"General Lillard has ordered us to advance at least 16 kilometers toward the front line today."
"!!!"
"Are we about to set off?"
"Yes……"
Su Yue looked at Gregory not far away and gestured for Henry to come over.
"What's wrong?"
Did you write to your family this time? The postman didn't deliver any mail?
Henry said, “I have too many people at home, and writing letters would be pointless. Besides, why write to a bunch of guys I don’t even know? Just because they hate me?” He sniffed, scoffing at the idea. Henry snorted and, like an impatient warhorse, shouldered his backpack and helmet.
"It's time to get going."
Su Yue recalled his encounter with Gregory, bent down to pick up his backpack, took a sip from his water bottle, and then went to the well next to him to fill the bottle.
He felt his physical condition was deteriorating, but the letters were filled with pleasant descriptions. He mentioned that he was only involved in engineering units at the front and had no opportunity to work in the trenches or embankments. In the letters, Su Yue maintained a friendly relationship with his superiors.
"Hurry up and get going, you damned private pig."
"Yes, sir, yes."
"Rapid deployment is underway, ready to move forward."
In his letter, Su Yue wrote that he got along very well with his companions here, and that they ate and drank well.
"Is this all the food they're giving me?"
Some of the moldy black bread made Su Yue frown.
"Eat it or not, it's up to you. If you don't eat it, you'll die."
"This is a battlefield, not a time when you have your elderly mother taking care of you at home."
Su Yue turned to look at Henry and saw that he and another guy were arguing over how many pieces of bread to divide. It quickly escalated into a physical fight. The military police rushed over and separated the two men, and then the bread in their hands was taken away.
Su Yue wiped the steel gun in his hand.
The main force began its operation.
The rifle is flintlock and uses .77mm bullets, requiring a reloading process every time.
He kept filling his military boots with mud.
It seemed that even the heavens did not want them to survive on the battlefield. The wind and rain swept away their progress, and the trenches seemed to be submerged in the trenches at the front line by seawater, lake water, and rainwater falling from the sky.
Su Yue felt like a corpse soaked in a trench.
As the distance between the excavation sites grew longer and longer, the sergeant major suddenly announced that the work could be finished. Everyone slumped against the wall as if paralyzed, with muddy, black water beneath their feet. The trenches were constantly softening and collapsing under the torrential rain.
Su Yue's shovel was covered in what looked like peanut butter on his arms and shoulders, with layers of blood and flesh scraps. This trench was clearly near the front line and had been breached by the enemy once. They often encountered corpses while digging.
Some were abandoned, some were not, and the water level in the trenches, which were soaked in sewage, began to rise continuously. Su Yue felt like a warrior fighting against the world.
But he was just too tired.
When he was exhausted to a certain extent, breathing became the only thing he wanted to do, and he even forgot about his thoughts about the world of Turin and Canaan—he was too tired.
Even my thoughts are unclear.
Exhausted by his attire, heavy backpack, helmet, and numerous pieces of equipment, along with a black iron water bottle strapped to his belt and the steel gun he couldn't let go of, Su Yue felt that if he could, he would want to throw everything away. But that would be undisciplined, and undisciplined behavior would get him into trouble.
One of the men next to him took off his helmet and went to the trench to treat his wound.
"Sizzle."
Like a venomous snake exhaling into the air, his figure seemed to have fallen asleep.
"Carter, Carter!!"
Blood trickled down his neck...
"Damn it, Carter is dead..."
"Watch out, a sniper!!!"
"He was shot in the head."
"Wear a helmet, damn it, wear a helmet!!!!" The sergeant's furious roar came through. He said, "Even if your head is covered with bugs, leeches and bloodsuckers, even if you're so itchy you want to lift the lid off your head, you still have to put on a helmet."
The pressure of death weighed on everyone. Su Yue grabbed a stretcher from a distance, forcefully embedded it into the trench, and then climbed onto it...
"You can't do it this way."
Henry said.
Su Yue said, "Anyway, we haven't been discovered, so let's squeeze in together."
A longing flickered across Henry's dirty face.
The two men hid in the corner of the trench, surrounded by piles of supplies and sandbags. The temptation to lie down and rest was strong for everyone. Many were trying to avoid getting wet, but dared not leave the high ground of the trench to avoid being shot in the head by enemy snipers.
"boom!!"
The shells whistled past and crashed not far away, splashing up a large patch of mud. Su Yue and Henry beside him were already indifferent to this, but were they nervous or not?
It is naturally tense, but this contraction, repression, and extreme inner tension will form a natural mental reflex through the experience passed down by veterans.
