The Soviet army planned to build three infantry defense lines outside the city, that is, three interconnected trenches.
The Soviet army had no intention of relying on trenches to resist. The existence of trenches was a means of delay, and it was also what soldiers must do in accordance with the "Infantry Code of Conduct".
Once a war breaks out, only a small number of troops will be deployed in the trenches. However, due to the relatively large number of captured German machine guns and ammunition, a small number of troops will be enough to build a relatively strong defensive force.
Generally speaking, only at night would the trenches become lively, and the soldiers who had finished their excavation work would sit down and chat about all kinds of things.
The bottom layer of the trench they dug was seeping with water. In such a bad situation, the soldiers were unwilling to jump in in a peaceful state. They were also very tired. Without talking about anything, they wrapped themselves in blankets and fell asleep on the ground.
At five o'clock in the morning on July 26, three trumpeters stood on the half-collapsed office building. Even though it was badly damaged, a broken wall was the highest point in the city of Lechica. The trumpeters blew the melodious morning sound.
Call, awaken the soldiers guarding this dilapidated city.
There were only four companies of officers and soldiers sent to guard the outside of the city, with a total strength of 700 people. Although the number was small, in terms of machine guns alone, there were 100 MG34s, and each machine gun was equipped with 2,000 rounds of ammunition.
There are also a small number of recoilless guns in the team. The gunners considered that the German army was very likely to dispatch tanks, and their artillery would at best stun the driver.
Fortunately, among the airdrop supplies from superiors, there was a batch of RPGs produced by the Kirov Factory. The caliber was only 60 mm, and they were equipped with explosive and armor-piercing projectiles. In terms of operation and firing, they were superior to those produced by the Guerrilla Republic.
The anti-tank role is four German anti-tank guns, which are posted on the outermost buildings of the city and wait.
"If we can have a Grozny-style battle, even if Lechitsa is lost, I will still be the winner."
In that plane, because the Russian army underestimated the enemy, they drove their armored troops directly into the city. As a result, they fell into endless street fighting. The Russian army was stunned for a while and suffered huge casualties. Yang Mingzhi did not believe that the German army in this plane would be so arrogant and direct.
When they rushed into the city, they should have known the powerful combat power of the Soviet army occupying Lechica, and they must have fired artillery first to suppress it.
After enduring the shelling, the troops outside the city withdrew into the city after a brief resistance and participated in street fighting.
When it comes to street fighting, the troops defending the city have received relevant training. They are real street fighting experts. Yang Mingzhi is not worried about Lavrenty and Roshakov at all. Their preparations for the battle must go smoothly.
On the 26th, the defenders continued to dig trenches. They dug as hard as they could without being blown to death, even though the more they dug, the easier it was for water to seep in. The soil here was soft and very suitable for digging trenches. Digging a large number of tunnels was not only beneficial to their own defense, but also
Once the defense line was broken, the German army had to go through these tunnels to objectively slow down the attack.
Yang Mingzhi's requirements for them were summarized in three points: dig deep pits, arrange bunkers in the city, and turn every street into a battlefield.
Lechica will be turned into a huge fortress, with up to 500 machine guns, 30 recoilless rifles, more than 50 anti-tank guns, and more than 1,000 self-produced and air-dropped RPG missiles deployed to defend the city.
Battle. These are the equipment of the two regiments defending the city, and their firepower density has reached an astonishing level.
While the defenders continued to actively build city defenses, the Soviet command headquarters in the swamps received news of Kovpak with great joy.
The telegram came at eight o'clock in the morning, and its contents were astonishing.
It turned out that when the Kovpak Corps learned that the German army would storm Lechica, the entire unit had to speed up.
The actual strength of the guerrilla army reached 6,100. The backbone of its members were regular army soldiers, and the rest were a large number of developed rural young people. The total strength of Kovpak's soldiers was actually nearly 8,000. He left the weak brigades behind.
Camp, personally led the elite troops to attack the swamp.
In fact, Kovpak was not willing to fight like a regular army. Now that the battle situation had turned into a real "Battle of Gomel", he had to lead his troops into the bloody battlefield.
He even realized that Lieutenant General Berekov was simply crazy. He used more than 10,000 troops to deal with the 40,000 elite German troops. It would make the battle better, and his new force was indeed of great significance.
Night was not suitable for marching, but due to the war situation, the entire army marched in the dark until one o'clock in the morning on the 26th. The soldiers were fast asleep on the spot, and only at four o'clock in the morning, they set off again.
The high-intensity march weakened the bodies of the soldiers, especially those carrying ammunition and mortars. There were even more than fifty people with severe ankle sprains and had to withdraw from the assault.
Just marching, one or two hundred people may not be able to participate in the battle. Kovpak does not mind this, he only cares about whether the troops can reach Homnich earlier.
His telegram greatly surprised Yang Mingzhi. Because of the overnight march, Kovpak claimed that he would arrive in Loyev around twelve o'clock.
"They are so fast! I don't even know if Anatole has built the ferry system." Such words, Yang Mingzhi's excitement was written on his face.
