Chapter 56 Chapter fifteen

After ten o'clock, as the gunfire in the entire area of ​​Gongmu Mountain, Tianzi Mountain, and Jade Ridge fell silent, the sound of enemy heavy machine gun fire on the main peak of 634 Highland became sparse. After a whole day of fighting, the combat effectiveness of both the enemy and us has been exhausted.When the night is getting darker and darker, and the far-reaching sky quietly reveals the bright and clean ink blue, it seems that we should stop and take a breath. The war is not over.As soon as the day's war came to an end, the night's war began.This new round of fighting was carried out by night duty artillery fire from both sides, targeting the enemy's positions and rear lines of communication.So in a wider area, the sound of cannons rumbled again.

At about half past ten, in the pebble circle at the foot of the mountain on the northeast side of the 634 highland, Cheng Ming, the commander of the Ninth Company, sat on the ground and suddenly sobbed loudly! "I'm quitting!... Woooooo... I'm guilty! I've broken the chain!... Let me be tried by a court-martial! Woohoo..." he cried hysterically as he wept. Since the whole company went into battle in the afternoon, Cheng Ming's mood has been in a state of ups and downs, great joy and great sorrow.In the afternoon, he had pinned his hope of capturing Height 634 on the first and second platoons, but they failed; It completely collapsed!

Now he no longer feared that enemy bullets would kill him; but another threat—a court-martial—became very real to him! The gunshots in the entire 632 Heights area were sparse.That is to say, all the other companies have completed their missions, but the Ninth Company did not, and the company was wiped out by him! This is no ordinary failure, but a fiasco! For a moment he vividly thought of Liu Zongkui's ugly and angry face.Today he fought the 634 Heights battle like this, there is no way to expect the deputy head to forgive him! He also thought of the platoon leader, the second platoon leader, the deputy company commander, and the chief of staff, all of whom died.The third platoon leader, Shangguan Feng, went into battle after dark and never came back. He thought he must have died too.The deputy instructor and the ambulance team never came up. He suspected that this person might also have died on the way from Qipanling to the 632 highland area.Among the cadres of the whole company, only he and Liang Pengfei were alive, and the highlands were still controlled by the enemy.Whether it is in front of the commander who trusted him, or in front of the officers and soldiers who have died in battle, he is guilty. After the war, he cannot escape the severe punishment of the military court, and no one else will allow him to escape the severe punishment of the military court. !

"Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Besides going to court-martial after the battle, he still had another way to go: leave the company command post, go to the high ground, gather the soldiers who were scattered during the battle, and lead them to launch another attack on the enemy.As soon as this idea flashed, he was denied it by himself: not to mention whether there are really soldiers on the high ground who have not been killed by the enemy, even if there are, he will organize them to attack again, and he will definitely not be able to attack the main peak Yes, doing that can only continue to increase the casualties of the entire company and increase his guilt!

"Woooooo...I don't want to live anymore! Whoever beats me to death!...Woooooo..." He continued to cry and shout, feeling that his whole life was ruined on this high ground! "303! 303! I'm 304! What's the situation there, please answer! Please answer!..." The battalion commander Xiao Bin suddenly called from the walkie-talkie beside him.Cheng Ming's crying stopped abruptly! "Company Commander Cheng! Company Commander Cheng! I'm Xiao Bin!... How's the situation there! How's the situation there! Please answer quickly! Please answer quickly!..." Xiao Bin's voice became more and more anxious because he didn't hear the answer!

Cheng Ming's men subconsciously went to pick up the handset on the ground, and retracted it again.No, he can't pick up the handset, and he can't resume talking with the battalion commander!Since the start of the 634 highland battle, he mistakenly called the battalion headquarters for artillery fire, and he has not contacted the battalion headquarters again; for some reason, the battalion headquarters has never called the Ninth Company again!Now that the entire company has been defeated on the 634 Heights, what face does he have to talk to the battalion commander and deputy commander!

