Chapter 38: A Blind Cat Stumbling Upon a Dead Mouse

Chapter 38: A Blind Cat Runs Into a Dead Mouse (I)

According to Guan Shan’s calculations, he had set off a little past 3:00 AM. By walking and resting throughout the night for about three hours, he would arrive exactly when the sky began to brighten, just in time to begin the trek Li Tianzuo described: over the mountain ridge, down into the valley, up the next ridge, and down again.

Guan Shan estimated that if the Japanese initiated their attack on Chenjiayu at the first light of dawn and retreated along the same path after discovering the ambush, the earliest they would reach the vehicle staging point at Mountain Pass No. 3 would be shortly after 1:00 PM.

Unless they abandoned all their heavy equipment, including their mortars and grenade launchers—which seemed unlikely. With a proud personality like Yamamoto Ichiki’s, even if he knew there was an ambush at the mountain pass, he might choose to fight his way through directly.

What Guan Shan hadn't anticipated was that the ridge proved more difficult to climb than he had expected. Having failed to get adequate rest the previous night, his physical recovery was insufficient, and it took him two and a half hours just to reach the top of the first ridge.

At the summit, exhausted, Guan Shan found a spot and drifted off for a moment.

The second surprise was that he had actually dozed off for two hours. Even more shocking, when he opened his eyes and scanned the area with his binoculars, he discovered that Yamamoto Ichiki and his men had already reached the mountainside!

He crawled to the other side of a rock to observe the column of Japanese soldiers, not daring to use his binoculars for fear that the lenses would catch the light.

The Japanese were heading down the mountain!

Guan Shan was confused. Why were the Japanese here? Had they not gone to Chenjiayu at all?

"System, oh System, can’t you give me a hint? What should I do now?" Guan Shan thought anxiously. But the more anxious he became, the more he felt his mental bandwidth failing. He raised his hand, intending to pinch his thigh...

Then, he saw the grenades covering his body.

When he had gone to the contact point, he had already planned his next move, so he had acquired four grenade bags containing a total of sixteen grenades.

According to his plan, by this time, he should have crossed the second ridge and reached the vicinity where the Japanese had parked their two vehicles. To deal with these Japanese soldiers wearing bulletproof vests, cluster grenades were clearly more effective!

Damn it! Guan Shan wanted to slap himself.

"What did we come here for, huh? Wasn't it to blow the Japanese up with cluster grenades?"

"So what if they arrived at the first ridge? Like that line from Ding Wei: Who cares what they're doing? Even if they’re here to pay respects to a birthday, you can’t let them pass!"

He took a quick glance at the Japanese soldiers slowly moving down the mountain. They were not in marching formation, nor were they in combat formation; they were crowded together in a dense mass!

Guan Shan’s hands trembled with excitement. His heart pounded violently. He unstrapped the grenade bags, placed them on the ground, and pulled the pre-prepared leg wrappings from his pack.

Five to a bundle, three bundles in total, with one grenade left over to keep on his person—this had been planned in advance.

After tying the first bundle, his tension eased significantly, and his speed in tying the second increased noticeably. He peeked over again. Perfect! It was perfect; the Japanese were almost at the valley floor!

With the three clusters of grenades tied, Guan Shan stood up. He picked one up, pulled the pin, released his grip, and sent it tumbling down the steep slope!

Then the second, then the third!

As he threw the third cluster, he heard panicked screams echoing from below!

"One, two, three..."

Guan Shan’s heart raced; he dared not show his head, only counting silently. His pulse was skyrocketing—at least 120 beats per minute.

"Four, five, six..."

The time felt agonizingly long. Although theoretically the Japanese had no way to escape, Guan Shan still felt a faint sense of dread.

"BOOM!"

The earth-shattering roar left his ears ringing. In his nervousness, he had forgotten to open his mouth to protect his eardrums!

"BOOM!"

Beyond the massive explosions, he could hear the sound of rocks being blasted at high speed and slamming into the cliff walls!

"BOOM!"

(II)

"What was that? Why such a massive commotion?" Tian Daqing asked, looking up in surprise.

"It seems to have come from behind this ridge! What on earth is going on?" Sun Desheng was equally puzzled.

As the cavalry company commander, Sun Desheng was not supposed to be here. According to Li Yunlong’s orders, a platoon from the cavalry company was to be dispatched along with three kitchen squads from the 1st Battalion to form a reserve force. Therefore, the reserve commander should have logically been Yang Hongliang, the leader of the cavalry's 1st Platoon.

However, after Li Yunlong left with the 1st Battalion, when the reserves were setting off, Sun Desheng had run over to lead them personally. When Yang Hongliang objected, Sun Desheng just stiffened his neck and asked, "Did the regimental commander ever say I wasn't allowed to go?"

Yang Hongliang finally understood why Sun Desheng had been dragging his feet and fussing over every little thing. He had been wondering why "Old Sun" was being so uncharacteristically tedious!

So that was what Old Sun had been planning!

"Look, look over there! It really was from behind the ridge!" Yang Hongliang pointed to the dust and smoke rising above the summit, alerting Sun Desheng and Tian Daqing.

"Cluster grenades!" Sun Bin yawned, digging at his ear with his pinky finger before flicking his long fingernail. "Five to a bundle, three bangs means three bundles. They must have all been blown to hell; I didn't hear a single shot of return fire!"

"Then why did it go off in the rear mountains? Is there another unit ambushing there? Isn't that damn well stealing our business?" Sun Desheng cursed indignantly. "I dragged the cavalry company here like a mule, only to end up listening to the noise from a ridge away!"

"Chirp, chirp, chirp!"

A magpie called out.

"Come over here! What is it?" Tian Daqing didn't bother with the secret signal and called out softly.

Ma Sanqi ran over, panting heavily. "Report! Report to the platoon leader, they’ve fled! The Japs have run off! Everyone in the trucks is gone, damn it!"

"What? How did that happen? Let's go, I'm going to take a look!" Tian Daqing felt incredibly frustrated.

"I’m going too! Damn it, aren't they just playing games with us?" Sun Desheng stood up angrily.

"Don't shout! Everyone shut the hell up!" Sun Bin yelled, roaring at Ma Sanqi: "Did you warn your men not to touch the trucks? The Japs definitely set booby traps!"

Ma Sanqi froze.

"BOOM!" An explosion rang out.

Then came a series of subsequent explosions! It was exactly where the Japanese had hidden their vehicles!

Sun Bin jumped up and ran toward the sound of the explosions, and Ma Sanqi hurried to follow.

Tian Daqing was also horrified, shouting: "Watch out for a Japanese ambush!"

"There shouldn't be an ambush yet! We didn't hear any gunfire!" Sun Desheng calmly patted Tian Daqing, turned to Yang Hongliang, and ordered: "Hongliang, take a squad and go check it out! Keep your wits about you!"