So Shulka and Vasily were qualified to sit down and talk with Zogtanov.
"Anatole was my teacher!" Zogtanov said as he sat down in his chair. "He told me about you when I visited him last month!"
After sitting down, Zogtanov looked like a deflated rubber ball, almost the same person as he had just been during the operation.
It was easy to see that he was almost exhausted.
"Do you smoke?" Shulka took out a cigarette and asked.
"This is not a good place for smoking!" Zogtanov stopped him: "This is the basement, as you can see!"
"Sorry!" Shulka said and put away his cigarette, thinking that Zogtanov needed a cigarette to relieve his fatigue.
"Tell me your reasons, Comrade Shulka!" Zogtanov said: "You may only have a few minutes!"
"I've already said it!" Shulka replied: "After daybreak, this place may be occupied by the enemy, and then it will be too late for you to retreat!"
Zogtanov smiled: "Do you know how far this place is from the front line?"
"Eight hundred and twenty meters!" Vasily replied without thinking.
"Then do you know how many meters the Germans advance every day?" Zogtanov asked again.
"Sometimes a few meters, sometimes tens of meters, hundreds of meters!" Vasily replied: "That's not sure!"
"So, you are still worried that the Germans will occupy this place tomorrow?"
"Yes!" Shulka nodded firmly.
That fool, Major General Batrakov, exposed the weakness of the 10th Division's insufficient strength.
Unless the German commander is also a fool, or he is suspicious by nature and thinks this is a trick by the Soviets, he will certainly seize this opportunity.
"Okay, Comrade Shulka!" Zogtanov spread his hands: "Even if you are right, we cannot retreat at will without orders from our superiors, not to mention that retreating will also take care of the injuries of the wounded or other negative consequences.
In other words, I can't just do this... I hope you can understand!"
As he spoke, Zogtanov made a sign to see off the guests.
"I can understand, Comrade Zogtanov!" Shulka was certainly prepared for this, and he continued: "But you have the right to evacuate seriously injured people, I mean... this is a simple hospital, you should
Send the injured who cannot be treated to a hospital with better equipment for treatment, right?"
"We do this all the time!" Zogtanov replied: "But we receive even more wounded than we send out!"
"So, you need another field hospital!" Shulka said: "It can be used to temporarily park the wounded, or it can be a transfer station!"
Zogtanov was stunned for a moment, then nodded and agreed to Shulka's suggestion.
First of all, this is a matter within the competence of the field hospital, and Zogtanov can indeed do this as needed.
Secondly, this did not violate the order of the superiors, because it did not retreat, but actually just added a temporary parking point.
In fact, two were added:
One is used to accommodate seriously wounded soldiers who have just been sent down from the front line. They need initial care.
The other is used to house seriously injured people who are to be evacuated.
These two containment points are both in the basement, because they must consider the problem of being attacked by enemy air raids after dawn.
The difference is that once an emergency occurs, the field hospital will be evacuated from one basement to three basements, which will obviously be much faster.
"Besides!" Shulka said again: "If I place soldiers in the building for defense, don't you mind?"
"Of course I don't mind!" Zogtanov said: "As long as you don't interfere with our work!"
In fact, it is impossible not to interfere with the work of the field hospital, because the basement of the field hospital is a major support for snipers... They need the basement as a hiding place.
This is one of the reasons why Shulka previously requested the withdrawal of field hospitals.
But now, because Zogtanov turned a blind eye and pretended not to see it, the students can "do whatever they want."
Vasily named this warehouse Warehouse No. 5 and assigned two platoons, a sniper platoon and a mortar platoon.
The reason why Warehouse No. 5 is so important is that it is exactly about one kilometer away from the Tsaritsa River, and it is open to the south, and you can directly observe the Tsaritsa River.
On the other hand, this warehouse is large and sturdy... It was originally designed to be a granary at a bus station. The cement walls were built extremely thick taking into account factors such as fire protection and air defense.
More importantly, the Tsaritsa River turns a corner nearby, which means that if the enemy attacks along the Tsaritsa River, they will have a long journey within the observation and shooting range of Warehouse No. 5.
The first thing Vasily did was to blast through the walls and floors of the building, including the basement.
This took a lot of effort, and also asked Shulka to have a batch of explosives transported from the port... The floor of Warehouse No. 5 is almost half a meter thick.
When he heard bursts of explosions, Zogtanov came to see Shulka.
"You don't want to blow this building down, do you?" Zogtanov asked, seeming to regret agreeing to Shulka and others' deployment in this building.
"No, of course not, Comrade Zogtanov!" Shulka replied: "They just opened a few channels for themselves?"
"aisle?"
"Yes!" Shulka replied: "We want to turn it into a bunker extending in all directions. Then of course you cannot enter and exit through the door as usual, because this will expose yourself to enemy fire!"
In fact, the benefits go far beyond this.
Another advantage is that the enemy will not discover the new hiding place...if you enter and exit through the door, the enemy can clearly see which room the target enters.
The advantage of blasting through the floor is that you can quickly move up and down floors without going through the stairs. This is also necessary for sniping in buildings.
Zogtanov approached Shulka and said, "I heard that you are also going to blast a few holes in the basement?"
"Yes!" Shulka nodded.
"Are you sure this won't be a problem?" Zogtanov said, "I hope you still remember what I said and it won't affect our work!"
"Don't worry, Comrade Zogtanov!" Shulka comforted: "I promise there will be no problem, except for some noise..."
Just as he was talking, he heard a loud "boom" not far away, the basement shook for a while, and several light bulbs were shattered. At the same time, there was a burst of smoke and dust in the basement, and several grey-haired soldiers walked through the gap that had just been blasted.
Got in.
When they saw Shulka and others, they couldn't help but be startled and said: "Oh, has it been blown to the basement?" (To be continued)