On 24 June, Balzen feared that the Germans would suddenly appear on this day, so he not only placed the defensive center north of Loyev, but also stepped up the frequency of artillery fire to prevent the enemy from breaking through in the city.

However, by noon that day, the Soviet scouts still found no trace of the enemy. They did find the wind and grass, and it turned out to be nothing more than a roaming wild deer. There is a lot of wildlife in this area, with many hares and squirrels in the woods and few large animals.

In addition to this, signs of German troops are indeed non-existent. In particular, some soldiers climbed to the top of the tall red pine treetops like monkeys, tied themselves to the trunk with ropes to fix them, and then held high-powered binoculars in their hands and scanned the banks of the Dnieper River in the distance, looking for anything unusual.

The Soviet soldiers knew that if the Germans came to the rescue of Loyev, they would not be able to send fewer troops. In this way, reinforcements must have been mobilized, and it is therefore unlikely that they would have come through the forest and along the plains by the river, and what could be a more reliable path?

Balzen thinks so, and so does Yang Mingzhi, who is dozens of kilometers away.

Perhaps the fiercest battle of the future will be the narrow plain of the forests and muddy riverside areas north of Loyev, and the sentinels are likely to spot them early, as long as the visibility is good.

By the afternoon of the 24th, the shelling of Loyev was still carried out step by step. The Soviets fired artillery almost every hour on the hour, and gradually, the besieged Germans got used to it.

"The Soviet artillery fire is like a clock, and they have so many shells that I don't even dare to get out of this damn cellar!" The German battalion commander could only be a shrunken turtle now, and he ordered the signal corps: "Send a report to the division headquarters immediately and ask where the reinforcements are?" ”

"Battalion commander, they're already marching on us!"

"That's great!" The battalion commander Collister finally lifted his spirits, "I've been blown out of my head by this group of damn Russians these days. Inform the brethren and be ready to cooperate with reinforcements! It's time for us to get out of this damn ruined city! ”

The battalion commander was right, the Soviet army's long-term artillery bombardment caused great damage to the city. After all, it is a small city, and there are not many concrete buildings, and now it has been bombed, and there is not a single building in the city that has not been eroded by artillery fire.

The streets of the city are covered with rubble, at least the corpses of the dead in the city are gathered and buried, and the dead corpses outside the city are lying alone, and even have begun to decompose!

In addition, there were a lot of food reserves in the city, and even worse kitchens were bombed, and the Germans couldn't even find a place to bake bread.

This is exactly what happened in the city of Loyev, in the Deni Praze area, which is only across the river, on the 24th, when there was no fighting, the main force of the 233rd paratrooper brigade completed its stationing.

The paratroopers had been rushing to make rafts, and the officers and men of the Rychev battalion had hurried to sleep after entering daylight, and two more battalions of officers and men arrived here one after another to continue making rafts. The rafts made by the Rychev battalion became the standard, and the successors continued to make them, and in one day there were ninety rafts made.

This was a result to the satisfaction of the zero brigade commander Tapunov. He didn't know how the other units were preparing for the battle, and here the paratroopers he boasted that he had delivered a satisfactory answer.

As long as time permitted, the raft still had to be done, so in the Rychev camp all woke up, and the logging work continued.

Looking back on the day's work, his main force had set up camp in this swampland, and the so-called partisans of Ivansky the Younger, in fact, were 400 refugees, who crossed the Sozh River and left south in the carriage that had been waiting for them. After all the refugees were transported, the horse-drawn cart and the three half-tracked motorcycles that had been captured came with some ammunition and supplies.

This was the situation of the Soviet army all day on June 24. Around Loyev, the Soviets deployed a total of four battle clusters.

The main force of the resistance battle was the troops under the command of Balzen, with the more than 4,000 elites at the Homnich station on the left flank, a battalion of the 17th Guerrilla Brigade and the Paratrooper Brigade on the right flank, and three battalions of the 233rd Paratrooper Brigade on the Zedi where the two rivers meet.

With such an exquisite arrangement, such a large number of troops, and powerful armaments, the Soviets laid a trap and waited for the Germans to jump here.

It's just how the Germans jumped into the trap, no one knows.

The wait was frustrating, and Balzen was eager to start a battle with the enemy early, so that he could beat him with the weapon at hand.

The enemy just didn't show up, and he even had some suspicions that the enemy had brutally abandoned the defenders in Loyev.

He explained this concern to the commander Yang Mingzhi, but Yang Mingzhi's attitude did not change in the slightest, and there was only one order: "Your troops continue to wait, without my order, you are not allowed to capture Loyev, and you are not allowed to retreat and march north." ”

If it had been before, Balzen would have tried to find the enemy himself, and if he did, he would have fought a lot. This time, he is favored by the commander, if he dares to disobey the order again, it will be over!

Balzen chose forbearance, he held it in his semi-crypt headquarters, because there was nothing to do, he simply sat down, ate on time when it was time to eat, and went to bed after eating, as if everything was safe.

Balzen really doesn't have to worry too much, the positions have been arranged, the machine guns and recoilless guns are matched, and the fighters are widely equipped with RPGs, even if the enemy sends out heavy artillery, he still has catfish rockets on hand! No matter what kind of armament the enemy is, the Soviet army will not be worthwhile.

He had already set up sentries in an area up to five kilometers north of the position, and all that remained was to wait for the sentinel's warning.

The sun rose on June 25, and on the Soviet positions, the fighters began another day of boredom.

Everyone knows that fighting can break out at any time, and how pleasant it is to enjoy a peaceful peace before the battle begins. They sat in the trenches, munching on potatoes, shaving through their mirrors, inspecting their guns, and even smoking cigarettes.

The comfortable life of a soldier came to an abrupt end as the forest fog gradually dissipated. Because, the Soviet scouts above the treetops in the distance really saw a mighty team, and they were approaching south along the riverbank!

They! It's the enemy!

The sentry quickly descended from the tree and quickly informed the other sentinels on foot.

At about the same time, at least three of the sentries saw the team, and thanks to the high-powered telescopes in their hands, an astonishing situation was discovered - the enemy actually had tanks.

After all, the tank was like a huge iron box, and what they saw was a No. 4 tank, so they judged that it was followed by a model. The enemy is coming, and if there are still tanks in the battle, there will be some pressure on your own defenses.

The sentries did not dare to slack off, they lacked a radio in their hands, so they had no choice but to rely on a pair of feet to run wildly to report the enemy situation to the regimental headquarters.

These sentinels were the descendants of Balzen, they were veterans of a hundred battles, and their physical fitness was superior to that of the entire group army. On their daily training days, five-kilometer light cross-country was a compulsory course, so it only took 18 minutes to run back to the defense line and run directly to Balzen's regimental headquarters.

When the panting soldiers saw their headquarters, they pointed to the north in unison: "Enemy! The enemy has appeared! It is estimated that there are still seven kilometers from our line of defense. ”

"Haha! That's great! In such excitement that Balzen even broke a pencil.

He immediately took action and summoned all the signal troops: "Now, you send a report to the troops, informing them that the enemy has appeared, and that it is only seven kilometers away from our defensive line!" Misha, you give me direct contact with the command of the army group and inform the commander that the battle will begin in an hour at the earliest! ”