War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1988 The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood

On the hilltop north of Nankou Village, amidst the thunderous artillery fire, Wei Ran, along with the soldiers around him, charged towards the Japanese soldiers who were waiting for the shelling to end, under the cover of machine gun fire.

"kill!"

With a roar that defied life and death, Wei Ran used his superior position to leap towards a Japanese soldier hiding behind a rock and kicked him squarely in the face.

Seeing that the Japanese soldier's neck had been broken, Wei Ran gripped the anti-Japanese broadsword in both hands and thrust the tip downwards into the back of another Japanese soldier.

"puff!"

As the blade of the broadsword pierced through the Japanese soldier's chest, Wei Ran fell onto him, successfully placing himself in a slightly disheveled and awkward position next to another Japanese soldier who was still hiding.

The Japanese soldier next to him clearly hadn't expected the garrison to charge at this moment, so much so that a moment of bewilderment, astonishment, and then fear appeared on his pointed-eared, monkey-faced face.

"Crack!"

Wei Ran didn't care about that. He didn't even get up from the Japanese soldier he was pinning down. Instead, he kicked the Japanese soldier in the stomach.

With that kick, the Japanese soldier's eyes nearly popped out, and a spurt of dark red blood gushed from his mouth.

Just as Wei Ran put away his broadsword and picked up the Japanese soldier's Type 38 rifle, more and more garrison troops rushed into the Japanese ranks.

Just as the commander had predicted, as more and more defenders mingled with the Japanese soldiers who were preparing to launch a full-scale assault, the Japanese artillery stopped firing, and the machine guns that were supposed to provide cover during the Japanese charge also seemed to have stopped firing.

But before he raised his Type 38 rifle to fire, he clearly saw the commander who had led them in charging through artillery fire fall unwillingly to the Japanese bayonets.

"boom!"

Wei Ran pulled the trigger at one of the Japanese soldiers who was right in front of him, and before the other Japanese soldier could get up and stand up, he plunged his bayonet into the soldier's eye socket.

As he drew his rifle, he spun it around and swept it horizontally. Just as the bayonet was blocked by the neck of another Japanese soldier who had just gotten up, Wei Ran thrust forward again, stabbing his opponent.

Given his ample physical strength, the relatively small number of enemies, and his superior height and battlefield experience compared to the Japanese soldiers, Wei Ran undoubtedly held a significant advantage in close combat.

Even if he can't take on ten opponents at once, he can still hold off three or even five.

Especially with this kind of high-ground counterattack, he has a good chance of winning even without a partner around him.

However, as his strength waned and more and more Japanese soldiers stood up and surrounded him, he gradually became flustered and eventually ran out of energy.

"Da da da--"

Just as he was about to be trapped and had to draw his gun, Dong Weixin emerged from the rock behind him, holding a Mauser pistol in one hand, and fired a burst of bullets at the Japanese soldiers around Wei Ran.

"I thought you were dead!" Dong Weixin and Wei Ran said in unison.

"Just being alive is enough!"

The two men uttered the same words again. Wei Ran, taking advantage of the burst of fire he had just received, thrust his rifle forward and pierced the chest of a Japanese soldier who had been shot in the arm with his bayonet. He then released the Type 38 rifle, which was already empty of bullets, grabbed a Japanese soldier who had been shot in the thigh, twisted his neck, and at the same time kicked another Japanese soldier who had only been shot in the shoulder in the groin.

The crisis was averted in a flash. Dong Weixin jumped down, picked up a Type 38 rifle, fixed the bullet, and tossed it to Wei Ran, shouting, "I found Chef Feng and Zhao Shouxian!"

"Where are they?!"

Before Wei Ran could finish speaking, he had already raised the rifle that the other side had thrown at him and pulled the trigger at the Japanese soldier closest to them.

"boom!"

Dong Weixin also grabbed a Type 38 rifle, loaded it with a bullet, and pulled the trigger at another Japanese soldier.

"They're with the stretcher bearers!"

As Dong Weixin reloaded his rifle, Wei Ran had already rushed to the lone Japanese soldier, smoothly parrying his thrust and then kicking him in the chest.

"Where is Wang Bingchu? Where is Wang Bingchu?!"

Wei Ran didn't shout and ask until the Japanese soldier whose sternum had been kicked and who had rolled and fallen down.

"They're also in the stretcher team!"

