Major General Fadeevich reported the situation to Golikov truthfully.

Golikov couldn't help laughing after hearing this, and said to Krylov: "We were worried about what would happen to Shulka at the front because of the command issue, but we didn't expect that we should be more worried about the Guards Infantry Regiment!" ”

Krylov nodded and said, "We really don't need to worry too much, because it is very realistic that the consequences of not handing over the command to Shulka are likely to be that no one will want to survive!" ”

Krylov was right.

Therefore, it is not so much that the command was delegated by Pavelkov on his own initiative, or that the command was fought for by Shulka, but that all this was forced out by the battlefield.

Not listening to Shulka's advice means death and failure.

Listening to Schulka's advice is often about living to win.

Well, even a fool knows what to choose.

At this time, Shulka was commanding the 82nd Regiment lurking on both flanks of Mamayev Heights.

To be precise, the right flank was the first battalion and the second battalion: the first battalion was the main attack, and the second battalion was used as a reserve.

There were only three battalions on the left flank.

Therefore, the left flank is also a feint, and the real main direction of attack is the right flank.

The reason for this arrangement is to take into account several factors.

First of all, the right flank of Mamayev Gang faced the "Red October" metallurgical plant, and even the new village of "Red October" opposite it was behind the flank of the German orthogonal plane. (Note: "Red October" new village is the residence of the workers of the metallurgical plant, the Soviet Union is a planned economy, the urban planning is relatively regular and neat)

This brought great convenience to the 82nd Infantry Regiment.

For example, Shulka could arrange for a part of the artillery to be at the "Red October" metallurgical plant, and these artillerymen could shoot shells to the flank of the Mamayev Gang to provide fire cover for the attacking troops as long as they measured the distance and height.

The artillery of the "Red October" new village could even smash shells into the positive slope of the German garrison.

But of course, none of this was arranged by Shulka...... The 82nd Infantry Regiment did not have so much artillery, and the mortars in their hands were even small-caliber.

Those artillery were arranged by Pavelkov, who transferred a mortar battalion directly from the rear, and then deployed them to the metallurgical plant and the new village, where an artillery command was created.

The creation of an artillery command was necessary in order to unify the command of these artillery and coordinate with the 82nd Infantry Regiment, otherwise there was a high probability that these shells would fall on the head of the 82nd Infantry Regiment.

As the minutes ticked by, Shulka felt that the time was almost up, like Major Mikhailvich nodded.

Major Mikhailvich shouted into the microphone: "Fire!" ”

As soon as the words fell, a shell whistled from the air, and then smashed accurately on the minefields and roadblocks laid by the Germans.

Of course, this is not luck, but the artillery observers are prepared during the day, and the artillery at this time only needs to adjust the elements according to the calculated data and shoot the shells.

Dense shells exploded on the Mamayev post, row after row, like a comb, back and forth in the German positions, and in a short time the mines and barbed wire were all blown up into the sky.

If anything, it's craters on the ground.

It was bombed like this for twenty minutes...... The Soviet artillery seemed to be breathing a bad breath, they did not dare to come out during the day when they were suppressed by the enemy's air power, and at night it was time for them to raise their eyebrows.

But of course, the German artillery also began to suppress the Soviet army.

The battle between the enemy and our artillery is not at all easier than the battle between the infantry, the infantry fights face to face, and the artillerymen usually do not see people, they use calculation, speed, manipulation of the artillery, in short, to shoot the shells in the shortest possible time, but also to be able to hit accurately, sometimes they do not even know whether to hit the target or not.

Especially during this night, the artillery observer saw the fire of the enemy artillery, calculated the position and then guided the artillery to suppress it, whether it hit or not can only be guessed by feeling, or from whether the enemy artillery stopped firing.

However, this time the German artillery was in a state of bewilderment.

Because they could see the fire and smoke from enemy artillery...... These are so obvious in the dark that you can't hide them.

German artillery observers immediately calculated the position of the target and accurately directed the artillery fire into the target area.

However, no matter how German artillery bombarded the area, the Soviet artillery fire seemed to be completely unaffected, and the bombardment of Mamayev Hill continued in rows.

Among them, Shulka is actually playing a trick.

"The target of our artillery is Mamayev Height!" Shulka pointed to the map and said: "If we deploy artillery at the metallurgical plant to bombard the Mamayev Heights......

As he spoke, Shulka connected a line between the two points to represent the trajectory.

"So that we have an advantage!" "We can hide the artillery on the east side of the building, and the enemy artillery is mostly deployed on the west side," Shulka said. That is to say......"

"That is, our artillery is in the dead end of the enemy's artillery?" Pavelkov threw a shocked look at Shulka, who could not believe that Shulka still had research in artillery warfare.

"Yes!" Shulka replied: "But this does not prevent us from bombing Mamayev Heights!" ”

Colonel Pavelkov turned his gaze to Captain Kovalenko, the commander of the artillery battalion, who had just arrived at Stalingrad with reinforcements from the eastern bank of the Volga.

"What Comrade Captain said makes sense!" Captain Kovalenko nodded: "Moreover, there are a large number of buildings that can be used at the metallurgical plant and the new village of 'Red October', that is, the shells from the enemy will be blocked by the buildings, and unless the shells penetrate the buildings, they will not pose a threat to our artillery." And we, on the other hand, can hit the Mamayev Gang with no hindrance! ”

"So what are you waiting for?" Colonel Pavelkov ordered: "Prepare immediately!" ”

"Yes, Comrade Colonel!"

Then Colonel Pavelkov breathed a sigh of relief.

As the commander of the Guards Infantry Regiment, he certainly had some combat experience, and knew that whether the battle, especially the night battle, could be carried out smoothly depended largely on artillery.

The reason for this is that the attacking forces have to blast minefields and barbed wire...... These were a major obstacle for the infantry to charge quickly and fight in close quarters with the enemy.

However, because Stalingrad was blockaded by the Germans for supplies, the artillery positions were often bombarded by enemy air power, so the artillery was often at a disadvantage, even at night.

Now this proposal put forward by Shulka actually made the Soviet artillery invincible.

Then, this plan to counterattack Mamayev Hill can be said to be half the battle.