A cannonball whistled and landed on the snow more than ten meters away, and the mud and snow raised by the explosion fell from the sky like scattered flowers of a heavenly maiden and fell on us one after another. The colonel instinctively crouched down when the shell exploded, and after the explosion he got up again and shouted with some nervousness: "Comrade Chief of Staff, it is too dangerous here, maybe the enemy has captured our artillery in his hands." Let's go to the forest! My divisional command post was there. ”

If the Germans only had mortars, I would probably have stood still and shown my men that I was calm and calm in front of the collapse of Tarzan, after all, there were still about two roads from the city, and the range of enemy mortars was not enough. But now that I had heard that the Germans might have long-range artillery, and that it would be pure death to stay in the open field, I made up my mind to hide in the forest at once.

I shouted at Grissa, who was still sitting in the car, "Get out into the forest." Then he ran into the forest with a group of staff officers and guards who had already dismounted, following the colonel.

There was a row of tents in the forest, and it was clear that it had only been erected for a short time, and the colonel led me straight into one of the largest tents. The light inside is good, thanks to a gas lamp hanging above the tent. On one side of the tent was a table with a walkie-talkie, and a soldier with the rank of sergeant sat nervously busy at the machine. Next to the curtain was a small table with a few small horses, and a commander with the rank of colonel was looking down at the map spread out in front of him.

Sensing that someone was coming in, the commander glanced up, then stood up suddenly, stood up and saluted me, and said, "Hello, comrade division commander!" I didn't expect to see you here. ”

When I looked at it, I was overjoyed, and I didn't bother to return the courtesy, so I gently punched him in the shoulder socket with my fist, and said excitedly: "Colonel Chistyakov, it turned out to be you!" Then he asked with concern: "Our division has also come up?" And what about Comrade Political Commissar and Chief of Staff, where are they at the moment? ”

Chistyakov looked at me with a smile on his face, and when I had finished asking all the questions in one breath, he replied: "Report to Comrade Division Commander, we will break through the enemy positions north of the city of Mount Sun before dawn, and then quickly advance towards Klin. Halfway through, the Chief of Staff, Comrade Serebryakov, proposed that if the whole division attacked Klin from the south, it would be impossible to spread its forces, and that it would be better to divide the troops into two lines and flank them from both sides at the same time. Seeing that this plan was feasible, we divided our troops into two routes, one of which was the 1073rd Regiment led by me to the south of Klin City and join the main force of the front army by the same route; The other route was led by the commissar and chief of staff of the 1075th and 1077th regiments around the eastern flank of Kling and launched an attack from the flank. ”

"Well done!" Their plan to temporarily adjust the troop's march route was very much to my liking, so I did not hesitate to praise it: "An excellent commander must know how to adjust the deployment of the troops according to the situation on the battlefield." Then he said to Hapsaffo on the side: "Comrade Colonel, give us a brief account of the current state of the war." ”

Colonel Hapsafo pointed to the map on the table and said, "Please see, you two, there are two ring trenches built south of the city of Kling, and in front of the trenches are minefields, anti-tank trenches, barbed wire, and between them there is a permanent fire point of reinforced concrete structure. Since the snow in front of the trenches was too deep for the assault of infantry and armored vehicles, we could only attack through the road that connected the city. Since this was the coverage of German fire, both charges we organized were repulsed, and the third charge is currently underway. ……”

Hearing this, I couldn't help but interrupt him with a frown: "Comrade Colonel, as far as I know, the Germans occupied Kling for only a few days, how could they have built such a well-developed defense system in such a short time?" ”

Hapsafo smiled bitterly, looked at Chistyakov and said: "Comrade Colonel, you know this better, you should explain it to Comrade Chief of Staff!" ”

Chistyakov took over the topic and said: "Actually, this defense system was not built by the Germans, but we completed the defense fortifications not long ago. Since the Germans attacked the city of Kling from the north and west, the southern fortifications were preserved intact. I didn't expect it to be used by the Germans now and become an obstacle to our progress. ”

"Report!" The voice of a command staff officer came from the door.

Without looking back, I said, "Come in!" ”

"Comrade Chief of Staff," the incoming staff officer reported to me, "we have set up communications equipment in the tent next to us, and you can now go over and command the troops." ”

"I know it." I said yes and called Chistyakov out with me, and as soon as I got out of the tent, I suddenly remembered something, and I retreated to the tent and asked Hapsafo curiously: "Comrade Colonel, I suddenly remembered something. You are from the Far East, so the commander of the 32nd Red Banner Infantry Division of the Far East, Colonel Porosuhi, do you know you? ”

Although he looked confused, he still nodded and replied: "Yes, we once fought the Japanese together at Nomenkan." Why, does Comrade Chief of Staff also know him? ”

I smiled and replied: "Yes, together we fought the Germans in Borodino." How is he now? ”

"I don't know, but I guess it's pretty good." Hapsafo said: "He is now in the 5th Army under the command of General Govorov, as the main force, and he must be indispensable in today's major counteroffensive." ”

"Yes, I know him, and he must have been indispensable in such a historic battle. So be it, good luck! With that, I stepped out of the tent.

I left the tent of the headquarters of the Hapsafo division, and instead of immediately entering the tent prepared for me, I dragged Chistyakov to the edge of the forest to observe the battle.

As Colonel Hapsaffo described, a group of infantry, following several tanks, rushed along the road towards the city. And there were already several burning tanks of our army on that road, and the corpses of our soldiers were lying on the road.

Perhaps the lessons of the previous two defeats made this attack much more cautious. When the tanks were still fifty or sixty meters away from the enemy's firing point, they stopped firing violently and destroyed the most threatening firing points one by one. The soldiers who followed also lay on the ground and opened fire on the enemy in the fortifications.

After a few rounds of firing, the enemy's open fire point was completely full, and seeing that there were no visible obstacles in the way ahead, a tank could not wait to rush forward first. As I watched the tracks of the chariot run over the corpses of those warriors, my heart felt as if something had struck me, and I felt extremely sad.

Just as the tank was about to bypass a burning tank, a rocket flew with a long trail of smoke and exploded on the body. With the explosion, the tank body slammed and stopped, and the broken tracks were quickly dragged out of the back of the hull.