Chapter 259
Yuri's jeep stopped outside a three-story building on the street. Arseni opened the door for him. When Yuri got out of the car, he looked up and glanced at the building.
The small building was built completely in the old Polish style and should be quite old. At this moment, several internal security soldiers wearing blue trousers were led by two young men in plain clothes into the building. Judging from their conversation, they should all be Poles. These soldiers should be members of the Military Committee of the Polish Ninth Army.
Since the victorious liberation of Warsaw, the Polish National Liberation Committee established a provisional government. At the same time, they quickly established the 5th Army based on the original Polish 1st and 2nd Army. Of course, these so-called armies only supplemented the manpower and weapons and equipment, but the soldiers had not received qualified training and their combat effectiveness was almost non-existent.
Despite this, these army groups were dispersed and deployed to various cities in the Soviet-occupied areas. Along with these troops, a large number of political workers were also sent out. Their main responsibility was to purge "Polish traitors."
In the cities of the Polish liberated areas, this movement aimed at eliminating the remnants of German fascism and purging traitors and traitors is being launched in an all-round way. Initially, the targets of the purge were those Poles who followed the Germans, but now even those who provided services to them during the German occupation have become targets of purge.
This purge was extremely cruel. All the women who had worked for the Germans, whether as clerks, nurses, cashiers, or even as nannies or maids in the homes of German officers, would be pulled out, stripped naked, have their heads shaved, and paraded through the streets.
Yuri was very but he also knew who was behind it, so he remained silent from beginning to end.
Yuri does not sympathize with those "traitors" or those traitors, but to be fair, many of the people who were caught in this movement were actually very innocent. Faced with current events, most people actually have no choice but to go with the flow. Who would be willing to work for the invaders? But people always have to eat and survive. When there is no other way out, what else can they choose but to go out to work?
Yuri frowned as he watched the people in blue pants rush into the building. He said nothing. He stepped out from the side of the car, put his hands behind his back, walked up the steps in front of the building step by step, and walked in through the antique-looking double-door.
Entering the building, there is a hall inside. A spiral building leads directly to the second floor from the right. From the sound of footsteps, it is obvious that they have reached the upper floor.
The floor of the hall was covered with carpet, and it was obvious that this family's conditions should be very good. Yuri stood in the middle of the hall and looked around. The guards who came in with him began to check each room one by one - his guards did not dare to take Yuri's safety lightly, otherwise, if something went wrong, none of them would have a good life.
Just as the guards were checking around, they heard women and children screaming and crying upstairs, and occasionally there were men yelling and cursing, as if there was a conflict.
After a while, the men in blue pants appeared on the second floor platform, pushing four or five people. These four or five people were obviously a family, two boys, two girls, and a little girl who looked no more than seven or eight years old.
The blue pants drove the family down from the second floor and saw Yuri standing in the middle of the hall with his hands behind his back. Several people were stunned for a moment, and then a sergeant stood up, saluted and said loudly: "Comrade General!"
"Well, what's going on?" Yuri looked at the family who were driven down and asked expressionlessly.
"Someone reported that this family worked for the Germans during the fascist occupation," the sergeant shouted.
"Oh, what kind of work do you do?" Yuri looked at the pale-faced family again, hesitated for a moment, and asked.
"The postman," the Master said, "and this woman..."
He pointed to the young woman in the family and said, "She has been translating for the Germans for two years."
"Is that all?" Yuri stepped forward, walked in front of the sergeant and asked.
"Oh, Comrade General, these are the only problems we have discovered so far," the sergeant said hesitantly.
"In that case, let them stay for now," Yuri nodded and said, "I'm going to stay here for a day and I need someone to do the work here."
The master showed an embarrassment on his face and opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something.
"Do you need me to call Comrade Bulganin?" Yuri looked at the sergeant and asked in a deep voice.
"Ah? Yes! Ah, no!" The sergeant was shocked. Of course he knew who Bulganin was. He was the leader of his leader's leader... a leader of who knows how many levels higher than him. Such a trivial matter should certainly not be brought to his attention.
"Well, Comrade General, we won't bother you anymore," the sergeant stuttered for a long time and finally adjusted his mood. He saluted again, then turned around and said goodbye, leaving the building with a group of men in blue trousers.
After watching the group of blue pants of the internal security forces go out, Yuri turned his head to look at the shivering family. After a moment's silence, he said, "Okay, they won't bother you for the time being. I'm Yuri, passing by here. I need to disturb you today. Please prepare a room for me. I need to rest for a while."
After he finished saying this, he found that the whole family in front of him were staring at him blankly, without any reaction at all.
Yuri then remembered that this family were all Polish and probably didn't understand Russian.
Turning around, Yuri winked at Arseny, asking him to negotiate with the family, while he walked to a corner of the hall to look at an oil painting hanging on the wall.
Arseniy didn't understand Polish either, but it didn't matter, because there were guards under his command who knew Polish.
The guards were quickly called over and assigned to negotiate with the family. When they learned that the general was planning to stay at their home for one night, the head of the family, the old man who looked a little old, nodded repeatedly and made gestures with a fearful look on his face, as if inviting Yuri to go upstairs.
