Rewind to the dawn of June 22, 1941, when a loud explosion pierced the silence of Frontier Post No. 13. Lieutenant Lopatin, who had just fallen asleep, jumped up from the bed, grabbed his military uniform resting on the stool beside the bed, and ran out in a panic as he put his jumper on his body.

When Misha, an orderly sleeping on the outer bed, was picked up from the bed by the lieutenant, he was still in a state of confusion, and he was wearing a white shirt, rubbing his worried eyes and asking blankly: "Comrade lieutenant, what's wrong?" ”

"Damn! We were shelled by the Germans! "Lieutenant Lopatin understood very well what the sound of the explosion was all about, and although there were only a few shells now, it would soon rain like a storm on their border post, so he hurriedly pulled his orderlies and ran out.

"Impossible, Comrade Lieutenant." Misha said in disbelief: "It's not dawn yet, they won't shell us at such a time, right?" Maybe the saboteurs set the nearby arsenal on fire......"

"This is war, the Germans are starting shelling us!" Lopatin yelled at Misha. Before they could finish speaking, a shell landed near the barracks where they lived and exploded, and a huge shock directly shook a window down.

"Hell, it's really shelling!" Misha's drowsiness was completely dispelled by the explosion, and he opened the door and rushed out, standing in the open space and shouting: "Battle alarm, battle alarm!" ”

While Lieutenant Lopatin was standing in the open field, braving sporadic artillery fire, trying to gather the disheveled and panicked men who had rushed out of the barracks, the internal guard troops stationed in another platoon of barracks more than two hundred meters away from them were already heavily armed and dragging heavy machine guns and running towards the defensive positions outside the outpost.

At this moment, the strange screams of a large number of shells piercing the air were heard in the sky, and the first salvo of German troops came whizzing. Lopatin, who was on the open ground, was shaken up by the shockwave, and then fell heavily to the ground, fainting directly.

When he came to his senses, he found himself in a dimly lit basement, surrounded by a number of soldiers, including Orderly Misha and Deputy Captain Yulda, who were shaking themselves incessantly, shouting loudly, but he could not hear anything.

It took a while for Lopatin's ears to barely regain his hearing. He grabbed Yurda's clothes and asked loudly, "What the hell is going on, why is everyone in the basement?" ”

"Comrade Lieutenant," Yulda replied in a hoarse voice, "the Germans are so heavy that they have blown up all our buildings, so I will let everyone come in first and take shelter, and when the enemy artillery fire is over, we will go out again." ”

"Where are the people from the Ministry of Internal Affairs? I just saw them go to the defensive positions outside the outpost. Although there have always been contradictions between the internal affairs forces and the border guards, Lopatin saw them braving enemy fire and rushing to their defensive positions without hesitation, and his prejudice against them was immediately swept away, and he instinctively cared for their safety.

Yulda shook his head and said with a dull expression: "Before I entered the basement, I saw that the position they were in was covered by German artillery fire, and it may be that they are less than lucky now. ”

"It is necessary to immediately report this to the general corps and let Comrade Major know that the Germans are shelling our posts." As he spoke, Lopatin sat up, grabbed the telephone on the table, and contacted the team.

The commander of the 90th Frontier Corps, Major Bechkovsky, heard Lopatin's report and said loudly: "Comrade lieutenant, here we are also under heavy shelling by the Germans, and it is clear that this is not a provocation of a general nature, this is war!" ”

"What shall we do, Comrade Major?" Although the outbreak of war was confirmed, he was accustomed to obeying Lopatin and asked the captain for instructions in a proper manner.

"The task is clear, Comrade Lieutenant." Bechkovsky said categorically: "Hold off the enemy at all costs, wait for the arrival of our field troops, and then ......" Before he finished speaking, the microphone suddenly stopped ringing.

Lopatin knew that his worst fears had happened, and the telephone line that was in contact with the headquarters had been blown off by enemy shells. He glanced at the soldiers who were standing next to him listening to the conversation between him and the major, straightened up, and said into the earpiece, which was no longer silent: "Comrade Major, we accept your orders that as long as we have one commander and fighter alive, not even a German fly will let it fly past our post. ”

With that, he put the useless receiver back on the telephone and looked up at the soldiers in the room. Now, including himself, there are thirty-nine people, and this is all the people who survived the shelling, and six of them are wounded. Seeing the warriors standing silently and calmly in place, looking at him intently, he suddenly felt ashamed of his lame performance just now. These people are soldiers, and they have the right to know the truth before they go into battle.

"Comrades, our contact with the corps has been cut off, but the order has been received." Lopatin tried to keep himself calm and said: "We will resolutely hold back the Germans at all costs, wait for the arrival of our field troops, and then drive them out of the country." ”

The warriors were silent when they heard his words, and although their eyes were still looking at him, they were thinking about their own thoughts. Ensign Yulda listened sideways, and then said in surprise: "The cannon sound outside seems to have stopped?!" ”

"Second Lieutenant Yurda, you take everyone to the arsenal and arm everyone." Lopatin saw the wounded sitting on a bench by the wall and added: "Including the wounded." ”

Lopatin left the basement with his men low, and found that the barracks outside and all the buildings on the ground had been razed to the ground. None of them spoke, just clenched their weapons and bent over and ran briskly towards the outpost's position.

The troops entered the trench and put their weapons on the breast wall of the trench. Lopatin also deliberately glanced in the direction of the position where the internal troops were stationed, and there was no movement except for wisps of green smoke, perhaps all of them had died in the shelling just now.

"Comrade Lieutenant, look at the woods in front of you, it seems that someone is moving." Misha, who was lying next to Lopatin, suddenly pointed to the distance and whispered: "Probably German!" ”

Lopatin held up the telescope and looked at it for only a moment, then placed the telescope on the breast wall of the trench, so as not to interfere with the observation because of the trembling of his hands. He saw through his binoculars that more than a hundred German soldiers had come out of the forest, and they were swaggering towards the outpost in a sparse formation of skirmishers, armed with weapons, undisguised, not even waist-waisted.

"Look, Comrade Lieutenant." Misha gritted his teeth and said, "How arrogant these damned Germans are, they don't even pretend to be a bit of a pretence, they come to us like they are on the street." ”

"Comrade lieutenant," said Second Lieutenant Yurda, the deputy captain, to Lopatin's side, and whispered to him, "the enemy may think that we have been destroyed by artillery fire, or else they think that we have fled in panic." What do we do now? ”

Lopatin glanced sideways at the deputy captain beside him, and ordered in a low voice: "Ensign, let the soldiers rack up the machine guns and prepare for battle!" When Yulda said yes and turned to leave, he told him again: "Tell every soldier that no one is allowed to shoot without my orders!" ”

It didn't take long for the Germans in front of them to be clearly visible to the naked eye, and they were still the same as before, without any vigilance at all, and they stood up straight and continued to walk forward, as if walking.

Looking at the Germans who were getting closer and closer, Lieutenant Lopatin clenched his pistol tightly, and at this moment a bold idea suddenly popped into his mind, so he said to Misha next to him: "Pass down, no one will shoot." When I gave the signal, the machine guns fired at the enemy, and the rest rushed out to fight the Germans in a hand-to-hand fight. ”

When the Germans were less than fifty meters from the trenches, Lopatin shouted: "Fire!" At the sound of his command, the two machine guns on the position roared, and the Germans who were at the forefront fell to the ground under the sound of gunfire.

Lopatin jumped onto the breastwork, raised his pistol above his head, and shouted "Comrades, rush!" After shouting, he brandished his pistol and rushed towards the German soldiers in front of the position.