War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1973 Attrition
Before the shelling had even ended, Wei Ran, Guo Guanggun'er, and Gaolianggan'er had already raised their guns and were pulling the triggers one by one through the broken firing ports of the Great Wall.

"How many bullets did you two retrieve?!" Gao Lianggan shouted at the top of his lungs.

"I brought back everything hanging from the waistband of that Japanese soldier!" Guo Guanggun shouted back.

"Save your pistol cartridges! Use your hand grenades sparingly too!"

The sorghum stalks shouted a warning, "This battle is going to be tough! Don't waste your bullets!"

It's more than just difficult to fight.
As Wei Ran muttered to himself, he aimed his gun at a Japanese soldier carrying a grenade launcher who was charging forward and pulled the trigger. From a distance of nearly 300 meters, he deliberately and accidentally hit the soldier in the crotch with the bullet.

The reason he chose such a tricky spot to fire was not only because of an unresolved personal grudge, but also because this position offered the least resistance to the already easily penetrated Yusaka rifle bullets, but also caused the greatest damage when passing through the body.

In other words, he was trying to eliminate as many enemies as possible with a single bullet.

For example, just now, when the Japanese soldier at the front carrying the grenade launcher clutched his groin and knelt down, another Japanese soldier a dozen meters behind him also hopped and fell to the ground.

Even if a high-speed camera were tracking this bullet, which had already begun to tumble, it would have shown that after piercing the bird's nest and rolling through the knee of the Japanese soldier behind it, it crashed into a hard rock and, like a skipping stone, burrowed into the belly of a third Japanese soldier before finally stopping.

It might seem insignificant whether this bullet kills or wounds one or two more Japanese soldiers, but at this moment, not only Wei Ran was doing it, but Gao Lianggan was doing it too. Not only was he doing it, but he was also reminding Wei Ran and Guo Guanggun of these "little tricks".

"Can we stop them?"

Guo Guanggun was clearly flustered when he asked the question, but fortunately, he didn't waste the bullet he had just fired.

"If we can't stop them, are you suggesting we send your crush, that girl, to the battlefield?" Gao Lianggan asked sharply.

"Can stop it!"

Guo Guanggun suddenly regained his confidence—no, it wasn't confidence, it was determination, it was unwavering resolve.

Whether it was confidence or determination, the soldiers on the city wall held their ground, braving the artillery fire and repeatedly pulling the triggers, trying their best to wear down the Japanese soldiers' strength as they made their way to reunite.

Finally, the Japanese artillery stopped again, and the Japanese soldiers rushed to the foot of the Great Wall.

Immediately afterwards, the soldiers on the city wall threw a volley of grenades in unison. This time, no one even gave the order—their frontline commander had already been killed in the artillery barrage.

"Men, young and old! Kill the Japanese devils!"

The first sorghum stalk to get up shouted as it rushed toward the breach blasted open by the Japanese artillery not far away.

"Kill the devil!"

Among the many responses, the soldiers on the city wall closer to the breach, and those inside the city wall wielding broadswords, red-tasseled spears, and rifles, once again clashed violently with the charging Japanese soldiers.

"Snapped!"

Wei Ran and Gao Lianggan, relying on their height and strength, almost simultaneously used their Type 38 rifles with bayonets to smash the rifles in the hands of the two Japanese soldiers opposite them.

"puff!"

Before the Japanese soldier in the middle could thrust his bayonet at Wei Ran, Guo Guanggun jabbed his rifle forward and pierced the soldier's heart. As the soldier fell backward, Guo Guanggun pulled back his rifle and smashed the butt of the rifle into the temple of the Japanese soldier who was battling with the sorghum stalk.

"puff!"

Using the recoil from the impact, Guo Guanggun thrust sideways, plunging his bayonet into the ribs of the Japanese soldier that Wei Ran was pinning down.

All of this happened in a flash, though it was a slow process. Under his harassment, Gaolianggan was the first to withdraw his gun and thrust it forward again, piercing the Japanese soldier's chest.

Following closely behind, Wei Ran also rushed forward, kicked the chest of the Japanese soldier opposite him, and used the corpse to knock down the Japanese soldier who was climbing up behind him.

