Based on his own experience, Koshkin divided the troops involved in the search into several patrol teams, each with 25 people, patrolling several streets near the headquarters.
A guard company commander asked Koshkin: "Comrade Captain, are you too cautious in doing this? You see, the patrol areas of each team are connected. In our team, we can see a patrol team to the east.
, a patrol team can also be seen to the west. In other words, every patrol team patrolling the city tonight can see two other patrol teams at the same time."
"Comrade Captain," Koshkin said sternly: "In order to ensure the safety of the headquarters, no matter how strict the security measures are, it is not too much. The reason why I let each patrol team be able to see the other two when patrolling.
The purpose of setting up a patrol team is to ensure that when a patrol team encounters an enemy attack, it can receive timely support from other patrol teams."
The company commander continued to ask: "Comrade Captain, do you really think there will be enemies in the city?"
Koshkin glared at the other party, and then said: "Comrade Captain, we who work as security guards must be vigilant at all times. We have no chance to make mistakes. Once we make a mistake, the people we protect may be in danger.
.Once the other party does something bad, even if we are shot, it will not help. Do you understand?"
"Understood!" the company commander replied hurriedly: "We can't make mistakes in our work, otherwise it will be too late to regret it."
Besides, in the headquarters, Sidorin still did not believe that there would be a German sabotage team to attack the headquarters at night. He even tentatively asked Sokov: "Comrade Commander, if there is nothing going on at the headquarters,
Can I leave?"
Sidorin has a residence in the city of Brest, and he will stay there as long as he is not on duty at night. It is precisely because Sokov knew this that when he heard Sidorin's request, he agreed without hesitation.
Rejection: "No, Comrade Chief of Staff, the situation tonight is special. You are not allowed to leave the headquarters without my order."
Hearing what Sokov said, Sidorin seemed quite helpless: "Comrade Commander, although we have not established any decent air defense system in the defense zone, the Germans don't know this. How could they use the night to attack us?"
Where are the large number of sabotage teams deployed here? I suspect that the prisoners interrogated by Comrade Deputy Commander must have lied."
"Although the Germans don't know that we don't have a complete prevention and control system, they must know that our air force drops supplies to the cavalry army in the fortification area every night. Their planes may have blended into the middle of these transport planes and sneaked in quietly.
It's our defense zone, so we can't defend against it."
Since Sokov was not allowed to leave the headquarters, Sidorin did not force him. Since he was not on duty tonight, he ordered someone to bring a camp bed and put it in the corner of the headquarters, and he lay down directly on it.
The troops patrolling outside were in high spirits at first, but as time went by, many soldiers began to feel tired and became weak when walking. Upon seeing this, the commander leading the team ordered the soldiers to stand on both sides of the street.
Sit down and rest, and stop patrolling for the time being.
By two o'clock in the morning, except for the patrol led by Koshkin himself and the two patrols he could see in his field of vision, the rest of the patrols stopped patrolling and sat on the roadside to rest. Even
There are also individual patrol teams, leaving two soldiers standing guard while the rest lie down on the street to rest.
At this moment, a pair of patrols wearing Soviet uniforms appeared in an alley three streets away from the headquarters. It could be seen from their actions that they were well-trained. On the surface, they were on the same level as other Soviet troops.
There is no difference between the patrols. If there is any fault, it is that the uniforms they wear are too new.
Of course, neither the common people nor the sentries on duty had any doubts about them. After all, they were wearing Soviet uniforms and holding standard Soviet weapons.
When we were still two streets away from the headquarters, the leading commander noticed that there were many people sitting on the roadside ahead, and he could vaguely see that the other party was armed with live ammunition. He quickly ordered to stop advancing, and then carefully observed the situation ahead.
In order to find out what was going on, he sent a soldier to check the situation. A few minutes later, the soldier came back and reported to him: "Mr. Major..."
Unexpectedly, as soon as he opened his mouth, he was interrupted by the other party: "Don't forget, we are on Russian territory now, no one is allowed to speak German anymore, understand? You continue to speak in Russian."
