Malinin asked Rokossovsky strangely: "Comrade commander, it is clear that our troops will arrive in half an hour, but why do you want General Zakharov to hold out for an hour?" ”

Rokossovsky explained to Malinin this question: "Now General Zakharov's nerves are like a taut string, and if we tell him the truth, he will take chances and let the troops outside the city fight to the death with the enemy, instead of sending reinforcements." Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Now I told him to hold out for another hour, and in order to gain this precious time, he was bound to transfer some of the defenders of the city to reinforce the positions outside the city, so that when our counterattack began, the battle would take place outside the city, and there would be no longer a protracted and deadly street battle with the enemy, and then our victory would be greatly quicker. ”

"Let the cavalry division and the tank brigade go through the city together and launch a counterattack against the enemy?" Malinen asked.

After hearing this, Rokossovsky shook his head and said: "Let the tanks cross the city to reinforce the troops who are fighting fiercely." The cavalry division, on the other hand, bypassed from the south of the city and launched a surprise attack from the flank of the German army. ”

Before the reinforcements sent by Zakharov arrived, the main position outside the city was on the verge of being lost. The regiment commander who commanded the operation was shot in the shoulder and thigh, and was stabbed in the abdomen by a German bayonet. At this moment he was sitting in the trench, aiming his pistol at the German soldiers who were rushing towards him, and five or six German corpses were already lying around him.

And Lao Zhu, who led the team to support, the situation is also very bad. Of the 12 people, only he, Chen Xiaopu, and Xiao Tian were left with a seriously wounded warrior. The four of them were surrounded by more than a dozen German soldiers, but fortunately the German soldiers around them did not have submachine guns in their hands, otherwise they would have been shot and killed indiscriminately.

The Germans never dreamed that these soldiers with Asian faces would be so fierce in combat that at least one platoon of soldiers fell under their bayonets. Just as they were about to attack the exhausted Lao Zhu again, reinforcements from the city arrived, and their arrival suddenly turned the situation in favor of the Soviet army.

Several German tanks were parked a hundred meters away from the trenches, and when they saw Soviet troops rushing out of the city, they immediately opened fire on the running fighters with tank guns. Although each explosion of a shell would take one or more lives, the remaining fighters still rushed forward regardless of it.

As more and more fresh troops rushed into the trenches, the German soldiers, who were already in a bitter battle, could not support themselves, and they ran out of the trenches and fled behind the tanks under the cover of tank fire and machine-gun fire.

Since there were no anti-tank guns on the positions of the Soviet troops, there was no way to face tanks at a distance of 100 meters. The fighters could only lie down in the trenches and shoot at the German officers and soldiers hiding behind the tanks with their weapons. In addition to suppressing the commanders and fighters in the trenches with machine gun fire, the German tanks immediately bombarded the trenches with machine gun fire as soon as they found a point of machine gun fire in the trenches, throwing both men and machine guns directly into the air.

Lao Zhu, who was weak, lay on a German corpse outside the fortifications, allowing the bullets from both sides to whizz over his head, but he did not dare to move casually. I am afraid that if I move, I will be hit by bullets flying all over the sky. He thought sadly to his heart that if there was even one anti-tank gun or one anti-tank rifle in the position, then these tanks would become a fixed target, but at the moment there was nothing but to watch the enemy shell.

Just as he was sinking into despair, he suddenly saw a puff of dirt rise between the two tanks, and one of the German soldiers who was shooting fell on his back. Seeing this scene, he said strangely in his heart: "What's going on, could it be that someone found an anti-tank gun and was shooting at the enemy's tanks?" Thinking of this, a new hope suddenly ignited in his heart.

There was another loud bang, and a dazzling fireball erupted from the body of one of the tanks, and the entire tank was enveloped in billowing smoke. He heard a cheer coming from the position, and quickly and cautiously turned his head to look behind him, only to see a dozen T-34 tanks rushing out of the city of Zhizdra. As soon as they reached the outside of the city, the tanks formed battle formations and opened fire on the German tanks in front of the trenches.

After several rounds of shelling, all the German tanks parked in front of the fortifications turned into burning torches. The infantry, who was hiding behind, destroyed all the tanks, and were so frightened that they quickly turned around and fled.

At this moment, there was a sudden rise of billowing smoke and dust from the southeast, accompanied by a loud and rapid sound of horses' hooves. As soon as Lao Zhu heard this, he knew that it was the cavalry of the Soviet army who had arrived. Moments later, a long line of cavalry cut off their retreat in the direction of the Germans' flight.

Seeing that they were cornered, many soldiers hurriedly threw their weapons on the ground and raised their hands high above their heads. Unexpectedly, some cavalry were so fast that they either did not restrain their horses in time and trampled the German soldiers under the hooves of their horses, or they swung their knives and cut off the raised hands of the German soldiers.

The soldiers who were in the trenches, seeing the arrival of the tank brigade and cavalry units, immediately shouted "Ula", crawled out of the trenches, held up their shining bayonets, stared at the bloodshot eyes, and rushed towards the Germans who were scurrying around like headless flies.

The battle ended after more than ten minutes, and with the exception of more than 50 German soldiers who had been taken prisoner, the rest were either killed by random gunfire or crushed by tanks from the tank brigade.

Chen Xiaopaw and Xiao Tian searched for a long time in the pile of dead people, only to see Lao Zhu, who was covered in blood and lying on the corpse of the German army, hurriedly stepped forward to help him up, and asked with concern: "Comrade Company Commander, are you okay?" ”

"I'm fine," Lao Zhu shook his head and asked rhetorically, "How many people are left in our company?" ”

Chen Xiaopaw replied with a wry smile: "Except for the three of us, the rest of the soldiers have all died. ”

Zakharov, who was standing on the bell tower, saw the end of the battle outside the city, and with a relieved expression on his face, he breathed a sigh of relief and said to one of the staff officers standing beside him: "Our hardest days have passed, and now it is time for us to attack the Germans." ”

"Attack the Germans?" After listening to Zakharov's words, the staff officer pointed to more than 20 tanks and more than 1,000 cavalry in the distance, and asked with some confusion: "Comrade Deputy Commander, are we enough troops?" ”

Zakharov confidently said: "Comrade staff, this little force is definitely not enough. However, I believe that Rokossovsky will soon send us new reinforcements to launch a counterattack against the enemy in advance. ”