Red Moscow

"Stop!" Everyone had just run a short distance when Alina suddenly stopped and shouted loudly, "Don't run any further!"

Sokov quickly ran to Alina's side, frowned and asked in confusion: "Why don't you run away?"

"Enemy!" Alina pointed forward and said hastily, "The enemy's position is ahead."

Sokov looked in the direction of her finger and was immediately shocked into a cold sweat. A hundred meters away was a defensive position. The M35 helmets shaking in the trenches indicated that this was a German position. Fortunately, Alina stopped everyone, otherwise everyone would have rushed into the German position, which was tantamount to walking into a trap.

Sokov turned his head and looked behind him, and unexpectedly found that the plane had made an emergency landing between the positions of the two armies. The German position was in front, and the Soviet position was in the opposite direction.

"What are you still standing there for?" Sokov shouted at the crowd, "Turn around and run back to our position as soon as possible."

After Sokov's reminder, the people who had stopped suddenly woke up as if from a dream, and immediately turned around and ran in the opposite direction, trying to escape back to the Soviet position as soon as possible.

The officers and soldiers on the German position saw a transport plane of their own landed between the two army positions and immediately reported to the commander. The German commander stood in the trench and saw a group of people in Soviet uniforms escape from the smoke-filled plane and stumbled towards his position. When he was about to order someone to meet them, he found that the group turned around and ran in the opposite direction.

After a brief moment of confusion, the German commander immediately realized that the people who got off the plane should be Russians. He immediately ordered the machine guns on the position to open fire, preparing to kill them all before they escaped to the Soviet position.

The machine guns on the German position began to rattle, but due to the obstruction of aircraft in front, it was not easy to hit the several people who were running for their lives.

Sokov was worried that someone would fall behind, so he ran at the back of the team. He dodged those deadly bullets by moving flexibly. The bullets whizzed by his side and hit the mud in front of him. Occasionally, the gravel splashed up and hit his face, which was painful.

When he was still 40 to 50 meters away from the Soviet position, he suddenly felt a heat on his left shoulder, as if he had been bitten by something. Based on his experience, he must have been shot. But he was busy running for his life, so he didn't dare to stop and check, otherwise he might be shot into a sieve by the German machine gun.

Soon, Sokov jumped into the trench in front of the shocked eyes of the Soviet commanders and fighters.

After entering the trench, Sokov felt as if all the strength in his body had been drained away at once. He sat on the ground, leaning against the trench wall, breathing heavily, his legs shaking like sieves.

After his emotions stabilized a little, Sokov looked around and saw Yegor, Alina and the trio, as well as Romanov and Yakov. They were all standing not far away, staring at him intently. Seeing that everyone was there, he breathed a sigh of relief and then asked, "Are you all okay?"

Everyone shook their heads in unison, indicating that they were not injured.

Just as Sokov was about to say something, he saw a second lieutenant officer with a group of soldiers rushing over. After seeing Sokov and others, he immediately waved his hand and ordered the people he brought with him: "Catch them all."

Seeing the second lieutenant and a group of soldiers pointing their guns at those who had just escaped into the trenches, the soldiers who were originally standing by to watch the excitement also raised their guns and pointed them at Sokov and others.

Facing the black muzzles of guns all around, Alina asked loudly: "What are you doing? Why are you pointing guns at us?"

"Who are you and why did you take a German plane and land between the two armies' positions?" the second lieutenant asked sternly.

Sokov was holding onto the trench wall and preparing to stand up when the lieutenant was startled and pointed his gun at him: "Don't move, or I'll shoot!"

After seeing the lieutenant's nervous expression, Sokov snorted coldly, slowly stood up, and said seriously: "Second Lieutenant, I am Major Sokov, the adjutant of the 5th Army Command. I was ordered to carry out a mission behind enemy lines and just returned from danger. Take us to see your highest commander immediately."

