Chapter Fifteen: Brothers, You Are Not Heavy (Two)

  The salute of Polish soldiers is very peculiar, when they salute, they put their second and third fingers on the visor of their cap. The meaning of this unique way of saluting is 'honor' and 'homeland'. In other words, they never use five fingers to touch the visor, and the way of saluting with the first and second fingers originated from the Napoleonic Wars.

  Polish soldiers were very brave, they also had their own honor and country, the unique national situation forced these soldiers to continue to harass Germany, but they called themselves free fighters. At this time, a company of 126 Polish infantrymen stood at the border between Poland and Germany, forming a French-style infantry charge formation.

  This infantry company from Poland originally had 186 men, within a short year they lost 60 brave soldiers at the border of Poland and Germany, previously invading German villages to fight to the death. For nearly two months now, people have been getting hit in the head by long-range infantry weapons while on patrol.

  The commander of the company was a lieutenant, named Berszajew, with a quarter Russian blood, but this did not affect his loyalty to Poland. His company received an order to raid in Warta, east of Poznań, where they had been working for over three years and knew the terrain very well, and the tasks were always carried out very successfully.

  Compared to their cavalry brothers, these Polish infantry were more eager for glory. For this reason, they had repeatedly entered German territory with entire regiments and exchanged fire with the German Wehrmacht. Two years ago, they still had an advantage in firepower, but as time went on, the cost of their incursions grew higher and higher. Now, even border patrols were being picked off by German snipers, which left Bersayev perplexed. Since they received supplies only once every two months, he was not yet aware that Germany had retaken its own backyard (the Rhineland and Saar).

  Perhaps people of Russian descent are more prone to impulsiveness, his dispatched messenger was just killed by the German army, and the manner of death was miserable, which made him disregard the kind advice of the deputy chief of staff, roaring for revenge!

  Polish soldiers were never short of courage, they are ready now, with the motto: For comrades!

  On the other side, Baral saw through his sniper scope Polish soldiers lining up on the slope, an officer running back and forth to stir them up, shouting for revenge for their fallen comrades. He found it all laughable that the invaders would also shout slogans of revenge, preparing to invade German territory again with impunity. At the same time, he had already aimed his rifle at the Polish officer's head, waiting for him to step onto German soil before pulling the trigger and sending him to hell.

  The signal flare just now was fired by Ma Han, that's to inform the sentry post behind: enemy found.

  The defense troops set up a total of five open sentries and fourteen hidden sentries in the direction of Huazhou. Each open sentry was equipped with an MG-34 machine gun on a bipod, which could be replaced with a tripod to turn it into a heavy machine gun if needed. Each hidden sentry had two people, located in secret places, also known as sniper positions. In addition to the main sniper, there was a soldier carrying a light machine gun for cover, and this soldier would also serve as the sniper's deputy, helping to correct targets that were out of bounds, designating targets, and then the sniper would shoot.

  As the foxhole was occupied by soldiers who had come to change shifts, Baral and Mahan could only find a small depression for the two of them to squeeze into. Although there was only one drum of ammunition, Mahan still set up the light machine gun, he turned his head to look at Baral who was fully focused on aiming, the corner of his mouth curled up, it was unclear what he was smiling about.

  "One step... two steps..." Baral muttered a soft "bang" in his mouth, scaring Ma Han so much that he almost pulled the trigger.

  The cigarette on Ma Han's mouth was blown away and fell to the ground. He pouted his mouth with a look of regret, "You owe me two packs of cigarettes."

  "Scram." Baral's eyes didn't leave the scope. "Which time wasn't it you who took the smoke? I... Silence! They're coming!"

  In the distance, Bersayev finally stopped running and gave the order: Attack!

  The Polish soldiers advanced in waves, some of them even bent over and walked step by step according to the doctrine. Before discovering the enemy, they could not fire or stop advancing. Their combat method was completely learned from France. This combat method is very stupid, often at the cost of paying a price before counterattacking.

  The grasses reached up to their knees, and the bent-over waist sometimes made their necks brush against the leaves of the grass, leaving a faint scratch.

  Bersayev walked at the forefront, his sharp eyes observing ahead. He seemed to have seen something, but that damned doctrine stipulated that they could only open fire after confirming the target. Suddenly, he had a bad premonition.

