Seven Little Cannon Valley

  Zhan Biao asked Yamamoto again: "Do you know we are using grenade launchers?"

  Yamamoto replied: "I didn't think you'd use our grenade launchers, I always thought they were 91-style hand grenades thrown down from the mountain."

  Zhan Biao asked again: "I don't know what the effect of the bombardment is like. How many casualties have you suffered in total?"

  Yamamoto lowered his head and said, "In this meaningless war, 385 Japanese soldiers died, 68 were seriously injured, and two entire companies were lost. The first company of heavy machine guns that ate together had no survivors, the second company of two platoons that charged in also had no survivors, and the third company of two platoons was killed or wounded by half. There were no survivors who were not injured. In addition, a lieutenant colonel battalion commander and two lieutenant staff officers were killed at the mouth of the valley, and two lieutenant company commanders were killed in the valley. A company's heavy weapons and equipment were lost. The impact of this battle on the Japanese army at that time was no less than the Pingxingguan Battle in your military history, because you fought against our logistics units at Pingxingguan, but here you fought against our most elite combat units."

  Zhan Biao nodded after listening: "Oh, it's like that, roughly the same as our estimate."

  "Was it just you left in the noble army at the end?" Yamamoto asked hesitantly.

  Zhan Biao glanced at Yamamoto, who turned his head and smiled at Sakura, who had been acting as a translator: "It seems that your grandfather didn't believe it and wasn't willing to let the nine of us retreat unharmed. Sorry, we disappointed him, all nine of us survived." While Sakura was translating for Yamamoto, Zhan Biao turned his head and whispered to Sunzi Zhandong: "Hey, I never told you guys that day, we were in a very precarious situation, it was our own doing."

  At the critical moment when the Japanese army was approaching the cave on both sides, the heavy machine gun of Xiaofeng and Chengyi suddenly sounded again. It turned out that the Japanese corpse's shelter had saved them, and they were buried under a pile of corpses after the explosion. However, one grenade made them all injured. When San De used the Japanese corpse to build a shelter, due to the urgent time, they only built two walls in the north-south direction and did not form a semi-circular shape. Three grenades exploded in front of the shelter, and one exploded on the side without any cover, very close. Fortunately, this was the fourth grenade, and Xiaofeng's four people had already been blown together with the Japanese corpses by the first three grenades, otherwise, it would be hard to say what the outcome would be. The four men crawled out of the corpse heap covered in blood, but they were all moving their limbs and bones without injury.

  After hearing the gunfire of Xiao Feng and others, Zhan Biao was overjoyed. When he thought they were in trouble, he didn't cry, but when he learned they were safe, he was so happy that he almost cried. Zhan Biao let out a long sigh of relief, and every subsequent gunshot had a cheerful tone to it.

  After the recovery of four heavy machine guns, the situation on the battlefield suddenly changed. Zhan Biao shouted passionately: "Brothers, continue to call out!" Then he said fiercely: "You have rocket launchers, I do too!" After that, he turned around and brought out an 89-type rocket launcher and a box of ammunition containing 24 rockets, crouching in the middle of the rooftop. Because the rocket launcher was a curved trajectory single-soldier weapon, he could leave the entrance and operate it very covertly by himself.

  Zhan Biao had also practiced the use of German-made grenade launchers. In a few swift motions, he secured the cannon tube and footplate, grasped the launcher with his left hand, took aim at the distance to the south mountain valley mouth, turned the handle to raise the adjusting rod, then loaded the grenade into the muzzle and pulled the firing pin on the striker to shoot it out. The first grenade fell short onto the cliff face, sending down a cloud of dust and rocks. The second one landed right in the midst of the enemy formation.

  Zhang Biao fired a few shots at the enemy group in the south, then turned to fire a few more at the enemy group in the north. Next, he fired several shots at the mouth of the valley and the nearby mountain wall, instantly filling the entire valley with smoke and flying bullets and rocks. The Japanese army now believed that they were under attack from above the mountain wall and began firing back at the summit. Meanwhile, the shooting aimed at the cave entrance had stopped, apparently all the Japanese soldiers who had discovered the cave had been killed.

  At this time, not withdrawing, waiting for what time, Zhang Biao shouted loudly to the people below: "Hurry up and come up!" Turning his head to order Er Zhu Zi: "Quickly drop the rope ladder!" Qiang Zi understood and shouted at Er Zhu Zi: "Drop two rope ladders and two hanging baskets! Zhang Jie, come over and open fire, I'll take care of it!"

