Volume 1 Chapter 7 The First Shot (6)

  The American soldiers who reacted fastest and jumped out of their sleeping bags first were almost all blown up by hand grenades.

  "Damn it, luckily I reacted quickly!" Chen Zizhong took advantage of the firelight to shoot left and right, and several American soldiers were shot dead. Hou went crazy, yelling as he rushed forward, and the two American soldiers who were still getting out of their sleeping bags immediately became mush.

  Chen Zizhong's guess was not wrong, he encountered a US military team that dared to fight with bayonets, dozens of tall and strong American soldiers rushed over, including a black soldier.

  "Damn it, why are you always messing with ghosts." Chen Zizhong put away his twin guns and charged into the enemy ranks with a Soviet-made rifle equipped with a bayonet.

  American troops grasped bayonets, guerrilla fighters leaped to the mountaintop, and two armies from three different countries collided like two giant fists, killing sparks flying everywhere, blood mist filling the air.

  To prevent friendly fire, both sides stopped shooting, and the burning caused by the grenade explosion also gradually extinguished. The world fell into darkness, and when the warriors jumped to the top of the mountain, they were still shouting and scolding, but soon merged into the darkness in silence.

  This is a life-and-death struggle taking place in the dark, with both sides relying solely on the sound of their shoes touching the ground and the direction of breathing to distinguish between friend and foe.

  The sound of metal clashing, bones shattering, the dagger stirring inside the body, the dying man's cry for help, all the chaotic sounds were thrown behind by the fierce warriors in battle.

  Fresh blood gushed out of the torn body, bursting in mid-air and falling onto the snowy ground, a stark red and white contrast.

  The fierce battle lasted only a dozen minutes or so, and more than twenty young guerrilla fighters stopped breathing forever.

  The high ground on the mountain top suddenly came under a burst of light machine gun fire, several American soldiers were hit, Ding Ruo stood beside the light machine gun and shouted in English: "Hands up, surrender!"

  Ding Ruo Gang used his rifle to pick up a burning cotton garment, the raging flames illuminated the battlefield, and the remaining American soldiers saw the tiger-like light machine gun and several Chinese soldiers ready to fire at any time.

  American soldiers still clutched their weapons and refused to surrender, only dropping them one by one amidst a chorus of angry shouts.

  Chen Zizhong let out a slight sigh of relief, stuck his spear smeared with fresh blood into the ground and panted heavily.

  The sudden footsteps crushed the ice on the ground, and three American soldiers approached Chen Zizhong from behind.

  The black soldier in the front rushed forward, and the gun stock slammed towards Chen Zizhong. Chen Zizhong dodged to the side, swung the box cannon and fired a shot, the black soldier fell to the ground like a broken package, his neck was pierced through.

  "Halt!" A warrior ran past from behind and blocked two American soldiers.

  Three bayonets flashed in the wind at the same time, the soldier's bayonet stabbed into the chest of the American on the right, and the American's bayonet on the right pierced through his ribcage. Chen Zizhong clearly saw a gleam of steel exposed from the soldier's body.

  Another American soldier simultaneously stabbed his bayonet into the warrior's abdomen.

  "Charge, fire!" The warrior tightly grasped the bayonet that had pierced his abdomen, and a large amount of blood gushed out from his nose and mouth, with threads of blood filling the gaps between his teeth.

  Chen Zizhong's bullet and Hou Lianzhen's flying knife simultaneously shot into the body of an American soldier.

  The warrior's dying roar lingered in the air for a long time, making everyone's scalp numb. The cotton clothes were burned to ashes, and the world fell into boundless darkness once again.

  "A convoy of enemy vehicles is heading this way, estimated to be around a battalion."

  The guerrilla force launched a silent attack, silently retreated, without time to clean up the battlefield, without time to take away captured supplies, and even without time to bury fallen comrades.

  After daybreak, US military officer Stevenson took off his cap and gazed at the 'statue' in front of him for a long time.

  The statue consists of a Chinese soldier and two American soldiers facing each other, all three having stopped breathing.

  Two American soldiers, one holding a carbine with a fixed bayonet and the other an automatic shotgun, thrust their blades into the body of a Chinese soldier from his ribs and abdomen. The Chinese soldier's right hand held a Soviet-made rifle with a fixed bayonet, which was inserted into the chest cavity of the American on the right, whose left hand tightly grasped the hilt of the blade that had been thrust into his abdomen from the left side. Three bullet holes were visible on the chest of the American on the left, and an explosive-tipped throwing knife was stuck in his forehead.

  The deceased Chinese soldier strides forward with his chest out, eyes wide open in anger, and his mouth still maintains the shape of a dying roar, the sound seemingly still echoing in the air.

  The sky was again drifting with goose feather-like snow, burying the mountain top in a funeral-like manner after the bloody battle. The remaining Chinese soldiers stood unyieldingly in the vast snow.

  Stevenson was a lieutenant colonel, known for wearing a flak jacket and carrying an M3 submachine gun. He was the deputy commander of the 187th Airborne Regiment, which later participated in the massacre of Geojedo Island POWs and took part in the famous Battle of Gaema Heights, notorious for its ferocity. Stevenson's main responsibility was training the KLO troops, known as the first special forces unit in Korean history, whose primary tasks included gathering intelligence in the North, rescuing downed airmen behind enemy lines, guiding US Air Force bombers and searching for downed pilots. Although the KLO did not perform well on the battlefield, Stevenson's efforts were consistently recognized.

  Two days ago, Stevenson led infantry Companies B and C, a battalion headquarters company, a communications platoon, and a composite cannon platoon to search for US paratroopers who had been air-dropped in the wrong place. By the time he arrived at the hill where the paratroopers were billeted last night, it was too late; except for the bodies left on the battlefield, all of the paratroopers had been captured.

  Stevenson was extremely puzzled as to why the paratroopers, who couldn't even be found by the US military themselves, were discovered and easily annihilated by the Chinese army. These paratroopers were the aces among aces.

  At least one-third of the paratroopers' uniforms were embroidered with the word "Ranger" and a sleeve badge in the shape of a ribbon, which is the emblem of the Rangers. The Rangers are composed of the most elite soldiers in the US military, with strict training and high morale, and the famous Rambo is one of them.

  Among the dead Rangers was a friend of Stevenson's, a black soldier who had been ambushed by Chen Zizhong but shot him down, Sergeant First Class Ralph W. Sutton, B Company, 75th Ranger Regiment, the only African American to die in the night battle.

  The mountain wind howled, Stevenson involuntarily wrapped his military coat tightly around him.