Chapter 12: Discovery of Enemy Forces 2

  Watching the head explode in the scope, my heart was pinched, and I was stunned for a moment. However, the sound of bullets piercing the air next to my ear reminded me where I was. I didn't dare use the scope again, quickly finishing off a magazine of bullets. I pulled out the magazine and replaced it with the one on the left (the SG550's magazines are linked together). Aiming at the mountain below, another burst of fire took down another person. The five people who tried to charge were all taken down. At this time, the team leader and the others had also cleared out everyone in the village, appearing in the center of the village.

  "The target has been packaged, Kuai Man Ji, Xing Tian, come over!" The captain called out from the wireless radio.

  "Received!" I and Kuai Man Ji responded, Kuai Man Ji jumped down from the tree, looking at me lying on the ground facing the blue sky: "Good shot! Xing Tian, you are indeed the first shot! Your gun sense is not bad!"

  I didn't say a word. Lying on the ground, I was lost in thought.

  "What's wrong? I recall Buck saying you've killed before! You're still nervous?" The slow machine crouched beside me, looking at me.

  "At that time, I was in a hurry and didn't see it so clearly!" I said with my eyes closed: "Looking at the splashing brain of that person, I had a feeling of murdering him!"

  "Everything has a first time! You did great! Xing Tian, you did great! If it wasn't for your shot, I would have been killed. You saved my life! I owe you one!" I knew Kuai Man Ji was comforting me: "Alright, let's go!"

  The stretcher bearers lifted me up and carefully made their way towards the village, passing by the man I had killed. I stopped to take a glance at him, his wide-open eyes had lost all signs of life. I closed my eyes, turned away, and quickened my pace as I walked past him, not daring to look back! When we arrived in the village, the squad leader asked about my situation with the stretcher bearers, then led us into one of the thatched huts. Outside, cowboys were on guard, and inside, the butchers were preparing to interrogate several wounded captives. They nodded at us as we entered. Looking at the three wounded men in the corner, I had a premonition that the bloody scene from the jungle would be repeated, because everyone's attitude seemed so nonchalant, implying that bloody interrogations were a common occurrence.

  The butcher looked at me, chuckled, and then pulled out his military knife from his waist. It was only then that I noticed how unusually long his military knife was - it resembled a shark-shaped knife produced by the United Cutlery Company, but was about half as large again. The hilt had a ring of hand guards on it, with sharp spikes protruding from them. The dark red color seemed to be stained with dried bloodstains, making one's hair stand on end just looking at it.

  The butcher walked up to the three men and had the vanguard ask them where their base was. No one spoke, so the butcher hung one of the men's feet in the air, took off his shoes and socks, and stood there, saying to me: "I've seen you use a knife at the market, you're good at stabbing but not chopping. However, chopping is often used in combat and clearing paths, just like how shooting requires both continuous fire and precision shots. When you chop, it seems like you focus too much on strength, which is incorrect. The key to chopping is speed, not strength. The faster your hands move, the better the result will be. You also need to pay attention to the angle of entry, 45-60 degrees is best. If the object being chopped falls vertically to the ground, that means your knife skills are correct. But if you use a 90-degree angle as a benchmark, the weight of the object being chopped will press down on one side of the blade, and unless you can generate an extremely strong force, the chopping cannot be thorough due to the incorrect angle's counterforce. Not only is the chopping angle a problem, but the geometric factors of the knife edge also have an impact." After finishing speaking, a flash of the knife was seen, and the sole of that person's foot was sliced off, with the flesh falling vertically to the ground, and blood spraying out.

  And at first I listened with rapt attention, but when I realized that what was being chopped off was a human foot, I came to my senses and realized this wasn't a classroom lecture, it was an interrogation. Watching the captured prisoner scream and faint away, I finally felt the cruelty of it all.

  "We shouldn't treat prisoners of war like this!" I asked the captain, "This is too cruel! Inhumane! Isn't there something called the Geneva Convention?"

  "You should tell this to the village chief on the tree stump outside!" The captain pointed at the man on the tree stump outside.

  I glanced at the corpse with an eyeball still dangling from its face on the tree stump and didn't say a word.

  "If you can peel off ten layers from the sole of a person's foot without seeing any bone, then you're qualified!" The butcher walked up to me, handing over the knife: "Go try it out, I've practiced on over 100 people before getting proficient!"

