Red Moscow

"Absolutely not," the captain replied confidently: "The division commander has issued an order to the nearby troops not to allow anyone to approach the hotel before dawn. Otherwise, the commander will be responsible for all consequences caused by accidental injury."

"Then let me ask another question," Zhukov continued to ask: "If you can't resist the enemy's attack, will the nearby friendly forces just watch you being wiped out by the enemy?"

"Comrade general, how can this be possible." The captain replied with a smile: "The division commander has arranged reinforcements nearby. As soon as the battle starts, that force will attack the German army attacking the hotel from behind."

"It's dark and visibility is limited, aren't you afraid of accidental injury?"

"There will be no accidental injury." The captain said: "The division commander has issued a death order. Before dawn, no one in the hotel can leave; while the reinforcements from outside are only using long-range firepower to kill and wound on the street. people, not close to the hotel. In this way, accidents of accidental injury can be avoided to the greatest extent.”

"It seems that Misha is quite thoughtful." After listening to Sokov's arrangement, Zhukov nodded in satisfaction, and then said to the captain: "There is nothing else here, you can leave."

"Comrade General," the captain did not leave immediately, but stayed where he was and said, "Although your room is not facing the street, for safety reasons, I think you should turn off the lights in the room."

"Comrade Captain, you are right." Zhukov said very cooperatively: "If the enemy really wants to attack, then the lights in the room are equivalent to pointing out the enemy's attack target." He got up and pulled the light rope, Turning off the incandescent lamp above the head, the whole room was suddenly plunged into darkness.

At the same time, a sentry behind the sandbags at the hotel door saw a small group of more than ten people in the distance, which looked like a patrol, and they were walking along the street. The sentinel remembered the captain's order, and quickly shouted at the other party: "Hey, stop, which part are you from?" While shouting, he raised his flashlight to shine on the other party.

With the shouting, the patrol team stopped, and someone in the team replied loudly: "I am from the patrol team of the 75th Guards Division. I was ordered to patrol this area." go forward.

"Stop!" Although the sentinel could clearly see that the people who came were wearing Soviet uniforms through the lighting of the flashlight, he still shouted extremely majesticly: "This is the defense area of ​​our 41st Guards Division. Get in. Back off quickly, or I'll shoot you."

"Try shooting if you have the ability." The patrol team on the opposite side said not to be outdone, "I have been a soldier for more than ten years, and I have never seen anyone who dared to shoot at my own people!"

The sentinel was bluffed by the opponent's shouts. Although he received an order to shoot and stop anyone approaching the hotel, he hesitated when he saw a friendly patrol team appear. However, out of duty, he still put the torch in the sandbag fortifications, and picked up the Mosin Nagant rifle in his hand. His muzzle was pointed diagonally above the patrol, ready to fire a warning shot when the patrol approached.

However, his actions were discovered by the approaching patrol team. They quickly scattered and fell down, and shot at the sentry first. After two clear gunshots, the sentinel with the gun dropped the rifle in his hand and fell face up into the sandbag.

Seeing that the sentinel was killed, the patrol team lying on the ground got up again, spread out, bent over and rushed towards the hotel quickly. The machine gunner who was dozing off in the sandbag saw his comrade being killed, hurriedly put the turntable machine gun on the sandbag, and pulled the bolt to prepare to shoot.

But the incoming enemies are all elite, even if they fire while running, they can still hit the target accurately. Just as the Soviet machine gunner was about to pull the trigger, a soldier in the distance opened fire on him first. The bullet penetrated the machine gunner's forehead, and flew out from the back of his head with a trace of blood foam. When he fell to the ground on his back, his fingers tightly held the trigger, and a series of bullets shot into the sky from the muzzle.

Gunshots from outside the hotel woke up the soldiers in the hotel. Don't look at how serious the problem was when the captain gave them the task, but the soldiers didn't take it seriously. They felt that there were tens of thousands of their own people inside and outside the city. How could it be possible for the Germans to appear here? Therefore, except for a few soldiers who stayed in their positions, the rest of the people found a place to lie down and sleep soundly.

Hearing the sound of gunfire outside, some soldiers instinctively turned on the lights in the house, opened the windows and looked outside, trying to figure out what happened. But by doing so, they undoubtedly turned themselves into targets of the German army. After sporadic gunshots rang out, these soldiers who made low-level mistakes were shot and fell down one after another.

