Not far after going out, I saw that the commanders who had just gone out had just descended into a trench and were walking forward unhurriedly. I walked around the trunks of several blown trees on the ground and down the gentle slope into the trench.

This trench, which is more than half a man deep, is the third line of defense built by the 107th Division in the forest. Since there has never been a battle here, the trenches are covered with a thin layer of snow inside and out. The soldiers, who had been staying in the trenches, saw the commanders walking over, stood up one after another, and saluted them with their backs against the trench wall.

After walking a short distance, I came to the door of a shelter department, which was not large, and as long as Rokossovsky, Zakharov, Lobachev and Chief of Staff Malinin walked in, I and the others stayed outside the door. Although everyone didn't go in, they all crowded into the door and looked inside.

Seeing the commander enter, a dozen or so people who had been sitting in the room stood up in unison, and one of them, a middle-aged man with a mustache, a large-brimmed hat, and a long gray army coat, walked up to Rokossovsky and saluted him.

Rokossovsky returned the salute, then stretched out his hand and said loudly: "Hello! Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov! ”

The mustache quickly put his hand down from the brim of his hat and grabbed the commander's hand and shook it: "Hello! Comrade Commander! ”

"You're welcome here!"

The mustache shook hands with the other three commanders one by one, and then replied to the commander: "Comrade commander, I think we have an obligation to go to the forward position at once and perform a concert there. ”

Hearing him say this, Rokossovsky shook his head and said: "It's already a concert there, do you hear that?!" I can't let you go there,"

The mustache also did not seem to want to give up easily, trying to convince the commander to agree to his proposal: "But we are here for the show!" ”

Rokossovsky's head shook like a rattle and said categorically: "No! No! No way!!! Comrade Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov! I have no authority to do this, you must know that you are the wealth of the entire Red Army. ……”

Hearing that the commander used the honorific title for the mustache twice in a row, I couldn't help but ask Katukov, who was huddled around me, curiously: "Comrade General, who is this mustache?" ”

"Mustache?!" Listening to my question, Katukov looked at me with surprised eyes and said in surprise: "Don't you even know him?" He was the head of the Red Banner Song and Dance Troupe, Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov. This nationally famous song and dance troupe is still named after him. ”

I replied vaguely, then craned my neck to look at the members of the troupe, which, according to my later experience, were usually filled with beautiful women. But after looking at it for a long time, I only saw a room full of handsome guys, not a single person of the opposite sex, and I was suddenly interested. At this moment I heard Rokossovsky shouting: "Comrade Chief of Staff! ”

"Here!" Colonel Malinin stepped forward in response.

Rokossovsky half-turned his body and ordered: "Prepare more telephones, bring them here, and let the performers of the song and dance troupe sing into the telephone." Malinen agreed, turned and went out the door and squeezed out of us. I heard the commander say to the mustache again: "The soldiers can hear it at the front, sing it to your heart's content." ”

"Comrade Xie Lu, Commander Xie." The mustache was very pleased with such an arrangement.

"I wish you success!" Rokossovsky held out his hand to him again, shook it, and then turned and walked over. He walked to the door and stopped, looked at those of us who were crowded at the door and said, "Go back to the command post and have a meeting." ”

"Yes!" Everyone agreed, and then happily hugged the commander back to the command post.

When everyone sat down at the wooden table again and continued to discuss the deployment of the campaign, I did not join in the fun, but held up a telescope to observe the battle situation at the front.

In the open ground between the command post and the first trench, there were blackened and damaged tanks and armored vehicles, both our and Germans, and the ground was densely packed with craters, and the pits were covered with the corpses of Soviet soldiers and German soldiers who had not yet been collected. Seeing all this, I can't help but be a little faintly afraid: what kind of bloody battle was this battle fought yesterday in terms of its intensity and cruelty, and how terrifying it was.

The first line of defense of our army was full of loud noises, thick smoke billowed out, and the entire position was shrouded in smoke. Looking into the distance, I saw that on the other side of the smoke of gunpowder, dozens of German tanks were murderously swooping towards our positions, and the dense infantry was closely following the tanks. Looking at the limbs that kept flying out of the smoke of gunpowder, my heart suddenly lifted: the troops suffered such heavy casualties in the artillery fire, and faced with a powerful offensive of the enemy, our army's defense line will not suddenly collapse like yesterday, right?

From time to time, shells fell on the German offensive ranks, blowing up the mud and snow that rushed to the sky. It was our artillery firing, and I searched around for our artillery positions, and soon found that there was one in the right rear of the trench, all of which were smaller 45mm anti-tank guns, and the artillery was erected next to the destroyed tanks, and they were constantly firing at the Germans. I counted it, there were only nine guns, it was impossible to hit so many explosive points in the German column at the same time, there should be other artillery positions.

