If you ask what it is like to be a military observer, the answer is probably "a strange feeling of being on the front line but not being involved."
Adala drove Zhou Changfeng and Chen Guangyun from the second line to the first line. What he saw along the way suddenly brought the former's memory back to Demaji more than half a year ago.
Trucks were driving back, with injured soldiers staggering around on both sides of the truck, and the bodies of fallen soldiers in the middle.
Wailing sounds continued to be heard from the tents of the field hospital, mixed with faint sounds of crying.
Doctors with bloodstains on their white coats stretched outside the tent, nurses hurriedly ran with medicines and equipment, and wounded soldiers in good condition sat and smoked while leaning against trees.
Ahead is the supply station, where mules, horses, carriages, and trucks are in transit.
Trucks transported the ammunition here from the train station, and on the way back they picked up wounded soldiers and corpses at the field hospital; horse-drawn carriages, mules, and packhorses successively transported ammunition to various places on the front line.
Continuing forward is the artillery position. Each artillery is more than ten meters apart, surrounded by sand bags and air defense camouflage nets.
The ground was piled with yellow shell casings. The artillerymen probably had nothing to do. They were doing their own thing at the moment. Some were smoking, some were eating cans, and some were writing diaries.
Chen Guangyun pointed with his hand and said: "Look, a bunch of twelve-type mountain cannons were all bought from us. Oh, the ones over there are not. Those are German FK16 field cannons, old ones from the European War. It’s a toy.”
"The Type 12 mountain cannon is just as old."
"When selling things, we must give priority to old items in stock."
After arriving at Gilmino Village on the front line, Chen Guangyun was greatly surprised by the scene here.
There are densely packed craters, both large and small, and gun parts, tattered clothes, and body parts can be seen everywhere.
The water accumulated in the crater showed a strange black-red color and gave off a disgusting smell.
In a sense, the village of Gilmino can be said to have ceased to exist. There are only ruins of hundreds of houses in the village, and they are all as black as if they had been burned by fire.
A series of winding trenches outlines the shape of wavy lines around the village. Viewed from the sky, they look like wrinkles on the forehead.
"parking."
The SUV parked next to a "house" with only half a wall left.
Zhou Changfeng jumped out of the car, stepped over a pile of broken bricks, climbed up the wall, and then looked around.
Foxholes, barbed wire obstacles, side-firing machine gun fire bunkers, multiple traffic trenches, slanted positions, mortar bunkers...
He commented to himself: "The defensive positions are arranged in a decent manner."
Then comes the boring and tiring work.
He drove around in the car, and then asked the officers here about the situation of the war. He asked a few questions here and there, and recorded them carefully.
It's okay if you meet someone who is more enthusiastic, but if you meet someone who doesn't like these "plagiarism thieves", you might even get a blank look.
This dull and boring day lasted for four days in total, and there was almost no change in the front line.
The battle area was exceptionally quiet, but only relatively quiet. Although neither side took large-scale operations, small groups of reconnaissance units had been roaming within this vast area of several hundred square kilometers.
Obviously, both sides are adjusting their deployment and accumulating strength.
There were only small fights on the ground, but the battlefield in the sky was extremely fierce. Lying on your back and watching aerial battles every day has become a pastime for soldiers on both sides.
Early morning on the fourth day.
Zhou Changfeng and Chen Guangyun were going downstairs to discuss the use of Republican artillery recorded yesterday, but they were blocked by the children who came over.
"Sir, are you going to the front line again?" a young man asked curiously.
"Of course, this is our mission." After saying that, Zhou Changfeng took out a handful of candies from his inner pocket.
In the past few days, although he didn't have much contact with them, these inexpensive fruit candies and milk candies were enough for him to get to know the children in the apartment.
The little girl named Alyssa raised her head and said seriously: "Mom said it might rain today, so you should come back early."
After listening to Adala's translation, Chen Guangyun laughed and said, "You can't tell when you will be back after finishing your work."
The off-road vehicle's engine roared and then drove onto the street outside the apartment building.
Today Zhou Changfeng was designated to go to Alibeiro Village. According to the information he learned, a short but fierce battle broke out there yesterday morning. The attack of the tank detachment sent by the National Army to raid was thwarted. Five T- 26 and CV-33 were destroyed.
This village is relatively far away, 14km northeast of Guadalajara, adjacent to a small lake.
Dark clouds were rolling in, the sky was dark, and it was so gloomy that it seemed as if water could be squeezed out at any time.
Midway, the off-road vehicle carrying Zhou Changfeng and Chen Guangyun encountered two "cavalry", or signal soldiers riding horses.
"What happened?" Adala put one hand on the steering wheel and waved the other hand.
"The 17th Brigade has lost contact with the company in Alibeiro Village. It may be that the phone line was blown down. We are investigating." A tall signal soldier replied.
Adala didn't ask any more questions, because this was a very common situation. In war zones, wired communication interruptions were an almost daily occurrence.
The car continued to move forward on the dirt road.
However, only a few hundred meters later, when the car drove over a small slope... a sudden change occurred!
I saw several trucks parked on the roadside behind him, as well as twenty or thirty Italian soldiers!
They seemed to have been waiting here for a long time. The soldiers' faces were full of relaxation, as if they were on an outing.
Imagine that a car has just climbed over a hill. By the time the driver sees the enemy waiting below, it is too late.
Chen Guangyun shouted loudly: "Fuck! He broke into the wolf's den!"
Seeing Adala trying to pull out a gun, Zhou Changfeng shouted sternly: "Let go! Don't resist!"
The Italian army didn't fire at all. Immediately, several soldiers swarmed up and dragged Zhou Changfeng and the others down without any explanation.
A group of Italian soldiers looked at each other in surprise at this unexpected "captive".
They detoured to the rear of the battle line and destroyed the telephone lines, and then set up an ambush here, intending to capture several Republican signal corpsmen or officers rushing to the front line.
In the end, they didn't wait for either, but instead caught two Ming army officers? It's really off the mark.
Two hours later, they were escorted to the village of Capuelen.
This place was affected by the war just a few hours ago. Facing the menacing National Army and Italian Army, a platoon of Republican Army was outnumbered. Except for a few who broke through, most of them were killed.
Several houses and windmills were still burning, and more than a hundred villagers who had not evacuated were driven into the square in the middle of the village by wolf-like soldiers.
Two Fiat M7914 heavy machine guns were arranged crosswise in front, with their black muzzles pointing directly at the crowd, as if they were ready to devour them at any time.
Zhou Changfeng and the others were brought to the edge of the well by several soldiers. An Italian major wearing an olive green military uniform, black riding boots and a big-brimmed hat came leisurely.
There was a joking look in his eyes, "Look what we caught? Oh, two lost Chinese."
【Picture】
(End of chapter)
