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

  The little devils were thoroughly stunned, they didn't expect that under their eyelids, so many Chinese would suddenly pop out. They also didn't think that the Chinese team, which had been on the defensive for days without counterattacking, still had such courage to risk being discovered and annihilated, crossing through layers of obstacles to sneak up on their artillery positions.

  Lieutenant Sato, a samurai who had received formal military education and was in charge of leading the protection of the artillery, immediately adjusted his tactics upon seeing that the barbed wire and artillery tower had lost their effectiveness. He abandoned the two wings and gathered his troops to prepare for a head-on confrontation with the Chinese troops. With his command sword drawn, he shouted loudly towards the sky and quickly assembled the scattered soldiers around him.

  The advantage of the devils in firepower configuration immediately emerged. All surviving machine gunners from the three squads concentrated on the front line, with six light machine guns lined up in a row, and more than 100 Type 38 Arisaka rifles wove out a dark red bullet curtain. In an instant, it swept away a large piece of the vanguard brothers of the special operations team.

  "Boom!" "Boom!" The German-made mortars of the special operations team fired again, sending two Japanese machine guns and four machine gunners into the sky. Immediately following, the light machine gunners of the special operations team also rushed up, engaging in a shootout with the Japanese machine guns at a distance of less than 100 steps. The rest of the special operations team members quickly lay down, turned their rifles sideways, and fired a row of scorching bullets from left to right.

  Several watchtowers turned into torches, with fierce flames and thick smoke illuminating the entire battlefield in a flickering manner. To ensure accurate shooting, both sides aimed at each other's muzzle flashes at extremely close range, pulling the trigger to exchange lives. Both sides believed they would be the final victors, exchanging blows in a life-or-death struggle. "Rat-a-tat-tat, rat-a-tat-tat..." Bullets with trailing flames whizzed by, scorching hair and making it stand on end.

  Another Japanese light machine gun fell silent, followed by a special operations team's machine gun. Two regular and deputy shooters were hit by bullets, one was hit on the helmet and fell to the ground without making a sound. The other was injured in the chest and was pushed out half a meter away by the inertia of the bullet. He refused to give up and crawled towards the machine gun inch by inch in the pool of blood. Platoon leader Wang Tien-han made a tiger-like dash, picked up the machine gun, and fired at the Japanese shooter again. The Japanese shooter was hit by the machine gun and had his chest blown open with a huge bloody hole, and his shattered internal organs sprayed out of his wide-open mouth. Immediately afterwards, two special miniature grenades landed next to Wang Tien-han with a sharp whistling sound and exploded loudly.

  The machine gun flew into the air, and Wang Tien-han's bodyguard covered his superior with his own body at the last moment, being blown to pieces all over. The next instant, Wang Tien-han crawled out from under the bodyguard's corpse, wiped away the blood and tears on his face, grabbed a German-made 24, aimed at the Japanese army's grenade launcher, and pulled the trigger.

  Another Japanese grenade launcher crawled into the pit, quickly adjusting the angle of the launcher. Ishiyama saw him out of the corner of his eye, picked up a Type 38 rifle from the ground, quickly ejected the shell, and pulled the trigger. "Bang!" After the crisp gunshot, the Japanese grenadier's head was blown off, red and white, especially dazzling in the light of the flames.

  More special agents rushed forward, unfolding a fan-shaped formation, surrounding the desperate little devils with rifles and shotguns firing in unison. The platoon leader Sato's makeshift defensive firepower, consisting of six light machine guns, was quickly suppressed. Officer Lao Gou leapt up, firing his shotgun left and right, making the enemy closest to him dare not lift their heads. Company commander Gong Ziqiang also led dozens of brothers, emerging from the side of the devils like ghosts, each holding a large knife with blood dripping from the blade!

  "Charge, kill the devils!" Someone suddenly shouted, and in an instant, all the brothers of the special task force jumped up from the ground like a wave. The devil's platoon leader Sato also made his final move, commanding his knife to thrust forward fiercely, "All-out charge!".

  Although the number was less than a third of the enemy's, the devils still stood up from their hiding place without hesitation, ejected the bullets and put on bayonets. "Come on!" Company Commander Guo Ziqiang took an arrow step into the enemy group, his big knife swept diagonally from left to right, two arms and one leg flew up, and a Type 38 rifle was also chopped off.

  The wounded little devil soldier fell to the ground with a mournful cry. Several nearby little devil soldiers turned their bayonets and alternately stabbed at Wang Ziqiang's chest, forcing him to retreat a step and almost fall over. He dodged another slash by turning sideways, avoiding the desperate attack of the little devil who was eager to make a name for himself. The little devil lost his balance and fell onto Wang Ziqiang's body, disrupting the other devils' line of attack. Without hesitation, Wang Ziqiang swung his sword down and chopped off the little devil's head like cutting a watermelon.

  The remaining several soldiers rushed to the scene, protecting each other, and cut out a semicircular opening in front of Gong Ziqiang. Inside the opening, the broken limbs of the devils were scattered all over the ground. Outside the semicircular opening, more than a dozen devil soldiers held their rifles with bayonets, their legs trembling non-stop. Suddenly, a superior soldier went mad, dropped his rifle with a bayonet, took out a small black grenade from his waist pocket, and rushed towards the knife cluster with both hands holding it. A brother of the Special Operations Team swooped in diagonally, swept away the devil soldier's head with one knife, and then covered his own body on top of the smoking grenade without hesitation.

