Volume 3 The Third Battle Chapter 10: Landmines
As soon as it got dark the next night, we climbed towards the plain under the leadership of Xu Feng.
This was the first time we did it, and Captain Chu didn't arrange many people, probably with the intention of sending some people to conduct reconnaissance. But for some reason, this glorious mission fell on our battalion with honor.
Although it was a battalion, it had only a hundred people. Because the task of building fortifications under the enemy's nose was of great importance, if the puppet army discovered it, all the previous efforts would be wasted. Therefore, only veterans were brought with them, and the new recruits were left in the forest for basic military training. Because Zhao Yongxin's injury had not yet fully healed, he was left in the forest to watch over the new recruits.
More than a hundred people slowly crawled out of the forest, with the company commander in front and the instructor behind. This is also the PLA's combat habit, the combat cadres are in the front, so that the soldiers have a sense of security, and the political cadres are in the back, watching all the soldiers to see if anyone is deserting...
I secretly groaned in my heart. To be an official, you either have to be a high-ranking official or not do it at all. Now I am just a company commander, a medium-sized company commander!
More than a hundred people slowly climbed onto the plain, wearing white cloth that Jin Qiulian got from somewhere, maybe borrowed from the common people! North Koreans like to wear white clothes the most, so it is not difficult for me to get white cloth , but I have always wondered if the white cloth I am wearing is a certain woman's skirt...
The bright moonlight made the plain ahead look as white as if it were covered by fluorescent lights. Occasionally, a few bombed cars could be seen. I guess this place was once a battlefield filled with blood and flames. Snowflakes as big as goose feathers were floating in the air with the cold wind, as if they were petals sprinkled by gods from the sky to cover up all the death and pain here.
The white cloth draped over our bodies was soon covered with a thin layer of snow, which formed a natural camouflage for us. If it weren't for our comrades crawling beside us, we would not have been able to tell any difference from the environment around us.
I couldn't help but shiver, and felt a chill coming from my body. It was not a pleasant experience to crawl on the snow in such cold weather. After a while, I couldn't even feel my feet.
I looked up at the huge plain ahead, which was several hundred meters long. If we wanted to build a soldier cave, we had to build it by the Imjin River, otherwise it would not be effective. But I was so cold that I stopped and took a few deep breaths, wondering if I could climb to the riverside...
Oh! I'd better crawl... There are dozens of soldiers watching behind me!
I reluctantly raised my elbow and stretched it forward, but at this moment, I suddenly felt something different on my elbow, and it seemed to be a little elastic. I don't know where I got the willpower from, but I stopped my elbow in mid-air.
"Landmine!" A terrible word jumped into my mind, and I stood there as if I had been electrocuted.
"Stop, stop!" After being stunned for a while, I shouted around in a low voice, "There are mines, everyone stop!" regardless of the danger of being discovered by the enemy.
Damn it, these puppet soldiers not only laid mines on the south bank, but also on the north bank. And why did you bury one in my path when you can bury it anywhere else? You have a grudge against me, right? This mine is pressed by my elbow, right under my head. If it explodes, my head will...
"There's a mine! Stop!"
"There's a mine! Stop!"
…
As experienced veterans, the soldiers did not panic. They just whispered the information one by one. I was glad that I did not bring those new recruits with me.
"Captain!"
"Captain Cui!"
…
I kept hearing the old squad leader and others calling out in low voices beside me. I turned my head slightly and saw that they were all staring at me. Jin Qiulian was crawling forward desperately.
"Don't move! Stop her!" I gave the order hastily, if for no other reason than the discovery of a landmine was a very likely indication that there was a minefield ahead laid by the enemy. If she climbed up so rashly and touched a landmine, none of us more than a hundred people would be able to return intact.
The comrades also knew how serious this was. The old squad leader and Hu Zi stopped Jin Qiulian without saying a word.
Not long after, the soldiers retreated one after another along the original route, and even Jin Qiulian was pulled down. I think this was an order from Xu Feng. There is no doubt that this was the right choice.
There was a minefield ahead, which meant that this mission was doomed to fail. If the soldiers did not withdraw, once the mine under my elbow exploded, they would soon face enemy strafing and bombing!
But, what should I do?
Time passed by minute by minute, I supported myself with one elbow and pressed the other elbow against the mine, enduring the pain. I didn't dare to move at all, because I was afraid that if I pressed down a little more, or relaxed a little, I would disappear from this world.
A terrible feeling of loneliness came over me, cold sweat kept coming out of my forehead, I felt like an abandoned lamb, waiting for death to come in the cold wind...
"Where?" Just as I was about to fall into despair, Xu Feng's voice came from beside me. I was stunned and almost cried. I realized that they did not abandon me, and it was the battalion commander who stayed with me to live and die together. The reason why he took so long to show up was because he had to wait for his comrades to retreat to a safe place.
"Where?" Seeing that I didn't respond, Xu Feng asked again.
"It's, it's... my left hand!" I didn't even dare move my head, as if I was pressing down on a sleeping child, afraid that it would scream if it was unhappy.
Xu Feng slowly crawled over and gently dug away the snow on top with his hands. A flat, round black thing was revealed. Seeing it, I became more nervous and my body began to tremble.
"Don't move!" Xu Feng ordered in a low voice, pulling out his bayonet and fiddling with something underneath. After a long while, he breathed a sigh of relief and said, "All right!"
"Okay?" I asked in disbelief, worried that I had heard it wrong.
"You go back first, I'll do some reconnaissance!" After saying that, he crawled forward carefully as if nothing had happened, stabbing carefully with his bayonet as he crawled.
I turned over and lay on the ground, unable to move for a long time.
"Captain!"
"The company commander is back!"
…
When I crawled back trembling with fear in my heart, the soldiers had already been waiting for me in the forest. When they saw me come back, they all breathed a sigh of relief and walked over. To my surprise, Captain Chu and Political Commissar Chen Ye were also waiting there.
"What's the situation?" Captain Chu asked impatiently as soon as he saw me.
"Report to the regiment commander!" I replied, "The situation is still unclear. Battalion Commander Xu is conducting reconnaissance."
"I didn't expect the enemy to have laid mines here as well." Chen Ye frowned and said, "I think it should have happened in the past few days. Now we are in trouble. We can't hide our soldiers, and there is an extra minefield!"
