Chapter 492

Gorazkov, who accepted the mission, returned the telescope to trikov. After saluting, he and his political commissar walked down the mountain together. And trekov and I jumped back into the crater that served as a temporary command post.

Smelling the faint smell of blood in the smoke of gunpowder blown by the river wind, I watched the enemy's shells constantly fall in the middle of the river crossing team. From time to time, they smashed the brave soldiers and their boats, raised the fragments of ships and human limbs and arms high into the air, and scattered them in the torrent of the Don river. Fortunately, the river crossing equipment that was not hit by chance was also not easy to worry about. The weak rafts or door panels also burst into the sky from time to time, and the water column overturned. After the soldiers on them fell into the water, except for a few people who grasped the wooden board or broken wood and continued to float on the water, the rest were swept away by the turbulent river water. Seeing this scene, my heart can't help pulling.

Just when I was worried about the fate of the 112th division crossing troops, a loud slogan came from the hillside: "speed up the March, quick! Come on! Run

"Left left left right left!" A neat young man followed by the sound of Qi's footsteps. Hundreds of pairs of boots on the ground covered the sound of guns in the distance. A large group of armed soldiers, led by the commander, ran down the hill. Although I don't know their combat effectiveness, I know that they have been strictly trained from their uniform pace and slogan.

"Look! Comrade commander. " I quickly called trakov, pointed to the troops passing by from the hillside and said excitedly, "look, our troops are coming up."

Trikov looked at the troops passing by from the hillside, with a happy smile on his face. He nodded slightly and said with satisfaction, "general gorazkov's troops look good. I hope we can fight later. Don't let me down."

The troops came to the front of the hillside. With a command from the commander, the troops stopped, then turned left in unison, and the whole team faced the direction of the Don river. A commander ran out from the far right of the line and came to the front of the line. Because the distance is not far, I can see that the commander is Xie Liaojin, the deputy commander of the 98th division, without a telescope. I wanted to hear what he would say to his men, so I put my hands on the edge of the crater, leaned forward and listened.

"Comrades! Our division has been ordered to cooperate with the friendly forces in fighting and to wipe out all the enemies who have occupied the left bank of the Don river. " Speaking of this, he leaned slightly and pointed to the direction of the Don river behind him. "Our friendly forces are now crossing the wide Don River under the fierce fire of the enemy. Because they didn't have the support of artillery fire, and they didn't have enough crossing equipment, they suffered heavy casualties in the process of crossing the river. We can't watch them being destroyed by the enemy, so we must help them, launch an attack immediately from behind the enemy, attract the enemy's attention and relieve the pressure on the attacking troops. Do you have the confidence to finish the task? "

"Yes!" The commanders and fighters were shouting in unison.

Colonel Xie Liaojin nodded with satisfaction, turned his head and called out to the line: "the flagman is out of line."

With his shouts, a soldier carrying a flag at the far right of the line trotted to him. Then solemnly shook the 98th division flag, let the glorious flag fly in the wind.

Xie Liaojin stepped forward, bent down, devoutly held up a corner of the flag with both hands, and affectionately kissed it.

There was a moment of silence in the whole team, and everyone watched the Colonel's every move in silence.

Xie Liaojin stood up straight, raised his fist, and solemnly vowed: "for the glory of the 98th infantry division, we swear!"

"We swear!" The commanders and fighters raised their fists just like him.

"We are invincible Xie Liaojin took the lead in taking the oath.

"We are invincible The commanders repeated his oath.

"Vow to drive the German aggressors out of the border and let the flag of victory fly over the Soviet Union forever!"

"Flying forever!"

At the end of the oath, the Colonel pulled out his pistol, raised it high above his head, and once again cried out, "all spread out in a scattered formation and march towards the Don river!"

The troops at the foot of the hillside quickly spread out, forming a line of 78 or 80 people, each with an interval of about five meters. The commanders and fighters, armed with rifles, submachine guns and machine guns, strode forward with their heads held high. Xie Liaojin and the flagman walked shoulder to shoulder at the right end of the team.

"This is a good Colonel sherokin." Trekov didn't know when to stand beside me, and he also bent over to watch what happened at the foot of the hill. "He didn't launch an attack immediately after the troops entered the offensive position, but first encouraged the morale of the officers and men with honor, and then launched the attack. I don't think the enemy can stop them. "

I raised my hand, looked at my watch, turned to the back, and said to myself, "didn't general gorazkov mean to let the artillery provide artillery support for the infantry immediately? Ten minutes have passed since then. Why hasn't the gun been fired yet? "

Trikov said with a smile, "Comrade oshanina, you are too impatient. It will take more than half an hour at the fastest to unload the artillery from the army and build a good artillery position. "

"Half an hour?" I looked at the formation of the scattered soldiers who were marching towards the enemy's position, and I could not help worrying and said, "for such a long time, Xie Liaojin's troops have almost entered the range of the enemy's rifles, and there will be no small casualties at that time."

