Chapter 4: Artillery Fire

  Lin Feng was a new recruit, unfamiliar with artillery, only knowing that it had great power and could blow up a large area, so when he heard the squad leader say that what was falling from above was an artillery shell, he became pale with fear, let out a loud cry, covered his head and buried himself in the ground, like an ostrich.

  "What the hell are you yelling about!" The class leader was startled by Lin Feng's sudden shout, and obviously had an opinion. "You're far away, it can't blow you up. Damn, with your constant surprises, how can we fight a war like this?"

  "Boom!" A loud explosion, the shell exploded in the river not far from the bridge head, a burst of white water splashed into the sky, black mud and rotten grass roots wrapped around the silver bodies of fish scattered everywhere...

  As Wang Yuzhu said, the shell's landing point was still far away from them. Lin Feng felt that the ground shook violently, as if his internal organs were all turned upside down, churning terribly.

  Lin Feng shook his somewhat dizzy head and looked up.

  Wang Yuzhu saw Lin Feng's performance and shook his head, saying: "This is just the enemy's test shot, a large-scale bombardment will start soon. With your current state, you'll probably be shaken to death even if you're not blown to death!"

  Lin Feng's face turned somewhat pale and he no longer had his previous carefree look.

  "Remember, when the shelling starts, cover your ears with both hands, open your mouth wide, and lie down in the bunker, the more dead you lie, the better. Got it?" Wang Yuzhu was imparting his experience of avoiding artillery fire to Lin Feng.

  "Why open your mouth wide?" Lin Feng was puzzled, if it were to cover his ears with both hands, that could be understood, in order to reduce the impact of the cannon fire on his ears. But what's the point of opening his mouth wide? Isn't that just waiting for mud to pour into his mouth?!

  "Shut up and just do it, stop talking nonsense!" Time was too pressing, the enemy's artillery attack was about to begin, no time for Wang Yuzhu to give Lin Feng a military theory lesson, so he had to use his squad leader authority to suppress him.

  Actually, covering your ears and opening your mouth when avoiding artillery fire has scientific reasoning behind it. Covering your ears doesn't need to be explained, everyone knows its purpose, so let's mainly explain the reasoning behind opening your mouth: The oral cavity and ear canal are connected. When the ears receive a strong sonic impact, the pressure inside the ear canal will suddenly increase sharply, causing the eardrum to stretch inward due to the increased pressure, and if it stretches too far, it will rupture, resulting in irreversible hearing damage; If you open your mouth at this time, the sound wave will also rush into the oral cavity while impacting the ears, making the pressure inside the oral cavity and ear canal increase simultaneously and consistently, avoiding excessive stretching of the eardrum and preventing rupture-induced deafness.

  Lin Feng heard the class monitor's tone was unfriendly and didn't dare say another word.

  Soon after, a sharp whistling sound visited again. This time it wasn't just one sound, but a whole piece...

  "Take cover, incoming fire!" someone yelled loudly.

  Lin Feng buried his head in the ground with both hands, repeating his previous action, and performed it with ease, after all, he had already had such an experience once.

  Lin Feng bowed his head at the same time and heard Wang Yuzhu shouting: "Zhang Dàmǒbā, remember!"

  Rumble... Rrrrrrrrrr...

  Shells rained down, and the "rumble" of artillery fire shook the sky. Mud splattered everywhere, limbs flew horizontally, blood mixed with mud, staining the earth a dark red color. Severed limbs, shattered bones, and internal organs were swept up by the powerful blast wave into the air, only to scatter back down again, like a bloody rain...

  Lin Feng was unable to see this "grand scene", he hugged his head and lay on the ground with all his might, already shaken to the point of being disoriented, no longer knowing what year it was, only instinctively following the method taught by the class leader, trying to open his mouth as wide as possible...

  "Boom!" A loud explosion, a shell burst not far away, Lin Feng only felt the weight of thousands of tons of mud on his back "crashing down", the back of his head was hit by something, and he lost consciousness with a black eye.

  ……

  "Lin Feng, Lin Feng, are you okay? If you're not dead, wake up quickly... The enemy is coming..."

  In a daze, he heard someone calling his name. Lin Feng struggled to open his heavy eyelids, which felt like they were weighed down by a mountain. When he finally managed to open them, he saw the class monitor's anxious face in front of him. His ears were still ringing from the explosion, and he couldn't quite make out what the class monitor was shouting.

  "What?" Lin Feng only saw the class monitor's mouth opening and closing, his voice was muffled and couldn't be heard clearly, so he spoke up, "Class monitor, what did you say? Speak louder, I didn't hear it!"

  Won't his eardrums be shattered? Wang Yuzhu's heart trembled, and he stuck his mouth to Lin Feng's ear, shouting loudly: "You're not dead yet, get up and fight for Laozi, the devils are coming again!"

  Lin Feng hastily moved his ears away and complained: "Why are you yelling so loudly? I'm not deaf!"

  Seeing Lin Feng's reaction, Wang Yuzhu put his mind at ease, stretched out his hand to grab the rifle placed on one side and shouted: "Prepare for battle!"

  At this time, the Japanese army's artillery fire had ceased, and the battlefield was shrouded in thick smoke, blocking out the sun, as if it had turned cloudy.

  The position was turned over by the Japanese artillery, and the shelters built on the embankment basically no longer existed. There were craters everywhere, and it was a mess.

  The defenders on the position had been prepared for a long time, but they did not expect the Japanese artillery fire to be so fierce. The defensive fortifications were like paper in the face of the enemy's firepower and failed to play their due role, resulting in heavy casualties. After this round of shelling, one-third of the combat personnel were lost.

