Red Moscow

  Chapter 672 The Eve of the Battle

   As a guide, Voroni was supposed to return to the Red October factory after sending Sokov and the others to the place. But when he heard that Sokov was arranging defenses, he couldn't help interjecting, "Comrade Colonel, can I say a few words?"

Although Voroni seemed very impolite to intervene when Sokov assigned a task, but Sokov knew very well that if the other party didn't have any important matters, he didn't think he would do this, so he asked reasonably: "Voroni Comrade Ni, do you have any good suggestions? If you have any, just say so without any scruples."

"That's right, Comrade Colonel." Voroni pointed in the direction of the Volga River, and said, "Walk more than a hundred meters to the river, and there is a conveyor belt specially used for dumping furnace ashes. A multi-storey building. It was originally a place for workers to rest. After the enemy approached the city, there were no people there. If you want to build defenses in the ditch, you might as well choose there.”

Regarding Voronifa's proposal, Sokov did not immediately express his opinion. He stood on a mound not far away and looked east. Sure enough, he saw a two-story building in the ditch. The color of the exterior had changed. Like the surrounding furnace ash, if it wasn't for Voroni's reminder, it might not be easy to find.

Sokov returned to Shamrikh and said to him: "Comrade Captain, the defensive position in the gully should be in that building. In addition to building a line of defense with mine carts and sandbags, You can also set up machine guns on the second floor, so that when the enemy attacks, you can use three-dimensional firepower to block the enemy's way forward."

"Understood." Shamrich nodded, and said, "I will send a company to build a defense line at the small building." After he finished speaking, he paused for a moment, and then asked tentatively, "Comrade Brigadier, are you planning to send the commander Where is the department located?"

Sokov raised his hand and pointed to the opposite side of the gully, and said, "You and your battalion headquarters will stay on the south side of the gully, and I will take Seryozha's guard company to the north side of the gully. This battle will be fought by You come to take full command, and I will not interfere."

  After Sokov left with the guard company, Shamrich called a meeting of several company commanders and assigned them the tasks of each company. The 1st company is responsible for the frontal blocking. They will use the buildings in the gully to build a line of defense to prevent the enemy from advancing. But the task of the other companies is very simple, that is, to disperse into the ravines on both sides to hide, saving even digging trenches.

  After Shamrih finished assigning the task, Yakuda, the deputy battalion commander, came over and asked him to volunteer: "Comrade battalion commander, let me go to the first company, so that I can deal with any problems in a timely manner."

Although the first company commander is a commander with rich combat experience, considering the importance of this battle, Shamrih has been thinking about whether the battalion command post should be set up at the location of the first company, so that it is convenient to command the whole battalion fight. At this moment, he heard that the deputy battalion commander took the initiative to invite Ying, and he changed his mind again. He decided to let the deputy battalion commander serve as the commander of the front enemy, but he still set up the command post on the south side of the gully according to the plan.

   "Okay, Comrade Deputy Battalion Commander, I agree with your request." Shamrih nodded at Yakuda and said, "When the first shot should be fired, it is up to you to decide."

  ...

  When the Marine Battalion was deploying defenses near the gully, it was spotted by an observation post not far from the 95th Division. Seeing a troop appearing nearby, the responsible observation post immediately reported the situation to the division commander Gorishny.

   After receiving the report, Gorishne rushed over immediately with a platoon of soldiers. The purpose of his doing this is to know where the troops that appeared near the gully came from; the second purpose is to consider whether the troops can be used for his own use.

When he was two to three hundred meters away from the gully, he saw a troop of more than a hundred people digging a trench using the gully created by the river, so he walked forward quickly and asked loudly: "Your commander Where?"

Seryozha, who was digging a trench with the soldiers, heard someone asking loudly, quickly put down his tools, jumped out of the half-dug trench, trotted to Gorishny, straightened his body and replied: : "Hello, Comrade Colonel, I am the company commander, Lieutenant Serezha, what instructions do you have?"

