Chapter 20: Ginger instead of wine

In the following time, no matter what the US military did or the gunshots of volunteer soldiers, I kept lying on the spot without moving, as if I had disappeared from this world, and didn't even raise my head.

In fact, I don’t have to look up, I know that the US military will not be so willing to give in. In other parts of the front line, they still tried to find a loophole in the volunteer soldiers to break through our sniper position. For this reason, they even launched two rounds of artillery bombings again. But all their efforts were obviously futile, because they always thought we were lurking on the opposite position.

Without correctly realizing our position, the US military was doomed to fail from the beginning, so after several hours of intermittent efforts, they finally decided to give up the position on the top of the mountain.

The sun sets, taking away the last light. The mountains are dimmed, the clouds are dimmed, and the snow is dimmed. The air around them quickly becomes cold, and then a gust of cold wind blows onto the top of the mountain, bringing pieces of snow powder to us, and his faces are scattered, as if he wants to tear our clothes into the door.

Only then did I dare to move my already numb limbs, and now I could hardly feel their existence. When I looked up, I realized that the searchlight that should have been lit was gone. There was another faint darkness and coldness around me. There was nothing except the whistling wind and the sound of the canned box hanging on the wire mesh.

I couldn't help but envy my comrades. They were at least in groups of two, and they could encourage and support each other, but I had only one person. Now I am like being isolated from the world, enjoying loneliness, coldness and fear alone here...

I thought a lot, remembered my home decades later, and remembered my mother... Listening to the whimpering wind coming from the valley, I was wondering if the US military, who died under my command, had turned into a ghost and wanted to come back to settle the score with me. At the same time, I also remembered my comrades who were frozen to death on the 175th Highlands in the fourth battle, and maybe I would be part of them now...

"Captain Cui! Captain Cui..." In the chaos, I vaguely heard a voice calling my name. I thought it was an illusion, but as the sound got closer, I realized that it was indeed my comrades who came to me.

I couldn't help but feel happy. I stood up and wanted to greet them, but my body was out of control. I tried all my strength and will and finally turned over.

"Here, there!" The leader was Wang Xianru. He shouted quietly as soon as he saw me, and ran up carefully with two soldiers to support me.

I was almost carried back by the two soldiers. Fortunately, Wang Xianru spent some time cleaning the mines on our must-pass road along the way, otherwise I would have been dragged back like me, and I still don’t know how many mines would be detonated.

When I returned to the tunnel, I found that a fire had begun in the tunnel. There were more than a dozen soldiers sitting or lying beside the fire. The soldiers were in similar condition as mine. They were all frozen and were trembling next to the fire. But even so, when they saw me coming, they quickly gave up a seat for me.

I took the ginger soup handed over to me by other soldiers and took a few sips. I felt a warm current penetrate into my stomach through my throat. Although my body was still trembling, I felt extremely comfortable and refreshed in my heart...

"How is the casualties?" After grabbing the rice ball handed over by Wang Yuehan and biting it, I asked vaguely.

"It's not clear yet!" Wang Yuehan replied: "Squad 2 and 3 are all fine, because they can come back by themselves as soon as it gets dark. Except for a soldier who accidentally slips and hurts his feet, no casualties! Squad 1's soldiers still don't know..."

Speaking of this, Wang Yuehan said with some concern: "Squad 1 soldiers were trapped in a minefield, so they could not come back on their own. Only Wang Xianru could clear the mines, and only he knew the location of the soldiers. He had to bring the comrades from the Cold Gun Army back again and again!"

"What?" I was stunned when I heard this, and looked at Wang Yuehan in disbelief and asked, "Are you saying that the warriors of a group have not come back yet? Is Wang Xianru the first to pick me up?"

"Yes!" Wang Yuehan nodded and said, "You are the leader of the group. Who else should you pick up if you don't pick up?"

"What's the point!" I threw Jiang Tang hard on the ground: "Chief Staff Wang, you have been a person who has been in revolution for many years, why are you still so unreasonable! You know that there is only one person in my sniper position and two in other sniper positions. How can you save me first? You can do the calculations that are as simple as one!"

"But the leader..."

"But what? Just because I am the leader of the regiment?" I couldn't help but say with some anger: "Wang Yuehan! Wang Yuehan! You are also a party member! With such ideological awareness? The two lives of the soldiers are not as good as the leader of the regiment? Pass my order and organize rescue immediately. We must save all the soldiers alive!"

"Yes!" Wang Yuehan saluted me with admiration, and ran out of the tunnel without saying a word.

I am not very conscious. In fact, I am from the modern age and do not have the self-sacrifice awareness of people of this era. I would think, say, and do this entirely because I think it is me who puts the soldiers in this danger! And if I exchange my two lives for my life, this is something I cannot accept!

Not only me, I think no real soldier can accept such an exchange!

