When Vasily and his friends occupied the building, they seized a submachine gun and several rifles from the destroyed Germans. When he taught Shulka and they how to use the German rifle, he asked casually: "Shulka, how many days have you been in the basement?"
Shulka replied while fiddling with the rifle in his hand: "We have been in the basement for a week, and if you don't come again, we will run out of water and food."
"Is your family here too?" Vasily continued.
"My wife and daughter have been evacuated in late August. My son is in the Southwest Front Army. In July, I received a notice of his death." Shulka bit his back teeth and said, "I want to kill a few more German devils to avenge my son!"
When Vasily learned that Shulka's son had been killed, he did not speak, but sighed softly, reached out and patted him gently on the other party's shoulder twice to show comfort.
Shulka turned his head and looked at the two neighbors sitting next to him and said to Vasily: "Comrade Sergeant, their sons are both sacrificed in Kharkov. The rest of the people in our building have relatives at the hands of the Germans at home, so we have to pay back the blood debt from the Germans."
Although Vasily was the supreme commander here, he was also an absolute recruit and could not say anything of good quality to boost morale. However, facing the experience of the residents in the building, he still said with a serious expression: "Comrades, we must attack the invaders here and avenge our dead relatives!"
"Comrade Sergeant," as soon as Vasily finished speaking, a middle-aged woman wearing a turban said to him: "I have relatives who have died in the hands of the Germans. Please send me a gun, and I want to avenge them!"
Vasily knew very well that it was very difficult for the twenty soldiers under his command to guard this building. But if we could get the help of the residents in the building, we would have more capital to deal with the German army. Thinking of this, he said to the residents sitting in the corner: "Comrades, although we have fewer people, as long as we unite, I believe that it is still possible to keep here."
Everyone can shout slogans, but to stick to this building, there are many things needed: ammunition, food and water are indispensable. After counting, ammunition and food can support them for two days; but the kettles carried by the soldiers were almost empty.
Seeing that Vasily was at a loss for water, Shulka hurriedly said to him: "Comrade Sergeant, don't worry about water, we have a way to solve it."
When Vasily heard that Shulka could solve the problem of water, he suddenly felt his eyes lit up and asked quickly: "Comrade Shulka, I don't know where to find the water source?" According to Vasily's idea, Shulka might have suggested that he send someone to the Volga River east to get water.
Shulka found a wooden stick and drew a simple picture of Vasily on the ground, explaining: "Comrade Sergeant, there is a sewer on the ground floor of Unit 2, which leads directly to the flour mill. Although the flour mill has been severely damaged, we can get drinking water from the canteen and a lot of flour."
Vasily thought that he could only find water in the flour mill, but there was still a lot of flour. He couldn't help but think in his heart: As long as there is enough food and drinking water, he can hold on here for a longer time. He hurriedly asked, "Comrade Shulka, can you serve as a guide for us and go to the flour mill to get water and flour?"
Unexpectedly, after hearing this, Shulka shook his head and said, "I'm sorry, Comrade Sergeant, I can't take you there. You don't need to worry about this kind of thing."
Hearing Shulka say this, Vasily felt dissatisfied with him, and he asked with some displeasure: "Comrade Shulka, why can't we go?"
"Comrade Sergeant, I think you should stay here to fight the Germans." Shulka said this, turning his head and looking at the women and children sitting in the corner, adding: "Let's leave the work of getting flour and water in the flour mill to us to complete."
"How can that work?" Vasily said apologetically after knowing that he had blamed Shulka by mistake: "How can you take the risk? What if you encounter a German in a flour mill?"
Shulka patted the rifle that was holding in his arms with his hands and said confidently: "Don't worry, Comrade Sergeant, even if we meet a German, as long as we have a gun in our hands, we will be afraid of nothing."
"That's right, right." The other two middle-aged men agreed: "We are all workers in flour mills and are familiar with the terrain. Even if we meet Germans, we can rely on the terrain to deal with them. There will be no danger. Comrade Sergeant, don't worry."
After Shulka and five other strong middle-aged women set out in a team, the deputy squad leader walked to Vasily and said to him: "Comrade Sergeant, can I give you a suggestion?"
