Chapter Five Counts
The devils are approaching our defense line under the cover of grenade launchers and machine guns, our position is heavily damaged, many are injured by shrapnel from grenades thrown by the devils. Now everyone except for a few has been wounded, the devils are less than 60 meters away. "Fix bayonets!" the battalion commander shouted loudly, "Brush!" All the brothers who could still breathe pulled out their bayonets, one brother whose left arm was blown off still pulled out his bayonet, trying to attach it to his rifle with one hand, but failed after several attempts. An old soldier walked over, gave him a grenade, patted his shoulder, and turned around to leave. I saw a line of hot tears flowing from the eyes of that wounded brother, I knew they weren't shed because of pain.
Holding in my hand the bayonet I had just pulled out from the corpse of a devil, the gleaming blade emitted an icy aura that seemed to penetrate into my body, taking away my body heat. The air I breathed out seemed to have dropped to zero degrees. My entire being was frozen on this gleaming bayonet.
"Don't be afraid, everyone has a first time. Just aim carefully, thrust in, pull out, and then thrust in again. It's that simple!" The pillar moved beside me and patted my shoulder, saying so.
"Aren't you afraid?" I said to the pillar beside me.
"What's there to be afraid of? Death?" said Zhu Zi, taking out all the hand grenades from his body and placing them beside him.
"Really!" I silently stared at the pillar with an excited face.
"This guy rolled his eyes and seemed to think for a moment before saying: 'What's scary about death? It just hurts for a bit, that's all!'"
Helplessly shaking his head, discussing this kind of issue with such a big-hearted guy is simply a waste of my precious life. Looking at the number of devils that are obviously more than us, and their physique is stronger than mine, I really can't find any reason to live on. My life is disappearing along with the invading footsteps of the devils.
"Listen to my orders, throw out all the hand grenades, hand mines, and everything that can be thrown! Blast these sons of bitches to death! Brothers, we've fought together for so many years, but this one battle is a joke. But brothers, today we're fighting for our country, protecting our homes and families, not killing each other. Behind us are our parents, our wives and children, think about them, think about the civilians who support us, think about the fallen comrades, brothers, have you gone soft?"
"Kill!" As everyone shouted out our one-word slogan together, just this one word, yet the sound sent my hot blood boiling instantly.
"Killing one is just enough to cover our costs, killing two will make us a profit, are you guys afraid of death?"
"Kill! Kill! Kill!" The desperate cry of the Gui army's slogan, the Gui army's battle spirit cleansed our hearts and minds. One by one, the wounded and exhausted bodies suddenly burst out with beast-like fighting spirit.
Are you afraid of death?
"Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill~~~~~~~~~~~~" The deafening sound echoed through the trenches that had already been stained red with blood.
"Get ready!" The company commander said tightly holding the grenade in his hand.
"Kill!!!~~~~~~~~~~~~Dadada!" A thunderous shout suddenly came from behind. We, who had already made up our minds to die, turned around stiffly.
"Reinforcements have arrived, reinforcements have arrived!" Just as we were about to engage in a desperate battle with the devils, a large contingent of Guangxi troops rushed over from the rear and quickly entered our trenches. In an instant, our firepower was greatly enhanced.
This eliminated that, and our firepower quickly suppressed the devils who rushed up. The devils who had already rushed to within 50 meters immediately lay down and opened fire against us, but their firepower was clearly inferior to ours. They were also waiting for reinforcements, hoping to attract firepower and pave the way for their own follow-up troops.
"The devils have retreated! The devils have retreated!" Seeing the enemy dragging away their fallen comrades and turning to flee, many of the new recruits cheered.
"This can't be right, how could they have withdrawn? Why didn't the follow-up troops come up?" Si Xi looked at the formation, scratching his head and muttering to himself.
It wasn't until much later that we found out by chance that Japan had intercepted our military intelligence and made strategic deployments to annihilate the 21st Army.
A canteen of wine was passed from hand to hand among the soldiers, each taking a swig to wet their whistle.
"Damn it, here we go again, nothing good is going to happen. Zhu zi, Hao zi, Si Xi all come over." Lao Gui whispered. I was hiding behind Lao Gui, so I also went over, Lao Gui saw me coming over and didn't say anything. Anyway, my heart was set on this old thing.
"Ghost brother, what's up?" Haozi said, crawling over. Looking at Haozi's movements, I couldn't help but sigh in admiration - war is the best training machine for soldiers. Although the enemy's artillery fire had stopped and the devils hadn't launched a charge, Haozi's entire movement as he ran over was without a hint of relaxation, his whole body not exposing an inch outside the trenches, perfect military movements that could bring people a sense of compact beauty.
"Haizi, Zhuzi, did you see? He's drunk again, nothing good will come of it. Be careful for a moment, especially you - Zhuzi, he gets furious when he's drunk, this time it's not just fighting the Communists, this time the enemy has guns and cannons, be careful. En... you too." The old ghost shouted at me one last time.
"Ah, Ge Ge." I nodded, feeling warm in my heart. It's nice to have someone care about me!
"Got it, Ghost Brother." Háo Zi cracked a smile, revealing two buck teeth, and said in a low voice.
"Haha, old ghost, you're still good to me!" Zhu Zi responded with a silly smile.
"Fall in!" shouted Si Xi, the class monitor.
