Chapter 32

When Dog Egg stopped, Sun Tao in front of him already sensed it and hurriedly stepped forward, patting Hu Zi to make the team stop.

As everyone had just stopped and Dong Ku still didn't know what had happened, Dog Egg picked up something from the ground and whispered, "There's someone nearby!"

"Someone?"

Whoosh, everyone immediately knelt down, aiming their guns to observe the surroundings.

Dong Ku hurriedly came to Dog Egg and asked in a low voice, "What's the situation?"

"It's a chicken bone, fresh."

As he spoke, Dog Egg handed something to Dong Ku.

"A chicken leg bone?"

Taking the chicken leg bone from Dog Egg, which still had fresh meat that hadn't been fully gnawed, Dong Ku's eyes narrowed. The bone, without any salt or seasoning, clearly hadn't been abandoned for long. The meat, though frozen, hadn't dried out.

"Be on high alert!"

Dong Ku gave the order in a low voice and quickly took out his night vision binoculars, looking through the night vision device at the ridge. If there were people there, it would be a perfect spot for an ambush.

The night vision binoculars could see up to two or three hundred meters in this light. As the lens slowly turned, a hint of something unusual suddenly appeared in Dong Ku's line of sight.

"Helmet!"

The helmet, shining faintly under the weak starlight, helped Dong Ku locate the target on the mountain.

Dog Egg's nose is even better than they said! He can even smell chicken bones on the road...

After a moment of admiration, Dong Ku put away the binoculars and made several gestures to inform everyone that there was an ambush above.

Everyone's hearts tightened. They didn't know how many pursuers were behind them, and they didn't know how many were blocking them ahead. Moreover, it would be daylight in about an hour. They needed to decide whether to break through or go around before it got light.

Dong Ku remained calm. He knew that the current team needed combat experience. Even if they suffered some losses, they couldn't avoid it, as it would affect their growth.

With several quick thoughts, Dong Ku put down the Type 11 light machine gun on his shoulder, called everyone closer, and assigned tasks.

While Dong Ku was arranging tasks under the Japanese guns on the mountain, Tsuchii Koji found the correct direction in the dense explosions and quickly rushed to the position where Fujita was.

At this moment, on the mountain, Takei Masaki was leading thirty Japanese soldiers. Although he heard the explosions, he didn't rush to investigate or provide support. He knew that Fujita and Tsuchii's teams were standard units, each equipped with four light machine guns, a mortar, and grenade launchers. Such firepower was not something a small force could handle. His position was the key to blocking the armed group, and the other twenty men were on the side of the mountain. Once it was daylight, even if the armed group had a hundred or two hundred people, they wouldn't be able to escape from this forest.

He carefully calculated, but he didn't know that several ghostly figures had already approached the mountain, less than fifty meters away.

Dong Ku slowly lay down at the base of a large tree. He didn't use the M4A1 because the scope wasn't very useful in the dark. So, he chose the Type 38 rifle. His night vision goggles were currently on Shunzi's head; Shunzi and Liu Zhong were on either side of him.

Mengzi and Hu Zi were a team, with Hu Zi carrying the machine gun and six ammunition boxes, closely following Mengzi. Mazi and Liu Hai were another team, with Liu Hai carrying the ammunition boxes. Sun Tao and Dog Egg carried their guns and had several hand grenades with the caps already unscrewed.

They could already faintly see the helmets under the starlight on the mountain. Dong Ku took out a flashlight, covered it with a cloth, and held it with his hand. He quickly pressed it once towards the slope below, then immediately fell to the ground.

As soon as he fell, a series of crisp gunshots rang out from the slope below, and a streak of fire illuminated a rock a hundred meters away.

"Fire!"

Takei Masaki, seeing the gunfire from the mountain, excitedly ordered his men to fire after waiting for over an hour.

Following his order, a dense barrage of gunfire erupted, and red streaks tore through the darkness, covering the position of the machine gun below, causing frozen soil and rocks to fly.

"Damn! So accurate!"

Shan Zi ducked his head, spat out the dirt kicked up by the bullets, and cursed.

As soon as the gunfire on the mountain started, Dong Ku, Liu Zhong, and Shunzi each locked onto a target and fired three shots, silencing the machine gun above.

"Below! Below!"

At the moment Dong Ku's team fired, Takei Masaki saw the gunfire only a few dozen meters away and was shocked. He shouted and ordered his men to fire.

The Japanese soldiers above shifted their aim to Dong Ku's position, and some pulled out hand grenades to throw.

At the moment the shouting started, Mazi and Mengzi's machine guns opened fire.

Rat-tat-tat... Rat-tat-tat...

A dense rain of bullets fell on the Japanese soldiers who were peering out to aim, and before they could duck, six or seven had already fallen.

Dong Ku, Shunzi, and Liu Zhong quickly aimed and, in the light of the gunfire, fired three shots each, blowing the heads off three Japanese soldiers. They then quickly rolled away from their shooting positions and crawled to the side.

Mazi and Mengzi emptied their ammunition boxes, quickly replaced them, and leaped up, rushing to the side.

