Chapter 8 chapter eight

The situation of the Russian soldiers at that time was extremely difficult, and it was difficult to describe in words-no warm boots, no leather jackets, no roof tiles to shelter, sleeping in the snow at minus 18 degrees, and not even enough rations ( The supplies of the troops often failed to keep up, and the soldiers should have shown a very embarrassed and miserable scene. On the contrary, even under the best of conditions, there has never been a happier, more alive scene.This is because the weak-willed and physically weak are eliminated from the army every day, they have long since fallen behind, and the rest are the best of the army-strong men, both physically and mentally.

The largest number of people gathered at the Eighth Company's garrison sheltered by a fence.The two stewards sat with them, and their fire burned brightest.They stipulated that only by bringing firewood can one sit here. "Hey, Makeyev, what's wrong with you... Where have you been? The wolf has eaten you? Go get some firewood." A red-haired, red-faced soldier shouted, blinking and getting smoked His eyes had to be squinted into slits, and even so he was unwilling to stay away from the fire. "You are in a class society, and the world view is class-based. The struggle between various world views, crow, get some firewood too." The soldier turned to another soldier and said.The red-faced man was neither a sergeant nor a corporal.But he is strong, and because of this, he can command those soldiers who are physically weaker than him.The soldier named Crow was thin and small, with a pointed nose, he stood up obediently, ready to carry out the order.At this moment, a slender, handsome young soldier walked towards the light of the fire with a large bundle of firewood in his arms.

"Come here, it's really a timely help!" Everyone split the firewood, added to the fire, blew with their mouths, fanned with the hem of their coats, and the flames sizzled and crackled.The soldiers moved closer to the fire and smoked.The young and handsome soldier who came carrying firewood, with his hands on his hips, stomped his frozen feet quickly and rhythmically on the spot. "Oh, my god, the night dew is so cold, but fortunately I'm a musketeer..." He murmured leisurely, as if every syllable was about to hiccup. "Hey, the soles are going to fly!" cried the red-faced man, noticing that the soles of the dancers' boots had been pulled down. "What a dancer."

The dancers stopped, tore off the leather from the drape, and threw it into the fire. "All right, man," he said; and he sat down, took a piece of gray flannel out of his satchel, and wrapped it round his feet. "It's all frozen." He added, stretching his feet towards the fire. "New ones will be issued soon. I heard that after the war, everyone will be given double copies of clothing." "Look, you son of a bitch, Petrov, you're still behind," said the steward. "I saw it earlier," said another. "Oh, a useless pawn..."

"I heard that Sanlian lost nine people yesterday." "That's right, your feet are freezing, can you still walk?" "Hey, crap!" said the Bursar. "Don't you think that too?" said an old soldier reproachfully to the man who said his feet were frozen. "What on earth are you thinking?" The soldier named Crow suddenly stood up from the fire and said in a shrill and trembling voice: "The fat ones are getting thinner, and the thin ones are dying. Just take me as an example. Well, I don’t have any strength at all.” He suddenly faced the chief of staff and said firmly, “Send me to the hospital, my whole body is in pain, and my bones are about to fall apart, or I will fall behind sooner or later…”

"All right, all right," said the quartermaster calmly. The soldier fell silent, and the conversation continued. "There are quite a few Frenchmen caught today. The boots these people wear, to be honest, they are boots, but they don't even have a pair of decent ones," a soldier brought up a new topic. "The Cossacks took off all their boots. They cleaned the house for the regimental commander and dragged away the dead. It was a disgrace, brothers," said the dancer. Can you believe it? He's still muttering." "All are white, my brethren," said the first to speak, "as white as birch bark, some of a stately appearance, and perhaps aristocratic."

"What do you think? They're all going to be soldiers." "Nobody understands our language," said the dancer with a puzzled smile. "I asked him, 'Whose king emblem?' and he murmured. An incredible nation!" "Still, it's strange, brothers," went on the man who marveled at their whiteness, "that the Mozhaisk peasants say that there was a battle with them, and that when they buried the dead, the Frenchmen's The corpse has been out in the open for a month, as white as white paper, clean, not even the slightest smell of gunpowder."

"Why, maybe it's because of the cold?" one person asked. "You are so smart! It was freezing! But it was still hot at that time. If it was caused by the severe cold, then the corpses of our people would not rot. The farmer said, 'Come and see our people, they are all rotten. maggots.’” He said, “When dragging the dead bodies, we wrapped our faces in towels and turned our heads away, and the smell was unbearable.” He added, “But their people, as white as paper, There is no smell of gunpowder at all." Everyone was silent. "That's what they eat," said the steward. "They all eat good food."

No one objected. "The farmer said that there was a battle near Mozhaisk. There, people from a dozen villages were transported for twenty days, but the dead bodies were not exhausted. Many of them were fed to the wolves... ..." "It was a real fight," said one veteran. "Only this one battle is memorable; everything after that...is just torture." "That's right, uncle. We chased them the day before yesterday, and they dropped their guns and knelt on the ground before you came close, shouting 'Forgive me!' They said that this was just an example. And that Platov had twice Napoleon himself was caught, he didn't speak French, he was caught: he turned into a bird in his hand, flew, and flew again. He didn't kill him."

"I see you, Kiselev, are a big braggart." "What bragging, that's absolutely true." "If he falls into my hands, I will definitely bury him and nail a poplar stump. How many people has he killed?" "Everything is coming to an end, he can't run amuck." The old soldier said with a yawn. The conversation ceased, and the soldiers lay down and fell asleep. "Look, the stars in the sky shine so beautifully! You think it's a canvas spread out." A soldier said, admiring the Milky Way in the sky. "Brethren, this is a sign of a good year."

"Some more firewood should be added." "It's strange that my back is warmed and my belly is frozen cold." "Oh, it's amazing!" "What are you squeezing, is the fire yours alone, or something? Look... look at how your hands and feet stretch out." A silence fell from the cessation of conversation, a few could be heard snoring; the rest tossed and turned to warm themselves, talking now and then.From a fire a hundred paces away came a cheerful chorus of laughter. "Look, how lively the Fifth Company is." A soldier said, "There are so many people!" A soldier stood up and went to the Fifth Company. "Laughing enough," he said back, "there are two Frenchmen, one frozen and the other alive and singing." "Oh, oh? Take a look..." Several soldiers went to the fifth company.