It was because they did not encounter the enemy along the way that the Italian soldiers became more cautious in their movements, knowing that they could not always be so lucky, and God knows which nearby hill would ambush the Greek soldiers, perhaps they had already prepared for their large targets to rush into the trap that had been set up.

The infantry squads marched in two columns along the shoulders on either side of the road, and they had heard that the French liked to lay mines in the middle of the road, and perhaps the Greeks would too.

The squad leader led a rifleman at the front of the line, and in the time after the invasion began, the sergeant showed extraordinary professionalism and bravery, which is why he was popular with the ordinary soldiers in the company, who always hoped that their leader would be a responsible warrior who could lead them through the obstacles and victory.

The 23rd Infantry Division had never participated in actual combat before, so it still maintained a strong morale, and compared to those comrades who were beaten by the French in the Alpine Line, the soldiers of the [Filana] Division still had a romantic expectation of war.

These Italian soldiers were trained more in positional warfare, they were not professionally trained mountain infantry, so they were only adapted to fighting in the plains. The only preparation the General Staff had made for the battle, three days before the start of the battle, had sent out a number of small manuals with tips on mountain warfare, but the number was very limited, and many people still did not get it.

Castellino didn't get the legendary manual either, so he could only follow the content of the army's combat regulations and grope his subordinates to act, which shows that the sergeant is very talented in military affairs, but unfortunately he did not go to a regular military school, so unless he made some earth-shattering feats on the battlefield, it was impossible for him to be promoted to officer by his superiors in this life.

There is a saying in China that the mountain runs a dead horse, and the situation is the same in Greece, where the Italians walked for fifteen minutes on the mountain road before they finally reached the entrance of the village.

It is a medium-sized Greek mountain village, with more than two dozen buildings of various sizes, neatly arranged on both sides of the road, most of them old wooden houses, and some small two-story brick and wood buildings.

The rain was lighter than before, and there was not a single figure to be seen on the road in the village, and two large dogs with collars but no leashes stood in the middle of the road at the entrance of the village, barking at strange visitors.

"Go ahead, search every house here, get all the Greeks you can find and gather in the center of the village, Giuliano, you have a machine gun crew and six men in charge of the south flank. Alberto, Maricino, you two go and occupy the bell tower. Otokino, you set up a machine-gun fire point at the entrance of the village and block the central road. The rest followed me and got into action now. ”

Castellino turned around and ordered to his subordinates with a serious expression, this is the first time he has led this squad to conduct actual combat, and whether he can come up with a beautiful answer sheet depends on the performance of every soldier here.

Searching the village, this is the favorite and most hated task of the Italian infantry, the reason for the liking is that if it goes well, everyone can get some extra oil and water, although the military regulations explicitly prohibit this kind of behavior, but petty theft is always difficult to avoid, and the officers do not care about this kind of thing, if you want to say that you hate it, that is, you may encounter unknown dangers, and there are always some people who choose to fight to the death with the invaders in order to protect their families and property.

In a village like this in the mountains, almost every household was armed against wild beasts and unscrupulous outsiders, and it was evident that in the eyes of the Greeks, these Italian invading armies counted both.

With a bayonet rifle in his hand, and scaring off the two barking dogs, Corporal Giuliano led the two riflemen to the first courtyard at the entrance of the village. Pushing open the fence gate, the Italian walked into the yard, the owner of the house was obviously just a farmer, the yard had some vegetables planted, and in the wooden shed on one side of the board house was parked a rickshaw cart full of straw, and a wooden pitchfork leaned against the post of the wooden shed.

The slab house looked old, most of the chalk on the walls had peeled off, revealing the gray-white planks underneath, and the door was closed but not locked.

Giuliano waved at a rifleman, then took his Carcano rifle and aimed it at the door. Confirming that his comrades were ready to take cover, the soldier who had been targeted stepped forward cautiously and slowly, and then kicked the door so hard that the door was kicked open at once, and the soldier who kicked the door rushed into the room with a rifle in hand.

"Corporal, there's no one inside." After a few moments, the soldier poked his head out of the window on the side of the house and reported.

Giuliano breathed a sigh of relief, he lowered his rifle, turned his face to look at the other soldier, and shrugged his shoulders in the opposite direction to the deputy squad leader.

"Go in and have a look." Giuliano saddled his rifle and led his men into the board room.

"There's no one upstairs either, sergeant." Private Gasparé walked into the kitchen and reported to Castellino.

"The soup is still warm, and they haven't been gone for long." Castellino tossed the spoon back into the soup can on the stovetop.

"If you search for the next one, someone will choose to stay in the village." The sergeant picked up his carbine from the table and strode out of the kitchen.

"The Greeks have all run away, and we have searched a few houses in the south, and they have not even taken their clothes with them." A rifleman stood in the rain and reported to the sergeant.

"Perhaps they heard that we were coming, and fled in fear, these Greeks are as cowardly as rats," said another soldier with a laugh.

"Don't underestimate these Greeks, you haven't dealt with them, they're just as savage as the Turks." Castellino shook his head and warned his men.

"Why is it just you, and the others? And what about Corporal Giuliano? ”

"I didn't see the corporal, maybe I was sheltering from the rain in the house, everyone was tired, sergeant." The soldier replied.