  Looking at the bloodstains on the blade, the salty smell wafted around me, enticing my wildness and rationality to clash within! I took the knife and walked up to that person, hesitated for a moment, raised the knife, but before it fell, I saw the terrified and desperate eyes of two prisoners beside him, as if they had seen a beast! My heart skipped a beat, and my mind suddenly cleared. I threw the knife back at the butcher, ran out of the house, leaned against the wall with both hands covering my face, crouched on the ground, and sobbed in terror!

  The captain and Di Huo walked up to me, handed me a canteen of water. I took it, wiped away my tears, and took a drink.

  "What's wrong?" the captain asked.

  I'm scared!

  "What are you afraid of?"

  "I'm afraid of myself, I'm afraid I'll become a ruthless and depraved serial killer!"

  "You haven't changed at all!"

  "But I feel like I have that urge! I can feel myself changing!"

  "No, everyone has that impulse! That's ferocity! Soldiers need ferocity! Ferocity isn't abnormality, a clear mind plus the ferocity to fight, that's what makes a soldier, a fighting machine should be equipped with! Only then can you survive on the battlefield!" The captain slapped my face hard. "Is Butcher being like that normal behavior for a soldier?"

  "Hmm... he's a bit too much. Don't learn from him! I don't want you to become like him either, after all, one butcher is enough! Don't tell him I said that!" The captain scratched his nose and replied in a slow, low voice.

  Inside the house, another wave of miserable cries from the prisoners of war came, while others were laughing and chatting as if nothing had happened. The devil was still counting for the butcher: "1st floor, 2nd floor, 3rd...9th floor. Haha, you lost! On the 9th floor, I saw bones. You owe me 100 yuan!" Looking at these people, I realized that the loving soldiers on TV were just art, and this was reality. Perhaps at some point, this situation would happen to me, and thinking about it made my blood run cold!

  The miserable cries stopped, the others all came out, and the captain said: "We just killed 37 people. According to what that person confessed earlier, they should still have around 70 people here! We must rush over tonight before they discover that these people were killed!"

  "They have 70 people, we only have 12 people, isn't that too few!" I asked.

  "We were only 12 men, but we took out 37. The other 70 was just a matter of each of us taking out one more!" said Di Huo Jie.

  "No problem, let's set off!" The captain turned his head and shouted to the house: "Stop playing, we're leaving!" Then I saw the butcher rubbing his hands and running out with a smile. I glanced sideways at the house and only saw six thighs that had been scraped to the bone.

  "I finally know why you're called Butcher!" I said to Butcher.

  "Time is tight today, next time when I'm more free, I'll teach you a few more tricks! These are all useful things!" The butcher licked his lips and said with an air of not having finished yet.

  "Can I not learn?" I asked with a quivering heart. This is too bloody, I don't want to become a pervert like the butcher.

  "After a few days, you'll learn without having to study!!" The butcher patted my head, the cowboy supported me, and we sped up towards our target on the map.

  Sweat had seeped through the gauze, and the wound was throbbing with pain. The injury wasn't serious, but the friction from my pants was making it impossible for me to walk. Cowboy saw that I couldn't move and handed my backpack to Big Bear, then picked me up on his back. I felt embarrassed and said, "Cowboy, this won't do, it's too exhausting, let me down!"

  "It's okay, you're light!" the cowboy said easily.

  "I'm over 90 kilograms!" Although I have a good figure, I don't think I'm light.

  "Over 90 kilograms? Haha, the machine gun and bullets on Big Bear's body already weigh nearly 90 kilograms!" The cowboy laughed.

  The big bear is a firepower hand, specializing in firepower suppression. He holds a Gatling six-barrel machine gun, which is generally installed on a helicopter for sweeping infantry, so it's also called a six-barreled machine cannon. I've only seen Schwarzenegger use one in "Future Warrior". Plus, he has a whole box of 5000 rounds of ammunition on his back, as well as field supplies. He's indeed the big bear!

  "What? You can also carry it?" I curiously asked the cowboy, who had been much nicer to me since I saved his life.

  "Anyone can carry this! Haha! What's the big deal with this thing?" The cowboy seemed unimpressed, but it scared me half to death.

  "You can memorize it with practice! It's nothing!"

  "No way, I guess it's because you foreigners have good physiques, Asian people's physiques aren't that strong!" I don't think I can become as muscular as Schwarzenegger.

  "That's because you've trained too little, Chinese soldiers are very fierce. I remember last time at the China border, I met a Chinese soldier whose comrade was bitten by a venomous snake, and he carried his comrade on his back for over 100 kilometers. With two sets of equipment weighing over 80 kilograms plus an adult, it's not light!" As soon as Cowboy said this, I suddenly became interested.

