"Ulla!"

Cossack cavalrymen in leather hats, wielding sabers and spears, rushed down the white slopes, covered by snow-covered coniferous forests, and below them were columns of Chinese marching troops stretched into slender serpents—straddled vehicles and soldiers dotted the roadside.

In the small village that had become a ruin, several red signal flares were raised, and the nearby Chinese troops immediately formed a vehicle formation with battalions and companies as units, and the chariots and cavalry paraded around the outside of the formation.

At this time, the village was stationed at the headquarters of the 1st Armored Army, whose combat strength included a motorized guard company (180 men), an armored reconnaissance platoon (3 No. 4 "Hound" ultralight tanks), 18 men from the vanguard survey detachment of the 106th Company of the Combat Railway Corps, and a No. 3 "Jetfox" light tank belonging to the 2nd Armored Brigade.

The Cossacks seemed to have a good grasp of what must be a high-value target in the village, and hundreds of riders swooped down from the ridgeline with less snow in loose columns, and by the time the village garrison reacted, the first few horsemen had already approached the chapel at the entrance of the village with their spears raised.

"Hit!"

Ding Qiansheng gave an order, using the snowdrifts and low walls around the church as cover, the Hanyang horse rifles in the hands of more than a dozen railway soldiers rang out like firecrackers, and almost at the same time, the turret of the Jiehu chariot that broke down at the entrance of the church also heard the heavy and rapid Jinling-style air-cooled heavy machine gun firing.

The men were on their backs, the horses flipped over, the spears flew to the side, the men and horses rushed into the snow by inertia, and a Cossack fur hat flew far out of the coffin, landing on the turret roof of the chariot.

"Ulla!"

More Cossack cavalry followed, their noses spraying coarse white vapor, their hooves kicking up patches of snow mist, flags fluttering on the tips of their spears, and sabers reflecting the light, and in the face of this suffocating ferocious charge, the railroad soldiers with their cats behind unrepaired makeshift bunkers and scrambling to pull the bolts of their guns seemed so small and fragile that they seemed to be swept away by this living storm in the next second......

Suddenly, a "hound" ultralight chariot poked out of its toy-like pocket body from a fence on the east side of the church, the machine gun on the right side of the hull had already erupted blazing flames, and almost at the same time, a long column of guns of various sizes stretched out from the gap in the fence, and they fired at the Cossack cavalry charging towards the church.

More than 100 Cossacks who charged towards the chapel were flanked by fierce fire from two directions, and lost nearly half of them in just a minute or two, while the rest of the men and horses rushed into the courtyard of the church in a frenzy, frantically slashing and killing the railroad soldiers in the courtyard.

Ding Qian rolled on the spot, dodged a spear that stabbed diagonally, and fired three shots in succession, knocking down a bearded Cossack, but he saw that Qiu Yipeng's chariot was surrounded by several Cossacks, two or three of whom had already jumped on the chariot and stabbed and shot indiscriminately at the observation hole of the chariot with sabers and pistols. Because it was pressed down, the human-driven turret could not be rotated, and the machine gun suddenly poured useless bullets into the open space where only horseshoe prints remained - Qiu Yipeng was in danger!

Without thinking too much, at the risk of being knocked off by a heavy horse and cut down by a sharp saber at any time, Ding Qian raised his hand and shot, and with three or two strokes, he used up the remaining bullets, knocking down the three Cossacks lying on the chariot one by one.

"Sir, be careful!"

There was an exclamation behind him, followed by several gunshots, Ding Qian subconsciously jumped up, only to feel a gust of cold wind close to his body, and when he landed, he looked back and saw that a chestnut horse plopped into the thick snowdrift, and the rider on it flipped around in the air like an acrobatic twist or two, and fell heavily on the open space swept in front of the church gate, and rolled out of the long distance.

"Sir, you're fine."

It turned out to be Chen Yu, the driver of Qiu Yipeng's chariot, who saved Ding Qian, because the chariot could no longer be driven and there was no on-board weapon for the driver to use in the car, Chen Yu stayed outside the chariot and fought side by side with Ding Qian's team.

"It's okay, I owe you my life." Ding Qian said, pulled Chen Yu and ran to the door of the church, shouting to his subordinates to take refuge in the church along the way.

Seeing that he was about to reach the door, Chen Yu stood still: "Wait, Warrant Officer Qiu is still outside!" I can't leave my captain behind! ”

Ding Qian suddenly loaded the pistol with a new magazine: "You go in first, I'll save him, and I'll return you!" ”

Chen Yu suddenly pushed Ding Qian to the door: "No, you stay, of course my commander wants me to save it." ”

Before the words fell, Chen Yu had already rushed to the chariot trapped in the enemy formation alone.

Ding Qian was angry and anxious, and threw off his military hat fiercely: "Less stinky and beautiful - did anyone come with me to save the charioteer brothers over there?" ”

A large corporal who had already entered the church poked his head out tremblingly: "We are building roads, so we don't have to fight so hard." ”

It was the young private, who usually looked cowering, who was the first to raise his hand and say, "Sir, I'll go with you!" ”

The true courage of a soldier can only be fully reflected until the moment of life and death-

"And me."

