All of these answers had just come to Shang Yujun's mind, and they seemed to have an important connection with a more esoteric question that he had been pondering since he entered the war; It was impossible for him not to continue thinking along this line of thought. He had vaguely realized that, apart from their different situations, he and the little captive should be thinking about the same problem in the face of war.

After eating the dry food, the big man continued his journey with the little captive. Shang Yujun returned to his cave in the forest and sat down. Before the little captive came to the mountain stream, he still thought about the war on No. 1 Ridge according to the general law of war, and the general law of war told him that the Soviet army would counter-bombard after the Chinese army's shelling, and now the Soviet army's counter-shelling has not happened, and he has never dared to believe that the war on No. 1 Ridge has ended; After the little captive came to the mountain stream, because he saw with his own eyes how tattered the clothes of this boy, who he once regarded as the "Soviet army," how hungry he was, and how weak his spirit was, he had a new explanation for the fact that the Soviet army did not open fire on the No. 1 ridge and the mountain stream this morning in accordance with the general law of war: This is a very poor army raised by a very poor country, and their failure to fire artillery may have something to do with the word "poor." In this instant, he found himself willing to believe that the war on the No. 1 Ridge was over!

A genuine, deep sense of joy overflowed through his life. If the war on Ridge No. 1 is over, he and their platoon will have nothing to fight! What I've been worrying about for more than three months, death, won't happen!

He lay down on his back on the grass in front of the cave, his eyes looking through the gaps in the leaves of the forest, looking at the blue sky of the early morning in the war zone. At this moment, his heart is as pure and relaxed as the sky, shining with the brilliant sunshine of life. “…… I'm alive, yes," he thought with tears in his eyes, "how beautiful it is to be alive, and to be alive alone is a wonderful thing." I didn't understand this ...... in the past."

A strange, faint whistle from a distant mountain forest pierced the beautiful morning sky and glided from nowhere, quickly turning into a sharp falling whistle. Instinctively, he sat up straight, without thinking about it, but his eyes saw through the gap in the trees the scene down the slope: two rows of tall warriors were walking along the path of the forest, and the corners of their mouths were biting a young grass stalk that shimmered green in the sun, and suddenly, a black and red fire rose up in a cloud of gray-white smoke, and mud, gravel, broken branches and leaves of trees, and some slimy debris immediately rained down on the forest. He only paid attention to the battlefield in his heart, and did not accept the facts that had already been thought of, so he did not hear any sound.

The smoke cleared, and he saw that there was only a deep pit left in that place, but the fighters of the 2nd platoon were gone. "Where has he gone?" For a moment, he wondered, looking at the bushes burning by the pit, his heart suddenly tightened, "Did he have time to dodge?" …… Is he dead? Believing that the man must have fled to the stream below before the shell hit the ground, he set his sights on the stream. The sun shone brightly on part of the water, and two white columns of water were rushing up from near the cookclass's picnic site; A marching pot full of white rice flew diagonally towards the opposite slope in its entirety; Several gray and black pillars of smoke also rose into the sky from the forest where the Seventh Company was located; The hearing barrier that suddenly appeared in his consciousness was removed, and Shang Yujun heard the earth-shattering explosion of bombshells one after another. Suddenly, he saw Liang Tenghui, the instructor, who did not reach the bottom of the stream and ran back into the forest, his face was pale, and he was trembling so much that he couldn't say a complete sentence: "He fucking these artillerymen!" …… What the fuck are they going to fuck off! ”

Another shell landed in the middle of the forest and exploded, and Liang Tenghui disappeared in a blink of an eye. What Shang Yujun heard was a whistle from the company's headquarters. The company commander Cheng Yukun ran over with a blue and gray face, and while blowing the white metal object in his hand fiercely, he shouted something in panic and anger. His shouts caused the warriors inside and outside the forest to fall into their holes like grass blown down by a hurricane. Shang Yujun jumped up from the ground, still not accepting what had happened in his consciousness, Cheng Yukun ran to him, stared at him with blood-red eyes and scolded: "Mom, are you deaf?!" …… Don't hurry up and call your soldiers hidden! ”

The company commander's expression was so hideous, and in a flash, Shang Yujun seemed to understand everything!

