"Well, I think the Chief of Staff's advice is good." Belkin echoed: "We don't know whether we will use heavy weapons on the fourth battalion positions after the enemy's artillery or air strikes, and hastily replenish new soldiers into the fourth battalion. This will lead to many soldiers not even seeing the enemy's shadow and sacrificing under the enemy's artillery fire."

Sokov only thought for a moment and nodded in agreement: "You are right. There are no solid permanent fortifications on the positions of the Fourth Battalion. If too many troops are placed on the positions, it will suffer heavy losses from the enemy's artillery and bombing. Comrade of the Deputy Brigade Commander, then wait until the enemy attacks the positions of the Fourth Battalion, and then send reinforcements into the positions of the Fourth Battalion."

After Belkin left, Karsokov hesitated for a while, and finally asked: "Comrade Brigade Commander, do you think the counterattack organized by the headquarters can win?"

"No." Sokov said without hesitation: "First, the army can invest in counterattacks, and even in local areas, it cannot form an advantage in military strength; secondly, our counterattacks do not receive air support, and even if artillery and tank troops participate in counterattacks, the number is probably very limited. Faced with a large number of German armored clusters, they have no chance of winning; thirdly, fighting is just supplies, and I don't think the army has ammunition and materials that can continue to fight..."

After listening to Sokov's analysis, Karsokov couldn't help but nodded repeatedly, and then asked a question he was puzzled: "Comrade Brigade Commander, since you can see the problems in this counterattack, I believe the commander can see them too. Then why did he organize such meaningless counterattack?"

Sokov looked up at Karsokov and said word by word: "Chief of Staff, the commander does not want to organize such a counterattack. It will not play any role except causing some small chaos to the Germans. On the contrary, it will also consume the precious and meaningless power of the army in such meaningless counterattacks. But there is no way. This is an order issued by the Supreme Commander, and the commander can only obey unconditionally."

"Fortunately, the counterattack was not implemented in our area, otherwise our brigade might have been consumed completely in this counterattack." After Karsokov expressed his thoughts, he continued to ask: "Comrade Brigade Commander, according to your analysis, where will the upcoming counterattack be launched?"

"Chief of Staff, according to my analysis, this counterattack organized by the Group Army will definitely not be in the defense area of ​​our brigade, nor in the defense area of ​​the 316th Infantry Division. Instead, it will be in the north, close to the right-wing friendly forces."

"Why?"

"Look," Sokov pointed to the map and said to Karsokov: "Our brigade is now in the protruding part of the entire army's defense line. It is of little significance to launch a counterattack from the protruding part, and it is easy to fall into the siege of the German army. Volokoramsk, who is defended by the 316th Infantry Division, has become muddy due to continuous heavy rains a few days ago. Not only is the German tanks stuck in the mud and unable to move, but we may not be able to play any role if we want to put tanks in this direction. Now there is only the northern defense zone left. If the army launches counterattack from there, even if it cannot completely disrupt the German offensive rhythm, it can help friendly forces stabilize the defense line."

"Since the counterattack is about to begin, it is of little use." Karsokov's expression became solemn: "Then do you think we can hold the position?"

Hearing Karsokov's question, Sokov did not speak, but stared at the map on the table. In the movie "The Battle of Moscow", Rokosovsky saw that the situation was not good for him, so he took the initiative to propose to Zhukov, hoping to retreat the troops to the Istria reservoir area and rebuild a new defense, but his proposal was rejected. He bypassed Zhukov and directly asked the Chief of General Staff Shaboshnikov. After soliciting Stalin's own opinions, the latter agreed to withdraw the 16th Army to the Istria reservoir area and establish a new defense to resist.

Unexpectedly, when Rokosovsky's troops began to abandon their existing positions and retreated on a large scale, Zhukov learned about this and immediately sent Rokosovsky a stern telegram to order the other party to command the troops to return to the original garrison area. These two completely opposite orders caused the retreating 16th Army to be in chaos. Many troops gave up the fortifications being built and hurried back to their original positions. When they arrived at the place, they found that this place had been occupied by the German army. After several struggles, they had not taken back the original positions, and were forced to retreat to the position that had not been completed. In this way, the defense lines of the 16th Army became uneven.