Many officers and staff members did not care about the ferry. As long as they arrived at the river, everything would be easy.
The command headquarters got in touch with Anatoly, who had just arrived in Loyev, and the defenders had indeed just begun to set up the ferry equipment.
After exchanging several telegrams, Yang Mingzhi learned that before twelve o'clock, the Soviet army would build at most three ferry lines.
One line can carry two tandem rafts at a time, which can carry a platoon of soldiers. The river there is more than 200 meters wide, and a round trip of fifteen minutes is not a problem. Loyev also retains more than a dozen crafts made by the paratrooper brigade.
A usable raft can also provide transportation capacity.
Yang Mingzhi thought about it, maybe the gunboat could be moved to Loev first. But think about it, the gunboat is still used as a barge, helping two independent regiments cross the river.
Yang Mingzhi got up at three o'clock in the morning for the meeting, and Kovpak's telegram forced the meeting to be extended.
As a military commander, sleeping is almost a luxury at critical moments. Yang Mingzhi really wanted to squint his eyes and take a nap. He cared about the battle situation and even more about the famous Kovpak. Curiosity overcame sleepiness. Is that man?
Is it really the vicissitudes of life on the stamp, or is it because of the change in time and space that the man is actually a person with delicate features?
"Comrades! I have decided that I will go to Loev in person and see Kovpak in person."
As soon as this statement came out, the headquarters was full of doubts. The reason for their doubts was simple. Yang Mingzhi was the overall person in charge of the campaign. He had great power and his own importance was self-evident. He really should not go to dangerous places.
However, it is also because he holds great power. Although everyone is opposed to it, Yang Mingzhi insists on going his own way and others can only agree.
"Don't worry, everyone, I must meet that Kovpak father in person. Since I want to command this powerful new force, I need to understand him and deduce what kind of tasks this force can perform." Yang Mingzhi's forced explanation
, I finally found a reason for my trip.
Guard platoon leader Abram was sitting in the cab of the jeep, and Yang Mingzhi was sitting in the co-pilot. There was no one sitting in the back seat, but there were two boxes of reloaded German-made bullets stacked up. Behind him were six more jeeps, each carrying two people.
, rear seat cargo.
As the saying goes, it is disrespectful to reciprocate. Kovpak rushed 200 kilometers for reinforcements. Their actions were to protect the country at the most serious level, and to support the guerrilla republic at the most minor level. They will accept a large number of troops in Homnich.
For material supplies, first provide a batch of ammunition as an "appetizer".
The jeep shook off the mud and headed north. On one side of the road in the form of a convoy, a large number of refugees were already lined up in an extremely long and narrow queue, heading towards the Blacksmith Village and the Black Earth Village.
Yang Mingzhi deliberately looked at these people. Most of them were women, and there were a large number of young girls among them. Belarusian girls are indeed beautiful. In the current era, what Yang Mingzhi admires more is their potential to become soldiers and medical staff.
"The youth camp can expand its army again. Although it is cruel, they must become soldiers. To defend the Soviet Union is to defend themselves."
The situation of the refugees is not bad. Most of them are in good spirits and they can still push their trolleys forward. Look at those trolleys. There are all kinds of things on them, all of which are their belongings.
Yang Mingzhi is now very neatly dressed, with all his medals hanging in the right places, shoulder straps and collar badges tied up, and a big-brimmed hat on his unique dark head.
The convoy passed by the crowd, and many people cast surprised glances. Most of them didn't know how senior Soviet officers should dress. Even if someone did, they immediately rubbed their eyes, looked at the jeep and talked about it in the distance.
Ichiban.
The queue of refugees was surprisingly long, and it was not until the convoy reached a fork in the road that it separated from the refugee group.
Following the winding dirt road built before the war, the mud-covered Jeep finally arrived in Loev.
It was already one o'clock in the afternoon, and Yang Mingzhi estimated on the road that Kovpak's army had already reached the river. His guess was right. When he arrived at Loev, which had become a black ruin, he looked across the river without reading glasses.
, you can see a large number of people sitting there, and you can hear exciting cheers.
"Haha, they are really here." Yang Mingzhi suppressed his inner excitement. He got out of the car and quickly found Anatole who was directing the ferry work.
As the saying goes, arriving early is worse than arriving wisely. Kovpak had just arrived at the riverside. When he entered the last forest, he looked around and saw the traces of the aftermath of the war. He and his troops had never seen such a scene before, and they couldn't help but tremble. fear.
The superior claimed that the 63rd Group Army severely damaged a Romanian division in the area east of Loev in May, and basically annihilated the German 634th Division in early this month. Kovpak was skeptical at first, but now, he completely believes that this is
The burial place of thousands of people.
The horror of the battlefield was so terrible that they found many exposed corpses along the way.
Judging from the clothes he was wearing, the deceased was a German soldier, but the body had turned into extremely disgusting carrion, exuding a stench that would suffocate the living.
The cruelty of the war was like a string of strings, beating on people's backs. The soldiers of Kovpak couldn't help but sweat for their future.
