Gunfight Five: The Machine Gun Changes Hands

  "This time it's Biao's turn to ask: 'Mr. Yamamoto, were you in the mountain valley at that time?'"

  Yamamoto shook his head: "If I were among the first to enter, I wouldn't be standing here today. None of the first and second batches survived. I was in the third batch to enter the valley, from that side, where a seam in the rock saved me." He pointed to the northern entrance of the valley.

  "Occupied Biao busy asked: 'After our first strike, why did you rush in to take a look and then withdraw?'"

  Yamamoto looked up at the mountain wall over 100 meters high: "At that time, we thought you were ambushing above, and we would be beaten if we went in, so we retreated from the mouth of the valley and retreated 200 meters, dispatched troops to clear the mountain, and also urgently called planes to come over."

  "I'm very curious to know how you transport light and heavy machine guns in a squadron?" Yamamoto asked.

  The smoke has dispersed, and the sunlight still shines on the mountain wall. At this moment, Zhang Biao's mood is no longer the same as yesterday's.

  San De pointed at the machine gun squad's corpses and said, "Ha! That lieutenant was blown up by me." Zhan Biao thought to himself that taking out the enemy commander at the beginning of a battle is crucial; otherwise, that lieutenant would have put up an even fiercer resistance during the counterattack. Xiao Feng tapped on the Markov gun's barrel and said, "We've only been firing for three minutes, and the gun hasn't even heated up yet. However, with a theoretical firing rate of 600 rounds per minute, we could have fired over 1,000 bullets in three minutes, excluding the time spent reloading." Qiang Zi added, "Fortunately, the Markov had been serviced an hour ago and didn't need to be refilled with water; otherwise, that would have been a hassle."

  Suddenly, San De shouted: "Ah, Biao Ge, it's not good! There are devils outside! Look, they're coming from both south and north!" Zhang Biao hurriedly raised his hand to signal everyone to lower their heads and remain still. At this moment, a batch of Japanese soldiers rushed in from the southern and northern mountain passes, apparently part of a large-scale military operation, with some having just passed by and others following closely behind. The incoming Japanese soldiers charged forward for dozens of meters before stopping stupidly, staring at the silent corpses scattered all over the ground and several frightened mules running wildly about.

  The two small peaks on both sides of the rooftop, clutching heavy machine guns, looked back at Zhan Biao with San De and asked with their eyes if they were still fighting.

  Zhang Biao observed the two sides of the Japanese army and slowly said: "Let's take a look first, if we can't fight, we won't fight. Anyway, we've already made a profit. If we have to fight this time, let's start from afar and attack them until they can't retreat."

  Before the Japanese could react further, the troops advancing from both sides suddenly retreated and withdrew without firing a shot. Everyone looked at each other in confusion.

  After a long time, there was still no movement, and the intense gunfire came from outside the valley. Cheng Yi analyzed: "It seems that the devils think we are fighting down from the mountain, thinking we are still on the mountain, and they are firing at the mountain." Zhan Biao looked out at the row of heavy machine guns below, thought for a moment, and said: "San De, take advantage of this opportunity to go down first, and bring back a 92-style (machine gun) to study. Hold your pistol, there may be survivors below."

  San De took off his helmet and slid down the rope like a leopard, while Qiangzi also lowered a basket at the same time. As soon as San De went down, several gunshots came from below, and everyone heard that it was a handgun, which made them feel relatively at ease. However, Zhan Biao didn't dare to be careless, and when he looked up at Liu Yang beside him, Liu Yang silently followed the rope of the basket and slid down. The gunfire below continued to ring out one after another. Cheng Yi shouted to Xiao Feng, "Drop another basket, quickly!" As he spoke, he picked up a Czech machine gun and jumped onto the still-unstable basket. Cheng Yi took two magazines thrown over by Xiao Feng and made a hand gesture to him, and Xiao Feng nodded and quickly lowered Cheng Yi down.

