Considering that Sokov intends to secretly go to the third battalion in the old city south of the city with the help of the cover of night, Sidorin was worried about his safety. While he was still preparing, he asked tentatively: "Comrade Commander, the Second Lieutenant Samoilov, who was responsible for protecting you in the past, has already followed Lieutenant Guchakov to carry out a mission behind enemy lines. Who do you plan to let go to the city with you tonight?"
"Chief of Staff, call Selyosha." Considering that on the way to the Third Battalion Command Post, you might encounter an enemy and have to find someone who can trust to protect him. After Sokov thought for a while, he decided to choose his old friend Selyosha: "Let him go to the city with me."
Not much effort, Selyosha, who received the order, walked in from outside. He raised his hand to salute Sokov and Cydolin and reported: "Report to the division commander, Comrade Chief of Staff, and Lieutenant Selyosha, the commander of the guard company, are ordered to come, please give me instructions!"
"Comrade Lieutenant," Seeing that Selyosha came, Sidorin assigned him a task: "The division commander is going to Captain Andre's command post, and you will lead people to protect his safety."
When she learned that Sokov was going to Andre's command post, Selyosha's pupils couldn't help but shrink away. He asked in a panic: "Are you going to the old city tonight?"
"Yes, I'll go tonight." Sokov saw something wrong with Selyosha's face, so he asked curiously: "What, is there any problem?"
After staring at Sokov for a while, Selyosha reminded him: "Comrade Commander, the road to the Third Battalion command is full of ruins. Maybe there are German automatic gunmen or snipers in the ruins. For your safety, I think you should change to a soldier's military coat."
"Yes, comrade Commander, Seryosha is right." As soon as Seryosha finished speaking, Seryosha echoed: "For your safety, you should change to a soldier's military coat when you set out." As he said that, his eyes floated to the corner of the wall, because there was a military coat hanging on the wall, which was lent to Sokov by Director Peter.
Sokov saw the spot where Sidolin's eyes were paying attention, shook his head and said, "Chief of Staff, thank you for your kindness. I wore the soldiers' military coats and hid my identity and went to the old city quietly, which could indeed minimize the danger. But have you ever thought about it? Those soldiers who met along the way would think they were just an ordinary team and would not know that the person coming was their division commander. In this way, what's the point of my inspection in the Third Battalion Defense Zone."
Half an hour later, Sokov and Selyosha took a guard platoon and left Mamayev hill, and quietly went to the defense area of the Third Battalion with the help of the night cover.
On the way, Seriosha whispered to Sokov: "Misha, are you so adventurous, wearing a big-brimmed hat and an officer's military coat? If there are German automatic gunmen or snipers in the ruins along the way, you will definitely be their target."
"Seryosha, you're over-concerned." Sokov felt that even if there were German automatic gunmen or snipers along the way, it would probably not be easy to kill someone with the protagonist's halo. However, considering that Seryosha said this out of concern for himself, he said tactfully: "As long as we are not lucky, we should not encounter enemies along the way."
"I hope so." Selyosha replied angrily when he heard Sokov say this: "Misha, you are a division commander now. Can you not run to the most dangerous place like a company commander? If Asia knew that you were going to the old city again today, she wouldn't know how to worry."
Selyosha's words made Sokov not know how to respond for a while. He knew very well that if Asia really knew that he had gone to the forefront to inspect again, she would definitely be very worried. After a long silence, he solemnly said to Selyosha: "Shelyosha, I remind you that you must not tell Asia about this matter, do you understand?"
"I understand, Misha." Selyosha sighed softly and said, "To be honest, in the entire city defense battle, the casualties of our division are the lowest in the entire army. But if you have any accidents, our division will become a joke. Even if the troops that even the division commander sacrificed, what's the point of it even if the overall casualties are low?"
Sokov raised his hand and patted Selyoscia on the shoulder twice, whispering: "Don't worry, Selyoscia, I will be fine. I will not only see the enemy attacking Stalingrad being destroyed by us, but also the enemy being driven out of our territory and the red flag of the Soviets flying over Berlin. Before this, I will never be fine."
Seryosha didn't expect Sokov to be so confident in winning, and he couldn't help but be stunned. After a long time, just as he was about to speak, a burst of rapid footsteps suddenly came from the front. It seemed that there was more than one person. He quickly whispered to the surrounding soldiers: "Hidden."
As soon as everyone was hiding in the nearby ruins, Selyosha heard a familiar voice calling himself in a low voice: "Comrade Commander, Companion Commander, where are you?"
Hearing that the person who was calling was a soldier who was sent to explore the way forward, Selyosha quickly stood up from behind a broken wall and said to the other party: "What happened to me here?"
"Comrade Commander," the soldier came to Selyosha and reported to him: "We met several soldiers from the Third Battalion in front and brought them over."
When Sokov heard that he was a soldier from the Third Battalion, he also walked out of his hiding place and asked the soldier, "Where are they?"
Hearing Sokov's question, two soldiers holding rifles walked out of the darkness and came to Sokov and Selyosha, reporting to them: "We are here, comrade commander."
Sokov glanced at the rifles in his hands and found that they were all wrapped in cloth. After a brief surprise, he thought of a possibility and asked tentatively: "Are you snipers?"
Seeing Sokov see his identity at a glance, the two of them replied embarrassedly: "Yes, Comrade Commander, we are snipers of the Eighth Company and are hiding in the ruins. When we see our comrades coming over, we come out to say hello to prevent misunderstandings."
After confirming the identity of the other party's sniper, Sokov immediately became interested: "Comrade Warrior, I want to ask, how many snipers like you are?"
