The enemy in the building found our temporary artillery position. Without saying a word, a machine gun on the second floor immediately raised its muzzle and fired at us. A long string of bullets came and landed in front of us, splashing mud.


    The commander of the artillery company roared, "hide now." With his shouts, the artillery and ordinary soldiers who had surrounded the cannons scattered one after another. I also crouched down and hid behind the left artillery baffle with the artillery company commander.


    Seeing that the shooting didn''t work, the German army adjusted its angle and continued to shoot. This time, the firing was much more accurate than just now. The bullet hit the baffle of the gun and one of the Gunners couldn''t dodge. Unfortunately, he was hit by the bullet. His body turned a circle in the same place, then raised his hands, head back, trying to maintain the balance of the body, but he failed to enter the wish, after a staggering forward, he fell on the side of the gun body, a large amount of blood flowing down the gun body to the ground.


    The artillery company commander immediately told the soldiers around him: "come on, take him away!"


    With the cry of the company commander, two artillery soldiers immediately bent over and ran to the dead gunner to remove him from the gun. Then one raised his hand and the other raised his foot and carried the body to the corner of the road to lower it.


    The company commander turned to look at the body of his subordinate, turned his head and calmly issued a new order: "loading shells, ready to continue shooting."


    The effect of this round of shelling was not good. Although the two shells hit the building and made two big holes in the wall, they did not destroy the enemy''s firepower points. The German soldier who put the machine gun on the window and shot at us crazily, when the shell exploded, he was so scared that the whole person shrank behind the window and temporarily stopped shooting at us. When he saw that the shell missed his room, he stood up again and continued to fire at us.


    When the company commander saw that he had not hit the target, he yelled at his subordinates: "how come, why did two shells not hit the target? Hurry to load and kill the enemy''s firepower, or our infantry will die."


    In fact, if he didn''t say it, I could see clearly that the fire from the enemy''s upstairs blocked the attack path of our soldiers. Just now, although the soldiers launched another attack when the enemy''s firepower weakened, they were forced back by the fierce firepower of the enemy before they rushed into the building, leaving behind a lot of corpses and the wounded wriggling and groaning. Seeing this scene, I can''t help frowning slightly. At such a distance of tens of meters, the Germans formed a death line with machine guns, submachine guns, rifles and grenades, and our soldiers couldn''t make it.


    After the order of the artillery company commander was issued, the third round of firing was delayed. I was just about to ask what was going on. I heard the old gunner next to me say, "comrade company commander, we have run out of shells."


    All the shells? When I heard the Gunners say this, I was stunned. My heart said that when you entered the residential area, you fired four shells with full calculation. Did you finish all the shells?


    Just want to ask the truth, the artillery company commander has preempted his subordinates: "hell, we came in with ten boxes of shells, how can we finish it?"


    The old gunner replied, "comrade company commander, when we were carrying the cannon over the obstacle just now, our ammunition box was there and we forgot to bring it."


    "What are you doing in a daze? Why don''t you take someone to carry the shell box here?" The company commander angrily scolded: "without shells, our cannon is just a pile of scrap iron, so we can only nest here and let the Germans hit us as targets."


    The old gunner promised to greet a young soldier squatting beside him: "Hey, you come with me."


    Unexpectedly, the young soldier pouted pitifully, kneaded his knees and said wrongly: "comrade company commander, although I also want to move the shell box. But look at my leg. When I was carrying the cannon just now, I was hit by the baffle. Now it''s so painful that I can hardly walk. " After that, he called out again: "ouch, my leg really hurts. Comrade company commander, can you send someone else?"


    "Send someone else?" The company commander''s face was livid. With these words, he pulled out his pistol and pointed it at the young soldier''s forehead.


    Terrified, the young soldier quickly reached for the commander''s hand and begged: "Comrade commander, don''t you see that my leg is really injured. Don''t you have a little compassion? "


    I squatted beside, silent, expressionless looking at the performance of young soldiers. After glancing at me, the company commander said coldly, "compassion is not allowed on the battlefield. I''ll give you two choices, either to get the ammunition box or to die at my gun. There''s no third choice. "


    The young soldier looked at the company commander indignantly and said, "Alas! You''re all a bunch of animals. You don''t have any compassion. Ouch, my leg... "When he moved, he wanted to stand up, but he was held by the old gunner, reminding him:" do you want to stand up and be a German target? Climb over. " With that, the old gunner was lying on the ground, taking the lead and crawling to the direction we came from. The timid soldier sighed and climbed forward obediently.


