War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1744 Can’t Move

On the day of November 11, the two warring parties began a standoff, and in the rear position, Wei Ran also learned some things from the people who came to deliver letters from time to time.

According to an Austrian soldier who also knew Spanish, the position captured in the morning was the forward position that their side had lost, so the morning battle was more accurately described as a recovery rather than a capture.

Of course, this confrontation was by no means a matter of killing time in the trenches. When daybreak came, the soldiers at the front began to busy themselves with expanding and deepening the recaptured trenches, while the soldiers in the rear began to take the risk of digging jagged communication trenches in sections to connect to the front positions.

This was destined to be a hard and dangerous job. In the middle section of the front and rear positions, Wei Ran and Yu Yanlin lay in the shallow pits they had dug. They used the engineer shovels in their hands to deepen the dot-shaped foxholes as if they were rowing a boat, and gradually expanded them into a trench.

Near noon, this communication trench was finally completed with the busy work of many soldiers and connected with the forward position.

After a simple lunch, everyone continued to work on expanding the forward position despite the occasional mortar fire from the opposite side.

But Wei Ran knew that these were all illusions, giving the other side the illusion that they were preparing for a long-term confrontation.

Because of this, he did a perfunctory job on the trench expansion. Compared to these civil engineering works, he wanted to save his energy for the battle at night.

Yu Yanlin, who had been working with him, seemed to have noticed something, "Brother Wei, you don't look lazy, do you?"

Before Wei Ran could answer, Clement, who was also holding a shovel in his hand, found them.

"Listen to me friends"

Clermont whispered in French, "Save your strength. After dark, all those with pistols and submachine guns will be organized to launch a surprise attack on the opposite side. Our Soviet commander is ready to capture the enemy's position tonight."

After saying this, Clemont raised his voice again and asked, "So how many letters did our field post office receive today?"

"When we started digging the trenches there were already more than 20 of them."

Yu Yanlin also responded loudly, "I made a mailbox out of an ammunition box and put it there. We can go over and take a look later."

"Let it stay there for now," Clemont waved his hand and handed each of them a cigarette.

Although the three of them were saving their energy, they still worked together to dig a reverse bunker. At the same time, the order to launch a night attack was also conveyed to the surrounding soldiers, and they were selected in the trenches.

Relying on the pistols or submachine guns in their hands, Wei Ran was successfully selected into the night attack team along with Clement and Yu Yanlin, and after dinner, each of them was assigned a cold weapon.

Clermont got a pair of wire cutters for breaking barbed wire, Yu Yanlin got a British-made Bill trench knife that looked like a hatchet commonly used in southern China, and Wei Ran got a trench stick.

The trench cane is extremely simple, with a wooden handle less than half a meter long and a metal ball with thorns on one end. This thing is enough to be fatal whether it hits the head or chest.

In addition, each of them was given two grenades that were obviously captured from this position.

"How do we conduct a night raid?" Clemont asked in the bunker that the three of them had dug together.

"When the time comes we will have to climb over it, and the first obstacle will be the barbed wire."

Wei Ran lit up another cigarette and said, "This is also the time when you are most likely to be discovered, so you must lie down and be ready to throw grenades at any time."

After a short pause, Wei Ran continued, "If the barbed wire has been opened, the rest will be easy. There are only two possibilities: we are not discovered by the enemy when we jump into the trench, or we are discovered by the enemy."

Giving the two rookies some time to react, Wei Ran continued patiently, "In the second case, what we need to do is to throw grenades as far as possible behind their trenches and to the positions of all the machine gun posts that are firing. If we are still alive at that time, remember to jump in immediately after throwing the grenades. Only by jumping into the trenches and blending in with them can we be safe."

"What if it's the first case?" Clemont asked a little nervously.

"If it's the first one, we should prioritize using cold weapons to eliminate as many enemies as possible before any gunshots or shouting occurs."

Wei Ran said, "Our first goal is to get closer to the machine gun turrets ahead. As long as we take down as many of them as possible, the comrades behind us will be able to rush over together."

"What if we didn't cross the barbed wire at the beginning?" Yu Yanlin asked.

"Then let's find a way to throw all the grenades over there before we die." Wei Ran said seriously.

Hearing this, Yu Yanlin couldn't help but panic.

"We will survive," Clemont said, "Victor, what about after we take out the machine gun tower?

"Hold on there and wait for more people to come."

Wei Ran continued, "If we are the follow-up support troops, we must jump into his trenches in time and cover each other."

At this point, Wei Ran said, "Louis, your submachine gun is responsible for the enemies outside the trenches on both sides. Shoot when you see them."

"It's pitch black"

"If a real fight breaks out, there will be flares."

Wei Ran quickly explained and continued, "Clemont, you stay behind me with the pistol. You can take over when I need support or to change the magazine."

"Okay," Yu Yanlin and Clemont responded in unison.

