By the afternoon of the same day, the Ming attacking forces had successfully captured the outer fortresses of Terespil and Volyn, seized a number of fortified areas, and also blocked the entire Bug River. On the surface www.biquge.info it seems that everything is going very smoothly.

However, when the Ming officers and soldiers approached the central fortress of the core area, they were surprised to find that despite the powerful firepower, the barracks around the central fortress were still standing firmly. The defenders used a variety of weapons in various camps to attack the Ming infantry near the central fortress.

The first Ming attack on the core fortress soon ended in failure. They lost hundreds of officers and soldiers, as well as more than a dozen tanks and armored vehicles, in front of the core fortress. After an embarrassed departure, the day's fighting ended.

Amazed by the stubborn resistance of the Germans, the Ming army intensified its attack on the fortress the next day. Powerful artillery forces from the rear arranged dozens of artillery positions around the entire perimeter of the fortress. The smoke from the firing of numerous artillery pieces filled the battlefield. The number of fighters dispatched by the Ming Army Aviation is even more shocking, and in a whole day, the entire sky has almost been completely shrouded by the fighters of the Ming army.

The Ming army's offensive was so fierce that even the German troops on the outer line dozens of kilometers away could clearly feel the huge power. The Germans tried to support the fortress, but their air force fighters were firmly blocked in the sky, and the ground attack could not shake the Ming position. They could only watch as the Ming army stormed the Brest fortress.

The entire Brest Fortress actually consisted of four fortresses located in different areas. The core is the core fortress in the middle. To the north is the Kobrin Fortress. To the southeast and southwest are the Terespil and Volyn fortresses. The meandering Bug River and artificially dug canals divide the fortresses into small islands. Each of the islets is connected by bridges.

The most central and fortified area of these forts is the Core Fortress. It is located on the central island and is surrounded on all sides by other forts.

On the outer side of the central island fort, near the river, there is an extremely strong ring of barracks, about two kilometers long. The walls of these barracks were nearly two or three meters thick, and they were all made of huge stones that were unusually strong. About 500 firing points and built-in warehouses were built inside these walls, enough to provide the necessary food and ammunition for tens of thousands of officers and men.

The walls of the barracks were densely covered with cannon firing ports and rifle firing holes, and the German officers and soldiers stationed in them could greatly damage the Ming officers and soldiers through these strong fortifications.

In the center of the core fortress stands St. Nicholas's Cathedral, designed by the famous Russian architect Gulmi. Construction of the church began in 1856 and took 23 years to complete. Not only is the church the tallest building in the core fortress, but it is also an exceptionally strong point of firepower. The observer at the top of the church can clearly see the entire battlefield of the fortress. It is also a building built entirely of massive, sturdy stones.

The Kobrin, Terespil and Volyn fortresses surrounded the central fortress and provided protection for the central fortress. The forts were surrounded by fortified walls on the outside, and many forts were built on the walls, and many bastions were also built as auxiliaries. The forts are surrounded by canals or rivers and can only be connected to the outside world by bridges. Such a large and complete defensive system, paired with a determined defender, is a nightmare for the attacker.

Although the Germans voluntarily abandoned the Terespil and Volyn fortresses at the beginning of the war, concentrating their forces and supplies in the core fortresses. However, in doing so, it strengthened the German defenses in the core area. Makes its fortress more impregnable.

In the morning, more than a dozen Ming tanks launched a forced assault on the west bank of the Bug River. With the help of a god, they passed through a large minefield, pushed all the way through various obstacles, drove into the Brest Gate, which had been blown up by the engineering units with a large amount of explosives, and thus successfully entered the square of the Kobrin fortress. Subsequently, a large number of Ming officers and soldiers fought against the fire of the defenders from this sudden gap into the square.

The square inside the Kobrin fortress was surrounded by tall walls, and thousands of German officers and soldiers hid in these walls, frantically pouring fire on the Ming troops in the square. In a short period of time, hundreds of Ming officers and soldiers fell in pools of blood. And most of the dozen or so tanks were destroyed by the anti-tank artillery of the Germans.

Moreover, after learning the information that the Ming armored forces suddenly entered the Kobrin fortress, the German commander immediately mobilized the remaining armored units hidden in the core fortress to the Kobrin fortress to counterattack, intending to destroy all the Ming troops who rushed into the fortress.

However, the Ming army reacted very quickly, and immediately after the unexpected breakthrough, they sent their follow-up troops into the Kobrin fortress. Even if these follow-up troops suffered heavy losses on the way forward, they could not stop the advance of the Ming army in the slightest.