  With a gesture from Cheng Yi, Xiao Feng stopped the stretcher at a recessed position on the cliff wall. Cheng Yi understood the situation at a glance and found that there were more than a dozen living Japanese wounded soldiers hiding here. This batch of lucky surviving Japanese wounded soldiers discovered that this was a blind spot for shooting from above, and they reacted extremely quickly. Before the hand grenade explosion ended, they rushed to this place in a rolling and crawling manner. Although they were all injured to varying degrees, they managed to save their lives.

  After San De came down, both sides discovered each other at the same time. Although San De was quick and agile, he rolled on the ground and fired his gun first, hitting two of them. However, it wasn't easy to continue shooting. The Japanese soldiers seemed to be really wounded and couldn't get up. They hid behind a pile of corpses to protect themselves. The Japanese troops were equipped with weapons, except for the infantry carrying Type 38 rifles, they were all equipped with self-defense pistols, and the heavy machine gunners had one pistol per person. More than a dozen pistols fired at San De, who was rolling on the ground. Liu Yang came down later and was also very passive, hiding in the pile of Japanese corpses, only able to disperse the enemy's firepower, and the two guns in their hands were almost out of bullets.

  Unfortunately, the three virtues were discovered by a very experienced Japanese army to have no bullets. Two wounded Japanese soldiers, who had just been killed by their two fellow countrymen, shook off and pounced on the three virtues. Although the three virtues knew martial arts, even those who knew martial arts feared encountering desperate and fierce opponents. What's more frightening is that when the three of them rolled together in one place, the devils next to them fired indiscriminately at their own people. Fortunately, the clever three virtues hugged the two Japanese soldiers to avoid the bullets, but were eventually bitten by a Japanese soldier who was killed by his own people. If it weren't for the use of Wing Chun's inch power to burst open the devil's brain, the carotid artery would have been almost bitten off.

  At this critical moment, the machine gun on his head fired, and Cheng Yi's supporting speech was made. Cheng Yi, who was in a superior position, steadily fired 20 bullets from a magazine, and the remaining eight or nine wounded Japanese soldiers were swept away twice.

  San De, covered in blood and clutching his neck, jumped up after giving Cheng Yi a thumbs-up. He quickly turned around and followed Liu Yang to carry the heavy machine gun. The three of them moved even more cautiously among the piles of Japanese corpses, but they didn't use their handguns again because all the Japanese soldiers outside the blind spot of the mountain wall had several bullet holes in their bodies.

  With a burst of energy, Liu Yang brought over an 92-style heavy machine gun and tied it up below. He whistled loudly, and Qiangzi quickly lifted it up with several others. Er Zhuzi carried the heavy machine gun into the cave, stumbling as he went. Meanwhile, Zhengwen had already lowered another basket down, and Chengyi swiftly brought over another heavy machine gun, securing it in place. Seeing that everything was safe below, Zhanbiao shouted: "Chengyi, San De, you two first put our fallen brothers back in their graves and pile them up neatly! Liu Yang, take advantage of the enemy's inactivity to gather as many bullets as possible! First, get the heavy machine guns!"

  Cheng Yi and San De quickly put the bodies of their comrades who had been stripped by the Japanese army back into the grave, still facing west towards their hometown in Sichuan. They picked up the engineer's shovel and used stones and mud to fill in the grave. The two men stood at attention and saluted their comrades' graves before turning around and rushing into the pile of Japanese corpses, running back and forth collecting spoils of war. Qiang Zi was urging them from above to hurry up.

  Cheng Yi, who had read a few years of books, was clever and energetic, not inferior to San De, and also had many ideas, known as the village's Zhuge Liang. Cheng Yi suddenly said to San De: "Quickly, let's take off a few Japanese uniforms and put them on. If the devils rush in, they won't easily shoot us." San De immediately pounced on the lieutenant he had killed, muttering: "It's necessary to change into this, these devils are too troublesome, each one is like a ghost." The three of them changed into the lieutenant's uniform, although there was a stain of blood on their backs, but it still looked quite decent, Japanese people were originally short. Liu Yang also found a second lieutenant's uniform without being told and put it on. The three of them slung their pistols, wearing the Japanese army's combat hats. However, they only changed into the upper garments, without time to change their pants and boots.

