When Gusev was assigning the task, he suddenly remembered a particularly critical question: "Chief of staff, I almost forgot to ask, is the railway bridge over the Vistula River that divides the north and south cities of the Thorn Fortress repaired?" ”

"Nope." The chief of staff shook his head and said: "According to the report of the director of the engineering corps, the repair of the bridge is very difficult, and it will take a week at the earliest......"

"No, we don't have that much time, waiting for the bridge to be repaired." Gusev said to the chief of staff: "Immediately let the chief of the engineering troops come to me, I will talk to him personally." ”

The chief of engineering was in the next room, and as soon as the chief of staff called, he immediately came. Looking at the other party's sluggish appearance, Gusev asked with concern: "Comrade Director, have you not slept all night?" ”

"Comrade commander," replied the chief of the engineering corps with a smile, "as you know, there are too many roads and bridges to be repaired, and our engineering corps is seriously understaffed, so we can only start work day and night. My condition was quite good, and some of the soldiers did not rest for two or three days in a row, and when they heard the order to rest, they could not even eat anything, so they fell asleep in the snow by the side of the road. ”

"That's not going to work, Comrade Director." After listening to what the director of the engineering corps said, Gusev frowned and said: "Such high-intensity work may cause a large number of non-combat attrition, you must find a way to let the soldiers get enough rest." ”

The chief of the engineering corps sighed lightly and said: "Comrade commander, in fact, it is not that I don't want the fighters to rest, but that the conditions do not allow it, as long as we stop working, then our tanks, artillery and trucks will not be able to pass on the heavily damaged highways and cross the bridges blown up by the enemy." ”

Gusev knew that what the chief of the engineering corps said was the truth, and the engineering soldiers were exhausted to the extreme, and it was almost impossible for them to speed up the repair of the railway bridge. However, when he thought that the 71st and 136th Divisions under his command were stubbornly holding back the enemy who broke through, he hardened his heart and asked: "Comrade Director, I have called you here today to ask, when will you be able to repair the railway bridge across the Vistula?" ”

Hearing Gusev's question, the muscles of the chief of the engineering corps' face twitched violently a few times, and then he said in embarrassment: "Comrade commander, with our current capabilities, it will take a week at the earliest to completely repair the bridge. ”

"No, it's been too long." Gusev said to the chief of the engineering corps with a serious expression: "The main forces of the defenders of the fortress have broken through, and our troops blocking them have suffered heavy casualties, and we need to rush to support them immediately." I ask you now, can you repair the bridge within three hours, let our armored troops pass, and go after the enemy who has broken through. ”

"Comrade commander, this is impossible." Hearing Gusev say this, the director of the engineering corps immediately said excitedly: "Even with the help of heavy lifting machinery, it will take us three to five days to repair this railway bridge, not to mention that there are no such machinery now, and we have done our best to repair the bridge within a week." ”

The chief of staff on the side saw that the atmosphere was a little wrong, and hurriedly came out to play a round: "I said Comrade Director, since the bridge cannot be repaired in a short time, do you think you can build a pontoon bridge to allow our tanks to pass through the river?" ”

When Gusev heard the chief of staff's proposal, he felt that it was quite reliable, so he did not urge the chief of the engineering corps again, but quietly looked at the other party to see if he could come up with a plan that satisfied him.

The chief engineer thought for a long time and said slowly: "Comrade commander, the current ice on the Vistula River can bear the weight of tons and a half of trucks and horse-drawn carts, if you can spread logs and planks on the ice to increase the pressure area of the ice surface, then it should be feasible to pass heavy tanks......"

Knowing that heavy tanks could pass over the ice on the river, Gusev did not wait for the chief of the engineering corps to finish speaking, and could not wait to ask: "So, as long as we lay logs and planks on the ice, our tanks will be able to pass through the Vistula River smoothly?" ”

"Yes, Comrade Commander." The chief of the engineering corps nodded and said affirmatively: "As long as there are enough logs and planks, I can complete the laying work in an hour." ”

"Don't worry, Comrade Director, I will prepare for you in the shortest possible time what you want." After Gusev finished speaking, he turned around and instructed his chief of staff: "Chief of staff, immediately send people to cut down trees around the fortress, collect door panels, and give them to the chief comrade for ice paving." ”

While Gusev was discussing with the head of his engineering corps how to get tanks through the Vistula, the command of the Front was also discussing the operational deployment of the next section. Pointing to the map, Bogolyubov said to the heads of the front armies gathered around the table: "Comrade commanders, more than 30,000 people who have broken through from the Thorn fortress at present have been blocked by the 48th and 71st Infantry Divisions of the 136th Army in the area of Damlau and Otowits. As long as Gusev's actions can be decisive and lead the main force of the group army to pounce, even if he cannot completely annihilate this enemy, he can inflict heavy losses on him, so as to reduce the pressure on our army in the follow-up operations. ”

As soon as Military Commissar Su Bojing and the others finished speaking, they immediately interjected and asked: "Comrade Chief of Staff, tens of thousands of German troops have been found in our vicinity, and what forces should we use to destroy them?" ”

"Comrade Military Commissar," Bogolyubov replied respectfully to Subovin's question: "At present we have six infantry divisions, three tank brigades, and a dozen artillery regiments, which are rushing towards the area where the Germans are assembled. In order to quickly destroy this group of enemies, after consulting with Comrade Marshal, I contacted the commander of the 69th Army, General Kolpakchi, who agreed to send an infantry corps to support us. ”

Bogolyubov's words are tantamount to reassuring everyone, six infantry divisions, one infantry corps, plus the cooperation of tanks and artillery, there is no reason why more than 10,000 enemies cannot be destroyed, not to mention that these enemies were all defeated by the Third Front, and their combat effectiveness will be greatly reduced.

After waiting for Bogolyubov to introduce the situation, Rokossovsky said to everyone: "Okay, comrades commanders, everyone understands their tasks, let's go back and prepare." We will strive to destroy both groups of enemies at the same time today and tomorrow. The Germans lost more than 40,000 men at once, and presumably we were in the area of East Prussia, and there would be no more large-scale battles. ”