Burning Moscow

Section 73 Reconnaissance behind enemy l

I have never been to Jasnaya Polyana, but I know that the name of this place means “bright glade in the forest” in Russian. This former aristocratic territory is Tolstoy’s mother’s greatest dowry. After I got married, a lot of trees and shrubs were planted here. After Tolstoy became an adult, he also planted linden, spruce, aspen, birch and other trees in the manor. Nowadays, the greenery here is towering and lush.

The fate of this ordinary Russian aristocratic manor has been completely changed due to the birth of Tolstoy, and has become one of the few cultural sacred places in the world. Every year there is an endless stream of people who visit here.

At noon, we finally arrived in Jasnaya Polyana to conduct an approach and reconnaissance of Tolstoy’s manor, trying to understand the location of the German army’s various arms and the headquarters of the troops. If conditions permit, I will return I plan to capture a higher-ranking officer and understand what new moves the German army will have next.

The thick snow covered roads, fields, rivers, houses, woods, and blurred many targets. There is an open area of ​​tens of meters between the woods in the manor and the forest where we are hiding. If you want to detect the situation in the manor, you must go through this open area and go to the opposite forest.

Several destroyed armored vehicles slumped on the snowy ground. The heavy snow in the last few days could not hide the dazzling scorching black. It seems that the German army also took hard battles before occupying here. However, I did not see the remains of any soldiers who died in the snow. It is estimated that they have been buried by the Germans.

There are several birch trees that were blown off at the edge of the forest. The swaying trunks became natural shelters. Agumente and I lurked here, while Lukin and Sgoria were crawling through this open area, ready to go. Approaching reconnaissance in the woods of the manor.

I raised my binoculars and looked to the right side of the forest. I quickly discovered that there are still many trenches and traffic ditches. There are strong bunkers built behind the trenches. From the perspective of the shape of the building, it should be built by the Soviets and occupied by the Germans. of. Rows of wooden stakes were erected in front of the trenches, pulling barbed wires. Several tanks covered by thick snow are neatly parked behind the trenches. There are even anti-aircraft gun positions in the manor. In addition to the ten-man patrols that pass by from time to time, there are also mobile sentries carrying rifles everywhere. walk around.

Seeing such a tight defensive position of the German army, I couldn’t help breaking into a cold sweat. Now it seems that the idea of ​​taking off the German army headquarters and capturing Guderian alive is so naive and naive. Although we have more than 400 people, we don’t have heavy weapons, and there is no way to deal with German tanks and bunkers. The security in the manor is so tight, and the outside is almost there, it is hard to tell that there is a minefield outside the barbed wire. If we launch an offensive hastily, it is estimated that the entire army will probably have been killed or wounded before we rush into the manor. If the battle cannot be ended in a short period of time, and when reinforcements from nearby the German army arrive, we will only have a completely wiped out end.

“Comrade Commander, there is something wrong with a sentry in the woods.” Aguminte’s voice suddenly came from the side.

I put down the telescope, turned my head to look at him and asked, “Where is it?”

“There!” he said, pointing in the direction of eleven o’clock.

I quickly picked up the binoculars and looked in the direction he was pointing. I saw a German soldier with a rifle walking swaying towards us, looking around as he walked. As he walked, he stopped suddenly, craned his neck and looked aside, as if something attracted him. It’s broken, could it be that Lu Jin and the others were discovered by him? The traces they had crawled on the snow still looked very obvious.

“Aguminte, aim at him! I said to shoot, you will kill him immediately!” I whispered to Aguminte beside me.

“Understand, you can fire at any time!” Aguminte answered me very calmly.

The sentry looked left and right, then put the gun on his back and strode in the direction he was looking at. I think it’s a bit strange. Why did the sentry put the gun on his back without yelling. Could it be that I’m so worried, he didn’t even find Lu Jin and the others lurking there? !

The sentry went under a tree and picked up something on his toes. The branches shook violently, and the snow on it fell like an opened bag of flour, and the sentry instantly became a “white man”.