Under Wang Yuehan's command, the soldiers came back one after another. What made me feel a little relieved was that although the soldiers were frozen very much, they were all fine like me. After drinking a bowl of ginger soup and eating a few bites of hot rice balls, they soon became lively again. I think this is related to their persistence in lurking training every day during this period.

"There are two more comrades who haven't come back. Who are they?" After ticking down the number of people, I asked Huang Sihu who had just returned.

At this time, he was pouring ginger soup into his mouth, and his teeth were shaking the sound of the bowl "Keke...".

Huang Sihu raised his head and glanced at the soldiers beside him, and quickly replied in a trembling voice: "Yu Ming and Zhang, Zhang Renying!"

"Don't worry! Captain Cui!" Several soldiers who were burning fire laughed and said, "The two comrades Yu Ming and Zhang Renying are in good health! Since I met them, they took a shower with cold water and wiped their bodies with snow when it came to winter!"

"Yes! Commander Cui!" Some soldiers also said: "Every time of lurking training, they are the two of them who have been lurking the longest. No one in our army can match them yet! If they have something to do, we will not be able to come back..."

"Captain Cui!" Before he finished speaking, a few rapid shouts came from outside the tunnel, and a sense of ominousness rose. When he lifted the black cloth at the entrance of the tunnel, he saw the soldiers breaking in with two people on their backs.

"Yu Ming, Zhang Renying!" The soldiers hugged them and went to the fire without saying a word. They rubbed their hands and feet, but after a long time of struggle, they found that they had been out of breath.

"What's going on?" I couldn't help but ask.

Wang Yuehan turned them over silently, and several wounds on the backs and feet of the two soldiers with black blood clots were displayed in front of the soldiers.

"These two comrades didn't find a good location!" Wang Xianru reported: "Although their positions can hit the enemy, no one expected that that place was too close to our position, and the enemy would be bombarded..."

Listening to Wang Xianru's explanation and looking at the wounds caused by shrapnel on the two soldiers, I quickly understood. Some parts of the mountains are only fifty meters away from our own positions. If the lurking position is too close, it will be easy to be injured by shrapnel flying from the opposite side.

"Captain!" Wang Yuehan pointed to the wounds on Yu Ming and Zhang Renying and continued: "None of the wounds on these two comrades' bodies are fatal injuries, they are..."

"Yeah!" I nodded and refused to let Wang Yuehan continue to say it. I understood what Wang Yuehan said. The soldiers understood that the two soldiers who died understood even more. Although the shrapnel hit them, they would not kill them. The fatal thing is that in order not to expose the entire team, they must lie in their original position without moving until all the blood on their bodies was drained.

"When I found them..." Wang Xianru said heavily: "Their hands were held together and they were frozen! I tried a lot of effort to separate them..."

I couldn't help but feel silent when I heard this, and the soldiers were silent. Everyone seemed to be able to see how the two soldiers supported each other and encouraged each other to die together in the cold snow.

"You two damn!" A soldier gritted his teeth and cursed at Yu Ming and Zhang Renying with a crying voice: "You two compete in shooting skills, lurking together, and taking a cold shower together. Now even death is a comparison, why don't you wait for brothers, me..."

There was a terrible silence in the tunnel, and there was nothing but the crackling sound of branches burning in the fire.

After a long time, I sighed and said, "Buried them!"

"Yes!" Wang Yuehan waved his hand, and soon several soldiers came forward, covered them with white cloth and carried them out.

This is the funeral of the Volunteer Army. If you are in China, you can at least find a red flag to cover it! If you have the conditions, you can go back to your own organization and bury it with your comrades. But here, it is good to have a piece of white cloth wrapped around the body, most of which don’t even have white cloth or straw mats. And after burial, you basically don’t want to find somewhere…

"Comrades! Be happy!" Seeing that the soldiers were all silent, Wang Yuehan couldn't help but jump up and shouted: "We have won another big victory today! Why are we still so dejected! Come on... we all talk about fighting a few Japanese! How did we fight? Let's summarize the experience! Huang Sihu, you are the squad leader, please talk first!"

"Eleven!" Huang Sihu responded listlessly.

"Eight!" Another soldier also continued in a lifeless manner.

"What's wrong with you!" Seeing this, I couldn't help but jump up and said, "Staff Officer Wang is right. We should be happy to win the battle! Let's stand up and be more energetic!"

"Yes!" The soldiers stood up one after another and straightened their bodies.

"Comrades!" I raised the ginger soup in my hand and shouted to the soldiers: "For this victory and for the sacrifice of comrades, let's do it!"

"Do it!" the soldier roared, and followed suit. He raised the ginger soup in his hand and drank it all in one go.

"Okay!" After drinking the ginger soup, I threw the bowl in my hand hard on the ground: "After drinking this bowl, we must keep the sacrificed comrades in our hearts and forget all the sadness. We are thinking about how to destroy the Japanese and avenge the sacrificed comrades!"

"Destroy the Japanese and avenge their comrades!"

...

