Chapter 933: To Die or to Live

"Company Commander, I can be a regiment commander in the future."

The communications soldier giggled, ran to Wang Company Commander who was eating there, and sat down with a thud.

"Letting us cross the river?" Although he understood, Wang Yan still asked as a straight man.

"Yes, after dark, let us cross the river to open up the situation. But the monkeys in the mountains haven't been cleared out yet, so they need to be searched on a large scale, so we only have the Second Company behind us."

As he was speaking, the Second Company Commander had already walked over carrying his rifle, laughing: "Wang Yan, received the mission? I'm under your command; how do you say we should fight?"

Wang Yan threw him a can: "I went to the riverbank at noon; they blew the bridge into three sections and built fortifications on the riverbank. The firepower is no worse than when we fought at Cao. If we cross the river, the movement will be too big, and they will definitely notice. Going around is not worth it.

Like this, when it gets darker in a while, I'll swim over and kill all those monkeys on the opposite side. You guys get the assault boats and such ready; once I start exchanging fire with them, you guys cross the river."

The Second Company Commander had a lot to say, but thinking of the god-of-war-like performance of Wang Yan he had heard about, he ultimately swallowed those questions, but still asked uncertainly: "Is it doable?"

"I say it's doable, and it's not like I'm looking for death, right? If I wasn't sure, I wouldn't do it. Get ready, have the rear bring the boats over."

"Good, then we'll do as you say." The Second Company Commander didn't talk much nonsense and didn't eat the canned food, rushing away again. There was plenty of time, so he had the rear hurry to bring the boats over.

"Company Commander, the water is cold."

"Small matter." Wang Yan waved his hand with a smile, "Hurry up and eat, check your weapons, replenish ammunition. I don't know if the monkey officers on the opposite side have left yet; let's also make a contribution by beheading the general and seizing the flag."

"Company Commander, I think it's enough; we've killed at least two Vietnamese monkey company commanders."

"No ambition. Don't talk about killing a company commander; even if a division commander died, I don't think it's enough."

"You damn bastard, speak clearly. What company commander, what company commander? If you can't speak, shut your asshole and don't fart."

A group of people started arguing, cursing, very lively...

It was dark, but not completely dark; there was still moonlight, making things dimly visible, but not clearly. The wind was still blowing, and the river was still surging.

"Don't let your head out."

Ruan Wenxiu grabbed the person beside him and pulled him to sit on the ground, "Forgot about the Chinese monkey sharpshooter from noon? You still dare to light a cigarette and stand up?"

"I know." The man waved his hand indifferently, just crouching in the trench smoking.

"Sigh..."

Ruan Wenxiu sighed, remembering the brief exchange at noon, still having lingering fears. His ear, wrapped in white cloth and seeping blood, still hurt a lot. He couldn't help but light a cigarette to relieve his nervous mood.

He was a squad leader now, but he had just been promoted from a small soldier, and the people in the squad didn't obey him. This was thanks to the Chinese monkey sharpshooter; in that short while at noon, he killed eighteen of them. He was lucky to have survived, and because he had some merits before, he was promoted to squad leader on the spot, and given more militia to replenish, leading over ten people to guard against the Chinese monkeys crossing the river.

He knew that the Chinese also called them monkeys, and he also knew that the French and Americans also called them monkeys, but by comparison, the French and American terms were more universal, because they called them "yellow-skinned monkeys"—all Asians were. The reason he knew this was that his father was an old soldier who had fought for many years and died in the unification war.

He had heard his father tell many battlefield truths when he was young, and heard of many battlefield experts, but he had never heard of anyone like that Chinese monkey at noon—it was too fierce.

In fact, he should have died too, but he was pushed by someone, and the bullet broke his ear, allowing him to keep his life. From beginning to end, he was panicked. But he remembered that the opposite side only fired twenty-two shots, and he was lucky to be one of those four shots.

However, for some reason, he felt a palpitations for no reason, making him feel that breathing was very difficult.

