"This was an astonishingly tragic scene of unprecedented bravery and determination on both sides."

From the beginning of the battle, the most violent and continuous bombardment continued day after day; the offensive troops composed of elite divisions of the Chinese Expeditionary Force were beaten to pieces day after day in this continuous attack.

.And with the arrival of summer, the downpour from the sky made it difficult to walk, and the heavy rain was turned into mist in the hail of hot bullets. In the rain of artillery, this battlefield was completely boiling, just like the Roman Colosseum thousands of years ago.

generally.

The arena - as often happened in ancient Roman amphitheaters - flooded. Thousands of vehicles, hundreds of thousands of soldiers and millions of cannonballs churned the endless soil into a blood-red slurry.

, instead of the dust raised by the explosion. The battle is still going on, hundreds of thousands of soldiers are fighting on the battlefield, thousands of artillery on both sides are still roaring day and night, and in this rain

In the mud mixed with flesh, blood and steel, the soldiers' legs could no longer move. They had no choice but to wallow and struggle in the mud in despair. Their food, weapons and ammunition fell on the bombed and blocked road behind them.

Meat grinder.

If Verdun is a meat grinder, then the Somme is also a meat grinder. Whether it is Verdun or the Somme, there is actually no essential difference between the two. The battlefields are also established.

Two, three or even four layers of barriers consisting of countless cannons and machine guns were built around the battlefield. Railways were built behind the barriers to provide supplies, and artillery shells were piled up. All of this was the result of months of hard work. Therefore, this battlefield

Surrounded by thousands of artillery of various types, a wide oval-shaped open space is left between the artillery teams. For both attackers and defenders, they can only survive under the constant pounding of the surrounding artillery.

, the fish moved through this terrible arena as if they were the teeth of two meshing gears grinding against each other.

The mud on the battlefield dragged down the soldiers, but it could not stop their offensive. After a heavy rain, once again, a company-sized force once again launched a penetrating attack on the German defense line.

On the battlefield, there were densely packed corpses scattered everywhere, all of which were abandoned by the expeditionary force and the German army. The fierce battle gave no chance to the expeditionary force or the German army to collect the corpses, although both sides knew that these corpses meant a lot to them.

, can be said to be the most threatening "weapon", but no one is willing to collect corpses under the muzzle of a sniper on the battlefield.

The corpses that were torn apart by shells, soaked in muddy water, and exposed to the sun for several days will be completely stiff, black and yellow, and become bloated and purple due to decay and soaking in muddy water.

The color was black, and black water flowed out from the military uniforms. Wherever the corpses were buried, there were pools of blood everywhere, exuding a suffocating stench. The corpses and the blood were covered with groups of blowflies.

And at the eye openings of the corpse, disgusting white fly maggots poured out from the eye openings from time to time, squirming among the bones.

But all this seemed invisible to the expeditionary officers and soldiers who carried out the infiltration attack. When they had to lie down on the ground to avoid shelling and machine gun fire, in front of their eyes were flies crawling among the bones.

The maggots seemed to remind them that they would also become such things, but the disgusting and dazzling pictures in their sights failed to affect their emotions. For these commandos who had narrowly escaped death, they had already

Being accustomed to everything on this battlefield, no one would care about this. Compared to the vomiting maggots and the stench of corpses, they would rather live...

But to survive, you can only rely on fighting.

Only by killing the Germans on the opposite side can they survive on this hell-like battlefield, completely soaked in flesh and blood!

Smoke bombs. When the commandos of this company attacked, the artillery shells fired by the expeditionary force included smoke bombs. The smoke bombs blocked the sight of the German army, allowing the commandos to get as close as possible to the German army while avoiding casualties.

of trenches.

Under the cover of white smoke, Zhao Peiren could no longer remember how many times he had invaded this ruined fortress today. Intense tongues of flames shot aimlessly from the trenches and fortifications near the fortress, and he had already marked the target here.

On a good battlefield, the German machine gunner knew where to shoot even without aiming. In order to avoid the machine gun fire, he could only lower his body as much as possible to avoid the machine gun fire. As he got closer to the German position, he

He lay close to the ground, panting heavily regardless of the stench in the air. When the shells exploded around him, the dust fell into his hair.

The battle between them and the German army for this fortified area has been going on for two days and one night, and there is still no sign of stopping. Even with their continuous penetration attacks, the German army was compressed into an extremely narrow space.

It not only failed to make the Germans give up their resistance, but instead made their resistance become more intense.

The fierce battle consumed every soldier's physical strength. Like other soldiers, he had not taken a shower for many days. The continuous attacks through the artillery fog made Zhao Peiren's face dripping with black sweat. He had not been able to get adequate rest for a long time.

The arms of he and other soldiers holding heavy firearms could not stop shaking slightly, and the constant sound of artillery fire day and night made it impossible for them to rest.

German soldiers are really fucking tough.

Every time when the attack was frustrated, Zhao Peiren would think like this in his mind. Several times, they had invaded the German positions, but often at the most critical moment, they were pushed back by the Germans. It was not because of the cooperation of their troops.

The problem is that as the position continues to be penetrated, the Germans have slowly adapted to this style of play.

Accompanied by several loud noises of heavy offensive grenades, this seemed to tell others that the battle had begun. Sure enough, there were bursts of roars in the smoke, and the roars and the explosions of heavy grenades continued.

The sound resounded in the German trenches, and occasionally the wild shouts of soldiers could be heard in the smoke.

