Red Moscow

As soon as Shapkin put down the phone, he shouted to his chief of staff: "Comrade chief of staff, immediately call the three division commanders and ask them to come to my headquarters immediately."

"Comrade Commander," the Chief of Staff replied with a smile after he finished speaking, "The three division commanders are more anxious than you when they see that you haven't assigned them combat missions." He pouted towards the door, " Well, they're all chatting outside the door."

"It's nonsense, it's nonsense." Shapkin said to the chief of staff with some displeasure: "Comrade chief of staff, the three division commanders are here, why don't you let them in? It's such a cold day, let them stay outside, if Frozen sick, who will command the battle? Quickly call them all in."

The chief of staff nodded, walked to the door, lifted the curtain, and said to the outside: "Three division commanders, comrades, the army commander invites you to come in!"

After a while, three officers wearing fur caps walked in from outside the command post. Following their entry, there was a biting cold air, which made the chief of staff shiver from the cold, and hastily put down the curtain.

The three division commanders came to Shapkin, raised their hands to salute after standing at attention, and said, "Report to Comrade Commander,..."

"Okay, okay, there's no need to report." Shapkin interrupted them, and turned to tell a staff officer next to him: "The three division commanders must have been frozen out after staying outside for so long, let them come alone A cup of hot tea."

"Comrade Commander, there is no time for tea." Major General Yakunin, the commander of the 21st Cavalry Division, stepped forward and said loudly, "Please give us a combat order for the 21st Cavalry Division."

Seeing that Yakunin asked Shapkin for the task first, the other two division commanders also took a step forward and said in unison: "Comrade commander, please give us a combat order for the 32nd Cavalry Division (55th Cavalry Division). "

Seeing that the three division commanders were all competing for tasks in front of him, Shapkin quickly raised his hand and pressed down, and said to them: "Comrades, division commanders, don't worry, I will arrange tasks for you all. Come with me. Shapkin brought the three division commanders to the lookout, pointed to the outside and said to them, "Have you seen the retreating enemies?"

Although the battlefield was one or two kilometers away, the three division commanders could clearly see the retreating enemy even without binoculars, so they nodded in unison and replied in unison: "I see."

"Because there are too many hills and ravines in front, it is not conducive to the deployment of armored forces, so the army headquarters decided to let our cavalry army attack, and now I will start assigning tasks to you." Shapkin brought three division commanders to the map. pointing to Yakunin and said to Yakunin: "General Yakunin, your 21st Cavalry Division is the first echelon to chase down the fleeing enemies and seize the enemy's positions ahead of the infantry brothers. .”

"Yes!" Yakunin excitedly agreed after receiving the combat mission.

Shapkin nodded, and continued to assign tasks to the other two division commanders: "Colonel Chudesov, your 32nd Cavalry Division will serve as the second echelon and follow the first echelon to consolidate the positions previously occupied."

"What about me, Comrade Commander." Seeing that Shapkin had assigned combat missions to the two division commanders, the remaining commander of the 55th Cavalry Division, Colonel Charenko, was a little anxious: "What is the mission of our division?"

Shapkin stared at each other for a while, then said: "Your division is the reserve team of the whole army."

"What, to be the reserve team of the army?!" When Charenko saw that Shapkin had assigned the other two divisions to serve as the first and second echelons respectively, he had an ominous premonition in his heart. As a reserve team, I was not happy: "Comrade commander, the commanders and fighters of our division came here from the distant Central Asia to fight the Germans, not as a reserve team. Please give us a new Do you have a task assigned?"

Seeing that Charenko was dissatisfied with his arrangement, Shapkin did not talk nonsense with him, but said to Yakunin and Chudesov: "You immediately return to the troops and start attacking the enemy."

After the two division commanders agreed loudly, they turned and left the headquarters. After the two left, Shapkin turned to Charenko and said, "Comrade Colonel, don't you know that you can only obey the orders of your superiors, and you cannot bargain?"

"However, seeing that other units are fighting the enemy while our division has nothing to do, I am worried that the commanders and fighters will get emotional." Charenko, who was criticized, said unwillingly: "After I go back, I don't know how to tell the soldiers what to do." Let us explain."