The soldier nodded and continued to report: "The Russians got the news and knew that several of our sabotage teams were going to enter the city tonight, so they deployed heavy defenses near the headquarters. These people are responsible for patrolling these streets.
The patrol team is sitting on the street to rest because they are tired from patrolling."
Hearing that the people in front were from the patrol, the German commander couldn't help but feel a little bit in his heart, thinking that tonight's operation might be ruined. At this time, another officer came over and said in a low voice: "Major, there are so many people in front of us."
Patrol people, what should we do next?"
"Our mission is to destroy the Russian headquarters." The German commander whispered: "Now we are only two blocks away from the target. We must not give up like this. We must find a way to continue approaching the target."
The officer pointed to the patrols sitting on the roadside and resting in front, and said: "Major, there are so many patrols just outside the perimeter. I don't know how many checkpoints there are inside and outside the headquarters. If we rush past like this, I'm afraid we will
lost heavily."
The commander began to think that if the Russians were really heavily guarded on the road to the headquarters, even if he led his men to deceive the patrol ahead, it might not be easy to reach the destination smoothly.
"Otherwise, let's kill all these patrols." The officer suggested to the commander: "Then we will pretend to be their identities and lurk at the destination."
"This is unlikely." This was not the first time that the commander had come out to perform such a special mission. He knew a lot. After he rejected the officer's proposal, he also explained to him: "I think there must be some differences between the various patrol teams.
Special password. If we can't get the password, even if we kill this patrol, when we encounter the next patrol, can you kill them silently?"
"Then what should we do?" the officer asked.
The commander thought for a while and said: "According to the map, there is a grain station nearby. We can go there to set fire. As long as the fire shines, the attention of the nearby patrol team will be attracted, and then we can take advantage of the chaos and quietly
to sneak into the vicinity of the Russian headquarters."
The commander's proposal was supported by several other officers, so they began to divide their forces and cooperate. Some went to a nearby grain depot to set fire, while others prepared to take advantage of the chaos caused by the fire to sneak to the vicinity of the headquarters.
Ten minutes later, a fire broke out at the location of the grain station, which indeed attracted the attention of nearby patrols. People who were sitting on the roadside to rest or take a nap saw the fire in the direction of the grain station and immediately rushed over with guns in hand.
Seeing that the patrols on the road ahead had indeed been transferred, the German commander showed a proud smile on his face. He waved to the troops staying behind and motioned for them to follow him and continue moving forward.
Although they met several patrol teams along the way, they thought they were the same patrol team as themselves and did not even come forward to question them, so they successfully sneaked to a location only one street away from the headquarters.
When they arrived here, the German commander discovered something was wrong. Although there were patrols on the streets here, they were not affected by the fire in the direction of the grain station. They still stood at their posts and never left.
Seeing this situation, the German commander realized that the previous strategy would not work here. If he still wanted to attack Sokov's headquarters, he would have to think of other ways.
When the fire broke out at the grain depot, the guard company commander who was training with Koshkin couldn't help but want to ask Koshkin to let him lead people to put out the fire, but Koshkin refused. Koshkin also explained to him
: "Comrade Captain, the location of the fire is too far away from them. There are enough troops nearby to fight the fire. Our task is to protect the safety of the headquarters. We must not forget our responsibilities."
After hearing what Koshkin said, the company commander who wanted to take people to put out the fire immediately changed his mind and quickly ordered people to send notices to several nearby patrol teams, asking them to stick to their posts and no one was allowed to put out the fire.
.
Sokov, who was at the headquarters, also received a call from the director of the security department and learned that a grain station in the city was on fire. He realized that this might be a conspiracy of the enemy to achieve the purpose of diverting the tiger away from the mountain.
After thinking about this clearly, Sokov said decisively to the chief of the security department: "Comrade chief, this may be a conspiracy by the Germans to get the troops deployed near the headquarters to rush over to put out the fire. Now I will make an announcement.
Discipline: No one in the troops deployed in the street where the headquarters is located is allowed to leave his post without permission before getting permission from his superiors. Anyone who disobeys orders will be dealt with according to military law."
