Chapter 5: Going to the Front Lines (Part 2)

  Twelve members of the small squad, however, brought seventeen boxes of artillery. On the narrow mountain road, a dark red firepower network was instantly woven. In the blink of an eye, fourteen or fifteen little devils were knocked down, and the remaining ones immediately became dizzy, forgetting to open fire and counterattack, holding their Type 38 rifles and searching for hiding spots everywhere.

  Zhang Songling's gunfire soon opened, his marksmanship in the small squad was only average, not as good as Lao Gou and others who could shoot with a flick of their wrist. He simply calmed down and aimed at the devils one by one.

  A notorious little devil corporal poked out half of his head from behind a stone, loudly calling out to the devil soldiers under his command. Zhang Songling used his rifle scope to aim at him, slowly pulling the trigger. "Bang!" The bullet whizzed through a distance of thirty meters, blowing off the little devil corporal's hat, and amidst the red and white flash, he leapt high into the air.

  "Get out of China again!" Zhang Songling cursed, his gun muzzle continuing to move slowly. This time, he found a Japanese sergeant. The sergeant was holding a Type 38 rifle and trying to organize a counterattack, when the bullets from the box cannon drilled into his chin and came out through his neck vertebrae. The miserable Japanese sergeant dropped his Type 38 rifle and reached up to cover his neck.

  After the recent days of intense study, Zhang Songling can now basically distinguish the levels represented by the scattered symbols on the little devil's military uniform. Today, there are enough devils, and no one will blame him for competing with his superiors for credit. Therefore, almost every shot he takes is aimed at the lower-ranking officers of the devils.

  The third one he targeted was a devilish squad leader, about forty years old. He had extremely rich combat experience and almost every time he exposed his head, he immediately changed his hiding position. Zhang Songling stared at him without blinking, constantly summarizing the rules of this person's appearance. When the devilish squad leader jumped out from behind the stone again to organize a counterattack, he decisively pulled the trigger of the box cannon. The bullet, with a hint of twilight, drilled into the devilish squad leader's shoulder pit. The squad leader let out a sharp cry and quickly fell to the ground behind the stone. Zhang Songling fired another shot, missing the target but scaring away the devilish soldier who came to bandage the squad leader, causing him to roll back to his hiding place. "Pfft!" He snorted in disdain, turning the box cannon towards another devilish superior soldier.

  "Watch out! Take cover!" Before he could steady his gun, Shi Liangcai suddenly darted over from the side and tackled him into a forward roll. The two of them tumbled more than six meters before grabbing onto a protruding rock at the edge of the cliff. At the same time, a grenade exploded with a long, piercing whistle where he had just been hiding, sending rocks and dirt flying everywhere.

  "Take out the grenade launcher first!" Shi Liangcai took advantage of the smoke cover to stick his head out and knocked down the enemy's grenade launcher 50 meters away. Another enemy sergeant ran forward, crouching to pick up the grenade launcher, and was shot in the head by him again. Immediately afterwards, an enemy light machine gun turned its muzzle and fired a string of sparks on the stone slab in front of Shi Liangcai. "Dang dang dang dang..." In the monotonous sound of the light machine gun firing, Shi Liangcai's body quickly fell to the ground. Then he emerged from behind another boulder unscathed, raised his hand and silenced the enemy's light machine gun.

  "Watch out for each other and don't give the enemy organization a chance to attack!" Officer Lao Gou shouted, reminding his comrades to pay attention to their mutual coordination.

  "Got it!" Huang Xiaomao and Zhu Laotai responded impatiently, firing crosswise from the front and sides, forcing the devils to hide behind rocks without daring to show their heads.

  "Stones, Zhang Xiaobai. You two are specifically responsible for taking down the mortar and light machine gunners, take them out before they even know what's happening!" Lao Gou shook his head and continued to issue orders.

  "Understood, sir!" Shi Songling responded loudly, poking out the box cannon from his hiding place and firing three shots in a row, turning a Jap who was trying to pick up a grenade launcher into a sieve.

  Zhang Songling also saw the example and learned from it, no longer looking for devils' officers, but instead changing the priority attack target of the box cannon to devils' grenade launchers and light machine gunners.

  Within less than fifty meters, the firepower advantage of the box cannon was fully utilized. Several Japanese light machine gunners and grenade launchers hadn't even entered a state before Shi Liangcai and Zhang Songling sent them to see the Heavenly God of War. The remaining light machine gunners and grenade launchers saw that the situation was unfavorable and didn't dare look for suitable attacking positions, holding their light machine guns and grenade launchers as they continuously retreated. Lao Gou and Hu Fengxu used the box cannon to chase after them, knocking them down one by one from behind.

  All the living devils began to retreat in a hurry, one hand holding the Type 38 rifle and the other covering their helmets, with their buttocks raised high, just like a female donkey in spring. Lao Gou led his brothers in loud laughter and shooting, leaving corpse after corpse on both sides of the mountain road.

  After abandoning more than thirty corpses, the devils retreated to the corner of the mountain road. Zhang Songling's line of sight could no longer see any living enemy, putting his gun on a rock, panting heavily. The air was filled with the strong smell of gunpowder and fresh blood, almost choking him to tears. However, he seemed to enjoy this smell very much, wiping his nose and taking several deep breaths, as if drinking strong wine.

