Burning Moscow

Chapter 1700 Red flag on top of the fortress

I was dizzy and sat on the ground for a long time, only to find that the enemy’s mortars had stopped shelling, and replaced by the roar of our army’s heavy artillery. It is estimated that the soldiers of the artillery company discovered that we were shelled by the enemy. Binguo breaks the gun and suppresses it, otherwise it is still unknown whether Cui Kefu and I will survive.

I see Cui Koff holding his adjutant, who is his brother Fyodor, and chanting: “Dead, my Fyodor is dead, dead…” and so on. I leaned forward, reached out and touched his arteries, and immediately noticed the pulse beating; then I stretched my fingers to his nose, vaguely feeling that he was still breathing. After confirming that Fyodor was not dead, I yelled at Cui Kefu who was in a gaffe: “General Cui Kefu, he is not dead yet, your brother is not dead yet.”

Before Cui Kefu could react, a group of soldiers bent over and rushed forward. They were in groups of three or five, carrying me and Cui Kefu, the wounded Fyodor and the sacrificed guard platoon leader, and they drew their legs toward you. Run in a safe place.

After we came to the safe area, Cui Kefu finally recovered from the grief. He grabbed the military doctor who was running over with the suitcase and shouted with his throat: “Save him, you must save him, understand? ? If you can’t save him, I will let you go to his funeral.” As he said, his hand stretched to his waist instinctively, trying to draw a gun.

Seeing this situation, I rushed over, hugged him from behind, and shouted loudly: “General Cui Kefu, calm down, calm down, your brother is not dead, but injured. Hurry up and let the military doctor treat him. Otherwise it will be too late!”

Hearing my shout, Cui Kefu immediately released his grip on the clothes of the army doctor, and waited obediently for him to treat his brother. And I looked around nervously, fearing that I would become a German shelling area again, but seeing buildings all around, the enemy’s artillery in the fortress couldn’t see us at all, and I felt a little at ease.

If it hadn’t been for seeing Fyodor’s life and death, and making Cui Kefu’s mind upset, I would urge him to return to the group army headquarters as soon as possible. Cannonballs are not long-eyed. Whether you are a general or an ordinary soldier, as long as one falls by your side and explodes, it is enough to send us all to see Marx.

Fortunately just now, the platoon leader and Fyodor threw on us and blocked the shrapnel for us. Otherwise, it’s really hard to say what’s the situation between me and Cui Koff.

I turned to look at the platoon leader of the guard who had saved my life, and saw the young ensign lying motionless on the stretcher with a face covered in blood. When a female hygienist was about to cover her head with a white cloth covering her body, I hurriedly stopped her. With everyone’s surprised eyes, I walked over, asked the hygienist for cotton and medical alcohol, and carefully wiped the blood from the face of the ensign.

After all this was done, I gently covered the ensign’s face with a white cloth, then waved to the stretcher who was waiting, and whispered, “Carry him away.”

After watching the stretcher lift the body of the guard platoon leader, I slowly stood up, but unexpectedly found that Cui Kefu didn’t know when he was standing behind me. I hurriedly asked: “General Cuikov, how is the situation with Fyodor?”

“There were a few shrapnel on the back, the military doctor said it was OK.” After Cui Kefu finished saying these few words, he raised his hand and wiped his face, then returned to his usual expression, and said to me: “Li Da, let’s go back to the headquarters of the group army and discuss how to take down this fortress.”

Returning to the headquarters, Trikov immediately ordered Vladimirov to call in the commanders of the two participating divisions and said that an emergency military meeting would be held. Seeing Cui Kefu’s murderous look, Military Commissioner Pronin asked me in a low voice: “Lida, what happened to you when you went out, how do I feel that the commander’s condition today is a bit wrong?”

“We were bombarded by the Germans when we were inspecting the effects of the bombing near the fortress.” I quickly glanced at Cuikov who was giving orders, and whispered to Pronin: “General Cuikov’s younger brother Feodor, was in the shelling for cover. We are unfortunately injured.”