After being inspired by me to replace wine with ginger, the atmosphere in the tunnel was immediately different. I was still dead just now, but now I became active. I just asked Wang Yuehan to ask about the results of the battle one by one, but now the soldiers have stood up to report.

"Chief Staff Wang, our team is only fighting one!" Two soldiers stood up, one of them said with shame: "We didn't fight well this time, mainly because we didn't have the experience of looking at the position far away in the dark, so the position we chose was not ideal. We both lay there and couldn't see the enemy. The target who appeared in front of me still made a mistake and rolled down from the mountain..."

With a coaxing sound, the soldiers all laughed into a ball.

"So..." another soldier continued, "I think we should attract more lessons and practice the ability to look at the terrain in the future. When this happens again, we will make the same mistake again!"

"Okay!" Although the two soldiers' achievements were not ideal, the soldiers still gave warm applause.

"Chief of Staff Wang!" At this time, Huang Sihu stood up and said, "I think Captain Cui should be asked to introduce his experience!"

"Hmm! Why is this?" Wang Yuehan couldn't help but ask in confusion.

"Because I think Captain Cui was really good at fighting this time, I feel like I have learned a lot!" Huang Sihu looked at me with admiration and said, "In my lurking position, I happened to see Captain Cui. At first I didn't know who that was. Later, when I looked carefully, I found the scope on the gun, and then I realized it was Captain Cui!"

"Um!" Wang Yuehan looked at me with a smile on his face and said to Huang Sihu: "Since you have seen so carefully, let's introduce you!"

Upon hearing this, I couldn't help but smile. Wang Yuehan knew me well and knew that what I fear most was introducing experience!

"Okay!" Huang Sihu nodded and said, "I won't talk about Captain Cui's shooting skills. This comrades know. There were more than a dozen Americans hiding in the machine gun position. After an American was knocked off by the commander, the other Americans were so scared that they all shook their heads like turtles and dared not come out!"

With a coaxing sound, the soldiers burst into laughter again.

"The US military at the position of the Commander Cui can't see the machine gun position." Huang Sihu continued: "The US military is all huddled in the position and cannot come out. What should I do? When I was in trouble, Commander Cui fired. I looked closely and saw an enemy outside the machine gun position had been hit in the thigh and was lying on the ground and shouting!"

"Um!" Hearing this, all the soldiers' faces were filled with doubts, and some even looked at me.

I know what the soldiers are thinking. They are all sharpshooters. If a target appears, most of them can be killed in one shot. Now when I hear that I have only hit the enemy in the thigh, I naturally think that my shot has lost its accuracy.

"At first, I thought Captain Cui had misstepped as you thought!" Huang Sihu was also a smart man. Looking at the reaction of the soldiers, he smiled and shook his head and said, "But soon I realized that he was wrong. Captain he intended to do this!"

"Do you mean to do this?" The other soldiers were sucked up again when they heard this, and they all stretched their necks and looked at Huang Sihu.

"No?" Huang Sihu nodded and said, "This shot of our regiment commander is called pulling out the snake out of the hole! It is intentional injury without killing it, which means to lure out the enemy in the machine gun position! Isn't this? After a while, a Japanese man ran out to save the person. With a bang, he killed his life. Not long after, another one ran out, and it was a shot that would be done..."

"Oh!" After hearing this, the soldiers suddenly realized and nodded and discussed with their comrades around them. Some soldiers looked at me with admiration, even Wang Yuehan was no exception.

"Then the Americans' cannon sounded! The devils thought they had an opportunity to take advantage of it, so they rushed out of the position to save people, but the regiment commander made a few shots like this, and they all knocked down." Huang Sihu finally sighed: "I counted it. The regiment commander knocked down a total of eleven enemies, and he knocked down eleven enemies alone!"

"Okay!" the soldiers shouted, and applause soon broke out in the tunnel.

"Captain Cui, I'm right!" Huang Sihu asked me with an inquiring look.

"Yeah!" I nodded, knowing that Huang Sihu didn't see me killing the enemy sniper with a pistol. After all, he also wants to hit the enemy, so it's normal for him to miss something.

I'm not a high-profile person, but when I think about it, I have to mention it.

So I raised my hand to signal the soldiers to calm down: "Comrades, I was shot dead by me on the battlefield, and there was also a US sniper, which Comrade Huang Sihu didn't see!"

"Sniper?" Some of the soldiers heard the name for the first time.

"It's just like us who lurks on the battlefield and shoots cold guns!" I explained: "The soldiers must be more careful in the battlefield in the future. These snipers of the US military have been specially trained and have precise shooting skills and superb lurking skills like us. One appeared on the battlefield today, and more and more will come in the future. The so-called mantis catching cicadas and oriole behind the scenes. Before firing, soldiers must observe clearly to see if there are enemy snipers lurking in the dark, waiting to give us a fatal blow!"

"Yes!" the soldiers responded, and a solemn look appeared on their faces.
Chapter completed!