On the battlefield of fierce fighting in the distance, the sound of "Ula" sounded, and the sound became louder and louder. The fighters, hidden in the deep ditch, all rushed out of their hiding places, and in order to prevent accidental damage, our machine guns stopped firing. The commanders and fighters of the sortie ran and shot in the wilderness, chasing the surviving enemy under machine-gun fire. When they rushed forward, they threw the living enemy to the ground and disarmed them. Leaving some men to guard the captives, the rest followed the footsteps of the enemy in the snow and rushed into the snow-filled forest. With a submachine gun in his hand, the grandson of the old hunter, Vasha, pursued the fleeing enemy with his warriors, apparently wanting to kill a few German devils with his own hands to avenge the sacrifice of his grandfather.

The battle ended in less than half an hour, and the few German soldiers who fled into the forest were either killed or captured alive. Seeing that the victory was decided, Kirillov and Sederikov and I led a group of soldiers through the open field full of German corpses to the hill where the old man Matvey had died.

The body of the old man lay on the hillside, a military uniform covered his face, Major Sherebryanny with several soldiers dug a pit with a sapper shovel beside him, and the little grandson Vasha knelt beside the old man and wept bitterly. I crouched down, trying to lift the military uniform that covered the old man's face and see his last remains. As soon as my hand was stretched out, before I could touch my uniform, Major Sherebryanny, who was standing next to me, stretched out his hand to stop me, and said in embarrassment: "Comrade commander, you better not look at it. The damn Germans shot him in the face and smashed his whole face......"

Although Sherebryanne's words were not spoken, I knew in my heart that he was afraid that the bloody face would frighten me. I withdrew my hand. Looking at the weeping Vaxia opposite. Asked softly, "Vaxia." How old are you? ”

Hearing my voice, Vaxia stopped crying, and while wiping the tears from his cheeks, he replied in a crying voice: "Comrade General, I am 13 years old this year. ”

"13 years old!" After repeating his age, I asked with concern: "Vaxia, your grandfather is dead, what are your plans in the future?" Willing to go to school? If you wish, I can send you to the rear, in order to arrange a suitable school; If you don't want to, I'll have you sent to a relative's house. ”

Vaxia stood up, straightened his back, and said, "Please allow me to report, Comrade General. I don't go to school or to relatives' houses, I want to fight and avenge my dead grandfather. ”

"Vaxia, let's go read first." I really don't feel at ease for such a young child to keep him in the army. So I tried to persuade him, trying to change his decision: "Wait until you're done." Become an officer, go to war again! ”

Vaxia's head swung like a rattle, "No, resolutely." If I go to the book, by the time I finish it, the war will be over. After glancing around, he pleaded with me: "Before I go to war, you will destroy all the fascist bandits." Comrade General, please leave me! ”

I can't help but think of Chuikov's herald Sidorin, who remained in the army to carry on his father's legacy. The current Vaxia is also because of his heroic sacrifice in the wilderness, and he strongly asks to join my army. I couldn't bear to pour cold water on his enthusiasm, and after a moment of silence, I threw this difficult problem to Kirillov: "Comrade commissar, what do you say about this matter?" ”

Kirillov walked up to Vasha's side, put his arm around his shoulders, and asked amiably: "Son, where are you going, are you going to go to the company or stay in the command headquarters to serve us as a herald?" ”

"Comrade commander," Vasha replied loudly, looking up at Kirillov beside him, "I want to go to the company and take up arms and fight the fascist bandits face to face." After all the fascists have been eliminated, I will go back to study, I am still young, not yet over age, Comrade Commander. ”

Kirillov laughed cheerfully, called Serebryanny to the front, pointed to the child and said: "Comrade Major, I will hand over this child to you." You have to promise me that as long as there is one man alive in your Serebryan camp, you will guarantee his safety, can you do it? ”

"It can be done." After answering loudly in Sherebryan, he turned to look at me and asked, "Comrade Commander, can we bury the old man first?" ”

I saw that the warriors who had dug the pit had stopped working, and were taking off their steel helmets to wipe their sweat, and there was a shallow rectangular pit beside them. In such cold weather, it is really not easy to dig through the hard frozen soil.

