Around the same time, Toulouse.

In the afternoon, the sky is clear, the sun is shining, and the weather is a little hot, and there are long queues in front of the cold drink stalls or ice cream parlors on the streets, and the citizens seem to think that it is worth waiting for ten minutes to buy ice cream in the bright sun.

As the largest city in the southwest of France, Toulouse has a rich history and is also very architecturally remarkable – many of the houses here retain their rose-red brick character.

This is why Toulouse is known as the City of Roses, although it does not produce roses. The romantic French praised the brick walls in their poems as "rosy red in the morning, lilac at noon, and positive red in the evening".

If Paris is romantic and chic, Toulouse is natural and quaint.

In the afternoon, many citizens gather in the central square to take a walk, bask in the sun, drink coffee, leisurely and comfortable.

However, on a bench under a large tree in the corner of the square, there were two different figures.

"Well, what did he think? It's good and decent, but you have to take risks......"

"Some people are indeed happy to do this, and when they see injustice, they draw their swords to help, and they can only say that Chief Zhou is a man with lofty ideals."

Xia Xiaoshi, who was full of sorrow, stared at the ice cream cone in her hand, "But this is against the law, Sister Zhen'er, if it is made public, it will definitely be punished, and it will affect the career." ”

Since Xia Bing was in the middle of the criminal department, Xia Xiaoshi was naturally more sensitive to this.

The woman beside her is the civilian lieutenant Qin Zizhen who came with her, and she belongs to the kind of figure that looks at the side of the ridge as a peak, which can be described as a man's enthusiasm and a woman's eyes.

Qin Zizhen smiled slightly and said, "You are too worried, and no matter if you are not known to the outside world now, even if you know, it is not difficult to avoid punishment." ”

Of course, this is just a relief, if this matter is really shaken out, no matter how bad it is, it will be convicted, as for whether it is an understatement symbolic punishment or a normal punishment according to the standard, it depends on the meaning of the bigwigs.

If in order to prevent others from learning and following suits, then it is definitely not appropriate to take it lightly, otherwise it is equivalent to connivance.

But... Since ancient times, or in recent decades, this kind of special treatment is actually not uncommon, and this time one more special case seems to be nothing?

Xia Xiaoshi, whose eyes were full of melancholy, sighed lightly and said softly: "The matter has come to this, I just hope that he can return safely, and I will talk about it later." ”

"There's no need to be so worried, Chief Zhou is now the chief officer, he doesn't have to go to the front line, and he will definitely be able to get out in the end." Qin Zizhen thought for a moment and added: "According to him, he will leave to return when the battle between the two sides is over. ”

The series of events in these days is really speechless, and he rushed all the way to "take care", but found that Zhou Changfeng was not there, and he was confused for a few days before he knew that he had gone to Spain, which had become a mess of porridge.

If Xia Xiaoshi only wanted to punch him twice in the chest, then Zhu Lingjing couldn't wait to pick up the whip and whip him hard.

And this may be the reason why Zhou Changfeng has been sneezing in the past few days, and he still thinks that it is because he only wears short sleeves and is too thin when he patrols at night and catches a cold.

June 14.

The moderate rain, which had lasted for more than an hour, gradually stopped, and the dark clouds dissipated, but with it came a neat formation of bombers in the sky.

Soon after, a rumbling explosion came from the rear, like a series of thunder.

Another air raid, and over the past half a month, dozens of air raids of various scales have become accustomed to the 50 th Brigade.

Roads, bridges, warehouses, transfer stations, etc. have all suffered varying degrees of losses, and logistics capacity has been reduced by half.

The Nationalist Army and the Italian Army, which were facing the enemy in front of them, have organized many reconnaissance operations one after another these days, and they have been very persistent, again and again.

Although it can be detected seven or eight times out of ten, there are always fish that slip through the net.

Everything foreshadowed that the battle was coming.

“…… This may be our last big battle in Spain, and the Intercontinental Brigade will be evacuated this autumn or winter. What the future of Spain will be, I don't think we know, but does that mean we should give up the struggle? I'm afraid not. ”

"The results that we, and thousands of volunteers, have achieved with their blood and lives may not be the final victory, but a glorious story that will forever be recorded in the history of mankind. Here, we no longer consider our own and national interests, regardless of race, class, or party affiliation. ”

At the very least, this proves that human beings do not always follow social Darwinism, and that imperialism is not the only one. But the reality is that such noble deeds are unlikely to become the mainstream of praise for a long time to come. ”

"Not many people are willing to cut back and help strangers in another part of the world, given the uneven distribution. So, I would like to ask, do you regret coming here? Voluntarily bear the cost of one's life for the sake of pursuits and ideals that are not understood by the public? ”

Zhou Changfeng's off-script speech was anything but impassioned, and in Chrétien's view, it was not a good pre-war speech – far from boosting morale, it threw the problem at everyone.

