There was no room to stretch one’s legs in the shell scrape, no way to straighten one’s back; even getting a proper sleep was difficult.
Gao Fei’s first night on the position was torment. He had not slept for very long before he woke.
It was pitch-black. He could not see a thing, and Gao Fei did not have a watch, so he had no way of knowing what time it was.
He stood up and glanced toward the enemy’s position. It was just as dark, nothing visible at all.
They had said the penal battalion would launch an attack on the enemy tonight, but there had been no movement up to now. Perhaps it simply was not time yet.
Gao Fei carefully took two steps, but his footsteps were still heard.
“Who is it?”
“Me, Rex.”
It was Samir’s voice. Gao Fei felt his way toward the sound. His eyes were gradually adjusting to the darkness, but he still could not make out Samir’s figure.
Samir lowered his voice again. “Can’t sleep?”
“Can’t sleep. What time is it?”
Samir raised his wrist and tugged back his sleeve. In a low voice, he said, “Eleven-thirty.”
“I’m on sentry duty at twelve. You go sleep. I’ll take over.”
They were already in contact with the enemy, and the position Gao Fei and the others occupied was the very front line, so someone had to keep watch at night, lest the enemy slip over without them even knowing.
Originally, they should have taken turns in pairs, but Sholokhov did not seem particularly worried about the enemy sneaking over, so he had ordered single sentries, each person taking two hours in rotation.
Standing watch half an hour early was no problem for Gao Fei.
“I can’t sleep either.”
Samir’s voice was pressed extremely low. He sighed softly and said, “My situation isn’t exactly good. If the penal battalion hadn’t come today, I might already be dead by now. You’re different. You’re a key protection target now.”
Gao Fei did not know how to respond to that. After a moment of silence, he said quietly, “I’m still with you, through advance or retreat.”
“I’m not complaining. I’m just envious of you. Capable people are valued wherever they go. On a battlefield, good marksmanship makes you a key protection target. That’s fair.”
In the darkness, Samir’s hand reached over. After first touching Gao Fei’s arm, he followed the motion and patted Gao Fei on the arm.
It was both a consolation to Gao Fei and a gesture of congratulations.
Gao Fei truly did not know what to say.
Saying something like they would live and die together would sound false and meaningless. What had happened today had already made it very clear—even if Gao Fei wanted to stay with Samir, he could not.
For a moment, the atmosphere grew rather heavy. A little while later, Gao Fei heard Samir suddenly say, “Hm?”
“What?”
“Shh…”
He could not see anything, but after Samir let out that faint shushing sound, Gao Fei did not dare make another noise.
Nor did he dare move.
Samir made no movement at all. Gao Fei turned his head to the side and tried to listen, but he heard nothing.
In the darkness, a hand suddenly reached over again. Gao Fei was already tense, and he was nearly frightened into crying out by that hand.
Fortunately, Gao Fei held it in. Then, following the force of Samir’s pull, he leaned closer.
In an extremely low voice by Gao Fei’s ear, Samir said, “There’s a sound. Something’s wrong. Go quietly and ask the squad leader whether any of our own people are supposed to pass through our position tonight. Don’t make a sound. Go, quickly.”
Gao Fei’s heart jolted. Instinctively, he glanced forward again, but all he saw was still darkness.
Gao Fei did not speak. He simply stepped back, then bent down, braced one hand against the dirt wall of the trench, and, following his memory, made his way toward Sholokhov’s shell scrape.
No thermal imaging. No night-vision devices. Their only lighting tools were two flashlights, and those flashlights could not even be mounted on their guns, because the AK-74 had no Picatinny rail and no way to attach accessories.
But under these circumstances, turning on a flashlight and sweeping it around was absolutely impossible. That would truly be courting death.
Gao Fei’s hand met empty air. He had found the shell scrape, but before he could bend down to feel for Sholokhov, and before he could open his mouth to call him, he heard Sholokhov say in a low voice, “What is it?”
“Samir heard a sound. He told me to—”
Before Gao Fei could finish, Samir suddenly let out an extremely shrill roar. “Enemy attack!”
Before the words had even fallen, two booming explosions rang out. Gao Fei turned his head in horror and saw, by the faint light of muzzle flashes, that Samir had stuck his rifle out over the trench while crouching inside it, wildly spraying fire outside the trench with a spray-and-pray method.
In that instant, Gao Fei felt as if his brain were about to burst out of his skull. Instinctively, he yanked his rifle up, his left hand scooping under to grab the handguard, his right hand flicking off the safety, and he rose, about to lean out and open fire.
“Get down!”
Sholokhov yanked Gao Fei back. At the same time, he stood up, but instead of raising his rifle directly, he rapidly threw out every grenade he had on him and within reach.
Graski came out as well. Without saying a word, the instant he emerged from the shell scrape, he lifted the machine gun that had been set at the entrance, held down the trigger, and fired off a burst.
The recoil made the machine gun lose control, but Graski still did not stand up and shoulder the weapon before firing again. He simply propped the machine gun once more above one side of the trench, the muzzle basically pointing at the sky, and fired another burst.
