A train of strange-looking trains slowly left Bialystok and drove eastward. It has a huge and hideous locomotive covered with thick iron. There is also a rotatable turret on it, and a turret stretches out. A short barrel, the train is very short, there are only four carriages behind the front, and it looks like a big and fat caterpillar from a distance.
In the last carriage, the soldier Nico Frome held the handle of the machine gun and looked out nervously through the shooting port.
This train was a Russian armored train that was seized during their raid on Bialystok railway station the day before. Nico and his company were ordered to take it to reconnaissance eastward along the railway.
"Children, don't be nervous! We are safe to sit here. I heard the officers say that there is only Russian cavalry in the east. As long as you don't get out of the car, those cavalries have nothing to do with the heavy steel carriages! We will use this place then. The machine guns swept them down one by one, oh, it should be rowed by row! You see, the Russians left a lot of bullets for us, and they should have enjoyed it by themselves!" It was Nico's monitor who just spoke. , Each carriage of this train has six Maxine heavy machine guns, except for the two walls of the carriage, there are two shooting holes on each of the carriages. The doors on both sides of the carriage are made into a simple machine gun battle position with sandbags. Machine guns, nearly 20 boxes of ammunition stacked in the carriage, are the equipment that the Russians left on the train. When the German army seized the train, the Russians in it all drank in the city, and the remaining two sentries obediently surrendered when they saw that the German soldiers were in great numbers.
"Does the cavalry have no cannons?" Nico finally moved his eyes away from the narrow shooting port, and he turned his head and asked his squad leader.
"This... doesn't seem to be right! I only saw Russian Cossacks wielding sabers. Sometimes they would drag a heavy machine gun with wheels behind a few horses, but I never saw them pulling a cannon! The squad leader was a little panicked when he said that, some of their own cannons are still being pulled by horses and mules. Presumably, the Russian cavalry will also carry some small-caliber cannons, but he doesn't want poor Nico to worry more.
"Oh! That's good!" Nico said as he pointed his eyes at the shooting port, making people worry whether he would turn into cross-eyed eyes if he stared at a small hole for a long time.
Although it is summer, the prognostic air is very cool. After a brief lunch, some soldiers slept comfortably on the floor of the carriage, and those who were awake continued to doze off. After a morning of unhurried progress, they have entered the Belarusian region. A dozen miles more will reach Volkovysk, 80 miles from Bialystok. During this period, they only found a few Russian cavalry reconnaissance squads nearby, but the Russians just looked at them from a distance and disappeared without a trace in a while.
"Forget it. There seems to be no gain today! Let's go back!" Nico's company commander picked up the phone in the car and ordered the driver in the locomotive to return to Bialystok. The train has just begun to retreat shortly. There was a roar in the distance, like thunder before it rained. Several young soldiers were about to get up and walk to the door of the carriage to have a look. The veterans shouted loudly: "It's a cannon! Russian cannon! Come on! Get down!" The cannonball quickly screamed and fell near the armored train. The shock wave of the huge explosion shook the steel-walled carriage rustlingly. After a burst of choking smoke and odor, several soldiers at the door of the carriage fell into a pool of blood. in. "Quick! Speed back!" The company commander quickly picked up the phone and gave the order. Fortunately, the telephone line between the cars was not broken. After putting down the phone. While directing the soldiers to rescue the wounded, he looked out through the shooting hole. There were a few large smoking craters near the train, but he didn't see anything. There were sparse or dense woods on both sides of the railway for more than ten meters. "Damn it! Such a large crater is definitely caused by a large-caliber howitzer!" The experienced veteran cursed in a low voice. This type of cannon is not a weapon that the cavalry division should have. As long as it is directly hit by one such cannonball, the entire armored train will be reimbursed. In the locomotive, the coal filler desperately added coal blocks under the boiler, and the train quickly backed up.
"Squad leader, aren't we here to scout?" After helping the wounded simply bandage the wound, Nico suddenly said. The squad leader was stunned and then looked at their company commander with a plea for help.
The company commander was also stunned. Indeed, there was a very abnormal situation in this area. The Russians did not have any fortresses or fortresses here.
"Quickly, report to the headquarters!" The company commander had just issued an order, and a wave of more intense and violent artillery fire broke out, and the locomotive immediately exploded. Steam and smoke engulfed a large area near the train. stand up. When Nico and his squad leader and company commander jumped out of the car with a cough, they were all shocked. The first half of the train including the locomotive no longer existed. The third car was also blown up. Inside the carriage was bloody and bloody, only the fourth carriage they were in was not directly blown up, but the walls of the carriage were blown through by shrapnel. Most of the soldiers in the fourth carriage were killed, and now only Nico, the squad leader, the company commander, and Another wounded soldier.
"Quick! Take your weapons and retreat to the woods to the west!" said the company commander and drew his pistol and ran to the west.
Nico, empty-handed, wanted to climb back into the carriage to take a weapon, but the squad leader stuffed him with a grenade and asked him to help the soldier with his leg injured to leave the carriage quickly.
