In the gloomy woods, a Soviet Red Army soldier is aiming at an armored train rumbling past a railroad with a rifle in hand. His eyes were determined, and he seemed to have decided to die with his opponent.

"Don't shoot! If you shoot, we're all done!" beside him, a middle-aged Soviet Red Army soldier holding a gun whispered, "There are at least 3,000 people here, and if the Germans come over, we will die." ”

The young Soviet soldier of the Soviet Union was still holding his gun, his muzzle trembled slightly, and he had already seen the German soldier standing on the train wagon, looking at the equally young face under the steel helmet standing on the specially set lookout position on the armored train.

His heart is struggling, and he should be told that he should pull the trigger and destroy an enemy. But in the woods behind him, there was a large group of Soviet soldiers. They have been trapped here for more than ten days, unable to contact the original division headquarters, and do not know where the war is going.

These Soviet soldiers did not dare to attack the German soldiers who passed by, nor did they dare to attack the German transport lines that continued later. Because of the order to shoot the families of those who surrendered in the rear, these soldiers did not dare to surrender lightly. They just hide here and wait, waiting for their own worse and worse ending.

'We did our best, they put us on our ground, we held on until the last minute, for a few days, we didn't leave. But they left us here and retreated, without even saying hello. The middle-aged Soviet veteran said helplessly: "Comrade Stalin won't let us surrender, but now we don't even have many bullets, what can we do if we don't surrender?"

They were originally ordered to hold a nearby high ground to cover the retreat of the main forces, but in the end the Soviet troops in the whole area were in disarray, and they fled into the forest in the chaos, and a few days later gathered about 3,000 people, but most of the wounded and some deserters.

Most of the soldiers did not have guns, many were automobile, artillerymen and even civilian and political workers. They just didn't dare to surrender to the German army, and they couldn't outrun the German armored forces, so they got together in the hope that they could survive as much as possible in this situation. Unfortunately, just yesterday, the wagons brought by a few logisticians ran out of food, and now they have to go to the edge of the forest to find something to eat.

The German army is advancing too fast and encircled too much, so many areas have not been cleared, and most of the scattered Soviet troops are scattered in the rear, but recently the German army is dealing with these remaining problems, and they use troops to find large Soviet remnants, and then persuade them to surrender or eliminate them.

Eventually, the young Soviet soldier laid down his rifle and abandoned his intention to attack the armored train patrolling Germany. Several Soviet soldiers beside him breathed a sigh of relief, and everyone was glad that they had saved a life, after all, an armored train was not something that a straggler like them could handle.

"We can't go on like this forever, we have to do something to let those comrades who are far away know that we have not surrendered. While putting down the gun, the young Soviet Red Army soldier said with a frown.

It's not that he doesn't want to surrender, but because he has three younger sisters and a younger brother who are still on the plains of Ukraine, and if he lays down his arms here, then his family, those lovely brothers and sisters, will be sent to Siberia in the cold weather, where they will work until they die.

So he always wanted to find a chance to die in battle, or always wanted to have a chance to escape back to the Soviet-controlled area, but he failed several times, and people who thought the same way as him died on the road, and he was the only one who fled back to the forest.

The current Soviet-German front was so far away from here that it was impossible to escape back there on foot. He knew that the Soviet Union had lost, but he really never thought that the Soviet Union would lose so miserably.

"What else can we do? We still have ammunition when we come out on patrol, and most of the people in the camp over there don't even have weapons, and even if the attack on the Germans can succeed, it will be nothing more than being surrounded by people and killing them all. A Soviet soldier said in a wail.

Another soldier kicked the stones on the ground irritably, and said angrily: "At that time, everyone was retreating, it was a mess, and the division headquarters could not be found, who can prove that we died in battle or surrendered?"

When they heard this, everyone fell silent. Yes, at that time, the retreat was in chaos, and everyone was too busy to take care of themselves, who can prove whether these people, who had been surrounded and cut off from contact, were killed or surrendered? Since it cannot be proved and cannot be counted, how is the statement in the order that the whole family is assigned to Siberia carried out?

"Goo. The young soldier who was about to shoot swallowed a mouthful of saliva, what would happen to his family? If he is counted among the surrendered ones, won't it mean that his current insistence has been in vain?

