Early the next morning (December 3), after greeting the political commissar Yegorov and the others, I took Yushchenko and two soldiers of the guard company to the front line in the north of the city in a jeep driven by Grissa.

The reason why I transferred Rysdayev's troops to the north of the city to defend their positions was mainly due to two considerations: first, so that he could accumulate meritorious service in battle; The second is to test his command and adaptability. The purpose of this is to silence those who oppose him when he has the opportunity to promote him in the future. Of course, for me, what I value more is his ability, and only when he shows the ability that I am satisfied with can I feel comfortable entrusting him with important responsibilities in the future.

A few hundred meters from the front line, enemy shelling began. I looked out the window and saw shells exploding on the position, and the smoke and dust were flying, obscuring half of the sky and blocking my vision.

When I was staring at the position shrouded in gunsmoke, Yushchenko, who was sitting in the back row, was already desperately patting the back of Grissa's chair with his hand and shouting loudly: "Grissa, hurry up and get the car to a safe place." ”

In fact, without his orders, Grissa had already driven off the road and towards the nearby woods. After a short while, the car rushed to a row of half-buried brick and concrete houses, and Grissa decisively stepped on the brakes and said loudly: "Comrade division commander, this is the headquarters of the 1075th Regiment, you should go and avoid it first." ”

I jumped out of the car and looked around and saw that it was not far from the road, in a forest, from which I could clearly see the positions of our troops that were being shelled. Before I walked into the house, I said in my heart that the position they had chosen was not bad, and that setting up the headquarters here would not only facilitate command, but also conceal the troops.

Because of the shelling, the sentry hid on the steps of the house that Xiang Lu had entered, and when he saw us entering, he just wanted to stop us, but when he saw that it was me, he immediately saluted and made way of a passage, pointed to the back and said: "Comrade division commander, the regiment commander's headquarters is in the innermost." ”

I nodded, and walked briskly down the steps, heading down the hallway. Seeing me stride in, the commanders and soldiers who saw me all stood up and saluted.

A few steps away from the innermost room, I suddenly heard a man's roar coming from inside. Is something wrong? I was shocked, and hurriedly walked a few steps, and couldn't wait to step forward and push the door open.

The room is not big, the whole room is only a dozen square meters, there is a marching bed on the right side of the door, and in the middle is a square wooden table, on which a large map is spread, two people are standing in front of the table, one is the commander of the 1075th regiment, Major Sedulin, and the other is Major Resdayev, whom I sent last night.

Because of my sudden intrusion, Major Schedurin, who was furious, immediately quieted down, and he and Rysdayev came up to me one after the other and saluted me. I returned the salute and asked coldly: "Commander Xie Dulin, what happened, why are you so angry?" ”

Shedurin glared at Rysdayev and said angrily: "It's not because of this major who came from the garrison headquarters last night. When he came last night, I withdrew the battalion of Major Kuleshov, who had suffered heavy casualties, to the city to rest, and handed over the forward position to his troops for defense. I didn't expect ......" At this point, he glanced at me, and then stopped talking.

Seeing his slugging appearance, I frowned dissatisfiedly and said sternly, "What didn't I think of? Go on. ”

Major Schedurin added: "When I inspected the position this morning, I found that there was no one in the trenches, and I did not know where the major had hidden all his troops. I'm angry with him about this. ”

After listening to Sedulin's statement, I looked at Resdaev in bewilderment, and could not guess why he would do this, so I sat down on a stool silently and said unhurriedly in a stern tone: "Major Rysdayev, I would like to hear your explanation. ”

Rysdayev agreed, stepped forward, and said with a grin: "Report to Comrade Division Commander, after I arrived here last night to take over the defense, I once observed the surrounding terrain and found that this line of defense was only a trench more than half a man deep, and there were no minefields, anti-tank trenches, barbed wire, and permanent fire points for resting with reinforced concrete in front. ……”

As soon as he said this, I unceremoniously interrupted him and asked, "I know all this, but what does it have to do with you withdrawing all the soldiers defending in the trenches?" ”

He still had a smile on his face and replied, "Comrade Division Commander, what I want to say next is what I want to talk about. You have participated in more battles than I do, and you should know that the characteristics of the Ludao army before the offensive are to first shell and bombard the positions of our army, and then send tanks to cover the infantry charge. Seeing that I nodded thoughtfully, he continued: "In such a rudimentary defensive position, if we had invested most of our forces in the defense, we would inevitably have suffered huge casualties when bombarded and shelled by the enemy. That's why I withdrew all my troops from the trenches, hid in the forest, and waited for the enemy's infantry to attack, and then entered the position to block the attack. ”

