Frank, a veteran, was lying in the ditch in a comfortable position. He took back a loaf of French bread from the pocket of the British corpse and a kettle full of French brandy.
There was some blood on the corner of French bread. Frank took out a dagger and cut off those blood stains. He slowly enjoyed the French brandy in the kettle with a mouthful of wine and bread. There was a fragrant smell floating in the ditch.
There were several cans in the mud beside him, while he was wearing a German soldier and wolfing down his own canned salted beef.
Zhang Yiping passed by them and Frank handed the kettle over. Zhang Yiping took a hard drink and then returned. Frank gave a thumbs-up compliment.
Frank also gave Zhang Yiping a thumbs-up sign.
"The casualty rate has reached 40% in one day," Sun Zhongyao said heavily. "This is the worst casualty since the establishment of the Foreign Corps."
"This is a fierce battle. It’s the first time I’ve encountered it, but it’s very common to fight on the western front in this way. The Germans suffered more casualties in their battles. We have already calculated it here." Zhang Yiping said calmly that he would not feel sorry for the casualties of these foreign soldiers
"What is the casualty rate of our own brothers?" Zhang Yiping asked.
"Less than half!" Sun Zhongyao said, "I’m afraid even the Chinese regiment will suffer heavy casualties in such a tragic trench war of attrition."
Zhang Yiping also nodded and agreed with Sun Zhongyao’s point of view. In this way, fighting is usually the disappearance of the whole division, and the * * regiment can never afford such a loss.
As night falls on the western hills, clouds of fog rise slowly from the Loire River like ghosts, and carefully try to extend around. The ruins of the city are filled with misty water vapor everywhere.
In the midsummer twilight, Zhang Yiping returned to the house. At the moment he entered, he saw that a tall tree in the middle of the ruins had been burned by artillery fire, but the remaining branches were blooming with beautiful flowers.
Occasionally, there are one or two explosions outside, but suddenly it seems very quiet here. Those beautiful flowers are limited to enlarge. They are so beautiful and reveal a very peaceful and quiet style. They are so quiet but more than a thousand words. Their bright colors constantly shake people’s hearts.
They are quiet and serene, which surprised and shocked Zhang Yiping. During this period, artillery fire has been flying, and the tranquility of Orleans has long been expelled and forgotten. There are cruel, bloody whines and groans filled with everything that can make people get rid of the roar. The shells have been rumbling in our ears.
And the world has become so quiet here because of these beautiful flowers.
Zhang Yiping stayed in front of the door for a long time until it was dark and could not be seen again.
The night is cool and breezy, and the dark star suddenly shoots up a few flares, and the dome of the cathedral in the distance shines brightly.
"How was everything today?" Fang Junyi suddenly appeared behind Zhang Yiping, flying in the dark with bullets emitting cold cold light, and her face was pale with blood loss.
"It is also possible to temporarily compile the first division to play well. Although it suffered heavy losses today, it can be seen that the foreign corps still has a little fighting capacity, which is still helpful for our cause." Zhang Yiping said that the collision of lunch boxes in the house made him have a strong appetite and the smell of food even more attracted his stomach to purr.
"Although the shelling has temporarily stopped, I feel that there will be fierce fighting in the evening!" Zhang Yiping looked at the night and said
Sure enough, after a while, the sound of shelling rumbled and shouted and resounded through the sky, but Zhang Yiping fell asleep in the headquarters
The next day, Zhang Yiping first went to Bridge No.2, which is the position of the 1st Battalion of the 323rd Regiment of the 16th Division. The terrain here is more favorable than that of Dali Battalion, and Bridge No.2 is less important than that of Bridge No.1, when the British army struggled to defend the Chinese Regiment, the fighting here was relatively quiet.
In Sun Zhongyao’s tentative plan, the first division was a brutal bloody battle.
When a few days passed quietly, they disappeared quickly. I really don’t know that every minute is like a fleeting battlefield. Attacks and defensive counterattacks keep changing. The dead are like hills. The trenches, bunkers, ruins and craters on both sides rise high and high.
