Red Moscow

  Chapter 634 Meeting on a Narrow Road, the Brave Wins (Part 1)

   Sidolin, who was staying in the headquarters, received a call from Guchakov and asked bluntly: "Guchakov, have you found the brigade commander?"

"I found it, Comrade Chief of Staff." As soon as Gutchakov finished answering this question, he immediately asked Sokov's concern: "Comrade Chief of Staff, the brigade commander asked me to ask you, there is a place near the Mamayev Post. Is there any army from the slave country stationed?"

   "The army of the slave country?!" Sidolin couldn't help asking curiously when he heard Guchakov's question: "I said Guchakov, why are you asking this?"

   "That's right, Comrade Chief of Staff." Guchakov explained to Sidolin: "The brigade commander just found out..."

   Before Guchakov finished speaking, Sokov took the microphone in his hand. Sokov said into the microphone: "Chief of Staff, when I was observing the enemy's position just now, I found a large group of soldiers in khaki uniforms, followed by a group of tanks, and launched an attack on the Beigang position. Judging from their uniforms , this is definitely not the German army, nor the Eastern Battalion, so I asked Guchakov to call you and ask if there is any army from a slave country nearby?"

   "No, Comrade Brigadier." Sidolin replied on the phone: "According to the information I have, there is no army of the slave country nearby. Maybe it was the troops that were drawn overnight after the German army was transferred away yesterday."

   "Chief of Staff, do you have a way to find out the designation of this enemy?" In order to know himself and the enemy, Sokov tentatively asked: "At least you must know which slave country's army it is."

   Regarding Sokov's question, Sidolin hesitated for a long time before answering: "We still have a reconnaissance team nearby. I will ask them to find out the origin of this enemy as soon as possible."

  After hanging up the phone, Sokov asked the corporal again: "Comrade corporal, can your phone communicate with the battalion command post in Beigang?"

"Yes, Comrade Brigadier." The corporal nodded, and replied in an affirmative tone: "The telephones used for the observation on the two hills are specially modified, so that we can call the police in the shortest time. Enemy situation observed, reported to any level of command."

  Sokov didn't remember that he had asked Maxim to improve any telephone lines. It seemed that all of these were done by Witkov as an agent of his own duties. He quickly ordered the corporal: "Get me connected to the battalion command post in Beigang immediately."

After the call was connected, Sokov heard Vitkov's voice on the receiver, and asked bluntly: "Comrade deputy brigade commander, the enemy infantry and tanks have launched a charge to the Beigang position. I would like to ask, Are you sure you can stop them?"

   "Don't worry, Comrade Brigadier." Vitkov replied carelessly: "A few broken tanks, hundreds of soldiers, we are confident to crush their attack."

Sokov glanced at the dark enemy army in the distance with his binoculars, and said with a wry smile: "Comrade deputy brigade commander, the Germans don't have many tanks, but they have a lot of soldiers. According to my visual inspection, there will be no fewer." About two thousand people."

   "What, the Germans dispatched two thousand people?" Witkov asked in an unbelievable tone: "Comrade Brigadier, I want to ask, did the observation post report to you?"

   "No, it wasn't reported to me by the observation post." Sokov replied, "I saw it with my own eyes."

   "Thousands of people, how is this possible?" Witkov said puzzledly: "They just moved the troops to the north yesterday. How could so many troops appear overnight?"

   "This is exactly what I want to figure out." Sokov gritted his molars and said, "It is not the Germans who are attacking you, but the army of a slave country."

"The army of the slave country?!" Witkov couldn't help being stunned for a moment when he heard Sokov say this, and then said thoughtfully: "Could it be the Romanian army? According to the information I have, there is a Romanian division Stationed just forty kilometers to the west, did the Germans see that their own forces were empty and brought this force over?"

"The Romanian army?" Sokov knew that there were Romanian troops in the German army's servant army, but he didn't know anything about the combat effectiveness of the other party, so he tentatively asked: "Comrade Deputy Brigadier, what is their combat effectiveness?" how?"

