Burning Moscow

Chapter 18: So That’s How It Is

Chapter 17: So That’s How It Is The morning meeting was held under my chairmanship at the battalion headquarters on the high ground, in the very room where I’d reported to Captain Xiang and the others on my first visit to the high ground. I remember thinking the room felt rather cramped the last time I was here, but now, with a dozen or so people sitting here for the meeting, it didn’t feel crowded at all. Among the attendees, aside from Captain Pastukhov, the rest of the company and platoon-level officers—myself included—held the ranks of second lieutenant or first lieutenant. If an uninformed outsider had walked in at that moment, he would surely have taken me for the highest-ranking officer present. The agenda was to discuss the construction of defensive fortifications on the high ground. Before the meeting began, a lieutenant from the Marine Company tentatively asked if he could smoke. Without a second thought, I nodded in agreement. Unexpectedly, once he set the example, the other attendees didn’t want to be left behind and began pulling cigarettes from their pockets one after another. Within five minutes, the small shelter was shrouded in a cloud of smoke, making me cough repeatedly. Since I had initially given permission for smoking, I had no choice but to grin and bear it, finding my own way to cope with the situation. The captain and several other experienced officers calculated how much steel plate, T-beams, pipes, cement, and manpower would be required to build new defensive works on the high ground. The results were discouraging: given the current situation, many factories had halted production, and they couldn’t even guarantee a third of the required materials. Moreover, constructing the fortifications would require at least four or five hundred experienced personnel, whereas the total number of men on my hilltop was currently less than three hundred. I couldn’t contribute anything to their discussion, so I wisely chose to remain silent. As the commander-in-chief, all I could do was wait for them to reach a final conclusion and then exercise my authority to make a decision. Halfway through the meeting, the phone suddenly rang, and the entire bunker fell silent. The captain grabbed the receiver and said in a booming voice, “Hello, this is Captain Pastukhov.” I was very close to the phone and could clearly hear the voice coming through the receiver: “Comrade Captain, Sergeant Luzhkov at the forward observation post reports that a German unit is approaching our positions under a white flag.” “What?!” The captain was clearly stunned by the news; he jumped up from his seat and shouted into the receiver: “Sergeant, do you know what you’re saying? “That’s impossible!” After saying this, he sat back down, fell silent for a moment, then immediately declared in a tone that brooked no argument: “Nonsense! Either you’re seeing things, or a spy has slipped this information to you.” I had heard the other side’s words and was also extremely surprised and puzzled: What on earth were the German troops down the mountain up to? Although their attacks had been repelled by us multiple times, at this stage, compared to us, they still held an absolute advantage in terms of technical equipment and troop numbers. No unit would voluntarily surrender to a weaker opponent—it was simply illogical. If they were trying to persuade us to surrender, sending two people would have sufficed; there’d be no need to send an entire unit—that would be far too ostentatious. Even if anyone were thinking of surrendering, they’d be scared off by such a spectacle. I interrupted the captain before he could continue, took the phone from his hand, and said calmly to the other party, “This is Lieutenant Oshanina. Please report the situation you observed again. “The Chairman taught us: without investigation, there is no right to speak. Without a clear understanding of the specific details of the situation, I will not issue orders lightly. ”Comrade Lieutenant,“ the man on the other end replied in a panicked tone—perhaps still shaken by the captain’s earlier outburst—”A German unit is approaching our positions under a white flag. “ ”How many men are there? What kind of equipment do they have? And where are they currently positioned?" I asked, my tone still steady. “There are forty of them, carrying no weapons whatsoever. They stopped fifty meters from the front-line positions and have not advanced any further.” “All right.” Hearing this, I was certain that this German unit had come neither to surrender nor to persuade us to surrender, but with some other purpose in mind. “Comrade Sergeant, maintain your vigilance. I’ll be right over.” I hung up the phone, stood up, and said to the officers in the room with a teasing tone, “Comrades, there’s a bit of an unusual situation at the front line. A group of German devils flying white flags has come to our position. They’re currently stopped fifty meters from the front line, waiting for us to inspect them. Let’s go take a look right away and see exactly what they’re up to.” Upon hearing this news, everyone in the room froze for a moment before bursting into loud laughter. I