"Lieutenant Seryosha, I am Colonel Gorishny, Commander of the 95th Infantry Division." Gorishny saw the troops digging trenches, all of them were lively young people, and moved them away. I don't care about asking which part they belong to, and ask directly: "How many people are there in your company?"

   "There are 129 people, Comrade Colonel." Seryozha replied briefly.

"The number of people is really quite a lot." Thinking that the number of the other party's company is about to catch up with his current battalion, Gorishny can't wait to order Seryozha: "Comrade Lieutenant, I will officially inform you that your company From now on I will command."

   "I'm sorry, Comrade Colonel." Unexpectedly, after he finished speaking, Seryozha replied neither humble nor humble: "I can't obey your orders."

"Why can't you obey my orders?" Seeing that a small lieutenant dared to disobey his own orders, Gorishne was suddenly annoyed, and he raised his voice and asked: "Comrade lieutenant, you should know that disobeying the orders of your superiors , what consequences will it bring?"

"Isn't this Colonel Gorishny?" Before Seryosha could answer, Sokov's voice came from beside him, and he asked with a smile, "I don't know why my guard company commander offended you. Such a big fire?"

"Ah, it's you, Colonel Sokov?" Seeing Sokov who suddenly appeared, Gorishny was a little surprised: "Why are you here? Also, what did you just say, he is your guard company long?"

"Comrade Colonel, you asked so many questions at once, how should I answer you?" Seeing that the other party blatantly undercut him, Sokov said that although he was dissatisfied, he still had a smile on his face: "I am under the command of the commander. According to the orders of the officers, they rushed here to set up defenses."

"Arranging defenses?" Gorishny did not receive any notice from Chuikov at all, so he naturally didn't know what kind of defense Sokov brought his troops here to arrange, so he asked puzzledly: "Colonel Sokov, can you tell me, Why are you guarding here?"

"Comrade Colonel, have you seen that gully?" Sokov pointed to the location of the gully and explained to Gorishny: "According to the judgment of the headquarters, the enemy is likely to bypass our army in The defense line of the silicate factory, and then moved forward from the gully between the Red October factory and the barricade factory to the bank of the Volga River. In order to prevent the enemy from detouring to the rear of our army's defense line, the commander urgently transferred us here to carry out Defensive."

"Colonel Sokov," after figuring out what was going on, Gorishny showed an embarrassed expression on his face. He looked at the location of the gully, pointed to the location where the guard company was digging the trench, and asked back : "Don't you think your defensive position is too far away from the gully?"

"That's right, my guard company is a little farther away from the gully." Sokov replied without changing his expression, "However, I also deployed a battalion of troops in the gully and on both sides. Enough to teach the Germans a lesson they will never forget."

"So that's the case." Gorishny realized that he had wrongly blamed Sokov, and asked with some embarrassment: "Colonel Sokov, since you have come to my defense area, why don't you come to my division headquarters for a cup of hot water?" Tea?"

"Thank you for your kindness, Comrade Colonel." Sukov knew that the war was about to start, so he didn't have any intentions to drink tea, so he politely rejected the other party's kindness: "The enemy's attack may start soon, so we should wait for tea." Let’s talk about it later.”

   "Since that's the case, then I won't force you." Gorishny was just saying politely, and he didn't really want to invite Sokov to his place as a guest. Seeing that the other party had already refused, he said smoothly: "Colonel Sokov, we will meet later, I wish you good luck!" After speaking, he reached out to shake hands with Sokov, then turned and left with his subordinates.

Looking at the back of Gorishny going away, Seryozha, who had been silent all this time, snorted coldly, and then said to Sokov: "It's really shameless to come to rob the troops so blatantly. Misha, this time Fortunately, you led the team yourself, otherwise our company would probably become the 95th Infantry Division from now on."

   Sokov raised his hand and patted the shoulder of his old friend, Seryozha, and said with a sigh: "Seryozha, if you were in his place, you might do the same thing."

