Chapter Ten

  When I got the sniper rifle, a inexplicable excitement rose in my heart, just like reuniting with an old friend; there was also a sense of stability, as if having it made me feel safe; and there was a desire, like owning a top-notch killer in a game, eager to go onto the battlefield and kill a few people...

  So I naturally raised the rifle butt to my shoulder and aimed at that civilian house.

  "Bang!" I pulled the trigger and fired the first shot. A burst of blood light exploded from inside the house, followed by a mournful cry.

  This guy was actually very careful and clever, as he hid behind the window frame, which made it so that the flash and smoke from his shots wouldn't be noticed by us. But this little cleverness wasn't enough to escape my eyes, because of that closed window... only lacking two pieces of glass, one above and one below, the upper piece was too high, at that angle it's fundamentally impossible to aim at us, so I roughly guessed the position of the target based on the position of the lower missing glass and the positions of the wounded soldiers.

  "Bang!" I immediately fired another shot, and a painful groan came from inside the house again. It was clear that this bullet didn't kill him, but at least it hit its target.

  This is a Vietcong hiding behind the door panel. If he was really hiding, we wouldn't be able to see him and he wouldn't be able to see us either. However, the middle lower part of the door panel had been blown out by shrapnel from a hand grenade, making it an excellent shooting hole. If he had moved a cabinet or concrete slab in front of him, that would have been perfect, and hardly anyone would have thought to look for him there.

  However, he didn't think of one thing: once the AK-47 is fired continuously, the barrel will violently shake, and the shaking barrel will cause the bullets to fly randomly, resulting in several bullets jumping out of the shooting hole and punching holes in the door plate...

  I was able to infer his position from the bullet hole and fired a shot, but I didn't manage to take him down because I'm not a god, I could only roughly estimate his direction and couldn't pinpoint his vital spot.

  Maybe someone will say that the bullet hole on the door panel won't be shot by our own soldiers? Aren't the enemy's bullets and our bullets both making a hole in the door panel?

  But there are absolute differences between them, the difference in direction is one coming and one going, the difference in life is one death is us and another death is them, the difference on the door panel... is that the splintered wood still stuck in the gun hole is pointing at us.

  "Bang!" Another bullet was fired from my gun.

  This shot was fired at the Viet Minh who were trying to move away the bodies of their comrades, just like us, the Viet Cong always try our best to take away the bodies of our comrades rather than leaving them for the enemy, even if it means paying with our lives.

  It may seem strange to some people that we use living people's lives in exchange for the bodies of our comrades, isn't that obviously a stupid thing to do?

  If we are talking about numbers, this is indeed the case, but a team's combat effectiveness sometimes does not just lie in its numbers. A team needs a kind of spirit, a spirit that is both cruel to the enemy and loving to one's own people. This kind of spirit can tightly bind together each individual within the team into an awesome force.

  We knew this, and as our Vietnamese apprentices also knew this. So under the muzzle of my gun, there was one more dead soul.

  Then there was no movement in the civilian house, and I didn't find any new targets. But everyone dared not move, all holding guns quietly waiting...

  "Attention, people inside!" After a while, Lian Zhang poked his head out of the hiding place, holding a small megaphone and shouting towards the inside: "You are already surrounded, the Liberation Army treats prisoners of war with kindness, come out and surrender!"

  Then the translator who followed Commander Lien took over the megaphone and shouted into it in Vietnamese, but there was still no response.

  Lian Chang was about to let them go up with a nod and a wave of his hand, but was stopped by a middle-aged cadre who was neat and clean from head to toe.

  "Everyone is here, come back!" The cadre rushed to our side and fell to the ground, shouting at us: "All of you get down, all of you get down... no one is allowed..."

  "Boom!" A loud noise, before the cadre had finished speaking, the civilian house in front of us suddenly burst into a huge flame, broken bricks and tiles flying wildly above our heads...

  "Damn it!" Looking at the pile of garbage in front of me, I couldn't help but curse: "This devil is really courting death! If we had gone up there just now...I'm afraid we would have ended up with them!"

  "Will we all perish together?" Reminded by our comrade, he shook his head and stood up, patted the mud off his body and laughed: "The devils wouldn't have such a good mood to perish with us, they've long escaped through the tunnels!"

  "Huh? Tunnel warfare?" Upon hearing this, the soldiers couldn't help but look at each other in surprise. We've heard of tunnel warfare before, and China is actually the birthplace of tunnel warfare. There's even a movie called "Tunnel Warfare" isn't there? It's just that we didn't know the Viet Cong also used this tactic.

