"Let go of me, Ledur......"

Dewar struggled to break free of Ledur's hand, and he cried out loudly: "I admit my mistake, you are right, what is the use of talking about this now, we ......"

"Boom ......"

Just then another heavy shell fell, exploding less than ten meters from the wall of the outpost. The powerful blast wave mixed with countless pieces of earth and stone violently slammed into the seemingly solid exterior wall of the outpost, and the earth and smoke rushed into the outpost with the violent air currents from various large and small observation shooting holes, and the machine guns placed on the shooting holes were easily blown away by the air flow like a firewood and smashed into the wall on the other side. The air was filled with a pungent pungent gas of fire and thick smoke, and everyone in the room was so stimulated that they coughed loudly.

The soldiers were frightened by this situation they had never encountered, and they curled up on the ground with their heads in their hands, they trembled, coughed, cried, and screamed loudly. The wooden structure on top of the bunker let out a tooth-aching groan, and the dust and sawdust that had accumulated in the cracks of the logs fell like rain in a violent tremor, causing the soldiers to let out a panicked scream again.

"Don't panic, everyone!"

Ledur staggered to his feet from the ground, he shook his head vigorously, trying to get rid of the vertigo in his head, he was standing too close to the shooting hole, and the shockwave did not hesitate to teach him a lesson.

"Dewar, Dewar, how are you?"

Ledur staggered, bent down, shoved, and threw his comrades who fell beside him. Dewar didn't react, he fell motionless, and Ledur saw a stream of bright red blood slowly trickling down his ear. Ledur was taken aback, and he quickly put his hand on Dewar's neck to test his pulse.

"Fortunately, I was stunned." Ledur turned Dewar over and made him lie on his back to prevent him from being gutted by the next explosion. Then he stood up and walked over to his young men, who were huddled at the foot of the wall, shivering.

"Stand up for me, cowards, cowards. Look at what you look like now, even a hen looks braver than you look. ”

Leval kicked his men hard, and he tugged at the soldiers by the necks and pulled them off the ground one by one.

"Remember that you are a soldier, and France needs you to protect you......" Ledur shook his head, his ears buzzing all the time, making his shouts sound as unreal as if they had come from far away. This feeling had not been felt for more than 20 years, and he couldn't help but miss those days in the trenches, when the shelling was really fierce.

"Pick up your weapons, put on your steel helmets, damn it."

Ledur shoved the frightened soldiers fiercely, roaring and preparing them for battle. Suddenly, the rough wooden door of the outpost was slammed open, and several people rushed into the house in embarrassment. Ledur quickly drew his pistol, but when he saw the rush in, he quickly lowered the muzzle of the gun.

"You guys are still alive, I thought you were finished. Don't be stupid to stand there, Pierre, David, and don't hurry up and pick up your weapons. ”

Ledur commanded loudly. Rushing in were the soldiers who had gone to carry the meal, Pierre and David, and the other two new logisticians. Ledur was attracted by the two new faces, they were two tall black soldiers, wearing brown uniforms and "Adrian" steel helmets, although they had the same gray faces as Pierre, but the two black and shiny faces had a look of nonchalance, and there was no panic or fear in their eyes, and what surprised Ledur even more was that the two men were still carrying rattan baskets with bread in their hands.

"Colonial Legion? Algeria or Guinea? Ledur nodded to the two black soldiers.

"Ivory Coast." One of the black soldiers replied loudly.

"Very well, do you have weapons?"

The two black soldiers shook their heads.

"Find one here. You'll probably be able to use it right away. ”

Ledur turned his head and shouted to his men, "Everyone bring weapons to their posts, we must fight back." ”

The soldiers, having recovered from the panic in front, shouted yes and ran towards their respective firing positions. Ledur turned around and ran to the telephone to pick up the receiver, and he shook the handle on the telephone.

