Chapter 58: Wu Ze Fires the Shot

"Damn it, how are there Eighth Route Army soldiers behind us?" Jiang Deshui growled, feeling extremely annoyed.

The troops stationed near the artillery pieces were few in number, consisting mostly of logistics personnel whose combat effectiveness was far from impressive. If all six artillery pieces were to fall into the hands of the Eighth Route Army, Hirata Ichiro would certainly not let him off easy upon his return.

With that thought, Jiang Deshui shouted at the nearby fleeing puppet troops, "Move in, move in closer! Get to the artillery positions and destroy every single gun before we retreat!"

The fleeing puppet troops had no desire to turn back, especially since the Eighth Route Army soldiers were already charging at them. Any hesitation now would make it difficult to escape with their lives. Still, orders had to be obeyed, and these retreating puppet troops had no choice but to bite the bullet and push forward.

"If even a single artillery piece is destroyed, every single one of you puppet bastards will die! I won't accept any surrenders!" Zhang Dabiao roared fiercely, taking the lead and charging at the very front of the formation.

Clutching his ZB-26 light machine gun, he sprayed fire at the puppet soldiers while bellowing threats at the top of his lungs. The soldiers of the New Regiment around Zhang Dabiao also began to roar, pressing forward in a desperate, sprinting charge while firing relentlessly.

Lacking any real fighting spirit to begin with and targeted by the concentrated firepower of the Eighth Route Army, the puppet soldiers instantly scattered in a panic.

However, over at the artillery positions, Sun Desheng's forces were stretched dangerously thin. Although the logistics personnel lacked combat proficiency, they heavily outnumbered Sun Desheng's men.

Sun Desheng and his small group could not eliminate them quickly enough with firepower alone. By the time he broke through to the position, his ammunition had run out. Tossing aside his machine gun, he drew his saber and cut down three puppet soldiers in succession, only to find himself surrounded by a dozen more. The few men who had followed him were likewise locked in fierce hand-to-hand combat with the puppet troops.

Meanwhile, a dozen other puppet soldiers were clutching bundles of explosives, sprinting directly toward the ammunition crates near the artillery pieces. Once those crates were detonated, it would be more than enough to blow up the entire artillery position and every single cannon.

"Sun Desheng, hurry the hell up!" Watching the scene unfold from afar, Li Yunlong felt as anxious as an ant on a hot pan.

Sun Desheng's appearance had rekindled hope for capturing the artillery intact. But Sun Desheng simply didn't have enough men. If he had known this would happen, he should have assigned his entire guard platoon to Wu Ze from the very beginning.

Alas, there was no cure for regret in this world. Li Yunlong assumed that Sun Desheng's sudden appearance was part of Wu Ze's prior arrangements, little knowing that it was purely a coincidence.

"Sun Desheng, eliminate the enemy already, you bastard!" Zhang Dabiao roared as well. Although he was charging fast and the range of his light machine gun was sufficient, the large bulk of the artillery pieces blocked the puppet soldiers from view, preventing him from providing direct fire support to Sun Desheng.

"Li Yunlong, it turns out you had this planned all along!"孔捷 (Kong Jie) exclaimed as he watched the scene, nearly jumping in place. "Why did you only prepare a handful of men? Why didn't you send more?"

Though there was a high probability he wouldn't get to keep the artillery for himself, watching them about to be destroyed made Kong Jie's heart bleed. How could a man as shrewd as Li Yunlong drop the ball at such a crucial moment?

"Shut your damn trap, Kong the Blockhead!" Li Yunlong roared back, consumed by deep regret.

"Get out of the way, all of you, get out of my way!" Cradling his saber, Sun Desheng hacked down three more puppet soldiers, splattering himself in blood.

Cutting a path through the throng, Sun Desheng broke out of the encirclement. Wielding his blade to keep the puppet soldiers at bay, he sprinted desperately to intercept the men carrying the explosive charges.

But it was already too late; precious seconds had been lost.

The dozen or so puppet soldiers were still thirty meters away from him, and all he had in his hand was a sword. A blade could not reach thirty meters across. The few soldiers he had brought with him were also completely bogged down in melee combat. They could only watch helplessly as the puppet soldiers approached the ammunition crates with their explosives.

"It's over, it's over, my artillery is finished!" Li Yunlong muttered, completely losing his composure.

Kong Jie stood paralyzed like a wooden chicken, watching helplessly as the six cannons faced destruction. The feeling was akin to having one's newly wedded bride snatched away by another man.

"Stop right there! Blow up the artillery and every last one of you puppet troops will die! We won't show mercy to captives!" Zhang Dabiao bellowed. Whether from running too fiercely or from overwhelming agitation, his foot caught on the ground and he tumbled heavily onto his face.

"You running dogs, stop!"

"Traitors, you wouldn't dare!"

"You lackeys, halt if you don't want to die!"

The soldiers of the New Regiment and the Independent Regiment shouted in fury, their voices laced with bitter frustration. The massive cannons blocked their line of sight, leaving them unable to provide covering fire.

"Hahaha, well done!" Jiang Deshui laughed gleefully at the sight. "You Eighth Route Army dogs want to capture our artillery? In your next life!"

Just as everyone resigned themselves to the inevitable destruction of the guns, Wu Ze raised his rifle, focusing his entire attention on taking aim.

There were only three rounds of ammunition in his Hanyang rifle, yet there were over a dozen puppet soldiers in front of him. Even if every shot hit its mark and each bullet killed one man, he could take out three at most.

No, that was standard arithmetic. There was another way to calculate this: taking out all dozen-plus puppet soldiers with a single bullet.

This wasn't the kind of trick shooting seen in melodramatic war dramas where bullets could bend corners; rather, he was aiming squarely at the explosive satchel carried by one of the puppet troops. With the dozen men tightly clustered together, a single well-placed shot detonating the explosives would be enough to halt their advance permanently.

Regulating his breathing, Wu Ze locked onto one of the explosive packs and slowly began to apply pressure to the trigger.

Bang!

The Hanyang rifle in Wu Ze's hands cracked.

Thud!

A puppet soldier pitched forward, collapsing face-first into a pool of blood.

Without missing a beat, Wu Ze swiftly worked the bolt, ejected the spent casing, reloaded, raised the rifle, and took aim once more.

The sudden gunshot resulting in a fallen comrade caused the remaining puppet soldiers to tighten up internally. Someone was playing sniper.

Instead of causing them to retreat, however, this only spurred the puppet soldiers to quicken their pace.

Spotting the source of the gunshot, Sun Desheng narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "Could that be Wu Ze firing? Didn't he have no experience with guns? How is he this accurate, dropping a man with every shot? But there are only three bullets, that's nowhere near enough."

Naturally, Sun Desheng had no idea that Wu Ze was aiming for the explosives rather than the men, and that his first shot had actually missed its intended target.

"Did Sun Desheng arrange for another sniper?" Li Yunlong muttered doubtfully as he watched the puppet soldier drop.

"Even if he did, a single man with a single rifle can't possibly stop so many puppet soldiers," Kong Jie remarked.

"Shut your trap, Kong the Blockhead!" Li Yunlong scolded. "Do you really think that shot was meant for the puppet soldier? He was aiming for the explosives! If he hits the pack, this whole squad of puppets goes up in smoke!"

Li Yunlong figured that targeting the explosives must have been Wu Ze's secret plan. If that shot managed to hit the explosives and save the artillery, whoever pulled the trigger certainly deserved to be rewarded with a few catties of sweet potato liquor.

"Haha, Old Li, I wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't pointed it out," Kong Jie said with a booming laugh as his hopes soared.