Sokov and Asia took only an hour to get to the city. But when he returned to Mamayev hill, he found that the trenches on the south slope had taken shape.
Asia looked up at the fortifications on the hills and said to Sokov: "Misha, if nothing happens, I will go back to the health team, and there are still many wounded people waiting for my care."
"But, Asia." Seeing Asia leaving in a hurry, Sokov asked blankly: "Didn't your captain arrange for you to monitor here and treat the injured soldiers during construction at any time?"
"Misha, you said it yourself. The captain thought I was too tired from work and wanted to take care of me." Asia approached Sokov, kissed him quickly, and then said, "I'll go back to the health team first. When I miss me, remember to see me."
Belkin walked over from the side, looked at Asia's back as she left, and asked at Sokov: "Comrade Brigade Commander, have you just gone shopping in the city?"
Hearing Belkin's question, Sokov smiled faintly and said, "Comrade Political Commissar, the war is imminent, and trenches and bunkers are being dug everywhere in Stalingrad City. Even if you want to go shopping, there is no place to go." When he said this, he saw a puzzled expression on Belkin's face, and he added, "I went to the city to see the construction of the fortifications."
Belkin knew that there were many troops running towards Stalingrad through various means of transportation. The war was about to break out, so he was also very concerned about the construction of fortifications in the city: "Comrade Brigade Commander, what's the situation?"
"Very bad," Sokov looked at Belkin and said, "Although trenches and bunkers are everywhere, many of them are superficial. For example, the department store we went to, the second-floor rooftop, could block a whole street if fortifications were built. But when I went up to check, the sandbags used to pile fortifications were thrown everywhere, but no one wanted to pile them into fortifications."
As the two were talking, Ozor, who was covered in mud, walked over. While raising his hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead, he said to Sokov: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, you are back. I'm going to have something to look for you."
Sokov thought to himself: Could it be that I sent not enough staff, and he wanted to find me to ask for some more people? He quickly squeezed out a smile on his face and asked, "Major Ozor, what's the matter?"
Ozor said: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, since you plan to station all the troops in the tunnel, I would like to remind you that there are many problems that must be considered before construction. So as not to rework after construction, our project volume will be large."
Sokov humbly asked Ozor: "Comrade Major, what are the problems we need to consider in advance?"
Ozor said to Sokov with his fingers: "First, it is the storage of ammunition, food and water. If a war starts, the troops will have to stay in the tunnel for a long time, so they must open up special areas to store the required ammunition, food and water."
Sokov took out his notebook and wrote down Ozor's words, and said to him: "Comrade Major, you are right. Once the battle begins, the situation will be more serious than you think. We must open up special areas for storage of ammunition, food and water. Are there any other problems?"
"Communication! Another issue to note is communication." Ozor continued: "There is no signal in the tunnel, which makes the phone unavailable. If the telephone line is laid, it is easy to be blown off by the enemy's artillery fire. Once the telephone line is blown off, your contact with the outside world will be interrupted."
Regarding the communication problem raised by Ozor, Sokov tried hard to recall that the volunteers who invented the tunnel fortifications used the method of installing antennas at the entrance of the tunnel to solve the problem of poor signal from the telephone in the tunnel. After thinking of the solution, he said to Ozor: "Comrade Major, all the problems you are worried about can be solved. We can install an antenna at the exit of the fortification on the back of the hill to solve the problem of poor signal from the telephone in the tunnel. As for the telephone line, I think it should be laid. After all, the telephone line is not reliable at all times, and we must make the worst plan. You are worried that the telephone line will be blown off by the enemy's artillery fire, which is not a problem. We just need to lay the telephone line on the back of the hill. No matter how powerful the enemy's artillery fire is, it is not so easy to blow up a few telephone lines across the hill."
After Sokov told the solution he had come up with, he asked back: "Comrade Major, do you have any other problems?"
"No more." Ozor shook his head and said, "I'll go back and make some arrangements now."
Seeing Ozor leaving, Sokov quickly stopped him: "Comrade Major, please wait a moment, I have one more thing to explain to you."
"What's the matter?" Ozor stopped.
Sokov bent down and drew a simple picture of the entrance to the tunnel on the ground, and said to Ozor: "Comrade Major, what I want to tell you is that the entrance to the tunnel cannot be straight, but should be curved."
"Comrade Major, if the entrance to our tunnel is straight, the German army can only put a machine gun or a spitting gun on the tunnel, which will cause heavy losses to the commanders and fighters in the tunnel." Sokov gestured and said: "If the entrance is curved, the enemy's machine guns will not pose too much threat to the soldiers in the tunnel. At the same time, such a tunnel will slow down their advancement speed so that our commanders and fighters will have more time to respond."
"I remember, lieutenant colonel." Ozor looked at Sokov and said with a smile: "I think if you come to be a engineer, you will definitely have more wonderful ideas." After Ozor said that, he raised his hand and saluted Sokov, turned around and walked up the hill, probably preparing to assign tasks to his subordinates.
Belkin looked at Sokov and said curiously: "Comrade Brigade Commander, I sometimes wonder what kind of person are you? Why do you know so much, even professional military engineers admire you so much."
"Comrade Political Commissar, do you still know what kind of person I am? Sometimes I can come up with some tricks and make others stunned. But if I really want to be responsible for something, I might mess up the matter." Sokov raised his hand and looked at his watch, and smiled and said to Belkin: "Comrade Political Commissar, lunch time has passed early, but I haven't had lunch yet. Let's go and have some with me."