According to the Soviet division of time zones for the whole country, Minsk time was an hour behind Moscow time, and by the time Ponomarenko himself received a telegram from the partisan republic, it was already half past nine in the evening in Moscow.

It was a little late, and most of the residents of Moscow were still in good spirits. On the eve of the outbreak of war, Moscow's population exceeded 5 million, making it the largest city in the Soviet Union. In the defense, Moscow evacuated more than a million people in one fell swoop.

There were also more than a million citizens, either who urgently joined the Red Army, or took up shovels and hammers to dig trenches and build fortifications.

Moscow's urban area is so large that even though it once had a population of five million, the city was still sparse. After the battle, a large number of people were evacuated, and they returned to the factories in the city and began to work hard.

After the failure of the German attack, its air force also had several retaliatory actions to bomb Moscow, but this bombing was purely thankless, the Soviet army laid a large number of anti-aircraft machine guns and anti-aircraft guns in the capital, and the night balloon was raised to an altitude of 6,000 meters!

The German Henschel bomber was their best, but the performance of this aircraft was still too bad! Gradually, this retaliatory bombing gradually turned into a "protest demonstration", and their attack on Moscow could be ignored.

Just as excited as the workers were Ponomarenko himself, who estimated that he would not be able to sleep all night today!

Because, the new campaign will break out on May 19, at two o'clock in the morning Kiev time! After the artillery preparation was over, half a million soldiers went on the attack, and at half past four in the morning, the sun rose, and together with the rising sun, they launched a huge general attack on the German positions.

This battle, known as the Kharkiv offensive, was the largest strategic counteroffensive of 1942 planned by the Soviet army.

The focus of this counteroffensive was to take Kharkov, a transportation hub and an important industrial manufacturing center. According to the plan of the General Staff of the Soviet Army, this operation was a joint operation of the Southwestern Front, the Southern Front and the Crimean Front.

Although the core of the battle is to take Kharkov, with the participation of hundreds of thousands of Soviet troops in Crimea in the offensive linkage, the core purpose of the Soviet army in the entire strategic situation has completely become to encircle the German army in the Donbas basin and eat it in one go through a large-scale offensive of nearly 400 kilometers, flanking from two directions.

This is a very bold strategy, which is half done as long as Kharkov is taken and the front is secured.

At present, there is no one at the top of the entire Soviet Union who is not optimistic, and throughout the first half of the year, a series of significant progress has been made in the counteroffensive of the Soviet army on all fronts. It was clear that the Soviets were advancing and the Germans were retreating, and most of the generals and marshals believed that as long as the Red Army continued to attack, the Germans would be driven out of the border by Christmas Day in the Russian calendar in 1943!

Ponomarenko was full of confidence in the future, and he was looking forward to a quick victory for Timoshenko and his hundreds of thousands of troops on the Southwestern Front, for which he still had a reason to sleep?

Moreover, he had another reason not to sleep soundly. That is, the 17th Guerrilla Brigade planned by himself failed in the operation to attack the Ukrainian city of Gorodnia, and he knew that it was useless to be annoyed, but fortunately, the essence of this force was still there, so he went to the Pripet swamp to rest and recuperate, and received supplies from the guerrilla republic, and they must be able to quickly recover their strength. Moreover, as long as that Berekov teaches them some advanced guerrilla warfare tactics, the combat effectiveness of the guerrilla brigade will be greatly improved!

According to the order given to the partisan republics, they sent elite troops to cross the Dnieper, which should be the forest city of Slavzich after all! Take here, hold it, and guide the guerrilla brigade to the city.

At four o'clock in the afternoon of May 18, Ponomarenko received a telegram from the partisan brigade, in which the brigade commander reported two things, one was that they were approaching the forest, and the other was the fact that the Romanian army was in full pursuit.

This made people a little nervous, and Ponomarenko pondered for a while. He himself looked down on these Nazi client states very much, and he was full of confidence in the 63rd Army in the swamps. He immediately ordered the brigade commander Mirošniko: "Reach the forest as soon as possible, and do not take the initiative to provoke those Romanian pursuers." Rest after you enter the forest, tomorrow the 63rd Army in the swamps will capture Slavdzich, and as soon as the battle begins, you can join them. ”

Ponomarenko's wishful thinking was successful, and as a result, a telegram from the guerrilla republic suddenly came.

