The Svisloch River makes a hairpin bend in the south of the city center, and Pavlov chose the base of the tongue of a "tongue" in the west of the city and deep into the eastern district: here the north and west directions can be effectively controlled, and the base of the tongue is Lenin Square across Lenin Avenue to the north. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Directly west of the "base of the tongue" were connected to two basically collapsed highway bridges more than 100 meters apart, and there were pontoon bridges on the west side of each of the two bridges -- the Germans had to pay attention to the bridges, but on the contrary, they weakened the defense of the "base of the tongue": the "tongue" was "encircled" by the Red Army on three sides, and the German commander was also the right choice if he deployed too many troops.

It was the textbook deployment of the Germans that gave Pavlov the opportunity, and Alexandrov was half-prostrate to observe the path on the embankment, and the L-shaped building was more than ten meters away in front of him in the heavy rain, and there was no movement of German troops.

Waving, Pavlov went up the embankment the second, followed by Glushchenko and Chernogorov, who, under the cover of Alexandrov, ran under the building in one go, clinging to the battered walls. On the other side of the river, Captain Zhukov and Captain Nauynev could vaguely see the activities of the reconnaissance team through the telescope, but when the four of them jumped onto the embankment, they could no longer see clearly, and their hearts felt as if they were being dragged tightly!

Pavlov was no longer worried about being spotted by the Germans on the flanks, who would have been hiding in the building and only staring at the other side of the river, and could not have imagined that there were already people moving against the wall.

A few meters to the right, a large hole opened by a shell appeared in the wall, and after listening for a few seconds and no movement, Alexandrov was the first to rush in with an assault rifle, and there was no sign of living things in the faint - this was an office, broken office facilities were everywhere, and the four Pavlovs had to carefully avoid those debris, fortunately it was raining heavily outside, otherwise the noise accidentally brought up in the dark could make people's hearts hang in their throats!

The building has six floors, the long side is more than 30 meters, the short side is about 20 meters, and the solid reinforced concrete structure - the short side is completely covered by the Red Army fire on the opposite bank, Pavlov led the team to search and advance to the northeast corner in the faint light, and did not find any German troops on the first floor.

At the top of the staircase, Aleksandrov was about to go up the stairs to the second floor, when suddenly Glushchenko signaled silence, and the four of them clenched their assault rifles in their hands.

Pavlov overlooked one thing when he was on the other side of the river: the building, although it was next to the Svisloch River, was L-shaped, and the northeast side of the structure was relatively far from the riverbed, and it should have its own basement, like most buildings in Minsk!

Glushchenko pointed at the stairs, it was connected to two ends, one end was connected to a large pile of broken cabinets, listen carefully to the voice coming up, there should be someone below!

The Germans would not have deployed themselves in basements, and the only explanation was that there were hidden Minsk residents underneath who had not had time to evacuate: it would not be the scattered Red Army, who would not have hid in the basements and waited.

Pavlov approached the entrance to the basement and listened closely, faintly hearing a conversation in Russian. He didn't mean to get through the middle of the cabinet, and gestured to indicate that it might be his own person below, and then pointed upstairs. Aleksandrov understood what the squad leader meant: the most important thing is to complete the mission, and took the lead in touching the stairs leading to the second floor.

There was a hallway in the middle, offices on both sides, a standard office building, most of the room doors were open - room by room, room by room, until the end there was no sign of the Germans, and the rain outside would stop again!

There is no one on the second floor, and there will be no Germans above the third floor, this is already certain! The room on the northeast side could see Lenin Square, and Pavlov had noticed that there was light in the buildings around the square, but he couldn't see how many German troops there were, and the square was empty!

"Chernogorov, signal to the company: I have occupied the building, there is no one to defend it, the number of German troops in the square cannot be determined, the building on the right seems to be undefended."

According to the plan, the commanders would decide the next move based on the reconnaissance, but while Pavlov was searching the second floor, Rodimtsev canceled the original plan according to the latest situation and decided to storm and seize the pontoon bridge!

The Germans were heavily defended, but Rodimtsev already had a way to deal with it - the artillery command of the army group transferred two rocket artillery battalions to him to suppress the German positions on the west side of the pontoon bridge; Six 210-mm cannons have also been dragged to the city with great difficulty, and will launch a devastating artillery bombardment on both wings of the pontoon bridge, clearing the way for the storming of the pontoon bridge to the greatest extent!

Chernogorov, who finished the light signal, was very strange, because the reply was only two words: Hold on!