“It turned out to be like this. No wonder the commander’s expression seemed to want to kill someone.” Pronin said with a look of enlightenment: “Seeing the meeting later, he will make some special rules.”

“Special rules?” I was taken aback when I heard Pronin said, and then asked: “Comrade Military Commissioner, do you know what the rules are?”

“You’ll know when the meeting comes later.” When Pronin was about to continue speaking, the high-frequency phone on the table rang. Those who can make high-frequency calls here, except for the front army headquarters, which is Moscow, so I didn’t care to listen to Pronin’s words, so I grabbed the microphone and put it in my ear and quickly said: “I’m Oshanina, you where is it?”

“I’m Zhukov!” Zhukov’s low voice came from the receiver: “I heard that you and Cuikov were shelled by the German army when they went to inspect the fortress? How are you all right?”

When I heard Zhukov’s question, I couldn’t help but stunned. I said his news was pretty fast. Even the people in Cuikov’s command didn’t know about our shelling. He actually knew about it. Obviously he had something else. News channel. He quickly replied: “Yes, Comrade Marshal, just now General Cuikov and I were shelled by the Germans while inspecting the front. General Cuikov and I were fine. However, General Cuikov’s brother Fyodor was injured in the shelling, the guard The platoon leader unfortunately sacrificed heroically in order to cover us.”

After listening to my report, Zhukov breathed a sigh of relief, and then said, “It’s fine, I’m relieved. But I want to remind you and Cui Kefu once again that both of you are commanders in important positions. Like an ordinary company commander or battalion commander, he always runs to the forefront. Once something happens, all the consequences will be very serious.”

“Understood, Comrade Marshal.” When I remembered what had just happened, I felt scared. If it weren’t for Fyodor and the guard platoon leader, they pounced on me and Cui Kefu, blocking the shrapnel for us, and probably lying down. The person on the stretcher whose face is covered by a white cloth will be one of us.

Cui Kefu waited for me to put down the phone and asked carefully, “Marshal Zhukov knew about our shelling?” Seeing me nodding to express his affirmation, he couldn’t help frowning and said dissatisfiedly, “Damn, whose mouth is so fast? , Actually reported this to a higher level.”

I quickly raised my hand to stop him, and said to him: “General Cuikov, I guess Marshal Zhukov has a special source of intelligence, so I can know in the first place that we were shelled by the Germans. The reason why I believe it will not be the group army. The insiders made a small report because most people still don’t know about it.”

As soon as I finished speaking, Deputy Commander Dukhanov asked in surprise: “What, Comrade Commander, you were shelled by the German army just now at the fortress. How is the situation? There are no injuries, right?”

Cui Kefu glanced at him, and said angrily: “If we are injured, can we still stand in front of you and talk to you?” He might think of his unsure brother. After saying this, he looked again. Becoming bleak: “But Fyodor was unfortunately injured in order to cover me.”

“What, Fyodor was injured?” After hearing this hour, several other people in the headquarters, like Pronin’s expression when he heard the news, opened their eyes in surprise. After a while, Vladimirov asked cautiously: “I don’t know how his injuries are?”

“He has been sent to the health camp. As for the result, he will not know until the operation is completed.” Cui Kefu said with a bit of frustration: “The platoon leader of the guard who went to the fort with us, in order to cover us, has already been shelled. Sacrificed. I have asked him to bring his body back, Chief of Staff, you will arrange for someone to find a coffin later, find a suitable place, and bury him well. After all, he saved our lives. ”

As soon as the two commanders, Kulakin and Khtagurov arrived, Trikov immediately announced a meeting. After the meeting started, I finally understood what the special regulations Pronin said? Cui Koff told the two division commanders that as long as they encountered resistance during the offensive, they could do everything possible to destroy the German resistance by bombardment and explosives. Since the Germans wanted to resist to the end, then send them to see God.

As soon as the meeting was over, Cui Kefu called the health camp and asked about Fyodor’s injury. After hearing that the operation was over, the shrapnel from his body had been taken out, and his life was out of danger, Cui Kefu’s hanging heart was put back in his stomach.

