Chapter 1 The Never-Ending Archives

Sergeant Yamamotokaede moved his feet cautiously, as if afraid of disturbing the ants on the ground, and whispered in response, "Our previous barrage of fireworks was so fierce, they should have run away!"

Not only the ordinary Japanese soldiers charging at the front, but even Captain Yamaguchi, standing far away on the high ground, hoped that the Special Operations Brigade warriors would retreat.

Just when all the Japanese were full of expectations: "Da da da! Da da da!"

Continuous machine gun fire sounded.

Yamamotokaede, charging at the very front, didn't even have time to struggle before falling headfirst to the ground. Matsumoto Jun beside him, quick on his feet, also fell headfirst.

One of these two Japanese soldiers was active and the other passive. Beneath Sergeant Yamamotokaede, who fell passively, a winding red stream flowed.

The speed surprised Matsumoto Jun, who had thrown himself down proactively. He didn't immediately raise his gun to counterattack, but patiently imitated Yamamotokaede, lying motionless on the ground.

Listening to the machine gun bullets whizzing overhead, Sergeant Matsumoto Jun's hair stood on end. He could already distinguish the difference between bullets hitting the body and bullets hitting the dirt. When they hit the body, they made a "puff" sound, while the sound of hitting the dirt was much more subtle.

Listening to the moans and wails coming from behind, Matsumoto Jun knew: this attack had failed again.

Though it seems like a long story, time passed quickly on the battlefield. In less than a minute, Matsumoto Jun finally moved. He still didn't raise his gun to counterattack, but gently turned over Sergeant Yamamotokaede, who had fallen to the ground and hadn't moved since.

He still wanted to save this unlucky Japanese soldier. Matsumoto Jun admired himself for being able to save this Japanese soldier in such a hail of bullets.

Sergeant Yamamotokaede's chest was covered in a large patch of blood, which had completely soaked his upper body. Even so, Matsumoto Jun immediately saw three bullet holes in his chest.

He gently probed Yamamotokaede's nostrils and felt his pulse. All were gone.

How unlucky did Yamamotokaede have to be to take three bullets in the first moment of the machine gun sweep, and all three bullets hit near the heart?

He was now a corpse. Since he was a corpse, he couldn't be wasted. Matsumoto Jun put down his rifle, keeping his body close to the ground, afraid to raise it even a little.

With both hands, pulling and pushing, he finally used Yamamotokaede to shield him again, a temporary shield.

Only then did Matsumoto Jun extend Yamamotokaede's rifle from under the corpse, creating a small space.

His rifle also extended from this small gap. In this situation, aiming and shooting, he no longer had to worry about being hit by sweeping bullets.

The "puff puff!" sound had occurred at least five times, indicating that Yamamotokaede's corpse had helped him withstand five bullets.

Grateful, Matsumoto Jun looked out through the gap created by the rifle, observing carefully to find a target to aim at.

When Squad Leader Eguchi Kome heard the sound of machine guns, he quickly dropped to the ground. He was walking at the rear of the squad, and was relatively safe for the time being.

After lying on the ground, he quickly assessed the terrain, and with a few tactical movements, crawled behind a rock. Only then did he issue an order: "Heavy machine gun! Machine gunner! Immediately suppress the enemy fire!"

Sergeant Takahashi Akihisa was the heavy machine gunner. Hearing the squad leader's order, he quickly carried the gun body, looking around for a position to establish a machine gun emplacement.

The heavy machine gun had fierce and strong firepower. Because of this, it was also a key target for the enemy. If he didn't find a relatively good position...

The moment he opened fire would be the moment of his death. Sergeant Takahashi Akihisa quickly found a slope, just ten meters away.

Pointing in that direction, he said, "There!" and took the lead in rushing towards that position. Of course, many Japanese soldiers wanted to grab a good position.

Takahashi Akihisa carried the gun body, followed by the assistant gunner carrying the tripod, and two other Japanese soldiers carrying ammunition.

When they reached this position, the other Japanese soldiers consciously made way for them, waiting for them to set up the machine gun and start firing.

"Tuk-tuk-tuk!" The sound of a woodpecker pecking at wood rang out as the heavy machine gun operated by Sergeant Takahashi Akihisa began to work.

With this buffer time, Squad Leader Eguchi Kome had already discovered the enemy machine gun emplacements in front, a full three of them.

He was giving orders to the grenade launcher: "Blow them up!"

There was a grenade launcher in his squad. Sergeant Kuki Kōichi responded and began to prepare beside the squad leader.

Sergeant Kuki Kōichi was a veteran grenade launcher operator. He was also a well-known lucky guy in the entire company. From Shanghai to Wuhan, he had not missed a single battle, and had not suffered even a scratch.