As everyone waited patiently, the sky gradually darkened and became darker. The mortars of both sides began to occasionally fire shells at the opposite positions, trying to blow up the barbed wire that both sides had set up in front of their positions.

Taking advantage of the last bit of time, Clermont ran to the rear position to get his backpack, and made three cups of Italian coffee in the simple shelter.

"Your love of coffee makes you look more Italian"

Wei Ran said while holding his own small cup of coffee, in this front line where there was no milk or sugar and one could even die at any time, Clermont's Italian coffee was not very popular - especially since he was in the French camp.

“I started drinking coffee at a very young age”

Clemont drank the coffee in the silver eggshell cup and said, "I know your Chinese tea. I hope to taste it if I have the chance in the future."

"If you come with me to China to participate in the battle against Faxusi in the future, I will let you taste a variety of different teas."

Yu Yanlin smiled and said, "It's definitely better than your Italian coffee."

"If I can survive, I will go to China," Clemont said, "and then you must take me to taste your tea, all kinds of tea."

"Then it's settled"

Wei Ran also drank the coffee in the eggshell cup, but at the same time he sighed helplessly in his heart. He hoped that they could all survive.

As they chatted about tea, time passed by. The soldiers who were preparing to take part in the raid took their weapons, gathered in the trenches, and lay on the edge of the trenches, ready to climb out at any time.

As everyone waited patiently, time passed by minute by minute, and finally, someone gave the signal to start by patting their lower backs.

After exchanging a glance with Yu Yanlin and Clement on their left and right sides, the three of them climbed out of the trench in no particular order, passed through the gaps between the barbed wire, and then slowly crawled towards the trench on the other side a few hundred meters away.

This was destined to be a slow but thrilling process, especially as they crawled, they would occasionally touch the bodies of people who had been shot in the morning but not cleaned up.

These corpses had become cold and stiff, but still had the feel of human touch. In this dark environment, not to mention the new recruits of the International Brigade who had not received much training, even Wei Ran couldn't help but tense up every time he touched them without any preparation.

But the horror went far beyond this. As they were crawling, Wei Ran was the first to notice something was wrong. He reacted very quickly and reached out to grab Yu Yanlin and Clermont on both sides of him, while whispering in French, "Stop."

Then he pulled out the trench stick that was attached to his waist.

At the same time, Yu Yanlin and Clement also stopped and pulled the people next to them.

However, by the time his warning spread to both sides, it was too late. Those who climbed faster had already collided head-on with the enemies crawling over from the opposite side!

"Fuck him!" Before Wei Ran finished his words, he had already climbed up and rushed to the opposite side with his back bent.

A step later, Yu Yanlin and Clemont also ran over with their stuff.

"boom!"

Just at this moment, someone pulled the trigger and a scream was heard from the distance.

"Boom! Boom!" The moment the gunshots reached back to the position, both sides fired flares one after another.

At the same time, Wei Ran had already thrown the trench stick in his hand away and smashed it hard on the chest of the vaguely visible enemy on the opposite side. Then, amid the enemy's screams, he raised his foot and kicked him.

"Crack!"

Amid the crisp sound of bones cracking, as two flares rose in front and behind, Wei Ran also saw the enemy close at hand, and while the enemy was screaming, he took out the Mauser bayonet from the metal book and stabbed him through the heart.

While squatting, Wei Ran pulled out the Mauser bayonet, picked up the trench stick and smashed it directly on the bottom of the enemy who was holding a dagger and preparing to fight with Yu Yanlin.

"Click!"

With the second sound of broken bones and screams, the man immediately fell to his knees, and by chance, the curved blade of the hatchet in Yu Yanlin's hand pierced through the top of his head.

Looking at Wei Ran again, he was not in a hurry to get up. Instead, he kicked to the side in a very dirty way. With the huge force of his kick, he easily broke the knee of the man who was holding a pistol and preparing to shoot at Clermont.

"Oh!"

A step late, the wire cutters in Clemont's hand hit the other person's head with a dull sound.

The enemy in front of him was dealt with in the blink of an eye. Wei Ran didn't even wait for the two enemies beside him to fall to the ground, and he had already thrown the trench stick in his hand hard at the face of the enemies in the second row in front of him. He also turned a small circle with his elbow as the center, and kicked the unlucky guy who was hit by the trench stick in the air.

By the time he got up as quickly as possible, Yu Yanlin and Clemont had already pounced on the second enemy in front of them.

"puff!"

He stabbed the enemy in front of him, whose balls had been kicked out, with his bayonet into the eye sockets and crushed his brain tissue. Wei Ran stepped on the face of the corpse with one foot, pulled out the bayonet, and then looked at the next enemy.

The enemy was obviously frightened, and he almost subconsciously pulled out the pistol from his waist.

"Da da da!"

Wei Ran took out a box gun and fired a row of fan-shaped bullets in front of him.

Then he switched the gun from his left hand to his right hand and pulled the trigger almost against the ear of the enemy in front of Yu Yanlin.

