Chapter 195

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Protagonist:

Lv Muzhi

On Jinshanwei Shore Beach Position Number One, the Youth Army soldiers were now straining every nerve, firing toward the beach.

MG34 Machine Gunner Zhang Lanbo, in this Jinshanwei anti-landing operation, played merely an ordinary machine gunner.

At the start of the anti-landing operation, Zhang Lanbo and the others, like their comrades, entered the anti-shell fortification to take cover from the shells.

Only observation posts and part of the troops remained on the position for alert.

When the artillery strike began, Zhang Lanbo and his comrades quickly followed the crisscrossing concrete communication trenches and rapidly withdrew into the solid Concealment buried deep underground.

At that time, Zhang Lanbo only heard thunder-like explosions above his head, the entire earth shaking violently, completely unaware that he would become a legendary machine gunner.

The artillery strike lasted nearly half an hour before gradually thinning out. The observation post's voice came through the speaking tube: "The devils' landing craft are coming up! Everyone to your positions!"

"Go!" Zhang Lanbo shouted, leading the ammunition bearers and assistant gunner quickly back along the communication trench to the frontline Machine Gun Bunker.

After skillfully mounting the MG34 on the stable platform behind the firing port, Zhang Lanbo checked the ammunition feed, pulled the bolt, and through the narrow firing port saw countless landing craft on the sea surface rushing toward the beachhead.

"Come on, you damn little devils, Grandpa will treat you to peanuts!" Zhang Lanbo's blood surged, his fingers lightly resting on the trigger; as for killing, it was his first time too!

In machine gunner Zhang Lanbo's view, the devils' first batch of landing craft struck underwater obstacles; some had their propellers tangled in fishing nets and stalled, while others were even more unlucky, directly triggering hidden sea mines and turning into fireballs.

The devils jumped into the sea like dumplings, wading with difficulty through waist-deep water.

"Aim at those splashing in the water! Fire at the dense ones first!" Zhang Lanbo told himself, then steadily pulled the trigger.

Rat-tat-tat-tat—!

The MG34's distinctive roar, like tearing cloth, rang out, and a whip of fire lashed toward the sea surface in an instant. Bullets penetrated the water, striking the devils and bursting into clouds of blood mist; the screams on the scene completely drowned out the gunfire.

In Zhang Lanbo's view, he only saw a group of relatively large black spots moving about; actually, it was the devils' Yoshida Squad. A burst of fire went by, and that group of black spots fell in droves; one burst downed at least five.

The devils finally approached the beachhead, only to be stopped again by those hideous anti-landing steel frames and barbed wire.

Zhang Lanbo spotted several devils trying to mount a light machine gun on the steel frame, then he turned his muzzle to suppress them; bullets clanged against the steel frame, sending up a string of sparks, forcing those devils to shrink back.

Suddenly, with a "Boom," a devil machine gunner near the steel frame had a leg blown off, triggering an anti-personnel landmine buried nearby.

The maimed little devil was washed ashore by the seawater; in Zhang Lanbo's view, it seemed someone was crawling up onto the beach, and he felt a surge of amazement: "This little devil moves fast! Everyone else is cowering behind, and you're the only one sticking your head out!"

Then Zhang Lanbo drove the MG34 machine gun in his hand, opening fire on the little devil washed ashore; after bursting several clouds of blood mist, he switched targets to shoot at the moving black spots.

The devils' infantry charged forward more and more; the firing frequency of Zhang Lanbo's MG34 machine gun kept increasing, as if he had transformed into a lumberjack, madly reaping the little devils on the beach.

Whether devil machine gunners, grenadiers, riflemen, or medics, all received several bullets from Zhang Lanbo.

The devils surged forward like a tide, and receded like a tide.

The battle entered white heat; the devils, driven by their officers, braved the bullet rain to forcibly cross the obstacles, and some devils began charging out of the water, charging onto the beachhead, shouting something about Ten Thousand Locusts in their mouths.

This time Zhang Lanbo saw more clearly: about a hundred devils on the beach were howling and launching a death charge against his position.

"Courting death!!!" Zhang Lanbo's MG34 heavy machine gun had just been loaded with an ammunition belt and could open fire immediately.

In this wave of attack formed by the devils, it was actually already their last wave of attack.

Of the over one thousand men of the Kunisaki Detachment's First Battalion committed to combat by the devils, only these last hundred-plus who charged up remained able to move; after paying a disastrous price, only about one-tenth successfully charged onto the beach.

The original Yoshida Squad now had only Squad Leader Yoshida himself left; in this last wave of attack, the remnant soldiers of various devil squads gathered together, shouting Ten Thousand Locusts, to meet Jinshanwei's Shore Beach Position.

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!

Yoshida, charging at the very front, suddenly stiffened; his military sword flew from his hand; in disbelief he bowed his head to look at several blood holes bursting open on his chest, then raised his head to look toward the direction the bullets came from, and finally powerlessly collapsed onto the muddy beachhead.

And Zhang Lanbo inside the fortification was operating the MG34 heavy machine gun, baring his teeth and grinning as he opened fire.

The two ammunition bearers, seeing the bullets were about to run out, immediately took a new 200-round ammunition belt from the ammunition box, ready to reload at any time.

Beside Zhang Lanbo was M2 Heavy Machine Gunner Lao Wang; seeing Zhang Lanbo's MG34 machine gun was so terrifying, always relying on a high rate of fire to mow down the enemy before him, he was also driven to desperation.

"Old Zhang, you've killed enough; it's time to change the barrel; leave some for my M2 heavy machine gun!"

"Stop talking nonsense; I just changed the barrel; we'll talk after I finish this burst!"