Although the sniper saw Sokov wearing a big-brimmed hat, he didn't see who he was. After hearing this question, he seemed a little hesitant and didn't know whether he should answer truthfully. Seeing that the two of them were not talking for a long time, Selyosha immediately guessed what they were worried about, so he grinned and said to the two: "This is our division commander Colonel Sokov. What he asked you, you just answer truthfully."
After learning that the commander standing in front of him was the division commander, the two snipers were stunned. After a long time, one of the older snipers replied nervously: "I'm sorry, comrade in the division commander, I don't know it's you..."
"Comrade Sniper," Sokov was eager to understand how many snipers the Third Battalion had deployed in the old city, so he interrupted the other party's words and urged: "You haven't answered my question just now. How many of your snipers are there in this area?"
"I don't know the specific number of people, comrade, division commander." The sniper who was asked scratched the back of his head and replied: "The battalion commander has drawn out all the sharpshooters in the battalion and formed a sniper team, with a total of about dozens of people. The two of them are responsible for the sniping mission of a street or several houses. Once they see the Germans appear, they will immediately shoot at them."
The sniper's words aroused Sokov's keen interest. He looked at the sniper and asked, "I want to ask, how many enemies have you destroyed so far?"
"Nine, comrades in the division commander." The sniper replied: "There are two of the results that I and my companions achieved during the day today."
"Good job." Sokov nodded at the other party, turned his head and asked another sniper: "What about you, how many more enemies have you wiped out?"
Hearing Sokov's question, the young sniper said embarrassedly: "I only killed four enemies."
"Good, comrades, you are all good." After learning about the results of the two, Sokov said with relief: "You two have eliminated thirteen enemies. If each group can achieve such results as you, how many enemies can ten or twenty groups be eliminated? Maybe one day when the enemy command wants to gather troops, he found that more than half of his soldiers were missing and they were wiped out by our snipers."
Sokov's words caused a burst of chuckle. The two snipers quickly expressed their opinions to him: "Comrade Commander, please rest assured that we will definitely eliminate more enemies in the next battle."
"I believe you." Sokov raised his hands and patted them on both shoulders at the same time, saying, "I will personally award you the medal when we drive the enemy out of Stalingrad."
Just when the two snipers were extremely excited, they suddenly heard Sokov ask: "I want to ask, you didn't work in this area yesterday, right?"
"No. We were all in the basement last night and didn't come out to carry out the mission." The two snipers shook their heads and reported their whereabouts to Sokov last night. The older sniper even said in a regretful tone: "It is said that several German armored vehicles passed here last night. The person on duty was a worker from the factory. He had no combat experience. He didn't even hit the target after firing a few shots, and the grenades were thrown off."
The sniper said this in a regretful tone, but Sokov was secretly grateful in his heart. He thought to himself: Fortunately, these two soldiers were not informed last night, otherwise Guchakov's squad would not have known how many casualties would be.
After sending the two snipers away, Sokov and the others continued to rush. Selyosha saw that Sokov seemed to have something to do and asked quickly: "Misa, what are you thinking? I think you seem a little absent-minded."
Considering that Guchakov's troops were attacked when they passed here yesterday, Selyosha was not aware of it, Sokov lowered his voice and said to him: "Yesterday I ordered Guchakov to lead a team to take German armored vehicles and pass by here to the rear of the enemy. As a result, when passing through this area, he was ambushed by our own people. Fortunately, the soldier on duty had just picked up his weapon and his marksmanship was not accurate, otherwise he would not know how much casualties would be caused to the team."
Seryosha just heard the sniper say that the German army passed by here last night. Because the soldiers' marksmanship was too poor and did not cause any casualties to the enemy, he felt very regretful. He even considered that if he had been here last night, he could have killed at least five or six people on the other side. Hearing that the small German army was actually disguised by Guchakov and others, he was shocked and sweated. He thought to himself that he was fortunate that he was not there at that time, otherwise even if he was Misha's friend, he might have sent himself to a military court.
Just as Selyosha was thinking about it, he suddenly heard Sokov's voice: "Selyosha, how far is we from the command post of the Third Battalion?"
Seeing that the surrounding terrain was already different from when he came last time, and where could he tell the distance from the command post, Selyosha called a soldier beside him and told him: "Go ahead and ask the vanguard who led the way, how long will it take for us to reach the command post of the Third Battalion."
Before the soldiers could run away, there were a series of footsteps coming from the front, and there seemed to be many people coming. Although the people who appeared nearby might be their own people, for safety reasons, Selyosha still ordered the soldiers around him to hide on the spot and prepare for battle. Whenever he found something was wrong, he would open fire immediately.
"Hey, comrades." As soon as they were hiding, they heard the footsteps in front of them stop, and then a voice asked, "Did you come from Mamayevgang?"
Selyosha felt that the voice of the speaker seemed familiar, so he stood up from behind the bricks and stones where he was hiding and asked at the other party: "Yes, we came from Mamayevgang, who are you?"
"I am Lieutenant Yegor, the commander of the eighth company, and I came to welcome the division commander at the commander's order." After the other party expressed his identity and purpose, he asked back: "Are the division commander and you?"
"It turns out to be Lieutenant Yegor, no wonder the voice is so familiar." Selyosha first turned his head and whispered to Sokov, "It's okay", then walked around the pile of bricks and stones and walked in the direction where the sound came: "I am Grissa, and I was escorting the division commander to your camp command post."
"Hello, Lieutenant Selyosha!" Yegor stepped forward and shook hands with Selyosha, and asked with concern: "Can I ask where the division commander is?"
"I'm here." After confirming that there was no danger, Sokov also stood up from his hideout, walked towards Yegor with big stances, and asked in a raised voice: "How far is your battalion command post?"
"Hello, Comrade Commander." After Yegor saw clearly that the person was Sokov, he quickly straightened his body and replied: "The battalion command post is only one street away from here. Please allow me to act as a guide for you."