  Zhu Lao Cong and Huang Xiao Mao put down their guns, taking advantage of the temporary retreat of the devils to tidy up their shoes and leggings, and count their bullets. In the previous skirmish, the small squad had occupied the advantageous positions of heaven, earth and man, catching the devils off guard. But the next battle would probably not be so easy, as the number of people on the devil's side was far greater than that of the small squad, and the little devil soldiers had been winning victories for a while, their morale was very high, even though they had lost nearly a third of their men, they would not admit defeat and run away.

  It seemed to confirm their expectations, and soon the roar of the grenade launcher sounded again from around the bend in the mountain road. It was a weapon specially developed for frontline infantry by the little devils, and Zhang Songling had experienced its power at the entrance of Weizhuang Village. At that time, Zhang Songling still thought it was a small cannon, but later he heard the real name of this thing from Shi Liangcai's mouth, grenade launcher.

  A single grenade launcher weighs only about five kilograms, but can launch a specially designed hand grenade to a distance of over 200 meters. The shrapnel from the explosion of this special hand grenade has a lethal range of up to 5-8 meters. In the past, when our troops were engaged in close combat with the devils, this thing was the most troublesome.

  In the previous battle with the devils, Lao Gou had already instructed everyone to focus on the devils' grenade launcher and light machine gun. However, the small team was limited in number after all, and they managed to hold onto two grenade launchers and three light machine guns, but let the remaining grenade launcher and light machine gun operators roll out of the range of the box cannon's fire. At this moment, the devils finally understood the situation and began to fully utilize their firepower advantage from a distance of 170 meters and around a mountain road bend.

  "Boom——" "Boom——" "Boom——" The monotonous sound of mortar fire continued unabated. Officer Lao Gou led a small squad in a swift retreat. Just as they ran out more than ten meters, the place where they had been hiding was already completely covered by the flames of exploding grenades. The well-trained devils' mortar team almost formed a horizontal line with their grenades, from one side's right slope to the outside, all the way to the cliffside of the mountain road.

  Large boulders were blown into the air, then fell rapidly with shrapnel and sparks. In the deep valley on the left side of the mountain road, a roar like that of a flood sounded, rumbling, rumbling, as if hundreds of ghosts were marching out. As the smoke and dust from the grenade explosion gradually dispersed, the place where the small squad had been hiding was completely unrecognizable. Smaller rocks had disappeared entirely, while some larger ones had been pulled out of the mud, trembling slowly with the echoes in the valley.

  "Damn it!" Lao Gou cursed in a low voice, leading the crowd to find a new hiding spot. At the same time, Xiaogui's band-aid flag reappeared from around the bend of the mountain road, followed by four Type 99 light machine guns responsible for clearing the way.

  Rat-a-tat-tat, rat-a-tat-tat, rat-a-tat-tat... Whether or not they saw the target, the devils' submachine guns swept back and forth wildly. The effective range of these guns far exceeded the small squad's rifles, although there were pauses during firing due to constant magazine changes, but with four submachine guns working together, they easily regained control of the battlefield.

  "Rat-a-tat-tat!" Bullets whizzed past, reflecting the last rays of the setting sun, flying wildly above everyone's heads. Zhang Songling struggled to poke his rifle out from behind a boulder, trying to knock out the enemy's light machine gun, but found that at a distance of nearly 150 meters, he had no chance of hitting it.

  The devils found the firepower cover tactic effective, and their confidence greatly increased. Four light machine gunners, with the help of eight deputy shooters, alternated between sweeping and slowly advancing forward. Meanwhile, group after group of devil infantrymen, carrying Type 38 rifles, slipped out from behind the machine gunners and quickly occupied suitable attacking positions.

  The longer the stalemate lasted, the more unfavorable the situation became for the small squad. If the Japanese infantry were allowed to disperse on the half-slope and make a flanking maneuver, the small squad would probably be annihilated! Zhu Laocong saw that things were not going well, made a hand gesture to his companions beside him, crouched down and ran up the slope for several steps. Then he poked out half of his body from behind a small tree and fired a burst at the light machine gun 150 meters away.

  "Rat-a-tat, rat-a-tat..." The bullets from the box-shaped gun flew out in a row, sweeping towards the enemy's light machine gunner. However, they all hit empty spaces and did not cause any substantial harm to the enemy. Immediately, the enemy's machine guns began to adjust their direction, two of the four guns turned their muzzles and fired at the small tree where Zhu Laocong was hiding, causing wood chips to fly everywhere. The brother who had a tacit understanding with Zhu Laocong poked his head out and alternately fired the box-shaped gun with both hands, knocking one of the enemy's machine gunners to the ground.

  "Chirp!" "Chirp!" "Chirp!" Before the brother could hide again, more than a dozen 38-style large-caliber guns fired simultaneously, hitting him and making him stand up from behind the stone, flipping backwards. Blood flowers sprayed out from his chest and back like a fountain, splashing Zhang Songling's head and face.