Chapter 4: Annihilating the Japanese Detachment

"In a moment, I will take Old Zhang and two others to circle behind the enemy. We’ll open fire to draw them back. The two squad leaders will each lead two men to set up another ambush on the left and right flanks. We’ll position the ambush in that clearing ahead; it’s wide open with no trees, leaving the enemy with no cover. Then, the four of us will retreat to join you, and we’ll keep up the pressure until we’ve finished them all off right here," Zhang Yun said earnestly.

"Everyone, be careful. The Japanese are crack shots. Focus your fire on the Japanese first. Dabao, you take charge of their light machine gun. You have the best rifle and the best aim—take out their gunners as quickly as possible. The rest of you, maintain suppressive fire. Don't be stingy with your ammunition; the enemy is carrying plenty. If we don't inflict heavy casualties at the very beginning, it will be hard to wipe them out completely."

"Understood!" the ten men replied in unison.

Soon, the ten men split into three groups and moved toward their designated positions. Zhang Yun, Old Zhang, and two others took the lead, quickly closing in on the Japanese and puppet troops, who had been advancing slowly but had come to a halt. The two groups had merged again. The Japanese sergeant was currently slapping the puppet commander across the face for moving too slowly, and Zhang Yun’s group could even hear the Japanese soldier shouting "Baka! Baka!"

Although the Japanese were dutifully maintaining a perimeter, their focus was entirely on the front, leaving their rear unguarded. As for the puppet soldiers, they all stood with their heads bowed while their commander was being beaten, creating a massive gap in their security.

The opportunity was too good to miss. Zhang Yun and his three men quickly hid behind trees and raised their rifles, aiming at the Japanese from behind. As Zhang Yun had instructed, each man targeted one Japanese soldier. Old Zhang specifically aimed at the sergeant. Then, four shots rang out—"Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!"—and the sergeant and one other soldier collapsed with blood blooming on their chests. Two other Japanese soldiers were hit in the arms and legs, falling to the ground with wails of pain.

"Retreat! Retreat!" Zhang Yun immediately led his men back toward the pre-arranged ambush site.

"Baka! Baka!" The Japanese quickly returned fire. The "pop-pop-pop" of Arisaka rifles and the "tat-tat-tat" of the Type 11 light machine gun echoed through the woods. But Zhang Yun and his men had already planned their escape route, weaving behind trees as they retreated, and the enemy failed to hit them.

Although their sergeant was dead, the Japanese maintained strict military discipline and quickly established a new commander. Seeing that the attackers had fled, the new commander—an old Japanese soldier—felt the need to avenge his predecessor and feared the consequences of returning empty-handed. He immediately ordered two puppet soldiers to tend to the wounded, and the remaining eight Japanese and twelve puppet soldiers swarmed in pursuit of Zhang Yun.

In this hilly, forested terrain, the Japanese soldiers' firepower advantage was greatly diminished, making small units highly vulnerable to guerrilla ambushes. This was why, later in the war, the Japanese stopped using small detachments for patrols, opting for units of at least fifty men to fully utilize their grenade launchers and light machine guns—a force that could sometimes suppress two or three hundred guerrillas or the main force of a regular regiment. However, in early 1938, the Japanese were at the height of their arrogance, which gave Zhang Yun the chance to eliminate them at a minimal cost.

"Thump! Pop-pop!" Zhang Yun and his men fought as they retreated, gradually drawing the enemy into the ambush zone. Seeing the Japanese and puppet soldiers enter the clearing, Zhang Yun signaled Old Zhang and the others to stop. They turned, dropped to the ground, and began returning fire to suppress the enemy. A few shots rang out, and a Japanese soldier and a puppet soldier fell screaming. But before they could fire again, the enemy’s retaliation arrived. Bullets peppered the dirt and the trees around them, forcing Zhang Yun and his men to stay low and keep their heads down.

Suddenly, gunfire erupted from the left and right. Amidst the screams of the Japanese and puppet soldiers, the enemy's formation fell into chaos.

"Good! The squad leaders are in position! Comrades, fire!" Zhang Yun immediately raised his rifle and opened fire on the enemy.

The twenty or so Japanese and puppet soldiers were now under attack from three directions. With no cover in the clearing, they could only scramble to the ground to locate the source of the fire. Meanwhile, the squad leaders had found advantageous, elevated shooting positions, and the casualties among the enemy began to mount rapidly.

At the same time, the main gunner of the Japanese light machine gun was killed, and as the assistant gunner reached for the weapon, Dabao shot him dead as well. The scales of victory tipped decisively in Zhang Yun’s favor.