Kirillov built a funeral in the model of a soldier, and I had no objection and left the decision to him and let him arrange it. The old man's body was slowly lowered into the pit, his face still covered with the military uniform, and the old shotgun that followed him for an unknown number of years with him was buried with him. When he sprinkled the first handful of soil in the pit of the Yuvaxia Dynasty, Kirillov also specially dispatched a guard squad and asked them to shoot into the sky, firing three shots in a row.

After the funeral, I called Sederikov to my side and asked: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, have today's results been counted?" How many enemies were destroyed, how many guns were captured, and what were our casualties? ”

Sederikov replied with a smile: "Report to the commander, we killed 217 German soldiers, captured 49 prisoners, captured more than 200 rifles and submachine guns, and captured machine guns and matching ammunition placed by the enemy on sleds. Seven of our people were slightly injured, all of them were in the charge, they injured their feet or stepped on the air and injured their heads, the injuries did not matter, after the simple treatment of the hygienist, they were almost back to normal. ”

"What? Lieutenant Colonel Sedjerikov, what did you just say? In response to Sederikov's report, Kirillov asked with some disbelief: "It is incredible that almost three hundred of the enemy were destroyed and captured, and not a single one of our troops was killed, are you sure you are not mistaken?" ”

"Comrade Commissar," Sederikov explained to Kirillov with a smile, "rest assured, I can't be mistaken. Although the enemy is a battalion, the combat effectiveness is presumably not too bad. But their rifles and submachine guns were kept safe when they were on the march, not to mention the machine guns placed on the sleds. So when we hit us suddenly, they didn't have the power to fight back at all. Then he gestured to the hill where the temporary command post was located. Added with a tone of schadenfreude. "The commanders and fighters of Persjian's tank battalion and Morozov's artillery battalion. Freezing in the snow for several hours, I wanted to teach the Germans a hard lesson. As a result, before they could open fire, the whole battle was over. ”

Kirillov and Sederikov and I stood on the hill and watched as the fighters escorted the prisoners and carried the captured guns and ammunition. As for the corpses of the Germans, in such cold weather, our soldiers did not have the strength to dig holes for them, so they threw them all into the pit that had just been hidden.

As the three of us walked back, I whispered to Sedelikov, who was walking beside me: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel. Although I assigned Vasha to the camp in Sherebryan, I did not let him go on any dangerous mission, and I made sure that he was safe. ”

"No problem." Shedelikov replied very dryly. After a moment of silence, he took the initiative to propose to me: "Comrade Commander, I have an idea, since Vaxia is a hunter's child, he must be no stranger to firearms, maybe his marksmanship is not bad." I wanted him to go to the sniper detachment of Second Lieutenant Vasily and become a sniper. Don't know what you mean? ”

Sniper? When I heard the name of this class, my eyes lit up. It's a good career. I immediately thought that at the beginning of "Soldiers in the City", there is a scene of Vasily's grandfather training him to fight wolves. And Vasha has lived with his grandfather for so many years, and may have practiced good marksmanship, thinking of this, I nodded again and again, and said to Sederikov: "Okay, you will let Second Lieutenant Vasily take the people away later." Maybe it's really like you say, this kid is a good sniper seedling. ”

As soon as I returned to the corps headquarters, Vitkov hurried over, lowered his voice and approached my ear, and said hurriedly: "Comrade commander, you can come back, Khalidonov has called you to ask you why it is late and all the troops have not yet arrived at the designated position. Then he pointed to the headset and microphone that the operator was holding, and motioned for Khalitonov to be waiting for me online.

I walked up to the operator, took the headset strap from his hand, and then said to the microphone: "Hello, comrade commander! I'm Oshanina, do you have any instructions? ”

"Comrade Oshanina," Khalidonov's loud voice, sounding particularly excited in the headphones: "Let me ask you, now that it is dark, where are your troops?" ”

I hurriedly replied respectfully: "Report to Comrade Commander, so far, most of the 171st Infantry Division, the 84th Tank Brigade, the 266th Artillery Regiment, the 308th Infantry Division, and the 22nd Guards Division under the jurisdiction of our army should have reached the designated positions. ”

"What about you? Where are you now? Kharytonov unceremoniously continued: "As the commander of an army, should you stay with your troops? ”

"Comrade commander, please listen to my explanation, this is the way it is." Afraid that he would interrupt me, I quickened my pace and explained to him in detail what had happened.

