In the evening, Sokov received a call from Lobachev: "Is it Major Sokov? I am Lobachev."

"Hello, comrade Military Commissioner!" When he heard that the person who called him was Lobachev, Sokov suddenly had an expectation in his heart. Did Lobachev suddenly remember who Regalin was, so he made a special call to himself. He asked carefully: "What instructions do you have?"

"That's right, Major Comrade." Lobachev said with a smile: "Tonight there are a group of guerrillas from Moscow who are ready to pass your defense zone and enter the German-occupied zone. I hope you can arrange personnel and escort them through your defense zone smoothly."

"Guerrillas?" Sokov asked in confusion after hearing this: "How can there be guerrillas in Moscow?"

"These guerrillas from Moscow have been specially trained by the Intelligence Agency and have mastered some skills in fighting behind enemy lines." Lobachev explained to Sokov: "They went deep into the enemy line to use the skills they master to create trouble for the enemy, so that they could not concentrate all their strength on the front battlefield and launch an attack on our army."

“Why choose the defense zone of our brigade?”

"The reason is very simple." Lobachev said: "So far, the defense front of the entire army is only the area where your brigade is responsible for. The enemy's strength is the weakest. It is easier to penetrate the enemy's rear through the front line from you."

"I understand." Sokov nodded after hearing this and assured the other party: "I will let the guerrillas pass through the defense safely."

After putting down the phone, Sokov said to Karsokov: "Chief of Staff, the military committee member just called and said that there were a group of guerrillas going through our defense zone in the evening and asked us to arrange personnel to escort..."

Unexpectedly, before Sokov finished speaking, Karsokov continued: "I understand. I will leave this matter to Captain Zaryakin to send someone to escort the guerrillas through our defense. He is more experienced and will never make any mistakes."

Karsokov's words confused Sokov, "Captain Zaryakin has experience? Comrade Chief of Staff, what's going on?"

Faced with Sokov's confusion, Karsokov answered his questions: "Actually, during the time you went to Moscow, your superiors asked us to escort two groups of guerrillas through the defense zone and go deep into the enemy's rear. The person in charge of this matter was Captain Zaryakin. You also know that the special company was formed to go deep into the enemy's rear, but since the field hospital was established, their mission became a security hospital. There was nothing at the beginning, and over time, the commanders and fighters were somewhat emotional."

"Oh, the commanders and soldiers of the Special Company are emotional?" Sokov asked with interest when he heard this: "What are their emotions?"

"They saw their comrades fighting face to face with the enemy at the forefront and establish their own merits; while they stayed in the forest every day to patrol the field hospital." Karsokov explained to Sokov: "Many soldiers were worried that their original comrades might have medals on their chests, but they had no gains."

"So that's it." After hearing Karsokov's explanation, Sokov began to wonder whether he had asked the Special Company to protect the safety of the field hospital at the beginning. Was it a bit of a waste of energy? After all, the formation of this army was for the purpose of going deep into the enemy's rear. He looked at Karsokov and said, "Chief of Staff, this is what I think. In the future, the troops responsible for protecting the safety of the field hospital will change their defenses every other month. What do you think?"

"I think that's OK." Karsokov agreed with Sokov's proposal: "In this way, those troops who have received the mission of protecting field hospitals do not have to worry about not having the chance to go to the battlefield."

At around 10 o'clock in the evening, the guerrillas who were preparing to pass the defense line came outside the brigade command in Sokov, led by a staff officer from the Army Command.

The staff officer stepped into the tent, raised his hand to salute Sokov, and said respectfully: "Hello, Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, I am the reconnaissance staff officer of the Group Army Command. I am ordered to send a group of guerrillas to you..."

"Wait a minute, comrade of staff." Sokov raised his hand to interrupt the words behind him before he could finish his reconnaissance staff, explaining awkwardly: "You just said it wrong. I am a major, not a lieutenant colonel."

"Yes, comrade Lieutenant Colonel." The reconnaissance staff said with a smile: "This time I came here, in addition to bringing the guerrillas who were going to pass the front tonight, I also brought the promotion order from the Army Command. Now, the promotion order is here, and there is also a military rank sign for you."