I continued to observe for a while, and to my surprise I saw our tanks in the left rear of the trenches, to be precise, the heavy tank that could not be destroyed yesterday. Although from time to time shells exploded around it, and even hit it directly, it did not affect it in the slightest to continue firing at the Germans. When I saw this unusually bullish tank, I immediately thought of a post I had read later: it said that a heavy tank of the Soviet army had blocked the attack of a German armored division in the early days of the war. At that time, I still scoffed, thinking that it was simply bragging, and no matter how good a tank was, after a few shots, it would still turn into a pile of burning scrap metal. However, the performance of this super tank in yesterday's battle impressed me, the heavy industry of the Soviet Union really did not build, and it was able to build such a tank that could not even be broken by shells.

As the Germans approached, the shelling stopped, and a dense burst of gunfire rang out in the trenches. The German tanks slowed down, stopped in front of the trenches, suppressed our troops with artillery and machine-gun fire, covered the infantry for the charge.

"Arise, huge country, fight to the death, to destroy the fascist evil forces...... "I suddenly heard a passionate song in my ears, and I followed the source of the sound, which turned out to be coming from a square box hanging on the wall. I am very familiar with the melody of this song, I hear it every year when I watch the live broadcast of the military parade on Red Square, I can hear it in the films of the Great Patriotic War of the former Soviet Union, and I even hear it in the series "Latent" and "Soldier Assault". Although I have heard it countless times, I still have a feeling of blood boiling when I hear a familiar melody sounding on this occasion.

As soon as they heard the song, they immediately extinguished the cigarettes in their hands, stood up one after another, and quietly listened to the comrades of the song and dance troupe singing the song called "Holy War."

Not long after listening to this, Rokossovsky spoke: "Commanders and comrades, the tasks are clear, you should go back and prepare immediately!" ”

"Yes!" The commanders answered neatly, saluted the commander and commissar, and retreated.

I saw two fighters crawl out of the second trench, then stood up and bent over to the anti-tank gun position. The soldier running in front was holding a microphone in his hand, and the soldier in the back was holding a spool, putting the telephone line as he ran. After a short while, they ran into the artillery position, and the two of them crouched down and handed the microphone to a commander who was also squatting.

The commander took the microphone and listened to it for a moment, then stood up sharply, and pulled off the cotton military hat on his head, revealing his bandaged forehead. I saw him raise his military hat high, shout loudly at the artillerymen, and after shouting two sentences, he waved his hand violently. With this action of his, the artillerymen came with a salvo.

I turned my binoculars to look at the German ranks, and the shells whistled down. In the explosion, the charging infantry was blown up and cried wolf, and the tank that was directly hit directly knocked off the turret, and the crew covered in fire struggled to climb out of the car, ran back a few steps, and fell headlong on the snow.

Then more shells fell on the German attack in quick succession, blowing them up. Judging by the power of the explosion and the radius of destruction, this is definitely not an anti-tank gun, but a heavy gun like 122 or 152 to cause such an effect.

I suddenly heard the voice of Chief of Staff Malinin coming from behind, and when I looked back, he came back at some point and was reporting the situation to the commander: "...... In addition to using the telephone to transmit the song to the commanders and fighters, I also used the original loudspeakers on the position so that the soldiers could hear them even from a distance of several hundred meters. ……”

"That's great, I should give you a credit. In doing so, the soldiers on the front line were greatly encouraged by the singing, and it was very effective for us to repel the current enemy attack. He paused for a moment and asked, "Is there any latest enemy situation?" ”

"Yes, Comrade Commander." Malinin is Rokossovsky's most trusted chief of staff, and he always has a timely grasp of the enemy's situation: "Yesterday it was the 14th motorized division of the German army that was repulsed by our troops, and from today's interrogation of the prisoners, it was learned that they had been replenished, and the 252nd Infantry Division was newly put into battle. ……”

"Report!" At the door stood a burly commander, shouting a report.

"Come in! Colonel Beloborodov, I'm looking forward to you. Rokossovsky was overjoyed to see the man coming, brought him to the table, pointed to the map, and said to him: "Immediately organize your troops to counterattack, and you must crush the enemy at present and drive them far away." Do you understand? ”

"Understood." The colonel saluted, and then said, "Can I go out and command the battle?" ”

"Go ahead, I wish you success!" The commander said and held out his hand again.

The artillerymen, encouraged by the song, were as excited as if they had been beaten with blood, and their firing speed was nearly twice as fast as just now, and their accuracy was much higher. When more and more tanks were destroyed by our artillery fire, they chose to retreat.

As always, as soon as the Germans retreated, the Soviets counterattacked. This time, it was General Katukov's 1st Guards Tank Brigade that took the lead, and the tanks that drove out of the forest quickly formed a battle formation, firing as they went. But what surprised me was that the heavy tank was still parked there and didn't move, just shooting at the Germans on its own.

Rokossovsky, who was standing beside me and observing the battle, saw my bewildered look and explained to me that the heavy tank had had failed its engine during yesterday's battle, and then its tracks had been blown off by German shells, so it had to be used there as a fixed battery.

The tanks of the Guards Brigade rushed up, followed by the 78th Infantry Division from Siberia, which, under the command of the division commander, Colonel Beloborodov, lined up in skirmishers and shouted "Ula!" Charging forward in stride, braving sporadic German artillery fire.