Looking back at the campsite, there was no one in the woods. He had just crawled into the hole when a cannonball landed with his ass not far from the hole, blowing up a pine tree the size of a bowl. The tree collapsed at the mouth of the cave, and he could clearly see that the needle-like leaves of the green crown still shimmered with life.

Clusters of fireworks burned in the forest, and the roar of cannonballs landing on the ground rang out one after another. Shang Yujun suddenly stopped paying attention to them again, he felt that he had more important and urgent things to pay attention to and think about in his heart, and his eyes fell on the crater at the edge of the forest again. A cloud of green smoke drifted from the crater, and the sun shone obliquely on it like a translucent veil; In the bushes along the edge of the pit, the black and red flames burned brighter and stronger, and from time to time there was a crackling sound that seemed to him more terrifying than the sound of a cannonball exploding. “…… Where's that warrior? The question came to his mind again, "What's his name?" Where is he from? Where did he just walk back from in a happy way? …… He's dead. It occurred to him suddenly. Death is not flesh and blood, not corpses, but a deep pit outside the forest, leaving nothing!

Then there was a gap in Shang Yujun's consciousness for a tenth of a second, and then, there was a sudden palpitation in the depths of his life. He didn't know what it meant, but the morning with its clear blue sky, beautiful white clouds, and dazzling sunshine turned dark before his eyes!

When the first shell fell from the mountain stream, Cheng Yukun was still sitting in the company's shelter department. He heard an explosion at once; And there was such a feeling: here he just longed for the Soviet shells to fly, to let the whole company know that he was not a coward, and the Soviet shells arrived!

Without the slightest hesitation, he got out of the shelter, and judging from the smoke that had risen from the explosion, the shells had probably fallen into the camp of the third platoon; His heart twitched greatly, and he ran impulsively towards the place where the smoke rose, and now he had nothing but hostility in his heart, and the thought of showing his bravery in front of the whole company had long been forgotten!

At this time, several more shells fell into the ravine and the woods on both sides. Cheng Yukun heard the whistling sound of a cannonball falling from a distance, his face turned white unconsciously, and he crawled to the ground early, buried his head deep behind a stone, and looked at it all over, waiting for the cannonball to land and explode. At this moment, there was only this cannonball left in his life consciousness; The shell fell down a slope far from him, exploded, and he heard a dull thud.

The stagnant consciousness flowed again: he should hurry up and remind the whole company to hide!

Running into the forest in front of him again, Cheng Yukun's legs were still shaking; But the loud whistle in his mouth emboldened him, and made him think that he was doing something important, and without him reminding the whole company, I don't know how many people would have been killed by shells! He really saw a person in the camp of the 3rd platoon who heard the explosion of the shells but did not hide in the hole, the leader of the 3rd platoon, Shang Yujun, this student officer had bumped into him last night, but at this moment he seemed to be stunned and didn't know what to do; He yelled at him twice, and then rushed in the direction of the 2nd row of camps; But the forest was already empty, and he saw only a cannonball explode a black and red smoke in the camp in the first row of camps, and immediately a pine tree crackled and burned; A section of tree roots exposed outside the stratum stumbled him, he threw himself down, got up, fear swelled in his mind, he decided not to go to the 1st platoon, but to go back to the company shelter!

Now he was no longer running in the woods; The fall had brought him down the slope, and when he got up again, he found himself outside the woods; Running outside the woods was of course much faster than there were as many obstacles in the woods, but he couldn't help but worry that the shells would happen to fall in front of him, so that there would be no tree trunks around him to use as shelter, so he changed course and went back to the woods.

