Shurka felt that his body no longer belonged to him. He was just mechanically dodging shells in the trench, leaning out of the trench and pulling the trigger again and again to knock down the enemy.
The soldiers didn't even need his orders, they knew what they should do, and even knew when they should hold the explosive pack and die together with the enemy tanks.
Everyone was involved in a wild and bloody battle, with shells exploding, shrapnel and bullets constantly harvesting the attacking enemies, tearing apart the bodies of the living and the dead.
Sometimes Shulka can't help but think about some questions:
How could human beings withstand such a brutal battle?
Where is the hiding place in this hell?
Every life here has experienced more than ten or twenty years of growth. Is this growth just to welcome a bullet here?
There are certainly no answers to these questions.
Shurka only knew that all the people here, whether they were enemies or his own people, had murderous intent, hatred, and machine-like coldness in their eyes.
Several artillery shells exploded beside the trench. Shurka lowered his body and then habitually maneuvered along the trench. He knew that his position had been targeted by the enemy.
As he was running, Sulka was suddenly pulled. It turned out to be a wounded man holding him.
Taking a closer look, it was Larinovich...the soldier who had his arm injured by a landmine in Kiev and returned to the army.
"Comrade Company Commander!" Larinovich shouted in panic: "Help me, help me..."
Shulka leaned forward to fire a bullet, and took advantage of the break to change ammunition to observe his injuries. His two legs were broken by the shells, and there were wounds all over his body. At this time, he was trying hard to use bandages and clothes.
Xiu bandaged his broken leg to stop the bleeding.
Shurka couldn't help but be shocked by this young man's desire to survive. He still had the strength to do this under such severe pain. He held on to Shurka at the last moment in the hope of saving his life... Maybe he was used to holding Shuulka.
Erka regarded him as his savior, thinking that Shulka could save him like last time.
But Shulka knew that this was meaningless. No one could survive such an injury unless he was operated on immediately in the hospital.
"Sorry, Larinovich!" Shul said, and then tore off Larinovich's hand holding his trouser leg.
"Comrade Company Commander, Comrade Company Commander..." Larinovich shouted anxiously.
Or maybe he didn't shout, it was just the sound echoing in Shulka's head, because Shulka found that he could still hear the shout even if the shells exploded around him.
Shulka will never forget the disappointment in Larinovich's eyes, or we can say despair, from hope to despair.
But Shulka couldn't stop to help him. He couldn't waste time for a wounded man who was bound to die, otherwise the entire defense line might be broken through by the enemy due to a fire gap.
Shulka shouted loudly and fired bullets at the enemy.
He didn't know why he did this.
Is it to drive away the fear in your heart?
Is it to avoid Larinovich's eyes?
Is it to hide the guilt towards him?
Maybe all three.
Shulka wanted to drop his gun and cry loudly, but he could not do so. He had to continue fighting, stepping on the corpses of his comrades under his feet, pulling grenades and bullets from their bodies.
The fighting finally came to a halt, and the German troops once again retreated from their positions, leaving behind large bodies of corpses.
Shulka was stunned for a moment, and then ran to Larinovich's position like crazy.
He was lying in the trench leaning against the wall of the trench. He seemed to have accepted his fate. He took out a horse box cigarette from his arms and prepared to roll one for himself, but he couldn't even do this... He was powerless.
Opening the lid of the horse box cigarette, the look of him trying hard was his last posture.
Shulka silently took the horse box cigarette from his hand, opened it, took the newspaper and carefully rolled one, held it in his mouth, lit it, and then stuffed it into Larinovich's mouth.
"It's not your fault, Comrade Shulka!" The instructor understood what was going on. He was not far away from Shulka.
Shulka did not answer, but sat blankly next to Larinovich.
Sulka may have been right for the troops, but not for Larinovich.
"We have thirty-one people left!" Pukarev reported: "More than half of them are injured!"
The "injury" mentioned here does not refer to minor injuries, but injuries that will affect the battle to varying degrees.
Shulka nodded.
The instructor handed Shulka a cigarette and said, "Have you heard? There is a concession stand right next to us..."
"Yeah!" Shulka nodded.
A yielding station is a station where trains yield to each other on the railway. It is a place that plays a role in train dispatching.
"A platoon of 28 people!" the instructor said: "They blocked the charge of 20 German tanks and at least two companies of German infantry for four full hours!"
28 Warriors?
Shulka had heard about this in modern times. A famous saying they passed down to later generations was what the instructor Klochkov shouted before he died: "The great Soviet Union has a vast land, but there is no way to retreat. Behind us, there is no way to retreat."
It’s Moscow!”
"What do you want to tell me?" Shulka asked: "Let us prepare to become heroes?"
"Do we have any other options?" the instructor asked.
Indeed, Shulka had no choice, and neither did the instructor or anyone else.
Shulka could even understand why he didn't retreat.
Shulka was a veteran, and he could view this battlefield from a historical perspective, so he knew very well that the German offensive was too weak to reach Moscow, or even if it reached Moscow, it would not be able to capture it.
But Rokossovsky didn’t know, Major Gavrilov didn’t know, and Zhukov didn’t know either…
Because they don't know, they can only resist the enemy's attack on the front line without retreating even a step.
What can Shulka do?
Tell them that the Germans are weak? Or tell them that a cold wave is coming soon?
No, if you do this, you will either be regarded as a madman by them, or it will be regarded as an excuse to run away.
So Shulka could only stay at the front line, watching his comrades fall one by one, and watching death approaching him step by step.
"Do you know what my last wish is?" The instructor leaned against the trench wall and blew out a breath of smoke: "There is a lake two miles away from here. I used to swim there. I really hope I can swim there again, but it's a pity that it
It’s already frozen…”
"There is a lake behind us?" Shulka's eyes widened when he heard this.