Chapter 597

The jeep that I was riding with sheijerikov was at the front of the whole team. After driving a certain distance according to the old man's road, we soon found that the road ahead was also blocked by the collapsed bricks and stones of the houses destroyed by the explosion on both sides.

Our motorcade stopped again. I pushed the door open and leaned out to see if there were any other roads nearby. I happened to see a patrol of about 20 people coming towards us. I jumped out of the car and stood by the car quietly waiting for the arrival of the patrol.

The members of this patrol are all wearing work clothes. It's obvious that they are workers drawn from some nearby factory. It's not wrong to ask them the way.

Our motorcade, which stopped at the side of the road, obviously attracted the attention of the patrol. Walking in the front of the team, the old man, wearing a cap and two white beards, unconsciously slowed down his pace and cast doubts on us. I hastened to greet him, and at the same time politely called out: "old man!"

Unexpectedly, my name made the patrol captain frown. He raised his hand to stop the patrol and said in a discontented tone, "don't call me old man. I'm just 60 years old. I can still fight with the German with a gun."

Looking at the old man in front of me, I couldn't help but smile and said, "yes, yes, as long as you take up arms to compete with the Germans, you can't be regarded as an old man. Besides, you look so young."

Hearing this, the old captain showed a proud smile on his face and said confidently, "I fought against the bandits here and defended tsarizin. In those days, my comrades and I fought back such fierce enemies. Now, those Germans will be defeated by us sooner or later. "

"Comrade captain," shejerikov came up to me and asked politely, "we are going to mamayev post, but the road over there is broken. After inquiry, we know that we have to go to the central railway station for a round trip to reach our destination. But now the road ahead is blocked by bricks and stones. Do you know where else you can go

The old captain looked at our long motorcade and asked thoughtfully, "can't we abandon the car and walk?"

I turned my head and looked at shejerikov. Seeing that he shook his head, I turned back to the old captain and said, "no, we still have a lot of technical equipment on the car. It's impossible to rely on people to carry such a long distance."

Hearing what I said, the old captain turned to the team and said, "igratov, come here."

With his shouts, a middle-aged man without a hat and with a bayonet rifle on his back ran out of the line. The middle-aged man came to us, looked at us and asked the old captain, "Comrade captain, do you have any orders?"

The old captain pointed to us and said, "igratov, if you are familiar with the way to the central railway station, you can be their guide."

Igratov agreed and gave the rifle he was carrying to the team leader. Then he came to me and shejerikov. After scanning our neckband with his eyes, he raised his hand and reported to me: "report to Comrade Colonel, soldier of worker's annihilation battalion. Igratov reports to you and is at your command."

I waved my head at him and said, "get in the car, comrade igratov. You're sitting next to the driver." Then I extended my hand to the old team leader and said gratefully, "thank you, comrade team leader. On behalf of all the officers and men of the independent division, I thank you."

The old captain took my hand and said with a simple and honest smile, "serve the Soviet motherland."

With the help of igratov, the guide, our motorcade drove on the street for a while, and then got into the lane where there was no people. After driving for more than half an hour, we finally arrived at our engineer second lieutenant. After listening to Xie jerikov's words, he asked warily, "Comrade commander, which part are you from? What are you doing in mamayev post?"

Shejerikov replied with a smile: "we are from the independent division. We are ordered to go to mamayev post to receive the defense. Because the road was blocked by bricks and stones, we had to go around here to find a new road. Comrade lieutenant, can you help us find a guide? We've already wasted a lot of time in the city. If we delay any longer, I'm afraid it will delay the fight. "

After hearing this, the second lieutenant said, "Comrade commander, please wait a moment!" After that, he went back to the barricade, bent down, picked up a telephone, put it on the chest wall with sandbags, shook the handle a few times, picked up the phone, and began to speak in a low voice, as if asking for instructions from his superiors.

My guess was soon proved to be correct. The second lieutenant put down the microphone, trotted to the jeep, slightly bent down and said, "Comrade commander, I have asked the battalion commander for instructions, and he asked me to send you to the mamayev post."

When shejerikov heard that the second lieutenant was going to act as a guide for us, he quickly waved his head to him and said in a loud voice, "get in the car, comrade second lieutenant, and you will sit next to the driver."

As soon as the second lieutenant got into the car, he caught a glimpse of me, which startled him. He quickly raised his hand to his forehead and said in a flurry, "I'm sorry, comrade colonel. I didn't notice you in the car just now."

