Red Moscow

  Chapter 27 On the eve of the attack

  When Lin Hua heard Ma Lining's question, he immediately replied instinctively, "I'm Sokov."

  After looking him up and down, Ma Linin nodded slightly, and then said to Ivan and the others: "Comrade major, you go back and prepare for the attack first. I want to chat with Lieutenant Sokov."

  Lin Hua didn't know that if Ma Lining left him, there would be something important to discuss, so he quickly turned to Ivan for help, hoping to get some help from him. But Ivan turned a blind eye to his gaze, and just raised his hand to salute Malinin and Lieutenant Colonel Batrakov, and then walked out of the command post with the other two company commanders.

  After Ivan and the others left, Ma Linin greeted Lin Hua to sit down, poured him another cup of hot tea, and asked kindly, "Comrade Sukov, where are you from?"

   Hearing Ma Linin asking himself, it was impossible for Lin Hua to still sit still, so he quickly stood up and replied, "Report to Comrade Chief of Staff, I am from Moscow. I live at No. 17 Dimirazevsky Street."

Malinin walked back and forth in the room with his hands behind his back, and said in his mouth: "I used to have an old comrade in arms, also named Sokov. His full name is Mikhail Ivanovich Sokov, and he lives in On Dimirazevsky Prospekt. Comrade Lieutenant, I want to ask you, who is he to you? Is he a relative, or just the same surname?"

  Although Lin Hua did not inherit the memory of the body's original host, in order to prevent cheating, he has recently managed to extract a lot of useful information from Sergey Sha. Therefore, he could clearly know that the person Malinin asked was the biological father of Mikhail, the original owner of the body, so he replied flatly: "Comrade Chief of Staff, he is my father!"

   "Is he your father?" Hearing Lin Hua's answer, Ma Lining said in surprise, "I didn't expect you to be Mikhail's son. No wonder I think you look so familiar."

After Batrakov knew that Lin Hua was the son of his comrade-in-arms, he showed more enthusiasm. He put his hands on Lin Hua's shoulders and patted twice, and said excitedly: "So you are Xiao Xiaosha, do you still remember?" Me? When you were two years old, I hugged you."

  Lin Hua was really a little dumbfounded, and said to himself don’t say I’m not the real Misha, even if it was true, who still remembers who hugged him when he was two years old. So he could only shake his head and said apologetically, "I'm sorry, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I was too young at that time, and I don't remember many things."

  Batrakov couldn't help showing a disappointed expression when he heard what Lin Hua said. After he removed his hands from Lin Hua's shoulders, the expression on his face returned to normal, and he asked in a businesslike manner, "Lieutenant Sokov, how many people are there in your company?"

   "Including Khimki's defensive platoon, exactly forty people."

"Khimki garrison platoon?" Batrakov couldn't help frowning when he heard the number: "I heard that before our army's counterattack began, a German army bypassed our army's defense line in an attempt to capture Khimki Town, but their attempt was shattered by our troops standing there. Lieutenant Sokov, you were the ones holding on to Khimki Town at that time, right?"

   Before Lin Hua could answer, Ma Linin on the side had already said: "That's right, Sokov commanded a squad at that time, blocked the German attack, and defended the town of Khimki very well."

"It's not easy. Just one garrison squad blocked the small unit of the German reconnaissance battalion. This is really amazing!" As a front-line commander, Batrakov is no stranger to the situation of the German army. He is very clear The combat effectiveness of the German reconnaissance battalion is not only stronger than that of ordinary combat troops, but even the equipment is much better. But considering that Lin Hua is facing a fierce battle next, he can't help but ask worriedly: "Comrade Lieutenant, the next battle you will fight is to seize the high ground that is heavily defended by the German army. How about it, are you confident to take it down?" ?”

Before seeing the high ground occupied by the German army, Lin Hua did not express any opinion rashly, but said cautiously: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I can't answer your question now. I can only see what the enemy's position looks like with my own eyes. Only then will we know whether we can win the high ground."

"Lieutenant Sokov," Ma Lining waited for Lin Hua to finish speaking, and said, "The reason why I let you stay is because I was entrusted by the commander. He said that you are a rare talent. If you die on the battlefield , it's a pity. So I hope you can work in our headquarters. I don't know what you think about it?"

  Lin Hua didn't expect that Rokossovsky would pay attention to him all the time and give him such a high evaluation. Although I have a good impression of Rokossovsky, I am willing to follow him to fight in the north and south, and make immortal contributions in future wars. However, the Soviet Army has always had a tradition of despising staff officers. Once he becomes a staff officer at the headquarters, his room for improvement in the future will be very limited.

