War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1617 The Gate of Heaven is Opened!

"wake up"

When Wei Ran, who was sleeping, turned over and woke up at the call, he saw Zhao Jinyu as soon as he opened his eyes.

"What's the matter?" While Wei Ran was speaking, he put away the box gun that suddenly appeared in his hand from under the pillow.

"Eat something. We don't have to go out tonight. My brother-in-law asked me and Brother Li to help you practice some skills." Zhao Jinyu said as she placed the food on the table.

Hearing this, Wei Ran simply got up. By the time he put on his clothes, Li Sui'an had already brought him a large bowl of steaming cornmeal porridge.

Even without going on any missions, the food and accommodation has dropped sharply. Yesterday it was noodles, but today it is cornmeal pancakes, corn and wild vegetable porridge with pickles.

"You two are going to teach me? What skills are you going to practice?"

Wei Ran asked as he got up. Perhaps because he drank too much and thought too much yesterday, he slept very late and very soundly, and he didn't even know when the two of them got up.

"It's just the ability to look after the house."

Zhao Jinyu gave a vague explanation and immediately urged Wei Ran to eat quickly.

After washing his hands and face hastily, Wei Ran could only suppress his curiosity and sit at the table, eating a bowl of porridge and half a pancake with pickled cabbage to fill his not-so-hungry stomach.

After taking a short rest and taking a shit, Wei Ran put on a full set of weapons and equipment at the urging of Zhao Jinyu and the others, and led the biting horse to the wasteland outside.

"Last time when you attacked the enemy's grain transport team, I saw you were hacking from top to bottom."

As Li Sui'an spoke, he had already jumped onto his horse neatly, and kept saying, "But the sabers we use are different from the Japanese's. Our sabers are wide, thick, and powerful. You'll fall easily if you chop them like this. And when you're about to engage the enemy, you must slow down your horse to find the right opportunity."

"That's right"

Wei Ran nodded. It was his first time to fight on horseback. He did chop down several people, but they were all unharmed because of Zhao Jinyu's care.

And most importantly, everything Li Sui'an just said actually happened.

"Let Jin Yu demonstrate it to you later. Run and follow him on his right side to see how he cuts." Li Sui'an said.

"Chirp! Chirp!"

Without waiting for Wei Ran's consent, Zhao Jinyu had already galloped away on his horse.

Seeing this, Wei Ran hurriedly shouted at his horse to catch up, keeping the same speed as the opponent and observing his movements carefully.

During the acceleration phase, Zhao Jinyu almost lay on the horse's back. He first held up the box gun and pretended to fire a few shots. Then he stuffed the box gun into the saddle bag and grabbed the saddle tightly.

  At the same time, the right hand that was originally holding the knife and the reins also lowered its shoulders. Even Zhao Jinyu himself leaned forward slightly, further lowering his center of gravity while raising the saber in his hand forward to the same level as the horse's mouth!

That’s not all. Seeing that the imaginary enemy, whose cavalry silhouette was made of soil and straw, was getting closer and closer, Zhao Jinyu actually urged the horse to run faster!

If there was an anti-aircraft camera recording the following scene and playing it frame by frame, Wei Ran would be able to clearly see that when his horse was still four or five meters away from the imaginary enemy, he had already exerted force with his feet on the stirrups to straighten his body while raising his sword to slash horizontally, and used the reaction force of the saber hitting the imaginary enemy's back, shoulder and neck to sit back on the saddle.

That’s not all. Zhao Jinyu then slowed down the horse’s speed and movements and demonstrated it again.

"This is for slashing cavalry. The main purpose of the spear is to shoot at the enemy's horses. Unless you have surrounded them, don't even think about shooting at them. The target is too small to hit."

Zhao Jinyu said, and started running again, "Next is to kill the infantry."

Hearing this, Wei Ran hurriedly urged his horse to catch up again, carefully observing the other party's movements.

He still tried to lower his body as close to the horse's back as possible during the charge, but this time Zhao Jinyu did not rush to shoot. Instead, he placed the blade of his saber forward on the stirrup, and when he got closer to the straw that served as the imaginary enemy, he accelerated his body and leaned forward again, and extended his saber diagonally to use the momentum to slash upwards.

After easily chopping down a stalk of straw, he sat back on the horse's back by means of an upward movement, and while adjusting his center of gravity, he twisted his wrist and chopped down again.

