The platoon leader asked for "serve the food". Li Xiang knew what this meant. He had brought a total of twelve standard grenades, and he had fired all of them in one wave when they were more than two hundred meters away. Now he only had three chemical bombs left. This was the purpose of the platoon leader emphasizing "serve the food".
A grenade was released, and he looked up into the darkness and reloaded.
Bang! The grenade flew into the night sky, but there was no sound of explosion.
Suddenly there was a commotion from somewhere in the darkness, with coughing, gasping, vomiting, and panicked shouting. Someone began to get up and the sound of chaotic footsteps.
The Czech machine guns in the turret immediately opened fire, and a barrage of bullets rushed into the darkness following the sound, adding whistling, piercing sounds, falls, groans, and even more noisy sounds to the chaotic area in front of the turret.
The Type 99 light machine gun in the turret also fired, following the Czech-style trajectory and sweeping into the darkness again. To add icing on the cake, the two groups of machine gun fire flashed so brightly that the area within a dozen meters in front of the muzzle was also illuminated.
The chaos was getting bigger and bigger, and the chemical smoke was spreading in the darkness. The Japanese rolled around in the darkness, tearing at the satchels behind them in panic. They had been trained and had used it occasionally, so they knew what they smelled, so they would rather roll on the ground than stand up, desperately looking for the gas masks they carried with them in the darkness. These were originally prepared for launching chemical attacks on the Chinese, and they never dreamed that this thing would come from the opposite side.
Unfortunately, not all Japs carried gas masks with them at all times. They only carried them when their grenadiers brought chemical bombs. Some Japs would rather save the space to carry more "miso" packets.
The Japanese soldiers wearing gas masks began to grope for safe positions nearby to avoid the two sickle-like machine gun bullets. The Japanese soldiers without gas masks coughed and vomited, struggling and convulsing as they crawled back. The puppet soldiers were miserable. They didn't even understand what was happening. They thought that evil spirits were strangling their throats and gnawing at their souls. They thought it was retribution. They just wanted to leave this hell and live. They cried and stood up, staggered and staggered, but were harvested by machine gun bullets in large numbers and fell into hell.
The Japanese squad leader was stunned for a moment. He watched until the two machine guns in the turret each emptied their magazines. Then he suddenly woke up and gave orders loudly.
There were three Type 99 light machine guns in the team. One of them was struggling painfully in the invisible smoke in front. The two behind it immediately opened fire, trying to suppress the turret. Then the rifles at the back also joined in. In an instant, the sound of gunfire was as loud as the howling of wind and rain.
There were loud crackling sounds on the outer wall of the turret, bullets fell like rain, and smoke and debris flew up from time to time near the firing holes. Hu Yi had to drop his machine gun and half-crouch down.
"Oh my god, what's going on? Are they all crazy?" Luo Fugui shouted in the dark. He had no idea what had just happened.
"Remember the smoking grenade I asked Li Xiang to let you taste?"
"What? No wonder we only heard the sound of the grenade launcher but didn't see the explosion. It turns out they ate that?" Haha, haha, hahaha... Luo Fugui suddenly laughed, and his laughter mixed with the sound of gunfire outside the wall was as unpleasant as it could be.
Hu Yi took out the grenades and hand grenades from his body one by one, threw them near Wu Shitou and said, "Fool, take these with you, search the bodies too, go upstairs, and blow up anyone who approaches our turret. Remember, you have to be quiet, hide and seek, and try your best to hide behind the wall so that they can't see you, understand?"
The enemy tried their best to suppress the fire. On the one hand, it was to buy time to cover the Japanese and puppet troops to evacuate the chemical smoke area. On the other hand, it was also to cover some Japanese wearing gas masks to continue to approach. It sounded like they were retreating in panic in the dark, but in fact there must be some people climbing down the artillery tower. In fact, the attack was still going on. Hu Yi was not optimistic at all.
Hearing a lull in the gunfire outside, he stood up again, put the butt of the rifle on his shoulder, and shouted upstairs: "Li Xiang, come down and be my ammunition carrier." Then the Czech light machine gun began to spew out flames again, spraying rows of bullets into the darkness in the east.
As soon as I got down to the bottom floor with the grenade launcher on my back, I heard Luo Fugui calling out amid the noisy gunfire: "Li Xiang, come over here and pee first! Damn, this is a piece of crap made by the Japanese, I can't pee anymore..."
Wu Shitou fumbled to collect Hu Yi's three grenades and two hand grenades, then carefully searched the bodies of several Japanese soldiers, picked up a few more grenades, tore off the clothes of the corpses and put them in his pockets, and together with the eight grenades he already had on his body, he became a bomb man.