He didn't go very deep, but only ran where the trunks of the trees were sparse at the edge of the woods. As he ran, his steps and the urgent chaos of thoughts in his mind froze at the same time—two meters away, on a green and shining grass illuminated by the sun, something very glaring appeared. At first all he could see was a pair of trouser legs the same color as grass, and then he realized that it was a complete human leg that had been cut from the hip!

It was a living human leg, as if life was still lingering on one of the bloody and blurred ends, and he didn't see it, only the undamaged leg with a large infantry stab-proof shoe; There's a piece of red mud stuck to the bottom of this shoe!

Cheng Yukun's head buzzed, and the blood on his body burned like gasoline on fire! He looked at the man's leg for two seconds, then hurried around it. He was only a few steps away from the company headquarters, but his legs were too weak to walk!

He finally walked into the shelter department, and saw that the instructor Liang Tenghui was cowering in a corner, and the anger immediately rose!

"Instructor, the shells have killed our men, and you are still here in peace! …… I went to see it just now, and it was in the forest on the other side of the 3rd row! You should go over and take a look and think about what to do with it! ”

Before the war, the responsibilities of the two of them were divided: Cheng Yukun was mainly responsible for operational command, and Liang Tenghui was responsible for the affairs of the wounded and martyrs. Since this kind of thing happened, of course, Liang Tenghui couldn't continue to hide in the shelter.

"Didn't you just go once? How not to deal with it! Liang Tenghui still said to him; A cannonball landed nearby and exploded, and with the help of the light leaking in from the entrance and exit, the people in the shelter department saw his expression of horror to the point of hysteria.

Liang Tenghui waited until all the second batch of Soviet shells fell and no explosions could be heard outside, before he got out of the shelter and ran towards the camp of the third platoon. The first shells fell into the mountain stream, and he thought that the artillery of the Chinese army had hit the wrong direction. The Soviet artillery did not fight back all morning, and it was incredible that the artillery suddenly fired at this moment. When he realized that the unthinkable had happened, he realized that he had returned to the woods on the slopes; In the future, the flow of his consciousness is similar to that of Cheng Yukun, but the direction of flow is very different: Liang Tenghui thought at that moment, he had just secretly made up his mind to live, and the real test was coming! Just like Cheng Yukun ran out of the shelter without the slightest hesitation when he heard the sound of the cannon, he just thought of this and didn't care about anything, and ran back to the shelter with a roll!

But now he can't help but come out; Cheng Yukun had just walked in the campsite of the whole company, and it was the time when the Soviet artillery fire was the most intense, so he was somewhat surprised that this person would be so heroic, and besides, there was another dead person, and it would be a dereliction of duty not to come out again. Liang Tenghui understands that there is a rule that if there are casualties in the course of concealment or movement, they should be dealt with immediately and kept as secret as possible, so as not to affect the fighting mood of all commanders and fighters!

He had barely taken a dozen steps forward when the third batch of shells whined and flew like the wind; He tried to turn back to the company to cover the area, but as soon as his legs went limp, he fell to the ground under his feet; It seemed to take several seconds for the cannonball to explode at the bottom of the stream and in the woods, causing his eardrums, which had been torn so much since dawn, to tear again; Suddenly he found that the ground on which he lay was very high, and that it was surrounded by shelter, and that the trunks of the things were sparse, and he hurried up again, and ran three or two steps to a densely wooded depression under the slope, and found himself at the edge of the woods; A man was hurrying north from the direction of the battalion command post under artillery fire. It's Deputy Head Liu! Liang Tenghui hesitated, did not lie down, and hid behind a big tree tremblingly; And he didn't completely dodge - he hid behind the big tree to prevent artillery, and he didn't completely dodge so that the deputy commander could see himself!

Liu Zongsheng ran with one foot high and one foot low, his face flushed, his eyes as if they were about to ignite, and he looked into the woods on both sides of the valley, trying to find something that made him feel uneasy. A cannonball "chirped" and dragged on the slope below him, and he hurriedly rolled on one side to the ground to a crater that was still smoking. When I looked up into the forest above, I saw that there was still a person standing behind the tree!

