I suddenly found that there are so many rewards, thank you brothers for cheering!

********

Until he returned to the trench, Shulka had not been able to recover from the mental struggle just now, and he squatted in the trench in a daze, silently holding his gun in a daze.

"Hey, Shulka...... Shulka? ”

"Oh!" It was only at Okunev's shouts that Shulka came to his senses.

"Tell me!" Okunev couldn't wait to ask: "Is there anything good?" ”

"Oh yes!" Shulka replied: "I'm the class leader!" ”

"Squad leader? Are you the class leader? Okunev's eyes widened, and several Soviet soldiers around him turned their heads to look in this direction in unison.

"Yes!" Shulka nodded.

"Great!" Okunev immediately stood up, and then stood up and saluted Shulka: "Comrade squad leader, wait for your order!" ”

Then Okunev waved to the side again and said, "Hey, you all heard? Shulka is our class president! ”

There was some reluctance on the faces of the soldiers, which may have something to do with Shulka's previous reputation.

Or maybe they thought Shulka was just a lucky getaway.

Especially the bespectacled soldier, with his cheeks sunken, his nose as protruding as an eagle's beak, and a pair of glasses as thick as the bottom of a beer bottle resting on it, sometimes Shulka wondered how he could have become a soldier.

However, the Red Star medal hanging from his left chest shows that he is a veteran and has made meritorious contributions.

"Sorry, we haven't received orders yet!" The veteran replied coldly.

"Matvey!" Okunev said dissatisfiedly: "What kind of attitude do you have? Can you say anything like that, or would you like the Major to come and tell you personally? ”

"I'm still saying that, Okunev!" Matvey replied: "We did not receive an order!" ”

As he spoke, Matvey wiped the rifle in his hand, and Shulka noticed that he could easily put the rifle together without even looking down.

At this time, an officer with his boots came over and shouted in this direction: "First squad, from now on Shulka will be your squad leader!" ”

Then the officer bowed his head to Shulkayan again: "I'll keep an eye on you, Shulka, you'd better let each of them blow up a tank like you, or else they'll kick you to Siberia!" ”

"Yes, sir!" Shulka replied.

Later Shulka learned that the officer, who always spoke with a bit of a joke, was his immediate superior, the second platoon commander Pukarev.

"Comrade squad leader!"

"Comrade squad leader!"

……

Several Soviet soldiers reluctantly came up and saluted Shulka one by one.

"Comrade Matvey!" Shulka stopped the veteran who was about to leave.

"Do you have any orders, Comrade Squad Leader?" Although Matvey replied like this, his eyes were full of disdain, and even a little banter.

"Your Order of the Red Star!" Shulka raised his head at Matvey's left chest with an envious expression and asked, "Can you tell me the story of it?" ”

Shulka didn't really want to hear the story.

But there was no way, he knew that if he wanted these subordinates to be obedient, the first thing he wanted to do was to have a good relationship with these veterans, because veterans have a certain prestige in the army, they don't need military ranks or positions, and soldiers will spontaneously favor them...... They have combat experience that no one else has.

When Shulka asked this, Matvey was a little embarrassed.

"Well, that's nothing, Comrade Squad Leader!" Matvey replied: "It was the Winter War, and while I was standing guard, I discovered the enemy's night attack, which saved our army from losses!" (Note: The Soviets called the Soviet-Finnish War the Winter War)

"Wow, you've been in the Winter War!" Shulka showed interest, moving a little away to signal Matvey to sit down, and he even gathered a few soldiers from his squad in a circle.

"I think we should hear about Comrade Matvey's combat experience!" Shulka said: "Because it is likely to appear on the battlefield in the future, and then this experience will save our lives!" ”

The soldiers agreed, unbeknownst to Shulka, who was actually using Matvey to get them to obey him.

"That battle must have been tough, wasn't it?" Shulka asked.

"Yes!" Mavit nodded, and after a moment of silence, he entered the memory: "We thought that the war would end soon, that it would take only a few days for the Finns to surrender to us...... But that's not the case. They did not fight us face to face, but attacked with small forces when we were not looking, and we suffered heavy casualties! ”

"It doesn't seem to be the same as the Germans!"

"Of course!" "The Germans are much more difficult to deal with than the Finns!" ”

At this point, Mavit stopped talking.

Everyone understood what Mavit meant: if the Finns inflicted heavy Soviet casualties, then the Germans, who were much more difficult to deal with than the Finns......

This hit the soft underbelly hidden in the hearts of the soldiers, and everyone was more or less thinking about one question: will they be able to go back alive?

"Don't worry!" Okunev said: "Tomorrow, tomorrow our troops will come back and get us out!" Isn't it, Shulka? ”

"Oh, yes...... Yes! Shulka replied: "Tomorrow, hold on until tomorrow!" ”

This is not the truth, but Shulka was ordered not to tell the truth.

The reason is simple, if the soldiers knew the truth, that is, the fortress was already surrounded, the Germans had already hit Slutsk and even Minsk soon, and there would be no reinforcements to save them, many soldiers would have collapsed.

This is understandable, and at the same time Shulka also believes that this approach is correct, after all, the vast majority of Soviet troops in the fortress are new recruits, and they simply do not have much psychological capacity.

But at the same time, Shulka knows that this is not a long-term solution, and if it drags on day by day, there will always be a day when the stuffing will be exposed.

Matvey seemed to read something in Shulka's expression, but he didn't say anything.

This is a relief for Shulka, because Matvey is already cooperating with himself, which shows that what Shulka has just done is not in vain.

As night fell, there was a sudden silence all around, and the Germans seemed to need a break after a long day of intense offensive, so they stopped the offensive.

But that doesn't mean they're going to let the fortress go like that.

What does the future hold? Shulka didn't know.

He only knew that despite the fact that Major Gavrilov had already interrogated the captives about the situation in the fortress...... From this point of view, it is imperative to break out.

However, it does not matter what Major Gavrilov believes, what matters is the attitude of the instructor.