While Rokossovsky was still on the road, he gave Novikov an operational order to divide the troops into two echelons: the first echelon was responsible for attacking the German camp outside the Holm Gate, relieving the siege of Commissar Fomin, and if possible, ending the regimental headquarters of the German 135th Infantry Regiment there; The second echelon, bypassing the fortress to the west, went straight to the vicinity of the Warsaw-Moscow Railway and the Brest railway station, to monitor the enemy there.

By the time Rokossovsky's armored car arrived at the Holm Gate, the fighting was over. Not only did he succeed in rescuing Fuming and his 295 soldiers, but he also destroyed the headquarters of the 135th German Regiment and captured more than a dozen officers, including the regiment commander.

Rokossovsky wanted to know about the deployment of German troops, so he personally interrogated the German lieutenant colonel in a room in the fortress. Unexpectedly, the other party was extremely stubborn, and said again and again: "I don't know what troop deployment, I only know that there are three battalions under my command, and they are all in the Brest Fortress and are fighting with you." ”

Rokossovsky had no interest in asking any more about this hob meat, so he ordered him to be escorted down, and asked Grissa to invite Commissar Fomin over.

The moment Fomin saw Rokossovsky, the strong political worker could not stop crying, and he said while shedding tears: "Comrade General, if you had not arrived in time, we would have sacrificed at least half of our people on this bridge alone." Even if the rest of the people retreated to the fortress, they would die of thirst and starvation because of the lack of food and water. ”

Looking at Fumin, and then at the defenders of the fortress outside the window, almost everyone was wounded, eating and drinking, Rokossovsky's nose was also sour. He instructed Grissa to inform Scherstyuk and ask him to free up a fleet of trucks to transport the wounded in the fortress. Then he said to Fuming: "Comrade political commissar, don't be sad, we will definitely ask the Germans to repay this blood debt." Now you can withdraw with your troops, leaving a few warriors who are familiar with the terrain and take us to rescue the rest of the besieged defenders. ”

Fuming raised his head, wiped a handful of tears with his sleeve, and said categorically: "Comrade General, let me be your guide, there is no one here who is more familiar with the terrain of the fortress than me. Please be sure to grant me this request! With that, he raised his right hand to his forehead, gave Rokossovsky a military salute, and then stood up straight, waiting for him to reply to his request.

Rokossovsky looked at Fumin, who was standing in front of him, thought for a moment, and then readily agreed: "Okay, Comrade Political Commissar, I agree to your request, and you will command the tank detachment that entered the fortress." Remember, I can only give you a maximum of one hour, and you can save as much as you can. When the time comes, you must withdraw immediately, understand? ”

"Understood!" After Fuming said yes loudly, he turned and walked out of the room.

The six tanks of the tank detachment, carefully passing through the pile of masonry and rubble, passed through the opening of the Holm Gate and drove in a column towards the hinterland of the fortress, followed by an infantry company under the command of Songjik and Kochetov, followed by Fomin and several fighters from the fortress.

The German officers and soldiers occupying the barracks, watching their tanks emerge from the doorway, thought that the Holm Gate had been captured, and involuntarily cheered. But they soon noticed that there were several Soviet soldiers in the infantry following the tank, and they were safe with the soldiers in German uniforms next to them, and they followed the tank forward.

The impatient machine gun shooter shouted "not good" and grabbed the machine gun and wanted to shoot. The officer next to him immediately rushed over to the back of his head, slapped him hard, and asked viciously, "What are you going to do?" ”

The machine gun pointed at the Soviet soldiers in the infantry formation, and said aggrievedly: "I saw that there were quite a few Russian soldiers in the infantry behind the tank, maybe they were all pretended to be Russians." ”

The officer scolded: "Nonsense, there are our troops everywhere outside, did the Russians fall from the sky?" Don't think about it, those are their own people, they are specially disguised as Russians and cause sabotage everywhere. ”

Fumin spotted the German soldiers in the barracks here, and hurriedly touched Kochetov next to him, and said in a low voice: "Second lieutenant, look at the barracks on the right, it has been occupied by the Germans. ”

Kochetov turned his head to look through the window of the barracks corridor and saw the figures of the German soldiers shaking everywhere. He nodded, then quickened his pace, ran to the side of the first tank, and struck it hard with the handle of his pistol a few times, as had been prescribed. The tankman driving the tank heard the code, immediately stopped the tank, and slowly turned the turret in the direction indicated. Seeing that the tank at the head stopped, and the tanks behind also stopped one after another, following its example, he turned the muzzle of the gun and aimed it at the German soldiers who were staying in the barracks.

Seeing that the black hole in the turret of the tank was pointed at him, the German officer not only did not panic, but stood in the window without a window frame and waved at the tanks. In his heart, the German tanks are indestructible weapons, and the Soviet army, which has long been beaten all over the ground and looking for teeth, is estimated to be frightened and fled as soon as they see the shadow of the tank.

