When Rokossovsky's tank detachment went to fight the German artillery south of Vvodava, the battle in the city heated up.

Due to the continuous shelling of the German army, the buildings in this ancient city were reduced to rubble. Division Commander Blazevich, who personally led the fighters against the German offensive on the Cross Street, felt that the neighborhoods had become unrecognizable, and the potholed streets were littered with rubble, masonry, and ruins.

Blazewicz watched as the Germans rolled on the run using all the bunkers they could use, such as craters, ruins, and even dead bodies, and watched them roll into the dead end. In the alternating fire of the Germans, in the shots of increasing efficiency, the fighters on Blazevich's side constantly fell.

Seeing that the enemy was getting closer and closer to the position, an officer bent down and ran to Blazevich's side, leaned close to his ear, and shouted loudly: "Comrade division commander, we can't stand it, let the fighters retreat?" ”

"Get out of here, get out of here!" Blazevic saw clearly that the officer who spoke was the commander of the guard company under his command, and immediately raised his pistol to aim at him, stared at him with blood-red eyes, and shouted at him: "As long as we have one person, we must not take a step back." Get back to your place and keep fighting, or I'll shoot you!" ”

The officer was stunned for a moment by Blazevic, his lips squirmed for a long time, but he did not make any sound, and finally he gritted his teeth and stomped his feet, turned and ran back to his position.

After the commander of the guard company left, Blazevich looked at the fifty or sixty commanders and fighters on the left and right, waved his arms and shouted: "Comrades, as long as we still have one man, we must not hand over Vvodava to the enemy." I, Blazevich, your division commander, will fight with you on the ground until the last breath of my life. Comrades, take an oath with me: to drive the German aggressors out of the border and let the banner of victory fly forever over the USSR! ”

"Swear to drive the German invaders out of the border and let the banner of victory fly forever over the Soviet Union!" The surrounding soldiers raised their guns and roared in unison, and the atmosphere was particularly tragic. After the shouting ended, all the fighters resumed shooting.

The enthusiastic soldiers pulled the bolt and pulled the trigger as fast as they could, the light machine guns had been changed to continuous long point fire, the bullet casings that popped out spread layer after layer on the ground, the crossfire composed of five or six light machine guns formed a dense barrage on the not wide street, and the fire network composed of dark red fire whips shook from side to side, knocking down the enemy who tried to rush through in pieces.

The enemy's charge was repulsed by the blood-beaten warriors, and more than seventy or eighty dead bodies were left on the streets. A few seriously wounded people were constantly rolling in pain in the streets, letting out bursts of screams and wails before death, which caused goosebumps on the bodies of the commanders and fighters on the position. After a few crisp gunshots, the screams came to an abrupt end, as the soldiers on the battlefield were helping them to relieve their pain as soon as possible.

Blazevic sat in the trench with his back against the earthen wall, lit a cigarette, took a deep breath, and looked at the sky in a daze. After several days of fighting, the commanders and fighters of the unit suffered heavy casualties, and there were more than 6,000 people in the division, and no more than 2,000 were still able to stand up. The troops holding this section of the city in the west of the city used to have more than 1,000 men, but now with the guard company they brought, there were no more than 200 people, including the wounded.

When he was thinking wildly, a voice suddenly sounded in his ears: "Comrade division commander, can you give a cigarette?" ”

Blazevic opened his eyes and saw that it was a sergeant with a blackened face, crouching in front of him, looking for himself to smoke. Without even thinking about it, he took out a cigarette case from his jacket pocket and handed it over. The sergeant took the cigarette case, took out two crumpled cigarettes, handed them to a young soldier next to him, and returned the cigarette case to him.

After both of them lit their cigarettes, Blazevic tried to squeeze a smile on his face and asked in an amiable tone: "Comrade Sergeant, what is your name?" ”

"Oleg, Sergeant Oleg." The sergeant did not stand up and report as ordered, but sat down and spoke to his division commander in a small talk tone. "The leader of the ninth squad of the second battalion and the first company." Then he turned his head to look at the young soldier next to him, and then said, "This is Vanya, a Red Army soldier, the only soldier alive in my squad. ”

If Rokossovsky had been here, he would have recognized the sergeant and the young soldier as the two Blues soldiers he had seen through his binoculars during the exercise in Cowell last month.

After taking a sharp puff of his cigarette, Oleg boldly asked: "Comrade division commander, where is our cavalry regiment?" If they go around behind the enemy, they can easily crush the enemy. ”

Hearing Oleg's question, Blazevich was silent, why didn't he want to use the cavalry regiment to attack the German artillery positions in the south of the city, as long as a charge, maybe he could pull out this thorn in the flesh. Unfortunately, soon after the outbreak of the war, the cavalry regiment's garrison in the suburbs was attacked by the German tank troops, and except for a dozen commanders and fighters who successfully escaped, the rest died heroically.

As soon as I thought of this, I heard the whistling sound of cannonballs flying in the air. Then a shell exploded in front of the trench, and the flames and thunderous explosions made people tremble.

"Shelling, hide!" Almost at the same time as the shell exploded, Oleg threw away the half-smoked cigarette in his hand and slammed it on Blazevich, and the two fell together in the trench, falling to the ground in the air waves.

Shells flew in one after another from outside the city, landing in front of the trenches and exploding on the left and right. Because the German artillery fire was too dense, in a short time, the entire position was full of shells, and no one could count how many explosion points there were at one time, there were explosions everywhere, fires everywhere, and shrapnel flying everywhere. The masonry and rubble, the shredded flesh of the human body, and the parts of the weapons that were lifted into the air by the air wave flew in the air for a moment before falling like raindrops.

Seeing that the German artillery fire showed no signs of abating, Blazevich began to despair, and if he continued to bombard like this, without the German army launching a ground attack, this dense artillery fire alone would be enough to wipe out all living creatures on the position.

The frenzied shelling, which lasted about twenty minutes or so, suddenly stopped without warning. As soon as the shelling stopped, Blazevic peeked out of the fortifications and saw a large group of German soldiers at the end of the street, bent over their waists, with their rifle butts against their abdomen, against the ruins on both sides of the street, moving cautiously forward.

"Comrades, get ready to fight!" Blazevic shouted with great majesty, wanting to encourage everyone. But when I heard the sound as if it were coming from a very distant place, I realized that my ears were not well shaken by the sound of the explosion.

Several sections of the trenches had been blown up, and the surviving fighters had come out of the dirt, re-mounted their weapons, set up their shooting positions, and opened fire as soon as the enemy came into range.