Red Moscow

The reason why Sokov handed over the task of rescuing Victor to Kirilov was because during the later training at the Frunze Military Academy, Victor was a student that Kirillov valued very much. As a teacher, knowing that his students are in danger, there is no reason not to rescue them.

Sure enough, Kirillov was still very concerned about Victor's safety. As soon as Sokov finished speaking, he immediately said: "Comrade commander, I understand. Please allow me to hand over the command to the deputy division commander, and then Take two battalions personally and rush to rescue Lieutenant Colonel Victor."

"Lieutenant Colonel Kirillov, your speed is very important. Whether Lieutenant Colonel Victor can escape safely depends entirely on you."

"Don't worry, Comrade Commander." Kirillov said confidently, "I will definitely rescue them safely."

Besides, the assault battalion in the town of Golovanivsik has been divided into two parts by the German army in the town. One part is the first company and the third company under the command of Victor himself. They are relying on the church to resist the German attack with all their strength; The other part is dominated by the second company, with a small number of wounded troops from the first company, commanded by the commander of the second company, occupying the buildings on both sides of a street near the church, condescendingly blocking the enemy who tried to rush to the church from here.

Although the positions occupied by the assault battalion were good, because they charged forward lightly and did not carry much ammunition, after fighting for so long, it was inevitable that they would run out of ammunition.

The third company commander found Victor and reported to him: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, we are running out of ammunition. If the reinforcements do not arrive, I am afraid that the entire army may be in danger of being wiped out."

Victor was taken aback: "When we set off, not every commander and fighter carried a base amount of ammunition. How come the ammunition will be consumed so quickly?"

"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, you don't know something." The third company commander explained to Victor: "There are many new recruits in the team without much combat experience, and now they are fighting at night. In order to overcome the fear in their hearts, they are all Hold the trigger and the clip will be empty of bullets in one go."

Victor just asked Sokov for help not long ago, but he knew in his heart that even if Sokov wanted to send someone to rescue him, it would be impossible to arrive in a short time. Now only by letting the commanders and fighters save ammunition can they last The arrival of reinforcements. He could only helplessly say to the third company commander: "Comrade Captain, tell the soldiers to save ammunition, we still need to persist here for a long time."

"Okay, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I will convey your meaning to the soldiers."

Just when the third company commander was about to leave, Victor stopped him and asked with concern, "Have you contacted the second company?"

"No, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel." The commander of the third company shook his head and said, "The enemy blocked the road between us and the second company with firepower, and I sent several soldiers in a row, but they failed to pass through the enemy's fire blockade. "

"We still have to find a way to get in touch with Erlian," although Victor knew in his heart that sending someone to contact Erlian was tantamount to letting others die. However, in this case, we can only take risks. After all, such separate battles, in the end, will be defeated by the Germans one by one: "Now we don't know the situation of the second company, and the second company is very important to us. The situation is also not understood, which makes it impossible for the two sides to achieve mutual support."

Regarding the order issued by Victor, the third company commander could only bite the bullet and agree: "Okay, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I will send someone to contact you as soon as possible."

"Wait a minute, Comrade Captain." Victor saw the embarrassment on the face of the third company commander, and said to him: "Although the enemy blocked the passage between us and the second company with firepower, it is night now, and the Germans' Visibility is limited, as long as the person sent to make contact, don't walk on the street ostentatiously, it will be difficult for the Germans to spot them. Do you understand?"

The third company commander was taken aback when he heard this, then nodded vigorously, and said, "So that's the case. Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I understand what you mean, and I know how to let the soldiers pass through the enemy's fire blockade."

Seeing the third company commander limping forward, Victor said another sentence behind him: "Comrade captain, you are injured and unable to move. If there is anything wrong, send a soldier to tell me." That’s fine, you don’t need to run around yourself.”

Faced with Victor's concern, the third company commander stopped, turned around and nodded at him, and said with a smile, "I see, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, thank you for your kindness."

The third company commander returned to the position outside the church, found a veteran named Luojima, and told him: "Comrade Luojima, I have an important task for you to complete."

Lokima saw with his own eyes that several soldiers sent by the third company commander died unfortunately while passing through the German fire blockade. At this moment, the third company commander took the initiative to find him, indicating that he planned to let him perform this extremely dangerous task.

