Start from Changjin Lake

Chapter 46 Why is the battle flag so picturesque?

Covered in silver, the earth is a vast expanse of white.

On the endless Gaima plateau, there is only a small black dot slowly moving on the ground, if you zoom in, you can see it is Xu Qing.

"This road is really difficult."

He trudged through the snow in Pinggu, with one foot deep and one foot shallow. Under the snow was a patch of sand and gravel, and it was almost impossible to find a flat road.

There was no sound within a few miles. He casually spit on the ground, and the sound could be transmitted far, far away.

He felt like he was trekking in no man's land.A few days ago, although I walked the same road and the same forest with Qilian, I didn't feel so lonely.

The place where Xu Qing is going now is the US military communication tower that was attacked and supported thousands of miles ago. Because there are continuous mountains nearby, only there are houses there, and there may be some food and supplies left.

Without food, it was difficult to survive in this icy and snowy place. Even if his physique was full and he was fine for a short time, it would be difficult for him to survive for a long time.

The valley where the communication tower is located is only one kilometer away from the Hanshanling ambush site. Xu Qing remembered the approximate direction, and the snow was getting bigger and bigger, so he had no choice but to hurry up and walk in the snow.

"arrive."

After crossing a low-lying flat valley, climb up to the towering mountain in front of you, and the dead wood ridge is below.

He quickly followed the direction and found the place where he had attacked on his stomach before. There were not many traces of it, and it was all covered by heavy snow.

The communication tower in the valley below has been blasted and collapsed, and the wooden houses of North Korean residents are still there, and the fortifications piled up by the US military with sandbags and earth and rocks are also in place, but the surroundings seem to be very quiet.

Xu Qing lay on her stomach and observed for a while, but found no trace of anyone, so she carefully slid down the northwest slope.

As soon as he arrived near the fortifications outside the house, he quickly found some American corpses behind the sandbags, all of them were bloody and bloody from the grenade bombing.

The blood had been frozen outdoors and was amber in color. Its hideous appearance was clearly visible under the moonlight, and it looked a little scary.

He didn't touch the corpse for the time being, but put the rifle on his back, pulled out the American Colt pistol from his waist, and slowly approached a house on the far right.

Squeak!

He opened the latch with the muzzle of his gun, hid behind the door and waited for a while, but found no enemy.

Under the moonlight, he could clearly see that this was a house where firearms and equipment were originally stacked, and there were piled wooden boxes everywhere, with English letters written on them.But he looked around and it was mostly empty except for some ammunition.

So I continued to look into other rooms, most of them were empty, and occasionally there were a few corpses lying on the ground with their red faces lying on their backs. Apart from looking a little gloomy, there was no special movement.

Entering the third room, as soon as he entered, his feet stopped. Under the moonlight, he faintly saw a pool of stains on the wooden floor at the door of the house.

He squatted down and touched it with his hand, put it on the tip of his nose and sniffed it, only to find that it was human blood, and it was fresh!

Only then did he realize that there was a long bloodstain on the floor, winding and twisting until it extended into the house.

"cough……"

He was about to pace into the house when he suddenly heard a slight movement inside.Looks like someone is coughing.

Click!

He immediately hid in the shadows, gently opened the safety of the pistol, and put his index finger on the trigger ring.

At this time, a Sichuan dialect came from inside: "Which one?"

Xu Qing was taken aback for a while, Chinese?
Could it be our people?
But don't take it lightly, North Korea also understands a lot of Chinese.

He tentatively asked, "Which one are you?"

"I speak Chinese, who are you talking about me...cough cough..."

The voice came again, but weaker.

Xu Qing also felt a little familiar when he heard it, and immediately replied: "Are you injured? I am also Chinese..."

The voice suddenly said: "...Wanli?"

Xu Qing was startled: "It's me! You are..."

"I, He Changgui..."

It was only then that Xu Qing remembered that this familiar Chuanyin was the deputy company commander He Changgui who fought alongside him not long ago?It's just that Qilian itself has a lot of Sichuanese, and He Changgui usually doesn't talk much, so he didn't get it right.

He quickly entered the house with a gun in his hand. As soon as he entered the house, he saw that it was a room similar to the US military reference room. There were various papers scattered on the floor. The lights were not turned on, and it was dark everywhere.

But under the moonlight from the window, he immediately saw two figures lying on the wooden floor in the middle of the room.One is dead, an American, with bullet holes in his body, blood has stopped flowing, and he has been dead for a long time.

The other one was closer to the inside, leaning against the lower part of the wooden window, covered with clothes, panting slightly and looking at him, with a pale face - he could tell at a glance that it was He Changgui.

"Commander He!"

Xu Qing quickly put down the gun and ran over to check.

"Just call... Lao He."

When He Changgui saw him, he laughed, his chest heaved vigorously, "I don't worry about your baby..."

