It was silent, and no sound could be heard. There are no human figures in the wilderness, only the trenches and foxholes crisscrossing the yellow earth remind people that this is a battlefield, and try not to expose themselves to the ground unless necessary.

The Russian offensive on Astrakhan ended in failure. Chen Han's big counterattack will naturally come.

On the battlefield, it is always either the east wind that overpowers the west wind, or the west wind that overpowers the east wind.

Step by step, the Russian army retreated from the outer battlefield of Astrakhan, to the position they had laid out at the mouth of the Volga River, to the Russian town of Novo-Astrakhan.

Tens of thousands of Western-style rockets knocked the entire battlefield into the dark. After the invention of the rocket by the Europeans, it also attracted the attention of the Wehrmacht, which although they had a great indifference, but their long range was their greatest strength.

Although the existence of the tail does not completely make up for the shortcomings of the rocket, it can also make the rocket a higher level than the same period in history.

Today's rockets, no one requires them to be accurate to half a meter, thirty centimeters, or even a few centimeters. As long as they can land thirty or twenty meters around their target after flying a kilometer or two, it is a huge victory. As a weapon, they have their own existential value.

At the very least, this weapon is cheap to build, fast to produce, and does not require much advanced technology to operate, making it a good weapon for infantry attacks and long-range attacks.

No matter how small the explosive charge of the rocket is, it is still an explosion, which is much more visually effective than the iron egg falling to the ground. And this thing can also change the recipe, from explosion to arson burning, with only a slight adjustment.

The explosive power of a rocket is rubbish, and ten rockets tied together are not as good as a small rocket, but in terms of arson, it is much more convenient to use this thing with a hot bomb.

Now there are no trees or grass in sight in this land, and all the trees have been destroyed. Most of them had been cut down by the Russians before, and used as materials for fortifications to be used on the position, and even the stumps came in handy, turning them into small tables and primitive stools under the tunnels. And the small and everywhere weeds all fell under the bombardment of rockets, rockets and artillery shells.

Chen Han had already launched two large-scale attacks on the Russian defensive positions in front of him, and sporadic battalion-level attacks were held every day, but there was no progress.

Astrakhan had already sent troops by land from the south to attack the Russians. However, the Russians' transport lines on the Volga still existed, and it was impossible to say when they would be able to take it.

If the Volga is not cut off, the Russians will be able to block it here until next year.

And if Chen Han can't use the Volga River, and there is such a group of Russian troops blocked at his doorstep [Astrakhan], it is impossible to really develop the lower Volga River basin.

Wang Xipeng, a battalion staff officer, sat on a stool made of tree stumps, holding a notebook in one hand, a pencil in the other, and a hard board underneath, using his knees as a table, and carefully making battlefield records.

This is the homework assigned by the military school teacher.

As a soldier who was not born as a military cadet, 27-year-old Wang Xipeng started as a small soldier and spent a full eight years before he entered the Central China Army Command College in Wuhan as a reserve officer and became a cadet of this military academy.

Wang Xipeng is twenty-seven years old this year, a native of Ninghe, Tianjin, joined the army at the age of eighteen, is literate and hyphenated, and writes good calligraphy, but he doesn't even have a primary school graduation certificate, and he reads Mandarin very well, but in mathematics it is completely at the level of a primary school student, which is only because of his father Wang Zhizuo, who has insisted on the old Confucianism for 30 years.

As a staunch old Confucianist, Wang Zhizuo's sense of the new education promoted by Chen Han can be imagined. So when the Wang family was poor, he couldn't open the pot, and before Wang Xipeng took the initiative to join the army, he didn't go to school for a day.

In the army, Wang Xipeng started as a small soldier, and at the same time made up for various knowledge such as mathematics, geography, and world history in the army's training classes, and completed the transformation from sergeant to officer at the age of 22.

At the age of 24, Wang Xipeng's military rank was promoted from corporal to sergeant, and the following year, just a month after Wang Xipeng's 25th birthday, he received an admission letter from the Central China Army Command College.

After the Sino-Russian War began, Wang Xipeng and many other military cadets were urgently deployed to the northwest, and they were either sent to the front-line troops of the battalions and regiments, or to the headquarters and logistics units at all levels, and really experienced the operation of this war of hundreds of thousands of people.

There must have been people who died on the battlefield, such as Ge Yunfei, a classmate who came with Wang Xipeng, whose life trajectory is similar to Wang Xipeng's, and the only difference between the two is that the age difference is three years.

Wang Xipeng has a very good relationship with Ge Yunfei, and in this war, Wang Xipeng saw his good friend engulfed by a rocket.

Yes, Ge Yunfei was crushed.

