Volume 1: Initial Entry into the Battlefield Chapter 29: Iron Gate

  On the battlefield, it's often unreasonable: our superiors tell us to charge and we have to charge, no reason is needed, we don't have any room for bargaining...

  "Think of a way quickly!" Commander Xu turned his head and shouted at me fiercely: "If you don't think of a way, I'll have you all sent to the front lines!"

  Then everyone's eyes were fixed on me... Everyone knew what this meant, and it seemed that there was only one outcome to being sent out, which was to be wiped out by the enemy's machine gun bullets!

  Such sacrifices seem to make no sense, except for letting the little Japanese waste a few machine gun bullets, we can't get anything else, but sometimes on the battlefield it's just so unreasonable: the superior lets us charge and we have to charge, without any reason, we don't have any room for bargaining...

  In other words, if I couldn't think of a feasible way out, then the only option would be death, and not just my own, but also taking everyone else with me!

  What makes you think I should? What makes me have to take all of this on?

  I didn't have time to think about this, because I was very clear that Xu Lianchang would do what he said. Didn't a row of soldiers just fall in front of me? A row fell and it should be our turn for the second row, shouldn't it?

  Moreover, this seems to be related to the issue of whether our entire unit can successfully break through. The longer we are held up by the devils here, the closer the Japanese army will get to us from other directions. After a long time... the 20th Division of the Japanese Army with nearly 20,000 people will launch a pincer attack on us from all sides, and at that time, even if we have three heads and six arms, we will not be able to break through!

  What's going on? What's going on!

  A frontal assault is clearly out of the question, and doing so would only add dozens of corpses to the street corner without any effect. Even if we were lucky enough to throw a hand grenade into the enemy's trench like a row, the Japanese army could quickly fill this gap.

  Shall we knock out the searchlights? That's a good idea, but those searchlights are at least 700 or 800 meters away from us, and our rifles don't have that kind of range...

  I was so anxious that I couldn't stand still or sit down, when suddenly a stray bullet hit the iron gate beside me with a loud "clang". Looking around, I saw several rickshaws parked haphazardly by the side of the street. Suddenly an idea struck me and I waved at the soldiers, shouting: "Quick! Take down the gate!"

  "Remove the iron gate?" Chen Dali and others were stunned for a moment, but quickly reacted and ran to the iron gate in front of the house without saying another word.

  But don't look at the warriors who can shoot guns and play bayonets, they were all students before joining the army, plus that iron gate is not easy to dismantle, so even if they pried off a few bayonets, there was no movement at all...

  "Sir, let's get to it!" At this critical moment, two civilians walked up with a few tools in hand and said: "We're carpenters, we'll take care of this job!"

  The warriors immediately made way for them. The few villagers really didn't brag, and with a few efforts, they pried down half of the iron gate...

  "Quick! Rickshaw!"

  Those villagers weren't fools either, they quickly guessed my intention to pry open the iron gate, and before I even gave an order, they pushed over several rickshaws and placed the iron gate on top of them.

  "Brothers, let's go!" Chen Dali and others would not let the common people push the cart, they went up to grab it without my order, but were all rejected by the common people.

  "Sir!" The people said: "You will shoot guns, we won't. Anyone can push a cart, if you let them go and push the cart instead, isn't that letting the little devils off easy? We'll push the cart, you shoot the guns..."

  The array of great strength tried several times to take them down, but those ordinary people just refused to let go, holding on for a while and finally giving in due to time constraints.

  But to be honest, I think the same as ordinary people, although this idea is a bit realistic, but only in this way can we exert our strength to the greatest extent.

  A platoon of troops set out under the cover of the iron gate, with a platoon of troops organized by Captain Xu providing firepower cover behind us.

  Several of the cart pushers seemed to be old hands at this, as they were able to lower the rickshaws down very low so that bullets wouldn't penetrate through the gaps at the bottom and harm us who were hiding behind them. They even pushed the carts very steadily, even when there were constant sounds of "clang clang" from bullets hitting the iron gates or the rickshaws running over corpses on the ground. Of course, there were also two civilians standing on either side at the back, propping up the gate, otherwise it would have been knocked down by the inertia of the bullets.

  At this time, I couldn't help but feel a little relieved: Fortunately, there were these civilians to help out, otherwise, if we didn't know how to push the cart and had to do it ourselves, who knows what kind of mess we would have made! Another thing that made me feel relieved was that the iron gate in this era wasn't like those modern ones that skimped on materials, its thickness was enough to block the machine gun bullets fired by the Japanese army...

