Belkin's proposal made Sokov's heart flutter. I thought that after the opponent's defeat in the Battle of Kharkov, he successfully escaped from the German encirclement and took in more than a hundred commanders and fighters to fight guerrillas behind enemy lines. He couldn't do this without some ability.
However, Sokov was still a little worried about the sudden promotion of the other party to the brigade chief of staff. He was worried that the other party's ability was not in line with the position he was about to assume, so he planned to test the other party for a while. Thinking of this, he said to Belkin: "Comrade Political Commissar, let's let Captain Briski serve as the battalion commander for a period of time to see how his commanding ability is, and then decide whether to propose to his superiors to promote him to the brigade chief of staff. Do you think this is appropriate?"
Belgin proposed to let Briski serve as the brigade chief of staff, but it was just a whim. Seeing Sokov talking to himself about this matter so solemnly, he nodded and said: "Then let's observe him for a while. Well. If he is a competent battalion commander, we will recommend to his superiors that he be promoted to chief of staff."
When Sokov led the soldiers to the competition venue the next day, he found that Rotmistrov and his men had been waiting here. Sokov quickly stepped forward to salute Rotmistrov and said with a smile: "Hello, Comrade General! I didn't expect you to come so early."
"Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, you are not too late." After shaking hands with Sokov, Rotmistrov urged: "Hurry up and let the soldiers take their seats."
Sokov brought many people. In addition to the participating soldiers, soldiers from the third and fourth battalions also came to watch the battle. After Sokov ordered them to sit down in the open space opposite the tank corps commanders, he pointed at several tanks parked aside and asked: "General Rotmistrov, why are there so many tanks here?"
Rotmistrov smiled and replied: "Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, the situation is like this. After I went back yesterday, I told several brigade commanders about the military competition, and they suggested that since it is a military competition, I don’t know if we only consider infantry skills and tactics. After all, we are a tank army, so we should also include tank competitions.”
Rotmistrov's words made Sokov dumbfounded. He said that tank soldiers can become infantrymen as long as they pick up weapons, but infantrymen who want to become tank soldiers have to go through a long period of training. This temporarily added competition event is not Are you deliberately making things difficult for yourself?
Perhaps seeing the displeasure on Sokov's face, Rotmistrov chuckled, and then said: "Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, I have inquired that there is a tank company in your brigade, which happened to pass this time. Let’s compete to test their strength. Don’t worry, the tanks you need for the competition will be provided by us.”
Seeing that the matter had come to this, Sokov could only turn around and order a staff officer: "You rush to the tank company immediately and ask Lieutenant Alitai to bring his troops here. Remember, just let them walk here, there is no need to drive a tank .”
After Rotmistrov saw the staff leaving, he immediately said to Sokov: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, it's almost time. Let's go to the viewing platform first."
The so-called viewing platform is a small platform with a height of half a person and more than ten square meters, with a long table and a few chairs on it. After Rotmistrov took Sokov to the stage and took his seat, he nodded to a colonel next to him, indicating that it was time to start. The colonel took a few steps forward, walked to the edge of the platform, and said loudly to the soldiers sitting on both sides of the viewing platform: "The military competition between the 7th Tank Corps and the 73rd Infantry Brigade has now officially begun. First of all, both parties are invited to participate. The warriors of the shooting competition come out!"
As soon as he finished speaking, twenty soldiers walked out from each side of the viewing platform and came to stand in front of the platform. The colonel turned to look at Rotmistrov, as if asking which soldier should shoot first. Rotmistrov turned his face and asked Sokov: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, do you think your infantry brigade will shoot first, or our tank corps?"
"I think it's better for the tank army soldiers to shoot first."
Seeing Sokov being so polite, Rotmistrov stopped being pretentious and said to the colonel: "Comrade Chief of Staff, let our soldiers shoot first."
The army chief of staff nodded, and then said loudly to the soldiers in the audience: "The soldiers of the tank army are the first to shoot. Each of them has five bullets. The one with the most rounds is the winner."
The soldiers of the tank army were divided into groups of ten and entered the shooting position respectively, shooting from a prone position. The soldiers who finished shooting did not stand up immediately, but continued to lie on the ground. After the last soldier finished shooting, they stood up neatly.
