Then he heard gunshots! The gunfire was fired by Zhang Zhongliang behind him! Seeing that the squad leader made a shot in front, Zhang Zhongliang, who was always in a high state of tension, thought that the squad leader was going to shoot at the Soviet army, and quickly shot on the wall of the trench and hurriedly fired a string of bullets!

Then, thinking that the battle had begun, the others who followed them also crouched on the wall of the trench and fired "crackling" at the Soviets in the third trench!

It was this burst of gunfire that prematurely revealed the intention of the attack, causing the Soviets to pour all their fire down on them. After ten minutes, Li Yue, who had completely lost his mind, buried his head under the edge of the trench, trembling all over, neither saw the heroic attack launched by Gong Wenxuan, the leader of the 8th squad, nor did he notice that Qu Baoxiang, the deputy of the 8th squad, used a light machine gun to fight tenaciously and tenaciously with the Soviet army, and the firing sound of this light machine gun only played the following role: it made the last string of self-control in Li Yue's life that was barely maintained tighter and tighter, and finally completely broke because of its sudden disappearance!

As a result, a minute after Qu Baoxiang's light machine gun fire stopped, from the traffic trench where Li Yue was hidden, people suddenly heard a shout of "wow"! With this inhuman long shout, Li Yue jumped up, climbed onto the edge of the trench, shook his body, stood firm, and shouted "wow", frantically rushing towards the Soviet position above the high ground!

This is how the battlefield allows people to do things that neither they nor others expected: Li Yue is terrified by the face of death; But when the weight of fear itself crushes his will to live, he will rush to death to get rid of it!

He didn't know that he was rushing to death, and in the frenzy he was just going to pounce on the weight that made his life unbearable, and he wanted to find the last relief in this pounce!

With his shout, the other two fighters of the 9th squad thought that the squad leader had given the order to charge and took the lead in the charge, and they also jumped out of the traffic trench, shouting "wow", and the muzzle of the submachine gun "dada" fired a string of bullets, and swooped towards the Soviet position!

The Soviet troops, who had just knocked out Qu Baoxiang's light machine gun, were obviously frightened by the new attack, and a ghost crying wolf howl sounded again in the trench, and all the bullets immediately flew towards Li Yue and the two soldiers behind him. The hillside was half-lit and half-dark by the night and the light of the fires, and they couldn't figure out how many troops the Chinese army was attacking upwards, and the dense rain of bullets knocked down the two soldiers behind Li Yue first!

At the western end of the third trench, the light machine gunner of the Soviet army did not see Li Yue who was striding up clearly, and when a fire in front of the position suddenly reflected the latter from the darkness, he seemed to be stupid and forgot to shoot. He saw a man of utter madness, with three places on fire on his ragged uniform; His eyes were wide open, his face was as hideous as a layer of dirty oil paint, and he didn't shoot with a submachine gun in his hand, but he just screamed "wow" and stumbled towards him! The Soviet shooter couldn't hold back the terror that suddenly rose in his heart, and he also screamed "wow", straightened up and wanted to run, as if he suddenly understood: you can't run away! He didn't stop the howl in his mouth, he bent down, and almost "snapped" the light machine gun in the abdomen of Li Yue, who ran in front of him!

Li Yue shook and fell to the front of the Soviet position; Then it rolled down two or three meters and was blocked by some half-burning bushes. He passed out, and was immediately awakened by the sharp pain at the wound and the screams of the charge coming from the bottom of the slope!

This new cry was issued by Shang Yujun and the 7th class led by him. After the 9th squad exposed the target prematurely, Shang Yujun was also suppressed at the bottom of the trench by the Soviet army's bullet rain! Then he saw with his own eyes the heroic onslaught of Class 8 and their destruction! Later, Qu Baoxiang's light machine gun gave him a glimmer of hope, but it was also quickly knocked out by the Soviet army! As soon as Li Yue, the leader of the 9th squad, led two soldiers to frantically jump out of the traffic trench and attack the Soviet army, Shang Yujun's eyes immediately filled with tears of grief and indignation! He understood that this might be the last chance for the whole platoon to attack the Soviet position, and without further hesitation, he immediately jumped up from the bottom of the trench and shouted behind him: "Charge——! "Take the 7 classes and rush up to the traffic trench vacated by the 9 classes!