Vasily nodded quickly and said casually: "Comrade Corporal, please give me any suggestions."
"Comrade Sergeant, you also know that this building has three units." The deputy squad leader said to Vasily: "When we go from one unit to another, we have to go out of the building. It doesn't matter normally. If the building is surrounded by the German army, we may become the target of the enemy when we go out like this."
After reminding the deputy squad leader, Vasily immediately realized his negligence and quickly said to the deputy squad leader: "Comrade Corporal, you are right. If you want to defend this building, you must turn all three units into a whole. You immediately organize people and drill through the walls so that our soldiers can go from one unit to another without leaving the unit door."
Just as the soldiers were digging holes in the wall with their carry-on tools, a soldier standing by the window monitoring the movements outside suddenly shouted in a low voice to Vasily: "Comrade Sergeant, a few people are coming to us."
When he heard that someone was coming to the building where he was, Vasily asked alertly: "Is it German?"
The soldier looked at it for a moment, shook his head and replied, "It's not a German, it seems like we are our own."
"I understand," Vasily said to the warriors, "continue to observe, I go downstairs to see who is coming. By the way, you ask the corporals and the others to prepare for battle, and once they find something wrong, they will fire immediately."
Vasily came to the bottom floor, hid behind a window without window frames, and looked at the five or six soldiers who were carefully approaching the building with a vigilant look. With the help of the bright moonlight, he saw clearly that the person who came was wearing a Soviet uniform, but he did not jump out immediately to say hello to the other party, but continued to remain in a hidden state.
When the people were only ten meters away from the building, he suddenly shouted outside: "Stop, no one is allowed to move!"
Hearing Vasily's shouts, the soldiers who were carefully approaching the building fell to the ground. Then a voice came: "Who is the building?"
When Vasily heard the man speaks Russian in a straightforward manner, he hid behind the window and replied, "I am from the 73rd Infantry Brigade, which part of you are?"
After Vasily asked, the other party was silent for a long time before the initial voice rang again: "We are also from the 73rd Infantry Brigade, which battalion are you from?"
"Guard Company!" Vasily was overjoyed when he heard that the other party and he were from the same unit, but to be cautious, he continued to ask, "Where are you?"
"We are from the reconnaissance company." After the other party answered, he continued to ask: "Which platoon do you belong to the Guard Company?"
"I'm from the sniper team."
As soon as Vasily finished speaking, he stood up and asked tentatively, "Are you Sergeant Vasily?"
Seeing that the other party called out his name accurately, although Vasily did not know him, he also confirmed that the other party must have come from the reconnaissance company. He walked to the window and said to the outside: "That's right, I'm Vasily, come here."
After the soldiers from the reconnaissance company entered the building, a corporal who led the lead immediately stepped forward and shook hands with Vasily and said, "Hello, comrade Sergeant, I am Corporal Vostri, I was ordered to come here to find Captain Krimov and the guard platoon. I really didn't expect to meet you here."
Vasily shook hands with the other party and said, "Corporal Wostery, thank you for your hard work. I was about to send someone back to contact the brigade, but I didn't expect you to come first."
Vostri said, "Comrade Sergeant, if I don't understand it wrong, are you not going to go back to Mamayev's hill?"
"That's right, Corporal Wostery." Vasily gave the other party a positive answer, and then said: "I found that the geographical location of this building is very favorable. If we can hold on here, we can pose a threat to the German operations."
"Comrade Sergeant," Worst asked expressionlessly, "Can I ask, how many people are there in your men?"
"Even me, there are twenty people in the class." Vasily replied, "I just armed the residents of the building, which means that our combatants have 23."
"Comrade Sergeant, please be honest." Vostri said bluntly: "It is far from enough to stick to such a building, just relying on you, and you do not have enough ammunition and food. How long can you stay here is still a big problem."
"Corporal Wostery," Vasily knew that the other party said this, and he was definitely not aimless, so he asked politely: "Do you have any good suggestions?"
Vostri, nodding, continued, "I can send a telegram to the brigade department to report your situation to your superiors, and ask them to send reinforcements and replenish us the necessary supplies."
Chapter completed!