I waved to him with a smile and said, "don't worry, comrade lieutenant. It's getting late. We'd better start at once. "

The jeep passed slowly through the passage in the middle of the barricade. I kept looking at both sides. If the passage was too narrow, the trucks behind would not be able to pass. Just looking at it, suddenly a strange object slipped from my sight, and I yelled: "stop, stop immediately!"

The driver didn't know what happened. He stepped on the brake and looked at me strangely, waiting for my next instruction. I turned to the back and saw that the nearest truck was dozens of meters away, so I told the driver, "back up immediately and go back to the barricade."

The driver didn't know why, but he did as I told him to, reversing the jeep. When I got to the place where I saw the strange object, I called out again, "stop, stop here." After waiting for the car to stop, I called the Engineer Second Lieutenant: "Comrade second lieutenant, what's in the barricade?"

Shejerikov, the engineer's second lieutenant and the driver all looked in the direction of my fingers. When they saw the long black cylinder behind the barricade shooting hole, both shejerikov and the driver were as surprised as I was, while the engineer's second lieutenant was so calm.

When all eyes were focused on the Lieutenant's face, he said with a smile, "comrades commander, don't you know what this is? These are two old guns. To be exact, they were made when Napoleon attacked Moscow in 1812. "

I nodded and asked, "of course I know the old guns, but why are they here? Can they be used in battle?"

The engineer's second lieutenant nodded hard and said with certainty: "of course, we used this kind of old-fashioned artillery which can only produce iron balls in many places. After practice, although the effect of fighting against the German scattered soldiers is not good, the effect of fighting against the German armored vehicles is good. In the battle a few days ago, the projectile launched by one of our guns even smashed two German armored vehicles with relatively weak armor. "

After listening to the second lieutenant's explanation, I said in my heart that it really takes a certain amount of luck to hit the target with this kind of local cannon. However, since other people have put this kind of old guns in the museum into the barricade, I don't have to tell them any more, so I gave the driver a wry smile and said, "drive!"

On the way, while chatting with the second lieutenant, shijerikov asked, "Comrade second lieutenant, how far is it from the central railway station to mamayevgang? When can we get there?"

The second lieutenant thought for a moment and replied, "mamayev post is three kilometers north of the city, and the central railway station is about four kilometers away from the edge of the city. Under normal circumstances, it's about ten minutes' drive, but now the roads in many places are broken, so we may have to go around a lot to get to mamayevgang. I think it will take an hour at the fastest

An hour later, we finally got close to the rolling hills. Although the guns were rumbling here, the second lieutenant sighed with relief, pointed to the front and said to us, "Comrade Colonel, look, there is a checkpoint at the intersection ahead. After the checkpoint is the mamayev post, on which is the headquarters of the 62nd army. "

Our car was stopped by the soldiers on duty at the checkpoint. A sergeant came up, bent down, looked in the car, and then asked warily, "who are you?"

As soon as he finished, I quickly replied, "Comrade sergeant, I'm the commander of the independent division, Colonel oshanina. Our division was ordered to come to mamayev post to take over defense. Can you tell me where I can find the headquarters or the division headquarters of the 35th division? "

After listening to my identification, the sergeant stood up straight and saluted. Then he bent down and said to me, "Comrade division, you can go up this hillside and find the headquarters of the group army on the top of the hillside."

After thanking him, I got out of the car. Seeing that Xie jerikov and the engineer Lieutenant also got out of the car, I told Xie jerikov: "Comrade commander, you stay here and gather the troops. I'll report to the group army headquarters alone."

"Yes," he replied in a loud voice

Then I said to the engineer lieutenant, "Comrade lieutenant, thank you for being our guide. It's too far away from your troops. If you want to go back, it may not be very convenient. Let me ask the driver to take you back. " After that, I bent down and told the driver, "Comrade driver, you are responsible for sending the second lieutenant back to the central railway station."

After all this, I went up the hill by myself. After walking on the hillside full of bushes and some thorny plants for about ten minutes, I suddenly heard a man in front of me say in a low voice: "stop! Who are you

I stopped at the sound, looked up, and saw a soldier with a rifle standing up from the grass, warily pointing the gun at me. I guessed that he might be a guard soldier of the group army command, so I did not rush to identify myself: "I am the commander of the independent division, Colonel oshanina, and I was ordered to come to mamayev post to take over the defense of the 35th close guard division. It is said that the headquarters of the group army is also here, so I will report to the commander first. "

"Sentry, what's going on?" Without waiting for any reaction from the soldiers, I heard a familiar voice in the distance.

The sentry quickly put down his gun, raised his hand to salute and reported: "report to Comrade military commissar, the female commander said that she is the division commander of the independent division and has come to report to the commander."