“He was picking apples,” Aguminte whispered, “This bad guy is actually eating apples grown by Tolstoy.”

After hearing what Aguminte said, I understood what the sentinel was doing. I remember that there are many apple trees in Moscow. Every September, when the autumn breeze blows, ripe apples fall all over the ground, but apples that are still hanging on the trees by the end of October are very rare. I saw through the telescope, the sentry dusted the snowflakes on his body casually with his hand, then rubbed a small red fruit on his body, and then began to bite.

The sentry ate an apple while walking into the depths of the woods, and soon disappeared out of my sight. “This greedy guy scared me. I thought he found Lu Jin and the others. His action almost made me lose my life.” I also smiled quietly at the next Agu. Minte said.

After more than half an hour, Lukin took Sgoria back from the woods on the opposite side and reported to me in a low voice: “This should be an important headquarters of the German army. I saw the house in the manor. There were five black cars parked in front, and in just 20 minutes, seven or eight cars drove back and forth, and dozens of communication soldiers on motorcycles entered the house.”

“Who are these people coming in and out of that house?” I looked at the very simple milky white two-story building in the densest part of the forest with my binoculars, and asked Lu Jin very calmly.

“The ranks of the officers entering and exiting are quite high. They are either generals or colonels, and there are very few lieutenants. I guess this is a German army headquarters.”

“No more guessing,” I put down my binoculars and said affirmatively at Lu Jin: “This is not a military headquarters, but Guderian’s headquarters.”

“Ah!” Several of them yelled in a low voice in surprise, and then looked at me suspiciously, “No way, Guderian actually set up his headquarters here in Tolstoy’s manor.”

“Our reconnaissance mission has been completed,” I calmly said to the three of them: “We will immediately return along the original road to the village where we camped last night, and send this important information back in time via the telegraph machine.” Then take the lead to climb back.

“Yes!” They agreed, fell a direction on the snow, and carefully crawled into the forest. Climbing to a position where the Germans could not find us, stood up and hurried back in strides.

We walked back quickly, and in less than two hours, we approached the camping village. At this time, I was too tired, so I announced: “Stop moving forward and rest on the spot.” Then I sat down under a birch tree.

Lu Jin sat next to me and asked me in a low voice: “Comrade Commander, our reconnaissance mission has been completed. After sending the intelligence, where shall we withdraw?”

“Is there any city around here that is still in the hands of our army?” I know what he is worried about. After all, he needs to walk a day on the road to return to Volokramsk. If he encounters a large number of enemy forces, We are so bad and bad, that’s why he asked such a question.

“Tula!” He replied: “The city is only the 14th road from here. I heard the sound of artillery from that direction just now on the road. The German army probably hasn’t occupied it yet Tula There is a fierce battle going on. We rushed through it so recklessly. If we accidentally rushed into the middle of the battlefield and were killed by the Germans, it made sense. It would be too unworthy to die under our own fire in a muddle manner. I briefly considered it, and replied in the affirmative: “Let’s go back to Volokramsk. ”

At this moment, there was a sudden intensive gunfire in the direction of the village. I stood up abruptly, looked towards the village, and asked anxiously: “What’s the matter? Where is the shooting?” My heart beat suddenly accelerated again, wondering if it was because the German army had copied our back. Has the village been reoccupied?

The four of us ran towards the village with our weapons, and ran for about two hundred meters. Suddenly I heard Aguminte yell: “Get down, there are Germans ahead!” With his shouts, we collectively lay down on the snow.

I hide behind a tree and observe the situation with a telescope. I saw someone stumbling towards us. I took a closer look and found that it was the person I had arranged to stay in the village. The first two supporting operators are Orlov and Saskar, the telegraph operator Orlov and Saskar. They ran forward without stopping. Orlov staggered and seemed to be injured; the one running behind was Agie and Leon Jeff, they ran a few steps, then stopped and shot a few shots behind them. More than 50 meters behind them, more than a dozen German soldiers with submachine guns are in hot pursuit Book friends are welcome to visit and read. The latest, fastest and hottest serial works are all here.