Chapter 63 Slight Gains

The moment the gunfire rang out, the Japanese soldiers began to shout in a panic. Before Lieutenant Ishitaro could issue any orders, four bazookas were fired simultaneously from both ends of the road.

"Boom, boom, boom, boom!"

Following four consecutive explosions, amidst billowing smoke and dust, the cliff face cracked, shattered, and collapsed.

"Crash... rumble..."

Large and small chunks of rock cascaded down, crashing into the entrance and exit, piling up into stone heaps nearly three meters high that thoroughly blocked the road.

Lieutenant Ishitaro, who had nearly been unseated from his horse, straightened the brim of his cap and shouted anxiously, "Ambush!"

"Quickly clear the stones! Open the road, hayaku!"

Clearly, Lieutenant Ishitaro understood that the enemy must have a plan by trapping them in this narrow space. If they could not break out as soon as possible, they would only be able to take a passive beating!

Unfortunately, there was no time left for the Japanese soldiers to clear the stones. Atop the cliffs on both sides, Wang Chengzhu's mortar platoon had been waiting for a long time.

Seeing the Japanese soldiers blocked below, Wang Chengzhu was the first to drop his grenade. "Start throwing grenades!"

The mortar platoon soldiers atop the cliffs on either side lined up, spaced three meters apart, and with a gentle toss, the grenades spun as they dropped below.

This round of grenade drops basically covered the entire road space.

Down on the road, a grenade struck a Japanese soldier's steel helmet and landed right beside his foot.

The recovering Japanese soldier looked down at the smoking grenade by his foot, his eyes splitting wide with horror. "Gr—"

"Boom!"

The grenade exploded instantly, swallowing the Japanese soldier's figure.

Ishitaro looked back to see grenades raining down from the sky. At the final moment of his life, his face turned pale as he muttered, "Kasan, I..."

The next second, a grenade landed beneath his horse and exploded violently.

The sounds of explosions and screams rose one after another. Having lost the initiative, the Japanese soldiers were bombed with no room to fight back.

The Japanese soldiers who had survived by hiding behind others, as well as those hiding beneath the grain carts, realized that to stay alive, they had to charge out.

A few Japanese soldiers who had just climbed the stone pile were riddled with bullets by the machine guns guarding the outside.

Both ends were in the same situation. In despair, the remaining Japanese soldiers snapped, throwing caution to the wind as they used grenade launchers to fire blindly over the stone piles toward the outside.

Braving the bombardment of grenades, the Japanese soldiers howled as they launched a charge, swarming to the top of the stone piles and jumping out recklessly regardless of casualties.

However, caught in the dense hail of bullets from the First and Second Companies, only a few Japanese soldiers rolled down, using corpses as cover to mount a weak counterattack.

The blindly fired grenade launchers also posed a certain threat to the soldiers. Zhang Dabiao made a decisive judgment and launched a charge, shouting, "Machine gun cover! Brothers, follow me, charge!"

Coincidentally, Liu Bo on the other end also led the First Company in a charge.

Meanwhile, Li Yunlong was dragged back by Monk, who refused to let him charge to the front no matter what.

Li Yunlong widened his eyes and glared furiously at Wei Dayong. "Monk, you're my bodyguard! Hey, have you lost your mind? Let go of me!"

Wei Dayong refused to let go no matter what. "No way, Company Commander—I mean, Battalion Commander! We'll handle the charge. It's not safe for you to rush to the front!"

Li Yunlong had no way to deal with the stubbornly obstinate Wei Dayong. Seeing that the First Company had already mounted their machine guns on the stone pile and the soldiers were already rushing in, Li Yunlong struggled for a moment and glared at Wei Dayong with exasperation. "Alright, alright, let go of my sleeve! I won't go, happy now?!"

Wei Dayong released Li Yunlong's sleeve and broke into an honest, foolish grin. "Hehehe..."

Li Yunlong raised a foot and kicked Wei Dayong right in the rear. "What are you standing there grinning stupidly for? Why aren't you going after the Japs?!"