  Zhan Biao continued to fire grenades from the grenade launcher, covering their retreat with explosions near and far. Qiangzi and Erzhuzi quickly pulled up Xiaofeng, Sande, Chengyi, and Liuyang, who were rolling and crawling. The four of them were covered in dust and blood, with several pistols slung across their shoulders. Xiaofeng and Chengyi, who had been lifted up in the stretcher, still held the heavy machine guns they had used earlier. Liu Yang, who was normally quiet, had two large cardboard boxes on his shoulder, one in front of the other. Seeing everyone's inquiring gazes, he hastily explained: "I just picked them up, they're gas masks. We need to be prepared for the enemy to smoke us out while we're in the cave."

  San De looked at Zhan Biao who was still firing and shouted: "I said where did the artillery support come from, it turned out to be Brother Biao's trick."

  Zhan Biao, without cracking a smile, said to everyone: "Quickly, go get one and learn from it!" Except for Zheng Wen, who had injured his left arm earlier, everyone held a grenade launcher in their hands. Under the guidance of Zhan Biao and Xiao Feng, the two instructors, they fired out grenades one after another, with explosions going off in the distance without any clear target. Seeing that everyone had learned, Zhan Biao waved his hand: "Cease fire! Those devils who saw our cave entrance should be dead by now."

  The valley fell silent once again in an unbelievable way. Nine heads appeared at the cave entrance, surveying the battlefield where the smoke signals were gradually dispersing.

  The first battle eliminated a Japanese heavy machine gun squad, with their corpses scattered in the middle of the valley. The second battle eliminated two Japanese squads that came to rescue the wounded, with their bodies strewn across the north and south entrances of the valley, filling the entire valley with a sea of yellow. San De stared and said, "My god, it's all yellow! I didn't think we killed so many people, those little Japanese are really not good at fighting."

  Cheng Yi shook his head and said, "It's not that the devils are not allowed to fight, but rather that we have taken advantage of the timing and geography." He looked carefully for a while and then said, "There are nearly two companies, around 400 people."

  Qiangzi exclaimed: "It's about time! This is revenge for our machine gun company! Commander Gao would be thrilled if he knew!"

  At this time, the gunfire sounded again. The Japanese army rushed in from both sides of the mountain valley mouth, and this was the third batch of Japanese troops that walked into the Ghost Gate Pass. But this time's Japanese army was different from the previous one, with very careful movements, especially those who came from the north mountain mouth, were all very agile, looking at their nimble and flexible body shape, it was clear that they were special forces. In a flash, two small teams had entered from both sides. Seeing them continuing to pour intense firepower blindly towards the upper part of the mountain wall, it was clear that the Japanese soldiers who discovered the cave entrance earlier had all been killed. Everyone's inquiring gaze looked at Zhang Biao, Xiao Feng asked: "Biao Ge, how are we going to fight this time?"

  Zhang Biao observed for a while, then turned around and said: "It seems that we haven't been exposed yet, the devils have come to rescue their wounded again. Just now they were fighting because they had dug up our graves, this time it's because you few have been injured while escaping, so let's take advantage of the chaos and use these small cannons to blast them, no more shooting. The grenade launcher is a curved trajectory, they can't see us."

  Everyone rushed to grab the grenade launcher, and Zhan Biao ordered: "Not everyone needs to go up, this terrain is not too spacious. We'll take six grenade launchers, Xiao Feng will lead San De and Liu Yang to deal with the south side, I and Qiangzi, Cheng Yi will deal with the north side. Zhang Jie and Er Zhuangzi are responsible for delivering hand grenades. Note that each launcher only fires ten rounds, and it must be finished within one minute." The wound on Zhan Biao's left arm had been bandaged, and he was helping Er Zhuangzi carry ammunition with his right hand.

  Xiao Feng helped everyone aim at the target, filling the bullets and waiting for Zhan Biao's command. Zhan Biao instructed: "We will launch the first shot together, then launch separately one by one, starting from me and Xiao Feng, and then you follow." After finishing speaking, he signaled Xiao Feng to fire first.

  Almost at the same time, Zhuang Biao and Xiao Feng's grenades rose into the air, accurately falling into the Japanese army's ranks. After the smoke cleared, grenades fell continuously from near and far, exploding wildly. The 800-meter-long valley was like a boiling pot, with Japanese soldiers rushing around like wolves, limbs flying everywhere... Undoubtedly, the valley had been plowed through by the hail of grenades from above. Although most of the grenades' landing points were not very accurate, Zhuang Biao and Xiao Feng's 20 rounds, which seemed to have grown eyes, were enough.

