Chapter 077: British War Correspondent Terry

  This forest, covering a not very high hillside towards the church, has sparse trees with some cypress trees growing sparsely. Almost every cypress tree root has one or two tombstones, which can be seen as the church's cemetery. On the other side of the hill, that is, the slope facing the road, tall needle pines are densely covered, and under the pine trees, there are dense shrubs over a person high.

  After entering the hillside woods, Zhu Yongsheng's squad and Dong Limao's squad separated, running towards the top of the hill facing away from the church and towards the road. When they reached the middle of the mountain, machine gun fire suddenly broke out at the top of the hill, with bullets flying over their heads and beside them, some hitting tombstones, shattering the gray marble into flying debris.

  This was something that Dong Li Mao had not anticipated, the Japanese devils actually had a cloth defense on the hill. He led another squad from outside the church wall, down the hill along the drainage ditch to quickly run inside, the guide said there was a path leading to the back door of the church.

  Machine gun bullets on the hill also shot towards Dong Li Mao and others, fortunately there were not only trees but also tombstones to block them, otherwise they might have been unable to move under the dense machine gun fire.

  Dong Li Mao and his men tried to bow their waists down, almost sticking their heads to the ground as they moved forward. He knew that Zhu Yongsheng could lead his men to take out the Japanese machine gun position on top of the hill, so he didn't pull out the squad he led to help Zhu Yongsheng.

  Zhu Yongsheng is a seasoned soldier, he knows how to turn passive into active in a passive situation. He had the soldiers take cover behind tombstones and pine trees and return fire with precision shooting, aiming to draw the Japanese army's firepower on the hill, allowing Dong Limao and others to pass through this firepower point smoothly, while also providing cover for him to lead two soldiers to flank up the hill from the left side.

  Zhu Yongsheng led two soldiers to sneak to the left and then climbed up. When they reached the top of the hill, they found that there were only two Japanese machine guns on the hill, with a total of four people, each operating one machine gun. The two machine guns were about 10 meters apart. The Japanese were frantically firing down the hill and did not notice that Zhu Yongsheng had already led his two soldiers to the top of the hill.

  Zhu Yongsheng and two soldiers crawled from the pine trees and shrubs to the two machine gun strongpoints, about a dozen meters apart. They stood up and each threw a hand grenade at the Japanese army's two machine gun firepower points, then used submachine guns to sweep the machine gun firepower points, taking out the two Japanese firepower points.

  The brief battle not only failed to cause any casualties, but also provided them with two machine guns. Zhu Yongsheng turned the muzzle of the machine gun around and pointed it at the other side of the hill. He had his remaining brothers lie down in a line, ten meters apart, watching and waiting for the Japanese army's counterattack.

  After the gun battle on the hill stopped, Dong Li Mao understood that Zhu Yong Sheng must have taken down the devil's stronghold on the hill. He felt relieved in his heart, but this also reminded him that he had to quickly bring out the people from the church. Otherwise, once the Japanese army counterattacked from across the hill, with just over a dozen men, Zhu Yong Sheng and his team would probably be unable to withstand the enemy's powerful offensive. Every minute they delayed here meant an extra minute of danger for those brothers outside who were attracting the devils.

  Without the Japanese machine gun fire, Dong Li Mao and his group quickened their pace, and after a few minutes, they finally arrived at the back door of the church leading to the woods and cemetery as indicated by the guide.

  This was a rusty iron gate, Dong Li Mao let the translator knock on the door and shout inside, telling the British rescue troops inside that they had arrived, asking them not to misfire on their own people.

  About two or three minutes later, the iron gate creaked open and inside were several British soldiers with guns and a lieutenant.

  "Where is he?" Dong Li Mao did not see the journalist and missionary, let the translator ask the British lieutenant.

  Everyone is in the church, several are injured." Translate what Lieutenant said to Dong Li Mao.

  "Let them come out quickly, hurry up, follow our people to run forward, be quick!" Dong Li Mao and his brothers did not enter the church, but dispersed around, doing a lookout, waiting for the people inside to come out.