Since he was running in the communication trenches, the Soviet fire only focused on Li Yue on the hillside, and they were not hit at first. But he ran a few steps before he tripped over two black things at the bottom of the trench!

"Who ——!" He shouted.

Two distorted faces rose from the bottom of the moat, illuminated by the firelight on the hillside. It's Zhang Zhongming and Zhang Zhongliang! A wave of anger rushed to Shang Yujun's head, and he got up and kicked the brothers who they didn't know. "Why are you hiding here?!" He shouted, "Rush me——! ”

The Zhang brothers first cried "ah", and then grabbed their guns and staggered forward! However, due to the delay just now, the attack on Li Yue on the hillside has failed, and the light machine guns of the Soviet army directly above the communication trench have turned their muzzles to attack them! Zhang Zhongming and Zhang Zhongliang hurriedly lay down, and Shang Yujun was also suppressed under the edge of the trench by the fierce fire that came diagonally from above. A sad thought came out of his heart: the last attack had failed! It's over! …… 9 squad leader Li Yue died before dawn. Realizing that the attack launched by the platoon commander with the 7th squad had been stopped again, he passed out again. When I woke up again, it was late at night, and the high ground was silent. Li Yue dimly thought that he was not dead, and thought that if he could hold back the burning thirst in his mouth and not drink the spring water flowing from the cracks in the rocks, he would even have the hope of living. But when he thought about it, he also knew that he had no strength to resist the temptation of the spring, and that he had never overcome a single real test in his short life, and this time was no exception. He leaned his chapped lips towards the spring beside him, and drank more raw water than he had imagined, causing a second massive bleeding from the wound in his abdomen, and he passed out again, never to wake up again.

At 11 o'clock in the evening, the fighting on the legs of the southern mountains of the 631 Heights also stopped. The night obscured most of the mess up and down the hillside: the shell craters opened wide mouths one east and one west; Trees that were blown up by the waist, clumps of tree stumps, lying horizontally and vertically in the cracks; Far and near, clumps of bushes are still burning alive, lighting a fire and extinguishing it brightly. Since the night duty artillery fire of the Soviet army began to fire, it has become one of its targets, a shell just landed on the waist on the east side of the mountain leg, less than 20 meters from the heavy machine gun that made the Soviet troops on the leg of the big nose peak in the afternoon, although it did not hurt anyone, but it ignited a pine tree the size of a teacup, the wind from the northwest canyon blew the smoke to the east, and the lifeless face of the man sitting stiffly behind the heavy machine gun was suddenly hidden, and suddenly reappeared...... Xiao Qiang, who rushed back from the high ground, hurriedly walked up the mountain with the messenger, stopped in front of the heavy machine gun, and shouted: "Deputy regiment commander!" ”

The man behind the heavy machine gun did not answer. Following his dull gaze in the dim night air, Xiao Qiang saw the 634 Heights looming in the night in the southeast!

An hour ago, the defensive battle on the 633 Heights ended, and Xiao Qiang hastily deployed the night defense of the 8th Company, and rushed to the battalion command post on the leg of the 631 Heights. In the afternoon and evening, he was on the 633 heights, and he knew very well everything that was happening up and down the 634 heights, and the reason why he was in a hurry to return to the battalion command post was to inform the deputy regiment commander about the situation and see if he could take some remedial measures against the heights!

But the deputy head is no longer the same deputy head as before, and not even the deputy head when he left in the afternoon! As the gunfire on the entire battlefield gradually thinned, especially since the gunshots could no longer be heard in the direction of the 634 heights, the heavy heart in the chest of the deputy regiment commander seemed to be broken at the end, and his mind seemed to have entered a state of extreme unconsciousness, as if life had left him, and what remained here was just an empty shell!