With his thick skin, Wei Dayong felt nothing at all. He nodded and said, "Alright, Battalion Commander, I'm going!"

Lifting his submachine gun, Wei Dayong crossed the stone pile in two strides and rushed in alongside the soldiers of the First Company.

The mortar platoon atop the cliffs had stopped throwing grenades. The First and Second Companies formed a pincer movement from front to rear, compressing the stubbornly resisting Japanese soldiers into the center.

The soldiers pressed against the cliff walls, advancing continuously with submachine guns in a staged assault—one squad providing suppressing fire while another immediately leaped forward to charge, offering alternating cover.

"Little Wu!"

"Drag him back quickly!"

Little Wu was unfortunately shot and fell to the ground, yet he still gritted his teeth and kept firing. The comrades behind him quickly grabbed his shoulders and collar, dragging him toward the rear.

The last dozen Japanese soldiers used grain bags as cover and relied on two Nambu machine guns to make a final resistance.

Bullets struck the grain bags, causing grain to spill from the dense bullet holes, carrying a faint, scorched fragrance.

Many grain bags were blown apart by grenades, and golden-brown grain scattered all over the ground. The soldiers saw this and felt it in their hearts—such good grain!

Fearing that the grain would be scattered and wasted, the soldiers held back from using grenades. Trying to charge across to eliminate the Japanese soldiers resulted in heavy casualties for a moment.

It was Zhang Dabiao who finally made the decisive call, knowing that the soldiers themselves were the most precious asset. "Don't be afraid of wasting grain! Bazooka!"

The final rocket shell resolved the battle, and the remaining Japanese soldiers were swallowed up by the fire and the grain.

Li Yunlong arrived at the scene and shouted with his hoarse voice, "Quickly treat the wounded! Remember to check the bodies and finish off any survivors, don't let the Japs bite back!"

Li Yunlong casually picked up Lieutenant Ishitaro's command saber and walked to the center. Liu Bo and Zhang Dabiao were leading men in tallying the grain on the horse-drawn and donkey-drawn carts, sorting out whatever grain was still edible.

Li Yunlong scanned the area and asked, "How is it? How much is still edible for us?"

Liu Bo made a rough estimate. "Aside from what was charred and what got mixed with blood, there should be about thirty thousand catties still edible."

Li Yunlong nodded with satisfaction. "Haha, not bad at all!"

"Alright, hurry up and clear the battlefield. Take everything we can carry and use. Let's pick up the pace!"

Half an hour later, laden with spoils, the soldiers of the First and Second Companies embarked on their return journey.

As dusk was just falling, Li Yunlong led the troops back to Yaojiayu.

Having won consecutive victories coupled with an extremely abundant haul of grain, Li Yunlong decided to hold a celebration banquet that evening—on one hand, to let the soldiers rejoice, and on the other hand, to take advantage of the lively atmosphere to officially absorb the POWs into their ranks.

Learning that the Eighth Route Army had won a great victory and was holding a celebration, the villagers of Yaojiayu enthusiastically joined in, even contributing the entire village's several pigs and dozen-plus sheep.

Of course, Li Yunlong would not take the villagers' meat for free. Having just captured a considerable amount of valuables and silver dollars from the Japanese soldiers that afternoon, he directly paid for the livestock at double the market price.

With a completely solemn expression, Li Yunlong stubbornly stuffed the money into the village chief's hands. "You must take this money! Our Eighth Route Army has discipline, we can't make mistakes like that!"

As night fell, the spacious threshing ground was illuminated brilliantly by huge bonfires, leaving no trace of the winter chill.

At the edge of the grounds, the cooking squad and the women of Yaojiayu bustled about fervently, setting up several large cauldrons, taking out canned goods captured from the POW camp, slaughtering pigs and sheep, and washing rice.

Catching the gradually drifting aroma of meat, the soldiers kept swallowing their saliva.

The soldiers and the villagers of Yaojiayu arranged tables and benches neatly.

The children ran around the threshing ground happily, skipping and laughing, filled with boundless joy.