Chapter Fourteen: Breaching the Enemy's Array

  Gunsmoke is filling the air, bullets are already loaded, and the bayonet hanging from the muzzle is gleaming with a bloodthirsty chill.

  The soldiers of the 137th Regiment's 1st Battalion did not know what a charge meant, but the sight of the 259th Regiment's men being mowed down as they advanced rapidly in front of them prepared them mentally to some extent. However, with their rifles at the ready, none of them showed any signs of cowardice; on the contrary, there was even a hint of excitement on their faces, and the brutal factor that had been buried deep within them was ignited by the bloody battlefield, unleashing their killer instincts.

  "Comrades, follow me forward and kill, break through the enemy's position, cut off the enemy's head! The dignity of our country is in your hands, grasping the steel gun. A man's dignity depends on you to maintain with your own actions. I hope that after we charge down the enemy's position, every one of the 137th regiment who dies or gets injured will be shot from the front chest, not from the back. Do you understand? Cowards who retreat will be considered traitors and executed! Kill!" Feng Ping shouted loudly, firing two shots into the air with his gun. The entire first battalion charged forward bravely.

  You Fei had been observing Feng Ping all along, and he saw that when his brothers rushed forward, Feng Ping also immediately mixed in with the crowd and rushed forward, without showing any signs of hiding behind like he had imagined. His grandfather still has some human-like qualities! You Fei exclaimed in his heart. Looking around, he only saw Huang Long, He Tianhao, Jiang Zhuang, and Xu Zhiwei guarding him on all sides. You Fei coughed heavily, furrowed his brow, and glared at the four of them with a fierce gaze. The four younger brothers knew what You Fei meant, let out a soft sigh, and dispersed to keep a distance from him. On the battlefield, being able to preserve one's own life was already a blessing from one's ancestors; how could these four still want to protect him? This was really infuriating for You Fei.

  The soldiers of the 1st Battalion, lying prone on the ground, rushed forward quickly, with officers and men falling down continuously along the way. When they reached a place only 50 meters away from the enemy's position, the attacking 259th Brigade, 146th Regiment was stuck here and could not move forward any further. Except for more than a dozen machine gunners who had not been knocked out by the enemy and were able to take cover behind sandbags, all other soldiers could only lie prone on the ground and did not dare to lift their heads. Dense bullets flew over their heads with a swooshing sound. How could they advance forward without getting up?

  The 146th Regiment, which was replaced by the attacking force, also faced great pressure at this time. There were large piles of bodies of soldiers from the 146th Regiment on the ground. At this moment, the soldiers of the 1st Battalion of the 137th Regiment lay down among the bodies of their comrades, and the enemy's firepower in front was still sharp. The machine guns that kept scanning the enemy's fortifications in front were covered with hatred in Feng Ping's eyes.

  "Come on, bring it up!" Feng Ping shouted loudly.

  Zhong Wu loudly responded, and with a hand gesture, he ordered the 2nd and 3rd rows of soldiers to charge forward. The officers and men of the 2nd and 3rd rows received the order without any hesitation, and they charged forward with a loud whooshing sound. They dodged left and right, wildly yelling to alleviate their fear of death in their hearts. At this moment, their minds were completely blank, and all they could remember was to charge forward, charge forward.

  "Hand grenades, give me a fatal blow!!" Feng Ping loudly commanded at the critical moment when the enemy's firepower was attracted by the soldiers of 1st and 2nd squads.

  Each warrior had two hand grenades hanging from their chest, and upon hearing Feng Ping's order, they all pulled the safety pins and threw thousands of hand grenades at the enemy position at such a close distance. This was quite deadly, and soon the devils in the fort were blown up with wails filling the air, while even more devils were blasted into the sky.

  Mu Zhongwu leapt up from the ground, shouting loudly: "Brothers, follow Old Mu and charge forward to kill!" Mu Zhongwu was the first to take a big stride forward, holding his rifle with bayonet fixed, followed closely by more than 80 soldiers of Company 1's 1st and 4th Platoons.

  "Machine gunner, give me suppressive fire! Brothers of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th squads follow me in a charge forward!" Feng Ping saw Mu Zhongwu charging forward and for some reason felt a surge of heat in his heart, so he also stood up and charged forward. The dozen or so soldiers of the guard squad were scared to the point of almost fainting, and they hastily followed closely behind to protect Feng Ping, surrounding him tightly on all sides. If anything happened to Feng Ping, these dozen or so people would be unable to escape blame, and that would mean losing their heads.