Xiao Qiang looked up at the 634 Heights in the southeast, and he felt that he understood Liu Zongsheng: the 634 Heights were not taken, and the deputy head of the regiment could not answer Peng Tao's questions. The only remedy at the moment is to transfer a part of the troops from the 7th and 8th companies, led by himself, to attack the 634 heights! He also thought specifically about which route was best to approach the heights: the southeast side of the 633rd Heights was now blocked by the heavy machine guns of the East Third Heights, and the new attacking team should open a way from the minefields in the gully on the west side of the 633rd Heights to approach the 634 Heights—the night would cover their movements, and the chances of success would be much greater than during the day!

He approached Liu Zongsheng and expressed his opinion. Immediately, he heard a deep, categorical reply: "No! ”

Before 24 o'clock in the night, Xiao Qiang never understood the meaning of the word "no".

He thought of a variety of explanations, for example, after a day of fighting, the casualty rate of the 7th and 8th companies also exceeded one-third, and according to general military theory, it was difficult for the troops with one-third casualties to fight hard; For example, even if the deputy regiment commander agreed with him, it would be difficult for him to lead his troops to open up a passage from the Soviet minefield and take the high ground before dawn, and the time set by the 3rd Regiment for them to end the battle was 14 o'clock in the afternoon, and the time set by the army commander to end the offensive battle in the No. 1 Ridge area was 24 o'clock at midnight, so they could not complete the combat mission in the above two times anyway. But all these explanations failed to fully convince him, and Xiao Qiang felt more and more soberly that the reason that prompted the deputy regiment commander to make the above decision was probably very simple: he did not allow himself to lead his troops to attack the 634 heights because he did not want to attack the 634 heights again. Xiao Qiang couldn't believe that this explanation was true: the command post of the 3rd Regiment did not officially order them to stop the attack, and the deputy regiment commander was tantamount to giving up the battle without authorization, and he would be held accountable for dereliction of duty after the war!

As early as the afternoon in the afternoon, the Soviet troops at Vulture Ridge and Xilian Mountain counterattacked the 632 highland area, Peng Tao only gave him a platoon of symbolic surname assistance, and Liu Zongsheng made up his mind: he would die like a soldier in today's battle!

Little did he know that from this moment on, his spirit had entered a miserable state. As the supreme commander of this small unit, he could not help the 9th Company that was in a desperate situation on the 634 Heights, nor could he control the development of the battle situation in the entire 632 Heights area, so that the whole battalion would not be annihilated...... But his heart was angry, and his despair was full of self-reproach. He must not forget that on the way to the mountain stream last night, he also made up his mind to protect the lives of all the officers and men of the battalion as much as possible. But today, it was he who personally brought them into the "death trap" of the 632 Highlands area; Past experience had long reminded him to be vigilant against Peng Tao, but this morning he still believed the news from the command post of the 3rd Regiment, and really thought that there were no Soviet troops on the 632, 633, and 634 heights, so the whole battalion braved artillery fire and sniping from Gaoping dual-purpose machine guns to come here, and fell into such a desperate situation at this time. Now he can't do anything for the soldiers, and Peng Tao, who can do something for them, refuses to lend a helping hand, and their battalion is left with only a dead end. He was sorry for everyone in the battalion, especially for the officers and soldiers who respected and trusted him. Since the officers and men of the whole battalion are destined to die heroically in the 632 highlands area today, he, the person who brings bad luck to everyone, should die before others!