"Hell, the phone line may have been interrupted." Ledur threw down the earpiece, and he turned back and shouted to the soldiers: "It is our luck that the Germans did not cover us with large-caliber artillery groups. They probably thought it was a waste to destroy such a goal as an artillery swarm against ours. Judging by the current situation, they used only three large-caliber long-range guns at most. Don't panic, they won't hit us so easily, trust me. ”

"Boom...... another shell hit the front of the outpost, shaking the dust on the wooden roof of the outpost and falling like rain again.

"Phew...... Bah...... These damn Germans. Ledur flapped the dust and sawdust that had fallen on his hair and uniform, then put on his steel helmet and leaned down to the observation window to raise his binoculars and look across the bank.

"Hell, it looks like the Germans figured it out, it's infantry artillery." Ledur exclaimed, and through the binoculars he saw a group of German soldiers struggling to push two large-caliber infantry guns out of the woods.

"Now the situation is different, we are going to retreat, we are going to take the weapons and ammunition that we can carry, we are going to leave this place." Ledur looked frightened for the first time, and he nervously shouted to his men.

"Sergeant, they are not ready to shoot, we can now use a 37mm gun against them." Lafayette called out with his machine gun.

"No kidding, it's a 75-mm cannon, and at this distance they can't miss. At most, we'll be able to kill one of them, and then we'll be blasted into the sky by the other. Bring your machine gun and ammo, and don't forget your rifle. ”

Directing the rest of his men to gather all the weapons and ammunition they could take away, Ledur loudly refuted Lafayette's ridiculous suggestion.

"It only takes a little over a minute for them to be ready for shelling. I am not afraid of sacrifice, but it must be worthwhile. I don't like this stupid way of dying. Ledur picked up Dewar, who was still unconscious, with his rifle in his hand.

"Now that we have lost contact with the regiment, they do not believe the news of the German attack. We must now go back to the regiment and report back on the situation here. Staying here and making senseless sacrifices will not stop the Germans from advancing, and without our good news, those brothers in the regiment will be attacked by the Germans. With that, Ledur kicked open the wooden door, and he shouted to his subordinates: "Let's go, follow me, don't hesitate along the way, no matter what happens, don't stop you." Then he rushed out of the post with Dewar on his back.

The soldiers hurriedly picked up their weapons and carried heavy ammunition boxes, followed their squad leader closely, and ran desperately towards the food delivery truck parked behind the hillside. Before they could get twenty meters away, the outpost behind them flew into the sky with two violent explosions, and large pieces of rubble and logs continued to fall around the team. Mixed with the untaken weapon parts and ammunition, the wheel of a 37mm rapid-fire gun tumbled and smoked and fell in front of them.

The soldiers remembered what the sergeant had told them, and they ran as fast as they could, and none of them turned back or stopped. They braved the torrential rain of wood, stone and steel, their eyes fixed on the broken truck on the road not far away. Everyone only has one belief in their minds, run, as long as they run to that truck, it will be safe. Ledur took the lead and ran to the side of the truck, he opened the cab door and shoved Dewar inside, then closed the door and turned to the other side, got into the cab and started the car.

"Hurry up, boys. We're going to get out of here. Ledur poked his head out of the cab and shouted to his men as they rolled down the dirt slope. The soldiers finally rushed to the truck, and they struggled to climb over the fence and roll into the car, then threw their weapons and ammunition onto the floor of the car and began to gasp for air.

"Looks like you guys don't have enough training! Everyone's okay, is anyone hurt? Ledur asked loudly through the window behind the cab.

"It's all fine, only David's arm was hit by a rubble, but it was only a skin injury, and the bone was not broken." Lafayette replied loudly.

"That's good, give him a bandage first." Ledur pulled the gear, then exclaimed, "Everyone's seated, we're on our way." Ledur slammed on the accelerator, and the truck turned around with a roar, kicking up a puff of smoke and dust, and sped off in the direction of the village of Itna.