After repeating this several times, he pulled out a box gun with his left hand and pretended to fire it in demonstration.

Just like before, they performed a set of slow motions. Li Sui'an also rode up to remind them, "When fighting cavalry, shoot the horse first. If you can't hit the person, hit the horse. If you can't hit the neck, hit the hand. As long as you scratch it a little, you will have an advantage in the second round.

In addition, the Japanese cavalry are used to slashing near the chest, so if you lean forward sideways, it is easy to miss. As long as you grasp the timing, even if you can't hit them from behind, you can at least injure the horse's belly or legs."

"When fighting infantry, try to hit above the armpits. Don't fire with a box gun in bursts, as that's for saving lives. The first upward strike with the knife is mainly to knock open the enemy's bayonet."

Zhao Jinyu also reminded, "Also, when fighting infantry, try to increase the speed of your horse. It doesn't matter if you can't hit them the first time. There will be plenty of opportunities. As long as your horse runs fast enough, it will scare the enemy infantry out of their wits. Then it will be much easier when you charge in the second round."

"This is all"

"It cost human life." Li Sui'an sighed, then regained his spirit and said, "Come on! Brother Wei, come and try!"

Hearing this, Wei Ran nodded, held the saber, wrapped the cloth strip around the head, and began to practice chopping according to Zhao Jinyu's demonstration just now.

This technique concerns life and death, and Wei Ran studied it seriously. Zhao Jinyu and Li Sui'an also taught it without reservation.

After practicing individual chopping, they pulled Wei Ran to practice chopping with them in a team, and even found some fake swords made of wood wrapped in rags for sparring.

It was such a fulfilling afternoon. Wei Ran was sweating profusely from the training. Even the horse was hit several times on the butt with a wooden knife by Zhao Jinyu as if to take revenge.

Of course, after this morning of sparring, Wei Ran didn't dare to say that he had perfected his skills, but at least his moves were well-organized and he no longer had to go back to his own unorthodox ways.

They didn't have to cross the river to conduct reconnaissance in the Yellow River flood area that night, but Wei Ran was waving the saber, which was definitely not very flexible, in his dreams. Not surprisingly, when he woke up again, his shoulders were extremely sore.

Zhao Jinyu and Li Sui'an seemed to have anticipated this, so before going to bed last night, they had already prepared a bottle of medicinal wine and placed it on the table.

  Why can't the living ancestor give me a skill task? Why did I have to learn it myself this time?

Wei Ran couldn't help but mutter to himself when Zhao Jinyu was applying medicinal wine on him and massaging his arm muscles. He vaguely felt that the living ancestor probably just wanted to see him suffer!

“Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!”

Just as he was daydreaming, a sharp and piercing whistle suddenly sounded in the garden outside.

"Quick! Assemble!"

Zhao Jinyu and Li Sui'an reacted very quickly and picked up their sabers and long and short spears, and also picked up their respective Nine Dragon Belts.

Wei Ran’s reaction was equally quick. He also picked up his weapons and equipment, and ran out of the room while buttoning his shirt.

"Xiaobai! What's going on!" Zhao Jinyu asked while running and shouting.

"The third company discovered a group of Japanese soldiers emerging from the other side of the river during reconnaissance. The regiment commander asked our company to go and provide support and find a way to kill those Japanese soldiers!" Before Bai Yuguang finished his words, he had already run into the backyard where the horses were raised.

"Brother Wei, you should be between us at that time." Li Sui'an reminded while running.

"it is good!"

Wei Ran, who had already put on his shirt, responded, hurriedly put on the Kowloon Belt, and then put the carbine on his shoulder.

The three of them hurried into the backyard, saddled their horses, and then began to assemble at the urging of a slightly changed whistle.

In less than ten minutes, the cavalry company stationed here had assembled on the wasteland.

The captain shouted loudly while riding on his horse, "Kill! Don't spare any one!"

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

The surrounding cavalrymen responded by tapping their stirrups with their sabers.

"rush!"

Before Ma Jintao finished his words, he rushed out first.

Under his leadership, about two hundred cavalrymen rushed out of the wasteland and reached the other side, trampling on the flooded Yellow River.

  At this time, there were already two cavalrymen waiting for them!

Without stopping at all, the two cavalrymen took the lead and ran in the direction of the battlefield.