"What nonsense, order everyone to assemble, and the entire village must be thoroughly searched before the company arrives." Castellino almost crooked his nose in anger, this group of guys took the war for something, was it an armed outing?

"The Greeks should all run out, sergeant, let's wait until the big army arrives before searching." Gasparé chimed in.

"The company commander gave me the task of capturing this village, and this mission will not be completed until the last house is searched!" Castellino walked to the middle of the road and pulled out his whistle from under the poncho, followed by a sharp assembly whistle that echoed through the peaceful mountain village.

Immediately, three riflemen hurried out of a nearby resident's house, still carrying unloaded backpacks and their respective rifles, and several of them hurriedly ran in front of the sergeant.

"So just a few of you?" The squad leader looked at the number of people in front of him, and he didn't even have half of the team.

"Giuliano!" Castellino shouted loudly to his vice-squad leader, but received no response.

"Neno! Katias! Sabatino! The sergeant continued to call out the names of the rest of his men.

"Tulio! Robert! Where the hell are you? Castellino felt that something was wrong with the situation, although these people were a little lazy, they would still obey their orders honestly, and it was impossible for them to continue to shrink into the room and refuse to show their faces after hearing their call.

"By the way, Alberto and Maricino." The sergeant remembered that he had sent two of his men to occupy the bell tower in the center of the village, and that they might be able to see something, and Caltantino and the few remaining riflemen ran quickly towards the bell tower.

But before they could reach the building, they were surprised to find two figures draped in camouflage under the windowsill on the roof. The two Italian riflemen hung motionless, seemingly dead, and although their faces could not be seen, everyone knew that they were Alberto and Maricino.

"Our Lady is above." Gasparé's face turned pale with fright, and he quickly gestured to his chest with a cross.

"It's a trap!" Caltantino was already sure that he had been ambushed by the Greeks, but he didn't know whether it was the Greek villagers or the regular army who attacked him.

"Retreat, get out of this village!" The sergeant quickly made the decision that he should leave the trap immediately with the rest of his men before the enemy situation became clear.

"But what about Corporal Giuliano?"

"They must be the same as the two guys above, they're all finished, do you want to go and be with them?"

"Run, you idiot, follow the sergeant's orders, and when we have joined the army, we'll make a comeback and crush this damn village completely." The soldiers were arguing as they ran after the sergeant.

At that moment, a gunshot rang out from a building on the side of the road, and one of the riflemen at the end of the line fell headlong into the muddy street. As if a switch had been flipped up, the streets were surrounded by a dense burst of fire, bullets raining down on the Italian invaders, and one after another the riflemen were hit and overturned on the way to escape.

Kastanpano ran towards the entrance of the village, where his only way of life was to escape, and as long as he could escape from this ambush alive this time, he swore to God that he would never be a hero again, and if he could, he would immediately ask his superiors to retire and return to his hometown to take care of the dozen goats.

The sergeant took off his poncho, threw away his heavy backpack, and finally threw away his carbine, like a sprinter in the middle of a sports meeting, single-mindedly sprinting to the finish line.

Just as Castellino was about to run to the entrance of the village, he saw through the rain that he had left behind the machine gun team from a distance, the two soldiers were lying on the side of the road with their backs facing the sky, and a man in a light-colored vest was crouching next to the corpse of one of them, busy with something.

The Greek then saw the Italian sergeant running towards the entrance of the village, and he slowly stood up. Castellino finally knew what the man was doing, the other man was holding the head of a freshly cut Italian soldier in his hand, and the blood mixed with the rain flowed down the soft tissues involved in the neck to the ground.

"Oh, merciful Lord."

The Italians had never seen such a terrible sight, Castellino had forgotten that he was a glorious soldier of the Royal Italian Army, and at this moment he screamed like a woman who had stepped on a mouse, and his men, if they were still alive, would never have believed that such a voice could have been made by the brave Sergeant Castellino.

The Italian did not dare to go any closer to the demonic Greek, and he turned a sharp corner and ran towards a courtyard by the side of the street, which was already the entrance to the village, and Castellino only had to cross this courtyard to escape from this terrible place.

The fence door of the courtyard was locked, but it could not stop the Italian sergeant's survival, he grabbed the plank of the fence wall, and quickly climbed over this obstacle, he this sergeant was not bought with money, it was indeed after a long and rigorous training.

A small field had opened up in the yard, and some unknown plants were planted, perhaps flowers or herbs, but Castellino had no interest in it, and all he was thinking about now was to escape from this dangerous village.

The soil in the field was ploughed, and when the rain soaked it became very soft, the Italian stepped on it, and the soil sank directly into his legs. Castampano wore a pair of short leather shoes issued by the army, wearing leather leggings issued only by non-commissioned officers, and the sticky soil had a great adsorption force, and the Italians could only stagger forward with one foot deep and one foot shallow.

Just as he was about to walk out of the field, a dull boom suddenly sounded beside him, it sounded like a squib was placed beside him, and the black-brown wet soil was scattered and splashed in all directions, and in the corner of the Italian sergeant's eye, a black object suddenly jumped out of the ground, and before Castampano could react, a roar sounded, and the Italian sergeant only felt a white light flash in front of him, and then completely lost consciousness.

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Thank you all for your support. (To be continued.) )