Red Moscow

"What, the Russians rushed into the building?" The German division commander was frightened when he heard the news that the Soviet army had rushed into the building, and he asked his chief of staff in a daze: "Chief of staff, what should we do next? "

"Your Excellency, Commander, we must not be prisoners." After thinking for a while, the Chief of Staff said to the Commander: "Fortunately, the two buildings in the east are still in our army's hands, we can transfer them there, and then wait for the nightfall. arrival."

Knowing that the building could still be moved to the east, the German division commander couldn't sit still, and urged the chief of staff repeatedly: "Chief of staff, why hesitate, let's go immediately. If it's over, the Russians will rush in." Our headquarters."

"The whole division headquarters is transferred, and the target is too big." The chief of staff said: "Your Excellency, how about this, I will send a squad of soldiers to cover you to the building evacuated to the east, and I will lead people to continue to stand here and attract Russian attention."

The German division commander, who was eager to get away, was quite moved when he saw that the chief of staff was willing to stay and help him attract the attention of the Soviet army. He asked, "Then how are you going to transfer?"

"Your Excellency, Master, don't worry." Although the chief of staff was also confused, he still pretended to be calm in front of the master and said, "I will find a way to escape."

After finishing speaking, the chief of staff shouted to the outside: "Come here!"

With the shout, a German captain walked in from outside. He stopped in front of the two of them, straightened his back and waited for the order to be given.

"Captain!" the chief of staff ordered the captain, "The Russians have already stormed into the building where we are. Your task is to take a squad leader to retreat to the building to the east, understand?"

"Understood, Your Excellency Chief of Staff!" After the captain agreed, he turned to face the division commander and said, "Mr. Commander, please come with me. I will take you to the building to the east."

Just as the captain was about to leave with the division commander, he was stopped by the chief of staff: "Wait a minute!"

The two stopped and looked at the chief of staff with puzzled eyes, not knowing why he would suddenly stop him.

Fortunately, the chief of staff of the German army answered the two in time: "Your Excellency, if you go out wearing this military uniform, you will reveal your identity. If the Russians find out, they will deal with you at all costs. In my opinion, you still Changing into the uniform of an ordinary soldier, it is easy to get away with it.”

The division commander agreed with the chief of staff's words very much. He quickly found a soldier who was about the same size as himself, exchanged clothes with him, and then left the basement with the captain.

The battle in the building was in full swing. The German captain left the basement first, hid behind a broken wall and observed for a while, and felt that there was no danger, so he waved to the door of the basement, indicating that he could leave.

Seeing the signal from the captain, two soldiers with submachine guns rushed out of the basement with the division commander in their arms, and quickly came behind the broken wall.

"Mr. Commander," the captain said to the division commander, "according to the gunshots upstairs, the Russians should be competing with our people for the second and third floors. We can quickly rush out of the building while they are not paying attention, and retreat to the Inside the building to the east."

"Let's go." Hearing the gunshots and explosions above his head, the German commander's heart beat faster. He was worried that a grenade would fall on his side and explode in the next second, so he urged the captain: "Hurry up and get out of this damn place!" The place."

In this way, under the cover of his subordinates, the German division commander left the building without anyone noticing, and retreated towards the east building. The distance between the two buildings was no more than 150 meters. Even if the German division commander ran a little slowly, with the help of two soldiers, it was enough to complete the transfer within a minute.

But what no one expected was that there was an open area of ​​seventy or eighty meters between the two buildings without any shelter. After Shamrich occupied the German building, he came to the roof and ordered someone to mount a machine gun. And he held up a telescope to observe the building where the German command was located, ready to reinforce the first company entering the building at any time.

"Comrade battalion commander, hurry up and look at the open space!" Just as Shamrich was focusing on the building, he suddenly heard the voice of deputy battalion commander Yakuda: "There are a few Germans Escaped from the building and went to the building to the east."

The location where the German division commander and the others left the building happened to be in Shamrich's blind spot, so that he didn't notice the group of German division commanders who had escaped in the first place. Hearing Yakov's shout at this moment, he quickly turned the binoculars to the location Yakov said, and sure enough, he saw a dozen German soldiers fleeing in groups towards the building to the east.