  The lieutenant shouted a few words towards the church, and from the large house with a side door on the church, people came out one after another. Almost all of them were foreigners, some carrying suitcases, others wearing cameras around their necks, and still others holding children in their arms. However, they were all very orderly, no one spoke, and no one pushed or shoved to get out first.

  Dong Li Mao had the guide and three soldiers under him lead the way, five or six hundred people, what a large crowd, could only run one by one in a line towards the direction Dong Li Mao and his men came from.

  There was a beautiful blonde female journalist who walked out the back door and didn't immediately run forward, but instead stood in front of Dong Li Mao, raised her camera to her chest, and took aim at Dong Li Mao and other soldiers. Dong Li Mao understood some cameras, seeing that she was holding a Leica camera, which was a rare German product, and should have been considered one of the best cameras at the time.

  "Miss, let's go quickly, it's not suitable for an interview now!" Dong Li Mao said seriously to the female reporter.

  "Are you Chinese soldiers?" The female journalist surprisingly spoke Chinese, asking a question but not stopping taking pictures, aiming her camera at the people coming out one by one from the back door.

  Dong Li Mao thought of Tai Gong's photo in his mind and walked forward to ask the female reporter, "Miss, what should I call you?"

  "Elizabeth Taylor." The female reporter was busy taking pictures and didn't see Dong Limao's response.

  "Is Miss Taili British?" Dong Limao guessed from the journalist's surname, which he often saw in the news as Queen Elizabeth, an old British lady.

  "He is British." The film in Terry's hand seemed to have run out, and she stopped taking pictures. Standing in front of Dong Li Mao, she stretched out her hand with a smile and introduced herself: "I am a war correspondent for the Times newspaper stationed in the China-Burma war zone."

  Dong Li Mao stretched out his hand and shook hands with Taili, saying: "I am Dong Jiacheng, the captain of the special operations company of the Fifth Army Guard Regiment of the Chinese Expeditionary Force in Burma."

  "Thank you for saving us, I'd like to know how you and your men managed to infiltrate the Japanese 33rd Division's encirclement?" Terry was indeed a war correspondent, she wouldn't let go of any opportunity to interview as long as there was news to be reported. Even in such a critical moment, she didn't forget her identity as a journalist.

  Dong Li Mao looked at this high-bridged nose, blue-eyed woman with freckles on both sides of her nostrils and could say that she was relatively pretty among Western women. If there weren't those fine golden hairs on her beautiful face, she would look even better.

  "We arrived last night under the cover of darkness and heavy rain." Dong Li Mao replied, gazing at the people still pouring out of the church.

  "Haven't you considered that once we enter the encirclement, we might not be able to get out again?" Terry suddenly flashed her blue eyes and stared at Dong Li Mao.

  "It won't work, the new 38th Division has already started fighting outside the Japanese army's encirclement to rescue the British First Division and Tank Regiment. Tonight they will break through the Japanese army's encirclement, and tomorrow we can rescue the surrounded British troops and you." Dong Li Mao was getting anxious, after answering, he urged the people still walking out of the church: "Hurry! We only have half an hour."

  "Is the intense gunfire outside the church a battle between your people and the Japanese?" Teri asked.

  "Yes." Dong Li Mao's brief response ended, and seeing that the last ones to come out were missionaries and British soldiers, he wanted the interpreter to speak to the British lieutenant, but couldn't find the interpreter anymore. So he told Terry: "Miss Terry, please tell the British lieutenant to have his men fall back with us."

  Tai Li then translated Dong Li Mao's words to the lieutenant, but the lieutenant said a few words and led his men, including the wounded, to follow the journalists and missionaries forward.

  Tai Li listened to the British lieutenant's words and stood there for a moment without translating his words to Dong Limao.

  "What did he say?" Dong Li Mao asked Taili.

  "Ensign said his men were out of ammunition and had lost their ability to fight," Teri replied.

  At this time, a fierce gunshot came from the top of the hill, and Dong Li Mao cried out in a low voice that something was wrong.