"Count me in!"

"I'll go too."

Perhaps inspired by this private, he summoned three other people in the blink of an eye, and the five officers and men fired at the cavalry galloping around them, while chasing Chen Yu to the chariot twenty or thirty meters away.

Suddenly, the heap of Russian cavalry that was tightly surrounding the chariot rustled like a hail of persimmons, and the chariot in the middle was beaten by a rain of bullets from nowhere.

Putting down the nearest cavalryman, Ding Qian took advantage of the gap to look around - the hound chariot on the other side of the fence had disappeared at some point, and there were several corpses of men and horses scattered in front of the fence, but on the main road to the south, several of our army's Jiehu chariots were unfolded, and they were rushing towards with fire snakes.

It turned out that the 2nd Armored Company of the 3rd Armored Brigade (8 Jiehu light fighting vehicles) and the 1st Company of the Motorized Infantry Battalion (one platoon) under the nearby Armored Brigade hurriedly assembled in the village after receiving the alarm, and directly entered the battle before contacting the friendly forces in the village.

The remaining Cossacks near the church saw that the situation was not good, turned their horses' heads and fled into the mountains and forests, Ding Qian and his subordinates chased the horse's buttocks, and hurried to the chariot, but saw Chen Yu with a spear in his chest, a bullet hole in his forehead, and fell face to the sky next to the chariot tracks.

Ding Qian leaned down to probe Chen Yu's snort—he was out of breath.

Ding Qian's two subordinates lifted the Cossack corpse covered the chariot, Qiu Yipeng lifted the top cover with a bang, saw Chen Yu's corpse at a glance, the corners of his mouth twitched, silently jumped out of the car, and knelt beside Chen Yu.

"What are you kidding...... How can you ...... without my approval ...... so soon."

The young warrant officer spoke intermittently, and was already choked.

Ding Qian gently patted Qiu Yipeng's shoulder: "He died to save you, and he said that he would never leave his commander." ”

"But ......"

"It's nothing, look over there, several of my brothers have also fallen, this is the war, this is the battlefield, today is the best brother, tomorrow may be you and me—that's why, for the sake of the dead brothers, we must win this holy war!"

Ding Qianyao looked at the corpses of his subordinates who had broken their bowels on the snow, finished the above words with tears, and suddenly turned to the surviving subordinates behind him: "What are you doing, go and see if there are any survivors, save one by one!" ”

Outside the village, several groups of Cossack cavalry attacking the village from other directions had also been defeated, and they were scattered to climb the ridge, where the hounds of the armored reconnaissance platoon of the army headquarters and the Jiehu of the 3rd Panzer Brigade were chasing them, and mortar shells continued to explode on the ridge...... Only about two or three percent of those who were lucky enough to escape were at the beginning of the attack, leaving behind more than 300 Cossack corpses or wounded soldiers in and around the village, and the dead horses all over the ground would be the main source of fresh meat for the 1st Panzer Army and the entire Left Wing Assault Group for the next few days.

On the Chinese side, 21 people were killed and more than 40 wounded, and 10 of the casualties came from the advance team of the 106th Railway Company.

Major General Yintian's military headquarters also had to move forward with the large army. Although Ding Qian's advance team lost more than half of it, it could not help but continue to complete their survey work. Qiu Yipeng's chariot was about to be overhauled in the rearmament camp, and he needed a new driver, and before that he had to follow the truck transporting the wounded soldiers to the rear field hospital - the bullets that entered the chariot observation cracks shattered and burst, leaving him with a few not-so-serious abrasions on his beautiful face, but the commander of the silver army, who was ordered to take care of him, insisted that he go to the hospital for a check-up.

Before the three separated, they attended the funeral of the war dead together.

Since the troops had to be mobilized as soon as possible, the time was short, so the corpses could only be temporarily buried in snowdrifts, and a tombstone with the name of the unit written on them could be erected, and after the situation was settled, the follow-up troops would take on further processing.

After the solemn and sad mourning music ended, Yintian put on his military hat and helped the two young people who were destined to be next to him: "Maybe one day, we will all be inside, but we have no reason to complain, this is our own choice of path, understand?" ”

The two of them stood solemnly: "Yes, thank you for your teaching." ”

Yintian nodded, and was about to turn around, but he turned back to Ding Qian uneasily: "Lieutenant Ding, deliberately forgetting and avoiding the past has no more meaning than fueling your own cowardice. I hope you can face everything more courageously and open-mindedly, and your father will definitely expect this from the spirit of heaven. ”

Ding Qian nodded gratefully, didn't say anything, just snapped the ground and saluted vigorously.

In the winter and spring offensive on the Baikal side, similar battles were often staged, but the results were not the same, and there were even cases of negligent and unguarded entire battalions of baggage convoys completely wiped out after being attacked by the enemy, but the Russian army was unable to stop the advance of the two mechanized assault groups of the Chinese army after all, and by January 10, 1915, that is, the 15th day after the start of the war, the Chinese army announced the completion of the siege of the Ulan-Ude fortress......