Under the farewell of the first battalion, the battlefield that the second battalion went to - he~tui.

Although it is a very happy thing to see the black face of a battalion of collectives, it is always necessary to face reality - for example, the German army that is waiting for the battle.

After crossing the forest road through the woods, the whole company scattered and looked at Fois, where the officers began to reconnoiter the surroundings and make final preparations for the battle, while Christensen complained: "It was a 'good day' to meet the Germans on Christmas Day and attack ......the Germans on New Year's Day."

"Next Christmas and New Year's Day, it won't be so bad." Zheng Yingqi didn't say a word back, then threw a reconnaissance team out and began to explore the surrounding "dark fog" to prevent a few bloody assassins from jumping out of his back to ruin the army's morale when he was fighting.

No sooner had the reconnaissance team dispersed from the ranks than an unlikely image appeared:

A German soldier on a white steed was running this way.

The horse ran very fast, and when he saw the Americans, the paratroopers lying here had already aimed at him, and after a burst of gunfire, the galloping horse fell directly to the ground, and four paratroopers, including Hubler, carefully touched it.

When they touched it, the cavalryman who had lost his horse tried to prove his bravery with the weapons in his hands, but the four paratroopers who surrounded him made him lose the desire to resist, wisely dropped the submachine gun in his hand to the ground, and raised his own hands.

He was from the 12th SS Division, and had come to Foiva to deliver the message—the 26th Panzergrenadier Regiment of Hitler's Youth Division was attacking the positions of the 501st Regiment, hoping that Foix's defenders would cover their flanks.

"Looks like we don't have to worry about the Germans next door coming to support us for the time being." Christensen reassuringly commented on the information obtained, "This information is very important, we need to tell Jacob as soon as possible - I think Company Commander is very interested in such good news...... Hey, Hubler, what are you doing? ”

Hubul, who successfully captured a Ruger pistol from the left side of the captive, happily put the pistol into his pocket and said with a smile: "Finally got a Ruger pistol - God, before I landed in Normandy, I wanted to make a good one, but I didn't expect to finally get my wish!" ”

This gun was 08 - 1908 when it came out, it has been in service in the German army for more than 30 years, and it is also one of the items that many American troops on the battlefield are fighting for, as a self-defense weapon, it is obviously unqualified, but its exquisite German craftsmanship and rigorous German manufacturing thinking have made it the object sought after by the Allies, Hubler as early as Normandy, he braved the rain of bullets to try to get his wish from the corpse of a German officer, but his luck has never been good, he has not been able to get this gun, and even begged Zheng Yingqi to do his wish.

Unexpectedly, today he finally got what he wanted.

He put his hand in his pocket and stroked the body of P08's gun, which was even more ecstatic than Gordon's appearance when he came out of the red light district, which caused everyone who was escorting the captives to look sideways.

Several people returned with their captives and informed Zheng Yingqi of the information they had obtained.

"This information is very good - Christensen, give him to the company headquarters, and by the way, give this information to the company commander Decker."

Christensen glanced at Zheng Yingqi in surprise, such a good thing as brushing his face was actually thrown to himself?

"Aren't you going?"

"Go, of course." Christensen muttered to himself that Jacob was such a weirdo, and that such a good thing as brushing his face was thrown to himself - didn't this thing know that he intended to be a gun officer with him?

Of course, Zheng Yingqi knows Christensen's thoughts, but does this have anything to do with him?

……

The attack on Fois began after half an hour, compared to the previous 1st Battalion's stubborn defense here, the Germans did not have the desire to fight to the death, and in the face of the attack of the paratroopers around Sanjiyi, they gave up Fova after a little resistance - Winters felt that this was because E Company had cut off the connection between the 26th Panzergrenadier Regiment and the defenders of Fova, and if the defenders of Fowa knew that their abandonment would lead to the collapse of an attack, it is estimated that they would not dare to give up so easily, right?

In this offensive battle, Company E suffered almost no losses, only a few unlucky people were shot and wounded, and it can be said that it was a very successful attack - the loss of Fowa also stabilized the position of the 501st Regiment, and after the commendation above, it is said that ......

There was no laughter in the first battalion for several days.

"Today is a lucky day." Hubler put his hand in his trouser pocket and whistled, sighed when he met people, and after opening the chatterbox, he would show off his captured Ruger P08 pistol, and after enjoying the envious look of the other party, he put the pistol into his trouser pocket and changed to another target.

"Hey, platoon commander, today is a lucky day – it's a beautiful start to 1945, and I think it's going to be a great day." This time, Hubuler changed the object of showing off and ran to Zheng Yingqi.

Zheng Yingqi had two beautiful clouds in mind, and then echoed Hubuler's words: "1945...... It was a wonderful year indeed. ”

"Yes, this year will definitely be a year that will go down in history - dear Jacob, I have better news for you." Huebler ostentatiously took out the pistol from his pocket, stroked the body of the pistol as he had done last time when he touched the arm of a "unrestrained, pretty, and understanding" girl in a tavern, and then boasted and said:

"Look, what did I get?"

