Lao Zhu knew that as long as the bonfire was lit, it would be a matter of time before it was discovered by the Germans, so after the bonfire that guided the direction of the bombing was lit, he immediately took his subordinates to move to a new place. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

They lit the bonfire after hearing the roar of the aircraft engine, but when the troops were some distance away from the campfire, the sound of the aircraft engine, which was getting louder and louder, suddenly disappeared. Lao Zhu stopped, looked up at the dark sky, and listened carefully with his ears sideways.

Li Muzi, who was following closely behind him, didn't notice that Lao Zhu suddenly stopped, and hit him headlong, causing Lao Zhu to fall headlong in the snow. Muzi stretched out his hand to pull Lao Zhu up, and asked curiously, "Platoon leader, why did you stop?" I knocked you down. ”

"Listen!" Lao Zhu pointed to the air and said to Mu Zi, who was dazed: "The roar of the engine in the air, how can you suddenly not hear it?" ”

Mu Zi also followed the example of Lao Zhu, listened carefully to the movement in the air with his ears sideways, and after listening to it for a long time without hearing any movement, he couldn't help but say thoughtfully: "Could it be that our plane flew back again?" ”

"How is this possible?" As soon as Mu Zi's words came out, he was immediately refuted by Lao Zhu, "Since the superiors asked us to indicate the direction of attack to the bomber regiment, how could it be that we didn't attack yet, so we hurriedly returned home?" ”

Just when Lao Zhu and Muzi were discussing how they couldn't hear the sound of the airplane motor in the air, the enemy in the village of Popkovo had already noticed the sudden appearance of a fire in the forest and hurriedly sounded the alarm. A small German force of fifty men was quickly assembled and, under the command of an officer, ran towards the entrance of the village, ready to inspect the place where there was a bonfire.

As soon as they reached the entrance of the village, the planes of the women's bomber regiment had already reached the sky over Popkovo. The female pilot flying at the front, with the help of the flashlight in the hands of the Germans and the reflection of the snow, spotted the enemy who was running towards the outside of the village, decisively lowered the altitude, and dropped the first bomb.

The bombs whizzed down on the German ranks, and in the violent explosion, a dazzling fire rose up, and the snow kicked up flew into the air along with the torn and broken stumps. The German soldiers who stayed in the tank heard the sound of shrapnel hitting the armor steel plate like raindrops, thinking that the Soviet army had launched a ground attack, and hurriedly fired and fired at the campfire position in the forest, and the entrance of the village was suddenly in chaos.

A long muzzle flame appeared from the muzzle of the machine-gun, which was constantly firing, revealing the position of the tank. The female pilot, who was following behind, also lowered the heights, dived down towards the two firing tanks, and dropped the bombs they were carrying.

More than a dozen bombs fell from the sky, even if they scattered at the point of impact, but they accurately hit the two tanks placed at the entrance of the village. The body that was directly hit by several bombs at the same time was slammed, and the seemingly thick armor plate was not much more difficult than tearing a piece of paper in front of the bombs falling from the sky, and the turret burst like a walnut smashed by a hammer. The shells inside the car were detonated, and two huge flames shot into the sky, illuminating the surroundings like torches.

At the end of the first round of bombardment, the two tanks at the entrance of the village were destroyed, and the group of German soldiers who were about to leave the village, except for a few seriously wounded, were still howling and struggling in the snow, and the rest had already died. The female pilots started the engines again, pulled the plane up, and continued to look for new targets with the help of the lighting of the burning tanks at the entrance of the village.

Since the women's bomber regiment was taxiing when approaching the village, the Germans did not hear any movement. When they saw that the troops at the entrance of the village were completely annihilated, they thought that the Soviet army had launched a ground attack, so they entered their positions one after another, preparing to meet the attacking Soviet army.

However, after waiting for a while, there were no attacking Soviet troops, and bombs were falling from the sky, only to realize that there was a ghostly air force, hovering over their heads, occasionally dropping a few bombs or diving into exposed fire points on the ground.

After the women's bomber regiment left Popkovo, the chaotic enemy slowly returned to normal. According to statistics, two tanks, one armored car, five trucks, and more than 100 casualties were lost in the air raid.

