Chapter Thirty-Three

  "Ah!" Zhang Yuesheng said, and we all understood. Although we had the upper hand, the Viet Minh was prepared to attack us when we least expected it. We had opened up a few "skylights" in their tunnels, and they would suddenly start firing wildly from underneath them. And indeed, this wild firing did have some effect - our people above ground were not well-prepared and many were clustered together, so the casualties were heavy. More importantly... they were also reminding us that these "skylights" couldn't be opened randomly, because if we opened too many, they would become windows for the Viet Minh to attack us from.

  From this point of view, the vitality of the Vietnamese army is still very strong. Even after our bombing of their ammunition depots and granaries, they can still hold on and even counterattack. To be honest, if we were in their shoes, I'm afraid we would have collapsed long ago.

  "Damn it!" The team leader cursed and then pointed at Zhang Yue Sheng, ordering: "I don't care what method you use or how great the cost is, you must beat those bandits until they surrender!"

  "Yes!" Zhang Yuesheng responded with a shout and turned around to run towards his own team.

  Then an even more brutal battle began, and the PLA soldiers who were determined to avenge their fallen comrades went crazy, firing guns and throwing hand grenades into the tunnel, while the Vietnamese army fought hard to survive, using dead angles to avoid bullets from outside, taking advantage of the soldiers' reloading gaps to pop out and fire a burst or throw back several hand grenades. And our hand grenades thrown into the tunnel... The Vietnamese would always risk everything to press down with their bodies or throw them back...

  The Vietnamese army showed their bravery and madness at this time. In fact, I believe that they had such a performance more because they thought that if they continued like this, they would die anyway, so they might as well go all out and fight us... From this perspective, the most difficult to deal with on the battlefield are often troops who have been cornered to death. As the saying goes, "a cornered beast will fight fiercely", sometimes a cornered beast is the most difficult to deal with because they have no way out, only holding onto their determination to fight to the death! And the Vietnamese devils in front of us were just such a cornered beast.

  The battle was much more difficult than imagined, the Viet Minh continuously fired bullets from the "sky window", because it was relatively dark in the tunnel, so it was actually the enemy who was in the dark and I was in the light. Row after row of soldiers fell under the enemy's bullets. Hand grenades were also thrown out from the "sky window", because many of these hand grenades were counter-thrown by the Viet Minh, so our soldiers didn't even have a chance to throw them back; what really gave us a headache were the mortar shells fired from the "sky window"... Those Viet Minh didn't even set up their mortars, they held the mortars in their hands and fired a shell out of the "sky window" at the fastest speed, then disappeared into the tunnel at the fastest speed... Of course, these shells wouldn't have any accuracy, but it was precisely because they had no accuracy that made us unable to defend against them. Sometimes there would be an explosion here, sometimes there would be an explosion there, and the whole unit was thrown into chaos.

  Sometimes I wonder when this devil learned this trick, he can use his hands to support the recoilless gun for rapid firing, and then quickly retreat...

  It wasn't until later that I found out this move was actually one we had taught to the Vietnamese.

  This method was a common tactic used by our volunteer army soldiers decades ago on the battlefield of resisting US aggression and aiding Korea. At that time, because the American devils' artillery was fierce and their instruments were also very advanced, our military's mortar positions often fired only two or three shells after setting up before being covered by the enemy's firepower. This directly led to our military often having cannons but not being able to fire them on the battlefield, so someone thought of this trick: in order to save time, they would use their hands to support the mortar tube and fire it directly, then immediately retreat and change positions after firing one shell!

  This tactic proved to be very useful on the battlefield of resisting US aggression and aiding Korea, and the American devils were puzzled that they had more advanced artillery and instruments, but couldn't destroy the volunteer army's artillery positions.

  However, this trick was used on the battlefield of the Sino-Vietnamese War of Self-Defense Counterattack, and it was even the Vietnamese devils who beat us with it. What's more ironic is that... now the Vietnamese devils will use this trick while we won't!

  What caused such a big disparity? I can only sigh in my heart: while the enemy is working hard to learn our tactics and strategies, we are engaged in large-scale production and factional struggles, so it's no wonder that this kind of situation will appear on the battlefield.

