For Welsh's request, Zheng Yingqi naturally agreed, after all, helping others is good for Jacob.

Of course, the reality is that everyone is in the same boat, and it would be beneficial for everyone to have Velsh take over the command smoothly - but Zheng Yingqi had already anticipated the difficulty ahead.

What is the current state of this group of paratroopers?

In addition to the two fierce battles in a row, more than 70% of the battle losses, and more than 40 wounded "piled up" in the improvised medical center, more than 30 of them were seriously injured because of the battle, and they only received simple treatment, they urgently needed medicine, and they needed better doctors to save their lives.

And the rest of the paratroopers who still have combat effectiveness, do they still have the desire to continue fighting?

The officers are all gone, can they still be, will they still want to stay here?

The reinforcements are still far away, and now they have lost contact with the rear, in this case, who still has the will to fight?

When Wersh was about to act according to Zheng Yingqi's suggestion, Zheng Yingqi stopped Velsh again and asked softly:

"Velsh, now there's a critical question, what are we going to do?"

"What do you mean?" Wersh was puzzled, or rather, he ...... Pretended to be puzzled.

"Hold on? Or evacuate, when you take over the command, all the orders will be given around what we should do. ”

Velsh was silent, and after a long time, he asked weakly, "Will there be reinforcements?" ”

Will there be reinforcements?

Zheng Yingqi didn't know, he thought, maybe, probably, or, maybe, estimate...... Yes.

But it is impossible to say when the reinforcements will come, and it is likely that when the reinforcements appear, this place has long been occupied and controlled by the Germans, and the German mechanized troops will appear where they should appear through the bridge, and as for them, if they hold on, it is likely that when the reinforcements appear, they will turn into piles of corpses or meat that have been ravaged by tank tracks.

From Zheng Yingqi's point of view, he hopes to stick to it - without him, just for the evaluation of the system, but he will not interfere with Welsh's choice, and all these choices will be handed over to Welsh.

Welsh chose to hold on, he would hold on to the end, Welsh chose to evacuate, and he didn't say anything.

And this, that is, the responsibility of the commander.

"None of us know when reinforcements will come...... Perhaps by the time they came, we would have been captured by the Germans or lifeless corpses on the ground. ”

Welsh whispered:

"But we've lost too many partners here, Jon, Orco, Vesie......"

He recited name after name, some that had followed him since D-Day, some that had been added to his command yesterday, but ......

They're all dead, many, many people are dead.

"They've left their lives here, we...... Can we go? The colonel kept saying that we could not blow up the bridge until the last resort, and the colonel said that we could not evacuate until the end...... Jacob, we, can we go? ”

After Zheng Yingqi heard Welsh's words, he gently patted him on the shoulder and said, "Since you have a decision, then ...... Let's do it. ”

"Well, let's do it, I'll tell them, if you want to stay, then stay, if you don't, let them escort the wounded away." Wersh made a decision, and the whole person relaxed.

Even Zheng Yingqi himself also has a sense of relief in his heart - he won't admit it, he doesn't want those who have fought side by side with him to shed so much blood in vain.

……

All the paratroopers were brought together.

In the dimly lit world of war, the sparse crowd sat in a disorderly formation without formation.

Including Welsh, there were only 78 men left, plus the medics, the medics, and those lying in the medical center, and all the people who were left of the paratroopers.

And when they occupied this place, they had nearly four hundred people!

After the gathering, the paratroopers were silent, they knew that the battle losses were very large, and they knew that they had lost many, many comrades after two fierce battles, but when everyone gathered together, they waited eagerly for someone to merge into the whole town that was dead and silent, they were silent.

What about people?

What about people?

They...... What about people?

In the dead silence, Welsh finally spoke, and he said: "The colonel is dead, Major Roy is dead, all the officers ...... Now I'm alone. ”

"And we, including me, now have only 78 people left who can fight. Yes, we can blow up the bridge and get out of here, because we can say unequivocally to anyone that we have shed enough blood here, and that we are here to persevere, worthy of anyone. ”

Instead of following the script taught by Zheng Yingqi, Welsh did not first obtain the support of the sergeants before announcing the multiple-choice questions to all the paratroopers, but directly put the situation in front of everyone.

"But we've shed too much blood here," said Wersh, with a sad voice, "and I am not reconciled that the officers have all died here, and that our countless brothers and sisters have died here, and that they have just gone, giving up the positions they have gained in exchange for their deaths." ”

"Yes, I'm not reconciled!"

