Kharkiv!

The Ming army held on here for seven days, and Kharkov had turned into ruins.

Like all cities that war has passed through, the streets are full of broken bricks and rubble. You can also see corpses lying on the street.

Most of these corpses were wearing red and blue French military uniforms. Since it was a street battle, their corpses were relatively well preserved.

After all, heavy weapons are actually useless in street fighting.

The most common ones are direct-aimed cannons to bombard buildings.

Occasionally, some Ming army corpses can be found exposed in the ruins of dilapidated houses or under the broken bricks and tiles.

Their bodies were easy to identify, as they were all wearing olive green military uniforms. Compared with the dazzling uniforms of the French army, they looked much rustic.

Load a full magazine again and pull the bolt.

The street he had to defend was five hundred meters long. Yesterday he had a company, but now he only had thirty-eight men left.

The wound on his shoulder was throbbing with pain, and Li Yuan, who had never smoked, had no choice but to light a cigarette.

"Company commander, when will reinforcements come?" A veteran ran over.

This guy is a Mongolian, but he speaks Chinese more fluently than Li Yuan, and his Liaodong accent sounds more authentic than Li Yuan's.

"Who the hell knows? Our mission is to stay until dark. There are still three hours left. We will withdraw as soon as it gets dark."

Li Yuan took a puff of cigarette!

In the distance, several men were planting explosives under the leadership of platoon leader Bayan.

There were a lot of explosives, and Li Yuan had people stuff them into the ruins.

Put as many as you can!

When it explodes like this, nothing else is needed. Those broken bricks and rubble are the best killing weapons!

On the street in front, there were no less than a hundred corpses of French troops lying.

This street is relatively narrow, and the French cannons cannot push in. They can only use infantry to nibble at it bit by bit.

From morning till now, there have been no less than 500 casualties.

Li Yuan's men also changed from a full company to a company of thirty-eight people with a broken structure.

"Company commander, give me a cigarette."

Bayan ran back and sat down next to Li Yuan.

Li Yuan liked these Mongolians very much. They were straightforward and bold, and did not hide any little thoughts.

The most rare thing is that they don't treat Li Yuan as an outsider.

As a person who was transferred to the company as a company commander just before the war, he went to the battlefield without paying much attention to others. This is a taboo for military strategists.

But there is no choice, there is a shortage of officers everywhere.

It seems that Li Yuan, who was slightly injured, was also sent to the Mongols as a company commander.

Some people have even been promoted to battalion commanders or regimental commanders by FireWire!

The old leader Liu Wenxiu is now the temporary division commander.

The cigarette box was thrown out, and a large group of Mongolian men tore it into pieces like monkeys snatching apples.

Seeing that he wasn't smoking enough, Li Yuan took out another pack of cigarettes from his pocket.

He doesn't usually smoke himself, nor does he smoke the cigarettes sent by the quartermaster. Now he has three boxes of cigarettes in his pocket!

After a battle, more than half of the company was lost. I don't know how many of the remaining people could survive the three hours before sunset.

People are willing to give up their lives, so why not give up a pack of cigarettes?

For a moment, Li Yuan even thought of talking to the Frenchman across the street.

Anyway, I got the order to evacuate as soon as it gets dark, so it's better for everyone to stay safe and wait until dark for you to take over the position generously.

It’s a great thing if you don’t have to fight for life and death like this!

Why is it like this? Everyone is fighting for it with all their lives.

Could it be said that it was just to occupy the position two or three hours earlier?

I don't know how heartless it is to sacrifice a hundred lives for these two or three hours.

"Company commander, why are you a soldier?" Bayan took off his shoes and poured out the dirt inside. A smell of salted fish immediately filled the air.

"I?

Why are you a soldier?

I don’t know, I just want to be a soldier. My classmates all want to be soldiers, or we men in Liaodong all want to be soldiers.

Once you become a soldier, it is easier to talk about your wife than others."

Li Yuan scratched his head. He had never thought about this problem.

Boys in Liaodong have been playing war games since they were young.

The teacher asked the children who went to school together what they would do when they grew up. Almost all the boys would say to go to war and become a member of the Liao army.

I defeated many opponents and entered the military academy, which was a farewell ceremony for the entire school.

The classmates were extremely envious, and the teacher was extremely proud. Dad almost blew bubbles of snot out of his nose.

Why serve as a soldier? It’s an honor!

The whole family is honored!

The government issued a plaque honoring military service to every family that joined the army. It was placed on the lintel of the door, and it shone brightly in the sunlight.

This is the real glorious lintel!

"Why did you become a soldier?" Seeing that Bayan was confused, Li Yuan asked curiously.

He also couldn't understand that these Mongolians held bolt-action rifles in their hands. Their equipment was obviously worse than that of the Liao army, but they dared to risk their lives when fighting!

The will to fight is even stronger than that of the subordinates he originally led.

When we were on the Don River, we were surrounded by artillery fire and there was no place to escape.

If they could escape, someone would have become a deserter long ago.

In fact, Li Yuan himself was not sure whether several people who died in the gunfire wanted to escape.

"Me?" Bayan puffed out a puff of smoke.

"I slept with Nayan's wife, and Nayan caught him. He wanted to beat me to death, but I beat him to death.

The big man in Geritu wanted to put me to death, but later he said that joining the army would save me from death, so I signed up to join the army."

"What?" Li Yuan's jaw almost dropped to the ground.

When serving as a soldier in Liaodong, the first rule is to be clean.

Ever since my grandfather's generation, I have never violated the "Law of the Ming Dynasty".

But I didn't expect that some Mongolians actually served as soldiers to avoid disaster.

"he!

Originally the son of the leader was coming, but the leader gave him five cows and he came to serve as a soldier.

And he has fifty more sheep at home.

He, the creditor, forgave his debt.

He, he came here voluntarily."

"Why did you come voluntarily?"

"I like to shoot guns. I heard that soldiers were given guns and had to pay for bullets, so I came."

This is a young man named Huge Jirel, who looks to be at most eighteen years old.

Maybe it's his talent, but this guy's shooting is particularly accurate. He shot a bolt-action rifle like a sniper rifle!

In the morning, Li Yuan saw with his own eyes that this little guy killed a French soldier more than 200 meters away with one shot.

Of course, this is also related to the red and blue uniforms worn by the French soldiers, which are too damn conspicuous.

Li Yuan did not expect that his subordinates would be such a group of people. Their origins seemed to be far different from their behavior during the day.

Such a group of people should be a rabble.

But today during the day, they experienced fierce battles. There were even two hand-to-hand battles!

The Mongols only had bayonets in their hands and were not equipped with pistols like the Ming army.

It was really a white knife entering and a red knife coming out. Li Yuan could not imagine whether his group of people on the bank of the Don River could persist in such a battle.

"Is this why you became soldiers?" Li Yuan blinked and looked at a group of Mongolian men with faces as smoky as little devils.

"The big head of Geritu said that he would come to Russia to fight this time. If he dies, each family will be given one hundred Ming silver coins, ten cows, and one hundred sheep.
To be continued...