Chapter 26: Trail War

The sound of planes, gunshots, and explosions sounded outside the tunnel. Even we were hiding in the tunnel, we could hear the sound clearly. I felt the ground in the dark... Maybe it should not be said to be the ground, but the vibrations and heat waves coming from the top of my head, and feeling the gravel falling from the top of my head, I couldn't help but feel an inexplicable pressure in my heart.

It is said that there is an octopus. When it deals with the small fish in the bottle, it will turn the bottle over and over, play with the small fish and then eat it. At this time, I feel like the small fish in the bottle. The US military is the hateful octopus. Now it is eyeing the bottle with all its might and trying every means to eat us...

Beads of sweat as big as beans slid off my forehead, and the turbid air made me open my mouth and panting. I knew this was the credit of the US military plane dropping a large number of incendiary bombs. It is said that the famous dish "beggar chicken" is to wrap the chicken in the mud and then roast it on the fire. Now I feel that I am a bit similar to that dish.

I don’t know how long it took, but the sound of bombing on the ground finally stopped slowly. I had the urge to lead the soldiers out of the tunnel to fight the US military. One was because I couldn’t stand the strange fear in the tunnel, and the other was that I was a little unwilling to accept it.

This time, I came out with the hope of Commander Pang and others, but I didn't expect to hide in the tunnel and wait for reinforcements so cowardly. But after thinking for a long time, I finally endured the impulse. Because I knew that at this time, the US anti-aircraft machine gun positions had already locked the entrance of our tunnel. If we rushed out like this, the huge casualties would not be something we could bear.

This is not the time to be a hero. Instead of rushing out to die, it is better to hide in and live cowardly, so that at least there is a chance to counterattack. Moreover, the experience of the 180th Division also told me that the major casualties without achieving results are also a failure.

Time passed by minute by minute. At this time, the US military should have occupied the surface position. We did not hear gunshots or cheers. Maybe they were also surprised. The Chinese who had been bombing several times with shells, but this time, how could there be no one figure suddenly, and there were not many corpses on the position...

Then they would spend some time searching our trenches or other high grounds to make sure we wouldn't hide anywhere, and then it wouldn't take long to find that we were all hiding in the tunnel.

The few muffled sounds of "boom..." were different from the bombing sounds we heard before, because it formed a buzzing echo in our tunnel, and soon a thick smell of smoke came in, making the already turbid air in the tunnel even more unbearable. A few coughs came soon in the dark, making me realize that this was the US military scattering grenades at our tunnel entrance. But I believe the US military would not be so stupid that it rushed into the tunnel. Even if they have much more advanced equipment than us, even if they have several times more people than us, if they do this, it would be no different from suicide.

Immediately afterwards, there was a "tick..." gunfire, and the sound also clearly entered the tunnel.

"Fuck you, American devils!" Hu Biao's scolding came from the darkness.

Hu Biao's battalion fought several hand-to-hand battles with the pseudo-Capital Division one after another. The number of people in the battalion dropped sharply from more than 500 to more than 100. Because of not having a long rest, I was transferred to the 1211 Highland in the middle to garrison. However, due to geographical reasons, there was no tunnel in the 1211 Highland, so when I got the order to enter the tunnel, I transferred it to the 965 Highland where the regiment headquarters was located and Li Guoqiang's battalion was organized together.

At this moment, he might have been so nervous in this tunnel that he couldn't help but shout loudly at the outside, "Hey! Listen to me, if you want to hit your grandpa, unless your bullets will turn a corner!"

With a coaxing sound, the soldiers in the tunnel laughed.

The tunnel dug by the volunteers at this time had long learned from previous tunnel battles, so they turned a corner near the entrance of the tunnel and extended deeper. The enemy's guns, grenades and other things did not pose a threat to us at all, unless the enemy had the courage to break into the tunnel and fight against us. But if we were fighting like this, we could say with confidence, "Who is afraid of who will come?"

"Battleman Commander Hu!" Some soldiers joked with Hu Biao: "Didn't it mean that American imperialism has an atomic bomb? I heard that it is useless to hide anywhere, and they will let him shoot it. If this is true, maybe this thing will really turn..."

"Ball! What round bullets are flat bullets, I don't believe this evil!" Hu Biao snorted disdainfully, "Don't talk about the Americans so evil. What bullets have I never seen before? I always have to shoot bullets with guns, right? You ask those Americans to fight me with atomic bombs, let me see! He was solved by one of my butt stock before he even fired..."

I couldn't help laughing when I heard this. It turned out that the volunteer soldiers' understanding of the atomic bomb was still at this level. They thought that the "atomic bomb" was a kind of bullet or was fired with guns! But it was no wonder that this thing was still a new thing in this era. The volunteers didn't know what it was, so they thought about it as a very powerful bullet.

