Chapter 21: The Battle of Jiulongjiang (Five)

"Old squad leader." I crawled out of the air-raid shelter, pulled the clothes on my body and asked in confusion: "The clothes are a little wide, where did I get them?"

"No!" the old squad leader hesitated for a moment and said with a puzzled look: "It was taken down from the sacrificed comrades. For a moment... I can't find a suitable one. Platoon Commander Cui, just click it! And these, I've brought your guns too..."

I couldn't help but be stunned. The first thing I thought about was whether the clothes of the sacrificed comrades were a little disrespectful to the dead. But then I thought, the battlefield was a cruel place, and I wanted to try my best to protect myself and kill the enemies. So when the volunteers were short of food and clothing, it was normal to take off the clothes of those dead comrades, take their food, or guns and ammunition.

Thinking of this, I tightened my buckle, straightened my hat, took the box gun from the old squad leader and hung it on my waist, grabbed the eight-piece and ran to the front line.

"Plane leader!"

"Platform Leader Cui!"

...

Along the way, wherever I passed, the soldiers turned sideways and cast admiration at me, which made me feel a little fluttered.

"What?" I was shocked after turning a corner. The snow that was originally as white as a wall that had just been painted was already unrecognizable. The craters, corpses, blood, and soil that were turned out to be broken by bombs made the entire battlefield messy. What is even more unacceptable is the corpses at the foot of the mountain. Due to the slope of the high ground, many corpses slid to the foot of the mountain under the action of gravity, and then stacked them on one piece in a strange posture, including puppet troops and volunteer soldiers. It is not an exaggeration to say that the corpses are piled up like a mountain. Although I can say that I have fought several battles, it is the first time I have seen so many corpses.

"Why did it turn like this?" I turned my head and asked the old squad leader anxiously: "Did the stone bridge not explode?"

"How can it be kept? Can those dozens of kilograms of explosives continue to fire?" The old squad leader smiled and said, "But this American's plane is amazing. We broke the stone bridge, and he immediately threw the several floating bridges with the plane. Isn't this? There..."

Following the gesture of the old squad leader, I saw several floating bridges upstream of Longxing River, filled with people. It seemed that reinforcements from Jiangnan were still constantly increasing their troops here.

"Then is our stone bridge blowing up in vain?" I couldn't help but feel a little upset.

"How can it be?" the old squad leader shook his head and said, "The floating bridge is not strong enough, and even tanks and cars cannot pass. Isn't that? The bullets still have to be transported one by one! Otherwise, our regiment would have been gone long ago."

After hearing what the old squad leader said, I focused on it and saw that it was really the case. Many puppet soldiers on the floating bridge were carrying ammunition boxes on their shoulders and were constantly transporting bullets to this side.

"Those puppet troops took a lot of effort to build pontoon bridges!" The old squad leader continued: "Captain Chu transferred a company to specialize in repairing pontoon bridges. After struggling for a long time, the puppet troops became smarter after losing hundreds of people. They first set up cannons on the opposite side and then repaired the pontoon bridges. Our people could not get up, so he could repair them."

"How is the enemy's situation? How many people are there?"

"I don't know about this, I have to ask the company commander."

"Where is the company commander?"

"Just ahead." The old squad leader pointed to the trench: "Turn two turns forward."

"Company Commander..." He hugged his waist and ran in the trench for a while, and soon recognized Company Commander Zhang's tall and thin figure.

"Platform Commander Cui." Company Commander Zhang was quite surprised when he saw me: "Are you awake? Why don't you take a rest for a while?"

"I'm fine, I caught a cold! How many enemies have come?"

"Catching a cold? I almost got ice in the river and still caught a cold!" Company Commander Zhang replied with a smile: "The three regiments of the pseudo-6th Division retreated to the north. Commander Chu and his team were rushing to the north. The three regiments of the enemy were running for life and using their energy to feed themselves. Commander Chu looked nervous. We... we have a division, more than thirty Iron Tortoises (tanks). Thanks to Platoon Commander Cui, you exploded the stone bridge, otherwise those Iron Tortoises would not be able to withstand anything they said."

The Volunteer Army soldiers who entered North Korea in the early days had almost no anti-tank equipment. The best anti-tank weapon was just a rocket launcher, but on average, there was only one regiment, so tanks could only be completed by explosive packs, cluster grenades and blasting tubes. However, this was almost impossible with a large number of enemy infantry following up. If those thirty or more tanks were really allowed to attack the Volunteer Army's positions across the bridge, it would be a big trouble as Company Commander Zhang said.

After a pause, Company Commander Zhang continued, "Now, the enemy's heavy weapons cannot pass, we can still deal with the combat effectiveness of the puppet troops. So, they were hit several times of charge. As soon as it dark, they would ask for more blessings!"

"Oh!" I looked up at the sky, and it was going to get dark in more than an hour!

In the Korean War, whether it is the puppet army or the US army, what they fear most is to fight night battles with the volunteers, because as soon as it gets dark, their firepower advantages will not be reflected at all. On the contrary, it is much easier for us volunteer soldiers to fight with them in close combat. Isn’t there a saying circulating on the battlefield of resisting U.S. aggression and aiding Korea - the night belongs to the volunteers.

Now, when the Volunteer Reinforcements arrive at any time, darkness almost marks the victory of the battle. Because at that time, we can spend the whole night quietly waiting for the arrival of reinforcements.

Commander Zhang looked at the sky and breathed a sigh of relief. He took out a pack of cigarettes and handed me one. When I saw that it was a "coffee brand" made in the United States with a filter.

"What a cigarette, company commander! Where did you get it?" I stared at the pack of cigarette in the company commander's hand with a look of envy.

"I'm envious!" Captain Zhang raised his hand smugly, pointed to the corpses piled up at the foot of the mountain and smiled: "There are many puppet soldiers on their bodies, touch them by themselves!"

"This...is not allowed!" I smirked awkwardly.

Just kidding, for a pack of cigarettes, I jumped out of the trench and ran to the foot of the mountain in the rain of bullets and touched the pockets of the corpses... My smoking addiction is not that big yet.

After igniting the matches and lighting them both, Company Commander Zhang took a deep breath and spit out a thick smoke, saying, "You really are, Platoon Commander Cui, I didn't expect you to blow up the bridge from the water! I don't know yet! When you bomb the bridge, everyone in the company stared at you!"

"No! Everyone is watching?" I felt a little embarrassed.

"That's it!" A soldier next to him said, "All the soldiers in the company forgot to fight and applaud you!"

"No?" Company Commander Zhang smiled and said, "Just blow up the bridge under the enemy's nose. In one sentence, you have made another contribution and bought valuable time for our troops. This is the key to the victory and loss of this battle! We will do it when it gets dark."

"No, the company commander!" I was stunned when I heard this: "Let's wait for darkness, what are the puppet troops waiting for?"

"What?" Company Commander Zhang looked at me in confusion.
Chapter completed!