Volume 2 The Second Battle Chapter 14: Walking and Sleeping
The troops soon set out on the march again. In order to reach the destination as quickly as possible, Captain Chu even found a few comrades from the People's Army to serve as guides. To my surprise, Jin Qiulian, who was born a hunter, was one of them.
When Jin Qiulian knew that she had the honor of becoming a guide, she was so happy that she felt like she had won a special merit. What was even more annoying was that she ran up to me and showed off, "Comrade Cui, you have to closely! Don't get lost!"
Whenever I think of her smug, smug, playful, and arrogant look, I get angry and I'm going to use all the derogatory words I can think of.
"Hey, Hu Zi!" After returning to the company, I hurried along while chatting with Hu Zi who was running beside me, "You said that our troops haven't had a good sleep for a few days since the start of the war. Now we have to march without sleep for three days. Can we bear it?"
Actually, I can’t stand it myself, but I’m just embarrassed to say it out loud.
Since I came to this world, even if I have time to rest and sleep, the cotton-padded clothes on my body are as thin as paper, and the quilt is only as thick as a 100-page book. In this cold weather, I have never had a good and comfortable sleep. Now I have to travel for three consecutive days without sleep, which is beyond my psychological endurance.
"You have to endure it even if you can't!" The old squad leader said, "Platoon Leader Cui, you have never tried to sleep while walking, right? I have tried it. Once we were fighting the Kuomintang. I had just completed a reconnaissance mission and set out with the troops. I didn't sleep for two days and two nights. I was so sleepy that I just held the marching belt of the comrade in front of me, followed him with my feet, and fell asleep as soon as I closed my eyes!"
"You're bragging!" Hu Zi sneered, and said in disbelief: "If you can really fall asleep while marching, then you can wake up at the battle site. How can such a good thing happen in the world!"
"Why should I lie to you? When have you ever seen me lie to anyone?" The old squad leader was not happy about this.
"Well, then..." Hu Zi thought about it and felt that it was right. The old squad leader had never seen him cheat anyone before. He asked the old squad leader doubtfully: "Then can you teach me? Let me wake up to the battlefield, so that I can fight the enemy with more energy!"
"Hey you..." The old squad leader blew his beard and glared, "Hu Zi, you only know how to fight but not how to use your brain? Can this be taught? No need to learn! You will learn it when you are tired! Just wait and see, in two days, it will be hard for you not to learn it!"
Walking and sleeping, I shuddered when I thought of this. What kind of people are these? I rubbed my frowning brows with my hands, looking at the volunteer soldiers running beside me, and suddenly I felt like I was looking at a monster...
The troops advanced for more than an hour, and the sound of gunfire became closer and closer. From time to time, a few volunteers would run by, and occasionally groups of puppet prisoners with their hands raised would be taken down. The road and the roadside were littered with blown-up cars, tanks, and corpses. In the moonlight, it was impossible to tell whether the corpses were from the volunteers or the enemy.
But I think most of them are puppet troops, because the ones in front are either the Puppet Seventh Division or the Puppet Eighth Division. These two divisions ran ahead excitedly in the first battle and wanted to rush to the Yalu River, but they were severely beaten by the volunteers. Now they are like a frightened bird and have no combat effectiveness.
I was thinking about it when the team in front of me suddenly turned to the side and walked into a mountain road. This small road, which could only accommodate one or two people walking side by side, was covered with white snow. If you didn't know, you really wouldn't have found this road. And the further you go, the narrower it becomes. Soon, you will have to use your hands and feet to climb the mountain.
But you know what, this road might be a little bit weird, because I noticed that the sound of gunfire first got closer and closer, and then got farther and farther away, as if we really crossed the war zone from this path. Needless to say, it was also the masterpiece of Comrade Xiao Jin. I remembered that she had a similar experience when she led us across Bai Shanhua's Southern First Division.
This little girl really knows everything about the terrain here, and her ability to walk on mountain roads and climb trails is no worse than that of the volunteers who are used to traveling through mountains and rivers. No wonder the last time Hu Zi and I went to rescue her, we tried our best but couldn't catch up with her.
I couldn't help but think in my mind that it would be great if she could take the troops somewhere else. It would be best if they got lost in the forest and waited for a few days until the battle was over before going out again.
It seems that I really need to bribe her someday, but then I realized helplessly that I didn’t have anything valuable on me except some dry food, unless I used the beauty trap to sell my body...
We spent most of the night climbing up and down the mountain trails. Sometimes there was no road at all. Fortunately, the volunteers were all from poor families and had walked this kind of mountain trails many times, so the speed of climbing up and down the mountain was not slow. But what surprised me was that I had never climbed mountains since I was a child, but it seemed that I could climb mountains effortlessly now.
I can't remember how many mountains we crossed, but in the middle of the night the troops were back on the road. There was no blood, no corpses, no volunteers or puppet soldiers, and the sound of gunfire was far away... There were no cars or tanks abandoned by the puppet soldiers, and there were only a few footprints and a few unclear car tracks on the new snow on the road.
Could it be that I took the wrong road? I was delighted in my heart, because the roads in North Korea are very complicated, and it is very common to take the wrong road in such a day and night (snow and night).
Thinking of this, my steps unconsciously became much lighter. At this moment, I would rather suffer a little more or walk a little more on the mountain road, than to march for three days and three nights without sleep, rushing to fight a fierce battle!
I really don't know what Captain Chu was thinking. He was having surgery when the war was about to start. Others would be happy if this happened. His superiors advised him not to come, so he just went along with it. No one would blame him, but he insisted on coming despite his injury.
This time we completed the mission of luring the enemy deep into our territory, and the superior assigned our regiment an easy job - to chase the enemy and fight them. However, he refused to agree and insisted on returning to the main force to cut off the enemy's retreat. Our regiment has only more than a thousand people, what use will it be even if we return to the military headquarters?
Now it's good, if you get lost...
Eh? I was dreaming when I suddenly heard the sound of an engine behind me. I immediately understood what was going on and couldn't help but curse in my heart. This little girl not only took the right road, but also led us to the front of the puppet army deserters.