  "What are you guys doing hanging around the Chinese border all the time? Are you doing something that's not good for China?" I asked the cowboy.

  "No, business is good only in this area of Asia. In the past few years, there has been constant fighting, and now that the Khmer Rouge has surrendered, I reckon there won't be many opportunities to come to Cambodia again. There's no business in China!" The cowboy complained.

  "China is peaceful? China's peace shows that Chinese people are kind and don't like to fight!" But, isn't China's peace also not good?

  "Is China at peace? There have been many battles on the Chinese border, East Turkestan terrorists, Vietnamese spies, South China Sea fishing grounds, Indian borders, Qinghai poachers, and Myanmar drug traffickers. China hasn't had fewer deaths in these areas, it's just that you haven't been told." The cowboy told me clearly.

  "Unbelievable, how do you know so clearly? Are you guys participating?" I joined the mercenary army, but I never wanted to be an enemy of my own family. Moreover, these things, I only heard my brother mention them before. It's quite unexpected that Cowboy knows so much about it.

  "There are mercenaries wherever there is war, we have never interfered in China's affairs, at most we just served as bodyguards for some Burmese drug traffickers. Don't be afraid, we won't let you fight against your own government!" The captain's voice came from the radio: "The party is over, now shut up, all of you."

  We shrugged and continued on in silence. Actually, the feeling of being carried on someone's shoulders isn't that great, it's better to just walk yourself. But after nightfall, I got my wish, we entered enemy territory.

  I moved forward with a limp, just like an anti-terrorist special police moving forward, but I still felt very silly. After clearing several defensive alarm pits, we approached the main force of the enemy army, and at 9 o'clock in the evening, we approached the enemy camp. The heavens did us a favor, and it started to drizzle, although for our operation, the sound of the rain could cover up the noise of our movements, but for me, having my wound soaked in muddy water wasn't a good thing, however, there was also an advantageous side, after soaking in the water for a long time, my wound became numb and didn't hurt anymore, only feeling swollen!

  Looking down at the enemy's camp, it faces south and backs north, built on a circular slope, with three wooden houses arranged in a triangular shape. Behind is a watchtower, and in front is a machine gun bunker. The three houses are brightly lit, with people bustling about, and the watchtower has a light machine gun mounted on it, with two sentries standing guard. In the bunker, I estimate there are three people, because they are smoking, and from far away, you can see three small red dots flickering! These soldiers are even more useless than me! I think to myself.

  "Captain, three in the bunker, two sentry posts, and three wooden houses. 30 to the east, 15 to the north, and 23 to the west. They're having dinner now!" The vanguard reported.

  "Alright, slow down, sentry! Vanguard, Butcher, Bottom Fire, Cover! Big Bear, Doctor, North House, Devil, Cowboy, Xitian West House, others follow me! Use hand grenades first! Wait for my order! GO!" The captain's voice fell, and everyone moved towards the enemy camp.

  First time crawling, I always lift my butt too high. The devil crawled over and said: "Keep your body flat, use your elbows to propel yourself, open your legs, and push off with the inside of your feet! 200 meters away, I can see your cute butt!" And then he even touched me once.

  "Inner thigh? I'm hurt!"

  "That's your problem! Just don't let me see your ass again, or I'll cut it off and feed it to the dogs!" The devil said, then ignored me and crawled away.

  I did as he said, and the moment my thighs touched the ground, it felt like I had been stabbed with a knife. The pain made me grit my teeth. As soon as I lifted my butt, I saw the devilish guy draw out his military dagger and wave it at me. To save my butt, I endured the pain and crawled down, but I didn't dare use my legs, only my elbows. The brightly lit target in the dark of night was so conspicuous, like a diamond, attracting endless darkness!

  Approaching the camp was an uphill climb, at the foot of the slope, everyone made a final check of their equipment, then quietly crawled towards the wooden house, each finding cover and watching the shadows moving back and forth inside the house, gripping their guns tightly, whispering "In position!" into the radio, holding their breath, waiting for orders!

  As the sentry silently fell to the ground, three short bursts of gunfire came from the radio, it seemed that the butchers had also succeeded, now it was our turn. I had just pulled out a hand grenade from my chest and was about to pull the ring when suddenly the wooden door opened and a soldier with a rifle walked out!

  Click to view picture link: Shark knife - guard on top, blade at bottom