"Absolutely," the captain replied confidently: "The division commander has issued an order to the nearby troops that no one is allowed to approach the hotel before dawn. Otherwise, all the consequences caused by accidental injuries will be the responsibility of the commander."
"Then I'll ask another question," Zhukov continued, "If you can't resist the enemy's attack, will the nearby friendly forces watch you be destroyed by the enemy?"
"Comrade General, how can this be?" the captain replied with a silly smile: "The division commander has arranged reinforcements nearby. As soon as the battle begins, the troops will attack the German troops in the hotel from behind."
"It's dark and visibility is limited. Are you not afraid of accidental injury?"
"There will not be accidental injuries." The captain said: "The division commander has issued a death order. Before dawn, no one in the hotel can leave; and the troops coming to reinforce outside only use long-range firepower to kill people moving on the streets, without getting close to the hotel. In this way, accidental injuries can be avoided to the greatest extent."
"It seems that Misha is quite thoughtful." After hearing Sokov's arrangement, Zhukov nodded with satisfaction, and then said to the captain: "There is nothing here, you can leave."
"Comrade General," the captain did not leave immediately, and said, "Although your room is not facing the street, I think you should turn off the lights in the house for safety."
"Captain, you are right." Zhukov said very cooperatively: "If the enemy really wants to attack, then the lights in the room are equivalent to pointing out the target of the attack for the enemy." He stood up and pulled the light rope, turned off the incandescent lamp above his head, and the whole room suddenly fell into darkness.
At the same time, a sentry who was behind the sandbag at the entrance of the hotel saw a small team of more than ten people in the distance, which looked like a patrol team. They were walking along the street. The sentry remembered the captain's order and hurriedly shouted to the other party: "Hey, stop, which part of you are?" While shouting, he raised the flashlight toward the other party.
With the shouts, the patrol team stopped, and someone in the team replied loudly: "I am from the patrol team of the 75th Division of the Guards, and I am ordered to bring patrol." After that, the patrol team continued to walk forward.
"Stop!" Although the sentry saw clearly through the flashlight that the people coming were wearing Soviet uniforms, he still shouted in great majesty: "This is the defense zone of our 41st Guard Division, and others are not allowed to enter casually. You can retreat quickly, otherwise I will fire."
"If you have the ability, just try shooting." The patrol team opposite said unwillingly: "I have been in the army for more than ten years and have never seen anyone who dares to shoot at my own people!"
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 team appear. However, for his duty, he still put the flashlight in the sandbag fortifications and picked up the Mosinnagan rifle. His muzzle pointed diagonally above the patrol team, preparing to fire a warning when the other party approached.
However, his actions were discovered by the approaching patrol team. They quickly lay down and shot at the sentry first. After two crisp gunshots, the sentry holding the gun threw away the rifle in his hand and fell back into the sandbag.
Seeing that the sentry was killed, the patrol team lying on the ground got up again, forming a dispersed formation, bent over and rushed to the hotel quickly. The machine gunner, who was dozing off in the sandbag, saw his comrades being killed, hurriedly put the turntable machine gun on the sandbag and pulled the bolt to prepare for shooting.
But the incoming enemies were all elite. Even if they opened fire while running, they could hit the target accurately. Just as the Soviet machine gunner was about to pull the trigger, a soldier from afar opened fire at him first. The bullet penetrated from the machine gunner's forehead and flew out from the back of his head with a trace of blood. When he fell to the ground on his back, his fingers tightly grabbed the trigger, and a series of bullets shot into the sky from the muzzle.
The gunfire from outside the hotel woke the soldiers in the hotel. Although the captain made a serious statement when he assigned them a mission, the soldiers did not take it seriously. They felt that there were tens of thousands of people inside and outside the city, how could the Germans appear here? Therefore, except for a few soldiers who stayed in their own positions, the rest of the people found a place to lie down and sleep.
