"It was a blow towards the church," said the officer, "and if you look to the left, it's the Engineering Building." ”

Ulanorasov looked over there: there were men lying on their stomachs inside the low walls of a building that had been fired at by artillery. He could clearly see the glow of their intensive, irregular firing.

"At my command, let's get to ......," he paused and continued, "...... Run to Rumenkov. Even if the Germans did not fire, lie down there. Do you understand? Note. Get ready. Advance! ”

He ran straight forward, not bending down, not only because his head was still a little dizzy, but also because he didn't look timid in the eyes of the panicked black vest guy. He ran to the dead man in one go, but instead of lying down there, as he himself had ordered, he continued to run forward, towards the ammunition depot. As soon as he got there, he suddenly became frightened, as if he was about to be killed. After a while, the officer came running out of breath.

They circled the mound three times, but could not find a similar entrance. Everything around him was blown up, and whether the entrance was clogged with debris from the shelling, or whether the officer who had come had misremembered the place, or whether Rumyankov had not run in this direction at all, Ulanorasov understood only one thing: he had moved from the safe crater in the distance to this almost completely exposed place near the church, with only a pistol by his side. He looked worriedly at the low wall, at the light of the irregular firing: there were his own people, and Ulanorasov couldn't wait to get there.

They began to run again, stepping over craters and corpses, neither lying down nor bending over. They kept running, and Ulanorasov kept shouting "It's his own people!" But the other side continued to shoot at them and shoot again, and several times he could clearly hear the bullets popping around him. This time they were lucky: they ran close to the wall, crossed it, fell to the ground in a huff, and finally came to safety and among their own people. However, the fierce captain, who was neatly buttoned but had a dirty uniform, exclaimed angrily, "You should take the leap forward, you know?" Leap the way! ……”

After catching his breath, Ulanorasov wanted to report on the situation, but instead of listening to him, the captain sent him to the weak left flank of the defense line on a special mission: to make a special observation of a gate. He was convinced that the Germans rushed in from there. After a very brief briefing to Ulanolasov, the captain did not answer any of his questions, but added with a frown: "Get a rifle from the sergeant." Staring at the door carefully, got it? We just need to stick to our own people. ”

Which "own people" the captain expects to hold out to and where they will appear from, Ulanorasov did not ask further. He himself believed that it would come before his eyes and that everything would be in order. Now it's just a matter of sticking around. It's just shooting at the enemy, that's all.

Arriving on the left flank, Ulanorasov did not find any sergeant: a corner of the building was slowly burning, lazily spitting tongues of fire from the smoke, and in front of the wall lay several exposed fighters and two border guards with light machine guns of the "Dzhegalev" type.

"Why don't you put out the fire?" Ulanolasov asked angrily.

No one answered him. They were all engrossed in the gate with a tall water tower. Realizing that his order was out of place, Ulanorasov asked the machine gunner where the sergeant was. The older one shook his head: "There it is." ”

A man of modest stature was prostrate on the ground, his feet wide apart in a pair of torn boots. His black head, his forehead resting against the rifle's sight. When Ulanolasov shook his shoulder, his head shook heavily.

"Comrade Sergeant......"

"He's dead." Said one of the border guards.

Ulanolasov immediately retracted his hand and looked around in confusion, but at the moment no one paid attention to him. He wanted the rifle in the deceased's hand, but he did not want to touch the deceased again, so he grabbed the handle of the gun and pulled it out, but the deceased still held it tightly, and Ulanorasov kept pulling, and the deceased's round black head shook and his forehead touched the sight.

"They're running again," someone said, "and these are the lads of the Fifty-Third Regiment." ”

"It's the band," said the second man, "and their barracks are there, on top of the gate......

Several rows of short, dry firing sounded in the direction of the club. Ulanolasov couldn't figure out where it was fired, but he immediately lay down beside the deceased sergeant and continued to pull the third-line rifle from his stiff hands. The dead man clung to it for a moment, but then his stiff fingers suddenly let go, and Ulanorasov, having grasped the gun, crawled to a corner of the wall a little farther away without looking back.

Near the gate, several warriors were rushing around. One of them held a polished trumpet in his hand, which from time to time shimmered with the dazzling reflection of the sun. The Germans were sparsely gunfired, and the boys of these bands sometimes lay down, sometimes jumped, and continued to move on. Near the stables, the horses were struggling and making loud snorts, and Ulanolasov was looking at them more, and when he looked back in the direction of the gate, the boys of the band had gone somewhere, and the rays of the sun had been taken away.

Just then, the figure of a German tank appeared.

"It's the tanks of the Germans!" Someone shouted in panic, "Let's get out of here!" ”

Ulanorasov rushed into anger, he, as a midshipman on the battlefield, could be said to have seen a real enemy tank for the first time (previously only seen on photographs and pictures), and did not really understand the horrors of this weapon.

He raised his body slightly, picked up the three-line rifle in his hand, aimed at the tank and fired a shot, the bullet only left a little spark on the tank, he knew that the weapon in his hand did not work against the tank, so he looked around, looking for other weapons, he quickly found a grenade, and was about to use it, but found that the short and thick barrel of the German tank turned around and was facing him.

Ulanolasov hesitated, not knowing whether to dodge or throw the grenade in his hand at the German tank, and at this moment, only to hear a "boom", the turret of the German tank was suddenly lifted off.

Ulanolasov was stunned for a while, he looked at the grenade in his hand, then at the German tank, and did not understand what was happening, when a roar of machinery came, and he turned his head and saw a tall and large "KV-1" heavy tank, the muzzle of which was still smoking.

"'My own people' are here!" Someone cheered, "It's our tank!" ”

In the "KV-1" tank, Sun Hui looked at the German "No. 4" tank that had completed the "hat salute", and easily made a "V" gesture to Ye Chuchu beside him.