The Fifth Episode: The Seventh Martial Art, Urging the Horse to Escape

  Zhan Biao stopped at a rotten wooden stake by the river, turned his head, straightened his waist and looked forward, muttering: "It's here, it's here... 200 meters away from the water ditch, should be there... Xiao Zhan, you go ahead, keep walking."

  Zhan Biao directed the excavation to a location and ordered it to stop, then adjusted the position. Zhan Biao said to Secretary Jiao: "Start digging under his feet, nine out of ten." The construction company's Sha General, who had been waiting far away, led more than a dozen workers to start work.

  Sakura was excited since she heard about the live burial of the war chariot, and she took advantage of the opportunity to make a few phone calls in Japanese, which sounded like gibberish to others.

  Secretary Jiao's phone rang, he answered: "It's me, is it Secretary Chai? Oh, yes, how did the city know? We're excavating now. Alright, understood." After hanging up the phone, Secretary Jiao glanced at Sakura and shouted to Director Sha: "Stop work first, the municipal party committee has ordered us to protect the site and wait for joint excavation with the Japanese side."

  At this time, Sakura's mobile phone gave a brief signal. She quickly took out a compact laptop from her bag and opened it. After opening an email, she walked to Zhang Biao with the computer: "Grandpa Zhang, look, is this the tank?"

  Zhan Biao lowered his head and took a look, on the computer screen were two Japanese soldiers in front of a tank with the number 122. Zhan Biao nodded: "Oh, 122, it's this one."

  Sakura got excited and pulled out another portrait photo, a Japanese young man with narrow eyes. Zhan Biao nodded again: "I have some impression, his eyes are quite narrow. He helped me with a small favor back then, so I left him a whole body."

  Zhān Dōngdōng asked Yīngzǐ somewhat unhappily from the side: "What's going on?" He stomped his foot and continued to say: "Yīngzǐ, this is our land, back then the invaders had to listen to us."

  The speed of the bean war chariot was 40 kilometers per hour, and the horse carriage could reach this speed in a certain period of time, or even exceed it. However, no one had ever measured how long it could be maintained, as it depended on the horse's physical strength, road conditions, and load. Da Yu led the six-horse carriage without considering these factors, and just yelled "Drive! Drive!" as he ran wildly, looking like he was afraid of being caught by the bean war chariot with a fleeing posture.

  The cavalry led by Da Yu had one horse-drawn carriage with a light machine gun, two machine gunners and two or three riflemen, who also served as drivers. Each carriage had four or five soldiers, with six carriages totaling over 30 people. At the beginning of the battle, they still had some momentum, with six light machine guns, more than 20 Type 38 rifles, and dozens of hand grenades making a loud noise that was enough to make Songshan take notice. However, after the horse-drawn carriages started running, it became difficult to fire the guns. The faster the carriages ran, the more violently they shook. Moreover, the light machine gun had no effect on the approaching tank. Therefore, Da Yu simply gave up firing and let the tank shell come over.

  Fortunately, the bean wagons behind were chasing in a straight line, but the firepower of the two bean wagons in front posed some threat to the horse-drawn carriage team. Fortunately, the Japanese army's medium-sized team that started later was running, but they could only see the dust raised by the bean wagons, and did not pose a threat to Da Yun yet.

  However, the large cart driven by animal power still couldn't outrun the steadily advancing tank, and the frequently fired tank cannon had already blown up a horse-drawn carriage that was lagging behind. As Da Yu loaded the wounded and light machine guns onto other vehicles to continue retreating, their speed became slower and slower. The tank, which had accelerated to full power, quickly shortened its distance with the carts. If one were to say that the initial escape had been a ruse to lure the enemy, then this was truly a desperate retreat.

  Observing from a distance, Zhan Biao was holding his breath and had forgotten to tell Da Yu one thing: although luring the enemy over would complete their mission, they must protect themselves well. At this moment, there was another trick that could be used for self-protection - throwing hand grenades to create smoke for cover. Why didn't Da Yu use it?! San De shouted: "This stupid Da Yu, how can he compare with Zhang Jie? If it were Zhang Jie, he would have stabbed the horse in the buttocks long ago."

  It wasn't that Da Yu didn't throw the grenade, it was just that the grenades they brought were all duds. When they first started making a show of force, most of the infantry's grenades just made a fizzling sound. Da Yu was also regretful, having underestimated the enemy too much and not expecting the bean sprout tank to move so fast. He regretted even more not bringing two boxes of grenades onto the vehicle. Fortunately, they were already close to the riverbank, with less than 1 kilometer left to go, and their mission would soon be complete, offering a glimmer of hope for escape.

  But at this time, several horses pulling carts were exhausted and couldn't run anymore, only taking small steps forward, no matter how hard the whip was lashed. The distance between Dou Zhan's chariot and Ma Chao's horse-drawn carriage was getting shorter and shorter. If things went on like this, Ma Chao's cavalry would be caught up by Dou Zhan before they could reach the canal.

  Zhan Biao took a look at the situation, which was critical, but his heavy machine gun was well hidden, and he had an important task on hand, so he didn't want to expose himself prematurely. He turned around and gestured to Nie, the squad leader on the river side, pointing at the tank, while also letting Cheng Yi and San De prepare for the possibility of having to expose themselves.

  The tank saw the last horse-drawn carriage being chased, and the Japanese soldiers didn't shoot anymore. They accelerated and pressed towards the carriage. The big Yu on the carriage hugged the machine gun and jumped down, while the other three soldiers were knocked over with their horses. The tanks had already treated these carriages as if they were in a bag, and the tanks behind them quickly turned around to chase after them in the fields.

  At this critical moment, the two Maxim guns of Nie Rongzhen's troops fired! The long burst of fire poured onto the front bean war car with a loud bang. As soon as they heard the sound of heavy machine guns, the occupying forces also let out a long sigh. The six bean war cars immediately slowed down and dispersed their formation.

  The Japanese tank troops apparently knew the harm of this group's heavy machine guns, and immediately shifted their target to start shelling Nie's heavy machine gun position. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Da Yu led a wounded soldier to run up to the last horse cart, carrying and dragging each other, while two other soldiers were obviously killed under the tank tracks. The remaining four carts finally passed through the water ditch entrance in a state of shock, and after crossing the small bridge, the soldiers were all exhausted and collapsed behind Nie's position.

  The long-barreled heavy machine gun indeed showed the style of a veteran, pouring out bullets like hailstones on the bean war car. After listening to Zhan Biao's introduction to the weaknesses of the bean war car, he was also looking for an opportunity for the bean war car to turn around, but due to the slightly distant distance, the hitting point could not be too concentrated, and with only two Maxim guns, it did not form a destructive group demolition firepower.

  The tank approached the water ditch under a hail of bullets from the Maxim guns, and the lead tank clearly saw the box of grenades on the road surface. A burst of machine gun fire swept over it. The grenade box did not explode, but the tank still hesitated to get off the highway, seemingly afraid that there might be landmines underneath.

  Six tanks were lined up in a row, three on the left and three on the right, in front of the ditch, almost exactly as predicted. And each one was stopped at the entrance to the ditch. But what Zhang Biao did not expect was that these six tanks actually stopped in front of the ditch without moving, making empty threats by firing cannons and machine guns, apparently waiting for the arrival of infantry.

  Zhan Biao and others were hiding in the bunker, their hearts racing with anxiety. If time dragged on, the Japanese army's infantry would arrive and they would be at a disadvantage. At this point, Zhan Biao could no longer make any obvious command movements for fear of being discovered by the tank. He turned his head to look towards the riverbank, hoping that Nie would make some movement again to lure the tank once more.