"Throw two grenades at this entrance..."

This is obviously the soldiers who discovered the German underground fortifications calling for their brothers around them to use weighted grenades to bury the enemy soldiers in the fortifications in those bunkers deep underground. Unlike the British and French armies, in the Somme area, the German fortifications

They were built extremely deep, even several meters deep. It was these bunkers that protected these soldiers. But now, this kind of underground fortification has become the best trap. It only takes a heavy grenade to kill several soldiers.

Ten German soldiers were buried alive in the bunker.

At this moment, suddenly, a shell exploded next to Zhao Peiren. When the blast of air hit him, he felt that his whole body seemed to fly off the ground in an instant, and then his vision went dark and he lost consciousness!

Missing, presumed dead.

In this moment, the whole world changed.

Liu Chunming staggered from the air-raid shelter into the first ray of dawn in the early morning. Even if Liu Chunming lost his legs forever, he would be calmer than accepting this terrible fact.

Zhao Peiren is now missing and presumed dead. After their attack, the German army once again launched a counterattack. Just like in the past, attack and counterattack are relative. In the past week, the decisive battle between the Chinese and German armies on the east bank of the Somme reached a climax.

After the **, nearly 100,000 German troops launched an attack on the Somme River day and night, while the expeditionary force fought for every inch of land while implementing active defense. They also continued to implement counter-offensive attacks to avoid the collapse of the front and maximize the destruction.

The German army ensures the effective defense of the main position...

A sentry stood on the temporary platform, his face expressionless because of fatigue.

"Are there any signs of life over there?"

Liu Chunming asked the sentry. At this time, his voice sounded harsh, and pain came from his lungs from time to time.

"No, sir, nothing."

"Are there any wounded? Is there a cry for help?"

"Well, sir..."

The sentry shrugged, as if this was a strange question.

"I think there are always going to be people who get hurt. I can't tell you how many I've heard of."

The sentry's words made Liu Chunming almost want to punch the man in the face, and even his right arm was ready to move.

"I'm going out right now." Liu Chunming looked outside the trench and said,

"Please don't shoot me when I come back."

"Yes, sir."

The sentry wanted to tell him that it was foolish to leave the trench at dawn, but the impetus in Liu Chunming's attitude kept him silent. Then Liu Chunming quickly climbed over the parapet and climbed forward recklessly. He climbed straight towards this

The center of the battlefield is still filled with the smell of corpses and blood, and is full of flesh and blood. There are fragments of barbed wire scattered on the ground. In addition to the rotting bones, there are also the corpses left just today. For the Germans,

, fighting with the Chinese Expeditionary Force is like a nightmare, because the Chinese Expeditionary Force never leaves them time to breathe, not even like the British and French troops who leave a few hours of time to collect corpses every day. That is why

, this battlefield was completely shrouded in a sea of ​​corpses.

A human face separated from the skull floated on the surface of a puddle, its face rising up and squinting at the sky. Liu Chunming paid no attention to anything, and didn't care about anything. He crawled to the spot where he thought Zhao Peiren's operation failed and started shouting.

"Zhao Peiren? Zhao Peiren? Zhao Peiren?"

It was extremely stupid to do this on a silent battlefield, and he was now within sniper range of the German front line.

"Zhao Peiren? Zhao Peiren? Zhao Peiren?"

There was no sound at all, no response from the wounded, no groan from the navigator. The German rifles that could have sent him to the west in a second did not fire.

"Zhao Peiren? Zhao Peiren? Zhao Peiren!"

No answer. How could it be possible? Zhao Peiren launched a surprise attack on the German machine gun fort. Later, during the German counterattack, the machine gun fort was taken back by the Germans again, and Zhao Peiren disappeared.

Zhao Peiren is now missing and presumed dead.

Headache.

A severe, excruciating headache swallowed up every other feeling, every other emotion.

Zhao Peiren lay with his eyes closed for a long time, feeling nothing except the severe pain raging inside his head. But slowly and inevitably, life gradually returned. Life, and the consciousness that came with it.

Realizing that he was alive. Realizing the pain and the numbness of his entire left leg. Realizing that he was okay even though all logic suggested he should be dead.

He opened his eyes. Above his head was a ceiling made of thick wood, which was solid and neat. The wooden boards reflected flickering candlelight. There was mud between the gaps. The ceiling looked very comfortable. Zhao Peiren's consciousness was thinking in a daze.

There are only a few things in this small world: the pain in my head, the pain in my legs, and the ceiling above my head.

But life and judgment continue to return, bringing with them a sense of fear.

There was light coming from somewhere: it was a candle. Zhao Peiren turned over and looked at it. The candle was placed on a steel helmet, which had been beaten shapeless. Zhao Peiren looked at it blankly. That was his steel helmet.

, but why did it become so deformed...? He touched his leg: it was seriously injured. The pain became more and more severe.

He remembered more...

He remembered that he was blown up by artillery fire during the battle, and the corpse of a soldier stood between him and the shrapnel. It was probably the corpse of his comrade that made him survive...

He closed his eyes again and probably fell asleep for a while. When he woke up, he still had a splitting headache, but his mind became clearer and clearer. It was clear enough to realize that the ceiling above his head was too neat and was definitely not for the expedition.

Hand. This is...

Suddenly, he seemed to understand. He clearly realized that he had become a prisoner of the Germans.

I became a prisoner...

When he had this awareness in his heart, he suddenly felt that the best things in his life had been reduced to ashes as he became a prisoner.
To be continued...