Chapter 52: The Final Showdown
Seeing Su Yaoyang come in, Huang Guantao couldn’t help but complain: “Damn it, the little devils are determined to fight us to the end.
Early this morning, I dispatched a platoon to scout behind us, and the little devils’ cavalry immediately pressed forward. Luckily, that platoon leader reacted quickly and withdrew promptly, or the entire platoon would have been wiped out.”
Su Yaoyang sat down, took a pack of biscuits from his pocket, handed them over, and said while eating: “That’s for sure. If I were Kunizaki Ken, I wouldn’t let us off either.
Don’t forget, we took out their deputy brigade commander and regiment commander yesterday. If he doesn’t pin us down, his position as brigade commander might be the end of it.
Just watch, it won’t be long before the little devils launch an attack.”
“Boom…”
Just as Su Yaoyang finished speaking, a series of intense explosions came from ahead, and soon the observation post began reporting.
“Sir, the Japanese army is launching an attack on our Block 1.”
“I hope Lu Shaobin doesn’t disappoint me.” Looking at the thick smoke rising in the distance, Su Yaoyang said in a low voice.
To delay the Japanese army, Su Yaoyang and the other two set up two defensive lines in front of the church. Block 1 was at the forefront, and the Japanese had to take it to attack the church.
And defending Block 1 was the third battalion led by Lu Shaobin.
Although Su Yaoyang treated all units equally in terms of equipment, the third battalion, composed mostly of routed soldiers and with the least experienced veterans, undoubtedly had the weakest combat effectiveness.
To put it bluntly, placing the third battalion at the front was to consume the Japanese army’s manpower. Neither Su Yaoyang, Li Gaoyuan, nor Huang Guantao had placed any hope on the third battalion…
Zhang Wenshan lay quietly in a pile of ruins, covered with a layer of cloth strips camouflaged with dry branches, and a Springfield M1903A4 bolt-action sniper rifle, also wrapped in rags, was steadily aimed ahead.
One thing to correct here: many people, upon first seeing the name Springfield M1903A4 bolt-action sniper rifle, immediately mistake it for a Japanese rifle.
Actually, that’s not the case. It was developed by the American Springfield Armory under license from the German Mauser factory, with a turn-bolt action copied from the German M1898 rifle, so it can be seen as a variant based on the Mauser rifle.
Due to its excellent performance and high shooting accuracy, after being fitted with a four-power scope, it was used as a sniper rifle.
Unlike his comrades who preferred the high rate of fire and powerful Garand rifle, Zhang Wenshan liked this bolt-action sniper rifle, which had a slower rate of fire but high shooting accuracy.
Moreover, Zhang Wenshan had a great talent for shooting, so after careful consideration, the company commander agreed to his request and granted him freedom of movement.
Half an hour ago, the Japanese army launched an attack on Block 1. The battle started extremely fiercely, with the Japanese using Type 92 infantry guns, Type 92 heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, and various other weapons to assault Block 1.
The third battalion fought back fiercely without showing weakness. Relying on makeshift fortifications and abandoned buildings, under the cover of M1917 water-cooled heavy machine guns, Browning M1918 light machine guns, Garand rifles, and more than a dozen mortars, they gave resolute counterfire. The battle was exceptionally intense.
Lying on top of a bombed-out building, with only a pair of eyes exposed, Zhang Wenshan attracted no one’s attention. He simply observed the Japanese movements ahead through the four-power scope.
Suddenly, a team of Japanese soldiers appeared in his sight.
This was an artillery team, struggling to push a Type 38 75mm field gun forward.
Zhang Wenshan glanced in that direction and saw an M1917 water-cooled heavy machine gun desperately pouring bullets at the advancing Japanese. To take out that firepower point, the Japanese used grenade launchers, Type 92 heavy machine guns, and other weapons against it, but not only did they have no effect, they also lost more than ten men.
It seemed the Japanese were really desperate, even pushing field guns forward.
Zhang Wenshan didn’t dare slack off. With a “clack!”, he casually pulled the bolt, then disengaged the safety and aimed at the last artilleryman in the group.
“Bang!” Without hesitation, Zhang Wenshan pulled the trigger. Accompanied by the gunshot, a spray of blood burst from the chest of the last Japanese soldier, and he fell backward silently onto the ground.
With gunfire everywhere around, the Japanese soldiers, busy pushing the cannon forward, didn’t notice their comrade behind them had been hit and continued struggling ahead.
Zhang Wenshan pulled back the bolt, and a yellow-orange cartridge case ejected from the chamber. When he pushed the bolt forward again, another 7.62mm full-power rifle round was chambered.
“Bang…”
Zhang Wenshan pulled the trigger again, feeling a jolt on his shoulder and a slight numbness spreading from his shoulder to his fingers.
He cursed inwardly: the recoil of this thing was really strong.
When he pressed his right eye back to the scope, the Japanese artillery team finally realized two comrades were dead.
Originally, the Japanese soldier who was hit in the head had half his skull instantly blown off, and the splattered blood dyed the ground scarlet.
The soldiers, panicked by the gruesome sight, dropped the cannon, picked up their rifles, and fired wildly around them. But with explosions and gunfire everywhere, the sound of Zhang Wenshan’s shot from hundreds of meters away was not noticeable.
And the howling of the cold wind that had just picked up further disrupted the artillerymen’s hearing; they had no idea where the bullets were coming from.
“Bang!” Zhang Wenshan didn’t stop shooting just because the Japanese gunners were in panic. He aimed at a Japanese holding a command sword and pulled the trigger.
The method to quickly identify Japanese officers on the battlefield is very simple: anyone holding a command sword is definitely worth shooting at.
“Whoosh… whoosh…”
Apart from occasional sparse bullets whizzing overhead, those Japanese gunners posed no threat to Zhang Wenshan. They still hadn’t figured out where the bullets were coming from and just blindly hid around anything that could provide cover, firing randomly, as fear spread in their hearts.
“Whoosh…”
Amid the bullet whizzing sounds, the Japanese gunners, already terrified by the horrific scene, saw another comrade hiding behind the gun carriage have his head torn apart by a bullet, red and white matter splattering around like smashed tomato sauce.
In just a few dozen seconds, half of the original dozen-plus artillery team was killed or wounded. Finally, one Japanese gunner, unable to bear the psychological pressure, dropped his weapon and turned to flee.
By the time Zhang Wenshan stopped shooting, everyone except the three fastest runners lay in pools of blood.