"Comrade Company Commander," since you can't avoid it anyway, it's better to act proactively, Lokima asked the third company commander: "Are you going to send me to establish contact with the Second Company?"

"Yes, Comrade Lokima." Seeing that the other party had already guessed his intentions, the commander of the third company said truthfully: "The enemy's firepower has blocked the road between us and the second company. If we go to carry out this task, then The chance of surviving will be infinitely close to zero, you have to think carefully. If you don't want to go, I won't force you..."

"Comrade Company Commander," Lokima said unexpectedly, "I accept this mission."

"This is really great." The third company commander held Lokima's hand and began to assign tasks to him: "After you see the second company commander, tell him to bombard the enemies who try to approach the church with new rockets , to reduce the pressure on our defense." The reason why such an order was issued was because most of the new rockets that they brought when they came here this time were in the hands of the second company.

"Understood, Comrade Company Commander, I will pass on your words to the Second Company Commander." Perhaps thinking that the gun was in the way, Lokima handed the weapon in his hand to a recruit next to him, and said to him: "Recruit, Keep it for me, and return it to me when I come back from the second company position."

Long before the outbreak of the war, Lokima was a veteran with more than ten years of military experience, and he was able to survive until now entirely because of his rich battlefield experience. Therefore, after leaving the fortifications in front of the church, he did not rush straight forward like the previous recruits, trying to rush through the rain of German bullets. It's a pity that no matter how fast people run, they can't run away from the bullets. Several people only ran a dozen meters before falling into a pool of blood.

Therefore, Lokima crawled away from the defensive position in front of the church, and as soon as he entered the shooting area of ​​​​the German machine guns, he pressed his body tightly to the ground and squirmed forward little by little. His movements were so slow that even the Third Company Commander, who was staring at him intently, thought he was lying on the spot without moving.

After seeing Lokima climbed 70 to 80 meters, the commander of the third company suddenly felt more at ease. As long as he climbed more than 40 meters forward, he would be able to enter the dead zone of the German machine guns, and the safety factor would be greatly improved. improved.

At this moment, the German army suddenly fired a flare, and the surroundings of the church were suddenly illuminated. Seeing this, the third company commander yelled in his heart that it was not good. He was afraid that Luo Jima would be discovered by the enemy, and his success would be in vain.

The moment the flares rose, Lokima, who was crawling forward, was also taken aback. In order to prevent being discovered by the Germans and being shot by machine guns, he could only lie on the ground and pretend to be dead. Fortunately, there were corpses lying around him, both from the Soviet army and from the Germans. The German machine gunners in the distance did not find a living person hidden in the corpses.

When the flares went out, Lokima still lay in the distance and did not move. He was worried that the Germans would fire the flares again. If he happened to be moving at that time, wouldn't he be a target for the Germans? It was precisely because of this consideration that he did not crawl forward rashly.

Sure enough, the Germans quickly fired new flares to see if any Soviet troops tried to pass on the road they blocked. Lokima, who lay motionless on the spot, naturally dodged again without any danger.

The commander of the third company on the ground couldn't help but feel anxious when he saw the Germans firing flares again. Order someone to destroy the enemy's firepower point. The position of the German machine gunner is exactly the dead angle of the two positions of the Soviet army, and they cannot be hit at all. Therefore, he could only pray secretly in his heart, hoping that Lokima could reach the second company's defense area smoothly.

Lokima, who was lying on the ground, was also thinking of a way. He accidentally saw the corpse of the German soldier lying beside him. The tattered military uniform was torn and stained with blood. With an idea, he tore off a piece of blood cloth, covered his head, and continued to crawl forward cautiously.

When the flares came up, he lay there motionless. Even if a German machine gunner saw him, he would think it was just a corpse covered in a bloody cloth, and he would not observe it carefully. In this way, with his own intelligence, Lokima successfully climbed the road of death.

Seeing that Lokima passed through the death zone smoothly, the third company commander pumped his fist excitedly, and said in his mouth: "It's great, Lokima is really great, unexpectedly passed the enemy's blockade line smoothly."

Besides, after Lokima passed the road of death, he soon encountered the soldiers of the second company. Fortunately, he was a veteran of the company, and the soldier happened to know him, so he took him directly to see the second company commander.