    There is a T-junction ahead. The building occupied by the Germans is just facing our way forward. If we don''t destroy the enemy''s firepower points and occupy the building, we can''t develop to the two wings. Due to the irregular arrangement of buildings in the residential area, if the building is not in the dead corner of our army''s tank fire, otherwise we don''t have to push the cannons to such a close position to shoot. Just a few cannons from the tank can destroy all the fire points in the building.


    I looked at the troops in front of me who were suppressed by the fire. I roughly counted the number and found that there were only two hundred at most. If you know that Oleg''s commando team and shejerikov''s support team add up to 1500 people, you don''t know where the remaining thousands have gone?


    I looked at the German machine gunner who was shooting madly, and looked at the submachine gun in my hand. I felt that in such a long distance, I didn''t use the submachine gun to kill the enemy. If only I had a rifle. Thinking of rifles, I quickly looked left and right, and saw several soldiers lying on the left side of the wall. They were all infantry who came in with me. The other two were lying there motionless, blood seeped out from their bodies. It seemed that they had been hit by the enemy''s machine gun and had been sacrificed. I saw the rifle of one of the soldiers, which was only three or four meters away from me. So I put the submachine gun on the ground, took advantage of the gap between the enemy''s machine guns, rolled to the side of the rifle, grabbed the rifle and rolled back to the back of the artillery baffle.


    My action frightened the artillery company commander. He repeatedly reproached me and said, "Comrade commander, what are you doing? If anything happens to you, how can you fight this battle? "


    I opened the bolt to check, and saw that the bullets inside were full. I nodded gratefully for the concern of the artillery company commander, and then explained, "we must kill the enemy''s machine gunner, or our artillery will not be able to shoot." With that, I knelt down on one knee, lifted the gun, didn''t even aim at it, and fired at the approximate position. After that, I bent down and pulled the bolt to withdraw the cartridge case.


    The artillery company commander, who had been observing, said with regret: "Alas, it''s a pity that he missed the target. If only he were to the right."


    I quickly raised my body and fired another shot in that direction. After that, I quickly squatted down again.


    "Still missed." The artillery company commander didn''t even look at me. He felt that he was shooting. His face showed disdain, but he still kept at least respect for me: "Comrade commander, I think you''d better stop fighting. It''s too dangerous. I''d better wait for my soldiers to bring the shells and let''s blow them off with cannons. "


    I said to myself, "where was the gun just now?"


    "Comrade commander," without waiting for the company commander to speak, a gunner who was lying in front of me had preemptively answered, "the second shot was next to the gunner, almost hit his left hand, which made him jump. Even the shooting stopped for a moment."


    When I heard the gunner say that, I calculated the shooting angle in my heart. After taking a deep breath, I suddenly raised my body and fired the third shot. When I bent down again, I thought in my heart: after three things, if I can''t hit again, I won''t fight, so that I won''t be disgraced in front of these artillery. I''d better wait for the shells to come and blow them off with cannons.


    Unexpectedly, the gunner who was lying in front of me got up straight from the ground and said in an incredible tone, "my God, comrade commander, you are so powerful that you killed that machine gunner!"


    When I heard the gunner say that, I got up straight and looked forward. I saw that the German machine gunner was lying on the windowsill, and the machine gun that caused us casualties also fell downstairs.


    Seeing that I really killed the enemy''s machine gunner, the artillery company commander gave me a thumbs up and praised, "good shooting!"


    The old gunner and the timid young soldier ran back with a box of shells on their shoulders. Judging from the young soldier''s brisk pace, his leg was not hurt at all. He was reluctant to carry out the task just now, because he was greedy for life and afraid of death. He was afraid that he would be killed by German bullets after leaving the shield of the cannon.


    However, it is obviously not the time to consider who is afraid of death and who is brave. The priority now is to take down the building opposite, otherwise our team will not be able to move forward.


    Since there was no interference from the enemy''s machine gunners, the artillery were able to take aim leisurely, so the remaining firepower points were killed one by one by them like shooting targets.


    Originally, for the sake of safety, the artillery company commander wanted to order the soldiers to fire a few more guns. But when I saw the smoke coming out of the rooms whose walls had been blasted, our soldiers rushed out from the hidden buildings on both sides. When they rushed to the building, they patted the artillery company commander on the shoulder, waved their hands to him and said, "forget it, company commander, don''t let your soldiers waste ammunition any more. The rest of the fighting, let the infantry to solve it. Let''s move on. "


    When we moved forward again, I had the opportunity to count the casualties caused by the German machine gun just now. One artillery soldier was killed, five reserve soldiers were killed and eleven wounded. In a few minutes, we lost nearly two classes of troops.