"boom!"

Almost at the same time, a Nagant revolver appeared in his left hand, and as Wei Ran turned his head, he pulled the trigger at the enemy in front of Clermont.

"shot!"

Wei Ran warned loudly, "Then lie down!"

"boom!"

Clemont was the first to react. He pulled out the pistol from his waist and pulled the trigger at the enemy in front of him who was also pulling out a gun.

A little later, Yu Yanlin finally took off the submachine gun on his back, and under the cover of Wei Ran, he fired intensive shots towards the front.

"Get down! Get down! Get under cover!"

While Wei Ran was reminding them loudly, he was also calling on Clemont and Yu Yanlin to lie down, and then urged them forward to crawl into a depression where some mud remained.

Without caring about the cold mud, Wei Ran aimed at the surroundings of the depression with his gun in both hands, and even found that their enemies had pulled the trigger repeatedly. Similarly, Yu Yanlin and Clemont were also pouring bullets at the surrounding enemies.

After this sudden and unprepared exchange of fire, the International Brigade and the Republican Army clearly gained the upper hand, but soon afterwards, machine guns in the opposite position opened fire.

For a moment, screams rang out one after another. Both the soldiers of the International Brigade and the enemies who were fighting with them all fell together under the machine gun fire from the opposite position.

Immediately afterwards, the International Brigade also launched a counterattack. They used mortars to attack the mortars on the opposite position!

Amid the dense explosions, the fighting in the center of the battlefield seemed to be forgotten, but at this moment, two enemies jumped into the depression in panic.

"boom!"

Wei Ran quickly pulled the trigger at one of them. A little later, Clement also raised his pistol and pulled the trigger at the other person.

"boom!"

Another gunshot was heard, and another man was shot in the chest. He then rolled over and fell into the not-so-large depression with the first body.

Kicking away the corpse that almost hit him, Wei Ran crawled to the edge of the depression and observed the surroundings, only to find that the enemy and our soldiers were still fighting in close proximity.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Wei Ran lay on the edge of the depression, pulling the trigger again and again at the enemies around him.

A little later, Yu Yanlin and Clement also climbed to the edge of the depression and started shooting with their respective weapons.

In the chaos, two groups of people in the middle of the battlefield began to fight, and the positions behind both sides also began to throw mortar shells at each other.

But out of some tacit understanding, after the flares above our heads fell, no more flares were fired into the sky.

It was at this time that the commanders of the International Brigade and the Republican Army decisively gave the order to charge.

For a moment, under the cover of mortar shells, many soldiers climbed out of the trenches and rushed to the center of the battlefield with a variety of weapons - the battle entered a white-hot stage when no one expected it.

"Ta-ta-ta-ta!"

The machine guns on the National Army's position began to roar again. The bullets killed the soldiers of the International Brigade and took the lives of their own soldiers as well.

After putting the empty pistol back into the holster, Clemont crawled out of the depression without saying hello to Wei Ran and Yu Yanlin, and carefully moved towards the enemy's position opposite.

Clemont was not the only one who secretly left. After the flares failed, Yu Yanlin also quietly crawled out of the depression. Even Wei Ran hid it from the two of them and crawled out in the night - crawling towards the opposite position, crawling towards the machine gun positions that were roaring in the night.

It wasn't just the three of them who made the same choice, or even just the soldiers on their side.

Before Wei Ran could finish climbing the last few hundred meters, a grenade exploded in one of the machine gun turrets.

Seeing this, Wei Ran immediately lay on the ground and closed one eye. He knew that the other party was definitely going to fire a flare!

Sure enough, accompanied by the sound of a whistle, two flares were launched into the air in succession. Those lying on the ground could clearly see that someone had already run quickly to the enemy's trench and threw the explosives in his hand with all his might!

"Da da da da——"

Amid the dense and intertwined gunfire, the warrior fell to his knees. The explosive that flew out of his hand fell into the enemy's trench on the opposite side and caused panic.

"boom!"

The explosion of the grenade was so inconspicuous in the dull explosion of the mortar shell, but someone paid with his life to throw it into the enemy's trench.

"There are about 150 meters left."

Wei Ran, lying on the ground, squinted his eyes and looked at the opposite position, then closed his eyes and didn't move at all. After waiting patiently for a long time, the flare finally landed. Before the second flare was launched, Wei Ran carefully crawled forward a few meters and then lay motionless again.

At some point, the hand-to-hand fighting in the center of the battlefield behind me stopped, and there was no one left standing between the two armies.

But everyone knew that there were definitely still people alive in the center of the battlefield. And everyone also knew that tonight would be very lively.

As they waited motionlessly, flares were launched into the sky one after another, and mortar shells hit the open space in front of the two armies from time to time.

In this torment, Wei Ran watched helplessly as a soldier not far away twitched and became motionless. He also watched helplessly as a soldier who was discovered was shot into a sieve by the opposite machine gun.

But even so, he knew that he couldn't move now.