Red Moscow

Before Izvikov decided to incorporate his guerrillas into the army, he had thought about it. Although his army had reached 1,500 people, there were only two or three hundred people who were really capable of fighting. Disbanded regular army. After I put on the military uniform, I can serve as a company commander and give myself the rank of captain, which is already considered very good.

However, he was somewhat lucky, and felt that if General Kurishenko felt that he had brought a lot of troops and was happy for a while, it was entirely possible for him to be the regiment leader and conferred the rank of lieutenant colonel. Hearing that Sokov appointed himself as the commander of the Second Guard Battalion and awarded him the rank of major, although he felt a little disappointed, he still felt that it exceeded his expectations.

After arranging Izvikov's position, Sokov asked Kurishenko: "General Kurishenko, can you establish contact with General Afunin?"

"Yes, Comrade Commander." Kurishenko nodded and said, "Our communications soldiers are very competent. They have laid the telephone line with the military headquarters, and we can directly communicate with the military commander by phone. "

Knowing that he could talk directly to Afunin on the phone, Sokov was also very happy. He told Sidolin: "Comrade Chief of Staff, please let the communications corps get through to the army headquarters. I want to talk to Afunin." The general is calling."

After the call was connected, Sokov straight to the point asked Afunin who answered the phone: "General Afunin, this is Sokov. Report to me immediately about the situation there."

Afunin's relieved voice came from the receiver: "Comrade Commander, thank God, I finally got in touch with you."

Sokov was taken aback: "Why, General Afunin, can't you get in touch with the Army Command?"

"Yes, Comrade Commander. No matter how you call, there is no response from the Army Group Command."

Hearing what Afunin said, Sokov thought about it for a while, and guessed that Smirnov must be taking the headquarters to transfer, so naturally he couldn't establish contact with the troops below. "I think the headquarters may be moving, so you can't get in touch for the time being."

"Comrade Commander, aren't you at the headquarters?"

"Yes, I'm in General Kurishenko's headquarters." Sokov briefly explained where he was, and then continued to ask: "How is the situation there, please report to me quickly."

"Since you are at the headquarters of the 41st Guards Division, you naturally know that Haixin was occupied by our army without any battle." Afuning said on the phone: "The information we received at that time, regardless of Haixin's The German army is retreating, and even the German army in Japelik is retreating hastily."

"That's right, the same information I received at the time." Sukov seemed a little unhappy when he heard Afunin's tone, guessing that something unexpected happened during the battle to capture Japlik, and then He asked tentatively, "General Afunin, is there something wrong?"

"Yes, Comrade Commander, something went wrong."

"what is the problem?"

"The 3rd Guards Airborne Division was the first to arrive outside the city of Teplik, so after hearing from the refugees that the German troops in the city had all retreated, Colonel Konev sent a battalion into the city." Afunin's tone changed. It became heavy: "Unexpectedly, as soon as I entered the city, I was approached by the German army. After a fierce battle, only one company withdrew from the city."

When Sokov learned that two-thirds of the troops that had entered the city had suffered casualties, he couldn't help being surprised, and quickly asked, "Then what are you doing now?"

"I am organizing troops to attack the city." Afunin said: "However, the progress is not going well. Our troops have not yet been able to break through the outer positions of the German army."

Hearing this, Sokov couldn't help frowning. He asked Kurishenko to bring the map, looked at it carefully, and said into the microphone: "General Afunin, I looked at the map. Teplik The east side of the city is dangerous, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it is not easy to deploy offensive troops. If you attack from this direction, you will not invest too many troops at one time, and it will be a refueling tactic. You need to adjust your tactics immediately, otherwise you will only It will increase the casualties of the troops in vain."

"Comrade Commander," Afunin waited for Sokov to finish speaking, and asked tentatively, "You mean, you want me to send troops around from the flanks to form an encirclement of Jaiplik?"

"Jeplik is a small city, and there won't be too many defenders in the city." Sokov said: "You have two divisions in your hands now, and you shouldn't have any problems encircling them."

