or 3g Seeing that the locust-like North Vietnamese soldiers had rushed to him, and the French paratroopers in the trenches had sharply reduced their firepower because of the replacement of magazines and magazines, Second Lieutenant Leglis was anxious, and at this time there was a "click" sound from the submachine gun in his hand, he simply threw the gun away, took off the two grenades from the buckle in front of the xiōng, pulled out the pull ring and threw it violently, turned his head and shouted to the paratroopers around him: "Throw the grenade!" ”

This sentence reminded the French paratroopers who were dazed by the sudden battle, and several people nearby hurriedly abandoned their weapons and threw grenades forward one after another. The explosion formed a surface interception zone right in front of the trench, and many North Vietnamese soldiers fell in response, but this only slightly halted the momentum of their offensive. As soon as the smoke screen cleared, the North Vietnamese soldiers lying on the ground to avoid the explosion quickly got up, and except for one or two officer-looking men shouting, the rest of them calmly and quickly threw themselves into the charge.

Leglis was about to continue throwing grenades, but at this moment, the ghostly jīng quasi-cold sè from before appeared again—the screams of the paratroopers being shot were immediately heard in his ears, and in the blink of an eye, a bullet flew past the steel helmet, and the second lieutenant suddenly broke out in a cold sweat. If he and his paratroopers were in a state of isolated combat, losing their positions and losing all of them was probably an irreversible end, but fortunately, the defensive points deployed along the river were only 500 meters apart, and seeing that the positions of friendly neighbors were attacked, the nearby French paratroopers quickly mobilized their strength to support. As the machine guns and mortars on the perimeter began to wield, the North Vietnamese soldiers who had rushed to Leglis's eyes fell in droves like wheat harvesters. In the face of heavy casualties, the North Vietnamese rebels realized that it would be difficult to continue their hard work, so they summoned the attacking soldiers to retreat with a continuous sharp whistle. What felt like a suffocating oppressive assault subsided suddenly, and Legliss and his surviving paratroopers breathed a long sigh of relief. However, looking at the nearly 100 corpses scattered between the position and the woods, and at the dead and the wounded in their own trenches, his heart suddenly fell into a heavy abyss.

As the battle commander, Second Lieutenant Leglis, who had to quickly emerge from the nightmare of the first battle, smacked his face and spoke, "Etienne. Take stock of casualties and bomb losses! Roy, how's the condition of the wounded? ”

The paramedics, who were bandaging the wounded, replied: "Dima and Martin are only slightly injured, just treat them, but Duval's condition is more serious - he was shot in the lungs and needs to be sent to the field hospital for surgery as soon as possible!" ”

Leglis scratched his head, paratrooper operations not only need to face a shortage of equipment and ammunition, but also the handling of the wounded is a consistent problem. At present, the French army is equipped with a paratrooper battalion as a unit, equipped with a medical unit with professional treatment functions. Able to perform some less complex traumatic surgeries when fully equipped. Since the airborne landing was not interfered with by hostile forces, medical personnel and medical equipment were in place, and the medical treatment point was located at the temporary headquarters, 25 kilometres from the defensive point where Leglis was located. Normal stretcher march. It was a matter of hours, but the cold guns and frenzied attacks of the North Vietnamese rebels had scared Leglis. Transporting the wounded not only had to reduce the number of combatants, but also their safety on the way was simply not guaranteed. The second lieutenant thought for a moment, and his gaze fell on the stone bridge. After some time of fighting, the French paratroopers defending the stone bridge had also repelled the North Vietnamese attack, their light jeeps were both combat weapons, and they were far more efficient than manpower for communication and transportation of the wounded, and if there was a medical point on the side of the stone bridge. He didn't have to go far to send the wounded back to the headquarters. …,

Seeing the pained appearance of his wounded companion's bared teeth, Legris quickly made a decision: send Sergeant Laurent to the Stone Bridge to contact the friendly forces and try to get some help from them. In order to avoid the cold guns of the North Vietnamese forces, Sergeant Laurent climbed out of his position from the river side and moved upstream close to the river bank, while Legliss revisited his position. Although the North Vietnamese army could make a comeback at any time, 11 paratroopers survived on their side. The guns are not damaged, the ammunition is sufficient, and after the battle just now, everyone's combat cells have been mobilized, and the vigilance has also been raised to the highest level, if the North Vietnamese forces launch an attack, they will not be caught off guard as before, the distance of 500 meters is also within the effective range of the machine guns, and the defense points on both sides can provide fire support in time.