Seeing that it was Luojima who came, the second company commander asked curiously: "Luojima, how is the situation in the church?"

"Not very good, Comrade Captain." Lokima wiped the sweat from his forehead and said to the second company commander: "When we rushed into the church, the commander of the German army had already retreated to the basement of the church. We have no ability to destroy them, so we can only block the exit and wait for them to come out by themselves."

"It seems that your situation is not good." The second company commander shook his head and asked, "Tell me, what orders does the lieutenant colonel have?"

"He authorized you to use new rockets to attack those enemies who try to approach the church, so as to reduce the defensive pressure of the third company."

"How many people are left in Sanlian?"

After a moment of silence, Lokima replied: "Including the first company, we have more than seventy people left, many of whom are wounded."

"The situation here is better." The second company commander said: "The whole company plus the wounded of the first company, there are about 80 people, and we occupy a favorable terrain, the Germans will not be able to attack for a while."

He paused for a moment, then asked tentatively: "Rockima, you are at the church, have you heard any news?"

"What news?" Lokima asked in confusion.

"That's, that's..." The Second Company Commander said with some embarrassment: "It's the news about when the reinforcements will arrive. You are not an outsider, so I will not hide anything from you. Don't worry about the enemy's delay in attacking, but Our ammunition is almost exhausted, if we continue to fight, we can only let the soldiers fight the enemy with bayonets."

"I'm sorry, Comrade Captain." Lokima spread his hands, shrugged his shoulders, and said helplessly, "I'm just an ordinary soldier, and I've been fighting on the defensive position outside the church. When will reinforcements arrive?"

As a commander, the second company commander knew something about the situation before participating in this operation. He thought that as long as his troops invaded the town, the friendly troops in front of the town would be able to launch an attack in time and rush into the town to join forces with his side. But now they have been fighting in the town for more than three hours, but they haven't seen any friendly troops yet.

Lokima guessed what the second company commander was thinking, and quickly said to him: "Comrade Captain, you heard gunfire from the south of the town, maybe our reinforcements are about to come, but the Germans temporarily blocked the way. I believe that it won't be long before they will be able to come over and join us."

"Luojima, I don't have any hope for the friendly forces in the south." The second company commander said to Luojima with a wry smile: "The gunshots from that direction rang out for more than an hour. When the gunshots just rang out, The enemy who was attacking us chose to retreat, and seemed to go there to stop our attack. But less than a quarter of an hour later, some of the enemies who left returned and continued to participate in our attack.”

"Alarm, battle alert." Someone shouted from somewhere, and soon the shouts became one: "The Germans are coming up, hurry up and get ready for battle."

Amidst the shouts, gunshots rang out, and some soldiers fired at the enemies that appeared in their field of vision.

But a moment later, a whistle sounded in the distance. Hearing the familiar melody, the second company commander quickly issued orders loudly: "Stop shooting, stop shooting, it's our own people, don't shoot anymore, or you will hit your own people."

After the gunfire stopped, the second company commander quickly sent two soldiers to check where there was movement, trying to find out what happened.

Watching the two soldiers leave, Lokima asked the Second Company Commander curiously: "Comrade Captain, what is going on, why are our people appearing in the east?"

"Yeah, I'm also very strange." The second company commander nodded and said, "If our army broke through the German defense outside the town, it should have appeared from the south. Why did it appear in the east? It's really shocking." Puzzling."

A few minutes later, the two sent soldiers returned, and five or six others came with them.

A soldier walking in the front, seeing the second company commander, waved his hands desperately, and shouted: "Comrade company commander! Our own people, our own people, our reinforcements have arrived!"

"The reinforcements have arrived?" Although the commander of the second company had been looking forward to the reinforcements, but now he heard the soldiers' report, he was full of doubts: "Which part are they from?"

At this time, the group of people had already come to the front, and one of them walked out from the crowd, and greeted the second company commander with a smile: "Comrade Captain, do you know me?"

The second company commander squinted his eyes and looked at the other party. After a while, he exclaimed: "Lieutenant Colonel Kirillov, you are Lieutenant Colonel Kirillov! If I am not mistaken, you are Kiri, the acting commander of the 252nd Division." Lieutenant Colonel Love."