Standing quietly in the darkness, I could only see the square outline of the firing hole in front of me. The square frame was the eastern night, pitch black. It was dark outside, and it was thick black around me. The contrast of the two kinds of darkness made the firing hole in front of me look like a dirty handkerchief close at hand, rather than far away.
Gunshots from the west kept ringing, and the location was getting farther and farther. The puppet army was indeed dragging on. The 9th squad had to stop here to block them, even if they couldn't. But this time, I didn't feel so empty, and I didn't feel numb like in the previous sniping, because there was a pair of braids behind me trying to go home. Her bright eyes were the starry sky and the future. After death, I hope to turn into her eyes and see what she sees, but I am afraid of tainting those clear eyes.
I have no ideals, no beliefs, but for the first time I have something to rely on.
Luo Fugui grabbed Wu Shitou's shoulders and dragged him up to the turret. Then he took up the rope and threw him behind the wall. He suddenly asked Li Xiang, who was looking east, "Are you scared?"
After hesitating for a moment, Li Xiang replied in a low voice: "Actually, I... am already dead."
"Damn it, this unlucky Class 9 is full of heartless people. Apart from me, there is no normal person!" Luo Fugui went down the stairs: "Boss Hu, how long do we have to hold them off?"
Hu Yi, who was standing quietly beside the firing hole, replied calmly: "Two and a half hours."
"This... This is impossible. This amount of time is enough for us to die multiple times."
"What do you want to say?"
Luo Fugui took two steps towards Hu Yi and said, "Well... this is what I think... let's wait and see, and if things start to look bad, we'll retreat immediately."
"Where to retreat?"
"Go west and join Shi Cheng and the others."
"Then what?"
"And then... and then we'll talk."
Hu Yi smiled in the darkness and said calmly, "Mule, I won't kick you this time. But... I allow you to do what you said. You can withdraw whenever you think it's time."
Luo Fugui thought he had heard wrongly and stood in the darkness, speechless.
At this moment, Li Xiang's voice suddenly came from upstairs: "The enemy is coming. Platoon leader, do you see it?"
Hu Yi turned his head and looked towards the shooting hole. In the distance to the east, a string of torch lights were flickering and winding along the road.
He grabbed the telescope and looked out, while commanding: "Prepare for battle! Mule, mount your machine gun. Fool, you reload the magazine for the mule."
Luo Fugui nervously crouched over another firing hole and stared eastward with his bear eyes: "It looks like there are still two or three miles to go, right?"
"It's only about two miles." Putting down the telescope, Hu Yi placed the Type 99 light machine gun on the firing hole and said, "Are you not ready to work?"
"Is this too far?"
"What we need is time, not ammunition. Start shooting now. Set your sight far, and aim the muzzle high rather than low. Defend the enemy until they drop their torches." After he finished speaking, Hu Yi pulled the trigger of the crooked handle machine gun. The machine gun suddenly began to howl, and tongues of fire suddenly burst out. Flashes of light continuously leaked into the shooting hole, illuminating the stern face on the butt of the gun and the narrow and focused eyes again and again.
One is a crooked handle and the other is a Czech-style, both are light machine guns, although the sight indicates a maximum range of 1500 meters, the effective range is only 600 to 700 meters. Anyway, there is no shortage of ammunition, in order to delay, Hu Yi uses the light machine gun as a heavy machine gun and implements "overshooting".
The continuous trajectory flew up into the night sky, drawing a graceful arc, then gradually exhausted its strength and fell diagonally downward.
Luo Fugui also placed a shooting hole on the Czech-style rifle. In this case, no matter whether he could hit the target or not, he would just imitate Boss Hu and hope that the Japanese would be as far away as possible!
Then, two machine gun bullets with a much larger shooting arc than usual alternately tore through the night sky and sprinkled all over the torches that were winding along the road.
A squad of Japanese soldiers and a company of puppet troops hurried along the path with torches. A machine gun fired two miles away. Everyone heard it. It was a light machine gun. No one knew what it was firing and no one paid attention. But suddenly, something was wrong nearby. There were some noises coming from time to time, sometimes leaves shaking, occasionally crackling. Was it hail falling in the middle of the night
Finally, a shout was heard. A puppet soldier stopped by the roadside, holding his shoulder. A few people came over to see that a bullet had hit his shoulder. The wound was not deep. Someone used his fingers to help him pull the bullet out. There was blood all over the place, and he was shouting in pain. Then a Japanese soldier, holding his leg, limped out of the team with a grin, sat down on the roadside and started to take out gauze.
Only then did I realize that what was flying down from above was a barrage of machine gun bullets. How could a light machine gun be treated as a heavy machine gun? What kind of person is this
"What are you still standing there for? Disperse! Disperse..." someone started shouting.
