Chapter 7 Chapter VII

Two round enemy shells flew over the bridge, which was crowded.Nesvitsky dismounted in the middle of the bridge and stood, his plump body leaning tightly against the railing. He turned his head and looked at the Cossack with a smile. He was leading the two horses behind Nesvitsky. Stopped a few steps away.Just as Nesvitsky was about to move forward, a group of soldiers and vehicles squeezed him immobile, and he was pressed tightly against the railing again. He was helpless and could only smile wryly. "Brother, you really are!" said the Cossack to the carriage driver, who pushed his way through the infantry gathered beside the wheels and horses, "you are! You must wait a moment, you clearly saw the general going across the bridge .”

Someone told the general's name, but the baggage soldier ignored him, and he loudly reprimanded the soldiers who blocked his way. "Hey! Folks! Please keep to the left and wait!" However, the folks crowded each other, shoulders to shoulders, bayonets hanging on bayonets, and a dense mass of people marched continuously from the bridge.Nesvitsky glanced down the bridge towards the railing, and saw the rushing and noisy waves of the Enns, but not high, but they merged around the bridge posts, made a ripple, then turned back, and the back wave pushed the front wave, Pentium does not stop.He looked up the bridge and saw the waves of soldiers of his kind—soldiers, fringes, shawls covered with cloth, knapsacks, bayonets, muskets, and the tired faces peeking out from under the shackles. , wide cheekbones, sunken cheeks, and legs that walk in the mud that sticks to the bridge deck.Sometimes, like white foam splashed in the waves of the Enns, an officer in a raincoat, whose appearance is completely different from the soldiers, will be mixed in with the waves of soldiers.Sometimes, like a rippling chip in the river, a hussar, orderly, or citizen on foot, passing across the bridge, is swept away by the waves of soldiers.Sometimes, like a log floating on the river, a company cart or an officer's cart, laden with goods and covered with hides, drives across the bridge, guarded by all around.

"Look, it looks like the dam has been breached," said a Cossack, stopping in despair. "Are there still many people there?" "One to a million!" said a jovial soldier in a battered overcoat passing by, winking and then out of sight. "When he (meaning the enemy) bakes pies on the bridge at once," said an old soldier, turning his face to his companion, grimly, "then you'll forget everything." The veteran walked past, followed by a soldier in a cart. "Damn it, where's the foot-binding cloth?" said an orderly, running after the wagon, groping around the back of the wagon for it.

The soldier also followed the cart. A few soldiers showed cheerful expressions, and they seemed to have had a drink, and they walked behind the soldier. "He's a good man with a gun butt to his teeth..." A soldier with his military coat tucked up said cheerfully, waving his arms vigorously. "Yes, yes, it is the sweet ham." Another soldier replied with a big laugh. They also walked over.Nesvitski didn't know whose tooth was hit, what the ham meant, what was the inner connection. "You see, they are in a hurry! He only fired one shot, and he thought the enemy was all killed." said a non-commissioned officer with an air of anger and reproach.

"Uncle, the shell flew past me," said the young soldier with the wide mouth, who could hardly contain his laughter. Death!" said the soldier, as if to show off his cowardice. The soldier also walked by.A carriage followed him, unlike any that had ever driven before.It was a German-made double-horse carriage, and it seemed to carry all the belongings in it.A German man was driving a carriage, and to the back of the carriage was tied a handsome flower cow with very large teats.A woman with a baby, an old woman, and a young, healthy German girl with rosy cheeks sat on down mattresses.It appears that these migrants travel on special permits.The eyes of the soldiers were cast on the women. When the cart drove past step by step, the soldiers' comments were only related to the two women.Everyone's faces were almost equally smiling with obscene thoughts about this woman.

"Look, the German sausage (as the Germans are nicknamed) is out!" "Sell your mother," said another soldier, turning his face to the German, emphasizing the last syllable, and the German, eyes cast down, strode forward in anger and terror. "Look, how beautifully dressed! What the hell!" "Fedotov, you should camp near them!" "Dude, we have sense." "Where are you going?" asked an infantry officer who was eating an apple, and he also looked at the beautiful girl with a half smile. The German closed his eyes to show that he didn't understand.

"If you want to eat, take it," said the officer, handing the girl the apple. The girl smiled and took an apple.Nesvitsky, like everyone else on the bridge, watched the two women intently until they drove past.When they passed by, the same soldiers came forward, talking about the same topic, and everyone finally stopped.At the end of the bridge, the horses on the company's cart refused to listen to the driving, and a group of people had to stay there and wait. "Why is everyone standing still? There's no order!" said the soldiers. "Where are you going? Damn it! You can't wait a while. It would be worse if he burned the bridge. You see, they put that The officers were so crowded that they had nowhere to go." A large group of people standing there looked at each other, talked about this and that, and squeezed back and forth on the bridgehead.

