Chapter 71: The Iron Man's Tears

  Night, like being dyed black with ink, was so dark that I couldn't see my own fingers. The rain continued to drizzle down from the pitch-black sky.

  At around two o'clock in the morning, Dong Li Mao and his men finally walked out of the most difficult riverbank thicket forest and stepped onto a small path along the riverbank. Although they couldn't see where their feet were going, Dong Li Mao still ordered everyone to jog forward.

  They passed through two small villages that had been looted by the Japanese army, houses in the village that were about to be burned out or extinguished by rainwater, except for a few mournful howls of dogs, there was no sign of life. In order to reach their destination before dawn, Dong Li Mao did not let the troops stop to check if there were still people alive in the village.

  But when they arrived at the third, somewhat larger village, they heard from afar sporadic gunfire, women's screams and children's wails coming from within the village.

  Dong Li Mao walked at the very front, he stopped in his tracks, and everyone behind him also came to a standstill.

  Pan Guangzu rushed forward, pointing at the fire in the village ahead and listening to the sound of gunfire and women's terrified screams, saying to Dong Li Mao: "Commander, we can't just stand by and do nothing, those little devils are raping the women in the village!"

  Dong Li Mao hesitated, if he set out to rescue the people in the village, it was likely that he would not be able to reach his destination before dawn.

  Zhang Dali also stepped forward and said: "Lian Chang, go ahead!"

  The rest also echoed: "Dragon Brother, go for it!"

  "Alright! But don't be rash!" Dong Li Mao squatted down and said: "Second, you and your men, scatter around the village and provide cover with sniper rifles for us to enter the village. The rest of the people will divide into three groups and sneak into the village from left, center, and right directions. Before entering the village, as long as the devils haven't discovered us, don't fire a shot. After everyone has entered the village, we'll take action. We must end this battle quickly, within twenty minutes!" After finishing speaking, he stood up and said to Pan Guangzu: "Donggua, follow me." Then with a wave of his hand: "Action!"

  Zhang Dali and Zhao Yong, the main attacker, led a dozen or so people to attack from both sides, while Dong Li Mao led twenty or so people to launch a main attack from the middle.

  This village has more than 100 households, the riverbank is all rice fields, the village is located at the foot of the mountain, relatively concentrated, like a market town. The houses are all local thatched cottages made of bamboo and straw, although it's raining, some of the bamboo houses have caught fire, with the help of the firelight, you can roughly see the whole village from outside, around the village, there are clusters of phoenix tail bamboo and large banyan trees.

  Dong Li Mao and his men used bamboo thickets and fig trees as cover, stealthily approaching the village very quickly.

  More than a dozen villagers, including men, women, elderly and children, rushed out of the village entrance in a state of panic. Four Japanese soldiers chased after them, firing their guns as they pursued the fleeing villagers into the rice fields. The four Japanese devils didn't seem to be fighting a war; instead, they seemed to be hunting, laughing maniacally as if competing with each other over who had better marksmanship and who could kill more people, treating human lives like targets in a game.

  Villagers running into the paddy field, one by one fell forward in the paddy field after a series of crisp gunshots, just like scarecrows in the field being blown down by a gust of strong wind.

  There was a little boy, stumbling and running in the middle of a rice field. The muddy water in the rice field was too deep for him, almost half his body was submerged in it, so the upper half of his body appeared even smaller in the dark night. The four Japanese soldiers seemed to have lost interest in shooting adults, and all pointed their guns at the little boy. They fired several shots in a row but couldn't hit him, scaring the boy into wailing loudly while struggling to run forward in the muddy water. The rice field around the child occasionally splashed mud that was shot by bullets.

  Dong Li Mao and others hid behind a clump of bamboo, Hu San couldn't bear to look at it anymore, and rushed towards the little boy.

  Dong Li Mao saw that things were going badly, raised his gun and prepared to shoot at the four Japanese soldiers, covering Hu San's rescue of the little boy. Before he could fire, two of the Japanese soldiers fell down.

  This was done by Wang Jia Gui and his brothers, just as Hu San ran towards the little boy. Wang Jia Gui decisively took action, shooting and killing a Japanese soldier from a distance, and another one was taken down by another sniper. The remaining two devils seemed to have not reacted yet, looking around in all directions. Wang Jia Gui's snipers cleanly took out the remaining two without alerting the devils in the village.