  "Good! Good! Good!" Yi Anhua, who was observing the battle from behind, exclaimed loudly at this time, and his hand holding the binoculars also trembled with excitement. He didn't expect the 137th Regiment to be so brave and fierce, although they were relying on the power of grenades and the previous sacrifice of the 259th Brigade's soldiers. However, for a rookie unit like the 137th Regiment, such a sharp and strong morale was truly admirable. As he watched the 137th Regiment get closer and closer to the western wing position, the Japanese defenders on the eastern wing were also affected, and the resistance against the 147th Regiment's attack temporarily eased. Yi Anhua let out a long sigh and said, "It should be okay now."

  The 137th Regiment's powerful new force instantly brought about a fundamental change in the originally stagnant battlefield. The fire strongpoints of the defenders on the west wing were mostly eliminated, and the morale of the defenders was greatly reduced. Seeing the 137th Regiment rushing forward, the 146th Regiment quickly followed up from the second line 100 meters away.

  At this time, the vanguard of the western wing was the 1st and 4th squads of the 1st Company of the 137th Regiment. The original 2nd and 3rd squads had already made the ultimate sacrifice for the country as the spearhead troops, their fallen bodies paving the way for the advancing soldiers behind them.

  People kept falling down in front of and behind him, You Fei only felt his heart beating very fast, at this time he no longer had the time to think about anything else, just kept running forward with all his might. The bloody smell around him made him feel both hair-raising and boiling blood throughout his body, a desire for battle surged out of his body, unstoppable.

  Yu Fei dodged and weaved through the bullets, running forward with great difficulty. He had to constantly glance down at the ground to observe the mud pits, as stepping into one would cause his legs to get stuck, requiring a long struggle to free himself. During this time, he would become an easy target for the enemy, and the dense hail of bullets could easily turn him into a sieve.

  Sweat dripping, extremely tense mentally, the flying troops couldn't stop swallowing saliva, surrounded by flames and continuous wailing sounds, this wasn't hell but a slaughterhouse on earth. Finally, after just 50 meters and tens of seconds, the first batch of soldiers from Company 1 charged to the forefront of the position.

  You Fei was also among the warriors in this batch, and the distance was so close that you could clearly count how many hairs were on the eyebrows of the devils two or three meters in front. After a flash of lightning, the warriors of the 1st Company raised their guns and charged forward, shouting loudly.

  Inside the trenches had already been blown to pieces by a large number of grenades, and the surviving Japanese soldiers knew they could no longer hold their position. However, they had no possibility of strategic retreat. When the hysterical Japanese officers yelled at them to charge forward with their bayonets raised high, they had no choice but to fix bayonets, eject the bullets from their rifle barrels, and engage in their final battle to the death. The moment had come for them to dedicate everything to their so-called Emperor of the Japanese Empire.

  The two groups of people were stuck together, using the rifles in their hands to fiercely stab each other's chests with bayonets, and the last ones alive became the winners on the battlefield.

  Youfei and a Japanese soldier faced off, the two staring quietly at each other. It was only then that Youfei realized that the Japanese soldier's Type 38 rifle with bayonet attached was actually five or six centimeters longer than his own standard-issue rifle. The opposing Japanese soldier was short and sturdy, with a steel helmet tilted on his head, and Youfei could clearly see the sweat on his forehead. The short Japanese soldier held his gun down, pointing it downwards along the inside of his thigh, the bayonet not directly pointed at Youfei but rather slanted upwards towards the sky.

  After chatting with some seasoned veterans, You Fei knew that the devils were quite skilled at slashing and thrusting. Now seeing that the Type 38 Arisaka was actually longer than the Zhongzheng rifle by so much, You Fei realized that bayonet fighting seemed to be at a disadvantage.

  He swallowed his saliva, and You Fei pulled the trigger. After a gunshot, a blood hole was left on the forehead of the enemy in front of him. You Fei continued to rush towards his next target while wondering why the enemy didn't fire back. You Fei didn't know that the reason the enemy had removed the bullets from their rifle chambers before engaging in close combat was not only to demonstrate their warrior spirit, but also because the initial velocity of the 38 caliber bullets was too fast. In a large-scale close combat, if they fired, the bullets would penetrate through the bodies of those in front and possibly injure their own comrades behind, causing them to die from internal bleeding instead of immediate death. The rifles used by the Chinese military, however, did not have this problem - anyone hit would not survive, with a killing power far greater than that of the 38 caliber.

