Chapter 74: Special Ammunition
A gray observation balloon slowly rose into the sky at an altitude of a thousand meters. Below the huge balloon was a large wicker basket, which at first glance resembled an open demonic eye.
Seeing the balloon floating in mid-air, everyone’s hearts tightened. Many veterans knew that when the Japanese army raised an observation balloon, it meant they were about to launch a general offensive.
Su Yaoyang, who had emerged from the cellar, naturally saw it too. Looking at the balloon a thousand meters away, he gripped the necklace around his neck, feeling somewhat annoyed. His mental power was still insufficient.
If his mental power were a bit stronger, he might be able to unlock the next stage of weapons. At that time, if he redeemed a batch of large-caliber anti-aircraft guns, would those little devils still dare to release such trash balloons in front of him?
For some reason, the uneasy feeling in his heart grew stronger.
“What’s going on? Why do I keep feeling like something bad is about to happen? Are those little devils up to some trick again?”
On the Japanese artillery position, the field artillery battalion commander’s triangular eyes narrowed into a thin line. Behind him, sixteen Type 41 mountain guns were lined up in a row.
Six artillerymen wearing pig-nose gas masks stood beside each mountain gun, with rows of shell boxes placed behind the guns. The yellow skull markings on the boxes were particularly conspicuous.
The battalion commander yanked open his collar, exposing his neck with bulging veins. Two copper buttons popped off his high-collared uniform stained with gunpowder smoke, and his riding boots crushed the grass leaves with a crisp sound like breaking dry bones.
Then he swung his command sword heavily, chopping off a nearby tree branch, and shouted loudly: “Fire!”
“Boom boom boom…”
Following his order, the Japanese gunners yanked the cannon ropes hard. Accompanied by the rumbling cannon fire, shells were fired out one after another.
“Woo woo…”
Soon, a wailing sound suddenly rose from the second-line position. The soldiers, already proficient in artillery bombardment, quickly ducked into nearby anti-artillery dugouts.
But soon they sensed something wrong. The sound of these shells exploding upon impact was unusually low, like the sound of a clay pot being smashed.
Experienced officers and veterans immediately changed their expressions.
Li Gaoyuan in the second battalion command post suddenly jumped up, grabbed the hat on the table, and shouted sternly: “Gas bombs… The Japanese are releasing gas bombs! Everyone, quickly cover your mouths and noses… No… Everyone, put on gas masks…”
“Put on gas masks quickly!”
Almost at the same time, officers’ shouts and curses rang out everywhere on the position. Amid the chaotic sounds, the position began to be enveloped in waves of yellow-green thick smoke.
Li Gaoyuan, who had hastily donned his gas mask, grabbed a Thompson submachine gun from the wall and rushed out. Just as he reached the door, an orderly stumbled into his arms. He steadied the edge of the gas mask with his callused palm, the copper poison filter canister gleaming warmly in the morning light.
“Why are you running!” Li Gaoyuan shouted sternly: “Call the regiment commander immediately! The devils have released gas! Tell him to put on a gas mask quickly and take care of those girls and the wounded!”
Church
Su Yaoyang burst open the cellar door. He clutched two gas masks in his left hand, while his right forearm was scratched by jagged sheet metal, leaving a winding blood trail. His military boots crushed debris on the ground, dragging dark red marks on the stone steps.
Song Mei, who was performing surgery on a wounded soldier, was startled by the door bursting open and immediately shielded Xiao Lu behind her. Her white coat was scorched with streaks by gunpowder smoke. Only after recognizing the visitor did she relax. Before she could speak, Su Yaoyang slammed a gas mask over her head.
“Inhale!”
Su Yaoyang’s hoarse voice carried a hint of heat. His trembling fingertips pressed the cool rubber rim of the gas mask against her feverish skin, the metal buckles snapping crisply into place.
Next was Xiao Lu’s turn. The little girl was very obedient, just clinging tightly to Su Yaoyang’s waist. Her neatly trimmed short nails dug into the folds of his combat uniform, her sixteen-year-old girl’s unique body scent mixing with tears seeping into the filter canister.
As she tilted her head up, her gaze swept over the bloody gash on Su Yaoyang’s arm, feeling a pang of heartache. But she remained still, letting her young master fasten the gas mask buckles for her.
After securing Xiao Lu’s mask, Su Yaoyang turned to adjust Song Mei’s, but she suddenly gripped his wrist as he adjusted the straps, her ash-stained eyelashes fluttering.
Through the fogging eyepieces, he saw her lips moving as if saying something, but the unspoken words were filtered into a moist sigh.
Xiao Lu pressed her whole body against Su Yaoyang’s chest, clutching his arm tightly. For a moment, the three fell silent.
White mist gradually filled the gas masks, the two women’s overlapping breaths echoing in the enclosed space. Su Yaoyang suddenly realized that everything he had desperately protected these past days was so precious.
Distant explosions shook the ground slightly, yet they just quietly gazed at the man before them, as if this small space was the safest place in the world…
The Japanese gas bombs fired for a total of ten minutes, stopping only after the entire position turned into yellow-green thick fog.
After another ten-plus minutes, the entire position fell quiet. Pony pines by the roadside curled into scorched brown ghost claws, resin congealing into amber-like teardrops wrapping dead cicadas.
A cold wind blew through, and the thick yellow-green smoke began to dissipate.
Vague figures began appearing in front of the first battalion position. A group of Japanese wearing pig-nose masks emerged at the front, the rubber tubes of their Type 97 gas masks pulsing rhythmically, like a swarm of cockroaches sniffing rotten flesh.
“Battalion commander, the devils are coming!” Xu Dapeng said to Li Gaoyuan beside him while staring intently at the opposite side of the position. Due to wearing the mask for a while, there was always a layer of fog on the lenses.
“Shut up, I can see.” Li Gaoyuan snapped angrily. The voice through the mask was somewhat distorted and muffled. He then said to those around: “Listen up, no one fires without my order.”
Facing the commander’s strict order, the soldiers suppressed their anxiety and crouched in the trenches, waiting.
The cooling water jacket of the M1917 heavy machine gun was covered in fine water droplets. Machine gunner Lao Cao had already lifted the water filler cap for the third time to check.
Actually, the water level had only dropped two finger-widths, but he kept feeling like he heard the hiss of steam scorching metal.
In the BAR light machine gun emplacement twenty meters away, another machine gunner was continuously wiping the gun barrel with a cloth. The gray magazine was polished to a mirror shine, but his left hand, wrapped in a tourniquet, never touched the trigger.
A soldier in his early twenties beside Lao Cao clamped his Garand rifle between his knees, his thumb repeatedly scraping the pineapple texture of the MK2 grenade.
When the first batch of Japanese reached fifty meters from the position, Li Gaoyuan finally stood up, kicked over the nearby ammo box, and roared hoarsely: “Fire at will!”
The instant Li Gaoyuan kicked over the ammo box, the metallic beasts lurking on the position awoke collectively.
The cooling water jacket of the M1917 water-cooled heavy machine gun was the first to steam up white vapor. Six fire chains crisscrossed into the Japanese vanguard formation, tearing the gas mask rubber tubes to shreds, sending them along with jawbones flying into the air.
Several Japanese instinctively clutched their leaking filter canisters, only to be pierced through their steel helmets by subsequent 7.62mm bullets—brain matter spraying from the breathing valve intake like toothpaste squeezed from a flattened tube.