Sun Tao and Dog Egg, in the moment the gunfire stopped, swung their arms and threw several hand grenades. As the first grenade exploded, they moved to a new position and rushed up the mountain.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Several intense explosions, accompanied by the screams of the Japanese soldiers, caused those who had just poked their heads out to find targets to fall to the ground.

"Grenades! Grenades!"

Takei Masaki didn't know how many people were below. At this moment, he regretted splitting his forces. Even if the soldiers on the nearby mountain returned, the distance was too far to be in time.

The uninjured Japanese soldiers, under the captain's shouts, threw grenades at the position where the machine gun had fired.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Continuous explosions lit up the forest below.

After throwing two or three grenades, the Japanese soldiers were about to search for targets when more grenades exploded around them.

Dong Ku, Liu Zhong, and Shunzi leaped up in the explosions, their guns slung on their backs, each pulling out two pistols and rushing forward. Before the explosions on the mountain had ended, they had already reached the top, clearly seeing the Japanese soldiers in the firelight.

Mazi and Mengzi, at the moment the grenades exploded, quickly crawled up the mountain. As Sun Tao and Dog Egg's grenades exploded, they, along with Hu Zi and Liu Hai, who were carrying pistols and ammunition boxes, rushed to the top of the hill. In the gunfire of Dong Ku, Shunzi, and Liu Zhong, the machine guns spewed half-meter flames, sweeping the Japanese soldiers who were raising their guns behind the hill.

Hu Zi and Liu Hai, using the light from the machine guns, fired their pistols, knocking down the Japanese soldiers who hadn't yet stood up.

The sudden charge caught the already panicked Japanese soldiers off guard. At close range, their long guns hadn't even found targets before they were shot down by pistols and machine guns.

The gunfire stopped as soon as the two machine guns ran out of ammunition. From the moment the enemy revealed their position, it took less than two minutes to eliminate the thirty Japanese soldiers on the mountain. Dong Ku's team only had Liu Hai's arm hit by shrapnel from a grenade, which soaked his sleeve with blood.

"Shunzi, finish them off and clean up the battlefield!"

After confirming no one was left, Dong Ku replaced the pistol magazine and ordered the cleanup.

"Brother Dong, Hai Zi is injured."

Shunzi, wearing the night vision goggles, saw Liu Hai's arm bleeding and called out softly, then walked around with his pistol and Type 38 rifle, stabbing each corpse with a bayonet.

"Where are you hurt?"

Dong Ku quickly came to Liu Hai's side and asked anxiously.

"Injured?"

Liu Hai put down the ammunition box, asked in confusion, and then felt discomfort in his left hand. He realized his hand was wet and sticky. He put his pistol in his waistband, touched his arm, and found that his right arm was injured, but the bone seemed fine.

"My arm is injured..."

Liu Hai said without much concern.

"Quick, take off your clothes and bandage it."

Dong Ku quickly took off Liu Hai's backpack and helped him unbutton his shirt...

Shan Zi also climbed up from below, calling out softly from a distance before reaching the top of the hill.

"Shan Zi, where's the machine gun?"

Liu Zhong, seeing Shan Zi with a pistol and a Type 38 rifle but no machine gun, asked.

"Damn!"

Shan Zi spat and said, "The Japanese are really accurate. If I hadn't followed Brother Dong's advice and hidden behind a rock, I would have been hit too. The machine gun was damaged, so I didn't bring it up."

Liu Zhong and the others were shocked. At over a hundred meters, they managed to damage the machine gun just by the light of the gunfire, showing the Japanese soldiers' skill. Everyone's underestimation of the Japanese diminished, knowing that if they hadn't lured and ambushed them, giving them no time to react, the outcome might have been different.

"Alright, take all the bullets, each person gets four more grenades, and destroy the rest. We need to leave quickly."

After quickly bandaging Liu Hai's wound, Dong Ku ordered the retreat.

Liu Zhong and the others quickly loaded their backpacks with bullets, put on grenades, and threw the guns into a pile, preparing to leave.

"Brother Dong, there's still one machine gun..."

Sun Tao, reluctant, pointed to the machine gun in the pile.

"We are mainly for surprise attacks, not for positional or siege battles. Two machine guns are enough. Leave it."

Dong Ku explained and then gestured for them to move out.

After everyone had run several dozen meters, Dong Ku placed a grenade with the pin pulled under the pile of guns and grenades and quickly caught up with Liu Zhong and the others.

Boom!

A deafening explosion echoed on the mountain, stopping the thirty or so Japanese soldiers who were rushing to reinforce. They clearly remembered that the mountain a kilometer ahead was where their captain was stationed, though there were no trenches, it was their defensive position.

Several kilometers away, Tsuchii, who was rushing, also stopped in surprise. The continuous machine gun and grenade explosions from the other side of the mountain indicated a fierce battle, and this explosion was clearly not from a grenade but more like a large bomb.

"What's happening at Fujita's position?"

Tsuchii, puzzled, paused for a moment and then continued to rush forward with the soldiers...

At this moment, Dong Ku and his team had already crossed a small frozen stream, and their tracks would disappear in the slowly melting snow in two hours...

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