Chapter 25: it is my responsibility

  Chapter 25 This is my duty

  Hearing that the car in front had run over a landmine, Lin Hua quickly pushed Asiya away, opened the car door and jumped out of the car, shouting loudly at the back: "Quanlian listen to my password and get out of the car!"

  The explosion that sounded in front had already alarmed the soldiers sitting in the carriage. Many people lifted the tarpaulin and looked outside, trying to figure out what happened. Hearing Lin Hua's order at this moment, the soldiers put down the tailgate of the carriage, jumped out of the carriage one after another, and assembled beside the truck.

While the soldiers were gathering, Lin Hua glanced at the snow-covered forest on both sides of the road, and thought that although the truck in front had hit a mine, who could guarantee that there was no German squad lurking in the forest? ? Thinking of this, he quickly shouted loudly again: "Platoon leaders, come to me." Following the shout, three platoon leaders, two officers and one deputy, came in front of Lin Hua.

  Lin Hua said to the platoon leaders: "The car in front hit a mine. You stay here as a guard. I'll go ahead and have a look." After speaking, he turned around and walked away with his gun in hand.

  Just a few steps away, he felt someone chasing him. Turning around, it turned out to be Asiya. He was about to ask Assia to go back, but unexpectedly Assia said first: "Misha, the truck in front hit a mine, someone must be injured, I am a health worker, and my duty is to rescue the wounded."

Assia's words made Lin Hua dispel the idea of ​​letting her go back, but for the sake of safety, he still let Assia walk on his right side, let her walk between himself and the truck, so that even if a German came from Shoot coldly in the forest on the left, and he can block the bullet for Asiya.

  After the convoy stopped, soldiers from the first company and the second company got out of the car one after another, but instead of organizing defense, they stood beside the truck in groups of three and four, discussing in disorder. A few fighters even stood on tiptoe looking ahead, trying to figure out what was going on.

  Lin Hua led Assia through the crowd and came to the front of the convoy. He saw the lead car that hit the mine was burning, and he could feel a wave of heat from a long distance away. Bukov and Leskov were standing in front of the second truck, pointing at the burning vehicle.

  Although Lin Hua had already seen the burning truck, he still turned to Bukov and the others and asked, "Two company commanders, what happened here?"

"The Germans planted landmines on the road." Looking at the burning truck, Bukov said through gritted teeth: "After the mine struck, the driver and a row leader in the cab died on the spot. They were all injured to varying degrees.”

   "Assia," Leskov saw Assia who was following Lin Hua, and quickly asked politely, "Can I help you?"

   "Comrade Captain," Assia saw that it was a captain who was talking to her, and quickly asked respectfully, "Is there anything I can do for you?"

  Leskov reached out and pointed to the other side of the truck, motioning Assia to look over there. Assia looked in the direction of his finger, and saw seven or eight soldiers with painful expressions sitting with their backs against the truck, humming incessantly. And a male hygienist was busy bandaging their wounds. Seeing this situation, Asya immediately understood what Leskov wanted to say. She hurried over, knelt down and began to treat the wounded.

Lin Hua looked at the road passing through the forest in front of him, and asked Bukov with a frown: "Comrade Captain, I don't know how many landmines the German army has planted on this road and how wide the minefield is. Look, what should we do?"

   Leskov, who had just finished explaining the task to Asiya, walked over and said, "Bukov, I think we should ask the battalion commander to contact his superiors and let the engineers clear the landmines on the road for us."

Unexpectedly, after Bukov heard this, he shook his head and said, "No, the engineers don't know when they will be ready, and the superior ordered us to rush to the Istria Reservoir as soon as possible, so we can't waste too much time here." After finishing speaking, He turned his head and shouted to the back: "Squad leader!"

  Following his shout, a young sergeant of medium build ran over, stopped in front of him and held his head high, waiting for Bukov to give him an order.

   "First Squad Leader," Bukov said to the sergeant, pointing forward with his hand, "Take the soldiers to explore the way ahead and see how big the German minefield is?"

  When Lin Hua heard the order from Bukov, he couldn't help being taken aback, thinking, isn't this for the soldiers to go to the mines? Before he could speak, the first squad leader had already set off with five soldiers. Immediately after they passed the burning truck, they spread out and walked cautiously along the road.

  Looking at the backs of these six soldiers, Lin Hua secretly prayed for them in his heart, hoping that the Germans would only plant the landmine that destroyed the leading car on this road. As soon as he thought of this, there was a loud "boom", and the first squad leader walking in the front of the entire team was lifted into the sky by the explosion's air wave in a dazzling fire. After his body fell from the air, under the huge inertia, he continued to roll forward, causing a series of explosions. Hearing the explosion of the landmine, Lin Hua and others hurriedly lay down on the spot to avoid the shrapnel flying around.

   When the explosion stopped, there was no one standing on the road ahead, and the soldiers who explored the road fell into a pool of blood. Just as Lin Hua got up from the ground, someone suddenly ran past him quickly, towards the place where the gunpowder smoke was still rising. Lin Hua stared at the back for a while before realizing it was Asiya. Lin Hua was frightened out of his wits, and quickly shouted at the top of his voice, "Asiya, it's dangerous! Come back, come back!"

But Asiya ignored him, and rushed to a soldier lying on the road. After quickly checking the other's injuries, she turned his body over with difficulty, tore off the military coat, and began to bandage the wound .

  Seeing Asiya treating the wounded in the minefield, Lin Hua was worried about what might happen to her, and rushed over without caring about his own safety. He ran to Asiya's side and knelt down, and said loudly to her, "Asiya, don't die, you know it's a minefield, but you still rush into it."

Assia continued to bandage the wounds of the wounded, without raising her head, she said, "Misha, it is my duty to treat the wounded, let alone in a minefield, even under artillery fire, I have to fulfill my duty. "

  After listening to Asiya, Lin Hua stood up abruptly. Assia was taken aback by his actions, and hurriedly asked, "What are you going to do?"

Lin Hua pointed to another wounded person lying not far away, and said, "I'll drag him back to a safe place, and it won't be too late for you to treat him when he arrives." After speaking, he rushed to the side of the wounded person, bent down , passed his hands under his armpits, and dragged him towards a safe place.

   Seeing Lin Hua and Asiya desperately saving their comrades, several soldiers rushed over to help Lin Hua drag the wounded comrades to a safe place. Only the first squad leader was blown to pieces by landmines, and even the complete body could not be found.

Bukov and Leskov brought Asiya back to a safe place, and they both stepped forward to praise her and said: "Asiya, you are really good! It's amazing." Regarding the compliments of the two, Asiya Ya just grinned, then knelt down and continued treating the wounded.

Battalion Commander Ivan heard a series of explosions ahead, and hurried over from the back of the convoy. After figuring out what was going on, he cursed at Bukov: "You bastard, how dare you order the soldiers to go to mines? Believe it or not, I shot you." As he spoke, he stretched out his hand to draw the gun.

   Leskov hugged him in a hurry, and after trying to persuade him for a long time, Ivan's anger finally calmed down. He turned around and said to a soldier who followed: "Send a report to the regiment immediately, report the situation of our battalion to the regiment commander, and ask him to send engineers to clear the mines for us as soon as possible."

  (end of this chapter)