking, the gunshots and explosions in the forest also stopped. Sokov smiled and said to Selyosha: "Selyosha, it seems that the soldiers in a row are not bad. The battle was resolved so quickly."
"Misha, I have already said that the soldiers of the guard battalion are the elite of the entire division. Our company is the most powerful combat power in the entire guard battalion." Hearing Sokov's praise, Selyosha became a little awkward: "It's not a piece of cake to deal with a few Germans."
After waiting for more than ten minutes, a row of leaders came back with the soldiers.
A platoon leader ran to Sokov quickly, raised his hand to salute, and reported: "Comrade Commander, the platoon leader will report to you. Our platoon was ordered to go to the forest to clear out the left-leaning Germans. After a battle, he killed two people and captured one person alive. He came to report to you."
When Sokov learned that there were only three Germans in the forest, he was stunned for a moment. Before he could speak, Selyosha asked first: "President of the first platoon, are you sure there are only three German soldiers in the forest?"
"Yes, there are only three people." A platoon leader reported: "I personally interrogated the prisoners. He said that more than twenty people had escaped, but due to lack of clothing and food, people continued to die along the way. When they arrived here, only four people were left. One of them was frozen to death last night. They were worried about repeating the same mistake, so they took the risk of making a fire in the snow pit, which exposed their whereabouts."
Sokov originally wanted to interrogate the prisoners himself and find out the number of their troops. But when he heard the platoon leader report in such detail, he no longer had the interest in interrogation. Instead, he ordered the platoon leader: "President, we have to hurry after dawn. There are many inconveniences with the prisoners. You will hand over this prisoner to the friendly troops stationed here later and let them deal with the prisoners."
"Yes, comrade of the division commander." A row of leaders replied loudly, "I will hand over the prisoners to friendly forces immediately."
When he set off early the next morning, Sokov told Selyosha: "Shelyosha, keep at least one hundred meters of distance between each car. At the same time, the car should arrange personnel to be on duty, stare at both sides of the road, and discover enemies that may be hidden in the snow in a timely manner. Do you understand?"
As Sokov's confidant, Selyosha naturally knew the news of Ivanov's sacrifice. Hearing Sokov's orders, he did not dare to neglect and quickly replied loudly: "I understand, we will keep our vigilance during the march."
To be safe, once Selyosau found something wrong behind the snow pile on the side of the road, he ordered the machine guns set up on the top of the car's bridge to shoot in that direction, or sent a motorcycle soldier to check.
Originally, the measure taken was only for safety reasons, but I didn't expect it to be effective. The convoy drove less than 60 kilometers and found no less than twenty corpses behind the suspicious snow piles. Some of these corpses died of cold and starvation, while others were automatically beaten to death.
When Selyosha saw these corpses with his own eyes, he was still shocked and sweated. If the division commander had not repeatedly reminded him to be vigilant when marching, he might have been attacked by those German soldiers who had not been frozen to death or starved to death.
According to the initial idea, the convoy should have arrived in Luhansk at noon. However, in order to prevent the German attack, the convoy had to slow down and arrived in Luhansk until the evening.
There was a checkpoint outside the city. When the soldiers on duty saw a convoy coming, they quickly reached out to signal to stop the car.
After the car stopped, the soldier walked to the first car and asked, "Which part of you are from? What are you doing in Lugansk?"
Selyosha, who was sitting in the cab of the first car, heard the soldiers' questions and quickly replied: "We are the troops standing at the forefront of the 41st Guards Division and are preparing to establish defense here."
Hearing Selyosha say this, the soldiers did not let it go, but returned to the checkpoint, called the company headquarters, and reported the matters of the convoy to the company.
After receiving the call from the soldiers, the Soviet company commander immediately woke up Samoilov who was sleeping in the house and told him: "Comrade Lieutenant, I just received a call from the checkpoint, saying that a small convoy of trucks, armored vehicles and motorcycles came. They said they were from the 41st Guards Division, and I would like to ask you to identify it and see if you know them."
When Samoilov learned that a convoy was coming, he quickly summoned the alive soldiers of the guard platoon and followed the company commander toward the checkpoint.
When there were forty or fifty meters away from the checkpoint, Samoilov ordered the soldiers to unfold on the spot, occupy the favorable terrain, point the muzzle at the convoy on the other end of the checkpoint, and prepare to find something wrong, and shoot immediately. After making these arrangements, Samoilov followed the company commander into the checkpoint.
Seeing the company commander and friendly commanders coming, the soldiers on duty quickly reported what had just happened. Samoilov walked out of the checkpoint with a pistol, and arrived at a place more than ten or twenty meters away from the truck and stopped, shouting loudly: "I am Lieutenant Samoilov, the guard platoon leader, who are you?"
"I am the guard company commander Selyosha." As early as when Samoilov walked out of the checkpoint, Selyosha had seen him clearly with the help of the car's headlights. Hearing his voice, he pushed open the car door and crawled out, stood on the pedal and replied, "It was the escort of the division commander here."
Chapter completed!