Volume 1: The First Battle Chapter 20: Battle of Jiulong River (Part 4)
Lying in the water with my eyes open, I could clearly see the smiles of victory on the faces of the puppet soldiers. One of them even put his hands to his mouth and breathed out hot air, as if he was complaining about the cold weather or something.
Damn, you're still complaining about being cold? Why don't you look at me! No, no... don't look at me! If you see that this "dead body" of mine is still alive, with two explosive packs tied to my chest, then I will be known as "dying before achieving my goal", and then it will really be true what Political Commissar Chen Ye said about me - I will be like Zhuge Kongming in the past.
The water was flowing fast, and in the blink of an eye the stone bridge was right in front of me. I quickly stretched out my stiff and trembling hands to untie my marching belt, and then untie the oilcloth wrapped on top . Not to mention, my hands were frozen stiff, and completing these two tasks, which were as easy as drinking water at ordinary times, was unexpectedly difficult.
As we got closer and closer to the stone bridge, I could clearly see the explosives piled in the second arch of the bridge. Fortunately, the puppet army did not have time to move them away. Otherwise, with the two explosive packs on me, I would probably only be able blow off a small section of the stone bridge.
I nervously touched the fuse of the explosives. What I had to do was actually very simple. I just had to pull the fuse and throw the two explosive packs into the arch of the bridge. But all this had to be done under the eyes of the puppet army...
"Pah!" An unexpected thing happened. A puppet soldier on the bridge spat out the gum in his mouth. The gum fell beside my eyes with a plop. I subconsciously tilted my head and blinked a few times. The puppet soldier didn't care at first, but suddenly realized something was wrong, stretched his head out and stared at me with a pair of big eyes.
"Hi!" I stretched out my stiff hand and greeted him, trying my best to put on a handsome smile, but unfortunately, my frozen face just wouldn't obey.
"Oh..." The puppet soldier was shocked, waving his hands around, and yelled to the other puppet soldiers in Korean: "Alive, there's a live one down there!"
In an instant, several guns appeared at the edge of the bridge, but it was too late. I dived down and kicked my feet a few times to reach the bottom of the bridge. There were gunshots on the bridge and water splashed behind me. Because of the angle, their rifles could not hit me under the bridge.
I stood on the bridge pier, unhurriedly pulled the fuse of the explosive pack, stretched out my hand and gently threw it diagonally, and the explosive pack, with a smoking tail, bounced and rolled in the bridge arch to the vicinity of the explosive pile. Although my hands were stiff and my body was shaking, I still threw it quite accurately...
Seeing the explosive pack rolling into the bridge arch, the puppet soldiers immediately understood what was going on and there was chaos on the bridge. I could only hear strange screams on the bridge, mixed with the sound of tank tracks, so I couldn't hear clearly what they were saying.
I was just about to light the second charge when two round black objects suddenly fell from the bridge. They looked a bit like... a bit like the melon-shaped grenades commonly used by Americans.
What? Grenade...
I quickly threw away the explosive pack in my hand, dived into the water and swam downstream with all my strength. Damn it, I cursed in my heart, these puppet soldiers had some sense to throw grenades under the bridge. Before I could kick a few times, I felt two muffled sounds behind me, and a strong force pushed me, shaking me dizzy, and the whole person rushed forward involuntarily like a kite with a broken string.
Then something terrible happened. I don’t know if I was frozen or what, but I suddenly realized that I could no longer control my hands and feet.
I tried my best to paddle out of the water but my hands and feet wouldn't obey me. What was even more terrifying was that I was still conscious and awake. I could even clearly hear a loud noise and see a huge fire bursting out from the stone bridge. Then I watched pieces of rubble fly around me like bullets with whistling sounds.
I wanted to hide, but I couldn't move. I could only let the cold, turbid river water continue to pour into my mouth and nose.
"Is this the end?" I cried in my heart. I have thought about how I would die, but I have never thought about dying in this state. This is what death feels like. It is not as painful as I imagined. I just feel a little tired and a little sleepy...
At the last moment before I lost consciousness, I heard a familiar voice in the dimness: "There! Platoon Leader Cui is there! Hurry..."
…
"Cough cough cough..." I don't know how long it was before I regained consciousness with a violent cough.
"Wake up, wake up! The platoon leader is awake!"
"It really works!" Hu Zi said excitedly, "I didn't expect that artificial respiration would really work! I only blew on it about ten times, and it really saved the person!"
"Huzi!" I called out weakly, "How long have you not brushed your teeth?"
As I was speaking, I felt dizzy again and fell into a deep sleep again.
When I woke up again, I found myself stuffed in a single air-raid shelter with three or four other quilts. It was so tight that I couldn't move, leaving only a bowl-sized hole for me to breathe. Moreover, I was still naked, and there seemed to be a bandage on my left shoulder.
"Hey! Is anyone there?" I shouted out of the cave, but all I heard was the sound of gunfire. They were all busy fighting and had no time to pay attention to me. Well, it would be nice for me to rest here for a while. It has been a long time since I had a good sleep in such a warm place without wind or rain.
But as soon as I closed my eyes, the scenes of my comrades being blown to pieces, being shot like sieves by machine guns, and being burned to death by gasoline bombs appeared before my eyes one after another.
Thinking that they all died tragically because of my idea, I couldn't help feeling depressed. Thinking about how my comrades were still fighting desperately outside, while I was comfortably hiding here and sleeping, I couldn't fall asleep.
"Anyone? Anybody?"
"Is the platoon leader awake?" It was the old squad leader's voice: "I was standing guard next to you the whole time, but I didn't hear the gunfire because it was too loud!"
"Get me out! Who is stuffing me in so tightly? I'm almost suffocating to death!"
"Hey!" The old squad leader responded and pulled the quilt out, saying, "Didn't Hu Zi stuff it in? This quilt was baked in the fire for a while before it was stuffed in. It's said that..."
"Wait, wait." Then I remembered that I had nothing on, and hurriedly shouted outside: "Old squad leader, go and get me some clothes first..."
