Red Moscow

Boxes of shells were opened and placed in front of the six mortars ready to fire. In order to ensure that everything was safe, Lieutenant Chernushenko also personally measured the ruler, and after confirming that it was correct, he decisively issued the order to fire.

The shells fired screamed across the sky and smashed into the German marching ranks. The soldiers near the bombing point were directly blown away by the air waves, and the shrapnel flew around with a sharp whistling sound, either cutting down the soldiers next to them or hitting the armor plate of the tank with clanging noises.

The German soldiers who were marching were suddenly shelled, and a few soldiers who reacted quickly lay down on the spot to avoid the shelling. Most of the soldiers either stood there in a daze, looking around for the direction the shells were coming from, or scurrying around like headless flies.

Seeing that the enemy in the distance was in a mess, the two machine gunners turned their eyes to Afanasyev, wondering why their platoon leader hadn't given the order to shoot. "Comrade Lieutenant," Vasily asked Afanasyev in a low voice, seeing Afanasyev's delay in giving the order to shoot, and worried about causing Sokov's dissatisfaction, "Why didn't you fire?"

"Wait a minute, Sergeant Vasily, wait a little longer." Afanasyev stared at the German soldiers who were being bombarded dizzily in the distance, and said without looking back: "The enemy is not chaotic enough, wait for them If it is a little more chaotic, we will use machine guns to shoot them, so as to inflict the greatest casualties on them."

When the artillerymen and machine gunners fired, Sokov, who was standing aside, didn't express any opinion. He just stared at the enemy in the distance, wondering in his heart whether the five minutes set by him was a bit short. You know, tank soldiers The field of view inside the tank is limited, and it takes a long time to find out where the shells are coming from. His subordinates can just use this precious time difference to destroy more enemies.

Seeing that Sokov did not speak, Vasily set up the sniper rifle in his hand, preparing to kill a few valuable targets while the enemy was in chaos. As soon as the gun was mounted, the top of a tank parked in the middle of the road was opened, and a tank operator in a black one-piece tank uniform cautiously poked out half of his body from the turret. He put his hands on the hatch and looked around with his eyes, as if trying to figure out where the shells were coming from.

Vasily quickly locked on to the target, and lightly pulled the trigger, only to hear a "snap" sound, the bullet quickly drilled into the tank soldier's forehead, and flew out from the back of his head with a trace of blood foam. The tank soldier threw his head back, paused, and then slid into the turret.

"Good fight, Sergeant Vasily." Seeing that Vasily killed the tank soldier who appeared in front of him with one shot, Sokov yelled at him, and then said to him: "The enemy tanker probably wants to find out where the artillery fire came from." direction, that’s why you came out to observe. You keep a close eye on them, and kill one as soon as you come out.”

Vasily moved his eyes away from the scope, and shouted to a soldier next to him: "Call quickly, and call some snipers." After finishing the order, he put his eyes close to the scope again, and continued Search the tanks parked on the streets to see if there are any tank soldiers who are not afraid of death coming out as targets.

Sokov felt that using snipers to overwhelm the German tankers and prevent them from making effective observations would allow the bombardment of the enemy to last longer. Thinking of this, he shouted at Chernushenko: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, let someone bring up some more boxes of shells. While the Germans are in chaos, we must teach them a lesson."

"Understood." Chernushenko agreed, walked quickly to the soldier who was calling, knelt down and said to him: "When you let those snipers come up, call a few more people, each carrying a box of shells." , we will use shells to teach the Germans a lesson they will never forget."

In less than three minutes, more than a dozen soldiers came from the hula ground downstairs, and they all carried a box of shells. As soon as a few soldiers put the shell box next to the mortar, they quickly ran to the side of the roof, took off the sniper rifles on their backs, and began to aim at the chaotic German soldiers in the distance.

With new snipers in place, the German nightmare has arrived. Not only the tank soldiers who emerged from the tanks became the priority targets of sniping, even those officers who stood in the middle of the road and waved their pistols, trying to keep the soldiers from running around, became the guns of the snipers one by one. down the dead soul.