  "Boom!" A dull, muffled sound. The eyes of all the Chinese people turned red. "Brother, slow down! I'll send you a few backing boards!" Gong Lian shouted hoarsely, and rushed into the pile of devils again, his knife rising and falling...

  At this time on the battlefield, the soldiers of both sides had completely mixed together, using big knives and bayonets to fight to the death. The 26th Route Army's family law was powerful and heavy, often with just a few knife cuts, they could split the devils' rifles into two pieces like firewood. And the little devils were far superior to the special service corps brothers in terms of small-scale coordination. Although being chopped by big knives, they could always take care of each other, bit by bit, and turn the situation around again.

  There were also some wounded devils who knew they had no hope of survival. They simply took out hand grenades and desperately rolled them under the feet of the Chinese soldiers. "Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!" The explosion sounded back and forth in a small area, sometimes knocking down Chinese soldiers, sometimes blowing up their own people. The brothers of the special operations team had redder and redder eyes, and gradually, they even forgot the purpose of this trip. Wherever there were more devils, they charged towards that direction with big knives. No matter whether the devils under their feet were dead or alive, as long as they saw them, they would brutally stab them again.

  The squad leader hastily shouted loudly: "Pull back and use box-shaped cannons to greet them. Don't get entangled in close combat!"

  "Pull back, use the box to fire at them. Don't get into a firefight! The 38 rifle can only be fired once!" The guards who followed Lao Gou closely also shouted loudly, repeating their superior's orders.

  In the 38 rifle, there was no bullet at all! The huge penetration capability of this gun led to the devils having to remove the bullets from the barrel during a charge, lest they shoot through both enemies and their own people in the chaos. The brothers of the Special Operations Unit fired only a few shots before discovering the enemy's fatal weakness. Seizing the opportunity, they inserted the big knife into the ground, pulled out the second family heirloom from their waist, flipped their wrist, and slowly moved it from left to right, "Ping, ping, ping, ping..."

  The advantage of the box cannon's continuous firing was fully demonstrated at a distance of less than ten meters. Especially for these old soldiers of the Special Operations Brigade, almost every one of them was trained by Sun Lianzhong with bullets that cost blood and money. Within ten meters, it is impossible to miss the target. A whole row of devils holding bayonets and preparing to fight to the death at any time were shot into rolling pumpkins before they could even make an evasive posture. The devils in the back row hurriedly looked for a place to lie down, but suddenly realized that the fact that there was no ammunition left in their guns, like madmen, jumped up again, holding bayonets and charging forward fiercely.

  "Bang!" Zhang Songling finally grasped an opportunity and used his box cannon to blow off a Japanese soldier's neck. The Japanese soldier's head quickly twisted backwards, but his body continued to charge forward. It charged all the way until it was less than two meters away from Zhang Songling before falling down like a rotten old tree. The snow-bright bayonet stabbed into the ground, and if it had gone half an inch further forward, it would have pierced through Zhang Songling's foot.

  "Damn it!" Zhang Songling was startled, and the second bullet didn't know where it flew to. Another devil soldier came cheaply, holding a bayonet and pounced on him. Zhang Songling was anxious and sweaty, instinctively turning the rifle shell, with his back up and palm down, left and right hands firing simultaneously. "Bang, bang, bang, bang..." I don't know how many bullets were fired by him in one breath, the devil soldier's body was cut off at the waist, with more than a dozen blood holes, trembling, and silently broke into two pieces.

  Blood spurted out from the lower half of his body, splashing Zhang Songling's head and face. His stomach churned with nausea, and he opened his mouth to vomit up everything he had eaten that night. Just then, someone nearby shouted loudly, "You're looking for death!" Suddenly, Officer Gou's figure appeared in his line of sight, his large knife slanted at an angle, sending a Japanese soldier who was mere inches away flying into the air along with his gun.

  "I, I..." Zhang Songling couldn't help but feel a wave of nausea wash over him despite having seen blood before. He continued to vomit uncontrollably. Officer Lao Gou kicked him hard in the chest, sending him tumbling to the ground. "If you're going to throw up, do it on the ground, don't make yourself a target for bayonets!"

  Having finished speaking, he continued with one hand holding a knife and the other holding a shotgun, leading his own guard squad to kill deep into the battlefield.

  "Chew on it!" Shi Liangcai also quickly ran past Zhang Songling's side, dropping a black thing. Zhang Songling picked it up from the blood pool like he had obtained a treasure, without wiping it clean, and directly stuffed it into his mouth. A strong licorice flavor surged up from the root of his tongue, rushing straight to his forehead. At this point, he completely forgot about feeling nauseous, picked up a pair of box-shaped cannons again, and slowly took aim at the Japanese soldiers who were not far away and on the verge of collapse.

  In the firelight, a Japanese sergeant holding a command knife was caught in the sights. Zhang Songling held his breath and pulled the trigger decisively, "Bang!" The bullet pierced through the crowd and made a small hole in the sergeant's chest. The sergeant hesitated, lowered his head, dropped the command knife, and fell backwards to the ground.