Although Sokov planned to follow the troops forward, in order to prevent the division command from being taken away by the enemy, he left Potukin at the command center, and took his guard platoon and a communications team to cross the river to the newly occupied position on the other side.
After being bombarded by the Soviet army for half an hour, the German positions were filled with empty soil that was barely covered. Sokov led the guard platoon and the communication team, passing by the bodies that had not yet been taken away, and kept walking forward.
Because the German position had been bombed beyond recognition, Sokov could not find where Bindasov's regiment command was located, so he called a sergeant who was cleaning the battlefield with his soldiers and asked loudly: "Comrade Sergeant, do you know where the regiment command is?"
When the sergeant saw that it was the acting commander asking himself, he quickly straightened his body and showed him respectfully: "Comrade Commander, you will see a blown up civil and industrial fire point. Behind the fire point, a complete trench more than five meters long, Colonel Bindasov's command post, is located there."
According to the sergeant's guidance, Sokov successfully found Bindasov's command. He jumped into the trench and said to Bindasov who was sitting on the ground: "Comrade Colonel, why did you set up your command post here?"
Hearing Sokov's voice, Bindasov quickly stood up from the ground, raised his hand to salute, and said with a wry smile: "Comrade Commander, our army's artillery fire has destroyed all the fortifications on the position. I searched for a long time and found that only this section of the trench is still complete, so I used this place as my command post."
"Where is Lieutenant Colonel Pavel?" Sokov took out the cigarette box from his pocket and handed it to Bindasov, asking, "According to the combat plan of the division headquarters, shouldn't you establish a joint command here?"
Bindasov pulled out a cigarette from the cigarette box and held it in his mouth, but it did not light it immediately. He lit up his cigarette with matches before litting his cigarette, and then said, "Comrade Commander, you have seen that it is difficult to establish an ordinary command here, let alone a joint command. Now Lieutenant Colonel Pavel continues to pursue the enemy with two regiments. Our regiment stays to clean up the battlefield."
Hearing that Pavel led his troops to pursue the enemy, Sokov felt that his decision was correct. If he really stayed here and established a joint command, should Colonel Bindasov, who commanded one regiment, command Lieutenant Colonel Pavel? Or should Lieutenant Colonel Pavel, who commanded two regiments, commanded Colonel Bindasov, who only led one regiment?
After smoking the cigarette in his hand, Sokov said to Bindasov: "Comrade Colonel, you leave a battalion here to clean the battlefield and repair the positions, and then lead the other two battalions to continue to advance southwest."
"I understand, I'll set off now." Bindasov stood up and shouted at the busy staff and correspondents beside him: "Everyone clean up, we're ready to set off."
After Bindasov left with his troops, Sokov asked the communications team to set up the command center in the trenches. The guard platoon leader looked at the surrounding environment and asked nervously: "Comrade Commander, do you set up your command center in the trenches?"
"Yes, Comrade Lieutenant." After Sokov and other guard platoon leaders finished speaking, they nodded and replied helplessly: "From the current situation, we can only use this place as a command center."
"Comrade Commander," the guard platoon leader looked around, and then said, "I think there must be a covert that was blown up nearby, so I will take someone to clean it out."
When Sokov heard the platoon leader of the guard said that the covert department was blown up, he felt a little sad, thinking that it should be full of German corpses, and using such a place as a command center was really frightening. Seeing that the platoon leader of the guard was still waiting for his reply, he nodded slightly and said, "Okay, Comrade Lieutenant, I'll leave this matter to you."
As soon as the telephone line was set up, Sokov received a call from Rokosovsky himself: "Misha, why are you not staying well in the command center? Why are you going to go to the front to do?"
When Sokov heard Rokosovsky say this, he immediately realized that he must have learned from Kazakov or Potukin, otherwise he would not have known so quickly that he had left the command center. However, Sokov knew that Rokosovsky was caring for him, so he smiled and said, "Comrade Commander, you have not said that the commander should be with his troops as much as possible, so that he can not only understand the situation on the battlefield in a timely manner, but also play a role in boosting morale."
"Yes, I said this." Rokosovsky said on the phone: "According to the famous writer and reporter Erenberg, the division-level command of our army is generally three hundred meters away from the front, while the German division-level command is usually ten kilometers behind the front line. His report explains from one aspect why the senior commanders in our army have a large number of casualties, because they are almost all at the front line command."
Sokov waited patiently for Rokosovsky to finish his words and immediately replied: "Don't worry, comrade Commander, I will pay attention to safety. Our division will never cause the command system to become paralyzed because the division-level commander withdrew from the battle."
After finishing his call with Rokosovsky, Sokov ordered the radio operator: "Send a newspaper to Lieutenant Colonel Pavel immediately and ask him to report the progress of the 1137th and 1139th Regiments immediately."
But it took half an hour before the radio operator received a call from Lieutenant Colonel Pavel. The content of the telegram on Pavel was very simple, saying that the two regiments were counterattacked by the enemy while pursuing the enemy. After repelling the enemy's counterattack, for the sake of safety, he had promptly ordered the troops to move into defense on the spot and repaired the occupied positions.
Sokov looked down at the map spread on his knees, studied the situation of the German army in front of Pavel's troops, and then said to the radio operator: "Call back to Lieutenant Colonel Pavel, let him keep the defensive for the time being, so that the troops can hurry up and rest and be ready to start the next phase of the battle."
After receiving Sokov's telegram, Pavel felt very pleased. Two regiments under his command marched overnight to the crossing point. After completing the crossing, he marched for a few kilometers to attack the German side. Now the commanders and soldiers are very tired. If they can give them a good rest, it will be very beneficial to the next battle.