Seeing that the German soldiers were in a mess, Lieutenant Afanasyev finally gave the order to shoot. The machine gunners, who had been suffocating for a long time, immediately aimed at the German soldiers running around, and pulled the trigger fiercely, as if they wanted to shoot out all the resentment they were full of with the bullets.

The German soldiers crowded in the middle of the road were unable to dodge in time, their bodies were riddled with holes from the scorching bullets, and they all lay down in a short time. But with the firing of machine guns, the surviving German soldiers finally found out where the attack came from. They quickly hid in the blind spot of the shooting, and fought back in the direction of the Vasily Building.

Second Lieutenant Chernushenko's mortar team immediately adjusted the shooting angle and bombarded the place where the enemy's gunshots were the most intensive. The shells that exploded one after another lifted many of the enemies who had fired, and landed heavily on other places. The masonry of the ruins became a sharp weapon in the explosion, smashing the German soldiers hiding nearby to howling.

During the entire battle, the German tank soldiers were the most aggrieved. Although they could pass through the lookout holes, they could see the shells falling around and explode, and they could hear the sound of shrapnel hitting the armor plate, but they could not see the enemy clearly. Where did the attack come from. Finally, someone took the risk of probing out, but before he could see the target clearly, he was killed by the opponent's sniper. After more than a dozen tank soldiers died in a row, all the tankers hid in their tanks and did not dare to stand up easily.

But just when they were desperate, a bloody German officer got into the tank from the bottom of a tank and shouted at the surviving tankers: "The Russians, the Russians are in the building to the south, Kill them immediately with artillery fire."

The tank crew in this tank immediately reported the news to other tanks by radio. The tank soldiers who were worried about not having an attack target immediately moved into action, slowly turning the turret, preparing to use artillery fire to suppress the Soviet firepower in the building.

Sokov, who had been observing the situation on the battlefield, saw that the muzzles of the enemy tanks had slowly turned to his position, and guessed that the enemy must have figured out which direction they were attacked from. He hastily put down the binoculars, and shouted loudly at the commanders and fighters who were fighting in full swing: "Everyone listen to my order and retreat downstairs immediately. The enemy tanks are about to start shelling."

But because the guns were too loud, the soldiers didn't hear Sokov's order clearly. Seryozha, who was always standing behind Sokov as a human background, saw no reaction from everyone, guessed that they must have not heard Sokov's order, and repeated Sokov's order loudly to everyone.

As soon as Seryozha spoke in a loud voice, all the soldiers heard it. Although everyone still wanted to stay on the roof and lecture the Germans severely, the military orders were like mountains. Since Sokov had issued the order to retreat, there was no one Room for negotiation. The artillerymen and machine gunners packed up their weapons and retreated down the stairs in an orderly manner.

Sokov saw that Vasily and several snipers were still holding guns and shooting at the enemy in the distance, so he bent over and ran behind him, shouting at him: "Sergeant Vasily, I have ordered The troops have retreated, why don't you withdraw?"

"Comrade Commander," Vasily tilted his head and said to Sokov while continuing to shoot, "You retreat first, I want to eliminate a few more German devils."

"That's enough, Sergeant Vasily, I order you to retreat immediately." Sokov was worried that Vasily would not want to retreat because of his sudden excitement. If the building was blown down by German artillery fire, the people on the roof would be in trouble. few. He didn't want to lose this sniper god, so he said in a stern tone: "This is my order, execute it immediately."

Hearing the displeasure in Sokov's tone, Vasily could only put away the sniper rifle with regret, and reluctantly agreed: "Yes, I will retreat now!" After speaking, he called the snipers to retreat together.

Seeing that all the commanders and fighters upstairs had withdrawn, Sokov took Seryosha towards the stairs. Unexpectedly, as soon as they reached the stairs, they heard a loud "boom", and then the whole floor shook violently, knocking Sokov and Seryozha to the ground.