  Two baskets came, full of officers' pistols, with German mirror cases, Japanese turtle boxes, and beautiful Browning guns, most of which were equipped with leather holsters. Zhang Biao was about to scold them for being too greedy, but then he thought again that the situation in the future would be unpredictable, so it's convenient to have some light weapons, and just as he was about to say something, he shouted: "First get all the machine guns ready before dealing with other things."

  Looking at the row of 89-style grenade launchers below, Zhan Biao asked Xiao Feng: "Xiao Feng, didn't you learn about German grenade launchers for a few days?"

  "Biao Ge, I've studied it, but I've only done live ammunition shooting once," Xiao Feng replied.

  "The Japanese grenade launchers are better than the German-made ones, with a range of 500 to 700 meters and a killing radius of 8 meters. I heard that last time the front line suffered heavy losses from these things, and the devils even used them to fire chemical warheads. Like this, Xiaofeng, you also go down, specialize in transporting grenade launchers and grenades, and then come back immediately."

  At this time, the clever Cheng Yi had already set up two heavy machine guns in the empty sedan chair, one facing the south and the other facing the north mountain valley entrance to prevent unexpected events.

  After Xiaofeng went down, there were four people moving the baskets below, and on top, Qiangzi was also working hard with four people pulling the ropes to lift them. The four baskets were flying up and down quickly, their efficiency had increased by more than ten times compared to last night. Zhanbiao held a telescope, closely observing the movements at both mountain passes. It's really strange, why haven't the Japanese troops come in for such a long time? Moreover, there aren't even any scouts peeking out, it seems they are only focused on attacking the mountain.

  Qiangzi shouted: "Chengyi, what the hell are you doing? Why load so many military uniforms? Load more ammunition instead." Chengyi responded from below: "Haven't you seen that we're wearing the devils' skins now? It'll be useful later."

  Zhan Biao looked down and saw that apart from the two heavy machine guns placed below, the other 10 had been lifted up. The 18 light machine guns and 9 grenade launchers were also transported up. The pulley was still transporting various ammunition boxes. He shouted: "Hurry, hurry, make one last effort! We can't be too greedy."

  "Brother Biao, come on, let's go a few more rounds! I won't let those devils take a bite for nothing!" San Dezi panted heavily as he shouted from below. As he spoke, he filled a basket with military compressed biscuits, canned goods, and cigarettes. Cheng Yi also packed a basket with military knives, water bottles, harmonicas, cameras, military flashlights, sleeping bags, and other supplies.

  Suddenly, Zhang Biao's ears perked up and he faintly heard the sound of planes. He immediately ordered: "The devils' planes are coming, maybe they're after us, hurry up and come quickly, quick!"

  As soon as the words fell, the plane was already in the sky above, and a large number of Japanese troops rushed into the valley mouths on both sides. At this time, Gangzi and others had just brought up the ammunition for the four baskets. Zhanbiao hastily shouted down: "You four don't come up yet, don't let the devils discover the cave entrance. Xiaofeng and Sande, you two form a team to deal with the north valley mouth, Chengyi and Liuyang you two form a team to deal with the south valley mouth, wait for my order to fire."

  Zhan Biao turned around and ordered the four people above: "Qiangzi and Erzhuzi, aim at the north entrance! Zhengwen and Changjie, face south! Note that we are fighting from a distance, fighting at the mountain pass, don't let any of the devils survive. We need to take precise shots, try not to let the enemy discover us." Zhan Biao was about to go into battle, but he still remembered that Erzhuzi and Changjie had been hit by bullets on their helmets earlier, so he made them deputy shooters, fearing they might be dizzy.

  Four heavy machine guns with muzzles as black as holes were aimed at the Japanese troops pouring in from both sides, and the wings of death hovered over their heads.