Chapter 149 They've Gone Mad, The Whole Lot of Them Are Fighting Like Maniacs!

"Boom!"

Amidst the deafening explosion, Zhao Sanqiang's body was instantly blown to pieces. Along with seven or eight nearby Japanese soldiers, he was shattered into fragments, collapsing into a pool of blood!

"Uncle Zhao!"

Watching Zhao Sanqiang—who had cared for him ever since he joined the army—meet such a tragic death right before his eyes, Chu Wen felt two streams of hot tears instantly gush down his face as he let out a heartbroken, desperate cry.

Ever since entering the ranks, Uncle Zhao had looked after him with paternal warmth. He frequently tended to him, imparted battlefield knowledge and tactics, and treated him just like his own flesh and blood. Having lost his parents in early childhood, Chu Wen had long since regarded Uncle Zhao as a father in his heart.

At this moment, seeing the person dearest to him fall in a pool of blood, Chu Wen's eyes turned instantly crimson. His wide-open eyes were shot with blood, and a surge of furious blood rushed straight to his brain!

"Japanese devils! I'll fight you to the death! I'll avenge Uncle Zhao!"

Chu Wen cast away the bayonet in his hand, snatched two grenades from his waist, pulled the pins, and charged directly toward the approaching Japanese soldiers!

Knowing his bayonet skills were subpar and insufficient to avenge Uncle Zhao, he chose to use grenades to perish together with the enemy!

Seeing him rush forward with smoking grenades, the group of Japanese soldiers panicked, their eyes flashing with terror as they scrambled to retreat. A look of disdain crossed Chu Wen's eyes, followed by a ferocious grin as he lunged forward fiercely.

"Boom!"

In the violent blast, Chu Wen and the Japanese soldiers were completely swallowed by the blinding flames.

Chu Wen felt a wave of agony engulf his entire body, and then his consciousness began to fade. At the very last moment of his life, a thought suddenly flashed through his mind: "Uncle Zhao, you were right! When facing the Japanese invaders, the moment you show cowardice and retreat, the enemy will only climb all over your head with redoubled arrogance. But the moment you summon the spirit to fight to the death, they become terrified!"

"The bravery displayed by the Japanese devils is nothing but a facade! It is precisely because of their profound cowardice within that they project a fearless bravery on the outside! Yet at the final threshold of life and death, these devils tear away their masks to reveal their pitiful, cowardly souls!"

"Uncle Zhao, I have avenged you! Wait for me on the nether road. Walking that path alone is far too lonely..."

...

"Bastards! You goddamned Japanese swine, I'll tear you to shreds!" Witnessing this scene from not far away, Fang Xiaodong felt his heart split with rage as he roared at the top of his lungs: "Charge! Slaughter every last one of these bastards! We sons of China are no cowards!"

Everyone had gone mad. The entire regiment, from Regimental Commander Fang Xiaodong down to every ordinary soldier, had lost all restraint, launching a frenzied assault against the enemy.

Even though the Japanese outnumbered them heavily, the soldiers pressed forward with unstoppable momentum, not a single man retreating!

Whenever a Japanese soldier stumbled to the ground, someone would immediately rush up and drive a blade through his chest. Those who fell would never rise again!

Corpses piled up continuously, gradually forming towering mountains of the dead. Bodies littered the ground everywhere, leaving not a single spot to step.

The soldiers advanced against the Japanese by treading directly upon the bodies of their fallen comrades.

Some of these bodies belonged to the Japanese, and some to the defenders, but the vast majority were those of the enemy.

Severed limbs, rivers of blood—the corpses of both sides choked the streets!

Yet, not a single soul retreated!

Two different armies, driven by different faiths and belonging to different nations, marched and attacked across a sea of the dead... Even in death, the fallen soldiers paved a pathway to victory for their living comrades!

"Kill!"

Blood gushed from a soldier's mouth. A bayonet was buried deep in his abdomen, having pierced all the way through from his back to protrude from his chest. Blood continuously overflowed, yet the soldier acted as if he felt nothing at all. He dragged his body backward, pulling himself further along the blade to clear a significant length of the steel from his torso, and then threw both arms around the Japanese soldier who had ambushed him from behind, gritting his teeth as he twisted the enemy over.

With a superhuman surge of strength, he delivered a ferocious kick straight to the head of the downed Japanese soldier, the immense force collapsing the wretch's entire face inward.

The enemy's eyeballs burst and popped right out of their sockets!

Having dispatched the Japanese soldier, the Chinese soldier wore a grim, ferocious smile at the corners of his mouth. His body swayed precariously, and with a heavy thud, he crashed to the ground, never to rise again!

"Chinaman, you are dead meat!" A Japanese soldier snarled viciously as he drove his bayonet into a defender's body. Watching the soldier spit blood and collapse limply to the ground, a look of contempt crossed the enemy's eyes: "Such feeble Chinamen actually dared to oppose our Great Imperial Army—they are simply courting death!"

After tossing out the taunt, the Japanese soldier turned to seek his next target, entirely unaware that the fallen soldier lying at his feet was glaring at him with venomous malice.

Seeing the Japanese soldier turn his back, the soldier let out a fierce, final roar: "Die with me!"

With that, he mustered every last ounce of his remaining strength, hurling his body forward in a desperate lunge to tackle the enemy to the ground. He wrapped his hands tightly around the Japanese soldier's neck, refusing to loosen his grip even in death.

The Japanese soldier was stunned, struggling desperately to fight back, but he could not break free. Snatching the bayonet off his rifle, he stabbed it repeatedly into the soldier's body, pulling it out and driving it back in over and over again until even the intestines were exposed, yet the soldier's gripping hands remained locked in an unyielding death-clerk stranglehold.

Gradually, the Japanese soldier's strength began to fade as well. When he tried once more to thrust his bayonet forward, he could no longer lift his arm!

The Japanese soldier rolled his eyes, his neck slumped to the side, and he breathed his last right there.

By this time, the Chinese soldier had long since ceased breathing; he had passed away moments before.

Even in death, his hands remained tightly clamped around the Japanese soldier's neck, denying the enemy release even in the afterlife!

...

They had lost all reason; the battle had devolved into absolute madness!

Scenes like this were playing out everywhere across the tiny battlefield. The soldiers' crazed assaults and suicidal tactics completely shattered the morale of the Japanese.

The advancing enemy soldiers wore expressions of sheer terror as they witnessed these sights. Had it not been for the Japanese officers standing in the rear, waving their command swords and acting as execution squads, these troops would likely have broken and fled long ago out of pure fright.

Yet even so, the Japanese had been completely stripped of their fighting spirit!

The suicidal fervor and bloodthirsty tactics of the defenders utterly chilled the enemy to the bone. They simply could not comprehend why—why this army was putting up such an insane, desperate resistance!

The Japanese could never understand. As invaders, they were fundamentally blind to the mindset of soldiers defending an invaded land!

The defending soldiers were men of honor, soldiers protecting their homes and country!

Yet when enemies breached their borders and engaged in wanton slaughter and arson across their homeland, these soldiers were duty-bound to step forward and resist the aggressors!

In the past, they had yielded time and again, retreating far too many times. But this time, they refused to retreat any further.

They had nowhere left to retreat!

To retreat further meant the destruction of their nation and the subjugation of their race; to retreat further meant becoming slaves of a conquered land.

Therefore, driven to the edge with no path left, they burned their boats, rose in furious rebellion, and staked everything they had, driven by one singular purpose: to kill the enemy!