"However, my troops are not familiar with the terrain here." Afuning said with some embarrassment: "Besides, there are forests on the north and south sides of the city. I am worried that the detour troops will get lost in the forest, and they may make mistakes." event."

Hearing Afunin's prevarication, Sokov didn't have a fit, but covered the microphone with his hand, and asked Izvekov who was standing not far away: "Comrade Major, I want to ask you, what is your command?" In what area do the guerrillas usually operate?"

Sokov asked this because the guerrillas under the command of Izvikov were not small. If there was not a large enough room for movement, the entire army would have been wiped out by the German army.

Izvikov naturally understood Sokov's intentions, and quickly pointed to the map and explained to the other party: "Comrade Commander, look, my troops are usually active in these areas."

Sokov looked in the direction of the opponent's finger, and couldn't help being secretly surprised. He really didn't expect that the guerrilla zone of this guerrilla team is really not small, not only Hessing and Teplik, but also Uman and Vinnitsa. In the area where they are active, it is no wonder that the German army has not been able to wipe them out.

"Are you familiar with the terrain of the guerrilla zone?"

"Of course." Izvekov nodded and said, "Not only Teplik and Hessing, but even Vinnytsia, my troops often go there."

"Let's not talk about Vinnytsia for the time being," Sokov worried that the other party would not finish talking, so he stopped him from continuing, but asked politely: "Now my troops are fighting on the outskirts of Japrik. Seeing the enemy's tenacious resistance, I plan to let them circle around from the two wings of the city and form a siege to the enemy in the city. How about it, do you have someone who is familiar with the terrain and can act as a guide for my troops?"

"No problem." Izvikov nodded and said, "Two of my subordinates are forest watchers in the forest outside Teplik. No one is more familiar with the terrain than them."

"Very good." Knowing that Izvekov had a former forest watcher under his command, Sokov felt at ease. He let go of his hand covering the microphone and said, "General Afunin, I found Two former foresters, they are very familiar with the terrain outside Jaiplik City, I will send someone to send them there to act as your guides."

"What, forest watchers?" There was surprise in Afunin's voice: "Great, this is really great. With them as guides, my troops can easily detour to the enemy's rear. Form a siege against them."

After finishing the phone call, Sokov put down the receiver, took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, distributed one to Kurishenko and Sidolin, then handed another to Izvikov, and smoked it himself. The match lit a cigarette for him, and he asked, "Comrade Major, you just said that Uman is also your guerrilla zone?"

"Yes, Comrade Commander, not only Uman, but even the vicinity of Vinnytsia is one of our active areas." Izvikov said triumphantly: "We blew up the German railways, bridges and culverts. , raiding their supply depots and lone German soldiers, arming and feeding themselves with captured supplies..."

Sokov listened patiently to Izvikov's experience of guerrilla warfare over the past two years and did not interrupt him. After the other party's words finally came to an end, he asked, "Comrade Major, I heard that the prisoner-of-war camp in the forest was liberated by you with the commanders and fighters of the Guards Division?"

"Yes, Comrade Commander." Hearing Sokov's question, Izvikov replied proudly: "We have noticed this place since the enemy built the prisoner-of-war camp. This time when our army counterattacked, we Naturally, we couldn't let this opportunity go, so we led the comrades of the Guards Division to liberate the place and released all the commanders and fighters imprisoned there."

"How many guards are there in the POW camp?" Sokov asked calmly.

"Probably one company." Izvikov replied, "Among them, the German army has a platoon with about 60 people, and two platoons of puppet troops composed of Ukrainian scum. The total strength is about 180 or so." people."

"A prisoner-of-war camp where more than 2,000 commanders and fighters of our army were held, there were less than 200 guards, and half of them were puppet troops with little combat effectiveness." The expression on Sokov's face became serious: "I want to ask I ask you, why didn't you try to rescue these commanders and fighters to enrich your troops?"

Izvekov blushed and explained with some embarrassment: "Someone in the guerrillas did propose this proposal, but it was rejected during the discussion."

