Red Moscow

When Shechtman received the telegram from Sokov, he sneered and said to the political commissar: "Comrade political commissar, look at the telegram sent by the commander. What is written?"

Colonel Billing took the telegram, quickly browsed through the content, and said with a solemn expression: "Comrade Commander, it seems that the commander also found something wrong with the enemy. Under our attack, they retreated too quickly."

He put the telegram on the table, and then asked Shechtman: "Comrade Commander, if the commander's analysis is correct, the trap set by the enemy is to eat our division. How should we deal with it?"

"Comrade my political commissar, don't worry about it." Shechtman waved his hands and said, "If one of our divisions acts alone, I admit that it is possible. But now we are not fighting alone, except for the two behind us. divisions, and more troops are coming.

Even if the enemy really set a trap in the city and surrounded our division, as long as we hold on for a few hours, reinforcements will arrive and complete the encirclement of the enemy. At that time, we will be able to cooperate internally and externally to annihilate more enemies and reduce resistance for our next battle. "

For Shechtman's statement, Colonel Billing thought about it carefully, and felt that there was some truth. Anyway, the 84th and 188th divisions are now stationed in the outer positions in the north of the city. , They will definitely come to support in time.

Although other friendly forces have no chance of winning when they are equal in strength to the German army, even if my own army encounters an enemy with superior strength, it is still possible to win. Thinking about it this way, he didn't raise any rebuttals to Shechtman. He turned to look at the chief of staff next to him, and asked, "Comrade chief of staff, what do you think of the commander's order?"

Seeing that Colonel Billing asked himself, the chief of staff quickly replied: "Commander, political commissar, I think so. Since Comrade Commander has also made such a judgment, it proves that the enemy will really have some kind of conspiracy. To be on the safe side, I It is suggested that the main force of the division be withdrawn from the city, leaving only one regiment to stick to the existing position."

"Leave only one regiment to hold on to the occupied position?" Shechtman asked, frowning.

"Yes, there is only one regiment left in the city." The chief of staff explained to Shechtman: "In this way, even if we fall into the enemy's trap, only one regiment will be besieged, and then our other two regiments will Then attack the city and rescue the besieged troops."

"Comrade Commander, I think the chief of staff's proposal is good, and we can adopt it." Colonel Billing looked at Shechtman and asked, "What do you think?"

"Chief of Staff, which regiment do you think is better to stay?"

"How about the Prochenko regiment?" The chief of staff said cautiously: "Their regiment chief of staff, Lieutenant Colonel Vanya, is the commander's old subordinate. He is very good at dealing with the German surrender at night."

The designation of the Prochenko regiment is the 762nd regiment. When the regiment fought against the Banner Guard Division outside the city of Prokhorovka, it has achieved great results. Such a heroic team is responsible for the guarding of the city. Undoubtedly is very suitable. Shechtman immediately agreed with the chief of staff's proposal: "Yes, Colonel Prochenko's 762nd Regiment is responsible for the night defense of the city's positions, I think it is more appropriate."

Seeing that Shechtman agreed to his proposal, the chief of staff quickly picked up the phone on the table and called the 762nd regiment: "Hello, is the 762nd regiment? I am the chief of staff of the division. Find your regiment commander immediately." Colonel Prochenko speaks."

…………

An hour later, except for the commanders and fighters of the 762nd regiment, the rest of the troops quietly withdrew from Gergach and entered the night battle position that became known.

Seeing the friendly troops withdrawing from the city one after another, Colonel Prochenko, the head of the 762nd Regiment, asked his subordinates to bring him two bottles of vodka and some food to go with the wine, and called the chief of staff, Lieutenant Colonel Vanya, to start drinking .

"Comrade commander," Vanya said hesitantly when he saw the food and drink on the table, "According to the notice from the superior, the enemy may attack our regiment at night. It's not appropriate to drink here, is it?"

"What's inappropriate." Prochenko said disapprovingly: "Just two bottles of vodka, can we still drink you and me? Besides, we have strengthened our patrol force, even if the enemy launches a sneak attack on us, we can still be on the ground." Respond in the shortest possible time."

When Vanya heard what Prochenko said, he sat across from him hesitantly, and asked uneasy in his heart: "Comrade commander, is there really nothing wrong with the two of us drinking here?"

