Hearing the news that the Germans had begun to flee, Vamko secretly screamed in his heart, he had planned to trap the German troops in this area, and wait for the main force to arrive in the morning, and then encircle and annihilate them. The Germans were fleeing at the moment, and if they remained still, the boiled ducks would fly, so he decisively gave the order to the other two regiments to attack, and they followed the pursuit, destroying as many enemies as they could.

After giving the order to attack, Vamko felt the need to talk to his superiors and tell them about it, so he called the headquarters again. The person who answered the phone was Bogolyubov, who heard dense gunfire and explosions in the direction of the settlement, and thought that the Germans had attacked again overnight, so he heard that the caller was Vamko, and asked with some nervousness: "Comrade Colonel, how is your situation there?" Did the Germans start attacking you again? ”

"No, Comrade Chief of Staff." "It's not the Germans who are attacking, it's my troops who are pursuing," said Vamko in a hurry. German... The Germans are on the run......"

"What, the Germans fled?" When Bogolyubov heard the news, he was particularly surprised: "Then what measures did you take?" ”

"In addition to the 233rd Regiment, which continues to hold on to the settlements, I have ordered two other regiments to attack and pursue the fleeing Germans."

"You're doing the right thing, Comrade Colonel." Bogolyubov waited for Vamko to finish speaking, and immediately said approvingly: "At present, our reinforcements are coming from all directions, and as long as your troops keep in contact with the enemy, it will be difficult for them to escape from our encirclement. ”

After Bogolyubov put down the phone, he came to Rokossovsky and said to him with a sigh of relief: "Comrade Marshal, the enemy who attacked the settlements has fled, and Colonel Vamko is sending troops in pursuit, believing that the enemy will no longer pose a threat to us. ”

"The German offensive was nothing more than a death throes." Rokossovsky picked up the teacup in front of him and took a sip of hot tea, and slapped the map on the table with his palm: "They want to run, where is it so easy?" Our five infantry divisions, two tank brigades plus a cavalry division, are pouring into this area, and it is only a matter of time before they are eliminated. ”

Both Bogolyubov and Rokossovsky thought that the enemy in the vicinity of the settlements had only one regiment of troops, and so many troops were coming from all sides, and it was not like crushing a bed bug to destroy them. Vamko, who was commanding the troops to engage the Germans, heard that so many friendly troops around him had arrived after dawn and could not sit still in the settlement, so he asked his chief of staff to lead a battalion to hold the settlement, and he himself took the other two battalions of the 233rd Regiment to assist the pursuing troops in eliminating the fleeing Germans.

The 81st Division's advance was still Guchakov's ski detachment, which used skis to march through the snow more than half a man on both sides of the road, and pursued the fleeing Germans in parallel.

The ski detachments, although they did not carry any heavy weapons, stopped from time to time and fired at the fleeing German soldiers on the road. Before the enemy could return fire, they put their guns on their shoulders and held their poles to make the skis under their feet rush forward. The German soldiers, who were already in chaos, were constantly knocked down by bullets flying from both sides of the road, and they looked more and more confused. In the dark night, they couldn't see where the enemy was, and they had only one thought in their minds, which was to run forward quickly and get out of this death zone as soon as possible.

Guchakov constantly shouted at his fighters: "Don't fall in love with the battle, speed up, continue to rush forward, and be sure to cut off the way for the Germans to escape." ”

With his shouting, fewer and fewer soldiers stopped to shoot at the enemy, and everyone desperately waved their snow poles and glided quickly through the snow, with only one thought in their minds: they must cut off the Germans' retreat, and when the main force of the division arrived, they would destroy the enemy completely.

At this moment, a dense burst of gunfire suddenly sounded in front of them, and several soldiers who rushed to the front fell from their skis and fell into the snow under them with the sound of gunfire, and the blood flowing from the wounds stained the snow under them.

"Lie down, hurry up!" Guchakov, who was gliding rapidly, heard the sound of gunfire in front of him, which was issued by the MG42 general-purpose machine gun, which was known as "Hitler's chainsaw", and hurriedly raised his voice to warn his fighters. After shouting, he lunged forward, preparing to pounce behind a tree and hide. The inertia caused him to collide violently with the trunk of the tree, shaking the snow off the canopy and scattering him.

Some of the fighters heard Guchakov's shouts and, following his example, stopped advancing and found a place to hide. The warriors, who did not heed his warning, continued to glide forward, only to fall under the guns of the enemy.

One of the squad leaders crawled to Guchakov's side and said to him in a loud voice: "Comrade lieutenant, listen to this gunshot, at least four MG42s were issued, is there an ambush for the enemy here?" ”

"It can't be." Although Guchakov also felt that something was wrong, judging from his many years of veteran experience, there was at least a machine gun platoon in front, but he still couldn't believe that this was an ambush arranged by the German army first, and he also wishfully thought that it was the enemy who stayed behind and broke off: "No, how could the Germans carry out an ambush here?" They must have stayed behind and broke off? ”

After listening to what Guchakov said, the squad leader said with some tears and laughter: "Comrade lieutenant, with our gliding speed, we have long left most of the enemy behind, even if they want to leave people to act as cover, they can only have an impact on the troops attacking behind, how can they appear in front of us?" ”

"Is there still a German unit here?" Guchakov realized that he was a little too underestimated to the enemy, and hurriedly ordered the squad leader: "You take two people to reconnoiter and find out what is going on and why there are so many German machine guns in front." ”

After the squad leader left, Guchakov looked left and right, and did not see where the operator was, so he shouted loudly: "The operator, the operator, come to me." ”

"Comrade lieutenant," replied one of the fighters not far away, "the operator died, he was killed by a German machine gun." ”

When Guchakov heard that the operator had been killed by the enemy, he immediately realized the seriousness of the problem, and if he did not get in touch with his superiors as soon as possible, his ski detachment might become a lone army, so he asked: "Where is the walkie-talkie?" ”

The soldier who answered crawled in front of him, pushed a walkie-talkie with blood stains in front of him, and said with a sad face: "Comrade lieutenant, you see, when the operator was killed by a machine gun, the bullet passed through his body, and the walkie-talkie was also broken, and we cannot communicate with our superiors now. ”

Guchakov then looked down at the walkie-talkie in front of him in the faint light, and sure enough, he found a few bullet holes in the chassis, and he couldn't help but curse secretly: "Hell, the walkie-talkie is broken." He began to think in his heart, wait for the squad leader to come back from reconnaissance and figure out what is going on with the enemy in front, and then send someone back to get in touch with the main force.