The Mysterious Soldier of the Anti-Japanese War

Two weeks later, the morning dawned on the spruce forests of Jinchuan County, blanketed in snow. Squirrels crouched among the branches, munching on pine cones. Suddenly, in the distance, the rapid panting of camels and horses reached the horizon. Two sturdy camels and horses pulled a sled through the snow. The iron runners scraped against the ice, startling the squirrels, clutching their food, and scurried into tree holes. Their fluffy tails left messy paw prints in the snow.

The crisp sound of a sled rolling over dead branches echoed through the silent forest. Lei Tao gripped the frost-soaked reins tightly, while Black Dragon squatted at his knees. His intelligent prosthetic eye, a torch-like blue light, scanned every suspicious depression in the snow. The old woodcutter lifted his cotton jacket, revealing the neatly bundled grenades at his waist. The hemp rope rubbed against his frozen fingers, making a subtle sound. Meng Yan stroked the telescope, the white mist from his breath forming frost on the lens.

"Bang... da da da!" The sudden, intense gunfire shook the snow from the treetops. Black Dragon's back instantly straightened, and the red heat source markings on his prosthetic eyes blossomed like blood. Lei Tao yanked the reins, and the sled cut a semi-arc across the ice, sending snow flying three feet high. "Type 96 light machine gun! Northwest pine forest, 500 meters!" The old woodcutter narrowed his eyes, pinpointing the location based on the echo of the gunshot.

Meng Yan quickly raised his binoculars, his breath melting the frost on the lenses. Through the blurry vision, his pupils constricted. A patch of plaster flags swayed in the forest, pinned to a gray cotton-padded jacket. Bullet casings littered the snow. Over twenty Anti-Japanese Allied Forces soldiers, resting against tree stumps, fought back, suppressed by the intense firepower. At the end of the group, a soldier struggled to retreat, carrying a wounded comrade on his back, leaving a long trail of blood in the snow.

"It's that bastard Zhao Tingxi!" Meng Yan shouted, the metal grip of the Czech light machine gun turned white from being clenched. "Dog-skin hat, twenty-shot Mauser, and the Kwantung Army is following behind him, chasing the Anti-Japanese Allied Forces towards us!" Before he finished speaking, a bullet flew past his head and hit the spruce trunk, making a charred bullet hole.

At this moment, deep in the pine forest, Zhao Tingxi, wearing a dog-skin hat and a sinister smile, pressed his Mauser rifle against the temple of an Anti-Japanese Allied Forces fighter. He pulled the trigger, kicked the body away, and turned to the Kwantung Army major and said flatteringly, "Madam, these people know the hiding place of the secret code. Capture a few of them alive and interrogate them slowly!" The major slapped Zhao Tingxi in the face and said contemptuously, "I want you to teach me how to do things?

Zhao Tingxi staggered two steps after being beaten, and five finger marks quickly appeared on his face, but he still bent his waist and nodded repeatedly: "Ha! The lady is right!" He wiped the blood foam oozing from the corner of his mouth, and caught a glimpse of the Anti-Japanese Allied Forces soldier's clenched right hand in the snow - that hand was tightly grasping a half-burned piece of paper.

The Kwantung Army major's boot sole rolled over the corpse, his saber picking up the scraps of paper. The three incomplete characters "Eagle's Beak Cliff" were clearly visible on the yellowed paper. The major's pupils suddenly constricted, and the blade suddenly pressed against Zhao Tingxi's throat. "You said you don't know the whereabouts of Commander Zhao, a senior general of the Anti-Japanese United Army?"

Zhao Tingxi's Adam's apple rolled violently, and cold sweat mixed with blood slid down his collar: "Madam! Commander Zhao is elusive, this note... this note might be a trap!" Before he finished speaking, the major's saber suddenly pressed down, leaving a wound as thin as a red line on his neck.

"Baga!" The major threw the note in Zhao Tingxi's face. "Intelligence shows that Commander Zhao will hand over the secret code at Yingzui Cliff tomorrow. You dare to play tricks on me?" The Kwantung Army soldiers behind the major immediately raised their rifles, and the black muzzles covered Zhao Tingxi.

By this time, Lei Tao and the others had dispersed. Meng Yan rested his Czech light machine gun on a rocky ridge. The moment the barrel pressed against his shoulder, his frozen fingers barely felt the coolness of the metal. He squinted, locked onto the gap in the Japanese machine gunner's helmet through the scope, took a deep breath, and the moment he pulled the trigger, the butt of the rifle rammed into his shoulder bone. The 7.62mm bullet tore through the air, accurately shattering the man's goggles.

"Behind the tree on the left!" Old Qiao's MP35 submachine gun erupted in flames, its bullets raining down on the Japanese lines. He used the recoil to roll under another spruce tree, yanking out a grenade and biting off the pull ring. As the blast ripped snow from the ground, Lei Tao and Hei Long had circled around to the rear of the enemy line. Hei Long's prosthetic eye glowed red, locking onto Zhao Tingxi. Suddenly, Lei Tao's Type 81 assault rifle unleashed a burst of orange flames—a specially designed armor-piercing round grazed the traitor's ear, blasting a hole the size of a bowl in the tree trunk.

"There's an ambush!" Zhao Tingxi rolled and crawled to hide behind the major, "Taijun,

Lei Tao, holding a modified Type 81 assault rifle and a Black Dragon military dog, made a roundabout move.

Lei Tao sprinted along the frosted trunks of spruce trees, the flash suppressor of his modified Type 81 rifle emitting dark red flames. His tactical eyepiece displayed the moving heat source in real time, and with every pull of the trigger, a Kwantung Army soldier's brow burst into blood. The muffled thud of bullets piercing winter clothing blended with the screams of the traitors, yet he darted through the brush like a ghost, transforming the trajectory of his bullets into a scythe that harvested lives.

As Zhao Tingxi pulled the grenade's ring, Lei Tao had already locked onto his elbow. The specially formulated tungsten-cored bullet ripped through the air, precisely shattering the traitor's right arm where it held the grenade. As the grenade rolled across the snow, Lei Tao rolled into a pit, his gun barrel swiftly swerving to the side. Three Japanese soldiers, bayonets drawn, advanced through the smoke, their cold reflections etched in his pupils.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!" A burst of three rounds tore through the throat, spraying warm blood mist onto the frozen tree trunk. Lei Tao kicked the corpse aside and continued his advance, only to see Zhao Tingxi draw his Mauser with his left hand. In the nick of time, a black dragon flashed across his shoulder like black lightning, illuminating the red light of his artificial eye and the traitor's twisted face. The moment the military dog's steel teeth clamped down on Zhao Tingxi's wrist, Lei Tao's rifle rang out again, the bullet piercing the traitor's skull and pinning him to the snow-covered rock.