  The Japanese soldiers rushing forward would not give You Fei the opportunity to fire a second shot, and with his gun held high, it was all about blocking and stabbing, whether he could kill the enemy or survive depended on his own abilities. As he struggled to block the devil's slashing knife, You Fei seemed to feel the "Liefeng" at his waist jumping and sending out a strong bloodthirsty signal. His eyes were fixed tightly on the devil's throat in front of him, imagining the thrill of the kill when the blade flashed by made You Fei's whole body tremble with excitement, and with a ferocious smile, he stepped closer to the devil, who was waiting for him with suspicion that You Fei had mental problems...

  Among the group, Xu Zhiwei was the most valiant, followed by Hu Weiyue and Jiang Zhuang. Xu Zhiwei held a large chopping knife, with the back of the blade facing upwards, he forcefully swung it open to deflect the enemy's rifle, then with great force, he slashed forward in an arc shape, the blade heavily striking the enemy's neck and forehead. The enemy cried out as they were chopped by the big knife, but Xu Zhiwei stood even more bravely, not waiting for long before his body was splattered with the enemy's fresh blood, his single hand could no longer grasp the large knife steadily, it slightly trembled. He had to use both hands to hold the knife, after stabilizing his grip, the blade of the large chopping knife, which had become slightly curled up, remained sharp, only that after being bathed in blood, he looked even more ferocious and intimidating, as if he was a god or ghost, with an aura that made people tremble.

  Jiang Zhuang, the chubby one, was a match for Xu Zhiwei's bravery. He wielded his Type 38 rifle like a fire poker, swinging it around with a whooshing sound, smashing it into the enemy's head with precision, and watching as their skulls burst open. In Jiang Zhuang's opinion, adding a bayonet to the front of the rifle was useless; instead, he thought the barrel should be made thicker and heavier, making it more suitable for his use. The poor Type 38 rifle trembled with fear in his hands, and if it hadn't been strictly quality-controlled during manufacturing, it would have probably broken apart long ago.

  Hu Weiyue, with his rugged appearance, was also extremely fierce when wielding a bayonet. Even the sturdy Japanese soldiers couldn't withstand more than three rounds in his hands. From afar, he saw a Japanese officer shooting and killing his comrades with a Tommy gun, which didn't require aiming as it sprayed bullets everywhere. With each loud gunshot, more comrades fell to the ground. Hu Weiyue let out a loud shout and charged towards the officer. When he was two meters away from the officer, the latter swung his arm and shot Hu in the abdomen. Feeling a burning sensation on his left side, Hu didn't care about the wound that was bleeding profusely as he continued to charge forward, screaming. After firing his last bullet, the Japanese officer, who hadn't even had time to draw his sword, was knocked to the ground by Hu.

  Hu Weiyue's hands wrapped around the Japanese officer's neck, tightening and twisting with force. With a cracking sound, the Japanese officer's neck was brutally twisted off. The Japanese officer's body convulsed before collapsing to the ground like a puddle of mud. Only then did Hu Weiyue feel waves of intense pain in his abdomen. Gritting his teeth, he snatched the military sword from the Japanese officer's hand and struggled to get up, continuing to search for his next target to kill. The wounded had no right to rest their feet, as more brothers were still fighting bloody battles; stopping meant being a coward, and not worthy of being called a warrior.

  He Tianhao and Huang Long were not even brave, but rather despicable. They followed others in battles with many people and would never fight alone. What's more, Huang Long always stabbed from behind and never confronted anyone face-to-face. He Tianhao was like a mudskipper, wandering around looking for opportunities to take advantage of the situation. If Feng Ping saw how they fought on the battlefield, he must have been very disappointed. His pre-battle speech seemed to be in vain. Although their techniques were not very good, they still achieved quite good results. The souls that they helped to rest were no less than those who died in fierce battles.

  The complete collapse of the Western Wing Front made it impossible for the Japanese army on the Eastern Wing to hold back any longer. With the enemy attacking their abdomen, they were unable to calm down and resist the fierce attack of the 147th Regiment's frontal assault. Soon, the 147th Regiment also stormed into the Eastern Wing position, and the loss of the position had already exhausted its momentum. In the eyes of the Japanese soldiers who were always proud and considered themselves an invincible army, how could they accept such a huge blow of being attacked by the Chinese army? The confusion and anger made the devils completely lose their heads, and their combat effectiveness was greatly reduced in the fierce battle.

  At this time, Yi Anhua, who was in the rear, excitedly pounded his thigh and issued a general attack order to all personnel of the 259th Brigade. Even engineers and communication soldiers picked up their weapons and rushed forward with a loud shout. At this moment, Yi Anhua could finally relax a bit, took out his treasured cigarette case, pulled out a cigarette, and in the swirling smoke, he was thinking about how to hold onto this position next.