In any case, he doesn't want to, and shouldn't take care of this company anymore!Since he became the company commander, this company has never had a better time!He quit and let others—for example, Liang Pengfei who was standing on the other side of the pebble circle—take care of it, maybe that would be better!In a state of grief, self-blame, and unconsciousness, he made a choice for himself. However, until Xiao Bin's last round of calls completely disappeared under the height of 634, neither the other person—instructor Liang Pengfei— nor the two battlefield correspondents from the company headquarters picked up the handset.Wu Bin and Zhao Jian felt that with the company commander and instructors around, they shouldn't pick it up. Liang Pengfei was different from them. He didn't pick up the handset because he felt that it was unacceptable!

The afternoon and night that just passed were also close to death for Liang Pengfei.In the afternoon, the entire company was attacked by enemy fire from the east, south, and west directions on the high ground, and he, who had just woken up from the state of sleepwalking on the way to the attack, immediately fell into overwhelming fear.Liang Pengfei squeezed his body between two stones on the west side of the pebble circle, avoiding bullets and death, completely forgetting his company and his responsibilities.It wasn't until the number of bullets falling into the cobblestone circle became less and less, and he woke up from his fear, that he realized that the whole company was engaged in fighting up and down the plateau.He also noticed the following things: Except for a few holes drilled by bullets in his sleeves and trouser legs, he had no other losses; if he wanted, he could still hide in this crevice. None of the battlefield correspondents would think of him.But he didn't continue to hide.The danger of death has been greatly reduced. As an instructor, it is obviously impossible to hide any longer. If he does not do something, a narrow-minded person like Cheng Ming will not fail to raise his "problems" in front of his superiors after the war "of.Liang Pengfei quickly found a not unimportant task for himself: to form a temporary rescue team with the company health worker, his correspondent Zhao Jian, and the cooking squad recruit Yu Deshui to rescue the wounded on the battlefield.Then he himself left the pebble circle, and found a cave that could accommodate dozens of people under the broken wall at the southern end of Height 633.He went into the cave to see the terrain, climbed to the entrance of the cave, and ordered the health workers to send the wounded into the cave one by one!

Later, he also participated in the rescue work on the battlefield. When the battle developed above the high ground, he became more courageous.But he found that he was still too brave, and several times he was blocked from top to bottom by the enemy's heavy machine guns.In the first trench, he hastily lay down between two enemy corpses, and stayed with a dead enemy almost face to face for 20 minutes. At this time, he felt terribly scary! Efforts to rescue the wounded were interrupted after dark.The attack by three platoons above the heights reinvigorated the gunfire.Liang Pengfei returned to the pebble circle, and realized that the heartstrings that had been tensed all day began to relax.In any case, the goal I set for myself in Heifengjian in the morning-survive the war and survive-was realized, and even the command post was no longer seriously threatened by the enemy.He no longer feared for his life, and turned his attention to the responsibility of an instructor: the attack of the third platoon was the last attack operation of the whole company, and he was one of the two chief officers of the company after all. The battle up and down the 634 Heights will end in failure, and the superiors will not hold him accountable after the war!

The attack of the third row still failed in the end!As the enemy's heavy machine guns on the main peak of the highland gradually stopped firing, his heart finally fell into despair! He didn't expect that Cheng Ming burst into tears at this moment! Listening carefully to Cheng Ming's cries, he realized that the other party's train of thought was actually clear. Cheng Ming was not talking nonsense at all. What he shouted every sentence was full of shame and hatred for the defeat of the battle he commanded. The fear of punishment to befall him! Cheng Ming didn't want to pick up that handset, and of course he wouldn't pick it up either!He had been evading the command of the entire company for a day, and he would not be so stupid as to answer the battalion commander's call when he needed to bear the responsibility for the defeat!Regardless of whether he participated in the command during the battle at 634 Heights, as long as he picks up the handset now, the Battalion Commander and Deputy Commander Liu will have the impression that he, Liang Pengfei, was with Cheng Ming, and it was the two of them. We fought a losing battle together!