Moreover, he was extremely good with the grenade launcher, hitting the target with certainty two out of three times. Sergeant Kuki Kōichi's first grenade had already been fired, but it missed!

Adjusting the firing angle, the second grenade was fired again. This time, watching the grenade explode in front of the machine gun, the machine gun clearly paused for a moment. Squad Leader Eguchi Kome excitedly praised, "Kuki-kun! Well done!"

His praise made Sergeant Kuki Kōichi even more energetic. Without a word, he continued to fire a grenade at the next machine gun position.

What they didn't expect was that the machine gun that had just been bombed was firing again!

What was going on? Was the previous attack ineffective?

Of course, the Japanese soldiers didn't know: Commander Yang had put a lot of effort into defending Tangshan in recent years.

Not to mention the costly tunnels, or the anti-aircraft turrets built on the highest peak of Tangshan, but on these nameless heights in the front lines, the Seventh Regiment had also built underground bunkers.

Moreover, these underground bunkers were connected by passageways. Not to mention grenades launched by the Japanese with grenade launchers, even bombardment with 150mm howitzers could not blast open these bunkers.

Defending the bunker was the first platoon, first squad, first squad of the Seventh Regiment. The squad leader, Lu Yinglang, was loudly ordering, "Don't fire the machine gun continuously. Da da! Da da da! There must be pauses."

The Japanese soldiers were suppressed. If they didn't show their heads, they had to stop for a while, and wait for them to show their heads before firing again.

The soldiers of the first squad were very familiar with the land in front of them. When there were no Japanese soldiers in front, they had organized their own exercises.

If they were Japanese soldiers coming to attack, where would they start, where would they hide, and where would they establish machine gun emplacements?

They had practiced all of this and had also set up trump cards. But there were too few Japanese soldiers coming today, and Squad Leader Lu was a little reluctant to use the trump cards.

They were just fighting a defense war with the Japanese soldiers in a conventional manner. Squad Leader Lu reported to Platoon Leader Wang, "The Japanese soldiers are suppressed at the foot of the mountain. They haven't given up and are still trying to attack. The Japanese soldiers are hiding in positions three, five, seven, and eleven."

Squad Leader Eguchi Kome watched as more than a dozen of his men had been killed or wounded, and the three machine gun emplacements on the hillside were still intact.

The grenade launcher was completely useless against them. What should he do now? He could only send Japanese soldiers to sneak up and blow them up.

Just as he was about to issue an order, a dozen mortar shells rained down from the sky. These shells seemed to have eyes, each one falling into the hiding place of the Japanese soldiers.

Squad Leader Eguchi Kome was hiding behind a rock, which was originally very safe, but a shell fell right behind him.

"Boom!" The sound of explosions rose and fell, and the large rock hiding Eguchi Kome was instantly stained red with blood.

Not only was he blown to pieces, but Sergeant Kuki Kōichi, who had fought from Shanghai to Wuhan without suffering a scratch, was also turned into minced meat.

The eight or nine Japanese soldiers hiding behind this rock were all killed by the shells, none surviving.

Sergeant Hyakudai Shunichi was lying on the ground, feeling extremely fortunate at this moment: he had just been hiding in the position where the heavy machine gun was now.

Sergeant Takahashi Akihisa came over with the heavy machine gun, and their group of four Japanese soldiers squeezed Hyakudai Shunichi out of the best position.

Forced out of the good position, Sergeant Hyakudai Shunichi had no choice but to lie on the ground, motionless, not even daring to raise his head, listening to the bullets whizzing past him.

He cursed Takahashi Akihisa and his group of Japanese soldiers countless times in his heart, when a barrage of shells flew over.

Sergeant Takahashi Akihisa, the heavy machine gun's assistant gunners, and several other Japanese soldiers who had been crowding there for shelter were all killed.

Sergeant Matsumoto Jun also realized at this time: all the Japanese soldiers who had hidden in good positions, in the blind spots of the machine gun fire, were now dead.

More than a dozen mortar shells had killed at least thirty Japanese soldiers.

"These shells really have eyes!" Sergeant Hyakudai Shunichi thought to himself.

Company Commander Zhang Xuefeng called Lu Yinglang directly, "How is it?"

He was asking how the artillery support was. Lu Yinglang reported loudly, "I can see the Japanese soldiers' limbs and arms flying everywhere. The Japanese soldiers' heavy machine guns and grenade launchers have all gone silent.

Their rifle fire has also stopped. This wave of bombardment should have killed many of the Japanese soldiers."

Company Commander Zhang also knew that it was impossible to accurately see the extent of the Japanese soldiers' casualties from the position of the first squad leader and his men.

The tactic was this: the first squad used machine guns to suppress all the Japanese soldiers in the blind spots, and all those blind spots were designated with numbers. They had all been test-fired during the company's usual mortar training, and the firing data had been obtained.