After smoking the cigarette, he carefully poked his head out of the trench, carefully observing the situation on the opposite bank. The wind was still blowing, the water was still flowing, and beside his ears was the buzzing of his disobedient big-headed soldiers.

Finally, he seemed to notice that the voices of his disobedient big-headed soldiers had become smaller—no, it wasn't that the voices were smaller, there was simply no sound.

He couldn't help but turn his head to look, only to see a human figure in the dim darkness, aiming a rifle at him. He saw clearly that this person was soaking wet, covered in mud.

He tried his best to clear his eyes, only then seeing that the disobedient big-headed soldier who had just pulled him down was lying there clutching his neck and twitching.

"I surrender."

Hearing such a crisp and neat statement, Wang Yan nodded with a smile: "A very wise choice."

"Yes, yes..."

Seeing him smile, Ruan Wenxiu also bit the bullet, pulling up a smile to accompany him. How could he not understand that the disobedient big-headed soldiers under him had all been silently killed?

How long had it been? It was too fast...

"You don't..." He widened his eyes suddenly, but he couldn't speak anymore, only clutching his neck and sobbing.

"You want to say I don't keep my word? But I didn't accept your surrender either." Wang Yan was still smiling so understandingly, and used his bayonet to push this little monkey aside to twitch and wait for death.

He walked leisurely, cigarette in his mouth, rummaging through the Vietnamese army's position. He originally wanted to light a fire, but found a flashlight, shining it back and forth toward the opposite side, and constantly flashing it.

The soldiers waiting to cross the river finally understood, carried the boats into the water, and rowed rapidly toward this side.

The position of crossing the river naturally had some considerations; Wang Yan had killed the Vietnamese army at the position by the bridge, and the soldiers crossed the river following the bridge. Although the bridge had been blown up, it was still cover. In case they were discovered, it could block some enemy bullets, and it could also ease the turbulent water flow.

It wasn't "in case," but "inevitably" discovered. Wang Yan crossing alone wasn't discovered because his target was small and he was a good swimmer; he swam without sound, and even if the river was turbulent, it couldn't cause him much influence.

But large-scale boat crossing was different. Not to mention the sound, just the shadows of that boatload of people had already been exposed.

Wang Yan walked swaggeringly, and he heard a noise from another position a hundred meters away, obviously having discovered our army's soldiers crossing the river.

Seeing someone suddenly raise their hand, Wang Yan fired a shot, hitting the person and knocking them into the trench. But that person's finger was mechanically operating the order in his brain before death, still pulling the trigger.

The flare was triggered, but it didn't go into the sky; it bloomed with light inside the trench, also releasing high temperature. The few people around hadn't even fired back before they were killed by Wang Yan's continuous shots, covering the light of the flare, but because of the high-temperature burning, a chilling fragrance, even covering the gunpowder smoke, spread out just like this.

Finally, the high temperature burned the grenades on these people, *boom*...

The close-range explosion shattered the corpses, and severed limbs were everywhere. A piece of flesh stuck to the face of a Vietnamese big-headed soldier; he took it off to look at it, and before the nausea could rise, a bullet entered through his eye, the powerful impact instantly stirring his brain into a paste. He left very peacefully, without pain.

Once the gunfire started, it couldn't easily stop; it had to be a life-or-death struggle.

The flare was ultimately fired into the sky by the Vietnamese army, rising very high, slowly falling with a tracer. But the scene revealed by the flare was terrifying to the Vietnamese army; looking out, there were our army's soldiers everywhere, dispersing, dodging, and advancing at the same time.

This light also helped us. The soldiers held their rifles and poured bullets toward the front frantically.

The soldiers didn't swarm to one end, but separated to both sides, attacking from east and west. They expanded the safe landing point, creating conditions for the brothers behind to land.