"Okay, OK!" At this time, I felt more and more difficult to breathe, so I spoke out and stopped him: "Comrades, please say less! There is not enough air in the tunnel, so talk less and save some oxygen!"

"That's right!" Jiang Chunzeng agreed: "Although there are ventilation holes in our tunnel, there are many people in our tunnel, and we may not be sure to stay here for a whole day! It's uncomfortable to breathe, so everyone should try to talk less and do less movements..."

"Yes!" The soldiers responded and stopped talking. In an instant, the tunnel was silent like death, with only the rapid breathing of the soldiers, and the occasional gunfire and explosion sounds from the entrance of the tunnel. Then after a while, there was no movement outside. Maybe the US military didn't know how to deal with us, so they took a break for the time being.

I took a few deep breaths, grabbed the kettle in my hand and poured it into my mouth a few hard. Beads of sweat as big as beans flowed down from me, and my military uniform soon became wet.

To be honest, I am not used to the stuffy, humid, and dark environment in the tunnel. I think this is more terrible than the group of US troops waiting to kill our lives outside. This makes me nervous, makes me frightened, and makes me want to scream hysterically. I think if there is a mirror to look at myself at this time, my face will definitely be ugly and scary. Fortunately, it is pitch black here and there can be nothing, otherwise I will be embarrassed on the spot...

The reason why I endure it until now is entirely because of my identity as the regiment commander. Looking at the soldiers beside me, I, as the regiment commander, feel embarrassed to say discouraged words or show anything.

I have always regarded myself as a sniper and always thought that my psychological quality would not be worse than ordinary soldiers, but now it seems that I am at least much worse than the soldiers in this regard.

So I comforted myself that these soldiers were veterans! Although they had never avoided the tunnel like this before, it was common for them to hide from cat ears, and I had not even avoided cat ear ears, so it was normal to have the gap now! But at this moment, as if they were answering me, a few snoring sounds in the darkness.

Fuck! I can still sleep at this time. I was hit so hard that I felt the urge to raise my middle finger to the snoring...

At this moment, suddenly there were waves of whirling flames coming from the entrance of the tunnel, and a wave of heat surged. A red flame light soon lit up in the originally dark tunnel, and my breathing was also suffocated. The thin air in the tunnel made me almost unable to breathe.

Flamethrower!

This word quickly jumped into my mind. Although our tunnel turned a corner and the flamethrower could not burn us, the most powerful thing was that its flame would consume the oxygen in the tunnel and suffocate the people inside to death.

Then before I could react, another firelight reflected the warriors' distorted faces due to difficulty breathing. The tunnel was filled with breathing sounds like a bellows and coughing sounds one after another.

My lungs were also uncomfortable, and my hands couldn't help but touched my neck and chest. This was a very strange feeling. There was nothing, but it seemed that someone tightly pinched my neck and covered my mouth and nose with force. It was like a big rock pressing on my chest that made me unable to breathe...

"Fry... explosive pack!" I shouted at the soldiers with all my strength. The soldiers are worthy of being veterans who have experienced many years of war. In this case, they quickly executed my order and quickly passed an explosive pack from behind.

I didn't dare to hesitate for a moment, so I grabbed the explosive bag and ran towards the entrance of the tunnel. As I approached the corner, I pulled the fuse of the explosive bag, but at this moment I couldn't help but hesitate, and then hugged the ignited explosive bag and fell to the ground with a loud bang. Because I suddenly remembered that this was the time when the enemy was about to spit fire again, I didn't want to rush up and let it burn me into a fireman at this time.

Sure enough, at this moment, a wave of heat surged towards me again, roasting my eyebrows, hair sizzling, and a strong smell of gasoline poured into my lungs, making me cough a few times. Only then did I realize that the fuse on the explosive pack in my arms was also sizzling.

So I hurriedly took advantage of the enemy's fire break and ran a few steps to throw the explosives in my hand into the tunnel entrance...

With a loud bang, a huge wave of air threw me out and fell heavily to the ground. A severe pain came from my chest and coughed up two mouthfuls of blood, but I fainted because I couldn't breathe for a moment.

"Captain Cui! Captain Cui..."

I woke up with deep breath. When I regained my consciousness, I found that there was no fire around me. I returned to the original darkness of the tunnel, but the still thin air was mixed with a lot of gasoline smell.

I struggled to hold up and asked a little confusedly, "What's going on? What's going on? When is it now?"

"Finally woke up!"

"It's okay, Captain Cui wakes up..."

Although I couldn't see them, I could still feel all the soldiers around me breathing a sigh of relief.