Xu Qing hurriedly asked: "How are you?"

"I was lucky. I was blown up by a shell. My hands and legs are fine. Do you think it's strange? But after waking up, I didn't find you, nor did I find the team... I had to come here to look for it, no coincidence. Coincidentally, I ran into an American with a dog's day..."

Xu Qing was a little strange, feeling that he talked more than usual today.

But seeing his pale face, he immediately said: "Maintain your strength first, don't talk! Your complexion is not good, are you injured..."

He hurriedly lifted the clothes covering He Changgui's body with his hands, but as soon as he lifted it off, the voice in his mouth disappeared as if it had disappeared:
"You, you—"

The moonlight coming in from the window just happened to clearly illuminate He Changgui's covered body parts:
There was a hole in his abdomen, and the intestines inside were bleeding all over the place, all white, no blood, almost frozen, shining brightly in the moonlight.

"Don't worry, baby, don't worry, listen to me..."

As soon as He Changgui grabbed his hand, he stopped his movement of trying to help stop the bleeding, "I'm a veteran, and I know it all too well, I can't be saved..."

"But I've lived enough, and before I die, I still earn one--as soon as that Yankee came in, I pretended to be dead. He still wanted to touch me, but I can let him do it? Look at the towering An American ghost who is fat and fat is actually afraid of fake ghosts. Seeing me move, I fell to the ground in fright, and I shot him to death without using any hands or feet! What a damn! Old Ke's coward, hahaha... cough cough!"

Xu Qing felt uncomfortable in his heart: "Don't say it, don't say it..."

He already understood that the wound on He Changgui's body was probably caused by shell fragments.He said it very easily, but the long bloodstain on the floor all showed that he spent a lot of hard work to crawl in...

"Don't grab me, I'm a little out of breath, a little uncomfortable..."

Xu Qing hurriedly let go, flustered, but seeing him panting and humming, he felt at a loss what to do.

He Changgui looked at him, and squeezed out a smile on his pale face: "Don't worry... I just don't want to die in the snow in the wilderness. No one will know if I die, so I desperately went to see him." Crawling around the house, trying to be decent in the end, there is a roof covering..."

"You didn't do anything wrong. My blood was running out a long time ago, and my intestines were so frozen that I couldn't get it back. I understand, I'm going to die..."

"But listen to me tell you..."

Xu Qing remembered the house that hadn't been searched yet: "I'll go find American medicine!"

"You baby listen to me—"

He Changgui grabbed his arm hard, his face became paler, and his breathing became heavier.

Xu Qing could only stop.

"Let me say it, if you don't say it, there will be no chance to say it..."

"I am sorry for everything in my life, I am sorry for my family. By the time I understand it, I am already middle-aged, and my parents are dead. I have no atonement. Apart from you comrades, I only have one younger sister, and she has already married. It's..."

Tremblingly, he opened the inside of the cotton-padded jacket, and there was white intestines next to it, and when he touched it, the pain on his face became more painful.

"I come……"

Xu Qing hastily helped him tear off the interlayer of the cotton clothes, which turned out to be an oilcloth bag.

He Changgui opened it, and inside was a letter and a silver dollar:
"This is a letter I entrusted someone to write. It has been more than a year since I wrote it. This time I went home to visit relatives. I am the only one in Qilian who has a home and does not return. My family has hated me all my life. I dare not return... But this time I am not afraid, I hope you are free, and when you go back after the war, you can bring the letter and money to my sister...greeting her for me..."

As he spoke, his voice became more and more hoarse, and he couldn't help opening his mouth to breathe hard. His chest was rising and falling violently, but there was only a strange hum in his throat that seemed to be convulsed.

Xu Qing was a little flustered: "I don't know the location, I..."

"Qianli, I know, Sichuan...Bazhong..."

He Changgui opened his mouth wide, his voice could hardly be heard.

Xu Qing nodded vigorously, tears streaming down her face...

He Changgui nodded in satisfaction and wanted to close his eyes, but the pain in his body still surrounded him.

He used to rely on his will to hold on, but when his life came to an end, his consciousness began to blur, his eyes were out of focus, and he couldn't help but groan in pain:
"I'm homesick...Mom, I'm in pain, it's in pain..."

When Xu Qing lowered his head again, under the moonlight, there was only a lifeless corpse left.

The suddenness made people feel a little unbelievable, a little panicked, his throat rolled and he wanted to say something, but the sound in his throat suddenly disappeared...

His eyes were dim, and he looked up at the moon outside the window. At this moment, he thought of a poem, a song:

Why is the battle flag so beautiful?The hero's blood stained her red.

Why does the spring of the earth always bloom in the life of a hero...

　[Adapted from Li Zhentang, Instructor of a Company Battalion of the 12st Division of the 31th Army of the Volunteer Army]

　　
　
(End of this chapter)