"I think you are the one with emotions." Shapkin unceremoniously exposed the truth: "You think it's too shameful for you to be a reserve team, so you use the soldiers in the division as a shield."

"Colonel Charenko! I understand your mood at the moment, and I sympathize with you, but orders from superiors must always be carried out." Seeing that Charenko was flushed, the chief of staff walked up to him and put a hand Putting it on his shoulders, he said with a smile: "This battle will not be finished in a day or two. There are plenty of opportunities for the enemy to compete, so you can rest assured."

"The chief of staff is right." Shapkin sat down at the table, looked up at the unconvinced Charenko, and continued: "If we put all our troops into battle, if the attack fails, then we From where should troops be transferred to support the first and second echelons?"

After listening to the words of the chief of staff and Shapkin, Charenko felt that he seemed to have misunderstood the meaning of the other party. The reason why he let his division serve as the reserve team was not to look down on him, but for the next battle. Now that he knew he was wrong, Charenko quickly confessed to Shapkin: "I'm sorry, Comrade Commander, I was wrong, I blamed you."

The commanders and fighters of the 21st Cavalry Division attacked very quickly. The galloping horses quickly passed the infantry who were advancing in the snow, and rushed towards the fleeing German army in the distance. Thousands of war horses galloped wildly at the same time, and the sound of iron hooves trampling on the snow was like rolling thunder, making the ground tremble along with it.

The German commander who was hiding in the fortification saw the Soviet cavalry rolling in behind his soldiers, and suddenly felt chills and death, and he felt extremely frightened. He quickly shouted at the top of his lungs: "Machine gun, fire at the Russian cavalry at once. Machine gun, at once..."

While he was yelling over and over again, a soldier beside him pointed to the soldiers who were heading towards the position and reminded him: "Mr. Captain, if you fire now, we will hit our own people."

"I can't care about that much anymore." The commander shouted at the soldiers: "Once our position is breached by the Russian cavalry, it will definitely shake the entire defense line. Fire, fire immediately!"

As the order was issued, more than a dozen machine guns on the German positions started firing indiscriminately. The dense bullets immediately knocked down a large area of ​​the German soldiers who were fleeing to the position, and the remaining German soldiers hurriedly lay on the ground, lest they be killed by their own bullets and become unjust dead ghosts who died for no reason.

Under the interception of the German machine gun fire, the cavalry who were charging kept falling off their horses. From time to time, some horses were running, and they were shot and fell over. While tripping other horses, they were drawn into the surrounding iron hooves together with their owner. Down. But even so, the Soviet cavalry in the high-speed impact did not slow down, and they quickly approached the enemy's position.

Faced with thousands of horses rushing at high speed, the German army's dozen machine guns were obviously not enough. After just one or two minutes, many cavalry jumped over the trench and continued to rush forward. For those German soldiers who appeared within their reach, they all chopped down with their knives, knocking the opponent to the ground. Some cavalry who had lost their horses rushed towards the enemy's trenches with their carbine. They first threw grenades into the trenches. After hearing the explosion, before the smoke cleared, they jumped into the trenches and started close combat and hand-to-hand combat with the German soldiers inside.

The German commander in the rear position saw that the position was broken by the Soviet cavalry, worried that the entire defense line would collapse, and quickly ordered the tank battalion to dispatch, trying to use tanks to deal with the cavalry with only light weapons. Unexpectedly, they forgot that the Soviet attack planes were still hovering in the air. In addition to attacking the fortifications on the ground, they also had another task, which was to destroy the German tanks and relieve the pressure on the ground troops.

The tanks that were dispatched were besieged by attack aircraft not far from the position. Thirty attack aircraft surrounded the dozen or so tanks that had left the position and followed by an equal number of armored vehicles, bombing and strafing. It took only a few minutes to kill this armored force that had left the defensive position without authorization.

…………

"The 4th Mechanized Army has broken through the enemy's defenses!"

