War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1613 No one will be left alive!

Under the leadership of Li Sui'an, this cavalry pistol team of less than 50 people galloped along the river, turned into a fork in the road, and ran onto a winding road.

This so-called road is naturally not a thick cement or asphalt road. It is still a dirt road, but it is wider and the roadbed is slightly higher.

It was not until this time that Li Sui'an, who was at the front, slowed down and introduced the mission situation to Wei Ran and other cavalrymen around him.

"Keep going forward. The road at the next intersection leads directly to Huaiyang City."

Li Sui'an introduced, "We got accurate information from Huaiyang City a few days ago. Today, a Japanese grain transport convoy will pass through here. Let's give them a hard blow and see if we can lure them to the river."

"Qiang!"

The other cavalrymen, except Wei Ran, responded by tapping their stirrups lightly with their sabers.

"Brother Wei, this is your first time following us, so please stay next to Jin Yu." Li Sui'an continued to make arrangements.

"Qiang!"

Wei Ran imitated what everyone had just done and tapped the stirrup lightly with his saber in response.

Seeing this, Li Sui'an smiled and continued to control the horse to run. Wei Ran also immediately controlled the horse under his buttocks and ran to the side of Zhao Jinyu.

"Brother Wei, start firing the box guns."

Zhao Jinyu, who was riding on horseback, leaned forward slightly and reminded, "When they are about thirty feet away, everyone will line up in a row. If there is no teammate in front of you, immediately draw fire and make sure to fire in a fan-shaped pattern. When you run out of bullets, immediately switch to sabers. You don't need to chop hard, just a light swing will kill those bastards."

"understood"

Wei Ran nodded. The other party and Li Sui'an had already told him all this yesterday.

"When charging, keep your whole body on the horse's back"

Zhao Jinyu continued to remind him, "When you are ready to chop, adjust your posture and remember to wrap the cloth tied to the back of the saber around your hands in advance. It will be a joke if the saber slips out of your hand."

"it is good"

Wei Ran nodded again. He knew that the other party was worried that he would be in a mess later. He himself was not sure. After all, he didn't know whether the metal book had only taught him how to ride a horse or also taught him how to fight on horseback.

Amid this slight anxiety, the cavalry squad, led by Li Sui'an, quickly reached the crossroads he had just mentioned. The distance between the two was estimated to be less than one kilometer at most.

However, Li Sui'an, who was in charge of the team, did not signal to stop. Instead, he led them to continue running towards one of the forks in the road. After running less than two hundred meters, he led them into a willow grove full of graves on the side of the road.

"Just wait here."

As Li Sui'an spoke, he reached into his saddle bag and took out a Japanese telescope. Then he climbed up the branch of a willow tree on horseback and observed the intersection not far away.

At the same time, several cavalrymen rode their horses in different directions to carry out crucial guard tasks.

The others dismounted, or took out horse brushes from their saddle bags to brush off the mud and grass on their horses, or lifted up the horses' legs to carefully check whether the horseshoes had fallen off.

Some even gathered in groups of three or four, spread out a piece of the Japanese waterproof canvas on the weed-covered ground, knelt down facing a certain direction and began to worship.

What’s quite interesting is that not far from these worshippers, there were actually a few soldiers shaking prayer wheels and chanting scriptures in a low voice.

In comparison, Zhao Jinyu, who was braiding her ponytail, looked somewhat normal.

"What are you doing?" Wei Ran approached Zhao Jinyu and asked curiously.

"Lest you be covered in horse manure"

Zhao Jinyu laughed and teased Wei Ran, then explained, "Don't sweep the horse's legs when running, so as not to get tangled up with the saber or hit the people around you."

"Why don't they edit it?" Wei Ran asked curiously.

"Hey, this is a habit passed down from my older generation."

Zhao Jinyu explained honestly, "It doesn't really matter whether it's edited or not. After editing it, you have to undo it when you get back, which is an extra hassle. I'm just doing this to pass the time."

Hearing this, Wei Ran simply went around behind the biting horse, grabbed its fluffy and flowing tail, combed it with an iron-toothed brush, and then imitated Zhao Jinyu and braided the horse's tail into a pigtail.

By the time the braid was finished and tied with the cloth rope handed to her by Zhao Jinyu, it was almost dawn.

Seeing this, Wei Ran hid behind a willow tree in the distance under the pretext of peeing, took out the camera from his camera bag, and after some quick adjustments, he first pressed the shutter towards the cavalry team, and then took pictures one by one of those tough cavalrymen who were still chanting, brushing and feeding the horses, and even those who were taking a nap against the tree trunks.

