"Absolutely not," the captain replied confidently: "The division commander has issued an order to the nearby troops. No one is allowed to approach the hotel before dawn. Otherwise, the commander will be responsible for all consequences caused by accidental injuries."
"Then let me ask another question," Zhukov continued: "If you cannot resist the enemy's attack, will the nearby friendly forces just watch you being wiped out by the enemy?"
"Comrade General, how can this be possible?" the captain replied with a naive smile: "The division commander has arranged reinforcements nearby. As soon as the battle starts, the troops will attack the German troops attacking the hotel from behind."
"It's dark and visibility is limited. Aren't you afraid of accidental injury?"
"There will be no accidental injuries." The captain said: "The division commander has issued a death order. No one in the hotel can leave before dawn; and the reinforcements coming from outside are only using long-range firepower to kill and move around on the streets. people rather than approaching the hotel. In this way, accidental injuries can be avoided to the greatest extent.”
"It seems that Misha is quite thoughtful." After listening to Sokov's arrangement, Zhukov nodded with satisfaction, and then said to the captain: "There is nothing going on here, you can leave."
"Comrade General," the captain did not leave immediately, but stayed where he was and said, "Although your room does not face the street, for the sake of safety, I think you should turn off the lights in the room."
"Comrade Captain, you are right." Zhukov said very cooperatively: "If the enemy really wants to make a sneak attack, then the lights in the room will indicate the target of the attack for the enemy." He stood up and pulled the light cord. Turning off the incandescent light above his head, the whole room suddenly fell into darkness.
At the same time, a sentry behind a sandbag at the entrance of the hotel saw a small team of more than ten people in the distance, which looked like a patrol, walking forward along the street. The sentry remembered the captain's order and quickly shouted to the other party: "Hey, stop, which part are you from?" While shouting, he also raised his flashlight to shine at the other party.
Following the shouting, the patrol stopped, and someone in the team loudly replied: "I am from the patrol team of the 75th Guards Division, and I was ordered to patrol this area." After saying that, the patrol continued to move towards Go forward.
"Stop!" Although the sentry could clearly see through the flashlight that the people coming were all wearing Soviet uniforms, he still shouted with great dignity: "This is the defense area of our 41st Guards Division. Others are not allowed to do so." Get in. Get back quickly or I'll shoot."
"If you have the ability, just shoot." The patrol on the opposite side said not to be outdone: "I have been a soldier for more than ten years, and I have never seen anyone dare to shoot at one of my own!"
The sentry was frightened by the other party's shouts. Although he received the order to shoot and stop anyone approaching the hotel, he seemed hesitant when he saw a friendly patrol appear. However, out of duty, he still put the flashlight in the sandbag fortification and picked up the Mosin Nagant rifle in his hand. He pointed his gun diagonally above the patrol, preparing to fire a warning shot when the other party approached.
However, his actions were discovered by the approaching patrol. They quickly scattered and lay down, shooting at the sentry first. After two crisp gunshots, the sentry holding the gun threw away the rifle in his hand and fell on his back into the sandbag.
Seeing that the sentry was killed, the patrol team lying on the ground got up again, formed a dispersed formation, bent over and rushed towards the hotel quickly. The machine gunner who was dozing in the sandbag saw that his comrade was killed. He hurriedly placed the turntable machine gun on the sandbag, pulled the bolt and prepared to fire.
But the incoming enemies are all elite. Even if they fire while running, they can still hit the target accurately. Just as the Soviet machine gunner was about to pull the trigger, a soldier in the distance fired at him first. The bullet penetrated the machine gunner's forehead and flew out from the back of the head with a trace of blood foam. When he fell on his back, his finger tightened on the trigger, and a series of bullets shot into the sky from the muzzle of the gun.
The gunfire from outside the hotel woke up the soldiers in the hotel. Although the captain made the problem very serious when he assigned them the mission, the soldiers did not take it seriously. They felt that there were tens of thousands of their own people inside and outside the city. How could the Germans appear here? Therefore, except for a few soldiers who stayed in their positions, the rest found a place to lie down and sleep.
Hearing the gunfire outside, some soldiers instinctively turned on the lights in the room, opened the windows and looked outside, trying to figure out what was going on. But in doing so, they undoubtedly turned themselves into targets for the German army. After sporadic gunfire, these soldiers who had made stupid mistakes were shot and fell one after another.