On that day, Li Ergou, the battalion commander of the shelter trench, said goodbye to Zhang Yiping with a gaunt face. He was going to retreat to the rear. His battalion had been insisting for several days and nights. Not only did he not sleep for several days and nights, but at the same time, more than 1,000 officers and men in his battalion had been killed and wounded, so he could no longer fight.
"How many gunmen are there?" Zhang Yiping asked him that he was most concerned about the lives of soldiers in China, and that war was the coldest feeling. He really had no way to care about the lives of soldiers in other countries
"Base! They are too tired, "said Li Ergou.
"If you want them all, you won’t collapse," Zhang Yiping comforted Li Ergou and said, "Are you afraid of having soldiers?"
"Go back and have a good rest and prepare for a battle! “
The gun pits and ruins in the open field in front of the shelter trench have been buried by bodies, which have been exposed to the sun and rotted, giving off an unpleasant stench.
Occasionally, there will be a groan or two from the rotting bodies, which were discarded during the attack. Every time, there were a large number of British wounded, but after the British army returned, these wounded people were ignored. Finally, after a while, they groaned and died in despair.
Sun Zhongyao was wearing a thick mask. He came to wear a gas mask, but the weather was so hot that he could finally wear a mask, and it was four or five layers thicker.
"Commander in chief, did you hear a cry for help? There is English called "Sun Zhongyao asked humming.
"In the past two days, we have been carefully looking for a wounded soldier in the British army. In the past two days, we can clearly listen to him shouting for help one after another, but the next night, he always shouted the names of his wife and children, and then he cried from morning till evening. The sound was very bleak, just like a ghost screaming, which made people feel very uncomfortable."
"Some brothers say that there are too many dead people outside, and some have turned into ghosts, so that everyone is afraid …"
Chapter 45 The Battle of Orleans (sixty-four)
Every attack by the British army will leave a large number of bodies mixed with the bodies of the wounded outside the shelter trench, and it is difficult to distinguish them clearly. The wounded groan weakly day and night in the pile of bodies.
Zhang Yiping pricked up his ears and listened carefully for a while. Although he heard a lot of weak moans, he didn’t feel anything special.
"Living ghosts are not afraid. Are we afraid of dead ghosts?" Zhang Yiping said.
"Of course we know that there is no ghost in this world, even if there is a pocket, we are not afraid, but these two days are really amazing!" Sun Zhongyu said
"On the first day, we heard this loud cry for help, but we didn’t feel at ease when we came to the battlefield, and we would encounter such a thing. Who died by luck and died? Why didn’t he have that tone?
"But then that night, the wounded soldier’s hoarse cry became louder and louder and more miserable, as if it sounded like this all around the battlefield."
"So we couldn’t stand it again. We were not afraid of ghosts, but we were afraid to listen to this kind of miserable sound all night. We sent people outside to look for it several times overnight, and every time we climbed gently and quickly along the sound, it suddenly seemed as if we were from other places. We didn’t find any signs until dawn."
"The next day, we searched every place as much as possible with our binoculars carefully and intently for a whole day, but we still got a bleak cry and never stopped."
"I also promised that anyone who can find this damn Englishman will be given three days’ priority when they meet French girls, and even be given a few more days off when they take turns."
"But the truth is that you don’t have to be upset and can’t sleep because your brothers are so sad and heartbroken. It’s even more unbearable than the British shells. The brothers have tried their best and risked the enemy snipers to attack, but they have gone everywhere to look for it, but they have not seen it at all."
Zhang Yiping listened and said, "There is no need for enemy snipers to be rampant outside. It may be dangerous to go out and look for brothers. Moreover, since it is a wounded soldier, the weather conditions will not last for many days. Even if you don’t bleed, you will die of hunger and thirst."