Gradually, the fiery red morning sun completely jumped out of the horizon, and the horses seemed to be covered with a layer of shining golden armor because of the dew on their fur.

Turning the lens, Wei Ran also pressed the shutter button towards Li Sui'an who was standing in the treetop holding a telescope.

"coming!"

Just at this moment, Li Sui'an, who was watching from the treetop, also gave a reminder.

Before he had even finished his words, those who had been chanting, chatting, napping, or even feeding the horses, and of course, those who were busy taking secret photos, all packed up their things and mounted their horses as quickly as possible.

Without any command, several people rode out on horseback and soon brought back the people who had just been sent out on horseback to stand guard.

"There are quite a few devils."

Li Sui'an, who had jumped directly from the tree onto the horse's back, pulled out a cavalry knife from his bag and said, "Just one round of slashing, kill as many as you can, and focus on taking care of their mule carts. After running over, meet up behind the poplar forest over there."

"Qiang!"

The men's sabers lightly tapped against their stirrups in response.

Seeing this, Li Sui'an pulled out the box gun from his waist that Wei Ran was very familiar with, and almost at the same time as the people around him, he pressed down the large and small machine guns, and then put it back on his waist.

After waiting for a moment, Wei Ran faintly heard the roar of a motorcycle coming from a distance.

Seeing that Li Sui'an, who was riding on horseback in the front, and Zhao Jinyu beside him were both motionless, Wei Ran tied the cloth strip on the saber's ring around his right hand holding the saber and tried to swing it gently.

Seeing this, the surrounding cavalrymen smiled silently, but they couldn't help but recall their first time fighting on horseback.

"Snapped!"

Li Sui'an tapped the horse's butt lightly with the saber in his hand, and the maroon warhorse immediately stretched out its strong hooves and ran out of the willow grove.

  In an instant, everyone patted the horses' buttocks with their sabers, followed Li Sui'an, and rode their horses to gallop outside!

"Use your gun to hit the fan first, don't forget!"

Zhao Jinyu reminded Wei Ran again. At this time, he was holding a saber in one hand and had pulled out a box gun with the other.

Wei Ran also immediately loosened the reins in his left hand and pulled out the box gun from the Kowloon belt.

Almost at the same time, the surrounding cavalry had already aligned with Li Sui'an in the front, rushed to the other side of the road, and rushed into the field where corn seedlings were planted.

Seeing this, Wei Ran immediately rode his horse to catch up, distanced himself from the people around him, and rushed towards the road opposite that led to Huaiyang City!

This road was particularly busy at this time. The first few motorcycles were all equipped with machine guns, and the one or two hundred puppet soldiers following behind were already sweating and covered in mud.

Behind them, there were fifty or sixty mule carts pulling sacks, and a group of over a hundred Japanese infantrymen at the end of the team! These infantrymen were their target!

Almost at the moment when the cavalry led by Li Sui'an rushed out of the woods, the Japanese soldiers at the end of the convoy had already discovered them. On the contrary, the puppet troops at the front and the motorcycles equipped with machine guns were blocked by the woods.

But this distance of about 100 meters is not that far for the war horses ridden by these light cavalry.

Don’t forget, they don’t even have to get close to shoot!

"clatter--!"

Amidst the dense gunfire that sounded like a prolonged tone, this cavalry squad of only fifty or sixty people emptied their ammunition in the blink of an eye and fired fan-shaped attacks one after another with astonishing lethality.

Wei Ran stuffed the box gun without bullets into the saddle bag. At the same time as he grabbed the reins with his left hand again, he also raised the saber in his right hand.

It has to be said that the ambush site chosen by Li Sui'an was definitely carefully calculated. Almost at the moment when he raised his saber, they were less than 10 meters away from the enemy on the road!

At this time, some of the enemies were injured and shot, some subconsciously hid behind trucks or mule carts and screamed, and some hurriedly loaded bullets and even raised their guns.

  But this distance.

It's too late for them!

"puff!"

When the saber in his hand slashed across the neck of a Japanese soldier, Wei Ran didn't even feel any resistance. The feeling didn't seem to be much more difficult than chopping a watermelon. "Puff!"

Taking advantage of the situation, he placed his saber on the neck of another Japanese soldier who had raised his gun. With a light slash at high speed, Wei Ran, behind him, had half of the Japanese soldier's neck severed.

