The Mysterious Soldier of the Anti-Japanese War

Chapter 440: Dawn Strangulation! Booby Trap and Rocket Counterattack

Lei Tao and Chen Feiyang had just evacuated the booby trap site when they heard the sound of Japanese footsteps in the distance. After setting the booby trap in the bushes, they retreated a distance. Peering through the branches, they saw over twenty Japanese soldiers advancing in a search formation. The crisp sound of their boots breaking through dead branches was especially clear in the silent forest.

The Japanese sergeant leading the charge suddenly raised his hand to signal a halt. He glanced around warily, his gaze locked on the faint footprints left by Lei Tao and Chen Feiyang as they retreated. The sergeant drew his sword and lifted a piece of muddy clothing from the ground. Upon smelling the lingering scent of gunpowder, he immediately ordered his men to disperse: "Be careful! There's an ambush!"

However, just as the Japanese army was searching carefully, the soldier at the end of the team suddenly kicked a trip wire disguised under fallen leaves.

The explosive charge's fuse ignited instantly, its crackling sparks piercing the stillness of the jungle. The sergeant, firing from thirty meters away, felt his pupils shrink. He had barely uttered the cry of "Get Down" when a violent explosion ripped through the air. The blast, carrying shrapnel and debris, swept through the Japanese ranks, sending more than a dozen soldiers flying, their limbs and remains scattered among the burning grass. The sergeant, too, was sent tumbling backwards, tumbling to the ground.

The surviving Japanese soldiers fired blindly in all directions in panic. The sergeant grimaced in pain, but after getting up, he still insisted on giving orders: "Don't panic! Search and advance in a fan-shaped battle formation, and watch out for traps under your feet!" He led more than ten soldiers to advance under the cover of trees, but did not notice that behind the tree stump on the right, Lei Tao was locking onto their movements with an infrared telescope.

"Three people are isolated on the west side." Lei Tao lowered his voice and tapped his fingers three times on the tree trunk to signal. Chen Feiyang immediately bent down and swerved to the right. Lei Tao quickly swerved to the left, sticking to the pile of rotten leaves. With a flick of his right hand, he pulled out a Mitsubishi bayonet from the space of the Bagua top.

Ten meters away, three Japanese soldiers were searching in a triangle formation. The leading sergeant suddenly stopped, his bayonet protruding from a broken rope, examining it closely. Lei Tao's pupils narrowed slightly—a clue left behind from the booby trap. He held his breath and waited until the three men reached the shadow of a dead tree, then suddenly leaped into action.

The bayonet flashed with a cold light in Lei Tao's hand, piercing the sergeant's open mouth with precision and diagonal upwards. The sharp tip of the blade pierced the sergeant's upper jaw and reached his brain. The light in the sergeant's eyes instantly faded, and his body suddenly stiffened. He didn't even have time to scream before the blood foaming from his throat gushed out like black foam, splashing on the back of Lei Tao's hand, warm and sticky. Lei Tao's movements did not pause. He quickly withdrew the bayonet. The blade was stained with blood, but it still gleamed with cold light.

At the same time, his left hand clamped down on the second Japanese soldier's neck like a vise. The soldier's eyes widened in terror, and he struggled desperately, trying to break free from Lei Tao's grip. But Lei Tao's strength was like steel, his left hand tightening around the soldier's throat, making it nearly impossible for him to breathe. Then, Lei Tao swung his bayonet again, this time aiming for the soldier's head. The bayonet pierced the soldier's skull like lightning, sending blood and brain matter gushing out of the wound, staining the surrounding ground red. The second soldier's body convulsed violently several times before collapsing.

The third Japanese soldier noticed something unusual behind him and turned around. In a split second, Chen Feiyang pulled the trigger of his Scorpion submachine gun. The silenced submachine gun emitted a faint "puff puff" sound, like the rustling of leaves. Two bullets whizzed out, piercing the Japanese soldier's ears with pinpoint accuracy. Blood splattered everywhere, and the Japanese soldier collapsed before he could even utter a scream.

