Burning Moscow

Forty minutes later, I took Basmanov and a few soldiers from the guard company to the position of the Fourth Regiment. From an entrance on the southern slope, I entered their tunnel fortification.

Guarding the tunnel are two young soldiers. Seeing our arrival, they straightened up and saluted me quickly. After returning the courtesy to the two of them, I asked politely: "Comrade soldier, can you take us to the regiment headquarters?"

An older soldier replied, "No problem, Comrade General, I can take you and your men to the regiment headquarters." He turned his body to one side and made a gesture of asking.

We walked along the long and narrow tunnel. Fortunately, the lanterns hung on the sides of the walls can illuminate the way forward for us and prevent us from stepping on the commanders who are sitting on the wall and resting. Under the shining of the light, I saw someone wiping weapons, and someone closing their eyes with their backs against the earth wall. When we passed by a hole hung in a thick curtain, I heard groans from inside. This should be the place where the wounded were staying.

After we turned a few turns in the tunnel, and walked a long distance, the soldier finally stopped at another hole hung in the curtain, turned his head and said to me: "Comrade General, this is our regiment headquarters. Up."

"Thank you, Comrade Soldier." I nodded at him, thanked him, opened the curtain and walked in.

Inside is a small cave of seven or eight square meters. Near the door is a table with a map, a lantern and a telephone, and a commander without a military cap sits. At the table. Hearing the movement, he raised his head and looked at me. After a moment of hesitation, he stood up decisively, raised his hand to salute me, and reported loudly: "Comrade commander. Political commissar Xia Ping of the Fourth Infantry Regiment reports to you. You are welcome to come here."

I raised my hand to return the gift and asked casually: "Political Commissar Xia Ping. Where is your regiment leader, Lieutenant Colonel Gaidar?"

"I'm here, comrade commander." A voice suddenly sounded from the wall. I looked in the direction of the sound, and saw that the disheveled Gaidar was getting up from a simple and narrow wooden bed, hurriedly putting on his clothes, and reporting to me: "Comrade Commander, Commander of the Fourth Regiment Lieutenant Colonel Gaidar reports to you and I am waiting for your instructions!"

I didn't speak, just watched him quietly with my hands behind my back. After his army was neatly organized, I solemnly said to him: "Comrade Gaidar. Because last night we mistakenly judged that the enemy’s artillery observation point was set up at Mamayev without clarifying the specific situation. On the post, I asked you to search the oil storage tank area in vain over and over again. Now the situation is basically clear, the enemy has not set up observation points on the high ground. In this regard, on behalf of the political commissar and chief of staff, I will tell us I apologize to you for the mistakes I made, and please forgive me!" After speaking, I brought my legs together and raised my hand in a solemn military salute to him.

"Comrade Commander!" Seeing that I actually apologized to myself, Gaidar was in a short consternation. He also raised his hand to salute me quickly, and said excitedly: "I didn't expect you to apologize to me for this trivial matter. I didn't expect it."

Xia Ping was deeply afraid that I would be embarrassed. Divert the topic promptly: "Comrade commander, you said that the enemy's artillery observation point was not located in Mamayev Hill, so where would it be located?"

"Where else?! Of course they are in the front position closest to us." I put down my hand raised to the side of my forehead, smiled and said to Xia Ping, "I thought the enemy was repairing fortifications so close to us. , Just to shorten their offensive path. I didn’t expect it was to set up artillery observation points and guide the artillery in depth to bombard our transport fleet on the Volga River.”

"Comrade commander, I don't know what you think about it?" Gaidar asked tentatively: "I need to send troops to attack this forward position and wait for an opportunity to destroy their artillery observation point?"

"It doesn't need to be so troublesome." I waved my hand. He said disapprovingly: "I have notified Major Morozov and asked him to bring a few mortars. Use artillery to destroy the civil bunker where the enemy artillery observers are located. There is no need to send infantry to take risks. You know what you have now. There are a lot of recruits. It's okay to fight defenses. If you launch an offense at will, it's hard to say what it will be like in the end."

At this moment, the curtain was lifted, and a commander broke in. As soon as he entered the door, he didn't look around. He took off the big brimmed hat on his head and fell heavily on the table. Then he sat down at the table and said angrily: "Commander, political commissar, I can't do this company commander. Up."