"Captain Cui! Drink some water first and talk less!" I recognized that this was Jiang Chunzeng's voice. He handed me a pot of water and then stroked my back with his other hand to make me feel relieved: "Justice just now wanted to drain the air in our tunnel with a flamethrower. It's really a pity for Commander Cui. You were so anxious that you threw an explosive bag to the entrance of the tunnel and exploded the entrance of the tunnel."

"This is not just!" Hu Biao said, "After the explosive pack exploded, I heard another explosion and scream at the entrance of the tunnel! Think about it, the explosive pack you threw out not only collapsed the entrance of the tunnel, but also exploded the enemy's flamethrower!"

"I heard it too!" Li Guoqiang continued, "The American flamethrower exploded so much! I have seen it once, and when it exploded, it was full of fire within a range of more than ten meters. Now at least ten or eight Americans will be burned to death!"

"Happy! Let those Americans be arrogant!" the soldiers shouted.

"Well! The soldiers are all fine!" Hearing these people's comments, I slowly recalled what happened just now.

"It's all okay!" Jiang Chunzeng replied: "The dozens of tunnels on our high ground are connected, and the air is barely enough. Fortunately, Captain Cui's moment, otherwise the Americans would have come to each of our tunnel entrances for a while, and maybe something really happened. Now I have ordered the other tunnel entrances to be blown up, so we can only use vent holes to replenish the air."

"It's good!" I nodded and responded: "Besides leaving the tunnel entrance, it is not good to let the enemy mess with us. It's better to blow it up and knock it down!"

"That's it!" Hu Biao said in agreement: "As soon as the entrance of this tunnel is exploded, if the Americans still want to make trouble, we have to spend more effort to dig the tunnel. Once they dig it open, we will throw out another explosive bag and blow it up. They will explode again if they dig it, which will exhaust them to death!"

"But..." Li Guoqiang said a little depressedly: "They can't get in, we can't get out either!"

"I'm talking about Comrade Li Guoqiang!" Jiang Chunzeng said earnestly: "Didn't we all say we don't need to go out? As long as we wait for the comrades from the 68th Army to come, we can be considered as completing the task!"

"That's it, but... I'm not feeling like it!" Li Guoqiang replied depressedly: "Why do I always think about it? I think we are a slippery battle, although it can be considered as completing the task! But if we say this, the veterans of our entire 60th Army formed a regiment and asked the Americans to fight in the cave. We have to wait for the comrades of the 68th Army to rescue me. I'm in my heart..."

"Hi!" Li Guoqiang sighed deeply and continued, "This is embarrassing! I have never fought such a cowardly battle, let alone a turnaround battle. If I go back, it will be even more despised by comrades from other troops. I would rather fight the enemy here and die here!"

"Hey! I said you comrade! Why are you just not enlightened?" Jiang Chunzeng couldn't help but get angry when he saw that he couldn't understand: "I said to Comrade Li Guoqiang, you are still a Communist Party member! Why don't you even have this awareness! We are a strategic victory? Do you understand that you still feel embarrassed to win a battle? What if we were driven into a cave by the Americans? We successfully dragged the enemies of the four divisions! Now the enemies of several divisions outside are advancing but not daring to advance, and they cannot retreat! This is our greatest victory. Do you understand?"

"I agree with Comrade Jiang Chunzeng's point of view!" Huang Xianhua said: "The current situation is that although we look cowardly, the enemies of the four divisions on the ground cannot move. If they retreat, it means admitting defeat. If they leave us behind and continue moving forward, it means exposing their backs and supply lines to us. This is something they will never tolerate. Comrade Li Guoqiang's point of view is typical personal heroism, right-leaning adventure..."

"I agree with Comrade Li Guoqiang's point of view!" I, who had not spoken for a long time, was stunned by everyone as soon as I opened my mouth.

"Captain Cui, you..." The most surprising thing was Jiang Chunzeng. He almost said to me in a questioning tone: "Captain Cui, how can you hold this kind of thought too? I..."

"Chief of Staff Jiang, Chief of Staff Huang!" I interrupted him and said, "I won't talk about the great truth. I just want to ask you, if this battle is over, will the comrades from other troops look at our 60th Army with admiration? Will the superiors let our 60th Army re-enter the battlefield?"

As soon as I said this, Jiang Chunzeng and Huang Xianhua were speechless.

"Yes, this is indeed a victory! But at the same time it is another defeat!" I continued: "In terms of completing the task, we did win. But in terms of turning over, we undoubtedly lost!"

Silence, the air around it is like solidifying silence.

There are many cases of fighting hard and fierce battles among the volunteer army. Although our battle has completed the task, it can only be said to be an ordinary battle. The soldiers are unwilling to admit this, but this is an ironclad fact.

"So!" I continued to say unstoppable: "I decided to break out of the tunnel before the 68th Army arrived tonight, before the comrades of the 68th Army arrived!"
Chapter completed!