"This is an amazing and tragic scene of unprecedented bravery and tenacious determination on both sides."

As the battle began, the most violent and uninterrupted artillery bombardment lasted day after day; the offensive forces composed of various elite divisions of the Chinese Expeditionary Force were beaten to pieces day after day in the continuous attack. With the arrival of summer, the downpour from the sky made people unable to move forward, and the heavy rain was even more burning in the scorching rain of bullets. In the cannon rain, the battlefield was completely boiling, just like the Colosseum of Rome thousands of years ago.

In the arena—as it often happened in the amphitheater of the ancient Roman era—floods flooded. Thousands of vehicles, hundreds of thousands of soldiers and millions of artillery shells stirred the boundless soil into blood-red mud, replacing the dust raised by the explosion. The battle continued, hundreds of thousands of soldiers fighting on the battlefield, thousands of cannons from both sides were still roaring day and night, and in the mud mixed with rain and flesh and blood, the soldiers' legs were no longer able to move, and they had to roll and struggle in the mud in despair. Their food, weapons and ammunition fell on the road behind them that was blown up and blocked.

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 battlefield is also established, and two, three or even four barriers are built around the battlefield, including countless cannons and machine guns. Railways are built behind the barriers to provide supplies, and shells are piled up like mountains. All of these are the result of months of hard work. Therefore, this battlefield is surrounded by thousands of artillery types, leaving a wide elliptical space between the artillery teams. For both attackers and defenders, they can only penetrate through this terrible arena under the constant slam of cannons around them, as if they were the teeth of two biting gears milling each other.

Mud, mud on the battlefield dragged the soldiers' pace, but it could not stop their offensive. After a heavy rain, another army of company-level troops once again carried out a permeable attack on the German defense line.

On the battlefield, there were densely packed abandoned corpses of the Expeditionary Force and the German army. The fierce battle made it impossible for neither the Expeditionary Force nor the German army to restrain the corpses. Although both sides knew that these corpses could be said to be the most threatening "weapons" for them, no one was willing to restrain the corpses under the muzzle of the sniper on the battlefield.

The corpses that were torn by shells and then soaked in mud and water after several days of sun exposure will be completely stagnant, black and yellow, and become bloated under the soaking of rotten and mud and water, and black water flows out of the military uniform. The corpse is filled with pools of blood and suffocating stench. The bodies and blood are covered with groups of green-headed flies, and at the eyes of the corpse, the white and disgusting maggots are gushing out from the mouth of the eyes, and are wriggling between the bones.

All this seemed to be invisible to the expeditionary army officers and soldiers who carried out infiltration attacks. When they had to lie on the ground to avoid shelling and machine gun shooting, the worms squirming in their bones seemed to remind them that they would become such things, but the disgusting and dazzling scene in their sight could not affect their emotions. For these lifeless commandos, they had long been used to everything on this battlefield, and no one would care about these. Compared to the vomiting worms and the stench of the corpse, they hoped to survive...

But if you survive, you can only rely on battle.

Only by killing the Germans on the other side can they survive in this battlefield that is completely soaked in flesh and blood!

Smoke bombs. When the assaulters of this company attacked, there were more smoke bombs in the shells fired by the artillery soldiers of the Expeditionary Force. The smoke bombs blocked the German army's sight, allowing the commandos to approach the German trenches as much as possible while avoiding casualties.

Under the cover of white smoke, Zhao Peiren no longer remembered how many times he had attacked this ruined fortress today. The dense tongues of flames were straggling from the trenches near the fortress and fortifications aimlessly. On this already-calibrated battlefield, even if the German machine gunners did not need to aim, they knew that they should shoot there. In order to avoid the machine gun straggling, he could only try to lower his body to avoid machine gun shooting. The closer he approached the German position, he would stick to the ground, gasping for breath regardless of the stench in the air. When the shells around him exploded, the dust that was shaken fell into his hair.

Their battle with the German army for this fortification area has been going on for two days and one night, and there is still no sign of stopping. Even with their continuous infiltration and attacks, the German army was compressed into an extremely narrow space, which only failed to make the German army give up resistance, but instead made their resistance more intense.

The fierce battle consumed the physical strength of every soldier. Like other soldiers, they had not taken a bath for many days and continued to attack in the cannon fog, causing black sweat to flow on Zhao Peiren's face. He and other soldiers, who had not been able to get enough rest for a long time, were unable to stop their arms holding heavy guns, and the constant sound of artillery fire day and night made them unable to rest.

German soldiers are really a fucking hard bone.

Every time when the attack was frustrated, Zhao Peiren would think in his heart. On several occasions, they all attacked the German positions, but often at the most critical moment, they were beaten back by the Germans. It was not because of the cooperation of their troops, but because the positions were constantly infiltrated, the Germans had gradually adapted to this style of fighting.

