Chapter Fifty-Four

  "Go on!" I said: "I want to know the enemy's number and strength, and... our army's deployment..."

  I'm actually lacking a sense of security. As someone who is just a squad leader, even if I knew the enemy's situation and our army's deployment, it wouldn't make much difference.

  "The enemy's numbers and personnel are still unknown for the time being!" The company commander replied: "However, our troops..."

  Lian Chang bowed his head and searched the map for a while, pointing to a location and saying: "Here, the main force of the regiment has already followed my brigade to deploy near 528.3 highland!"

  "The superiors' idea is......" The instructor added, "If the enemy army wants to attack our position, they should first contend for the high ground, that is, they will put the focus of their attack on the 528.3 highland about 1.5 kilometers away from the 239 highland. Therefore, the superiors arranged the main force of the regiment at the 528.3 highland and its vicinity. The superiors took into account that our company had a large number of new recruits, and our combat effectiveness might be discounted, so...... they arranged this relatively safe high ground for us to defend!"

  When it came to the end, I felt that the instructor's words were a bit awkward. Then I reacted and realized: The superiors are not considering our combat effectiveness will be discounted, so they arranged us to this highland which is considered unimportant. In fact... because of me, our company has been performing the best since the start of the war. The real reason doesn't need to be said, it's because of our previous "military change", so the superiors want to guard against us, worried that our company will have more problems.

  Thinking of this, I couldn't help but smile wryly in my heart: This is also good! Anyway, I don't want to fight and sacrifice myself to be a hero, arrange an unimportant high ground for us to guard, I'm thrilled just thinking about it!

  It wasn't until later that I realized I was wrong, and I was very wrong.

  The reason is the serious misjudgment of the strategic intentions of the Vietnamese army by our superiors. What the Vietnamese army wanted was not to fight with us, but to go through the highway to coordinate with the 345th Division to attack Laojie Street. Therefore, they had no intention of attacking our defensive line at all. What they wanted was to reach the street, and the first one to block their advance was the 239 highland...

  Of course, all of this is after the fact. At that time, we didn't know any of these things, and were instead gratefully accepting our superiors' care for us, while quietly preparing to welcome a battle that wasn't "important", completely unaware that crisis was slowly approaching us.

  After the meeting, I finally had time to sleep in the trenches, but this Vietnamese weather is really unbearable. It's hot like a roasted pig during the day and cold enough to make you shiver at night. I hadn't slept for a while when I was frozen by the chill blowing from all sides, trembling with fear. Looking around, the soldiers beside me were almost the same, no one could sleep.

  I tried to hide in a cat hole to avoid the wind and cold, but that curled up body let mosquitoes bite was not good either. Before long, I came out again with a gray face, preferring to freeze outside. Several soldiers were frozen to unbearable and hugged each other for warmth, even some soldiers collected dry leaves and grass to cover themselves, but it seemed useless, everyone's teeth chattered, including Knife Scar...

  Chen Yiyiy seemed to be used to the Vietnamese weather, so she just tightened her clothes and looked indifferent, even asking me: "Paichang, are you okay? Do you want... I'll give you my military uniform!"

  I gave Chen Yiy a sideways glance, and in my heart I couldn't help but think: "What kind of world is this! Usually it's me who says this to girls when I'm trying to pick them up, now it's the woman saying it to me..."

  "Line up!" The little stone shook nervously and rushed towards me, shouting: "What are we doing? Guarding this desolate wilderness, not even a ghost in sight..."

  I don't know how to answer, because in my heart I'm cursing more fiercely than a small stone: What kind of damn superior is this, shouldn't they have investigated the temperature difference between day and night clearly beforehand? The troops are fighting during the day and marching at night... even if we get some rest, we'll still be freezing and bitten by mosquitoes, where's the combat effectiveness?!

  "Behind us is the old street, and in front of us is Sabah!" Scar explained from a short distance away: "The place we're defending is called Daini, it's the only way for the enemy to reinforce the old street. But don't worry, our main force is holding the high ground up ahead..."

  "What? The place we're guarding is called Daini?" Upon hearing this, I was taken aback.

  An old man once said a sentence that flashed in my mind: "On the day we arrived at Dien Bien, we were ambushed by the enemy army. It was the 316th Division, the ace unit of the French army. They took advantage of the night to sneak into our military position and launched a charge as soon as it dawned. We were caught off guard and almost couldn't hold on..."

  Look at the eastern sky, which is about to break dawn... Doesn't that mean the enemy is about to launch a charge? I thought there wasn't even a ghostly figure here just now. Could it be that the enemy has already arrived and is lurking in the haystacks in front of us, preparing to launch a surprise attack?