"No, Misha, it's the German tanks that fired at the building." Even though Seryozha had rarely participated in battles since he became the company commander of the guard, it didn't mean he had no combat experience. From the explosion and the vibration of the floor just now, he judged that the enemy's tank was firing. He got up on hands and feet, helped Sokov up from the ground, and dragged him down the stairs.

Mortarists, machine gunners, and even snipers ran downstairs, but Vasily, fearing for Sokov's safety, remained on the stairs. Seeing Seryozha helping Sokov down the stairs, he hastily greeted him and asked with concern, "Comrade commander, are you injured?"

"No!" Sokov shook his head, and found that Vasily was the only one on the stairs. He thought to himself that those snipers came in a dozen or twenty seconds earlier than him, so how could they disappear so quickly? Could it be that they could fly? ? With this question in mind, he asked Vasily: "What about the others, why are none of them missing?"

Hearing Sokov's question, Vasily pointed to the steel pipe next to the stairs and said, "Comrade commander, the snipers have all slid down this steel pipe downstairs. When we snipe the enemy on the roof, the most afraid It was shelled or bombed, so the snipers thought of a way to erect a steel pipe here, so that they could evacuate from the roof of the building as quickly as possible."

Sokov wanted to slide down the steel pipe to the bottom of the building, but Seryozha disagreed: "Misha, I don't know if this steel pipe is strong or not. What if you slide halfway and the steel pipe breaks? I think we should still Run down the stairs."

Vasily also agreed with Seryozha's proposal: "Comrade commander, you did not slide over the steel pipe. If you use it rashly, I am worried that you will be injured. Let's go downstairs quickly before the enemy starts large-scale bombardment." .”

As soon as Sokov and others returned to the basement, they heard continuous gunfire from outside. A crumbling wall on the north side crashed under the shelling of German tanks. Fortunately, there were no soldiers hiding behind it, otherwise it must have been a disaster.

Vasily pulled the telephone on the table in front of him, grabbed the crank of the base and shook it a few times, then picked up the microphone and asked, "Hey, hey, observation post? How about reporting the situation outside?"

"Comrade Sergeant," Sokov heard Vasily calling the observation post, and hurriedly said to him: "The enemy will not attack us until the shelling stops. Let the observation post come back first, and don't let him stay behind." Adventure outside."

Vasily quickly covered the microphone with his hand, and explained to Sokov: "Comrade commander, the observation post I contacted is not set up in this building. He is hiding on the top of a nearby building and can clearly see all around us. environment of."

"You are so thoughtful. In that case, let him stay outside to monitor the enemy's movements."

"Hello!" Vasily let go of his hand covering the microphone, and said to the observation post: "Pay close attention to the enemy's movements, and report to me immediately if they find signs of attacking the building."

After putting down the phone, Vasily reported to Sokov with a relaxed face: "Comrade Commander, the observation post reported that the tanks of the enemy attacked by us have gathered together and are shelling our building..."

"Sergeant Vasily," Sokov thought that the observation post was not in the Vasily Building, so he might be able to see the casualties of the German army better, so he asked tentatively, "Can the observation post have a clear view of the enemy's casualties?"

Vasily shook his head and replied: "The building where the observation post is located is basically at the same level as ours. We can't see it clearly, and he can't see it clearly either."

"That's such a pity." Thinking of not being able to understand the losses just caused to the enemy in time, Sokov couldn't help but feel a little disappointed: "I really want to know how many enemies we killed just now."

"Comrade Commander, our sniper team probably killed more than a dozen enemies. In addition to the results achieved by mortar and machine gun fire, at least nearly two hundred enemies were killed." After Vasili finished talking about this data, he remembered again. One incident, and deliberately added, "A shell happened to smash through the open hatch of an enemy tank and caused an explosion. I think that tank can be counted as destroyed by us."

"Comrade Sergeant, the results you have achieved today are very good." Sokov did not expect such a small ambush to achieve such a result. According to his initial thought, it would be pretty good to kill fifty or sixty German soldiers. He raised his hand and patted Vasily on the shoulder, "I'll let the political commissar take credit for you."