"What is 'volunteering'? That must be a decision made after the consequences and results have been clarified, and this is not compulsory conscription. ”

"Well, Natsu, you always do strange things."

Night.

The climate is quite cool, the round moon seems to be embedded in the starry night, and the moonlight is sprinkled on the field, as if covered with a thin white veil.

Six kilometres upstream of Talavera, rubber boats silently cross the Tagus River, and countless figures sway onto the beach, surrounded only by the faint sound of boots rustling on the sand.

A battalion of the 26th Italian Infantry Division managed to cross the Tagus River unexposed under the cover of night, followed by a second battalion.

The Italians were uncharacteristically bold, planning to cross the river at the junction of the 50th Brigade and the 47th Brigade of the Republican Army, and after gaining a foothold, they would launch a surprise attack directly on the 109th Heights.

Although theoretically it would be safer and feasible to attack the 47th Brigade first, the Italian staff officers felt that this would expose their own side prematurely, causing the 50th Brigade to be more vigilant.

It can be said that they did not take the Republican Army seriously, the International Brigade was a difficult opponent to deal with, and the most important thing was the 109 Heights - condescending, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the side that occupied there would undoubtedly be able to take the initiative.

Major General Antonio considered himself well prepared, and if the surprise attack on Heights 109 failed, the follow-up troops would immediately hold the river beach position and storm the 47th Brigade of the Republican Army in an attempt to repel it, so that the right flank of the 50th Brigade would be completely exposed.

He was determined to make his mark in the prelude to this Armageddon and show the world that the Italian army was not a third-rate army that would be disgraced by bullies.

At this moment, on the artillery positions on the north bank, a few mountain guns and howitzers were neatly deployed, and the artillery men were ready to carry out a rapid fire attack at any time after the battle began.

After the formation of the team, a battalion of more than 400 Italian troops took a platoon as the top unit, and the rest formed a three-level echelon in the rear, slowly approaching the 109th Heights Formation in the dark.

"What's that?"

"Like a human? A lot! ”

The two Frenchmen who were in charge of the perimeter were chatting in a whisper, but they noticed the approaching crowd.

When the sky Haoyue gave good visibility, in the moonlight, the two of them were sure that these guys were the enemy who tried to sneak up on the night.

Just as one of them was about to fire a warning shot into the sky......

Suddenly, a flash of light appeared, and the sound of an explosion of "boom" also came from that side.

An unfortunate Italian infantryman stepped on an M25 mine, a mine commonly used by the Italian army today, with a pressurized fuse and a 400g TNT or nitrocellulose explosive.

Unlike modern landmines, which pursue "maiming but not lethal", today's anti-infantry mines have not changed the idea of killing, so they are often hundreds of grams of explosives, and their power should not be underestimated.

These mines were left behind by the defeated Italian army, and they were reincarnated, dug up, and re-planted in the forward positions.

The mangled body was blown away, and several people around him were also killed.

The loud explosion of the mines was heard very far away at night, clearly audible for several kilometers, and the fighters of the 72nd Battalion, who had been awakened from their sleep, immediately took their guns and entered the position, while those who were on duty had already manipulated the mortars to fire flares.

"Bang! Bang! ”

After a few crisp sounds, the lighting canister hanging under the small parachute emitted a dazzling white light, and the bright light instantly illuminated the dark earth.

The Italian soldiers, who had not yet recovered from the surprise of the mines, bowed their heads under the sharp rebuke of the officers and non-commissioned officers, and some of them were temporarily blinded by the subconscious direct gaze of the flares.

"Blast minefields! Company A immediately attacked! ”

Now that it was discovered, the surprise attack suddenly turned into a strong attack.

The Italians knew very well that they had only one chance, and if the assault was unsuccessful, they should retreat immediately to avoid being flanked in front and rear.

The blaster with the fuse pulled was thrown into the minefield, and the huge explosion detonated the nearby mines, and for a time the rumbling sound was incessant.

