Chapter 7 Chapter VII

On November 8, the last day of the Krasnoye Battle, it was already dark when the troops arrived at the camp.There was no wind all day, and it was cold; there were scattered snowflakes in the sky, and through the falling snowflakes, you could see the lavender, gray starry sky, and the cold was even more pressing. The Mushkatersky team, which had 3,000 people when it left Tarutino, now has only 900 people left, and this team was the first to reach the designated camp (a village next to the main road) to meet the team All the houses in the village were filled with sick and dead Frenchmen, cavalrymen, and staff officers, said the front-runners.There was only one house left for the head of the regiment to live in.

The captain went to his lodgings.The team passed through the village and set up guns next to the houses on the side of the road. The group, like a giant, many-legged animal, began to build a den and prepare food for itself.Some soldiers dispersed in groups of three or five. They waded through knee-deep snow and walked into the birch forest on the right side of the village. Immediately, they heard the sound of knives and axes. secret newspaper.Founded by Lenin.The sound of breaking branches and the sound of cheerful laughter; another group of soldiers took out cauldrons and rusks in the place where the team's carts and horses gathered, and fed the horses; the third group of soldiers dispersed to various places in the village. place to prepare quarters for staff officers.They carried out the corpses of the Frenchmen that were lying in all the houses, and then, bringing in planks, dry wood, and hay torn from the roofs, they prepared to make fires and fences against the wind.

About fifteen soldiers were behind a house on the edge of the village, shouting merrily and shaking the high fence of a hut whose roof had been thrown off. "Hey, hey, work harder, everyone push hard together!" Shouted in unison.The tall fence wall with snow on it swayed back and forth, and the icicles on the wall made crackling noises.The piles below rattled more and more, until at last the tall fence wall fell down with the soldiers who pushed it, and there was a wild, cheerful roar of laughter. "Catch! Two by two! Get the stick! That's it. Where are you pushing?"

"Hey, get on the gas... Hold on, guys... Let's shout!" Everyone was silent, and then a low, velvety voice sang, and at the end of the third stanza, immediately after the last note, twenty voices cried out in unison: "Ooooh! Come on! Come on! Come on! Let's do it together! Brothers!..." No matter how hard they worked together, the fence wall was almost motionless, and people's heavy breathing could be heard in the silence that seemed to have stopped. "Hey, you guys from the Sixth Company! You bastards, slippery ghosts! Come and help us...we might be useful too."

The 20 or so people who entered the village all came to help: so the fence wall, more than ten meters long and two meters wide, was bent, crushing the panting soldiers like knives. shoulders and moved along the streets of the village. "Let's go, what's the matter...it's about to fall, cough...how did it stop? Uh, uh..." Constantly uttering jovial, all kinds of swearing. "What are you doing?" Suddenly a soldier ran towards them and asked sharply. "The grown-ups are here; the general is in the house, you devils, you bastards. I'll beat you!" cried the quartermaster, and he punched the first soldier he came across in the back. "Can't you keep your voice down?"

The soldiers fell silent.The soldier who was beaten hit the fence, scratched his face, and his face was covered with blood. "Look, you bastard, you were hit so hard that your face was covered with blood." After the chief of staff left, he whispered timidly. "Well, don't you like it?" said a laughing voice; and the soldiers lowered their voices and went on.As soon as they walked outside the village, they talked and laughed as before, and they continued to say those boring curse words. The soldiers passed a hut where some high-ranking officers had gathered, drinking tea, and chatting enthusiastically about the day's events and the next day's campaign.The plan is to act from the left, cut off the Deputy Governor (Mura) and capture him alive.

Cooking fires were lit here and there, logs were crackling, and the snow was melting as the soldiers dragged the fence into place.Soldiers were swaying everywhere on the trampled snow in the camp. The sound of knives and axes rang out from all directions.No orders were given, everything was ready.Firewood for the night was hauled in.Tents were set up for the officers, food was cooked in cauldrons, arms and equipment were laid out. The fence wall dragged by the eighth company was erected in a semicircle facing north, supported by guns, and a fire was lit in front of the wall.The drums for the late roll call sounded, supper was over, and the night was prepared by the fires—some cobbled shoes and stockings, some smoked, and some stripped naked to bake the lice in their shirts.