The situation was much worse than I expected. The attacking troops were discovered by the enemy within 500 meters. In the loose line of attack, suddenly puffed up a column of smoke, it is the enemy with mortar bombardment. Our team braved the enemy's artillery fire to advance. After the shell exploded, shrapnel flew everywhere, knocking down our commanders and fighters from time to time, but soon the people behind them quickened their pace to make up for the position above.

Although the enemy's artillery fire caused a lot of casualties to our troops, there was no sign of any stagnation in the speed of the whole army's advance. In a twinkling of an eye, we had already passed half the distance and entered the range of the enemy's heavy machine guns.

The enemy's heavy machine guns fired. Walking in the front row of the commanders and fighters, in the dense rain of bullets, shaking down a large area. Even the flag fell down, but it was soon put up again. The commanders and fighters behind did not stop, and continued to make great strides forward.

Just then, I heard the sound of cannonballs coming out of the back of the hillside, and then countless cannonballs roared over our heads and flew to the enemy's positions. Black plumes of smoke suddenly rose from the enemy's positions, with weapon parts and human limbs flying into the sky. The machine guns that used to shoot wildly were suddenly dumbfounded.

Seeing that our artillery was on the offensive, Col. Xie Liaojin issued an order in time, and the officers and men made a trot charge instead of a big step forward, and quickly rushed to the enemy's defensive position. Because the position mainly defends the direction of Don river, and the defense on the opposite side is weaker, the commanders and fighters quickly rushed into the trench and started close combat with the enemy inside. When the artillery observer saw that our army had broken into the position, he sent out a signal in time to let the artillery fire.

I turned my eyes from the position that the enemy and us were fighting for to the surface of the Don river. To my surprise, I found that several ferries were approaching the shore, followed by a large number of rafts. On the front ferry, there was a flag. Although it was too far to see clearly, I estimated that it was the flag of the 112th division.

Heavy and heavy machine guns were mounted in front of the ferries. As they drove, they fired fiercely at the enemy positions on the shore, using fire to suppress the enemy's fire points and cover the troops crossing the river. Although the enemy was attacked by us from front to back, it is obvious that they will not wait to die, and their resistance is still tenacious. They even bombarded our ships on the Don with mortars.

The ferry with the flag was about to go ashore, but unfortunately it was hit by a shell, and the front half of the ship was immediately surrounded by smoke and fire. Then I saw some people with fire all over them rush into the river from the side of the boat, trying to put out the burning fire. Unfortunately, the officers and men who jumped into the river became the targets of the enemy's machine guns on the shore. After several struggles, they sank to the bottom of the river or were washed away.

For fear that the artillery might hurt his own people, trakov ordered our artillery to stop firing. Gorazkov, commander of the 98th division, led another unit and rushed to the front line to fulfill his promise to trakov.

With the expansion of the positions occupied by the 98th division's commanders and fighters, the enemy's resistance became weaker and weaker. The officers and men who crossed the river were able to get on the left bank smoothly, and also rushed into the enemy's position to eliminate the remaining enemy with the friendly forces.

When the gunfire on the shore gradually subsided, trakov breathed a sigh of relief and said, "thank God, we have finally wiped out all the enemies on the left bank." Then he ordered the signalman squatting in the corner of the crater: "signalman, contact commander General shumilov immediately and tell him that after the tenacious fighting of the 98th and 112th divisions, we have completely annihilated the German troops on the left bank. The battlefield is being counted, and the specific results will be reported after counting. "

Now that the battle is over, trakov will definitely go to the battlefield to inspect. However, we didn't have to walk like the commanders and fighters for such a long distance. Instead, we took a jeep, so it only took us a few minutes to get there.

As soon as trikov got out of the car, he saw general gorazkov and Col. seryokin coming to meet us. He walked quickly, took gorazkov's hand, shook it hard and said, "good job, general gorazkov. The officers and men of the 98th division are all good. Because you launched the attack in time, you can achieve such a great victory in such a short time. "

Then he extended his hand to Xie Liaojin and said with admiration, "Comrade Colonel, your way of boosting morale is very effective. Do well, fight a few more such battles, and you will have a chance to get a higher rank. "

I also went up to shake hands with the two commanders one by one. After shaking hands, I reminded trikov, "Comrade commander, should we go to the 112th division?"

"You are right, comrade oshanina." Perhaps because of the victory, trakov was in a very good mood at the moment. "Come on, let's go to the 112th division and see Colonel Sologub. General gorazkov, Colonel shariokin, you two should join us

We walked along the trench, past the bodies of our soldiers and enemy soldiers who had not had time to clean up. Trikov walked forward without squinting, but I slowed down unconsciously. Seeing the corpses almost full of trenches, I can imagine how cruel the battle was.