The battle to attack the fortress officially started in the afternoon of the next day. Those enemies who fled to the field fortifications when the fortress was bombed, never dreamed that our army would carry out violent shelling on the fortifications where they were hiding just after the air strikes, and the German officers and soldiers without any preparation suffered a great deal. Loss.

Cuikov did not stay in the headquarters waiting for the battle report from the front, but went with me to the division headquarters of the 82nd Guards Division. In the Observatory of General Hertagurov, he observed everything that happened on the battlefield through a telescope. .

I saw a small force rushing towards the fortress wall braving the enemy’s artillery fire. The enemy on the fence was condescendingly shooting with machine guns, knocking down a few unlucky soldiers to the ground. However, their luck was obviously good, and they soon rushed to the bottom of the wall and entered the dead corner of the German machine gun fire.

Seeing that the machine gun could not hit the rushing commanders of our army, the enemy threw the grenade out of the shooting hole in the wall, trying to kill all our soldiers hiding below.

Just as Trikov was ordering Hertagurov to let the direct-pointing artillery bombard the shooting hole where the grenade was thrown, I found that the soldiers hiding in the corner did not wait to be killed, but in the smoke of the explosion, they moved along the wall toward the other While running. I quickly turned the camera to the front of them and found a wide gap on the wall more than 20 meters away. I didn’t know if it was bombed or bombed by heavy artillery. It looked like a good one anyway Breakthrough.

The gap in the wall was three to four meters high from the ground, and the soldiers who rushed under the gap immediately set up a human ladder. With the help of their comrades in arms, one soldier after another climbed up. They stood at the gap, fired inward with their guns, and then rushed in one after another.

I quickly patted the German army on the shoulder of Cuikov, pointing to the place where the soldiers rushed in, and shouting at him: “General Cuikov, hurry up and see, our soldiers rushed up, they have rushed into the fortress through the gap. .”

When Cui Kefu looked in the direction of my fingers, a bright red flag had already risen in the gap. When Cuikov saw this situation, he was immediately excited. He immediately told Hertagurov: “See? Our soldiers have rushed into the gap, and immediately ordered the troops to adjust the attack direction and rush into the fortress from there!”

The small units that rushed past all carried wooden ladders, so there was no need to take up human ladders. The commanders and fighters all climbed into the gap in the fortress wall along the wooden ladders leaning against the wall, rushed into the courtyard and the Germans started a fierce battle. fighting.

As more and more troops entered the fortress through the gap, I couldn’t help holding my breath and staring nervously at the top of the triangular fort near the gap to see if a red flag rose. According to the tradition of the Soviet army, as long as the red flag can be placed on the top of the building, even if the rest of the place is still fighting for every inch of land, it means that we have occupied the fortress.

But until I almost suffocated I didn’t see the red flag rising on the top of the fortress. I only heard Trikov asking Hertagurov: “Comrade Commander, which unit was the first to rush into the fortress wall, I want to award them honors?”

Hetagurov turned his head and whispered a few words to a staff officer beside him, then replied: “Report to Comrade Commander, I have already figured out that it is the comrade of the 5th company in the 271st regiment of the Guards. The first to enter the gap is Lieutenant Mikhail Chepanov, platoon leader.”

“Look, red flag!” Just then, a staff officer shouted loudly: “Our red flag has been raised on the top of the fortress.”

“Good job, this second lieutenant is good!” Seeing the red flag flying on the top of the fortress, Cui Kefu said with a big smile: “When the battle is over, he will be promoted to captain and he will be the company commander at the same time.”

Unfortunately, when we captured the fortress and looked for the platoon leader who rushed into the fortress first, we found his remains beside the red flag on the top of the fortress. He was sitting on the ground with his back leaning against the wall, his head hung on his chest, and the red flag he held in his hand was waving in the wind.

Trikov took off his hat and expressed his silent condolences to the hero’s second lieutenant, and then ordered Hertagurov who was following: “Comrade commander, immediately sort out his deeds. I will apply to my superiors and grant him the’Hero of the Soviet Union’. Title!”