Chapter 30 chapter Ten

At five o'clock in the morning, Shangguanfeng was awakened by a sharp and rapid whistle.He thought that he had overslept, so he turned over and jumped up from the grass in front of the cat's ear hole! Late last night, after three long months of trekking, he felt he had finally stepped out of the void between peace and war into war.But at this moment, he had just realized that the war was about to start, and a heaviness he had never experienced before suddenly oppressed his heart... He thought he would hear the roar of artillery fire on the whole line, but he only heard the shout of the company commander in the woods where the second row was camped:

"...Damn it, get up and dig a hole for me!... Can't the shells kill you?!..." The light in the forest was dim, and the icy air made Shangguan Feng shiver, and his mind immediately cleared up.The war has not yet come, the time has not yet come!His heart relaxed again... Then from the woods in the first row and second row, there came a mess of sounds: soldiers were swearing; cross picks and foreign picks were digging the soil "bang bang"... a familiar sound of slightly panicked footsteps came to the Passed from where he was.His mind calmed down again... It was Cheng Ming who came over.In the darkness, Cheng Ming saw him from a long distance, and shouted in a rough voice:

"Is it the third platoon commander?" "It's me, the company commander." "Have you dug all the holes?" "All dug." "I want to check!" Cheng Ming approached, not believing his words, "Take me to each class to have a look!" He didn't want to look down on the company commander.He had been brought up not to look down on anyone.But since arriving at Heifengjian last night, he has looked down on the company commander a bit. ... Shangguanfeng didn't say a word, he mechanically led Cheng Ming to the campsites of each class, and asked Cheng Ming to inspect each hole one by one.

After Cheng Ming checked, he left without saying a word.Shangguan Feng returned to his cat ear hole, and suddenly, that kind of heaviness like a thousand catties that he had never experienced before pressed down on his heart again.This time, he even had a feeling of being out of breath! die.It comes down to it.Last night, he lay down on the grass in front of the cat's ear hole. Before he fell asleep, he thought that he had already understood and accepted the war while walking into it.Now that it had barely become an imminent reality, he realized anew that even if he had accepted it on rational grounds, it was still difficult to accept in the realm of emotion and reality.

"Death....Yes, it wasn't the war that I avoided all the time before the war, but it. But today it still came." He thought wildly, feeling that his heart was pierced by something sharp. It hurt a little bit, "Today, not only for me, but also for our whole platoon and company, it has a kind of authenticity that can no longer be denied. ... But I am only seventeen years old, I am only seventeen years old, But dying..." "Where will I die? In a short time, both the enemy and the enemy will start a fierce shelling, and then our woods will become a sea of ​​flames... My cat ear hole can really withstand the enemy's artillery fire Is it the bombardment?...Ah no, I may die on a hilltop along the Qipanling line, or be hit by a bullet, or step on a mine....I will fall in a ravine, on a hillside There is a small tree with green branches and leaves growing beside me..."

He spent the last period of time before the war started in such cranky thoughts.But these imaginations invisibly relieved the overly tense emotions in his heart.For, as soon as his thoughts enter the imagination of death, death itself becomes less real again. He heard the first shells from our artillery flying over the forest tops overhead.Suddenly, his heart seemed to be clenched violently by a cold iron hand! It was the sound of a piece of red-hot iron sizzling crisply through the vast, thick, liquid-like air. It dragged on for such a long time that he suddenly had a feeling that his own body was scalded and pierced. Feeling the pain, my whole body trembled.It faded away, and the ground beneath him trembled slightly; he thought a second shell would follow, but no, it seemed like a long time passed, and there was a second sound over the forest tops, not loud at all , but it was lower and closer than the first sound, and the ground under him trembled even more when it exploded. "The artillery is testing." He suddenly understood, and a thought "The war has begun" popped up in his mind.The firing of the third shell dragged on longer than the second, giving him time to quietly take a deep breath.It exploded, but he didn't hear it fly.Shangguanfeng suddenly felt that he was not so heavy and nervous: the sound of shells flying and exploding was not as dense and violent as imagined, they were fired here and there, which was shocking, but slightly disappointing!