"The 13th Tank Corps tore a breach in the enemy's line of defense!"

"General Shapkin's 4th Cavalry Corps successfully broke through the two German lines of defense and is now continuing to advance north!"

"..."

Sidolin took the telegram forwarded to Golikov by the Front Army Command and read aloud a series of victories achieved by the offensive forces on the south side of the city. The people present couldn't help but smile when they heard the battle report he read.

Golikov waited for Sidolin to finish reading, and asked Sokov, "Colonel Sokov, do you think the enemy can realize that they are in danger after suffering a heavy blow from our army?"

"Comrade Deputy Commander of the Front Army, I think the enemy is probably aware of this problem." Seeing Golikov, Sokov asked himself. He felt that it was necessary to remind the other party that the enemy might flee, and he had to find a way to hold the enemy so that they could escape. Unable to evacuate smoothly from the city: "They may withdraw troops from the city after dark."

"Withdraw the troops at night?" Regarding Sokov's statement, Golikov expressed doubts: "Comrade Colonel, have you ever thought that mobilizing troops at night, especially in areas where the two sides' fronts are intertwined, would be very difficult." It is simply not easy to withdraw so many troops."

"Comrade Deputy Commander of the Front Army." Seeing that Golikov seemed to disagree with him, Sokov continued: "I think you should call Commander Chuikov and let all the troops closely monitor the enemy's movements." move and get ready to attack."

"What, attack?" Golikov couldn't help raising his eyebrows when he heard this, and then asked: "Do you think those troops who stick to the factory still have the ability to fight back against the enemy?"

"That's right, after a long period of fighting, the troops who stick to the factory have suffered a very serious reduction in personnel." Sokov explained: "The attack I am talking about is just letting these troops take advantage of the night to seize some forward positions. The enemy has created the illusion that we will attack from the rear at any time. This will change their retreat plan, and we will have the opportunity to leave a large number of enemies in the city, so that the main force of the counterattack can encircle them. "

After listening to Sokov's suggestion, Golikov did not express his opinion, but walked back and forth in the room with his hands behind his back. Sokov knew that Golikov was considering his plan, so he didn't disturb him, but quietly watched him walk back and forth in front of him.

After an unknown amount of time, Golikov finally stopped, turned around and said to Sokov, "Colonel Sokov, I think what you said is very reasonable. But I have no right to give orders to Chuikov. This matter needs to be reported to the The Front Army Command will do it."

While Golikov was calling the Front Army Command, Sokov called Belkin from the sidelines and asked straight to the point: "Comrade Commissar, how is the situation there? Is the enemy still attacking?"

"No, the enemy retreated to their positions after being repulsed by us two hours ago, and there has been no movement until now." Belkin reported on the phone: "I really don't know what's going on. "

"Comrade Commissar, let me tell you some good news first." Sukov took into account the news that the main force had successfully counterattacked on the south side of the city, which could boost the morale of the troops standing in the barricade factory, so he shared what he knew Some good news about him, and told Belkin in detail.

After hearing this, Belkin couldn't help being overjoyed, and said repeatedly: "Great, this is really great. Misha, it looks like the enemy won't last long."

"According to my judgment, the enemy may be sneaking away." Sokov continued: "The task of your regiment is to send people to find out the enemy's movements after dark, and then properly seize some forward positions to contain the enemy. , making them afraid to boldly withdraw from the factory.”

"Don't worry, Misha." Responding to Sokov's order, Belkin said easily: "The commanders and fighters of the first battalion did this last night. They successfully captured several positions from the enemy. Although These positions were recaptured by the Germans during the day's fighting, but I believe that if they can accomplish such a mission once, they will have no problem completing it a second time or a third time."

"Comrade Commissar, I want to remind you of one thing." Sokov quickly glanced at Golikov, who was on the phone with Yeremenko, and said into the microphone in a low voice: "This big counterattack, and The counterattacks with diversionary nature in the past are different. The Germans can't stop our army's offensive at all. Therefore, in battle, you don't have to think about preserving your strength. You can fight as you want. If there are insufficient troops, The superiors will supplement us."