Sokov took the order to promote the rank and a small box, and was still shocked: "Comrade Staff, what's going on? Why did the commander suddenly think about promoting me to the rank?"

"It is said that you have made a great contribution recently." The reconnaissance staff replied politely: "So the leaders of the group army have been researched and agreed to promote you to the rank of military." Speaking of this, he took the initiative to extend his hand to Sokov, "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, please accept my congratulations and congratulate you on obtaining a higher level of military rank."

When Sokov's reconnaissance staff shook hands, Karsokov, who was standing next to him, also said with a smile: "And I, comrade brigade commander, I congratulate you on getting a higher rank."

Those who congratulate Sokov were not only Karsokov and the reconnaissance staff, but also Romanlov and Morozova.

After Morozova and Sokov shook hands and expressed their congratulations, they even opened the box, took out the military rank sign inside, and personally helped Sokov put it on the collar.

After pressing the military rank sign, Morozova took two steps back, looked Sokov up and down, and said, "Look, there are three medals on the chest of the brigade commander and three vertical bars on the collar. How harmonious it looks."

"Yes, it looks quite coordinated." Romanov echoed: "But I don't think that it will be a fourth medal on the brigade commander's chest, with four vertical strips on the collar."

Faced with the flattery of his subordinates, Sokov still felt a little embarrassed. He quickly asked the reconnaissance staff: "Comrade, where are the guerrillas? I want to meet them. Is it OK?"

"Of course." After agreeing to Sokov's request, the reconnaissance staff also made a request: "If possible, I hope you can say a few words to them."

After reaching an agreement, the two sides walked out of the tent.

Forty or fifty guerrillas in military casual uniforms stood outside, scattered around, chatting in groups of three or five.

As soon as the reconnaissance staff walked out of the tent, they whispered to the guerrillas: "Comrades of the guerrillas, please come here, Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, the commander of the Infantry Brigade, I want to say a few words to you."

Hearing the reconnaissance staff's greetings, the guerrillas stopped talking and came to Sokov and the reconnaissance staff.

"Who is the leader of this group of guerrillas?"

The reconnaissance officer brought Sokov to a middle-aged man and said, "This is Comrade Storepin, the person in charge. He was a workshop director of the Moscow Machinery Factory before the war."

"Hello, Comrade Storepin." Sokov extended his hand to the other party and asked friendly, "How many people do you have this time?"

"There are 48 people in total, including 16 female guerrillas."

"The number of people is really quite large." Sokov asked casually: "After entering the German-occupied area, do you plan to concentrate or disperse it?"

"Of course it's a dispersed operation." Storepin replied: "After entering the German-occupied area, we will divide into several operation groups and go to different areas to carry out sabotage tasks."

After chatting with Stolepin for a few words, Sokov took the initiative to say, "Can you introduce your team members to me?"

"Of course, of course." Seeing that Sokov wanted to know his team members, Storepin naturally wanted to do so, and quickly began to introduce to Sokov: "This is Comrade Ushtin, who was a fitter in the factory not long ago; this is Klubkov, an employee of a company..."

When he heard the name Klubkov, Sokov's eyebrows couldn't help but tilt up. He vaguely remembered where he had heard the name, but he couldn't remember it in a hurry. Fortunately, he said that he wanted to know these guerrillas was just out of politeness, so whether he could remember each person's name and appearance was not a key question.

Soon, Storepin brought Sokov to several female guerrillas. From the slightly tender faces of these female guerrillas, it can be seen that they are not old, including tenth-grade students and freshmen.

When Storepin introduced four or five female guerrillas to Sokov, Sokov heard an extremely familiar voice: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, this is Zhuoya..."

What Stolepin said later, Sokov didn't listen at all. He was concentrating on looking at the future heroine who was famous in history in front of him.