"I want to stay here, complete this mission, and not let them die here in vain! I want their deaths to be meaningful, not because our abandonment makes their deaths stupid and worthless. ”

Welsh's words resonated with many paratroopers - everyone wanted to live, to live until the end of this war, but when they looked around, at the empty world, at the absence of many, many familiar faces, they ......

I don't want to give up.

Although life is precious, people need to insist on something after all.

"In addition, the wounded must be transferred to the rear, so I need twenty people to transport the wounded, and in an hour, I will finalize the list, hopefully ......" Versche looked around at the paratroopers with complicated expressions: "I hope you can grasp it." ”

What to grasp?

Hope for life!

The twenty places for transporting the wounded were the "hope" that Welsh had set aside, and it was also a method he had been thinking about for a long time.

If there is an overage, a very overage, then ......

What is the point of staying here, paratroopers who have no fighting spirit?

Zheng Yingqi understood Welsh's thoughts, everyone has their own style, if it were him, of course he wouldn't do this - this may be the difference in concept, in the form of Zheng Yingqi himself, he would use the form of orders to let the sergeants take the soldiers and prepare for the next fierce battle, because in his world, since he is a soldier, he will abide by his duties, and the order is the towering mountain, the center of his worldview, because the command needs, then do everything to meet this need.

But Welsh and Zheng Yingqi made very different choices, each has their own ideas, Welsh does not seek to integrate everyone's ideas, he prefers to leave a group of volunteers - people who volunteer to stick to the end.

Zheng Yingqi lit a cigarette in silence in the crowd - he hadn't smoked or drunk in a long, long time, and looking at the slowly burning cigarette, Zheng Yingqi thought:

When did I start smoking non-smoking? The end of the world

Oh yes, since the recruit company, I have stopped smoking, and I have gradually stopped drinking, and even if I drink, I only take a few sips.

Why don't you smoke or drink?

Because he became an accurate shooter, and later became a part-time sniper and occasionally a commando, he didn't want to let his hands shake a little at a critical time because of smoking and drinking.

But now, he is slowly enjoying the smell of cigarettes.

"Jacob, you smoke?" Ryan looked at Zheng Yingqi who was older than the old smoking gun in surprise, in the past few days, he had never seen Zheng Yingqi smoking, someone threw the cigarette to Zheng Yingqi, and Zheng Yingqi did not see Zheng Yingqi smoking.

"Take a few more puffs when you can, don't you, Jacob?" A paratrooper replied nonchalantly for Zheng Yingqi.

Zheng Yingqi was stunned, it turned out that he thought so......

Young Martin took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, not the standard for paratroopers, but German cigarettes, which he apparently pulled out of the pockets of the Germans - who would have smoked the cigarettes from the pockets of the dead before that? But what about now? When Martin took out the cigarette, several people around him rushed up, divided most of the box of cigarettes in Martin's hand, and then swallowed the smoke one by one.

Under the light of the fire not far away, the group of paratroopers gathered together to swallow the clouds and fog could clearly see that some people were constantly bent over to find Welsh.

But no one said anything, and they didn't even mean to look down on these people - only those who have experienced these two bitter battles know the hardships, the feeling that their lives do not belong to them, and they don't even know when their lives will be lost, they have already experienced them twice, they understand the thoughts of those people, and like them, those people have experienced these two bitter battles and vicious battles, and what qualifications do they have to dislike and dislike others?

Zheng Yingqi suddenly said to the young Martin: "Martin, you go to the second lieutenant to occupy a place." ”

Martin shook his head, "You're all here, what's the point if I'm gone?" ”

"You'd better go," Ali said in disgust, "and you can't even rely on a bullet." ”

Martin was furious: "I was blocked by the Germans and only delayed for a few minutes, and I didn't get the machine-gun shells!" ”

Ali laughed, put his hand around Martin's shoulder, and laughed and cursed, "You big fool! ”

Martin replied, "You're a fool too. ”

"Yes, we're all fools." Ali laughed, and the people who swallowed the clouds and spit fog also laughed, if they weren't fools, how could they sit here calmly?

……

No one knew how many people had come to Versch, but after an hour, Welsh gathered everyone, took a piece of paper and began to roll call, and one by one the soldiers lined up under his roll call, some of the paratroopers looked ashamed, but some of the paratroopers looked stunned and surprised.

Nineteen people stood on the opposite side of the queue, some of them bowed their heads in shame, not daring to look at the indifferent comrades in front of them, and some of them looked at Velsh in dismay.