The sudden sound of gunfire outside alerted Zhukov and the captain who had not yet left. The captain listened to the gunshots outside and secretly shouted to Zhukov: "Comrade General, the enemy is coming. Please follow me to the basement immediately."
Zhukov's adjutant also rushed back at this time. Seeing the darkness in the room, he was worried about Zhukov's safety, so he shouted loudly: "Comrade General, Comrade General, where are you?"
"I'm here, why are you panicking?" Zhukov's calm voice came from the darkness: "What did Colonel Sokov say in the telegram?"
"Comrade General, Colonel Sokov's telegram mentioned that there may be a sneak attack by German paratroopers in disguise tonight. He has already made arrangements to reassure us." After the adjutant reported to Zhukov, he nervously said: "Here It’s not safe, let’s go to the basement.”
Zhukov knew that if he continued to stay in the room, he would definitely affect the captain's command of the battle, so he said readily: "Let's go to the basement."
When the German paratroopers dressed as Soviet soldiers were less than 20 meters away from the hotel, the Soviet soldiers in the building finally came to their senses and started shooting one after another. For a moment, the crossfire of machine guns, rifles and submachine guns from upstairs and downstairs formed a dense fire net, knocking down half of the charging German paratroopers.
The paratroopers were not vegetarians either. They rolled on the spot to avoid bullets, and fired without missing a beat, firing back at one of the firepower points. Every shot would cause casualties to the Soviet soldiers in the building. However, due to the limited number of people, no matter how heroic they were, the casualties continued to increase. After just three minutes, only two paratroopers were left fighting. They retreated to the ruins on the other side of the road, followed by more than 30 paratroopers. Meter-wide road, shooting at the Soviet troops in the hotel.
The Soviet captain sent Zhukov to the basement and hurried over to check the situation. A platoon leader who was directing the battle on the second floor reported to him happily: "Comrade Captain, most of the enemies who attacked the hotel have been killed by us, and the remaining two have hid in the ruins opposite. I Please let me lead people to attack, and I will destroy them all."
"No, Comrade Lieutenant." In response to the platoon leader's request, the Captain shook his head and said, "The division headquarters has an order that no one is allowed to leave the hotel before dawn."
"But Comrade Captain," the platoon leader said anxiously, pointing to the German paratroopers who were hiding in the ruins opposite and firing from time to time: "If we don't attack as soon as possible, they will most likely escape."
"Just run away." The captain kept the division's order in mind and said to the platoon leader: "It's too dark outside. If you lead people to attack, it will be me in the light and the enemy in the dark. If the enemy hides A cold shot in the dark will cause us a lot of casualties, so you should just stay in the hotel and wait until daybreak before going out."
Suddenly there was a voice shouting "Ula!" outside. The captain looked out the window curiously and saw countless black figures appearing on the other side of the ruins, stepping on piles of bricks and rubble toward the hotel. Come rushing, the shout is coming from that direction.
"What the hell is going on?" Seeing a sudden appearance of a troop, the captain couldn't help but froze. He thought to himself that the division headquarters had repeatedly told him that no troops would approach before dawn, but this troop was Where did the troops come from?
Fearing friendly fire, the soldiers in the hotel stopped shooting at the ruins. After a burst of chaotic gunshots came from the ruins, everything became calm again.
After waiting for a while, the troops gradually came out of the ruins. The captain counted about thirty people. When he was about to ask the other party's origin, he suddenly heard someone in the crowd shouting: "I am Captain Seryosha from the division guard battalion. I have been ordered to come to support you. Open the door quickly and let us in."
When the platoon leader heard the shouting, he immediately excitedly said to the captain: "Comrade Captain, did you hear that? It's a comrade from the division guard battalion. The leader is the division commander's friend Captain Seryosha. Hurry up and order the soldiers to open the door." .”
Most people in the Guards Division knew that Seryosha and Sokov were old friends. The captain thought that in the phone call before the battle started, the division commander Colonel Sokov had told him that he would send Seryosha and others to support him. Since people outside say that they are Seryozha, they must be right.
So the captain nodded and said to the platoon leader: "Okay, comrade lieutenant, you take people out to meet Captain Seryosha."