"I guess there is a new situation, just stick to the building! Aleksandlov, Glushchenko, you monitor the north-eastern side (for topographical reasons, on the German side, on the west bank of the river. situation, Chernogorov and I went to the basement to see. Pavlov made a decisive decision: since the superiors want to stick to themselves, there must be a reason, there is no need to think too much, just complete their mission!

Finally passing through the basement entrance on the first floor, Pavlov actually saw the light of the fire - it was his own people, but it almost caused a misunderstanding, and both sides were cautious. There were more than 20 citizens inside, as well as two people with German 98K rifles, led by a Communist named Grouchev in his 40s, who turned out to be the head of the party committee of the Lenin community in Minsk.

"Pavlov, reconnaissance detachment of the 87th Infantry Division of the Red Army, we have four of us."

The two Pavlovs were hugged dozens of times by their comrades after the "alarm" was lifted! Finally, I was able to say, "How's the neighborhood going?" ”

Gruchev, who was bearded, as a member of the Communist Party, knew what this would be a comrade scout: "There are no Germans in this building, there seem to be few in the southwest, and there are many on the north side of the Lenin Bridge. The basement of this building is connected to the sewer, we all came from the sewer, and in the house to the south there are our own people, all Minsk residents, about 10 ......"

It was of little significance to understand the situation, and it was only when he approached the fire that Pavlov felt cold again, but it would not be able to bake the fire.

"Take off your wet clothes, we've got something dry here, change them on!" The women comrades on the side saw that both of them were soaked and thinly dressed, and took out a few pieces and asked Pavlov to change them.

"Do you have shoes?"

Pavlov was not polite, the lesbian avoided it, and the two of them took off their essence after dividing it by two, wiped the grease on their bodies, changed into a few patchwork clothes, and most importantly changed their shoes and socks.

"From the river?"

Pavlov nodded.

Gruchev also took his shoes and a change of clothes from the other two, "Comrade Sergeant, please allow us to participate in the battle, I have fought as a soldier, and Palovin has also fought, and there are a few more who can use guns." Palovin was a middle-aged man with a German rifle on the side, both veterans of the Civil War.

Pavlov left the kettle with vodka in the basement, and the two went up to the second floor with five people, and everything was still calm. Aleksandrov and Glushchenko will be choking on the cold, dry clothes are really a treasure that fell from the sky!

"We're going to stick to this building! If there is a new move from the command, we will cooperate. Stick to the building and never back down! ”

"Never back down!" Nine people swore in a low voice!

Pavlov taught the Gruchev men how to use assault rifles, and if the scouts suffered casualties in battle, local comrades used their weapons to continue the fight.

In the dark, 7 of the 9 men were hidden in the two interconnected offices on the second floor, closely monitoring the movement ahead, and for the sake of concealment, they did not pay attention to the movement of a small number of German troops to the northwest corner.

"How do you hold on these days?" Pavlov asked Grouchev beside him.

"Hiding in Tibet. I've been hiding in this building for days, and everyone else is in a similar situation. As he spoke, he waved the German rifle in his hand: "Pick it up." "He was still wearing a German belt and more than 30 rounds of ammunition.

"How's the family?"

"My wife was killed by a shell. The eldest son was a lieutenant in the Baltic Fleet, the grandson retreated to the rear with my mother, the eldest daughter-in-law and the younger son Sasha joined the militia, I don't know what happened. As he spoke, he looked at the two people beside him, "Palokin's son died in Brest, his wife and daughter also died, the Germans bombed, and the people below basically had relatives who died at the hands of the fascists." ”

"It's going to be paid with blood!"

"The troops are just east of the river, are they coming back?"

"Soon, the higher authorities will continue to send troops to support Minsk, we have just arrived, from Smolensk, the deputy commander is still in Minsk, today I saw Marshal Plunyakov at the railway station, deploying the newly arrived troops to fight."

The deputy commander is in Minsk, then Minsk will definitely be able to hold it! That's what everyone thinks!

"How's your supplies?" Pavlov had just seen potatoes boiling in the basement, and knew that it was very important to provide for food during the siege, and there was no need to worry about water, it rained twice in three days, and it was easy to get as long as there were containers to the top floor.

"I found some these days, not much, but I can still eat for a few days, mainly potatoes and hard bread."

At three o'clock in the morning, Pavlov was again asking the local comrades about the situation, and suddenly he heard a strange sound: it was the sound of countless shells whistling!

Two rocket artillery battalions are firing a salvo!

(I'm still busy today, so I can only have one shift, and tomorrow I will repay my book friends for their support with more than two shifts.) (To be continued.) )