If Hu Yi told him to be careful and conceal himself, he might forget it when he got excited, but when he was told to play hide-and-seek, his attention was diverted to it, and he was more sneaky than ordinary people. He bent over, stood on tiptoes, and his posture was as sneaky as it could be. It was obvious that he had learned the true skills from Comrade Hongying.
It was pitch black all around, with muzzle flames flashing in the east and the intermittent firing of two machine guns on the first floor below. Even if the environment was not dilapidated, no one would pay attention to the jagged, half-repaired wall on the second floor unless someone fired.
I quietly poked my head out of a gap and looked straight into the darkness, listening hard to distinguish among the noisy gunshots. I didn't notice anyone approaching, so I stared at the location where the muzzle flash just flashed, less than 40 meters away. A grenade flew up from the turret, drawing a unique leisurely arc in the darkness, falling freely, flashing, and shaking, and then crying and shouting came from nearby.
Two Japanese soldiers wearing gas masks crawled extremely carefully with standard tactical movements. Taking advantage of the darkness, they crawled through the shallow pit and the barrage of bullets, and gradually appeared under the two groups of machine guns that were firing intermittently. The flashes of the gunfire illuminated the two carefully moving bodies on the ground again and again.
When they reached the base of the turret wall, the two Japanese soldiers looked up. The firing holes were too high to reach even if they stood up. The holes were also small and sloped, so it was not easy to throw grenades in. So the two Japanese soldiers crawled toward the entrance of the turret and turned into the U-shaped wall. They were stunned. There were corpses and rocks piled up everywhere, and they could not get in at all. They were about to turn around and go around to the west to throw grenades from the firing holes, when they suddenly heard a clang behind them, as if a brick had fallen from above.
Boom—a layer of dust fell off the wall of the artillery tower with the sound of the explosion, and the two Japanese soldiers disappeared.
…
A team was running hurriedly in the night, rifles hitting shaking backs, figures wiping sweat, breathing heavily, running with big strides, and from time to time someone fell in the dark, took the opportunity to lie on the ground and gasp for breath a few times, then got up again and joined the team which was moving at an unreduced pace.
Wu Yan whispered in the darkness: "Hurry! Keep up the speed!"
"Captain, someone's fallen behind!"
"No matter! Let the stragglers catch up by themselves. If they can't even keep up with this short distance, what kind of Eighth Route Army are they?"
This is the first company on a forced march. After the supply operation failed, the regiment commander and the political commissar took the fourth company back to Dabeizhuang, leaving the first company at the wine station to monitor the follow-up situation at the two mountain passes so as to respond in case of emergencies and support the ninth platoon which might return, although the chance was very small.
Wu Yan was a cautious person. Precisely because of his caution, he did not station the first company in a comfortable wine station. Instead, he personally led the first company to station in the ruins of Qingshan Village. This was because Qingshan Village was closer to Lushuipu and Luoye Village and was the intersection of two roads. Once a situation occurred, the reaction time would be faster. By the way, he also helped the ninth platoon take care of the crops.
As Hu Yi expected, Wu Yan had set up sentries at the Shankou gun tower construction site and the Lvshuipu gun tower. When the first grenade thrown by Ma Liang exploded, the sentries monitoring the construction site began to run towards Qingshan Village. What Hu Yi did not expect was that the sentries did not need to return to the wine station, and the first company did not start from the wine station, but from Qingshan Village. The round trip distance was reduced by nearly 40 miles, and with the first company's outstanding ability to rush, the time was not four hours at all. The enemy's reinforcements were half an hour later than expected, but the first company's reinforcements were also two hours later than expected. Both times were misjudged by Hu Yi.
The fire ahead was only two or three miles away, and the sound of gunfire became clearer and clearer. Wu Yan, exhausted, finally gave the order: "Stop! Rest where you are and organize your equipment. Tiedan."
"Yes." In the darkness, a panting figure ran past the soldiers who had fallen to the ground in a mess and came behind Wu Yan.
"After you have rested, take your men to the top of the northern hill and charge in the dark for close combat. The second platoon will go up the southern hill, and the machine guns will be assigned to the third platoon and await orders."
"yes."
There must be enemies on the small road, but in order to avoid a direct fire with the ninth row, Wu Yan did not make any arrangements for the middle road. As long as the high points on both sides were taken, the middle road would naturally be finished.
…
Shi Cheng angrily put down his rifle which had just emptied its rifle. If it were daytime, even though the Ninth Platoon had fewer people, it was not certain who would be bullied by the puppet army. But now, both the darkness and the terrain were on the side of the puppet army, and he was helpless.
Liu Jianqiang, covered in wounds, crawled back and shouted into the darkness: "Ma Liang, Shi Cheng."