  Witkov is worthy of being the deputy chief of staff of the army group, and he knows a lot of information that Sokov is not qualified to know. At this moment, it is related to the safety of Beigang. After thinking for a moment, he said decisively: "If I guess correctly, this should be the Romanian 20th Infantry Division, which belongs to the Romanian 3rd Army. , once wiped out a division headquarters of our army with the strength of two companies, and captured more than 3,000 people..."

  After listening to Witkov's introduction, cold sweat dripped down Sokov's forehead. In his mind, the Romanian army's combat effectiveness is scum, and it's not like a game for his own troops to defeat them. Who knew at this moment that he was misled by some false information from later generations. If he really thought that the combat effectiveness of the Romanian army was poor and took it lightly, he might suffer a big loss.

Thinking of this, he quickly asked Vitkov: "Comrade deputy brigade commander, the enemy has about two thousand troops, and the original defenders of Beigang plus the sailors of the 400 Marine Battalion are only about six hundred. Can you defeat the enemy?" ?"

   "Don't worry." Witkov said carelessly: "Don't say they come with 2,000 people, even if the whole army comes here, I am sure to defeat them."

   "Wait a minute," Sokov heard that Witkov was about to hang up the phone, and quickly stopped him, and then asked: "How about the Romanian army's organization and equipment, can you tell me about it?"

"The Romanian infantry division is modeled after the German infantry division: it consists of three infantry regiments, a semi-motorized reconnaissance unit, an anti-tank company, a combat engineer battalion and two artillery regiments, with a total strength of 17,500 people." Vitko Fu told Sokovkop: "As for the weapons and equipment, the ZB-7.92 mm 1924 rifles, ZB-26 light machine guns and ZB-53 heavy machine guns they used used the same bullets as German weapons. "

Hearing this, Sokov thought to himself: Although the Romanian army uses Czech-style weapons, the bullets of these guns and German-style weapons are common. If they can be captured, it can make up for the lack of ammunition on their own side. .

However, he was only happy for a moment, and his mood became heavy again, because he remembered that in the conference room, several battalion commanders were complaining to him, saying that the troops were short of ammunition, and that they might not even be able to sustain a small-scale battle , begging him to replenish bullets for them as soon as possible.

  Looking at the swarthy officers and soldiers of the Romanian Army, Sokov finally asked: "Comrade deputy brigade commander, let me ask you again, how many new rockets do we have left?"

"New rockets? No more, none of them." Probably worried that Sokov would be angry, Vitkov also specially emphasized: "Comrade Brigadier, you are not at Mamayev Post, and you don't know that the enemy is attacking us." How fierce the attack is. If it weren’t for those new rockets, Mamayev Post would have fallen long ago.”

   Sokov has no doubts about Witkov's statement. The new type of rocket that is causing headaches for the Germans today is the black technology that appeared in advance after I came to this era. Without the help of this new type of weapon, Mamayev Kurgan may have fallen into the hands of the Germans long ago, as it has in history.

"Comrade Deputy Brigadier," Sokov realized that without the help of the new rockets, even if there were hundreds of brave sailors in Beigang, it would not be easy to hold the position, so he planned to return immediately. Headquarters, get the reserve team ready, and when Vitkov and the others can no longer support them, they will rush over to support them. "I'll go back to the command post immediately and prepare the reserve team. When the situation in your place becomes critical, I will rush over to support you."

"This is really great, Comrade Brigadier Commander." Don't look at Vitkov vowing to Sokov that it is no problem to hold the position, but he still has no confidence in his heart. At this moment, he heard Sokov say that he is going to send a reserve team After supporting them, he immediately gained confidence. He stated to Sokov: "As long as we have the support of the reserve team, no matter how many Romanian troops come, we are sure to block them."

  As soon as Sokov returned to the headquarters, he immediately ordered Sidolin: "Chief of Staff, let Captain Shamrich come to me."

"Comrade Brigadier!" Sidolin was very puzzled by Sokov's order. He clearly remembered that Sokov once said in public that the more than 400 sailors under the command of Captain Shamrih , is the reserve team of the whole brigade, and must not be used lightly until a critical moment. But now that the battle has just started, Sokov is ready to use this reserve team. Is the situation really in such a critical situation? So he asked puzzledly: "I want to ask, what happened, you want to put the reserve team into battle so early?"

