After learning this bad news, the first thing that could not hold back was Bezikov. He said anxiously: "Comrade Commander, should you immediately transfer the 90th Guard Division to reinforce and block the gap opened by the enemy?"

After hearing Bezikov's statement, Chisdakov nodded and echoed: "That's right, the 90th Guards should be brought forward to block the German advancement, otherwise they will soon rush to the city of Zedomir."

But I was thinking in my heart: there are no strong fortifications in the west of the city. Just relying on the field fortifications built in a short period of time, facing such a powerful three-dimensional offensive by the German army, even if I use my life to fill in it, the 67th and 90th Divisions in the west of the city may not be able to stop them. Since our troops face the German army, which has the advantage in quantity and weapons and equipment, it is difficult for us to support it indefinitely, then sticking to the field fortifications in the suburbs will make it meaningless.

So I announced to them: "The defense zone outside the city has no solid fortifications. In the face of enemy artillery and bombardment, our commanders and soldiers suffered great casualties. If I continue to resist, I am worried that the 67th Guard Division will be wiped out soon, so I decided to give up the positions outside the city, withdraw all the troops into the city, and continue to fight street battles with the enemy."

"What, give up the position outside the city? Comrade Commander, the commanders and soldiers of the 67th Guards Division were very brave, and they could continue to fight." Hearing my order, Chisdakov did not speak, but just frowned and pondered, while Bezikov said anxiously: "Once we give up the position outside the city, the German army will soon rush into the city. If street fighting starts, I wonder if we can still defend the city."

I saw Bezikov's reaction so strongly, and shook his head with a wry smile and said, "Chief of Staff, you don't know enough about the current situation. I don't deny that the commanders and fighters of the 67th Guards Division fought bravely and tenaciously, and eliminated many enemies. However, their fortifications are too simple. Faced with German bombardment and plane bombing, such fortifications cannot last long, but instead cause unnecessary casualties. Let our commanders and fighters stick to their positions under such circumstances. In less than three days, there will be no living people on the entire position."

"Didn't the 67th Guard Division fight well in the morning? It repelled several enemy attacks, but its own casualties were not large." Kirillov, who was sitting next to him, asked with some confusion: "Why did the situation take a sharp turn in the afternoon?"

When I heard this question from Kirillov, I couldn't help but say bitterly: "Comrade Military Commissioner, the reason why I fought easily in the morning was that when the German army shelled our positions, our officers and soldiers retreated from the first line of defense covered by fire to the second line of defense that was relatively safe, so that the enemy's firepower was minimized.

The Germans may have noticed our tactics, so when they attacked in the afternoon, their attack methods were adjusted accordingly. While sending ground troops to launch an attack, they dispatched a large number of bombers to bomb our positions. Our officers and soldiers knew that staying in the trenches would cause heavy casualties due to the bombing of enemy aircraft, but they could no longer retreat to a safe area like they did in the morning, because it would be easy for the Germans to take advantage of the situation..."

"Oh, so that's it." After hearing my explanation, Kirillov finally realized it, but he still asked in confusion: "Can the situation improve by evacuating to the city?"

"As long as the street fighting begins, we are tangled with the enemy's defense line and teeth. In order to prevent accidental injury, the enemy will not dare to use aircraft and cannons on a large scale. In this case, our commanders and soldiers can rely on the fortifications in the city to launch a evenly matched street fighting with the enemy." In order to convince Kirillov as soon as possible, I also gave a special example in the Battle of Stalingrad. "Military Commissioner, you should still remember that in the battle to defend Stalingrad, General Cuikov once borrowed our first regiment to participate in the defense factory area, but in the fierce enemy shelling and bombing, the three thousand troops were almost completely lost in less than a day."