Shamrih didn't care about thinking, and shouted almost instinctively: "Machine gun fire! The enemy must not be allowed to escape into the building to the east."

Following Shamrich's shout, the machine gun started firing first, and a series of bullets hit the only way the German army must pass, billowing smoke and dust on the ground.

The instinctive reaction of most German soldiers when they heard the gunshots was to lie down on the spot and fight back at the place where the bullets flew. But there was still a brave German soldier who ran forward and shot at Shamrich's position indiscriminately. But he shot aimlessly, where he could hit the machine gun on the roof, but was directly hit by the machine gun on the roof.

The German soldier screamed, instinctively dropped the submachine gun in his hand, and covered his wound. Under the action of huge inertia, his body rushed forward a few more steps before he fell to the ground, and slid forward for a certain distance before completely stopping.

Shamrich saw through the binoculars that there was a captain in the German army, but his reaction was very strange. When other soldiers shot upstairs, he blocked himself in front of another soldier.

When did German officers care so much about their subordinates that they were willing to block bullets for him? As soon as this weird idea appeared in Shamrich's mind, he realized that something was wrong. The behavior of the German captain was too abnormal. How could an officer block a bullet for a soldier? It was simply illogical.

After a while, two German soldiers who were lying on the ground got up from the ground and rushed towards the building where Shamrich and others were, shooting continuously while rushing. But their behavior was like hitting a stone with a pebble. The sharpshooter lying near the machine gun quickly aimed at the rushing enemy and fired two shots in a row. The two German soldiers who rushed over staggered and fell, throwing their heads on the muddy ground. The remaining German soldiers were so frightened that they hurriedly suspended their attack, and continued to lie on the ground and raise their guns to shoot at each other.

"Deputy Battalion Commander," Shamrih realized something was wrong when he saw this scene, so he said to Yakuda, "Do you think there is something wrong with these Germans?"

"No, Jing, what's wrong?"

Seeing that Yakov didn't understand what he meant, Shamrich explained to him: "If the Germans were intercepted by our firepower in the past, their first reaction was to withdraw first, and then look for a suitable opportunity to charge again. Instead of lying on the open ground stupidly like now, let our machine guns be used as targets."

"Comrade Battalion Commander, after hearing what you said, I also feel that this group of enemies is a bit weird, but I can't figure out what the problem is for the time being."

"Don't think about it if you don't understand it." Although Shamrihe knew what was going on with this group of enemies, he had already made up his mind to wipe out all these enemies completely, so he ordered Yakuda: "Deputy Comrade Battalion Commander, don’t we still have a mortar? Move upstairs immediately, and I’m going to blow up those damned German soldiers with shells.”

It wasn't long before the mortars were moved upstairs.

The gunner is a veteran with rich combat experience and technical and tactical skills. After Shamrih indicated the target, he took a short aim and started shelling.

The shell fell near the crowd and exploded. Limbs flew across the sky in the thick smoke, and bloody stumps and broken arms were thrown flying all over the sky.

"Good job!" Seeing that the gunner had achieved the result with the first shot, Shamrich couldn't help smiling and said, "Continue to shell, don't leave a single German behind!"

When the shells fell and exploded one after another, a German soldier lying on the ground could no longer hold his breath. He suddenly got up from the ground and ran towards the east building. Unexpectedly, just after he ran more than ten steps, a mortar shell fell beside him. After a loud "boom", Shamrikh saw with his own eyes that in a cloud of thick smoke, a living person instantly disappeared. Disappeared without a trace.

Under the joint attack of machine guns and mortars, the German soldiers in the open space were wiped out one after another. Seeing that all the escaped enemies had been wiped out, Shamrich turned his attention to the building where the German Army Command was located, and he said to Yakuda: "Deputy Battalion Commander, the company has been fighting inside for a long time. , but the building has not been captured yet. Now you immediately lead the Second Company to rush over to support, and you must capture the German headquarters in the shortest possible time."

"Don't worry, Comrade Battalion Commander." Yakuda replied loudly: "We sailors have never encountered a mission that cannot be completed. Just wait for my good news."

After Yakuda left, Shamrih walked up to the machine gunner, bent down and said to him: "Comrade machine gunner, your task is to seal off the open space between the two buildings, so that the enemies in the building cannot If you escape, you can’t let the enemies outside rush over to support the enemies in the building.”

