Chapter 6: Moment of Danger

  Yang Jingyu and Ma Qianan quietly climbed to the top of the mountain, lying in the bushes, observing the situation on the simple highway at the foot of the mountain. The interval between the devils' patrols on the highway was very short, only half an hour. Yang Jingyu judged that this group of devils must have a base nearby, possibly a tent or a simple wooden house, if not, the devils would not be able to wander in this deep mountain forest below minus 30 degrees for so long.

  Half an hour, just enough time for the two of them to walk from the top of the mountain to the highway, was not enough time to climb back into the dense forest on the other side. Moreover, no one could guarantee that they would not be discovered by the devils when they walked down the slope, so daytime was not the time to act.

  The two of them remained hidden until after 3 pm, when the weather suddenly changed. First came a howling north wind, which whipped up waves of snow and fog, sending the accumulated snow in the mountains swirling through the air like giant smoke bombs.

  A strong wind swept through the mountains and forests, and a thrilling howl echoed everywhere, "Oooo-ooooo-ahhh—"

  Snowflakes were dancing wildly in the howling north wind, crazily whipping everything that stood in their way, slapping against the trees with a loud crackle. Ma Qian's face was stinging from the whip-like blows, and he couldn't even open his eyes. He had no choice but to wrap his head tightly and press his face against the ground, crawling forward.

  The north wind subsided, and the big snowflakes fell down like goose feathers, getting denser and denser as they fell, connecting the sky and earth into one piece. Five steps away, no human figure could be seen. What a big snow!

  Yang Jingyu jumped up, shook off the snow on his hat, and pulled up Ma Qian'an who was like an ostrich, "Haha, heaven won't destroy Cao, what can you do, little devil, grandpa is here!"

  Ma Qian saw Yang Jingyu standing upright against the wind, and in the howling north wind, the general's tall figure stood proudly, like an invincible god. The general's sheepskin coat was blown up by the wind and fluttered in mid-air, like a brave battle flag. In an instant, he was captivated by the general's heroic appearance, and suddenly a surge of pride arose in his heart, and he let out a loud shout: "Grandpa is here!"

  Yang Jingyu was visibly startled, turned his head and glanced at Ma Qian'an, his face stern, "Who told you to shout blindly?"

  Ma Qian'an looked wronged and pouted, "Commander, it's not like that. Only the provincial officials are allowed to set fires, but the common people are not allowed to light lamps."

  "It's not that I don't let you shout, it's just don't shout next to my ears." Yang Jingyu covered his ears. "It shook my ears sore."

  Ma Qian'an awkwardly opened his mouth and stuttered: "Commander, can the devils not hear?"

  Yang Jingyu smiled slightly: "Don't worry, with such a big wind and snow, even the Wind Ear can't hear it." After finishing speaking, he patted Ma Qianan on the back, lowered his voice and shouted: "Down the mountain!"

  Two men braved the wind and snow, one doing a somersault and the other a backflip, landing on the mountain road below.

  "Did you pass?"

  "Past!"

  "Wait."

  "What's wrong?"

  "There is the sound of an enemy, three o'clock direction, thirty meters away."

  Yang Jingyu was amazed again, this kid can actually tell directions by listening to the wind.

  "Get down behind that big tree and take them out if there are few people." Yang Jingyu held a gun in his hand, pointed to a nearby tree for Ma Qian, then quickly hid his body behind another big tree, lying on the ground.

  Ma Qian hid behind the tree, threw away his rifle, pulled out a pistol from his waist, gently cocked it, loaded a bullet, opened the cylinder, and stared in the direction of the enemy with wide eyes.

  Yang Jingyu glanced at Ma Qian'an with a slanted face, seeing that Ma Qian'an was calm and composed, his hands were steady, and there was no sign of panic on his face, so he put his mind at ease.

  It's almost 4 o'clock, and in Northeast China, the sky gets dark early in winter. With this heavy snowfall, everything ahead is a blur.

  "...@￥#%#......" A string of Japanese words came over from the house, and soon Yang Jingyu and Ma Qianan saw more than a dozen devils wearing yellow woolen coats, wearing cotton hats, and carrying 38 rifles on their backs, moving forward with one step at a time. The leading devil occasionally shouted loudly towards the back.

  Not a single devil looked sideways; all their energy was devoted to battling against the blizzard.

  The leading devil stopped again, turned around, put his hands to his mouth in a trumpet shape and shouted: "Come on, Sang, hurry up!"

  The devil stood in the middle of the road, only 7 or 8 meters away from where Ma Qian'an was hiding. Ma Qian'an's gun had already taken aim at him, but Yang Jingyu's gun did not fire, and Ma Qian'an could only feel anxious.

  Yang Jingyu was waiting, he was thinking and judging. As a veteran of countless battles, he knew that any slight mistake would result in significant losses, especially after experiencing numerous battles where the enemy was strong and his own forces were weak. The general knew the cruelty of such battles even more clearly. Suddenly encountering an unclear enemy situation, General Yang would rather wait than launch a rash attack.

  "Yī yī, ā lǐ gā chǒu." The leading devil still yelled towards the back. Ma Qian understood this sentence, it means "come quickly". This kind of language often appears in RB movies, and after listening to it many times, you can understand its meaning.

