Red Moscow

"However, Your Excellency, Division Commander." Upon hearing this order, the Division Chief of Staff hurriedly reminded him cautiously: "There are still many of our wounded in the hospital. If we fire the artillery, we may accidentally injure them."

The German division commander, who was eager to eliminate the Soviet army in the hospital, didn't care about the safety of the wounded captured in the hospital. He said angrily: "Chief of Staff, do you think the Russians have occupied the hospital for so long, and our wounded can still live? It is estimated that it has been a long time ago." He was shot secretly by the Russians. Stop talking nonsense and order the artillery to fire immediately."

The chief of staff of the division pondered over what the division commander said and found it to be very reasonable. It is said that when the Skeleton Division occupied Kharkov at the beginning of the year, they could kill all the Russian wounded in the hospital. Now that the Russians have occupied the hospital, it seems reasonable to kill all the German wounded.

Thinking of this, the chief of staff of the division no longer hesitated: "Yes, your Excellency, as you wish, I will immediately notify the artillery regiment to fire and razed the buildings in the hospital to the ground."

The division commander nodded, and then said to the head of the regiment: "Colonel, after the artillery fire from the artillery regiment destroys the outpatient building, your troops need to rush into the hospital immediately, eliminate those Russians who are still alive, and avenge our killed wounded. "

"Don't worry, Master Commander." The commander of the German army said solemnly: "I will let the Russians pay the price in blood."

Not long after, 16 105mm artillery pieces from the Artillery Regiment of the 106th Infantry Division began shelling the outpatient building of the hospital. The outpatient building is a brick-and-concrete building, how could it withstand the bombardment of such a caliber of artillery, amidst the rumbling sound, the building was riddled with holes, and the commanders and fighters who stood firm in the building suffered heavy casualties.

Captain Narva saw that the situation was not good, and except for a few soldiers who stayed in the building as observation posts, the rest retreated into the basement of the building to reduce unnecessary casualties.

Guchakov, who was staying in the inpatient building, saw that enemy artillery was bombarding the outpatient building. Under the baptism of artillery fire, the outpatient building became precarious and threatened to collapse at any time.

Seeing this, Guchakov screamed in his heart that it was not good, and quickly ordered the second company to retreat into the inpatient building, preparing to rely on the terrain here to carry out the final resistance.

After the German bombardment lasted for seven or eight minutes, the outpatient building, which had been bombed beyond recognition, collapsed. The German commander, who was hiding in a nearby residential area to observe, immediately ordered his subordinates to attack the hospital again.

When the enemy who entered the gate of the hospital was about to rush into the outpatient building that was still shrouded in gunpowder smoke, sporadic gunshots suddenly sounded from the ruins, knocking down the German soldiers who rushed to the front, and scared the soldiers behind to lie down quickly, facing the bullets. He fired back in the direction he was flying.

Guchakov stood at a window of the inpatient department building, watching the figures of German officers and soldiers flashing from time to time in the gunpowder smoke, and he couldn't help sighing secretly. He was worried that the company standing there had been lost.

"Comrade Battalion Commander," Yegor, the commander of the second company, saw that the outpatient building was destroyed by enemy artillery fire, and the gunshots from assault rifles in the ruins were very sparse. The situation is dangerous, let me take the second company up to reinforce them?"

"No." Guchakov refused him unequivocally: "Now the outpatient building has been destroyed by enemy artillery fire, and the company's situation is unknown. If you rush out rashly, it is tantamount to death. I have no right to take your lives. adventure."

"But, Comrade Battalion Commander." Seeing that Guchakov rejected his request, Yegor stomped his feet anxiously: "Should we just sit and watch our company be wiped out by the enemy?"

"Captain Yegor," Guchakov turned his head to look at Yegor, and said with a serious expression: "Now the company's situation is unknown, rushing out rashly is death, I can't let you take risks." Seeing Yegor As if he wanted to say something, he turned his face hard and said sharply, "Don't you know that orders from superiors can only be executed and cannot be discussed?"

Yegor, who had hit a wall, could only shut his mouth obediently, walked to the window next to him, raised his binoculars and looked towards the outpatient building filled with gunpowder smoke, hoping to see his own figure in the smoke.

