By the time the engineers had cleared the mines laid by the Germans, it was already light. The soldiers, who had been exposed to the cold wind on the road all night, got back on the truck and continued to move towards their destination.
The convoy arrived at its destination. While the team was reorganizing, a captain walked up to Ivan and asked expressionlessly: "Is this Major Ivan?"
Ivan guessed that the other party might be sent by the headquarters to pick him up, and quickly replied: "Yes, I am Ivan."
"I am the staff officer of the 765th Infantry Regiment. On the order of the regiment commander, I am here to pick you up." The captain shook his head at Ivan and said: "Please follow me, comrade major, and bring your company commander Take them with you too, and I will take you to see the group leader."
Ivan led his three company commanders and followed the captain's staff through the busy crowd and arrived in front of a wooden house. The captain asked Ivan and the others to wait outside the door while he went in to report.
After a while, the captain walked out of the room and said to Ivan: "Please come in, Comrade Major, the regimental commander is waiting for you inside."
Lin Hua followed Ivan and strode into the command post. Because the light in the room was very dark, Lin Hua could barely see clearly several commanders sitting next to the wooden table in the middle of the room. Ivan, like Lin Hua, had not had time to adapt to the light in the room and couldn't see clearly who was the group leader he wanted to see.
Fortunately, the commander sitting in the room noticed Ivan and the others' embarrassment. He stood up and said to his adoptive father: "I am Lieutenant Colonel Batrakov, commander of the 765th Regiment of the 5th Guards Division, and you are Major Ivan. Bar?"
When Ivan learned that the commander in front of him was Lieutenant Colonel Batrakov, he quickly raised his hand and saluted and said: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, Colonel Ivan, commander of the second battalion of the 1077th Regiment of the 8th Guards Division, would like to inform you." Report, our battalion has been ordered to come, I am waiting for your orders, please give instructions!"
"Comrade Major, according to the order, you should arrive here at two o'clock this morning." Lieutenant Colonel Batrakov said, raised his hand with the help of candlelight, looked at his watch, and then said in a stern tone: "And you are a full six hours late. You must know that every minute is precious on the battlefield. If you do this, you will waste the opportunity."
Ivan, who was criticized by the lieutenant colonel, suddenly blushed with embarrassment. After waiting for the other party to finish speaking, he replied with some embarrassment: "Comrade lieutenant colonel, please listen to my explanation. Our convoy encountered a road laid by the Germans." Minefield. The engineering troops barely cleared the road of mines an hour ago."
"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, don't blame Major Ivan." A commander stood up from the table and said to Batrakov: "Everything is clear. The reason why they did not arrive here on time was because they were attacked by the Germans. The human minefield is blocked. Fortunately, things are not delayed yet, so you can assign combat missions to them now."
Ivan saw clearly the commander who spoke for him, with the rank of colonel on his collar badge. He thought to himself: "Who is he? Why does Lieutenant Colonel Batrakov treat him so respectfully? Is he the commander of the 5th Guards Division?" Really? No, division commander Mironov’s military rank is general, but this one is colonel.”
Batrakov noticed that Ivan's eyes were always on the colonel, and quickly introduced him: "This is Colonel Malinin, the chief of staff of the group army. Major, you are lucky, there is a comrade, the chief of staff, who can say good things to you. Here we go. Here's the map, I'll assign you some combat missions."
"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I am ready to carry out any combat mission assigned by you." Seeing that he had passed the test so easily, Ivan couldn't help but secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and then added: "All the soldiers in our battalion are confident that we can complete the task well." The task assigned to us by our superiors.”
Batrakov, who was standing in front of the map, sneered and said, "Comrade Major, I hope you can keep your word." He picked up an explanation stick, pointed at the map and said, "According to the orders of the superiors, the Guards No. The mission of the Fifth Division is to take back the Istria Reservoir from the hands of the Germans. The mission of our regiment is to seize the high ground here and open the passage to the Istria Reservoir for the entire division."
As soon as Batrakov finished speaking, Ivan immediately replied: "I understand, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel."
"Understood?!" Batrakov sneered and said: "Comrade Major, I don't think you understand anything. Even though this is just a small high ground, the German army's defense is extremely tenacious. The four attacks launched by our regiment They attacked more than a dozen times, but were repulsed without exception.”
Lin Hua, who was standing behind Ivan, couldn't help but feel his heart sink when he heard Batrakov say this. He thought that on a small high ground, the 765th Regiment launched more than ten attacks in a row, but none of them succeeded. Look. Lieutenant Colonel Batrakov will hand over the task of seizing the high ground to the Second Battalion.
"Understood, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel." After listening to the mission assigned by Batrakov, Ivan immediately replied simply: "The mission of our battalion is to seize the high ground and eliminate or drive away the Germans above."
"Wait a minute, Major Ivan." Just after Ivan was about to say goodbye and leave, Ma Lining suddenly stopped him and asked, "How many people are there in your battalion?"
Ivan quickly turned to Malinin and replied: "There are still two hundred and twenty-eight people in the whole battalion, Comrade Chief of Staff."
"Only more than 200 people are left?!" Hearing that there were only such a small number of troops, Ma Lining seemed disappointed, because he remembered that the full strength of the 8th Guards Division was 15,000 people, even if the number had been reduced in the past few months of fighting Serious, but each battalion can still guarantee at least four hundred people. He was silent for a moment, then asked: "Where are your weapons and equipment?"
"There is one heavy machine gun and a dozen light machine guns. Except for a few soldiers equipped with submachine guns, the rest are Mosin-Nagant rifles."
After learning about the strength and equipment of the second battalion, Malinin pondered for a moment, then turned to Batrakov: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, send a mortar platoon to them."
"Comrade Chief of Staff," Batrakov said with some embarrassment in response to Malinin's order: "Currently there are less than twenty mortars left in the regiment. If a company is transferred to them, they will not be able to serve other areas. attack, providing artillery cover."
"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel," Malinin said impatiently when he saw Batrakov pushing back and forth: "Are you going to let the soldiers of the second battalion charge against the enemy entrenched on the high ground without artillery cover? "
"Okay, Comrade Chief of Staff." Seeing Malinin's harsh tone, Batrakov could only bite the bullet and reply: "I will give an order to the mortar company commander and ask him to detach a platoon to support the close range. Comrades of the 8th Guards Division."
"Who is Lieutenant Sokov?" Just when Ivan and the others accepted the combat order and were about to leave the regiment command post, Malinin suddenly asked again: "I want to talk to him."