Immediately, more than 100 Italian troops quickly passed through this narrow passageway, and then spread out into a sparse offensive formation and rushed up the hillside.

A few fires rang out halfway up the hill, the muzzle flames flickered, and six or seven Italian soldiers fell like wheat cut by a sickle.

In the sound of gunfire, the fierce crossfire like a storm beat the Italian army who tried to storm to the point of crying wolf.

The corpses that had been beaten into a hornet's nest rolled down the hillside with a gurgling run, and some people avoided it, and were knocked down by the corpses like rolling logs, and they all rolled down together.

"Look for cover!"

"Mortar fire, suppress!"

The officers were screaming, only their voices were completely muffled by the cacophony of firecrackers.

The quicker Italian soldiers fled to the bottom of the cliff, taking advantage of the machine-gun fire to gain a moment of respite.

It's just that this time is too short, and before they can think about their current situation, grenades fall like hail down.

"Boom! Rumble! Rumble! ”

This is not the end, the heavy weapons company of the 72nd Battalion, which has already marked the shooting of Zhuyuan in various areas, is already using mortars to open fire, and it only takes half a minute to look through the notebook and adjust the firing direction and elevation angle.

The dull sound of explosions and terrible screams were mixed together, and the path of the Italian attack suddenly turned into a bloody purgatory.

The entire hillside, cliffs, and paths are littered with corpses of various shapes, and the dying wounded are constantly crying for help and wailing, but where can the medical soldiers who are unable to protect themselves have the spare strength to save them?

It rains down, and it doesn't seem like there's anywhere safe here, it's a slaughterhouse!

From a distance, the whole hill looks like a fire hedgehog, with muzzle flames and exploding fires flickering everywhere.

Another company and battalion headquarters that were not involved in the attack were deeply shocked by this bloody scene, and six Fiat heavy machine guns and a dozen ultralight mortars opened fire almost frantically in an attempt to suppress the firing point on the 109 heights.

As a result, the defenders' firepower weakened, and the defeated remnants of the defeated army almost fled with no fighting spirit.

Some of the dejected creatures were so bent on escaping from the land of right and wrong that they forgot the danger of their way to the wrong place, and they plunged headlong into a minefield and were blown away.

The first echelon of the Italian attack was thus disintegrated, leaving behind dozens of corpses without the slightest progress.

They fired two red and one yellow flares into the sky, and then the Italian artillery positions on the north bank of the Tejo River opened fire.

70mm mountain guns, 75mm field guns, and 105mm howitzers were all roaring, and shells rained down one after another.

In the night, clusters of flash of light burst out from the 109 Heights, and the deafening explosion was heard a few seconds later, which could be described as shaking the ground.

In the more than ten minutes of fire support, the rapid shooting accounted for half of the time, which can be said to be quite fast.

However, the rest of the Italian army refused to continue the attack, and the commander of Company B righteously opposed the "pointless assault" mission, and the soldiers also shouted in support.

The Italian major who led the team borrowed the slope to get off the donkey, and he also knew in his heart that this attack had already failed tactically - the surprise attack was focused on taking the enemy by surprise, and since it was discovered in advance, it was actually doomed to be impossible to succeed.

The 71st Battalion used heavy machine guns and mortars to escort the self-righteous Italian troops until they disappeared into the night.

However, the fact that the 50th Brigade can easily take this sneak attack does not mean that other units can also.

At this moment, the Italian troops of the third battalion also crossed the Tejo, while the second battalion took the opportunity to launch a resolute surprise attack on the 47th Brigade of the Republican Army.

The Italians also used their creativity to put together two improvised rafts out of wooden planks, scrap tires and empty oil drums to transport two CV-33 ultralight tanks across the river.

The light, brittle little tank now worked wonders, and it would have been impossible to transport it across the river on a raft if it had been replaced by a normal tank.

Two CV-33s "showed their might" on the positions of the Republican Army, and the Italian troops accompanying the attack also behaved quite actively.

The 47th Brigade was overwhelmed by such a sudden and rapid assault, and the nimble Italian tanks went on a rampage, even reaching a distance of less than 100 meters from the brigade headquarters.

For a time, several positions fell one after another, and the 47th Brigade, which was caught off guard, thought that it had been attacked by an entire division of the Italian army.

"They're all over the place! We should retreat! ”

(End of chapter)