After my explanation, the command center quickly reached a consensus, agreeing to let the troops abandon the defensive positions west of Zhitomier and retreat to the city to prepare for street fighting with the German army. But when I asked Bezikov to give orders to the troops, a small accident occurred. Tavalt Kiraze firmly disagreed with letting the troops retreat. He said excitedly on the phone: "Comrade Commander, the troops cannot retreat, we can continue to fight. Although the German army broke through many defense lines of the 67th Guards Division, the soldiers were still fighting bravely. Every time the enemy advanced one meter forward, they would suffer heavy losses..."

"Okay, Comrade Commander." Although I knew in my heart that what Tavalt Kiraze was saying was the truth, in order to defend Zhitomir, we must put the enemy into the city and fight street battles with them, so that the enemy could not exert the power of the air force and cannon tanks. Therefore, before I could finish Tavalt Kiraze, I interrupted him without hesitation, and then said coldly: "This is an order, there is no room for bargaining, and execute it immediately."

Perhaps it was the first time that Tavalt Kiraze saw that my attitude was so tough. After a while of a moment, he replied with difficulty: "I understand, Comrade Commander. I will order the 67th and 90th guards to withdraw to the city as soon as possible and carry out street fighting with the enemy based on fortifications."

As soon as I finished talking to Tavalt Kiraze, I received a call from General Bere from Korostviv. He said excitedly on the phone: "Comrade Commander, Fastif's German troops, launched a fierce attack on the defensive positions of the 77th Division of the Guards."

While listening to his report, I looked down at the map in front of me, thinking in my mind that Stif's German army might have been inspired by the friendly forces to break through the defensive position on the west side of Zedomir, so that they would suddenly launch an attack on Korostviv and prepare to fight against the troops from the west to achieve the goal of capturing Zedomir.

As soon as he finished speaking, I immediately made a decision: "General Bere, immediately dispatch two tank brigades to counterattack the German offensive troops. Now it is dark and the enemy air force cannot be dispatched. It just so happens that our tank troops have the advantage to smash the German offensive."

"I understand." Bellei agreed loudly: "I will definitely give the Germans a painful lesson so that he will not think we are easy to bully."

"By the way, has Kanifka been recaptured?" As soon as he was about to put down the phone, he suddenly remembered that the German army occupied Kanifka, a small town in the middle of the Jitomire Highway in Kiev, so he quickly asked.

"I have recaptured it from the enemy." Regarding my question, Bereh replied a little embarrassedly: "But before we could report to the headquarters, it was taken back by the enemy. At present, the two battalions of the 77th Guards Division, with the cooperation of a tank battalion, are repeatedly competing with the German army for this town."

I understood the importance of this town to the battle situation, so I emphasized to Bere: "Comrade General, please tell the commanders and fighters that we should take the town over at all costs."

I put down the phone, picked up the map on the table, looked carefully, and continued to study how to fight against the German siege. My eyes were staring at Zhitomir, and I secretly murmured in my heart that this was the place where Rokosovsky was the commander of the garrison before the war. I wonder if he could provide any useful advice for our defense this time?

Thinking of this, I put down the map, raised my head and asked casually, "Who do you know where General Rokosovsky is now?"

Akhromeev quickly replied: "Comrade of the report, General Rokosovsky is commanding the Belarusian front and fighting the enemy in Belarus. According to the latest situation, they have cleared out the German troops on a large area of ​​Belarus' territory and are besieging the strategic key Gomel. It is estimated that the city will be liberated in one week at most."

Chisdakov asked me curiously: "Comrade Commander, why did you suddenly remember to ask General Rokosovsky?"

I pointed at Zhitomir's location and said, "He has been a garrison commander in Zhitomir for a while, and is quite familiar with the terrain here. I want to hear some advice from him on how to defend the city."

After understanding what happened, Chisdakov couldn't help laughing twice. Then he said to me, "Comrade Commander, even if General Rokosovsky is here, he probably may not be able to provide you with any good advice." He paused for a moment and saw a surprised expression on my face, and then continued: "The Germans have occupied Zedomir for two years. In such a long time, some areas of defense facilities have been demolished, and new fortifications have been built in other places. In short, Zedomir has undergone great changes now and two years ago. It is easy to suffer a loss to formulate defense measures according to previous memories."

