Bright Sword: The Flowers of War

Chapter 163 Bombardment
The night was as dark as ink, enveloping the undulating mountains. The artillery positions were concealed at the edge of the dense forest, and the barrels of the M1 155mm howitzers gleamed coldly beneath the camouflage netting.

Gunners crouched beside their gun positions, watching intently ahead, with open ammunition boxes behind them.

"Jingle Bell……"

The piercing ring of the telephone broke the silence of the night, and a large hand immediately grabbed the receiver.

"This is the artillery regiment. I am the regimental commander, Zhang Zhihao. Please speak!"

"Sir... Raven One reports that the Japanese vanguard has arrived at Valley One."

"Okay... Let's continue to observe!"

"Sir, the Japanese troops have emerged from the valley..."

"it is good……"

Zhang Zhihao turned around, picked up the megaphone, and shouted loudly, "All units, listen to my order: load one round!"

A hoarse roar pierced the silence, and with the metallic clanking of the breechblock closing, a 43-kilogram shell was fed into the breech by two gunners working together.

As the shell was fed into the 155mm howitzer's breech, Zhang Zhihao's hand, holding the small red flag high, froze for a moment before he forcefully swung it down. With a deafening roar, thirty-six M1 155mm howitzers and twelve M2 105mm howitzers roared in unison.
Amidst the earth-shattering roar, the smoke condensed into an iron-gray cloud above the artillery position, making everyone's eardrums buzz.

The first shell had barely left the breech when the second wave of loaders rushed forward, their camouflage uniforms soaked with sweat, leaving dark stains on their backs.

"Bang..."

The breech was pulled back, and a pungent smell of gunpowder wafted out of the cannon barrel.

Before the smoke had cleared, another shell was inserted, followed by a long push rod that propelled the shell in, and then the breech was firmly closed.

"put!"

With another roar, dozens more shells flew out.

…………

inside the car

The smell of leather mixed with tobacco inside the car suddenly became particularly pungent.

Ushijima Minoru suddenly opened his eyes, his temples throbbing, and his fingertips unconsciously dug into the leather seat under his buttocks.

A pale white streak of light appeared as the once pitch-black clouds in the distance split open, like a blade cleaved down by a god.

The piercing whistling sound of shells tearing through the air was so sharp it made your teeth ache.

"boom……"

The first shell landed more than 200 meters ahead of the convoy, and the rugged dirt road exploded like a fragile eggshell, with flying gravel hitting the roof of the vehicles with a crackling sound.

In the rearview mirror, the second truck was instantly engulfed by an orange-red fireball, and the windshield was suddenly splattered with sticky red raindrops.

"Bombardment!"

The adjutant in the passenger seat had barely managed to call out when his voice was shattered by a series of explosions, the dark road illuminated by streaks of light from the explosions.

Ushijima Minoru clearly saw a soldier rolling into a ditch, clutching his right arm that had been severed by shrapnel, his piercing screams echoing around him.

Soon, plumes of gunpowder smoke, mixed with the smell of burning flesh and blood, filled the carriage, making people's eyes water.

"Dangdang!"

A shrapnel suddenly lodged in the car door, only three fingers' width from his knee.

"Commander, get out of the car!" The adjutant realized what was happening and jumped out of the car. He opened the back door and pulled Ushijima Minoru out. The two of them jumped into the ditch by the roadside.

Although the above scenario sounds long, it actually only lasted for less than thirty seconds.

After being suddenly shelled, the entire convoy began to panic. The last tank in the convoy hurriedly turned around, and in the chaos, its tracks ran over the scattered ammunition boxes.

A startled packhorse, dragging half its reins, galloped wildly along the road, its mane still ablaze with flames.

"Quickly...quickly order the troops to disperse...disperse..."

Ushijima Minoru shouted as he instinctively tried to draw his command sword, but when he touched his waist, he realized that his palm was already bleeding profusely from the shards of glass, and warm blood was flowing down the grooves of the hilt.

"idiot……"

Ushijima Minoru cursed loudly while ordering his troops to retreat, but under such intense artillery fire, how easy was it for the troops to retreat?

On the artillery position, the cannon barrels turned dark red from continuous firing, and the gunners were drenched in sweat. The loaders took off their shirts and worked in pairs with tongs to clamp the shells and feed them into the breech.

Being a loader is hard work; you have to switch loader every fifteen minutes, otherwise you'll be in trouble if you get too tired.

On a hillside not far from the valley, two observers lay prone on the scorched earth, their binoculars rimmed with sweat and dirt. One of them gripped the communicator and shouted, "Bearing 173, distance 3,800 meters, one rapid shot...fire!"

Dozens of seconds later, the whistling sound of shells tearing through the air swept past their heads, and the two men reflexively shrank their necks, letting the pebbles roll into the back of their collars.

"Boom boom boom..."

The shockwave from the explosion shook the image in the telescope violently, and the dust kicked up by the heat wave hit my face like sandpaper.

Without even wiping his face, he continued, "The Japanese army is retreating, correcting their bearing to 175!"

As the observers reported, shells rained down on the Japanese troops in the valley as if they had eyes. Trucks were blown up, and wreckage was everywhere. Flames from exploding fuel tanks meandered along the gasoline, engulfing several rolling Japanese figures into fireballs.

One by one, Japanese soldiers were blown to pieces, their flesh torn apart by explosions. The valley was filled with the sounds of explosions and the screams of Japanese soldiers.

Dawn finally broke.

The morning light, like blood, spread across the fragmented mountain ridges.

Gray mist, formed from dew mixed with gunpowder smoke, slowly descended in the beam of light, revealing twisted steel wreckage scattered all over the ground... The blown-out truck tires were still emitting blue smoke, and gasoline leaking from the tanks gathered into colorful vortexes in the craters.

When it was fully light, a group of several hundred people arrived in the valley.

The soldiers trudged along, their feet sinking into the mud. After walking only a few dozen meters, the soles of their boots were covered with a mixture of bits of flesh and dirt.

"Clang!"

A soldier stepped on a steel helmet. He looked down and his face immediately turned pale. Inside the helmet was some semi-solidified brain matter, like spilled tofu pudding.

Terrified, he ran to a large tree that had been half blown up. Before he could catch his breath, he saw a piece of intestine hanging on a branch. A gust of wind swept by, and the intestine hanging on the treetop began to sway gently, dropping a few drops of dark red blood.

"Ugh, vomit..."

The soldier could no longer hold back and leaned against a tree, vomiting violently. But after vomiting for a long time, he only managed to spew out a few mouthfuls of sour water, having not eaten breakfast, and almost vomited up his bile.

The captain leading the team seemed oblivious to what was happening and ordered the surrounding soldiers, "Hurry up...count the spoils and the number of dead, then report to the regimental commander and the commander-in-chief!"

"Yes!"

The soldiers responded in unison and began to scatter...

(End of this chapter)