This makes it difficult for them to reintegrate into society after they return to it.
Also known as trauma syndrome.
Every moment they felt like someone wanted to harm them. Even the slightest sound made them feel like someone was going to kill them or that someone was aiming a gun at them. This made them prone to overreacting and becoming extremely sensitive. Compared to the relaxed people in the rear, the veterans' hearts were filled with tension.
They are like an overstretched string, their inner strength constantly receding.
Rats scurried about in the mud.
They often hid among corpses, and every cuff and trouser leg became their home in search of a good meal. The battlefield also affected the rats, turning humans into their food and food reserves.
An abundance of food reserves—with litters of mice constantly being born—needs to consume even more human corpses in order to survive.
The plague is spreading.
Su Yue watched in horror as a person with bloodshot eyes was carried away by medics.
Needless to say, they had only been lying on the stretcher for a while before being forced back into work mode. It was as if at least four hours of rest a day had become a luxury. In an instant, extreme fatigue had replaced their original fixed view of the world.
It turns out that when humans are extremely exhausted, they can collapse into the mud in front of them. Su Yue felt his vision go black, and he felt dizzy and confused. In particular, his head felt like it was being lifted up, and his body no longer seemed to belong to him.
"Advance...advance!!! The tanks are coming."
"Boom!!"
A colossal steel monster appeared on the right side of the trench. At that moment, Su Yue seemed to see fear in the eyes of the enemy tank crew's machine gunners. A torrent of fire began to rage from the tank's firing ports and from the machine gunners' positions above!
They were like an advance force that had just ventured over mountains and valleys, only to discover the enemy's main camp; they had just found each other, yet they were already embracing one another.
The tank attempted to turn its tracks around, but the mud blended perfectly with them, and it slaughtered soldiers in a trench, killing the machine gunner.
Next came the people inside the tank. The gunners, who were turning the rotating turret, looked up and saw the engine compartment hatch above their heads open. Then, a muffled, thunderous explosion came from below the driver's hatch... When Su Yue went closer, he found that the inside was a mess. Thick black smoke and the smell of engine oil were swallowed by the rain, but the interior looked extremely desolate.
They gained another cover, and the enemy tank force lost another tank.
But in terms of the overall battle situation, who will win and who will lose?
Who lost more soldiers?
Who gained the greater advantage?
These were all things Su Yue was unaware of, but the messenger at the front said, "Duval's enemies have been defeated!! All we need to do now is continue advancing at the front to achieve victory!! Charge!"
"Charge!!!"
Large numbers of soldiers charged forward through the muddy forest.
Su Yue followed behind Henry.
"Damn it, there's a minefield ahead!!!"
"What should we do then?"
"Charge! You damned pigs!!"
The oversight team behind them watched their pace as they marched, and the slightest misstep would be met with the sound of gunfire. They would even deliberately execute a group of soldiers who slacked off, labeling them with shame and accusing them of cowardice.
But the supervisory team is often not the most terrifying; the most terrifying are their recorders. These recorders, along with the aerial reconnaissance units, will investigate who is dragging their feet and then punish them. Su Yue, like many soldiers participating in the front-line war, did it for his family and to bring a better life to his family.
If punished, their military pay and salaries will be deducted, and they might even lose their entire month's salary. Can you imagine what it would feel like to have nothing after thirty days of gunfire?
Besides battling death, the feeling also involves facing the accusations of being a coward, and dealing with the troubles of his family members lacking money and unable to cope with the hardships of life in Dukar, the city in the clouds.
Soldiers, like a locust plague, spread into the minefield of the forest. Before Su Yue's eyes was chaos, broken trees everywhere, and corpses everywhere!
"charge!!"
"charge!!"
"Su Yue, quick, lie down!!!"
Henry immediately tackled Su Yue to the ground. In the distance, Dukar's army appeared, and many people began to lift and set up their high-rate-of-fire machine guns.
The military orders changed to crawling forward!
"There are no trenches here!! We're finished!!!"
"Aaaaaaahhhhhh!"
"Da da da da!!"
The ear-piercing flashes of light, with tongues of fire spreading out, seemed to turn the scene before my eyes into a barrage of death.
"Crawl forward!!"
The mountains and fields were scorching, landmines exploded from time to time, and dead bodies littered the corners of the forest. Su Yue was lucky; he was lucky to be alive. A low slope appeared ahead, and to avoid unnecessary casualties, the order to charge was restricted.
Unfortunately, he got injured.
A grenade hit him beside him, and his arms, ribs, and thigh bones looked as if they had been scraped by hundreds of steel knives, leaving them a bloody mess.
"Medics!! Medics!"
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