Guderian stood on the turret of his armoured command car and frowned at the calm Somme in front of him, a group of tanks cautiously crossing the pontoon bridge over the river, and the infantry and tanks that had already landed on the opposite bank were marching inland in their own formations.

Guderian turned his head and shouted to the adjutant standing next to the car: "Order the sappers to speed up and build the next pontoon bridge as soon as possible." Tell the convoy behind you to slow down and don't huddle together. It looks like we're going to fall behind. ”

"Yes, General." The adjutant hurriedly saluted Guderian, and then ran towards the communication car next to him.

"General, we are not lagging behind, General Kleist and General Reinhardt are meeting fierce resistance, and they are fighting with the enemy for a breakthrough. I think we were the first to break through the Somme. Guderian's chief of staff said with a telegram on the side.

"According to the intelligence, the crossing we chose should not have any defense, and it was the weakest link in the entire French defence. But when our engineering unit arrived, they found that the French had set up a post on the dirt slope over there. The chief of staff pointed to a small dirt slope on the opposite shore and said that there was only a pile of smoking wreckage left on the dirt slope.

As a result, they had to call for long-range artillery support, and an artillery reconnaissance and command group, together with three 150-mm self-propelled guns of the 20th Artillery Regiment, carried out long-range shelling of the fortifications, but the results were very poor. In the end, it was the 75-mm infantry guns of the 39th Mechanized Infantry Battalion, which caught up from behind, that solved the problem. As a result, half an hour was wasted. The chief of staff reported lightly.

Guderian looked back depressedly at the sappers who were busy on the riverbank, and now the sappers were relying on two mechanical air pumps to inflate the huge pontoons, three or four of the same pontoons had been pushed into the river, and on each pontoon there were two sappers with penny cāo longitudinals, and they cried out loudly, trying to line up the pontoons, so that the other sappers who were prepared on the shore could lay metal bridges on the pontoons.

"It's still too slow. We must occupy the village of Itna before dark, and no later than midnight. Early tomorrow morning we will attack the depth of the French Fourth Army. You must know that the Führer is full of expectations for my performance in this campaign, and if I cannot complete the combat mission within the allotted time this time, I do not know how to face him again. Guderian said worriedly to his chief of staff.

"I'm confident that we'll be able to get things done as planned. I did not expect the Führer to have so much faith in us that he put all his direct 1st Infantry Division under your command, while his Cyprus Regiment followed us closely. The Führer's immediate legion will hold you out. This kind of honor is not something that can be won by just anyone. I think our soldiers know that very well, and they do their best. General, you should now show the same momentum that you used to fight in the previous stage, and we will show it well in front of the Führer. ”

"I know what I'm going to do, Chief of Staff. Okay, let's cross the river. The tanks finally crawled slowly across the pontoon, and now that the pontoon bridge was empty, Guderian turned back to his men and shouted, "All of you, get on board, we're going to cross the river." The convoy maintains a forward speed. Then he got into the turret.

With the roar of the engine, a thick puff of green smoke erupted from the exhaust pipe of the armored vehicle, and the armored command vehicle slowly climbed onto the road and headed for the pontoon. Behind Guderian was his direct tank battalion, all of which consisted of tanks No. 3 and No. 4, the Iron Cross insignia painted on the gray turrets of the Iron Behemoth and the large white G glinting in the sunlight.

As Guderian crossed the Somme with his massive armored legion, Ledur and his men's trucks stumbled into the village of Itna. The trucks sped down the narrow streets of the village, and the French soldiers scattered in panic as the horns continued to blaze. Where the truck passed, it left behind a trail of dust and angry expletives.

The Crazy Truck finally stopped in front of the regimental headquarters, and Ledur opened the door and jumped out of the cab as fast as he could, and with the help of his men, he lifted Dewar out of the car. The guards at the entrance of the regimental headquarters did not understand what was going on, and they nervously gathered around the bewildered soldiers to ask about the situation.

