Chapter 111 Smoke and Excellent Hope

Sergeant Yanjun Youxi, rescued from the thorns, had clearly not learned what the Diamond Sutra says: Like a person in thorns, not moving means not getting hurt.

When it was trapped in the thorns, it was sore all over, and even more frightened. It struggled non-stop, which caused many small cuts from the sharp thorns.

Although these wounds were not serious, they were now itchy, causing it to scratch and fidget, feeling flustered.

No one cared about Sergeant Yanjun Youxi's condition anymore. The Japanese soldiers of Watada Musashi's platoon also began to draw their swords, hacking through the thorns, trying to clear a path.

While the soldiers of the two platoons worked hard on the hillside, Captain Shiraishi Chikahito was waiting anxiously.

His plan was for the two platoons to advance directly after reaching the mountain, but he hadn't expected them to be chopping wood on the mountain.

Captain Shiraishi Chikahito was anxious, and Captain Kawahara Kohei behind him was even more anxious. He impatiently sent a signal soldier to rush over and urge Captain Shiraishi Chikahito to speed up their advance.

Forced to do so, Captain Shiraishi Chikahito had to change the battle plan, ordering the soldiers around him to charge forward immediately.

The inverted triangular formation was temporarily changed into a pointed triangular formation, with the platoon led by him serving as the vanguard. Captain Shiraishi Chikahito walked at the rear of the entire platoon, while Sergeant Uehara Takuma, along with Sergeant Amai Riku, and Sergeant Maebashi Ryota, charged at the very front of the formation.

These three soldiers formed a triangular formation, covering each other as they advanced. Captain Uehara Takuma had already observed something.

The four soldiers in front had all been shot down after crossing an unmarked line. They were five meters away from where the four soldiers had fallen.

Captain Uehara Takuma ordered in a low voice, "Down! Crawl forward!"

When he issued the order, he had already thrown himself down, his movements crisp and neat. As a platoon leader, his execution of this basic tactical maneuver was very standard.

His sudden crawling caused all the soldiers behind him to tense up, and one after another, they all fell to the ground.

They nervously raised their guns, aiming and guarding the front. However, there was no movement in front, and the soldiers behind them relaxed slightly.

Crawling forward, Captain Uehara Takuma carefully crawled past the line of life and death. This time, no shots rang out.

He reached back and made a beckoning gesture, signaling the soldiers behind him to follow.

Captain Uehara Takuma did not stand up, but crawled forward for more than twenty meters, at which point he had passed the checkpoint.

Still, he found nothing. He tried to raise his head, wanting to observe the surrounding environment carefully.

Lying on the ground, Captain Uehara Takuma felt as if the sky had risen three feet. Looking around, there were shrubs everywhere, and he couldn't see a single person.

Hidden in the bushes, Company Commander Feng Zhiguo watched the Japanese soldiers crawling through the checkpoint. All the soldiers of the company saw more than a dozen Japanese soldiers crawling over from the path.

In the distance, there were still two platoons of Japanese soldiers chopping wood. Company Commander Feng pointed to the two platoons chopping wood and ordered, "Heavy machine guns, anti-aircraft machine guns, and mortars will fire on the two platoons of Japanese soldiers in the distance. Da Feng Novel Network

First Platoon will target the six Japanese soldiers at the very front, Second Platoon will target the next six Japanese soldiers, Third Platoon will target the six Japanese soldiers behind them, Fourth Platoon will target the last six Japanese soldiers, and Fifth Platoon will be ready to mop up, immediately shooting any Japanese soldiers who try to escape."

After the orders were issued, he commanded, "Fire!"

With a command, the sounds of gunfire and explosions, "Ping ping pang pang! Da da da! Boom boom boom!" were incessant.

Machine guns, rifles, and submachine guns were all firing, targeting their respective targets. The targets of each platoon and each soldier were very clear. The twenty-four Japanese soldiers personally led by Captain Shiraishi Chikahito were caught completely off guard and were killed by the dense gunfire.

Each platoon in the Third Company had fifty men. After removing the two anti-aircraft machine guns, six heavy machine guns, and five mortars, each platoon had at least thirty soldiers who could aim and fire at the twenty-odd Japanese soldiers lying on the road.

Thirty men attacking six Japanese soldiers, a five-to-one surprise attack, was like catching turtles in a jar—a sure thing.

This time, the Japanese soldiers crawling on the road, whether it was Captain Uehara Takuma at the very front, who was being the most cautious, or Captain Shiraishi Chikahito, who was being the most prudent at the rear of the formation, or the twenty-odd Japanese soldiers in between, were all wiped out. Amai Riku didn't die immediately; it was just injured. Hearing gunshots all around, it was so frightened that it didn't dare to lie down like this anymore.