Nesvitski looked under the bridge at the rolling water of the Enns River, and suddenly heard a strange sound, as if something was approaching rapidly... This thing was huge and fell into the water with a splash. "Look, where did the shot go!" A soldier standing nearby turned his head and glanced at the sound, and said seriously. "He's encouraging us, hoping we'll pass quickly," another soldier said anxiously. The group of people started moving forward again.Nesvitsky knew in his heart that it was a shell. "Hey, Cossack, bring the horses!" he said. "Hey, step aside, all of you! Get out of the way, make way!"

It was with great difficulty that he got in front of the horse.He kept yelling and moved forward slowly.The soldiers huddled together to make way for him, but they squeezed him so hard that they hurt his legs.Those who stood near him were not at fault, for they were more crowded. "Niesvitsky! Nesvitsky! You ugly fellow!" came a hoarse voice behind him. Nesvitsky looked back and saw Vaska Denisov, fifteen paces from Nesvitsky, separated by a mass of advancing infantry; Denisov The husband had flushed faces, dark, tousled hair, a military cap pushed back on his head, and a hussar shawl proudly draped over it.

"You tell the bastards to get out of the way," Denisov yelled, looking angry again.His coal-black eyes gleamed in the inflamed whites of his eyes, and his bony little hands were holding an unsheathed saber from time to time. "Oh, Vasya!" Nesvitsky replied cheerfully, "how are you?" "The cavalry company can't pass," cried Vasika Denisov, baring his white teeth viciously, and thrusting his spurs into the handsome urchin Bedouin, who caught the bayonet pointy, quivering ears, snorting, foaming from the bit, tinkling bells, thumping hooves on the bridge, as if ready to cross if the rider allowed it. Jump off the bridge railing.

"What the hell is this? Like a flock of sheep, like a flock of sheep! Go away! . . . Get out of the way! . . . Stop there! Damn that big carriage! I'm going to kill it with my saber!" he said. With a loud cry, he literally drew his saber from its sheath and swung it. The soldiers huddled together with frightened faces, and Denisov went up to Nesvitsky. "Why aren't you drunk today?" Nesvitsky said as Denisov approached him. "There's no time for drinking!" replied Vaska Denisov. "Dragging the regiment here and there all day long. If there's a war, let's fight it. The devil knows what it is." !" "You are very well dressed today!" said Nesvitsky, looking at his new cloak and saddle-pads. Denisov smiled slightly, took out a handkerchief reeking of perfume from his leather pouch, and stuffed it up Nesvitsky's nostrils. "No, I'm needed in combat! I shaved my face, brushed my teeth, and sprayed on perfume." Nesvitsky, accompanied by Cossacks, had a dignified appearance; Denisov, with his saber in hand, shouted, and acted boldly, and it was effective, and they huddled across the bridge and stopped the infantry.Nesvitsky found the colonel at the bridge, and Nesvitsky was supposed to pass on his orders to him, and having carried out the entrusted task, he returned to his place. Denisov cleared the way and stopped at the bridge.He casually reined in the stallion that was stomping towards his own kind, and looked at the officers and soldiers of the cavalry company walking towards him.The clear and pleasant sound of horseshoes can be heard on the bridge deck, as if several horses were galloping fast. The cavalry company lined up in a row of four, and the officers stood in front, walking across the bridge like a long snake formation. Start walking out of the bridge over there. The stalled infantry squeezed back and forth on the muddy ground by the bridge, with the special feelings of hostility, sarcasm, and incompatibility that often arise when different arms meet, watching them walk past them in neat steps The well-dressed and neat hussars. "What a well-dressed boy! We must go to the Podnovinsk fair!" "What's the use of them! They can only be displayed as a show!" Another soldier said. "Infantry, don't stir up the dust!" joked one of the hussars, whose horse kicked the hooves of his horse, and the mud splashed on the infantryman. "You've got a rucksack, and I'll drive you to march, and you'll have to walk two days and nights, and your thin straps will be worn out," said the infantryman, wiping the mud off his face with his sleeve. You're not like a human being, you're like a bird cuddled up to a horse!" "Zi Jin, I really want you to ride on the horse, then you will be very comfortable." The private corporal laughed at the thin soldier who was bent over by the backpack, and said jokingly. "When you have a stick in your crotch, then you have a horse," echoed a hussar.