Chapter 857 Black Gun
Kirillovich's intuition let him know that something was wrong, but he didn't know what was wrong for a while.
Later Kirillovich got the news through the instructor... This is the advantage of the political commissar, the political commissar can know everything they want to know through the instructor.
The reason is that the instructors do ideological work, they can talk to the soldiers, talk about their opinions, and talk about problems.
At the same time, there are many soldiers in a unit, and there will always be a few soldiers who will either be tricked by the instructor and tell the secret, or believe the instructor, and even some will take the initiative to inform the instructor.
Therefore, almost no secrets can be hidden from the political commissar.
The political commissar Kirillovich is the same, and within a few days he got the real thoughts of the Second Infantry Battalion:
"Now is a time of peace. Of course we obey the orders of Comrade Political Commissar, but that may not be the case when war breaks out!" This is what Sokolov said to the staff.
The people of the Second Infantry Battalion understood.
At the same time, it makes sense, because the power of political commissars has been weakened. Many things are ideological and political issues in peacetime, but they are combat command issues in wartime...even sometimes there is no clear boundary between the two, and sometimes it is difficult to distinguish .
Then Sokolov added another sentence to his subordinates: "There is no war yet. If any of you want to be deserters, you should get there early. I promise I won't use lynching to hang you from a tree!"
The subordinates only let out a burst of laughter.
No one is stupid enough to desert at this time, unless the head is flooded.
The reason is very simple. If the battle has not started, there will be no pressure to die. Of course, there is no reason to be a deserter... On the battlefield, if you don’t desert, you will die. Being a deserter is just a possibility of death. Many people are willing to take a gamble. In peacetime, you can live comfortably without being a deserter, but you may die if you are a deserter, so why bother?
Of course, if in the long run, the current peace is only temporary, there is still some value in being a deserter.
The problem is that it is very possible to flee as a deserter in wartime, and there is basically no hope of success as a deserter in peacetime.
Therefore, Sokolov is not worried about deserters appearing at this time.
Since there are no deserters at this time, what can we do without lynching if we listen to the political commissar?
As for the wartime... Can those political commissars and instructors manage people like Sokolov and the Second Infantry Battalion led by him?
You must know that these are all from the punishment camp. Not only did they die a few times, but they also hated the instructors and political commissars the most (there are not many of them who were not thrown into the punishment camp by the instructors and political commissars). Let the instructors and political commissars take care of them? It's not bad if you don't shoot black guns in the back!
Later Shulka found out that someone really did it.
But it is only "discovery", because it is too easy to shoot black guns on the battlefield, and the possibility of being discovered is almost equal to zero.
Just imagine, on a dark and windy night, a group of people rush forward, and the instructor has to rush forward, while the troops behind raise their guns to provide cover for the charging troops... As long as the muzzle of the gun is slightly deflected, even just a little, it is the so-called "The difference is a thousand miles away", as long as the muzzle of the gun is a little bit off, it will change from aiming at the enemy to an aiming instructor, and no one will notice it, because no one will put their head on the front sight to see who is aiming at.
Then pull the trigger... everything is over. If the marksmanship is good, a tragedy can be over in a few seconds. If the marksmanship is not good, just play it a few more times, and no one will find out who did it.
Shulka was able to "discover" because he noticed that the casualty rate of the instructors of the Second Infantry Battalion was particularly high, not only much higher than that of the Second Infantry Battalion, but also much higher than that of instructors of other units.
It may be normal for instructors to have a higher casualty rate than ordinary soldiers, since they often go first in order to lead the way, but it is not normal to have a higher casualty rate than other troops.
Then as soon as Shulka inspected the bodies of those instructors, he found that quite a few of the instructors were shot in the back and the bullets still came from the Soviet-style Mosin Nagant.
Kirillovich soon found out about it.
As I said before, there is nothing in the army that can be hidden from the political commissar, especially if it is related to the life and death of the instructor.
Kirillovich flew into a rage at the first moment. He slapped the table fiercely and cursed: "These bastards, they are all traitors, and they openly killed the instructor! Their comrades, their comrades! I will not spare I must find them and shoot them one by one..."
"You'd better not do that, Comrade Kirillovich!" Shulka urged.
"Comrade Shulka!" Kirillovich turned his anger on Shulka: "At this time you are still protecting your subordinates, do you know how serious this is? Don't say it is an instructor, even Not even soldiers..."
"I know, Kirillovich!" Shulka replied: "But I am doing it for the good of the instructor, and also for your own good!"
"What is for my good?" Kirillovich asked angrily, "Are you threatening me?!"
"Comrade Kirillovich!" Shulka asked back: "On the battlefield, bullets don't have eyes. Can you catch who shot the instructor in the back?"
Saying this, Kirillovich's anger was immediately suppressed by half.
Indeed, bullets don’t have eyes, and everyone uses the same bullets. There is no name written on them. It is basically impossible to find the murderer.
"In this case, how can you deal with the second infantry battalion?" Shulka asked again: "Shoot them all? Or put them all in prison? Or dismiss them?"
Obviously none of the solutions will work, and if you do, you may even be backlashed.
That is, not only the problem cannot be solved, but it may become more and more serious.
Seeing Kirillovich calming down slowly, Shulka persuaded: "This is a battlefield, Comrade Kirillovich, when fighting, when soldiers are fighting the enemy desperately on the front line, My advice is better not to offend them!"
"But, let's forget about this matter?" Kirillovich said unwillingly: "They will still be like this in the future..."
"I'm going to talk to Sokolov about it!" Shulka said. "Also, I think you should pretend you don't know anything. You can see why!"
Kirillovich thought for a while, then nodded in agreement.
The reason is very simple. If the Second Infantry Battalion does not get the punishment they deserve, it means that the political commissars have nothing to do with them.
(end of this chapter)