After galloping for more than thirty minutes, they finally met up with three companies of cavalry behind a sand dune.

"Brother Ma!" The company commander of the third company took the initiative to greet Ma Jintao.

"What's going on?" Ma Jintao asked.

"On the avenue across from us, there is a transport squadron of the Japanese, as well as at least one infantry squadron and more than 200 puppet soldiers, with five large trucks leading the way."

The commander of the third company pointed in a direction with the hand holding the telescope and introduced, "When we found them, these devils had just come out of Huaiyang City. They were probably transporting something."

"No devil cavalry?"

"There were only about ten people on horseback on guard," the third captain replied with a smile, "I guess it was because you guys beat us too hard the other day."

"You want to wait until they come back to fight?"

“That’s the plan.”

The third captain nodded and said, "If there is any hot-selling goods in it, we can..."

"I'm afraid not"

Ma Jintao waved his hand and said, "The commander wants us to follow from a distance. Once we are far enough away from Huaiyang City, we will attack and leave no one alive."

"Okay, I'll follow the commander's instructions." The third company commander was particularly easy to talk to.

“This time, a whole squadron has been dispatched.”

Ma Jintao muttered with satisfaction, "We'll wipe them out this time, and we must not leave any of them alive."

As he spoke, Ma Jintao called out, "Wangchuan, map."

"coming"

Li Sui'an, who had been waiting nearby, immediately unfolded the map he had prepared in advance and at the same time steeded his chestnut horse to come between the two company commanders.

"Looking at the direction they are heading, they should be walking along this avenue. So, how about we go around them and start the fight here?"

Ma Jintao pointed to a location on the map and asked, "That place is not flooded, and the ground is solid and can be run on. We will charge first when the time comes."

"Follow Brother Ma's arrangements!" the third company commander answered without thinking.

"go!"

Ma Jintao shouted, and he and the third company commander led their respective cavalry companies to start a flanking operation.

While running fast and slow along the way, Wei Ran also took the opportunity to take pictures and saw many dead bodies along the way.

Some of the stones fell on the roadside, some were hanging on the tree trunks on the roadside and were stripped of their clothes, and some had been gnawed away, leaving only piles of bones.

"They all starved to death, or they just hanged themselves because they couldn't survive."

Li Sui'an, who was walking side by side with Wei Ran, took the initiative to remind him, "Cover your nose with a towel, or there might be an epidemic."

Hearing this, Wei Ran nodded, took out the white towel that was originally draped around his neck and tucked into his collar, wrapped it around his face, and tied it tightly at the back of his head, leaving only a pair of eyes exposed.

After charging for more than an hour through the tragic scene of shattered mountains and rivers, the combined cavalry company hid in a deserted village filled with a faint stench of corpses, quietly observing the road in the distance.

"They probably haven't arrived yet," Li Sui'an whispered, "There aren't even any wheel tracks on the road."

"Xiaobai, arrange a few people to keep an eye on it, and the rest of you can rest here." Ma Jintao gave the order decisively.

"Come with me!"

Bai Yuguang called out, and immediately several cavalrymen followed him to the edge of the deserted village.

Seeing that there was no work assigned to him, Wei Ran simply hid far away and took a few photos of the two cavalry companies. Then he helped the black horse wipe its body. Just like last time, while feeding and watering the horse, he braided the horse's tail into a pigtail.

This time they didn't have to wait long. Bai Yuguang brought his men back to report that they had found clues about the enemy. The people who were originally resting immediately packed up their various items, got on their horses and prepared themselves.

Not long after, a large team of about four to five hundred people gradually appeared at the end of the field of vision.

Leading the team were five shit-green trucks, followed by two teams of puppet soldiers, and then the Japanese transport team and a well-organized infantry squadron.

As everyone was anxiously waiting, the five trucks and several cavalrymen who were wandering around the front and back of the team ran over first, followed by the puppet army and the devil's transport team.

However, Ma Jintao still did not give any orders until the Japanese infantry were almost at their closest position.

"Draw the knife!"

Just when the last member of the Japanese team finally pointed his butt at everyone, Ma Jintao suddenly gave an order.

With a clanging sound, the cavalrymen raised up the sharpened sabers.

"Open the gate of heaven!"

Ma Jintao roared and led a large number of cavalrymen to charge towards the enemy who was only one or two hundred meters away!