"The high commander requires us to start on time at two o'clock in the morning, not sooner or later, let alone any accidents." Li Guojun, who has been transferred to the commander of the 71st Army, said to Zhao Pu, the commander of the engineering regiment under his command.

Zhao Puyi stood up and saluted: "Yes, I promise to complete the task." ”

Li Guojun nodded and said: "This mission is very dangerous, you have to check it carefully, you must not let go of any unsafe factors, and you must bring all the fighters back." ”

At this time, more than 1,000 soldiers of the Engineer Regiment belonging to the 71st Army were busy up and down the dam of the Kiev reservoir. The vulnerability points of the dam were calculated, and the manholes were opened, and the sappers quickly planted high explosives in them, and they wanted to blow up the entire dam completely. The Kiev Reservoir was built on the Dnieper River, in the upper reaches of Kiev City, and was a reservoir carved out of a mountain gorge with a very large storage capacity, and this time Gao Deyu planned to rely on the power of the flood to severely hit the morale of the Axis bloc.

At two o'clock in the morning, after careful inspection, Zhao Pu personally pressed the detonation button two miles away from the dam.

The electrical signal was transmitted into the electric detonator at the speed of almost light, and with a dull blasting sound, the reinforced concrete dam was blown out of several openings, and the gushing water flowed down the breaches, turning into a monstrous flood in an instant. The structurally damaged dam could no longer withstand such strong water pressure, and after a loud rattle, the concrete-cast dam body turned into countless pieces of various sizes, rushing downstream with the raging floodwaters.

Maxson had diarrhea until two o'clock in the morning because of a bad stomach at night, and at this moment he ran to the downwind of the rear of the trench and found a secluded place to solve his physical problems. As soon as he lifted his pants, Maxson heard a rumbling sound in the distance, like thunder in a summer rainstorm. Maxson looked into the distance in surprise, in this early winter season, there should be no thunderstorms, and there was no shadow of lightning in the distance.

Just as Maxson was surprised, a loud noise was heard in the distance, like a galloping horse, from far and near, towards the direction of the downstream. Maxson, who had experienced the tsunami, turned pale in an instant, and he knew that it was the sound of a large amount of water flowing rapidly, so he immediately turned around and ran, rushing straight to the nearest pontoon bridge to him.

Many soldiers were awakened by the loud noise, many soldiers thought that the NATO allies had launched a night attack, and they all got up and rushed out of the camp with their rifles, but there was no trace of tracer bullets in the night sky, and there was no dense gunfire, only a loud rumble from upstream.

Unable to see in the dark, many soldiers looked at each other, trying to see what was happening. Soon a black shadow from far and near, quickly rushed towards the soldiers, when the soldiers saw that the black shadow was actually a wall of water several meters high, all the people were stunned, they didn't care to exclaim, "God", they were already swept into the boundless waves.

In the face of the great power of nature, any man-made precision machinery lost its function, and the flood swept a row of more than 30-ton M4 tanks parked on the position into the water like playing with withered yellow leaves. The majestic heavy chariot on the battlefield was rolling helplessly in the water at this time, and there was no possibility of escape.

The east bank of the Dnieper is several meters lower than the west bank, and in a few days of fighting, the east bank embankment was damaged in many places, and it was impossible to withstand the flood, but with the east bank as a flood discharge site, the west bank was relatively safe, so the flood did not rush to the west bank.

Maxson, who was the first to notice the situation and ran towards the pontoon, did not flee the danger at this time, he knew very well that the speed of the flood was amazing, and that it was impossible for him to escape to the other side before the flood came, and if he encountered a flood in the middle of the pontoon, his situation would be even more dangerous. So he gave up on the idea of boarding the pontoon bridge and tied himself firmly to the pontoon post with a rope.

The pontoon bridge was used for chariots, so the pontoon bridge was built very strongly, especially the pillars used to tie the ships, and it was made of four thick wooden pillars and an iron pillar tied together, which was definitely the strongest thing he could find, so Maxson tried to stick to the wooden post as fast as he could, and tied himself firmly as fast as possible. He had just done all of this when the flood was already rolling in, quickly flooding everything nearby.

As the flood peaks surged, the height of the river suddenly increased by several meters, completely submerging Maxson who was tied to the pillar. Maxson, who had experience in dealing with tsunamis, immediately held his breath and waited for the water level to recede, but he was wrong, the tsunami was a big wave, and when it pushed inland, the water level would soon drop, and this time the flood was pouring down the entire reservoir, and the amount of water was unparalleled, and after two minutes, his head could not reach the water.