After listening to the report of the target reporting soldiers, the army chief of staff announced loudly: "The result of the first group: 461 rings!" As soon as his words fell, he immediately aroused cheers from the tank army side.
"Lieutenant Colonel Sokov," Rotmistrov was obviously very satisfied with this result. He turned to look at Sokov and asked, "What do you think of our results?"
"Not bad, he looks like a well-trained veteran at first sight." When Sokov said this, he felt uneasy at all. He was deeply afraid that the soldiers selected by each battalion would lose to the tank army in shooting. It would be too much to say that. Shame on you.
Soon, the tank army's second firing also ended. The results of this group were better than those of the first group, with a score of 481 rings, an improvement of 20 rings.
After Rotmistrov saw the soldiers of the infantry brigade entering the shooting position, he searched carefully for a while and asked Sokov curiously: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, why can't you see the two female soldiers from yesterday? "
"The two of them are snipers. It is not appropriate to participate in such a competition." Sokov felt that if there were snipers but they were fighting against the ordinary soldiers of the tank army, even if they won, they would not be able to defeat them. Therefore, in today's competition, there would be no Let Zina and Susanna appear: "So I let them be the audience in the audience." After speaking, Sokov pointed to a corner of the audience.
Rotmistrov looked in the direction of Sokov's finger, and sure enough he saw the two female soldiers he had seen yesterday holding rifles in their arms and looking expectantly at their colleagues who were preparing to shoot.
"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel," Rotmistrov looked at the military uniforms of the two female soldiers that were obviously a few sizes too big, and asked with some surprise: "I don't know where they got the uniforms they wore, and why they were dressed so inappropriately." Does it fit?"
"After we captured the German army's warehouse, we found that there were a large number of uniforms of our army stored in the warehouse, which should have been captured by the German army." Sokov explained to Rotmistrov: "We happened to recruit thousands of uniforms. The new soldiers will distribute these uniforms to the new soldiers.”
"Look, the military uniforms worn by female soldiers really don't fit." Rotmistrov shook his head and said, "I wonder when my superiors will be able to produce military uniforms suitable for female soldiers."
Listening to Rotmistrov talking about military uniforms, Sokov couldn't help but think of the German uniforms Agelina wore. To be honest, the German uniforms were much better-looking than the Soviet uniforms, especially the female soldiers. The uniform also has a slimming effect, which perfectly highlights the figure of the female soldier. If Zina and Susanna were to put on German uniforms, they would be able to charm countless soldiers.
While Sokov was thinking wildly, the first group of the infantry brigade had finished shooting. They achieved a score of 482 rings, which was exactly one ring more than the best score of the Tank Army. As soon as this result came out, the soldiers of the infantry brigade also cheered. Then the second group of the infantry brigade fired again. Their results were better than the first group, with a good score of 492 rings.
Seeing that the tank army was defeated in the first round of shooting, Rotmistrov tried his best to put a smile on his face and said to Sokov: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, when it comes to shooting, we are still comrades of the infantry brigade. A little bit better."
Regarding Rotmistrov's excuse for finding a way to get off the stairs for him, Sokov just smiled faintly, and at the same time he was thinking: What will happen next is a stabbing competition, and the soldiers of the tank army are definitely no match for the infantry brigade.
The number of participants this time is 30 people from each side, divided into groups of fifteen, and they will compete to see which side has more people left in the end, who will be the final winner. Since there were a large number of armors used for fighting training and wooden guns with gray bags in the seized warehouses, the participating warriors all wore armor and held wooden guns with gray bags for the stabbing competition.
Before the Army Chief of Staff announced the start of the competition, the soldiers of the Tank Army spontaneously shouted to the participating soldiers because they had lost for a while: "Brothers of the Tank Army, come on!"
When the tank army soldiers who were about to take the field heard their comrades cheering for them, they turned around and waved to them. The soldiers of the infantry brigade neither cheered nor waved, but stood there like clay sculptures and did not move, quietly waiting for the referee's order to start.