The sound of shells flying and exploding has become dense and violent.After another test-fired shell landed, the whistling and explosion sounds of various types of shells gradually became a majestic and majestic piece, which could not be distinguished from each other or in sequence. Trembling, his body trembling violently.Just now he has accepted and adapted to the artillery test firing, and now he has not had much difficulty in accepting the firing of thousands of artillery.But with the recovery of thinking ability, the tingling feeling in my heart became stronger again. "This is a mortar. . . . This is a 152 howitzer shell. ... This is another howitzer shell. . . . The enemy's artillery is about to counterattack! . . The theory is consistent... As long as the enemy fires back, someone will die in Heifengjian..." He thought, and an urgent premonition of death followed. "I may die soon, but I am not prepared for anything!  …"

The shelling continued.Minute after minute passed, and the enemy did not fight back.That intense tingling sensation was replaced by another great confusion. "Why didn't the enemy fight back?...It's abnormal for the enemy not to fight back, and it doesn't conform to the general theory of war....The enemy will definitely fight back, but they haven't done it yet!..." He spent most of the shelling in this panicked, heavy, heart-piercing pain.Gradually, he realized that the sounds of shells flying and exploding were becoming sparser.And at the edge of the forest, a group of soldiers were shouting and cheering, which caught his attention:

"Oh boy, it's really spectacular!" "Hitting it on the 342 high ground like this is enough for a turtle!" "The rocket artillery is really awesome!" "..." The woods beyond the entrance of the cave were lit up by the tails of the last batch of rocket shells clattering through the gray sky of dawn.Shangguanfeng poked his head out of the cat's ear hole, and with the help of the flames from the flying rocket shells, he saw Ge Wenyi, the leader of the eighth squad, and a dozen other soldiers in the platoon. At some point, he got out of the cat's ear hole, stood at the edge of the forest, and watched me happily. The scene of the Army shelling the 342 Heights.Those cheers came from their mouths.Shangguanfeng was startled, and remembered his duty as a platoon leader.

"Squad Eight, what's the matter with you—" He leaned half of his body out of the hole and shouted at Ge Wenyi.The fact that the enemy did not counter-fire does not mean that they will not do that. If the shells hit, where will these people hide? ! "Platoon leader, come out, it's okay!" Ge Wenyi turned around and shouted at him, "Look at how lively the artillerymen are fighting, it's much better than the movie!" Shangguanfeng got out of the hole.The soldiers in his platoon violated the discipline of the battlefield, and he had to come out and blast them back.Ge Wenyi's attitude also made him unhappy: this man, his reaction to your orders always makes you feel that he is your big brother, it's not that he wants to listen to you, but you want to listen to him!