"boom!"

The three men simultaneously pulled the triggers and fired bullets from their guns at the Japanese soldiers who were still climbing the slope. At the same time, several soldiers also threw several grenades down the collapsed city wall.

Amidst the deafening explosions, more and more soldiers charged towards the Japanese soldiers, pushing them back once again.

Meanwhile, the few machine guns on the city wall were firing intermittently to suppress the enemy, as were they being suppressed by the Japanese grenade launchers on the other side.

Taking advantage of his superior position to once again defeat a group of Japanese soldiers on the other side, Wei Ran hurriedly raised his camera and took a picture.

"You're begging for food and you still haven't forgotten to bring your monkey with you?!"

Gao Lianggan shouted at Wei Ran, then raised his gun and smashed away the Japanese bayonet that was thrust at him.

"boom!"

Guo Guanggun pulled the trigger and fired a bullet from his gun at the Japanese soldier directly opposite Wei Ran.

"boom!"

A little later, Wei Ran, with the camera in his mouth, also managed to shoot Guo Guanggun in the eye socket before the other Japanese soldier could plunge his bayonet into Guo's body.

"Oh!"

Seeing that the threat was gone, Gaolianggan'er became more aggressive, kicking the Japanese soldier opposite him right in the face.

At this point, they, along with the surrounding soldiers, had finally broken through the collapsed city wall.

"kill!"

Amidst resolute roars, Wei Ran and his two companions, along with the soldiers around them, some armed with guns and others with broadswords, became completely entangled with the Japanese soldiers.

Behind them were unarmed soldiers and even civilians who, while the soldiers in front were fighting, picked up the broadswords left behind by their fallen comrades or the rifles of the Japanese soldiers, and then charged towards the Japanese without hesitation.

Some of them also took advantage of this time to either carry the wounded or strip the Japanese soldiers of their ammunition, and hurried back to the other side of the city wall.

"Don't run far! Fight them right here at the foot of the Great Wall!"

The sorghum stalks seemed to be howling, reminding the soldiers around them that they really couldn't run too far—if they ran too far, they would be easily bombed by the Japanese, and it would also be difficult to pick up weapons and equipment.

However, the price of controlling the battle line was huge casualties. In addition to Wei Ran being a monster, the three of them were also able to gain the upper hand in bayonet fighting because Gao Lianggan was tall and strong, and Guo Guanggun was also sturdy.

But it wasn't so easy for the other soldiers. They often needed groups of five or even six to hold off a three-man Japanese squad.

Fortunately, yet cruelly, soldiers and even civilians kept rushing up to fill the gaps in the Great Wall.

As Wei Ran pierced through the Japanese soldiers again and again, his breathing became increasingly heavy. This close-quarters battle lasted exceptionally long, so long that it reminded him of the exhaustion he felt during the close-quarters battles when defending Shipai.

Finally, accompanied by whistles and shouts, the hand-to-hand combat came to a temporary end, and the Japanese soldiers finally began to retreat.

"Retreat! Retreat quickly! Retreat quickly!" Gao Lianggan, Wei Ran, and Guo Guanggun, who reacted a little later, started shouting, but the soldiers around them were busy picking up the vital weapons and ammunition.

"boom!"

Just then, a Japanese grenade landed around the breach in the city wall.

"Run! Run! Run!"

Amidst the chaotic roars, the warriors and civilians who had survived the fighting surged toward the breach in the city wall behind them.

However, before everyone could run back to the other side of the city wall, even more cannonballs came crashing down!

"Get down! Everyone get down!"

Amidst the deafening roar of artillery fire, Wei Ran and Gao Lianggan screamed in vain. At the same time, they dragged the seemingly terrified Guo Guanggun into a shallow shell crater, frantically pulling over the surrounding Japanese corpses and even seriously wounded soldiers to cover themselves.

"You two lie still and don't move!"

As Wei Ran spoke, he crawled on his stomach toward a distant spot where there was an injured person!

"boom!"

