When they arrived at the courtyard house and the celestial bridal chamber, they discovered it was a

The reason they were moving so slowly was that the entire hillside had been blasted beyond recognition, with craters of varying depths everywhere. The soldiers trudged forward, one step at a time, and every now and then someone would fall into a crater, wincing in pain but daring not to make a sound.

"Be careful, don't slip!" Zhou Zheng'an helped a young soldier who had fallen into a shell crater climb out, patting the dirt off him. "We're almost at the trench, don't move around."

He then walked a little further and stopped about 300 meters from the trench. He imitated the call of a cuckoo and made three "coo-coo" sounds.

A wary voice came from the darkness: "Who is it?"

"I am Zhou Zheng'an, Operations Staff Officer of the Volunteer Army Headquarters, and I have brought reinforcements!" Zhou Zheng'an responded loudly.

"Operations Staff Officer Zhou Zheng'an, how many people have come?"

"There are still 103 people left!"

"Call out thirty people and have them announce a message in our hometown dialect!"

Zhou Zheng'an understood that this was to guard against Han Han, the special agent, in disguise, and immediately waved for thirty soldiers to come forward.

"Tell us where you're from!"

"I am a follower of Confucius and Mencius!"

"I'm from the Hezhong Plain!"

"I am a peony!"

The rough, local accents rose and fell, and the sentry in the darkness finally relaxed: "Alright, come on over. Only five people are allowed to come up first."

Zhou Zheng'an led the deputy company commander and three soldiers toward the trench.

As soon as I got close, I smelled a strong stench of blood. In the dim light, I saw three wounded soldiers huddled in the trench. One of them had bandages wrapped around his leg, and blood was still seeping out.

"Comrades, you've finally arrived!" A squad leader with scars on his face struggled to his feet, his voice hoarse. "There are only seven comrades left at position number one, all wounded. The enemy attacked eight times yesterday, and we almost couldn't hold on!"

Zhou Zheng'an squatted down, lifted the bandage and looked at the wound, which was already inflamed and oozing pus.

"Don't worry, everything will be alright now that we're here."

He patted the squad leader on the shoulder, then turned to the soldiers behind him and said, "First, carry the wounded into the trenches. The rest of you, immediately repair the fortifications! The defensive line must be fortified before dawn!"

At this time, Zhou Zheng'an had already learned about the situation at the No. 1 position on Hill 7. A total of 342 people had been killed there, with only 7 survivors, most of whom were injured.

All I can say is that the battle has been incredibly fierce so far.

Three companies, the No. 1 position on Hill 7, only seven men remain, and all of them are wounded.

Looking at the horrific scene, Zhou Zheng'an felt a pang of pain in his heart.

He silently took out four apples from his backpack, then unscrewed a kettle of water and handed them to the four soldiers one by one.

"Eat something first to replenish your energy," Zhou Zheng'an said softly, his voice filled with undeniable concern.

The soldiers accepted the apples and water, their eyes shining with gratitude.

They wolfed down the apples and drank water in large gulps, as if trying to swallow all their fatigue and pain along with the food and water.

Zhou Zheng'an left one squad behind to keep watch, while the rest followed him into the tunnel.

The tunnels in the Battle of Shangganling were deeper and larger than those in the areas previously under sniping and artillery control.

After all, there are more soldiers stationed here, requiring more robust fortifications. The tunnels are winding and vary in size; this is to prevent the US from finding and destroying the underground tunnels after occupying the surface positions.

After walking for four or five minutes, they finally arrived at the largest area in the tunnel.

This place can usually seat seventy or eighty people, but at this moment only three seriously wounded soldiers are lying on the ground. A pungent stench permeates the tunnel.

This is still winter; if it were summer, the taste would probably be even more unbearable.

Upon seeing so many volunteers arriving to provide support, the three seriously wounded soldiers were so excited that they tried to stand up, but unfortunately, their injuries were too severe and they were unable to stand at all.

Zhou Zheng'an looked at them, and his eyes welled up with tears.

He crouched down and said softly, "Comrades, the 15th Iron Army is giving us their full support. We will definitely hold the position. You should rest and have something to eat."

As he spoke, he took out three apples and a bottle of water from his backpack and handed them to the three seriously injured people.

Then, he took out three antibiotics from his pocket and carefully gave the three men injections.

Due to a lack of antibiotics, many soldiers of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army suffered from inflamed wounds after being wounded, resulting in persistent high fevers and ultimately burning to death, a truly horrific sight.

At that time, Great Xia was unable to produce antibiotics and had to purchase them from abroad. Most other countries, except for a few like the United States, were aligned with the United States and naturally unwilling to sell to Great Xia.

Afterwards, Zhou Zheng'an instructed everyone to put all the water, dry rations, apples, radishes, and other food they were carrying together. This was for unified use.

In another timeline, during the final stages of the Battle of Shangganling, the most difficult aspect was logistical support. The 15th Iron Army issued an order: sending up an apple would earn a third-class merit, while sending up a basket would earn a second-class merit.

Imagine the logistical situation the soldiers had at that time—it was practically nonexistent. They had no water to drink, so they had to drink urine, which was only given to the wounded; the uninjured soldiers couldn't drink it.

All I can say is that the volunteer soldiers were all outstanding.

After the three seriously wounded soldiers ate apples, drank water, and fell into a deep sleep, Zhou Zheng'an got up and went to another tunnel. Pushing open the door, an even stronger stench hit him.

The remains of more volunteer soldiers are laid out here, about one hundred in total.

Many of the bodies were mutilated, clearly indicating they had been hit by bombs.

Zhou Zheng'an silently counted the number of bodies, a wave of grief washing over him. More than three hundred people had sacrificed their lives, but only a little over one hundred bodies were ultimately moved to the tunnel; many more bodies were still missing.

He died without a complete corpse.

This is absolutely tragic.

He told all the soldiers who had come with the reinforcements to go to the entrance and take a look, so they would know the brutality of the battle.

Then, looking at everyone, he said, "Comrades, the fighting here is far more brutal than you can imagine. But we have no way out; we must hold our ground. Comrades, do you have confidence?"

"Yes!" all the volunteer soldiers shouted loudly, their voices echoing in the tunnel like thunder.

Looking into their determined eyes, Zhou Zheng'an felt a surge of strength within him.

He said seriously, "Alright, then everyone should rest immediately. Recharge your energy and prepare for the new battle."

"Yes!" all the soldiers replied, and then found places to sit or lie down to rest.

All the volunteer soldiers who came with Zhou Zheng'an to reinforce the area have been fighting fiercely for two days and have been marching at night. They must be very tired now.

The Battle of Shangganling was a special case because the number of people participating in each battle was limited, usually at the company or even platoon level, and the casualty rate was very high.

In the end, there might be a dozen or so people from several different units.

Therefore, they formed a temporary party group and a temporary command headquarters, appointing commanders according to their military ranks.

After the commander is killed, a new commander will be appointed. Zhou Zheng'an is a regimental-level officer, so he is naturally the current commander of Hill 7.

After seeing the other soldiers sitting or lying on the ground to rest, Zhou Zheng'an began to walk out of the tunnel and come to the surface position.

Ten minutes later, the dawn completely illuminated the hilltop. He stood by the trench, looking at the enemy at the foot of the hill, and thought to himself, "A new battle is about to begin."

Sure enough, the US artillery began its attack.