Following the order from the army chief of staff, soldiers from both sides rushed towards the opposite side with wooden guns. Seeing the charging postures of both sides, Sokov knew in his heart that his infantry brigade had won this battle again. The tank army is based on individuals and fights independently; while its own soldiers work in groups of three to fight with the opponent. One person stabs the opponent from the front, and the other two are responsible for covering his left and right wings, blocking him from bayonets coming from the side.
Just two minutes later, as the warriors whose armor was stained with white ash exited the game, only the last nine people were left on the field, of which only two warriors were left in the tank army. Although they performed bravely in the face of opponents surrounding them from all sides, they were ultimately outnumbered and the entire army was destroyed.
Seeing that the first group of soldiers participating in the stabbing competition lost, the Army Chief of Staff was about to call the second group, but was stopped by Rotmistrov: "Okay, Comrade Chief of Staff, there is no need to compete anymore. We admit defeat in this game!”
Hearing that the tank army surrendered, the infantry brigade soldiers sitting in the audience immediately cheered. They took off their military caps and threw them into the air. Seeing those military caps flying in the air, Sokov couldn't help but worry. When the game ended later, there would definitely be many soldiers who couldn't find their military caps.
Although Rotmistrov lost two battles in a row, there was no sign of discouragement on his face. Instead, he smiled and said to Sokov: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, next we will race to drive the tank over obstacles. Whoever reaches the destination in the shortest time will be the final winner."
Even though there is only one tank company in the infantry brigade, Sokov highly recognizes the abilities of his men. Therefore, he waited for Rotmistrov to finish speaking, then stretched out his hand and made a gesture of invitation: "General Rotmistrov, let your soldiers come down."
Rotmistrov stood up, walked to the edge of the stage, waved to the three crew members standing in front of the tank, and said in an extremely majestic tone: "Let's go!"
The soldiers of the three crews agreed loudly, then turned over and climbed onto the tank. Soon a puff of black smoke erupted from the rear of the tank. After turning in half a circle, the three tanks rushed towards the obstacle in the distance.
Sokov walked to Rotmistrov's side and looked into the distance. I saw these tanks rushing up the hill quickly, and then swooping down the slope quickly, raising high clouds of dust behind the vehicles. After watching it for a while, Sokov said to himself: "It seems that this obstacle crossing competition is not too difficult. The soldiers of the tank company should be able to complete it easily."
Just as he was thinking about it, Sokov saw a three-meter-wide ravine appearing in front of the tank. He wondered how the soldiers of the tank army would drive through such a wide ravine. The three tanks came to a stop in front of the gully. The top cover of the turret was opened, and two soldiers came out from each side. They unloaded two pieces of wood from the tank body, carried them to the ravine, and placed the wood on both sides of the ditch. Then he returned to the tank and lifted out two more logs and put them on the ravine.
After all this was completed, the three tanks started up again and drove slowly over a few logs through the ravine. Seeing their comrades complete this action of crossing the ravine, the soldiers of the tank army cheered again.
The three tanks returned to the viewing platform. The three tank commanders lifted the top cover and got out of the tanks. They walked to the stage and raised their hands to salute Rotmistrov on the stage. "Well done, comrades, you are all well done." Seeing that the three tanks under his command returned smoothly, Rotmistrov showed a happy smile on his face, and he said to the tank crew, " You have worked hard, go back and rest first. Next, we will watch the comrades from the infantry brigade perform for us."
"Alitai!" Although Sokov had just sent someone to find Alitai, he didn't know if he had arrived yet. At this moment, it was the turn of the tank company soldiers to appear, and Sokov shouted to the crowd in the audience: "Is Alitai here?"
"I'm here, Comrade Brigadier." As Sokov shouted, Alitai, wearing a black tank uniform, walked out of the crowd, looked up at Sokov and said, "I obey your order, please give instructions! "
"Comrade Lieutenant, I think you have seen the performance of the tank army soldiers." Sokov said to Alitai: "What you have to do next is to repeat what they just did. Do you understand?"
"Understood, Comrade Brigade Commander." After Alitai answered resoundingly, he said with some embarrassment: "However, I don't have enough manpower, so I may not be able to complete your mission."