With the shelling, the flying bricks and stones caused damage no less than that of hand grenades. At this moment, Wei Ran could only selfishly rejoice that the shells hit the city wall and were kept at a relatively safe distance from him.

He quickly scrambled up to a soldier whose thigh had been pierced by a bayonet, like a gecko climbing a wall. He first removed the bayonet from his rifle, then dragged the soldier into a shell crater where corpses lay. "Run! Run!"

The soldier with a bayonet stuck in his thigh said anxiously, "Don't worry about me."

"Cut the nonsense!"

As Wei Ran spoke, he untied the leg wrappings from the corpse of a Japanese soldier. "What's your name? Where are you from?!"

"Wang Bingchu, yes, yes!"

With a scream, Wei Ran not only failed to pull out the bayonet from the other's leg, but instead stabbed him all the way to the bottom.

This will help you bleed less!

Wei Ran hurriedly explained, and at the same time, braving the gunfire, he used the leg wrappings he had just taken off to tightly bind the bayonet, which could temporarily stop the bleeding, to the opponent's thigh in a cross-shaped manner.

"Thank you," Wang Bingchu replied, sweating profusely.

"Where are you from?" Wei Ran asked again.

"Jiji County"

Wang Bingchu answered the question he hadn't had a chance to answer earlier with some nervousness, thinking that Wei Ran was going to do something unexpected again.

Fortunately, this time Wei Ran simply lay on his side in the shell crater amidst the rumbling of artillery fire, raised his camera, and pressed the shutter button on him.

"boom!"

Just as he put away his camera, a shell landed between the crater where the two of them were and the crater where Gaolianggan and Guo Guanggun were hiding.

"Get down!"

Wei Ran pressed Wang Bingchu to the bottom of the pit, and amidst the clattering mud and rubble, he frantically pulled out one Japanese soldier's corpse and even the corpses of his comrades after another to cover the two of them.

Finally, he picked up a British pot-lid helmet and put it on Wang Bingchu's head. He then tore off two Japanese helmets, putting one on his head and the other to cover the muzzle of the Mauser pistol that was protruding through the gaps between the corpses.

"My father is Old Wang, the pig castrator, horse gelder, and hoof trimmer in the north of the city, from Ji County!"

Wang Bingchu, trapped under the corpse, said in despair, "If I die here, when you go back, tell my father that I...I killed four Japanese soldiers."

"You can't die!"

Before Wei Ran could finish speaking, another shell landed not far from them, and the shockwave, carrying a large amount of debris, also blew off the helmets that were attached to the muzzles of their guns.

Wei Ran could no longer hear what Wang Bingchu said next, because more and more shells were flying over their heads and hitting the city wall. The deafening explosions were enough to drown out their loud conversation.

At this moment, he had no time to care whether Gaolianggan and Guo Guanggun in the shell crater next to him were dead or alive. All he and Wang Bingchu could do was to hold tightly to the belts of the Japanese corpses pressing down on them, letting the stench of blood pour down, and waiting agonizingly for the shelling to end.

After a long while, the sound of artillery fire gradually subsided, and the shouts of the Japanese soldiers once again reached our ears.

"Lie still and don't move," Wei Ran said, already poking the camera lens back through the gap between the corpses.

Soon, grenades were thrown down from the city wall. To his slight relief, perhaps the soldiers on the city wall had noticed them, as the grenades mostly avoided the two craters.

As he repeatedly pressed the shutter at a particular angle towards the crumbling city wall, the Japanese soldiers charged forward once again. They either ran across the edge of the shell crater or jumped into the crater and lay down to try to avoid the grenades being thrown down, but were stabbed through the heart by the bayonet that Wei Ran had removed from the muzzle of his gun.

Finally, just as Wei Ran captured another shot of the Japanese soldiers' backs, shouts of battle once again echoed from the breach in the city wall.

Amidst the shouts of battle, Wei Ran, along with Gao Lianggan and Guo Guanggun from another shell crater nearby, threw the grenades they were holding outside the crater one after the other.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

In the sudden explosion, the three men sat up one after the other, raised their Mauser pistols, and fired a series of short bursts in the direction the Japanese soldiers were coming from.

