The Soviet tanks "rumbled" in formation and approached the second line of defense of the German army, not fast, but they steadily destroyed and cleared room after room, or directly bulldozed with tanks, and then continued to advance.

Qin Chuan took a battalion of German soldiers to garrison the second line of defense.

Strictly speaking, this plan to lure the enemy into the depths was still quite risky, because the German army was seriously under-manned...... The elite 1st Infantry Corps was used to defend the Eastern Front, and the improvised Skirmish Corps were used to defend the Western Front, and these two lines of defense roughly cobbled together the bean-like defensive area on the eastern bank of the Lovati River.

Now, just the Soviet troops that were put in had a regiment and a tank battalion.

The Germans in this direction also had only one regiment.

Qin Chuan divided the regiment into three parts:

The 1st Battalion, led by Gerhard, maneuvered from the tunnels to the Lovadi River defense line to recapture it and hold it.

This may seem like a dangerous task, but it's not that hard to do.

The reason is that the Soviets do not know the tunnel fortifications of the German army, and at the same time, the Soviets will concentrate the main forces in the front and advance in depth to the German defense area, so they can catch the Soviets by surprise.

Things turned out to be as Qin Chuan thought, Gerhard easily occupied the Lovati River defense line and cut the Soviet army in two.

The second battalion, led by Qin Chuan, laid a second line of defense two miles deep in the German defense zone.

It was full of buildings that had been damaged by Soviet shells, and these buildings gave the Germans good cover...... Broken walls, ruins, windows, etc., can be used as shelter trenches.

Of course, these trenches could not hold back the tanks of the Soviet troops.

Qin Chuan knew this, and the Soviet army also knew this.

Therefore, the commander of the 164th Regiment of the Soviet Army, Colonel Yefimshi, was very confident in this attack, even after receiving information that the rear line of defense was reoccupied by the Germans.

"Andreevich!" Colonel Yefimshi gave an order to one of his own battalion commanders: "Take your troops and walk in front of the tanks!" ”

"Yes, Comrade Colonel!" Andreevich answered, and let his troops rush forward over the tanks with his troops.

Although this was a common tactic used by the Soviet army, it was undoubtedly correct.

The reason is that the tank's external perception is very poor, especially at this time it is still dark, especially when there are building wreckage and ruins everywhere, especially Colonel Yefimshi also knew that the Germans had a single weapon rocket launcher that could easily penetrate the frontal armor of the T34...... Hitler used the bazooka on the Eastern Front a few months ago, so the Soviets were no strangers to its performance.

In this case, if you still let the tank go ahead, it is basically letting the tank die.

Colonel Yefimshi decided that he should let the infantry go ahead and launch a surprise attack, wait for these infantry to discover enemy fire points and hiding places, and then use tank fire to suppress them, while also keeping the tanks out of the range of the enemy's rocket launchers.

This approach was quite effective, and with the cooperation of infantry, flares and tanks, the Soviets successfully advanced a few hundred meters.

"Keep going, boys!" Colonel Yefimushi said: "One more mile ahead, we will be able to join the comrades of the 82nd regiment!" ”

If they continue to fight like this, Qin Chuan and others really can't do anything about the Soviet army.

But at this moment, with a scream of "chirp", a T26 tank was blown into a ball of flames in a line of fire...... THE T26 LIGHT TANK HAS ONLY 15 MM OF ARMOR, WHICH OF COURSE CANNOT WITHSTAND THE ATTACK OF THE BAZOOKA, ESPECIALLY SINCE THIS BAZOOKA STILL HITS ITS SIDE ARMOR.

"Find that guy right away!" Colonel Yefimshi shouted at the infantry beside him: "Because of your negligence, our tanks and comrades are bearing the price!" ”

Colonel Yefimshi thought it was the infantry who did not search clearly, leaving a few German bazooka shooters.

"Yes, Comrade Colonel!"

A squad of infantry answered, grabbed their guns and ran towards the bazooka firing point...... When the bazooka is launched, it leaves a long trajectory, which is especially noticeable in the dark, so the Soviet soldiers immediately determined the position of the German troops.

But soon Colonel Yefimshi realized that he was wrong, because immediately after, there was a whistling of bazookas, and the Soviet tanks were destroyed one after another into a pile of scrap metal, and at the same time there was a burst of gunfire in the Soviet camp, with rifles and machine guns, and from time to time a few grenades.

"What's going on?" Colonel Yefimshi asked.

"I don't know, Comrade Colonel!" The guard replied: "The Germans are suddenly in our troops!" ”

"Flares, flares......" shouted Colonel Yefimshi.

Flares rose and illuminated the already chaotic Soviet troops, and then Colonel Yefimshi saw clearly that there were indeed many German soldiers hiding behind the ruins and broken walls to shoot at the Soviets, and there were quite a few of them.

Obviously, this could not be because the Soviets did not search clearly, because it was impossible for so many German troops to deceive the search.

Then, when Colonel Yefimshi discovered a hole hidden in the corner, he realized what the problem was.

"Damn the Germans, they are hiding underground!" Colonel Yefimshi scolded hatefully.

But it's too late to understand.

These German troops were the 3rd German Battalion, and they were hiding in the shadows and they were shooting at the Soviets from all directions. Some of them crawled out of the tunnels to fight, some opened the tunnels in the rubble, poked out their rifles and shot out, and some disguised themselves as Soviet civilians to confuse the Soviet army.

To make matters worse, it was dark at this time, and the Soviets could not distinguish between friend and foe in the chaos, and they continued to cause "friendly casualties" while further increasing the chaos under indiscriminate shooting.

Colonel Yefimshi tried to keep the troops under control, but no matter how much he shouted, it was to no avail...... This is related to the low quality of the Soviet army, and it is difficult to reorganize the poorly qualified troops once they are in chaos.

Originally, at this time, Colonel Yefimshi should have given the order to retreat.

But the next second he remembered that the back road had been blocked by the Germans, so the 164th Regiment had no way out.

With a "boom", a grenade exploded not far from Colonel Yefimshi, knocking him to the ground.

After a while, Colonel Yefimshi, who had woken up, struggled to get up from the ground, with blood on his face, stunned as he watched another tank explode into a ball of fire, watched rows of soldiers being knocked down by machine guns in pools of blood, and watched groups of Soviet soldiers raise their hands and surrender......

Colonel Yefimshi sighed, thinking about the possible responsibility for the defeat in this battle, so without hesitation, he raised his pistol to his temple and pulled the trigger.