Red Moscow - #2415 - Chapter 2414:

Sokov was thinking about the problem, and he didn’t notice that he kept looking at Commander Zeng and Political Commissar Tang. He made the two of them feel frightened, thinking that what he was muttering was guessed by Sokov. In fact, their guess was not wrong. Sokov could indeed understand what the two of them said. In other words, the two of them had no secrets in front of Sokov.

“Comrade General,” Political Commissar Tang stabilized his emotions and asked tentatively, “Do you have anything to say to us?”

Political Commissar Tang’s words woke Sokov out of his reverie. He discovered his gaffe and hurriedly covered it up by saying, “I was thinking about something and was lost in thought for a while. If there’s anything I’m rude about, please forgive me.” understanding.”

“Lao Suo,” Commander Zeng continued, “I plan to expand my troops in the near future. I wonder if you can give me some weapons and equipment as soon as possible?”

Hearing Commander Zeng ask this question, when Sokov was thinking about how to answer, Kortun next to him said: “Comrade Zeng, I heard that you Chinese people have a good drinking capacity, why don’t we play a game?”

As soon as Koltung’s words came out, not only Commander Zeng and Political Commissar Tang were curious, but Sokov was also interested. He couldn’t help but asked: “General Koltung, I wonder what you plan to play with Commander Zeng and the others. game?”

Kortun raised the crystal wine glass on the table: “Comrade Zeng, have you seen the wine glass in my hand? If you have a drink, we will send you a warehouse. The contents in it, whether it is weapons and equipment or military supplies, The food and medicine are all yours.”

Hearing what Colton said, Commander Zeng couldn’t help but his eyes lit up: “Comrade Commander of the Garrison, are everything you said true?”

“of course it’s true.”

After receiving Colton’s confirmation, Commander Zeng handed the wine glass in his hand to Colton and said loudly: “Pour me a drink now.”

Seeing that the two were about to start gambling, Sokov couldn’t help but frown slightly and thought: “This kind of crystal wine glass can hold two or three, and three glasses is one pound. According to Commander Zeng’s character, he will definitely think We need to build as many warehouses as possible and use the weapons and equipment inside to arm our own troops and the incoming friendly forces. But if he drinks like this, will it have any adverse effects on his body? “

Just when Sokov was about to persuade, Kortun had already filled Commander Zeng’s wine glass with wine. Commander Zeng picked up the wine glass and drank it all in one gulp. Finally, he turned the rim of the wine glass downward to signal to Colton that he had finished the wine.

Upon seeing this, Kortun picked up an empty wine glass on the table, filled it with wine and handed it to Commander Zeng. Commander Zeng was not hesitant. He took the wine glass from Kortun’s hand and drank the vodka inside again.

Sokov was worried that Commander Zeng would be harmed by drinking like this. After he finished the glass, he quickly stopped: “Stop, stop for a moment, and listen to what I have to say.”

Seeing Sokov suddenly interjecting, Commander Zeng thought he was going to regret it, so he quickly said, “General Sokov, although this is a bet between me and General Kortun, you won’t deny it, right?”

“No.” Sokov waved his hand and decided to fulfill part of the promise to Commander Zeng and others first to reassure them: “I see that you have drunk two glasses of wine, and I am going to fulfill the promise to you first. Sujiatun There are two large arsenals there that you can send people to take over immediately.”

“The arsenal in Sujiatun?” Hearing what Sokov said, Commander Zeng and Political Commissar Tang opened their eyes in surprise. They were discussing privately just now. After their garrison headquarters was established, the first thing to happen was The thing is to take over the arsenal in Sujiatun. When the troops were stationed in Sujiatun, the two of them visited it and found that the weapons inside were rich enough to equip even one division. But what they didn’t expect was that Sokov actually took the initiative to bring up the matter, leaving them at a loss of how to answer.

Seeing that the two of them were silent, Sokov guessed that they must have some concerns, so he continued: “There are two arsenals in Sujiatun. According to the warehouse list, there are 20,000 rifles, 1,000 light and heavy machine guns, and cannons of various calibers. and 156 mortars. If they are handed over to you, your firepower will be greatly enhanced, which will be helpful for future operations.”

“Lao Suo, you are so interesting.” Commander Zeng immediately gave a thumbs up after hearing Sokov’s words and said excitedly: “I immediately asked the political commissar to call the troops and asked them to take over Sujiatun overnight. arsenal.”

“Yasha,” Seeing that Commander Zeng planned to send someone to take over the arsenal in Sujiatun overnight, Sokov turned to tell Yakov who was sitting next to him: “Call General Afuning and ask him to inform Su The troops guarding the warehouse in Jiatun will hand over the warehouse to friendly comrades as soon as they arrive.”