After the war, Wang Xipeng only picked up one of his fingers, which had a scarred wound on the upper part of this finger. Wang Xipeng judged based on this that this finger belonged to his good friend Ge Yunfei.

The war is in a state of confrontation, the positions of the two sides are reversed, the attacker becomes the defender, and the defender becomes the attacker.

Now it was Chen Han's turn to attack the Russians at night, and both large-scale attacks took place at night. Like the 015 position, the two armies were fighting each other under the golden sun, and the hearts of Chen Wei and others, who knew very well the final casualty figures of that battle, could not bear such a huge number.

But it is the soldiers who fight the war, that is, the human life. Otherwise, how could the number of casualties of the Russian army exceed that of Chen Han? And after the huge casualties, such a tough character as Bagration took the initiative to withdraw his troops. The 015 real war was advertised as a 'flesh mill' by newspapers in many countries such as Chen Han, Japan, and Siam.

The battalion officer of Wang Xipeng's battalion was a very good comrade who listened to the commander's words, and he kept in mind the regiment's instructions and meticulously completed them. And the regimental leader of this regiment, Zheng Guohong, is a strengthened version of a good comrade. They firmly believed in the slogan of the Wehrmacht of 'sweating more before the war and shedding less blood during the war,' and when it was the turn of his unit to step forward, he immediately led his subordinates to repair and strengthen the field fortifications as soon as he took up the position, and urged all battalions to complete and strengthen the trenches, communication trenches, anti-artillery bunkers, foxholes, and so on in strict accordance with the operational regulations.

In the early morning, an order came from the superiors that Wang Xipeng's battalion had begun to assemble. A new battle is about to begin, and all units on the front line must be ready to meet it.

After receiving the order, the battalion officer of Wang Xipeng's battalion immediately ordered his subordinates to prepare for battle.

And on the opposite position, the Russian army also discovered the movements of the Wehrmacht, and waited for the Wehrmacht to let go.

However, this was a whole morning, and seeing that it was noon, the Wehrmacht still did not attack, Wang Xipeng was a little impatient, and he himself was a little impatient.

Although attacking will kill people, and many people will die, even himself. But this is like a knife hanging over the head, is this knife terrible when it has fallen, or is it more fearful when it hangs but does not fall?

In order to calm down, to divert attention, and to get out of the 'homework' as soon as possible, Wang Xipeng took out his notebook and pencil.

However, he could not concentrate all the time, and after writing a few lines, Wang Xipeng could no longer concentrate, so he put the notebook back in his military pocket and inserted the pencil into the crack of the stump stool. Stand up and look west with your binoculars in hand.

There was still no movement on the other side.

After lunch, it was not until three o'clock in the afternoon. "Check the weapon!" The shouts finally rang out over the Wehrmacht positions.

Wang Xipeng was in the trench, shouting twice to the left and right with his throat pulled. Although he is a staff officer of the battalion headquarters, he is a middle-level officer on the front-line position.

The soldiers were silent, each checking the weapons in their hands. The fire detachment should also pay attention to the rockets, if there is a problem with the ignition mechanism when the rockets are fired, it will be enough to be alarmed.

The only sound of heavy breathing of the soldiers could be heard from the position, as well as the rattle of grinding bayonets and shoving grenades into their waists.

Wang Xipeng quietly poked his head out and looked left and right, but he could see some vague shadows preparing. This offensive battle required at least three battalions. Moreover, the rear defense line also has small forces entering the position one after another. Some of them were jumping into the trench where Wang Xipeng was, and they carried more than a dozen heavy crates for him. It was full of grenades and rockets.

"Don't be nervous. Be calm, be calm! Be careful to distance yourself from your peers, but don't open source. ”

"Rockets don't have long eyes, they hit and they hit. Where will the dawn fly, if it falls to the north, it is the north, and when it falls to the south, it is the south. If it falls on top of our heads, we are unlucky. Don't be afraid of guns, we are infantry, we can crawl. Always keep an eye on the terrain around you, and lie on the ground when you have a premonition of danger, preferably with a pit for you to take shelter into. ”

Wang Xipeng pinched the sweat of his palms and attacked the opponent's defense line in broad daylight, which required a lot of sacrifice. The only thing he arrived in was fortunately that he was in the Wehrmacht, not in the army of the Seven Khanates, whose will to fight was called a problematic.

The observation balloons on both sides are rising high, the Chinese shelling is coming, and the Russian artillery is also ready to fire.

Wang Xipeng seemed to hear the movement on the left, he turned his head to look over there, and seemed to see many figures appear in an instant. Raising the binoculars to look again, the position over there was already empty, and the vague figures that appeared on the horizon just now were all gone, as if they were his illusion just now.