I thought about it for a while and found that Chisdakov's words made sense, so I turned my attention to the counterattack that was about to be launched by the tank brigade of Bere. I called Akhromeev and told him: "Major, go to the telecommunications room to tell Razumeev that as long as it is a telegram from the 77th Guards Division or Korostviv, I will send it to us as soon as possible."

From Fastif's attack on Korostviv's enemy, he never dreamed that the city's defenders would suddenly launch a counterattack, and they would counterattack under the cover of two powerful tank brigades. Although the German offensive troops had tiger tanks to assist in the war, they faced the few T-54/55 tanks left in the 22nd Brigade of Guard Tanks, and became lambs to be slaughtered.

When we looked at the battle report sent by Razumeeva, just a few minutes after being happy, Tavalt Kiraze called from Zhitomir. As soon as I heard his tone, I knew something was wrong again, so I asked with a serious expression: "Comrade Commander, what happened again?"

"That's right, comrade Commander." Tavalt Kiraze reported to me: "The 67th and 90th guards gave up their defensive positions outside the city and retreated into the city, part of the German army followed. They tentatively launched an attack, and after we were repelled, they divided into two groups and encountered the north and south of the city. It seemed that they planned to launch another attack from there."

I pulled out the defense map of Zedomir under the map and placed it on the table. After looking at it for a moment, I found that since the north and south of the city were adjacent to the forest, the defense in these two directions was relatively weak. If the German army started from these two directions, it might have hit us seven inches. Therefore, I quickly ordered Tavalt Kiraze: "Comrade Commander, immediately strengthen the defense in these two directions and must not let the enemy rush in."

"What happened?" Seeing me take out the city defense map of Zhitomir, Chisdakov had a bad premonition. After the call between Tavalt Kiraze and I ended, he quickly asked, "Is the situation unexpected change again?"

"Yes, Deputy Commander Comrade." I did not hide him, but told the truth: "The enemy sent troops to the north and south of Zhitomir. In this way, the enemy's attack changed from the original east-west to the siege of all directions, and the situation of the defenders in the city became even more serious."

"Comrade Commander, don't worry too much," Bezikov said: "We have four Guard Divisions and a Tank Brigade in the city of Zedomir. In addition, there are several artillery regiments and Guards rocket battalions in the forest east of the city. As long as the Germans do not dispatch the air force, it is not easy for them to capture Zedomir as soon as possible."

While we were discussing the issue of Zhitomir's defense, the ringing of a telephone set in front of me rang. Before I could raise my hand, Bezikov had picked up the phone first. After listening for a while, he immediately handed me the microphone and said in a low voice: "It's the commander of the front army. Listening to his tone, he seemed very angry."

As soon as I put the receiver close to my ear, I almost got deaf when Vatujing roared. I quickly took the microphone away a little, and then said politely: "Hello, Comrade General, do you have any instructions?"

"Comrade Oshanina, let me ask you why I ordered the troops to voluntarily abandon the defensive positions in the western suburbs of Zhitomier and let the enemy rush out of the city?" Vatujing asked angrily: "Do you know what dangerous situation the order you issued will put Zhitomier in?"

"Comrade General, because the enemy's counterattack came too quickly, our troops did not have time to become a solid permanent firepower point, so they could only build some simple fortifications." In order to calm down the anger of Watujing, I patiently explained to him: "Our troops stay in such fortifications. As long as they are constantly bombarded and bombed by the enemy, they will be killed or killed in a long time. I cannot watch my commanders and fighters die in vain in the enemy's artillery and bombing, so I asked them to give up their positions outside the city, retreat into the city to rely on existing fortifications, and fight against the enemy." (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!