There were no more wounded in Balzen's troops, and all the wounded, including the two girls, and two medics, were on the gunboat.

Immediately after receiving the exact order from the command, Balzen gave an order to the four battalions under his command to be ready for combat, and he planned to place the defensive center north of Loyev.

Voroshitin and Evgeny obeyed unconditionally, and the next battle could turn into a positional battle, and everyone did not complain at all.

The only one who objected was Rechev, whose explanation surprised Barzen considerably.

Because, the current position of the main force of the paratrooper brigade is only the last five kilometers from Rychev (if the map is correct). According to the pre-war deployment, after the arrival of the main force of the paratrooper brigade, the Rechev battalion automatically returned to its original unit, and the strength of Balzen's task force was reduced back to three battalions.

The troops under his personal leadership were condensed, and the strength of the front line was greatly strengthened, reaching 5,000 men.

The main force of the Soviet army reached the scale of 5,000 people, which is incredible, 5,000 people, enough to defeat an infantry division of the German army!

Rychev will soon return to the unit, and at that time, the paratrooper brigade will be stationed in the current camp of Rychev. The Soviet camp on the left bank of the river will be very large, not only with more troops, but also with a greater amount of ammunition.

……

At half past one o'clock in the afternoon of June 23, the vanguard reconnaissance company of the paratrooper brigade successfully joined forces with Rychev.

Tepunov was overjoyed and immediately ordered his troops to speed up.

Because of the placement of some artillery and a large number of baggage wagons, the total number of men under Tepnov reached 3,000, of which about 2,400 were combat troops, and the rest were carriage masters, horse breeders, and a small number of former men.

They carried a large amount of potatoes for the siege and battle, and only after crossing the river with all their baggage did they learn that the front-line troops had unexpectedly captured a large amount of flour. Nowadays, a large number of potatoes still have to be transported to the front, and Tepinov is really too lazy to bother to cross the river again!

The development of the battle situation exceeded Tepunov's expectations, and he never expected that one of his battalions would encounter a partisan detachment.

Where did the guerrillas come from? He did not know the specifics, but fortunately, the guerrillas were under the control of their own troops, and this time he was in the front-line camp, so he could naturally talk to them.

"Perhaps, this group of guerrillas can provide me with some other valuable information?"

With this attitude, and anticipation of future battles, Tepnov finally arrived here - the forest camp east of Loyev.

And here, beside the battalion commander Rychev, who greeted him, those so-called partisan fighters suddenly appeared.

The guerrillas did appear suddenly.

They were ragged and unkempt, with unkempt hair and a scruffy appearance, but they smiled brightly.

Seeing this, Rychev hurriedly reported: "Brigade commander, this is the local partisan unit we have encountered, we call the little Ivansky brigade, this is named Ivaniko, a squad leader. ”

As soon as Rychev finished speaking, the squad leader assumed the posture of a regular soldier and stood up and saluted in front of Tepunov.

"Hey, hey! I said Brigadier Commander, this one is still very much like it! The brigade commissar teased.

"Not yet." Tepunov shook his head and took it upon himself to correct the partisan, especially admonishing him where to raise his saluting right hand.

Squad leader Ivanniko could not understand the meaning of the epaulettes of these officers, since this was a brigade commander, his military power should be great.

Ivaniko was very nervous, and he trembled: "Brigade commander...... Comrade Brigadier Commander, please let me ...... Let me join you. ”

"You?! Join us? ”

"Yes, I beg you. We really dreamed of joining a real army and fighting the enemy. ”

The man was anxious and nervous, and Tepunov looked at him again, but did not say anything directly, patting him on the shoulder to ask him to be quiet.

Tepunov first had to understand the current situation of the troops, and then arranged for the army to be camped here. It would take some time to do all this, and he received a new warning from his commander that enemy reinforcements could arrive as early as evening.

Regardless of whether the commander's speculation came true, Tepnov also had to take care of the defense, and during this period, although he was very interested in the so-called "little Ivansky's brigade", he really did not have time to deal with it until the basic armament was completed.

The sun gradually set, and in the past few hours, the Soviet army continued to shell Loyev at a fixed point. Tepunov understood that this was to keep the Germans from sleeping and tossing them to have a nervous breakdown, and this "vicious" method was naturally a crooked trick of the commander, but the effect was surprisingly good.

Under the harassment of artillery fire, the enemy's spirit must be tormented, and Tepunov saw that his troops were all in high spirits.

The paratrooper brigade was deployed east of Loyev, on the left bank of the Dnieper, and they formed a fan-shaped defensive system, and some of the soldiers even went to the banks of the Sozh River, a tributary of the Dnieper.

The fighters of the entire paratrooper brigade were expecting the appearance of the enemy. The result? Except for a few birds flying in the sky, nothing strange appeared. If the enemy arrives in the evening, friendly forces west of Loyev will report that they have discovered the enemy.

The telegram from Balzen was very blunt - it was all right.

The Soviet sentries were placed two kilometers outside the main position, and they were quite numerous, and once they spotted the enemy, they fired their guns directly. Because, the enemy must come to reinforce Loyev, then there is no need to disguise it anymore and start fighting directly! To be able to entangle the enemy's reinforcements is to lay a solid foundation for the second echelon to achieve the tactical goal of encirclement and annihilation.

The enemy has not been discovered yet, and it is impossible for the enemy to appear today. Enemy reinforcements have either not yet made their way south, or they have set up camp somewhere.

As the sun sets, most of the fighters of the paratrooper brigade are still digging their foxholes. The machine gunners and recoilless gun squads, they cut down some trees and cut them into small pieces, reinforcing their positions as best they could.

The captured small-caliber field guns of the Romanian army were set up as fixed firing points, and the artillery shields were covered with tree branches, and such artillery groups were indeed difficult to be discovered by the enemy under the cover of the bushes under the forest.

"Only the most elite German troops dared to attack in the dark! Tonight, I'm safe! ”

After a calm analysis, and based on the information he had, he finally had a basic understanding of the battlefield situation and some unique ideas of his own.

In short, Tepunov didn't want to simply stick to the line. They are elite paratroopers, born to be good at mobile combat, so holding their positions is exactly what ordinary soldiers should do. He wanted to take the initiative, and if the enemy's reinforcements did exist, there was nothing better than taking the initiative to kill them after finding their position. Even at the moment he did not know how many reinforcements were in the German army.

To continue to understand the defenders of Loyev, and to understand the enemy situation in this area, no one knows better than the partisans who came across it.

Now Tepunov finally had time to interrogate the alleged partisan squad leader.

When he saw the squad leader Ivaniko again, he was not alone, there were more than a dozen guerrilla fighters standing beside him. These people are in good spirits, but the poor clothing is worrying.

"Uh...... I think you should get a new one, but you don't, and you should patch the torn clothes. In fact, what made Tepnov even more uncomfortable was the smell of men on these people, because when it came to people's self-esteem, he didn't talk much about it.

Ivaniko was also embarrassed, and he saluted like a real soldier in order to win the favor of the Soviet brigade commander.

"That's it! You don't have to salute, I came to you to ask where you came from. You don't have to be nervous! Come, let's sit down around the campfire and say......"