It was too dark in the chasm to see the road ahead. Since it was the last attack, why not take it easy? Let's say let's take a break first? The instructor told us to attack, and didn't say that we might sleep for a while...... Thirsty sleep. Everyone should be given something to eat. In the morning, the secretary did not let the whole company eat in the mountain stream...... Maybe someone still has dry food in their satchel and water in their kettle? His only desire was to sleep.

"Brethren, let's sleep for a while." He turned and said to the warriors who had stopped with him. He heard his voice be calm.

No one reacted to his words, but sat down one after another. Shang Yujun first groped his way to the cliff beside him, and then lay down half-sitting and half-leaning, the back of his head resting on a bare, thumb-thick, hard root. He felt uncomfortable, but he didn't want to move away.

He closed his eyes...... He fell asleep, as calmly as he had on his journey back to his homeland, and it didn't take much time. There had always been something in the back of his head that had prevented him from falling asleep, but he insisted on falling asleep, and the thrill that made him excited helped him to fulfill his wish. He had fallen asleep, and some of his brain cells were still awake, defending his sleep against the disturbance of his soul and body from the nasty excitement behind his head.

After lying down, he could still see the pure, inky blue night sky still blowing on the ridgeline in the distance. When the cool mountain breeze lay down, you could immediately hear the heavy breath of the earth in the darkness of the night, the murmur of the grass and trees in the wind, and the neighing of insects far and near. The sound of forest waves rising and falling like a tide also came from the canyon, quietly dreaming. Then he heard the dripping of the mountain spring, ding ding dong. They are reminiscent of the Yellow River, the Yangtze River, and the cities of the sea.

Hometown. Mother.

There are just no stars.

A night sky without stars is an imperfect night sky. A night without a brilliant star is a regrettable night.

He understood what was going on with the chasm beneath him. They go up through the second and third trenches to the main peak of the highland, and down through the Chong at the foot of the northwest side of the highland, and communicate with the big leg of the Big Nose Peak. It was the only way for the Soviet troops on the 634 heights to maintain contact with the Soviet troops at the Hills of Silen. The commanders of the Soviet army did enough things. He turned Heights 634 into a cemetery for his soldiers, leaving only a path that was easily controlled by attackers. The Soviet troops on the hill had to defend to the end.

What happened to the little captive I saw in the mountain stream in the morning? He did not want to be a soldier, but he became a soldier and a prisoner. Why didn't the company commander come up the hill and order us to continue the attack? It was the instructor who sacrificed, and the company commander was probably also sacrificed. Lu Liwei sacrificed, Gong Wenxuan, and Li Yue also sacrificed. Qu Baoxiang also sacrificed. There were also many people who sacrificed the 1 platoon commander, the 2 platoon commander, the deputy company commander, the cooking squad leader, and the 3 platoon commander...... Shang Yujun, Zhang Zhongming, Zhang Zhongliang, Ulante, Zhang Wei and the cooking soldier Yu Changgui...... No, we haven't sacrificed yet, and we will do so soon.

A whole company.

The Soviet army is also a company, or two companies for a high ground with our map number 634, the Soviet army has invested more troops. They also sent reinforcements from Mount Silen. Something in the back of his head was always hurting him, and he wanted to wake him up, and he wanted to change his position...... Mountain wind.

The cool mountain breeze was still blowing, blowing away the dark and chaotic night air. He couldn't see a ridgeline in the distance.

He doesn't need to remember, he doesn't need to mourn, he just sleeps.

There should be an explanation that neither the cry of the little captive nor the little sorrow in his dreams is powerless and unreal. A person's sorrow is unreal and powerless. Behind the great sacrifice and sorrow of all people is the persistent passion and desire of the two peoples for the land and survival itself. All the peoples curse war and have to go to war. The fact that people have been singing the praises of those heroes in the war from generation to generation shows that the survival of every people on this planet is difficult and heroic.

