The soldiers on both sides of the cave made hand gestures to each other and threw a grenade in. There were two explosions, and gravel and ash gushed out.
"Go!" Three or four soldiers on each side stuck to the edge and disappeared in the smoke.
Bending down, holding the gun level, they carefully moved into the cave. The floating dust gradually faded, and as several people slowly moved forward, the light gradually dimmed. The cave entrance was not straight, but slowly curved to one side. The only thing they could see was the curved cave wall in front. There was a body on the ground. It was not killed by a grenade, but by a bullet in the neck. This unlucky guy had just died from Luo Fugui's machine gun. It seemed that the enemy had directly abandoned the defense of the cave entrance and retreated.
Gao Yidao, who was standing at the cave entrance, stuck his head out and saw the group in front had turned a corner. He waved his hand and led the second group of about ten people into the cave.
Before I got very far in, I heard a clanging sound from the front, followed by someone shouting, "Grenade!"
Boom—the explosion in the narrow space was extremely loud. The cave wall trembled, the gravel rattled, and Gao Yidao's ears hurt. Then a cloud of dust mist suddenly filled in from the corner in front, penetrated into the nostrils, and hung on the face. The soldiers nearby were choked and coughed.
A soldier staggered back in the dim light, shaking his head constantly, obviously confused.
"One group." Gao Yidao shouted forward, but apart from the soldier who retreated, there was no other movement.
He held the rifle steady and moved forward cautiously along the wall of the cave. He slowly turned about ten meters away and saw six bodies in front of him in the dim light. The cave turned right in front of him and there was a gentle S-curve.
Looking back, he saw that the Second Ancestor's soldiers had caught up with him quietly, so he took out a grenade, moved horizontally to the right wall of the cave, slowly approached the corner in front, and finally stopped. He gestured to the soldiers behind him, indicating that they were ready to rush forward, then pulled the grenade and threw it hard over the corner.
Boom—a deafening sound and a cloud of dust.
Gao Yidao no longer hesitated. He rushed around the corner and immediately assumed a half-kneeling shooting position, holding his gun and waiting. All he could see in front of him was smoke and dust.
The soldiers behind him followed him, either lying or standing, also raising their guns and aiming, waiting for the smoke and dust in front of them to clear.
Gradually, it seemed that there were a few bright lights ahead; gradually, it was discovered that they were a few lanterns hanging in the distance; gradually, it was discovered that the tunnel began to widen about ten meters ahead; a small dome was connected to a large dome at the back, like half a gourd, and Gao Yidao's position at this moment was equivalent to the mouth of the gourd.
When he finally understood the situation inside the cave, Gao Yidao's pupils began to dilate. He knew without thinking that there must be a fan-shaped shooting line aiming at the gourd mouth.
"Hide!" He shouted and kicked the ground hard to rush towards the corner where he came from.
The sound of gunfire that rang out at the same time cannot be described in words. Nearly a hundred guns fired almost at the same time. The gunshots in the cave seemed more abrupt and sharper than usual. It seemed as if it was raining heavily on the nearby cave walls. Bullets were flying and gravel was splashing. The criss-crossing sound was completely invisible, but it could be clearly felt.
Some soldiers were turned into sieves on the spot, some were pierced, and some were screaming in pain. Gao Yidao could no longer control his body as it flew up. Years of experience told him that he might have been hit by a bullet. Time passed very slowly at that moment. The corner was just around the corner, and his body in the air did not fall to the ground.
It was as if he was flying in countless blades, scratching his eyebrows, cutting through his sleeves, splitting his skin, and really about to be torn apart. His eyebrows were still raised fiercely, waiting to feel the moment of being hit by the bullet, just like when he was hit before.
Plop—crash—the huge inertia of the tall body stirred up a large amount of dust on the ground, and it slid a distance and finally hit the wall on the other side of the cave. Coughing in the diffuse flying ash, the tormented time finally returned to normal.
There was a roar of gunfire, including the Hanyang-made, the water-linked, the box cannon, the British Type 77, and two "flower machine guns".
Gunshots roared, blood flowed from his eyebrows, arms, shoulders, and legs. He turned the corner with his hands firmly supporting the ground, and slowly raised his black face in the dust that had not yet fallen, revealing a ferocious smile. He laughed, a ferocious laugh, and the laughter echoed in the cave in a very discordant way with the roar of gunshots.
He wasn't laughing at the fact that he had survived a catastrophe, but at the fact that he was being taken care of by so many different types of weapons at once. In his eyes, those colorful bullets were like flowers. What a great honor! There was no greater pleasure than this!
…
Gao Yidao began to attack the cave, and the ninth row on Mantou Hill completely lifted their alert.
Hu Yi went down the slope and came to the edge of the rushing flood. It was more like mud than water. The surging color was frightening. Swimming across was a joke. He looked up and saw the vastness of the world, as if it was stuck together.
With a loud crash, Luo Fugui fell down, tumbling and falling into the mud pit behind Hu Yi: "Oh my God - damn it - Pah -" he was turned into a mud man on the spot.
