After more than three hours of rapid march, the Goryachkin regiment finally reached the designated position.
Seeing Goryachkin's arrival, Sokov gave him a warm hug and said loudly: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I thought you would have to wait until dawn at the earliest to arrive."
"Comrade Commander," Golyachkin replied respectfully: "General Samyko said that the situation here is quite dangerous, so he ordered our regiment to come over as soon as possible to support you without waiting for dark."
Seeing that Goryachkin was the only one who appeared in the headquarters, Koida couldn't help but asked with some worry: "Are you the only regiment?"
"Of course not, Comrade Colonel." Goryachkin quickly replied: "When we set off, another regiment was still gathering troops. They will probably arrive a few hours later than us."
"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, you arrived just in time." The situation on the battlefield was now more serious than Sokov expected. He called Goryachkin to the map and said to him: "After the enemy breaks through the 305th Division's defense line on the right, , our 658 regiment deployed here was also repelled by the enemy. Now the enemy is threatening our security from the right wing. Since your regiment is here, immediately launch a counterattack against them and strive to recover the lost troops in a short time. position."
"No problem." Goryachkin replied: "After our regiment withdrew from the Shumakovo area, we have never had the opportunity to engage in firefights with the enemy. The officers and soldiers are all holding a breath in their stomachs. If you can only do this If we entrust important tasks to our group, they will definitely be very happy.”
"The morale of the troops is very high, which is very good." In order to let Goryachkin understand the importance of the right-wing position, Sokov specifically emphasized: "If the enemy gains a foothold on our right wing, they can We were attacked from two directions at the same time, leaving us overwhelmed. Even if the enemies on the flanks did not attack, they could leave a small number of troops to monitor us, and then the main force passed through the gap between us and the Pushor River and headed east. The city of Prokhorovka advanced and merged with German troops coming from other directions."
Sokov's narration made Goryachkin realize the importance of restoring the right-wing position. He quickly straightened his back and assured Sokov: "Comrade Commander, please rest assured that we will definitely do it in the shortest possible time." , to restore positions occupied by the enemy."
"You must be carrying a lot of new rockets and rocket launchers, right?" Sokov said to Goryachkin: "If you want to regain our position from the enemy in the shortest possible time, you must not be stingy. These weapons, even if they are all polished off, are completely worth it.”
Sokov said this because he knew that the German army could not last two days in this area. Only by inflicting pain on the enemy could the war be completely avoided from reaching a stalemate in the later stages of the war.
Goryachkin was skeptical of Sokov's order, but he did not dare to refute it easily, but agreed wholeheartedly. Before leaving the headquarters, he stopped, turned around and said to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, Asia came with our regiment." Perhaps because he was worried that Sokov would blame himself, he specifically explained, " I tried hard to persuade her to stay, but she still insisted on coming, so I had no choice but to reluctantly agree."
"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel," Sokov did not expect Asiya to come to such a dangerous place at this time. He was silent for a long time, put his hand on Golyachkin's shoulder, and said to him: " She is actually an assistant military doctor, so it is normal for her to come to the front line to perform operations on the wounded." At this point, he paused for a while and then said slowly, "Since she is in your regiment now, I will trouble you a lot. Take care of her, it’s best not to let her have any accidents.”
"Comrade Commander," Goryachkin saw that Sokov did not blame himself. While secretly relieved, he asked tentatively: "Aren't you going to see her?"
"She and I both have our own work to do." Although Sokov wanted to see Asya, in the current situation, it was obviously inappropriate to meet. He could only say with a wry smile: "As long as we hold our position , there are many opportunities to meet.”
As soon as Sokov said this, he suddenly remembered Asiya's assistant, Rokossovsky's daughter Ada, and quickly asked: "Ada didn't follow, did she?"
"No." Golyachkin shook his head and replied, "On the condition that I persuade Ada to stay, I allowed Asya to follow us here."
"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, you did the right thing." Knowing that Ada had stayed at the Pushol River defense line, Sokov couldn't help but secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He gently pushed Goryachkin's back with his hand. He shook his head and said, "Now, go back to your army."
After Goryachkin left, Koida asked Sokov with some worry: "Comrade Commander, if Goryachkin's regiment is allowed to counterattack the German army, I am afraid it will pay a heavy price. Once they appear huge casualties, then our troops used for defense will be insufficient."
"Don't worry," Sokov comforted Koida and said, "In addition to the Goryachkin regiment, the reinforcements coming this time include another full regiment. You don't have to worry about insufficient troops."
Goryachkin returned to his unit, immediately called a meeting with the three battalion commanders, and assigned them the task of counterattack. At the beginning of the operation, the new rockets flew overwhelmingly towards the enemy's position as if they cost nothing, blowing it into a sea of flames.
The reason why the Germans who stood firm on the position were able to seize the position from the 658th Regiment was entirely because the Soviet army ran out of new rockets, and even the anti-tank fighters were sacrificed, so they could not stop the Germans. attack. Now the explosion of the new rockets covered the entire position, immediately making the Germans howl like ghosts.
Seeing the Soviet army launching an attack, several tanks with flames still burning on their bodies were destroyed by anti-tank fighters concealed nearby with rocket launchers as soon as they rushed out of their hiding places. The German infantry on the position had been knocked unconscious by the new rocket bombs. Now that they saw that the tanks they could rely on had been almost wiped out by the Soviet army, they suddenly lost their fighting spirit. Facing the rushing Soviet commanders and fighters, they only resisted symbolically for a while, then gave up their position and fled in a hurry toward the back.
Knowing that the right-wing position was lost and recovered, Sokov felt somewhat relieved. In this way, his defense line was consolidated. Before the Fifth Guards Tank Army launched a full-scale counterattack, its own troops could rely on the existing defenses to resolutely withstand the German onslaught.