The sudden gunshot outside alarmed Zhukov and the captain who hadn't left yet. The captain listened carefully to the gunshots outside, yelled that it was not good, and quickly said to Zhukov: "Comrade general, the enemy is coming, please follow me to the basement immediately."

Zhukov's adjutant also rushed back at this time. Seeing the darkness of the room, he worried about Zhukov's safety, so he shouted loudly: "Comrade General, Comrade General, where are you?"

"I'm here, why panic?" Zhukov's calm voice came from the darkness: "What did Colonel Sokov say in the telegram?"

"Comrade General, Colonel Sokov's telegram mentioned that there might be a sneak attack by German paratroopers tonight. He has already made arrangements, so let us rest assured." After the adjutant reported to Zhukov, he said nervously: "Here It's not safe, let's go to the basement."

Zhukov knew that if he stayed in the room, it would definitely affect the captain's command of the battle, so he said straightforwardly, "Let's go, let's go to the basement."

When the German paratroopers disguised as Soviet troops were less than 20 meters away from the hotel, the Soviet soldiers in the building finally came to their senses and started shooting one after another. For a while, the crossfire of machine guns, rifles and submachine guns upstairs and downstairs formed a dense fire net, knocking down half of the charging German paratroopers.

The paratroopers were not vegetarians either. They rolled over to avoid bullets, and fired without losing the opportunity to return fire at one of the fire points. Every shot will cause casualties to the Soviet soldiers in the building. However, due to the limited number of people, no matter how brave they were, the casualties continued to increase. After just three minutes, there were only two paratroopers who could still fight. They retreated to the ruins across the road, followed by more than 30 paratroopers. The road was 1.5 meters wide, shooting at the Soviet army in the hotel.

The Soviet captain sent Zhukov to the basement, and hurried over to check the situation. A platoon leader who directed the battle on the second floor also happily reported to him: "Comrade Captain, most of the enemies who attacked the hotel have been killed by us, and the remaining two have hid in the ruins opposite. Ask me to lead someone to attack, and I will destroy them all."

"No, Comrade Lieutenant." Regarding the request made by the platoon leader, the captain shook his head and said, "The division has an order that no one is allowed to leave the hotel before dawn."

"But Comrade Captain," the platoon leader said anxiously, pointing to the German paratroopers hiding in the ruins on the opposite side and shooting twice from time to time, "If we don't attack as soon as possible, they will probably escape."

"Run away." The captain kept the division's order firmly in mind, and said to the platoon leader: "It's too dark outside. If you lead someone to attack, I will be in the light and the enemy will be in the dark. If the enemy hides Shooting cold shots in the dark will cause us a lot of casualties, you'd better stay in the hotel obediently for me, and go out after dawn."

Suddenly there was a voice shouting "Ulla" outside, the captain looked out of the window curiously, and saw countless black figures appearing on the other side of the ruins, stepping on piles of bricks and rubble, heading towards the hotel Come on, the shout came from that direction.

"What the hell is going on here?" Seeing a troop that suddenly appeared, the captain couldn't help being stunned. He thought to himself, didn't the division headquarters repeatedly tell him that no troops would approach before dawn, but this troop Where did the troops come from?

Soldiers in the hotel stopped shooting at the ruins for fear of fratricide. And after a mess of gunshots came from the ruins, everything became calm again.

After waiting for a while, the troops came out of the ruins one after another. The captain counted more than thirty people. When he was about to ask the other party's origin, he suddenly heard someone shouting in the crowd: "I am Captain Sergesha from the Divisional Guard Battalion. I was ordered to come to support you. Quickly open the door and let us in."

Hearing the shout, the platoon leader immediately said excitedly to the captain: "Comrade captain, did you hear that? It's a comrade from the division's security battalion, and the leader is Captain Sergey, the friend of the division commander. Hurry up and order the soldiers to open the door." .”

The fact that Seryozha and Sokov were old friends was known to most in the Guards. The captain thought that during the phone call before the battle started, the division commander, Colonel Sokov, had told himself that he would send Sergei to bring people to support him. Since people outside said that he was Seryozha, they must be right.

So the captain nodded and said to the platoon leader: "Okay, Comrade Lieutenant, you take someone out to meet Captain Seryozha."