When the rain of shells fell on the positions of the 7th Panzer Division and the Großdeutsch Division and exploded, Karl Maus was immediately confused, and he looked at Lorenz and asked: "Your Excellency, General, if you were the commander of the Russians, where would you choose the direction of the attack first?" ”

Without hesitation, Lorenz replied: "The strength of the 58th Division is the weakest of our three divisions, and it also lacks heavy weapons such as tanks and artillery. But why the Russians attacked us first, this puzzles me. ”

"Rokossovsky is a very difficult person to figure out, and the series of tactics he used on the battlefield cannot be compared with those Russian generals with whom we are acquainted." Karl Maus lit a cigarette and said quietly: "The city of Warsaw, for example, is the defense of our army along the Vistula River, which is enough to destroy any offensive of any size launched by the Russians. But it did not stop Rokossovsky, and even lost the city of Warsaw. ”

Lorenz did not comment on his statement, but only made a phone call to his men to keep them in hiding and wait for the Russians to attack, and to inflict heavy losses on them.

Half an hour after the shelling was underway, Rokossovsky called the commander of the artillery of the Front, Sokolisky, and said to him: "General Sokolisky, order the artillery to shoot extended, our infantry is ready to charge. Tell the artillery commanders to pay attention to the impact point and be careful not to hit their own people. ”

At the meeting two days ago, Rokossovsky proposed that the infantry should be covered by artillery fire when they attacked, so that after the shelling stopped, the infantry could quickly rush into the enemy's position while the enemy had not yet recovered his senses. Sokolsky objected to this new tactic at that time, and he tactfully said to Rokossovsky: "Comrade Marshal, it is quite dangerous to let the troops charge two hundred meters behind the artillery fire of the extended fire, and if our artillery makes a mistake, the shells will fall on the heads of our own people, causing huge casualties to our troops. ”

Who knew that after listening to his reason, Rokossovsky just looked at him and said lightly: "General Sokolisky, you are the artillery commander of the front, how to prevent the artillery from making unnecessary errors when covering the infantry charge, this problem will be left to you to solve." ”

Immediately after accepting this task, Sokolsky called a meeting of his artillery commanders to discuss how to avoid accidentally injuring the infantrymen who had already charged while the artillery was advancing into the barrage of fire and cover.

At this moment, when he heard Rokossovsky's advice on the phone, Sokolsky immediately replied confidently: "Don't worry, Comrade Marshal, we have found a good way to avoid accidental injury, so rest assured." ”

The final assault on the besieged Germans began, but Trubnnikov still had his own concerns, he waited for Rokossovsky to put down the phone, and said to him: "Comrade Marshal, tell me whether the Germans, when they are shelled by our troops, will they withdraw their troops, so that our artillery will waste shells in the open field?" ”

"Comrade Deputy Commander," Rokossovsky said with a smile in response to Trubnikov's concerns: "The situation you are talking about, it will not happen here." Look at it," he said, slapping his palm twice in the area where the Germans were besieged, "how large is their defensive position, and even if they want to retreat, where can they retreat?" Therefore, they can only obediently stay in their positions and suffer from our shells. ”

The German troops, who were dazed by the shells, thought that the Soviets would wait for the end of the shelling before launching a charge. The positions of the two sides were five or six hundred meters apart, and at such a distance, it was enough for most of the living soldiers hiding in the shelter to enter the bunker and prepare for battle.

However, the German soldiers who remained in the trenches to observe quickly realized that something was wrong, and the shelling had not yet ended, and the Russians actually followed behind the impact point and launched a charge towards the positions on the other side. One of the soldiers, hurriedly running into the bunker along the trench, reported to the German captain who was hiding from the shelling inside.

After listening to the report, the captain's first reaction was that this guy was lying, how could someone follow the bombing point and charge, wouldn't he be afraid of being accidentally injured by artillery fire? But seeing the anxious look on the gray-faced soldier's face, it didn't seem like he was lying, he hurriedly rushed out of the shelter, stood in the trench under artillery fire, raised his binoculars and looked into the distance, and sure enough, he saw a line of skirmishers like waves, following the explosion point of the shells, pushing towards his position.

