Chapter 98: Gunfire Echoes

Considered it repeatedly.

Dai Anlan placed the entire regiment's Eighth Company at the rear of the formation, not to sacrifice it, but to have it assist the 600th Regiment in eliminating the Japanese Army's snipers.

The price, however, was the soldiers of the 600th Regiment.

The hero broke his wrist, and Dai Anlan used the 600th Regiment's warriors as the bait.

The Eighth Company was responsible for quickly locating the enemy snipers and eliminating them.

Dai Anlan had to make a choice, or the unit's morale would suffer a severe blow.

The effect was also striking; when the Japanese Army snipers launched a surprise attack, the Eighth Company's Machine Gunners also locked onto the enemy and opened fire on the Japanese.

The MG42's powerful fire, target lock, and extreme range, even without full‑auto fire, were sufficient to inflict lethal damage.

Burst fire posed a great threat to the Japanese snipers.

Not only the Machine Gunners; when the Japanese sniper's position was locked, more than a dozen rifles also locked on, firing from all directions to ensure that a single lock would wipe out a whole group of Japanese snipers.

The Japanese suffered heavy losses; in just one day they lost seven or eight sniper squads, and gave up the idea of continuing the pursuit of the Division.

Soon the Division reported this anti‑sniper method to Expeditionary Force Headquarters, since many units had been threatened by enemy snipers.

What infuriated people most was the Burmese civilians' assistance to the Little Devils; often a Little Devil sniper was accompanied by two or three Burmese, not to protect the Little Devil.

Most of these Burmese lived in the jungle, so they were intimately familiar with it and could find water and food for the Little Devils, as well as supply them with weapons and gear.

Before informing the Little Devils to hide in the trees, the Expeditionary Force could not locate the enemy snipers; even without MG42s, they could assemble Czech Light Machine Guns to fire at the trees where the Japanese were concealed.

The Japanese raiding unit, having been outmaneuvered by the Eighth Company, suffered heavy losses and dared not follow too closely.

After all, one bullet can hit only one person, but facing several enemy machine guns sweeping you, you'll be riddled like a hedgehog in moments.

At first the Japanese were lucky, hiding in the trees where Expeditionary Force soldiers could not spot them; stray bullets from afar hit the ground and did no harm.

Only a few stray rounds struck the Japanese raiding soldiers.

April 24, evening, 19:00.

Jiang Anguo rode in a vehicle, taking the rd Battalion and Guard Company straight to the Zai An position.

He truly dared not rest and couldn't sleep; fortunately there were vehicle lights, but marching at night on uneven ground, Jiang Anguo now cared most about the Zai An Defensive Line.

This was the Expeditionary Force's Lashu First Defensive Line.

"Commander." The th Battalion Commander Song Mengqin, seeing the Commander arrive, rushed over to Jiang Anguo.

Jiang Anguo nodded, "Company Commander Song, is there anything you lack?"

He came personally to inspect Zai An's defenses and surrounding terrain; this is crucial, because for a Commander, a map alone is too one‑sided.

He still needed to go himself, and Jiang Anguo was very nervous.

"Commander, the Flashlight can't illuminate enough; could we get some larger searchlights?" Song Mengqin said.

Jiang Anguo looked at the primitive jungle in the dark; the defensive position was too dim. "Alright, they'll be delivered shortly," he replied.

His "shortly" meant he found an unoccupied spot, exchanged ten sets of searchlights, and also obtained generators.

Otherwise the searchlights would be useless.

Sure enough, once the searchlights were on, the entire camp brightened considerably.

Jiang Anguo arrived at the riverbank to inspect, with only a few guards behind him.

Bang.

Gunfire.

"Prone, everyone go prone," Jiang Anguo reacted swiftly; this shot was aimed at him, and he covered his arm with one hand.

Damn, it bit me, that hurts.

If he hadn't turned sideways earlier, Jiang Anguo was sure the bullet would have hit his chest, and that would have been fatal.

The Japanese hadn't killed enough yet, and now they were being killed back.

The th Battalion Commander Song Mengqin, seeing the Commander wounded, shouted loudly, "Fire suppression!"

In fact, no order from Song Mengqin was needed; the moment the gunfire rang, the rd Battalion's soldiers on the Zai An Defensive Line, especially the Machine Gun Company, swept fire at the Little Devils.

Bullets flew as if they were free, sweeping across!

"Xiao Si, my gun," Jiang Anguo gritted his teeth, enduring the pain.

Xiao Si handed Jiang Anguo his Mauser sniper rifle and pulled a five‑round Magazine from his pocket.

Jiang Anguo immediately loaded the round; the Magazine clicked, but in the darkness he couldn't see the enemy—only because the searchlight behind him happened to point toward the river, and he was standing in the wrong spot.

Thus the Japanese—or possibly Burmese—in the darkness fired at Jiang Anguo.

Rat-a-tat.

Hearing the gunfire, Xiao Si already fired into the darkness, wielding an MP40.

"Xiao Si, burst fire, don't dump all the ammo at once," Jiang Anguo shouted.

The guards beside him also fired toward the opposite riverbank.

"Yes," Xiao Si, overly nervous, replied, his clip nearly empty after the burst.

It was Xiao Si's first time fighting the Japanese; his hands trembled.

Song Mengqin reacted swiftly; all the searchlights were aimed at the far riverbank, and he too had heard the gunshot.

In an instant, the enemy's head became exposed.

Bang.

A bullet struck the helmet; the head tipped to the ground, apparently lifeless.

Jiang Anguo pulled the bolt, the shell ejected, and a round chambered.

"Hit it, Young Master, you hit it."

"Drop, you kid, you're reckless," Jiang Anguo grabbed Xiao Si, making him hit the ground face‑first.

Jiang Anguo had never seen a real battlefield, but he knew one must not expose oneself lightly there.

Right now it's just the enemy ambushing our own people, and this is definitely the Japanese vanguard.

As soon as the words fell, a bullet flew toward Xiao Si's head.

Xiao Si obediently fell silent, really lucky; they almost got shot dead.

If that had happened, it would have been terrible; both master and servant's luck was so bad they almost got shot dead.

Points +100.

Jiang Anguo knew that just now he had killed a Little Japan squad leader, that is, a squad captain, gaining one hundred points; it looks like he died beyond death, otherwise the system wouldn't have prompted him that he earned points.

Jiang Anguo's eyes kept fixed on the Japanese Devil opposite, and he didn't look toward Xiao Si's direction.

Bang bang.

Another two shots; he's not sure if they killed, but most likely they won't survive.

The sky is too dark, visibility too poor.

Fortunately, the system let Jiang Anguo know he still shot a soldier, adding 20 points.

Three shots in the dark night, taking down two Little Japan, still a decent record.

Little Japan are good at ambushes, but there's no chance left, because the opposite spotlight is no longer visible, and they also lost sight.

A squad of Japanese began to fumble retreat; the Japanese Devil corpses couldn't be carried away, the enemy's firepower was just too strong. They had thought that a single squad could scare the opponent away, but not only did it fail to scare them, several of them died instead.

Jiang Anguo saw the silence, then waved his hand, "Cease fire."

Most of his guards beside him wielded submachine guns, with limited range; this river is over thirty meters wide, and at that distance, Little Japan finding it hard to cross.

"Notify Hu Xianqun, move a Tank Company's troops over for joint defense; I want the Little Devil dead."