Volume 1: Sudden Battlefield Chapter 7

  The little stone just ran to my side and wanted to ask if it was okay, but as a result of being called by the scar, it was swallowed hard.

  Before long, Knife Scar came running to us in a rage, pointing at us and scolding: "What are you people doing? Didn't you hear my order? Is there no discipline or organization...?"

  "Wait!" A voice interrupted Kao's words, a rifle suddenly appeared in front of us, and he glanced at me with some reluctance, saying to Kao: "This kid took down the Viet Cong!"

  "What?" Scar gazed at me incredulously, then looked back at the rifle and said: "Are you sure? How do you know the Viet Cong have been taken out?"

  "Hmm!" The rifle nodded: "I heard the devils falling from the tree, probably won't survive!"

  He paused for a moment and then asked me: "I just want to know... how did you provoke the devils into action?"

  "It's me!" Xiaoshi said with some self-satisfaction: "Comrade Yang Xuefeng asked me to light a cigarette over there..."

  The little stone originally wanted to continue speaking, but seeing Killer's murderous face, it wisely shut its mouth.

  "Fire at will!" The rifleman looked up at the sky and suggested, "It's almost daylight, we'd better fire a few shots in the direction of 6 o'clock, more than 200 meters away. Firstly, to prevent the devils from coming to rescue, secondly... who knows, maybe the devil's sniper was just injured."

  "Hmm!" Scar nodded and glared at me and Xiaoshi, saying: "This time you're lucky, next time I won't let you off!"

  The rifle patted me on the shoulder and said, "You won, good shot!"

  "Good!" The warriors around me suddenly burst into a cheer, and the previously oppressive atmosphere was instantly swept away, replaced by a sense of pride and arrogance. Several warriors I didn't even know came forward to shake my hand, saying repeatedly:

  "Comrade Yang Xuefeng, you have made our class proud!"

  "Thanks, comrade! You've spoken out for our troops!"

  ……

  I was flattered by the warriors' praise, and at the same time, I couldn't help but think to myself: what the old man said wasn't wrong after all. The greatest value of a sniper isn't in how many people he kills, but whether or not he can effectively boost the morale of his troops. Look at this! All I did was kill... or rather, I'm pretty sure I killed one person, and yet the entire spirit of the troops has changed completely.

  "Comrade! Thank you!" The bookworm came up and grasped my hand tightly, his eyes filled with gratitude.

  "You're welcome!" I replied: "It's also what I should do!"

  I can understand the thoughts of a bookworm, he's still feeling guilty for having killed that soldier, but I killed that Vietcong sniper at least to avenge him, at least it would make him feel better.

  "Boom, boom..." Not long after, shells were fired at the possible positions of the Vietnamese snipers, not very dense, but every few minutes a round was fired, and this continued until dawn half an hour later.

  At first I really thought that the purpose of firing cannons was to prevent the enemy from rescuing snipers, but later I found out that rifles had other intentions.

  The sky had just lightened up a bit when we set out under the leadership of Knife Scar, and I couldn't help but wonder why our troops were taking action at this time. Even as a rookie, I knew it was inappropriate to move at this hour. Wasn't that right? The east had just spat out the white fish belly, and the Vietnamese mountain valleys were full of morning fog, plus a bit of hazy light and the lush grass and trees all over the mountains... It could be said that it was a great opportunity to set an ambush! We moving targets were just prey for the Vietcong hiding in the woods.

  Later, I came to know that this action was ordered by the superior, of course, at that time, I, a small soldier, could not know why the superior wanted to do so. All I knew was that I held my rifle with trepidation and carefully followed the soldiers forward.

  As the grass emitted a rustling sound, I soon felt a chill under my feet. Vietnam's air has high humidity, and with high humidity comes fog. The fog condenses on the grass to form dew, and when my liberation shoes brush against the grass, they get wet from the dew. Wet shoes make me very uncomfortable...

  Am I not very bored? In fact, I'm not bored at all. I'm trying my best to think of some unrelated things to drive away the fear in my heart. At this time, I was wondering, even I couldn't believe that I could kill someone so calmly last night without feeling any fear or nausea!

  No matter how scared I am in my heart, no matter how heavy my feet are, I still have to move forward with my own two feet.

  Before long, the troops walked into a thicket of weeds more than 100 meters in front of the position. At this time, I vaguely understood the reason why we came out at this inappropriate time... Vietnamese snipers.