As Dong Weixin spoke, he smashed the bayonet that was thrust at him with the muzzle of his gun, and pulled the trigger when he pointed the gun at the chest of the Japanese soldier opposite him.

"boom!"

After the crisp gunshot, Wei Ran immediately moved in and smashed out one of the Japanese soldiers' eyeballs with the butt of his rifle.

"Wang Bingchu and Chef Feng are carrying the stretcher together!"

Dong Weixin shouted, "Let's fight first! If they're injured but not dead, maybe we can have them carry them back and have Shouxian help bandage them."

"Then fight!"

As Wei Ran spoke, he pulled the trigger once again.

In this desperate battle where lives were at stake, the Japanese soldiers deliberately retreated, and the defending troops had no choice but to pursue them.

This was a fight to the death, and everyone had only one goal: to kill as many Japanese soldiers as possible before they died.

"boom!"

When the battlefield of hand-to-hand combat was far enough from the defending troops' trench lines that shrapnel was unlikely to harm the Japanese soldiers, their artillery also began to roar.

Just then, the Japanese machine guns began firing, and some of the Japanese soldiers who were still fighting with the defenders were also caught in the crossfire.

"Get down!"

Wei Ran grabbed Dong Weixin and pulled him down, causing him to fall into a pile of Japanese soldiers' corpses.

"Clap clap clap!"

Almost simultaneously, a rock not far behind them shattered under the impact of machine gun fire, also sending up a large amount of stone chips with the same force as the bullets.

"Do you see that rock on the left?"

Wei Ran pressed hard on Dong Weixin's back, and shouted loudly into his ear, "To your left, next to that rock where those two Japanese soldiers are lying!"

"I saw it!"

Dong Weixin suppressed his panic and quickly said that he was just the young master of a bandit family, but not a veteran.

He was merely a student soldier who had survived the battle of Nanyuan, and the machine gun that had nearly killed him had indeed frightened him.

"Run over there on my command!" Before Wei Ran finished speaking, he pressed down on the back of Dong Weixin's head again, making him lie down behind the Japanese corpse.

Less than a second apart, the Japanese machine gun grazed their heads and slammed into the slope behind them.

"Run!" Wei Ran shouted abruptly.

Before he could even react, Dong Weixin's body jumped up before his mind could react and rushed toward the rock that was big enough for him to hide in.

At the same time, Wei Ran, who had already gotten his hands on a Type 38 rifle, quickly got up and smoothly completed raising the gun, aiming, and pulling the trigger.

"boom!"

Amidst the gunfire completely drowned out by the artillery fire, a Japanese machine gunner was shot in the face and fell backward to the ground.

At the same time, Wei Ran also seemed to have been shot, and with great acting skills, he rolled and fell towards another pile of corpses. He even secretly rolled over a few times along the way, so that he finally stopped behind another rock.

"Brother Wei! Are you alright?!" Dong Weixin shouted anxiously.

"fine!"

Wei Ran, leaning against the rock, shouted back, "You stay hidden and don't show your face! Lie down! Find some corpses to cover yourself!"

“I know! What about you!” Dong Weixin shouted.

"I'm hidden too!"

As Wei Ran responded, he once again took out his gun-style camera and pointed the lens at the position behind them that was being shelled.

In this overwhelming artillery barrage, the hastily dug trench line offered almost no effective protection.

As he repeatedly pulled the trigger, the trench line gradually became flat ground under the chisels of the artillery. The wounded soldiers who had stayed behind to reinforce the trench also stopped digging under the despairing shelling.

Just as the shelling ended, Wei Ran, who was holding a gun-style camera and about to turn around, froze.

Right there on the trench line that had been almost completely flattened by the bombs, those corpses actually "came to life".

Wei Ran quickly glanced back and then raised his gun-style camera again, aiming it at the trench that could no longer be called a trench.

At this point, the corpses were dragged together by the survivors and piled up together.

A moment later, a machine gun was placed in the pile of corpses that were being used as cover.

"Ta-ta-ta! Ta-ta-ta! Ta-ta-ta!"

The machine guns inside the pile of corpses began to roar, while outside the pile, some seriously wounded but not yet dead dragged their blood-stained trails across the stones and mud as they slowly crawled toward the pile of corpses that was emitting flames.

Under Wei Ran's blank stare, the wounded, after crawling to the edge of the pile of corpses, either leaned against it, lay on it, or used their last bit of strength to reach out to the wounded crawling behind them—they actually intended to use their bodies to provide defense for that lone machine gun!