"Get out of the way, I'll go and report to the lieutenant colonel first, and you carry Sergeant Dewar to the hospital, and gather here later." After explaining to the soldiers, Ledur hurried towards the regimental headquarters.

"I don't think you all have to go to the hospital, you two just carry Sergeant Dewar, and David, you go and see your arm. The others helped me unload the weapons and ammunition from the car, the car can't be parked here, we have to move it. When Ledur entered the regimental headquarters, Lafayette turned to his comrades and said that he was now the highest-ranking soldier in the group.

The soldiers, under Lafayette's command, lifted the pile of ammunition and guns off the truck and then pushed it to a clearing across the street. When they had done all this, they sat down in the open space outside the regimental headquarters, and they waited for Ledur to come out as they sorted out their weapons. It wasn't long before Lafayette saw the regimental commander, Lieutenant Colonel Devadouet, walk out of the regimental headquarters with a serious face, followed by a group of officers such as the lieutenant colonel's adjutant and staff officers. Lafayette hurriedly beckoned his comrades to stand up and salute the officers, and Lieutenant Colonel de Vadoué nodded to them and got into his car. The other officers didn't even look at them, they panicked into another car, and then the two cars roared to the other side of the street.

"Lafayette." Ledur slowly paced out the gates of the regimental headquarters, and he shouted to his little machine gunner. Hearing Ledur's shout, Lafayette quickly turned around.

"Yes, Sergeant."

"Tell the brethren to prepare, we have work to do."

"Yes, Sergeant. Everybody clean up. Lafayette slung his rifle on his back, carrying a machine gun and ammunition, and walked towards Ledur.

"Sergeant, you've reported to the lieutenant colonel."

"Yes." Ledur took the rifle handed to him by another soldier, then pulled the bolt and looked into the bomb bay.

"Then the lieutenant colonel didn't say anything." Lafayette asked.

"Say what?" Ledur turned his head to look at Lafayette in confusion.

"Well, about our retreat." Lafayette whispered.

"Oh, that's what you said." Ledur chuckled softly, and he pressed the brim of Lafayette's steel helmet with his hand and said in a loud voice: "No, nothing was said. Now he has more important things to consider. ”

Speaking to his men, Ledur said, "We now have a new job, and we have been assigned to the position of the First Company. We were going to stop the German offensive there. ”

Then he said to the two black soldiers, "You two are now under my command, and you don't have to go back to the logistics team." Lafayette, get them two rifles. ”

"Yes, Sergeant." Lafayette nodded in agreement. The two black soldiers still had the same nonchalant expressions, and they just nodded their heads to Ledur in understanding.

"Alright, take our stuff and stand upright...... Lined up and started to move towards a company position. Ledur slung his rifle and shouted the command, leading his soldiers in a stride toward the outskirts of the village.

They found the commander of a company, Second Lieutenant Dolwan, in the command post of the outlying position. He seemed pleased that Lieutenant Colonel Dvadoué had assigned them to his ranks. He patted Ledur the shoulder, with whom he had fought in the last war, and he knew what this experienced veteran was capable of.

Dolwan then led them to a defensive bunker made of large pieces of rubble, and he pointed to the ten-meter-long bunker and said, "This is your position. ”

"Why isn't it the first line of defense?" Lafayette whispered to Pierre, who saw soldiers reinforcing their trenches in the distance, and it seemed that the battle report had been released, and they were making the final preparations before the battle.

Unexpectedly, Lafayette's whispered words were heard by Second Lieutenant Dorwan, who frowned and turned to Lafayette and said, "Soldier, what did you say?" ”

"Report sir, didn't say anything." Lafayette replied in a whisper.

"I heard you, why didn't you put you on the first line of defense, didn't you?" Dolwan's voice grew stern.

"Yes, sir."