On the third floor, a sunny bedroom was quickly cleaned up, and the bedding on the double bed in the bedroom was replaced with new ones. The hostess also specially brought over a plate of fruit. Just looking at the apples with wilted skin, you could tell that these fruits had been hidden by the family for who knows how long, and probably no one was willing to eat them.
At the south-facing window of the bedroom, Yuri stood there with a cigarette in his mouth, looking out of the open window, overlooking the street below.
Even on this not-so-wide street, there were already crowds of people, and the noisy voices were deafening even on the third floor.
The crowd stretched from the east end to the west end of the street. Dozens of ragged men and women were caught in the crowd. Several of them had their heads broken and their heads and faces were covered with blood.
These people were all shaved bald, but the barber's skills were obviously not very good. The hair was shaved as if it had been chewed by a dog, with clumps of hair here and there. It was as ugly as it could be.
Even though it was like this, these people who were being humiliated were not let off. Someone rushed out from the crowd and splashed ink-like liquid on them, making them look even more embarrassed.
There is no doubt that these dozens of people are the so-called "Polish traitors" and traitors in the small town. Not long ago, those who were either nervous or indifferent to the Soviet army's entry into the city suddenly became patriots. Facing these "Polish traitors", they were full of righteous indignation, as if they would not show their hatred of evil unless they beat these "Polish traitors" a few times.
Watching the farce downstairs, Yuri shook his head in disgust. He knew that the people shouting downstairs were not necessarily patriotic. They did not even know the people parading in the streets, and the so-called "Polish traitors" did not necessarily do anything bad. The hatred at this time may not come from hatred itself, but probably mostly from jealousy, because these people had worked for the Germans, and their lives during the war were more comfortable than those of ordinary people. Therefore, it was this jealousy that triggered hatred and eventually led to the farce at the moment.
Not interested in continuing to watch this ugly farce, Yuri reached out to close the window, walked to the bed, and without even taking off his coat, he just lay down on the bed.
At this moment, his mind was thinking about the battle in Poznan.
Today, Poznan is a powder keg. It is not a very big city. Tens of thousands of German troops are surrounded in it, including the Soviet army's old enemy, the remnants of the German 9th Tank Army that once wreaked havoc in the early days of the Soviet-German War. Not long ago, this elite German army was defeated by the 9th Guards Tank Army on the Vistula River line and was forced to retreat to Poznan for rest, where it was surrounded by the rapidly advancing Soviet army.
Comrade Stalin once issued an order requiring a policy of not allowing surrender to several German units, which must be completely annihilated. This included the 9th Tank Army, because of the huge damage this unit inflicted on the Soviet army in the first two years of the war.
Encircling and annihilating the German troops in Poznan is naturally what the Soviet army must do, but it is not the top priority at the moment. In Yuri's conception, the Soviet army's top priority at the moment is to advance westward quickly, try to force a crossing of the Oder River while moving, and completely break through the last line of defense outside Berlin.
In addition, the 2nd Belorussian Front should also speed up its previous advance, because in the Pomerania region, the German army was gathering troops, and its purpose should be to launch an offensive to the south from the region in an attempt to cut off the Soviet army's retreat.
…
Konin, a small town on the south bank of the Warta River.
It was early in the morning when the rumbling sound of tanks woke the quiet town from its slumber. Citizens carefully opened the windows and looked from the attic in the direction where the sound came from.
Everyone's face was filled with fear. Some smart people had three national flags ready in their hands: a red and white flag, which was the former flag of the Second Polish Republic and was still used by the Polish National Army; a German swastika flag; and a Soviet flag with a hammer and sickle.
Small people always have some small people's cunning. Years of war have given these ordinary Poles some wisdom in observing the situation. They know that the army that can enter this small town comes from these three aspects, so there is always one side that is suitable.
A short time later, the first tank appeared on the gravel street. The sides of the tank's turret were decorated with branches full of leaves, and on the front barrel was a man in a German SS uniform. The unfortunate SS soldier was tied up like a dumpling, and on his bloody neck was a large wooden sign that was an inch thick, with the word "executioner" written in Russian.
The tank turned from the end of the street and stopped at the intersection for a few minutes. Then, its tracks started rolling, it turned half a circle on the spot and drove towards the west side of the street.
Soon after, another tank appeared at the intersection, and then another, and another...
A total of 12 tanks appeared on the street and finally disappeared at the west end of the street. They should have left the city.
But before the people in the small town could breathe a sigh of relief, another wave of cavalry appeared on the streets. They galloped past the tanks, and then motorcycles, trucks and other vehicles appeared on the streets.
The streets gradually became lively, mainly because some of the infantrymen who came later did not leave immediately. They stopped on the street and began to knock on doors. What made people feel relieved was that there were many Polish boys among these infantrymen. They said they would search the whole town to see if there were any Germans left here.
When Yuri appeared on the streets of the small town in a jeep, the whole town was already in chaos. It took a day and a night to drive from Warsaw to Konin, a distance of nearly 250 kilometers. Yuri was really tired. He just wanted to find a place to have a good sleep, eat something, drink some hot soup, and then set off for Poznan.
In Poznan, the Soviet army had surrounded this important town and tens of thousands of German troops were trapped inside. They were the last defensive force before the Soviet army entered the German mainland.