  "Old Liu!" More than half an hour later, Zhou Tuanzhang came running over with a somewhat disheveled appearance. During the intense battle, Zhou Tuanzhang personally took command and deployed another battalion of troops, but the situation not only failed to improve, it actually resulted in even more casualties.

  The squad leader paced back and forth in front of us, sighed and said to Knife Scar: "Old Yang, we're done for today. Look... it's just that these bastards are useless!"

  "Captain!" At this time, Knife Scar unexpectedly calmed down and said: "Fighting like this isn't a solution, it'll only increase casualties and gain nothing!"

  "Can't we just stop here?" The captain said indignantly: "Victory is in sight, but this little bastard still comes up with this move..."

  Scar's self-mocking smile sounded: "You're in a hurry to take someone's life, are you? If they don't fight to the death to protect themselves, would they stick their neck out for you to chop?"

  The captain thought for a moment and felt it was also reasonable, so he could only sigh and shake his head.

  "Or shall we use explosives?" Seeing the team leader having a hard time with the battle, many soldiers around him spontaneously put forward some suggestions.

  "No way!" Someone retorted, "If the explosives blow up that 'skylight', it'll collapse. Our goal is to clear out the devils in the tunnel, if we keep blowing one open and then another, when will we ever finish?"

  "Then use a flamethrower..."

  "It won't work! That thing will explode with just one shot from the devils, it's too dangerous!"

  ……

  This scene may be unimaginable now, the captain discussing military affairs and the soldiers chiming in with opinions... but this was very common during that era. Why? Because this era emphasized equality between officers and soldiers, to the point where even military ranks were abolished, and the uniforms worn by officers and soldiers were the same, the only difference being two extra pockets.

  Sometimes it's good to have more people, as the saying goes "collecting thoughts and ideas", with more people, there are naturally more ideas, but this time, no matter how much they discussed, they couldn't come up with a feasible method, so the captain and Scar all of a sudden turned their eyes on me...

  Seeing the gaze of the team leader and Knife Scar, I was taken aback and hastily replied: "Reporting to the team leader...I don't have any good methods either, just...there's an idea, not sure if it'll work!"

  "Speak quickly!" Scar's face sank: "What's the point of keeping something in your belly? Speaking out won't kill you!"

  "Exactly!" The captain nodded and said: "Whether it works or not, let's just say it out loud and listen to everyone! However, your point, kid, probably won't be too far off..."

  "This... I hesitated to say it, not because the idea is too complicated, but because it's a bit too simple. It's so simple that it seems like treating this battlefield as a playground for kids. That's why I didn't dare to say it out loud, afraid of being laughed at."

  But now it seems that not saying anything is no longer an option, so I can only muster up the courage to say: "My idea is this... we stand by the 'skylight' and exchange gunfire, both sides will suffer casualties, we won't have the upper hand. Throwing grenades... the enemy will throw them back. Explosive packs..."

  "What's wrong with you? Get to the point!" The team leader urged impatiently.

  "Hmm! This..." I continued: "My idea is to use a hand grenade, but it's tied to a rope!"

  "Grenades tied with strings?" The warriors were stunned and none of them understood what I meant.

  "Right!" Looking at the warriors' expressions, I almost didn't have the courage to continue speaking, but since I've already said this much, I had to finish. So, I awkwardly continued: "Aren't the Viet Cong good at picking up grenades and throwing them back? What if... we tie a grenade to a rope, with a bamboo pole on the other end... like fishing, we hang the grenade from the 'sky window' and toss it in. After it's thrown, we can shake the rope to keep the grenade moving, making it hard for the Viet Cong to grab it, let alone throw it back."

  After I finished speaking, it was a long time before the captain and others reacted. So I started to regret again, hurriedly shaking my hand to explain: "I was talking nonsense, just... just pretend I didn't say it! Just pretend I didn't say..."

  "Nothing was said!" Scar's eyes widened: "Obviously it was said!"

  "Exactly!" The team leader pointed at me, virtually pointing a few times, and said fiercely: "Why didn't you say such a good idea earlier, causing our brother unit to sacrifice so many soldiers?"

  What an injustice! If it weren't for the sacrifice of so many soldiers, I'd have nothing better to do than think about this little kid's trick of playing house.