  Dong Li Mao's younger brother waved his hand and quickly rushed towards the village, Hu San tucked the little boy under his arm and ran onto the road, letting the little boy crouch down behind a clump of bamboo before catching up with Dong Li Mao and the others.

  "Good job, Little Huzi!" Dong Li Mao gave a thumbs up to Hu San and then quickly ran towards the front of a bamboo building, hiding behind the wall corner. The others followed him, swiftly taking cover behind the wall root.

  At this time, a dense gunfire was heard from the right side. Dong Li Mao estimated that his men and the Japanese army had exchanged fire, so he issued his unique order: "Not one is left! Kill!"

  The twenty or so brothers behind him had already been unable to bear it, and when they heard that the company commander had finally given the order, one by one they dispersed to search for targets and start acting. These men all had individual combat capabilities, and almost every one of them was a veteran who had crawled out from piles of dead bodies; no one was a novice.

  Dong Li Mao followed by Pan Guang Zu and Hu San, rushed towards the bamboo building in front of them, from which a woman's scream had just come out. Perhaps the devils inside had heard the intense gunfire, two Japanese soldiers with their upper bodies exposed and still pulling up their pants hastily ran down the bamboo building. Dong Li Mao hadn't even fired his gun yet when Pan Guang Zu roared "Bastards..." and charged forward, using his handgun to shoot all the angry bullets at those two devils until the gun in his hand couldn't fire anymore, he was still trying to pull the trigger with force.

  At this time, a devil from upstairs rushed out with his gun aimed at Pan Guangzu, Dong Li Mao flew up and pushed him away, the bullet whizzed past Dong Li Mao's ear, Hu San swept the shooting devil with a swipe of his rifle, shooting him down from the bamboo building.

  Then, three naked Japanese soldiers rushed out of the bamboo building. One devil was still holding a machine gun with both hands and standing on the bamboo corridor, shouting and firing at Dong Li Mao and others. Dong Li Mao had to roll in the mud, and as his body rolled, the muzzle of the submachine gun also spewed fire, and the three devils who hadn't had time to put on their clothes were shot dead by Dong Li Mao, helping them return to their old home on a lonely island in Japan.

  Hu San rushed up to the bamboo building first, followed by Pan Guangzu. He had already dropped his gun and picked up a machine gun, charging into the house where the Japanese soldiers came out. Inside, two Japanese devils were kneeling on the bamboo floor with their hands on their heads, trembling with fear. Behind them, five naked women were huddled together against the wall, staring at Hu San and Pan Guangzu with terrified eyes. The youngest looked no more than 13 or 14 years old, while the oldest was around 50 or 60 years old.

  Seeing this scene, Hu San and Pan Guangzu's eyes flowed with tears, their hands trembling as they couldn't bring themselves to shoot the two devils kneeling on the ground. The two naked devils looked about the same size as Hu San's tea, probably only fifteen or sixteen years old. So Hu San shouted: "Company Commander..."

  Dong Li Maorushed into the bamboo house, covered in mud and water. Seeing this scene, he was momentarily stunned. He also saw the two little devils kneeling there, probably not much older than Hu San. They should still be considered children, yet they had done something that exceeded their age, even surpassing what ordinary men would do - they had raped a woman.

  "Company Commander, they...they...are beasts...I'm going to kill these beasts..." Hu San wailed, kicking with his feet and smashing with the butt of his gun, beating the two devils kneeling on the bamboo board until they were crying out in pain and rolling around clutching their heads.

  Dong Li Mao walked up, pulled open Hu San, he didn't want to let Hu San's child go kill children of the same age as him, but he also couldn't bear to take down his hand and kill the two devils who were still children. His hands trembled and he couldn't fire the gun, his facial muscles twitching as if making a decision, but in the end, he shouted at the two childlike little devils: "Get up! Stand up and run!" Dong Li Mao's words, those two Japanese soldiers didn't understand at all, so he waved his gun towards the outside of the house and roared: "Run for your life!"

  Two little devils seemed to understand Dong Li Mao's meaning and stood up and ran out of the house.

  At this time, Dong Li Mao finally had the courage to fire his gun. He shot bullets into the backs of those two little devils running away, and his eyes shed the first tear since he crossed over when killing people.

  "You are safe." Dong Li Mao said with his back to the five old and young women, then ran out of the house.