Volume 2 The Second Battle Chapter 36: Battle of Hill 299 (10)
I was carefully putting the last handful of fried noodles into my mouth in the air-raid shelter when suddenly a bomb exploded nearby, and the dust from it got all over my mouth.
After struggling for a long time, I swallowed the food in my mouth. We are behind enemy lines, and the main force is on the other side of the enemy. We don't know when food will be delivered. We can't waste this fried noodles, otherwise we will regret it when we get hungry.
After waiting for a long time, the artillery fire did not stop. I opened my mouth and wanted to sleep again. I was so tired that I almost lost consciousness. No wonder modern records show that the volunteers were often captured because they fell asleep. During the day, we had to guard against the American planes and artillery, and at night we had to march and fight. Once the war started, we had no sleep all day.
The volunteers went out to fight in the dark, and when they retreated during the day, the careful Americans only needed to search the positions and would be able to find a few volunteers sleeping soundly among the pile of dead bodies.
Just like me just now, if I wasn’t lucky, I might have woken up in an American prisoner camp.
The sound of artillery fire lasted for more than half an hour. These bastards probably thought that the encirclement of the Volunteer Army was getting smaller and smaller. They also knew that it would be a waste not to fire these shells as they could not be taken away anyway. The flying earth and rocks blocked .
I dug open the hole and climbed out to take a look. Hey, the position had been plowed by artillery shells and there was no trace of its original appearance. There were craters of all sizes everywhere. All the standing living and dead things were torn to pieces and fell down, and even the trenches were completely blown up.
Before I could find other comrades, I saw Americans rushing towards me with guns raised.
"Puh, puh!" At this time, several people crawled out from the mud pile beside me . It took a long time to recognize that they were Hu Zi and his friends. They were all spitting out mud in their mouths.
"What bad luck!" Hu Zi couldn't help but mutter, "I've been buried alive several times before I died."
"Get ready for battle!" Captain Zhang whispered.
"Company commander!" the old squad leader called out in a low voice, "We are running out of bullets and grenades."
"If we have nothing left, use explosive packs, bayonets, and stones!" Company Commander Zhang's face turned livid. Without saying a word, he took out the documents and diary from the bag, then struck a match and set them on fire.
I watched silently, my heart beating violently along with the flames. I knew what this meant. It was to prevent the enemy from finding any valuable information from our bodies. Several other soldiers who had the habit of writing diaries also followed suit.
The soldiers had a low level of education and only two or three of them could write diaries. Soon all the papers with words on them turned into a pile of ashes, which drifted behind the mountain in the cold wind. In my eyes, it was like a memorial to my dying self.
"Captain, Captain!" At this time, Xiao Shandong came out from nowhere, crouched down and saluted Captain Zhang, saying, "The regiment commander asked me to come up and ask you if you can handle it!"
"We can hold on!" Zhang Shuguo answered without thinking: "Go back and tell the regiment commander that we will not bring shame to the 353rd Regiment. Even if we have to kill the last man, we will kill the devils!"
"What's the matter? We're not leaving ?" Seeing that Xiao Shandong didn't respond for a long time, Captain Zhang asked in confusion.
"Company commander!" Xiao Shandong said with some embarrassment, "It's not that the regiment commander didn't support our company, but the other troops were beaten back by the American planes and artillery as soon as they walked out of the fortifications. I also rushed forward several times before I could get up. If you let me go back now, I will probably be blown to pieces by the Japanese planes and artillery. It's better to let me stay here and fight some Japanese!"
Company Commander Zhang nodded heavily, acquiescing to Xiao Shandong's request.
This was also the embarrassment of the Volunteer Army in the early days of the Korean War. Listening to Xiao Shandong's words, I couldn't help but smile bitterly in my heart. For the US military, which had complete air superiority and modern equipment, it was too easy to block a hill or a position with firepower.
Just like this time, knowing that our company was on the brink of life and death, the volunteers on other hills could not provide any support to us and could only watch helplessly. Because as soon as they stepped out of the fortifications, they would soon be bombed by the US military and exposed in an open area with no hiding place. If they rushed up by force, I am afraid that even if they rushed up, there would be only a few people left.
What’s even more frustrating is that we seem to have no way to retreat, because once we walk out of the fortifications, we will encounter the same problem.
There was a sound of footsteps, and the American soldiers in front of the position sped up and ran towards us. Although they stopped and walked and pointed their guns upwards from time to time, they rushed to a place more than 40 meters away from us in just a short while.
"Shoot!" Following the order from Captain Zhang, the volunteers pulled the trigger without hesitation. In an instant, a large number of American soldiers running in the front fell down, and the rest were frightened and fell to the ground.
But the volunteer army's gunfire soon stopped and they ran out of bullets.
The U.S. military seemed to realize this as well, and they rushed towards the top of the hill with a few strange cries.
"Bayonet!"
Is this the end? I asked myself as I attached the bayonet to my rifle. The enemy in front of me was approaching us step by step like the god of death. At this moment, I couldn't help but think of Jin Qiulian's lovely smiling face. I wondered how she was doing now, whether she had died or...
As I was thinking about it, suddenly a volunteer soldier ran towards me in the enemy's hail of bullets. Before I could react, she fell heavily to the ground, then rolled a few times and came to my side.
"You...you are trying to kill yourself!" When she raised her face, I was surprised to find that she was the Jin Qiulian I had just thought of.
"Are you still alive?" Jin Qiulian smiled faintly and quietly installed a bayonet on her rifle.
Looking at the hundreds of American soldiers rushing towards us, I was speechless.
At this time, the American soldiers in the front row took off their grenades and pulled the safety pin.
I quickly raised the gun and adjusted the muzzle, then fired all four bullets in the chamber in one breath. Four American soldiers who were about to throw grenades fell down.
There were numerous explosions, some on the Volunteer Army's positions and some on the American Army's positions. The Volunteer Army was well hidden, so there were not many casualties. The American Army thought we had run out of bullets and were unprepared, but were knocked down by the four grenades.
"Kill!" Taking advantage of the chaos of the enemy, the thirty or so remaining volunteers jumped out of the trenches and rushed at the enemy, which was dozens of times their number, with bayonets at hand...