Khalitonov, a very reasonable man, sighed after listening to my story, and said in a skeptical tone: "Comrade Oshanina, the child is too young, do you think it is appropriate to keep him in your unit to fight?" ”

"Comrade Commander, I wanted to send the child to the rear to study, or to his relatives' house, but he refused." I tried to stand in the position of a neutral person and explained to Khalitonov: "Perhaps it was because I saw my grandfather killed by the Germans, he was carried away by hatred, and even if we forcibly sent him to the rear, maybe he would sneak to the front." Therefore, after much consideration, I decided to leave him in the unit and let him work as a sniper in the sniper detachment of Second Lieutenant Vasily. ”

"Now that you've made your decision, let's do it." After Khalitonov had said this, he again told me: "Comrade Oshanina, in any case, you and your army command must arrive at the place where the troops are stationed by noon tomorrow. The Voronezh Front has launched an offensive on the city of Kharkiv, and our Southwestern Front is about to continue its advance on the Dnieper River to the west. ”

"Understood, Comrade Commander." Hearing Khalitonov say this, I hastened to assure him: "I assure you that the corps headquarters of the 79th Infantry Corps will be stationed in Dokuchaev on time before twelve o'clock tomorrow afternoon." ”

When I ended the call with Khalidonov, Vitkov came over and asked worriedly: "Comrade commander, we are still more than two hundred kilometers away from Dokuchaev here, can we arrive at noon tomorrow?" ”

Hearing Vitkov's question, I replied with a wry smile: "Comrade Chief of Staff, it seems that we can only gamble on our luck. If it doesn't snow tomorrow, the speed of the convoy can be increased a lot, so there is no problem in getting to Dokuchaev on time. You call Lieutenant Colonel Shederikov and ask his troops to hurry up and rest, and tomorrow at six o'clock in the morning, we will leave on time. ”

Although there was no snow the next day, the snow on the road was too deep and the craters abounded to make the whole convoy not fast at all. Vitkov watched the convoy moving at a rapid pace, anxious like an ant on a hot pot. Although I was also very anxious, when I saw Vitkov's anxious appearance, I couldn't help but say to him: "Comrade Chief of Staff, the speed is not fast, it is because of the road conditions, and it is useless for you to be in a hurry." Rather than being in a hurry, it is better to think about how we will launch an attack on the Germans once we arrive at the new headquarters. ”

When Vitkov heard me say this, he turned his head to look at me and said strangely: "Comrade commander, I think we should wait for the order from our superiors before carrying out the combat mission according to the order." ”

When I heard Vitkov say this, I rolled my eyes at him, and was about to teach him a lesson, when Kirillov, who was familiar with my combat style, spoke first: "Comrade Chief of Staff, you don't want to think like this. You must know that the enemy situation on the battlefield is ever-changing, and the command is far from the front line, and the orders they give are not necessarily accurate. Therefore, this requires our commanders at the grassroots level to adjust their arrangements and tactics in a timely manner in light of changes in the enemy's situation, so that it is possible to win the war. Subsequently, Kirillov told Vitkov about many specific examples of the independent division, and Vitkov nodded again and again.

The car in front of it suddenly fell into the crater, and as soon as the tarpaulin behind the car was lifted, a dozen or so fighters jumped out, quickly stood behind the car or on both sides of the car and began to push the cart, trying to push the car out of the crater. When our jeep was getting around the car, I unexpectedly spotted Vasha pushing a cart in the crowd. The tattered sheepskin hat on his head had been replaced by a certain brand new military hat, and he was wearing a cotton military uniform that was obviously oversized, and a wide belt was tied around his waist, which made him look particularly energetic. At the moment, like the other fighters, he was shouting and pushing the truck hard. (To be continued......)

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