"Chief of staff, the situation has changed." Sokov told Sidolin the information he got from Vitkov, and finally said: "If the combat effectiveness of the Romanian army is really as the deputy brigade commander said I am worried that the more than 600 people in the Beigang position will not be able to stop the 2,000 Romanian troops at all."

"Comrade Brigadier, I have an idea. Maybe we don't need to put the reserve team into battle so early." Sidolin knew that a new counterattack would be launched on Mamayev Post in two days. Reserve team, what kind of troops will we use to participate in the counterattack?

   "Chief of Staff, what can you do?" Sokov heard Sidolin say this, as if a drowning man grabbed a life-saving straw, and hurriedly urged: "Hurry up and listen."

"Although our new rockets have been exhausted, we still have some mortars." Sidolin suggested to Sokov: "When the enemy launches a charge on the northern hills, we can use mortar fire and machine gun fire. Suppress the enemy to reduce the pressure on Beigang's defense."

"How many mortars are there?" Knowing that artillery and machine gun fire can be used to suppress the enemy's attack, Sokov felt that if it could be effective, it would indeed be unnecessary to put the reserve team into battle prematurely, so he asked. : "How many shells does each mortar have?"

   "There are still twelve mortars." Sidolin replied cautiously: "The shells are a little less, but we can guarantee that each gun has eighteen shells."

  Sokov's mental arithmetic ability is good. As soon as Sidolin finished speaking, he calculated in his mind that there are 216 shells left. Although it is a little less, there should be no problem in suppressing the enemy's attack on Beigang. He nodded and said to Sidolin: "Comrade Chief of Staff, you first order the mortars to be in place, and be ready to bombard the enemy who climbed the Beigang position at any time. However, the reserve team is still assembled according to the plan and is ready to go into battle at any time."

When Sidolin heard that Sokov agreed to his proposal, he was secretly happy when he heard the following words, his face that had just shown a smile turned into a bitter face: "Comrade Brigadier, did you agree to use artillery fire? To suppress the enemy's attack? Why make the reserve team ready to assemble?"

"There are too many uncertain factors on the battlefield." Faced with Sidolin's question, Sokov replied with a normal expression: "If our shelling just started, the mortar position was suppressed by the enemy's artillery fire, we What should we do to support the Beigang position? At that time, to resolve the battle and crush the enemy's attack, we can only rely on our infantry to complete it."

"Okay," now that Sukov had reached this point, Sidolin realized that it would be an unwise choice to contradict him, so he agreed, picked up the phone on the table, dialed it, and spoke into the receiver Said: "I am the Chief of Staff Sidolin, and I will immediately ask Comrade Shamrih, the Navy Captain, to come to the brigade headquarters."

Shamrih lived not far from the brigade headquarters, and rushed over immediately after receiving the notice. He stood upright in front of Sokov, and asked respectfully, "Comrade brigade commander, may I ask your name?" I'm coming, what's the matter?"

"Comrade Captain, I was going to let your troops rest for two more days." Seeing Shamrich standing straight in front of him, Sokov said apologetically, "But today's enemy's attack is a threat to us. It is very big, I am worried that the Beigang position may not be able to hold, so I plan to let you lead the reserve team to support."

  When Shamrih received the call, he guessed that there might be some combat missions. Now that he was confirmed by Sokov, his heart immediately became more at ease. He smiled and replied: "Comrade Brigadier, our sailors have already made all preparations for battle and are ready to fight at any time. I will go back now, gather the troops, and wait for your order to attack at any time."

"Captain Shamrih," Sidolin stopped him when he saw that Shamrih was about to leave, and said with a serious expression, "there was once an army composed of sailors who fought tenaciously against the enemy in the city. , and achieved considerable results. I hope that your performance on the battlefield will not be worse than those of your colleagues, understand?"

  For Sidolin's question, Shamrih didn't speak, just nodded, and walked out of the headquarters expressionlessly.

  (end of this chapter)