Making two trips, less than two hundred people crossed the river. Yes, less than two hundred people. Whether it was Wang Yan's Third Company or the Second Company, they didn't replenish personnel. Because overall, our army's strength was superior. Locally, casualties were not many, and the reduction in personnel was not much.

Especially Wang Yan's unit, which had become a spearhead company, had become accustomed to following Wang Yan's fierce combat rhythm; rashly replenishing personnel was not a good thing, and the casualty probability of new soldiers coming over would be greatly increased.

Wang Yan's subordinates were very fierce. The first batch of soldiers who crossed, half from the Second Company and half from the Third, made the Second Company Commander grit his teeth as he watched Wang Yan's subordinates advance. He and his soldiers were fierce, but not fierce enough.

He saw it with his own eyes: a three-person combat team didn't stop, one threw a grenade, then another provided fire suppression, and another crawled close—in the blink of an eye, they killed four, highlighting speed and ruthlessness.

His soldiers used the same tactics, but they weren't as sharp or fierce; the gap was visible to the naked eye. And he knew very well that before the war, these soldiers were no different from his own.

Damn it, they fought with Wang Yan for two days and became this fierce?

The Second Company Commander's sigh was unknown to Wang Yan, who was much fiercer than the soldiers; after all, he was the one leading the charge, killing all the way, solving the enemies guarding the riverbank.

Suddenly, a *whoosh* sound of breaking air rang out in the sky again, followed by a *rumble* of explosions. This time the artillery fire was relatively fierce, striking the coastal area.

But obviously, the lethality was limited. Wang Yan looked around and didn't see anyone killed by the bombing. After all, the team was very dispersed, combat teams were far apart, and some were no longer by the riverbank, but had chased the Vietnamese army into the buildings by the riverbank to fight street battles. It was mainly because the Vietnamese army collapsed at the first touch, and they advanced very quickly.

Facing the artillery fire, a dust-covered Wang Yan always had only three words: "Communications soldier!"

He shouted very loudly, and in the brief silence after the artillery fire, it traveled very far.

"Here!"

The response was also very far away, hoarse, but one could hear the relief in the voice.

Communications soldier Xiao Liang was naturally relieved; after crossing the river, he had been looking for the Company Commander. This time he finally found him, and he hurriedly ran along the buildings by the road for dozens of meters to Wang Company Commander's side.

"... It's a bit far, ask if they can reach it." Wang Yan reported another string of coordinates, letting the communications soldier contact the rear artillery.

Wang Yan's coordinates were accurate, the artillery strike was effective, and at the same time, Wang Yan was the spearhead, pushing hard and deep, and the results were great, so there was an artillery battalion following him. If there was a need for firepower, they responded; if not, they provided support to other units, after all, the fighting in the mountains was also quite intense. By the afternoon, the artillery position had already been stationed in Old Street.

Although the artillerymen had many complaints, they hadn't let Wang Yan down since the war started. In fact, they had already observed it, but they hadn't calculated it yet, and they weren't sure. Upon receiving Wang Yan's coordinates, they didn't say a word, adjusted the muzzle, and fired, and it wasn't just one round, but three dense consecutive rounds, conducting saturation strikes on the area near the coordinates. They trusted Wang Yan more than they trusted themselves...

Not very far away, only a few hundred meters, the tail flames of the shells were clearly visible, the sky was full of fire, and even though it was a few hundred meters away, the ears were ringing with *rumbling* sounds.

*Click*—Wang Yan fulfilled his duty as a war photographer, recording this scene in the dark night...

Without a doubt, Wang Yan had performed meritorious service again, destroying another Vietnamese artillery position, adding another stroke to his merit book. Since the beginning of the war, the Vietnamese artillery fire in the battlefield where Wang Yan was located had never worked well; they were destroyed as soon as they fired a round.

"Company Commander!"

At this time, from within the building area, came bursts of shouting, very anxious. For a moment, they even forgot the taboo of street fighting.

"Here." The communications soldier kept pulling his throat, responding loudly.

