The branches of the willow trees by the river swayed in the wind, and the wheat in the harvested wheat fields stood in the fields one by one, and the cannonballs fell on the fields with a screech, blowing up crater after crater.

Holding the gun in the crater, Cao Daren lying in the crater, for some reason always can't get up, at noon, like the fire and the sun hangs on his head, the sun makes people drowsy, here is only one or two miles away from the Xishan Eight Banners school field, and only a few dozen meters away from the Qing army's trench wall, but even so, Cao Daren still feels a little sleepy.

Glancing at the wall, seeing a human head shaking behind the wall, Cao Daren aimed at the gun, fired one shot after another, and after firing five bullets, he felt that he had killed at least two people, and when one of the bullets hit his head, he could even see the splattering brains.

"Actually, put a few cannons at the wall, and a charge will do!"

Cao Daren thought so in his heart, but his hand took out a clamping bullet from the back of his waist and pressed it into the gun, but he knew that this idea was just a thought, the cannonball should be left to the Jingshi, and the ten-zhang high city wall could be all directed to the cannon at that time.

This Li Zhu crawled along the cage, and rolled into the crater, he, like Cao Daren, used to farm outside the gate, but he usually couldn't knock out a stuffy fart with a stick, and he looked clumsy.

But when he was marching, this kid who didn't look tall at all, but he carried a mountain cannon barrel weighing more than 200 pounds alone, and walked more than ten kilometers without panting in the middle.

"Brother Ren, get a cigarette!"

After handing him a cigarette, the two touched it, no one had a match, Li Zhu held the cigarette in his mouth, and his face became more and more ugly.

"Who are you going to borrow a fire?"

Whispering, he quietly stretched out his head to look, and there were several people dressed four or five meters away from them, stuck in a pile and shooting.

"Is there a fire?"

Li Zhu shouted.

"Dog, smoke bullshit cigarettes, if you can lay that, Lao Tzu will give you the tobacco and paper cigarettes next month! If you want fire, go to the opposite side and look for a pig's tail to go! ”

The shouting and scolding from there only made Li Zhu stunned, Cao Daren saw him look up at the opposite side again, and his right hand took out a grenade from behind his waist, and suddenly he jumped out of the crater, holding a gun in one hand and a grenade in the other, and ran forward with his waist bent.

Cao Daren, who stretched out his head to witness all this, was blinded at once, this guy is really a fucking fool, he cursed in his heart, he jumped up like clockwork, held a rifle with a good bayonet, and rushed towards the half-man-high wall of the Qing army in front of him, and several soldiers in the crater next to him also jumped out of the crater, and rushed forward with the fool.

The charge suddenly began, and there was no howling and explosion of shells as a signal, only the instinctive reaction of the soldiers.

When he was closer, more than 20 meters away, Li Zhu bit the string with his teeth, and as soon as he pulled his hand, the grenade was thrown towards the trench wall, the bullet whistled in his ear, and the cigarette was still in his ear.

Boom, a cloud of black smoke exploded in the trench, and when there was a scream, Li Zhu had already jumped over the trench wall and jumped into the trench, and he saw those Qing soldiers wearing uniforms or blue standing army uniforms, looking at him like a strange look, and it was a stab to rush at the Qing soldiers in front with bayonets without distraction.

"Kill!"

The howl that erupted from his throat was accompanied by the man's scream, and the bayonet was drawn from the man's chest, and Li Zhu was like an angry lion, stabbing left and right with the bayonet, and in a period of up to two or three seconds, the Qing soldiers in the trench did not react, and when they reacted, a killing sound sounded from the top of their heads, first several, then dozens, and hundreds of officers and soldiers rushed to the Liberation with bayonets and rushed into the trenches.

The Qing army in blue uniforms or uniforms collapsed in an instant, and fled like rats towards the rear of the trenches, while the machine gunners who followed up set up their machine guns and chased the group of routers with bullets, and behind them, a group of soldiers shouting and charging with bayonets kept stabbing them in the back with bayonets.