When he deployed the defense, he asked the accompanying correspondents to start laying a telephone line between the Sokov command so that when something happened, he could contact directly by phone. After all, it was too inconvenient to use telegram to communicate when the situation was critical.
The enemy in the direction of Pavel's army, seeing that the Soviet attack suddenly stopped, thought that his counterattack had achieved effect, began to bombard the defense areas of the two regiments with artillery fire. After the artillery attack, the German army sent infantry to launch a charge, but was defeated by the Soviet army.
For the next two hours, Pavel realized something was wrong. Although the Germans kept shelling their positions, the enemy's infantry performed extremely abnormally. When they advanced two or three hundred meters away from the position, they would stop and fire a gun at their positions, and then hurriedly retreated.
The German army's actions made Pavel feel something was wrong, so he took the phone to report to Sokov. After hearing his report, Sokov asked without any objection: "Lieutenant Colonel Pavel, what do you think?"
"Comrade," Pavel replied cautiously: "I think the Germans are just bluffing in our direction, not in order to repel us, but in order to tighten us in the existing areas so as to cover their possible actions in other directions."
Sokov agrees with Pavel's analysis very much. After all, he just played a trick with the Germans not long ago. It is entirely possible for the Germans who suffered losses to do the same thing. The key is to see where they will choose the real counterattack direction?
But at present, everything is speculating. What exactly is sold in the German gourd, and we still need to continue to observe. Thinking of this, he said to Pavel: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, pay attention to the movements of the Germans. If you have any discoveries, report to me immediately. Do you understand?"
"I understand, comrade of the division commander." Pavel promised on the phone: "If there is any change in the enemy situation, I will report it to you in a timely manner."
Sokov put down the phone and stared at the map on his knees, thinking about the enemy's intentions: Should he think of the other party's Bindasov on the left wing of Pavel, or a friendly army on the right wing? After thinking for a while, he felt that no matter which unit the German army planned to attack, he must be vigilant and adjust his troops in time to prevent the German army's plot.
He raised his head and looked at the radio operator sitting beside him, and told him, "Runner, send a newspaper to Colonel Bindasov and ask where his troops are now?"
Bindasov's call came very quickly. According to his report, Sokov found that he had embarked on the German defense depth of five or six kilometers, leaving Pavel's troops far behind. After Sokov discovered this situation, he was shocked and sweated. He felt that the reason why the German army made a feint in the direction of Pavel's troops might be to concentrate its forces to eat the 1135th Regiment, which was alone.
After realizing this problem, he immediately ordered the radio operator: "Send a telegram to Colonel Bindasov, 100,000 yuan, your regiment has distanced from the main force of the division and may be surrounded by the German army. Now, you are ordered to stop advancing immediately and turn to defense on the spot to wait for the next order."
Bindasov, who was commanding the troops to pass quickly, frowned after receiving the telegram from Sokov, and said, "Hey, how can you stop moving forward at this time?" After that, he said to the radio operator standing by, "Call back immediately to the division commander, saying that our regiment's attack is going well and that it is expected to achieve greater results before dark."
Sokov received this telegram from Bindasov that he obviously wanted to disobey, and gritted his teeth and said to the radio operator: "Call Bindasov again: Is it the division command regiment or the regiment command division? Now order your regiment to stop advancing immediately and build fortifications on the spot to prepare for counterattack by the German army. If you continue to disobey, you will be sent to the military court." Sokov knew that his tone must be tough in order to suppress these commanders with higher ranks than him. After he dictated the telegram, he nodded to the radio operator, "Send it!"
When Bindasov ordered the radio operator to send a message, he thought that Sokov would change his original intention when he received his telegram and allow his troops to continue moving forward. After receiving the new telegram, he realized that although Sokov was just a major, he was his superior after all, and the order he issued had no room for bargaining. In desperation, he could only order the troops to stop advancing and turn to defense on the spot.
The two battalion commanders under him were also very unaware of the order that Bindasov suddenly issued, especially Captain Jetrov, the first battalion commander, who ran to the regiment command post and asked Bindasov: "Comrade Colonel, our battalion is fighting easily, why did he suddenly stop the attack?"
Bindasov glared at him and said unhappily: "Do you think I want to stop the attack? This is the order issued by the division commander to me through telegram, and it must be executed." He waved at Jetrov and said, "Okay, comrade Captain, stop talking, you go back to the army to arrange defense immediately."
When Jetrov learned that it was Sokov's order issued by himself, he knew that there was no room for reversal of the matter. After raising his hand to salute Bindasov, he turned around and left the regiment command post and returned to his own camp to arrange defense matters.
Another battalion commander learned that the order to stop the attack was issued by Sokov. Although he didn't say anything, he was wondering in his heart that the acting division commander was too young and did not know how to catch such a good fighter plane in front of him, but inexplicably ordered the troops to move into defense on the spot. However, his complaint turned into admiration after an hour. The German army used artillery artillery of an artillery regiment to shell the defensive position of the 1135th Regiment, and then tanks guided the infantry to launch an attack.
After hearing the news from the front, Bindasov suddenly broke out on his forehead. He thought to himself: It's so lingering. If the division commander had not sent a telegram, he ordered us to stop moving forward and turn to defense on the spot. Otherwise, the German artillery fire just now would be enough to reimburse most of my two battalions. When the German infantry rushed up, it would be difficult for the remaining soldiers to stop effective defense. Then the scene of the German annihilation in the early morning would happen in his regiment.
Chapter completed!