On November 9 at 0600 hours, the artillery bombardment began.
By this time, Wang Zhong was already in the command bunker of the division. It usually got light around four in the morning, so he was accustomed to waking up at that time.
His daily routine was entirely in "summer time"; he would start feeling sleepy as soon as it got dark after ten at night and would wake up at four in the morning.
Now, the nights were as long as the days had been during the summer.
At six o'clock, it was still pitch-dark – such was the north.
But Wang Zhong's daily routine remained the same as before, so he ended up yawning and making his way to the division command bunker in the pitch-dark as if it were still four in the morning, and then he would chat with Popov, who was on the night shift.
It was when the enemy's bombardment began that Pavlov stumbled into the division command bunker.
