Volume 1: The First Battle Chapter 5: The First Shot
"Fire..."
Following the order, rifles, submachine guns, machine guns, heavy machine guns, and mortars roared together, and bullets and shells rained down on the road in the valley. For a moment, the valley was filled with gunfire and artillery fire. Wherever the machine guns passed, the enemies fell in groups like harvested rice, and blood flowers burst out from the enemies' bodies. The explosion of each shell could almost lift several people into the air, and then break them into small pieces and fall down. Those who were blown to pieces but not dead used their last bit of strength to scream like pigs being slaughtered at the sky.
The sudden attack made the enemy dizzy and they fled like ants on a hot pot, looking for places to hide. However, the volunteers were ambushed on both sides of the road. It can be said that there was no blind spot for shooting. They had no safe place to hide. The ruthless bullets continued to take their lives one after another...
In just a short while, the valley turned into a blood-stained picture.
This is the battlefield. I was shocked by the enemy's cries, shocked by the enemy's panic, and even more shocked by this hell on earth before my eyes...
"Coward!"
The bearded man snorted disdainfully, which made me realize that I hadn't fired a single shot yet, but I no longer cared about my face or whether I was a coward. I was just thinking that beautiful victories and exciting fights in books, on TV, and in stories were actually so terrifying.
"Tick-tick-tick-tick..." The bugler blew the charge.
“Kill…”
“Go ahead…”
The soldiers began to charge. Under the fire cover of the high ground on both sides, the three companies rushed into the battlefield like three steel knives. One plugged in, one plugged in the end, and one cut in the middle. Our company was the knife cutting in the middle, and I felt like a notch on the blade.
I was almost dragged by the bearded man towards the valley, but I couldn't stop once I ran out of the trench because of the slope and the soldiers rushing forward in front and behind me. So if I wanted to stop, there would be only one result, which was to be knocked down the hill.
I couldn't help but run down the mountain, staring blankly at the bearded man in front of me who was rushing forward while skillfully loading the Type 38 rifle in his hand, raising the gun, aiming, and then pulling the trigger. With every shot, a fleeing enemy fell down.
"Puff, puff..." With the sound of several bullets hitting flesh, a soldier next to me was shot and his body rolled down due to inertia. Warm blood splashed on my face and quickly froze in the temperature of minus ten degrees Celsius, forming cold spots on my face.
I gasped for breath, realizing that the enemy was organizing a defense and trying to make a last-ditch effort.
As we got closer and closer to the enemy, I could even see their panicked faces and the black muzzles of their guns. Then suddenly, a ball of blood burst out from their faces, and their entire bodies collapsed to the ground like a bag of skin that had been drained of all the air.
With a "beep..." sound, the old squad leader blew the small trumpet that had been hanging around his neck. Before I could react, I was pressed to the ground by a big hand of a bearded man. Then I saw that everyone in the platoon pulled out grenades at the same time, pulled the fuse, and after a delay of three seconds, they flicked their hands, and dozens of grenades fell into the enemy's position in an arc.
There was a loud "boom..." and the ground where I was lying shook a few times. Bloody gravel and mud hit my body and head like raindrops.
"Kill..." The bearded man had already fixed his bayonet. With a loud roar, he rushed into the smoke produced by the grenade explosion with the rest of the soldiers.
A more brutal hand-to-hand fight began.
The sound of gunfire gradually faded, and the sounds of machine guns and explosions disappeared without a trace, replaced by the sound of horns, shouts, fighting and heart-wrenching screams...
As the name suggests, the bearded man led the volunteer soldiers straight into the enemy's position like a tiger descending from the mountain .
The company that was cut in the waist was different from other charging companies. The enemy was blocked at the front and rear, and it was very likely that they all rushed to the middle in their panic. Moreover, the middle was the location of the enemy camp command structure, and most of the enemies who had the courage to resist were in this area. Therefore, the bearded men encountered resistance as soon as they rushed into the enemy camp.
An enemy with a mustache, with a shining bayonet in his hand, roared and rushed towards the old squad leader. What he didn't see was that the old squad leader was holding a submachine gun. The old squad leader didn't even stop, but raised his hand and fired a burst of bullets, knocking him to the ground.
The bearded man was even more brave. He handled the Type 38 rifle with great skill. He could thrust, cut diagonally, and smash with the butt of the rifle. None of the enemies who came towards him could withstand a single blow from him.
The Type 38 rifle was originally the standard weapon of the Japanese infantry. After Japan surrendered in World War II, China seized a large number of Type 38 rifles. The barrel of this rifle is slender, and the overall length of the rifle, including the bayonet, is more than 1.5 meters, which can be said to be the longest rifle in the world.
