Burning Moscow

　　The thick fog gradually dissipated. In the observation post, I can barely see with binoculars that the cavalry soldiers wearing black cloaks and brandishing sabers are following the tank and rushing towards the distant enemy line of defense.

The phone on the desk rang, and then I heard the commander’s voice: "I’m Rokosovsky, where are you?" I removed my binoculars and turned my head, wanting to hear if there is any victory again. The good news came.

　　 "Comrade Commander, this is Panfilov!" An anxious voice from the commander of the 316 Infantry Division came from the receiver: "I would like to ask, what is the mission of our 316 Infantry Division?"

　　 "Comrade commander," Rokosovsky said with obvious dissatisfaction: "The order is very clear. Your division's task is to hold on to Volokramsk to ensure the safety of the offensive flank."

"But, Comrade Commander," Division Commander Panfilov tried his best to defend, "Our division's commanders can do more. Not only can we launch a counterattack against the Germans across the board, we can even deploy a portion of our troops to support other counterattacks. force……"

　　 "The purpose of holding Volokramsk is to ensure that the flanks of the counterattacks of the group army are not attacked by the Germans. You should understand this, comrade commander." The attitude of the commander of the group army was unusually harsh. After a pause, he said in a learned tone: "Comrade commander, wherever in the war is equally important-whether it is offensive or defensive. I have to remind you of this. Do you understand that if I counter the troops When the enemy's flanks are attacked, what will happen? If you all leave the position and join the counterattack, then who will stop them?"

"But..." Panfilov on the other end of the phone wanted to distinguish something, but Rokosovsky unceremoniously interrupted: "Comrade Commander, stop talking, you should be on the phone in the future. At that time, I will naturally let you go. At present, your task is to stick to Volokramsk, resolutely guard the city, and ensure the safety of the flanks of the group army. Do you understand?" He hung up the phone after he finished speaking.

　　 "Comrade Commander, should we go to the frontier to see?" Seeing the commander finished the call, the Chief of Staff Ma Lining carefully put forward his own suggestions.

　　 "Well, okay, we will all go and see. Comrade Malinin, you make arrangements to move the headquarters as a whole to Skirmanowo."

　　 "Understood, Comrade Commander." Ma Lining replied loudly.

He first faced Kazakov who was sitting at the table and said, "Let’s go, Comrade Artillery Commander, to see how the artillery you commanded is doing?" Then he turned his head and said to me, "Lida, You also go with us."

　　 I came out of the observation post with a group of people from the headquarters, and under the protection of a dozen soldiers armed with submachine guns, we crossed the wide battlefield and walked towards the newly recovered Skirmanovo.

　　 There was no one on the open battlefield, but after a closer look, I immediately found that there were soldiers corpses wearing camouflage uniforms or black cloaks everywhere. The farther you go, the more soldiers have dead bodies. Looking at the remains of the soldiers who were destined to stand up no longer and fell on the assault road, I couldn't help but burst into tears.

　　 Rokosovsky and the others may have been accustomed to seeing life and death, and became indifferent to all of this, and they continued to walk forward calmly. Kazakov, who was walking in front of me, suddenly said, "Do you know what kind of person the brigade commander of the Fourth Tank Brigade was like? You see, we have been walking for so long, except for the fallen infantry and cavalry soldiers. , Didn’t even see a wrecked tank."

Rokosovsky replied: "You ask the brigade commander of the 4th Tank Brigade. His name is Katukov. He is an interesting guy. I have known him for more than ten years. I remember when I was 36 years old. I once observed an exercise he participated in. In that exercise, the armored unit of his side had the task of breaking through the "enemy army". Before the breakthrough, it was discovered that the trench dug by the "enemy" actually exceeded the leap of the own tank. Width. When the other units were at a loss, he actually ordered the soldiers of the T-18 tank unit under his command to drive two of them into the trenches, and then resorted to the almost barbaric method of'burying the car as a bridge', just driving the tank over. Afterwards, he was called a "Kutuzov-style commander" by Marshal Tukhachevsky, the People’s Commissar for National Defense."

"Yes, this Katukov is very powerful," Deputy Chief of Staff Orel continued, taking over the topic: "The colonel took over the Fourth Tank Brigade in early October. At that time, the brigade had only 45 old tanks and ammunition. It's not enough, and their task is to defend Mtzensk, the western gate of Moscow, and block the German Gudley from installing the first cluster...."

　　 "That's 45 tanks. To block Guderian, this task is not easy to complete." Kazakov said with emotion.

"Comrade Colonel knew that hard work was not the answer, so he urged the soldiers to dig fake bunkers day and night, and made a large number of fake tanks with three-ply panels and camouflaged them, but the real tank positions were deployed four kilometers away. The soldiers were stuck. Tukov was tossed for days and nights without sleeping, and behind his back he was scolding him as a'German spy commander who wanted to exhaust the Russians.'"