It was based on this consideration that Lin Hua politely declined Ma Lining's proposal: "I'm sorry, Comrade Chief of Staff, I still hope to fight the Germans face to face on the front line." He raised his chest up, raised his hand to his forehead, and asked politely, "Comrade Chief of Staff, allow me to go back to the army to fight?"

  Lin Hua left the regiment command post, and with the guidance of the patrol team, he successfully found his troops in a trench several hundred meters away. At this moment, Ivan is assigning tasks to the two company commanders in the command post: "...the altitude of the highland is 126.7 meters, and the width is 150 meters. The German position from the bottom of the hillside to the top of the hillside is 500 meters in total. ...According to the information we have, the German firepower on the high ground can block the entire area we are attacking..."

  After Ivan finished introducing the situation, Bukov first spoke and said: "Comrade Battalion Commander, my opinion is that the three companies attacked the high ground at the same time and rushed to the enemy's position in one go..."

"No, Captain Bukov, your tactic will not succeed." Before Bukov finished speaking, Leskov interrupted him and began to explain his point of view: "According to As far as I know, the troops attacking the high ground have adopted this tactic from the very beginning, and apart from paying a huge price, they have not achieved any results at all."

While the two company commanders were arguing endlessly about the tactics to adopt, Ivan suddenly found that Lin Hua was standing beside him, and he couldn't help asking curiously: "Misha, you're back? Comrade Chief of Staff left you behind." , is there anything important?"

"Comrade Chief of Staff wants me to work at the Army Group Headquarters." After explaining the situation to Ivan with a smile, Lin Hua added, "However, I have already rejected his offer, saying that I intend to stay at the front, and The Germans fought face to face."

"From that lookout, you can see the high ground we are going to attack." Ivan said, picked up the binoculars on the table, handed it to Lin Hua, and said to him, "Look at the terrain first, and then tell me, we How should this battle be fought?"

  Lin Hua took the binoculars from Ivan's hand, walked to the lookout, raised the binoculars and looked into the distance. The highlands that caught his eyes may have been baptized by the artillery fire of the Soviet army. There was no snow on it, and there were bullet craters everywhere. At the lower end of the long and narrow hillside, the remains of Soviet soldiers were strewn all over in disorder.

After observing the terrain for a while, Lin Hua put down the binoculars, turned around and walked back to Ivan, and said, "Comrade Battalion Commander, according to my observation, the remains of our commanders and fighters are all 200 meters away from the German positions." From this, it can be deduced that their machine guns are very powerful. If we attack three companies at the same time, I believe it will not take long for the cadres and soldiers of the entire battalion to lie on the hillside.”

  Through the two days of contact with Lin Hua, Ivan knew that the other party would not say anything that he was not sure about. If the whole battalion is really put into the attack as before, then in the end it will only end in the destruction of the whole army. Thinking of this, he humbly asked Lin Hua: "Misha, tell me, what should we do?"

  Before Lin Hua entered the command post, he saw six mortars in the trenches. They should be the mortar platoon sent by Batrakov. If they want to seize the high ground, they must cooperate vigorously. So he said to Ivan: "Comrade battalion commander, you just said that the German army's defensive front is 150 meters long, and the six mortars of the mortar platoon can completely suppress them. While the enemy was being suppressed by artillery fire, our soldiers quietly approached the enemy's position. As soon as the shelling stopped, before the enemy recovered, our soldiers rushed into the trenches and started close combat and hand-to-hand combat with the enemy."

  Lin Hua originally thought that his plan was enough to make Ivan and others applaud repeatedly. But after finishing speaking, he found that the three of them hadn't spoken. He asked a little embarrassedly, "Did I say something wrong?"

   "Of course you are wrong. How can we move closer to the enemy's position during shelling?" Bukov asked Lin Hua bluntly, "Aren't you afraid that the shelling may accidentally injure our own people?"

   "Captain Bukov, stop talking." Seeing that Bukov continued to accuse Lin Hua, Leskov came out to smooth things over: "Let's listen to what Comrade Battalion Commander has to say."

Facing the gazes of the three subordinates, Ivan began to ponder: "Using the old tactics, three companies went into battle at the same time. But facing the German machine gun fire on the high ground, these two hundred people will soon be accountable. on the hillside.

  If you adopt the kind of tactics that Misha mentioned, you will quietly move towards the enemy's position while the German position is being bombarded. When the troops are close to the enemy's position, and then order the artillery to stop the shelling, when the time comes to reach the troops near the enemy's trenches, it only takes a few seconds to rush into the enemy's trenches..."

  (end of this chapter)