Kovpak did not know that Lieutenant General Berekov himself was on the other side of the river. He first reorganized his troops and then negotiated with a small number of Anatoly's men who had crossed the river in advance. The ferry work had just begun.
"Kofpak himself is on the other side?" Yang Mingzhi asked, "Can you get in touch with him?"
"I can." Anatole replied very readily, "We can even communicate in plain language."
"No need, send them a telegram."
At the same time, Kovpak, who was wearing a leather jacket, was completely attracted by the dark ruins of Loev. He didn't know what kind of weapons and what kind of fighting could blow up a city like this. He also noticed
, just by the river where our people were resting, there were actually many stones scattered.
These are not ordinary rubble, they are a mixture of burnt bricks and cement. They are fragments of urban buildings. How powerful is it that the building fragments can be blown up two to three hundred meters away?
Look at your own soldiers. There is no shortage of weapons for the soldiers. There are 6,000 guerrillas, equipped with 5,900 Mauser and Mosin-Nagant rifles.
There are only two Soviet-made DP machine guns, and ammunition is still very tight. There are five Czech-made ZB26s and twenty German-made MG34s, and they dare not waste money on ammunition.
In terms of heavy weapons, there are four 82mm mortars air-dropped by superiors. In terms of artillery shells, each gun has fifty rounds. There are also ten small German 50mm mortars captured, and the shells are not very abundant.
Look at such an army. If he had participated in the war here, not many of the 6,000-strong army would have survived.
How intense was the fighting in Gomel Oblast?
Just when Kovpack was doubting his life in front of the mother river of Ukraine, the correspondent handed a blockbuster message to Kovpack.
"Ah! General Berekov, you are on the other side of the river? Are you really a Chinese with yellow skin and black hair? What happened here in Loyev..." Kovpak muttered for a long time.
In short, all the troops have to cross the river. The current equipment of the troops is very poor, but the troops will get a supply of ammunition, food, and even important medical supplies in the city called Homnich, which was liberated by the Soviet army for half a year.
.
Gradually, the raft floated over along the rope. Kovpak was also curious about this strange rope, but he was eager to see Berekov himself, so he took his close comrade-in-arms, the political commissar of the first detachment Rudny
The husband, and the reconnaissance captain Versigola, were the first to board the raft.
They and the soldiers from the reconnaissance team were the first to board the raft for the first ferry. One hundred and thirty soldiers would cross the river.
Yang Mingzhi was holding a telescope. The visibility at this time was very good. He was observing the raft, and his perspective fell on a middle-aged man wearing a leather jacket.
"Anatoly, that Kovpak, is he the man in the leather coat?"
"Yes. People who can wear leather clothes are usually commanders."
"Really? It really looks like it. It really looks like what it looks like on the stamp."
Yang Mingzhi muttered a few words in Chinese out of excitement, but Anatole didn't understand what the commander was talking about, so he ordered his men to prepare for the raft.
Anatole has a slender face and deep but not big eyes. He is already fifty years old. Because of the war, this man who was supposed to retire as a regional committee member has to take up his post again.
In the army, he was doing his old job during the Soviet Russian Civil War - fighting guerrillas. After a long and hard life, he lost a lot of weight. Because he lacked a razor and was worried that shaving with a dagger would easily cause injury and infection, he simply didn't shave often.
He has a sanitary beard on his upper lip, a thick goatee on his chin, and an old face that has experienced many vicissitudes of life. He is exactly a melancholy middle-aged uncle. But he is not an ordinary person. His sharp and deep eyes prove that this is
A pair of eyes that belongs to someone who has killed many people.
Similarly, Kovpak was also observing Yang Mingzhi. Although he did not know the specific appearance of General Belekov, he looked at the officer standing on the simple dock. According to the two big gold stars hanging side by side, this person was Belekov.
Kove is correct.
The raft docked smoothly, and the soldiers on the raft filed out and set foot on the land of Belarus.
Kovpak was in a very excited mood. His smile came from the bottom of his heart, but it had a different charm when matched with his old face.
"Comrade Berekov? You must be Comrade Berekov!"
Yang Mingzhi was not surprised at all. He saw Kovpak up close, and with his own eyes, he realized how realistic the stamps printed by the Soviet Union in that dimension were.
In a sense, it was indeed not the first time Yang Mingzhi saw this person. He was someone who had seen big events before, so he reached out to greet him.
The two calloused right hands were held together. The moment they made contact, Kovpak was greatly surprised.
Yang Mingzhi shook hands with his utmost strength, but had a calm smile on his face.
Kovpak was a little surprised for a moment, but he quickly understood and felt happy. Belekov, whom he had never seen before, did have an Asian appearance. His eyes were not big, but he was not Mongolian or Pakistani.
The appearance of a Shkir. Kovpak had never seen a Chinese, and he estimated that the Chinese should look like Berekov.
The two of them first pinched each other with the Eastern European handshake. The strength of their hands was mutually matched. Yang Mingzhi felt sincerely that this uncle was definitely not taking it easy.