At 3 AM, most people would easily start falling asleep. However, Zhang Xiaoman did not think the enemy would be sleeping at this time. It was easier to breach the enemy’s machine gun positions under the cover of night.
Zhang Xiaoman quietly led the Razor Sharp Company forward. They could not rashly approach Shichuan Village because there were sure to be machine guns waiting in the windows.
The effective range of heavy machine guns tended to usually be between 1,000 and 2,000 meters. Some machine guns could even reach a range of 3,000 meters or 5,000 meters. However, once the range exceeded 500 meters, most shots from a machine gun would lose accuracy. Whether or not they could hit someone purely depended on luck.
Meanwhile, Zhang Xiaoman had set up some mortar positions 2.9 kilometers away from Shichuan Village, the maximum range at which they were effective. He was planning to destroy the buildings on the periphery of the village first.
They did not need the mortars to inflict a lot of casualties. All they needed was for them to bring down the buildings and turn them into rubble. That would create a natural defensive barrier for Fortress 178’s soldiers to get close to Shichuan Village.
Ren Xiaosu looked at Jiao Xiaochen skillfully adjusting the mortar’s angle. He suddenly asked, “Where’s the most terrifying part of urban combat?”
Zhang Xiaoman thought for a moment and said, “Every room with a window could be turned into an enemy position.”
“Then why don’t we just demolish all the buildings and flatten them?” Ren Xiaosu said.
Zhang Xiaoman chuckled. “You make it sound so easy, but how are we going to achieve that? How many mortar rounds would we have to waste for that?”
Ren Xiaosu stopped talking. He was hesitating about whether he should use the steam locomotive to flatten the buildings. It would definitely be painful for him, but he felt that such a method would be very useful. After all, the old buildings couldn’t withstand the impact of the steam locomotive.
What was impossible for Zhang Xiaoman and the others was only one of the many methods that Ren Xiaosu could choose to use.
But after some thought, Ren Xiaosu realized this was not his only way to launch an attack on the enemy. It would be better to choose a more conservative approach. If the steam locomotive crashed into the buildings, he might just vomit blood again from the pain.
At this moment, Jiao Xiaochen said at the side, “Captain, all preparations are complete!”
Zhang Xiaoman glanced at Second Company before saying softly, “Other than Jiao Xiaochen and those who are operating the mortars to provide cover, the rest are to advance with me. Jiao Xiaochen, keep this in mind: Don’t allow the enemies in Shichuan Village to reinforce their defenses on the periphery. Attack them with everything you’ve got!”
Right now, Zhang Xiaoman was most worried about the required time for them to charge three kilometers. In that duration, the enemy was fully capable of reorganizing themselves to stop them from entering the town. Therefore, the accuracy of Jiao Xiaochen’s mortar bombardment would become crucial in their charge.
Jiao Xiaochen was put in a difficult spot. “Captain, it’s too far. Furthermore, when we fire our mortars, the enemies will also fire back at us. We’ll need to keep changing our positions!”
“I don’t care about that.” Zhang Xiaoman said, “Our lives are in your hands!”
Then Zhang Xiaoman led his men forward. Ren Xiaosu followed close behind him while Jiao Xiaochen was left with a problem at the rear.
The firing of mortars whooshed from the back. The Razor Sharp Company had deployed six mortars, and they were firing at Shichuan Village all at once.
After firing, Jiao Xiaochen shouted anxiously, “Run! Switch locations and fire again!”
The soldiers from Razor Sharp Company adroitly carried the mortars and ran off, in case the bombardment from Shichuan Village turned them into live targets.
Ren Xiaosu wondered, “Won’t they have to readjust the angle and range when they get to another spot? That’ll delay the covering fire, won’t it?”
“No.” Zhang Xiaoman said, “That’s Jiao Xiaochen’s expertise. No one in the entire army is better at it than him.”
Ordinarily, mortars would never be used in this way, because every time they shifted positions, it would take an extremely long time to recalibrate the trajectory of fire. However, Jiao Xiaochen’s expertise enabled the Razor Sharp Company to become this mobile. Many of the other fighting forces had tried to recruit Jiao Xiaochen into their ranks, but they were all stopped by Zhou Yinglong.
As they were talking, the second wave of mortar rounds hit Shichuan Village. Ren Xiaosu watched as the buildings on the periphery of Shichuan Village collapsed into rubble, forming cover for the Razor Sharp Company.
Meanwhile, the artillery in the town started firing at the suspected area where the mortar fire was coming from. But by then, Jiao Xiaochen had already fled with his men.
This was a great strategy, indeed.
Ren Xiaosu asked, “Jiao Xiaochen is an expert. How did he master it?”
“If you’re afraid to die, you can train hard,” Zhang Xiaoman panted.
As soon as the enemies in Shichuan Village saw the mortar bombardment, their soldiers immediately moved towards the periphery and tried to re-establish a defensive line.
But the platoon Jiao Xiaochen was leading had set up another mortar shelling. The third wave of artillery fire happened to be right in the path of the enemy’s movements and intercepted them!
Back when the soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company were eating and bragging to each other, someone said how great it would be if all of them could become supernatural beings. Jiao Xiaochen said at that time that if he were a supernatural being, he would definitely find it very easy to lug the mortar around.
Zhang Xiaoman, Jiao Xiaochen, and the others did not have any superpowers. They had become an integral part of the Razor Sharp Company in the Forward Strike Battalion purely through their hard work.
Zhang Xiaoman and the others were approaching the rubble. He looked up ahead at Shichuan Village and saw a small, two-story building still standing not too far away. However, he could not make out if there were any enemies behind the dark window.
If there were a heavy machine gun nest set up inside that building, many of the Razor Sharp Company’s soldiers would probably have to die here.
But were they going to stop fighting just because people would die? Taking casualties in war was unavoidable!
He lowered his voice and whisper-shouted, “Those who aren’t afraid to die, attack with me. Watch out for that window on the second floor—”
Before he could finish speaking, he suddenly saw Ren Xiaosu hold a grenade in his hand and extend it into a shadow.
A second later, an explosion burst from that second-floor window that he was worrying about a moment ago. With a loud boom, a huge cloud of dust was blown out of the window while cries of the Zong Consortium’s soldiers came from the inside!
Zhang Xiaoman was stunned. “What kind of fucking power was that?!”
But Ren Xiaosu did not stop moving. He ran towards the rubble as he said, “If you think there’s a spot where it might be dangerous, tell me. As long as it’s within a kilometer, let me handle it.”
Zhang Xiaoman was shocked. Urban warfare was at its most dangerous when it was too difficult to deal with enemies hiding behind windows during a close-quarters fight.
But with Ren Xiaosu’s power, it was as though he was a born nemesis for enemies in urban combat. No matter how well one hid, as long as enemies were suspected to be in a building, they would be greeted with a dropped grenade.
In the past, the Razor Sharp Company would always have a hard time when they had to fight in urban settings, because there wasn’t really a good strategy for such battles. All they could rely on was Jiao Xiaochen’s long-range cover fire to suppress the enemies for them.
But things were different now. They no longer had to be afraid of anything!
Zhang Xiaoman suddenly asked, “Wait, was it because of you that we didn’t find any grenades at Mt. Guan and Mt. Dingyuan?”
Ren Xiaosu was about to explain when Zhang Xiaoman said, “Don’t explain! In the future, you don’t have to hide the grenades we seize anymore. They’re all yours to keep!”