"It is also right to temporarily withdraw the troops in order to reduce the unnecessary losses suffered by the troops in the event of shelling. But," I bluntly stated my scruples: "Have you not considered the situation in which the enemy's ground attacking forces will rush up and seize the positions in the event that the shelling is over and our troops have not had time to enter the positions?" ”

"No, Comrade Divisional Commander." He replied confidently: "I have observed the enemy's starting position, which is at least more than four kilometers away from us, and their infantry will not be able to reach here in less than ten minutes." Such a long time is enough for us to prepare everything for battle. ”

"You are so sure that our army will be able to enter a defensive position before the enemy's infantry attacks." Hearing him say this, Xie Dulin, who had not spoken next to him, muttered.

Hearing that Shedurin had already said what I wanted to ask, I repeated it again: "Yes, Major Rysdaev, if our troops do not get into position in time, then won't the enemy succeed?" ”

After listening to me, the smile on Rysdayev's face became even stronger, he walked to the window, made a gesture of invitation to me, and said: "Comrade division commander, please come and see!" ”

Puzzled, I went to the window, took a telescope from him, held it up to my eyes, and looked at the position where the smoke was still billowing out, but I could see nothing but smoke. I couldn't figure out what Rysdayev wanted me to see, so I threw the binoculars into his hand in a huff and said with some annoyance: "Comrade Major, if you have something to say, don't hang people's appetites like this, besides, the position is full of smoke and you can't see anything." ”

Seeing that I was angry, he quickly took the binoculars, hung them around his neck, and replied in a proper manner: "Comrade division commander, I want you to see the dozen or so tanks that were destroyed in front of my position. ”

"What tank? I don't know what you're talking about. I couldn't help but be a little angry about his repeated performance, and just wanted to scold him, but suddenly felt that maybe he had done something on these scrapped tanks, so he quickly coughed twice, stabilized his emotions, and asked curiously: "What did you say just now, those scrapped tanks in front of the position?" ”

"Ahh I understand! Major Schedurin, who was next to me, suddenly screamed, startling me. I looked at him dissatisfied, and said lightly: "Comrade Regiment Commander, what do you want to understand?" ”

Instead of answering me directly, Shedurin affectionately patted Rysdayev on the shoulder, and even changed his address from "you" to an intimate "you", and he excitedly said: "Comrade Major, what a genius you are!" Why didn't I think of it?! These abandoned tanks in front of the position were slightly modified, and they became new points of fire and observation. In this way, even if the enemy's infantry made a surprise attack, the fighters, who were hiding under the abandoned tanks, could even detect and delay their advance, and buy enough time for our troops to enter the position. ”

Looking at Rysdayev, I nodded with satisfaction and said, "Comrade Major, tell me about the details." I see if it's worth promoting to other troops. ”

Rysdayev agreed, and then introduced his deployment: "A pit was dug under each abandoned tank, two fighters were placed on each side, and depending on the position, I set up observation points, machine-gun positions, and anti-tank positions. When the observation point detects that an enemy is approaching, it immediately reports the enemy situation to the command post through walkie-talkie. The machine-gun positions and anti-tank positions served the purpose of delaying the enemy's advance and buying time for our troops to enter the positions in a timely manner. ”

"Well done!" I affirmed Rysdayev's approach and concluded: "As a commander, you often have to lose a battle if you don't go to the battlefield where your troops are about to fight, but only rely on maps to study the terrain and give written orders. At the same time, he also reminded the two that "as a middle-level commander, before completing a combat mission, he must be familiar with the terrain and the enemy's battle formation, so that he can take advantage of the weakness of the enemy's deployment in battle, repel and carry out a counter-assault on it." ”

I was teaching the two of them the military theories I had learned from Mr. Lin's office, when suddenly I heard the sound of artillery one after another stopping, and my first thought was, "The enemy's shelling has stopped!" "Picking up the binoculars from Rysdayev's hand and looking out, although the position was still covered in smoke, no further explosions were heard, and it seemed that the enemy shelling had indeed stopped.

I put down my binoculars and gave an order to Rysdayev, who was standing beside me: "The enemy shelling has stopped, Major, it's time for your troops to play!" ”

"Yes!" He promised to run to the table, grabbed the phone and shook the handle vigorously, and as soon as the call was called, he ordered in a decisive tone: "Comrade Captain, the shelling has stopped, it's time, immediately take your company into position." ”

Not long after he put down the phone, he heard a neat step coming from the right, and following the voice, a group of soldiers, led by several officers, bent over with weapons in their hands, ran in a neat formation towards the forward trench.