　　 "What about the subsequent results?" Political commissar Lobachev couldn't help but asked curiously.

"It was not until the beginning of the battle that the commanders realized that following this'slippery brigade commander', at least one's life could be saved. It is said that during the battle of Mtzensk, Katukov used every soldier carefully and prescribed every tank. There must be three or four firing points, and we can change a place for a few shots. This will make our army appear very strong. His deceptive tactics are very effective. The Germans were actually fooled and reported to their superiors. , And even claimed that there had been a battle between thousands of tanks. The Fourth Tank Brigade fought fiercely in Mtzensk for 8 days and nights, and achieved brilliant results. It destroyed 133 enemy tanks and shot down 2 planes. Only three failed tanks were lost, and the task assigned by the superior was successfully completed."

"Destroyed 133 German tanks, and only lost 3 of them. This kind of battle is really incredible. Just letting him be a brigade commander is really a bit of an overkill." Rokosovsky began to sigh with emotion: "If If I am the commander of the front army, no matter what, he has to command a mechanized army."

　　 While talking, we came to Skirmanowo unknowingly. Maybe the German army has been offensive since it set foot on the Soviet land, so they think about how to attack, not how to defend. As a result, there was not even a decent fortification in this village. Only on the side facing our army did we excavate a few skirmish bunkers and machine gun positions. Near these bunkers are full of the corpses of our soldiers and German soldiers. It seems that a desperate battle took place here not long ago. In order to seize these bunkers, our army paid a lot of casualties.

　　 We passed through the ruins of the building and came to the middle of the village. Although most of the buildings were destroyed in the shelling of our army, the small church in the village was miraculously preserved intact.

　　 walked to the middle of the village, everyone looked around silently. Although the fighting here has ended, fierce fighting is still going on two or three kilometers away from here, with gunshots coming from the southwest from time to time. There was a roar of motorcycles behind me. I turned my head and saw that a warrior wearing goggles was riding a motorcycle with sidecars towards us. I thought it was the chief of staff who sent some emergency information, so I hurriedly greeted Rokosovsky: "Comrade Commander, you see, a motorcycle is coming. I don't know if the chief of staff sent someone to deliver the letter."

　　 Before Rokosovsky could speak, the motorcycle was already in front of him. The soldier turned over and got off the motorcycle, and stepped forward to pay a standard military salute to Rokosovsky: "Comrade Commander, lunch is ready, Comrade Chief of Staff asked me to bring it to you."

　　 "Well," Rokosovsky nodded, and said, "Give everyone the lunch in the car!"

　　 "Yes!" The soldier agreed, walked to the motorcycle, took off the big goggles he was wearing, and stooped to take the lunch prepared for us from the side bucket. When the soldier took off the goggles, I unexpectedly discovered that the opponent was a female soldier. It seems that during this period of time, the headquarters has undergone a lot of personnel changes, at least I have never seen a female soldier in the headquarters before.

The female soldier walked to Rokosovsky carrying several stacked aluminum lunch boxes. The commander took off the top one, then pointed her hand to me and said, "Give it to the lieutenant colonel first. Let's be a comrade. She hasn't eaten anything from early morning till now, and she is probably starving."

　　 The female soldier came to me and said politely: "Please, Comrade Commander."

　　 I also removed a warm lunch box from the top, and politely thanked the female soldier ~ www.novelmt.com ~ was about to uncover the lid to see what was inside. The female soldier suddenly pounced on me and knocked me to the ground. All the food in the lunch boxes in her hand was spilled on me. I was a little embarrassed and furious. I was about to speak to her. I didn't expect a series of shouts to be heard around me: "Go down, you're a sniper!"

　　The soldiers who served as guards shot and fell, and the intensive firepower hit the roof with rubble. I looked up at the female soldier who was lying on me. Her head was resting on my chest, and the wound on her neck was bleeding out of her neck, staining my clothes red. I put my hand in front of her nose and could no longer feel any breathing. It seems that the bullet just came to me. This young female soldier just blocked the bullet for me.

"Comrades!" Orel, the deputy chief of staff lying on the ground, got up, "rushed forward and wiped out the enemy's snipers." After shouting, he picked up a submachine gun in the hands of a dead soldier and took the lead. Rushed forward.

　　 "Charge!" The soldiers yelled and got up from the ground one after another, and rushed forward desperately following the deputy chief of staff...

There was only one German sniper. Although he shot down a few soldiers, he was quickly beaten to blood by the soldiers who rushed forward. He fell from the top of the church and fell heavily on the snow. On the ground, the huge impact force splashed the snow on the ground high.

　　 Seeing the soldiers wiped out the snipers, I sat up from the ground and carefully laid the female soldier's body flat on the ground, then stood up, took off my hat and let her mourn. Rokosovsky and the others also gathered around, just like me, taking off their hats and paying a silent tribute to the female soldiers delivering meals.