"You all go back to the cave!" When he came to the edge of the forest, he shouted angrily. At the same time, he couldn't help but look towards the southern plateau 342, and his feet couldn't move. The shelling was drawing to a close.In the gray morning, the 342 highland is like a big torch, burning high and high, reflecting the half of the sky in the south bright red.In his feeling, it seemed that the highland itself was much closer to them, and everything became clearer.A round of shells still landed in the torch and exploded, followed by a lot of soil, stones and branches rising into the air with the smoke, and slowly falling in the brilliant background of the fire.The shells fell one after another, and so did the rise and fall of smoke, dirt, stones, and branches.Such a picture is not only spectacular, but also thrilling! "Platoon leader, what do you think are those objects?!" Qin Erbao, who was not willing to be lonely, squeezed up to him, pointed at the 342 highland, and shouted in surprise. Shangguanfeng looked intently, and what made Qin Erbao scream were some strange bits and pieces that neither looked like stones nor trees, rising in the firelight.Before he could respond, Ge Wenyi said in an affirmative tone: "That's artillery selling barbecue! ... But the fire is too big!" Several soldiers laughed along with him.Shangguanfeng understood the meaning of Ge Wenyi's words, and the feeling of being stabbed in his heart became stronger again! "Go back!... The enemy may retaliate! Eighth squad leader, you take the lead to go back!" He really got annoyed, and loudly ordered these soldiers who were almost all older than him. It took him a full five minutes to drive them back into their respective cat-ear holes, and he was back in the hole himself.The bombardment had ceased altogether, and in the great silence that followed he heard gunfire from Hill 342.After waiting nervously for a while, he suddenly saw Qin Erbao running excitedly from the forest in the direction of the company headquarters, and shouted loudly: "Platoon leader, brothers, come out quickly! Height 342 has been taken down, and the entire Qipanling has also been taken down!" His first feeling was that he didn't believe the news Qin Erbao brought back, it came too suddenly!But there was already a commotion in the woods, not only the soldiers in the surrounding woods got out of the cat's ear holes one after another, in the woods opposite Jianxi, he saw soldiers from the Seventh Company and the Eighth Company also ran out one after another!The soldiers gathered at the edge of the forest as before, jumping happily and shouting: "Hey, group A is moving so fast this shitty day!" "He's a class A regiment!" "Why did the enemy forget to fire at us?!" "How can they! The soldiers are so poor that they can't even wear trousers!" "..." Shangguanfeng got out of the cat hole.He still couldn't believe the news above.However, the breathless heaviness that has been pressing on my heart since I was awakened before dawn, together with the feeling of being stabbed deeply by sharp things, disappeared instantly, another kind of warmth Feelings of emotion, emotion, and joy filled my chest like water... "...Is the battle on Qipanling really over? Qin Erbao's news seems to be reliable....If regiment A really took down all of Qipanling, wouldn't we have no battle to fight?... ...If things were really like this, wouldn't it be better?..." He was thinking like this, the joy and emotion that was rising in his heart suddenly turned into deeper excitement and joy, flooding his life... He came to the edge of the forest, where the three squad leaders were discussing excitedly.Liu Youcai, who hadn't shown his face all morning, was standing there at the moment, with moist and bright eyes shining, and asked him: "Platoon leader, tell me, if regiment A has finished fighting Qipanling, will the superiors still want us to participate in the battle?" "I still say the same thing: not necessarily!" Ge Wenyi, who was a little dissatisfied, took the conversation without waiting for Shangguanfeng's answer, "If Commander Jiang sympathizes with us, he will leave three or two hills for our battalion to fight ?” "Damn it, I don't want him to sympathize!" Li Le, the monitor of Class Ninth, interjected fiercely, "It would be better if the A group contracted the entire mountain!" "Then what do you want?" Ge Wenyi retorted, "I just asked you to eat compressed dry food?...Then why not feed pigs with it!..." Shangguanfeng did not participate in their argument.The sky was already bright, and the fire on the 342 high ground was extinguished, and it turned into a gray-brown thick smoke, which rose straight to the high sky.He still couldn't believe that the war was over, but the relaxed and joyful atmosphere spreading inside and outside the woods still infected his heart more and more strongly. He had many things to do next: after a while, the company commander sent someone to inform them to collect firewood for the cooking squad; But after the battalion commander left, the company did not set out to fight immediately, and his mood relaxed again); and then they sat on the edge of the woods and waited for the cooking team to notify them to start the meal.Shangguan Feng returned to Maoerdong and sat down. He had already accepted the relaxed atmosphere in the forest as if the war had passed, but every three to five minutes, some kind of worry that he could not forget still made him walk again and again. Go to the edge of the forest and look towards the 342 heights. —He still can't believe the war is over!He was finally ready to endure the most unimaginable hardship and sacrifice after so many months of agonizing days and nights leading up to this war.Now someone told him that the war was over before he fired a single shot, how could he believe it! "Platoon leader, sit down and eat some dry food?" On a grassy field by the forest, three squad leaders were sitting on the ground, eating the compressed dry food they carried with the cold water drawn from the bottom of the stream.Liu Youcai greeted him when he saw him. "Who gave you dry food?" Shangguan Feng felt a little flustered when he saw them.Compressed dry food, like bullets, is a material that must be properly kept during combat preparations. Without orders from the company, it must not be eaten! "Platoon leader, tell everyone to eat!" Ge Wenyi, the eighth squad leader, said lightly. "Look at today's battle, we probably won't be able to fight, and keeping it is also luggage!" Shangguanfeng didn't care anymore, Ge Wenyi might be right.The chief of staff had just fought a battle with the company commander, and it seemed that the meal in the morning might not be good; from last night until now, everyone has been in good health, and once a mission comes suddenly—the inertial effect of consciousness makes him I think it is still possible for the company to go to war-it won't be able to survive without eating some dry food! So Jiulian didn't eat within the forty minutes stipulated by deputy head Liu, only Shangguanfeng's third row violated the regulations and quietly ate some dry food. Shangguanfeng didn't eat dry food.He was still not in the mood to eat dry food. ——At this time, his emotions were basically calm, but for some reason, he still couldn't convince himself that the battle was over!