There was such a dramatic part on the battlefield, but it was just a company of troops, chasing a thousand people, and chasing the other side in all directions, constantly people kneeling on the ground with their hands raised, shouting "Uncle spare your life" and other words begging for mercy, but in exchange for often bayonets straight into the neck or chest, without a trace of pity or hesitation, they brought the habit of outside the gate here.

Finally, when the bayonet was pulled out of a person's chest, Cao Daren's body went limp, and he sat down on the ground, panting for breath in his mouth, and kept talking to himself.

"Alive, alive!"

At this moment, he saw that the mountain mule was silent like Li Zhu, he was still alive!

He was still holding the cigarette in his mouth, and he was groping for something on some corpses, first using a bayonet to mend the neck of the corpse hiding on the ground, and then turning over the corpse, searching in the corpse's pocket, and on the corpse of a tree by the tree, Li Zhu found a box of matches, and then he sat down by the tree, and when he wanted to light the cigarette, his hand softened.

In this scene, I only saw Cao Daren stunned, this kid ...... Cao Daren walked cross-legged to Li Zhu's side, looking at the unlit cigarette sitting by the tree with his eyes closed.

"Mules!"

shouted, Li Zhu didn't make a sound, just sat there.

At this time, Cao Daren noticed that Li Zhu's stomach was leaching with blood red, and he was still holding the box of matches in his hand full of blood, and the matches were stained with blood.

Cao Daren looked at Li Zhu, took the box of blood-soaked matches from his hand, sat down next to him, struck a match without scratching, and struck another one, still no, at this time there was only one thought in his mind. I had to light this cigarette on fire, and finally the match was struck.

The dead man couldn't breathe, and the burning cigarette emitted a faint green smoke, and Cao Daren looked at the mule who couldn't breathe the cigarette until he died, and suddenly choked.

"Mule ...... Sub ......"

The troops that continued to pursue the fleeing enemy were far away, Cao Daren stood up and looked around, the battle was over, there was not even a figure nearby, and in the distance, the reserve team drove over from behind, including the health team.

He vigorously picked up the corpse of the mule, carried it on his shoulder, and with a rifle in one hand, he chased the troops along the ridge.

Near evening, all the nine companies of Cao Daren miraculously attacked the Xishan school field, killing and capturing nearly 2,000 enemies, under the sunset, except for the soldiers who guarded the prisoners, the others went to the school field to participate in the cremation held for the dead brothers, the school field of Xishan was open, the north was close to the Longquan Temple, the east and west were the roads leading to the outside of the capital, and the south was a large forest, and the crematorium was set up in the forest.

The corpse with his head facing north was placed on a dry wood stand, and when Cao Daren, who was standing among the brothers, was saluting with everyone, he saw the company commander lit the firewood pile filled with oil, and the military monks in the company stood next to him, twisting the rosary in his hand, reciting scriptures, and surpassing the soul.

Looking at Li Zhu, who was in the sixth position in the flames, Cao Daren looked at the military monk who was reciting Yiwen, the Dharma name "Juechen", and he doubted for the first time that the scriptures recited by this monk who had cut off other people's heads with a sapper shovel on the battlefield could surpass Li Zhu's soul.

After the company commander ordered the disbandment, Cao Daren remained there, and he saw that the fire of the crematorium was spitting red flames, which actually gave people an eerie and cold feeling.

He looked at Juechen sitting in front of the flames with his eyes closed, his hand twisting the rosary, still reciting the scriptures there, he repeated the scriptures, his expression was extremely flat. Next to the fire, several soldiers were constantly throwing firewood into the fire, and the battlefield cremation was always time-consuming and laborious.

For an hour or two, Juechen was there with a rosary in his hand, constantly reciting the transcendent scriptures, over and over again, and his solemnity made Cao Daren put away the previous disrespect, this was the first time he witnessed such a serious excess, and finally the fire was extinguished, the white-gloved soldier put the ashes in the tinplate box, and then used the marching canopy to wrap it into a simple carrying piece, after taking Li Zhu's ashes, Cao Daren looked at Juechen, who was a little shaken when he stood up, and obviously spent a lot of energy. If it weren't for the blood stains on his body, maybe Cao Daren would have associated him with the eminent monks, but God knows, he was just a ruined temple with no food and clothing, and it happened that the Guangfu Army recruited monks to join the army.