  Suddenly, gunfire erupted on the mountain wall above, and it sounded like the devils were attacking from the side. These devils are cunning, willing to sacrifice people below to lure in the ambushers, then they quietly encircle and attack from behind. Seeing the Japanese army firing and bombing the eastern mountain wall above, Occupying Biao understood that the Japanese had only climbed up the western mountain wall on our side. This was perfect for making the devils think we were driven away by them from the top of the eastern mountain.

  At this time, everyone's ten grenades were basically finished, and only San De was still shouting: "Don't worry, I still have two left." He was because his neck was bitten by the Japanese army and it was inconvenient to observe, making him slower than usual. Zhan Biao was preparing to order everyone to stop shooting and retreat into the cave, so as not to let the devils on the mountain discover them, when suddenly something unexpected happened.

  San De was launching the last one when someone next to him stood up and bumped into him, causing the grenade to shoot out of his hand. His body swayed but his mind was quick, San De seemed to have noticed something wrong, he turned sideways, stiffened his neck and looked up at the sky. Zhan Biao followed San De's line of sight and immediately understood that the last grenade had been launched vertically due to the collision, and the black dot was suspended above their heads, it was unclear whether it was rising or falling.

  Zhan Biao's mind buzzed immediately. The Japanese army's grenade explosion method had two types, one was triggered by touching the ground, and the other was delayed for seven seconds. The batch of grenades they captured were all triggered by touching the ground. If this grenade exploded in mid-air, the loss would be smaller, but if it fell on the rooftop where nine people were crowded together and exploded, there would undoubtedly be blood flying everywhere. All he heard was a loud shout: "Quickly enter the cave!" He pushed and pulled everyone into the cave. Fortunately, the crowd had practiced martial arts and reacted extremely quickly, and they were very tacit in their daily lives, without any delay or hesitation. When the grenade exploded accurately on the rooftop, they had already flashed into the cave like lightning. However, Zhan Biao and Qiangzi were still injured. Fortunately, as soon as they entered the cave, it was an uphill slope, and Zhan Biao and Qiangzi only had a few holes blown open on their calves. This time, none of the nine people escaped unscathed. Everyone lay in disarray at the entrance of the cave, panting heavily without saying a word. It wasn't until after a long time that Zhan Biao said: "San De, your kick was pretty good..." At this point, everyone finally relaxed and became lively.

  Nine people sat down, all with injuries all over their bodies. Zhan Biao propped up his injured leg and checked everyone's wounds one by one. Liu Yang handed out first aid kits to everyone, and they began to bandage each other's wounds. Fortunately, except for Zheng Wen's gunshot wound and San De's bite wound, everyone else had only minor flesh wounds from shrapnel. Zhan Biao patted the heads of Er Zhuangzi and Chang Jie, saying: "This is heavy machine gun fire, fortunately it all hit the side of your helmets, otherwise you'd be lucky to have woken up by now, you must have had concussions." Everyone was still shaken, congratulating each other on their good fortune. Cheng Yi changed out of his tattered clothes and said: "We've narrowly escaped death several times in these two days, it seems we all have a good fate ahead of us."

  The third close combat battle was unclear, and the situation could not be seen clearly in the smoke of artillery fire. Especially in the last three German troops, everyone was very embarrassed, and they didn't have time to observe the results of the battle. Zhang Biao did not know that the Japanese army who rushed into the northern mountain valley was the most elite Taiwan brigade special forces heavy branch team's ace unit among all the participating troops. This ace unit was composed entirely of instructors selected from Japan for special training in Taiwan, and they were invincible in the Battle of Shanghai, but unexpectedly capsized in this small mountain gorge. Those technical movements and special soldier tactics were useless, and a small team was bombed to death or injury, with only a few slender officers hiding in the mountain crevices to avoid the repeated bombing. A infantry squad that rushed into the southern mountain valley was also bombed to pieces.

  Listening to the quiet below, Zhan Biao ordered everyone to start drinking water and eating, then swept away fatigue and commanded: "Let's stop when we see it. Now our task is to hide. Xiaofeng and Sande, you two go explore the cave inside, figure out where it leads, if there's an exit. Liu Yang and Zhang Jie are in charge of counting the captured weapons and equipment, report the number of captured weapons to me."