Although he was not sure about the exact landing location, Sokov was certain that this was the defense zone of the 5th Army. Therefore, he revealed his identity in time to resolve the misunderstanding in the shortest possible time.

"Put down your guns!" Sokov's words obviously convinced the lieutenant. After asking the nearby soldiers to lower their guns, he politely said to Sokov: "Comrade Major, please follow me. I will take you to see our battalion commander."

A few minutes later, everyone arrived at the battalion command post.

Seeing the second lieutenant leading a group of people into the command post, a captain sitting at a simple wooden table raised his head and asked, "Second lieutenant, who are they?"

"Comrade Captain." The second lieutenant stepped forward and replied, "You asked me to check the German plane that made an emergency landing. The people who came out of the plane were our own people. I brought them all here."

Sokov stepped forward, stood shoulder to shoulder with the second lieutenant, and then said to the captain: "I am Major Sokov from the 5th Army Command, and I just returned from a mission behind enemy lines!"

Hearing Sokov's identity, the captain quickly stood up, raised his hand to salute him, and then reported: "Comrade Major, I am Captain Kursa, the commander of the 1st Battalion of the 399th Regiment of the 133rd Infantry Division. Welcome."

After Sokov raised his hand to return the greeting, he shook hands with Captain Kursa and then asked, "Comrade Captain, we need to return to the army headquarters immediately. Can you provide us with suitable transportation?"

"The truck that the division sent to deliver supplies to us today should not have left yet." Captain Kursa asked tentatively, "If you don't object, I can have the driver take you to the army headquarters."

Sokov only wanted to send Yakov, Romanov and others to the army headquarters as soon as possible. He didn't care if they took a horse-drawn carriage, let alone a truck. "That's great. Let's go now."

Kursa led Sokov and others out of the battalion command post and came to a nearby forest. There were many tents here. A cooking car parked next to the tents was emitting wisps of smoke. A dozen meters away from the cooking car was a truck with a tarpaulin. There were many bags piled up near the car, which should be the supplies that had just been delivered.

Kursa came to the truck's driving platform, raised his hand and tapped on the door twice to attract the driver's attention, and said to him: "Comrade driver, there are several comrades who have just returned from behind enemy lines and need to rush to the army headquarters immediately. Please take them there."

The driver stuck his head out, saw Sokov and the others, and nodded and said, "No problem, everyone get in the car."

"Alina!" Sokov opened the passenger door, called Alina over, and said to her, "Sit here."

"What about you?"

"I'm sitting in the carriage with everyone else." Sokov said with a smile, "This car has a tarpaulin, so it won't be too cold to sit in the carriage."

Alina nodded without being pretentious and sat directly in the passenger seat. After Sokov closed the door for her, he turned and walked towards the car, ready to get in after everyone else got in.

"Major Sokov!"

When Sokov saw that everyone had boarded the bus and was about to get on, he heard Romanov, who was sitting in the car, calling him. He quickly asked, "Comrade General, what do you want?"

Romanov glanced at the kitchen truck and asked tentatively, "Can you give us something to eat?"

Sokov raised his hand and slapped himself hard on the forehead, cursing, "Damn it!" If Romanlov hadn't said he wanted to eat, Sokov would never have thought that Romanlov and Yakov had been hungry for a long time in the prisoner-of-war camp.

Seeing Sokov's reaction, Romanov's face twitched and he said awkwardly: "Major Sokov, if it's inconvenient, forget it."

"Comrade General, you misunderstood." Seeing that Romanov had misunderstood his actions, Sokov quickly explained to him: "I was scolding myself for being careless. How could I forget that you can't get enough to eat in the prisoner-of-war camp. Wait, I will go and get you something to eat."

Sokov turned and came to Kursa, and said politely: "Comrade Captain, we haven't eaten anything today. Can you help us get something to eat?"

"Of course." Kursa glanced at the kitchen cart not far away and suggested to Sokov, "How about you finish eating before leaving?"