"Yes, you finally got your wish-" Zheng Yingqi naturally knew the obsession of this thing, and said with a smile: "Next time, you won't have to brave the rain of bullets to touch the corpse." ”

"Hehe, one is enough, if you can get one, I'll give it to you, of course this one won't work," he said for fear that Zheng Yingqi would grab it, so he put it in his pants pocket again, and put his hand into it like a baby, the action was like raising a gun again, "I'll go find a big cow, hehe." ”

Hubler smiled and looked for his next target to show off.

"Wait."

Hearing Zheng Yingqi shouting to himself and wait, Hubul instantly covered his pocket with his other hand, for fear that Zheng Yingqi would come to snatch it.

"The Ruger P08 pistol is an ornamental and collectible weapon, but it's not a reliable self-defense pistol – there are a lot of misfires, do you know why? Its safety device is on the grip, and if you carry it like this, aren't you afraid that it will suddenly go off and have a close contact with your brother? ”

"Brother?" Hubler was stunned for a moment, moved his gaze down thoughtfully, and finally figured out the meaning of "brother" in Zheng Yingqi's mouth, he couldn't help but shudder, and he didn't dare to imagine the picture after losing his dear "brother".

"You can find a holster – of course, the surest thing is to store it." Zheng Yingqi shrugged his shoulders and suggested: "Just think of it as your lovely 'brother'." ”

Zheng Yingqi didn't know that his warning saved the hapless Hubul - in the plot, the goods put the pistol in his pocket and went off, and a shot broke his own artery, although he was sent to the rear medical center, but he did not escape the doom of death.

And because of Zheng Yingqi's reminder, Hubuler didn't dare to bring it for the sake of his dear "brother", especially after hearing about a Ruger P08 misfire accident more than half a month later, he was almost afraid of death.

……

After capturing the village of Fuwa, the entire 2nd Battalion relied on the woods around Fuwa to rearrange the defensive circle, and the E Company, which thought that it would be able to live in a house at night, still did not get rid of the bad luck of sleeping in the forest and being bombed, and had to experience several or more rounds of shelling every day.

The worst time was that the Germans used trickery - the German shelling was intervaled, but that time the Germans used trickery, and in the thirteenth minute after the end of the first shelling, a second round of shelling was launched, and everyone in Company E at that time was trying to clean up the positions after the shelling, and death came so suddenly.

This time the German shelling lasted for a full hour, 9 people of E Company fell in the shelling, and more than a dozen people were wounded, although Zheng Yingqi was unharmed, but the half-blown tree trunk was directly inserted into the door of the cat's ear hole where he was hiding, almost suffocating him inside, and finally it was Hubul who led people to dig the frozen soil from the side to fish him out.

"I'm curious, how did it get in - and so deep?" A group of people studied the murderer who almost made them lose their new platoon commander, and this half of the tree trunk was simply stunning, and it actually reached the ground for about half a meter.

"There are always a lot of things that science can't explain in war, and we can usually call this kind of thing metaphysics - I think it must be the beautiful girl of Lady Luck who favored me."

Zheng Yingqi laughed and said not very funny jokes, but no matter how funny his jokes were, it was difficult to revive the morale of the four-day bombing.

Just like how hard he tried to boost morale, the morale of the entire 1st Platoon and even the entire E Company was still approaching the brink of collapse.

Officers and non-commissioned officers have always been the spiritual backbone of soldiers.

If the officers collapse, then this force is only an inch away from collapse - and now Compton is clearly on the verge of collapse.

Compton was the platoon commander of the 2nd platoon, and when he was covering the retreat of the troops with the Netherlands, he was shot in the buttocks, but Zheng Yingqi carried him back, and Compton, who already likes to communicate with people, has regarded Zheng Yingqi as a brother in life and death since that time.

In the evening, Compton was beside Zheng Yingqi and said in despair: "Jacob, I can't hold on." As he said this, Compton dropped his helmet on the ground, and his eyes were bloodshot:

"In Normandy, I was wounded, in Holland, I was wounded, and that time death was in front of me, but I was not afraid, I was not afraid of death, and I am not afraid of death now, but I don't want to be bombarded by the Germans every day - I would rather fall in the explosion. I'm not afraid of death, but I feel like I'm going crazy right now, and every time I shell, I think, let me die, let me die, so I can get out of this damn place! Jacob, I'm going crazy, you know, every time a shell explodes, I want to rush straight in......"

Compton said incoherently, emphasizing that he was not afraid of death, emphasizing that he wanted to die in the explosion, and the hysterical appearance made Zheng Yingqi hurriedly cover his mouth - the officers are the core of a force, and the last levee on the brink of collapse of the soldiers, if the officers collapse, the soldiers will collapse with them.

bang

After a dull thud, the excited Compton fell limply into Zheng Yingqi's arms.