"Give the order, everyone charge at the enemy without leaving anyone behind, take down the enemy's position, everyone get ready to fight with knives."
"Brothers, don't rush in too hastily at the beginning, or you'll be scared stiff when you see the devils and won't even have the breath to speak. Be smart about it. I don't know which old general gave this order, but this firepower is going up in flames, haha~~~" Old Ghost didn't continue speaking, probably because what he was going to say next wasn't anything pleasant to hear.
After drinking, the regimental commander said some encouraging words, and we quietly started charging forward under the cover of smoke. Due to the smoke caused by some gunpowder and the enemy not opening fire, the overall speed of the charge was not very fast, it was a stealthy approach. We advanced less than 100 meters before the enemy's artillery fire began.
"Ghost, something's off! This artillery fire is way too inaccurate, basically all of it is landing behind us!" Hào Zi said while running. I've been following the combat squad consisting of Lǎo Guǐ, Zhù Zi and Hào Zi, feeling that this way we'll have a much higher chance of survival.
"Be a bit clever, I don't know what these devils are playing at." Old Ghost responded.
"This cannon is like chasing ducks!" I followed behind Lao Gui, catching up with a step, and also expressed my own thoughts.
The old devil turned his head and looked at me, I could feel that he thought about what I said for a moment, but didn't make a sound. As the troops continued to charge forward, however, the speed of their advance seemed to slow down imperceptibly, and Huozi and Zhuizi also followed the old devil's rhythm, slowing down their pace gradually.
"Brothers, charge!" The captain gave the order and the small pistol in his hand fired with a "bang". At the same time, the firepower of the little devil's position was fully opened, and the sound of light and heavy machine guns mixed with the whistling of bullets passing by my ears. I found that every time I heard the whistling of bullets, I would instinctively shrink my neck, although I knew it was useless, but I couldn't control myself. Brothers around me kept falling down, but the devil's firepower wasn't very fierce. With our side's machine guns suppressing them, there were basically no major losses.
"Charge! Kill!" The brothers shouted one by one and rushed forward.
"Haozi, take out the machine gunner on the left front! Zhuzi, provide suppressive fire!" Lao Gui shouted as he charged forward.
"Bang!" The wasteland's rifle shot killed the opponent's machine gunner, hitting him right in the head.
"50 meters, fix bayonets!" The captain's voice thundered again, and the sound from his hoarse throat was like a hot current that swept through my entire body. "Brush" The metallic friction sound of several hundred people drawing their bayonets at the same time was extremely pleasant to hear, especially with so many people doing it together. I could almost clearly feel my courage surge up again.
"Captain Ghost has run away, Captain Ghost has run away!" A guard shouted excitedly, his voice almost loud enough to be heard by half of the regiment. I saw that he had just taken out a little devil, and I reckon he's feeling pretty good about it right now, but to be honest, this kid's marksmanship isn't great, and there was a lot of luck involved in that last shot. Maybe he wasn't even aiming at the devil he killed, unless he's practiced the "Flick Shot" from my previous life's CS.
"This is strange!" The captain muttered to himself, but his feet didn't hesitate at all, and he continued to charge forward in big strides.
Hao Zi, Lao Gui, Zhu Zi and I, who have been following them, are in the last position of the team. At this time, most of the soldiers in front have already charged into the enemy's forward position.
"Old devil, pillar, look quickly, so many weapons, so many hand grenades (enemy's hand grenades) ah, and a lot of ammunition ah, hurry up!" Si Xi rushed into the position first, holding two hand grenades, excitedly turned back to shout at Lao Gui and others. Within a distance of only a dozen meters or so, I clearly saw the smile on Si Xi's face, so radiant. Suddenly, a soldier held up a green iron bucket, about the same size as a current suitcase, suddenly a terrible thought burst in - gasoline!
"Damn it, we're done for!" I rushed forward and grabbed Lao Gui and Haozi, shouting loudly.
"What's wrong?" asked Lao Gui, Hao Zi and Zhu Zi in unison as they turned their heads around.
"That's a gasoline barrel, the devils are going to blow it up!" I feel like I've already seen a sea of flames, and the tension is making me unable to express my thoughts clearly.
Hao Zi, Zhu Zi and Lao Gui exchanged a glance, then immediately turned around and shouted loudly at Si Xi and the others: "Quickly come back, come~~~~."
"Boom~~~~~~~ Boom boom boom!" The word "come" had not yet left my lips when a string of explosions suddenly erupted, and in an instant, a huge fire snake burst forth from the trenches, scorching heat devouring one life after another. One by one, lives flailed about with burning bodies, desperately struggling, their anguished cries making my head spin. With each explosion, arms and legs flew through the air, or organs that could no longer be identified, or shredded flesh - this was the cruelty and terror of war. The gruesome scene before me and the cries for help completely occupied all my thoughts.
Through the raging flames, I vaguely saw the devils in the distance cheering and jumping. The mournful cries, the last struggles of life, and the devils' twisted faces were simultaneously reflected in my eyes, the huge contrast shocking my brain - is this the cruelty of war?
The intense stimulation made my body lose its response to the brain's instructions, and I didn't even make a military evasion action of falling prone. With a loud "boom", the scorching heat wave swept me directly flying, and before my body landed, I heard Lao Gui shouting: "The little guy on the pillar's back, the rat is advancing, we're retreating!" This voice was like it came from outside the sky, and immediately everything in front of me went black.
