Chapter 1293

The friendly attack from the south of Kiev continued until midnight. Standing at the window, looking at the red sky in the north, chisgakov said to me with emotion: "Comrade commander, the friendly forces have been fighting from the afternoon until now, they have a posture that they have to win Kiev. In this way, the main forces of the German army will be restrained in the south, and our attack from the north will be much more smooth."

"It's not true. When the friendly forces hit like this, the Germans thought that our army would win Kiev, so they pulled out their troops from all over the country to stop our army's attack." Bezikov said: "commander tavartkiraze has just sent a telegram saying that the German army attacking korostwev from the East has stopped attacking. In addition to leaving a small number of troops to monitor our army, the rest have been returned to Kiev. "

Hearing that bzikov mentioned korostev, chisjakov asked with concern: "chief of staff, how many troops do we still have there?"

Bezikov shook his head and said helplessly: "at present, there are 8000 people in the three divisions, and there are nine tanks left in the tank brigade. If the German army continues to attack, it will be difficult for them to support it. "

After bezikov finished, I asked, "chief of staff, I remember that the German army from Zhitomir attacked general talazzi killazer fiercely. How is it? Has it stopped now?"

"It's stopped." "According to general tavartkilaze, when the German troops from Kiev began to retreat, the attack of the western German troops stopped, and now they are slowly retreating to Zhitomir," bezikov said with a strong nod

While we were standing at the window chatting, we suddenly heard akhromeyev calling me: "Comrade commander, your phone is from the headquarters of the front army."

I passed by, took the microphone, stuck it to my ear and said respectfully, "Hello, senior general."

Vatujing did not exchange greetings with me. He asked directly, "Comrade oshanina, our 27th and 40th army have been attacking Kiev for more than ten hours. What's the situation there?"

"The enemy in the direction of korostwev has stopped attacking and retreated to Kiev and Zhitomir respectively. And the fighting in the south is still going on southeast of cherkaser. " After a brief report on my situation, I asked tentatively, "senior general, I don't know when our main force will launch an attack?"

After listening to me, watujing immediately said with a smile, "I can't hide anything from you. Marshal Zhukov asked me to tell you that the attack will start in five hours. He asked you, in any case, to block the way for the German army to flee to the West. Well, are you sure you can stop the enemy? "

Standing very close to me, chisgakov vaguely heard the content of the phone, then shook his head at me, as if he had something to say. I quickly covered the microphone with my hand and asked in a low voice, "Comrade deputy commander, do you have anything to say?"

Seeing that I covered the microphone with my hand, chisgakov immediately said, "Comrade commander, our troops in korostwev have suffered heavy casualties. If the Germans rush there recklessly, our troops will not be able to stop them."

I nodded at him to show that I knew it. Then I released my hand on the microphone and said to watujing, "senior general, our troops in korostwev have been severely attacked from both directions at the same time. The troops have been greatly reduced. It is estimated that it is very difficult to block the enemy if there is no supplement."

After listening to my difficulties, vatukin was silent for a while and said, "Comrade oshanina, I understand your situation. I'll transfer two tank brigades and a cavalry division to your command overnight. You need to deploy them to korostwev as soon as possible. In any case, you need to completely cut off the way of the German army's escape to the West. You must never let them join the garrison of Zhitomir. Do you understand? "

"I see, comrade commander." Although vatukin only sent me two tank brigades and a chicken like cavalry division, it was better than nothing. It could increase the strength of korostwev's garrison to some extent. So I quickly replied, "I will report to you that the Germans will never escape to Zhitomir in an organized way."

Vatukin heard what I said, but he didn't criticize me. Instead, he said briefly, "two tank brigade commanders and cavalry division commanders can arrive at your headquarters in an hour at most. Then you can give them orders directly."

After I put down the phone, I couldn't wait to ask bzikov, "chief of staff, which unit of our group army has a relatively complete organizational system?"

Bezikov replied without thinking: "Comrade commander, at present, the organizational system of the 225th regiment of the 52nd division of the guards is the most complete. I don't know what you want to do with this? "

"The name of the head of the guard regiment is yershov, right?" With these words, I observed the expression of bezikov's face. Seeing that he nodded in affirmation, I then said, "call him to the headquarters immediately. I have important tasks to give him to complete."

Ten minutes later, commander yershov, who was fully armed, appeared in front of me. He straightened his waist and said to me with his eyes shining: "Comrade commander, commander of the 225th regiment of the guards, commander yershov, has been ordered to come. I'm waiting for your order, please give me instructions!"

"Comrade commander, I have a glorious and arduous task to hand over to your regiment." From yelshov's expression, I can see that he is eager to fight, but the task I want to give him is different from what he expected, so I hesitated and asked, "are you confident to complete it?"

"Comrade commander," yershov said confidently, "you can rest assured that as long as it is your task, I will spare no effort to complete it."

"Commander, please come here." I guided him to the map on the wall, pointed to it and said to him, "the task I gave you is to lay a shechai road from korson to korostev in two days..."

Yeershoff was still smiling. When he heard my order, his smile froze on his face. After I finished speaking, he immediately said with a sad face: "Comrade commander, our regiment has not been able to win a battle during this period of time, and the commanders and fighters are in a mood. Now let them become engineers and pave the way, I'm afraid..."