Hearing Sokov's order in such a stern tone, the security director realized the seriousness of the problem. He knew that the fire control measures at the grain depot were very strict. There was no easy way to catch fire. The damage must have been caused by the German sabotage team sneaking into the city. He quickly
He promised: "Yes, Comrade Commander, I will pass on your order."
Just as he was about to hang up the phone, he heard Sokov say again: "Also, after the cause of the fire at the grain station is found out, report it to me immediately."
When Sokov put down the phone, Sidorin stood up and walked over, tentatively asking: "Comrade Commander, have the Germans really started taking action in the city?"
"That's right," Sokov stared at the city defense map in front of him, pointed to the location of the grain station, and said to Sidorin: "Look, the grain station that caught fire is only two streets away from the headquarters. This shows that this time
The fire was not an accident, but someone deliberately set the fire to divert the attention of the troops near the headquarters."
Upon hearing this, Sidorin couldn't help but shudder, and then asked nervously: "Comrade Commander, if according to your statement, the enemy will attack the headquarters soon?"
"Yes, that's what I think." Sokov nodded and gave the other party a definite answer: "They set fire to the city to create chaos, and then after most of the troops near the headquarters left, they launched the attack.
moment."
When it came to this matter, Sidorin finally believed Sokov's analysis: "Then what should we do, let the nearby troops strengthen their precautions?"
"I asked the troops on guard duty near the headquarters not to rush to put out the fire, but to stay on standby." Sokov said: "Although I guessed that the enemy might launch an attack, what method would they use and where would they come from?
The direction of the attack is still unknown so far, so we can only stop quietly and wait for the Germans to take action first, and then take corresponding measures to counterattack."
If not long ago, Sidorin felt that Sokov's preventive measures were a bit too cautious, but at this time, he felt that the measures were not strict enough, so he took the initiative and said: "Comrade Commander, should we send more manpower?
Strengthen the headquarters' precautions to prevent the enemy from attacking here?"
Faced with Sidorin's panic, Sokov acted very calmly: "Comrade Chief of Staff, don't worry, I have already greeted the chief of the security department and asked him to strengthen his defense. I believe there will be no danger, so you can
Sleep peacefully."
At this time, Sidorin couldn't sleep. He simply sat down at the table and waited with Sokov for the report from the security chief.
After waiting for almost half an hour, the director of the security department called: "Comrade Commander, you are right, the fire at the grain station was indeed not an accident, but someone set the fire on fire!"
"Comrade Director," although the matter was roughly the same as his guess, Sokov still asked: "Can you confirm it?"
"Yes, Comrade Commander." The security director replied affirmatively: "At the fire scene, the bodies of six personnel on duty were found. They all died with their throats cut."
"Then what measures have you taken?"
"I have mobilized two companies of troops to conduct a search near the grain station..."
"Wrong, Comrade Director, wrong!" Unexpectedly, before the Director finished speaking, Sokov interrupted: "The enemy set fire to the grain depot just to divert our attention and give them an opportunity to take advantage of it.
.The enemies who set the fire must have fled to other places. Even if you use more troops to search near the grain station, you will still find nothing."
As soon as Sokov said this, the sound of submachine gun shooting and the explosion of grenades suddenly came from outside. In the silent night, these sounds seemed extremely clear, and Sokov said to himself: "Finally here!"
"Did you hear that, Comrade Director?" Sokov said into the microphone: "The German sabotage team is currently carrying out sabotage operations outside the headquarters. You'd better bring people back immediately to support, otherwise an accident may happen here at the headquarters.
.”
After putting down the phone, Sokov walked to the wall, picked up the assault rifle he had placed on the gun rack, pulled the bolt, and checked the situation in the magazine.
Seeing this, Sidorin quickly came over and asked: "Comrade Commander, what are you doing with a gun? Do you plan to go out to meet the German sabotage team in person?"
"Comrade Chief of Staff, be prepared." Sokov said to Sidorin: "We have to consider the worst case scenario. Maybe our security forces outside can't stop the enemy and let them break into the headquarters directly. I don't want to
Sitting back and waiting for death, with a gun in your hand, you can feel more at ease."
