After the No. 11 temporary defense point on the right wing of the position was broken and occupied by the North Vietnamese army, a brief period of calm appeared on the battlefield adjacent to Songhe. Lieutenant Leglis and his soldiers gave the ring main position to guard the foreign corps soldiers brought by Lieutenant Fuli. The wounded and terrified participants retreated to the mortar position ten meters apart and close to the river bank. When digging the position, people expected that the number of mortars would not exceed two doors, so only one piece of four meters long and two meters wide was excavated.

There are four mortar positions about 1.5 meters deep. Not only are there four mortars, but there are nearly twenty people squeezed in. The crowding level is conceivable. Smelling the strong smell of his companions, Leglis did not have the heart to broaden this area. The fighting method of North Vietnam's resistance to the armed forces made him feel deeply scared. If it weren't for the right time to control the grenade defense, if the reinforcements of the command headquarters arrived in time, they would probably have encountered the same fate as the defense points of the neighbors!

Accompanied by a crisp "bang", the flares appearing above the river surface burst into a very dazzling light. In the blink of an eye, the "knock" gunshots came loudly and rhythmically. Those familiar with the weapons used by this Philosopher team could easily identify them from the Browning heavy machine gun with a point five caliber, a powerful and durable battlefield killer. Several companions leaned curiously and looked towards the river surface. Leglis did not do this. He always felt that there were pairs of cold eyes on the treetops opposite the position to capture the opportunity. The accuracy of the North Vietnamese shooters at medium distance reminded him of the German trench snipers described by his father.

After the previous battle, the paratroopers also knew how powerful their opponents were. They did not let their heads wear steel helmets be exposed on the cover for too long. One of them retracted his entire head and said, "The Vietnamese tried to cross the river. Our gunboats were guarding there. It seems that today is not the lucky day for these North Vietnamese resisters."

Another paratrooper with a wounded shoulder said: "It's a terrifying thing to fight them on land - there is probably no army in our time as indifferent to life as they do!"

"Why didn't it?" Laurent's Officer made a different view, "The German SS, Japanese troops, and Soviet troops. Their attack rhythm is often suffocating, and they are as stubborn as rocks when defending."

"The German SS is indeed more difficult to deal with than these Vietnamese. They will not suffer such great casualties in order to attack a small stronghold!" Sergeant Etienne is the oldest here. He participated in the Western Front Battle in 1940 as an army soldier of the Third French Republic, and later followed the Free French team to fight against North Africa and France. His experience in fighting with the Germans is also the richest here.

Leglis was about to add some of his understanding of the Soviet army, and dense gunfire broke out in front of the positions. The bullets whizzed past above his head made the paratroopers with the most curiousness dare not look at the situation ahead at this time.

"Be ready for battle!" The lieutenant gave instructions to his subordinates, and stood up and moved forward. The mortar position and the trench in front were connected by a shallow traffic trench. If you want to pass through here safely, you must press your head and body down, preferably climb over with your hands and feet. Just as Leglis moved to halfway, he looked at a black soldier from the foreign corps. The man said in a strange accent: "The mortar intercepted and fired the target 100 meters ahead!"

Leglis quickly sent an order, and under his "transfer", four mortar groups, which were affiliated with the paratroopers and foreign corps, opened fire quickly. The range and power of the light mortars were of limited capacity, but they were very suitable for playing a role in such close-range combat. Listening to the clear explosion sound from the front of the position, the lieutenant continued to move forward. At this time, the trenches were filled with smoke of fired drugs, filled with the jingle of the shells throwing out the bolts and the soldiers' habitual language when shooting. Leglis struggled to squeeze through the trenches and found Lieutenant Foley who was firing with a pistol.

"Beware of their shooters in the woods and the guys who were cheating in front of the position. They will suddenly attack us with grenades!" Leglis reminded loudly, these are the lessons his paratroopers have obtained with their blood and life costs.

"The farmer wearing a hat" grinned and said, "Their rushing and fighting tactics will torture opponents with weak firepower. If we meet, we will die!"

Judging from the momentum, the firepower density of the foreign corps is indeed much stronger than the twenty paratroopers before. Leglis stretched his head and looked forward. In the fields covered by night, dark red light spots flying out of his own positions were dense, completely overwhelming the shooting on the scene. Moreover, Lieutenant Fu Lennie's troops did not use flares at all. The soldiers used the faint starlight to identify the figures moving in the rice fields. The fierce bullets made the opponent unable to even enter the range of grenade shooting. Such a scene shocked the thoughts of the paratrooper lieutenant again. During the battle, both sides were both

Machine guns and mortars were put in, and the North Vietnamese soldiers showed no sign of delay in attack. However, Lieutenant Fulei, a French foreign corps, seemed extremely calm. Even if the opponent's shells fell nearby, the soldiers hid it and started fighting again. After about five minutes, Lieutenant Fulei shouted "ceasefire". The officers and non-commissioned officers at all levels in the army quickly conveyed their orders. The combat troops of nearly fifty people quickly stopped shooting. The battlefield between the woods and the river bank was silent. The sound of gunfire and explosions from the river surface were still endless, and there were also fighting sounds of different strengths and weaknesses in other directions.

