In the observation center, I saw that the shells of howitzer regiments fell on the enemy's positions and exploded. The explosion of soil and snow powder soared into the sky. The civil and wooden bunkers that were originally covered with snow were torn apart like paper-paste toys. The explosion waves were torn apart and then scattered into the air and then scattered around the explosion site.

Bi Lei stood next to a telephone, wearing headphones, and shouted at the microphone: "Each brigade is ready to attack, pay attention to maintaining the formation, each workshop is spaced apart by 100 meters." He paused after he finished speaking, probably because he was listening to the reply of the commander below. After a moment, he raised his voice and shouted: "Listen to my orders, the whole army will attack!"

After a while, I heard a huge roar. The tank troops attacking from the forest passed the high ground where we were, lined up in neat formations, and launched an impact on the German positions in the distance. As the snow was melted by the high temperature of the bomb explosion, the trenches that were originally vaguely visible became clearly visible. I could see one or two shaking helmets from the telescope from time to time. This should be the observation post left by the German army.

I was focusing my attention on the enemy's position, but I heard the voice of Bo Lei ringing in my ears: "Comrade Commander, are you a little disappointed?"

"Disappointed?!" When I heard his stupid words, I quickly put down the telescope, turned my head to look at him, and asked curiously: "Don't you General Lei, why am I disappointed?"

Instead of answering my question directly, Bie Lei pointed his hand at the tank troops attacking forward outside, and said, "Look at the tanks rushing towards the enemy's positions!"

I didn't know what he was saying this, but I still looked straight ahead and put the telescope in front of me, looked at the tank troops, and counted roughly. At least hundreds of tanks were sailing towards the enemy's position at high speed on the snow.

"General Bi Lei, I still don't understand what you mean." I was really confused by Bi Lei, so I put down my telescope and said to him impatiently: "If you have anything, just say it. I'm not interested in playing any guessing game now."

"That's right, Comrade Commander." Bere said a little embarrassedly: "Originally, there should be about 160 tanks participating in the assault today, but before entering the attack position, some tanks broke down, so there were only more than 110 tanks participating in the battle in the end."

In my impression, three tank brigades should have at least 300 tanks, but now only one-third of them are involved in the battle. Therefore, I asked in a stern tone: "General Bere, why are there so few tanks?"

"The two tank brigades that our superiors have added to us are not fully equipped." Bie Lei said a little aggrievedly: "The 22nd Guard Tank Brigade, which was originally completely established, lost more than half of the battle with the enemy. In addition, when the enemy was bombed in the early stage, it also lost some tanks, so in today's battle, there are only such a few tanks that we can invest in combat."

"Okay, General Bi Lei, stop talking. This is not your fault, don't blame yourself." Seeing Bi Lei's shameful look on his face, I quickly waved my hand to interrupt his words, comforted him and said, "With these more than a hundred tanks, it is enough to break through the enemy's position."

As our army's tanks got closer to the enemy's position, the howitzer regiment stopped firing and a volley came from the Guards Rocket Battalion. As the smoke turned from thick to weak, I saw groups of German officers and soldiers running quickly from the second trench to the first trench along the traffic trench. When they encountered the traffic trench that was blown up and was unpassable, they jumped out decisively, bent over and ran forward for a while, and then jumped back into the traffic trench that could be passed again.

Seeing this situation, Bi Lei snorted and said with emotion: "Comrade Commander, the Germans are really the same as you said. When they were shelled by our army, except for leaving a few observation posts, the main force retreated to the second trench. After our shelling was over, they came back."

When Povsky heard Bielei say this, he also walked to the observation port, raised his telescope and looked for a while, and then said helplessly: "General Bielei, if we hadn't had limited reserves of artillery shells, I might have had a fire attack at this time, and maybe I could kill more enemies. But I am powerless now, and the rest depends on your tank army."

Just as the tank troops were only a few hundred meters away from the anti-tank trench, trucks loaded with our commanders and fighters rushed out of the forest and quickly rushed to the German positions with smoke.

