Chapter 64: Active Target

  "Oh, okay!" Qingteng Yimuu quickly tore off his own sleeve to bandage Shuang Yixuan's wound. Then he picked up the bullet that had fallen on the ground and looked at Shuang Yixuan, saying softly: "Xuan Ge, can I have this?"

  Shan Yixuan looked at the bullet in Qingteng Yimutu's hand, nodded slightly, and knew what he meant. This bullet had saved his life. With a bitter smile, he picked up the binoculars and looked towards the Japanese artillery position. Except for the remaining cannon barrels, there was no one else there, and all the bodies were lying on the ground.

  Shan Yixuan hit the major with one shot, and the sniper position immediately opened fire on the devils' artillery. In less than five minutes, more than 20 of the devils' mortar men had fallen to the ground.

  On the Japanese army's position, several taishō followed behind Watabe Kenichi. What had seemed like a war without any suspense now looked like it was putting unprecedented pressure on Watabe Kenichi.

  "General, our sniper squad may have a problem!" A lieutenant ran up to Togo Shigenori and whispered.

  "What did you say?" Watabe Kenichi furrowed his brow, how could the ace member he cared about most possibly have a problem. The lieutenant nodded and said: "Ah, yes, our artillery troops wanted to intercept the National Army unit, but at the forefront of our army's position, they encountered an unexplained attack, and more than 20 artillerymen were killed."

  "What did you say? All twenty of our gunners are dead?"

  "Hai yi, based on the trajectory, our... our..."

  "Go on!" Toba Keiichi looked at the lieutenant's tense expression, guessing that there was something even more shocking. This seemingly unshakeable Yang now had to be reevaluated.

  "Our sniper position may have been taken over by the Japanese, because the direction of the bullets are all coming from our own sniper position!"

  "Hah!" Tobita Kei angrily picked up his binoculars and looked towards the sniper positions set up in various locations. Each of the sniper positions had an extra thing that caught his eye, a piece of cloth fluttering in the wind. "Damn it!!!" A whole team of elite snipers was wiped out in this small town, making Tobita Kei extremely angry. He decided to resolutely eliminate this armed force.

  The 388th Regiment retreated due to the firepower, and the 389th Regiment quickly filled in the gap left by the 388th Regiment. The 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army were also slowly shrinking the encirclement circle. The situation of the 24th Division suddenly turned from being on the offensive to being on the defensive. The advanced equipment of the National Army caught the enemy off guard, and the devils had no time to pay attention to the independent regiment in the trenches. Everyone's guns were aimed at the advancing National Army and Eighth Route Army!

  Zhou Weiguo looked at the intense battle between the two sides with a puzzled expression, holding his binoculars. The National Army and the Japanese army both suffered heavy casualties in the head-on attack. Looking at the powerful firepower of the Japanese army, if someone hadn't secretly taken out the mortar gunner, the soldiers of the 388th Regiment would not have had such small losses!

  "What is Commander Zhou looking at?" Hu Yan asked softly as he walked up and saw Zhou Weiguo staring blankly in the direction they had just retreated from.

  "Sir, is your independent gear equipped with Mauser 98K?" For an excellent student who studied at the German Military Academy, he had his own unique insights on various advanced firearms. Just the sound of the gun brought back Zhou Weiguo's experience of studying sniping for the first time at the German Military Academy.

  "Mauser 98K?" Hu Yan had never heard of what a Mauser 98K was, this high-end sniper rifle wasn't even equipped by the National Army, let alone the Eighth Route Army.

  "It's a rifle with a cylindrical thing on top, we call it a scope!" Zhou Weiguo saw Hu Yan looking at him in confusion, and his mind had already guessed eight or nine out of ten. So, Yangcheng still has another armed force?

  Hu Yan shook his head, indicating that he didn't. Hu Yan let out a regretful sigh and thought to himself that if he were to see this person again, he would definitely thank him properly!

  The three armies clashed, giving the Independent Regiment a chance to withdraw. Zheng Wenxing looked through his binoculars at the wall that had been blown away by the howitzer, and did not see Shan Yixuan's shadow in the ruins behind the wall. He couldn't help but smile: "This guy is like an eel!" He immediately ordered the Independent Regiment to alternate cover and withdraw from the devil's firing range. Due to the intense gunfire and artillery fire of the Japanese army, the Independent Regiment suffered heavy casualties, with more than half of its soldiers seriously injured.

  Shan Yixuan picked up the binoculars and looked at the Independent Regiment, which was retreating. A hint of sadness and anger flashed in his eyes because he had caused trouble for himself, but the soldiers of the Independent Regiment had paid such a great sacrifice. He felt extremely guilty. "Cover the retreat of the soldiers of the Independent Regiment!" Shan Yixuan's eyes welled up with tears as he looked at the heavily wounded Independent Regiment. He bit his lip lightly and put down the binoculars, picked up the Type 38 rifle on the ground, and loaded a bullet into the chamber in the blink of an eye. With a loud "crack", a Japanese soldier who was about to be shot from behind by the Eighth Route Army fell to the ground.