It struggled to get up, wanting to escape backward, but it immediately attracted even more fire.

First Platoon and Fifth Platoon jointly fired at this one Japanese soldier, and in an instant, Amai Riku's body was hit by dozens of bullets.

The soldiers of Watada Musashi's platoon and Miyamaru Hyuga's platoon only heard the sound of dense gunfire, and couldn't see the situation outside because of the bushes that were taller than them.

They could neither see the situation of Captain Shiraishi Chikahito and his men, nor could they see the situation of the Third Company firing at them.

The machine gun bullets hitting around them, and the sound of bullets whistling past, made them lose their minds.

What's more, the dense bullets hitting the dense bushes and the constantly falling branches made them even more afraid.

Not to mention the shells exploding around them, and the flying shrapnel and iron pellets inside the shells wreaking havoc around them.

In the blink of an eye, the Miyamaru Hyuga platoon found that seven or eight of the entire platoon of thirteen Japanese soldiers had fallen.

The unlucky Sergeant Yanjun Youxi was not spared this time. This time, no one went to rescue the fallen Japanese soldiers.

Platoon Leader Miyamaru Hyuga clearly knew the current situation: they were in the open, and the special brigade's ambushers were in the dark. In this situation, not running would only lead to death.

"Withdraw!" With just one word, Platoon Leader Miyamaru Hyuga issued the order decisively. When the order was issued, it had already turned around and taken two steps.

It moved quickly, but its luck was bad!

Whether it was a shell fragment or a machine gun bullet that hit it, the soldiers running behind it saw a fist-sized hole appear in the platoon leader's back, completely see-through!

The three Japanese soldiers who were lucky enough to survive quickly lay on the ground, using their hands and feet to retreat along the path they had just cleared. The soldiers of Watada Musashi's platoon opposite them were experiencing the same thing. The dense machine gun fire instantly overwhelmed them.

Especially the anti-aircraft machine gun firing horizontally at such close range. Sergeant Hoshino Jun hadn't had time to react when he felt something hit his arm hard.

Looking over, he saw that half of his left arm was missing at some point. Just at that moment, an anti-aircraft machine gun bullet hit his arm, breaking his entire arm off.

Sergeant Hoshino Jun frantically searched for his arm, but before he could pick it up, his body was hit again, and he fell down involuntarily.

He took the opportunity to throw away his gun, picked up his left arm with his right hand, brought it to the position of his broken arm, and tried to reattach it.

However, his efforts were in vain. After trying twice without success, Sergeant Hoshino Jun no longer had the strength to try.

He carefully rolled over, pressing his broken arm under his body, took a deep breath, and stopped moving. Soon, a lot of blood flowed out from under his body.

Platoon Leader Watada Musashi was also a decisive person. At the first moment of the attack, he also issued the "retreat" order.

However, since they had already entered the Third Company's attack area, it was not easy to withdraw.

His luck was better, and the luck of the soldiers in his platoon was also better. A total of four soldiers escaped back.

Captain Kawahara Kohei watched the shells suddenly explode in front of him, listening to the dense gunfire. He never expected that he had just urged Captain Shiraishi Chikahito to speed up his advance.

The reaction would be so intense. When he saw Platoon Leader Watada Musashi leading seven soldiers running back to report.

He had an ominous premonition in his heart. Platoon Leader Watada Musashi's report did not disappoint him: "Report! Captain Shiraishi has been honorably killed in action. Only seven of us are left in the Shiraishi platoon."

The completely unsurprising report forced Captain Kawahara Kohei to accept this fact.

He asked, "How many defenders are there?"

"I don't know!"

"Who are the defenders?"

"I don't know!"

"What weapons do the defenders have?"

"I don't know!"

The answer of three questions with three "I don't know"s made Captain Kawahara Kohei, who was already angry, furious.

He reached out and gave Watada Musashi more than a dozen slaps, both forward and backward.

"You should know how Captain Shiraishi died, right?"

"I don't know!"

"Baga! Good-for-nothing! Pig!" Captain Kawahara Kohei, who was so angry that he was about to lose his mind, could only continue to express his appreciation for Platoon Leader Watada Musashi's answer with slaps.

Only when his hands began to hurt did Captain Kawahara Kohei stop.

Indeed, pain makes people sober, and pain also makes Japanese soldiers sober!

The sober Captain Kawahara Kohei asked the remaining six Japanese soldiers who had escaped back, "What about you?"

The soldiers looked at each other. They didn't expect the captain to ask them the same question.

Sergeant Yoshizawa Akira was closest to Captain Kawahara Kohei. Seeing the captain's man-eating gaze staring at him without moving, he could only say in a dry voice, "I don't know!"