After the general situation of the battle and the casualties of the headquarters are reported to the command through the radio walkie-talkie. Leglis was replied that he would be reinforced. In order to boost the morale of the paratroopers, he immediately informed his men of the situation, and while sitting in the trenches and filling empty magazines, he said to the paratroopers: "Everyone has seen that the tactics of the Vietnamese are sudden and swift, and there is nothing to worry about." Wait a moment for the Vietnamese to charge. Don't panic, be careful to guard against cold guns in the distance, pay attention to the deployment of firepower in each squad, and try not to have obvious interruptions in the fire! Do not fire the submachine gun too early, place the grenade in an easily accessible position, and wait until the enemy is close to 30 meters before throwing it in turn. ”

As he spoke, a lone gunshot rang out from the woods, and the bullet clearly missed the observation post arranged by Leglis, and the paratrooper quickly shrank his head and cursed in horror at the dangerous Vietnamese gunman.

Thinking that the Vietnamese were about to launch a new round of attack, Leglis hurriedly looked at it, and as soon as he looked up, he felt bad, and instantly felt a heavy impact on the top of his head, and fell backwards in a daze. Subconsciously stretched out his forehead, only sweat stains and no blood. Leaning sideways against the wall of the trench, he took off his steel helmet and saw that the bullet was still stuck in the bullet, and immediately cursed: "These Vietnamese who deserve to go to hell!" ”

"Sir, are you alright?" The paratroopers next to him thought that Legliss had been shot, and hurriedly moved over to inspect the situation.

"Fortunately, God forbid, although I don't have the nine lives of a cat, this time I was able to survive the catastrophe!" Legris looked at the bullets on the helmet and said, he immediately calmed down and put the helmet back on: "Is there a mirror?" ”

The paratrooper who came took out a small round mirror for shaving from his pocket, but there was no handle. Legliss thought for a moment, took out the gum from his pocket, took the tin foil and stuffed it into his mouth, chewed it vigorously as if he had a deep hatred for the gum, and motioned to his companion to hand him the sapper shovel next to him, and then glued the lens to the handle of the shovel with chewing gum to make a simple reflector, and held it in one hand and stretched it out. Before the lens is shattered by a bullet. He saw the orange sunset tinting the rice paddies and woods with a soft glow, creating an exotic landscape.

The poignant scene of the brave soldiers who did not break out of the woods in the mirror, and the North Vietnamese soldiers who had died in the previous position remained in the rice fields, left a deep imprint on Second Lieutenant Leglis's mind.

"What are the Vietnamese people playing?" Looking at the scattered fragments of mirrors, the second lieutenant muttered in wonder, and without the need for an answer, he had an answer: the Vietnamese were waiting for nightfall!

Throughout military history, night battles are mostly associated with tactical terms such as surprise, winning more with less, surprise attack, and ambush. The harsh vision and complex environment all add uncertainty to the course of the battle. Leglis didn't have to worry so much about defending a well-equipped defensive line, but now that they were defending a small hill with only three tǐng machine guns and a dozen paratroopers, the outnumbered North Vietnamese rebels were likely to swallow them up like a cáo under the cover of night. Until this time. It was only then that Leglis realized how unrealistic Lieutenant Colonel Jérôme's decision was to defend a five-kilometer stretch of the river with a few hundred paratroopers, not concentrating his forces on two or three defensive points, but spreading them out in more than a dozen small defensive positions, which would certainly prevent the North Vietnamese from crossing the river at night, and if the North Vietnamese forces decided to storm the defensive line, these small defensive points would only become the graveyard of the French paratroopers. …,

With disappointed doubts, Leglis made radio contact with the lieutenant colonel's command, and was informed that the command had transferred personnel from the reserve forces to the defensive point where he was. In response to a possible night attack by the North Vietnamese army, the lieutenant colonel has sent two logistics transport teams. Flares and mines were added to each defensive position, and the French Foreign Legion troops had landed at the mouth of the Song River and would travel up the river by ship to support the paratroopers. After this call, Leglis had some hope of holding his ground. Before night fell completely, the sound of a motor could be heard on the river. Leglis saw through the telescope the three boats lined up in a column, which seemed to be imposing, but with the current volume of the river. At most, it is a small boat of ten or twenty tons, equipped with machine guns and light artillery to provide shore support, or to intercept the enemy who is forcibly swimming on the river. At about the same time, the reinforcements and transport teams sent by the combat command also arrived at the defensive point, and the number of fighters under the direct command of Leglis increased to 24 men, equipped with 5 tǐng machine guns, 2 mortars, and an ample stock of ammunition, plus his own boats cruising on the river. He and his paratroopers were much more confident in holding their ground.

