Chapter Five: Going Up to the Front Line (Wu Shang)

  They fought all night and finally broke through to the south. It seemed that only the third battalion of the special operations regiment led by Ji was in accordance with the above three conditions. Lao Gou was overjoyed, immediately took out a handful of French currency from his pocket, didn't even count it, and handed it to the young man who provided him with the good news, "Take it, this is all yours!"

  "I don't want the money, I'm really not here for the money!" The young man's face turned bright red as he loudly refused. But Lao Gou didn't listen and forcibly pulled his hand over, shoving the money into his palm. "Take it when I tell you to take it! Hurry up and move house after you get back. That Yang from your village is a coward, next time the Japanese come, he'll definitely sell you out as scapegoats!"

  The young man was startled, thought for a moment, and knew that the officer who gave him money was not talking nonsense. He picked up the money, bowed to Old Gou, turned around and ran quickly. As he watched his back disappear, Camp Chief Old Gou turned his head and said in a low voice to his brothers: "I didn't lie, I just said it's not everyone who is like Yang. Let's hurry up and try to cross those three big mountains on the east side before sunset today!"

  "Alright!" Shi Liangcai responded, and with renewed energy, the group quickened their pace, as if they could fly over the mountain to verify whether yesterday's encounter with the little devils was with a special task force. Unfortunately, it was easier said than done, and although the three large mountains in the east were not far away, their height was nothing out of the ordinary. However, when they actually started climbing, it was completely different from what they had imagined. It took them almost half the night to conquer two mountain peaks, and no matter what, they couldn't climb the remaining one.

  To prevent encountering the Japanese devils' search party, Lao Gou didn't dare let everyone exhaust themselves completely. He found a sheltered spot under a rock and ordered everyone to eat and rest. Dinner was still dried meat and steamed bun pieces, which were very difficult to swallow. But everyone had already lost the energy to care about the quality of food, so they just ate a few mouthfuls with cold water and fell asleep immediately.

  The next morning, Lao Gou woke everyone up one by one, "Add a bit more effort, and after crossing the mountain in front of us, we'll know who's going to deal with the devils!"

  "Alright, alright, stop nagging!" The group got up with a stretch in the morning twilight, rubbing their numb limbs and wiping their faces with towels dipped in water from the canteen. Then they casually chewed on something to fill their stomachs, dragging their heavy legs as they continued to climb through the mountains.

  The third mountain may be higher than the sum of the first two, at least Zhang Songling thinks so. He asked himself that his physical condition was not too bad, but his arms and legs were like lead and couldn't exert any strength. Fortunately, Shi Liangcai had been taking care of him all along, otherwise he would have rolled down from the slope due to his knees going soft.

  Within a few hundred meters of the summit, it was almost as if his brothers were pulling him along with ropes. Everyone was tied together with ropes, like a string of sugar canes, slowly moving forward. Several times they nearly fell off the cliff, but helped each other and slipped away from under the nose of the King of Hell. Unbeknownst to them, their fingers had already been ground skinless. Their bloody hands were stuck to the rocks, leaving behind a bright red mark every time they moved.

  "If I go on like this, even if I meet the enemy, I won't be able to pull the trigger." For a moment, Zhang Songling felt a deep regret in his heart. He regretted that he shouldn't have been stubborn and followed them, shouldn't have dragged everyone's legs down. But the next moment, he again stubbornly stretched out his hand towards another rock, stubbornly grasped it, leaving a newer, fresher blood stain on the surface of the stone.

  Suddenly, the pulling force from above increased sharply. He took two steps forward and quickly raised his head to see that the other end of the rope was wrapped around a large stone by the team leader, Lao Gou. The guard squad leader, Shi Liangcai, was using his feet against the base of the stone, pulling hard on the rope. Everyone in the team was excited, wanting to cheer and using all their strength, hands and feet working together to climb over the last stretch of mountain road. They converged at the top of the mountain, slapping each other's shoulders and backs, congratulating each other with a round of applause before releasing the ropes from their waists. A large stone, as big as a millstone, was dislodged and rolled down the mountain, sending up a cloud of yellow dust along the way. It disappeared halfway down the mountain where there were trees, leaving behind only the sound of rumbling echoes.

  "Be careful, everyone! Hold the rope tight! Shi Tou, you and Xiao Pangzi bring up the rear!" Lao Gou wiped the sweat from his brow, panting as he gave orders. When they set out, the east had just begun to show a pale light, but now the sun was already burning like a huge fireball.

  "Uh-huh!" Shi Liangcai replied weakly, tightening the rope again. The group walked one by one, looking out for each other as they searched for a path down the mountain. If they weren't careful, they'd slip on the loose rocks. After much difficulty, they finally reached the middle of the mountain, where Hu Feng, who was walking at the front of the group, stopped in his tracks, sniffing repeatedly. "What a strong smell!" he complained in a low voice, his eyebrows furrowed together. "It's coming from a bit north of here!"