Gao Fei tried to stick his head out again, but Sholokhov, holding a grenade in his right hand, grabbed the collar of Gao Fei’s bulletproof vest with his left and forced him down once more.
“Don’t show your head! The enemy has night vision! Wait for our flares!”
The Russian army had night-vision devices, but not enough for every person, and there was another fatal problem: even if frontline soldiers had night-vision devices, they often could not use them because charging them was difficult.
Wagner could now guarantee that every squad had at least one night-vision device or thermal imager, but it was not in the hands of Sholokhov’s squad.
But!
The squad next to Gao Fei and the others did have night vision. If the enemy were launching a sneak attack, the adjacent position should have discovered it. Yet there had been no reaction at all from the neighboring position.
Also, Samir had thrown grenades first, then raised his rifle over his head and fired in a manner that could not possibly let him see the enemy. So whether there actually were enemies was still an unknown.
Gao Fei truly had not heard any sound. His confidence in Samir was somewhat lacking.
Just then, three small points of light suddenly appeared in the sky.
The points of light shot rapidly upward, then suddenly turned into masses of brilliant white light.
Flares had been fired. As soon as Gao Fei’s side launched theirs from the position, the mortar position behind them immediately fired illumination rounds.
From now until the end of the battle, the flares would come one after another. They would absolutely not allow the battlefield to fall into darkness again.
Russia lacked electronic equipment—radios, night-vision devices, drones, things like that. But after fighting through World War II, the munitions prepared during the Cold War for a third world war were something the Russians truly did not lack.
The sky lit up. Everything could be seen. Sholokhov let go of Gao Fei and suddenly shouted, “Together… fire!”
The moment the flare rose and illuminated the earth, Graski stopped firing. His head was lowered, but the machine gun was already braced against his shoulder as he ran several meters along the trench.
Samir was changing magazines. His thirty-round magazine had already been emptied in the spray-and-pray burst just now.
Sholokhov stood up with his rifle, while Gao Fei did not move from his position. He and Sholokhov rose together and stuck their heads out of the trench.
There really were people. Less than ten meters away.
His eyes spotted a human-shaped object, but Gao Fei’s brain had no time to identify friend or foe, not even time to distinguish what exactly it was. He simply saw an object charging toward him at high speed, so he opened fire on instinct.
He held the trigger down without letting go. The man charging at them advanced another four or five meters before convulsing and pitching to the ground.
At the same time, Gao Fei felt a slight jolt on his head, and immediately afterward, a tremendous explosion erupted behind him.
The enemy had thrown grenades too. The enemy was firing as well. Someone lay prone on the ground and opened fire. Gao Fei saw only a bit of muzzle flash, so he stopped shooting, swung his muzzle around, aimed at the place where the flash had come from, and pulled the trigger.
This was a true exchange of fire.
The distance was less than twenty meters. The enemy lay prone on the ground and fired, exposing only a little of his head from the front. Gao Fei stood in the trench, also exposing only his head.
Gao Fei’s helmet had been hit. He fired later, but his first bullet struck the enemy in the face.
At this distance, anyone could hit—provided they did not panic, did not lose control, did not fear, and did not tremble.
Gao Fei did not panic, did not lose control, did not fear, and did not tremble. He was merely anxious, and somewhat dazed, but none of that hindered him from quickly finding a third person. At the instant the man’s grenade had just left his hand, Gao Fei’s muzzle whipped over, and he fired another burst.
Shooting was truly very simple: three points in a line, aim, and pull the trigger.
At such close range, there was hardly any need to aim. It was even simpler.
The arm of the enemy lying prone on the ground throwing a grenade dropped limply, and Gao Fei instinctively roared, “Grenade!”
Samir threw himself to the ground and shouted, “Enemies in the trench on both sides!”
Sholokhov shouted himself hoarse, and when Graski heard his cry, he immediately swung his muzzle around, crouched down fully, and aimed the machine gun at the bend in the trench.
It was the bend in the trench that had been collapsed by shelling and then dug out again that afternoon. Because it had been hit by artillery, the turn was now much gentler.
Samir was still changing magazines.
It was not that Samir was slow, but that the battle was happening too fast.
Sholokhov turned back the rifle he had just thrust out, because the enemies in front had been finished off by Gao Fei. Now their left side, where Samir was, was a firepower vacuum.
The grenade thrown by the enemy flew over and dropped into the trench, not far from Samir. But when Samir heard Gao Fei’s shout, he had already gone prone.
The grenade was at most less than three meters from Samir, but the prone Samir was not injured. Gao Fei had made no evasive movement at all, but the trench had a curve to it, so he was not harmed by the fragments; he only felt a blast of wind.
Sholokhov charged toward Samir. He had to stop the enemies who had jumped into the trench from killing their way along it.
At that moment, Graski, crouching in the trench with the machine gun in his arms, finally opened fire. At the same time, he roared, “This side!”
Sholokhov, who was running, suddenly raised his rifle. He fired as well, and he roared, “Up top!”
Enemies had entered the trenches on both sides, and there were enemies above the trenches to the left and right as well. There should still be enemies in front.
Which side should they hit first?