At five o'clock in the morning, Wei Ran, who was sleeping soundly, was successfully awakened by the loudspeaker of the Germans on the opposite position. Cursing silently, he reluctantly sat up from the single bed made out of the ammunition box.
The shelling last night did not last long, and there was no further exchange of fire. However, the light from the illumination bombs that the two sides fired into the night sky from time to time could be blocked by the bunkers, but the sound of the irregular firing was not like cotton balls stuffed into the ears.
Can be blocked.
Because of this, almost everyone didn't sleep well that night. Now they were woken up by the other party's loudspeaker full of obscenities. Wei Ran couldn't help but also use a loudspeaker and cursed in German.
gone back.
He walked out of the bunker in confusion. The thick fog in the early morning made the visible distance no more than ten meters at most. But in the damp trench, a platoon leader under Valentin had organized several soldiers to climb out.
The trenches are gone.
"What are they going to do?" Wei Ran asked company commander Valentin who was standing not far away.
"Go and pick off the German boots"
Valentin said matter-of-factly, "There are still a dozen soldiers in my company who do not have boots that can withstand mud and water, which will seriously affect their combat effectiveness. It happened that the other side sent gifts last night, and now it is time to receive these
When it comes to gifts.”
While he was speaking, the soldiers were already holding a submachine gun and two mines made of wooden boxes each, climbed out of the trench quietly, and disappeared in the thick fog in an instant. And the rest
The soldiers also climbed into the trenches one by one, readying their weapons and alertly guarding against enemies who might appear at any time.
In the silent waiting, time passed by one second, and the originally dim sky gradually became brighter, but those soldiers never came back. But what makes people feel a little relieved is that at least there is no one in the fog.
Any gunshots were heard.
Half an hour, an hour, an hour and a half, until exactly seven o'clock in the morning, regular yellow lights began to flash in the fog outside the trench.
Soon, soldiers with boots or leather boot tops hanging on their shoulders came back from the fog one after another.
It was not until after the war that the soldiers inside and outside could clearly see each other's faces that the leading soldier turned off the flashlight he had been holding and called his companions around him to return to the trench along the ladder.
"Company Commander, we have obtained a total of 22 pairs of boots, and the mines have been laid."
The leading soldier finished speaking happily, then reached out and took off the potato bag hanging from his waist, "I also got back a lot of cigarettes and other stuff."
“Let’s share it with everyone”
Valentin waved his hand, "You can go and get a small glass of vodka each, vodka without water. This is a precious gift brought by our journalist comrade."
Watching the soldiers with boots running happily to the field kitchen not far away, Valentin shouted to the surroundings, "Okay, now that the Germans have woken us up, today we will continue to repair trenches and bunkers.
I don’t want there to be water anywhere in the trenches before it gets dark!”
The surrounding soldiers either responded enthusiastically, or sighed secretly, and then followed the squad leader and platoon leader to continue the work that was not completed yesterday.
Wei Ran also entered the command post at Valentin's invitation, and enjoyed hot boiled potatoes and oatmeal porridge together, as well as black bread hard enough to be used as a hammer.
"Victor, thank you for sharing the vodka yesterday." As Valentin spoke, he took out a glass jar filled with pickles from the wooden box behind him. "Come and taste it, this is my wife.
It was sent a few months ago, and I usually wouldn’t bear to eat it myself.”
"Thank you, just give me half of it." Wei Ran said quickly. This thing is dispensable to him, but it is a very precious thing to the other person.
“It’s just pickles.”
Valentin generously poked out the largest one with a fork and handed it to Wei Ran, but he just took a sip of the soup in the glass jar, then screwed on the lid and put it back into the wooden box.
He broke open the pickled cucumber handed to him and gave it to the other party in half. Before Wei Ran could speak, the radio on the table against the wall rang.
"The Soviets across the way, how about asking your singer to continue singing a few songs, and then we turn off the speakers?"
Seeing Wei Ran looking at him in surprise, Valentin said nonchalantly, "It's the Germans on the opposite side. We weren't the only ones woken up by their loudspeakers."
"That..."
"This small transaction doesn't affect the outcome of the battle, does it?"
Valentin stood up and shouted outside the bunker, "Where is our artist? Let him lead everyone to sing a few songs, and remember not to get together."
"Will the Germans judge our position by singing, and then..."
"Don't worry Victor"
Valentin said nonchalantly, "It's their turn after we finish singing. No one will open fire at this time."
As if to confirm his guess, just after Tonya in the trench led everyone to sing "Farewell to Slavic Women", the Germans on the opposite position were not to be outdone and played the classic "Farewell to Slavic Women" through their speakers.
