Struggle in Russia

Maxim stared at the company commander Lev Konstantinovich with wide eyes, because just hearing the description made him feel frightened. If he had encountered the same thing, he would have been scared to death. At least he would hide under the bed and not dare to move.

He couldn't imagine what kind of nerves could handle all this so calmly. Those thorny wood fragments hurt just by looking at them, and they had to be pulled out from the flesh, ugh!

Maxim shuddered and looked at Lev Konstantinovich with great admiration. At this time, the company commander still looked at him with a smile, as if the injured person was someone else.

Only then did Maxim remember his mission. He quickly organized a verbal report and put it aside. After listening to it, Lev Konstantinovich sighed and said: "Damn it, where is anyone here? Tell the old man Ilya, keep insisting, I'll try to find a solution with the battalion commander! But for the time being we can only rely on ourselves. You hear the shelling from other directions is also earth-shattering, I guess everything is tight."

While he was talking, the roaring sound that had subsided for a few minutes exploded again. Following waves of sharp or dull whistling sounds, the hoarse shouts of veterans sounded from the position:

"Bombardment! Concealment!"

boom! boom! boom!

The loud noise made Maxim move faster than a rabbit. He hid in the corner with his hands and feet, holding his head and covering his ears and shaking uncontrollably.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Half of the company headquarters that had collapsed was hit hard again. The solid bullets penetrated four or five holes in the wall. A somewhat deformed shell "bounced" and rolled in front of Maxim, with whizzing smoke coming out of it. It's hot and it looks hot!

Fortunately, these shells did not cause many casualties. Most of the people fell to the ground immediately. Only the chief of staff was scratched on the forehead by the flying gravel.

"Gentlemen, there is nothing to fear."

Only Lev Konstantinovich sat calmly on his chair as if nothing happened. He seemed to find it quite interesting to watch a room full of subordinates running away like mice.

"It's just a few solid bullets. Back then, we had to charge against a hail of bullets. There were no walls to block the shells for you back then!"

Maxim couldn't imagine what it would be like, charging against such a baptism of shells? They have to line up in a dense formation, doesn't that one cannonball have to penetrate a group of people?

As long as he recalled Vasily who was shot in the head by a runner, Maxim couldn't help but shudder. Is it really good to rely on flesh and blood to fight against these big iron balls?

He looked at the company commander. Lev Konstantinovich grinned at him and even put his hand to his ear, as if the sound of the fierce shelling made him intoxicated.

But this was just the beginning. Then came the dense rain of bullets, and the sound of "dong-dong-dong" kept coming, like a group of giants pounding the wall with hammers.

The walls shook more and more violently, until finally the whole house was like a small boat in a huge wave. Maxim was terrified. He suspected that the house might collapse at any time and bury him alive. He really wanted to run away and run outside immediately, but the company commander continued to count the shellings calmly, laughing like a madman every time he counted.

The chief secretary and others also lay tightly on the ground. Dust kept falling like rain, and soon everyone in the room was covered in dust.

Maxim was no exception. As the wall shook more and more violently, he wanted to escape from the house more and more. Just when he was about to lose his patience, there was a bang outside the door!

Maxim saw a fireball through the door, and then smoke rolled into the room. The hot air washed away everything in the room, and the smell of sulfur made him cough.

Then, there was another bang, and then scorching air waves surged in again, and the smoke and dust washed over him over and over again. He suspected that even if he was not killed by the shelling, he would be choked to death by the smoke. Now he Almost suffocating.

I don't know how long it took, but the second round of shelling finally came to an end again. Maxim coughed and waved his arms to disperse the smoke and dust in front of him. It took a while to barely see the situation inside the house clearly.

The door and windows were gone, and there was a thick layer of dust on the ground. It looked like it had just been dug out of the earth. There was dust on the hair, face, uniforms, and even in the eye sockets, nostrils, and ears. .

Company Commander Lev Konstantinovich was still sitting there calmly, but he looked like a charcoal burner, his whole body covered in ashes and carbon. He shook his head and the dust fell rustlingly.

"Damn it, the shower I just took yesterday and my new military uniform are all ruined!"

The company commander's calmness made Maxim feel a little more at ease. He planned to take advantage of the interval between shelling to return to his position. He didn't know what was going on with Old Ilya. I hoped they were okay.

As soon as he walked out of the company headquarters, Maxim was startled again. There was half a broken body lying on the doorstep. It looked like he was a Turkish man. His lower body was missing, his intestines were spread out on the floor, and there was blood. The dust was flowing everywhere.

What's even more frightening is that his eyes were wide open, as if he was shocked by what happened. Perhaps he didn't expect that the coalition's artillery fire not only failed to save him, but actually cost him his life.

Maxim didn't dare to look more. He turned his head and left in a hurry. However, there were similar corpses everywhere along the way. There were Turks and his robes, old people and even children. You could still vaguely hear people crying. It is not difficult to imagine how many casualties this fierce bombardment by the coalition forces caused.

When Maxim crawled back to his position with difficulty, he was confused again, because there was no complete building in that area, all the shacks had disappeared, and all the houses were left with only ruins, not even a complete wall. Can't even find the walls.

"Ilya?"

"Mikhail?"

"Pavel?"

"Where are you?"

There was nothing in this empty area, no one answered, and no trace of a living person could be seen. Maxim tried to carefully distinguish the location of the house where he was originally stationed, but in the midst of the same ruins, doing so was in vain. .

he shouted. Every broken wall was rummaged through, every beam was examined, and even rubble and stone were lifted up in an attempt to find any trace of humans.

But no one responded to him, and there was no sound of calling for help. The only corpses were broken corpses. At a loss, he sat behind a broken wall, holding his rifle in a daze again.