Section 11 The Premier Inspects the National Defense Army's Positions

  Lee's Bren carrier passed through a large area of electrically controlled minefields, crossed an anti-tank ditch and arrived at the confluence of the UPA River and the OKA River. A sentry crawled into a vertical washing basin reinforced with wooden sticks in front and back to withstand the unbearable cold.

  On a well-constructed outpost on the east coast, an MG34 general-purpose machine gun stood alone, its muzzle pointing directly at the east. Behind the machine gun, several soldiers huddled in the corner of a small fire pit, shivering with fear. When they saw their beloved leader, they saluted him with hands wearing women's gloves, looking surprised and frightened.

  "Are you cold? My soldiers." Li De squatted down, pulled out his hand from the glove and stroked the face of the youngest soldier, whose face was very cold.

  The soldier strained to control his quivering jaw, stuttering out a string of syllables: "N-not... c-cold... c-cold..."

  "How's your family? Are your parents doing well?" Li De asked with concern.

  "The small town of Wels on the German-Austrian border, not far from Linz. My father was a primary school teacher there and he often told me that our house was only a few dozen kilometers away from the great leader's home." The soldier stopped trembling and looked at the leader with expectation.

  "Ah! I'm so glad to meet my fellow countryman." The commander grasped his cheeks with both hands, as if he wanted to pull him out of the bunker immediately. "In that case, come and be my bodyguard!"

  "Yes!" Unexpectedly, the young man was overjoyed and quickly crawled out of his hiding place, fearing that his great leader and fellow countryman would change his mind. After finally crawling out, he immediately got into character, standing beside the leader and staring intently at his former comrade-in-arms, even superior.

  Li De smiled and pointed at the several guards wandering behind him: "Guards shouldn't be like this, how can I get close to the soldiers?"

  The remaining soldiers in the bunker looked enviously at their suddenly promoted comrades and blamed their own parents for being born in the wrong place.

  Li De walked forward, the main person in charge of the division and regiment followed on his left, and Bao Man and others followed on his right. The lucky little fellow from the same hometown hastily bid farewell to his comrades and followed closely behind.

  Cheers came from behind, they turned around and saw Miss Adelheid giving cigarettes to the machine gunners just now, the cheers were given to her. Even the sentry crawled out of the laundry tub and ran over to stretch out his hand to her.

  Winter sun shines on the confluence of UPA River and Zusha River in Tula Oblast, where the 2nd Company of the 3rd Infantry Battalion of the 478th Infantry Regiment of the 45th Infantry Division of the 53rd Army is stationed.

  Lee was pleased to see that, compared with the last time Bowman wolfed down mutton, the west coast not only increased in height, but also splashed water into ice on the steep shore, like a frozen waterfall. Further up is the entire fortress tightly wrapped in solid ice.

  Two company commanders, standing on the bunker's roof, cursed and their curses "happened" to be heard by the Führer: "In this freezing weather, insisting on an offensive is simply a crime. Thank you, Führer, for letting us take cover in the underground shelters, otherwise..."

  Bauman stood at the foot of the ice cliff, shouting: "Soldiers, our beloved leader has come to visit us again. This is a great encouragement and warm care for us..."

  Harold saluted from above, "Heil Hitler!" but didn't expect to slip on the ice he had poured himself and slid down with his legs crossed and body tilted, landing heavily in the snow and kicking up a cloud of snowflakes. The captain dodged while joking, "Not bad, really not bad, your construction even comes with an elevator."

  "It can also be used to launch a counterattack against the Russians, like the Stuka dive bombers." Bauman made a rare joke.

  The Ufa River was right in front of them, and the last time Li De came, it was a clear river, but now it was covered with ice and snow. The only bridge on the river was crowded with people, German soldiers checked passes, and those without passes were not allowed to pass through.

  In front of the winter positions built by the German army, there were still some occupied areas, some of which were occupied in October and some were captured by armored troops in November. Now, the German army had to abandon these places and withdraw to the established winter defense line, and the local people also moved to the rear. The Germans, with their thorough style, filled up wells, burned down houses, laid landmines, blew up roads, forming a tens of kilometers deep no man's land, causing great difficulties for the Soviet counterattackers.

  To prevent the infiltration of Soviet agents and guerrillas, the Germans registered the population in the relocated villages and towns, distributing passes. Some outsiders who had fled became scapegoats because no one issued them passes. From time to time, shots rang out: several old people insisted on rushing over and were shot dead by soldiers guarding the bridge, their bodies thrown onto the icy surface of the river. On the east bank of the river lay a row of corpses, including some children, apparently trampled to death. Some civilians tried to cross the ice, but were blocked by German troops on the opposite bank.

  Now, the troops are withdrawing step by step, and the Soviet army is pressing forward. The retreating troops arrived at the bridgehead, and the ordinary people were driven to one side. On the big bridge spanning the river, engines roared, people trampled horses, and chaos reigned.

  Just as the crowd was getting excited, three Soviet Il-2 ground attack aircraft burst out of the clouds. First, two rockets shot out from under their wings to announce their arrival, then 7.62mm machine guns and 20mm cannons poured down a hail of bullets on the densely packed crowd, sending flesh flying everywhere, limbs scattered all over, people tumbling over each other, and corpses piling up.

