The sun rose high and became brighter, the desolate mountains became more dazzling, and the clear blue sky became more blue. In the wild grass, green vitality broke through the soil, and on the sheltering branches beside the parapet, a few buds had already sprouted, quietly revealing a little bit of new green, a little spring, swaying in the wind.
In the shelter on the top of the mountain, Xiao Hongying, who was looking down, had no intention of paying attention to the spring that was so close. She took off her helmet and threw it down, then supported herself on the parapet with both hands and let her petite body rise out of the shelter. Her pair of pigtails swayed high in the wind and her pair of big eyes blinked as she stared at the foot of the mountain in the west, looking at the three figures.
The battle had just ended. Hu Yi, Ma Liang and Liu Jianqiang attacked the Japanese from the south and behind the foot of the mountain, turning the five or six Japanese who were in a dilemma into sitting ducks. Then, an explosion was heard from the hiding place of the wounded Japanese soldiers in the far west. Among the wounded Japanese soldiers who could not participate in the battle, someone detonated a grenade himself. Now, Hu Yi and the other two were confirming below to see whether all the dead were dead.
Liu Jianqiang sat on the ground and hastily wrapped himself with gauze, cleaning up the blood on his body and face. He did not have the excitement and joy of victory in the battle, but just felt very tired, as if this battle had exhausted all his life's energy, and he did not want to remember anything. He rubbed his sticky palms desperately, but it seemed to have no effect, so he rubbed them on his ragged clothes, rubbing them hard, but still felt that his palms were still sticky, and he could not help but feel discouraged, but he was unwilling to stop. Perhaps, this feeling would never go away in his lifetime.
Hu Yi looked at Liu Jianqiang who was always working on his hands, and knew what he was doing. Although he was still a wooden head and still stubbornly adhered to his narrow-mindedness, from now on, he was no longer a new soldier. Maybe he didn't know it himself, but in Hu Yi's eyes, he had officially become a "soldier". From now on, he would move forward without hesitation until he fell numbly in the smoke of gunpowder.
This time, Hu Yi did not personally inquire about the battlefield afterwards. He handed this job to Ma Liang. Ma Liang put his rifle on his back, held the Mauser pistol in one hand, and carefully looked through the Japanese corpse. It was shot three times, two of which were in the vital parts. The blood had already flowed out. This was the last corpse at the foot of the mountain in the west. Ma Liang straightened up, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and walked to Hu Yi's side.
"Brother, I've seen these six at the foot of the mountain. They're all dead."
Hu Yi looked at the revolver in Ma Liang's hand with a gloomy face and asked, "Why not use a bayonet?"
"A pistol is light and convenient to hold. Even if someone is not completely dead or is pretending to be dead, I can still react. Don't worry, brother. I have checked them carefully and I guarantee there is no difference." Although they were corpses, Ma Liang still didn't want to do what Hu Yi did, holding a bayonet and stabbing them regardless of whether they were dead or alive. He was a little hesitant to do it, so he used his own method and checked them one by one. As long as he achieved his goal, it would be fine.
Hu Yi lowered his head and was silent for a while, then raised it again, looked at Ma Liang, and said calmly: "Let me ask you, how long did it take you to examine these six bodies?"
Ma Liang was stunned, and thought quickly: "About... two or three minutes?"
Hu Yi then took his rifle off his shoulder, hung a bayonet on it, and strode towards the corpses. He stabbed each corpse through, then wiped the blood from the bayonet on the corpses and came back to stand in front of Ma Liang.
"How long do you think it took me?"
“This…” Ma Liang was speechless. It only took Hu Yi more than half a minute to go back and forth.
"If there are sixty of them lying here for you to examine, then do we have to go back to the mountain to have a meal before we clean up the battlefield? Do you know that on the battlefield, the more time is wasted, the more unexpected crises there will be?"
Ma Liang had never expected this. He raised his hand and scratched the back of his head, his face flushed.
Ma Liang is quite clever, but sometimes his cleverness can backfire and harm others and himself, so Hu Yi must wake him up.
"Also, your method of inspection can only be done by carefully observing each one. How can you find the time and energy to be alert to your surroundings? Will an enemy who is not dead or pretending to be dead wait until you try to pull him away before shooting at you?"
Ma Liang lowered his head completely, realizing the seriousness of the problem. Perhaps this insignificant act of reluctance might cost his own life or the lives of his comrades nearby. He had always thought that Hu Yi's actions on the valley path were just out of cruelty to the enemy, but now he finally understood that this was the battlefield experience of the veteran.
Hu Yi looked at Ma Liang who was regretting with a cold face, knowing that he had come to his senses, and continued: "Take off the rifle for me now, fasten the bayonet, and load the bullet." Then he raised his hand and pointed to the position of the Japanese stretcher a hundred meters away to the west: "Go and check it for me!"
"Yes!" Ma Liang put away his pistol, removed the bayonet from his rifle, loaded the bullet into the chamber with a click, and then trotted over.
Hu Yi then raised his head and arms and waved towards Su Qing's hiding place and the bunker on the top of the mountain, indicating that the battle was over.
Several Japanese soldiers were lying crookedly beside three stretchers. They were seriously injured and could not hold guns or move, so they hid behind the path and could not participate in the battle. When they saw the people in front of them being annihilated, they despaired.
Death is real and cold. No matter how wicked the Japanese are, they only have one head and one heart. Even if they are beasts, they know fear and terror. Not every Japanese truly advocates the spirit of Bushido, and not every Japanese is willing to commit seppuku to thank the Emperor. Otherwise, why do many Japanese have to pour so much horse urine into their mouths before committing suicide? It is simply because of fear, fear of death, so they have to kill themselves in a daze by getting drunk. However, there will always be one or two who feel that they are not born by their parents, so they pull out a grenade and make everyone become the glory of the Japanese.
Ma Liang had never used a bayonet before. It was just a symbol and decoration hanging on his waist all day. Now he finally hung the bayonet on his waist. Although it was only for stabbing the corpse, it made his palms sweat. Holding the gun like a bayonet practice posture seemed unnatural, because the target was on the ground; so Ma Liang hesitated, and held the gun body in reverse, with the tip of the blade facing down, which seemed to be better; he gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, and poof—the sharp blade easily broke free and pushed into the body under his feet. Although he had goose bumps, it didn't seem as difficult as he imagined.
After repeating the action several times, Ma Liang finally got used to it. He raised his foot and came to the last target. The Japanese soldier on the ground was still lying on the stretcher, wrapped in blood-stained gauze like a dumpling. Ma Liang raised his bayonet, but he didn't stab it. When he came over, he seemed to have his eyes open, why are they closed now? Am I blurry-eyed
Ma Liang clenched the gun tightly and did not dare to put down the bayonet. He raised one foot suspiciously and stepped lightly on the Japanese's chest, feeling the rise and fall.
Ma Liang raised his bayonet again, stood there for a while, still unable to stab, took a deep breath, and finally shouted helplessly: "Brother, there is a living one here!"...