Looking at the bloodstains on his military uniform, Cao Daren looked at the ashes that were being put away, and Cao Daren, who had read it for several years, sighed.

"It's really like the ancients said, the world is impermanent!"

Juechen glanced at him and spoke.

"Life is only instantaneous, life is death, death is life."

Then he added.

"If you dwell on your troubles, it's painful. But I think there's a lot of light to be found in it. Cao Daren, who originally had a bitter look on his face, looked at the indifferent expression on Juechen's face and nodded.

"You're right, even if you join the army, you must have the consciousness of death, just like him."

Holding the ashes in the bullet box, Cao Daren sighed, Li Zhu's mind was very simple, it was nothing more than killing the past, grabbing a box of matches, and then smoking a cigarette, as for what is life and what is death, it has long been put aside.

Staring at the high-ranking soldier who seemed to want to open, Juechen saw his eyes looking at the blood on his chest from time to time.

"Do you think I have blood on my hands and can't do it for them?"

Cao Daren didn't speak, just smiled awkwardly, that's what he thought in his heart.

"The monk Jidian of the Song Dynasty said, the wine and meat have passed through the intestines, and the Buddha is in my heart, and now it is ......"

Juechen looked at the military uniform on his body and only saluted.

"The sword takes away the soul, the curse is the soul, and the sword is the Buddha!"

Juechen quoted a sentence from "The Buddha Says the Lotus Sutra", which only made Cao Daren's heart tremble, which made him finally understand Juechen, why this monk who can say "good, good" when killing people can kill people calmly.

"My Buddha is compassionate!"

Saying that, Juechen only made a salute with his palm, holding the Buddha beads in his hand, while Cao Daren stared at the two staggered "nine-ring Zen sticks" on his collar.

"Great monk, every time you kill someone, you will recite the death mantra ten times for him, in order to save the soul, kill one person and save a thousand people! My Buddha is compassionate! I don't go to hell, who goes to hell! ”

After that, he twisted the Buddhist beads in his hand again, recited the scriptures, and the sound entered Cao Daren's ears, and finally he took a deep look at the great monk who left the crematorium with his feet raised, and when he came, he carried a box of brother's ashes behind his back.

In order to prevent the enemy's sneak attack, the troops stationed in the Xishan Baqi School Yard did not unload their saddles and soldiers did not leave their guns, that is, they slept on the grass with their rifles in their arms, and after leaving the crematorium, Cao Daren and a dozen or so brothers in the class sat around the fire together, rolling tobacco with cigarette paper issued by the troops, and did not rush to smoke the cigarettes, but loaded them in small bamboo tubes, which were prepared for tomorrow, and there was no time to roll cigarettes on the battlefield.

Sitting by the bonfire, Cao Daren put his elbows on his knees, supported his chin with both hands, stared at the fire blankly, looked at the cigarettes between his fingers, and seemed to think of Li Zhu again, that in order to light the cigarettes and drive the whole charge, he was rewarded by the regiment commander, and he had to report to the headquarters, and he might even report to the ruling axe, award him with honors, and even the company commander said that in the future, Li Zhu's name will definitely be engraved in the martyr's shrine in the capital, and enjoy the world's annual sacrifice, moon sacrifice, and sacrifice, and even his hometown will set up a martyr's monument to him.

"In our company, he was the first to enter the trenches!"

Suddenly, he said aloud, To whom? No one knows, "The enemy was stupid at that time,...... He's like a demon out of hell...... Wielding a bayonet, see one kill another...... A few guys came running up to him, and they were all about to touch the muzzle of his gun...... pulled the trigger and put sugar gourds on the three of them...... The one at the front, with blood coming out of his nose,...... He asked for cigarettes, and I gave them to him...... If there are no matches, then we will bring handles...... So he ran to borrow the fire...... Fuck, who to borrow, who has matches on them...... Don't give ,...... Kill him...... That's awesome...... When he died, he still had a cigarette in his mouth, and the man ...... That's what you ...... you are."

