Chapter Thirty-Two

  There was no soaring flame, nor choking thick smoke, only a low rumble like the growl of a wild beast coming from the ground, although in the darkness we couldn't clearly see the explosion scene, but we could clearly feel that more than ten houses to our south suddenly disappeared from our line of sight.

  We didn't think much, raised the weapons in our hands and ran towards the direction of the explosion. As we got closer... a large pit had appeared on the ground, with shattered stones and earth everywhere inside the pit. Occasionally, you could still see a few pieces of human body fragments that had been blown to who-knows-where...

  "Flashlight!" The captain shouted loudly.

  In peacetime, our discipline is not to turn on flashlights in the village. Even if we really need to use a flashlight for lighting, we cover it with black cloth and make sure it's safe before turning it on, so as not to let the North Vietnamese Army snipers find their target.

  But now the situation is of course different, the ammunition depot was blown up by the devils and their defeat was almost certain. Now is the time when they are still reeling from the blow and haven't come to their senses yet, if not now then when?

  "Bang, bang..." Several flashes of light, the flashlights around the big pit quickly lit up one after another, and hundreds of beams of light shot towards the newly exploded pit like sharp swords, instantly illuminating the pit filled with blood and dust.

  The air was thick with the smell of gunpowder, and under the light of the flashlight, the mud in the big pit was still emitting hot air, as if a large pot was boiling the soil and rocks inside, of course, there were also countless bodies of Vietnamese soldiers.

  "There's a devil!" At this time, someone shouted, and dozens of flashlights suddenly concentrated on a Vietnamese ghost holding a gun and swaying back and forth. He was about to raise his gun when he was hit by a row of bullets and turned into a sieve.

  The battlefield is so cruel, although the soldiers all know that this Vietnamese devil will not have much resistance ability, but no one will take the risk of life to capture him alive. The scene of sacrificing oneself to save a comrade can only appear in TV movies.

  After beating that Vietnamese devil to death, the flashlight continued to search for surviving enemies in all directions. Sure enough, it found a few more... of course, without exception, they were all eliminated by the soldiers one by one.

  "Hey! These devils, they really have big lives!" Scar said with a sneer beside him: "The entire ammunition depot was blown up to the sky, and they can still survive..."

  "Isn't there a saying? 'A disaster lasts for a thousand years!' The captain's words brought a burst of laughter from the soldiers around him."

  However, I frowned: "No! Such a big explosion, even if the devils were still alive... they wouldn't be completely unscathed..."

  "Huh!" The warriors also found it strange when I said so.

  Then I quickly thought of the answer and rushed to report to Captain Liu: "Captain, the ammunition depot is connected to many tunnels. If the ammunition depot explodes... all the tunnels will be turned over! These devils are drilling out from the tunnels!"

  The truth is very simple, the ammunition depot is like the heart of the Viet Minh tunnel. The Viet Minh, in order to facilitate the transportation of food and ammunition, would certainly connect all directions of tunnels with the ammunition depot. Once the ammunition depot was blown open, it meant that the broken parts of each tunnel were exposed in front of us... We didn't discover them only because these tunnel entrances were covered by soil and rocks.

  "Hmm!" The captain quickly understood the meaning of my words and immediately shouted: "Everyone, get ready for battle, pay attention to searching for the devils' blown-open tunnels!"

  "Yes!" The warriors responded and immediately shone their flashlights on the sidewall of the big pit to search, and soon they found several suspected cave entrances, some of which even had devils coming out from inside...

  "In an instant, the surroundings became tense, rifles, submachine guns, hand grenades and even rocket launchers all fired in that direction."

  At this sight, I couldn't help but frown. The warriors seemed to be having a great time with their intense firepower, but it didn't seem to have much effect... Those tunnel entrances were already almost invisible due to the soil and rocks covering them, and after being bombarded by the warriors, the dust was kicked up even more, making it impossible to see anything!

  The squad leader was so angry that he cursed and shouted at the soldiers who were firing wildly: "Stop! Stop... Don't fire..."

  The warriors finally ceased fire, but the tunnel was filled with thick smoke and dust like fog, and no shadow of the tunnel or the Vietcong could be seen anymore.

  I thought the captain would launch a fierce attack next, but he didn't. He just ordered the soldiers to lie down in circles beside the big pit and do nothing, without even turning on their flashlights or firing their guns. The battlefield suddenly became as quiet as death. If it weren't for the smell of gunpowder and blood in the air, I wouldn't have dared to believe that a battle had just taken place here...