Before long, a few soldiers kicked a dust-covered Vietnamese soldier out of the alley.

"Company Commander..." The leading soldier giggled, seeing Wang Yan staring with wide eyes, his face unhappy, and in a flash of thought, he understood, "Company Commander, don't worry, we already broke in over a hundred meters, and retreated dozens of meters before shouting."

Wang Yan nodded: "What's going on?"

"The three of us blocked this grandson in a room. We were originally going to throw a grenade, but this grandson threw his gun out and surrendered. We didn't want to accept it, and I had already fixed my bayonet to give him a quick death, but he said he was a company commander, and he knew where their regiment commander was."

The soldier was boisterous, looking very happy, "Company Commander, didn't you say beheading the general and seizing the flag before? This time it's really going to happen. Wait until later, you write about the Chinese heroes, and write us in too."

Looking at the Vietnamese company commander kneeling on the ground, trembling, Wang Yan shook his head with amusement: "Come, pose, take a picture of you capturing the prisoner first. If it really happens, not only will I write an article, but I'll also post the photo."

Wang Yan wasn't in a hurry, happily taking a photo for the soldiers. Only then did he give each of them a cigarette, lit one for the captured company commander, and began a simple interrogation.

He had actually told his soldiers not to consider the matter of prisoners, as it wasted time and was dangerous. And he himself was the example, so from the beginning of the war to now, not a single Vietnamese soldier they encountered had survived; they were all killed.

Of course, his soldiers were also happy to kill people; they were all angry. During the pre-war mobilization, what the Vietnamese monkeys were like was clear, and everyone understood why they were fighting. During rest, Wang Yan also told them many things about Vietnam. So no one wanted to leave them alive; killing them was easier.

This captured company commander—if he hadn't said he knew the regiment commander's news, just as the soldier said, he would have been stabbed to death...

"Tell me what you know."

"Then can you guarantee not to kill me?" This monkey company commander was trembling, his Chinese stuttering, his desire to survive very strong.

The sound of a bullet being chambered rang out, and Wang Yan pulled out the Type 54 pistol from his leg at lightning speed, pointing it at his forehead: "I'll say it one last time, tell me what you know."

"Before you attacked, the regimental headquarters was stationed five miles away. The battalion commander said that after you attacked, the regimental headquarters would immediately retreat toward Bao Thang, to join the reinforcements of the 345th Division and then fight back to Old Street."

With a gun pointed at his head, the captured company commander's Chinese became much smoother, without a single stutter.

"The regimental headquarters transferred; how do you, a company commander, know?"

"The battalion commander is my cousin, he told me..."

"Shut up." Wang Yan's muzzle pointed directly at the captured company commander's teeth, but saw the captured company commander shudder, and there was a puddle of water on the ground—he had actually peed himself.

"Fuck your mother, you're still a company commander." The communications soldier was standing with Wang Yan, and seeing this, he went up and kicked him aside.

"Abusing prisoners, you'll get disciplined later."

"Company Commander, why don't we just kill him."

Wang Yan shook his head with amusement, looking down at the captured company commander lying there not daring to move, and asked: "Where is your battalion commander?"

"He ran away, he left us here to die." The captured company commander's tone was quite resentful, perhaps because his cousin wasn't close, hurting his heart...

Wang Yan looked at the communications soldier: "Contact the battalion commander, say the enemy regimental headquarters is retreating toward Bao Thang, ask if we should pursue. If we pursue, do they want them dead or alive."

The communications soldier was a bit confused; could you choose? But he didn't talk nonsense, dutifully contacting the rear.

Before long, the communications soldier said: "Company Commander, the battalion commander asks if we have certainty in deep penetration alone?"

"We can beat them, but we might not find them."

"The battalion commander says pursue ten kilometers to see, deep penetration alone, ensure self-safety as the priority, no need to fight to the death upon contact."

"Good, go find the Second Company Commander." ===== CHAPTER 934 =====