"Sir! I want to stay! One of the paratroopers shouted.

Welsh stared at the shouting paratroopers and asked, "No one knows how much of the way back is in the hands of the Germans, no one knows what you will encounter when you evacuate with the wounded, are you sure you are going to abandon the forty-three wounded brothers?" ”

The shouting paratroopers were silent.

Yes, evacuation, like running to heaven, but...... Who knows what to expect on the way to heaven?

Welsh named another person: Sergeant Moses.

The sergeant came out with a stunned face, and Welsh ignored Moses' astonishment, but ordered: "Sergeant Moses, take them back, and when you meet our people, tell them that if they don't come to support Lamble, this place will fall into the hands of the Germans." ”

"Why me?"

Instead of answering, Welsh tapped Moses on the shoulder and said, "Go, take them back while it's dark." ”

The performance of these selected people has already explained a lot of problems - the remaining paratroopers looked at these comrades with complicated eyes, some of them chose to go back, and some of them were picked out by Welsh to go back.

Should they be said to be unlucky, or are they lucky?

The paratroopers made a lot of carts from the local materials, and requisitioned a lot of them in the shelter of the residents of Ramle, more than ten kilometers away, and these livestock were responsible for pulling the carts for the wounded, and under the leadership of Sergeant Moses, nineteen paratroopers escorted the medics and the wounded, and disappeared into the darkness.

Only the military doctor Rhodes was left as the last rescue force of this team.

When Welsh called all the sergeants away for a meeting, Ryan curiously asked the military doctor Rod, "Rod, why don't you leave?" ”

According to Welsh's request, the military doctor Rod should have been among the transferred personnel, but Rod refused Welsh's order and chose to stay here.

"There's a bunch of here who need doctors."

Ryan laughed and said with a smile, "yes, a bunch of need a dumb doctor." ”

Everyone around them laughed - yes, they were stupid.

……

After Moses was sent away by Welsh, among the remaining 59 people, in addition to the military doctor Rhodes, there were only eight sergeants, and Welsh was assigned again, with a sergeant (excluding corporal) as the core, as far as possible according to the previous structure, each sergeant was responsible for leading six people to form a squad, three squads to form a platoon, and all the remaining people were reorganized, and then the defense was arranged, among these eight squads, one squad led by Zheng Yingqi was responsible for reconnaissance - as I said before, the more trustworthy people, The more combat-ready the unit, the drudgery......

Always falls on their heads.

Just like Colonel to Welsh and Lieutenant Azov to Welsh, now it's Welsh's turn to treat Zheng Yingqi like this.

After the meeting ended, Welsh left Zheng Yingqi and said with apologies: "Jacob, I'm sorry......"

He could actually let Zheng Yingqi go, let Zheng Yingqi take the place of Moses to lead the team to escort the wounded back, but Velsh didn't do that, just like he didn't let Ali go back - on the night of D-Day, a total of five people from the entire E Company joined the unit, but so far, only the three of them remained.

Like the opportunity just now, he didn't give the opportunity to Zheng Yingqi and Ali.

"There's always a lot of work that needs to be done." Zheng Yingqi smiled and left here freely, Welsh looked at the back of Zheng Yingqi leaving, and inexplicably found that during training, everyone felt that Jacob, who was withdrawn, even had his back after he went to the battlefield......

It's all so reassuring.

……

After a day of fierce fighting, the paratroopers in the town finally solved many post-war problems and fell asleep.

They were relieved because they knew that there was a sergeant named Jacob who would take people to watch the night and give them a safe and secure night.

At this time, a group of German troops was also very relieved to march at night - they thought that the defenders of this town had held out under the high-intensity fighting for two days, and at this time, they should also be asleep.

Two kilometers closer to Remler, the Germans abandoned their only three armored vehicles, nearly a hundred infantrymen, pulling a long line of skirmishers, and felt to the town two kilometers away.

In the words of the Germans, what they have to do now is to infiltrate and occupy.

And the reason for the courage of the Germans was because of the intelligence brought out by a captive who escaped from the town - the garrison of Ramler, there were less than sixty men left, and they lost a lot of equipment, bazookas, and even lost contact with the rear.

Although the town was defeated twice and lost hundreds of people, the situation of the defenders of Rumler was also calculable by the Germans, and the words of the prisoners who ran back were obviously trustworthy - so the German company commander gave the prisoner a gun, and the prisoner led the way, and the whole company of more than 110 good men slowly approached the town under the cover of night.