   "What?!" Hearing Sokov's words, Seryozha's eyes widened in surprise: "Misha, do you think I will be the kind of shameless person who goes around robbing other people's troops?"

"Don't look at him as a division commander. After such a long battle, he probably has less than one regiment left." Sokov said with a wry smile: "Under the current situation, the superior will not Replenish him with troops, if you were him, what method would you use to replenish your troops?"

After Sokov's explanation, Seryozha felt that he had misunderstood Gorishne. If he was really a division commander, if he wanted to hold the position assigned to him by his superiors under the circumstances of heavy losses, he would probably be the same. Go around and contain troops by any means.

   "Continue digging the fortifications," Sokov waved his hand at Sergesha, and said, "Although it may not be useful, but there are no field fortifications on the battlefield, and my heart is still not at ease."

Seeing Seryozha wielding his engineering shovel again and starting to dig trenches, Sokov walked up to the radio operator and told him: "Send a telegram to the division headquarters saying that we have arrived at the designated location. If something happened in the division, You can reach me by radio."

   "Understood." The radio operator stood in a pit with more than half a person, put the radio on the ground, looked up at Sokov and asked, "Comrade division commander, do you still need to send a report to the group army headquarters?"

   "No, no need to send a report." Sokov shook his head and said, "Chief of Staff Sidolin will report our situation to the Army Group Command."

The telegram was sent back to the division headquarters on Mamayev Post. After reading the telegram, Sidolin picked up the phone on the desk and reported to Chuikov: "Comrade Commander, the Marine Battalion led by Colonel Sokov, The gully has been successfully reached and defenses are being deployed."

   After listening to Chuikov, he was silent for a moment, thinking that since Sokov personally commanded in the gully, the Germans' attempt to get out of the gully to the Volga River would definitely go bankrupt. So he changed the subject and asked: "How is the situation on Mamayev Post, has it been attacked by the enemy?"

"Not yet, Comrade Commander." Speaking of this matter, Sidolin felt a little proud: "Maybe it was our flying thunder cannon yesterday that frightened the enemy. Before finding a solution, I think they You may not dare to act rashly."

"Lieutenant Colonel Sidolin," Cuikov heard from Sidolin's tone that the other party underestimated the enemy, and quickly reminded him: "The enemy is cunning, although they suffered huge losses in front of your position yesterday , but I believe that they will soon find out the countermeasures, and you must not take it lightly."

  Hearing what Chuikov said, Sidolin immediately realized that he had underestimated the enemy, and quickly straightened his body and replied, "Understood, Comrade Commander, we will be more vigilant, and we will definitely not underestimate the enemy."

Seeing that Sidolin realized his mistake, Chuikov stopped criticizing him. After nodding his head, he told him: "If there is any news from the gully, please remember to report it to me in time. Do you understand? "

   "Understood, Comrade Commander." Sidolin quickly replied: "I will report to you in detail what happened in the gully at any time."

Ivanov, who was sitting on the side, waited for Sidolin to put down the phone, and asked in a suspicious tone: "Comrade Chief of Staff, I have always thought about one question in my mind. The Germans will really use that gully to move forward." To the banks of the Volga?"

"Isn't it possible?" Seeing that Ivanov actually questioned Sokov's judgment, Sidolin showed a surprised expression on his face: "Comrade deputy division commander, I have been partnering with the division commander for several months. Although He is young, but his judgments on the enemy's situation have always been very accurate, so if he said that the enemy will pass through the ditch and come out to the banks of the Volga River, then he is absolutely correct."

  Seeing that Sidolin was so supportive of Sokov, Ivanov was even more surprised: "Chief of Staff, I really didn't expect that you have such unconditional trust in the division commander."

Hearing what Ivanov said, Sidolin showed a smile on his face: "Comrade deputy division commander, after you have been with the division commander for more than a month and understand what he does, I think you will also Trust him unconditionally."

   "Really?" Regarding Sidolin's statement, Ivanov said dubiously: "Then I will wait and see."

  (end of this chapter)