At this time, the German artillery opened fire. In addition to the tank troops that were quickly approaching the anti-tank trenches, more artillery shells fell into the galloping convoy. The shells kept falling around the high-speed trucks and exploded. The tarp on several trucks was ignited by artillery fire. The driver immediately stopped the car so that the commanders and soldiers in the car could jump out of the car quickly.

A truck that was moving wildly in the snow, trying to break through the barrage was unfortunately hit by the German shells. With a loud "boom!", I only saw the car parts flying in the sky in the firelight, and the soldiers covered in fire were thrown around by the air waves. A burning tire rolled out of the firelight and continued to roll forward.

Seeing the truck being directly destroyed by the enemy's shells, my heart felt very uncomfortable as if something had been pulled. After a long time, I murmured: "All the commanders and fighters in this car are finished, and none of them seems to survive."

Perhaps because of the enemy's shelling, the troops riding in the truck should get off at two kilometers away from the enemy's position. But who did not know who gave the order, and the truck rushed directly to a place less than 300 meters from the enemy's position. As soon as the car stopped, the commanders and soldiers on the truck jumped down like dumplings, and then rushed to the tank parked by the trench.

Our tanks were parked at the edge of the trench and shelled the enemy positions opposite the trench. Under the attack of tank guns and vehicle-mounted machine guns, the Germans in the trench were suppressed and could not look up, and only their long-range artillery fire was still firing.

Seeing the tank beside the trench, one of them was hit by enemy artillery fire from time to time, and then it began to burn. The muscles on Bi Lei's face were twitching violently unconsciously. He turned his head and said to Povsky: "Comrade Artillery Commander, can your artillery fire suppress the enemy artillery fire?"

Povsky shook his head and said regretfully: "Bare General Lei, I want to help you too, but the artillery shells have been exhausted, and I am powerless now."

I held up a telescope and quietly looked at the battlefield with artillery fire in front of me, and found that the situation was not as bad as I thought. Because the German army near the fortifications near the anti-tank trench was suppressed by our tank firepower, it could not pose any threat to our attacking troops. Many commanders and fighters unloaded the rails tied to the tanks and put them on the trench, setting up passages for the tanks through the anti-tank trench.

With the help of infantry, more than 30 simple bridges could be built on the anti-tank trenches used by the German army to prevent our tanks from attacking. So our tanks and infantry rushed through the trenches along these passages and developed towards the depth of the enemy.

Seeing the tanks and troops crossing the anti-tank trench one after another, Povsky breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Thank God, our tank troops have broken through the German anti-tank trench so easily. I thought it would take a lot of casualties to cross the trench."

"Comrade Artillery Commander, we have a lot of casualties now." Bie Lei said with a sad face: "Look, in front of the anti-tank trench, at least twenty tanks were burning, and more than a dozen trucks were destroyed by German artillery fire during the impact, and our infantry suffered at least one battalion."

Seeing more and more tanks and infantry passing through the trenches and rushing into the depths of the enemy, Bie Lei suggested to me: "Comrade Commander, can you let the cavalry attack now? Their movement speed is fast, and as long as you rush up, you can shorten the speed of our defeat of the enemy."

"No, it's not possible yet." I pointed to the battlefield where the fierce battle was being fought, and said, "After crossing the trench, our soldiers rushed into the enemy's position and fought fiercely with them in the trench. At this time, when cavalry was transferred up, it would be useless to send any purpose, and it would easily become a target for the enemy's attack."

As soon as I finished speaking, the Cavalry Division commander called in. As soon as the phone was heard, he said anxiously: "Comrade Commander, now the infantry and tank troops have broken through the enemy's defense line. When can our division get up?"

