"Hmmm! Is it true or not? Ivan pondered to himself, and suddenly asked, "Where did you get this letter?" ”

"Sir, we were in the woods a kilometer east of the city, and we saw a figure in the woods, so we ran to check it, and found the letter. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info" the officer replied.

It seems that the information in this letter is likely to be true, Ivan thought to himself.

"Call the officers for a meeting at once!" Ivan ordered.

・・・・・・

Several officers who smelled of gunpowder sat around a round table and took turns reading the contents of the letters.

"What do you guys think?" Ivan spoke.

"Although the last time the team we sent failed in its mission, only one person returned, but from his words, it seems that this mysterious intelligence agent is real." Said the bearded commissar.

"We are now surrounded by Lithuanians, Germans and Poles, and we cannot afford to take the slightest risk now, otherwise we will be annihilated." Ivan said with a solemn face: "I decided to change the plan of retreat. We didn't go through the east gate, we went straight to the other side of the river by boat and jumped out of the encirclement of the Lithuanians, Germans and Poles. ”

"When will the retreat begin? It would be bad if the Poles attacked before we retreated. An officer asked.

"The original plan was in the early hours of the morning, but now we have changed it to nine o'clock tonight, and we will have to complete the retreat in an hour." Ivan said.

"But if we don't take the land route, how can we take all these materials that we have seized? An hour is too little, and our troops, including the wounded, have to be transported several times. The rest of the supplies, rifles, bullets, explosives, food, clothing, had to be moved to the ship and brought down from above, which really took a lot of time. Without a day, it is simply impossible to transport them all.

All the intact dozen or so cannons are concentrated in the east of the city, and it is difficult to transport them to the dock under the noses of the enemy! An officer asked.

"Now is a matter of life and death, not the time to be greedy. People are the most important, if something is lost, it can be captured again, and if the troops are gone, there is nothing. Ivan said firmly: "Starting at nine o'clock tonight, first transport the wounded, then transport the soldiers in batches, then transport supplies, and other food and clothing must be prepared sufficiently, and take away as many weapons and firearms as possible."

There are still more than three hours to go, so you can arrange the order of retreat and cover, adjust the defensive deployment, and only notify the cadres at the company and platoon level for the time being, and then notify the soldiers of the whole army before departure. ”

"Yes, sir." The officers below shouted in unison.

Ivan stuffed the letter into his clothes.

At nine o'clock in the evening, the Soviet troops began to retreat, and although the Soviet troops captured many steamboats, in order to maintain secrecy, they had to use those small manpower boats. Otherwise, as soon as the machine starts, the loud sound will directly tell the enemy what he is doing.

There were dozens of small boats, each capable of squeezing five to ten soldiers.

In order not to break the silence of the night, the boat sailed very slowly, and every stroke was afraid to break the silence.

After more than half an hour, the wounded and most of the soldiers had already crossed the river. The flotilla began to deliver supplies, first food and clothing, then rifles, then bullets and machine guns.

"Sir, the machine gun is so powerful! Why is the rifle actually higher in line than the machine gun? An officer asked.

In the battle ahead, the Soviet troops realized the power of machine guns, and thousands of Lithuanian soldiers fell under their dense bullets.

"Machine guns are naturally powerful, but with so many machine guns, do we have so many bullets?" Ivan said expressionlessly.

If it weren't for the fact that Mark Melgay had a large number of 7.92mm Mauser rifle cartridges stored in stock, where would the Soviet army have been able to use so many machine guns in battle!

As time passed, the Soviet army carried only 800 rifles and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition, and a large number of supplies were not transported.

Ivan stood on the dock, looked at the warehouse behind him, and said, "All ready to retreat, this is the last trip." ”

"Sir, why don't we plant a bomb here and blow up everything here! Since we can't take them away, we can't leave them to the Polish lackeys! An officer suggested.

"No, keep these things so that the Poles and Lithuanians can eat dogs! Without this bone, I'm afraid they won't be able to fight. Ivan thought for a moment and said calmly.

Watching the last soldiers step onto the boat one by one, Ivan also patted his military coat and jumped onto the boat. The soldier paddled lightly, and the boat slowly sailed to the opposite shore.

Ivan stood at the bow of the ship, looking at the ruined town in the darkness and sighed with emotion: he finally jumped out of this cage, he didn't know how terrible the battle would be here, bloodshed, death, I don't know who could laugh here at the end. But these are no longer implicated in themselves.

Although the main force did not arrive in time for this battle, it was already an amazing miracle that he conquered Makmelgei by himself, and with a regiment of soldiers against the combined forces of nearly 10,000 Lithuanian and German troops, he was able to hold out for two days and lead the troops to successfully break out of the encirclement. Even the Cheka could not find its own shortcomings.

Although it was not perfect to encircle and annihilate the Lithuanian army as planned, it was also of great help to the battle situation by provoking a conflict between the Poles and the Lithuanian army.

Although many soldiers were lost this time, after this hard battle, the remaining soldiers were able to become the backbone of the army. Moreover, as long as the guns and weapons captured by themselves can replenish the troops, they will soon be able to restore their combat effectiveness, or even better.

The Soviet army lacked everything, that is, not manpower. Weapons were in short supply, a problem that was acute during the Tsarist period, and after a grueling civil war, weapons became more valuable. Although Comrade Lenin called on the workers to work overtime in the production of weapons, the equipment of the individual units was also a priority. More weapons were delivered to the battlefield against the White Army.

And these troops in Lithuania are obviously raised by the stepmother. When the higher authorities replenished the army, many soldiers were simply not armed, and many were armed with spears. As long as you have these backbones and weapons, you will be able to master more powerful forces.

Presumably because the fighting was too fierce throughout the day, all the Lithuanian soldiers stayed quietly in their rooms. Maybe they fought very bravely during the day, but on this lonely night, looking at the many familiar faces around them, I couldn't help but feel a little tired and sentimental.

The Lithuanian army did not realize that in the darkness of the night, the Soviet army had quietly left this dangerous place, and an even more dangerous and ambitious enemy was about to appear.

(To be continued.) )