"What are you afraid of?" Kirilov took over and said, "Comrade commander once said," a revolutionary soldier is a brick. Where you need it, you can move it. " Since the superior has given you the task of paving the way, you should obey unconditionally. "

Kirilov's crackling training left yershov speechless. When kirilov finished speaking, I saw yershov look dejected, and comforted him and said, "Comrade commander, go back and tell the soldiers that the war is endless. It doesn't mean that you have no chance to fight in the future when you are engineering soldiers now. When you get to korostwev, you will stay there for the time being under the command of general tavartkiraze and take part in the next battle. "

Hearing that they could take part in the next battle, yershov's head was raised again. Seeing that he was in a state of high morale again, I went on to say, "the reason why I asked you to pave this firewood road is to let our tank brigade and cavalry division go to korostwev. And along the way, you may encounter with the German army. The responsibility is not light

"Comrade commander, you can rest assured." Yershov made clear his task and assured me, "our regiment will complete the road paving task within two days." After that, he asked, "may I go back to the army?"

I waved to him and said, "Comrade commander, go back and let the commanders and fighters prepare more axes and ropes, which can be used when paving the road."

"Yes Yelshov agreed loudly, then turned and walked out of the headquarters.

More than an hour later, the tank brigade commander and cavalry division commander sent by vatugin arrived. From the three people's clothes, I can tell the identity of each other: two commanders in black tank uniform must be the tank brigade commander; The other major general in army uniform was the cavalry division commander.

After shaking hands with the three men one by one, I asked with concern, "I don't know when the troops of the commanders will arrive at dacherkaser?"

The first one who answered my question was the cavalry division commander. He frowned and said, "Comrade commander, as you know, our cavalry speed will be greatly affected because of the continuous heavy rain and the road has been damaged by the rain. I think we can arrive at noon today at the earliest."

I know what he said is true. After nodding slightly, I turned to the other two tank commanders: "two commanders, I don't know when your troops will arrive?"

After the two commanders looked at each other, a burly commander stepped forward and reported to me, "Comrade commander, under the current road conditions, our tanks can't even move faster than the infantry. I think the tank brigade will be able to cross the Dnieper River and get here as soon as tomorrow evening."

Although all three of them are bare commanders without troops, I still called them to the map, pointed to it with a stick and said to them, "three commanders, your tank brigade and cavalry division, will start from korson, along the shuchai road we have paved, and go to korostev to strengthen the troops there."

As soon as I finished, the cavalry division commander first asked on behalf of everyone, "Comrade commander, I don't know when we will start?"

"The sooner the better, of course." I pointed Kiev's position with the explanation stick and continued: "our army's attack on Kiev is about to start in full swing. In the face of our strong offensive, the enemy will be defeated in a very short time. At that time, they will rush down the road to Zhitomir, join the defenders there and build a new line of defense to confront our army. And your task is to cooperate with korostwev's defenders and resolutely block the Germans so that they never have a chance to reach Zhitomir. "

"I understand." The cavalry division commander said decisively, "when my Cavalry Division arrives, I will send my troops to korostwev day and night to strengthen the defense there."

"Don't be in such a hurry, Comrade General." I thought that even if the main force of the front army launched an attack from the north, it would not be possible to capture Kiev in a day or two, so I said to the cavalry division commander in a relaxed tone: "the road to korostwev is muddy. If we force the army, it will cause too much damage to the horses. If you don't have horses, can you still be called cavalry? As long as you can get to korostev in two days

"What about our tanks?" Asked the burly lieutenant“ When your tanks arrive, follow this road to korostev. " I looked at the two captains and said, "the time I give you is also two days. You must arrive at korostev within the specified time. Can you do it? "“ No problem, comrade commander. " The lieutenant commander replied, "as long as the road is laid, our tank brigade will certainly arrive in korostev on time." After daybreak, the German army, which was supposed to attack the smira defense zone every day, suddenly had no movement. Sivakov, who was commanding the battle at the front, immediately sent someone to check it. After two hours of reconnaissance, he reported to me a piece of expected information: "Comrade commander, the scout reported that the German army had given up their occupied position and was moving slowly in the direction of Alexandria and kilovgrad." After listening to this, I turned to ask the tired looking chisgakov next to me, "Comrade deputy commander, what do you think?" Chisgakov thought about it, and then replied: "Comrade commander, I guess it may be like this: the reason why the Germans rushed towards cherkaser regardless of everything a while ago was that they were ready to attack the troops assembled in the south of Kiev, cut off their back roads, destroy them or drive them back to the other side of the Dnieper River." I nodded and said with approval, "Comrade deputy commander, what you said is reasonable. Please go on."“ I think the reason why the German army chose to retreat is that it has something to do with the attack on Kiev from the North today. The Germans may have known that the main force of our army is the one attacking from the north, so they adjusted their strategy in time. " "Now they're going back to Alexandria to prevent general konev from making a comeback," he said, pointing with his hand on the map on the table“ Now that the enemy has retreated, we also need to adjust our deployment. " I pointed to the map and said to bzikov, "order the 52nd, 67th and 375TH guards divisions to continue to take charge of the defense southeast of cherkaser. And the 89th and 90th divisions of the close guard will seize the time to rest and get ready to move to korostev