Chapter 4 of Volume 1: Born in Fire, Buried in a Bullet Hole (1)

  The fierce attack that lasted all morning stopped after noon, and the US and South Korean soldiers sat behind their tanks eating lunch, with hundreds of diesel stoves used to heat coffee emitting thick smoke. The three rows of trenches were even more smoky, and the frozen earth was plowed into fragments by the alternating bombardment of heavy artillery and bombers, with black smoke emerging from the cracks in the soil, rolling like a signal fire. Several bodies of South Korean soldiers who had been blown apart by tank shells encountered napalm bombs, and their thick oil burned fiercely, filling the air with a choking, nauseating stench that lingered over the trenches.

  "My goodness! I'll never eat pork again!" Chen Zizhong flung his nose and retreated from the front line. A bullet grazed his left shoulder, stripping off a layer of skin, revealing a few crimson spots on his shoulder, and the soldiers laughed that he was a five-star general.

  Chen Zizhong also smiled, smiling non-stop. After winning a battle, he would smile, being arrogant and reckless; when faced with setbacks, he would smile, being reserved and profound. Now that the troops had lost more than half of their men, he had to smile even more, as the platoon leader he had to do so, it was also his personality.

  The warriors saw Chen Zizhong smile, and the words came out more, discussing the US military, saying that American cows should also be black, because in front of the array, a black soldier's corpse mysteriously swelled up, like an inflated cowhide raft. The warriors used dialects from all over the country to curse, scolding the cold and harsh weather on the Gama Plateau, scolding the United Nations army, scolding the jumping shells that burrowed into their flesh, and even scolding their fallen comrades. Someone held up a severed foot and asked: Is this Old Wang's foot? Some people said it might be Little Li's, but he examined the severed foot for a long time before shaking his head and cursing loudly: It must be Old Wang's! I can recognize that big foot of his at a glance, why did he have to die now? He was liberated, got land, but died anyway. What about his wife at home? What about his children? That son of a bitch! As he spoke, tears fell down his face.

  The old soldier cursed in a low voice, the new recruit shouted loudly. Whether it was the old soldier or the new recruit, they were tense, seeing the losses suffered in just one short morning, seeing the bloody and mutilated bodies of their comrades, even more tense, seeing the 2nd company's comrades sealed in ice blocks, so they cursed with all their might.

  The scolding had stopped, and the battlefield was even more desolate.

  Chen Zizhong found Xu Kai lying in a pool of blood on the left-wing position. A high-explosive shell exploded above his head, sending six or seven hundred serrated shrapnel flying in all directions, cutting off half his cheek, and the intense shockwave rolled him up and slammed him to the ground.

  "Old Chen, save some for later... I've told you before, cigarette ash can't stop bleeding." Xu Kai forced a smile to cover his painful and distorted face, but what was reflected in Chen Zizhong's eyes was a heart-wrenching grimace.

  Chen Zizhong crouched on the ground, his mouth holding a row of captured camel brand cigarettes, taking a hard drag and shaking off the ash onto Xu Kai's body, instantly submerged in a flood of blood.

  Xu Kei's clothes were blown off, revealing his dark skin with layers of blood blisters. Apart from the head wound, his abdomen was torn open by shrapnel, and a large amount of fresh blood made the frozen soil beneath him muddy. Two soldiers desperately tried to wrap the wound with gauze that had been washed twice, but failed. The red and white intestines trembled with each breath, and fell to the ground with a gurgling sound.

  "Get two people to send Lian Chang to the field hospital!" Chen Zizhong, his face pale with rage, kicked at the bandaged soldiers. "Can crying stop bleeding? You useless trash!"

  "Get out of the way!" Ding Ruogang pushed away two soldiers, threw the messy gauze to the side, and pulled out a length of steel wire from his collar to suture Xu Kai's wound. Chen Zizhong's eyes seemed to blaze with fire, but quickly extinguished. On the eve of the liberation of Beiping, Ding Ruogang had used steel wire to strangle three sentries during a patrol.