Iron Cross Fire

In the early morning of March 26, the infantry regiment began to march.

Vasalai didn't know where he was because the maps given to him by Turkey were not accurate, and many of them were drawn in the last century.

However, he could contact friendly forces through the radio station to ensure his control of the troops. For safety, he also put the support troops very far behind.

Keep going west. About 0.8 kilometers passed, and no Russian troops were encountered during the period.

When preparing to rest, the telegraph operator beside him told him that he and the friendly forces on the trail had encountered the enemy.

Vasalai hurriedly stopped the troops and rushed to the trail.

They crossed many snow-capped mountains and climbed steep hills, but there was no trace of friendly forces.

Fortunately, some local mountain people guided them on the road, and the marching speed gradually increased.

Two hours later, the whistling of bullets was faintly heard, and the source of the sound was behind the opposite mountain.

The troops quickly went on alert, all teams were arranged, and the mortars were ready.

Vasalai was the first to climb the mountain. After hiding himself, he took a telescope and observed carefully.

The Russian soldiers hiding behind the bunker raised their guns and fired, but few of them could hit; instead, their men were constantly shot and fell to the ground.

The Russian officer realized the gap between the two sides and ordered the soldiers to fire continuously to suppress the other side. At the same time, he asked some people to walk out of the bunker, close the distance with the other side, and then shoot accurately.

But his Russian soldiers didn't listen to him at all. They could hide behind and shoot like turtles, but it was a bit difficult to ask them to attack.

Unlike the Russians who had no combat qualities, the Austrians were very elite.

They only needed a few shots to kill a person, and the high rate of fire of the semi-automatic rifle was enough to suppress the Russians.

As long as the Russians dared to charge, they would let the machine guns fire and beat the Russians back.

Such an orderly fighting style has continued to this day. After several hours of fighting, the ground was full of Russian corpses; but there were few Austrian corpses.

But these Russians seemed to be endless. The longer the time, the more people they came.

The Austrians were running out of ammunition, and their machine guns were basically out of service.

At this moment, they were somewhat desperate, and they put bayonets on their gun barrels, ready to make a last stand.

Suddenly, they saw a group of people wearing the same clothes as them appear on the mountain peak, and their morale suddenly increased. They continued to use their guns with only a few rounds of ammunition left to shoot at the Russians.

Vasala roared and fired at the enemy crowd with a submachine gun. After 32 rounds of bullets were fired, many Russians fell.

But this was not enough. More and more Austrian reinforcements climbed the mountain and poured ammunition on the Russians.

The sound of the battle became louder and louder, and the bullets passing through the battlefield became more and more dense.

There were several more artillery shots, which blew the Russians upside down.

The accuracy of those Russians was really touching, especially when they were attacked on the flank. They were suppressed and could only watch the Austrian commandos on the mountain rush down the mountain, but they had no way to do anything.

When the distance was close enough, the submachine guns in the hands of the commandos opened fire together.

Like cutting sackcloth, the Russian soldiers fell to the ground in batches.

The Austrians hiding in the trenches also climbed out one after another, holding rifles with bayonets and rushing towards the Russians.

The Russians could not withstand the pressure, abandoned their wounded brothers, and retreated one after another.

At this time, a group of Turkish soldiers came and blocked the Russian army's retreat, and there were several more corpses on the ground.

New blood flowed on the blood that had long been dried, and dust continued to fall on it. The hellish scene was indescribable.

But the exhausted Russians didn't care about these. They quickly dispersed, found a gap and ran out.

Vasala ignored them. After passing the information to Kuster, he received the first and most important order in his life:

"There is a Russian high ground 7 kilometers north of you. Take it down to prepare for the subsequent large-scale attack. According to the latest intelligence, there are about two infantry regiments, totaling about 4,000 people."

The previous losses left the infantry regiment with only 1,500 people. Fifteen thousand against four thousand was a difficult task, but Vasalai did not retreat, but was very excited.

However, in the rugged and complex terrain, it would take several days to march seven kilometers.

However, Vasalai did not lose heart and regarded this as the price he had to pay before gaining honor.

Along the way, the Austrian army followed their usual routine, without the frequent accidents before. At noon three days later, after a long journey, they finally saw something on a series of mountains and hills.

Vasalai raised his hand to signal the troops to stop and let them rest; at the same time, he asked some people to lie in a hidden place and observe the movements on the mountain from time to time.

If nothing unexpected happened, Vasalai planned to attack at night.

This was not only because it would gain greater benefits by taking advantage of the unprepared; the soldiers of the infantry regiment were also a little tired, and the supplies had not yet been transported.

He wanted to wait until these arrived and the artillery support was ready before launching the attack.

When other Austrian soldiers were resting, only Vasalai was still lying on the snowy mountain, looking at the Russian army opposite, and constantly perfecting the plan in his mind.

Unconsciously, the entire Caucasus fell into darkness. No Russian knew that the high ground they were on was about to turn into hell, and they all fell asleep peacefully at this moment.

Vasara, with bloodshot eyes, saw this scene and immediately became alert. He personally led the reconnaissance company to inquire about the Russian army's deployment.

Dozens of people followed Vasala carefully, and everyone kept their fingers away from the trigger to prevent accidental discharge.

They walked along the blind spot of the tower and finally chose a relatively flat slope to climb up.

But this place was still very steep. Even if the gun was inserted into the mountain, it would not be able to fix the figure, let alone climb up.

The soldiers did not dare to throw the rope up, which would alarm the enemy. They had to stab the gun into the gap between the rocks with one hand, tighten the rock with the other hand, and climb up limping. From a distance, it looked like a group of disabled people walking.

It took these so-called Austro-Hungarian elites four minutes to climb up the hillside that was only 60 meters long, and it took more than ten minutes to wait for everyone to come up.

The tired Vasala was the first to come up. At this moment, he and some soldiers were clearing the obstacles around.

Perhaps the Russians never thought that anyone would climb up from here. There was not a single Russian soldier in this area.

This gave Vasala an opportunity. After spending more than ten minutes to reorganize, he took the reconnaissance company to start field surveys.

During this period, they encountered more and more Russians, and they had to be more careful.

After reconnaissance around the high ground, Vasala did not dare to go down any further. He was afraid of being exposed, so he went down from the place where he came up.

Going down the mountain is much more difficult than going up the mountain, but this is mainly because of people's fear. The elites like the reconnaissance company are used to the hellish battlefield and naturally have no fear of anything. The whole process of going down the mountain took about twelve minutes.

Back to the position, the Austrians who were idle behind took the opportunity to build fortifications. Vasala didn't know how long it took to get to the bottom, at least they hadn't started before he reconnaissance.

But he didn't care so much. Vasala ran back to the regiment and drew the outline of the high ground with tools.

The high ground looked very strange, with no obvious edges and corners around it, just like the Russian soldiers, without any murderous aura.

And Vasala led a group of battle-hardened Austrian veterans who followed his father to fight the Russians in Galicia as early as 1914.

It is a pity that only a few months later, a division was reduced to a regiment.

Now, these people will fight for Vasa and win the first big battle in his life.

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