As he walked, trakov suddenly cried out, "Hey, isn't that Colonel mikhalisin?"

A tall, middle-aged Colonel came to us, stood still, raised his hand to trikov, and politely said, "report commander comrade, lieutenant commander of the 112th division, Colonel mikhalisin, report to you that the troops are cleaning the battlefield, please give instructions!"

Trekov waved his hand and said, "please go on."

"Yes Mihalisin gave a loud promise, and then told the men standing around: "continue to clean the battlefield."

When he finished his assignment, trikov asked, "Comrade deputy division commander, where is your division commander, Colonel Sologub?"

Mikhalisin bowed his head and replied in a low voice, "report to commander, the division commander was seriously injured while crossing the river."

"What?" With an unbelievable expression on his face, trakov yelled at mihalisin, "how could he be seriously injured?"

"When crossing the river, the ferry he took was hit by the enemy's shells, and he was hit by more than a dozen shrapnel. It was impossible to save him. We put him in a shelter, not far from here. Comrade commander, do you want me to lead the way? "

"Come on, take me there at once." Trekov urged.

We soon came to a spacious and humid shelter and saw the famous commander lying on several raincoats on the ground.

A health worker who was bending over to treat him heard someone come in and asked without looking back, "is the stretcher coming?"

"Comrade health worker, how is he?" Trekov asked, standing behind him.

The hygienist turned to look at trikov, quickly stood up, raised his hand to salute, and nervously reported, "Comrade General, I'm the hygienist in the division. Please forgive me. I didn't know you were here

Trekov waved his hand and asked with concern, "how's Colonel Sologub?"

"Comrade General, I'm not sure." The health worker said incoherently, "he seems to be breathing for a while, but not for a while... If we can operate on him now, he should still be saved."

"Where are the military doctors?" Trikov asked coldly, "Comrade health man, if you know where he is, go and get him immediately, and operate on the Colonel here."

"Comrade deputy commander," Col. Xie Liaojin came up to him and said on his own initiative, "there are military doctors in our division. I'm going to invite him here." With that, after seeing that trikov nodded and agreed, he turned and left the shelter.

"Comrade General." Mikhalisin came over and explained in a low voice: "in order to boost the morale, the division commander personally boarded the ferry to direct the crossing. In order to be easy to identify, he also had the flag inserted in the bow of the ship. When the soldiers across the river saw the flag, their morale was boosted. When the division commander's ship was about to dock, it was unfortunately hit by the enemy's shells. "

"Is there any help? Comrade health worker. " Trekov asked, looking at the hygienist. There seemed to be hope in his heart that Colonel Sologub was alive, but temporarily unconscious.

The hygienist shook his head, bit his lip and said, "Comrade General, he was shot in the chest. The shrapnel went into his chest and broke the whole chest. And the part below the knee of the right leg was also destroyed by the shell. It lost too much blood and couldn't be saved. "

Ignoring the hygienist, trikov squatted down beside Sologub, looked at his smoke blackened face, and whispered, "Colonel Sologub, we have wiped out all the enemies on the left bank of the Don river. You have to stand up and don't die. There will be many combat tasks in the future. You must survive. Your division is still waiting for you to command. Do you hear me

Sologub was still lying on the ground, motionless.

With a sigh, I stepped forward, squatted next to trekov, and looked carefully at Sologub lying on the ground. Only his right leg below the knee are not wrapped with bandages have been red with blood. The chest was also covered with bandages stained red with blood.

At this time, Xie Liaojin's voice came from the door: "Comrade commander, the military doctor is coming."

Trekov quickly stood up and urged, "come in and help Colonel Sologub with the operation."

A military doctor with a suitcase squatted down beside the colonel, looked into his eyes, reached out and touched his carotid artery, then stood up and shook his head disappointedly and said to trikov, "sorry, comrade general, the Colonel has died."

Trikov grabbed the military doctor by the collar and said in a loud voice, "what do you say? If you don't have a good examination, you say he died. If you talk nonsense again, I'll shoot you. "

"Why am I talking nonsense, comrade general," said the military doctor angrily“ You see, his breath is gone and his pulse is gone. And now the blood is coming out of your mouth, you see. "

But trakov was no longer willing to see Colonel Sologub's face. His limbs trembled and his throat choked. After a long time, he finally said, "Colonel mikhalisin, please find some soldiers to carry out the remains of division Sologub, find a suitable place and bury him. On the banks of the Don where he died. "

Then he turned to me and said, "report to commander shumilov that the commander of division 112, Colonel Sologub, had died in the battle. Please arrange a new division commander as soon as possible."