Tupikov's oversighting did not work as well as it should, especially in the afternoon when another armored division led by Rommel arrived, and the battle was completely one-sided.

The division establishment of the Russian army is different from that of the German army, and the division establishment of the German army is very large, especially the armored division, and there are four or five thousand people in the logistics support detachment alone, these people are drivers driving trucks, mechanics of emergency repair detachments, doctors and nurses in mobile field hospitals, and so on.

Lin Youde is not the kind of person who blindly believes in mobile and flexible brigade-level detachments, he knows that the size of battlefield units is closely related to the times, and in the war several decades later, the army's observation, communication, firepower, and support will be completely different from now, and a brigade-level combat detachment will be able to control the division-level combat area during World War II. The ratio of combatants to support personnel of such brigade-level detachments is very different from that of divisions during World War II, and their support capabilities are stronger.

And now the equipment level of the German army is not up to that kind of Cheng dù, so it has become Lin Youde's choice to use a large division.

In contrast, most of the Russian army still retains the mentality of World War I, and the same is true of the army establishment, most of the Russian army's divisions are only about 10,000, and some reinforced divisions can reach 15,000 to 20,000. So in fact, the superiority of the Russian army in Donetsk does not exist at all, and Tupikov's counterattack was a complete mistake, he should have defended firmly and mobilized troops from the vicinity.

But he was in a hurry to recapture the lost positions and force a counterattack with the existing forces. The result was heavy losses for three divisions in Donetsk in a morning of fierce fighting.

At about three o'clock in the afternoon, Tupikov, who had set out to supervise the battle, returned to the headquarters.

As soon as he entered the headquarters, he asked aloud: "Haven't our reinforcements arrived yet?" ”

"They were sniped outside the city." A staff officer immediately responded, "The enemy has set up a sniper line outside the city with chariots and a small number of battle queens, and our troops can't defeat them without heavy equipment in the wilderness!" The commander of the 6th Upper Don Division said that he would wait for the artillery to come in tonight and try to break through the enemy's sniper line tomorrow morning. ”

"Can't wait that long, let the Cossacks get on their horses and bypass the sniper line! There must not be many Germans, it is impossible to completely encircle the city, it must be just a sniper line with a limited width! Let them move fast! ”

After Tupikov's words fell, the staff officer went to give the order in a hurry.

At this time, the deputy chief of staff said: "We should move the headquarters of the front army out of the city......"

"No, we can still move troops here, and as soon as we move, the troops should be messed up." Tupikov paused, "Burn the codebook, arming diagram, and other confidential documents, and start burning them now!" In order to ensure the security of the codebook, our department will destroy the codebook, and then issue instructions to the departments in clear code to use the No. 3 clear code code. ”

The so-called clear code code is some code codes when communicating with clear code, similar to those bandit black words in "Lin Hai Xueyuan", what "which lock", what "what hahaha", what "Cui Sanye, why are your double knives missing", and so on.

Of course, these codes are not as safe as ciphers, and the chance of being detected by the enemy is more than a little higher than that of ciphers, but they can only be used in an emergency.

After Tupikov gave the order, he sat down at the map table and sighed.

"After Your Excellency Prime Minister returns from the battle, I will be finished." He said to the deputy chief of staff in an understatement tone, "Congratulations, you have been promoted early." ”

"I always felt that it wasn't something to be happy about."

"Hmph, indeed. It was His Excellency the Commander who was supposed to be unlucky, but he was lucky enough to go to a meeting. ”

Neither Tupikov nor the deputy chief of staff spoke again, and the entire war room fell into a suppressed silence, in stark contrast to the fierce gunfire outside the window.

After a while, the smell of the staff officers and clerks burning the bunjiàn wafted into the room.

**

In the 3rd Regiment of the 6th Upper Don Division, the regimental commander Petro was loudly urging his men.

"Get on the horse! Fast! A rare opportunity to fight on horseback, do you want this opportunity to slip away? ”

Soon, the Cossacks were all on their horses.

Waving his whip, Pietro led the way out of the village and into the fields.

Behind him, a regiment of Cossacks poured into the steppe, and the sight made one think that it had traveled back to the time of the Russian-Turkish war, and the Cossack cavalry swept through the steppe, unstoppable.

The Cossacks were trotting through the steppes and small patches of bushes. Soon, when the Cossacks rummaged through a small dirt bag, the houses of Donetsk came into view.

"It's coming soon! Run! Drive! Pietro rushed to the front, waving his whip and whistling as he urged the horses to run.

At this moment, the roar of the engine was heard in the bushes not far from the Cossack brigade.

A chariot with an iron cross burst out of the bushes, its tracks driving its body to turn, and began to advance side by side with the Cossacks, while firing at the Cossacks with the coaxial machine gun of the turret.

