The distance of seventeen kilometers was not too far for the tank, although the roads were muddy, but after more than twenty minutes, Otto and they found the infantry unit calling for reinforcements.

As soon as they approached the village, Otto's car was stopped by several infantrymen.

"Is it the armored troops who have come to reinforce them?" A sergeant asked, at the top of his voice.

"Yes." Otto's reply was drowned out by the sound of heavy machine gun fire. HE LOOKED IN THE DIRECTION THE SOUND WAS COMING FROM AND SAW THAT IT WAS AN INFANTRY VEHICLE, AND A SOLDIER WAS FIRING BEYOND THE INTERIOR OF THE VILLAGE WITH A 13MM HEAVY MACHINE GUN ON THE TOP OF THE TURRET.

"Does that work?" Otto couldn't help but ask the infantry sergeant.

"I'm not sure, but I'm sure I'll make the enemy over there sleep. You go ahead and see that barn, and our head is in it. ”

Otto nodded, and ordered using the in-car communication, "Link, go to the barn on the side of the road ahead." ”

So the chariot moved and moved along the road. Passing by a half-track parked on the side of the road, Otto saw the man in the tracked vehicle maneuvering a 120mm heavy mortar mounted on the vehicle.

"There's a heavy mortar half-track, this is at least an armored hunting battalion," Otto muttered quietly, "what kind of Russian army can stop a heavily equipped armored hunting battalion here......"

"Who knows, the Russians will always burst out with strange combat power at strange times and places." The voice of the cook came from the headphones, and in the short twenty minutes on the way here, the cook had already become familiar with Otto and them, but Julian was very shy and basically did not speak.

When the chariot drove to the barn, Otto left a phrase "check the chariot and prepare for battle", and climbed out of the chariot and walked towards the barn gate.

A middle-aged uncle in the barn was explaining something to a lieutenant, and Otto couldn't see his rank, but he felt that it was the commander here.

Sure enough, after the lieutenant left, the uncle turned to Otto and nodded: "The armored soldiers are here, how many tanks do you have?" ”

"One."

"One? Damn, I want ten! ”

"All the armored units have gone to the front, and our car has just been repaired." Otto shrugged, "If you really need ten vehicles, you'll have to wait until dawn tomorrow. ”

"Damn, we can't wait that long, the baggage team behind us is coming up soon, and we must drive away this sudden Russian army before they arrive." The uncle turned to the hand-cranked electric lamp and yelled at the orderly who was shaking the generator, "Brighten up!" ”

The orderly hurriedly increased the speed of the shake.

Under the raised light, the uncle pointed to the map and said to Otto: "This village is exactly on the way of our army's advance, and the village has been cleared, but there is a Russian army that occupies the village in the gap between the two units of our army and eliminates the platoon that remains. They hadn't had time to set up a defensive position when we arrived, so we took half of the village. But then we had problems, the enemy had tanks. ”

"Got a chariot?"

"Yes, we confirmed four different tactical numbers, so the enemy has at least one platoon of combat vehicles." As he spoke, the uncle took out a piece of sticky note paper and drew a schematic diagram of the interior of the village where it was built with a few strokes, "This is the church, this is the mansion of the rich people in the village, we gave it the code name 'Big House', here is the mechanical mill in the village, with a boiler workshop, it was built with big stones and rice pulp or something, it is quite strong, we used 120 mortars to blow it up for a long time without blowing it up." The other two sturdy buildings are about the same. The enemy set up a 122 howitzer in the church, and the Russian madman fired directly at the howitzer, blowing up several of our infantry vehicles. And the enemy's chariot is parked between three fortified buildings, here, here, and here, and another one is maneuvering, I guess. ”

"Pretty good defensive firepower." Otto nodded, "The Russian commander is a powerful character. ”

"It's impossible for a powerful character to come here at such a time with troops." The uncle said as he continued to draw with a pencil, "We occupied these houses, and we originally occupied this place, but within the range of the Russian howitzers, we were directly destroyed by a single shot. Here are some ruins to cover your movements. We had enough iron fists and were ready for foot combat, but we didn't have enough firepower to penetrate the enemy's frontal armor. ”

"I want to see the terrain for myself." Otto thought for a few seconds and then said to his uncle, "In the armored army drill code formulated by Mr. Lin, it has always emphasized the need to personally observe the terrain and accurately grasp the situation. ”

"Since it was Mr. Lin who emphasized it, it should be right." The uncle's tone was a little elusive, "Hey, Schiller, take this one to check the terrain." ”

"Yes! Here, please, sir. ”

"I'm not a chief yet." Otto pointed to his corporal badge.

"Okay, corporal."