"What's the matter, Captain Ke Licheng?" Xia Ping lowered his head and asked tentatively, "Is any of your soldiers angering you again?"

"It's not just those new fighters from Kazakhstan who have been in the tunnels for a long time and complained one by one. Just now there was a fighter who actually said something that disturbed the military's mind."

"Who said that?" Xia Ping raised his eyebrows when he heard this. He asked seriously, "What did he say?"

"It's the big man from the collective farm," Ke Licheng said. "He said that if we could beat the Germans, we would have launched a counterattack a long time ago, and we wouldn't be like this now, staying in the tunnel all day as rats, even The sun can’t be seen. If one day the Germans attack, none of us will be able to run, either we will be killed or captured.”

"What's his name?" Xia Ping asked angrily.

Ke Licheng shook his head, shrugged his shoulders and said: "His name is pronounced strange, I can't tell."

"Are there soldiers around when he said this?"

Corey nodded and replied: "There are seven or eight. Hearing what he said, I feel that these fighters are a little shaken."

Xia Ping turned around and took off his military cap from the wall and put it on his head, and said to Ke Licheng: "Go, let's go and talk to him." As he was about to leave, I suddenly found that I was standing next to him silently. He squeezed an apologetic smile at me, patted Corlicheng with his hand, and said to him: "Comrade Captain, I forgot to introduce you. This is our commander-General Oshanina."

Hearing what Xia Ping said, Ke Licheng, who had bowed his head, turned to see me, screamed, jumped up from his seat, took two steps back, and leaned his back against the earth wall. Raised his hand to salute me, while stammering: "Report, report. Teacher, teacher. Same, comrade..."

Before he finished speaking, I walked to his side, pulled his hand from his forehead, and said kindly: "Comrade Captain, don't be nervous, I have heard what you just said. Let's go. Let's go together. Go talk to that soldier."

Ke Licheng led our group to a corner of the tunnel. There were a lot of soldiers gathered here, none of them spoke, they were silently wiping the guns in their hands, or pressing bullets into their magazines. Seeing our group approaching, they just looked up and continued to do their work.

After walking forward for a while, Ke Licheng pointed his finger to a tall soldier wearing a boat hat sitting on the ground and said, "It's him."

I just wanted to go forward, but was stopped by Xia Ping's hand. He whispered to me: "Comrade teacher, let me come." After speaking, he walked to the tall man and stopped. Say in a harsh tone: "Comrade Warrior."

The tall man quickly got up from the ground, standing straight in front of Xia Ping.

"What did you say in front of your company commander and the rest of the soldiers?"

"What did I say?" The tall man asked in a frightened way in bad Russian.

Xia Ping sneered and said bluntly: "You just said that we can't beat the Germans. If we continue to stay in the tunnels, we will soon become prisoners of the Germans. Come on, why are you walking here with defeatist arguments?"

Unexpectedly, he actually denied it: "No, I have never said this. Comrade company commander must have heard it wrong. Maybe he had heard something from other places. I remembered it as I said it."

Xia Ping turned around and asked a soldier sitting nearby: "Did he say this?"

The soldier actually shook his head and said, "I'm asleep. I didn't hear it." After speaking, he buried his head deeply.

Xia Ping then asked a few soldiers again. Those fighters either said that they didn't hear it when they fell asleep, or that they didn't understand Russian and didn't know what the tall man had said.

When I saw this scene, my heart was cold. I did not expect that these new fighters from Kazakhstan would actually shelter a fellow who spread defeatism. It seems that I need to talk to Oberstein about how to strengthen the recruits. Political thinking is working. Thinking of this, I turned my head and rushed to the other soldiers sitting next to me and asked loudly, "Who of you heard what this soldier said?"

With this question, a few warriors wearing steel helmets walked right behind us, and at a glance they knew that they belonged to the original commanders of the Fourth Regiment. One of the elderly fighters pointed to the tall man and said angrily: "Yes, Comrade General, he has just spread defeatism."

"He also said that once the enemy attacked, we people would either be killed or be captured." Seeing someone bravely stood up to expose the tall man, another soldier also confirmed that the tall man had said these things.

