As the machine-gun fire in the city gradually stopped, only the occasional long shot was fleeting. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

The coalition forces did not rush to continue the attack, but transported all the heavy weapons in the rear. A machine gun was turned on its back and re-erected.

The light machine gun directly removed the tripod and placed it on the city wall, aiming at the houses and streets in the city.

Some soldiers filled bags with dirt, carried them to the top of the city walls, piled them in front of them, and slowly built small fortifications. A few soldiers quietly climbed the city wall, using the wood and sandbags scattered near the city wall, and built a simple position with a little pile.

Heavy machine guns were lifted up, erected inside the fortifications, and aimed at the city.

"Come, mount the mortar! Condescendingly, no barricade of the enemy could resist our shells. ”

"Yes, sir."

After more than half an hour of busy work, after the painstaking transformation of the coalition soldiers, a defense line facing the city was built on the city wall.

In the corner of the window in the middle of the town, Ivan watched the coalition soldiers on the eastern wall repair the fortifications in a hurry, his brows furrowed. In this way, the city wall became a good barrier for the coalition forces. The light and heavy machine guns on the walls are so high that they can block the streets of the town.

"Sir, shall we send someone to retake the eastern wall? If this continues, many of our barricades are under their noses! An officer suggested.

"We now have only 2,000 men, and the enemy has nearly 10,000 people, and our purpose is not to defeat the enemy, and we cannot defeat them, but to preserve our strength, delay them, and wait for our main forces to arrive, and flank them in front and rear." Ivan said calmly.

"I wonder when the main forces will arrive? One of the telegraph machines here has been damaged by them, otherwise we would have been able to contact the main forces. ”

"My plan is to defend here for two days, and in the afternoon we will use the open space behind the walls to delay the enemy for an afternoon, and tomorrow we will be able to use half of the town's space for another day to delay it, and we will be able to complete our plan. If, after two days, the main forces still do not arrive, we will abandon this place and take advantage of the darkness to withdraw. Ivan explained: "We must preserve our vital strength as much as possible, use every inch of space to consume the enemy's strength and time, and not blindly attack." ”

"Yes, sir."

"How many more artillery do we have? How much artillery is left? Ivan asked.

"We now have twenty more 77mm guns left. We gathered two artillery groups in the south and west of the city, plus five artillery units rescued from the eastern city wall, and we could make up three artillery groups. The officer replied.

"Arrange all the 77mm field guns for me, and let them aim their guns at the eastern city wall and wait for orders at any time." Ivan said with his fists clenched.

"Yes, sir."

As the heavy weapons of the coalition army were gradually deployed on the city walls, groups of coalition soldiers formed a scattered line and rushed towards the city.

There were only a few occasional gunshots from inside the town, and it was a few sporadic sharpshooters shooting hapless guys outcropping above the walls. The whole town seemed to be shrouded in a frightening silence, as oppressive as it was before the storm.

In a short distance of 50 meters, all obstacles have been nearly demolished, houses have been destroyed, and wood, earth and stone have been used to build various defensive lines.

Coalition soldiers had to rush through an unobstructed fifty meters.

The light and heavy machine guns on the city walls were all aimed at the streets, room windows, balconies and other possible positions where the enemy could ambush, and they continued to fire short bursts at these targets.

Dense bullets swept across the houses in front of them, only a few machine guns in the distance were firing intermittently in the city, and the scattered sound of rifles began to gradually intensify.

Seeing that his own machine-gun fire was suppressing the opponent, the battalion commander of the coalition army immediately asked the follow-up troops to speed up and keep up. A company of Germans and half a company of Lithuanian troops were responsible for suppressive fire at the head of the city. The rest of the coalition forces followed and rushed into the city.

Ivan stood in a nondescript house in the center of town, holding a telescope next to a window, carefully observing the movement of the enemy army.

In his mind, he silently counted the number of enemy troops that entered the city: one company, two companies・・・・・・

It is estimated that the number of enemies has exceeded three companies, and is almost a thousand. Ivan decisively ordered: "Artillery cover fire!" ”

If the number of enemies was too large, it would have been difficult for the Soviet troops to drive them out in a short time. If the battle is scorched and the enemy outside the city continues to enter, it will be lost. If you use a big net, you should also be careful that there are too many fish and the net will be broken.

The three artillery groups of the Soviet army, with the help of the rest of the soldiers, hid all the remaining 77mm guns behind the fortifications, and the barrels were covered with wheat straw and other things. Since one artillery crew was responsible for five or six guns, they had to adjust the firing parameters of all the 77mm guns and aim them at an area on the city wall.

Twenty artillery pieces made a deafening sound almost simultaneously, and at such a distance of six or seven hundred meters, all twenty shells hit the city walls. With such a distance and such a large target on the city wall, it is very difficult to miss the target.

Three and a half companies of coalition soldiers stormed the interior of the town. The soldiers in front had advanced to a distance of a hundred meters from the city walls, and the Soviet soldiers relied on the houses inside the town and the barricades that cut off the streets to resist the onslaught of the coalition forces and delay their advance.

However, with the support of machine guns and mortars above the city walls, the barricades of the Soviet soldiers were quickly destroyed by the mortar shells that were called, and the machine guns fired at the Soviet soldiers who were visible in the streets.

At this moment, 20 shells directly hit the eastern city wall, and the violent explosion directly blew the city wall into tears and scattered rocks. The hastily built fortifications of the coalition forces could barely withstand the machine-gun bullets, and under the direct fire of the cannons, the losses were immediately heavy, and more than a dozen machine guns were destroyed in this sudden artillery bombardment.

"Keep shooting!"

The three groups of the Soviet artillery were responsible for three guns and were responsible for precise strikes against important enemy targets, while the remaining seventeen guns only needed a slight movement from side to side to cover fire near the city walls.

Boom, boom, three cannon shots rang out one after another, and the three mortars that survived the first strike turned into parts directly in the artillery fire, and slowly fell into the sky along with the broken corpses of the soldiers next to them.

"What is this sound? How our artillery opened fire indiscriminately, how did it hit our own people! General Zukauskas asked sharply, looking at the dusty walls in the distance.

"Sir, this is not our artillery! It was the enemy's artillery hiding inside the town that opened fire! The officer hurriedly explained.

"Whatever method you use, you must kill their artillery as soon as possible! Shoot me all the shells! General Goltz said decisively, he was well aware of the lethality of artillery to infantry.

"Yes, sir!" The officer replied.