Then the small-caliber cannon mounted on the top of the turret also fired, and twenty mm high-explosive shells kicked up a man-high dust in the middle of the horse team.

Then three more chariots burst out of the grove, and the four "ironclad knights" began to tear the flesh of the Cossacks with their minions made of steel and fire.

The tracks rolled forward with the roar of the engine, crushing the horse's hooves, crushing the whistle, crushing the pride and honor of the Cossack cavalry.

The ranks of the cavalry were scattered, and the proud Cossacks fled in all directions, evading in vain the deadly line of fire in the open, unsheltered open field.

Horses raised their front hooves and threw the knight to the ground in agony.

The Germans even opened the hatch of the turret, poked their heads out and opened fire from the machine gun on the roof of the car.

Soon, the last knight standing fell, and the prairie fell silent again.

The Germans got off the tank and began to clean up the battlefield.

German military regulations only prohibit the looting of civilians, not the looting of war from corpses - of course, it is certainly a violation of military regulations to loot when the fighting is not completely over, but junior officers generally turn a blind eye to such acts and will not be held accountable as long as there is no problem.

Soon, a German armored soldier found Petro, who was still alive.

"I, I surrender, please don't kill me!"

The German was holding a submachine gun with an embarrassed expression, and finally he turned his head and shouted a few words, and soon an officer-like armored soldier came to Pietro.

The officer searched Pietro's pocket and found his map and military ID.

Probably thinking that Pietro had the value of bringing back for interrogation, the officer made a gesture, and the armored soldiers next to him lowered their guns, and one of them came up and tied Pietro tightly.

Pietro breathed a sigh of relief.

Even when the Germans tied him to the rear of the chariot as luggage, he did not complain at all, but only thanked God for sparing his life.

**

In Terniivka, twenty kilometers east of Dnipropetrovsk, in the listening center of the fifth detachment of the German Special Telecommunications Brigade, Colonel Joseph was listening to the newly received telegram with a frown.

"Password?" The Colonel muttered quietly, "Have you checked the code book we have?" ”

"I've checked, but I can't." The telegraph man shook his head.

The Colonel pressed the rewind button on the tape and began to listen to the flurry of dripping sounds from the beginning.

After repeating this action several times, he said: "Judging from the compilation principles of the other code collections we have, the old mother here probably refers to the front army headquarters or something similar, and the other code names should be the troops receiving orders...... Immediately ask the reconnaissance planes in the air to check the movements of the Russian troops. When did we start receiving these codes? ”

"An hour ago."

"Then we need the latest developments. Before we could figure it out, we gave them dessert and fired the following message with the same frequency...... "The colonel quickly wrote a series of words on the paddy paper.

The telegraph soldier glanced up at the colonel and asked suspiciously, "Can this be useful?" ”

"I don't know, but how much it will make the Russian army spend more time judging the authenticity."

**

"Report!"

Tupikov, who was closing his eyes and recuperating, opened his eyes and asked, "What is it?" ”

"We received strange messages, it seems that someone is giving instructions to the troops in our code words, but the instructions are strange......"

"What do you say? How is this ...... Oh my God, it's the Germans, these damned Germans have mastered our code book! Tupikov looked shocked.

In fact, the Germans didn't grasp it, they just messed around, but Tupikov obviously didn't know this, and the chief of staff already had the impression of "the world's first in German science and technology" in his subconscious, and directly thought that the code words had been deciphered.

"Damn, the code words have been deciphered, and the troops are asked not to trust any more telecommunications, and the departments will judge the situation on their own and shrink their defenses to Donetsk!"

**

Guderian was in the headquarters to study the next part of the assault operation, and a telegram was delivered to him.

"The enemy's front-line troops began to retreat?" Guderian glanced at the telegram and immediately frowned, "Is it confirmed?" ”

"The situation is being confirmed with the Air Force." The staff officer who delivered the telegram said, "In addition, the high-power radio calls we heard from the front seemed to indicate that the enemy was indeed retreating." ”

Guderian looked back at his deputy, and saw that the other party was just as confused as he was.

"Judging by the previous battles, the losses of the Russian troops are far from the point where they have to retreat, what the hell is going on?" Guderian muttered to himself as he came to the map, "Even if it is to go back to rescue Donetsk, which was threatened by Rommel, then the troops who have not yet made contact with our army should be transferred, and the troops who have already engaged us in the front should also retreat together?" Traps? ”

'But if it's not a trap, it means a great attacking opportunity is in front of us.' Said the deputy.

Guderian turned his head to look at the sunset outside the window, and was silent for several seconds before he made up his mind: "Order the troops to pursue the retreating Russian army overnight and maintain close contact with the Russian army!" ”