Chapter 5: Going to the Front Line Again

  He didn't expect to hit another devil, and Zhang Songling felt a surge of indescribable excitement. The discomfort in his stomach quickly dissipated, and he continued to chew on the yellow lotus root while aiming at the little devil. However, this time he was not as lucky as before. The moving shadows of his comrades kept interfering with his line of sight. Several times, he had clearly locked onto the enemy with his sights, but just as he was about to pull the trigger, he discovered that one of his own comrades was blocking his gun, and he had to shift his target again.

  "Sly little devil!" Zhang Songling muttered under his breath, spitting out a mouthful of yellow lotus soup. Then he re-holstered the safety catch on his rifle and reinserted it into his waistband. Just as he was about to reach back for the large knife, he inadvertently touched the German-made Type 24 slung over his shoulder, quickly unslung it, half-knelt on the ground, and used the sight to search for new prey.

  Although this thing needs to be fired once and retreated with a bullet, the muzzle is much more stable than the box cannon. Soon, Zhang Songling found a suitable target, and before his brothers rushed up, he knocked it down with one shot.

  "This is for Grandpa Wei!" He spat out another mouthful of yellow lotus soup, cocked the rifle, and ejected the shell. "This..." The sight passed through layer upon layer of people's shadows, locking onto a Japanese sergeant. The sergeant also saw the gun barrel at the same time, shouting as he dodged to the side. Unexpectedly, he crashed right into Shi Liangcai's knife, and was split in two by the latter with one slash.

  It turned out that they also knew how to be afraid! Suddenly, Zhang Songling felt that the Japanese devils were not as fierce as when he first encountered them. At that time in Weizhuang Village, he and Lao Junshi and others had taken advantage of the situation and terrain, but hadn't even lasted twenty minutes before being defeated by a dozen or so little devils. However, today, more than a hundred Japanese devils were being forced to retreat step by step by the special operations team, although some wounded Japanese soldiers continued to pull the pin on hand grenades and die together with the surrounding Chinese people. But everyone could see that the overall situation of the battle had already been decided, and no matter how hard the little devils struggled, they would be powerless to turn the tide.

  The brothers of the Special Operations Team, led by Lao Gou, continued to charge forward. The Japanese lieutenant had been wounded, his helmet hanging from his neck, and his head was covered in blood. Around him were about thirty or forty Japanese soldiers, holding bayonets and curled up like a hedgehog, shouting desperately, "Banzai! Banzai!"

  "Board the coffin!" Camp Commander Gou raised the box cannon and knocked down two Japanese soldiers who were facing him. "The first company stays to solve the battle, the second and third companies go to blow up the big gun!"

  "Yes!" The second and third company commanders loudly responded, leading their brothers to rush towards the artillery position. The gathered Japanese pirates may have understood Lao Gou's words, or perhaps they knew that even if they gathered together, they couldn't stop the rifle bullets, suddenly let out a miserable cry, "Boarding!", scattered in all directions, counter-charging, trying to exchange lives for lives.

  Lao Gou shot and knocked down a devil, then quickly moved the muzzle to the second one. He pulled the trigger, but there was no bullet left in the shotgun. "Damn it!" he cursed softly, putting the shotgun back into his waistband, holding the knife handle with both hands, ready to give the little devil a fatal blow. But before he could even turn the knife around, a gunshot suddenly sounded by his ear, and the little devil who was trying to fight him to the death had a jet of black blood spurt from his chest, stumbling and falling down.

  "Damn it!" Old Gou cursed again, kicking away the Japanese corpse and looking for his third opponent. This time, before he even raised his knife, a bullet blew open the Japanese soldier's skull, splattering white and red everywhere. "Who's so blind?!" Old Gou was furious, his eyebrows inverted in anger, but when he turned around, he saw Shi Liangcai's sly smile. "Sir, no need to use a cow knife to kill a chicken. You go take care of that officer, leave the small fries for me!" Shi Liangcai loudly flattered his superior, while his hands didn't stop moving, firing his shotgun in a cross pattern, taking out all the Japanese soldiers closest to Old Gou.

  Other warriors, like Ishizaki, could kill devils by themselves and would not let others do it for them. Soon, except for Lieutenant Satō, who was spinning around with his command sword, there were no more living little devils.

  "It's not fair!" Lieutenant Sato Shin'ichi, the Japanese devil, bellowed in Japanese, his two eyes red like a mad dog. No one understood what he was saying, and even if they did, no one thought it necessary to talk about fairness with the devils. Officer Lao Gou took a step forward, swinging his knife, ready to give Lieutenant Sato a fatal blow. "Bang!" Another gunshot rang out, and a bullet flew from behind, grazing his arm and shooting into Lieutenant Sato's abdomen.

  "Ah——" Lieutenant Sato let out a miserable cry, spinning around in place, but didn't immediately lose consciousness, and instead suffered with snot and tears flowing out together. "Peng!" Another bullet flew in from outside the crowd, thoroughly ending his suffering.

  "Who the hell is so daring, stealing my business!" Lao Gou glared furiously in the direction of the gunshot, only to see Zhang Songling holding a rifle, his face full of expectation as he looked at him, waiting for his praise.