Accompanied by several loud noises of heavy attack grenades, it seemed to be telling others that the battle started. Sure enough, there were waves of roars in the smoke. The roars and the explosion of heavy grenades kept ringing in the German trenches, and occasionally the roars of soldiers would be heard in the smoke.

"Drop two grenades toward this entrance..."

This is obviously a discovery that the soldiers of the German underground fortifications were calling on their brothers to bury the enemy troops in the fortifications in the bunkers that were deep into the ground with heavier grenades. Unlike the British and French troops, in the Somme, the German fortifications were built very deep, even several meters deep. It was these bunkers that protected these soldiers. But now, such fortifications that were deep into the ground have become the best trap. Only a heavy grenade can bury dozens of German troops alive in the bunker.

At this moment, suddenly, a shell exploded beside Zhao Peiren. When the explosion waves came, he felt that his whole body seemed to fly off the ground in an instant, and then he lost consciousness when his eyes turned black!

Missing, presumably dead.

At this moment, the whole world changed.

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

Zhao Peiren is now missing, assuming death. After their attack, the German army once again carried out a counterattack. Just as in the past, attack and counterattack were relative. In the past week, the decisive battle between the Chinese and German armies on the east bank of the Somme River reached a high level. Nearly 100,000 German troops launched an attack on the Somme River day and night, while the expeditionary forces fought for an inch of land while constantly carrying out counterattack attacks to avoid the collapse of the front line, while at the same time, killing the German army to the greatest extent and ensuring effective defense of the main position...

A sentry stood on the platform temporarily, his face was expressionless due to fatigue.

"Are there any signs of life over there?"

Liu Chunming asked the sentry, his voice seemed very harsh and pain came from time to time in his lungs.

"No, sir, nothing."

"Are there any wounded people? Are there any cry for help?"

"Yeah, sir..."

The sentry shrugged, as if this was an inexplicable question.

"I think there will always be people who are hurt. There are so many that I can't tell how much I've heard."

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

"I'll go out now." Liu Chunming said, looking out of the trench,

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

"Yes, sir."

The sentry wanted to tell him that it was stupid to leave the trench when dawn was approaching, but the impulse in Liu Chunming's attitude made him not speak. Then Liu Chunming quickly climbed over his chest wall and crawled forward recklessly. He crawled straight towards the center of the battlefield, which was still filled with the smell of corpses and blood, and was full of flesh and blood. There were fragments of barbed wire on the ground. In addition to the rotten corpses, there were also the corpses that just left today. For the Germans, fighting with the Chinese Expeditionary Force was like a nightmare, because the Chinese Expeditionary Force never left them breathing time, and even like the British and French troops, they would leave several hours of corpses collection every day. Because of this, this battlefield was completely shrouded in a sea of ​​corpses.

A face separated from the skull floated on the water surface of a puddle, and his face rushed up to look at the sky. Liu Chunming didn't pay attention to anything and cared about anything. He climbed to the place he thought Zhao Peiren failed in his action and began to shout.

"Zhao Peiren? Zhao Peiren? Zhao Peiren?"

Doing this on a quiet battlefield is extremely stupid, and he is now within the sniper range of the German frontline.

"Zhao Peiren? Zhao Peiren? Zhao Peiren?"

There was no sound at all, no response from the wounded, and no moan of the navigator. The German rifle that could send him to the west within a second did not fire.

"Zhao Peiren? Zhao Peiren? Zhao Peiren!"

There was no answer. How could it be? Zhao Peiren launched a raid on the German machine gun fort. Later, in the German counterattack, the machine gun fort was once again taken back by the Germans, while Zhao Peiren disappeared.

Zhao Peiren is now missing, presumably dead.

Headache.

A severe, extreme headache swallowed all other feelings and all other emotions.

Zhao Peiren lay down for a long time with his eyes closed, feeling nothing except the severe pain in his head. But slowly, inevitably, life gradually came back. Life and the consciousness that followed.

Realize that he is still alive. Realize that the pain and the numbness of his entire left leg. Realize that he is safe and sound, although all logic shows that he should be dead.

He spread his eyes. The ceiling was paved with thick wood above his head, which was strong and neat. The boards reflected swaying candlelight. The dirt was smearing between the gaps. The ceiling looked very comfortable. Zhao Peiren's consciousness was dazed and thought about the only things in this small world: the pain in the head, the pain in the legs, and the ceiling on the head.

But life and judgment continue to recover, and with it, it brings a sense of fear.

Where did light come from: it was a candle. Zhao Peiren turned over and looked at it. The candle was placed on a steel helmet, and the steel helmet had been beaten to the point of being invisible. Zhao Peiren looked at it in a daze. It was his steel helmet, but why did it become so deformed...? He touched his legs: he was seriously injured on his legs. The pain became more and more severe.