  Qīng Téng Yī Mù looked at Dān Yì Xuàn, then concentrated on holding the sniper rifle to find any possible target that might ambush the Independent Regiment.

  The casualties of the independent regiment exceeded Shi Yuxuan's imagination. Along the way, the guards were almost all holding guns in one hand and supporting the wounded with the other. This was only for those who could still walk; many of the uninjured or lightly injured were carrying others in a slow retreat. The Japanese artillery fire brought disastrous losses to the independent regiment, and every brother's heart was heavy, their blood almost dyeing the land of Zhaojiazhuang red. The weak guard forces along the way made Shi Yuxuan extremely worried; with just one heavy machine gun, the people of the independent regiment would be treated as live targets.

  "Halt! Bandits! You, do you want to run?" A devil holding a light machine gun emerged from the woods on one side and blocked the way of the independent regiment. Just as Zhao Wenxing was about to shoot him dead, two more devils emerged from the grass, with two light machine guns and a Type 38 rifle aimed directly at the wounded soldiers of the independent regiment. Zhao Wenxing had overlooked one thing - the ones walking in front were all soldiers carrying stretchers, and there were no soldiers responsible for sentry duty.

  Zhao Wenzhong let out a cold hum, his right hand quickly raised, and the shotgun in his hand fired with a loud "bang". The first devil to fall was the one closest to him. Then the muzzle swiftly pointed at the other two. Before the bullets had even been fired, two holes appeared almost simultaneously on the foreheads of the two devils, their eyes hadn't even had time to close before they fell to the ground. Zhao Wenzhong stared blankly at the two dead devils, this wasn't his first time killing devils at such a close distance, but he had never felt such unease before. He didn't think that behind him, two guns were trained on him, if they were enemies, then he and the Independent Regiment would all be doomed, what a terrifying thought!

  "Captain, are you alright?" Hearing the sound of gunfire, Gao Fei completely ignored the pain from his injuries and quickly ran to Zhao Wenxing's side with a revolver in hand. At the same time, Zhao Wenxing's bodyguards also rushed to his side.

  Zhao Wenzhen took a deep breath, and Nannan said, "I'm fine!" He turned around, picked up the binoculars, and looked in the direction of eleven o'clock. He had already guessed who was helping him, and the accurate marksmanship of the team led by Shan Yixuan and the soldiers of the Independent Regiment were all too familiar to him. "Fortunately, it's not the enemy!" Zhao Wenzhen muttered to himself.

  "Squad leader, what's wrong?" Zhao Wenxing's guard asked worriedly. The latter shook his head and said, "I'm fine, hurry up and let the soldiers speed up! Don't get discovered by the enemy."

  "Yes!" The guard said and turned around to walk away.

  Shan Yixuan withdrew the bullet and put the gun on the ground, glancing at Qingteng Yimu beside him, praising: "Great, pretty fast!"

  "Compared to Xuan Ge, I'm just a novice, a mere novice!" Qingteng Yimut said with a smile.

  "When did you also start flattering people, this is not a good phenomenon."

  "I know, but everything I said is true!"

  The sound of gunfire at eleven o'clock was the order, and the sniper groups on each position involuntarily aimed their guns at the surroundings of the Independent Regiment and its retreat route. With the cover of the sniper group, the marching speed of the Independent Regiment accelerated a lot, and it became much safer.

  "Xuan Ge, this time we've thoroughly enraged the North China Military Command!" Qingteng Yimut said while keeping an eye on the situation behind the Independent Regiment. The reinforcements this time exceeded Xuan Yi's imagination; he had thought they would have to break through at night to retreat from Zhaojiazhuang, but now they completely controlled the battlefield.

  Shan Yixuan sneered, "Let's just let things unfold as they may. He was the one who provoked us first!" Although he said this out loud, Shan Yixuan was also thinking about the next move for the Linghuo Special Forces and the Snow Fox Independent Squadron in his heart.

  The gunfire at the foot of the mountain was still uninterrupted, but it didn't sound as intense as before. Shan Yixuan reloaded his bullets and observed the surroundings through the sighting hole. Suddenly, a bright light flashed in front of him like a mirror. The Type 38 rifle in Shan Yixuan's hand immediately aimed at the place where the light had just appeared, and the sudden flash made him feel danger.

  Looking at where the light disappeared, Shan Yixuan furrowed his brow, no cloth strip, that is to say...

  "Bang!" A gunshot broke into Shan Yixuan's thoughts, and the bullet hit a branch in front of him. Shan Yixuan dodged to one side, exclaiming: "Sniper!" As soon as he finished speaking, Qingteng began searching for targets with his rifle. Shan Yixuan looked in the direction where the bullet had just come from, but didn't find anything unusual.

  "Oni is a master, Qingteng be careful!" Shuang Yixuan reminded Qingteng Yim while searching for the target. Although the first shot missed, Oni was very clever and changed his sniping position as soon as the gunshot fell."

  "Five o'clock direction, green vine, take him down!" The 38-style rifle in Shan Yixuan's hand was out of range at that position, and even if he hit it, there would be no killing power left. The killing power of the 38-style rifle was originally very weak, and long-range attacks were like scratching an itch!