Shouting, he suddenly got up, left the fire, and disappeared into the darkness by the roadside, the stars twinkling in the sky, the night sky like day, and he urinated and wept at the same time.

After the neuropathy passed, Cao Daren hugged the urn and cried, and when he wiped away his tears, he cursed there again.

"Dog, is there a hero like you?"

After wiping away his tears, he stood up, but saw that by the grave of the Qing army where the dead were buried, Juechen was reciting excessive scriptures there, and Juechen under the moonlight, with some moonlight on his body, only looked much more sacred.

In the silent woods, only the sound of Juechen's chanting could be heard, listening to his chanting, looking at the dozen or so big tombs, Cao Daren had a thought, the trees here will definitely grow better next year.

At this moment, there was a sudden "buzzing" sound in the night sky, he raised his head but couldn't see anything, the sound came from the southern sky, standing up, he looked carefully into the air but could only see a few small black dots.

Deng Shaoling, who led the formation in the air, was more than ten kilometers away, and he saw the runway at the foot of the mountain that stretched nearly a kilometer away and was marked with two rows of bonfires.

"This should be the Xishan Campus!"

From the Fuyang plane to Yanjing, this is the longest distance flight that the flight team has carried since its formation, during which it passed through ten places to transfer flights, thinking about the two treks during the flight, Deng Shaoling wanted to laugh out loud, the only sign that can be relied on in the sky is probably the map carried randomly.

The wind blew the scarf tied in the flight jacket, held the longitudinal pole in one hand, raised the flare gun in the other, and fired a flare out of the plane. A fiery dragon dragged the smoke and sliced through the sky, flashing a red flare in the air. This is a signal to communicate with the ground.

"They're coming!"

After seeing the air signal, the officer on the ground who was responsible for guiding the plane to land first fired a red signal flare into the air, which was to ask the plane to circle and wait until the one-kilometer-long runway was cleared again. The green flare was fired at the tenth campfire in the middle of the runway.

After counting the location of the bonfire, Deng Shaoling shook the wings and sent out a landing signal, then pressed the plane vertically, and the nose was aimed at the runway of the Xishan School Field, which was originally a racecourse, and landed slowly, when the plane landed, the campfire was already crowded with soldiers who were alarmed by the movement of the plane, these soldiers who were once just farmers outside the gate, looked at the "strange birds" that fell from the sky in surprise, although they were used to seeing big scenes, and they had never sacrificed their lives on the battlefield, but this would be the moment when they watched the big bird flying down from the sky landing, But he was so frightened that he couldn't speak, and even fell to the grass with his rifle in hand.

With the roar of the aircraft engine, it landed on the grass like a light swallow, and Deng Shaoling, who was piloting the plane, drove the plane towards the end of the runway, and the surrounding soldiers looked at him in surprise, he just smiled a little, he was used to this kind of look, used to being watched like this.

The planes landed one after another, and as many as sixteen planes landed in the Xishan campus within twenty or so minutes, and finally after the last plane landed, with the suspension of the plane's engine, the roar disappeared, and the stunned soldiers finally came to their senses, and they looked at the planes parked in the center of the school field, and suddenly became excited.

Heavenly Soldiers!

For them, the thirty or so people who came down from these sixteen "strange birds" are not heavenly soldiers and generals!

"It is estimated that tomorrow, the people in the capital will know that the heavenly soldiers and generals they are looking forward to turning the tide did not appear on their side, but on the side of the "traitor", I really want to see the expression of the old lady when she listens to this! ”

Lin Yuqing, who led more than a dozen officers to greet the arrival of the flight team, said with a smile when he saw Deng Shaoling.

"Hello sir!"

As soon as he saw this commander who was younger than himself and looked at his rank of colonel, Deng Shaoling knew who this person was, the youngest colonel and division commander in the Liberation Army, Lin Yuqing, the commander of the 37th Division of the Liberation Army, and the ruling "family member".

"Welcome, Major Deng,"

returned a military salute, and Lin Yuqing smiled again.

"How about a good night's rest, tomorrow...... Lay a few eggs for the capital! ”

(To be continued)