    The sound of gunfire and explosion in the city became one. At the same time, I could hear the sound of broken window glass falling to the ground. I don''t know if any soldiers would be injured by the broken glass falling from the sky?


    The battle for the remaining buildings is far more brutal than I thought. Our commandos, the enemy in the buildings on both sides of the road, condescending to form an insurmountable fire net with intensive firepower, blocking the way forward for our commandos and support units.


    When the artillery company commander saw this scene, he was also very anxious. He pointed to the enemy''s fire points in front of him and said to me, "Comrade commander, you see, the enemy''s fire points are on both sides of the road. Our shooting angle is not good. Even if we fire, we can''t destroy the enemy''s fire points."


    The soldiers of the commando team rushed forward in groups of three or five, wave after wave, and were knocked down one after another by the bullets fired from the windows on both sides of the road. Looking at the dead bodies of our soldiers and many dying wounded people lying on the street, my heart suddenly tightened. My heart said that if only the mortar company were still here, at least they could produce smoke bombs to block the enemy''s sight and protect our soldiers from approaching these buildings.


    Just when I was very anxious, Gaidar arrived with the guard mortar company I was talking about. Seeing this new force suddenly appeared, I thought I was dreaming. I rubbed my eyes and found that it was the mortars who arrived. I hugged captain Gaidar excitedly and said with a look on my face, "Comrade captain, you''ve come in time."


    After gently pushing away the captain, I went to the mortar company commander, stabilized my emotion, and ordered him: "company commander, immediately fire smoke bombs to the road ahead, cover our army and launch a charge to the building."


    The company commander of the mortar company promised to set up the mortar under the rear headquarters. Gaidar came up to me and was about to speak when he suddenly pointed to a distance and said, "Sir, don''t you see that''s captain Oleg?"


    I looked in the direction of my fingers and saw Oleg coming out of a dilapidated building on the left. He was carrying a submachine gun, wearing a helmet and no military uniform. His bare upper body was covered with bandages, and there was blood under the bandages. Originally, I wanted to blame him for a few words, but when I saw that he was hurt like this, I swallowed his words again.


    After he raised his hand to salute me, he reported without expression: "Comrade division, except for the two buildings in front, the rest of the buildings in the residential area have been captured by our commando."


    "Where is captain chejerikov?" I only saw captain Oleg, who was in charge of the commandos, and captain chejerikov, who was in charge of the support unit. I haven''t seen him yet.


    "In the middle of the battle, an enemy armored car rushed out from the north. The captain guessed that the enemy might have gone to move reinforcements, so he led eight support units around to the north of the settlement to build fortifications. One was to prevent the German army from breaking through in this direction; The second is to prevent possible reinforcements from the enemy. "


    The smog bomb of mortar company exploded in the street, the buildings on both sides were soon covered by smog, and the fire points that were originally shooting also stopped shooting one after another. Seeing this situation, Oleg excitedly said to me, "Comrade division, it''s up to me next. I promise to take down these two buildings in half an hour."


    "Comrade captain, wait a minute." Seeing that he turned around and wanted to leave, I quickly stopped him, took his hand and told him: "pay attention to safety, promise me, you must come back alive."


    Oleg nodded his head, stepped back, raised his hand and gave me a solemn military salute. He solemnly assured me, "Comrade division, please rest assured that I will come back alive." With that, he ran to his men without looking back.


    "Comrade teacher! Sir, comrade A series of rapid shouts came from behind.


    I turned around and saw that operator number four was running towards me from a distance. I haven''t noticed him since we entered the residential area, and I don''t know where he is hiding.


    "What''s the matter?" I asked


    "Comrade teacher! Sir, comrade I don''t know if he didn''t hear my answer, or on purpose, or kept calling me.


    "What''s the matter?" I asked in a raised voice.


    "Sir, comrade... Captain xiejerikov," the fourth operator was out of breath. He was so tired that he couldn''t even listen. "Xiejerikov said that there was an important enemy situation to report to you!"


    I took the operator to a safe place, put on my headphones, and yelled at the transmitter, "Hello, is that captain chejerikov? I''m commander. Lt. o''shanina


    "Comrade division, I''m captain chejerikov."


    "What''s the matter?"


    "Enemy reinforcements, reinforcements are coming!"


    "What? The enemy''s reinforcements? " I was startled by what he said. The enemy came too fast. In less than an hour, their reinforcements arrived“ What kind of forces is the enemy? "


    "I saw two tanks, an armored car, and about a company of infantry."