Zhuoya has a typical Slavic girl's face, soft cheekbones and clear contours of the jaw. Her nose bridge is straight but not too sharp, her nose tip is slightly upturned, with an unfading childish spirit. Her dark brown short hair is firmly tied to the left, revealing her full forehead. She is about 160 yuan tall and looks a little thin. She is wearing a men's cotton military uniform that is not very fit, and her cuffs are exposed due to wear.

Seeing Sokov staring at him constantly, Zhuoya seemed a little embarrassed and asked quickly: "Mr. Lieutenant Colonel, have you seen me before?"

"No, I haven't seen it before." Sokov heard Zhuoya ask himself, and quickly covered it up: "I just think that you and my lost sister are somewhat similar, so I couldn't help but take a few more glances."

Sokov's far-fetched reason made Zhuoya believe it. She asked curiously: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, where is your sister now?"

"The last time I saw her was in Mogilev." Sokov couldn't help but feel scared when he thought of what happened in the prisoner-of-war camp. If it was a trivial matter, it would be a trivial matter to save Yakov, and it would be too unfair to trap himself in.

"Didn't Mogilev fall into the hands of the Germans long ago? Why didn't your sister withdraw in time?"

"I don't know much about the specific situation." Sokov didn't want to get involved in this issue, so as not to accidentally say the wrong thing, and quickly changed the topic: "By the way, Zhuoya, is this your first time in the enemy's back?"

"Yes, comrade Lieutenant Colonel, this is my first time to go to the enemy's back." Zhuoya asked back: "Have you been to the enemy's back?"

Before Sokov could answer, Romanlov, who followed him, took the initiative to say: "Although our brigade commander is now in charge of thousands of people, he has led his troops deep into the enemy's backbone to fight many times. Just two days ago, he took his troops to the German-occupied area, took down a German material transfer station, and seized a large number of weapons, ammunition and supplies."

The guerrillas standing around, when they heard what Romanlov said, all looked at Sokov with admiration. As a guerrilla soldier with special training, their instructors had long told them about how dangerous it was behind enemy lines. As a brigade commander, Sokov personally led people deep into the enemy lines to fight, and he was naturally a respectable person.

“Will you feel scared?”

When Zhuoya heard Sokov's question, he was silent for a moment, and then replied with a firm expression: "Don't be afraid!"

"Can you use weapons?" Sokov asked.

Zhuoya nodded and replied in a positive tone: "Of course, we have learned a lot of weapons."

Sokov took out a Walter P38 pistol from his pocket, which was seized from the German tanker during the day. He handed it to Zhuoya: "This is a Walter P38 pistol, which uses 9×19 mm Ruger pistol bullets and is equipped with 8 rounds single-row magazines to supply the ammunition. The gun has excellent performance and strong reliability. It was seized from a German tanker. Now I will give this gun to you."

Facing the pistol handed over by Sokov, Zhuoya instinctively reached out to take it. But before she could touch the gun, she shrank her hand back and said embarrassedly: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, isn't this good?"

"There's nothing wrong." Sokov put the pistol into Zhuoya's hand without saying a word and continued, "You are about to go to the German-occupied area, take this gun to defend yourself, and try to eliminate more Germans." He knew very well that he did not have the ability to change Zhuoya's fate, but if he gave her this pistol, maybe she could kill a few more Germans.

Zhuoya held the pistol that Sokov stuffed over and looked around. Although she didn't say anything, Sokov still saw her embarrassment from her expression, and quickly continued: "Didn't I just tell you that you and my sister look a bit similar? This gun is just regarded as a gift from my brother to my sister, so don't be embarrassed." Then, he turned his head and asked Stolepin beside him, "Comrade Stolepin, am I right?"

"That's right, of course it's right." Storepin quickly helped Sokov persuade Zhuo Ya: "Zhuo Ya, since it's the kindness of comrade lieutenant colonel, you can accept it."

Hearing the commander leading the team say this, Zhuoya couldn't say anything else. She inserted the pistol on the belt around her waist and then bowed to Sokov to express her gratitude: "Thank you, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel. I will definitely use the pistol you gave me to eliminate a few more enemies."
Chapter completed!