Red Moscow

The patrol captain who came with Adelina asked Sokov respectfully: "Comrade General, do you need me to send someone to search the ruins? Maybe the enemy who attacked you has accomplices hiding inside."

"There is a lieutenant Utka who is searching inside with soldiers." Sokov said: "But the area of ​​the ruins is so large, and the number of people he brought must be insufficient. Send someone to help him."

The captain agreed and personally led a dozen soldiers into the ruins to cooperate with friendly forces to search for enemies who might be hiding inside.

"Misha," Adelina said with lingering fear: "Fortunately you are fine."

"Don't worry, Adelina." Sokov smiled and said to Adelina: "I am lucky. I always escape danger. Nothing will happen."

But Adelina didn't say anything after hearing what Sokov said, but fell into deep thought. After a while, she said with difficulty: "Misha, maybe you should return to Moscow immediately. Berlin is too unsafe."

If there had been no attack today, Sokov might have chosen to return to Moscow immediately when the opportunity arose. But after this attack, Sokov could not leave. He did not want anyone to say behind his back that he fled Berlin because he was afraid of saboteurs.

Two ambulances drove over, along with a jeep and three trucks full of soldiers.

After the convoy stopped, a major officer jumped out of the jeep, walked quickly to Sokov, raised his hand and saluted: "Comrade General, I am from the garrison headquarters. I heard that there was an attack here, so I came here with people to take a look. I wonder if you are injured?" "Major, I am not injured." Sokov pointed to the two bodies of soldiers and the wounded soldier on the roadside and said to the major: "Two of my men died and one was injured. You should immediately arrange people to send the wounded to the hospital and take the bodies of the soldiers there." "Okay, Comrade General!" The major called the nurse who got off the ambulance and asked her to treat the wounds of the wounded. At the same time, he asked with concern: "Comrade General, are you really not injured?" "No." Sokov shook his head and said in an affirmative tone: "The vehicle that was attacked by the enemy with a rocket was my accompanying vehicle. When the rocket flew over, my adjutant, Major Vaserigov, threw me to the ground in time and used his body to save me. "Then, Sokov pointed to the direction of the ruins and said to the major: "Comrade Major, two patrol captains have already gone in with their men to search, but they have not returned yet, and I don't know if they have caught the attacker's accomplices." The major pulled out his pistol and said to Sokov: "Comrade General, I will take people to take a look." But after leaving, the major ordered another officer, "You go with the ambulance and send the wounded and the remains of the martyrs to the hospital." As the third group of people entered the ruins and started searching, Vaserigov asked Sokov: "Comrade General, are we going to Marshal Zhukov?" "Major Vaserigov, we must go to Marshal Zhukov." Sokov replied: "But before that, we have to finish the things here first." The search of the ruins ended half an hour later. When the major came out with Utka and others, they were also escorting several civilians in plain clothes, both men and women. The major asked the captured civilians to stand in a row, then came to Sokov and reported to him: "Comrade General, we captured a total of six people when searching in the ruins, among whom there must be accomplices of the attacker. Please identify which one is the accomplice of the attacker." Sokov had just seen the man who attacked him with a rocket launcher, but not his accomplice, so he didn't know whether there were accomplices of the attacker among these people. He came to the front of several people and looked at them carefully. The first one in line was a middle-aged woman with a headscarf, holding a cloth bag in her hand, and her face was full of panic. Seeing Sokov coming towards her, she became more and more nervous, and kept mumbling something. Sokov turned his head and glanced at Adelina beside him, motioning her to translate for him and listen to what the middle-aged woman said. Adelina nodded, understanding what he meant, and then translated, "Misha, she said she was out shopping and didn't know anything. Don't kill her."

Sokof saw at a glance that the middle-aged woman was just an ordinary housewife. Maybe she was just passing by and was caught by the patrol. After confirming this, Sokov said to Vasherigov, "Major, there should be no problem with this middle-aged woman. Let her stand aside first and wait until I finish checking the others before dealing with her."

Vasherigov nodded and pulled the middle-aged woman aside.

Unexpectedly, Vasherigov's actions caused the middle-aged woman to misunderstand, and she actually knelt down directly, saying something quickly. Fortunately, Ajelina translated in time, and Sokov finally understood what she said: "Sir, I am innocent, please don't kill me."

After Ajelina finished translating for Sokov, she comforted the middle-aged woman without waiting for Sokov to finish: "Don't worry, we are just catching an accomplice of the murderer. Once we find out that you are not a problem, we will let you go home."

After hearing what Ajelina said, the middle-aged woman finally calmed down and stood obediently by the side without saying a word.

Among the remaining five people, there was a seven or eight-year-old boy, and Sokov excluded him without hesitation. He felt that such a young child might not be able to load a rocket into a rocket launcher. After he pulled the boy aside, he continued to observe the remaining four people.

Among the four, three were young men. They were the most suspect, and Sokov saw hatred in their eyes. It would probably not be a problem to say that these people were accomplices of the attackers.

"Comrade General," Vaserigov leaned close to Sokov's ear and whispered: "Among the remaining four, one is an old man who is missing an arm. He will definitely be fine. The attacker's accomplice, It should be between these three people.”

Regarding Vaserigov's statement, Sokov agreed in his heart. The eyes of these three young men were full of hatred. If given the opportunity, they would definitely choose to attack him without hesitation. Just when Sokov was about to let the one-armed old man leave, he noticed something strange. The old man's eyes flickered, deliberately avoiding eye contact with his, and even kept looking at the attacker's body.

The reaction of the one-armed old man made Sokov realize that something was wrong. The other five people all focused their attention on themselves and did not dare to leave at all, but the old man seemed absent-minded, indicating that there must be something wrong with him. And he kept looking at the body with his eyes. Even if he was not an accomplice, he was inextricably linked to the attacker.

