Chapter 46: The Devils Massacre the Innocent at the Rolling Mill

The Security Team saw the Japanese devils from afar and assumed they had been called by Lou Laoban to support them.

Several impatient team members poked their heads out from the cover and shouted, "Officer! We are the Rolling Mill Security Team! Don't shoot!"

"Bang!" A gunshot rang out.

A Japanese devil walking in the lead had his head blown off.

The "bang-bang-bang" of gunfire suddenly exploded like firecrackers.

The Japanese devils had opened fire.

Bullets tore through the air with a sharp whistle; the heads of those few team members who had poked their heads out were blown apart as their bodies jerked violently. They stared with wide, incredulous eyes as warm blood quickly melted a small patch of ice and snow on the ground.

"Damn it! It's over, we've all been played!" Liu Guiquan clutched his arm, grazed by a bullet, blood seeping through his fingers.

"We cannot return fire!" Security Captain Xia Dongming immediately barked, his face ashen. He shouted, "Firing back is the crime of collaborating with bandits! Not only will we all lose our heads, but our families will be implicated too! And there will be no way to answer to Lou Laoban!"

"Answer your grandfather!" Liu Guiquan roared, kicking over a wooden crate beside him, sending bullets scattering across the ground. "Don't you see that the people over there are trying to frame us? Now, even if we jumped into the Yellow River, we couldn't wash ourselves clean. If we don't shoot, no one is getting out of here alive today!"

"Da-da-da—" The Japanese army's Type 11 Light Machine Gun suddenly roared, tongues of fire spitting from the cold barrel as bullets poured down like raindrops, striking the brick wall and sending countless sparks flying.

Several security team members who hadn't managed to take cover were instantly shredded, falling to the ground with screams, severed limbs scattered everywhere.

Seeing the critical situation, Liu Guiquan rolled behind a pile of steel billets and roared to the twenty-some brothers behind him, "Follow me!"

Using the mountains of material piled up in the factory area as cover, they moved quickly toward the water tower on the right in the deepening twilight.

"Boom, boom, boom!" Three hand grenades suddenly flew from the side and rear of the Japanese army, landing precisely and exploding in the middle of the devil's ranks.

Dazzling fireballs shot into the sky, shrapnel flying in all directions; several Japanese soldiers were blown into the air before falling heavily to the ground.

This sudden attack bought Liu Guiquan and his men precious time, allowing them to successfully retreat behind the water tower.

Flames of vengeance burned in Zhao Datou's eyes—the fury from years of being oppressed by the devils and the grief of his family's tragic deaths all transformed into a destructive force.

He was originally a soldier of the Northeast Army; back then, his unit had retreated inside the Great Wall without firing a single shot, leaving behind his home that had been slaughtered to the last by the devils.

At this moment, the two Box Cannons in his hands spat out angry tongues of fire, bullets precisely blowing apart the heads of the Japanese devils one by one.

"Zhao Wangba, you're crazy! It was smart of you to shoot earlier, but now you're just being stupid!" cursed Daobalian, blood streaming from his shoulder and soaking half his body. "Isn't it better to let the devils and the Security Team fight like dogs? Once they're both crippled, we might still have a chance to escape!"

"The little devils owe me the lives of my whole family!" Zhao Datou rolled to the side to avoid a spray of gunfire, raised his hands, and fired two shots; another devil fell to the ground in response. "Today, I will make them pay in blood!"

Meanwhile, Xia Dongming was still shouting at the top of his lungs, "Officer, the ones who fired earlier were bandits; we are the factory security! Don't misunderstand!"

But the Japanese machine gunner ignored him, bullets pouring down like a rainstorm, striking the brick wall in front of him and sending stone fragments flying.

"Bang, bang, bang!" Dense gunfire suddenly erupted from the water tower.

Liu Guiquan and his men had already occupied the high ground, bullets pouring down from above, and another dozen devils fell instantly.