The spoils-of-war system began refreshing its data, but Zhang Yun didn't have time to look. He lined up the last living Japanese soldier in his sights and squeezed the trigger. With a single shot, the last of them was down.

He could have rushed forward to disarm the remaining puppet soldiers, but instead, Zhang Yun called out from a distance, "Listen up, you puppet soldiers! Drop your weapons and you'll live. If you keep fighting, don't blame us for what happens next!"

"Brothers of the Eighth Route Army, stop shooting! Stop! We surrender!" The puppet soldiers were indeed spineless; their commander had already raised his hands in the air.

"Check them one by one. Make sure the Japanese are dead. If they aren't, finish them off, or we won't accept your surrender." Zhang Yun was worried the wounded Japanese might play dead, so he wanted to force the puppet soldiers to do the dirty work.

"Grandfathers of the Eighth Route Army, don't shoot! We'll do it, we'll do it!"

In the end, the entire Japanese detachment was wiped out. The puppet soldiers who had been left to guard the wounded Japanese had tried to surrender, but the wounded soldiers pulled the pins on their grenades, taking the puppet soldiers with them. This taught Zhang Yun and his veterans a lesson: the Japanese soldiers of this era, deluded by the "Bushido" spirit, rarely surrendered; they would often take their captors with them or play dead to snipe at soldiers clearing the battlefield.

After securing the area, they recovered six intact Arisaka rifles, eleven Hanyang 88 rifles, one Nambu pistol, one Type 11 light machine gun, and twenty-six grenades. They also salvaged four damaged rifles. As for the ammunition, the men began scouring the bodies.

The soldiers were jubilant as they searched the enemy corpses for spoils. The system’s loot page had finished refreshing:

Loot:
Weapons: 3 Arisaka rifles, 6 Hanyang rifles, 0.5 Nambu pistols, 0.5 Type 11 light machine guns, 399 rounds of 6.5mm Arisaka ammunition (including 160 reduced-charge rounds), 542 rounds of 7.92mm ammunition, and 13 Type 97 grenades.
Currency: 323 French-backed currency, 70 silver dollars, 2.4 grams of gold.
Food: 42 jin of millet, 24 flatbreads, 38 biscuits, 12.5 rice balls.
Building Materials: None.
Metals: None.
Other: 11 military canteens, 12 ammunition belts, 2 damaged Hanyang rifles, 1 damaged Arisaka rifle, 12.5 torn military uniforms, 0.5 watches...

Zhang Yun didn't bother looking at the pens, pencils, whistles, and other miscellaneous items. Seeing the men still clearing the field and knowing the new recruits needed plenty of ammunition for target practice, he realized this was the perfect time to cash in.

With a thought, he converted all the damaged rifles and the half-machine gun into ammunition, adding them to the loot already listed, and deposited them directly into the ammunition belts and pouches on the unsearched enemy corpses.

"Platoon leader! Platoon leader! We've hit the jackpot! We've hit the jackpot!" Dabao shouted excitedly while clearing the field, and the other veterans were equally ecstatic. Ten men had wiped out thirteen Japanese and over a dozen puppet soldiers without a single casualty, capturing a massive haul of weapons and ammo. This solved their immediate equipment and supply shortages and bolstered their confidence, leaving them full of trust and admiration for Zhang Yun’s command.

"Haha, yes, we've hit the jackpot!" Zhang Yun laughed along with them, savoring the joy of victory. This was the first time he had truly commanded a unit in battle, and his first victory. In truth, he had been filled with anxiety before the fight, terrified that a mistake in his command would lead to the unnecessary deaths of these brave men.

Through this battle, he had built his first confidence as a commander. Although he could currently only lead a small squad, he knew he would improve step by step, eventually becoming a qualified military officer. Furthermore, he knew Commander Li Yunlong, and perhaps in the future, he could learn from his tactics.

Besides, if he could equip his troops with firepower that rivaled or—no, far exceeded—the enemy's, couldn't he simply "win with overwhelming firepower," using more cannons, more machine guns, and more bullets to defeat the Japanese?

The American soldiers were hastily trained, and even their "rich boys" were not as resilient as the Japanese with their "Bushido spirit." Yet, with their "M1 Garands," machine guns, artillery, tanks, and aircraft, they had made the Japanese wail in the Pacific islands. While it was difficult to provide his soldiers with tanks and planes for now, with this system, he believed that at least more machine guns and artillery were not far off.