The sky was getting darker, and the stars provided a faint light, and it was difficult to see the situation on the other side of the woods with only the rò eyes, and the rumbling of the river became a disturbance at this time, and the French paratroopers had to keep their eyes wide and ears up, and keep a close eye on the movement on the other side of the woods. Any little bit of wind and grass can make them nervous for a while. If the Vietnamese had not attacked, this breathless and oppressive atmosphere alone would have been enough to bring down Legliss and his soldiers, and in order to strengthen their defenses, the second lieutenant sent three groups of soldiers to crawl to a position about thirty or forty meters in front of the position and lay mines. The North Vietnamese rebels, who were in a situation of being attacked from the belly, did not seem to have the patience to go on here, and before the soldiers sent by Leglis to Bray had returned, there was a clear rustling in the woods. Legliss hurriedly made a call that mimicked that of a cormorant, signaling the Minelayer soldiers to retreat early, but the Vietnamese, who admired the onslaught, did not give them time at all. When a strange sound sounded imperceptibly on the battlefield, Legris only felt a few black things flying in the air, and his strong intuition caused him to react like an electric shock: "Grenade!" Take cover! ”

The French paratroopers in the trenches rushed down, and a series of explosions occurred on the position, and a grenade fell into the trench, causing a wail. Judging by the distance of the grenade, the attacker was only twenty or thirty meters away from the trench, but if someone crawled through the rice fields until they reached the front of the position, it was impossible for the paratroopers to be engrossed without noticing, which also made Legliss feel incomprehensible and panicked - could it not be an ordinary grenade attack but some kind of "secret weapon" of the North Vietnamese armed forces?

Throughout the ages, there have been many mysteries on the battlefield, some of which are not realized until after the battle, and some of which become puzzles that can never be solved. Leglis's ears rang at the sound of an explosion at close range, and he saw some paratroopers spontaneously slamming forward, and after a few moments, his hearing was restored, and his ears were filled with the neighing of machine guns and submachine guns. He wanted to give the order to fire flares, but remembering that there were still six paratroopers sent to mine in front of the position, and the light would make them a living target for the Vietnamese, he gritted his teeth and picked up the submachine gun from his side, and as soon as he raised his head, he felt several black shadows rushing into the trench in front of him. Without knowing what was going on, he almost opened fire on one of the dark figures, but fortunately the man shouted "Thank God", and the familiar French allowed Legliss to stop in time, and he asked loudly, "Etienne, is that you?" ”…,

"Who else? Yīn dangerous Vietnamese? The black shadow crawled up with a submachine gun, gasped and said, "If the Vietnamese are mortals like us, then their kung fu of pretending to be dead is too powerful!" It was the 'corpses' who threw the grenades, it is unimaginable that they should have been lying down from the end of the afternoon battle to the present! ”

"What? Trick to death! Leglis's brain twitched, which does make sense in theory, but it meant that what kind of army would make the soldiers develop such tactical habits in their peacetime training when they realized that their attack was about to fail, then stay motionless for hours under the noses of the enemy, and then act as assaulters when they attacked again?

"Rawls and I took out at least three, probably more, but they only had about one or two grenades each, which should have been thrown just now." The thin paratrooper non-commissioned officer pressed his shoulders against the trench and changed the magazine of his submachine gun with skillful movements. Legliss wanted to fight with him, but fortunately he was still sober at this time, and thought that he could not resist the attack of the Vietnamese alone, and most of Bray's companions had returned, so he ordered the flares to be fired.

When the white light bloomed in the sky, the North Vietnamese soldiers who rushed across the rice paddies to the riverbank positions gave Legliss the nickname the French gave them: the locusts.

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