In the temporary headquarters in the village, Deputy Battalion Commander Belkin and the company commanders gathered around a long wooden table, staring at a map placed on it. Sokov was walking back and forth in the room with his hands behind his back, thinking about how to fight the next battle.
After walking for an unknown amount of time, he finally stopped, turned to face the table, fixed his eyes on Andre, and asked: "Captain Andre, let me ask you, can your second company continue to fight?"
"Yes, Comrade Battalion Commander!" Hearing Sokov call his name, Andrei quickly stepped forward and replied loudly: "Although in the battle to liberate the village, our company lost one-third commanders and fighters, but the overall combat effectiveness has not been greatly affected, and we can continue to serve as the main offensive mission."
Sokov nodded, "Well, since you are so confident, I will leave the task of capturing Village No. 2 to your company." Seeing the eagerness of the other company commanders, he continued to assign tasks. : "Saviev's third company stayed in the village, Vanya's first company was responsible for attacking village No. 3, and Vasily and I led the machine gun company to seize village No. 4. Each of the two artillery companies allocated half of their troops to go Assist the 1st and 2nd companies. Once villages 2 and 3 are captured, except for leaving the necessary guard troops, the rest will rush to support village 4. Does anyone have any questions?"
"Comrade Battalion Commander, I have a question." Saveyev asked a little aggrievedly: "Why do we need our third company to stay in the village? Our company can definitely carry out more difficult tasks."
"Captain Saviev," Sokov looked at him and said, "When your company was holding on to the unknown heights, its strength reached 70%, and it basically lost the ability to attack fortresses. That's why I decided to let your company hold on to the village. Yes. Besides the third company commander, who else has any problems?"
"Let me tell you a few words," Belkin interjected: "Comrade Battalion Commander, according to our pre-formulated battle plan, after successfully capturing Village No. 1, we will seize Village No. 2, Village No. 2, and Village No. 2 in a clockwise direction. Villages No. 4 and No. 3. But you suddenly adjusted the battle plan and dispersed our battalion’s troops. Will this make it impossible to successfully complete the task of occupying the village in several directions? "
In response to Belkin's question, Sokov walked to the table, pointed at the map and said to everyone: "The German troops in these four villages are very weak and cannot stop our attack at all. This has happened since the battle that just ended You can see it in the battle. In addition, everyone should also see that because the offensive front is too narrow to deploy too many troops, only one company can be put in at a time, and the rest of the companies can only stand aside and stare. This is me One of the reasons to divide our forces and attack.”
"Reason two, if we still follow the original deployment and launch the attack in a clockwise direction, after the Germans have mastered our pattern, they will deploy troops to strengthen the villages that are about to be attacked by us to increase the number of The difficulty of our attack. In this way, after we have taken out the No. 2 and No. 4 villages in turn, we will be unable to launch a new attack when facing the No. 3 village waiting for work.
We are now attacking three villages at the same time. The Germans have few soldiers and dare not take the initiative to attack and cannot support each other. They can only stay in the village and wait for us to beat them. I said this, do you understand? "
After listening to Sokov's explanation, the company commanders who were still doubtful at first understood Sokov's intention and responded neatly: "Understood, comrade battalion commander!"
"Now that you understand, let's return to our respective units immediately." Sokov raised his hand and looked at his watch, and then said: "Each offensive unit will set off in half an hour, so everyone should hurry up and prepare."
After the company commanders all left the command post, Belkin tried to persuade Sokov to stay and let himself and the cannon company capture Village No. 4: "Comrade Battalion Commander, I think it's better for you to stay at the command post, and I and the cannon company will Are you going to attack Village No. 4?"
"No," Sokov unequivocally rejected Belkin's proposal: "According to the intelligence we have, the defense of Village No. 4 is the tightest. With your command ability, I don't trust it."
If someone else said that his commanding ability was not good, Belkin would definitely argue with the other party, but since it was Sokov who said this, he just smiled lightly. After all, countless facts have proved that Sokov’s command is His ability is indeed beyond his reach.
Half an hour later, when Sokov came out of the command post, he found that the troops of the first and second companies had already set off, and the machine gun company led by Vasily was lining up in an open space not far away.
When Vasily saw Sokov walking towards him, he quickly shouted: "Everyone listen to my command: stand at attention!" Then he ran up to Sokov, raised his hand in salute and said, "Comrade Battalion Commander, the cannon battery has been assembled. Finished, please give instructions!"
Sokov glanced at the neatly arranged troops in the distance, and then told Vasily: "Let's go!"
The team of the machine gun company had just arrived at the entrance to the north of the village. Suddenly, a soldier standing guard at the entrance of the village ran over and reported to Sokov: "Comrade Battalion Commander, we found two children outside the village."
"Children?" Sokov couldn't help but be startled when he heard the soldier say this. Therefore, after occupying the village, he ordered people to search carefully. No villager found out where these two children came from. ? In order to clarify this problem, he immediately ordered the soldiers, "Bring them here."
After a while, the soldier brought back two little boys, one tall and one short, and came to Sokov. Sokov knelt down and asked kindly: "Children, can you tell me what your name is and which village you are from?"
The tall boy did not immediately answer Sokov's question, but asked: "Are you the Red Army?"
"Yes, we are the Red Army." Sokov pointed to himself and said, "Have you seen my uniform? This is the uniform of the Red Army."
After listening to Sokov's answer, the two children looked at each other and the tall boy replied: "We are from the village of Yuzhlaya Varoda. My name is Volodya and his name is Anton."
Yuzhilaya Varoda village? After hearing this place name, Sokov hesitated for a moment before he remembered that this was the village he had assigned as number four, the village he was preparing to lead the cannon company to seize. He put a hand on Volodya's shoulder and continued to ask: "Volodia, tell me, why are you here?"