  At this thought, I couldn't help but stand up my hair. Then "ding" and jumped out of the trench with a gun, and loaded the bullet at the fastest speed.

  The warriors saw my tense expression and quickly picked up their own weapons, aiming at the direction of the highway, and soon quietly woke up other warriors.

  "Get ready for battle!"

  "Something's going on!"

  ……

  The order was passed down one after another, and before long, all the warriors had set up their guns on the trenches in unison.

  However, we waited for a long time and didn't find any movement. In the dark night, the cold wind was still blowing through the grass "whooshing" loudly, mosquitoes were flying around us "buzzing" wildly, everything seemed to be normal...

  "What's up? Find anything?" Scar asked me from beside.

  I shook my head and replied: "Nothing was found, but I feel there are enemies!"

  "What?" The instructor who rushed up hastily looked somewhat displeased upon hearing my words: "A feeling? You haven't discovered anything and you're talking about a feeling... I'm telling you, Second Squad Leader! Are you being overly sensitive?"

  "Huh......" The other warriors also relaxed their vigilance upon hearing this.

  "Comrade Yang Xuefeng!" The instructor said beside him, "The devils are fierce, but do we have to be like a startled bird? Let's not get everyone all worked up for nothing! Haven't you heard the story of 'the boy who cried wolf'? If you cry wolf too many times, when the wolf really comes, no one will believe you! If it were a new recruit who made this mistake, it would be understandable, but you're a squad leader! You should set an example..."

  I didn't care what the instructor said, I still held up my rifle and stared tightly at the patch of grass in front of me.

  Lian Chang also came up, he first let everyone calm down, then asked the walkie-talkie: "Observation post, is there any situation?"

  "No situation! Everything is normal!" The night was quiet, so everyone could hear the voice coming from the walkie-talkie.

  "Stay alert and be vigilant!" The company commander handed down an order and then put down the walkie-talkie.

  "Fall back!" The company commander patted me on the shoulder and said; "It's all right, being careful on the battlefield is always good!"

  But I still held the sniper rifle and didn't move, no matter what my comrades said to me or how the soldiers looked at me with their eyes, I felt that there was something wrong with the grass opposite.

  I have a feeling that there are countless pairs of eyes in the grass, staring at us fiercely, and they will rush up and tear us to pieces at any time...

  But even now I still haven't realized what's wrong and can't find where they are hiding.

  "Line up!" Wang Kechang seemed a bit embarrassed by the gaze of the soldiers, and secretly pulled my hem.

  I furrowed my brow, wondering if I was being overly suspicious, and then let out a long sigh as I prepared to put away the gun.

  It was at this moment... I suddenly realized where the problem lay - those grasses swaying in the wind were not quite right, their waves of motion were not so harmonious, they should have been like ripples one layer after another, but these ripples would be cut off in the middle...

  What broke these waves? There is only one explanation: there are people under the grass, and someone has pressed down on the roots of the grass!

  So I immediately raised the gun and aimed at one of the breaking waves through the sight, then "bang" a shot was fired...

  Everyone was startled by this shot and they again set up their weapons in front of the trenches as before.

  But... nothing happened at all! There was no scream of despair, nor any wail of grief.

  Was I wrong? Or did I miss it?

  It wasn't until later that I realized I hadn't made a mistake, nor had I missed. The enemy was actually hiding in the bushes just two hundred meters away from us, and my shot had hit one of the enemy soldiers, but he bit his teeth and didn't make a sound...

  After waiting for a long time, there was still no movement. The instructor got angry and scolded me: "What are you doing? Who told you to shoot randomly? What if other troops misunderstand?"

  "Company Commander..." Just then, a communications soldier rushed up with a walkie-talkie and asked: "The regimental headquarters is on the phone, asking why we're firing our guns. Is there some kind of situation?"

  We were only 1.5 kilometers away from the main force of the regiment, and with the quiet dawn, the sound of gunfire could be heard clearly and far away, so the sound directly startled the regiment headquarters.

  Lian Chang glared at me fiercely and took the receiver, saying: "Report, nothing's wrong! It was just a comrade's gun misfiring...... I'll make him pay attention to it..."

  But before he could finish, I raised my hand and fired two more shots. This time, Zhang was really furious, slamming the receiver down and shouting loudly: "Are you done yet, you... security guard..."

  But before the words had fallen, several shells whistled through the sky, and then from the clump of grass I was staring at, a group of Vietnamese soldiers wearing camouflage suits suddenly emerged, densely packed everywhere, each one brandishing a bayonet with cold light flashing, shouting as they charged towards our position at top speed!

  The battle had begun at the moment they stood up!