The cavalrymen did not stop at all. A few of them deliberately lagged behind for a short distance and either fired with submachine guns or dropped a few smoking grenades as cover in the chaos.

After the fight, everyone, led by Li Sui'an, dispersed again and ran towards the poplar forest that they had spotted not far away.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

After a series of grenade explosions, when the Japanese soldiers who had avoided the grenade explosions hastily began to counterattack, Wei Ran and others rode their horses around to the side of a poplar forest.

Just like the willow forest diagonally opposite blocked the machine guns and puppet troops in front of the Japanese grain transport team, when they went around to the side of the poplar forest, the Japanese who had just been attacked also lost their shooting range one after another, and could only vent their anger in vain with the machine guns and grenade launchers they had just set up at the poplar forest which was also full of graves.

However, Li Sui'an did not lead everyone to run away. Instead, he went around to the other side of the woods and asked everyone to dismount.

There was no one to give orders next, so everyone just let their horses lie down, and then they lay down behind a ditch for watering the fields.

"Each of you only has two bullets, so shoot carefully!"

As Li Sui'an spoke, everyone took out a magazine from their pockets and pressed bullets into the gun chamber.

"this is yours"

Zhao Jinyu said as she handed a five-round magazine to Wei Ran, "Be economical, just two shots will be enough."

"Are we so short of bullets?" Wei Ran asked curiously as he loaded the bullets that the other party had just given him into the cavalry rifle.

"We've wasted this bullet."

Li Sui'an lay on the other side of Wei Ran and explained, "The captured rifle bullets were all distributed to the machine gun company. We have captured a lot of the enemy's machine guns before, and those bullets are just right for them."

"You'll understand in a moment, just fight!"

Zhao Jinyu said this, and after careful aiming, he pulled the trigger at the livestock of the grain transport team a few hundred meters away.

As the gunshots rang out, a big mule that the grain transport team had just pacified suddenly tensed up and fell to the ground.

Following closely, with the sound of gunfire, more and more animals were hit by bullets.

Wei Ran did not dare to delay and quickly selected a target. After careful aiming, he pulled the trigger.

Their shooting window was small enough that the Japanese had to leave before they adjusted the firing range of their machine guns and the grenade launchers they had just set up.

But the two bullets fired by each of them actually hit the main artery of the grain transport team.

The reason was that this place was quite far from Huaiyang City. If these animals were killed, not to mention whether the enemies hiding around would rob them, if they wanted to transport the food back safely, they would have to rely on people pulling carts.

Because of this, the highest commander of the grain transport team soon shouted for the motorcycles to go back quickly to report and ask for help, and then urged the machine guns and grenade launchers to counterattack quickly.

  But how long will these two shots delay the time?

Before the grenade launcher team fired the first calibration shot, Wei Ran had already followed the crowd in shouting at the biting horse that was rolling around and nibbling on the corn seedlings to get up quickly. He jumped onto the horse swiftly and once again widened the distance, and ran towards the direction of the Yellow River like a swarm of bees.

“Da da da da”

Behind them, the Japanese machine guns began to roar, and a moment later, grenade launchers began to fire grenades that covered the poplar and willow groves.

Obviously, this grain transport team was prepared to hold their ground and wait for reinforcements.

  It’s a pity that they didn’t know that the enemy they were facing at this time was using the tactic of besieging a point and attacking its reinforcements!

Almost at the same time when Li Sui'an and Wei Ran ran back to the river bank along the avenue, Company Commander Ma Jintao, who had been waiting for them, waved to his groom Bai Yuguang.

Upon seeing this, the latter stood on the saddle with extraordinary agility, took out two signal flags from his waist and began to wave them towards the other side of the river.

At the same time, Ma Jintao also held up a telescope and looked at the other side of the river, but he didn't care about Li Sui'an and others who led the team over and ran straight in other directions.

"Back off!"

Ma Jintao put down the telescope and shouted calmly, then led the cavalry behind him to hide in an endless reed marsh beside the river bank.

At this time, Wei Ran and others also followed Li Sui'an and ran to the opposite direction of the river bank and hid behind the second dike, where someone was already waiting for them.

"Check the wound quickly"

Li Sui'an called out, and everyone immediately began to check their horses and themselves.

Whenever someone indicated that they were injured, the people waiting here would immediately go up to help treat and bandage the injury - whether it was a person or a horse.

That was not all. Wei Ran also saw Lao Liu, the cook who had helped him cook noodles, with two young boys. He gave each of them a somewhat simple meal and 20 rounds of pistol bullets.