Soon after, the three squad leaders gathered together. Liu Jianqiang said with a serious face, "We can only charge. We have to capture at least one high position. Now I propose that the three squads merge and push forward."
"Agree." Ma Liang looked at Shi Cheng.
"I agree." Shi Cheng said without hesitation, and then asked: "Who will be in charge?"
"I." Liu Jianqiang said this word with certainty, and then looked at Ma Liang quietly in the darkness.
Although the first squad has the largest number of people and the best equipment, Shi Cheng always unconsciously puts himself in the last position in his heart, just like this time, Liu Jianqiang is waiting for Ma Liang's answer, not himself. But Shi Cheng did not feel uncomfortable because he has adapted to the atmosphere of the ninth platoon. Liu Jianqiang and Ma Liang are both opinionated and experienced. Shi Cheng is willing to accept whoever takes the lead. Now he is worried about whether Liu Jianqiang and Ma Liang, who are not in harmony with each other, can reach a final agreement.
Sure enough, even in the dark, it was still clear from his posture that Ma Liang was also staring at Liu Jianqiang quietly. After a brief silence, Ma Liang said calmly, "Okay."
"Don't you understand what's going on now...what did you say?" Liu Jianqiang was already prepared for an argument, but he reacted halfway through his words.
"I said yes, you take charge."
Huh—Shi Cheng in the darkness finally breathed a sigh of relief.
At this moment, fierce gunfire suddenly rang out in the darkness on both sides of the hills, accompanied by the sound of grenade explosions.
"This... our people are here!" Shi Cheng exclaimed.
"Let's get ready! Classes 2 and 3 will be organized into an assault group and charge to the north, with class 1 following to provide cover!" Liu Jianqiang stood up suddenly.
"Sorry, the plan has to be changed. I don't agree with your command now!" Ma Liang also stood up and turned around to order the third squad behind him: "Listen, third squad, turn around with me and go cover the ninth squad!"
"You—" Liu Jianqiang had just taken a few steps ahead when he stumbled and fell.
Then I heard the little girl shouting in the dark: "Shi Cheng, now I announce that I have joined the third class. Ma Liang, wait for me..."
Shi Cheng stood there speechless. Everything seemed like a dream, whether it was the friendly forces appearing out of nowhere, the puppet troops fleeing in panic towards the distant mountains in the dark, or the people around him.
…
Boom—the grenade exploded again outside the wall, and the turret also shook. Invisible floating dust, the smell of urine, blood, and gunpowder mixed together, choking Hu Yi so much that he couldn't help coughing.
The fool had already thrown seven or eight grenades upstairs, but the enemy was still coming out of the darkness again and again. This was a prelude to the turret being submerged. All that could be done was done, and all that was left was to shoot desperately into the darkness, and wait for the moment when the grenades thrown in would wipe them out.
The fierce roar of the Type 99 light machine gun beside me stopped abruptly, and then I heard Luo Fugui yelling in a hoarse voice: "Fuck his grandma! It's stuck. I don't have to pee this time, this bear thing, I've had enough of it! Enough! Fuck your grandma... I'll make you stuck..."
Clank—crash—bang—the bear seemed to have gone mad, kicking the Type 99 light machine gun wildly in the dark, and the sound of bullets falling outside the wall continued.
After waiting for a while, Li Xiang handed over the magazine. His current reloading speed could not keep up. Except for the one he just handed over, the other four magazines were all empty.
There was no time to deal with the crazy bear. He picked up the machine gun and placed it on the shooting platform, pointing the hot muzzle at the darkness again. His face was still cold, his eyes were still calm, and the whole machine gun was hot. The moment he was about to pull the trigger, he suddenly felt that the outside of the shooting hole was bright, the ground appeared, the scenery appeared, and some gas masks that looked like ghost faces crawling in the pit also appeared, looking up at the sky in panic.
A white flare emitting a scorching light streaked across the sky above the artillery tower, slowly drifting towards the east and falling.
I turned around suddenly and tried hard to distinguish what was going on, and finally I heard the sound of gunfire coming from outside the west turret.
"West, west... It seems to be connected!" Li Xiang suddenly shouted.
"Pack your things and retreat!" The trigger was pulled suddenly, and a ballistic snake appeared in the afterglow of the flare. Clouds of dust and mist jumped up continuously, crawling over the ridges and across the pits, from near to far, reaping lives wherever it passed and disappearing into the darkness.
After the last bullet was fired, he handed the machine gun to the bear that was about to run towards the stairs, then walked to a dark corner, bent down, and put his fingers on the neck of the thin body again.
Bang-bang-bang…
The faint beating sound still continued stubbornly. It was clearly felt by the fingers, but it seemed to be heard by the ears, clearer than the noisy gunshots around.
So he picked up the thin man and carried him on his shoulders...