After learning the news of the safe return of the women's bomber regiment, Rokossovsky said to the female commander who called: "Comrade commander, can I say a few words to the female pilots who participated in the battle?" ”

"No," the other party refused Rokossovsky's request without hesitation, and then said coldly: "It's too cold, and the plane is not warm, and our girls are all frozen, so they can't answer your call." ”

"I see!" After Rokossovsky figured out the reason, he regretted that he could not personally express his gratitude to the female pilots who participated in the battle, but he still said politely: "Please express your gratitude to the girls on my behalf for what they have done today." ”

"I will, Comrade General." The other party still said seriously: "I will convey your thanks to the girls." ”

When Rokossovsky put down the phone, he happened to see Lobachev with a tired face walking in from outside, hurriedly greeted him, shook the other party's hand, and asked with concern: "Comrade Military Commissar, you are back." ”

"Yes, I'm back." Lobachev knew what Rokossovsky was anxious to understand, so without waiting for him to ask, he preemptively said: "This time we went to the prisoner of war camp and selected more than 4,000 qualified soldiers, and it should be considered that Suchinich is in urgent need of manpower here, so I will bring back 1,000 people first, and the rest will arrive in the next week." ”

"Great, that's great." When Rokossovsky heard Lobachev say this, he was overjoyed, "Although there are only a thousand people, it is enough to make up for the lack of our troops." ”

Hearing that there were soldiers who could replenish the troops, Malinin hurriedly walked over to Rokossovsky and asked for instructions: "Comrade commander, I wonder which unit you plan to replenish these fighters to?" ”

Rokossovsky thought for only a moment, and then replied decisively: "Let's replenish the 11th Guards Division of General Chernyshov, we may launch an offensive against Popkovo in a few days, their division will be the main force of the attack, if there are not enough troops, it will not work." ”

Malinin wrote down Rokossovsky's order in his notebook, raised his head and continued: "Also, I just received a call from Kaluga, are they going to send us two thousand recruits tomorrow, also to replenish the 11th Guards Division?" ”

"That's right, all for the 11th Guards Division," Rokossovsky replied without hesitation: "Only by concentrating all the forces together can combat effectiveness be ensured." ”

At noon the next day, the men of the 11th Guards Division, replenished one after another, reached the southwest direction of Sushinich. When Cherneshov saw that his superiors had replenished himself with so many soldiers, he was so happy that he couldn't close his mouth. He hurriedly called the regiment commanders below and asked them to come to the division headquarters to recruit them back.

When the 3,000 supplementary troops were divided, Lao Zhu also received a call from the regiment commander and asked him to report to the regiment headquarters immediately. Lao Zhu didn't know what was going on, so he immediately rushed to the regiment headquarters with Li Muzi.

When the chubby regiment commander saw Lao Zhu appear, he immediately greeted him with a smile on his face, shook hands with Lao Zhu and Muzi one by one, and then looked at Lao Zhu and said, "Comrade Lieutenant......"

As soon as he spoke, Lao Zhu hurriedly corrected him: "Comrade regiment commander, I am a second lieutenant, not a lieutenant. ”

"I said you're a lieutenant, you're a lieutenant." The regiment commander said domineeringly: "After you came to our division, you have made so many combat exploits, and you are a little wronged to make you a lieutenant and company commander." ”

"Hey, hey, hey," Li Muzi next to him gently touched Lao Zhu with his elbow, and said enviously: "Lao Zhu, congratulations, not only has you been promoted in rank, but you have also become a company commander." ”

The head of the regiment glanced at Li Muzi, and then asked Lao Zhu, who was smiling from ear to ear: "Who is he?" ”

"My deputy platoon commander." Lao Zhu hurriedly straightened his waist and replied.

The regiment commander nodded and said, "I now announce that he has been promoted to second lieutenant and deputy company commander, and each of the original soldiers in your company has been promoted to a first-class rank and position. Do you understand? ”

Promotion, promotion to the rank, is every soldier's dream thing, after hearing this exciting order announced by the regiment commander, Lao Zhu and Mu Zi replied in unison: "Understood! ”

Just when the two of them thought that the regiment commander had explained everything and was about to leave, they heard the regiment commander continue to say: "I know that you have too few people now, and there are only 25 soldiers who have been added to you. Our superiors have just added us with a batch of new recruits, and I'm going to add some to you as well.

