Chương 37: Chapter 37: God's Blessing
First sulfur, then tobacco, matches, and cigarettes were successively lit, allowing Lin to smell two very faint scents. Compared to the pungent smoke from exploding shells, they were much milder.
Seeing Lin didn't pull out a cigarette, the sniper lit one and extinguished the unfinished match. After taking two puffs, he asked, "Where are you from?"
Lin had already learned four or five basic sentences for conversation. He replied, "Denmark!"
Denmark and China, two countries vastly different in the East and West, differed greatly in terms of size, history, ethnicity, culture, and so on. But draped in "white skin," Lin had to temporarily consider himself a Danish volunteer in the German army.
"I'm from Bavaria, Oliver Grünster!" the sniper introduced himself.
Lin nodded. "Nice to meet you! I'm Lin Gargo."
If the conversation had ended there, Lin's performance would have been impeccable. However, the sniper continued with a long string of words, many of which were beyond Lin's current grasp. Poor Lin could only lie motionless, pretending to gaze intently ahead, while there were indeed some unusual movements in the woods ahead: at a distance from the edge of the woods, the tops of the pine trees swayed until they "disappeared."
The sniper lifted his rifle slightly and observed through the scope. He cursed, "It's the Russians!"
Clearing a path through the woods required knocking down some trees, meaning there was a certain number of tanks among the advancing Soviet forces. In fact, based on his understanding of history, Lin had long abandoned unrealistic fantasies. By the end of the war, the Soviet juggernaut was unstoppable!
As Lin debated whether to alert his companions, soldiers on the rooftop, on guard with binoculars, began shouting down. Lin only caught "Russians" and "prepare for battle" from their words. Thinking he couldn't be of help on the roof and might expose the sniper disguised under the camo net, plus feeling the roof wasn't safe, he decided to head back the way he came. But as soon as his left leg touched the wall after descending from the roof, he saw peculiar lights flickering in the distance at the far end of the woods, and grayish-white smoke billowed up. Strange, whistle-like cries followed immediately...
The Soviet shelling began, startling Lin greatly. It was his first time witnessing artillery other than tank cannons firing. What's more, he actually saw shells flying over the woods. They were much faster than bullets in night combat, covering several kilometers in the blink of an eye. With the first shell hitting the river and stirring up water sprays over ten or twenty meters high, intense and dense explosions began shaking the ground. Even from Lin's position, he could feel the roof and walls trembling. Without saying goodbye to his new friend, he hurried back to the terrace, picked up his rifle, and dashed downstairs. From the second floor to the first, he saw German soldiers no longer moving supplies but staying in combat positions.
Boom!
As Lin stepped out of the villa's small door, a shell landed not far from the position, not only making his ears ring but also sending a blast wave carrying snow and mud debris. Lin instinctively bent over, but under this strong impact, he couldn't stand steadily. When the blast wave subsided, Lin continued running toward the trench where his companions were—this was a fatal mistake often made by new recruits. Continuous shelling would create areas of shrapnel, and exposed individuals might be killed by fragments from shells landing dozens of meters away. Although some soldiers noticed this reckless guy and shouted to remind him to lie down, Lin still ran forward. In his eyes, the fifty meters ahead seemed like a breeze, but the time it took was much longer than he imagined!
Boom... Boom... Boom...
After the initial adjustment, the Soviet artillery fire gradually extended to the north bank, with more and more shells hitting the German positions. Within a short time, a fierce firestorm erupted. Under the dual effect of explosion shock waves and shrapnel, the remaining glass on the south side of the villa shattered and fell. In such a situation, Lin was still exposed in the trench. The roar of the shells stunned his mind, the thick smoke confused his eyes, and the raging blast waves made him sway left and right. Just when some old soldiers were ready to mourn for him, he slipped and rolled into a shell hole!
Falling into the shell hole lasted only a few seconds, but Lin suddenly felt the dizziness in his head, the nausea in his abdomen, and the weakness in his limbs all eased. With his mind clear again, he suddenly realized that his actions just now were simply suicidal, to the point where he himself found it incomprehensible.
The enemy's fierce artillery fire continued to ravage the position. Lying in the shell hole like a grave, Lin stared blankly at the sky. The sun had just sunk below the horizon, staining the azure sky with a layer of vivid crimson. Mud clods flew around like birds, and drifting clouds of smoke seemed elegant yet lacked the grace of real clouds.
After an unknown period, the explosions outside finally weakened—although his hearing was temporarily impaired by the shockwaves, he could still sense the change in ground vibrations. Suddenly coughing several times, Lin's consciousness finally fully awakened. Checking himself, he found no injuries; his rifle was still there. In the shell hole barely enough for one person, he cautiously turned over. Sensing a strange numbness in his limbs, he carefully raised his head above the ground, and the Soviet artillery fire had not completely ceased yet. T-34 tanks, along with infantry clad in white cloaks, had already appeared on the opposite bank of the river.
Without any buffer or rhythm transition, the battle directly unfolded!
With their power advantage, T-34 tanks raced swiftly across the open ground, as if preparing to leap directly over the river. Following closely behind, the attacking Soviet infantry also ran desperately, but no matter how fast their legs moved, they couldn't match the speed of the tank tracks. They watched helplessly as their tanks raced past them, quickly pulling ahead by hundreds of meters.
Turning his head to the right inadvertently, Lin noticed that "Horgen" was also under Soviet shelling. The naturally beautiful town was now shrouded in thick smoke, presumably with many buildings destroyed by the flames of war, causing him to feel a sense of helpless loss.
Whoosh... Boom!
The sudden barrage forced Lin to lower his head immediately. The shell hole, dug by soldiers who arrived earlier, was horizontally nearly two meters wide, vertically half a meter long, and about a meter deep, capable of accommodating a two or three-person combat team. Kneeling on one knee, Lin could freely switch between shooting and concealing postures. Setting aside the heavy social responsibility of the new generation, he focused again on the front line of the battle that affected his personal survival. Near the riverbank, the speeding T-34s finally slowed down, and the attacking commander probably had arranged tactics in advance: some tanks moved at extremely slow speeds or simply stopped, using tank guns and machine guns to suppress the German positions, while others directly approached the riverbank to attempt a direct crossing. Although the riverbank here wasn't high, there was still a difference in terrain. Unable to dismount and inspect, a T-34 unfortunately chose a relatively vertical riverbank. Just as one-third of the tank tread had rolled over the riverbank's edge, soil collapse caused the tank to suddenly tip forward. Fortunately, the drop was only a meter, and tank crew members at most suffered minor injuries from the fall. However, the tank's gun barrel and entire body instantly plunged into the riverbed, and despite the driver's attempts to reverse, the tracks couldn't find purchase on the loose soil. How could the German tank guns lurking behind the position miss such an opportunity? A single shell directly blew off the tank's turret.
In a twist of fate, Lin's luck just moments ago left people astonished. The Soviet tank crew inside the T-34 were left feeling helpless. Look! Although those tanks that found a gentle slope to descend into the river had a few seconds to show off their invincibility, as long as they moved quickly, wouldn't they regain their dominance as soon as they entered the river?
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