  We've waited for a long time, but the captain hasn't given any orders. Lying next to me, there's a small stone that can't bear it anymore. He tugged at my sleeve and said, "Squad leader, are we just going to wait like this without doing anything?"

  "Exactly! The devils have been blown dizzy by us, let's charge in and give them a good beating!" The bayonet also echoed in agreement.

  "Shut up!" I commanded in a low voice: "Don't make a sound!"

  I know what the captain is trying to achieve by doing this.

  It's clear that the captain is surrounding but not attacking. Now it's still dark, and there are many disadvantages to dealing with the enemy's tunnels, fighting can easily cause confusion and misinjury. Anyway, the enemy is surrounded and can't escape, so why not wait until dawn to slowly clean up? Besides, the warehouse used by the enemy to store grain and ammunition has already been blown up by us, victory will be ours sooner or later, why bother with a temporary victory and thrill, and let the soldiers risk rushing into the tunnels and fighting the enemy in close combat?

  From this point on, the captain is still considering the soldiers under his command, rather than simply killing enemies for the sake of killing, or executing orders for the sake of execution.

  It turned out that I was not wrong, and we were soon replaced by other soldiers to rest. Moreover, until dawn, there was no large-scale battle, only occasionally some Viet Minh could not help but want to rush out of the tunnel to escape, and there would be a few gunshots.

  After dawn, the method of dealing with the Vietcong tunnels became simpler. After discovering a tunnel entrance, they would first record its location and then conduct firepower lockdowns. Then, based on the location of the tunnel entrance, they would infer the direction of the tunnel and dig far away from it. The soldiers jokingly called this method "opening a skylight". As the name suggests, they would open a "skylight" above the enemy's tunnel entrance and continuously throw hand grenades and explosive packs down into it...

  So, we just watched those hand grenades and explosive packs explode one by one in the enemy's tunnels, scaring the devils to death without leaving them any chance to fight back. And what we had to do... seemed like digging a few holes and then piling bullets and bombs into them was all it took.

  Ciqiang looked at this and couldn't help but feel a little dazed, he scratched his head foolishly and said: "This... the devils are so easy to deal with, why didn't I think of this method before?"

  "Earlier?" Scar's voice was still unpleasant: "Did you know which way to open the skylight earlier?"

  The warriors understood as soon as Scar said so.

  In the past... it would take us two or three days to find a tunnel entrance, and the more cleverly designed ones were even harder to detect. Not only could they withstand fire, water, and poison gas... but also had bends in them, so just by looking at the entrance, we couldn't guess the direction of the enemy's tunnel.

  However, these tunnels blown out by the ammunition depot are different. They were blasted in half and we can easily guess their direction. It's not hard to 'open a skylight' at all!

  "So... " Little Stone said excitedly: "So it was us who made the first achievement?"

  "That's not all?" Just then, the team leader walked up with a great mood and nodded with a smile: "If it wasn't for your second class blowing up the enemy's ammunition depot... I'm afraid we would still be helpless against those earth rats! Now it can be said that three fingers pinch the snail - got it!"

  The warriors around us were smiling with joy, casting envious glances at us, and their faces were also filled with pride, as if we had brought glory to them too.

  But the fact is not as simple as we thought, in the absence of any mental preparation, a dull gunshot suddenly came from the battlefield, and a burst of chaotic explosions, instantly more than a dozen PLA soldiers were blown high into the air...

  "What's going on?" The team leader was furious, he had just told us that this battle was almost a sure win, but suddenly those Vietnamese devils counterattacked as if they had been slapped. What's even more infuriating is... we have no idea how those Vietnamese devils who were trapped in the tunnel and waiting for death managed to launch a counterattack!

  "Report!" After a while, an officer covered in blood rushed over to report to Commander Zhou: "It was the Vietnamese devils' doing, we lost five soldiers and eleven were injured..."

  "Zhang said rise!" Commander Zhou hadn't even let him finish before impatiently shouting: "Say something that I don't know! You have so many people and still can't defeat the devils in the tunnel, instead you get bitten back? How did you become a regiment commander?"

  "Report!" The battalion commander, surnamed Zhang, replied with a hint of grievance: "The Japanese devils suddenly launched a counterattack, and it was an organized one. They... they almost simultaneously attacked 'Tianchuang', first shooting outward, then throwing hand grenades, and even firing mortars!"