"Captain Seryozha," Guchakov called Seryozha to him after dismissing Yegor, "you go to the doctor and tell them to move all the wounded Germans to the basement, Said the Germans might be shelling us soon."

"Transfer all the German wounded to the basement?" Seryozha frowned and said, "Let them stay in the ward and let their own shells kill them all."

Guchakov turned to face Sergei, and said seriously: "Captain Sergei, if we want to kill these German prisoners, we should kill them all when we occupy this building. Now that we have agreed to let If they continue to stay here to recover from their injuries, they cannot break their promises and put them in danger."

After saying this, he rearranged the vocabulary in his mind and added: "If Comrade Commander was here, I think he would do the same."

Seeing that Guchakov carried Sokov out, Seryozha really couldn't refute, so he nodded and said, "Okay, Comrade Major, I will go to the doctor myself and ask him to transfer the wounded to the hospital." Go to the basement."

When Seryozha found the doctor in the medicine changing room, he was operating on a wounded Soviet soldier. Seeing Seryozha rushing in, he asked displeasedly, "Mr. Captain, what can you do?"

"Doctor," Seryozha said to the doctor angrily, "I'm here to inform you that all the wounded should be transferred to the basement immediately. Immediately, immediately, quickly!"

After Seryozha finished speaking to the doctor, he said to the slightly wounded who were standing nearby waiting for treatment: "You are responsible for assisting the doctor in moving all the wounded Germans to the basement, and you must move quickly. Understand?"

These wounded were all Sergey's subordinates. Hearing Sergey's order, he immediately replied unequivocally: "Understood, Comrade Company Commander."

When Sergey said that all the wounded German soldiers should be moved to the basement, the doctor not only shook his body, but then put down the scalpel and said loudly to Sergey: "Mr. Captain, you once promised me that you would Treat these wounded well and preferentially, you can't break your word."

Seryozha asked back: "Where did we break our word?"

"I know, you may not be able to withstand our army's attack, so you want to kill all the wounded before evacuating here." The doctor said angrily: "Otherwise, why would you transfer them all to the basement, where is The best place to store dead bodies."

After hearing the doctor's indignant words, Seryozha understood that the other party had misunderstood, and quickly raised his voice and said, "Doctor, you know, we are Sokov's troops, how could we not keep our promises? Since we agreed to let these wounded go , I will definitely embarrass them."

"Since you won't embarrass them, why take them to the basement for execution?"

"Who told you that we're going to take them to the basement to execute?" Seryozha explained with some embarrassment: "In order to occupy the hospital, the Germans have destroyed the outpatient building with artillery fire, and I believe the next target is the inpatient building. Do you think if the building collapses under your artillery fire, how many of the wounded in the wards will survive?"

The doctor had been helping the wounded Soviet soldiers treat their wounds just now, and had no idea that the outpatient building had been razed to the ground by the German artillery fire. Hearing what Seryozha said at this moment, after a brief astonishment, he tentatively asked: "You really won't shoot our wounded?"

"No, doctor, I assure you on my honor that we will never execute these wounded."

After receiving Sergey's assurance, the doctor called several nurses in the dressing room, followed him to the room where the wounded were, and announced to them that they would be transferred to the basement immediately.

A German soldier who lost his legs immediately yelled when he heard what the doctor said: "It's bad, the Russians are going to drag us all to the basement to be shot."

A stone stirred up waves, and the wounded soldier's cry immediately aroused the response of the other wounded: "Yes, the Russians definitely want to drag us to the basement to be shot. We won't go, we won't go."

Seeing the emotional excitement of dozens of wounded in the ward, Seryozha couldn't help but his face sank, and he said sharply to the doctor: "Doctor, although I can't understand what they are saying, I can feel their fear. You tell them immediately that the Germans may bombard this place soon. If you don’t want to die, you can honestly move to the basement. If you don’t want to go to the basement, we don’t force it, but all the consequences caused by this, It's their responsibility."

After hearing Sergesha's words, the doctor quickly waved his arms and shouted at the wounded soldiers: "Soldiers, please be quiet! Please listen to me!..."