  The leading devil stopped, and the dozen or so guys behind him also stopped. Except for the leader's face facing west and shouting, all the other devils had their backs to the north, resisting the northerly wind mixed with heavy snow.

  Ma Qian'an's palms were almost sweating onto the gun handle. This opportunity was too good, and the living targets stood right in front of him.

  After half a minute, three people stumbled out of the snow curtain behind the little devil's team. One of them was obviously injured or sprained, lying on another devil's back, and the other one carried the guns and ammunition of the three, accompanying them as they walked.

  Seeing these three devils appear, the leader grunted a sentence and turned around to start again.

  "Rat-a-tat...!" Yang Jingyu's gun muzzle spat out a tongue of flame.

  "Bang, bang, bang..." Ma Qian'an fired in short bursts at a rate of two shots per second, every shot hitting its mark, not a single bullet wasted.

  The enemy soldiers with their backs to Yang Jingyu were completely unguarded, and in an instant, they fell to the ground like bundles of wheat straw that had been knocked over.

  The last three devils heard the gunshot and immediately jumped up like rabbits, rolling and crawling to hide under the opposite roadbed, not daring to show their heads.

  The ditch is relatively deep and forms a shooting blind spot. Yang Jingyu and Ma Qianan stopped firing at the same time.

  Yang Jingyu observed for a moment and said to Ma Qian: "Anzi, I'll suppress the enemy's fire, you flank from the side."

  Ma Qian jumped up and ran quickly west for dozens of steps, then leaped over the highway, rolled into a ditch, and crawled towards the devils.

  The devils did not notice Ma Qian'an crawling over, two devils were intently listening to the movement above, their faces looking in Yang Jingyu's direction, one devil was desperately pulling the gun bolt, anxiously whispering and shouting, what he was shouting, Ma Qian'an didn't need to guess, he knew that the gun bolt must have been frozen.

  A devil soldier couldn't bear the curses from his comrades, turned around and just scolded a sentence of "ba ga", then saw a mocking face and a black muzzle, he was shocked, jumped up and wanted to run away, just exposed his head from the ditch, he was shot in the head by Yang Jingyu who had been aiming here, his body fell straight on his comrades.

  Two bewildered devils hadn't even figured out why their companion next to them was jumping up stupidly before they were both shot and killed by Ma Qian.

  Ma Qianan was still crouching in the ditch, strictly following the tactical rules. He didn't want to expose his head and become a target for the general. Instead, he shouted loudly: "Commander, we've taken them down! I'm exposing myself! I'm exposing myself! Don't shoot!"

  Yang Jingyu quickly ran onto the highway, saying as he ran: "I know, come out."

  Ma Qianan grasped both hands on the edge of the ditch, exerted himself, and sprang up onto the road surface, smiling as he walked towards Yang Jingyu.

  Two men quickly gathered beside the Japanese corpse on the highway, clearing the battlefield.

  Ma Qian'an picked up a 38 rifle, cocked it with a loud click, and fired at the motionless body of a Japanese soldier. "Bang!" The body was only shaken by the bullet, and then there was no movement, clearly dead.

  "Rat-a-tat-tat! Bang! Rat-a-tat-tat! Bang! Rat-a-tat-tat! Bang!" The 5 bullets in the magazine were emptied by Ma Qian'an with a single shot.

  Yang Jingyu didn't think much of Ma Qian's behavior. The Anti-Japanese United Army, which grew up in a harsh environment, would take advantage of any opportunity to sweep the battlefield clean and eliminate evil. If the enemy was a puppet army, they might show some mercy, but if it was the Japanese army, they would basically wipe them out, as the hatred between them ran too deep and they couldn't coexist. He was currently untying the shoelaces of a large pair of Japanese military boots, which were sturdy and warm, and he had taken a liking to them.

  Suddenly, the general heard a "bang" like an egg cracking sound. Yang Jingyu was startled and raised his head, only to see two steps away from him, a bloody man suddenly sat up, holding a smoking watermelon (hand grenade) in his hand, staring at him with a fierce grin.

  At the same time that the wounded Japanese soldier suddenly sat up, Ma Qian also discovered that in this instant, time seemed to have solidified. Ma Qian felt that all things had suddenly disappeared without a trace, and between heaven and earth there was only the hand grenade emitting a hissing sound and spewing out blue smoke.

  Ma Qian closed his eyes in despair, unable to bear the sight of the explosion scene. He was too far away and couldn't make it in time for rescue. The bomb was too close to the general, and once it exploded, the general would definitely not be able to escape unscathed, either dead or injured.

  A loud "boom" sound, the grenade exploded.

  Ma Qian's head buzzed with a loud noise, and he felt a wave of dizziness wash over him, almost falling to the ground.

  He kept his eyes closed for a long time, unwilling to open them, afraid that as soon as he opened his eyes, he would see something he absolutely did not want to see.

  It wasn't until a cool big hand patted his cheek that Ma Qian'an came to and opened his eyes.

  In front of Ma Qian'an was General Yang Jingyu's tall figure and smiling face.

  "Commander?" Ma Qianan couldn't believe it, he had heard clearly that the grenade had exploded.

  The general's face showed a rare mischievous look, "Nothing to worry about, this devil is so stupid, he doesn't even know what he's doing, and he actually fell on top of the hand grenade himself."