  He dropped the rope and, like a monkey, pulled himself down the mountain, swiftly sliding down. Along the way, he constantly adjusted his direction to avoid crashing into large trees. It was a smell of gunpowder and flesh mixed together, which veteran soldiers were very familiar with. Zhu Laocong, Huang Xiaomao, and several other brothers closely followed, leaving the big trees behind them. After running for another ten or so minutes, they reached the bottom of the valley, standing silently on the stone blocks blackened by gunpowder.

  "What have I found, what have I found!" Zhang Songling had no mental preparation at all and was the last to arrive on the battlefield. As soon as he took his first glance, he felt like his five internal organs were rushing up to his throat. Corpses, everywhere were corpses, scattered all over the place, with at least one or two hundred bodies! Each corpse's head was facing towards the northern valley entrance, and each body was riddled with bullet holes.

  Those were the bodies of Chinese people, one next to another, telling later generations what kind of fierce battles had taken place here. The bodies of the little devils, on the other hand, were collected by their own people, as the victors of this pursuit war, the devils had enough time to clean up the battlefield.

  Although most of the bodies had been baked by the sun and were emitting a foul odor, and although the valley was swarming with flies of all sizes, Lao Gou still led the group to turn over each body. Those that could be laid out neatly were laid out neatly, and those whose eyes could be closed were closed. Many of the faces were very familiar to the group, and they couldn't help but shed sorrowful tears. However, the group was unable to collect the remains of their fallen comrades, and only managed to gather a large batch of hay and branches before leaving, piling them up between the bodies and setting them ablaze with lighters and gunpowder from bullets.

  The fierce flames were blown by the mountain wind, quickly igniting half of the valley. Lao Gou led Zhang Songling and others to rush to the south side of the valley mouth before the flames burned their clothes. Outside the valley mouth on the mountain road, many Japanese devils discarded what they thought was worthless spoils of war. Following the traces left by these spoils, they would easily bite the tail of the devil's army.

  No one asked if they were taking a path of self-destruction. The enemy troops that could force the three battalions to break through, at least had the scale of one or two complete squadrons. Using a small team of twelve people to cut off the rear of two Japanese squadrons was like moths flying into flames. However, they couldn't not do this, if they let the regiment commander Lao Ji and the remnants of the third battalion be annihilated by the enemy, they would never be able to rest easy for the rest of their lives.

  For the entire day, they followed the enemy's footsteps. Twice, they even bumped into the liaison soldiers sent back by the enemy and directly fired their guns, turning the enemy soldiers and horses into a beehive. At this moment, they were not afraid of exposing their tracks! They even hoped to be discovered by the enemy immediately, so that the enemy would have to divert troops to take care of the rear. The pressure on Lao Ji's side would be greatly reduced.

  This crazy move finally achieved the expected effect before dusk. After four groups of liaison soldiers sent to the rear were eliminated, the little devils cautiously changed their tactics. The surrounding mountains rose and fell, and no one wanted to take the risk of being attacked from both front and back. After a brief rest, about half a company of devils began to search backwards along the way they came, shooting at suspicious places along the way. Bullets fell on the surrounding rocks, sparking sparks everywhere.

  "Hey, isn't it great? The little devils really look up to us!" Hu Feng, who was responsible for scouting ahead, ran back with a dirty face and an unmistakable excitement.

  "Disperse and find a favorable terrain, try to drag the devils until nightfall!" The battalion commander, Lao Gou, holding two box cannons, first seized a favorable position on the side of the road for himself, then calmly assigned tasks. "I'll be at the forefront with Old Hu. Old Huang will guard my flank with four men, and Old Zhu will follow behind me with four men to fill in any gaps. Xiaoshi and Zhang Xiao Pangzi, you two will bring up the rear. After nightfall, one of you must survive to send a message back to Commander Chi!"

  "Yes!" The comrades all knew that tonight might be their last battle, but they still answered clearly. Captain Gou nodded in satisfaction, no longer bothering to talk, and poked the box cannon with the sawed-off sight out from behind the stone, aiming at the nasal bone under a Japanese soldier's helmet.

  That Japanese soldier had no idea that death was just around the corner, still holding his Type 38 rifle, looking left and right. The setting sun was like a yellow egg yolk, stuck on the distant mountain top, burning the rocks on the mountain top bright red. Then, the whole world caught fire, engulfing his body and soul together.

  "Enemy attack! Enemy attack!" Several other devils responsible for scouting shouted loudly, holding up their Type 38 rifles to search for the sneak attackers. Zhu Lao Cong and Huang Xiao Mao and others quickly emerged from behind the rocks with their guns, shooting scorching bullets into the devils' chests. Five devils died on the spot, blood flowing everywhere through the gaps in the stones. Four other devils were seriously injured, wailing as they rolled back and forth in the pool of blood.

  "Fire, fire fiercely!" Lao Gou shouted loudly, and the box cannon fired left and right. Two more devils were hit, holding their bellies and rolling down the cliff by the side of the road, wailing and gunfire echoing back and forth in the valley!