Seeing that the doctor's voice was covered by the shouts of the wounded, several nurses nearby quickly followed suit. They yelled more than a dozen times in a row, and the wounded soldiers who lost their emotions were completely quiet.

Seeing that no one was talking in the ward, the doctor continued: "Soldiers, this captain promised me that they moved you to the basement for your safety, so this place may be bombarded by our army. If you continue to stay here, your life will be in danger."

"Can he trust his promise?" A wounded soldier in the corner asked suspiciously.

The wounded soldier asked the question in everyone's mind, and everyone's eyes were focused on Seryozha, wanting to hear how he would answer.

The doctor glanced at Seryozha, and went on: "The captain says he is Sokov's subordinate, and he assures me on his honor that he keeps his word."

After a moment of silence, the wounded soldier said: "If he is really a subordinate of General Sokov, then I believe what he said, and I will go to the basement." After speaking, the wounded soldier walked over with a cane .

Seeing someone taking the lead, the wounded soldiers who were still hesitant all took action one after another. The slightly wounded lifted the seriously wounded from the hospital bed and put them on stretchers, ready to carry them to the basement.

When Seryozha led the guard company to transfer the wounded Germans, the second company commander Yegor was standing at the door of the inpatient building, looking towards the outpatient building not far away. , suddenly saw four or five bloody Soviet soldiers rushing out of the gunpowder smoke, stumbling towards the direction of the inpatient building.

When Yegor saw this, he was about to order his subordinates to go out to respond, but he saw groups of German soldiers rushing out of the smoke behind them. Following these German soldiers was a car armored car. The German soldiers on the armored vehicle fired machine guns at the Soviet soldiers who were running back. Unfortunately, one of the soldiers was shot and fell heavily to the ground after turning twice in place.

At this moment, with a bang, the German armored vehicle turned into a ball of fire, and then began to burn blazingly. The machine gunner, who was still shooting just now, rolled off the armored vehicle in flames, rolling on the ground and screaming.

How could the enemy's armored vehicle explode? Yegor stared at the German soldiers rolling on the ground for a while, and suddenly saw the tanks parked behind the flower beds and fountains, and realized that one of the tanks might have fired.

Soon, Yegor heard the sound of machine guns firing. The running German soldiers seemed to have hit a transparent wall, and fell down one after another. Yegor took a closer look and found that it was the remaining few tanks , was using a vehicle-mounted machine gun to shoot at the enemies rushing over, knocking them down in pieces.

Under the cover of the tank, several soldiers stumbled to Yegor, and Yegor quickly ordered his subordinates to help the survivors into the building. He grabbed one of the soldiers and asked loudly, "Where is your company commander, Captain Narva? Where are the other soldiers?"

"I don't know, Comrade Captain." The terrified soldier shook his head and said, "When the enemy bombarded the building, I was stunned. When I woke up, I found that there were enemies all around, and the building was also collapsed by the artillery fire. I After shooting down a few enemies with a few comrades in arms, they escaped directly from the ruins."

Seeing that the soldier couldn't get the answer he wanted to know, Yegor was secretly disappointed. He asked several other survivors, and their answers were similar to the soldier's, with no useful clues at all.

Yegor waved to his subordinates in disappointment, motioning to take the surviving fighters to rest, while he himself went to the second floor to report to Guchakov.

Seeing Yegor approaching, Guchakov asked straight to the point: "Second Company Commander, what did the soldiers who escaped say, where are Captain Narva and the other soldiers?"

"I'm sorry, Comrade Battalion Commander." Yegor shook his head and said regretfully, "I didn't get any useful information from those soldiers."

"Second Company Commander," Guchakov didn't get the answer he wanted, and felt a little bit lost. He looked at the German officers and soldiers who had disappeared into the gunpowder smoke again, and said to Yegor without looking back: "Order your subordinates to do this." Get ready for battle, the enemy will soon attack us."

"Don't worry, Comrade Battalion Commander." Yegor said to Guchakov: "Our company's four machine guns are all mounted on the roof. As long as the enemy charges towards us, we can use firepower to block their way forward and give them causing massive casualties."

"You can't put all the machine guns on the roof." Guchakov shook his head and said, "When the enemy rushes downstairs, our machine gunners have to lean out in order to hit the target. A sniper's target."