"Okay, then we'll leave after we finish eating."

When Kursa walked towards the kitchen car, Sokov returned to the back of the car and said to the people inside: "Comrades, I believe everyone is hungry. Let's get off and eat something. After we finish eating, it won't be too late for us to continue our journey."

After saying this, Sokov came to the control console again and said to Alina who was sitting inside: "Alina, I think you must be very hungry. Come down and have something to eat with everyone."

Hearing what Sokov said, Alina hesitated: "But, don't we have to rush to the army headquarters as soon as possible?"

"It doesn't take much time to eat." Sokov said, "If you travel on an empty stomach, it's still unknown whether you can eat in time when you arrive at the army headquarters."

Alina felt that what Sokov said made sense, so she nodded, opened the door, got out of the car, and followed Sokov to the kitchen car.

"Comrade Major," Kursa said apologetically when he saw Sokov and Alina coming over, "We don't have anything delicious here. We can only give each person two potatoes, a piece of bread and a lunch box of hot soup. The food is a bit small, please bear with me."

"That's enough." Sokov was well aware of the current situation on the front line. Seeing Kursa's apologetic look, he said sensibly, "After all, it's wartime now. It's pretty good to be able to eat these things."

Soon, everyone received the food distributed by the cooks.

Seeing Romanov and Yakov wolfing down their food, Sokov was worried that they had been hungry for too long. If they ate too much at once, something might happen. So he reminded them, "You have been hungry for too long. Don't eat too much at once. Not only will your stomach not be able to handle it, but it may even be life-threatening."

After hearing what Sokov said, the two slowed down their eating.

Alina came over with two plates of hot porridge. There was not much porridge on the plates, only a spoonful of it in each.

She came to Romanov and Yakov, handed them the porridge, and said with a smile: "Have some barley porridge. This is Peter the Great's favorite porridge. He once called it 'the most delicious delicacy'."

Sokov knew that barley porridge had a long history in Russia. Because it was loved by Peter the Great, it was also called "Tsar's porridge". The method of making barley porridge is to cook the broken barley grains with milk, butter and salt until it thickens, and then pour the melted butter into the porridge. For people like Romanov and Yakov who have been in a state of hunger for a long time and have deteriorated gastrointestinal function, drinking some hot barley porridge is a good choice.

After a simple breakfast, Sokov and others said goodbye to Kursa and took a truck carrying supplies to the army headquarters.

Ten minutes later, the truck entered the area where the headquarters was located.

After Sokov asked the driver to stop the car on the side of the road, he led everyone to the door of the headquarters.

A staff officer who was checking the sentry outside the door recognized Sokov and saluted him quickly: "Comrade Major, you are back?"

"Yes, I'm back!" Sokov nodded to the staff officer, then asked, "Is the commander in there?"

"Yes, Comrade Major, he is here." The staff officer glanced at Alina and others who were following behind, and said to Sokov, "I will take you in to see him."

"No need, I'll go in by myself." Before entering the door, Sokov specifically told Alina and others: "Wait for me here, I'll go in and report the situation to the commander comrade."

Alina was very cooperative: "Go ahead, we'll wait for you here."

Sokov walked into the headquarters and quickly found Potapov who was arranging tasks. However, he did not go forward to interrupt him, but stood aside and waited quietly.

After Potapov assigned tasks to his subordinates, he saw Sokov standing beside him and asked in surprise: "Major Sokov, when did you come back?"

"I just got back and came in to see you right away."

Potapov was silent for a moment, then asked hesitantly, "How is it, is the mission completed?"

"Yes, comrade commander, it has been completed." Sokov didn't know whether Potapov knew the mission of the special team, so he shouldn't easily tell others about rescuing Yakov, so he asked cautiously, "I wonder what I should do next?"

"Take the special task force from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the front headquarters." Potapov waved his hand at Sokov. "Take them there yourself."