This sudden "ambush" caught the Japanese off guard. The soldiers who rushed up from the gap in the city wall took advantage of this small advantage and pushed the charging Japanese back once again.

However, this adventure came at a price—Guo Guanggun was shot.

"Take it back quickly!"

Wei Ran didn't even bother to reload the Mauser pistol before hoisting Wang Bingchu onto his back. At the same time, Gao Lianggan carried Guo Guanggun, whose right arm had been pierced by a bullet and who seemed to have been stabbed in the thigh, and they ran towards the other side of the Great Wall.

After handing the two men over to the two stretcher teams, Wei Ran and Gao Lianggan ran back to the center of the melee.

The only difference between them was that the former raised his camera again, while the latter was busy loading bullets into his Mauser pistol.

"Can't you wait until you're not busy to take the picture?!" Gao Lianggan's tone was full of impatience.

"I'm afraid it won't be time!"

As Wei Ran spoke, he stuffed the camera back into his pocket, hurriedly replaced the two Mauser pistols with new 20-round magazines, then bent down to pick up a Golden Hook Rifle with a bayonet, and then picked up Gao Lianggan'er with a broadsword and charged into the Japanese army once again.

"kill!"

When Gao Lianggan, exhausted, swung his sword and slashed a Japanese soldier, Wei Ran immediately raised his gun and thrust forward to finish him off.

At the same time, two other Japanese soldiers stabbed them with their bayonets.

"Bang! Bang!"

Gao Lianggan drew his gun and fired a bullet at the Japanese soldier who was stabbing Wei Ran. He then immediately shifted the gun's muzzle, aimed at the Japanese soldier who was stabbing him, and pulled the trigger again.

When the two gunshots reached his ears, Wei Ran, who had already withdrawn his gun, felt a chill in his heart. Gao Lianggan had indeed killed the Japanese soldier on the other side, but the bayonet on the Type 38 rifle in his hand had still pierced into Gao Lianggan's shoulder!
"Sorghum stalks!"

"fine!"

Gao Lianggan kicked the Japanese soldier's corpse aside and pulled out the bayonet from his shoulder.

"Get behind me!"

As Wei Ran spoke, he stepped in front of the other person, "Cover me with your gun! My Mauser pistol is behind me!"

Be careful!

As Gao Lianggan spoke, he tucked the Mauser pistol he was holding in his uninjured hand behind Wei Ran's back. Then he took the Mauser pistol from his injured shoulder, which he could barely hold, and placed the magazine horizontally on Wei Ran's shoulder.

Amidst the occasional sharp gunshots ringing out at close range, Wei Ran dared not rush too far forward. The three-person team had now become a two-person team, and Gao Lianggan had an injured hand, so he had to be extremely cautious.

Finally, when Gao Lianggan fired again, killing two of the three Japanese soldiers, and then stabbed the remaining soldier in the chest, the hand-to-hand combat came to a temporary halt once more. Both sides withdrew to their respective positions before the artillery fire began.

Let me bandage you up.

Wei Ran climbed back up the city wall and hid himself. He quickly checked Gao Lianggan's wound. The knife had pierced through the muscle on the outside of Gao Lianggan's shoulder. The wound wasn't serious, but it would definitely affect his combat ability, especially in close combat.

Moreover, all he can do now is temporarily tie it up to stop the bleeding.

However, before he could tie a knot in the leg bandage that served as gauze, he heard a whistle approaching at lightning speed.

"It's over."

Wei Ran only had time to knock the sorghum stalks to the ground before he heard an explosion that was almost right next to his ear.

"Hold"

Wei Ran, who felt as if he had been hit over the head, had just started to curse when everything went black before his eyes. He was completely deprived of all his senses and plunged into a darkness that made him uneasy.

It felt like only a second had passed before he groggily woke up again.

But he only had time to glance at the wounded people sitting or lying around him before his vision went black again and he lost consciousness.

September 18th!
September 18th!
September 18th!
September 18th!
My new book, "Digging 2," was released on September 18th. Please add it to your collection, vote for it, and give it a reward!