Sokov took a step back, pointed at the one-armed old man with his hand, and told Vaserigov behind him: "Major, arrest this old man, he is the accomplice of the attacker."

Everyone was stunned when they heard Sokov say this. Everyone thought that the attacker's accomplice should be one of the three young men, but Sokov chose the most inconspicuous one-armed old man. But now that Sokov has issued the order, Vaserigov will naturally execute it unconditionally. After all, two of his soldiers were killed and one was injured in the attack just now. He personally led two soldiers forward and arrested the one-armed old man.

"Misha," Adelina was very surprised to see Sokov asking Vaserigov to arrest the one-armed old man. She asked in surprise, "Did you arrest the wrong person?"

"No, you won't catch the wrong person." Sokov said with a sneer: "After the patrol brought them back from the ruins, other people's eyes stayed on me, eager to know what I planned to do with them. But the one-armed old man’s eyes were wandering and he tried his best to avoid meeting my eyes. More importantly, he kept looking at the attacker’s body on the ground, indicating that there was some connection between him and the attacker.”

After Sokov's reminder, everyone felt it made sense. After these civilians were brought out from the ruins, they all looked at Sokov nervously, wanting to know what the other party planned to do with them. Only the old man's eyes kept dodging, and he was afraid of meeting anyone's eyes, which showed that he was a person. There is a problem.

The major from the garrison headquarters came over and asked Sokov for instructions: "Comrade General, how do you plan to deal with them?"

"Except for the one-armed old man, let everyone else go." After Sokov said this, he asked: "Major, I want to ask you, how do you usually deal with such saboteurs when you catch them? of?"

"The method is very simple." The major sneered and said, "Either, shoot them directly on the roadside. Or," at this point, he looked up and continued, "Just hang them on the wire poles, and at the same time Hang a sign on your chest that says 'saboteur'."

"Major," Sokov expressed his opinion after waiting for the major to finish: "If it were still during the war, the methods you mentioned could indeed deter the enemy. But now that the war is over, many of the past All methods can no longer be used, otherwise it will deepen the conflict between our army and the local residents.”

"Comrade General, what should we do with them?" the major asked.

"Bring him back to the garrison headquarters for interrogation." Sokov said: "As for what to do after the interrogation is over, it is your business and has nothing to do with me."

"Okay then." The major nodded and said, "Just do what you said." Then he ordered the soldiers to put the old man on the truck and prepare to take him back to the garrison headquarters for interrogation to see if he had anyone else in Berlin. of accomplices.

"Comrade General," the major continued, "where do you plan to go?"

"I'm going to Marshal Zhukov's headquarters to report to him."

After hearing Sokov saying that he was going to Zhukov's headquarters, the major took the initiative and said: "Comrade General, I will send someone to escort you there."

"No need." While the patrol was still searching in the ruins, Vaserigov had already ordered the jeep and guards on standby at the hotel, which were enough to protect Sokov's safety, so Sokov rejected the major's offer. Good intentions: "I have enough people around me to protect my safety, so I don't need to trouble you."

Seeing that Sokov didn't want to be protected by him, the major didn't waste any words. After raising his hand in salute, he left in a car with his men. The other two patrol teams also continued to perform patrol tasks according to their own patrol routes.

The convoy set off again. Vaselgov, who was sitting in the co-pilot's seat, turned to ask Sokov: "Comrade General, I don't understand, since you can identify the attacker's accomplices from the crowd, why don't you let the garrison headquarters The people executed him on the spot, but why did he have to be sent to the garrison headquarters? "

"The reason is very simple, Comrade Major." Although Sokov had just said the reason why he could not kill people in the street, when Vaserigov asked again, he naturally had to explain again: "Although we have occupied Berlin for half a year, For a long time, the relationship with the local residents is not harmonious. If we deal with the attacker's accomplices on the street, once they are seen with ulterior motives, and then spread rumors that we massacre innocent people, this will not only harm the people. The image of our army will also make the relationship between our army and civilians more tense."

After listening to Sokov's explanation, Vaserigov nodded and echoed: "Comrade General, you are still thoughtful. If I encounter this kind of situation, I will definitely kill him first without saying anything, so as not to worry about it in the future." There will still be attacks on our army.”

"Major, where do you think the attacker's weapons came from?"

Sokov's question stupefied Vasergov. He shook his head and said: "I don't know, Comrade General. Do you know?"

"I don't know either." Sokov sighed and said: "If they are using the rocket launcher I designed, I can confirm that the weapon he uses comes from within our army. But the one he used was a rocket launcher. Zuka rocket launchers are anti-tank weapons that are not only available in the U.S. military, but have also assisted us in large quantities, so it is impossible to judge where his weapons come from based on the weapons he uses. "

"Since we don't know where the weapon came from, and who sent it, we can't find out." Agelina interjected: "Misha, am I right?"

"Yes, Agelina, you are right." Sokov said: "If the one-armed old man arrived at the garrison headquarters and said nothing, we would not be able to find out whether the attacker was injured based on the weapon. Who ordered us to attack?"

"Misha," Agelina asked with some worry: "Tell me, did the attacker specifically target you, or did he randomly choose a target to attack?"

Sokov struggled to recall the attack, and then said: "I think a target should be randomly selected to attack." To increase credibility, he also added: "The attackers piled a lot of bricks in the middle of the road. Stones and rubble blocked the path of our convoy. After seeing someone get out of the car, the attacker came out of the rubble and attacked us." Thinking of the shocking scene just now, Sokov said again. Expressed his gratitude to Vaserigov, "Thank you, because your response was timely and saved my life."