  The people were pushing forward, and I and dozens of soldiers followed behind, walking and firing. Of course, under the illumination of the searchlights, it was difficult to see where the target was, and the purpose of doing so was just to give the little devils some psychological pressure, making them unable to concentrate all their firepower on the iron gate!

  "Clang... clang... clang..." At first, everything went relatively smoothly, but when we pushed forward into the spotlight, things took a turn.

  The Japanese army may have also felt the crisis from this iron gate, so several machine guns concentrated their firepower on the iron gate and fired wildly for a while. Suddenly, the iron gate made a loud noise like popping beans, and under the inertia of the bullets, the iron gate began to tilt and fall. Then, just as the crowd was about to pull him up, it was too late... Another bullet quickly followed and shot him in the head, causing his brains to splatter everywhere.

  A few dozen meters away, plus the little devils shining their searchlights on us, once we're exposed outside the iron gate, it's not hard for the good shooters among them to hit us!

  Under the cover of gunfire, I couldn't hear the sound of Car Handle's panting, but I could see him gasping for air in the light, and his mouth seemed to be making a "woo woo" cry. I've heard that when a person is extremely frightened, they will unconsciously make some cries, which is actually a self-protection function of the human body, as it can relatively alleviate the psychological overload pressure. I think Car Handle should belong to this situation!

  It's not just the common people who are afraid, I'm also scared to death... Who wouldn't be? At this critical moment of life and death, saying you're not afraid is a lie. But I know that now I have no other choice but to keep moving forward - either we die or Little Japan will perish!

  I originally had some worries that the rickshaw driver would give up halfway out of fear, but it turned out to be completely unnecessary. He didn't have any intention of backing down and continued to push the rickshaw forward steadily... What was even more unexpected was that another citizen emerged from behind and took over, pushing against the iron gate in a relay-like manner!

  "Bang!" A loud noise, the warrior in front of me had just poked his head out when he was hit and his brains splattered everywhere. White and red splatters covered my face, but I didn't have time to wipe it off because I knew this was a crucial moment!

  "Hold steady! Hold steady!" I shouted loudly at the soldiers: "Grenades ready..."

  "Boom!" Several hand grenades exploded near the iron gate, and the powerful shockwave caused the iron gate to tilt. In an instant, a hail of bullets "whizzed" in...

  A shrill cry, although the civilians managed to put the iron gate back in place just in time, but only for an instant, five warriors fell into a pool of blood.

  "Speed up!" I was worried that the Japanese army would throw hand grenades at us again, so I simply followed them.

  "Alright!" The charioteer let out a loud whoop and used all his strength to push forward, the warriors also following close behind in a rapid advance.

  Through the gap, I saw that the distance was almost there. I shouted loudly: "Grenade!" and suddenly pulled the string to throw out the grenade in my hand!

  I have to admit that my grenade-throwing skills are not great, I thought it would be easy just pulling the string and throwing it out, but due to excessive tension or lack of grenade training, this throw only went about 20 meters and fell between our trenches and those of the Japanese...

  But there is a saying that mistakes are made, what I didn't know was that at this time the little Japanese had already come up with a way to deal with our iron gate and manpower cart, which was to take advantage of our poor visibility behind the iron gate and sneak forward on the ground. At this moment, two little Japanese were pulling out an explosive package to throw at us... If we let this explosive package explode in front of us, it would be over, not to mention that the iron gate couldn't protect us, it might even be blown into several pieces and crush us hiding behind it...

  But none of this happened, because the hand grenade I threw just fell beside them, and then with a loud bang the little devils along with their explosives packs didn't know where they flew to!

  Then came the grenades thrown by the warriors, their throwing level was naturally not something I could compare to. Each and every one of them exploded in the Japanese trenches without exception, instantly blowing the Japanese into a chaotic mess of wails and screams, and the gunfire also weakened significantly...

  "Kill!" From then on, things didn't need us anymore. With a single order from Xu Lianzhang, the soldiers who had already drawn their bayonets charged forward. Without a burst of machine gun fire, the Japanese troops in front of us were like lambs waiting to be slaughtered.

  Take another look at the car's steering wheel, it has fallen into a pool of blood at some unknown time...

  This chapter is dedicated to the unnamed heroes in the Pingjin Campaign. During the campaign, local civilians unconditionally supported the National Army. Some businessmen even dismantled the large iron doors of their shops to block bullets. Several young men pushed forward with the doors, while several soldiers from the 29th Army hid behind the doors and fired at the enemy, gradually approaching the Japanese army's positions.