Maxson felt a hot spot in his lungs, his breath had been exhausted, in order not to be drowned, he hurriedly tried to untie the rope on his body, but just now he was afraid of being washed away by the flood, and the tie was too strong, and he couldn't untie it for a while.

Just when Maxson felt desperate, the iron pillar in the column finally could not withstand the pressure of the flood and began to bend slowly. The iron pillar bent, and the pressure of the wooden pillar surged, only to hear a click, and several wooden pillars tied together were actually broken by Qi Gen, and they were scattered out of the iron pillar.

The wooden pillar that Maxson tied himself to floated upwards, exposing Maxson to the surface, but then due to Maxson's weight, the wooden pillar rolled over, pressing Maxson underwater. Although the time when he surfaced just now was only a short second, it greatly relieved Maxson's pain and gave him hope for life again.

After gaining oxygen and hope, Maxson flipped over and climbed himself to the surface again, writhing as hard as he could, enduring the pain of the rope stabbing into the flesh, and barely turned into a situation where he hugged the wooden post. Steady, Maxson coughed twice and coughed out the water he had choked into his trachea, feeling a pang of breath, as if his asthma was about to return.

At this time, Maxson didn't care about his asthma, soaked in the icy flood, Maxson looked around, he found that the camp that had been heavily garrisoned and strict was gone, and the chariots and artillery, together with the corpses of the soldiers, were tumbling in the water, colliding with each other from time to time, and the flood was carrying him quickly downstream.

Maxson swung his legs desperately, trying to paddle to the shore, but in the rolling torrent, his efforts were doomed to be in vain, and all he could do now was to go with the flow, hoping for a turnaround.

Among the two million Axis troops who landed on the east bank of the Dnieper, Maxson was one of the luckier examples, after all, he had a thick wooden post to lean on, which would not only keep him afloat on the water, but also bounce off some debris that hit him. As for the other soldiers, they were not so lucky, they were caught up in the flood without the slightest preparation, and very few survived.

When he arrived on the embankment with his guards, all he could see was the rolling floods, and the two million troops who had crossed the river, along with their weapons and dozens of pontoon bridges, had already been washed away.

Howell looked at everything in front of him with a pale face, and his heart ached, he knew that he could not make any progress before winter came, and what pained him the most was that he only thought about the balance of power between the armies, and ignored the reservoir upstream.

"General, it's snowing." The words of a staff officer woke General Howell from his thoughts, and he raised his head slightly, to find a white snowflake slowly falling in front of his eyes. Howell couldn't help but reach out, and the snowflake eventually fell on his lambskin-textured officer's glove, quickly turning into a drop of water.

The surrounding snowflakes gradually increased, and as soon as they fell on the ground or any other object, they quickly melted into water, as if they were about to slowly soak everything on the earth, and at this thrilling juncture, the last snow of 926, or the first snow of this winter, finally fell.

Winter came late this year, and the first snow did not fall until the last days before the new year, but Howell knew very well that in the north, the arrival of the first snow would mean a sharp drop in temperature, which would herald the end of this year's large-scale campaign, and that it would be impossible for him to launch a new offensive until the next spring.

"All the troops, immediately retreat to the front line of Fastov for the winter, and the troops build positions and defend carefully, and wait until next spring to fight again." Howell gritted his teeth and issued an order to retreat.

"How can this be done, we still have two million troops on the other side of the river, and we must get them back." The chief of staff, four-star Admiral Marshall, immediately objected.

Howell sighed and said, "How many troops on the other side can survive in such a big flood?" Now we have to calm down, if we wait here, once the temperature plummets, all our mechanized equipment will be turned into scrap metal, and then we will have to abandon them. ”

Marshall knew that what Howell said was right, and he nodded and said, "Okay, but how to write this battle report?" If we had reported the truth and we had not launched a counterattack to atone the guilt, we would probably have been court-martialed. ”

Howell said: "How else can I write, don't mention the other side at all, let's just say that we encountered a flood on the way to pursue, the main force retreated in time, only a small number of troops were lost, and in view of the coming of winter, the army retreated to rest." ”

The Axis forces had briskly withdrawn to Fastov to prepare for the winter, but Gaude had to clean up the mess. After the flood, the Dnieper regained its tranquil nature, but on the flooded eastern bank it was covered with thick silt and debris.