USSR 1941

  Chapter 45 Chocolate

   "Follow the footsteps ahead!" Major Gavrilov ordered loudly: "Don't try to leave the ranks or take a new path!"

   This is of course correct. No one dares to be careless in the swamp, even the soldiers walking through the swamp ahead. They have to use wooden sticks to test carefully before taking a step.

   "Hey, Shulka!" At some point, Agata walked behind Shulka.

   "I heard that the gas mask worked?" Agata asked, "You saved us with it?"

   "You don't need to thank me, Agata!" Shulka replied as he followed the steps ahead cautiously: "I'm saving myself too!"

   "That's right!" Agata replied, "So you better be careful!"

   "What?" Shulka didn't understand what he meant.

  Agata laughed and explained: "Because only you are alive, you can save yourself and others at the same time!"

  Shuerka couldn't help but rolled his eyes. He had never seen anyone talk in such a jumping way. No wonder women are born to be good at chatting.

  The sky gradually brightened, a ray of sunlight emerged from the end of the swamp, and then suddenly the whole sun appeared in front of everyone, illuminating the originally dark swamp.

  This is Shulka’s first time in the swamp... No one likes this kind of experience, even if it is a desert, some people want to feel the endless sand sea.

But the swamp, it's like shrinking people down and throwing them into a stinky ditch, there's sewage everywhere, there's an unpleasant rotten smell in the air, flies, mosquitoes, and many unknown and disgusting things Reptiles, they will drive you crazy.

   Later Shulka learned that some reptiles are not only disgusting, but also dangerous.

   Not long after, another order came down from the front: "Don't drink the water in the swamp!"

   "These are dirty water!" Agata explained: "Some look clean, but after drinking you will get sick, diarrhea, fever or other diseases. Then you don't want to go out from here!"

   "So how do we solve the problem of drinking water?" Shure shook the water bottle that was only half left, which meant that he would use the half bottle of water to get through the day.

   "It's time to rest!" Agata said, "Boil the water and drink it!"

   "How do you know this?" Shulka asked.

   "My hometown is in Slutsk!" Agata replied: "It's on the edge of this swamp..."

   Saying that, Agata straightened up and looked into the distance, pointing in a direction and saying, "There, at the end of the swamp!"

   "Oh!" Shulka replied: "Maybe we will pass by your house again!"

  Agata couldn't help being taken aback when he heard the words, and then replied: "I discovered your weakness, Shulka!"

"What?"

  Agata smiled and said nothing.

   Later Shulka looked at the map and found out that Slutsk was in the northeast of the swamp, but their destination was in the southeast.

  Damn sense of direction!

  One of the troubles brought by the dawn is that the surrounding area gradually heats up. The scorching sun shines on the swamp to evaporate the water, and soon the surrounding area is full of water vapor.

  This is another danger of the swamp... The germs in the dirty water will be evaporated into the water vapor and permeate the air, and then inhaled into the lungs through breathing, and then people who walk in it will get some inexplicable diseases.

  Compared to these, the German search is a bit trivial.

  The Germans once sent a plane to search over the swamp after dawn... Shulka believed that it was the plane sent by the Brest German army, because the German army at this time should not waste such important resources on searching the swamp.

  This is of no help to their war. The Soviet army entering the swamp is only 500 people. If the German planes have the time to search, they can kill or blow up 500 Soviet troops in other directions.

  So, the Germans were not reconciled to letting the Soviet army escape from Brest like this.

   But so what?

The swamp area looks like an open space, but it is actually not easy to find the people below from the air, because the infantry on the ground can also hear or even see the planes flying here from a distance, so they want to All I do is smear myself in mud and get down on the ground...

   It is actually not easy to do this, because there is often dirty water below the calf.

   But in order to avoid enemy planes, it is still worthwhile to do so, and the troops can also take a break at this time.

  Two German Junkers circled the sky a few times, found nothing and flew away.

   No more planes came to search after that, Shulka thought, this should be because the German commander realized that doing so was not a cost-effective "business".

   The most difficult thing in the swamp is at night.

   Before dark, they must find a habitat, that is, a high ground without water.

  Then, as Agata said, the cooking team began to set up pots and find all flammable things around to boil water.

Boiling water is always the most important thing, especially the Soviet army got plenty of food from the German army. The food was wrapped in tarpaulins and put in backpacks by the soldiers, because they knew that they had to rely on these things to get out of the swamp. up.

  The actor let out a satisfied admiration while gnawing on the buttered bread: "The Germans really enjoy it. It's unimaginable. This is the ration of their soldiers!"

  The actor is right. Compared with the Soviet soldiers who only had mashed potatoes and black bread with grass seeds or even mineral powder, the food of the German army was simply rare and delicious.

   "That's not surprising, Okunev!" replied the thief: "Their meal also includes honey and chocolate!"

   "Wow!" The actor showed envy and suspicion in his eyes.

   "That's impossible!" the actor said, "Chocolate? They give out chocolate to soldiers?"

  As I said before, after the Soviet Union's light industry was extremely weak, chocolate was a high-end food for them.

   "Nothing is impossible!" replied the thief.

   "How do you know?" The veteran asked, "Maybe it's just you talking nonsense..."

  But in the next second, the veteran stopped talking, because the thief had secretly thrown a small piece to a few nearby people, and then said in a low voice, "Don't let anyone see it!"

  Of course, Shulka was also involved...in fact, the thief stuffed Shulka with two pieces.

   "Where did you get this?" the veteran asked.

   "Remember when we attacked the enemy's headquarters?" The thief explained: "You only know how to check the dead body and pull out the telephone line, but you didn't find the chocolate in the drawer!"

  The soldiers couldn't help but suddenly realized... Finding good things has always been a thief's specialty, and they can't compare.

   "I forgive you!" The veteran raised the chocolate in his hand.

   "What?" The thief was a little puzzled.

   "A month ago, you stole my pen!" The veteran replied, "I'm going to beat you right as soon as I get out of this swamp!"

  (end of this chapter)