"Mule, with your strength, can you throw the rope over?" Hu Yi looked at the flood under his feet and asked behind him.
He fell into the mud and tried to wipe his bear face clean, but unfortunately, his dirty hands made it dirtier. When he heard Hu Yi's question, he raised his bear eyes and looked at the opposite side: "Boss Hu, you really think highly of me. Do you think throwing a rope is throwing a grenade?"
The distance was indeed too wide, Hu Yi sighed.
"Don't think about it. We can't get through. I think we should just go back. It's annoying to just stay here and do nothing." Luo Fugui climbed out of the mud pit and thought of washing his hands at the flood. But after looking at the surging color, he gave up the idea.
"It's not the right time to leave. At least wait until the work of the Second Company is finished."
Although they couldn't get through, the small hill opposite the cave could seal the entrance. If the Ninth Platoon left, in case of any unexpected events, such as Jinba La's men coming to help, as long as they put some people on this small hill, even if they couldn't get through, the Second Company wouldn't be able to get the things out of the cave. After years of marching and fighting, Hu Yi, who was sensitive to the terrain, didn't dare to take it for granted like Luo Fugui.
"Fox! Come up quickly! Quickly!" Xiao Hongying's voice sounded anxiously on the high ground.
After crawling and struggling in the mud, Hu Yi returned to the high ground. He followed Hongying's little hand and raised the telescope. His thick eyebrows under the brim of his hat were instantly twisted.
What he thought was going to happen. He said Jinba pulled Jinba pulled, but he didn't understand how he came so fast? Did he run into an enemy sentry when he came? If so, why was there no sign of advance defense in the cave? He didn't bother to dwell on this issue anymore, and issued orders loudly on the spot: "Mule machine guns ready. Squad one prepares for battle! Squad two and three dig trenches. Girl, take the fool and Li Xiang to build a machine gun bunker. Quick!" Then he turned around and shouted to the second company: "The enemy is coming to help! Notify your company commander! The enemy is coming to help! Notify your company commander!"
Shi Cheng was tumbling and crawling with his rifle in the mud. He ran to a favorable position and shouted, "Squad One, move out and prepare for battle." Then he heard Hu Yi shouting at him from behind, "Squad One, fire now!"
Turning his head to look at the vague targets in the distance in the rain, he couldn't help but ask, "It's still another mile, right? Platoon leader, is it too far?"
The answer was: "Hit me now to buy time for bunkers and trenches."
Shi Cheng found a mud ridge and lay down immediately, put his gun on the barrel and pulled the bolt, shouting to those around him: "Shoot now, free fire!"
Pa-pa-pa... The ten Type 38 rifles of Class One began to fire in an irregular pattern.
Liu Jianqiang pulled out the engineer shovel behind him and began to dig frantically, stirring up mud and water piece by piece. He shouted to the soldiers of the second and third squads nearby: "Use bayonets, sticks, stones, and hands, dig! Dig quickly!"
Ma Liang rushed behind Luo Fugui who was setting up the machine gun, and pulled the engineer shovel off Luo Fugui's back. He ran to the second and third squads, and followed Liu Jianqiang's shout and added: "Concentrate your strength to dig two points first! Then! Dig two points first..."
It would definitely not work to start in parallel. Time was too tight. They had to dig two pits first, and then squat in the pits to continue digging, so that the soldiers would not be exposed all the time. The second and third squads immediately split into two groups, each following the squad leader and began to dig and move stones frantically, in a mess.
The little girl climbed out of the pit like a mud monkey, looked into the distance, then looked at both sides of the high ground, raised her little hand and pointed to a location: "It's right there, dig a hole first!"
Wu Shitou rushed over with his pickaxe in hand, swinging it like a machine, splashing mud and water everywhere. Li Xiang ran over with Wu Shitou's engineer shovel, knelt in the mud and started shoveling.
The little girl arrived later, her foot slipped, and she fell into the rain, her helmet flying off. The man was lying in the mud, grinning and enjoying the pain of the mud, when he saw the helmet dropped into the mud, he was stunned for a moment, grabbed the helmet, sat up, and used the helmet in his hand as a shovel, shoveling the mud with all his strength, helping to shovel even if he couldn't shovel it, and helping to dig even if he couldn't dig it.
Rain splashed, mud splashed, sweat splashed, and water splashed everywhere on Mantou Hill, like crazy. The veterans knew what they were doing, and they could survive by doing this. The new soldiers didn't know what they were doing, but the veterans told them to do it, so they did it.
This crazy feeling is just like a battle, there is no difference; at least this crazy digging has an end, but the endless enemies seem to have no end. So the recruits gradually realized that what they were desperately digging for was not a grave, but a way to survive!
The rain hit the curled brim of the hat and the telescope. Drop after drop of rain hung on the lens, appearing in spots on the field of view through the lens.
Put down the telescope and carefully put it into the box. With his big hands covered with dirt, he took off the rifle behind him, lay down in the mud, pulled the bolt neatly, adjusted the aim, and joined the long-range shooting of the first squad, even though he couldn't even see the target clearly...