afterglow

Chapter 14 Night Raid on the Cable Bridge
The sun rose and the moon set, and the sun rose and the moon rose. After several days and nights, at dusk on the 23rd, the First Battalion was crossing the Nu River.

Although the Dangshenhongjingtian pills were taken in advance, the effect can only be said to be better than nothing. Most of the soldiers suffered from altitude sickness one after another. Fortunately, they could inhale oxygen in time, so they persisted until the symptoms relieved on their own after three days.

A few dozen or so soldiers with severe symptoms and even worsening pulmonary edema were also transferred to the medical team for full care. Fortunately, there was no danger of their lives.

"Sir, how are you doing now?"

"It's okay, I feel better."

After answering the question from the second lieutenant of the military doctor, Zhou Changfeng, whose face was still a little swollen, stood by the side of the road, watching dozens of trucks carefully driving up the rickety steel cable suspension bridge.

This is not the kind of cable-stayed bridge, but a suspension bridge in the literal sense-a total of eighteen steel cables as thick as a thumb are lined up, and pieces of riveted steel plates are laid on it.

This steel cable suspension bridge is 160 meters long and spans both sides of the Nujiang River. The turbulent river below is the throat of the Sichuan-Tibet Highway.

After all, if this is destroyed by people with ulterior motives, the Sichuan-Tibet Highway will be shut down.

There are some names engraved on a stone tablet standing at the head of the bridge on the west bank. In order to build this simple bridge, more than a dozen people died because of it. Most of them fell into the river and died without bones.

Because it was almost time to rest, Zhou Changfeng ordered to rest where he was after crossing the river, and make arrangements for eating, drinking, and sleeping.

At the same time, on a curved road section eight or nine miles away from the east bank, a Yuanhang car and two Maifeng trucks were parked on the side of the road, and a dozen "civilians" wearing heavy-duty improved thongs were moving around Body, eat something and drink some water from time to time.

A nimble figure jumped down from the nearby hill, then walked to the side of the car and reported, "Sister Shuling, they are crossing the bridge."

"Oh, I see."

"Then when shall we do it?"

"Don't be impatient, we'll talk about it after they leave for a long time." Shuling, who was leaning back on the seat, said calmly.

Shuling is very dissatisfied with this task arranged by her superiors, because the risk is too great.

She knows exactly how much her subordinates are worth. She usually hides in the urban area to investigate some information, but now she is doing things like this to make things difficult for them.

Fortunately, the superiors also sent help—namely, a pair of exiled Junker noble couples posing as "Von Hoffmann" and their six followers.

As agents who have undergone additional combat training, their overall quality is much stronger than that of Shuling who has only received basic intelligence training.

Mr. Hoffman said with a relaxed face: "There is only one platoon guarding the bridge. If our cooperation goes well, it will definitely be successful."

"Maybe." Shuling, who was not interested in this, replied maybe indifferently, and at the same time whispered about the hardships she had suffered along the way.

They have been following the first battalion on the march, stopping and stopping, and walking and walking. They have suffered all kinds of hardships along the journey, and they have to worry about being caught up by the troops of the third mixed brigade behind.

As night falls, the altitude of [-] meters here is already lower than that of the previous [-] or [-] meters. However, the temperature at night is still less than ten degrees, and the body feels slightly cold.

After staying up through midnight, at four o'clock in the morning, they were fully armed and walked along the road to the Nu River cable suspension bridge.

Two quarters of an hour later, the No. [-] Battalion on the other side of the river finished its rest, the sound of engines rang out one after another, and the headlights illuminated the still dark environment.

Shuling's subordinates all put on black night clothes, while the Hoffmans and the others did not change their outfits.

As the convoy drifted away, they waited patiently for a few more minutes, reckoning that the convoy had driven out of the distance of the gunfire before preparing to act.

"Plan A, go!"

There are two squads of Ming troops stationed on the east bank of the cable suspension bridge. There are huts, sentry boxes, sentry towers, repelling horses, barbed wire, and sandbags; there are about six or seven soldiers on duty at the moment.

Shuling, who pretended to be limping, walked over slowly, but was stopped immediately.

"Stop! What are you doing?"

Several soldiers were very puzzled. The Sichuan-Tibet Highway was inaccessible, and usually only the convoy transporting supplies would pass by. It was still dark, and a lone woman appeared in the surrounding darkness?
Because it was so out of character, the soldiers aimed their guns at her.

"My car broke down and I sprained my ankle, right over there..."

"What?"

It was too late to say it, but when Shuling turned around and stretched her finger to the distance, she took out her Browning M1910 from her arms, turned around and shot immediately.

"Boom-boom--"

At the same time, the subordinates on the left and right sides who had already quietly approached also opened fire together, and several soldiers on duty were shot and fell to the ground before they could react.

The soldiers on the sentry tower only had time to fire a shot when they were hit in the head by a flying slug.

Mr. Hoffman held the M1897 shotgun in his hand and shouted: "Go! Go! Go!"

A dozen people approached quickly, and someone took out a Mills grenade and threw it at the sheds and sentry boxes.

The defenders, who woke up from their sleep, realized that it was an enemy attack, quickly got out of bed, rushed to the gun rack, grabbed their rifles and rushed out.

"Boom—boom—"

The first few soldiers who ran out were immediately blown down by the grenades that fell on the ground, and screamed on the ground.

"Turtle son's sneak attack!"

"There are a lot of people?!"

"do not know!"

Some of the other soldiers continued to rush out, while others chose to go out through the window.

Mrs. Hoffman held an MP28 submachine gun and fired two long bursts from a half-kneeling position, knocking down two soldiers who had just raised their guns and were about to fight back.

"call out--"

The defenders on the other side of the river also reacted quickly. A flare was lifted into the air in an instant, and the small parachute hung the light tube below, and the pale light spread across hundreds of meters in an instant.

After being bombed by another grenade, the remaining eight or nine soldiers here panicked, and after throwing a smoke grenade, they began to retreat towards the bridge.

The soldiers on the west bank had just set up their machine guns, but they found thick smoke rising from the opposite side, and several remnant soldiers were scrambling and running to this side.

Mr. Hoffman shouted excitedly to the other agents: "They're retreating! Come over here and set up the explosives!"

With a stern face, Shuling picked up a light machine gun from the sandbag bunker, inspected it and said, "We will cover you!"

As a second-line defense unit, the Ming army here is still equipped with old-fashioned weapons, namely Lebel rifles, Shaosha light machine guns, and Hotchkiss heavy machine guns imitated decades ago. All aspects cannot be compared with the equipment of other field units today. .

Several of Shuling's subordinates also struggled to lift up a heavy machine gun, turned it around, and then took out the metal spring plate from the ammunition box and inserted it into the ammunition opening.

Due to low visibility and chaotic scenes, the Ming army on the west bank was unable to determine the number of attackers for a while, so they chose passive defense.

The second lieutenant, who didn't dare to take risks, leaned against the sandbag bunker and shouted sharply: "It's too far away! The convoy can't hear the gunfire! Signal flares!!!"

(End of this chapter)