"The Girl Under the Streetlight" (Lily Marlene).
If you ignore the trenches outside and the busy soldiers carrying weapons on their backs, as well as the smelly corpses lying in the puddles outside the trenches, Wei Ran even has the illusion that this is actually just two groups of farmers busy in the fields singing folk songs.
.
"Don't we have a trumpet?" Wei Ran waited until the other party finished singing before asking.
"Yes, but there is no need to use it in this kind of place."
Valentin cut the black bread with a bayonet and threw it into the oatmeal. While it was soaking, he gnawed on the soft boiled potatoes and explained very clearly, "And we don't speak German here.
There is no point in wasting energy and precious soldiers on such a thing. Besides, Tonya's singing is far more effective than their incompetent curses."
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Hearing this, Wei Ran burst out laughing. He thought that the Battle of Rzhev would be more tragic than the Don River battlefield he had experienced, but in less than two days,
During that time, what he saw was very different from what he thought.
Whether it is Tonya's singing, or the singing played by the German army position opposite, whether it is the boots that were once worn on the feet of German soldiers and later on the feet of Soviet Red Army soldiers, whether it is the polluted water source or the
The field hospital hidden deep in the birch forest. Or the soldiers who used all the materials they could find to make stoves to improve the living conditions in the trenches. Everything was more like a forced joy in suffering.
He could even guess that in the German position more than two hundred meters away, in addition to the commanders, the soldiers at the lowest level, the de facto invaders, what they might be doing at this time, and
The work the Soviet Red Army was doing on this side of the position was no different.
Compared to the numbing battle itself, perhaps what bothers them most is the muddy trenches. Perhaps what they long for most is just a letter from home. Perhaps what they want most is just alcoholic drinks that can temporarily numb themselves and comfort themselves.
Just singing.
When the German song stopped, the loudspeaker on the opposite side continued to shout insults and provocations like gangsters. Before the fog cleared, the Germans on the opposite side also organized a tentative attack again. On the contrary, Company Commander Valentin
, due to the lack of troops, all they can do is organize defenses again and again.
When the firefight stopped again, there were more wounded and dead people in this position. Wei Ran looked at these casualties who were still trying hard to pose in front of his camera yesterday, but all he could do was to shout
It was just a sigh belonging to a bystander.
In the tireless busyness and suffering of the living soldiers, two whole days passed little by little amid the curses, songs, gunfire and screams of the wounded. Wait until night, Nurse Lano will come as scheduled
On the front line, she asked her fiancé Daniela if she was back.
Watching the thin nurse return disappointed, the people alive in the trenches became more and more silent.
Because on the afternoon of September 29th, Tonya, who had the title of artist, was unfortunately injured under the German shelling. A piece of wood stubble lifted up by the shock wave passed through his cheek and chin, and was simultaneously
A machine gun that was launched also broke his thigh.
Although his life and legs were saved under the treatment of Dr. Pasha and others from the rear, according to Nurse Lano, he may never be able to sing again with his good voice, or even speak.
affected.
For two consecutive days after that, there was no singing in the trenches. Even on the evening of October 1, the Germans on the other side used the radio to ask why there was no singing.
Watching Valentin leave the trench in silence, Weiran picked up the radio and calmly explained Tonya's experience in German.
After a while, the loudspeakers on the German position stopped provoking and cursing, and the battlefield fell into a rare calm. Even after five o'clock the next morning, it remained quiet.
In the thick fog of the early morning, the political commissar with the rank of captain finally brought a group of less than 50 reinforcements.
Silently, he handed over these soldiers who were recruited from unknown places to Company Commander Valentin. He walked alone to a corner and sat down against the trench. He took out the group photo again, and then used a pen to write on the back of the photo Tony
There is a line through Ya's name.
Seeing that only his name was left on the back of the photo, the political commissar closed his eyes tiredly and once again hummed the aria from the opera Rigoletto.
At the same time, in the thick fog, a young Red Army soldier wearing a cloak and holding a Mosin-Nagant sniper rifle crept closer to the trench while anxiously sending signals with a flashlight.
.
Soon, he received a response from the soldiers in the trench, and then he immediately got up, trotted and jumped into the trench.
"Danila, you are finally back. Where is Pavel? Let me tell you the good news first. Your..."
"Where are Comrade Company Commander? And Comrade Political Commissar, where are they?" Danila asked urgently without waiting for her comrades to finish speaking.
"I'll take you to the new command post!" The soldier, who was lying on the trench on duty, immediately realized the urgency of the situation and ran with Danila towards the command post hidden in the fog.