Seeing Sokov's surprised face, he continued to explain: "You know, we are guerrillas after all, not a regular army. It is barely enough to attack the German army's weakly defended depots or transport teams. It’s not our forte.”

Perhaps because he was worried that Sokov would continue to ask, he actually took the initiative to bring up a past incident: "Comrade Commander, to tell you the truth, there were many regular troops who were dispersed in the guerrilla army at the beginning. They looked down on our guerrilla warfare and used to use The style of play of the regular army ended up being a big loss."

Izvekov's words aroused Sokov's interest: "Comrade Major, what's going on? You might as well tell me."

"The situation is like this, Comrade Commander." Seeing that Sokov was more interested in the past, Izvikov said to him: "My former deputy captain was a company commander of the Southwest Front Army. He once When leading troops to move around Uman, they accidentally discovered an open-pit mine, in which tens of thousands of commanders and fighters of our army were imprisoned..."

Hearing Izvikov mention the open-pit mine, Sokov couldn't help but his eyes sparkled. He was eager to know the specific situation, so he urged: "Go on, Comrade Major, keep talking. After you discover the mine pit, take another step." What measures?"

"After some reconnaissance, we found that there were only more than a hundred German troops guarding the open pit..."

"Wait a minute, Comrade Izvikov." Kurishenko couldn't help interrupting Izvikov when he heard this, he asked curiously: "You just said that there are tens of thousands of Our military commanders?"

"Yes, Comrade General."

"There are only a hundred or so Germans guarding them?"

"Yes, that is indeed the case."

"This is really strange." Kurishenko asked a little puzzled: "The German army has only more than a hundred guards, while our army has tens of thousands of prisoners of war. Even if they are unarmed, they will trample all of these Germans." died."

"Comrade General, you don't know that the open-pit mine is more than a hundred meters deep, and the road spirals down the rock wall." Izvekov explained to Kurishenko: "As long as two poles are placed on it Machine guns can completely block the road out of the pit. Even if the prisoners at the bottom of the pit rioted, they would not be able to pass through the blockade formed by the German machine gun fire.”

"General Kurishenko," Sokov saw that Kurishenko seemed to be about to continue asking, so he quickly stopped him, and then said to Izvikov: "Comrade major, please continue, your deputy captain." After the mine was discovered, what measures were taken? Did you take people to rescue the captured commanders?"

"You guessed right, Comrade Commander." Izvikov nodded and said, "The deputy captain led more than 80 soldiers from the regular army and launched an attack on the guards of the open pit. According to his idea , as long as he controls the exit of the mine pit and rescues the captured commanders and fighters inside, he can form an absolute advantage in numbers. It is very easy to eliminate more than one hundred Germans.

But what he didn't expect was that the Germans seemed to have only a hundred people on the surface, but in fact, they built a lot of firepower points and shelters around the mine, and a battalion of troops was hidden around. When the deputy captain rushed up, the Germans deliberately made way for them. After they entered the ambush circle, they immediately launched a siege. In less than a quarter of an hour, the deputy captain and his guerrillas were all sacrificed. "

"Cunning German." Sokov gritted his teeth and cursed, and then asked Izvikov: "Comrade Major, because of this incident, you have a shadow in your mind, so you saw the prisoners in the forest. I didn’t dare to try to rescue them when I was camping. Am I right?”

Izvikov nodded, agreeing with Sokov. He paused for a moment, and then said: "It is precisely because of that lesson that I didn't dare to take any action after I discovered the prisoner-of-war camp, lest the whole army be wiped out again. This time I saw the main force of the Guards Division coming. , I took them to the prisoner-of-war camp. I believe that with their strength, they can completely eliminate the guards guarding the prisoner-of-war camp. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived at the prisoner-of-war camp, the guards inside had already been polished. "

"Actually, that's not bad." Although Sokov felt that it was a pity to let the guards of the prisoner-of-war camp escape. But at the same time, this is also a good thing. At least more of the commanders and fighters detained in the prisoner-of-war camp can survive. "The guards in the prisoner-of-war camp escaped. When you liberate the prisoner-of-war camp, you can avoid some unnecessary casualties."