The soldier named Schiller led Otto out of the barn and into the village in the dark. Although it was nighttime, the sound of firefighting was constantly heard inside the village, the fire of machine guns and other automatic weapons always rang out suddenly, and then suddenly fell silent, while the explosion of 120-mm mortar shells was very regular, as if to beat the night.

Schiller led Otto up a water tower.

"It's night, but the moonlight is good, and you can see it everywhere you need to." He said this, and leaned against the iron pillars of the water tower to smoke.

Otto carefully observed the situation in the village, and indeed as Schiller said, the moonlight was good, so he could see it more clearly, and the light provided by the burning buildings in the village gave an unobstructed view of the terrain of the entire village.

"I'd like to get closer and take a look." Otto watched carefully for ten minutes before he said to Schiller, "We have to figure out every detail, such as how big the crater we will encounter when we are moving, how big the field of view of the enemy's chariot, and so on." ”

"Okay, anyway, my order is to show you the way, and we will go wherever you say." Schiller had a lazy tone, not like a German soldier.

About an hour later, after confirming the situation on the battlefield, Otto returned to the barn, and said to the commander of the armored chasseurs, Uncle, "I have a plan that I need your cooperation. ”

"Say it."

"We need you to use smoke grenade projectors from foot combat to shoot smoke in these places. In addition, it is necessary for your infantry engines to idle to make noise and cover up the noise of our tanks entering the village. ”

"Okay, no problem."

"As we begin the assault, I would like an infantry squad to follow us about five meters behind us and help us clear out the Russians who are going to throw lit vodka bottles at our cars."

"No problem." Uncle nodded, "You'll get more than one infantry squad." ”

"Very well, we'll start from here and follow this route." Otto drew a line on the uncle's simple schematic, "We will fire white phosphorus incendiary bombs at churches and houses, and at the same time destroy enemy vehicles with armor-piercing shells." If we're lucky, we'll take on the enemy's vehicles one by one without getting caught on fire. ”

"What if you haven't singled out the enemy?"

"Then I'll have to wait until dawn."

"Well, don't we need to use some foot combat as bait?"

"No, the road in the village is too narrow to deploy multiple armored vehicles, and you rushed out and got destroyed, and you blocked the road." Otto took a deep breath after speaking, "Leave it to us." ”

Uncle nodded.

"Then the watch," he said, "I'll see...... How about we start doing it in twenty minutes? ”

"Good." Otto nodded.

After returning to the car, Otto briefly explained the plan to the members.

"So we're going to take out at least four tanks and set two big houses on fire with white phosphorus incendiary bombs? It's a bit challenging. Kosher smacked his lips as he spoke.

"As long as we act resolutely, maneuver correctly, and ensure that every shell hits and destroys the target accurately, we can do it." Otto paused, throwing out the words he had prepared a long time ago, "Didn't you shoot an A+?" ”

"It was daylight, I had a good view, and I knew where my targets were."

"I'll give you accurate instructions, and as for the night, the enemy is the same, you just need to fight better than the enemy."

"Oh, I like it. The Russian armored corps could never be more accurate than me. ”

"Then now it's time to eat, eat, pee, and we'll leave on time in fifteen minutes."

As soon as Otto finished speaking, Julian jumped out of the chariot like a spring and ran towards the shadowy place on the side of the road.

"I got some wine and food," the cook's voice came from the earphones, "and I was called a cook because of my ability to find food at any time." ”

"Oh, yes, I'll see, it's luncheon meat, you kid can do it." Kosher sounded overjoyed. Then there was silence in Otto's headphones, apparently all three of them sharing wine and food.

Otto stood in his battle position, his hands propped up on the edge of the hatch at the top of the turret, his mouth tightly closed, enduring the cramps in his stomach.

"Hey, Otto, won't you have some?" Kosher said suddenly.

Otto hesitated, but finally did not say that his stomach was so nervous that his stomach cramped, but replied in the voice that was as calm as possible: "I'm not hungry, you can eat." ”

"Are you afraid that as soon as the beating starts, you'll be so scared that you will pull out the?"

The next moment there was laughter in the headphones.

Otto shook his head slightly, but did not reply. He saw Julian emerge from the shadows and trot toward the chariot.

Otto wanted to tell Julian a joke or something, but when he opened his mouth, he found that his head was empty, and he couldn't think of what to say.

Julian gave Otto, who had his mouth half open, a little strangely, and then got into the chariot.

At this time, Otto's headphones heard a radio communication mixed with static noise: "Here is your daddy, get ready, boys." ”

"Alright, here we go." Otto kicked Kosher in the back, "Get ready to fight." ”