At dawn the next day, the scouts sent out another telegram saying that the German armored units had advanced in the direction of Shepetovka and would reach the outskirts of the city in about an hour.

When Rokossovsky saw this telegram, he immediately moved his troops into their designated positions in accordance with yesterday's plan. And Rasnoretsky, after receiving the order, although he sent a battle alert to several of his regimental commanders by telephone, he was still in a bad mood for Rokossovsky's defensive tactics.

Rokossovsky stayed in the forward command post, and as soon as he saw through his telescope the tanks that were gradually becoming clear in the lens, changing from a marching column to an attack formation, Rasnoretsky hurried to the command headquarters, raised a telegram in his hand, and hurriedly said to Rokossovsky: "Comrade army commander, comrade army commander, I have just received an order from the front command to launch a counter-assault on the enemy rushing towards Shepetovka. ”

Rokossovsky put down his binoculars, turned to look at Rasnoretsky, who had just broken in, gave a thumbs up and pointed to the back, and said helplessly: "Comrade Colonel, look at it, see how much advantage the enemy has!" ”

With a sigh, Rasnoretsky walked to the lookout, put his eyes in front of a periscope for a trench, and looked in the direction from which the enemy was coming. I saw motorized men in the front of the enemy's dense formation, and tanks and armored vehicles in the back. The huge visual impact made Rasnoretsky stunned in an instant. Although he had long guessed that the enemy's strength might be relatively strong, he didn't expect it to be so strong.

Just when he was at a loss, Rokossovsky, who was standing behind him, suddenly said to him: "I will take responsibility, not to carry out a counter-assault, to meet the enemy with artillery fire." Saying this, he ordered one of the staff officers standing next to him: "Order the artillery regiment to open fire on the enemy's column!" ”

When the staff officer heard his order, he immediately picked up the phone in the observation post and gave an order to the artillery regiment hidden behind the second line of defense: "The commander order, the artillery regiment fires at the enemy's column!" ”

The artillery regiment belonged to the 109th division of Colonel Rasnoretsky, and because after Rokossovsky arrived in Shepetovka, he first got a batch of artillery from the warehouse, and then removed a group of soldiers who knew artillery technology from the motorized battalion to join, and now the entire artillery regiment has more than 60 cannons, which is enough to beat the dense column of the German army to pieces.

With the order given, the artillery, which had long been aimed at the target, opened fire. When the first wave of shells fell, the first to bear the brunt was the German motorcycle team, under the concentrated fire of more than 60 artillery pieces aimed at the same time, even if the impact point was scattered, but under the coverage of the shell group, within a radius of more than seven or eight meters, no matter how fast your wheels run, it would be difficult to avoid the sickle wielded by death.

The Germans did not expect to be suddenly shelled by the Soviet troops, and the whole team suddenly became confused. At this moment, a second round of shelling followed, smashing into the middle of the German tank and armored vehicle queue. The blast overturned the tank, and the flying shrapnel tore through the thin armor of the armored vehicle and embedded it in the bodies of the soldiers inside.

After only a few rounds of shelling, the plain ahead left a large pile of wreckage of tanks, armored vehicles, motorcycles, and hundreds of German corpses. Seeing this, Rokossovsky again instructed his staff officers: "Let General Novikov attack, strike hard from the enemy's flank, and cut their troops in two." ”

Krasnoretsky saw that the German troops, under the blow of artillery fire, became confused, and admired the tactics laid out by Kossovsky. He turned around and asked Rokossovsky: "Comrade commander, can you order the 116th Tank Regiment to also attack and teach the Germans a hard lesson?" ”

Rokossovsky saw the tank division rushing out of the forest on the side, and then at the German troops in complete confusion on the front, nodded and said decisively: "Okay, Comrade Colonel, immediately order the tank regiment to attack from the front and try to wipe out all the German units that our troops have cut off from the rear." ”

Seeing that Rokossovsky agreed to his proposal, Krasnoretsky immediately picked up the phone and said: "Okay, I'll call Lieutenant Colonel Lyon and ask his tank regiment to attack immediately." ”

"Comrade Colonel, please remind him." Rokossovsky hurriedly admonished again: "Tell; Lieutenant Colonel Lyon must fight quickly, and after destroying the enemy, he should withdraw immediately, so as not to be bombed by German aircraft. ”

"Understood!"

Half an hour later, the battle was over. With the loss of 10 tanks and the casualties of more than 100 soldiers, the Soviets repelled the enemy's attack on Shepetovka, destroyed more than 70 enemy tanks and armored vehicles, and hundreds of motorcycles, and killed nearly 1,000 German soldiers.