Chapter 99

"Let these shrimps go!" Through the scope, Dong Ku could hardly see any figures moving, so he issued the order to withdraw from the battlefield.

As soon as Shunzi and the others put away their guns, they quickly rose from the grass and shrubs, following Dong Ku as he moved forward.

River Tiger Siro had not run far when Dong Ku caught up with him. Upon seeing the target, Dong Ku did not order his men to open fire but instead split his forces into two groups, rushing along the forest on both sides of the road. They quickly caught up with the fleeing Japanese soldiers on the road.

This time, they did not engage in long-range attacks but instead hid behind trees in the forest, aiming at the staggering Japanese soldiers.

Thud!

A Japanese soldier fell to the ground, his blood quickly staining the yellow sand.

Thud! Thud!

The soldiers at the end of the line fell one by one.

The Japanese soldiers in front, hearing the sounds of their comrades falling, turned around and crouched, firing blindly. They surrounded River Tiger Siro and Shinyama Yumi, fighting while retreating.

But they could not even see their attackers, let alone block the bullets. Amid the gunfire, the Japanese soldiers fell one by one.

Dong Ku and his men stood still, leaning against the trees, steadily pulling the triggers. At a distance of over 300 meters, hidden by the grass and branches, the Japanese could not see them, but they could clearly see the Japanese on the road.

As more and more Japanese soldiers fell, the number of guards around River Tiger Siro dwindled. In just a minute or two, only about forty to fifty remained.

Shinyama Yumi, who was being dragged by two Japanese soldiers, suddenly felt one of them release his grip and fall silently to the ground. The other soldier, struggling, failed to hold onto Shinyama Yumi before his head exploded in a burst of blood, and his grip loosened.

Without the force to hold him, Shinyama Yumi fell to the ground, realizing he had no chance of escaping. His vision went dark, and his consciousness stopped.

"Protect Colonel Siro and retreat quickly!"

A lieutenant fired into the forest behind them while shouting.

River Tiger Siro no longer struggled to stay. In just a minute or two, over a hundred men had been reduced to less than half. Even if he was fierce, he knew resistance was futile. He was dragged forward by the soldiers, running frantically.

The shooting did not stop as River Tiger Siro and his group of a dozen men tried to escape. When River Tiger Siro turned the corner, the battle ended. The road was littered with the bodies of Japanese soldiers, their heads exploded, and no further shots were needed.

After the last Japanese soldier fell, Dong Ku gestured to Shunzi on the other side of the road. Seeing Shunzi's response, he leaped forward, chasing through the forest.

The gunfire behind him stopped, and River Tiger Siro instantly realized the situation was hopeless. This Soviet force was determined to eliminate them, and escape was no longer possible.

He shook his shoulders and ordered, "Let us fight our final battle for His Majesty the Emperor!"

"Hai!"

The two soldiers supporting him stopped and loudly acknowledged the order.

The thirteen men stood on the road, each tearing a strip from their shirts and tying it around their foreheads. They held their guns, waiting for the pursuing enemy.

A few minutes passed, and as Dong Ku turned the corner, he saw the figures outside the forest. He stopped, raised his gun, and aimed. As he scanned the faces through the scope, one face made his heart inexplicably flutter.

"River Tiger Siro!"

The slightly dark, fierce face reminded Dong Ku of the photos he had seen. Although the man was now thinner, his face was not much different from when he represented Japan in Manila to negotiate the surrender with the Allies after Japan's defeat.

After confirming the rank of colonel on his uniform, Dong Ku raised his hand, made a few gestures, and pulled the trigger.

Shunzi and the others had already locked onto their targets. Seeing the signal, they left River Tiger Siro alone and shot down the Japanese soldiers around him, not even giving them a chance to fire back.

The Japanese soldiers around River Tiger Siro fell one by one, their heads exploding, but none of them retreated. When the last soldier fell, River Tiger Siro did not move. Instead, he threw away his gun, sat cross-legged, and grasped the hilt of his command sword, pointing the tip at his abdomen, looking calmly at the forest ahead.

At that moment, he had no regrets, his mind was at peace. The only thing that kept him from committing suicide immediately was his curiosity about the enemy and their strength.

Dong Ku slowly walked out of the forest, approaching River Tiger Siro.

Shunzi and the others held their guns, providing cover on both sides, closely following Dong Ku.

Seeing the figures approaching, River Tiger Siro's eyes widened, and he stopped the sword about to pierce his abdomen. He stared at the group of about thirty pursuers, unable to believe that his force of around three thousand had been decimated by these few men.

The new type of gun with a single-barreled scope and a long barrel did not distract him; he knew it was a Type 38 rifle.

The users, with their faces painted and wearing strange clothes of light gray and light green with strips of cloth hanging down, made it difficult for him to focus on their figures in the forest.

"What kind of unit is this?"