With dozens of tanks, armored vehicles and thousands of officers and soldiers managed to storm the Kobrin fortress. The fortress was immediately reversed. The Ming infantry, who had suffered a heavy loss at the guns of the defenders, quickly left the wide square and entered the surrounding barracks with semi-automatic rifles and submachine guns, and engaged in a fierce battle with the defenders.

In such a small area, it was difficult for the Germans, armed with a large number of Mauser Model 98K bolt-action rifles, to confront the Ming army, which was equipped with semi-automatic rifles and submachine guns. Basically, it was a round of strafing by the Ming army, and then grenades emitting white smoke were thrown over. After a violent explosion, a firing point or fortification changed hands.

All of these barracks were built very strongly. Even the two sides threw grenades at each other in the middle of it, but they could not damage the solid stones in the slightest. As for the bullets hitting the wall, they are just white spots.

The indiscriminate flying grenades and numerous stray bullets that struck the walls and staggered everywhere brought huge casualties and losses to all officers and men on both sides. In less than an hour, less than 1,000 officers and men of an infantry regiment invested by the Ming army were left. This rate of loss and casualty ratio are unprecedented.

At the same time, the armored units of the Ming army and the German armored units that had come from the core fortress to counterattack were engaged in an unusually fierce confrontation on the square of the Kobrin fortress. Even because of the proximity, a fierce collision broke out between the two sides. From the perspective of the pilots in the sky, it was like a group of bumper cars in a playground chasing each other.

But in reality, it was a contest of life and death.

The Ming army could not tolerate throwing away the results again when they had achieved significant results. The 385th Infantry Division of the Ming Army, which was responsible for the attack on the Kobrin fortress, immediately mobilized its reserves, a whole infantry regiment and an operational brigade directly under the division headquarters, as well as some reconnaissance troops, with a total of more than 5,000 troops, and reinforcements of more than 5,000 men and horses once again rushed through the Brest gate and entered the Kobrin fortress.

And this time the reinforcements completely overwhelmed the resistance of the German army.

Originally, the German army was garrisoned by about 20,000 horses in the entire Brest fortress. This has practically exceeded the carrying capacity of the fortress. The heavy shelling and bombardment of the previous few days had already inflicted thousands of casualties on the Germans, and the fierce battles between the Germans and the Ming troops in the Kobrin fortress and the constant reinforcements and counterattacks were also rapidly depleting their own strength.

At about three o'clock in the afternoon, the 385th Infantry Division of the Ming Army finally took the Kobrin fortress with difficulty. The number of casualties among the officers and men of the entire 385th Infantry Division has reached a staggering nearly 7,000. You must know that the officers and soldiers of the Ming army are all professional soldiers, not the militia formed by those Russian serfs.

The fact that these officers and men, who had undergone rigorous training and had actual combat experience on the battlefield, suffered such heavy losses shows how bloody and cruel this fierce battle was.

The losses of the Ming army were heavy, but the losses of the Germans were no less than those of the Ming army. In order to hold the Kobrin fortress, the German defenders constantly sent reinforcements into the Kobrin fortress to fight the Ming army. In the fortifications around the Kobrin fortress alone, the Germans abandoned more than 4,000 corpses and wounded.

And on the square of the Kobrin fortress, the armored forces of the two sides came close to each other and collided with each other. The infantry also turned into soldiers in the era of cold weapons, using bayonets, grenades, steel helmets, sapper shovels, and even fists and teeth to engage in fierce white-knuckle combat. Countless soldiers scuffled together, trying to kill each other with all their might, screams and wails resounding throughout the battlefield.

The Germans also lost at least thousands of troops in the battle on the square. And how many defenders of the entire Brest Fortress were? In this case, the Germans said that they could not continue to consume so much any longer. They gathered the remnants back to the core fortress, where they prepared to hold out until the last moment.

Although the Ming army had taken all but the core fortresses, the most important core fortresses were still under the control of the Germans. The German army here still shelled the transportation lines of the Ming army from time to time, which brought great trouble to the Ming army. This also forced the Ming army to make up its mind to take the last stronghold of the German army tomorrow no matter what.

That night, German troops on the outer line tried to provide support to the Germans in the fortress through the Bug River. About 1,000 German officers and soldiers took advantage of the night to paddle rubber boats down the river in an attempt to support the core fortress. But an operation of this magnitude could not escape the gaze of the Ming army, even at night. You know, this is a time of war.

The war period that made people nervous, and it was still under the nose of the Ming army. As they were about to arrive at the core castle, the German officers and men were blinded by a rain of bullets and artillery fire from all directions, and long chains of bullets swept in from all directions, overturning the Germans who were completely exposed to the river.

In just over 10 minutes, these thousands of German officers and soldiers were completely wiped out. Except for a few lucky ones who swam to the shore and became prisoners, all the others died in the river. (To be continued.) )