  A half-tracked 20mm Fk30-type self-propelled anti-aircraft gun drove to the edge of the bridge at full speed and stopped, the vehicle commander rushed from the driver's compartment to the open gun position in the carriage, took over the binoculars to observe the sky, the 5 crew members in the carriage had raised the 20mm high cannon, loaded the shells, and aimed at the sky. The vehicle commander pressed down with his hand, a string of shells flew into the air, leaving behind black clouds.

  The plane finally flew away with a hum, and the two banks of the river regained their vitality. A 150mm heavy infantry gun was towed by a tractor crawling with soldiers, slowly driving onto the bridge. Five 75mm light infantry guns, six 50mm PAK38 anti-tank guns, four 37mm PAK36 anti-tank guns, and two 105mm light infantry guns were all pulled by horses, whinnying and following behind in a chaotic manner, worriedly looking up at the sky while urging the big guys in front to quicken their pace.

  The Soviet long-range artillery also fired here, Li De knew that the enemy was less than 30 kilometers away from here, he remembered that the Soviet 210mm cannon had a range of 29.4 kilometers, fortunately, there were not many such cannons, as long as they hid in the bunker, they would not pose a threat to him.

  Two shells exploded on the opposite bank of the river, and a logistics lieutenant covered his bloody buttocks while running and shouting: "Artillery, open fire! Don't let the Russians blow your ass to pieces!" As soon as this jinx finished shouting, a shell exploded right on the bridge, throwing a 105mm light infantry gun off the bridge. The soldier who was sleeping on the barrel of the gun drew a beautiful parabola in mid-air and landed heavily on the ice surface. The frightened horses whinnied miserably and galloped wildly through the crowd, their neighs mingling with human curses and screams.

  A tall self-propelled gun was determined to avenge its comrades, rumbling over the bridge and laboriously climbing up the steep slope before turning around to counterattack in the direction of the Soviet army. A deafening roar shook the air as a 150mm shell whizzed into the sky. It was unclear whether the shell hit its target, but it did block the road, enraging the artillery carts behind. The self-propelled gun, its ambitions unfulfilled, groaned and turned its cumbersome body around to climb back up the slope, when suddenly the 150mm field gun on board burst through the rear armor plate and fell off the vehicle.

  This is a type of emergency self-propelled gun, code-named SLG33, which was mounted on the chassis of a Type I tank. A 150mm short-barreled cannon was directly pushed onto the vehicle and surrounded by a thin layer of armor. Due to the long journey or the previous shot that shook loose the fixing bolt, the cannon slid down when going up a steep slope, not only blocking traffic but also damaging the infantry cannon behind it, breaking the front legs of the Russian dwarf horse pulling the cannon, and finally rushing down the slope, crashing into the riverbed with only half of the barrel exposed, angrily staring at the sky in frustration.

  Lee De, Bao Man and the officers stood on this side of the bridge, looking at the crowd wrapped in old clothes, shivering with cold and hunger. Lee De's mind wandered: This is just a small part of the German army on the front line. If, as Halder suggested, several million German troops were exposed to the icy weather, lacking food and clothing, with guns and cannons not working, and subjected to a large-scale counterattack by the Russian army, even if they did not repeat Napoleon's mistake 129 years ago, they would still suffer huge losses.

  He still had some regrets: in order to compromise, he accommodated part of the old die-hards' opinions and agreed that the armored troops would continue their attack in mid-November, suffering losses.

  To put it another way, the armored troops only accounted for a small part of the German army. Among the 153 German divisions in Operation Barbarossa, there were only 19 tank divisions. Although the attack failed and the equipment suffered heavy losses, it was not a crushing blow. Since most infantry had already entered defensive fortifications, the basic strength of the German army did not suffer much damage.

  He felt himself floating up: too bright, really great glorious and correct.

  The shelling continued, with shells bursting sporadically on both banks, more of a harassment than a suppression.

  Lee stepped into the earthwork and addressed the gathered soldiers: "More than 20 days ago, a great debate took place at Army Headquarters concerning the fate of the Empire and the destiny of our frontline soldiers. I demanded that our troops shift to defense as soon as possible because since late October, the German army has been stuck in the mud, which you all have deeply experienced."

  The soldiers nodded in agreement one after another, some of them showing fear on their faces.

  "But there are a few high-ranking generals who actually want to drive the troops to fight in this weather, just like them." Li De pointed in the direction of the retreating troops, and everyone followed his finger, although all they saw was the earthen wall of the bunker.

  Everyone was stunned for a moment, then thunderously shouted: "The leader is great, the leader is wise..."

  Some soldiers muttered: "When will our winter uniforms arrive? My feet are all frostbitten."

  The soldiers were wearing clothes from all over the world: from smelly leather jackets to women's fur coats with lingering perfume, from Soviet army coats with burnt corners to Siberian troops' short sheepskin jackets with bullet holes. Witnessing this, Li De felt a pang of sadness in his heart, but what could be done? A large amount of supplies was piled up in Poland, the Soviet railway gauge was wider than the standard one, and German train heads couldn't adapt to the severe cold of the Soviet Union, often being frozen and broken. There were also guerrilla sabotage. It would be impossible for even a god to transport 3 million people's cotton-padded jackets within a month.