"There is no second line of defense, from the outskirts of the village all the way to you. In front of the Germans, we had no way out, we could only hold every inch of trenches, every firing point, every section of bunker. Every soldier had to defend France with his life. We must not have the slightest thought of retreating, this is the same as the outermost trenches, and you and the soldiers in the trenches outside must fight to the last breath for France. ”

Dolvain looked at Lafayette's increasingly lowered head and continued: "I forgive you for that kind of speech, and I can see that you are a very good soldier, and you have a strong will to fight, which is very good. However, you should also have a quality that a good soldier must have, and that is to obey orders. You must obey the orders of your superiors unconditionally, you will stay where you are ordered to defend the position, and you must have the determination to die there when you are ordered to persevere to the end. Do you understand? ”

"Understood, sir." Lafayette's body was hot, and he puffed up his chest and replied loudly.

"Very well, soldier."

A smile appeared on the corner of Dorwan's mouth, and then he pointed to the two "Huggins" 37mm anti-tank guns not far away and said: "That's why you are here, these cannons are our last barrier. We don't have many of these anti-tank weapons, they are assigned to various important positions. But my soldiers were all placed on the various positions, and there was no extra man to protect the guns. Earlier, I was still worried that I couldn't find the soldiers who could defend these two guns, but I didn't expect the lieutenant colonel to send you to me. Your task is to hold this position, and not to allow any German infantry to come near these cannons. Do you understand? ”

"Understood, sir." The soldiers replied loudly.

"Okay, you have three machine guns, you should be able to do this, I'll send some ammo for you later." Now you can disband and build your own firing positions. Dolwan ordered with a smile.

"Yes, sir." The soldiers dispersed, choosing a suitable position for the hypothetical weapon on the stretch of bunker, and then began to carry sandbags stacked aside to set up firing positions.

"Come with me, Ledur." Dolwan grabbed Ledur, who was about to go up to help, and he pulled Ledur aside and said with a smile: "You have a very good group of soldiers." ”

"yes, they're all good boys, especially that Lafayette, who's like me twenty years ago." Ledur turned his head to look at his busy subordinates with a proud expression.

"Well, come to me. On my side, as we did more than twenty years ago, we fought side by side. Dolwan whispered, "I'll send another non-commissioned officer to lead these children, so don't worry." I need you and your experience very much right now. As you said earlier, they are excellent and should be able to take care of themselves. ”

"You mean to go to the company?" Ledur groaned for a moment, and then he said firmly to Dolwan, "No, I think I'd better stay here, these children need me more than you." They all trust me, and without me they would probably have lost their lives for some stupid reason. It's my responsibility to take care of them until the last second. I know exactly what you mean, Dolwan, and I appreciate your kindness. But I really can't leave these boys. ”

"Well, I know I can't convince you, so let it be." Dolwan nodded understandingly, and he sighed deeply.

"Be careful, old friend. This time, the Germans attacked on all fronts and took care of themselves. Dolwan said melancholy.

"I understand, I know, old friend, you take care of yourself too." Ledur patted Dolvan on the shoulder.

"Then I'm leaving, and I still have some important things to prepare." Dolwan turned and walked towards the outer fortifications.

"Goodbye, old friend." Ledur whispered goodbye to Dolwan's back, then turned and walked over to his men.

"How's it going, boys...... Well? What are you doing, what is that, do you want to make a grave for yourself in advance? David, how's your hand...... Pulwan, that's a grenade, do you want to blow us all up into the sky? Lafayette, if I were the Germans, the first thing I would see would be you, what are you doing with machine gun mounts so high, can't you wait to see the angels? ”

Ledur's loud voice echoed over the small position.

As the last sandbag was placed on the stone wall, Ledur stood up and looked out at the horizon in the distance, a look of worry in his eyes.

Billowing smoke and dust have risen on the horizon, and the mighty German Panzer Corps is rapidly approaching here, and it will be a brutal battle.

Ledur had a vague hunch in his heart that this fight would also be his last in the world

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