A few days later, all the troops of the 16th Army had to retreat to the Istria Reservoir and build fortifications on a large scale to prevent the German army from advancing. However, in the face of the German strong offensive, the defense line had to retreat again, retreating to a position just a few kilometers away from Moscow. A reconnaissance team of the German infantry division even broke into the town of Shimki in the northern suburbs of Moscow. If the militia from the instrument factory in the town were not dispatched in time and eliminated this enemy, the enemy might have established an offensive starting point in the town.

Seeing Sokov remained silent, Karsokov asked again: "Comrade Brigade Commander, you have not answered me yet. Do you think we can hold our position?"

"It's certain to hold the position." Sokov organized a vocabulary in his mind and said tactfully: "After all, although Russia is big, we have no way out. Behind us is Moscow." Although this was said by Krochkov, the first-class instructor of the 316th Infantry Division, he said it first, and the other party should not ask him for copyright fees.

"So, can we hold the position?" Karsokov's emotions were affected by Sokov and seemed a little excited: "That is to say, no matter how fierce the enemy's offensive is, they can never break through our defense line and enter Moscow?"

"Comrade Chief of Staff, you can't say that." Sokov shook his head and said, "There are still some Germans who can enter Moscow."

Hearing Sokov said this, Karsokov's expression became angry: "What, can some Germans enter Moscow? Comrade Commander, what is the identity of the Germans who can enter Moscow?"

"Of course it's the identity of a prisoner of war!" Sokov couldn't help but recall the scene of tens of thousands of German prisoners parading in Moscow after the Battle of Belarus, and then smiled and said: These Germans will pass through this city in humiliation under the bayonets of our soldiers."

Sokov's words made a smile appear on Karsokov's face: "Comrade Brigade Commander, it turns out that the Germans who could enter Moscow were prisoners of war captured by us. I was shocked. Why did the Germans break through our defense and break into Moscow with great swagger?"

At two o'clock in the afternoon, Belkin called. He said excitedly at the other end of the phone line: "Comrade Brigade Commander, tell you good news, the German attack on the fourth battalion position has been completely defeated."

"Good job." Sokov was very pleased to learn that the enemy attacking the fourth battalion's position was repelled. When the enemy hit the wall here twice, they might turn the direction of the attack to other areas. "Comrade Deputy Brigade Commander, please congratulate Major Vasia on behalf of me, congratulations to them on their successful shattering of the enemy's attack again."

Before the phone was finished, a person suddenly broke into the outside of the tent and shouted at Sokov: "Comrade Brigade Commander, tank! German tanks are driving towards us."

After seeing clearly that the person rushing in was Bobricov, Sokov couldn't help but frown and asked unhappily: "Captain, the enemy attacking the fourth battalion's position has been repelled. Where did the tanks appear?"

"I don't know, I really don't know." Bobricov shook his head vigorously and said with a panic expression: "I saw a German tank heading towards us."

Hearing Bobricov say this, Sokov hung up the phone, rushed out of the tent with Karsokov, and asked, "Where is the German tank?"

"There is a comrade comrade in the brigade commander." Bobricov pointed at six o'clock and shouted to Sokov: "It's about one kilometer away from us."

"Hey, how could the German tank appear here?" Karsokov said, biting his back teeth, "Did it fall from the sky?"

Sokov stared at the long-range German tank for a while and said in an uncertain tone: "Maybe he accidentally bypassed our army's defense line and broke here by accident."

"What should I do?" Karsokov seemed very panicked. He advised Sokov: "Or, I will call the artillery battalion and let them concentrate the artillery fire and destroy the tank?"