The captain hurried back to the shelter, picked up the microphone and listened, thankfully, the telephone line had not been blown up, so he shouted loudly into the microphone: "Give me the regimental headquarters, I have an important situation to report." ”

When Karl Maus received the report from the 7th Grenadier Regiment, he immediately shouted loudly: "This is impossible, Colonel, did you see it for yourself, or did your men report it to you?" ”

"Your Excellency," the regimental commander hurriedly replied, "I immediately made observations after receiving the report, and found that the Russian soldiers were indeed following behind the barrage and advancing towards our positions. What do we do now? The artillery fire of the Russians was so heavy that even if our troops entered the position, they would have suffered heavy losses under the artillery fire. ”

"Immediately order everyone to enter the position, and the Russians must not be allowed to break through our defenses, otherwise we will be all finished." Karl Maus said in a loud voice: "I will go to your regiment." ”

Karl Maus put down the phone and said to Lorenz: "I'll go to the 7th Grenadier Regiment, and I'll leave it to you here." After saying that, he put on his military hat and military coat and walked briskly outside.

When Karl Mauss disappeared from the door, Lorenz remembered that there was shelling outside, and quickly stood up to stop him. Just then, a cannonball landed next to the command and exploded, and a huge shock wave poured in from the doorway, knocking Lorenz to the ground.

Lorenz struggled to get up from the ground, leaned against the wall to the door, and looked outside, only to see that five or six steps from the entrance of the headquarters, there was a huge crater, and in the mud blackened by gunsmoke, there was still a lot of smoke. In the vicinity of the crater, several mutilated bodies lay down.

Lorenz feared for Karl Maus's safety, so he shouted his name and walked cautiously. He turned the corpses over and examined their faces carefully, and several of them were not Karl Mauss. However, Lorenz's mood was not relieved by this, according to his experience, it was a heavy artillery shell that had just landed next to the headquarters, and he feared that Karl Mauss had been blown to pieces.

Several German signal soldiers who were hiding nearby, seeing Lorenz like crazy by the crater, turning over the mutilated and bloody corpses, fearing that he was still in danger, ran over to a major. The major ran to Lorenz's side, and shouted excitedly at him amid the rumbling of cannons: "Your Excellency, it is too dangerous here, you better go back to the headquarters." ”

"Hurry up and help me find General Karl Maus!" Lorenz turned his head and shouted at the major, "I will never leave here until I find him." ”

The Major immediately ordered the surrounding soldiers to help find Karl Maus's whereabouts. While everyone was looking around, he looked at Lorenz and asked tentatively, "Your Excellency, the Russians are about to storm us." It seems that we can't stand it. What do we do next? ”

If Lorenz had heard the Major ask this a day before, he would have replied, as Karl Mauss did, that he would have fought to the last man, to the last bullet. But at this moment, he realized the huge difference in strength between the Japanese side and the Soviet army, and after a moment of hesitation, he said: "There is no point in continuing to fight, and it is time to stop resisting." ”

Seeing that the major was about to speak and stopped, Lorenz added: "In order to save the living, we must lay down our majesty. Go and go to the communication room, in my name, and give orders to the besieged troops to stop resisting. ”

Before the major could get up and leave, one of the soldiers exclaimed: "General Calmos has been found, he is seriously wounded, but he is still angry." ”

Looking at Calmous, who was being carried by several soldiers, Lorenz immediately ordered: "Carry him to the headquarters." Then he instructed the major, "Go ahead, order our troops to stop their resistance and surrender to the Russians." ”

In his own headquarters, Fedyuninsky learned that his troops had successfully stormed the positions of the German 7th Grenadier Regiment, so he gave an order to the division commander to destroy the German troops entrenched here within half an hour. Just as he put down the phone and sat down at the table, considering how to report his battle to Rokossovsky, the phone on the desk suddenly rang.

He picked up the microphone and put it to his ear, and heard clearly that it was the division commander who had just spoken to him calling, and before he could ask the other party what was the matter, the other party had already excitedly reported: "Comrade commander, I have good news for you. The Germans raised the white flag and surrendered to our troops. ”

Hearing this, Fedyuninsky abruptly stood up from his seat and asked rhetorically in an unbelievable tone: "Comrade division commander, what did you say, say it again?" ”

"Comrade Commander," although he was only repeating what had just happened, Fedyuninsky could still hear his excitement in the other party's voice: "The enemy has raised the white flag and begun to surrender to our troops!" ”