After Sokov and Political Commissar Tang both left the banquet hall, Sokov said to Commander Zeng: “Comrade Zeng, in future wars, artillery will be the **** of war, so I suggest that you should do it as soon as possible.” You must form an artillery force of your own, thereby transforming your army from pure light infantry to a combined force of various arms.”

But Commander Zeng obviously didn’t listen to Sokov’s words, and just gave a perfunctory hum. He was thinking in his mind at the moment that the gambling between him and Koltun was not over yet, and he must drink more. Cup in order to obtain more warehouses, so he and Colton started a new round of wine competition.

When Lu Jin was pushed back to the banquet hall by the soldiers, he saw that Yakov and Political Commissar Tang were not there, but Commander Zeng was drinking one glass after another. He couldn’t help but asked Sokov curiously: “Misha, what’s going on? Why does Comrade Zeng keep drinking?”

“It’s like this, Comrade Deputy Commander.” Sokov explained to Lukin: “General Koltun made a bet with Comrade Zeng that as long as he drinks a glass of wine, he will give him a military warehouse. Well, Zeng Comrade Commander is drinking non-stop just to get more warehouses.”

“How much have you drunk?” Lu Jin asked nervously, “Will there be any problems with drinking?”

Sokov quickly counted the wine glasses in front of Commander Zeng and said to Lukin: “I’ve already drunk the seventh glass.”

“Oh my God.” Lu Jin’s expression suddenly changed when he heard what Sokov said: “Three glasses of this kind of wine are equivalent to one kilogram of wine. He drank seven glasses, which is equivalent to drinking more than two kilograms of wine. If not Stop him and let him continue drinking. It is easy to cause problems.” “Comrade Deputy Commander,” Sokov knew very well. With Commander Zeng’s upright character, it would be a waste to exchange a glass of wine for a warehouse. He will never stop drinking until he can no longer drink it. So Sokov could only shake his head and said with a wry smile: “I also want him to stop, but looking at his situation, can he really stop?”

By the time Yakov and Political Commissar Tang came back, Commander Zeng had already finished his ninth glass of wine, his whole body shook a few times, and he sat directly on the chair. Upon seeing this, Koltun quickly said: “Comrade Zeng, if you can’t drink, don’t drink. If you keep drinking like this, something will happen easily.”

Political Commissar Tang also advised Commander Zeng: “Old Zeng, you have already drank nine cups, which is a lot. Don’t drink any more, otherwise your body will be unable to bear it.”

But after hearing this, Commander Zeng waved his hands and said in a somewhat unclear voice: “It’s okay, I, I can still drink, drink so much. Corvo, keep pouring the wine, we will not go home until we are drunk today.”

“By the way, Political Commissar Tang, didn’t you just tell us how you captured Shanhaiguan?” Lu Jin knew that it would not be easy to persuade Commander Zeng, so he asked Political Commissar Tang to tell us about the meeting of the two armies. Finally, the experience of capturing Shanhaiguan was used to divert everyone’s attention and give Commander Zeng enough time to recover: “Now that I’m back, you can start telling the story.”

Seeing that everyone was interested in the process of capturing Shanhaiguan, Political Commissar Tang did not refuse and began to tell everyone how the Eighth Route Army captured Shanhaiguan with the cooperation of the Soviet army: “I just said that as the misunderstanding between the two sides was resolved, our two armies The armies were officially reunited, and then headed in the direction of Shanhaiguan.

At that time, the Japanese troops stationed in Shanhaiguan had not yet surrendered. Thousands of combat troops were distributed at various strongholds around Shanhaiguan. In addition, there were more than 2,000 civilian personnel and family members of the Japanese, and more than 7,000 puppet soldiers, policemen and puppet government officials. People huddled in the city, waiting for help.

For our army, Shanhaiguan is the throat for our army to march into the Northeast. If we use walking instead of vehicles, it will take at least half a month to twenty days to reach Shenyang; if we open the Shanhaiguan channel and solve the enemy’s obstruction along the Great Wall, we can rely on convenient land routes. And railway transportation, using modern transportation to transport personnel and materials, can reach Shenyang in one or two days. Therefore, our army negotiated with your army and decided to attack Shanhaiguan together to open up the main artery from North China to Northeast China.

At noon that day, while our coalition forces were still on their way to Shanhaiguan, Commander Zeng sent a reconnaissance staff officer and a captain from the Soviet army to take a jeep with a translator and arrived outside the south gate of Shanhaiguan. They handed over the “Ultimatum of Surrender” signed by representatives of the Eighth Route Army Commander and the Soviet Commander to the Japs guarding Shanhaiguan, ordering the Japs and puppet troops in Shanhaiguan to unconditionally surrender to the Chinese and Soviet troops at Shanhaiguan Railway Station at 2 p.m.