  "How did the old master collect such a scourge!" The camp commander, Lao Gou, was so angry that his eyes were about to spout fire, but he couldn't argue with a new recruit who had been enlisted for less than ten days. He turned around in hatred and led his brothers to assist the second and third companies in cleaning up the devils' cannons.

  The little devil's artillery had long been awakened by the sound of gunfire from their sleep. Whether on duty or not, each took up rifles and pistols, shrinking behind a gate of fire, making a desperate last stand. When they found out that Sato's platoon was on the verge of collapse, one by one they went crazy, no longer holding guns to fight against the brothers of the Special Service Battalion's 2nd and 3rd companies, but instead opening the cannon door and stuffing in strings of hand grenades!

  "Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!", the intense hand grenade explosion sounded inside the barrel. The brothers of the 2nd and 3rd companies of the special task force, who were engaged in a fierce gun battle with the Japanese artillerymen, were stunned and couldn't understand what was happening. After destroying more than a dozen field guns, the Japanese artillerymen laughed wildly as if they had gained a great advantage, and gathered around several lieutenants. Then, holding up their rifles, pistols, and command knives, they launched a suicidal charge against the Chinese troops who outnumbered them!

  "On board!"

  "On board!"

  The desperate cries of the brothers of the second and third companies of the Special Operations Brigade rose and fell, with a hint of pity, they pulled the trigger and shot dead the devils who were counter-attacking halfway.

  "A few men went up, took down everything that could be dismantled from the big gun and threw it into the mountain ditch!" The third company commander Wang Tien-han had participated in the Central Plains War and knew how to deal with this kind of field artillery more cleanly and thoroughly. He gave a loud order.

  Dozens of brothers who were already prepared pulled out live wrenches and tiger pliers from their waists, rushed to the side of the cannon that had been blown up, and wherever they saw bolts, they randomly screwed them off. The rear half of the cannon's body and its frame quickly became pieces of varying sizes. Wang Tien-han led his men in piling large pieces with the shells, packing small pieces and bolts into bags to be carried on their shoulders. Then under each pile of shells, they inserted a package of explosives and began laying out fuses.

  "Quickly, a bit more!" Officer Lao Gou led his company over, just in time to see the long fuse on the ground. He urged them on in a low voice, then turned his gaze to Company Commander Gong Ziqiang, "Take your men to finish up. Give each of those devils an extra stab, and get our people out of here - whether they're martyred or wounded. I won't leave my brothers to be buried with beasts!"

  "Yes!" Palace Ziqiang replied with red eyes, leading the first company to sweep the battlefield. Tonight's surprise attack, the main task of attacking the fortress was undertaken by the first company. Although they successfully blew up all the enemy's artillery towers, the first company also paid a huge price. Nearly half of the brothers fell under the enemy's gunfire and would never wake up again.

  "Others, go and set everything around that can be ignited on fire for me, don't leave anything for the little devils!" Lao Gou gave a glance around and ordered his comrades in the guard squad.

  Shi Liangcai led the whole class of soldiers and Zhang Songling, a new recruit who had been tested in battle, to set fire. In no time, they turned the enemy's barracks into a huge torch. Officer Lao Gou pricked up his ears to listen to the commotion around him, waved his hand at all the brothers, "Withdraw, rush over to that wooden bridge, we'll go to Liangxiang and rendezvous with the 31st Division! Let Chi Fengzi treat us to a drink!"

  "Good!" The brothers shouted excitedly, gathered in a team, followed behind Lao Gou, and quickly withdrew from the devils' artillery position, retreating into the surrounding mountains that rose and fell continuously.

  "Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!", the huge explosion sounded one after another behind the team, all the shells left by the devils on the position were blown into the sky by the blasting group of the third company. As they walked, Zhang Songling, who was walking shoulder to shoulder with Shi Liangcai in the front row of the team, slowly stopped his footsteps, turned his head, and looked at the place where the fire was rising like a dream, and a strong desire for revenge suddenly surged up in his heart.

  "I've gone to the front lines, I didn't deceive others into sending them to their deaths while hiding myself in the rear! I'm not a coward! Brother Zhou, Tian Pangzi, Weiwei, did you see that?" He smiled bleakly and silently asked the stars in the sky. Several shooting stars quickly slid across the dawn sky, leaving behind several dazzling trails of light in the brilliant Milky Way.

  Zhang Songling quietly stretched out his hand to wipe away the tears from the corner of his eyes, then stepped out with both legs and followed closely behind the troops. When they were crossing the third mountain ridge, he heard again the unique sound of the German-made light machine gun, "Da-da-da... Da-da-da... Da-da-da, da-da-da..." It was Hei Shouzi, the squad leader of the 3rd company, leading his brothers in ambushing the enemy's reinforcements. Nobody knew if they would have another chance to shake off the enemy's pursuit, but nobody in the whole troop looked back.

  The whole team moved silently like a long dragon, winding its way between the hills and valleys. Soon even the footprints left on the grass were blown away by the mountain wind, as if they had never appeared at all, leaving no trace behind.

  Note 1: Banzai, which should be the Japanese word for "long life". During World War II, devils usually shouted a few "Banzais" before committing suicide to boost their morale.