The team was in a panic and dropped all the torches. Two people were injured during this period. The marching mode was terminated on the spot and the team changed to a loose formation and advanced westward in the dark.
Hu Yi opened the machine gun magazine and pushed the bullet clips in row by row. At this time, Luo Fugui also stopped to change the magazine and said, "They left the torches behind, so we can't see them."
"Even if I can't see, I'll still fight. I'll try to fight at a rate of 100 meters per minute."
Click—the pressure plate fell, and the muzzle was immediately placed on the firing hole again, flashing and trembling without hesitation, sending a new row of bullets into the darkness.
…
The first, second and third squads in the west all heard the sound of machine guns in the turret. Did the enemy arrive so soon? The little girl pushed the helmet beside her eyebrows and finally realized that she was fooled by the fox again. However, she was not so ignorant as to turn around and run back to the ninth squad. She just didn't want to be taken care of as a burden.
Apart from being a little smaller, he is a veteran in every way. He thinks he is a talented person who can be a squad leader. It would be fine if he is not regarded as a veteran, but the fox insists on treating himself as a child. How hateful!
At this time, a little fire suddenly appeared in the west, and then it grew bigger and bigger and spread gradually, even the weeds and small trees on both sides of the path began to burn.
Liu Jianqiang stared, Ma Liang was dumbfounded, and Shi Cheng was speechless. The location of the fire was the final key point. From there, they could get out of the ditch and go up the mountain. The puppet army must have been waiting on the two hilltops. If they appeared in the light, they would definitely be attacked from both sides. There was no escape.
The most troublesome thing was that no one knew who had started the fire this time, and even the withered grass and small trees on both sides caught fire. It was not so easy to put out the fire with grenades because the area was a bit large. In addition, the puppet army did not shoot randomly this time, but focused on the dark distance of more than 50 meters from the edge of the fire. The purpose was to keep the fire and try to suppress the Eighth Route Army beyond the range of the grenades. They also heard that reinforcements were coming, and victory was in sight. If they delayed for a while, they would win a great victory. They fought more happily, and the Czech machine gun joined in again.
"Shicheng, you push to the left side!" Ma Liang shouted behind him, and then directed his third squad to attack the hill on the right.
The first squad began to shoot at the hilltop on the left, trying to relieve the pressure on the second squad in front. But this time the puppet soldiers seemed to not care, and stopped shooting in the dark, and focused on hiding the route outside the edge of the light, just to prevent you from putting out the fire!
Liu Jianqiang lay down 70 to 80 meters away from the fire, gritting his teeth in hatred. There were constant sounds of falling bullets not far ahead, crackling and clattering, and gravel flying. Sixty to seventy rifles plus a Czech rifle were all firing at this 20 to 30 meter long dark route. It seemed as if hail was falling in front of him.
…
The Japanese and puppet troops who came to reinforce finally arrived at a position more than 200 meters away from the artillery tower in fear. From the two-mile distance all the way here, more than a dozen of them were injured by two inhuman light machine guns. One unlucky guy had a hole in the throat and it was estimated that he would not live until dawn.
He started to push the bullet clip into the magazine again, and found that Luo Fugui was about to replace the new clip, so he immediately stopped him and said, "What are you doing? If you continue to shoot, the machine gun will be useless! Change the barrel!"
Luo Fugui finally noticed the dark red color of the gun barrel after hearing this. He had already fired more than 200 rounds from more than ten magazines. He hurriedly pulled out the spare barrel from behind and tried to disassemble the machine gun barrel in the dark, but he was burned and screamed.
Hu Yi looked at the Type 99 rifle in his hand. It was almost the same. Unfortunately, the barrel of this broken thing could not be replaced. Compared with the problem of easy jamming, this defect was more fatal. He had to pull it off the shooting table and put it on the ground, and then kicked away Luo Fugui who was holding his hand and grimacing: "I will change it, you go pee on the Type 99 rifle! Idiot, stop loading bullets, you also get up and pee!"
He grabbed the hot Czech and began to dismantle the barrel, while shouting upstairs: "Li Xiang, let the grenade launcher work!"
"But... I can't see." A reply came from upstairs.
"When you see them, they are right under our noses! Shoot now!" The two machine guns were silenced. Once the pressure was gone, the enemy would rush straight at them. They must be allowed to crawl, even if it means just one more minute. Time is gained by fighting, not by waiting.
Bang—the grenade flew into the night sky.
Boom—a sharp flash of light appeared in the darkness in the east.
There was a loud commotion, and the figures who had just stood up and were about to move forward with their backs bent immediately lay down again.