"Bang!" At the moment the Japanese soldier fell to the ground, a crisp and startling gunshot suddenly rang out. It turned out that the Japanese soldier's Type 38 rifle accidentally discharged when he fell to the ground. The bullet grazed a nearby stone and flew out, splashing a string of sparks on the stone. The sudden gunshot exposed the position of Lei Tao and others, and dense bullets immediately poured towards the source of the gunshot. After Lei Tao dragged the body to the bunker, he took out the smoke bomb from the Bagua gyroscope space: "Retreat to the southeast!" The moment the white smoke rose, the two of them moved quickly, using the sight to block their view. But the Japanese army had obviously learned their lesson and began to bombard the suspicious area with grenade launchers.

A shell exploded a few meters ahead, knocking Chen Feiyang over with the blast. When Lei Tao rushed over to pull him up, Chen Feiyang's left arm had been lacerated by shrapnel, leaving a deep wound visible to the bone. Just then, engines roared from the hillside behind them as two armored vehicles bearing the rising sun emblem rolled over the rubble.

"Cover me!" Lei Tao pulled out an RPG-28 rocket launcher from the Bagua Gyro space. The clanging of metal components was particularly clear in the night. He quickly loaded the tandem warhead rocket. This weapon, capable of penetrating 750mm of homogeneous armor, was the only key to breaking the deadlock. Chen Feiyang half-knelt against a tree trunk and aimed the silencer of his Scorpion submachine gun at the dense forest to the right—from where the footsteps of Japanese infantry could be heard.

Lei Tao ran low to a jutting rock on the mountainside and pressed the launcher shoulder pad against his collarbone. Through the scope, the armored vehicle's track treads and the outline of the gunner's observation window were clearly visible. He held his breath, adjusted the pitch and elevation, and pressed the safety with his thumb: "Go to hell!" The flames from the tail flame instantly illuminated the pre-dawn valley, and the rocket, trailing a trail of smoke, streaked through the air towards the armored vehicle.

The first round struck the armored vehicle's side precisely, the tandem warhead detonating the reactive armor before the main warhead ripped through the vehicle. A violent explosion tore off the turret, sending burning parts raining down like meteors. The other armored vehicle swerved, its machine guns blazing. Lei Tao rolled to avoid the strafing and reloaded his rockets. The second round grazed the top of the armored vehicle, blasting a deep crater in the ground.

Lei Tao seized the opportunity when the armored vehicle turned and fired a third rocket, which penetrated the engine compartment directly. As the fireball engulfed the vehicle, the shockwave from the fuel tank explosion sent three nearby Japanese soldiers flying. Amidst the thick smoke, Lei Tao pulled Chen Fei toward the cave on the mountainside, "Let's go! Their reinforcements are almost here!"

The dawn light dyed the battlefield a dark crimson. Goike Ichirō's command sword gleamed coldly in the morning light. He kicked aside the corpse of a Japanese soldier at his feet and gazed at the smoking wreckage of two armored vehicles, his temples throbbing. "Advance in a fan-shaped formation, three people in groups, supporting each other every twenty meters! I want the dead, alive! I want the dead!" With the order, over three hundred Japanese soldiers fanned out, bayonets fixed. Grenade launchers and heavy machine guns were set up on high ground, their black muzzles trained in the direction of the mine.

Lei Tao supported the injured Chen Feiyang as they stumbled deeper into the mine. The damp rock walls were dripping with cold water. Morning light slanted in through the cave entrance, casting narrow shadows on the ground. Chen Feiyang tore open the first aid kit and bandaged his arm briefly, the bandage quickly soaking with blood. "Brother Lei, they're determined to stop us this time." His voice was weak from the blood loss, but he still held the Scorpion submachine gun tightly.

From outside the mine, shouts of Japanese soldiers mingled with the barking of military dogs. Lei Tao retrieved his infrared detector from his Bagua gyroscope. The dense cluster of heat points on the screen indicated that the Japanese had surrounded the cave entrance. Worse still, he noticed smoke seeping into the ventilation vents deep within the mine—Gochi Ichiro was using smoke bombs to force them out.