Just when the Germans lost their vigilance, six tanks opened fire at the same time. Several windows rose from flames and smoke at the same time, and a dozen hapless German soldiers were lifted out of the house in a wave of explosion, tumbling and falling outside the barracks. Some of the German soldiers who reacted quickly finally pulled the bolt of their guns, and just as they were about to raise their guns to shoot, they were knocked down by the soldiers lying in the craters or hiding behind the tanks. Some soldiers who were not standing in the corridor, seeing the fierce fire of the Soviet troops, hurriedly retreated into the dormitory, trying to escape by jumping out of the window on the other side.

After two rounds of shelling, smoke billowed from many windows of the barracks, and Fuming took the lead in getting up from the ground, waved his pistol forward vigorously, and shouted: "Comrades, rush with me!" Following his command, the fighters, whether lying in the crater or hiding behind the tank, shouted and rushed towards the barracks occupied by the Germans.

The battle was soon over, and the barracks were littered with German corpses and abandoned weapons and ammunition. The fighters were busy cleaning up the battlefield, collecting weapons and ammunition, and treating the wounded. As for the prisoners, of course there are none, and leaving prisoners at such a time will inevitably affect the next move of the troops, and naturally no one will think of leaving them alive.

Fomin and Kochetov, with a platoon of fighters, followed behind the tanks and continued towards the Brest Gate, because he had heard from Lieutenant Kirzhevatov that there were still troops fighting there, but it was too far away to confirm the number of the other side.

The troops holding the Brest Gate consisted of a number of artillery and fighters of the 132nd battalion of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and were commanded by Lieutenants Nikolai Chetchabakov, Lieutenant Anatoly Vinogoradov and the head of the Political Department of the Brest Fortress, Fyotyr Kuchkalov.

After three days of fighting, there was very little left of the unit that remained in the church, except Lieutenant Anatoly and four soldiers. Due to the lack of food and water, the physical strength of several people was almost exhausted, so they left one person to stand outside the window to monitor the movement outside, and the rest of the people found a place to lie down to reduce the consumption of physical strength.

Anatoly had just fallen asleep vaguely when he felt someone shaking himself vigorously, and after opening his eyes with difficulty, he saw a soldier crouching in front of him and said anxiously: "Comrade lieutenant, tanks, German tanks are coming towards us." ”

Anatoly, who was still sleepy and couldn't open his eyes, heard that the enemy was coming up again, and the whole person immediately came to his senses. He crawled to the heavy machine gun in the window, pulled the bolt and aimed it at the slowly moving tank. The other fighters also found a shooting position at the window and mounted their guns on the window.

The German tanks stopped about a hundred meters from the church, neither firing nor strafing with the vehicle-mounted machine guns, and the infantry who were following the tanks also stopped and retreated behind the tanks.

Seeing this, one of the fighters asked curiously: "Comrade lieutenant, what's wrong with the Germans, why did they stand still?" Are you ready to shoot at us? ”

Anatoly stared at the tank in the distance, and the German soldiers hiding behind the tank, shook his head slowly, and said weakly: "I don't know what these Germans are doing." But everyone should pay attention, when the German infantry charges, we will shoot again, there is not much ammunition left, we have to use sparingly. ”

After waiting for a while, a man came out from behind the tank and slowly walked towards the church. Anatoly immediately pointed his gun at the person who came by, and when he saw the face of the person who came, he quickly released the finger on the trigger, and at the same time raised his right hand high and shouted in a low voice: "Don't shoot, it's your own people." ”

It was none other than the political commissar Fuming who came out from behind the tank, and he walked to a place more than thirty meters away from the church and stopped, shouting loudly: "I am the regimental political commissar Fuming, which commander is there?" ”

Anatoly stood up with his machine gun in his hand, leaned out half of his body, and said to Fomin: "It's me, Comrade Commissar." ”

In order to prevent accidents, Fuming stood still and asked loudly: "Lieutenant, how many people are left there, let them all come out!" ”

Anatoly glanced at the tanks lined up in the distance, as well as the German-style steel helmets looming behind the tanks, and asked Fuming with a wry smile: "Comrade Political Commissar, are you telling us to lay down our arms and go out and surrender?" ”

"Surrender, to whom?" Anatoly's words confused Fumin, and he asked in confusion: "Comrade Lieutenant, what the hell are you talking about, you are confusing me?!" ”

"Aren't the people behind you all Germans?" Anatoly pointed to the tank behind Fumin and said confidently: "Comrade Political Commissar, although there are only a few of us left, the fighters of the Ministry of Internal Affairs will not surrender to the enemy even if they sacrifice their lives. They take the church first, unless we all die. ”

Fuming was stunned for a moment after hearing this, and then laughed, he pointed to the back and said: "Comrade lieutenant, do you think they are all Germans?" After saying that, he did not give any further explanation to Anatoly, but turned around and shouted to the back: "Hey, Ensign Kochetov, put your flags out!" ”

As soon as he finished shouting, the roof of the turret of a tank behind him was lifted, and a tanker leaned out of the hatch with half of his body, unfurled a bright red military flag with both hands, and held it high above his head.