However, the Japanese who received the ultimatum argued that Shanhaiguan was not under the jurisdiction of the Northeast and was not the territory of the ‘Puppet Manchukuo’. Equipment should be handed over to the Kuomintang Army, not to the Soviet Army and the Eighth Route Army. At the same time, the Japanese troops defending the city hurriedly deployed to evacuate most of the troops, civilian personnel and family members still stranded in Shanhaiguan.

Since the enemy will not surrender, we can only destroy them.

At five o’clock in the afternoon, our armies established a temporary headquarters for the Chinese and Soviet armies in Weiyuan City, Shanhaiguan City, and then completed the siege on the east, south, and north sides of Shanhaiguan City. Commander Zeng ordered the 18th Regiment to attack as the main attack, with the cooperation of Soviet artillery fire, to attack the east gate tower of Linyu County, “the first gate in the world”; the 12th Regiment served as an assist, cutting off the Japanese retreat route to Shanhaiguan Railway Station on the south side, and then controlling the train. station, annihilating the enemies near the station, the Soviet army sent a small team to coordinate; the military division directly affiliated team served as a reserve team responsible for subsequent echelon attacks.

In order to protect the ancient city of Shanhaiguan and the ancient Great Wall from being damaged by war and reduce the casualties and property losses of the people in the city, the Soviet battalion commander Major Ivanov was ordered to go to the east gate of Shanhaiguan and issue an ultimatum to the Japanese and puppet troops, hoping that the Japanese and puppet troops would Be able to surrender voluntarily to avoid unnecessary casualties. However, the Japanese still used the pretext of asking for instructions from the North China Regional Japanese Command and refused to surrender to our coalition forces.

Facing the enemy’s stubbornness, the joint commands of the two armies made up their minds to attack the city with force. Around dusk, the order to launch a general attack on Shanhaiguan was officially issued. Under the cover of Soviet artillery fire, the 18th Regiment responsible for the main offensive mission used the “First Pass in the World” city wall as the main breakthrough point and surged toward the east gate wall of Shanhaiguan like a tide. The Japanese and puppet defenders were condescending and resisted frantically. The covering troops in the siege immediately adjusted their firepower and used artillery fire to block the main crenellations on the city wall and the firepower points of the Japanese and puppet troops. The Soviet army used tanks to knock open the gate of Dongluo City. Seeing that the city gate was opened, our soldiers quickly rushed into Dongluo City, occupied the commanding heights of the city at the “No. 1 Pass in the World”, threw away the Japanese plaster flag, and planted a red flag of victory.

 The Japanese and puppet troops in the city saw that the situation was over and retreated one after another. The follow-up troops of our army who attacked the city took advantage of the victory and pursued it, and soon controlled most of the area. The Japanese and puppet troops withdrew while fighting and fled to Qinhuangdao in a hurry. A Japanese squadron that served as a cover in Shanhaiguan City lost most of it after fierce street fighting. Finally, it fought stubbornly at the Bell and Drum Tower in the center of the city. However, in the face of the powerful offensive of our army, it had to surrender.

 The whole battle lasted just over two hours. At about 9 o’clock that night, the battle to liberate Shanhaiguan ended successfully. “

“What a great job.” After listening to the Tang political commissar’s story, Sokov couldn’t help but applaud. Then he raised the wine glass in his hand and said to everyone: “Comrades, for the results we have achieved fighting side by side with the Chinese army, , have a drink! Let’s do it~~!”

 “Cheers~~!”

 Perhaps hearing Political Commissar Tang talk about the battles he was proud of made Commander Zeng become energetic again. After he drank the vodka in the glass with everyone, he said to Colton: “Corvo, let’s continue!”

Seeing that Commander Zeng seemed to still be able to drink, Koltong picked up two empty wine glasses, filled them with wine, and then pushed them in front of Commander Zeng: “Comrade Zeng, plus the glass you just drank, you have already After drinking ten glasses of wine, I wonder if you can still drink these two glasses of wine?”

Commander Zeng, who was already blushing, saw the two glasses of wine pushed over by Colton and showed no sign of weakness. He said carelessly: “No problem, I’ll drink it for you.” After saying that, he reached out and grabbed the two glasses of wine. He raised his head and drank both glasses of wine as if drinking cold water.

 After drinking the two glasses of wine, he slammed the glass on the table, and then said: “I drank 12 glasses, and you have to give me 12 warehouses, so you must not break your promise.”

“Okay, no problem.” Coltun nodded and said in a positive tone: “I keep my word.”

Hearing what Kortun said, Commander Zeng had a proud smile on his face, but the next moment, he closed his eyes and fell straight back. Fortunately, Political Commissar Tang noticed that he was unsteady and kept staring at him, watching him fall backwards. He quickly reached out to support him, and with the help of other comrades, he made Commander Zeng sit on the chair.

 (End of this chapter)