Chapter 62: Taking Out the Sniper

  "Yes!" All the brothers nodded and said in a low voice.

  Shan Yixuan slung the Type 38 rifle over his back and said, "You two will form a team, choose your own position. After taking out the sniper, one person will be responsible for lookout duty, and the other will take care of sniping the target. I don't want you to fight over the sniper rifle because I consider each and every one of you as my brothers. Nothing is more important than brotherhood! Do you understand?"

  "Understood!" Everyone nodded. "Alright, let's move out!" Shan Yixuan gave the final order. Watching as several people crawled forward in different directions, Shan Yixuan couldn't help but smile slightly. Although he knew that their individual combat capabilities had been honed through strict training and were not ordinary, having two people would definitely be safer. Since they could become the enemy's snipers, they weren't simple either.

  The intense gunfire still didn't stop, Zhou Weiguo's battalion charged up and wiped out all the devils disguised on the left. The M3 close combat variant's power made all the devils tremble with fear.

  "What's going on?" Togawa Kenichi, who was resting in the temporary command center set up behind the mountain, heard the intense gunfire and thought it was time to launch another attack again. However, as he listened more closely to the sound of the guns, he felt something was off, so he grabbed his binoculars and rushed out to look towards the front slope of the mountain!

  "General, we've set up an ambush for the enemy's position!" The lieutenant colonel said, pointing to where the gunfire was coming from. His mind was still wondering how there could be submachine gun fire?

  Watabe Kenichi took a deep breath and suddenly felt uneasy with the sound of gunfire, immediately ordering: "Take someone to see what's going on!" The M3 rifle fire made Watabe Kenichi somewhat flustered, muttering in his heart, who could this be?

  "Ha!" Colonel Nakasugi swiftly turned around and left, immediately leading a battalion to approach the front hill. The command center had about 4,000 soldiers waiting for another attack and those who hadn't moved yet. Magou village had sent 1,500 people, but there was no news yet. Tobita Ken'ichi let out a long sigh and muttered to himself: "Did I really underestimate these Chinese?"

  The first battle of the regiment started, and the sound of gunfire echoed from all over the mountain. Due to the slow response of the Japanese armed forces, they only realized that someone had already rushed up the mountain when they were close to death.

  After the war broke out, a larger encirclement unfolded like a giant net around Zhaojiazhuang. If the Japanese army had surrounded Shan Yixuan and the Independent Regiment, now the entire officers and men of the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army under Hu Yan and the 388th Regiment of the Sixth Brigade of the National Revolutionary Army had surrounded all the Japanese troops in Zhaojiazhuang. How could the fully armed Chinese army allow the Japanese to be so arrogant? Along the way, they discovered the miserable deaths of villagers, which further enraged every Chinese soldier.

  Due to the lax vigilance of the Japanese army, the 388th Regiment quickly occupied the entire hillside. Zhou Weiguo called out over the radio, contacting Hu Yan: "Commander, cleanup is complete, our troops have no casualties, and we've annihilated approximately eight hundred enemies!"

  "Alright! Our troops have formed a circle around the Japanese army, even if they had three heads and six arms, they wouldn't be able to break out of Zhaojiazhuang. Order your unit to form a combat formation along the slope and advance, continue clearing obstacles on the slope, pay attention to safety!"

  "Yes!" Zhou Weiguo ended the call and immediately led all 388 troops to continue advancing.

  "Xuan Ge, they've all left, only us are left!" Qingteng Yimut said, looking at the distant brothers. Although the brothers' views on Snow Fox's independent team had changed a lot, Qingteng Yimut still felt it wasn't right.

  Shan Yixuan patted Qingteng Yimutu's shoulder and said, "Let them go, they're in perfect sync. Let's move, we'll head towards the eleven o'clock direction." As he spoke, he crawled forward in the eleven o'clock direction. Qingteng Yimutu let out a bitter laugh, picked up his gun, and followed behind him.

  The gunfire from the mountain slope in front affected the sniper's mentality, and the guns in their hands would occasionally aim at the mountain slope. What the snipers feared most was not the opponent in front of them, but the opponent behind them. In case the blocking battle on the mountain slope failed, they had to retreat at the fastest speed, and only those who could retreat with their whole body were qualified snipers.

  Shan Yixuan brought Qingteng Yimutou past the sniper's eyes, crouching low and running quickly towards the 11 o'clock direction. "What's going on with the mountain slope ahead?" The sniper in the 11 o'clock direction held his rifle and looked at the not-too-distant mountain slope, but the limited field of view of the sniper scope couldn't detect anything unusual. It was just the sudden gunshot that made him a bit tense.

  "I can't see what's going on over there, but that gunshot sounds like it came from an M3 submachine gun!" Another observer was holding a pair of binoculars and searching for something.