... Now the Battalion Commander's call fell silent.Liang Pengfei stood there stiffly, realizing that one of the darkest moments in his life had not passed! If Cheng Ming really wanted to throw the mess up and down the 634 Heights to him at this moment, it would almost be considered a success right now!Now Cheng Ming cares about the company regardless of the company, but after Cheng Ming puts down the pick, he can no longer care about anything!Now that he doesn't come forward to clean up the mess, he will also be tried by a military court for dereliction of duty after the war! "Damn it!..." He cursed in his heart, but he knew that there was nothing he could do about his situation!Cleaning up the mess meant taking full responsibility for what happened to the company and up and down the Highlands from this point forward. The 634 highland is still in the hands of the enemy. As long as this situation continues, the Ninth Company will not complete its mission!Moreover, so far, no leader has ordered the Ninth Company to stop the attack! Of course he could pick up the walkie-talkie receiver in the ground, report the situation in the company to the battalion command post, and ask Deputy Head Liu to issue an order to stop the attack.But there is another danger: instead of ordering to stop the attack, deputy head Liu ordered him to continue attacking the high ground with the survivors in a rage! Under the current circumstances, he has only one choice: instead of reporting the situation to the battalion command post and having the deputy commander order him to launch an attack again, it is better for him to assume the responsibility of the company commander himself, continue to organize the attack on the high ground, and Sustain it till dawn!He believed that everything would be over at dawn, and everything would have an end, and the 634 Heights offensive battle was no exception.At that time, of course they still couldn't take the main peak of the highland, but all the surviving soldiers in the company would testify to him: after the company commander quit, he was the one who led the company to fight tenaciously with the enemy!It wasn't that he and the soldiers of the Ninth Company were not brave, but that the terrain of the main peak of the 634 Highland was too special, and the main force of the company was exhausted long before he took over the command of the company commander!In this way, when it comes to the military court after the war, others can't accuse him of not fulfilling his duties as an instructor! ... "Wu Bin, Zhao Jian, you two come with me!" Without hesitation, he shouted at the other two soldiers who were at a loss in the pebble circle, "slapped" the safety of the submachine gun in his hand, and walked out first. Wu Bin and Zhao Jian followed him with submachine guns. The three of them walked through the depression on the northeast side of the highland, and climbed up along the ridgeline that separated the northeastern and northern slopes of the highland. The attack of the 1st and 2nd platoons had stopped at the first trench, and he was supposed to go there and look for the survivors, and if he couldn't find them there, he should go up to the second trench and look for the three platoons who had been broken up. There was silence all over the plateau.The enemies on the main peak did not move at all.The darkness and silence emboldened him.At first he crawled cautiously in a low position, then half-upright and walked upwards. After entering the first trench, his spirits became tense again.An unidentified corpse suddenly tripped him, and immediately, "Da da da da da—" the enemy's heavy machine gun on the main peak fired a string of bullets.At the same time, from the third trench above the plateau, he heard the sound of hurried footsteps.Backed by the dark blue sky above the ridgeline, Liang Pengfei saw a black shadow running down the traffic trench on the northeast slope of the highland and into the east end of the first trench where they were. "Who?" Wu Bin yelled, and fell down with a "crash" and pulled out the gun. "Don't shoot! It's me." A voice replied hesitantly.The enemy's heavy machine guns on the main peak stopped firing, and he groped along the trench and approached. When he approached, Liang Pengfei could see clearly: it was Yu Deshui, the cooking soldier who volunteered to go to the high ground to join the war after dark. "It's you?" Yu Deshui also recognized him at this time. "Instructor..." Yu Deshui sobbed before finishing his sentence.Realizing that it shouldn't be like this, he stopped again. "Is there anyone else up there?" Liang Pengfei was not as nervous as before, and his tone became severe. "No more....all sacrificed." Yu Deshui wanted to sob again, but Liang Pengfei stopped him with one sentence: "You three—all with me!" Since there was no living person above the plateau, there was no need for him to go up.He took Yu Deshui and they walked west along the trench. At the western end of the first trench, near the ridge line on the northwest side, three dark figures stood up against him.Liang Pengfei recognized the thin silhouette in the front as Shangguanfeng.He flew into a rage! After the defeat in the third platoon battle, he and the company commander thought that Shangguanfeng had died, but they didn't expect him to be alive!Because of the defeat of the third platoon, the company commander