Chapter 9: Unexpected Harvest

  The commander of the devils saw that the road to retreat was completely blocked by the three rows, and he frantically waved his command knife, driving the soldiers to charge towards the three rows, intending to break through the blockade. Unfortunately, they encountered a group of hot-blooded men who had been holding their breath for a long time, how could they let them escape from their own eyes? It's all because this group of devils was unlucky, if they encountered ordinary armed forces, their charge might have been easier, but unfortunately, it was Li Xinmin's company that blocked them. At this time, the equipment in the hands of Li Xinmin's troops was almost equal to that of a large team of devils. When the devils were about to rush to the front of the Eighth Route Army, they found that something was wrong, because they didn't find any counterattack or obstruction from this group of Eighth Route Army. Just as they were wondering, the machine guns of the three rows began to play a beautiful melody.

  "Rat-a-tat! Rat-a-tat-tat! Rat-a-tat-tat-tat!" The crisp gunfire was music to Zhang Daquan's ears, but to the Japanese commander, it sounded like the Grim Reaper playing a deadly melody.

  The devil commander was also a guy with very rich combat experience, from the blocking gunshots he already knew how fierce the firepower of this group of people who blocked him was, however, in order to survive they could only desperately break through here. Only by breaking through here did they have the opportunity to escape back to Xiangyang.

  At this time, the Japanese soldiers also knew how severe the situation was. If they couldn't break through here, what awaited them would be... Both sides were now seeing red. Perhaps it was in such a situation that the potential of the Japanese soldiers was ignited, and with a fierce and fearless spirit, they finally charged into the third row of defenses.

  "The devils are charging! Hold your ground! We can't let a single devil escape from here, we can't lose face in front of the third squad!" Squad leader Zhang Dawei shouted loudly as he saw the devils charging over. He then picked up his big knife and charged towards the devils. In an instant, the soldiers of the third squad were mixed with the devils in a fierce hand-to-hand combat.

  The warriors continued to block the interception, some of them put down their guns and drew out their big knives and charged forward, while others directly held up their bayonets and rushed forward.

  Warrior Li Wenhao swung the big knife in his hand and chopped towards a Japanese soldier in front of him. The big knife was held up by the Japanese soldier's gun, but Li Wenhao immediately lifted his leg and kicked the Japanese soldier with a solid kick on his belly. The Japanese soldier was kicked away from his gun at that moment. Taking advantage of the momentum, another knife chopped directly onto the Japanese soldier's head, and the Japanese soldier's head was like a watermelon on a chopping board, splashing red and white stuff all over Li Wenhao's face. Li Wenhao wiped the blood off his face with his hand and spat out a mouthful of saliva.

  "Damn it! F**king devils!", just as he was momentarily stunned, another devil took advantage of the opportunity and charged towards him with a bayonet, just as the devil soldier thought he was about to succeed, a burst of gunfire ended his beautiful dream.

  "Haozi! Watch out! Be careful not to get bitten by the devils!" Lin Fugui shouted as he rushed past Li Wenhao, carrying his machine gun.

  "Wealth and honor, goodbye!" Li Wenhao caught up from behind.

  "Rat-a-tat-tat!" Lin Fugui quickly took down another enemy soldier and turned to Li Wenhao, saying, "Haozi! Let's have a competition to see who can kill the most devils, how about it?" "Alright! Let's compete, who's afraid of whom!" Li Wenhao replied, taking down another enemy soldier. And so, the two of them staged a devil-slaying contest on the battlefield. As they fought, Lin Fugui found his machine gun to be inconvenient and threw it away, picking up a rifle with a bayonet instead. He used the bayonet to engage in close combat with the devils. Meanwhile, Li Xinmin and the others were engaged in an equally fierce battle against the devils at the front lines.

  A group of devils rushed into a courtyard to resist, and the soldiers launched an attack on the courtyard to thoroughly eliminate this group of enemies, but were injured by the devils, with four or five soldiers wounded.

  "Throw hand grenades! Take out this courtyard for me!" Li Xīnmín was enraged at the time, gathered grenade throwers to attack the devils with grenade launchers. After a loud explosion, the courtyard immediately cleared up, leaving only a field of devil corpses.

  The devil commander was shot in the head by Gao Dabao and died on the spot.

  "Look, Captain! This was seized from the hands of a Japanese military officer who was killed by us. It seems to be a high-ranking officer." Second Lieutenant Liu Wentao showed Li Xinmin the command knife.

  "Hmm! This is indeed a lieutenant's sword, it seems that these devils are not ordinary!" Li Xinmin said with great certainty. As it turned out, Li Xinmin was right, this was indeed a lieutenant's sword, and the one who used it was a Japanese major general named Tamura Nobuyoshi, the commander of the Sakae Brigade. Unfortunately for Tamura, he had originally come to Xiangyang to recuperate and inspect military affairs after being defeated in the Battle of Pingxingguan, but today he happened to run into Li Xinmin's ambush while on his way to Qin County by car. Although he had escaped with his life at Pingxingguan, his good fortune did not continue here.

  "Alright, let's get a report on our situation!" Li Xinmin asked Squad Leader Huang Yukei to brief everyone on the battle situation.

  "This time our battle was also very fruitful, and we eliminated a total of 182 devils. We captured one heavy machine gun, six light machine guns, 156 Type 79 rifles, tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition, and even two officer swords. In addition, there were military maps and confidential documents. The captured trucks were all blown up during the retreat." Platoon leader Huang Yucai detailed this time's spoils.

  "Hmm! How are our casualties?" Li Xinmin asked again.

  "This time we sacrificed eighteen men, thirty were injured, five of whom were seriously injured and may not be able to recover later." The company commander reported the casualties truthfully.

  "Damn it! The enemy's attack power is not bad at all! In such a situation, they can still cause us such heavy casualties." Li Xinmin muttered to himself, and the others couldn't help but smile wryly when they heard his words. Just looking at the comparison of casualties between the two sides, Li Xinmin had only over 30 wounded men, yet he had annihilated nearly an entire company of enemy soldiers, 182 people. Such a feat was formidable, but in Li Xinmin's eyes, it was still not enough. He wanted to minimize the number of casualties even further. In his view, this battle was fought under extremely favorable conditions for their side, with the enemy at a complete disadvantage. This showed that the enemy's marksmanship and combat strength were still very formidable.

  "Ah, Captain! This is that confidential document we captured." Huang Yuke handed the file in his hand to Li Xinmin.

  "Heh heh! What do you think is written in this little devil's file?" Li Xinmin said, carefully examining the document.