"Can there be anything?" Prochenko unscrewed the cap of a bottle of vodka with his hands, poured the wine into two teacups, then pushed one of them to Vanya, and said to him: "Comrade Chief of Staff , the temperature is low at night, we can drink some to keep out the cold, and at the same time have the right to have a midnight snack to relieve boredom.”

Now that Prochenko has already talked about this, it seems a bit hypocritical for Vanya to stop drinking for a long time. He picked up the tea mug and said to Prochenko: "Comrade commander, I offer you a toast, and I wish our regiment can achieve more victories tomorrow."

Prochenko picked up the tea mug, touched the tea mug in Vanya's hand lightly, and said confidently: "Comrade Chief of Staff, since the division asked our regiment to stay in the city and stand firm, it proves that the division commander, The political commissar thinks highly of us, and will definitely let our regiment continue to be the main attacker in the next battle."

Wine is good wine and food is good food. The two were drinking and chatting, and somehow the topic came to Sokov: "...Comrade Chief of Staff, you are an old subordinate of the commander. Tactics are very well understood. Tell me, what would you do if the Germans occupied some territory in the city you were holding on to?"

"According to the personality of Comrade Commander," Vanya took a sip of his wine, and continued, "he will definitely use the cover of night to launch a sneak attack on the enemy. We have done this before, directly killing the German army with rockets A regiment-level headquarters disrupted the German offensive the next day..."

"I've heard of this," Prochenko said, nodding his head. "It is said that after the rocket attack, the entire village was engulfed in flames. Except for the search troops, there is no one alive in the village."

"Comrade commander, I think of something and feel the need to report it to you." Hearing that the village was burned into a sea of ​​flames, Vanya suddenly remembered an important thing, and quickly said to Prochenko: " In many of the buildings we occupied, there were a lot of gasoline cans."

When Prochenko heard about this for the first time, he seemed a little absent-minded: "Could it be an empty oil barrel used by the German armored forces?"

"No." Vanya shook his head and said, "The tanks are full of gasoline, I feel something is wrong."

"What's wrong, my Comrade Chief of Staff." Prochenko once again raised the tea mug towards Vanya: "Maybe it's the fuel the enemy prepared for their armored forces, but because our attack was too fast, The enemy has not had time to remove the fuel..."

"I am worried that the enemy has left so many gasoline barrels behind, and there may be some kind of conspiracy."

"Chief of Staff, are you trying to say that the enemy is going to attack us with fire? Oh, it's windy outside," Prochenko sneezed several times: "It's still summer, and it's so cold at night. It seems that this year's It's not a good winter."

As soon as Prochenko said that the wind was blowing, Vanya stood up abruptly, went to the window and looked out, and there was indeed a wind blowing. He looked around, picked up a piece of paper from the ground, held it out of the window with his hand. After a while, as soon as he let go, the piece of paper was blown away by the wind.

Watching the paper quickly disappear into the darkness, Vanya said with some concern: "Comrade commander, something is not good. The southeast wind is blowing now. If the enemy takes the opportunity to launch a fire attack on us, we who are downwind It will be a big loss."

"Fire attack?! Is this impossible? You know, three-quarters of the city is still in the hands of the enemy. If they want to carry out a fire attack, they are not afraid of burning themselves?" Although Prochenko said Li didn't want to admit it, but at the same time, he was also aroused with doubts in his heart, especially when he was flustered by the word "fire attack".

"Comrade Commander, as I said just now, the enemy is on the windward side. If they set fire to it, we will be the only ones burned..." Before Vanya finished speaking, he suddenly saw flames bursting into the distance.

"No, the enemy set fire!" Vanya yelled, rushing to the telephone, ready to send an alarm to the battalion commanders under him.

"Damn it, the enemy really set fire to it!" Prochenko walked to the window, looked at several fires rising in the distance, and said emotionally: "Aren't they afraid of burning their own people?"

"Regiment, regimental commander!..." Before Vanya could make a call, a staff officer broke in from outside the door: "The Germans set fire to the city."

"What are you panicking? The enemy set fire to throw us into chaos. Immediately order all the personnel in the regiment headquarters to prepare for battle and retreat to meet the enemy's attack!"