fell into despair below. As an instructor, he was forced to go up the mountain to find people one by one and reorganize the attack. Shangguanfeng, who was responsible for the final defeat of the whole company, hid here! Liang Pengfei felt that he had to be angry, and the moment he opened his mouth, he was aggressive: "Is it the third platoon leader?!" "It's me." After a moment of silence, Shangguanfeng replied. "Third platoon leader, why are you hiding here?!" Liang Pengfei became more angry, "Why didn't you lead people to continue the attack?!...Who told you to stop the attack without authorization?!...How did you command just now? !...What are you doing hiding here? Are you afraid of death?!" "Instructor, we've wiped out all the people in our platoon!" Shangguanfeng whimpered suddenly, and immediately understood that this was not applicable to Liang Pengfei, and his tone hardened again, "How do you ask me to attack without soldiers?!" "Aren't you still alive and well?!" This Shangguanfeng, who ruined the victories of the third row and the whole company, dares to speak to him in such a tone now! "Who are the people standing behind you?...Aren't they human?!" He shouted angrily, took a step forward, looked at Zhao Guangming and Zhao Guangliang who were standing coweringly behind Shangguanfeng,——he called I don’t know their names, but I know that they are a pair of twin brothers—looking back at Shangguanfeng, I was filled with righteous indignation, “Aren’t they your soldiers?!… Are all the people in the third row dead? Why don’t you go Look for it?!..." Shangguanfeng remained silent stoically, as if he had made up his mind not to speak a word to him again.Liang Pengfei shouted, and suddenly realized that it was absurd for him to ask Shangguanfeng to lead two soldiers to attack, and there might really be no one else except the three of them.With an idea, he thought of the three people behind him. "I still have three people here! I will give them support to you!... Now, as the company instructor, I order you to lead them—plus other people you can find—to continue to attack the main peak!" He finally used more severe and He shouted in a resolute tone, and raised his submachine gun above his head threateningly to show his determination, "I will enforce battlefield discipline on anyone who wants to stop the attack without taking the main peak!" After saying this, he didn't stop for a moment, then turned around and went down the mountain.After arriving at the foot of the mountain, he thought that he had done an excellent job: he did not leave time for Shangguan Feng to defend himself; most importantly, he left Shangguan Feng and the other five soldiers with firm and strong backs: what he said counted !Anyone who wants to run away, don't expect to be forgiven by him! Back in the circle of pebbles again, he focused on the gunshots on the hilltop that should have sounded soon.Now he is no longer afraid of the battalion commander calling him on the walkie-talkie.If Xiao Bin calls him again, he will tell the other party everything that happened up and down the 634 Heights, and he will also tell Xiao Bin: Even so, the Nine Company's attack on the main peak of the Highland has not stopped, and he just organized another attack. New attack!If you can't take down the mountain, Jiulian will continue to attack even if it is the last person left! But no matter the walkie-talkie lying flat on the ground or above the dark high ground, there was a long silence. "Will they carry out my orders at Shangguan Peak?" Liang Pengfei suddenly thought, "The six of them alone cannot capture the main peak of the highland... If they really go to attack the main peak, what awaits them is death. ...Before the war, you thought that you would survive the war no matter what, didn't they have similar thoughts in their minds? ...You thought that relying on battlefield discipline could organize a hopeless attack, but in tonight's On the 634 highland, battlefield discipline is actually weak to them. No one will attack knowing that there is no hope of winning, because death has no meaning. The darkness of the night will hide those six people until dawn..." Thinking like this Then, his heart was gradually filled with darkness again.Liang Pengfei was soberly aware that today's battle was actually over, and he would never hear gunshots again before dawn. "... Is this terrible?... No, as an instructor, I have done everything that the company commander should do after the selection is made. It is his business whether Shangguan Feng carries out my orders.... If after the war I must go to a court-martial. It is in my interest for Shangguanfeng and the others to survive. Without them, I would not be able to prove that I organized an attack on the high ground just now..." But he still longed for the sound of gunfire above the plateau.This silence, which seemed to last forever, seemed to bury the last vague hope of victory in his heart, which he did not quite believe.Liang Pengfei thought for the first time: After a day's fighting, his situation is not much different from Cheng Ming's.In any case, after the war they were all court-martialed; it was just that the punishments they received varied in severity.They probably won't sentence him, but severe punishment won't get away.Thinking of this, he felt that his life had been ruined. Liang Pengfei suddenly burst into tears.