"Victory!" Lieutenant Furley raised his fist and shouted, and his foreign legion soldiers of different skin colors followed and shouted and roared in victory. However, at this time, Leglis was unwilling to share the joy of easily repelling the enemy's attack. He watched with worry. There was a sound of fire in the direction of the command and the stone bridge, which meant that the North Vietnamese armed forces were attacking French positions at the same time. These positions were neither Maginot nor Truman, but were just river-along positions that were hastily established by light paratroopers. Perhaps the staff of the French Expeditionary Force command underestimated the opponent's combat effectiveness from the beginning and made mistakes in some key details.

The deployment caused 3,000 French paratroopers to fall into a passive situation; perhaps the top military leaders should learn from the lessons of the setbacks in Eastern Europe in 1948 and re-examine the use and risks of large-scale airborne operations. Of course, these "maybe" are just thoughts that flashed through the mind of the low-level officer Leglis. For him, the most important thing at the moment is to protect himself while trying to assist his friends and friends to avoid the difficulties of being wiped out by the entire army. However, after suffering double losses in personnel and psychological state, becoming a hero who changed the situation was only at the shallow point of Leglis's thinking. He could not find the courage to inspire himself to walk out of the trenches...

Even if a first-class army is equipped with first-class equipment, the consequences of passive defense can be imagined. The North Vietnamese army, which was frustrated in the offensive, began to harass the defensive positions of Foley and Leglis with frequent cold fire and mortar bombardment. Due to the limited vision at night, the defenders could not stop effective fire suppression and could only let the other party do it. As time went by, the overall situation on the battlefield gradually changed. On the river, the mighty French boats were suddenly attacked by the North Vietnamese army's mortars and heavy machine guns.

Even the fierce attack of machine guns, the battle situation turned sharply. A French boat sank after it caught fire, and the other three were then retreated, and the effective firepower of the river-supported positions on the riverside was sharply reduced. At about the same time, the temporary defense position No. 9 on the left of Leglis was attacked by the North Vietnamese army. He and Fuli had differences on whether to send troops to provide assistance. However, before a result was discussed, the battle of No. 9 position had already ended with the victory of the North Vietnamese army. French paratroopers stationed there were born.

The troops of Leglis and Foley were then isolated. They could only contact their superiors through radio. While their defense points were constantly being breached by the North Vietnamese army, Lieutenant Colonel Jerome, who had already used up the reserves at hand, had no troops to send. He had to encourage the paratroopers to carry forward the fighting spirit and stubbornly defend their respective positions. In the situation that forced them to concentrate on the defense points where the company was located. In the complex environment of night battles, they left the defense positions and moved along the river bank.

Even if it is only a distance of 500 meters, it seems extremely dangerous to most commanders, so most paratroopers choose to stick to it. However, those who receive reinforcements from foreign corps like Leglis are exceptional after all. From the first half of the night to after midnight, the battle for riverbank positions is ongoing. Moreover, the cunning Vietnamese use captured radio walkie-talks and captured French soldiers to spread false news, which not only disrupted the French deployment, but also caused panic among the paratroopers.

The long night finally came to an end. When the morning light came, the hustle and bustle of war had calmed down for a while. From the perspective of the position, the scenes that Leglis and his companions saw were very different the same day ago. In addition to the remains of hundreds of dead who had not been buried, the brave North Vietnamese armed forces who attacked were gone without a trace. Judging from some auxiliary equipment scattered on the banks of the river, they had successfully crossed the river at night. The French army's intention to encircle and annihilate the North Vietnamese army south of the Song River went bankrupt. The elite paratroopers also paid for this failed battle.

Heavy price. At the two nearby defense points, the French officers and soldiers of the 2nd Light Paratroopers Battalion were killed as many as 35 people, and only a few survived. What disappointed Leglis even more was that the French 1st Paratroopers Battalion stationed at Shiqiao did not face fierce attacks by the North Vietnamese army in the night battle. However, the raid launched by the North Vietnamese armed forces on the north shore a day ago made them lose their courage to take the initiative and were indifferent to the request for help in the crisis of friendly and neighboring forces. The temporary airport they consolidated and occupied was ultimately only used to transfer wounded and evacuate paratroopers.

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