Now I give you two choices: one is the 25 veterans who have just been freed from our German prisoner-of-war camps; The second is 50 recruits, newly drafted in Kaluga without any combat experience. Which do you choose? ”

"Report to the head of the regiment, comrade," Lao Zhu waited for the head of the regiment to finish speaking, and hurriedly stepped forward and said loudly: "I want those 25 veterans." ”

"Very good," the regiment commander nodded, walked to the table, leaned over and wrote a few words in a notebook, then tore off the paper, handed it to Lao Zhu, and said briskly: "You take this note, go to the deputy chief of staff, and ask him to hand over these soldiers to you." ”

After leaving the headquarters, Mu Zi complained to Lao Zhu in a low voice: "Lao Zhu, why don't you want those 50 people, but you want this choice of 25 people?" ”

Lao Zhu stopped, turned his face sideways and said to Mu Zi: "You are also a veteran, you should know that on the battlefield, the battle loss rate of veterans and recruits is disproportionate." As soon as the fight started, the veteran knew how to save his life, and when it was time to attack, he behaved with tact and bravery; Even if they retreated, the chances of them escaping were very high.

As for the recruits, they don't know what to do until the battle starts. When attacking, he held his gun straight to his waist and stupidly rushed towards the enemy's gun; When retreating, he behaved in a panic, and there was no rule at all, he ran wherever he saw that there were many people, and in the end he was either killed by the enemy or taken prisoner. ”

Lao Zhu's words finally made Mu Zi understand, he nodded, and said affirmatively: "Lao Zhu, you still have experience, if I had to choose, I would definitely choose the one with more people." ”

After hearing this, Lao Zhu said teasingly: "So, I can be a company commander, but you can only be a deputy company commander." ”

After receiving the note handed over by Lao Zhu, the deputy chief of staff was really reluctant to hand over the veteran to Lao Zhu, and fooled him: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, do you want to think about it again, you have few people in your company, and it is more cost-effective to choose 50 people." ”

"Thank you, Comrade Deputy Chief of Staff." Lao Zhu politely said to the deputy chief of staff: "This is an order from the regiment commander, and an order is an order." As subordinates, we can only obey and not discuss. ”

The deputy chief of staff called his plan frustrated, smiled wryly, and then said: "Okay, comrade second lieutenant, you go back first, and I will bring back and send people to send these soldiers to your company." ”

Lao Zhu returned to the position, immediately called several of his trusted subordinates to the front, told everyone what was happening in the regiment, and also announced that 25 new fighters would soon join this new company.

Hearing that Lao Zhu was promoted to company commander, Tang Sanshui said a little sourly: "Comrade company commander, please allow me to congratulate you on obtaining a higher rank and position on behalf of everyone. ”

Seeing Tang Sanshui's appearance, Lao Zhu couldn't help but laugh dumbly. He raised his hand and patted the other party's shoulder, and said with a smile: "Don't worry, the regiment commander said that this promotion and promotion, everyone in the company has a share." Sanshui, I now appoint you as a platoon commander with the rank of sergeant. Chen Xiaopaw! ”

"Here!" Chen Xiaopu, who was standing on the side, hurriedly agreed loudly.

"I appoint you as the commander of the second platoon, with the rank of sergeant." After Lao Zhu announced this appointment, he turned his eyes to Xiao Tian beside him: "Xiao Tian! ”

"Here!" Xiao Tian hurriedly agreed.

"From now on, you are the leader of the third platoon." Lao Zhu said with a smile: "It is also the rank of sergeant." ”

After announcing the appointment of the three platoon commanders, Lao Zhu turned his gaze to the tall Lei Zifeng, and after thinking for a moment, he said decisively: "Lei Zifeng, I now appoint you as the mortar platoon leader, also with the rank of sergeant. ”

"I appoint you as the commander of the second platoon, with the rank of sergeant." After Lao Zhu announced this appointment, he turned his eyes to Xiao Tian beside him: "Xiao Tian! ”

"Here!" Xiao Tian hurriedly agreed.

"From now on, you are the leader of the third platoon." Lao Zhu said with a smile: "It is also the rank of sergeant." ”

After announcing the appointment of the three platoon commanders, Lao Zhu turned his gaze to the tall Lei Zifeng, and after thinking for a moment, he said decisively: "Lei Zifeng, I now appoint you as the mortar platoon leader, also with the rank of sergeant. ”