  As expected, after a while, the scar-faced man gave a low order: "Comrades, disperse and search for the corpse of the Viet Cong's godly gunman! Report immediately if found!"

  "Yes!"

  "Yes!"

  ……

  The warriors responded in a low voice and soon spread out in a fan shape to search forward.

  I walked slowly through the grass, wondering why we were so concerned about the life or death of a North Vietnamese Army sniper, especially when it was putting an entire platoon in danger just to find him.

  This lawn was already pockmarked with craters from last night's barrage, but it didn't look as charred as I had imagined. The reason, I think, is that the fog was too heavy, and the shells weren't enough to set the grass on fire. Instead, there were fragments of grass, leaves, and wood blocks everywhere, occasionally with a few wooden blocks deeply embedded in the stone crevices... It's hard to imagine what would happen if I were among them and got hit by these wooden shrapnel - it's like being hit by a piece of shrapnel.

  "Fall in!" At this time I heard a shout from the left front, and involuntarily followed the team towards the direction of the shouting.

  It wasn't until later that I realized this was actually a very dangerous thing. On the battlefield, never go to join in the excitement... Curiosity kills people, and this saying is indeed a famous and reasonable phrase.

  What appeared before my eyes was a corpse, a corpse pierced with wooden blocks and branches like a porcupine. Judging from his helmet and military uniform, it was obvious that he was a Viet Cong, but I didn't think he was the sniper I had shot down. The reason was simple: he held a submachine gun in his hand.

  By the way, although I don't have much military knowledge, I still recognize submachine guns.

  As expected, Scar quickly said: "This isn't it, disarm and continue searching!"

  "Pull out!" At this time, a famous warrior couldn't help but ask: "We haven't seen that Vietnamese ghost's godly marksman, how do we know if it is or not?"

  "Yes, indeed!" Another soldier chimed in: "What's the big deal about this devil? Why must we find him?"

  "His men don't matter!" Scar replied: "What matters is his gun..."

  "His gun?" The warriors were shocked by the words, no one had thought that everyone in our squad would come out at this time just to grab guns.

  Dāo bā wanted to answer what, but a sudden whistling sound in the air made his face change greatly, and he pushed down several people beside him and shouted: "Take cover!"

  Rumble...

  Several shells exploded near us, the sky was a deafening roar, I crouched on the ground and felt the earth transmit wave after wave of vibrations, as if countless trains were passing by my side at the same time.

  I instinctively wanted to hide under a big tree not far away, but as soon as I thought of the miserable appearance of that Vietnamese soldier just now, I stopped in my tracks...

  I remember the old man once told me: when firing a cannon, you can hide anywhere, just don't hide under trees or in bamboo groves!

  When I was young and didn't understand things, I would stupidly ask: "Why?"

  "What's the point?" The old man would glare at this time, although he didn't have eyes, but that glare was even more frightening. Then the old man would demonstrate with his hands like an expert while saying: "Do you know what will happen if you hide under a tree in a bamboo forest? The shells 'whizzing' over, 'boom' exploding on top of the treetops. Although it won't hit people, but those shell fragments, tree trunks and branches, would burst open in the sky like heavenly maidens scattering flowers from above... even if you're lying down, it's useless!"

  Thinking of this, I don't dare to slack off. Never mind what kind of shells are firing or not, I roll and crawl towards the side where there are no trees. I remember that there is a ditch nearby... Don't underestimate this ditch, it's just a natural trench! The only difference is that there is water inside.

  As I expected, after a few minutes of crawling on all fours among the shell fragments and wood shavings, that ditch suddenly appeared before me, and without thinking, I flipped over and rolled down.

  "With a 'plop', as my whole body was immersed in the icy creek water, I felt an unparalleled sense of relief, especially since my heart had also let go by half... Although there were still flying rocks falling into the creek making 'splash splash' sounds, I knew I was basically safe."

  But I soon realized that I was wrong, and very wrong at that, because just then...just beside me...a black muzzle slowly emerged and pressed against my head.

  It was that North Vietnamese Army sniper, I made out from the blurry reflection in the water that it was a rifle unlike any of ours, although I didn't know what kind of rifle it was, but I recognized the telescopic sight on top.

  I was wrong, I didn't kill him last night!