Once he was engrossed in the shooting of the Soviet troops on the leg of the Big Nose Peak, Liu Zongsheng even forgot the above thoughts, and the despair and self-condemnation in his heart turned into anger, which directly acted on the heavy machine gun in his hand. He would die in a confrontation with the Soviets, and he longed to die like this. At the height of the shoot, he didn't realize that his bloodshot eyes had widened, and he shouted viciously; Each string of bullets fired from the opponent "snapped" to the ground in front of the heavy machine gun position, or slammed into the gun, not only did not bring him fear, but only played the role of provoking the anger in his heart and burning the flames more vigorously. He didn't even feel that he and the heavy machine gun had drawn hits from the Soviet Gaoping dual-purpose machine guns and shells from the Big Nose Peak, and it was they that greatly changed the terrain around the battalion command post in the period before dusk came, causing casualties. Liu Zongsheng first paid attention to the Soviet troops on the leg of Dabifeng Mountain who tried to jump over the gully and jump to the 634 heights, and then only a heavy machine gun and two light machine guns turned the muzzle of the gun towards him from that leg of the mountain. He didn't know that less than half an hour after he fired the heavy machine gun in his hand, the Soviet army's offensive against the 9th Company sniper line at the Big Nose Peak was collapsed. He only knew that the Soviet heavy machine guns and two light machine guns were still there, and their threat to the 9th Company must still be there. He still did not stop firing in that direction until the heavy machine guns and two light machine guns of the Soviet army fell silently one after another - he had previously estimated the situation of the 9th Company and the whole battalion very seriously, and of course he did not believe that only one heavy machine gun and one light machine gun of the 8th Company had contained the Soviet troops supporting the 634 heights in the direction of Xilian Mountain, and he could not relax his vigilance, especially he could not stop continuing to carry out fierce fire attacks on the remnants of the Soviet troops on the legs of the Big Nose Peak!

It was at this moment that a bullet flying from the leg of the Big Nose Peak Mountain hit him in the neck.

Liu Zongsheng's feeling was that someone had stabbed his throat with an iron hammer. He fell to the ground on his back, and a thought quickly flashed through his mind - I'm going to die! This thought did not give him the sense of calm and relief that he expected when he died, but it gave him even more anger, the whole battalion was still fighting bloodily, and the 9th Company was in need of your heavy machine gun support, but you died!

He fainted in this rage.

He wasn't in a coma for long, and the pain brought him back to life. The Soviet bullet only left a penetrating wound in the muscle layer on the outside of his neck, and did not actually cut his throat. Liu Zongsheng struggled, sat up straight with his back against the ditch wall behind the heavy machine gun position, and the first thing that came to his heart was still extreme disappointment and anger towards himself: the gunfire in the entire 632 highland area was still fierce, and every minute there would be sacrifices of officers and soldiers who were brought to this "death trap" by him, but the most damned thing was that he turned around alive!

It was getting dark. Both the heavy machine gun in front of him and the light and heavy machine gun of the Soviet army on the leg of the Big Nose Peak stopped firing. Not long ago, on the leg of the mountain, which posed the greatest threat to the 9th Company, there was not a single Soviet soldier in sight. Liu Zongsheng sat there in a daze, listening to the voices from the entire battlefield, and his spirit unconsciously fell into an unprecedented state of powerlessness and frustration, which is a phenomenon that often occurs in people who have experienced fierce battles, have been wounded, have exhausted energy and physical strength, and are filled with despair. His troops were still fighting in a desperate situation, many officers and soldiers had died, many more were dying, and he had made up his mind to die but did not get his wish. At the same time, he has no strength to rush to the battlefield and go into battle, and his heart is becoming numb by all the setbacks and failures!

However, in the time that followed, he could still hear that up and down the heights of 632 and 633, the imminent crisis of a few hours ago had disappeared, and the 7th and 8th companies had withstood the frantic attack of the Soviet troops, and the positions had not been lost, that is to say, the worst that he had predicted—the annihilation of the whole battalion—did not appear; In the direction of Heights 634, the gunfire suddenly became fierce again as it got dark. Liu Zongsheng's heart suddenly became excited: he heard that the remaining strength of the 9th Company was very limited, and what they were doing was the end of a tragic offensive battle!

His attention returned to the direction of the 634 heights, to the last group of officers and soldiers of the 9th Company who fought bloodily. At the same time, the revival of vitality is also flooding the mind and body again. He hoped that the gunfire of the 9th Company would continue, and even thought that as soon as the 7th and 8th Companies could draw some troops, he would let them go to the 634 Heights to reinforce the 9th Company! However, without waiting for the fighting in the direction of heights 632 and 633 to cease, the gunfire in the direction of heights 634 that could indicate that the 9th Company was still fighting stopped, and only one heavy machine gun and a few submachine guns were still firing there.

(To be continued)