Then came the second and third grenades, which flew out of the grenade launcher again and again, creating twelve aimless explosions more than two hundred meters away.
With a metallic clang, the Czech machine gun's bolt was pulled open again, the barrel was replaced, and he stood up and placed the machine gun on the shooting platform.
Dadadadadada… A fierce fan-shaped shooting surface was splashed out with a sharp whistle, arrogantly piercing the darkness. The violently vibrating machine gun butt seemed to feel that this was the caring master, as if it was reluctant to hit the man's shoulder, and obediently became his vassal, and then became a part of his body.
After fastening his pants, Luo Fugui used his big hands to fan the steaming urine under his nose. After I finished peeing, will I be allowed to use this crooked handle? He raised his bear eyes and looked at the stairs. He told himself reluctantly: The enemy hasn't come yet. I will help Boss Hu fight for another five minutes. The last five minutes. I will run after the fight. I will definitely not delay any longer! I will definitely not delay any longer! If I delay any longer, I will be a grandson!
He stood up, put the Type 99 rifle on the firing port, and while pulling the bolt, he muttered, "Damn, how long is a minute?" Then the flames from the Type 99 rifle began to flash, alternating with the dazzling light from the nearby Czech rifle on the left and right in the darkness.
…
Liu Jianqiang took the grenades handed over by his men, turned around and asked, "I'll stick to the left, who wants to stick to the right?"
A soldier crawled to the right silently.
"If the two of us can't make it, you four will split into two groups and continue." After saying this, he began to crawl forward, one foot at a time, towards the fire, crawled into the area where stray bullets were bouncing around, and crawled towards the fire.
There was a crackling sound in my ears, and machine gun bullets swept past me randomly. My face felt burning with pain, and flying stones scratched my forehead. I continued to move forward, and suddenly I felt heat on my legs, but it did not affect my crawling movements. It was probably just a cut on the skin.
He heard a muffled groan and looked to the right, but unfortunately he couldn't see anything. He had been shot and he didn't know if he could move forward.
As the sound of a bullet hitting the ground came beside him, he felt a dull pain in his shoulder. He grinned, took out a grenade and began to remove the lid.
After five consecutive explosions, the fire was basically extinguished. Ma Liang couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief: "Let's get ready. After we get over there, we'll climb the north slope directly. Be quick!"
He was about to move forward with his rifle, but then stopped. Some of the charcoal that was blown away by the explosion was scattered everywhere, and then new flames were rekindled, and then burned along some dry bushes and weeds piece by piece, spreading over a larger area, and the mountain pass was illuminated again.
Liu Jianqiang pounded the ground with his fist, causing blood to form from the broken stones.
…
The reinforcements did not fire a single shot from beginning to end. They just crawled cautiously towards the turret. The target was in the turret, with two machine guns. There was no advantage in firing at each other. The muzzle flash was like a guide for the machine guns. The Japanese squad leader simply took advantage of the darkness and let the team creep over like quicksand, obliterating it by the way. As long as they got close, this half-built blind turret would be a coffin.
"Oh my god, why do I feel something is wrong? Are they coming over?" Luo Fugui let go of the Type 99 light machine gun that had just missed a shot, and tried to look out of the narrow firing hole. There was nothing but darkness, and he could only vaguely see what was about ten to twenty meters away.
"It should not be far away. It's right in front of us, crawling. Maybe fifty meters, who knows." Hu Yi also stopped firing and threw the empty magazine to Wu Shitou behind him.
"Boss Hu, you weren't lying to me before, were you?"
"What?"
"Allow me to withdraw?"
"I'm serious, you can retreat." Hu Yi loaded the magazine into the machine gun.
Luo Fugui felt as if he had been pardoned. He put down his crooked handlebars and rushed to the stairs. With a series of heavy footsteps, he went up to the second floor. He grabbed the rope and looked towards the mountain pass in the west. As soon as he let go, the rope was let down again.
Hearing the heavy footsteps hitting the wooden steps again, Hu Yi in the dark asked without turning his head: "Why did you retreat again?"
"Where should I retreat to? We haven't even reached the mountain pass yet. If the Japanese overwhelm us, won't we be doomed? There's no way to survive!"
"I can only say that you are unlucky." Hu Yi replied to Luo Fugui indifferently, and then shouted upstairs: "Li Xiang, fifty meters, serve the food!" Then he said to Luo Fuqiu again: "What are you still waiting for? Come over and set up the machine gun!"
The bear standing at the stairs sighed helplessly, bent down and fumbled around a nearby corpse, picked up a steel helmet and put it on his head, then walked towards the Type 99 light machine gun...