He remembered more...

He remembered that he was blown away by artillery fire during the battle, and the corpse of a soldier was blocked between him and the shrapnel. It was very likely that it was the corpse of his comrade who made him survive...

He closed his eyes again. Maybe he had a sleep for a while. When he woke up, he still had a split 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 by no means out of the expeditionary force. This is...

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

I became a prisoner...

When this consciousness arises in his heart, suddenly he only feels the best thing in his life, but now he has turned into ashes as he becomes a prisoner.

"Fight bravely and not be captive for living!"

For four consecutive nights, as soon as the attack stopped, Liu Chunming went out to look for Zhao Peiren every night.

After a few nights, his understanding of the uninhabited land had reached an unreachable level. He saw the bodies, he saw the dying people, he saw the wounded on both sides. For the dying people, he would shoot them to death or use morphine to make them unconscious. For the wounded, he would drag them back to the trenches and climb back to continue searching. He called Zhao Peiren's name thousands of times. He no longer was careful. He stood up in the moonlight. He used the light of the signal flare to search the land destroyed by the shells. He called his brother's name with the maximum volume.

Of course the Germans heard his voice and saw him. Liu Chunming could hear the German sentry imitating his shouts- "Zhao Peiren! Zhao Peiren!"

Then they would burst into laughter, and a low voice with a Bavarian accent. While taking the cartridge off the chain of the machine gun, they even pounded the same rhythm with the gun.

"Zhao Peiren, Zhao Peiren. Zhao Peiren!"

But no rifle fired, and even the machine gun seemed to be aimed at him. Out of kindness and compassion, it may also be that the Germans let the crazy Chinese wander around the ruins just because of indifference.

"Zhao Peiren!"

Zhao Peiren, who was seriously injured, barely recovered his mind on the stretcher of the two German soldiers. On the stretcher of the two German soldiers, Zhao Peiren, who recovered his mind, followed them through the maze-like trenches and came to a battlefield hospital. In the battlefield hospital, the German doctors also looked at the Central Officer with surprise. This was the first time they had seen the captured Central Officer.

"The Chinese people are definitely respectable opponents!"

In the past few days, these military doctors have always learned stories about the Chinese people from the wounded, such as they would use their bodies to roll in the minefield on the battlefield, thinking that the offensive troops would open up the attack. They would use their bodies as springboards to let their comrades step on their bodies over the barbed wire. They would... have too many stories, and what about their officers?

They had never seen any captive alive, because even if they were captured, they would commit suicide.

"Fight bravely and not be captive for living!"

The captured Chinese soldiers once explained the behavior of the officers in this way, and it seemed that they would not be their honor to be captured alive. Even the captured soldiers were full of shame and seemed to be very embarrassed and angry because they could not die in battle.

Under the curious eyes of the military doctors, Zhao Peiren was examined and then bandaged the wound again and was given a tetanus injection. He was then sent to a farm where fourteen Chinese soldiers had been imprisoned.

"Sir!"

The fourteen prisoners of the Expeditionary Force soldiers looked at the warrant officer who was taken in. Everyone showed a surprised expression on their faces, and their surprised eyes only made an unspeakable sense of shame and anger surge in Zhao Peiren's heart...

"School..."

"Sir!"

The sergeant with gauze hanging on his arms was the highest rank among the fourteen soldiers.

"I order you... to kill me!"

Zhao Peiren, who was seriously injured in his hands and legs, used all his strength to give orders.

"Sir..."

"The official of the first grade should not be a prisoner of life..."

When he spoke out this sentence, Zhao Peiren only felt that his strength was about to be exhausted. He gasped and closed his eyes and waited for the sergeant to take action. But he waited for a while but did not wait for the sergeant to take action.

"Sergeant, do it!"

"Sir,"

"This is an order!"

"Sir..."

At this moment, the German soldiers walked in, and fifteen of them were sent to a further deep position. Unlike before, this time he was carried away by his own people on a stretcher.

When they arrived at the prisoner-of-war camp, Zhao Peiren, the only captured officer, was almost collapsed. His injured left leg was like a fire, and bursts of severe pain kept hitting his consciousness. The prison camp consisted of a group of dim small houses surrounded by barbed wire. A brief body search was conducted at the door - Zhao Peiren's cigarette was taken away, and then he was sent to a cottage marked with the Red Cross.

A nurse glanced at him quickly and decided that he would not die that night, and let him fall exhausted on the straw mat. He closed his eyes, but could not fall asleep. The boundless feeling of depression hit him.

He became a prisoner of war... (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendations, monthly votes, and your support are my greatest motivation.)
Chapter completed!