"Herald, you pass this order of mine to the three platoon commanders of our third company, tell them that the forty-minute temporary rest has arrived, let them quickly gather all the soldiers in the platoon, and our whole company will be about to enter battle."

Zhao Yifa, the commander of the third company of the Volunteer Army, looked down at the time displayed on the pocket watch in his hand as 11:55 p.m., and said loudly in a commanding tone to the herald standing in front of him.

As soon as Zhao Yi, the commander of the third company, who was standing in front of him, said that as soon as his voice fell, he immediately cheered up and gave a military salute first, and then replied neatly: "Report to the company commander, I will convey your order to the three platoon commanders of our third company word for word." ”

After answering, even the herald wearing a thick military uniform, in this cold environment of more than 20 degrees below zero, he knew that he was trembling, but he braved the severe cold to pass the order of the company commander Zhao Yifa to the three platoon commanders of the third company in less than two minutes.

And the three platoon commanders of the third company took less than a minute at the same time to convey the order of the company commander Zhao Yifa to all the soldiers in their platoon word for word.

After the 75 officers and men of the 3rd company had assembled on the high ground on the south side, the next step was to report the numbers according to the usual practice.

"Count!" Company commander Zhao Yifa shouted at the assembled team standing two steps away from him, and gave orders loudly.

With the order of the company commander Zhao Yifa, the soldiers of the third company who had completed the assembly began to report the number from left to right from front to back: "One, two, three, four, five...... Seventy-two. ”

When the soldiers of the three companies standing opposite him finished reporting the numbers, the company commander Zhao Yifa felt that this number was not right, because they fought a battle of Liangshuidong this morning, and the number of soldiers in the three companies of the sharp knife company was defeated, plus the number of people who were slightly injured and could not get out of the line of fire to carry out this combat mission that was interspersed behind enemy lines, a total of 75 people were right.

However, the number reported just now was seventy-two, plus Zhao Yifa, who was the company commander, and Wang Wenju, the instructor, and the two of them, this was only 14 people in total.

At first, the company commander Zhao Yifa thought that it was because it was early in the morning at night, and the weather was very cold, maybe someone underreported a number, so he asked the soldiers of the third company to report the number again.

This time, the number of reports was still seventy-two, and suddenly, the company commander Zhao Yifa and the instructor Wang Wenju and the two of them coincidentally had an ominous premonition in their hearts, that is, they were missing one person in the third company.

What made the company commander Zhao Yifa feel even more troublesome was that less than ten seconds after the second count was completed, gunshots suddenly came from the direction of Wenjing, five kilometers north of the high ground where they were located.

"Bang ......"

"Da Da Da ......"

"Boom Boom Boom ......"

All of a sudden, it can be said that the guns and cannons roared in unison, shaking the heavens and the earth, the sound of killing shook the sky, and the screams were continuous, and all kinds of sounds came, all of which knocked on the nerves of each of them in the three companies.

For their third company at this time, it can really be said that the house leak happened to rain overnight, and finally after a difficult trek, under such bad weather, they completed the task of interspersing to the destination an hour ahead of schedule.

And just as they were about to devote themselves to the critical moment of preparing for an ambush after reporting the number of their third company, their third company was inexplicably missing one person, which made company commander Zhao Yifa and instructor Wang Wenju naturally feel caught off guard.

Whether it is for company commander Zhao Yifa or instructor Wang Wenju, it is really a dilemma whether to quickly arrange an ambush combat mission or to quickly find the missing three-company dripping soldier.

What worries the two of them even more is that they only ordered the number once when they set off from the two water caves, and did not report the number after a short break of twenty minutes in the middle.

However, in order to delay the ambush combat mission issued by the regiment headquarters, after a brief discussion between company commander Zhao Yifa and instructor Wang Wenju, the two of them still had differences at the beginning, each holding their own opinions and not giving in to each other, one emphasizing the most important combat mission and the other adhering to the principle of party spirit first.

In the end, in less than two minutes, considering the urgency of the military situation, the two of them still reached an agreement, that is, to first send the combat mission to three platoons.

After the three platoons have arrived at their respective positions, the platoon commander will personally check who is missing soldiers in his platoon and conduct the next step of evaluation.

As the saying goes, time is tight and tasks are heavy, and Zhao Yifa, the commander of the third company, assigned the combat task, and the three companies were mainly responsible for guarding the high ground on the south side, and the platoon that was basically intact was responsible for the main attack.

The second platoon, with a small number of casualties, was responsible for the left flank of the southern high ground, and the third company, which suffered heavy casualties, was responsible for the right flank of the southern high ground, mainly assisting the first platoon in the battle.

After company commander Zhao Yifa had just finished announcing the contents of the combat mission and disbanded the assembled team, the soldiers of the three platoons came to the area of their responsible position on the high ground on the south side in less than two minutes, and were ready to fight at any time.

According to the instructions of the company commander Zhao Yifa, the three platoon commanders were about to pay attention to the soldiers in their platoon when they heard the surprised voice of recruit Sun Lei from the position of the first platoon and one squad: "Comrades, come and see, the person sitting on a marching backpack a hundred meters away from them is not our comrade-in-arms Li Dequan." ”

So, the soldiers lying near Sun Lei looked in the direction of Sun Lei's finger, and sure enough, a hundred meters away from them, there was indeed a soldier wearing the same military uniform as them, sitting motionless on a marching backpack.

It was only at this time that Niu Tiezhu, the leader of the first platoon of the third company, hurriedly counted all the people in their first squad, except for Li Dequan, a soldier in their squad, and everyone else was there.

After learning of this situation, Niu Tiezhu issued an order: "Sun Lei, I order you to wake up Li Dequan, a soldier from our class, and return with him." ”

Sun Lei, who got up from the ground, answered "yes" and rushed over.

Sun Lei, who squatted down, stretched out the index finger of his left hand and put it in front of Li Dequan's nostril sitting on the marching backpack, and found that there was no trace of breath.

Not only that, when Sun Lei touched Li Dequan with his hot hands and his eyes closed, he was surprised to find that Li Dequan's body was cold, and there was no trace of temperature in the whole person.

In this regard, Sun Lei secretly concluded that his comrade-in-arms Li Dequan, who was in a platoon in the third company, was frozen to death.