"Comrade Battalion Commander, as long as I'm here, no enemy can rush over."

The German division commander died in the chaos, but Shamrich didn't notice it at all. On the contrary, he thought that the opponent was still in the basement, so he asked the deputy battalion commander, Captain Yakuda, to lead the second company to reinforce the first company, so as to ensure that the building with the enemy's headquarters was taken down in the shortest possible time.

The chief of staff of the German army didn't know that the division commander had encountered an accident. He raised his hand and looked at his watch. Half an hour had passed since the division commander left. transfer.

Before they finished packing up, a fierce battle broke out at the entrance to the basement. There was a fierce exchange of fire between the sentry guarding the entrance and the Soviet soldiers rushing in.

Fortunately, the terrain in the basement is complicated and there are many houses. The German army can rely on various buildings to resist tenaciously, so that the Soviet army cannot attack for a while.

A major came over and reported to the chief of staff: "Chief of staff, the Russians blocked the exit of the basement, we can't get out, what should we do next?"

"Stand up! Order the soldiers to stand up firmly!" The chief of staff quickly shouted: "The Russians must not be allowed to rush in, otherwise we will all be finished."

While the battle in the settlement was in full swing, Sokov, who was staying at the temporary headquarters, had become more relaxed. He knew that according to the current progress, the German 255th Infantry Division would definitely be eliminated before dark.

The phone on the table rang, and Sokov grabbed the receiver. It was Vatutin who called: "Major General Sokov, I have heard about Lieutenant Paul. Although I haven't received your detailed report yet, I have sent someone to send you a Order of the Red Banner. At the same time, after the research of the head of the front army, it was decided to promote him to the rank of captain."

Although after one battle, he won a Red Banner Medal and was promoted to two ranks, but Sokov didn't feel awkward at all. After all, these things were Lieutenant Paul. No, they should be called Captain Paul now. In exchange for my own blood and bravery.

"Understood, Comrade General." Sokov understood what Vatutin meant. Since he had sent someone to send the medal, it meant that he had to complete the award ceremony as soon as possible, and use this to motivate the morale of the troops: "I will Arrange for the award as soon as possible."

After putting down the phone, Sokov asked Sameko, "Chief of Staff, do you know where the Ninth Company Commander, Lieutenant Paul, is?"

"I heard that he was seriously injured in the battle," Sameko replied, "I have arranged for someone to bring him here. The medical skills of the hospital directly under the army must be better than that of the health workers in the army."

"Chief of Staff, and you, Comrade Military Commissar, I will relay to you General Vatutin's order." Sokov called Sameko and Lunev to him, and said to them, "As soon as possible, arrange for Paul The lieutenant's award and promotion ceremony. The Order of the Red Banner for the award is being sent to us."

Half an hour later, Paul and the Order of the Red Banner arrived at the headquarters at the same time.

Paul was arranged in an unoccupied tent, and Sokov brought someone in to honor him.

After entering the tent and seeing that Paul had opened his eyes, Sokov bent down and asked with concern: "Comrade Paul, how do you feel now?"

Paul recognized Sokov, squeezed a smile on his face and said, "Thank you, Comrade Commander, for your concern. I feel much better, but I'm so weak that I can't even sit up."

To be awarded an honor, he must not lie on the hospital bed. Sokov hurriedly gestured to Samoilov, signaling him to call two soldiers to help Paul sit up.

After Paul was helped to sit up by the soldiers brought by Samoilov, Sokov said to Sameko: "Comrade Chief of Staff, you can start."

Sameko nodded, unfolded a piece of paper that he had already held in his hand, and read solemnly: "In view of the bravery and heroism shown in the battle against the Japanese invaders, hereby grant Lieutenant Paul of the Order of the Red Banner."

After Sameko read out the award order, he said to Samoilov beside him, "It's your turn, Comrade Lieutenant."

Samoilov held a red box in his hand. After hearing Sameko's order, he opened the box, took out a medal inside, handed the box to the soldier next to him, and walked quickly to Lying on the hospital bed Paul.

Samoilov came to Paul's side, bent slightly, turned up one side of Paul's hospital gown, made a hole in it with an awl, inserted the pin of the medal, and then used a small The nut is tightened from the inside.