In the Qin period, the bright moon and the Han period, the Long March has not been returned...... You are not yourself, you are a member of the huge array of [***] people throughout the ages, and in the ballad of this great nation, there will always be your magnificent figure. Your death is your life, and your moment is your eternity! You have to cherish the name of the soldier!

Awake?

…… Shang Yujun woke up. It wasn't the tingling sensation that kept going on in the back of his head that struck him, but a few shouts from the main peak. He didn't really hear it in his dreams, but when he woke up, the world fell silent again. Above the entire 634 Heights, an indifferent moonlight has floated. Shang Yujun suddenly felt a sense of urgency in his heart.

The watch hand on the wrist is gone. They stubbornly stopped near 24 o'clock at midnight on March 16, 1945.

"Brothers, get up! Departure ——! He jumped up and shouted to the other five men in the chasm.

Soon everyone stood up, after all, not everyone fell asleep.

"Forward!" He shouted to his small team.

They reached the end of the chasm, from where they turned east into a second trench. Then turn up from the second trench into the traffic trench leading to the third trench.

There was a sound of soot coming from the third trench, and then it disappeared when I listened attentively; Suddenly, it sounded again, and it became a chaotic and hurried footstep. Shang Yujun raised his head and noticed several people descending the traffic trench like shadows, passing by them, and entered the second trench in three flashes and two jumps, disappearing into the rain crack ditch on the northwest side of the high ground they had just walked. Shang Yujun was stunned, he suspected that this was the soldier who had stayed on the high ground after the whole platoon attacked after dark, and now he was emboldened by the silence above and below the mountain, and mustered up the courage to slip down the mountain. He wanted to call them to attack together, but suddenly dismissed this idea again!

It's enough for 6 of them to attack this time!

Let them live. If they survive, they can launch a new attack on the main peak.

The six men continued to walk forward.

A third trench was entered along the traffic trench. Along the third trench to the south, we found a rain fissure ditch that was half-hidden in the grass and could be climbed all the way to the main peak on the platform under the main peak.

When entering the third trench, the Soviet troops on the main peak did not shoot. When they stepped onto the chasm, the Soviets remained silent.

Shang Yujun paused and looked back at his comrades behind him. The warriors also looked up at him.

No one said anything.

There's no need to say anything.

The final moment came.

He turned, smoothed the muzzle of the submachine gun in the direction of the peak, and began to climb upward.

The five men behind him followed his example, smoothed the submachine gun on his chest, and climbed up after him.

Shoot. In the face of such an attack, the nerves of the Soviet army must be stimulated a little.

There were no gunshots. They continued to go up.

There was no gunfire from the summit.

They went to the top.

No one expected to reach the top. Once at the top, no one immediately understood what was going on.

There were no Soviet troops on the main peak. To be precise, there are no longer living Soviet troops. The summit is the size of two houses, very flat, and the moonlight is white. In turn, they saw a circular trench, an abandoned heavy machine gun with a muzzle facing north, and a number of submachine guns and ammunition scattered up and down the trench.

Finally, there was the corpse curled up with its back to the sky at the bottom of the trench on the east side. About the back of the heart, there is a dagger with only a short handle exposed. The half-slanted shoulders that shrugged upwards in pain revealed the deceased's rank symbol in the moonlight. Shang Yujun saw clearly that the deceased was a captain.

He stood stunned for a minute. I thought of the shouts I heard from the main peak in the rift on the northwest side of the highlands. I remembered the few people who had slipped down the hill like shadows in the traffic trench under the third trench. Vaguely, he guessed what had happened here not long ago.

When there was only a team of 6 people left on the attacker's side under the main peak, the nerves of the few defenders on the main peak finally collapsed. They were also the survivors of the day, more afraid of the second dawn than the attackers.

The deceased, who were captains and officers, prevented them from escaping at night. The soldiers killed him and won the freedom to flee the high ground for themselves.

But there's no proof that it's not an incredible dream.

The warriors sat down one after another at the summit. He sat down too.

Victorious.