    Captain shejerikov''s troops had no anti tank weapons and could not resist the enemy''s charge. I pondered for a moment and then asked, "how long will it take to get to your defensive position?"


    "Ten minutes at most, no more."


    After listening to the report of Xie jerikov, I think the matter is serious. Before the settlement is completely captured here, the enemy''s reinforcements will arrive. If the enemy''s tanks rush into the settlement along this road, our troops will be defeated. We must take measures to put an end to this bad situation.


    As soon as I turned my head, my eyes met Gaidar''s. He asked nervously, "Comrade division, is the enemy''s reinforcements here?"


    I nodded, did not speak, but has acquiesced that what he said is the truth.


    "What shall we do?"


    At this moment, I had figured out the measures to deal with it, and immediately gave him an order: "Comrade captain, you should immediately return to our starting point of attack, take the five tanks that came to reinforce us, go around the residential areas, and rush to the defense area of shejerikov to help them repel the attack of enemy reinforcements."


    Gaidar agreed, and then he called two soldiers and ran south along the road to the settlement.


    After Gaidar left, I called the commander of the cannon company to him and said, "comrade company commander, I order you to let the artillery fire immediately and fire at the fire points just exposed by the enemy. We should clear them all as soon as possible and cover our commandos to rush into the building."


    "Comrade commander," the commander of the cannon company said with some embarrassment, "if we fire, the bricks and stones that have been blasted will be injured by the commanders and fighters below."


    "I can''t take care of that much," I said involuntarily. "If you don''t wipe out these enemies in the buildings as soon as possible, I''m afraid you won''t be able to cry when the enemy reinforcements break through the defense line of captain chejerikov and attack the residential areas. Comrade company commander, stop talking about it and carry out the order. "


    The commander of the cannon company saw that I gave him the order to fire with unquestionable tone, so he had to grit his teeth and stamp his feet, and turned to convey the order to his subordinates. In fact, I don''t know what he was worried about, but if we don''t take the opportunity to solve the problem immediately, and wait for reinforcements to rush in and fight with our troops in the residential areas, the gap between the well-trained soldiers and the soldiers who have been training for two days will be wide. Let''s not say that they can take one as ten. Even if they beat two or three of us, our army will be defeated because of the loss of morale.


    The cannon company''s shelling began. They fired two rounds at the building on the left, then turned the muzzle and fired at the building on the right. As soon as the gunfire fell, the enemy''s firepower point revived, and they fired fiercely on the smoky streets by feeling. Because of the smoke, I can''t see the casualties of the soldiers in this charge. However, with such intensive firepower and the bricks and stones falling from the sky, the casualties are inevitable. However, the only advantage is that because the enemy can''t see our offensive troops clearly, the shooting accuracy is a little bit worse, and the chance of commandos rushing into buildings is much higher.


    After about ten minutes, the sound of shooting and explosion from the smoke became sparse, and I immediately asked the cannon company and mortar company to stop shooting.


    After all this, I listened. Most of the gunshots were from our army using bobosha submachine guns and mosinlagan rifles. It seems that our army has taken the initiative in the building.


    When the breeze dispersed the smoke and made the building show its true colors again, almost all the walls on the side of the street were destroyed by the gunfire, revealing the tattered furniture in the room. The commandos and the soldiers of the support unit who had cleared up the enemy were coming out of the building one after another.


    I went up with two soldiers and cried out, "Oleg, Captain Oleg, where are you?"


    With my shouts, I heard a familiar voice over my head: "Sir, comrade, I''m here."


    I looked up and saw Oleg sitting on the floor on the second floor, next to a soldier who was dressing the wound on his leg. Seeing that he was injured again, I asked with some worry, "Captain Oleg, are you not seriously injured?"


    Oleg waved his hand, grinned and said, "it doesn''t matter. He was scratched by a German bayonet. It''s just bleeding a little bit, but it doesn''t affect walking. "


    When I heard that he was ok, I put a little light on him, raised my head and said to him, "Comrade captain, hurry up and gather all the troops in the city, leaving the necessary left behind troops. The rest will follow me to the north of the residential area to reinforce captain chejerikov. The enemy''s reinforcements are attacking his position."


    "What, the enemy''s reinforcements are coming?" When Oleg heard the news, he was so surprised that he struggled to get up from the ground and immediately called out the soldiers who were still in the building to gather outside.


    Just as I was talking to Oleg, the commander of the cannon company ran up to me and asked for instructions: "Comrade commander, what''s the next combat mission of our company?"