This question swirled in his mind, without an answer.

At that moment, Dong Ku's gun fired, and a blood flower bloomed on River Tiger Siro's right shoulder. His body jerked backward, and his hand dropped, the command sword clattering to the ground.

Dong Ku walked steadily over, stepped on the command sword that River Tiger Siro had grabbed with his left hand, pointed the gun at his forehead, and said coldly, "You have no chance to apologize to your emperor. You need to atone for the Chinese civilians hanging by the Baqing River."

"Are you Chinese?!"

River Tiger Siro looked at Dong Ku with fear and shock. The Chinese language he heard made him feel unreal; he could not believe that such a weak and cowardly group could be Chinese.

"You guessed right."

"Is this your entire force?"

"No, you're wrong about that."

Dong Ku shook his head.

As Dong Ku spoke, River Tiger Siro sighed in relief. If this was their entire force, his defeat would be meaningless, too humiliating.

But just as he sighed, Dong Ku looked at him with disdain and said, "Five more are cleaning up the camp you left behind. The entire unit has thirty-three members. We didn't need much more to deal with you."

"Uh... Uh..."

River Tiger Siro's face turned red, his throat moved, and his eyes instantly lost their light, becoming as empty as a dead man's.

His last hope was shattered. The enemy was not a large force but a small unit, and they had defeated and annihilated two of his battalions.

After the most cruel psychological blow, Dong Ku put away his gun, pulled out a blood-patterned samurai sword he had taken in Harbin, and without further words, a red blade flashed, easily cutting River Tiger Siro's throat. As the blood spurted, he kicked the command sword up, caught it, and quickly placed it under River Tiger Siro's chin.

River Tiger Siro's eyes remained lifeless, and death and life were now equal to him. In that moment, his consciousness plunged into endless darkness. Perhaps, this was more comfortable for him than living.

The wheels of history had already begun to deviate. River Tiger Siro, who was promoted to colonel in August and became the chief of the second section of the Kwantung Army, did not get the chance to advance further and died prematurely.

As River Tiger Siro's breathing stopped and his consciousness faded, Dong Ku felt a strange sensation, almost falling over.

He waved off Shunzi, who tried to support him, and after a moment, he felt fine. He then pulled a white cloth strip from a soldier's head, dipped it in River Tiger Siro's still warm blood, and quickly wrote: "For every civilian killed, tenfold retribution!" He then wrote the same in Russian with his finger, using the blood.

After writing, Dong Ku quietly ordered, "Shunzi, take the men fifty meters away to leave a gift for the reinforcements. Dig a large pit that can break the road."

"Yes!"

Shunzi took the order and ran with two team members, quickly digging on the road.

After Shunzi left, Dong Ku ordered, "Gather all the grenades around and bring the bullets and guns. The machine gun team will clean up the battlefield. Be careful and watch for snipers."

"Yes!"

Everyone stood at attention and quickly divided, collecting the bullets and guns from the bodies and sending all the grenades to Shunzi.

The machine gun team ran back along the road, busily collecting everything they could, setting up the guns on the road, and waiting for Dong Ku and the others to carry them away.

A few minutes later, Dong Ku and Shunzi quickly ran over, each carrying two or three guns, and quickly disappeared into the forest. None of them noticed that one of the bodies was missing.

After the footsteps faded, Shinyama Yumi, struggling to stay conscious, lay quietly in the grass. A few minutes later, he slowly crawled out of the grass by the ditch.

At that moment, he was severely bleeding and had been running frantically, causing his vision to blur. If not for his strong will, which made him crawl into the forest after waking up, he would not have survived the throat-cutting fate.

As he crawled onto the road, several figures came running from the direction he had come.

Through his blurred vision, he raised his gun with his strong will.

Unfortunately, just as he lifted the gun from the ground, a wave of dizziness overcame him, and he lost consciousness again.

"Colonel Shinyama!"

A running figure called out softly, quickly helping Shinyama Yumi to his feet. Another figure joined, and they carried the unconscious Shinyama Yumi toward the town of Yawata.

On the way, Dong Ku carefully recalled the feeling he had when he killed River Tiger Siro. The heart-pounding sensation puzzled him. He had felt it before when he sniped Cheng Bin, but he could not understand why. After checking his body and finding no abnormalities, he stopped dwelling on it and quickened his pace.

An hour later, they returned to the area near Baqing, but he did not enter the city. There were probably small units of Japanese soldiers from nearby towns, and he did not want to waste time on them, delaying the transport of supplies by Hu Zi and the others.

Dong Ku's prediction was accurate. At that moment, there were indeed about a hundred Japanese soldiers in the camp, all from the nearby towns, who had been ordered to come to reinforce.

However, they had already learned through the radio that River Tiger Siro had been killed and were ordered to temporarily defend the camp filled with bodies, awaiting the arrival of the main force.