The devil's machine gunner hurriedly turned his muzzle, bullets "whooshing" as they swept toward the water tower, shattering bricks and stones; several dark figures fell from the ten-meter-high tower top with screams.

"A bunch of cowards! You've been hit in the face and still don't dare to fight back!" Zhao Datou roared toward the Security Team.

This curse was like a whip lashing across Xia Dongming's face; his complexion turned from green to white, and he finally roared, "It's over, it's over, we can't explain this! Brothers, since the devils won't listen to us, then let's fight to the death!"

More than thirty Box Cannons opened fire at once, the dense bullets forming a web of fire that actually suppressed the devils' firepower for a moment.

Zhao Datou took the opportunity to drag Daobalian into a factory building, the thick brick wall temporarily blocking the spray of bullets.

The factory was filled with machine tools, permeated with the smell of machine oil and metal.

The two fired outward from behind a window, their coordination seamless.

Watching his brothers fall one after another, Xia Dongming shouted with bloodshot eyes, "Everyone scatter and break out! Run if you can, if you see a sewer, go through there!"

The twenty-some survivors immediately scattered like birds and beasts, using their familiarity with the terrain to fight and retreat.

The Japanese captain, Morita Naka, shouted, "Pursue in squads!"

A large number of devils surrounded the factory building. Zhao Datou lay under a machine tool, quickly loading bullets, and grinned, "Daobalian, exciting enough? We were supposed to be hitting Lou Bancheng, never thought we'd run into the devils. Truly satisfying!"

Daobalian leaned against the corner of the wall, gasping for air, his shoulder wound still bleeding profusely, his face pale as paper. "Kill a few more later, and avenge my grudge too!"

Before the words had even faded, a dozen hand grenades flew in through the window, rolling on the ground and making a deadly sound.

"Careful!" Zhao Datou kicked out with his leather boot, knocking several grenades away, while simultaneously diving behind a heavy lathe.

"Boom, boom, boom, boom..." The continuous explosions were deafening; the factory was instantly filled with smoke, and shrapnel flew everywhere.

A sharp piece of shrapnel struck Daobalian square in the chest; he shuddered violently, slowly slid to the ground, and went silent.

Zhao Datou scrambled to his brother's side, only to find that it was already too late.

He wiped his blurred eyes, his voice choked with sobs, "Brother, wait for me, I'm coming to join you!"

At this moment, a dozen devils had already rushed into the factory, and Zhao Datou threw his last two hand grenades without hesitation.

Taking advantage of the thick smoke from the explosion, he fired his dual pistols, bullets precisely taking down every enemy that had rushed in.

"Burn him to death!" the devils outside roared.

Soon, a large amount of firewood was piled up at the doors and windows.

Because the firewood was damp, the flames were slow to rise, but they produced a massive amount of thick smoke that surged into the factory in a black cloud.

Zhao Datou was choked by the thick smoke, coughing incessantly, but he unexpectedly discovered a glimmer of hope.

He climbed the factory's steel beams with his bare hands, nimbly pried open the roof tiles, and hid his body behind the ridge of the roof.

The thick smoke perfectly concealed his figure.

From his high vantage point, he saw more than thirty devils gathered in front of the factory, standing at the ready with their guns.

And behind the factory, only one machine gun was set up alone, with only one machine gunner standing lazily behind it.

The opportunity had come!

Zhao Datou did not hesitate to unstrap the explosive pack from his body, lit the fuse, and threw it with all his might toward the gathering of devils.

Almost simultaneously, he shot and killed the machine gunner.

"Boom!" In the earth-shattering roar, a dozen devils were blown to pieces.

Zhao Datou took advantage of the chaos to leap down from the roof, rolled a few times to reach the machine gun, grabbed the Type 11 Light Machine Gun, circled to the front, and fired violently at the stunned devils.

In the distance, the gunfire gradually ceased, and many devils slowly began to move toward this side.