Hearing the gunshots outside, some soldiers instinctively turned on the lights in the house, opened the window and looked outside, trying to figure out what was going on. But they did this, undoubtedly turning themselves into the target of the German army. After the sporadic gunfire, these soldiers who made low-level mistakes were shot and fell down one after another.
The sudden gunfire outside alarmed Zhukov and the captain who had not left yet. The captain turned his ears and heard the gunfire outside, and secretly shouted that it was not good. He quickly said to Zhukov: "Comrade General, the enemy is here, please follow me to the basement immediately."
Zhukov's adjutant also rushed back at this time. When he saw that the room was dark and worried about Zhukov's safety, he shouted loudly: "Comrade General, Comrade General, where are you?"
"I'm here, why are you panic?" 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 might be a sneak attack from German paratroopers tonight. He has made arrangements to reassure us." After reporting to Zhukov, the adjutant said nervously: "It's not safe here, so we'd better go to the basement."
Zhukov knew that if he continued to stay in the room, it would definitely affect the captain's command of the battle, so he said readily: "Let's go, let's go to the basement."
When the German paratroopers who were dressed up as Soviet troops were less than twenty meters away from the hotel, the Soviet soldiers in the building finally came to their senses and began to shoot. For a moment, the crossfire of machine guns, rifles and submachine guns upstairs formed a dense fire net, knocking down the German paratroopers halfway downstairs.
The paratroopers were not vegetarians. They rolled on the spot to avoid bullets, shot at a time, and fought back at one of the fire points. Each time they fired, they caused casualties to the Soviet soldiers in the building. However, due to the limited number of people, no matter how brave they were, the casualties continued to increase. In just three minutes, only two paratroopers could fight were left. They retreated to the ruins across the road, followed the road more than 30 meters wide, and shot against the Soviet army in the hotel.
The Soviet captain sent Zhukov to the basement and rushed to check the situation. A platoon leader who was commanding the battle on the second floor happily reported to him: "Comrade Captain, most of the enemies attacking the hotel have been shot dead by us, and the remaining two people have been hid in the ruins opposite. I ask me to take people to attack, and I will destroy them all."
"No, comrade Lieutenant." In response to the request made by the platoon leader, 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 pointed to the German paratroopers who were hiding in the ruins opposite, and said anxiously: "If we don't attack as soon as possible, they will likely run away."
"Just run away." The captain kept in mind the orders of the division headquarters and said to the platoon leader: "The sky outside is too dark. If you lead people to attack, it will become me in the bright spot and the enemy in the dark. If the enemy hides in the dark and shoots cold guns, it will cause us a lot of casualties. You should stay in the hotel honestly and wait for dawn before going out."
Suddenly, a sound of shouting "Ula" came from outside. The captain looked out the window curiously and saw countless black shadows appearing on the other end of the ruins, rushing towards the hotel, stepping on piles of bricks and stone rubble, and shouting from that direction.
"What the hell is going on?" Seeing a sudden appearance of the army, the captain was stunned. He thought to himself that the division headquarters had repeatedly reminded him that there would be no troops approaching before dawn, but where did this army emerge?
Fearing that accidental injury occurred, the soldiers in the hotel stopped shooting at the ruins. After a messy gunshot came from the ruins, everything calmed down again.
After waiting for a while, the troops came out of the ruins one after another. The captain counted for a while, and there were about thirty people. He was about to ask about the other party's origin when he suddenly heard someone shouting in the crowd: "I am Captain Seryosha of the Division Guard Battalion. I am ordered to come to support you. Open the door quickly and let us in."
When the platoon leader heard the shout, he immediately said to the captain excitedly: "Comrade Captain, have you heard it? Is it a comrade from the division guard battalion, and Captain Seryosha, who is the leader of the division commander, please order the soldiers to open the door."
The fact that Selyosci and Sokov are old friends is something that most people know in the Guard Division. The captain thought that during the call before the battle, Colonel Sokov, the division commander, once told himself that he would send Selyosci to support him. Since people outside said that they were Selyosci, they would definitely not be wrong.
Chapter completed!