Early the next morning, the Germans relaunched their offensive against Shepetovka.

The enemy learned the lesson of the failure of the offensive on the previous day and, before the offensive, first of all, carried out intensive artillery shelling of the defensive positions of the 109th Infantry Division with intensive artillery fire.

Rokossovsky stood in the observation post and watched with his telescope as enemy shells fell one after another on the sides of the trenches and exploded, and the smoke and dust raised obscured the sky as if it had suddenly overcast.

The expression on Krasnoretsky's face, who was standing next to him, was also extremely serious. He couldn't help but feel like a knife when he saw the soldiers running in the trenches, swept away by the blast of air or knocked down by the flying shrapnel.

When the enemy's shelling was over, before the smoke cleared, he put down his binoculars and shouted at Rokossovsky: "Comrade commander, I ask to go to the front. ”

When Rokossovsky heard him say this, he put down the telescope in his hand and asked lightly: "Why?" ”

Krasnoretsky pointed to the front and said emotionally: "Comrade commander, didn't you see how fierce the enemy's artillery fire was just now?" ”

"I see," Rokossovsky said with a calm expression, "I also saw many trenches collapsed under German fire. ”

"We have too many recruits, and I fear that they will be shaken by fear in such shelling." In order to convince Rokossovsky, Krasnoretsky continued: "The most important thing about morale on the battlefield is fear, and when fear envelops our commanders and fighters, no matter how strong their will is, they cannot avoid the fate of collapse. ”

"Comrade Colonel, is it for this reason that you plan to go to the front in person?" Rokossovsky looked at each other and said with a serious expression: "In the trenches in front, there are battalion commanders and company commanders, and as grassroots commanders, they have the ability to deal with this situation. And you, as the commander of a division, your combat post is in the command headquarters, understand? ”

"I don't understand." Krasnoretsky was also ruthless today, saying in his heart that I saw my troops being bombed, in order to prevent the morale of the army from being weakened and demoralized, I personally went to the front to boost morale, and you actually have to oppose it, it is really too much! Therefore, when he spoke to Rokossovsky, his tone was also particularly impulsive: "Comrade Army Commander, although your military rank is higher than mine, our division is only assigned to you to fight, not under your command, so everything in this division should still be decided by me." ”

After saying this, Krasnoretsky snorted heavily, and then threw down a sentence: "Comrade commander, you can stay here and command, I will go to the front." After saying that, he picked up the submachine gun thrown on the table, took off the steel helmet hanging on the top beam, buckled it on his head, and ran out of the observation post quickly.

Looking at the back of Krasnoretsky's departure, Rokossovsky shook his head helplessly, saying in his heart that from the beginning of the war to the present, almost all of the troops commanded were friendly troops that were subordinate to his own battles, so sometimes his orders could not be conveyed quickly and accurately. At this moment, Krasnoretsky insisted on going to the front to boost morale, hoping that he would be safe and sound.

Rokossovsky continued to stand in front of the observation port, holding up his telescope and looking into the distance. It didn't take long for the attacking enemy to appear in his field of vision. As far as the eye can see, there are dense tanks and armored vehicles in front, followed by hundreds of trucks, from each of which a dozen soldiers came down, armed with weapons and following the tanks all the way to the Soviet position.

Rokossovsky put down his binoculars and shouted loudly at one of the staff officers standing in the room: "Order the artillery to open fire and break the enemy's tank column with artillery fire." ”

Although Krasnoretsky was disobedient in the defensive line, these staff officers under him were very cooperative with Rokossovsky. Hearing what he had ordered at this moment, the staff officer immediately agreed, picked up the telephone on the table, and gave the order to open fire to the artillerymen hidden behind the position.

After yesterday's bombardment, the Soviets had only a small number of artillery left, only six 105-mm cannons, hidden in the forest on the left flank of the German army. At this moment, having received the order to open the cannon, the artillerymen immediately lifted the branches covering the gun, and after loading, began to bombard the German armored units that were attacking.

After two tanks and seven or eight armored vehicles were blown up in succession, the Germans discovered this artillery position hidden in the forest. The German commander immediately sent an infantry company to follow five tanks to deal with the artillery position.

Rokossovsky's actions fell into the eyes of Rokossovsky without missing anything, he put down his binoculars again, came to the walkie-talkie, put on a headset and held the microphone and asked loudly: "Hey, General Novikov, a small army of the enemy is rushing to the small unit in the forest, I order you, immediately lead the tanks to attack and destroy all this enemy." ”

"Understood!" Novikov, who had long been gearing up, immediately and loudly agreed when he heard Rokossovsky's order. Then the sound of him giving orders came from the earphones.

Listening to Novikov begin to arrange the sortie mission, Rokossovsky nodded with satisfaction, took off the headset and put it on the table along with the microphone, turned over and walked back to the lookout, and continued to observe the situation on the battlefield.

Immediately after the enemy approached the outpost of the Soviet troops, it was intercepted by a dense network of fire consisting of more than thirty machine guns. The German infantry fell under heavy fire one after another, while the tanks were unable to move fast because of the excessive wreckage of various combat vehicles in this area, and were killed by Soviet soldiers one after another with ******.

After the battle lasted more than an hour, the Germans saw that the attack was not working and had to retreat on all fronts. The German detachment that went to attack the artillery position was also wiped out by the combined attack of Novikov's tank division and the infantry company defending the artillery position.

Just as Rokossovsky and the staff officers in the observation post were cheering for victory, suddenly the phone rang in the room. After a staff officer went over and answered the phone, his face suddenly changed dramatically, and he covered the microphone with his hand and reported to Rokossovsky: "Comrade commander of the army, the division commander was seriously wounded by shrapnel from the enemy during the battle, and the fighters at the front are carrying him towards us." ”

The entire observation post suddenly became silent because of these few words from the staff officer. Rokossovsky walked up to the staff officer, took the microphone in his hand, and asked the commander who was calling: "Hey, how is the injury of the division commander?" ”

The other party heard that it was Rokossovsky's voice, and hurriedly replied respectfully: "Report to Comrade Army Commander, the division commander **** and the abdomen have been shot in at least seven places, and the injuries are very serious, and surgery must be performed immediately, otherwise there will be life-threatening injuries." (To be continued.) )