  Lin Feng was just buried alive by the mud blown up by the shell, fortunately Wang Yuzhu discovered it in time and dug him out without caring about his own life in the midst of artillery fire, otherwise he would have been killed by the blast or suffocated to death.

  "Retreat to the bottom of the embankment, quickly, retreat!" The platoon leader yelled loudly, urging everyone to hurry down.

  The top of the embankment was no longer able to be concealed, so they had to retreat all the way down and rely on the embankment as a natural cover.

  Lin Feng came back to himself and reached out to touch his own broken Han Yang rifle, only to find it was gone...

  "Stop digging, your rifle is buried in the ground and hasn't been dug up. Use this one." Wang Yuzhu tossed a mud-covered rifle to Lin Feng.

  Lin Feng took over the gun and didn't even have time to examine it carefully, hastily following the class leader to run to the bottom of the dam.

  "Whose gun is this?" Lin Feng asked.

  "I don't know, maybe he's already dead." The class monitor said casually.

  Uh? Lin Feng's expression stiffened, his mouth twitching slightly, and upon closer inspection of the gun in his hand, he indeed saw bloodstains mixed with the mud.

  He wiped the gun with his sleeve, removing most of the mud from the breech, and pulled back the bolt with a "click", which moved smoothly, apparently still usable after not being damaged by the explosion.

  Wang Yuzhu looked at Lin Feng's skilled inspection of the gun and was surprised: "Not bad, have you fired a gun before?"

  Lin Feng was a robust young man who was caught yesterday and had not yet received training, so he absolutely did not understand the key points of gun maintenance and usage, which is why Wang Yuzhu asked this question.

  Lin Feng couldn't help but feel a little smug: "Didn't I tell you, after all, I'm also a young master, and my family has some guards to protect the house. In this day and age, if you don't have a few guns by your side, you can't even call yourself a wealthy household. Do you think I've never played with them?"

  Wang Yuzhu nodded in agreement.

  The world is too chaotic, and there are bandits lurking in the nearby mountains, shouting slogans like "kill the rich and help the poor", kidnapping and extorting everywhere, openly robbing with guns. Those wealthy families are the main targets of the bandits, if they don't keep some guards or get a few guns, it's really impossible to survive.

  Lin Feng was stunned and said strangely: "Class leader, why don't you suspect me?"

  "What are you suspicious of?" Wang Yuzhu asked in surprise.

  "You always say I'm bragging, don't you?" Lin Feng said, "How come you believed it so easily this time?"

  Wang Yuzhu said: "I'm a little convinced."

  "Haha... " Lin Feng smiled lightly and said, "Just for your words, Captain, after this battle is over, you and I will go back, and I'll treat you to a meal at De Yi Lou."

  De Yi Building is a large restaurant in the county town, generally only people with status can enter and exit there, ordinary people can't afford to eat there.

  Wang Yuzhu's eyes lit up as soon as he heard it, and he said: "It's settled then. When the time comes, I want to eat De Yi Lou's signature dish - Mei Cai Kou Rou."

  "No problem, just eat as much as you want and I'll take care of the bill!" Talking about food and drink was Lin Feng's strong point, and he immediately became energetic and enthusiastic.

  "The enemy is approaching, prepare for battle." Wang Yuzhu suddenly said.

  Lin Feng had already set up his gun and said, "Last time I didn't react in time, this time I won't let that happen. I must take down a few to repay the devils for the shells they sent us earlier."

  Two people chatted while gazing across the river at the approaching Japanese army.

  The two chatted, which relieved Lin Feng's tension as a new recruit in his first battle.

  This time the Japanese army's attack was not like last time, last time was a probing attack, the troops dispatched were weak in both strength and quality, but this time it was different, this was a real attack, the Japanese army dispatched an entire infantry battalion, it seemed they wanted to take down the Luhe River position at one go.

  A Japanese infantry battalion had 180 men, including a 19-man battalion headquarters, a grenade discharger squad (three platoons), nine machine guns, and combat personnel of all levels. The Type 38 rifle used by the Japanese army was also superior to the Hanyang-made rifle used by the defenders.

  In terms of firepower alone, the defenders were not in the same league as the enemy, and their only advantage was that they occupied a favorable terrain.

  However, the Japanese army's grenade launcher was the greatest threat on the battlefield, with great power, light weight, easy to carry and simple operation.

  Grenade launcher: caliber 50mm, total length 413mm, barrel length 260mm, total weight 2.7kg, maximum range 7m, effective range 5m, lethal radius 8m.

  Because the grenade launcher is lightweight and portable, it can be carried with troops in a charge, and its power is great - in fact, the grenade launcher also has another name called "portable light recoil cannon", so it has a great lethal force against the garrison.

  It seems like a fierce battle, Wang Yuzhu's eyebrows are getting more and more furrowed.

  "Rat-a-tat, rat-a-tat..." The Japanese machine guns opened fire first, laying down suppressive fire on the enemy position to cover their troops' charge.

  The sound of "zǐ zǐ..." bullets piercing the mud and flesh could be heard from the battlefield, and the defenders were temporarily suppressed by the Japanese army, making it difficult for them to lift their heads.

  "Whoosh...whoosh...whoosh..." A black dot fell from the sky, it was a "Type 82 hand grenade" attack launched by a rocket propelled grenade.

  A loud, eerie howl rose from the front lines, and the Japanese charge began...