As the saying goes, "An inch longer means an inch stronger, an inch shorter means an inch more dangerous." Such a long rifle is very useful for close combat, not to mention that the owner of the rifle is a volunteer soldier who participated in the Anti-Japanese War and the War of Liberation. So although the enemy has the advantage in numbers at this waist point, those who rushed up still fell in large numbers under the bayonets of the volunteer soldiers."
When the enemy was stabbed with a bayonet, most of them would not be killed on the spot unless they hit a vital part. The volunteer soldiers had no time to stab the enemy again when the enemy had basically lost his combat capability, so the ground was covered with bleeding and wailing enemies.
Some covered their wounds with one hand and crawled desperately, trying to escape from the battlefield and find a ray of life; some shed tears and tried their best to stuff their intestines back, looking at their intestines with disbelief; some trembled all over and their limbs twitched, looking at the increasing number of volunteer soldiers in front of them with despair...
I watched all this at a loss. I watched from afar in the trenches, but now I was standing here in reality. My nose smelled blood, my ears heard screams, my hands and face were stained with blood, and in this hell of blood, even lifting my feet would feel sticky.
"kill……"
The voice was hoarse but powerful. I recognized it as the bearded man's. He had already left the front line of his comrades at this time, and was charging in the other direction with his rifle blocking left and right. It was not until he got to a big red foreign horse and reached out to pull the horse's reins that I remembered what the old squad leader had told me and understood the bearded man's goal.
But at this moment, an accident happened.
With a loud "bang", a grenade exploded not far away. The foreign horse was startled for a moment, raised its head and let out a long neigh, and kicked around with all four hooves without distinguishing friend or foe. The bearded man was caught off guard and was hit. The kick seemed to be quite heavy, and the bearded man flew a long distance and fell on his back on the ground. He struggled for a few times, but was unable to stand up for a long time.
Hand-to-hand combat does not allow for any pause. When the enemy saw an opportunity, seven or eight of them immediately surrounded him. The nearest one raised his bayonet and stabbed the bearded man viciously...
"boom……"
With a gunshot, the bayonet fell to the ground, leaving a bullet hole right between the eyebrows of its owner, who collapsed to the ground limply.
I was stunned. I couldn't believe that I fired the gun. Loading, aiming, aiming, and firing were all done in one go. And look at the accuracy... it hit right between my eyebrows! The feeling just now was like I had been playing with guns since I was a child.
Looking at the bearded man again, he barely sat up, picked up a rifle and blocked the attacks from left and right, struggling to deal with the attacks of three enemies.
Without time to think, I rushed towards the bearded man with my gun raised, and at the same time, I skillfully loaded the rifle with my right hand. Without aiming, I raised the muzzle and fired a shot, and one of the enemies besieging the bearded man fell down. Then, under the astonished eyes of the enemy, I quickly knocked down another one. At this time, I had already run to the bearded man, and smashed the remaining enemy's face full of disbelief with the butt of the gun.
Suddenly, an enemy grabbed me from behind with my gun and body. I threw the gun and the enemy far away. Seeing that there were more enemies around me, I picked up a pickaxe and yelled, and with three consecutive chops, I chopped three holes in the chests of the three leading enemies.
"Don't move!" I glared at the four enemies behind me, holding the pickaxe that was still dripping with blood, and shouted in Korean: "Don't move! You won't be killed if you surrender your weapons..."
The four enemies were stunned, holding their guns for a long time without being able to speak. After a long while, they dropped their guns one after another and raised their hands in fear...
“Hahahaha…” The bearded man sitting behind me laughed with his mouth wide open: “Boy, I was wrong about you. You chopped down three of them with one pickaxe and captured four. That’s pretty cruel…”
I stood there blankly, looking at the enemy in front of me with his hands raised and looking at me in horror. I was surprised myself because I never knew I had this ability, nor did I know I could be so vicious.
The volunteer soldiers quickly rushed to my side, and the enemy's battalion command structure was destroyed within a few minutes. The enemy officers and soldiers abandoned their equipment and fled in all directions.
The smarter ones knelt down and raised their hands, while the dumber ones jumped into the Jiulong River. Jumping into the river in such a cold weather actually saved the Volunteer Army a few bullets. The dumber ones ran around recklessly even when the Volunteer Army soldiers had their guns pointed at their buttocks...
"The third company will attack the enemy artillery along the road, and the other companies will return to their positions to block the enemy reinforcements!" This was the last order issued by the regiment commander.
…
(This chapter pays tribute to the 353rd and 354th Regiments of the 118th Division of the 40th Army of the Volunteer Army, which launched the first annihilation battle abroad. In this battle, 325 enemies were killed, 161 were captured, 38 vehicles, 12 howitzers and 163 guns of various types were seized.
Salute to the heroic volunteer soldier Zhao Shunsan, who killed three American soldiers with a pickaxe and captured four American soldiers in the hand-to-hand combat of the Yunshan Campaign. This chapter uses his heroic deeds for the plot.