  "Since they've all run away, what's the point of blowing up the house?" Xiaoshi asked in puzzlement.

  "What's the point?" The cadre patted Xiao Shi Tou's shoulder and said, "What else can we do? If you guys had gone in earlier, wouldn't they have blown you to pieces? Besides, they didn't want us to find the entrance either, that's why they buried it under this pile of rubble!"

  "Commissar, are you alright?!" At this time, several guards rushed to the front of the cadre and shouted: "How did you run up here, it's so dangerous..."

  "Squad leader?" As soon as I and the soldiers heard this, we were stunned.

  The cadre known as the team leader waved his hand impatiently, interrupting the guard's words and said: "Rescue people like rescuing a fire, what are you talking about danger or not at this time!"

  It turned out that this cadre was still a regimental commander... After learning of his identity, the expressions on the soldiers' faces immediately became strange.

  Lian Chang hastily stood up, adjusted his uniform, and said: "Report to the captain, just now if it wasn't for your reminder, I'm afraid we would have sacrificed several soldiers!"

  "Hey! We're all comrades, no need to be polite!" The team leader obviously didn't like that tone and turned his gaze towards me, who was covered in dirt. After sizing me up for a moment, he nodded and said: "Not bad! Little comrade, you can take down three Viet Cong with just three bullets in this situation..."

  "Report to the team leader!" I replied: "Only two were knocked down, and one was injured, should...should have run away!"

  "Oh!" Upon hearing this, the team leader couldn't help but burst out laughing: "Great! You can be realistic..."

  At this time, the captain's eyes saw the scar on the knife and was taken aback. He stepped forward to shake hands with him, saying: "Old brother, you've worked hard!"

  "Report to the team leader!" said Knife Scar, puffing out his chest: "No hardship!"

  "Uh-huh!" The captain nodded: "Take good care of these brothers, after the battle we'll gather again, just us guys!"

  "Yes!" Scar's teeth clenched in response.

  This is the first time I've seen Scar's emotional side, and it's clear he's biting back tears. Now my suspicions are growing...Scar knows the Colonel, and their emotions seem to run deep...

  "Wow! You know the captain?" As soon as the captain left, many soldiers asked out of curiosity, but they didn't get an answer. Scar glared at them with his piercing eyes, and those cowards retreated in fear. No wonder the soldiers were saying behind his back that Scar was a double killer, using guns to kill devils outside and being ruthless and cruel to intimidate his own people inside. Today I finally saw it for myself.

  As for those comrades beside me, they were indeed a bit too much; seeing the scars on my body, they didn't care and soon swarmed around me again, making a ruckus.

  "Not bad, Comrade Yang Xuefeng! The team leader seems to have taken a liking to you!"

  This is said... as if I were a young lady.

  "Comrade, it's good you're here! Otherwise, we wouldn't know where to put our faces in this lineup!"

  "It's just that we sacrificed so many comrades, but didn't even see the shadow of the enemy! If it weren't for Comrade Yang Xuefeng taking down a few, I'm afraid we would have been laughed at by others!"

  All I can do is smile bitterly, isn't it more than just not being laughed at on the battlefield? Is face more important than life?

  Perhaps for them, for a team, face is indeed more important than life, because they regard face as honor.

  But for me, I only think of survival, only living.

  "Good fight!" At some point, Li Lianzhang walked in front of me and nodded in approval: "Comrade Yang Xuefeng, your performance on the battlefield is commendable, but I hope you don't become arrogant because of this. I hope you can continue to strive for even better results. Comrades should learn from Comrade Yang Xuefeng..."

  As he spoke, he led the applause, and soon a wave of applause erupted around him. This left me somewhat bewildered - was this really the style left over from ten years of turmoil? After all, this is a battlefield, where bullets or shells could fly in at any moment, and yet they still didn't forget to carry out ideological movements?

  "That... Commander Lian!" Because I was worried that Commander Lian would ask me to express my thoughts or say a few words to the soldiers, so I changed the subject and reluctantly handed over the sniper rifle in my hand: "This gun... I'd better turn it in!"

  "It's better to let you take care of it!" Lian Chang laughed and said: "This gun has fallen into your hands twice, it seems that you also have some fate with it. And in your hands, it can also play its role, before we meet up with the main force, just temporarily let you take care of it!"

  "Yes!" I had actually been thinking about this for a long time, and now that Lian Zhang mentioned it, there was no way I could decline. I immediately gave a straightforward and refreshing agreement.

  I just didn't expect it to last until the end of the war...