"Comrade commander, there are a lot of wooden buildings in the city, and we are at a disadvantage. Even if we are not burned to death by fire, we will be suffocated by thick smoke." Seeing that the call was delayed, Vanya simply put the phone on the phone. Throwing it on the table, he said to Prochenko: "The top priority is to immediately move to the north of the city. As long as we exit the city, we will be safe."

Seeing that the microphone was thrown on the table, Prochenko knew that the battalions had not been contacted yet, so he couldn't help asking Vanya anxiously: "Comrade Chief of Staff, why don't you call."

"I can't get through the phone, Comrade Commander." Vanya sighed softly and said, "The enemy has already cut off our telephone line before setting fire to it. Now we can only send communications troops to notify the battalions and quickly withdraw from the city. In addition, so as not to be burned to death by the fire."

Communication soldiers one after another ran out from the regiment command post to the battalions to convey the retreat order. But the command posts of each battalion were scattered in the streets, and before they could reach the place and pass the order of the regiment headquarters to several battalion commanders, the original small flame had turned into a monstrous flame.

After receiving the order from the regiment headquarters, the battalion commanders quickly sent someone to convey the retreat order to the companies and platoons below. However, the one or two thousand commanders and fighters of the whole regiment live in different blocks and buildings. How can the retreat order be conveyed to them in time. In addition, the commanders and fighters are already exhausted after a day of fighting, and many of them are sleeping soundly at the moment. The person who notified them, how can they wake up and react immediately in a hurry.

After dispatching all the messengers, Prochenko and Vanya also left their headquarters, and found that the outside was in a mess, with groups of soldiers running up and down the street, shouting one after another . Thick smoke billowed in the direction of the street and flames shot up to the sky. Although there were still hundreds of meters away from here, the fire was about to burn along the street under the help of the wind.

"Comrade commander, let's retreat." Vanya shouted at Prochenko: "If we don't leave, we won't be able to leave."

Prochenko jumped into his jeep, and was about to tell the driver to drive, when suddenly, by the flickering firelight, he saw dense crowds appearing on the street. Hearing the cries that became clearer and clearer, he knew they were residents of the city. . Needless to say, they were scared out of their homes by the fire.

Seeing Prochenko about to jump out of the car, Vanya grabbed him and said, "Comrade commander, retreat quickly! It will be too late!"

"But there are still so many residents on the street, and the commanders and fighters of our regiment haven't withdrawn yet!"

"Let's go!" Although Vanya didn't know the idiom that kindness does not hold soldiers, but seeing the fire getting closer and closer, he knew that he and Prochenko would be burned to death on this street, so he I stopped talking nonsense with Prochenko, and while dragging the other party tightly, I told the driver: "Comrade driver, drive quickly!"

"Get out, I can't leave my subordinates, the residents of the city, and run for my life." Prochenko was angry, punched Vanya in the face, and shouted at the driver at the same time. : "Turn around, immediately turn around and go back to save people."

But Vanya resisted the pain on his face and shouted at the driver: "Don't turn around, keep going." After he finished shouting this sentence, he said to Prochenko, "Comrade commander, you are now If you turn around and go back, no one will be able to save you, on the contrary, you will risk your own life.”

Vanya poked his head out from the open car door, and shouted at an officer who was about to take his subordinates back to rescue people, "Comrade Captain, immediately lead your men to retreat north of the city."

"Comrade Chief of Staff," said the officer, recognizing Vanya, with a perplexed look on his face, "but there are so many residents ahead, they are about to be engulfed in flames..."

"You idiot! Didn't you see how fierce the fire was?" Vanya yelled at the other party: "How many people you bring there will die, hurry up and retreat north!"

The officer looked at the residents and Pao Ze who were running towards him in the distance, and his eyes couldn't help turning red. He knew very well in his heart that what Vanya said was very correct. If he led his people to rush up, it would be tantamount to death. He gritted his teeth and shouted to his subordinates: "Everyone listen to my order and head north immediately!" Retreat! Hurry up, stop dawdling, and retreat to the north!"

Hearing the officer's shout, the soldiers who were going to save people had no choice but to stop. After tearfully looking at the residents and Paoze in the fire not far away, they turned around and followed the jeep that Prochenko was riding in. Withdrew north of the city.