September is the harvest season, and the hard-working farmers need to take stock of the fruits of this year's labor, so there is a busy scene everywhere.

In the small town of Khmelnik, it's a different story. The town is full of uniformed soldiers, who patronize the town's few shops.

In the barracks outside the town, Major General Salda, the commander of the 24th Division, was giving orders against him. "When the artillery will arrive, they will be one of the main forces next. Captain Tolck assured me that they would arrive at the scheduled time, what they were doing. The day after tomorrow was the scheduled time, but they were still in Kamenets. ”

Looking at the furious Major General Salda, the chief of staff, Colonel Bodalko, couldn't help but say. "At present, it seems that the artillery regiment can no longer arrive at the required time, so do we need to consider borrowing some equipment from friendly units? At least 105 howitzers need to be borrowed, these heavy guns will not be able to arrive within the stipulated time. ”

The Chief of Staff's words made Major General Salda think about it and refuse.

"Chief of Staff, don't mention this proposal. You must know that the selection of our troops this time has already caused dissatisfaction among many colleagues, and if friendly forces are allowed to support because of the delay in artillery, it will not cause a violent reaction. So this proposal is no longer necessary. ”

Major General Salda's categorical refusal made Colonel Bodalko unable to help but speak. "But without artillery support, the next battle will not be so easy to fight."

"Not necessarily."

"How?"

Major General Salda pointed to the operational map and explained. "Look. The altitude of Hermek is 749 meters, which is not much higher than the surrounding area, and our division uses 75 mm field guns, which is enough to target the 76.2 mm field guns of the current Soviet large-scale equipment division. It is believed that by the time the rear units of the Soviet troops arrived in Hurmek, our 105 howitzers should have arrived long ago. Moreover, after the start of the battle, we will still be partially supported by the 4th Heavy Artillery Regiment, which is enough to ensure that our army is invincible. ”

That's right, Major General Salda made a compromise after full consideration, so that the speed of the Soviet army's build-up and the route of the advance were fully considered according to the conflict that broke out. According to his estimates, after learning that Mount Hurmek was occupied by our side, it would take two days for the Soviets to report and make a decision, and then another three days to gather forces and move over. In five days, even if you push it by hand, you should have pushed it.

In the early operations, many of the 76.2 mm divisional field guns used by the Soviet Army were new M1902/30 models. The new gun was extended from a 30x diameter barrel to a 40x diameter. The muzzle velocity was 662 m/s, the angle was 17 to 37 degrees, and the maximum range was increased from 8,500 m to 13,290 m.

Soviet artillery was strong, and Romania was not bad. At present, the Romanian army has also been equipped with a large number of new 75mm field guns, the new 75mm field guns are called M1906/29, and their diameter has also been increased from 32 times to 43 times, and the maximum firing range has also been increased from 8400 meters to 13520 meters. Not at all inferior to the current Soviet new 76.2 caliber field artillery.

Not to mention that the current 24th Division is currently armed with Romania's latest 105-caliber howitzers. Its 35 times larger barrel can hit shells at a distance of 14,180 meters. In addition, the addition of a newly developed muzzle brake can also reduce recoil by 36%, allowing thicker tires to be installed on this howitzer, which increases the maneuverability of the gun.

If it had not been for the fact that the flood had washed away the railway bridge, which forced the artillery units to divert to road transport, then the Soviets would have felt its might at the beginning of the conflict.

Now that Major General Salda had considered a plan for dealing with it, Colonel Bodalko could only move on to the next question. "So division commander, have you considered which regiment to send to occupy Mount Hermek first?"

"I've almost thought about it, let Lieutenant Colonel Mizik lead his three regiments to take Mount Hermek first. To this end, I plan to equip him with a battalion of 75 mountain artillery, an engineer company, and give him four more 12.7 anti-aircraft machine guns. Let it have enough ammunition to hold this high point for me. And I took the rest of the division as a backup, and waited for the Soviets to come up and give them a blow. ”

It is clear that Major General Salda intended to put Mizik's regiment at a critical point. As a battle-hardened general, Major General Salda knew where the key points of future conflict were and put the most elite cards in his hand at the beginning.

The Third Regiment is indeed worthy of his entrustment, and in the past two years of tactical exercises within the division, the Third Regiment has repeatedly won the first place. As a sign of trust and expectation for his subordinates, Major General Salda is clearly willing to be the core garrison.

After hearing the words of the division commander, the chief of staff thought of the performance of the third regiment on weekdays, and also said in agreement. "It's a reasonable arrangement."

While the two divisional commanders were deliberating, Lieutenant Colonel Mizik, who was their trusted man, was also writing a letter home to his wife. As a qualified soldier, of course, he didn't write about the army, mainly because his lovely son was in the school grade. In order to let that son get a full education, he asked someone to find a good school for him, and this time he wrote to talk about going to school.

"I've already done the school in Kars, it's the first state primary school in Galatz. I have asked Lieutenant Colonel Kerley for his help, and you will take your son to visit you to thank you when you arrive. Don't forget to bring expensive gifts, just be normal, the Kerley family is too expensive for the nobles, but it will be ......"

As Mizik was writing, an officer wearing the rank of lieutenant colonel pushed the door open.

He saw Mizik lying on the table writing a letter, and said with a smile. "Mizik, you've only been on vacation for less than two months, and you're missing your family again?"

Mizik knew who it was without looking up and listening to the voice, so he spoke more casually.

"Didn't I ask the retired Lieutenant Colonel Kerley to help me find a school for my son, and now that I have found it, I naturally need to thank the other party."

"This matter is easy to solve, if you are in my hometown, I will help you solve it in one sentence."

Seal the finished letter, Mizik said. "That is, who doesn't know that Major Dalton's family is very powerful in Buzeu."

He was laughed at by his cousin, Lieutenant Colonel Dalton, who was now in charge of the 3rd Regiment with Mizik, but he was the deputy commander.

Mizik continued, after he teased. "How's the battalions doing?"

"You didn't even let me take a sip of water, and you started asking about the troops."

Lieutenant Colonel Dalton, who was pouring water himself, laughed and cursed, but still gave an answer. "What else, many soldiers have gone out to relax. And the battalion and company commanders were decompressing the soldiers. After all, this is the first battle of our division, and we can't mess it up. ”

In fact, Lieutenant Colonel Dalton was wrong, this was their second time on the battlefield. However, in the last Soviet-Polish war, their division did not get a chance to perform in it. Who let the task assigned to them at that time was to protect the transport line, and the cavalry army that the Soviet army harassed the transport line was caught by the armored brigade and the cavalry division, and fled in rout without even seeing the edge of the transport line, which disappointed the 24th Division.

Now it's the first battle of their division facing the Soviet army, can they be careless.