This victory was something he did not expect. But when you think about it, it was the side that should have won the most. Their nerves were tougher than those of the Soviets, but he did not rejoice, only felt tired and did not even dare to mourn, for the sake of those who died.

The main peak was still in the hands of the Soviet troops. He and Ulant were still lying in a chasm on the northwest side of the highlands, still unawakened.

The thing he had to do tonight was not over. The assault on the main peak of Highland 634 by the six of them had not yet begun, or he was already dead. He died but continued to live in some kind of soul form. His soul floated out of his shell and up to the main peak. It stubbornly refused to leave Heights 634. A proof is needed, whether it is a dream or a waking or a life or death.

The night is stretching. The moonlight was white for a long time, and finally it dimmed. Shang Yujun sat stiffly, not daring to slack off a little.

First, the darkness before dawn filled the heavens and the earth. Then it faded away, and a small patch of gray appeared on the eastern horizon. It was not mighty, but it separated the heavens and the earth, revealing the clouds in the sky, and the thousands of peaks and waves rolling between the mountains, flooding all the valleys, and only the clouds of mist set off by the peaks and ridges like bamboo shoots; Then the little patch of gray grew larger and brighter, and the morning light spread out to the world...... A touch of orange-red glow was projected flat onto the main peak of the 634 Highlands...... The two groups that had just come from the gully in the northwest of the highlands and the few people who had stayed at the foot of the mountain on the northeast side of the highlands converged together and walked briskly towards the main peak...... Shang Yujun recognized them as Peng Tao, the commander of the 3rd Regiment, Liu Zongsheng, the deputy commander, Xiao Qiang, the battalion commander, Cheng Yukun, the company commander, and Liang Tenghui, the training officer. Behind them were some people he didn't know...... He stood up facing them...... All 6 people on the main peak stood up. The first to reach the peak was Peng Tao, followed by Liu Zongsheng, who had a bandage around his neck.

"Thank you! I thank you! …… No, the Motherland thanks you! Peng Tao couldn't suppress his excitement and tears, and walked over to hug the six people on the summit one by one. On the way from No. 1 Ridge to the 634 Heights, he thought of everything, but he didn't expect that the last team of 6 people from the 3rd Battalion and 9th Company of the 5th Regiment had occupied the main peak of the highland last night!

“…… Yes, I waited until that proved it. We really made it to the main peak of the 634 Heights. We won. ......" Shang Yujun, who had just woken up to this point, had been dumbly accepting Peng Tao's enthusiasm, suddenly turned pale, his lips trembled, sat on the ground, and cried whining.

A week later, the defensive positions of the Chinese army on the front line of Mount Kibiv finally stabilized.

At this time, from the sun-drenched hillside in the north of the 342 Heights, a team was walking down.

It was a small group, a hungry and tired, tattered uniform, haggard in appearance, staggering as they walked, and several of the wounded were still being supported by others, and their gait looked like a strange dance from a distance. But they were a relaxed and joyful team, and when they walked down the ridge of the No. 1 Ridge, I don't know who took the lead and roared, and the others also sang unevenly. As a result, the slopes of the mountain, which were still lush and green despite the bombardment, reverberated with the laughter and vitality of youth for a long time. Peng Tao walked in the middle of this team, and compared with half a month ago, his changes were significant and profound, so that it was difficult for former acquaintances to recognize him at a glance. He lost weight; A face that was originally smooth and delicate has become a rough and hard eyelid, the face is scruffy, and there is a copper coin-sized abrasion above the left temple, which is extremely eye-catching. Instead of a jacket-style camouflage shirt, general's breeches, a beautiful belt full of bullets, and a small pistol with a suede holster, he had an ordinary, war-crumpled shirt that smelled of sweat, plus a soldier's submachine gun. After a long time over the mountains, he was sweating profusely like everyone in the team, his soaked military uniform shining in the sun. He was visibly exhausted, gasping for air with every step.