  "What's with the M3?" The sniper furrowed his brow, how did this unauthorized weapon appear? "Keep a close eye on them! I'll keep watching from here, you watch from behind!" The sniper said as he lay down again, aiming his rifle at where Shan Yixuan and the others were hiding. There was nothing unusual in the scope. If he knew that there was no one behind the wall now, he would probably be so angry that he would spit blood.

  "Ah!" The moment the Japanese devil's voice fell, a cold dagger appeared on his neck. Then, Shan Yixuan exerted himself and the observing devil died on the spot. On the other side, Qingteng Yimu inserted a dagger into the devil's skull with a chill. Shan Yixuan furrowed his brow, looking at the white liquid seeping out of the ground, thinking that Japanese people really had a heavy taste.

  Dan Yixuan picked up the sniper rifle, re-aimed it and handed it to Qingteng Yimutu, saying: "I'll cover you, you take aim!"

  Qingteng took over the Mauser 98k and said, "Xuan Ge, is it the National Army that's supporting us? They have several units equipped with such excellent weapons!" Shuang Yixuan hummed in agreement, nodding his head and saying, "Maybe! Let's not worry about who they are for now. Their arrival has helped us out; otherwise, we would've had to take the risk of being named and hunted by those devils. Now we don't have to. I reckon the brothers from the Linghu Tujidui should be successful too!" As he spoke, he picked up his binoculars and looked towards the 6 o'clock direction. A piece of cloth was fluttering in the wind on a pine tree. Shuang Yixuan smiled, then turned to look at the next sniping point.

  Twenty minutes later, Shan Yixuan picked up the telescope again. At this time, all the sniping points nearby had an eye-catching cloth strip, which was a pre-arranged signal by Shan Yixuan to tie the cloth strips in visible places after controlling the scene! The first place to hang the cloth strip was at eleven o'clock direction! After reconfirming that there were no other sniping points, Shan Yixuan let out a sigh of relief and said: "Now the Independent Regiment is safe. If Tohbu Kenichi knew that his sharpshooter team had been wiped out, would he be furious?" He smiled as he spoke.

  "...should be... Brother Xuan will know, this is the trump card of the 24th Division's reversal of fortune!" Qingteng Yimutu turned his head and smiled at Xuan Ye with a happy smile.

  "Haha, without the cover of snipers, even if they come with another division, I'm not afraid! Moreover, our reinforcements have all arrived!" As he spoke, he picked up his binoculars and looked downwards. Row upon row of 60mm mortars made Single Yixuan's eyes widen in excitement. Qingteng Yimuhu was taken aback, hastily using his scope to look towards where Single Yixuan was looking. More than twenty soldiers wearing National Army uniforms formed a mortar battery, their shells already prepared for launch. Qingteng Yimuhu couldn't help but take a deep breath of cool air as he looked on.

  "Hey, Qingteng, you think that's the same momentum as when you hit me in Yangcheng that day?" Shuang Yixuan said with a smirk, putting down his binoculars.

  Sei Tōichi smiled wryly and said, "Junya, those are all things of the past..." On that day, in order to capture Junya who was hiding in the bell tower, Sei Tōichi mobilized all the artillery troops, but unexpectedly got wiped out by a single bullet from Junya... That day's raid on the Yangcheng military arsenal also destroyed an armored tank. All these are still vivid in his mind. This time, easily taking down Wataru Tatebayashi's sniper, Sei Tōichi was increasingly impressed by Junya's abilities.

  "I'm puzzled, the Nationalists and Communists have never gotten along, why would the Nationalist Army make such a big bet to support us this time?" Shan Yixuan picked up his binoculars and looked at the rear of the mortar position, where a row of soldiers armed with light machine guns were waiting in formation.

  "Xuan Ge, you Chinese people, if I'm being honest, there are too many traitors among you!" Qingteng Yimut said, gazing out at the world through his sniper scope.

  Shan Yixuan let out a bitter laugh and said, "China is a populous country, aren't they all being coerced by you? If it were the Japanese in your position, facing severe torture and death, would you dare guarantee that the Japanese wouldn't produce traitors?"

  Qingteng Yimutu was speechless at what Yuan Xuan had just said, and could only continue to observe the situation below the mountain with the gun in his hand.

  "Xuan Ge, look quickly, artillery!"

  Yi Xuan looked in the direction of the green vine wood finger, a row of 60mm mortars made him feel ecstatic. No matter what purpose the National Army had, fighting against the devils was now the top priority! More than 20 soldiers wearing National Army uniforms set up an artillery position about 100 meters away from the Japanese army, with a light machine gun on each side providing firepower cover for the artillery.