Coming to his senses, Wei Ran hurriedly pulled the trigger of his gun-style camera repeatedly at the soldiers who were building the Great Wall with their blood and flesh.

He photographed the wounded soldiers crawling with their hands clasped together for support, the wounded soldiers who had been shot and were bursting into a mist of blood, and the wounded soldier standing straight in front of this flesh-and-blood machine gun position, his chest out, while holding out his pipe, trying to take a puff of smoke from the flame on the corpse next to him.

Naturally, he also photographed the machine gun that was constantly firing, and the gunners, the gunner and the assistant gunner, who were being desperately protected by the wounded and the dead.

When the film in the camera ran out again, Wei Ran reluctantly put away the pistol camera, took one last look at the machine gun position, then grabbed the Type 38 rifle beside him, turned around, leaned out of the cover, and pulled the trigger at a Japanese soldier who had rushed up to him.

"boom!"

After the gunfire subsided, Wei Ran and Dong Weixin, who had run over, once again engaged in a desperate battle with the Japanese soldiers. Behind them, new defenders charged down.

This time, not only Wei Ran, but also the experienced veterans around him were deliberately controlling the battlefield, while also using the fighting to retreat towards their own positions.

The recent artillery barrage had made them realize that they couldn't suppress the Japanese too much; they had to make the bayonet fighting take place right next to the trench behind them, which could barely be called a trench.

In other words, they had to keep this meat grinder running at all times, protecting that fragile trench line in a bloody way that consumed human lives.

Even so, no one objected. All the defenders even maintained a tacit understanding—if they were seriously wounded, they would shield the machine gun positions from bullets!
In this back-and-forth fighting and retreating, Wei Ran and Dong Weixin had retreated to a position less than 10 meters away from the trench behind them.

"Grenades ready!"

Just then, a roar came from the trench behind them: "Men outside, take cover! Men inside, throw them far away! Throw them away!"

Before the words were even finished, grenades were thrown from the trench, and the surviving soldiers outside immediately lay down, letting the machine gun sweep down the enemy who should have been fighting them hand-to-hand.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Amidst the successive grenade explosions, many soldiers lying prone outside the trenches had already loaded their rifles with bullets.

As the second volley of grenades flew overhead, they had already climbed into the trench, which had little elevation difference, and pulled the trigger at the Japanese soldiers who were right in front of them.

Machine guns, rifles, pistols, grenades, broadswords, and even stones that are everywhere!
Under the desperate resistance of various weapons, the Japanese soldiers who had been deceived were pushed back with great difficulty when they were less than 10 meters away from breaching the trenches.

However, before everyone could even breathe a sigh of relief, the Japanese artillery bombardment resumed.

"Charge! Kill the Japanese devils!"

In the nearly empty trenches, a soldier covered in wounds charged down with his Type 38 rifle before he could finish speaking.

"Kill the devil!"

The surrounding defenders, already bloodthirsty from fighting, rushed out of the trenches.

It turns out that every lyric was true.
Wei Ran let out another sigh that made even himself tremble. At the same time, he raised his Rolleiflex double-lens reflex camera and, at an almost parallel angle, took a picture of the flesh-and-blood machine gun position not far away, as well as the Chinese soldiers who braved the artillery fire to charge into the Japanese troops.

He put away his camera, grabbed his Type 38 rifle, and was almost the last to leap out of the position still under artillery fire, colliding once again with the Japanese soldiers who were trying to advance under the cover of artillery fire.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

After emptying his Type 38 rifle, Wei Ran, surrounded by an increasing number of Japanese soldiers, had no choice but to pull out his Mauser pistol and fire the last 10 bullets.

But at this moment, Dong Weixin, who was not far away, had already been surrounded by several Japanese soldiers.

Putting away the Mauser pistol that was empty, Wei Ran fumbled in his pocket and found the pistol with a flower-shaped blade. He ran to Dong Weixin's side in a few steps and pulled the trigger on the Japanese soldier who had already plunged a bayonet into Dong Weixin's thigh. Then he pulled the trigger repeatedly on the other Japanese soldiers around him who were about to thrust at him.

He finally managed to temporarily eliminate the surrounding threats when only one bullet remained in the gun.

However, before he could examine the wound on Dong Weixin's leg, he heard an explosion right next to him, and then lost consciousness in a dizzying spin.

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