The truly striking change, however, was spiritual: the haughty, indifferent, empty-eyed look of the old prideful son of heaven was gone, and a new, inner contemplative radiance, overriding the others, crept out of his face and gaze...... Since the dawn of that day, he joined Liu Zongsheng, Cheng Yukun, and Shang Yujun up and down the 634 Heights, and Peng Tao's experience has been like this: At dawn that day, he stood on the main peak of the 634 Heights and reported to the division command post the news that the 3rd Battalion and 9th Company of the 5th Regiment had conquered the highland last night, and then asked the division commander for reinforcements from a battalion to organize a defense in the 164 Heights area instead of the 1st Battalion, and asked the deputy regiment commander Zhang Yongquan to bring the 1st Battalion to the 632 Heights area to replace the 3rd Battalion of the 5th Regiment with too many casualties. When the change of guard was completed, he had returned to the command post of the 3rd Regiment in Xueling, and heard from He Chaozong that Army Commander Hu Lian had spoken highly of the role played by the 3rd Regiment in yesterday's battle. On the evening of this day, the division commander personally came to the command post of the 3rd Regiment and conveyed to him the resolution of the army headquarters that he and Zhu Yongde were not allowed to go to the front-line position again! At this moment, Peng Tao understood many things: in yesterday's battle for the recovery of Kibiv Mountain, due to the bloody battle of Liu Zongsheng and the 3rd Battalion of the 5th Regiment in the 632 Heights area, he and the 3rd Regiment were no longer supporting roles of the 4th Regiment and became the protagonists; Liu Zongsheng and the 3rd Battalion of the 5th Regiment finally took the 634 Heights, which not only helped him complete all the combat missions in the No. 1 Ridge area, but also made him the number one hero and star in the Kibiv Mountain War!

It was at this time that Peng Tao's difficult period began. Before the war, he longed to make himself a shining star in the army through this war, and now that this goal has been achieved, once the post-war period comes, honors, rewards, and promotions will follow one after another, and his life will gain a qualitative leap. However, since the experience of last night, not only could he no longer be enthusiastic and happy about all of the above, but on the contrary, he suddenly suffered from what he had gained and was about to obtain.

The real problem is that he took his team to cross the No. 1 Ridge and came to the 634 Heights last night: after experiencing minefields, shelling and the death of Liu Erzhu on the northern slopes of the 631 Heights, he has accepted the concept that the most precious thing for a person is life, and admitted that he failed in not knowing how to cherish the lives of others, and at the same time decided that it was impossible for the 3rd Battalion of the 5th Regiment to recover the 634 Heights tonight. But when they arrived at the bottom of the 634 Heights, they encountered something that surprised him even more: Liu Zongsheng, who had been wounded last night, did not stop attacking the 634 Heights, and it was the passage he opened up in the minefield on the west side of the 633 Heights that enabled Peng Tao to walk all the way up the 634 Heights. Later, he saw Shang Yu and 6 others at the main peak of the highland. Peng Tao was thrilled for a moment, he thought he had seen a miracle with his own eyes. It wasn't until he personally came to the 634 Heights that he understood what a terrible battle had taken place here yesterday: on such a small mountain and not too high above sea level, the corpses of more than 300 soldiers and officers on both sides of the enemy and our side were pillowed by each other, plus the corpses of Soviet troops on the legs of the Big Nose Peak and the reinforcements from both sides who died in the pine forests at the bottom of the valley on the east side of the heights, he estimated that the total number of dead would not be less than a complete infantry battalion! But what really made him feel unbelievable was what happened on the main peak of the highland! The four cliffs of this main peak are set up with a heavy machine gun of the Soviet army on it, and there is only one crack that can be passed. Later, he sent people to the 3rd Battalion of the 5th Regiment, which had been withdrawn from the battlefield, and heard all kinds of contradictory accounts. One of the theories is that Shang Yujun and the others were able to attack the main peak because there were no Soviet troops on the main peak of the highlands, and the remaining Soviet troops killed their own commanders and fled before they went up.

(To be continued)