Yang Mingzhi was very aware of the current movements of the German army, because he knew the danger of the situation better than Pavlov, the commander-in-chief of the Western Front.

Army Group Center was under the command of Field Marshal von Bock, and his goal was to capture Moscow in an attempt to replicate the success in France.

At the beginning of the war, the Germans occupied Grodno, and by the 24th, Hort's troops did not entangle with the Soviet troops and directly occupied Vilnius, which led to heavy pressure on the Soviet Western Front in the north. At the same time, Guderian's forces were trying to outflank the Soviets from the south, and the Germans were trying to form a huge pincer offensive to complete the encirclement of Minsk and the entire Western Front.

Therefore, in front of the 284th Infantry Division to which Yang Mingzhi belonged, the enemy's multiple tank clusters pounced like tigers descending from the mountain.

The first line of defense of the Soviet army was torn open at the beginning of the war, and the Soviet army was powerless. The most phenomenal phenomenon of the Western Front was suffering a serious setback, and a large number of troops were forced to shrink towards Minsk.

Many of the troops that had been crippled and scattered were retreating on their own, a large amount of supplies were abandoned, and heavy artillery and damaged tanks were no longer needed.

A huge roar was sounding in the west, and standing in the trench, Yang Mingzhi stared at the periscope telescope. Theoretically, on the distant horizon, enemy tank columns and motorized units were attacking the city of Minsk, and war would break out in the coming days.

Having experienced such a huge battle, Yang Mingzhi couldn't face all this calmly as he decided before. He blamed himself in his heart, he was really playing with fire. The defeat of the Soviet army in this Minsk battle was inevitable, why did you have to come to this place desperately? Just to participate in World War II?

Look at the wife next to her, she was also brought from the northeast, and her life was in danger at a young age.

But now, there is no point in regretting everything, and the resistance will come soon.

On the 25th, there was a lot of noise in the sky, and countless soldiers saw such a scene. A BF109 fighter is in pursuit of an I153 Seagull fighter.

Soviet planes could not fly the Germans, and in full view of everyone, the tail of Soviet fighters was already burning.

"Not good, he's going to be shot down like this. Fighters, shoot at the sky! Yang Mingzhi ordered his own men to open fire, the DP light machine gun was pointed at the sky, and more fighters of Mosin Nagant aimed at the enemy plane.

Pugachev urgently ordered twin anti-aircraft machine guns to save his compatriots, but the efforts of everyone did not cause the enemy plane to crash, the enemy abandoned the target and retreated, and the Soviet plane also forced to land in the position to less than a kilometer away.

"Comrades, follow me." Yang Mingzhi was the first to climb out of the trench, and he rushed to the scene with a company of soldiers to pull out the wounded and tired pilots.

When the pilot returned to the position, he stammered the fact of the horrors of the front.

"Our front-line air force is finished!"

Pugachev also wanted to loudly question why the air force was stupid like a pig, but the pilot directly stated that almost all the planes had been destroyed at the airfield, and that most of the airstrips had been blown up.

Pilot Magnushev also fought hard, and in the end his plane had no chance of taking off again.

He has done his best, and Pugachev has no more harsh repellents. Yang Mingzhi asked: "Comrade, you can see farther in the air, so what is the current movement of the German army?" ”

"It's an offense, a devastating offense. Our troops are suffering terrible losses, and in two days at most they will advance here. The pilot said in horror.

Pugachev shook his head, the man was terrified.

A large number of Soviet troops were retreating towards Minsk, some of them stragglers, some of them relatively intact. Soon these people appeared in the telescope, and Yang Mingzhi saw a lot of familiar figures.

I saw that on the horizon, a lot of stone-like things were moving, and as they got closer and closer to the position, Yang Mingzhi saw the true faces of these guys.

"Those are KV tanks!" Yang Mingzhi only felt very surprised, why are these guys also retreating?

The KV2 heavy tank is equipped with the currently very exaggerated 152 mm howitzer, for which it has a huge head and an exaggerated armor thickness. This kind of tank was born at an inopportune time, and in the face of a possible war, it was driven to the shelves, and as a result, too many problems were exposed in the war. In fact, in Yang Mingzhi's opinion, this tank is more like a self-propelled gun.

The defeated troops had a small number of tanks, mainly KV2 heavy tanks and Te-3476 medium tanks. Other models, such as the Te-26 tank, have been wiped out.

The rout tried to pass through the position of the 284th Infantry Division, and Yang Mingzhi immediately asked Pugachev to stop these people, at least to block the tank crew. "Aren't you very angry that our artillery regiment suffered heavy losses from the bombing of German aircraft? Now there are new tanks that can act as heavy firepower, and we replenish firepower now. ”

It dawned on Pugachev that the constructive opinion of this young man was too good! He immediately ordered his men to bayonet and force the rout to stop.

But the rout did not choose a way, and at the critical moment, he actually opened fire on his former compatriots.

Yang Mingzhi was also taken aback, weren't they the Soviet Red Army.