  The Polish soldiers have formed a battle array and are about to step onto German territory.

  It's unclear if it was an illusion, but Bersaev had just stepped out with his right foot when he heard the sound of a bullet being fired, and his heart skipped a beat. The field of vision in front of him began to spin, slowly turning red before becoming completely dark...

  "Enemy attack!" The Polish phrase required four syllables to shout, but someone managed to do it. They didn't fall down, but accelerated their pace and continued to rush forward. Nobody noticed that the commander of their regiment, Bersayev, had already been killed by a shot in the heart.

  ……

  The German sniper ejected the spent cartridge, worked the bolt again and took aim at another Polish soldier. He squeezed the trigger and the expression on the face of the Polish soldier as he died from the bullet wound was one of puzzlement. The soldier fell over backwards with his legs caught in the branches of a small tree, still not understanding where the shot had come from. Now he knew but it didn't matter, only his dead eyes stared blankly ahead.

  In the thick of the bushes, every inch of land was a battlefield. The blurred vision made it impossible for Polish soldiers to determine the direction of the bullets even if they heard the gunfire, and without seeing the target, they couldn't return fire at all! Foolish tactical thinking led one brave Polish soldier after another to fall in pools of blood!

  "They came in waves." Ma Han waited for Baral's order, he couldn't fire now, that would expose his position. He watched with a cold expression as the Polish soldiers charged blindly, then were picked off one by one by the hidden Nationalist snipers. The snipers' favorite targets were enemy officers exposed within range, and those Polish officers kept falling.

  The Polish soldiers absolutely did not like this way of fighting, they started shooting blindly without the constraint of officers, and bullets kept flying back and forth in the bushes.

  A shout in German "I'm hit!" came out, the light machine gun sang from the right rear direction, and a poor national defender was hit by a stray bullet.

  "What a fool!" Baral and Mahan shouted out almost simultaneously. At this time, without Baral's indication, Mahan raised the butt of the light machine gun to his chest, lying down to aim, turning the muzzle to the right front direction and pulling the trigger, the crisp singing of the light machine gun also started.

  The machine gun's tongue of flame mowed down the weeds around the muzzle, and Polish soldiers kept popping up to fire at Baral and Mahan from all directions. The constantly splashing mud greatly affected Baral's vision, and he could no longer take out one enemy with a single shot.

  "Our situation is not good!" Baral had already done his best to conceal himself, but this pit was too shallow and couldn't be compared to a real foxhole. He patted Mahan's butt, "Look for an opportunity to transfer..." Suddenly he felt that his hand seemed to have stuck to something, and when he looked down, his spirit became extremely tense, "You've been shot!"

  Ma Han continued to fire at the approaching Polish soldiers, not looking back. "Stupid, stupid! I raised my butt too high, they shot my butt!" He had just pressed the trigger tightly, and the barrel of the light machine gun shook uncontrollably, even with a tendency to float upwards. In order to accurately hit the target, he had to make a posture adjustment.

  "Can you move? Mahan, tell me, are you okay?" Baral's expression was a bit neurotic, he even only used his hands to cover Mahan's butt, the sniper rifle had long been thrown aside.

  To be honest, the two postures were very strange and ridiculous, but the two people in it couldn't laugh at all. An egg-shaped grenade rolled into the pit, and Baral didn't care about covering Ma Han's butt anymore. He completely relied on his instincts to pick up the grenade and throw it out immediately. The grenade exploded in mid-air, smoke and screams erupted together...

  "My goodness! This time it's the left side!" Ma Han's buttocks on both sides were all bloody, and under the tattered clothes, one could see that his tender buttocks had been tortured by bullets and grenade fragments to an unbearable extent.

  "Rat-a-tat-tat!" The machine gun's bullets were all gone. Without bullets, it meant they had no way to stop the Polish soldiers from approaching. The "hiss-hiss-hiss" in the bushes was getting closer and closer, if you understood Polish, you could hear them saying: Their bullets are all gone, go up and stab them to death with bayonets one by one!

  Ma Han forgot his pain and turned his head to look at Baral, who was still helping him treat the wound on his buttocks. He said sincerely: "Brother, you can go!"

  The tone is full of regret...