However, as soon as Zhang Yiping’s words fell, Sun Zhongyao’s ears stood up warily again. He hissed and said, "You heard the sound and cried again."
"There are at least 20 or 30 British soldiers and wounded soldiers groaning and groaning 100 meters away from the shelter trench alone. How can you tell that it is that sound?" Zhang Yiping asked.
"This difference sounds very sad and makes people’s scalp numb." Sun Zhongyao pricked up his ears. "This person occasionally called’ Elizabeth’ and now he is called again."
Zhang Yiping listened attentively. His hearing ability was much higher than that of Sun Zhongyao. He vaguely heard a weak voice calling the name "Elizabeth". His hearing was very sensitive. He had already judged that the source of this sound was more than 100 meters in front of his shelter trench.
Zhang Yiping looked out at the open country and there were piles of bodies. This was a good place for snipers to ambush. He wouldn’t put his brother in danger because of an enemy wounded soldier. Although he knew where the wounded soldier was, he wouldn’t tell Sun Zhongyao or send anyone out.
"Don’t make a fuss. It’s no big deal for a wounded soldier to moan a little." Zhang Yiping still doesn’t trust Sun Zhongyao with this matter. "Tell those suspicious brothers where ghosts come from in broad daylight? I have never heard that I can hum ghosts during the day. "
"Not necessarily!" Next to Tugen, he couldn’t help saying, "There are too many dead people outside, and the ghost will be out during the day, but it will be more rampant later …"
China people come to believe that ghosts and gods are worse. This group of migrant workers is a soldier?
"If he can live, I will take him as a real ghost," said Zhang Yiping.
In the afternoon, the British army organized dozens of tanks to attack again, but they were finally beaten back by the provisional first division. A large number of bodies and wounded people were left in the open field before the two sides, in addition to burning the remains of enemy tanks
At night, the fog floated across the shining Loire River with a cool breeze, and it also floated across the bloody battlefield, screaming and throwing bullets into the sky, and slowly landed, turning the earth into a pale.
The battle has been going on for a day. At this time, except for the soldiers who are responsible for warning, everyone closed their eyes and rested when they grasped it.
Zhang Yiping, who was lying at the bottom of the shelter trench, suddenly opened his eyes. The sound of "Elizabeth" in the crater one hundred meters away came again. Although the sound was hoarse and weak compared with the daytime, the night wind still brought the sound into the shelter trench from the ground and blew it into Zhang Yiping’s ears.
There’s nothing wrong with shouting here, but it’s extremely secretive because of what Sun Zhongyao said during the day and the fact that there are bodies piled up outside at night.
However, although it was secretive, it didn’t disturb Zhang Yiping’s judgment. He didn’t believe in what the hell was going to sleep again, and he didn’t rest assured of the sound at all.
When Zhang Yiping woke up in the early hours of the morning, Sun Zhongyao said to Zhang Yiping, "The commander-in-chief called the wounded soldier for help all night last night and called the English name’ Elizabeth’ all night, and the sound was very sad and much louder than during the day …"
"It’s normal to be quiet at night and speak louder. Maybe it’s him. We were already asleep, so we called on them hard and begged them to save him." Zhang Yiping said casually
"But now the sound continues," Sun Zhongyao said. "Listen to me, commander in chief."
Zhang Yiping’s ears are very sensitive. Of course, he heard the sound a little smaller than last night, and maybe he had a strong cough and tried to tell others that he was still alive.
"The commander-in-chief said that if he can survive today, you should consider him a real ghost," Sun Zhongyao said. "Of course I know this is a joke of the commander-in-chief, but I’m afraid it will affect the morale of the army and so many bodies will pile up in front of our position in the hot sun and stink.
There are dead bodies lying in the hot sun and there is no way to bury them. There are enough people in the first division to deal with them, and there is no way to deal with them under the surveillance of enemy snipers
Outside, in addition to the fact that the artillery shells will blow up and the crater will bury them a little, more bodies will swell up like balloons and hiss and belch from time to time.