    "Do you have armor piercing bullets?" Although we have five tanks on our side, if we can add another artillery company, it will not only reduce our defensive pressure, but also reduce unnecessary casualties. Why not.


    The company commander thought for a moment and answered me, "Comrade commander, we have armour piercing bullets, but the quantity is not much. There are only two cases."


    "Two cases will be enough." I was worried that he said no. since there are two boxes and two enemy tanks, it''s more than enough, "comrade company commander, take both guns and armor piercing bullets with you immediately. Let''s go to the front and teach the Germans a lesson."


    "Well, I''ll go right away." With that, the artillery company commander turned and ran away.


    At this time, the number four operator came to me again. Seeing him appear, I can''t help frowning. I don''t know what bad news he brought me this time. I didn''t wait for him to speak. I asked in advance, "Comrade telegraph operator, why are you alone? Where is No. 5 telegraph operator? It seems that I haven''t seen him since I entered the residential area. " The corner of the operator''s mouth twitched, and then whispered, "he died. Soon after entering the settlement, he was killed by German snipers. " Sniper, when I heard this word, I was in a cold sweat. Fortunately, I was not found by the sniper, otherwise I might have become the result of the sniper now. The operator handed over the earphone and the transmitter and said, "Comrade division commander, the chief of staff of the group army is on the line. He wants to talk to you." I took the earphone and put it on. As soon as I heard the voice of Colonel Raskin coming from it, I immediately took the initiative to report to him, "report to the chief of staff of the group army. I report to you that after fierce fighting, our division has successfully captured the residential areas."“ Great, comrade oshanina, great Raskin was overjoyed at the news, praised me repeatedly, and then asked, "is there any enemy escaping?"“ Comrade Colonel, "I replied with a serious look," during the fighting, an enemy armored vehicle rushed out from the north of the settlement and brought back the enemy reinforcements. "“ What, enemy reinforcements? " Hearing the news, Raskin''s voice became dignified. He specially asked, "I want to know, what kind of measures have you taken?"“ As soon as the enemy''s armored vehicle escaped from the residential area, it was discovered by a commander in chief, shijerikov. He immediately took eight small troops around to the north to build a defense line that could not only prevent the enemy from breaking through, but also prevent the enemy from reinforcement. I''m going to take people to that line of defense now and try to repel the enemy who came to reinforce us. "“ Well done. If you need support, please contact me. I''ll ask the artillery of the group army to provide you with artillery support. Now that the residential area has been taken down, we must firmly guard it until the receiving troops arrive. " When I came to shejerikov''s line of defense, I found that the trench they had temporarily dug was really shabby. The depth was just up to my knees. It was neither standing nor squatting in the trench. Although the captain came with more than 400 people, they were spread out in a trench hundreds of meters long, and each of them had to guard about one meter. The enemy''s reinforcements were standing hundreds of meters away, neither advancing nor retreating, as if they were waiting for something. After observing these indecisive Germans with a telescope for a while, I put down my telescope and asked the man next to me, "Comrade captain, what''s going on with the enemy''s reinforcements?" Shijerikov shook his head with a puzzled look on his face and said, "I don''t know. The enemy''s troops came at us in a fierce manner. Unexpectedly, when they reached their present position, they suddenly stopped advancing. I don''t know what they were waiting for. Do they still have reinforcements coming? " I raised my hand and looked at my watch. It was almost noon. I raised my head to shejerikov and said, "Comrade captain, as soon as our tank units arrive, we will immediately organize our troops to fight back, and we must defeat this German army." I don''t know what happened. Forty minutes have passed since I gave the order to Gaidar, but there is still no trace of our tank unit on the battlefield, and the cannons company has not entered the position. Just then the enemy troops began to move. After firing two guns at the same place, the two tanks sped towards our army, and the infantry formed a scattered formation and rushed up behind the tanks. Several tank shells hit accurately, and exploded in front and back of our trench. The air wave of the explosion pulled several soldiers who were not well concealed from the ground, threw them high into the air, and then fell down heavily. When I heard the dull sound of their landing, I knew that these soldiers were either dead or wounded. The tank stopped 100 meters from our position and began to bombard our trench with tank guns to cover the infantry behind. In the face of the fierce German soldiers, some of them were in a panic and started a fire desperately. Suddenly, the gunfire on the battlefield was like peas. Many bullets were fired, but few of them were waiting to hit the target. I could count the German soldiers who fell to the ground with one hand. Shejerikov saw this scene, quickly lifted up and yelled to both sides: "stop shooting, stop shooting. Don''t panic. Don''t panic, everyone. Wait for the enemy to get closer and fight again! "