"Get out, get out!"

In less than 20 minutes, Li Sui'an began to urge them, and Lao Liu and others hurriedly took their things and rowed to the other side of the river in a small boat.

Almost at the same time they crossed the river, nearly ten cars carrying the Japanese and more than a hundred cavalrymen, led by a Japanese sidecar motorcycle, came galloping from the direction of Huaiyang City.

Without any pause, the Japanese cavalry rushed over with their swords drawn, along with half of the Japanese vehicles.

"This is really a big fish!"

Li Sui'an slapped his thigh, put down the telescope he had been holding, and shouted, "Run, run, run! Quick! Run quickly!"

Before he finished speaking, everyone whipped their horses and shouted at their mounts to gallop under the two dikes.

The distance of less than one kilometer between the two sides naturally did not pose any problem for the Japanese cavalry, especially when they ran to Erdao Dike, they saw from afar the enemy running downstream under the cover of Erdao Dike!

What else can I say? Immediately, the trucks and cavalry loaded with Japanese soldiers began to chase.

  However, before the horses and carriages could pick up speed on the Erdao Dike, the roar of machine guns could be heard from the reed marshes on the other side of the Yellow River! The roar of the Japanese's crooked-handled machine guns, crooked-handled machine guns, and even Czech-style machine guns!

For a moment, the reeds on the river bank fell down in large numbers as if they were cut by a sickle, and the Japanese cavalry fell down with them.

  Even those cars had unlucky drivers who were hit, and the soldiers in the cargo boxes were driven under the second river embankment that was originally built for flood prevention!

Rather!

  Exactly at this time!

Ma Jintao was already waving his saber, and with about 150 to 60 cavalrymen behind him, they attacked the Japs from behind under the cover of the roar of machine guns!

This is not the end yet. The weapons opening fire on the other side of the Yellow River are not just the machine guns hidden in the reeds, but also the only artillery pieces of the Cavalry Artillery Battalion!

"Boom boom boom!"

These artillery pieces fired less than five shells in total, but these shells accurately hit the intersection where the Japanese grain transport team was attacked!

With this step-by-step plan, the Japanese cavalry that were lured in suddenly panicked, but what was even more terrible was that the cavalry squad that they had been chasing not long ago turned around and rushed towards them with murderous intent!

Under attack from both sides, the Japanese cavalry almost subconsciously chose to retreat away from the Yellow River!

Now, the cavalry that had been attacking from the front and back immediately turned into a flanking formation, constantly closing the distance between them and the Japanese cavalry from both sides.

Seeing this, the Japanese cavalry who started to flee subconsciously prepared for hand-to-hand combat.

  Hand-to-hand combat?

If Company Commander Ma Jintao could hear what they were thinking at this moment, he would definitely spit at them.

Could it be that the shuttle-insertion speed-change machine that I worked so hard to equip my brothers with is actually used to crack walnuts?

For a moment, the crisp yet dense sound of gunfire from the box cannons opened fire almost simultaneously on both wings of the Japanese cavalry!

Amid the loud gunfire, the Japanese cavalry regiment seemed to have suffered an unexpected miscarriage, with corpses falling to the ground in a crackling manner.

  "Brothers! Leave no one alive! Kill them!" After Ma Jintao had emptied his box gun, he waved his saber and issued orders!

"Qiang! Qiang! Qiang!"

  The sound of two hundred cavalrymen striking their stirrups with sabers was almost like murderous intent that had solidified into stone. Most of the Japanese cavalrymen, who had been slaughtered, suddenly lost all their fighting spirit! One of them even threw away his saber!

"puff!"

Wei Ran didn't care about that. He moved forward and stabbed a Japanese cavalryman in the neck with his knife.

  He didn't even need to wave his hands or put away his knife. Just relying on the high speed of the galloping horse under his butt, the saber in his hand had already cut off the arm of the next Japanese soldier holding the knife before he could even shake off the blood on it!

Not only Wei Ran, but also the other cavalrymen around him, even the biting horse under his butt, were running wildly. One of them seized the opportunity, bit off the ear of a Japanese horse, and then swallowed it into his stomach in just a few chews!

  Are you really so ambitious that you want to eat the flesh of the barbarians?

While Wei Ran was muttering to himself, it did not stop him from slashing at the Japanese soldier who was carrying one ear on his horse.

"puff!"

After this knife attack, the blood-stained smile on Wei Ran's face became even brighter and happier.

(End of this chapter)