The soldiers of the Qing Consortium were all headstrong. Even though a gun was pointed at the spy’s head, he decisively destroyed the communications device without any fear of death. Ren Xiaosu said, “Don’t worry! Are you Luo Lan’s guy?”
“Who is Luo Lan?” The spy froze. “Sir, what’re you talking about? Why can’t I understand anything you’re saying?”
Ren Xiaosu did not reveal his name. “Pull up your pants first.”
“Oh, right.” The spy hurriedly pulled up his pants. He had not even managed to wipe his butt before getting dragged out of the outhouse.
“How many others from the Qing Consortium are here on Mt. Dingyuan?” Ren Xiaosu asked.
The spy said with a wry smile, “Sir, I really don’t understand what you’re getting at. If you’re planning on attacking Mt. Dingyuan, I can show you the way.”
Ren Xiaosu lifted the spy over the edge of the cliff. “If you don’t tell me the truth, I’ll drop you.”
When the spy realized Ren Xiaosu could lift him up with one hand, he closed his eyes while hanging over the edge and muttered, “Brothers, I’ll be leaving first then.”
Ren Xiaosu was so angry he almost laughed. He put the spy back on the ground. “That’ll do. I’m actually a friend of Fatty Luo’s. I’ll let you go now. This place isn’t safe anymore. But don’t take the main path, or you’re gonna die.”
At this moment, the spy was still unwilling to come clean. Seeing that Ren Xiaosu had loosened his grip, the spy turned and ran away. But after running for 50 meters without being fired at, he turned back around to Ren Xiaosu and said, “Blessed be the good man!”
After saying that, he continued running into the shadows. But even then, he still did not reveal his identity.
But when Ren Xiaosu heard the words “blessed be the good man,” he somehow felt that it was not just a simple thank you.
Ren Xiaosu shook his head for a bit before walking over to the bandit lair. Since he had already guessed the spy was from the Qing Consortium, he would definitely not kill him. After all, he might still have to depend on Luo Lan and Qing Zhen to help him find his family after taking his revenge.
Moreover, he thought of Luo Lan as his friend.
At this moment, the entire bandit lair was in chaos. Although Ren Xiaosu did not venture into the battlefield, he felt like the bullets were hitting him.
Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu felt an enormous pain when a bullet hit the shadow clone in its forehead. Getting hit by a bullet there hurt much more than getting hit at other parts of his shadow clone’s body. For some reason, Ren Xiaosu got a feeling that he couldn’t allow the shadow clone to be hit between the brows. That could spell big trouble for him!
Most supernatural beings were still in the midst of figuring out their powers, and Ren Xiaosu was no exception.
As they learned more, everyone would gradually discover their powers had some weaknesses rather than being omnipotent.
Ren Xiaosu took off a pack of TNT from his back and lit the fuse. Then he used the Shadow Door and threw the TNT outside a row of barracks. At this moment, someone was shooting at his shadow clone through a window in the barracks.
With a loud explosion, the entire row of brick barracks collapsed and buried the bandits alive.
However, there were a total of seven rows of these barracks. But Ren Xiaosu was not expecting the battle would end by just throwing one block of TNT at the enemy. This was just the signal he was sending to the Razor Sharp Company at the foot of the mountain!
As soon as the TNT went off, the Razor Sharp Company began to bombard the pre-identified heavy machine gun positions with their mortars from the foot of the mountain!
Zhang Xiaoman was leaning against a trench wall and eating hardtack from his field rations. As his mouth was a little dry, he was about to drink some water when the TNT exploded on the mountain.
Zhang Xiaoman yelled at Jiao Xiaochen, “Fire the mortars! Quickly, fire the mortars!”
Hardtack crumbs sprayed out of his mouth onto Jiao Xiaochen’s face, but Jiao Xiaochen couldn’t care less and just wiped his face as he shouted the command, “Ready the mortar barrage. Three, two, one! Fire!”
Thump, thump, thump. The mortar rounds flew towards the mountain trailing smoke behind them. After that, their temporary positions were entirely filled with the smell of gunpowder.
Zhang Xiaoman inspected his weapon again and said, “2nd, 3rd, and 4th Platoons will charge forward with me. Radiomen, contact Battalion HQ. 1st Platoon will stay here and continue providing artillery support! Fire all the mortar rounds we collected!”
Now was not the time for them to worry about how much each mortar shell cost. The fiercer the artillery support, the fewer casualties they would suffer. Moreover, they would resupply ammunition once they took Mt. Dingyuan.
Other soldiers often carefully rationed the ammunition they could use in battle, but the Razor Sharp Company was different. They were the types who would spend money as they wished and use whatever ammunition they had. If they ran out, they would simply ask for more from Zhou Yinglong without shame. If he refused to give them any, they would throw tantrums back at the battalion headquarters. These people were capable of doing whatever it took to get more supplies.
The Razor Sharp Company’s objective was to overcome difficulties, not be frugal while fighting a war.
So once the battle began, Zhang Xiaoman assigned a platoon to fire the shells they had collected from Mt. Guan like it didn’t cost a thing.
But when they proceeded up the mountain, Zhang Xiaoman realized the opposing forces he was initially expecting seemed to have disappeared entirely.
After the mountain path was sealed, this route should have been heavily guarded by the bandits. However, there was no trace of anyone as they made their way up the mountain.
When they passed by the first heavy machine gun position, Zhang Xiaoman was relieved to see that it was exactly where it was marked on the map. This meant their plan was proceeding smoothly.
At this moment, intense gunfire suddenly came from the mountain again. Zhang Xiaoman had his men go prone and crawl all the way into a ditch on the side.
But when they got into the ditch, everyone realized the gunshots were not aimed at them.
“What the fuck’s happening on the mountaintop?” Zhang Xiaoman was bewildered. “Everyone, charge forward with me! Ren Xiaosu’s in grave danger!”
But as they charged towards the final machine gun position, Zhang Xiaoman felt from afar that something was wrong. The bandits had switched the location of this heavy machine gun position. It was not positioned on the right side of the path like it was labeled on the map, but on the left!
“This MG wasn’t destroyed in our mortar attack,” Zhang Xiaoman said, finding it a little pitiful. “2nd Platoon Commander Wang Boren, charge your platoon forward and take out that MG!”
How could things always be smooth sailing in war? It would, of course, be wonderful if they could always take out all of their enemy’s emplacements. But if the mortars could not take them all out, they would have to get it done by sacrificing some lives!
At this moment, people were bound to die. But still, they would die for a worthy cause!
The 2nd Platoon’s commander, Wang Boren, looked up at the machine gun position and estimated it to be about 300 meters away from them. He said firmly to the soldiers of 2nd Platoon, “Ma Dewei, we’ll provide cover fire for you to gain another 220 meters. Can you throw a grenade at that MG position?”
The grenadier, Ma Dewei, hesitated for a moment. “That’s gonna be difficult. It’s definitely in range, but I’m afraid that I won’t be accurate.”
“You have to make it happen no matter what. You only have three grenades to pull it off. If you don’t throw it accurately, all of us will have to die with you.” Wang Boren roared, “Charge!”
Then everyone in 2nd Platoon got out of the ditch and charged up the mountain. Meanwhile, Zhang Xiaoman and the others had already set up their heavy machine guns and got ready to provide covering fire for 2nd Platoon.
But at this moment, an explosion boomed at the final heavy machine gun position. All of the sandbags and the people inside were blown into the air!
Zhang Xiaoman’s eyes lit up. “That’s TNT! It’s Ren Xiaosu! He blew up the HMG position for us. Brothers, charge!”