"Who's over there?!" He roared, quickly seeing who the other party was, "Why are you?!" What are you doing standing there?! ”

Liu Zongsheng shouted at Liang Tenghui sternly, almost angrily, with the horror of the shell on his face, and it disappeared immediately, leaving only the nervous, cold, and impulsive expression of a commander in a state of crisis.

Leung Teng-fai did not answer him immediately, because another shell exploded in the forest above him; After the violent dizziness passed, he opened his mouth tremblingly: "Report to the deputy regiment commander, I will come out to see the hidden situation of the troops!" …… There are also 3 rows of dead people, I'll deal with it! ”

"Where's your company commander?!"

"The company commander is staying in the shelter!" Liang Tenghui replied, his head pointing towards the depths of the forest behind him. Deputy Commander Liu's words concealed his dissatisfaction with Cheng Yukun and his appreciation for himself, he realized it, so he thought: I was right to come out this time, Deputy Commander Liu can prove that I didn't hide when the Soviet army shelled!

"You should go back and hide!" Liu Zongsheng snorted angrily, "It's not too late to deal with the dead man's matter later, don't you lose yourself!" ”

Liu Zongsheng stumbled forward and ran over; Another cannonball screamed and fell, and Liang Tenghui couldn't support it anymore and fell to the ground suddenly. The point of the shell was far away from him, but he was still choking on the dust he had shaken up as he fell. The fear quickly expanded in my heart. He suddenly thought: It was very risky for him to stand and talk to Deputy Head Liu, especially against the determination he had just made up his mind to live!

He did not return to the company. He was already far away from the company shelter, and he was afraid that on the way back, a shell would fall just in time. The shells were still exploding from the left to the right, and he instinctively felt that it was safer to lie here than to walk around! The third batch of shells fell, and the mountain stream temporarily returned to calm. Liang Tenghui was a little relieved, stood up, and walked towards the 3rd row. After not taking a few steps, he also stopped where Cheng Yukun had suddenly stopped—he also saw the intact human leg that was still wearing green military pants!

But what he saw was not the scene Cheng Yukun saw twenty minutes ago: because a cannonball fell nearby not long ago, igniting the grass underground, the flames spread, and the shiny green grass around the human legs had been burned to the east and west, and it had lost its original vitality. The little pink flower that had stuck to the sole of the martyr's shoe was gone, and it withered sharply under the fire and was shaken into the grass. So what Liang Tenghui saw was not a human leg in a vibrant landscape, but a human leg lying in a lifeless landscape. Although the latter scene was also very shocking to Liang Tenghui's heart, he felt that it was not a living leg after all, but an ugly dead thing!

With a feeling of horror, pity and disgust, Leung Teng-fai spent an important moment in his life in front of this picture; He did his best to get rid of the feelings of terror and disgust, but reason and mind were not omnipotent after all, and the more he tried to suppress them, the more strongly these two feelings controlled him; The more he tried to convince himself that it was not a human leg, but a part of the body of a martyr, the more he could not help but think that it was just a human leg, a human leg that had nothing to do with the martyr! With this feeling of horror and disgust, he ran through the campsites of the 3rd and 2nd platoons, and went to the 1st platoon to call the deputy instructor and a stretcher group of migrant workers (they were camped in the same platoon). Several other parts of the martyr's body were found, and it was confirmed that the victims were not from the 3rd platoon, but the deputy of the 2nd platoon from the 6th platoon; Liang Tenghui asked the migrant workers to wrap up the corpse, carry it to a place where no one was, and let the 2nd platoon commander Cheng Fei and the company commander come to take a look, which can be regarded as a formal farewell to the martyrs, and then without a minute of delay, let the migrant workers carry the martyrs away! Liang Tenghui did not let the 2nd platoon commander leave, he told Cheng Fei: The news of the sacrifice of the deputy of the 6th squad must not let anyone in the whole company know!

(To be continued)