But Karsokov's proposal was rejected by Sokov: "Chief of Staff, useless. There are no artillery observers here to provide firing parameters for the artillery, and they rashly let the artillery fire artillery and intercept the German tanks. I am worried that in the end the enemy's tanks did not hit, and the shells fell on our heads."

Karsokov asked nervously: "What should we do? Otherwise, let's transfer immediately."

"It's useless, Comrade Chief of Staff." Sokov shook his head again and rejected Karsokov's proposal: "If the German tanks come over and no trace of us are found, we will definitely continue to drive forward. You must know that the forest ahead is the location of the field hospital. If the German tanks are really allowed to break through, the wounded and medical staff will suffer huge losses."

"What should I do?" Karsokov asked, "Are you just standing here stupidly waiting to become a prisoner of the Germans?"

Sokov quickly thought about how to get rid of the predicament in front of him. Seeing Sokov thinking, Karsokov and Bobricov were extremely anxious, but they did not dare to speak casually, so as not to disrupt Sokov's thinking.

"Chief of Staff, let's go back to the tent immediately." Sokov said this to Karsokov and said to Bobricov: "Captain, you also return to your tent and let the soldiers inside wear German uniforms."

"Let the soldiers wear German uniforms?" Bobricov was stunned at first when he heard Sokov say this, and then understood Sokov's meaning: "Comrade Brigade Commander, I understand that you asked the soldiers to wear German uniforms to confuse the enemy's tanks and prevent them from firing fire here casually."

"Time is tight, hurry up and act."

A few minutes later, Sokov, who was dressed in German uniform, walked out of the tent and met with Bobricov and others who came out of another tent. He looked at the dozen soldiers standing behind Bobricov, and then loudly ordered: "Captain, take your people with me."

After saying that, Sokov carried an MP40 submachine gun and walked towards the position of the German tank. Bobricov stood there and hesitated for a moment, then waved his hand to the soldiers, indicating that they would follow Sokov's footsteps.

After Sokov and others walked a few hundred meters, they met the oncoming tank.

The German tank stopped, the hatch above the turret was lifted from inside, and a tank soldier wearing a tank cap and a black one-piece shirt leaned out: "Which part of you are?"

Sokov did not answer the other party's question, but walked to the tank, looked up at the tank soldiers who were leaning out, and said loudly: "We are the special forces team of the Brandenburg regiment. We have just occupied the Russian command and captured a group of Russians. I said where did you come from?"

After Sokov finished speaking, the tank soldiers said respectfully: "Mr. Major, when we attacked the Russians' positions, we were intercepted by their artillery fire. In the chaos, we lost our way and didn't know how we got here."

"Oh, so that's it." After hearing the tank soldiers' explanation, Sokov finally understood why a German tank suddenly appeared here. It turned out that he was lost in order to avoid artillery fire when he was hit by artillery fire. He took the lead in climbing onto the tank, and then rushed to Bobricov and others standing around the tank and shouted: "What are you still standing there? Why don't you get on the car quickly, let's take the Russian prisoners back."

When the tank soldiers heard the orders issued by Sokov, they really regarded the other party as their own. Therefore, when they saw Bobricov and others climbing onto the tank, they did not give up.

Seeing that Bobricov and three other soldiers had climbed onto the tank, Sokov winked at them and signaled to take action.

Bobricov, who understood it, immediately picked up the MP40 submachine gun in his hand and aimed at the tank soldier: "Don't move, raise your hand!"

Facing the gun pointing at him, the tank soldier was a little confused. He asked Sokov in confusion: "Mr. Major, what's going on? Why did your subordinates point the gun at me?"

"We are the Soviet army!" Sokov said in skillful German: "Tell your companions to surrender immediately, otherwise we will throw grenades into the tank."

Hearing Sokov say this, he looked at the guns around him, and the tank soldiers gave up the idea of ​​resisting. He first lowered his head and shouted a few times into the tank, then crawled out of the turret, jumped off the tank, and stood aside with both hands raised.
Chapter completed!