"Report to comrade comrade brigade commander," Berene's calm voice came from his headphones: "In the bombing that just ended, only a dozen of us were injured, but the injuries were not serious and would not affect their actions. As for the tanks, there was no loss."
When he learned that the tanks that were singing the protagonist when he broke through were intact, Sokov's huge rock hanging in his heart landed again and said to the sender: "Very good! Very good! Very good!"
After the call, Sokov smiled and said to Yakov: "Yakov, you are right. In this bombing, except for more than a dozen soldiers who were slightly injured, the tanks were intact and would not affect our breakout operations tonight."
When Sokov heard that he broke through, Yakov frowned slightly and opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he still didn't say it.
But Sokov noticed his strangeness and asked curiously: "Yakov, do you have something to say to me? With your friendship, what else can you say?"
"Misha, you did not report the breakout to Cuikov, because you were worried about leaking the news, I understand this." Yakov said hesitantly: "But you plan to break out in the direction where Rokosovsky's troops are located, why don't you notify them?"
In fact, whether to inform Rokosovsky of the breakthrough was to inform Rokosovsky of the matter, Sokov also thought about it for a long time, and finally felt that he would break through quietly and not shoot. At this moment, he heard Yakov ask about this, and explained to him: "Yakov, the reason why I did not inform General Rokosovsky was that once they learned about our breakthrough plan, they would definitely send people to pick us up. In this way, it would be possible for the enemy to notice our intentions. Once they strengthened their defense in these directions, even if there were friendly forces to support us, it would be not easy for us to successfully break through."
After listening to Sokov's explanation, Yakov nodded thoughtfully and said, "Misha, you make sense. If General Rokosovsky is notified in advance, he will definitely send troops to meet us with his personality. In this way, the enemy can detect the abnormality from their mobilization and strengthen defense in the corresponding direction, making our breakthrough more difficult."
When Yakov said this, he paused for a moment, and then continued, "But without notice, after we break through the German defense, where should we go to find General Rokosovsky's troops?"
"After we break through the enemy's defense line and jump out of the encirclement, we march all the way north." Sokov said confidently: "As long as we walk north, we will definitely meet our own people." Speaking of this, he couldn't help but sigh, "I just don't know how many commanders and fighters can jump out of the German encirclement with us."
"Misha!" Yakov reached out and patted Sokov's shoulder twice, "War, someone will definitely die. Even if you and me can safely break out of the enemy's encirclement, it is an unknown." When he said this, his eyes suddenly stopped in one direction, and he said in surprise, "Misha, which unit is coming towards us?"
"Where?" Sokov looked in the direction of Yakov's finger, and indeed saw a group of commanders and fighters in the south, bent down to run towards his position in a dispersed formation. He couldn't help but mutter in his heart: "The first battalion and the guard battalion were all staying on the position honestly and did not move; while Colonel Gurdiev's troops were fighting against the Germans in the southeast, and the direction was not right."
Before Sokov gave the order, Lieutenant Samoilov, the third platoon leader who was staying at the foot of the hill, came up with two soldiers. Looking at Samoilov's back, Yakov said to Sokov with emotion: "Misha, your guard platoon leader is good. Although he is rarely by your side, he can quietly block those who try to be unfavorable to you."
Regarding Yakov's evaluation of Samoilov, Sokov nodded slightly and said, "Yakov, you may not know yet. Lieutenant Samoilov used to be from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. For him, being responsible for security is a piece of cake."
After Samoilov met the group of people, he communicated with the officer who was leading the army. Then, Sokov saw Samoilov settle the group of soldiers in a nearby trench and only brought the officer to him.
Samoilov brought the officer to Sokov and straightened his body and reported: "Comrade Brigade Commander, this is Captain Gersant, the deputy battalion commander of the Third Battalion of the 120th Regiment of the Guards."
"Hello, Lieutenant Colonel Sokov." Gesant obviously knew Sokov. Before he could introduce him, he called out Sokov's name directly, "I am Captain Gesant, deputy commander of the Third Battalion of the 120th Regiment of the Guards."
"Hello, comrade Captain." Sokov reached out and shook the other party, and asked curiously: "I want to ask, where did you come from?"
"Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, this is the case." Gersant explained to Sokov: "Yesterday, the German army launched fierce attacks on our defensive positions. After asking the division commander for instructions, the battalion commander decided to give up the position and retreat. So we left a few engineers responsible for detonating the explosives buried on the positions, while the rest of the troops broke through to the south."
Hearing Gersant say this, Sokov can't help but remember the mushroom cloud I saw yesterday. He thought that the troops who were standing on the position had all died except those commanders and soldiers who defected to Gurdiev. Unexpectedly, a bunch of survivors have emerged now. He asked again: "Captain, since you have chosen to break south, why are you here again?"
Gersant sighed and said, "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, you don't know that the retreat to the south has been completely blocked by the Germans. The several charges we launched were all repelled by the Germans. The entire battalion lost two-thirds of its troops, and even the battalion commander was unfortunately shot and died."
"Comrade Captain, how many people do you have?" Sokov asked briefly.
"There are 57 people." Gersant quickly replied, "All of them are soldiers with rich combat experience."
"How are your equipment?" Sokov continued.
Gersant smiled bitterly and replied: "We are equipped with rifles, without machine guns and submachine guns, and there are very few bullets. On average, only five or six bullets per gun."
"What, each gun has only five or six bullets?" Sokov was stunned by the answer: he immediately realized how wise Gersant was to lead his troops north and join him. Otherwise, it would be only a matter of time before the weapons and ammunition they possessed were eliminated by the Germans.
"That's right," Gesant nodded and replied affirmatively: "We consumed a lot of ammunition in the battle and failed to receive timely replenishment, and the result was what we are today."
Considering that his troops were seriously insufficient, Sokov had increased his strength to a certain extent with the addition of Gesant and others. However, in order to allow this surviving small army to play a role in the breakout battle, they must first replenish their weapons and ammunition.
He said to Gersant, "Captain, your equipment is too bad, so you can't fight like this. Let's do this, I'll ask someone to add a batch of ammunition to you, and give you two turntable machine guns..."
Gersant did not expect Sokov to be so generous. He promised so much to himself as soon as he met. He couldn't help but express his joy and said to Sokov: "Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, with these weapons and ammunition, you can see how we perform. As long as we have one person alive, we will never let the enemy rush into our position."
"Captain, there are opportunities to fight after the defense war." Sokov smiled and said to Gersant: "The first thing we need to consider now is the issue of breaking through."
"Break through, in which direction to break through?" Gersant's face turned pale when he heard Sokov mention breaking through: "Lieutenant Colonel, please be honest, it is definitely impossible to break through to the south. The enemy is gathering heavy troops there. Unless you can get the support of artillery and tanks, you can break through the enemy's defense and return to our own people."
"As for which direction we break through, you will know after it gets dark." Although Sokov had accepted Gesant and others, he still kept the necessary vigilance in his heart for this small army that suddenly appeared. Therefore, even if he supplemented them with weapons and ammunition, he did not tell the other party about his breakthrough direction. He called Samoilov and said, "Comrade Lieutenant, take Captain Gesant and his troops to get weapons and ammunition."
After Samoilov took Gersant away, Yakov couldn't help but sigh: "It's a miracle that so many people survived such a large-scale explosion yesterday."
Sokov did not agree with Yakov's statement: "Yakov, you can't say that. Maybe when the explosives on the hidden positions of the engineers were far away from the explosion area, so that they could survive."
"This army is a bit strange." Yakov seemed not optimistic about Gersant and others, so he specifically reminded Sokov: "There are not some commanders and soldiers who have retreated from the fourth line of defense in Colonel Gurdiev. You might as well let them come and identify them to see if these people are their comrades."
"Yakov, do you mean, there is something wrong with this group of people?" Sokov asked unexpectedly when he heard Yakov say this: "You don't think they were sent by the Germans, do you?"
"The Germans are very cunning," Yakov sneered, saying, "I heard that they recruited many people from our prisoners of war and formed several Eastern battalions to fight our army. For the sake of safety, let Colonel Gurdiev send someone to verify."
Thanks to book friends: l599xl, fugudoku for his reward and support!
Chapter completed!