Zheng Yingqi took a long breath, it seems that the situation in the 2nd row is more serious than the 1st row, the 2nd row is like this, what about the third row?

"It can't be like this, the Germans can't be allowed to shell with impunity."

Zheng Yingqi said softly.

……

Company.

's pale face stared at the table with blank eyes, and suddenly there was a knock on the door, but behaved like a frightened quail, and subconsciously pounced under the table - it was not until he pounced under the table that he realized that it was a knock, and hurriedly fished out the towel in the basin, and after wiping the cold and biting cold water on his face, he said aloud:

"Wait a minute."

From December 17, the entire E Company was under artillery fire, before the 25th, they were even surrounded by 15 divisions at the most, after the 25th, the reinforcements broke through the encirclement, but their battle was still not over, but they were rich in materials, and the battle situation was still grim for them - the victory in the battle did not allow them to see the dawn of the victory in the battle!

Shelling! Daily shelling!

Fear, fear, atmosphere, sadness, helplessness, anger, all these emotions torment everyone on the front lines.

Not only were the soldiers on the verge of collapse, but even's condition was not much better.

But he needs to show others that he's still strong.

Dekker opened the door again, but he never imagined that Jacob would be standing in the doorway.

"Sir."

"Oh, it's you, come in—you're looking for me?"

"Sir, I think we need to do something." Zheng Yingqi looked at, who still had a wet face, and realized something—sure enough, everyone was on the verge of collapse.

The officers suppressed a lot of things, for example, someone who broke down and self-harmed, and the officers suppressed this kind of thing, but the number of cases has reached three.

"Do something?" muttered and looked at Zheng Yingqi, "What needs to be done?" ”

"We can't let the Germans shell us unscrupulously, I want to take people to the artillery positions of the Germans and kill them!"

looked at Zheng Yingqi in shock: "Do you know where the artillery positions of the Germans are?" How do you find them? Also, who wants to go with you? ”

Some people can get used to fighting - a very small part, and most people, can not get used to it at all, there is a research material in the West that says: most people on the battlefield after 140 to 180 days of heavy pressure will lose their combat effectiveness, and in the first three months, the soldier's combat ability is the strongest, and then it begins to decline, until it completely collapses.

At this time, E Company spent 23 days in Normandy, 78 days in the Netherlands, and 18 days in Belgium, that is, 119 days on the battlefield, and it was already on the edge - before fighting the village of Fowa, the 2nd Battalion gained combat effectiveness by molesting the first battalion, but now, the anger of mentioning it has been discharged.

It's like a balloon that has gone down.

This was's perception - he felt that Company E was no longer combative.

's rhetorical question and shock made Zheng Yingqi even more shocked.

Since the occupation of Fowa and the arrival of German shelling, everyone in E Company has not seen their company commander for the past few days, and Zheng Yingqi knows that the officers of the American army have always been expensive, and he has not thought much about it—just like he has never thought about why the company headquarters should be 300 meters away from the front line, he has not thought about it too much.

But......

When an officer, faced with a subordinate's request to fight, actually asked in a shocked tone, "Who wants to go with you?" he couldn't help but think too much.

"Sir, I'll find a way to find them, but I need ......" Before he could finish speaking, the door was pushed open again, and Winters's familiar face appeared in the doorway with the cold wind.

", I have something to look for......" After Winters saw Zheng Yingqi, he exclaimed: "Jacob, why are you here?" ”

Zheng Yingqi was quite particular and said, "The lieutenant wants me to lead someone to take out the German artillery." ”

"It's a good idea," Winters looked at Dekker and Zheng Yingqi suspiciously, the distrust in his eyes was obvious, but he didn't continue to question, but said: "I can contact you artillery and ask them to send an observer over, Decker, Strayer let me sit in E Company temporarily, and I will have to stay in E Company with you for the next few days." ”

Dai Keqiang smiled and said, "It's great. ”

So the next day,'s had to appear at the front line, instead of hiding in a wooden house in the woods a few hundred meters behind the position—and on the night of this day, Zheng Yingqi led four people to form a sneak team and felt the direction of the Germans in the night.

"I think the German artillery has been dumb for a few days."

Watching the infiltration team disappear into the night, many paratroopers suddenly became motivated.

Winters, who had a deep conversation with Dekker, walked out of the wooden house, and seemed to see the disappearing figure of the infiltrated detachment, he remembered the data that Dekker had listed before, and a sentence came to his mind: People actually have no limits, if there is, it is because you have not broken through it.

This is Company E, not an ordinary army unit, and the reason why he is on the verge of collapse is because ah...... The commander of this unit has not appeared in front of the soldiers for several days.