The battalion commissar basically lost the tactical command of the army, and he could only motivate the fighters at the spiritual level. Faced with the current situation, he hoped that Berekov would not show mercy. "Comrade battalion commander, the Soviet Red Army will not fire on its own troops. These people are cowards, they are traitors to the great Motherland, and I hope that you, on the orders of Comrade Stalin, will destroy these wicked people. ”

Yang Mingzhi held his hat, and before he could give the order, the troops had already opened fire in a warning manner. Some of the mutinous soldiers were killed, and the others were stunned.

Pugachev immediately dispatched troops to attack and disarmed the rout in front of him. The 284th Infantry Division intercepted more than 2,000 routers, and now, as division commander, he gave them two paths. "Either you take up arms and continue the fight, or I'll just treat you as deserters!"

Many soldiers were suppressed, and Yang Mingzhi wrote a paragraph and handed it to Pugachev. It's a speech: "Are you going to be heroes or cowards, even if it's only for a few days?" What you need is not only courage, but also the patriotic creed of life in your heart. We are here to defeat the enemy and wake up the cowards in the army, and we, the Soviet Union, will definitely defeat the enemy! ”

There was no applause or cheers from the soldiers, and many were frightened. Pugachev made a quick decision, some cowards were shot, and the rest had to join the 284th Infantry Division to participate in the defense

But the retreating troops from other directions passed through the outer defense line of Minsk, and they were still retreating inland.

The tank unit had to stay, and there were a total of five KV2 tanks that were still moving normally. Many of them had a variety of problems, and according to the tankmen, the Tenth Army, to which they belonged, had been routed, and the army was retreating in confusion.

A tanker looked at Yang Mingzhi, an officer with a face in the East, with a mournful sigh. "Death awaits us, do you know how we got to where we are now? Our T26 is simply vulnerable, even if its artillery works well. Our only effective tank also has a lot of problems, let's just say that most of our KV tanks are damaged because of their own problems. ”

The five KV2 tanks were lucky not to suffer structural damage, and they were at least able to run. But the tankman said that he would break down after another twenty kilometers at most, not because the tank was running out, but because the engine was going to burst.

Yang Mingzhi listened to these strange reasons, and the defeat of the Soviet army was indeed inevitable. The most elite armored corps are either thin-skinned and stuffed, or they are lame as soon as they go. It was a stroke of luck to have five KV2s left for one's own use, so all twenty tanks intercepted were used as forward firepower, and the big-headed KV2 was used as a fixed turret.

In this way, the losses caused by the end of the German air raids, now the personnel are replenished more, but the lack of heavy equipment undoubtedly seriously reduces the firepower of the army.

Faced with such a situation, the Soviet army had no choice, and Yang Mingzhi knew that tomorrow, June 26, the vanguard of the German army would have to attack the periphery of Minsk.

For this reason, the wife must be by her side. Yang Mingzhi carried a PPSH on his back, and also handed it to his wife, and instructed: "Xiao Tao, no matter how far the war goes, you must follow me." Wherever I go, you go, you have to follow me all the time. “

Carambola nodded deeply, and the future war will completely refresh her three views that are not very sound. Now she, like the officers and men of the special anti-tank battalion, is confused, and when the enemy's armored forces come to kill, everything is unknown.

The blocking battle was destined to begin, and Pugachev gave the final order.

On the night of the 25th, the fighters slept in the trenches. The trench is divided into two lanes, which are connected by traffic trenches in front and behind. Taking into account the rampage nature of the enemy's armored vehicles, Pugachev deliberately widened the distance of the battle line, and a number of mines were laid in the middle of the two trenches.

Through the description of the front-line rout, the distribution of their battle defense artillery was easily torn apart by the Germans, for which Yang Mingzhi was ordered to the Taoist division.

"Maybe I should think about your pre-war plans, it is true that the war defense artillery should not be evenly placed."

To this, political commissar Badzin objected: "The defeat of our friendly forces is entirely due to the lack of firmness of will, and the Soviet soldiers, armed with a sense of patriotism, will be invincible. If we oppose the arrangement of our superiors, it will be difficult to win. ”

"Shut up!" Pugachev sent the commissar a big-eared melon seed. "Comrade Batykin, I don't know how you got to the top yet? You are only loyal to the Bolsheviks, you are not an army commander at all, you can only brainwash the soldiers to hit the enemy's Iron King with a red brain! ”

Accused of this, Badzin shut up.

"In accordance with Berekov's decision, we changed the armament slightly, and the battle defense artillery and howitzers formed a small anti-tank position, with five guns as a defensive node."

Yang Mingzhi was very satisfied with this arrangement, and when the artillery fire formed a barrage to name the enemy tanks, the chance of a salvo would be greatly improved. These slight changes can be made quickly even in the dark.

Of course, Yang Mingzhi does not think that his troops will lose the blocking battle tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, the RPG has 500 warheads, each of which can destroy a No. 3 tank.