Seeing the veterans of the Fourth Regiment expose himself, the tall man seemed a little flustered. He tried his best to defend himself and said: "Comrade commanders, what I meant just now, we can't stay in the tunnel, we still have to go out and fight the enemy We have played the best, but we can't. We should consider retreating to the east bank of the Volga as soon as possible."

"You still said you didn't take the defeatist argument?!" Xia Ping snorted heavily and said coldly: "I can tell you that the order we received is to stick to the Mamayev Hill, even on the high ground. There is only one person left, and we have to nail it to the ground like a nail, and never take a step back. We would rather let the bones be exposed on the high ground than let the enemy move forward."

When he was about to announce how to deal with the tall man, a shout suddenly came from behind us: "Hey, comrade teacher, where are you?"

I heard Morozov’s voice and knew he was coming with a mortar, so I agreed: "Major, I’m here, I’ll pass right away." After I shouted, I pointed to the tall man and ordered to stand. Ke Licheng next to me said, "Comrade Captain, send someone to take care of him first, and then deal with him after we finish the war. At this time, it is absolutely impossible to express defeatist arguments that disturb the morale of the military."

When Xia Ping and I walked forward side by side, I thought of the Fourth Regiment, which had been nestled in the tunnel since Mount Mayevgang, playing happily with the attacking enemy. Under this circumstance, let alone the new fighter who just added, even Xia Ping, the political commissar of the regiment next to me, would have some thoughts in my heart, so I felt it necessary to explain to him.

So I said to him as I walked: "Comrade Xia Ping, you have to tell the soldiers that because our army has limited strength and lacks the heavy weapons needed to attack the fortress, we can only take defense temporarily. We must rely on the tunnel to defend the high ground. Constantly destroy the enemy’s vital forces. Only when the enemy is consumed and exhausted can we create conditions for a counterattack. At that time, our counterattack will be successful in one fell swoop, and the enemy attacking Stalingrad will be completely destroyed. Rout."

The three mortars brought by Morozov were already lined up in the trenches. Seeing us coming out of the tunnel, he quickly brought his legs together and reported to me: "Comrade Commander, I have prepared the mortars. Please indicate the target of the attack."

I raised the binoculars and looked at the German position in the distance. Near the river, there really was an independent civil bunker. From the outside, there were two soldiers walking back and forth to analyze, even if it was not German artillery. Observation points are also a relatively important target.

Seeing this, I greeted Morozov, handed him the telescope, pointed to the distant position and said: "Major, have you seen the civil bunker near the river? It seems to be a more important place for the German army. Can you get rid of it?"

After Morozov took the telescope in my hand and looked around for a while, he replied confidently: "No problem, you give me two minutes, and I will be able to knock it out." After speaking, he thrust the telescope into my hand. , Ran to his men.

With a series of serial commands issued by Morozov, the gunners skillfully adjusted the position of the mortar and the direction of the muzzle. With the three soft sounds of "all the way", the shells roared and flew towards the enemy's position.

The artillery shot very accurately~www.wuxiaspot.com~ Three shells fell around the bunker and exploded, one of which blew the two walking soldiers out. Then, the artillery fired two more rounds.

The civil bunker was in the black smoke of the bomb explosion, and the lid was lifted. Three German soldiers hurriedly rushed out of it, bent over and ran along the trenches to other places. But they didn't run far, two shells fell in the middle of them and exploded. In the explosion, their bodies turned into a rain of blood and evenly sprinkled in the surrounding soil.

"Good fight, Major Morozov, the fight is so beautiful." Seeing the mortars hit so accurately, I shouted in excitement. "Unexpectedly, you knocked out the enemy's cover so quickly."

Morozov heard my praise, did not speak, just grinned and smirked. Until a gunner walked to his side and asked whether to continue shooting. He just woke up like a dream, and quickly asked me: "Comrade Commander, are you still fighting?"

I shook my head and said, "No, since the enemy's artillery observation point has been destroyed, your mission is considered complete. Hurry up and take your people and transfer, maybe the enemy's retaliatory shelling will arrive soon." Morozov agreed and quickly greeted his subordinates to pack up and prepare to withdraw into the tunnel. (To be continued)