To be honest, I don’t like the cavalry as a soldier, and it’s a useless army on the battlefield today. According to my original intention, it’s best to let them all dismount so that I can use them as infantry. At this moment, I was very unhappy to see the cavalry commander be eager to fight. I thought to myself that the infantry is fighting for trenches with the German army. What can your cavalry help? You can’t ride a horse in the trenches and wield a sabre to fight hand-to-hand combat with the enemy, right? But if you don’t hit his enthusiasm, I still said perfunctorily: “Comrade Commander, don’t worry, when it’s time for your division to go, I will naturally let you go. Your first priority now is to seize the time to rest to ensure that you can maintain strong combat effectiveness in the next battle.”

"Okay, Comrade Commander, I obey your order." When the cavalry commander heard what I said, although he could hear that I was perfunctory to him, he could only agree helplessly and hung up the phone.

Seeing that I rejected the request of the cavalry division commander, Bo Lei hesitated for a moment, and then began to advise me carefully: "Comrade Commander, I see that our infantry can occupy the first trench of the German army in a maximum of more than ten minutes under the cover of the tanks and launch an attack on the second trench. Do you see if the comrades of the cavalry division can attack first, and when they arrive at the anti-tank trench, they can catch up with the attack we launched on the second line of defense of the German army."

I knew that Bie Lei was also a cavalry many years ago and had a special feeling for the cavalry. When I heard him say this, I hesitated for a while, and felt that the victory was in sight, so I let the cavalry division come out to strengthen its momentum, which is also good. So I nodded and said, "Okay, General Bie Lei, since you said that, let the cavalry division be prepared. Five minutes later, the entire division will officially enter the battle."

Seeing that I agreed to let the Cavalry Division join the war as soon as possible, Belei agreed excitedly and quickly called the Cavalry Division and conveyed my latest order to them.

When I was watching Beret call, I suddenly realized that when I came this time, I didn't bring Major Akhromeyev. If he were there, I would just need to give a command on many things and he would do it properly.

When I saw the tank troops guiding the infantry and rushing towards the second line of defense of the German army, I put down my telescope and nodded at Beliet, indicating that the cavalry division could attack. Beliet agreed proudly, and happily called the cavalry commander and asked the opponent to lead the cavalry to attack immediately.

A few minutes later, the attacking cavalry division appeared in my sight. They were lined up with sparse formations, and almost all the cavalry on the horse were wearing a black cloak, with their shoulders raised high, and the sabers raised high in their hands pointed diagonally in front of them, shining under the sunlight.

The cavalry had just rushed halfway, and suddenly there were dense black dots in the distance and rushed towards their side. Seeing this situation, Bere suddenly exclaimed: "Hey, that's the German tank. Where did they emerge from?"

When the German tanks heard Be Lei say this, I quickly turned the telescope and carefully observed the direction of the black spots. Soon I saw clearly these black spots, which were composed of more than forty German tanks. They lined up in two rows and rushed towards the side of the cavalry division.

I felt a little sneering in my heart. If the German tanks really rush over, the cavalry division would be cut off in half. On the open ground, when the cavalry meets the tank, they will become lambs to be slaughtered.

Bere grabbed Povsky's shoulder and asked anxiously: "Comrade Artillery Commander, can your artillery use artillery to intercept enemy tanks? Otherwise, when they rush to the middle of the cavalry division, the cavalry division will suffer heavy casualties."

"No more, General Lei." Povsky said with a bitter look on his face: "The artillery regiment's shells have just been exhausted, otherwise you would not say anything, and I would also order the artillery to fire." He paused for a moment and asked tentatively, "Can your tank troops turn around and carry out counterattacks on the enemy's tanks?"

"If there is no such trench, I can immediately make the tank troops turn around." Belle pointed to the anti-tank trench in the distance and said: "At this time, let the tanks turn around, in addition to the occupied trenches and anti-tank trenches, we must also prevent the attack of the armored troops behind the enemy's second line of defense. In short, our tank troops can only rush forward and must not retreat, otherwise our attack will be defeated, and the thousands of commanders and fighters participating in the battle will be wiped out by the enemy."

"What should we do? We can't watch the cavalry division be destroyed, right?" Povsky, who had always been calm, was in chaos at this moment. (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!