He took the telegraph operator's manuscript with great interest, and was so shocked that the iron tea jar in his hand fell directly to the ground.

In the office, a loud shout came: "Is the speed of this group of people thunder and lightning?" They're too fast! Slavzich was liberated six hours ago?! Why didn't they report earlier! Let me be happy sooner too! ”

Now Ponomarenko is both excited and a little regretful. In his opinion, if Berekov had reported three hours in the morning, he would not have given such an order as Miroshniko. And he and his exhausted partisan brigade fighters would be ordered to grit their teeth and run desperately towards Slavdish, in which case the two armies would be divided by just dark!

To this end, he immediately sent back a number of telegrams to the guerrilla republic, the core of which was this.

"The telegram ordered the front-line units of the 63rd Army, stationed in the city of Slavdzich, and sent reconnaissance units to advance to the eastern edge of the forest, searching for the 17th partisan brigade that entered the forest."

This telegram came very quickly, Yevlov was ecstatic, and the order quickly reached Yang Mingzhi in Slavdzich.

It was not yet ten o'clock in the evening, and even though Yang Mingzhi was energetic, the exhaustion of his body still drove him to be drowsy. He lay down on the wooden table and took a nap, and after a while he heard the sound of snoring.

Diana and several other telegraphers were stationed at the front headquarters, and they agreed to take turns on duty to ensure that they would not miss the telegram at any time.

Today, she can be regarded as having experienced siege battles, and her mental exhaustion makes her drowsy. Just hold on until 11 p.m. and you'll be able to change shifts!

She sat quietly, thinking of something interesting in her head, to dispel her boredom.

Suddenly, the telegraph machine sounded, which not only shocked her, but also woke up Yang Mingzhi, who was napping.

The telegram from the command of the army group was quickly translated with shocking content!

"It's really incredible, the joint superiors hope that the guerrilla brigade will take the city, and then we will be divided with them and take people across the river?! This Ponomarenko, is he too worthy of them? Or do you hope that these guerrilla brigade fighters will finally win the battle so that they are not ugly? ”

Talking to himself, Yang Mingzhi immediately issued an order to the guards: "Abram, you take people to the various army camps and call the officers to the headquarters!" I'm going to convene an emergency military order! ”

Abram left with a group of guards, and Yang Mingzhi changed his embarrassed appearance, he asked Diana to hold the telegraph aside, and he himself laid the folded map on the table.

Soon, the regimental and battalion commanders, who were already sleeping, hurriedly came, and as soon as they sat down, Yang Mingzhi loudly announced: "Comrades! We just received an order from our superiors! The superiors sent a congratulatory message for our feat of liberating Slavzich ahead of schedule and informed us that the comrades of the 17th partisan brigade had already arrived at the edge of the forest before dark! The higher authorities ordered us to find them at once and bring them into the city! ”

Suddenly, the officers had different opinions.

"They're coming so fast! I thought we wouldn't find out until tomorrow. ”

"Tomorrow? Ravlenti, I thought they arrived the day after tomorrow. ”

……

Yang Mingzhi knocked on the table: "Everyone, please be quiet!" In any case, we can be sure that the guerrilla brigade is very close to us. The superiors have given us a very urgent order, and just tonight, we must find them!

However, we are not blindly looking in the forest. The higher authorities also gave them an order to move the guerrilla brigade west along the road, and we also sent our troops, just go east along the road!

Now let's discuss, whose troops are willing to take on this task of finding and greeting? ”

As soon as the words fell, Balzen raised his hand and stood up without thinking: "Let me come!" We are professional in searching! ”

"However, the soldiers of the reconnaissance battalion have consumed a lot of energy in today's battle, and your soldiers are too tired!"

"Nope! If we say that we are tired, all the comrades sitting here, and even all the comrades who participated in this operation, everyone is tired! Balzen patted his chest and said, "Commander, leave this glorious idea to us!" I will bring back the comrades of the guerrilla brigade in its entirety! ”

"Alright! You're sorry! ”