He carried his rifle and walked back step by step, gritting his teeth and muttering as he went: "I heard that those bastards put the responsibility for the defeat on us Ukrainians in one go, and now they are going to send our families to Siberia, are we Ukrainian soldiers idiots?"

A few men followed him, pushing through the grass and heading back, walking for kilometers to find a camouflaged camp in the heart of the woods. There were even a few trucks and seven 122mm howitzers, as well as four T-26 tanks, most of which were out of ammunition and fuel.

However, when they were about to return to the camp, they saw three German helicopters passing near the camp and throwing several black packages. Frightened, they hurried to the camp, and it seemed that their camp had been discovered by the Germans, and instinctively let them rush back to save some poor companions.

Unfortunately, when they ran back to their camp out of breath, they found many Soviet soldiers cheering around what the Germans had left behind. When they got closer, they realized that they were pictures and letters of surrender.

"Kyiv is already occupied by Germany? What are you kidding?" said a soldier, frowning, looking at a photograph from Kiev, where the statue of Lenin had been torn down in the streets, and many German soldiers cheered with rifles in hand. The photo filled the faces of the surrounding Ukrainian soldiers with contradictory expressions, on the one hand, they were glad that the Russian thugs could finally get out, and on the other hand, they were afraid and worried about the strength of Germany. Who knows if the jackals will be driven away and the more ferocious tigers and leopards will come?

"They are lying! We should start a guerrilla battle behind enemy lines and defeat those German invaders!" A political officer snatched the photo from the soldier's hand, tore it up and threw it on the ground: "We should fight to the last moment for the motherland and the Soviet Union!"

"Kyiv is occupied by the Germans, our hometown has been occupied by the Germans, we have no guns, no ammunition, we don't even have anything to eat, what are we going to fight the Germans?" said an elderly veteran angrily to the political officer who was inciting people to continue to resist.

"Let's go out and surrender!" Most of the soldiers here are Ukrainian soldiers, who have not been on good terms with the Russians, and they can barely get along with each other under the pressure of high-pressure policies before, and now that they know that their hometown has been occupied by the Germans, they are not going to give the Russians who supervise them a good face.

"Yes, whoever likes to fight, continue to fight, and we will go out and surrender!" I have seen the photos, and many people have seen the Germans' letter of surrender. At least most of the people believed what the Germans said in the letter. After all, what people dropped was a package to persuade them to surrender, not a deadly aerial bomb.

"Whoa. The political workers drew their pistols, stared at those who had decided to surrender with their voices, and said with a grim face: "I warn you, if you dare to surrender, your families will definitely suffer the bloodiest and cruelest revenge!" Comrade Stalin will ...... them."

"Phew!" Picking up his rifle, without the slightest nonsense, the young Ukrainian soldier shot through the head of the vicious political worker: "Don't threaten us with our family! At least when I live, you don't have this power anymore!"

"Well said!" said one of the soldiers, cheering loudly, holding up his arm. Immediately after a lot of cheers, several officers of ethnic Russian nationality turned pale with fright, and crowded into the corner, not even daring to come out.

"Let's go!" "Go home!" "Let's go home!" "No more fighting! Let's go home!" almost everyone shouted, one after the other, and they walked out one after the other, walking over the clear stream, over the dense bushes, over the path between the trees, and finally to the edge of the forest.

They saw the German patrol squad, in front of a dozen stunned German patrols, they lowered their rifles one by one, dozens or hundreds of Mosin Nagant rifles were piled up like hills, and in the forest out of sight, the Soviets seemed to have no end.

After learning of the peaceful liberation of Kiev by the Germans and the release of Ukrainian and Belarusian prisoners of war, thousands of Soviet Red Army troops came out of the mountains and forests and surrendered to nearby German troops.

The Soviet soldier walked out of the forest and lowered his rifle. He walked along the road until he returned to his home on the outskirts of Kiev, where he saw his family.

At this moment, he raised his head and looked at the dazzling sunlight in the sky, and suddenly he heard the cheerful chirping of birds, and also felt the wind blowing through this moment, and he seemed to have found his life.