After the steam around the train dissipated, the Russian artillery did not continue firing. A few minutes later, a group of brightly dressed cavalry appeared near the wreckage of the train. One of the leading horses came to the fourth carriage and looked inside. After looking at it, it was confirmed that there was no livelihood before leaving with his cavalry.
"Those do not seem to be Cossacks!" whispered the squad leader lying in the woods. "The clothes of the Cossacks are ugly. These people dress like royal guards!"
"God, you are right!" The company commander was right at this time. Aware of the seriousness of the situation, indeed, it was not an ordinary Cossack cavalry at all.
"Now the four of us, Glitz has injured his leg, but we can barely walk, and the others basically just scratched the skin. Our transmitter and the second carriage were blown up together. Now we can't communicate with our superiors. Contact. I decided to do this. We chose one to escort the wounded back and report what we found here! The remaining two people stayed to find out the situation of the Russians!" The
monitor and Nico glanced at each other, and neither of them spoke.
"Well, let's draw lots for the three of us! The one who got the long lottery and Glitz withdrew to Bialystok first!" The company commander held the three branches with long and short branches in his hands and handed them to them.
The squad leader pulled out one without blinking, it didn't seem to be very long. Nico hesitated for a few seconds between the remaining two branches before making up his mind to pull out one.
The company commander spread out his palms, and the one left was the longest.
"You two are as careful as possible. Come back as soon as possible after discovering the new situation! Good luck to you!" After the company commander said, he helped Glitz to walk west along the woods.
After watching the company commander leave, Nico climbed back to the bush near the train. About half an hour after the cavalry left, a group of Russian infantry came from a distance with two empty carriages. They finally stopped by the wreckage of the train. Come down.
"Squad leader, what should we do!"
"Don't do anything, just lie down here" said the squad leader, moving to behind the bushes, lying there quietly watching every move of the Russians. The group of Russian soldiers removed the remaining weapons and ammunition from the train, and at the same time searching the bodies of German soldiers, stuffing valuables into their pockets.
The monitor took out a small piece of paper. Write quickly with a pencil. Russian heavy artillery, brightly dressed cavalry, a very large number of infantry.
After the Russian soldiers loaded their weapons and ammunition into the carriage, they left with the carriage.
"Nico. Go, follow the carriage!" The squad leader pulled up Nico and left.
The Russian soldiers and the two carriages slowly walked east along the railway, while Nico and the squad leader followed them through the woods with their waists up. After they walked for a while, there was a gunshot from the west, but it stopped soon. The Russian infantry outside stopped and looked around for a while, and then went on the road casually. Only Nico and the squad leader knew what had happened, and their mood suddenly became heavy.
"Nico, we will rely on the two of us for this reconnaissance! Be careful, don't make any noise!" The squad leader motioned to Nico, who was frustrated, to squat down. Then he whispered a few words in his ear.
"En!" Nico nodded lightly and inserted the grenade that he was holding tightly into his belt.
A few minutes later, the Russian soldiers and the carriage turned north at a fork in the railway. There was the exit of a valley. There was a sentry in front of the valley, and the dog barked endlessly.
"Can't go any further!" The squad leader took Nico and lay behind the bushes on the edge of the forest. A few hundred meters east of this fork was a railway station. Several trains were slowly entering the small station valley, which was a very large camp, and countless flags were faintly fluttering in the wind.
"Squad leader. The Russians seem to be gathering troops here!" Nico kept his voice down as much as possible.
The monitor did not answer but looked around.
"Nico. Do you know how to climb a tree?"
" Yes, what's the matter?"
"Climb to that tree and observe!" The squad leader pointed to a big, thick tree ten meters behind them.
"Be careful! Don't break the branches or the like, we'll be over when the Russians find out!" Before Nico started climbing the tree, the squad leader exhorted a few more words.
Like an agile monkey, Nico climbed up a three-meter-high tree trunk quickly and lightly. What appeared to him was a corner of the valley, where many tent horses and artillery were neatly arranged, extending into the valley. At the same time, a group of Russian troops was jumping off the train that stopped at the small train station, and then they began to line up to march into the valley.
Nico slid down from the tree, and after describing the situation there to the squad leader, the squad leader added a few words to his paper: The Russian army assembly point is huge, and the number of Russian troops is unknown.
"Quick! We must return to Bialystok as soon as possible. The Russians have already assembled a large number of troops here. They can attack Bialystok in only half a day from here! Damn! The reconnaissance plane reported yesterday. Said that no Russians were found in this area!
" The squad leader muttered after putting away the paper, and they immediately began to return along the same route.
Along the way, there seemed to be many more Russian reconnaissance and patrol cavalry. A team of five of them searched around like hounds. Several times Nico and the squad leader had to lie tightly behind the bushes to avoid the Russian cavalry who approached or entered the woods. It took them nearly an hour to finish the half-hour journey when they came. When they returned to the wreckage of the train, they found that the Russian cavalry was denser there. Several teams even stayed in the woods. In order to avoid them, Nico and the squad leader had to detour again and again. After walking westward for more than ten minutes, they saw the company commander and Glitz's body in the clearing between the two kinds of wood. The company commander's hollow eyes looked straight at the sky while Glitz faced Lie down. They were heavily wounded by stab wounds and appeared to be attacked by Russian cavalry.