put on my steel helmet and added, “Let’s go.” To everyone, those words sounded like a battle cry. In an instant, everyone—whether crowded inside the room or sitting on the benches—rushed toward the door. In no time at all, we reached the front lines. I immediately saw a squad of German soldiers standing not far ahead, neatly arranged in four rows of ten men each. Someone nearby whispered, “Those German devils standing over there are the perfect targets. No need for sharpshooters—even ordinary soldiers could take out several of them just by firing at them.” I frowned and turned to look at the man who had spoken, thinking to myself: How can you be so inconsiderate? Although they are the enemy, they’re coming over with a white flag. Shooting at them indiscriminately would be morally indefensible. Seeing me glaring at him with a stern expression, the man obediently shut his mouth. Since we were so close, I could see clearly without binoculars that these German soldiers were unarmed, carrying nothing but their bayonets. Just as I was about to climb out of the chest-high trench, the captain beside me grabbed my arm and kindly warned me, “Comrade Lieutenant, be careful—the enemy might have some trick up their sleeve.” Trickery?! I looked at the German soldiers standing across from us and couldn’t see anything amiss. Even if they wanted to lure all our commanders out and then wipe them out with long-range fire, using so many men as bait just didn’t make much sense. In the end, I climbed out of the trench and walked toward the Germans, stopping about twenty meters away from them. A rush of hurried footsteps came from behind me. I turned to see the captain and the officers from the earlier meeting rushing over. A German officer holding a white flag stood across from us. Seeing us step out, he raised the white flag high and came toward us, followed by a soldier wearing a peaked cap. When they were two or three meters away from us, they stopped. The soldier took a step forward, saluted Pastukhov, and then stammered in broken Russian, “Sir Captain, I salute you.” “I am no ‘sir,’” the captain replied coldly, then pointed at me. “This is our commander.” The officer looked completely bewildered at the captain’s words, while the soldier wore an expression of astonishment. Nevertheless, he saluted me again and said respectfully, “Lieutenant, I salute you.” I couldn’t help but frown. Were there really no Germans in the German army who spoke Russian well? Why had they sent someone like this? The way he spoke sounded like textbook translation—it just felt awkward no matter how you listened. “Is there something you need?” I asked, my face expressionless. “We have come to make contact with you on the orders of Field Marshal von Leeb, Commander of the Northern Army Group.” Although his Russian was still not standard, it sounded much more natural than before. “We would like to recover the bodies of our fallen soldiers. I wonder if you would grant us permission.” ” Oh, so they’re here to recover the bodies of their fallen soldiers. I thought they were coming to surrender. In yesterday’s battle, we killed at least five hundred German soldiers right in front of their positions. Even though it’s already autumn, if the bodies aren’t recovered, the decomposition could easily lead to disease. We’ve already recovered the bodies of our own fallen soldiers, and I’ve been racking my brain over what to do with the German corpses. Since they want to recover them, let them do so. “Alright,” I agreed without hesitation. “You may start by recovering the bodies in front of the positions, but your men must not cross our current line. As for the soldiers’ bodies on our positions, I’ll have them brought over here, and then you can take them all away.” “Thank you.” The German interpreter thanked me, then turned and chattered away at the officer holding the white flag. After saluting me once more, the two turned and walked toward the ranks standing across from us. “Comrade Lieutenant,” the captain beside me tugged at my sleeve and asked quietly, “Shouldn’t we first seek instructions from our superiors and respond only after receiving their approval?” “No need.” I knew all too well how slow the Russians were in getting things done. At their pace, by the time the feedback from all those requests and reports came back, the German corpses would likely already be rotting. I am now the highest-ranking commander on Nameless Hill; everything is up to me. Although the Germans have come to collect the bodies and the likelihood of renewed fighting is very low, we cannot let our guard down. Necessary precautions must still be taken. I continued to the captain, “Immediately transfer a platoon of sailors here to set up a security perimeter. If any German devils cross the line, don’t wait for orders—open fire immediately.” “Yes, sir. I’ll make the arrangements right away.” The captain listened to my orders, gave an enthusiastic reply, and turned to run back. After the two Germans returned to their ranks, the officer raised a white flag high and began waving it from side to side. Before long, I saw a long line of trucks slowly rolling out from the direction of the German positions.