The military commissar nodded and said to the sentry, "Comrade sentry, she is right. She is the division commander of the independent division, and I know her. There's nothing for you here. You can go. "

After saluting him again, the sentry honestly turned and left.

After the sentry left, the military commissar came up to me with a smile on his face and said in a friendly way, "Hello, comrade oshanina, we meet again."

It's not someone else, but gurov, the military commissar of the 62nd army, who is also an old acquaintance of mine. Seeing him coming, I quickly stepped forward, raised my hand and said to him with a smile, "Hello, comrade military Commissar. I didn't expect that we would meet again so soon."

After gurov came to shake my hand with me, he did not let go of my hand. Instead, he led me up the hill and said, "Comrade oshanina, since you were transferred to the 64th army, it seems that we haven't seen each other for a long time."

"Yes! Comrade military commissar, it seems that you and I haven't seen each other since general lopagin became commander. "

"Yes, yes, comrade oshanina, you have a good memory. It is true that after general lopagin became commander, you were transferred from the 62nd army until now. " When gurov said this, he suddenly pointed to the front and said to me, "look, the group army headquarters is here."

The group army headquarters is here. The gully is full of newly dug bomb shelters and shelters. The hill in the distance is being shelled. The gunfire we heard just now is coming from here. Seeing this scene, I can't help feeling that this is mamayev post! Except for me, who comes from later generations, I don't think that in the near future, it will become the most fierce place in the battle for Stalingrad? Who would have thought that every inch of land here would be blown beyond recognition by bombs and shells?

Under gurov's leadership, we did not encounter any more sentries on the road. We successfully arrived at the group army headquarters in a shelter. Krailov is also an acquaintance of mine. We first met at the headquarters of the front army, and then came to the river Dun from the headquarters of the front army. We had a lot of time to deal with each other.

Strictly speaking, the shelter where the headquarters is located is not a real shelter. It is just a relatively spacious bomb shelter. On the top of the shelter, there are many thick logs one by one. The logs are fixed with ropes. It was covered with a few inches of soil. With the explosion of the shells, the soil on the top of the roof fell down from the crevice of the log from time to time.

One side of the shelter is the earth stool, and the other side is the earth table. After gulov asked me to sit down on the bench, he handed me a teapot with a lid and said in a low voice, "the Germans are shelling the hill in front of us, but they don't seem to pay attention to our 35th guards on the hill. There are no heavy guns in their guns."

Before we came in, there were only two people in the shelter department. One was general Krylov with a telephone in her hand, and the other was a female signalman. She looked very young and was probably a tenth grade student before she put on her uniform.

General Krylov turned a blind eye to our arrival. He was speaking sternly to someone. His voice was loud and sternly. He seemed to be angry with each other.

The female signalman held a telephone receiver in each hand and wanted to pass it to krailov. Seeing that the other party was talking again, she had to say to the two microphones: "sorry, comrade commander, comrade chief of staff is making another call."

In my impression, gurov is a person who doesn't like to interfere in the command of military commanders. At the moment, he sits on the bench with me silently, waiting for Krylov to finish the call with me. Seeing that my attention was focused on the female signalman, he introduced to me in a low voice: "the female signalman's name is Elena bakalevich. She is 18 years old and a student of Grade 10."

When krailov finished the call, he looked over to me. I quickly stood up and raised my hand to salute him. Just as I was about to report according to the regulations, I didn't expect that he took another microphone from Elena's hand, nodded politely at me, and then continued to talk with the commander at the other end of the phone.

I sat down in silence and heard the telephone ring from time to time. I couldn't help looking at gurov curiously and wanted to ask him why the group army headquarters was so busy? And where's commander trakov?

Gurov, who was good at observing words and colors, guessed the question I was going to ask from my eyes and said to me on his own initiative: "as you can see, there are not enough people in the headquarters of the group army. Since we broke out from the Dun River, the communication camp has almost been lost. Now there are only 40 people left, so you can see that they have to work for several people at the same time. As for the commander, he has just taken some soldiers to the 35th division of the guards on the hill in front of him. "

Hearing the gunfire coming from the outside, I could not help asking nervously, "Comrade military commissar, commander, go to the shelling area, won't anything happen?"

Before gurov could answer my question, the familiar voice of trakov came from the door: "the shells that can kill me have not been produced yet."

Hearing trakov's voice, I quickly got up from my seat and straightened up to salute him. When trakov appeared in my field of vision, I quickly raised my hand to salute and respectfully said: "Hello, comrade commander. The commander of the independent division, Colonel oshanina, reports to you that the independent division has been ordered to come to the mamayev post and wait for your next order. "