The mood of Nico and the squad leader almost fell to the bottom, but they couldn't bury their comrades in arms at this time. There is not even a chance to help them close their eyes.
Time passed by the fingertips every minute and every second. Nico felt his steps were getting heavier and heavier. The energy supplemented by lunch has long been exhausted, and the stomach is getting empty. The sun was about to go down, and there was still no end in sight on the way back. Perhaps the only good news was that there were fewer and fewer Russian cavalry nearby.
"Squad leader, how long do we have to walk?" Nico sat down under a big tree and moistened his chapped lips with the last sip of water in the kettle.
"It took us 5 hours to take the train, and it takes about a whole day to walk!" The squad leader gasped for breath at this time.
At this time, a reconnaissance plane flew over their heads.
"It's our reconnaissance plane!" Nico was about to rush out of the woods but was grabbed by the squad leader.
"Wait! There is nothing under the wing of that plane. It is a Russian reconnaissance plane! God!" The squad leader quickly took out the paper and added a few words.
"The Russians also have airplanes?" Nico looked very surprised. The two Russian armies in the East Prussian counterattack also did not have a single aircraft.
"Yes, didn't you see it? All our planes will have iron crosses painted under the wings!"
In Bialystok, the news of the loss of the armored trains, the command of the East Prussian Regiment seemed very concerned about it. At their strong request, the first reconnaissance plane finally barely took off an hour before the sun went down, but this time was only enough for it to search eastward along the railway line for 50 miles.
So in the middle zone 50 miles east of Bialystok and 30 miles west of the Russian assembly point, less than 5 minutes after the departure of the Russian plane, the German plane also appeared here. It was this short 5 minutes that delayed the first air encounter between German and Russian pilots by one day and also caused the East Prussian Army Command to miss this important message.
"Hey! Here we are!" Seeing the familiar iron cross, the squad leader took Nico out of the woods excitedly, and they waved their hands towards the sky.
It was a pity that the pilot did not realize that, fearing that it would not be too late to return to the airport before dark, the plane quickly made a circle in the air and returned to the west.
The watcher's own plane left, and the squad leader reluctantly put down his hands, but the sound behind him made the hairs all over his body stand up.
"Nico, run! Run to the woods!" The squad leader ran to the woods without looking back.
Nico turned his head differently. On the hillside not far away, a few Russian cavalries were galloping down, and their sabers reflected the blood-red light of the setting sun from time to time. Seeing this shocking scene, Nico hesitated for a few seconds before starting to run into the woods.
"! Run all the way to the woods, to the wooded places!" the squad leader yelled as he ran ahead.
Unfortunately, this is a very sparse forest, which can neither hide nor slow down the cavalry.
Ten seconds later, the horses of the Russian cavalry leaped high, and they easily crossed the bushes at the edge of the woods. Then the horses' hoofs stepped on the soft soil and made a muffled sound. Two sharp war knives showed off. The figure of a German soldier running desperately.
The Russian cavalry yelled and raised their sabers high, and after a few seconds, they would have their prey.
Hearing the sound of horseshoes coming closer and closer, Nico had an idea and took out the grenade tied around his waist. After pulling out the tab, he threw it directly under his feet. A few seconds later, he flew forward while shouting.
"Provide down!" The
the grenade exploded in the woods with a bang, and the soil and branches fell one after another. After Nico got up, he found that the three Russian cavalries rushing forward were all lying in a pool of blood. One of the horses had a huge opening in the belly, and internal organs and blood ran all over the floor. A wounded Russian cavalry struggled to stand up, and he staggered towards Nico holding a saber. Nico was feeling helpless, he had no weapons except a bayonet. UU reading www.uukanshu.com
bang!
Nico had just pulled out his bayonet but saw the Russian cavalry fall straight back.
Behind him, the squad leader lowered the muzzle of the rifle. With a crisp click, he quickly sent another bullet into the barrel. Not far away, two Russian cavalrymen and their mounts frightened by the explosion were in the original position. To spin around.
After 10 seconds, the third bullet shell lightly landed on the soil, leaving only two unowned war horses rushing out of the woods.
The squad leader walked slowly by Nico and walked to a Russian cavalry who had not died. He looked at the other's horrified eyes. The squad leader raised his gun and filled his chest with a shot, then picked up the cavalry pistol and threw it to Nico sat in a daze.
"God bless! Let's go!"
As night fell, and with the protection of darkness, Nico and the squad leader began to move faster. In the early morning of the next day, they had heard the rumbling noise from there before they reached Bialystok. The Russian troops transferred from Galicia had already attacked the East Prussian Army by night. When Nico returned to Bialystok, the outer battle had already begun for more than 4 hours...