You were tasked with guarding the Sihang Warehouse, and you brought out a Tiger tank?

The battle ended quickly.

Or rather, the puppet army's first probing attack was swiftly and decisively repelled.

Outside Linyi City, the muddy trenches were filled with a layer of murky yellow water.

The air was filled with the pungent smell of gunpowder.

Ma Qiang, the company commander of the special service company under the 115th Brigade of the 39th Division of the 40th Army of the Northwest Army, was lying sprawled on a wet sandbag.

He was panting heavily, his face covered in black mud, with only his eyes remaining relatively bright.

Ma Qiang raised his head and squinted at the sky.

High in the sky, a Japanese biplane bomber painted with the Rising Sun flag was swirling and plummeting toward the distant horizon, trailing a long plume of black smoke, like a wild duck with a broken wing.

"boom!"

A muffled explosion came from afar, and a fireball shot into the air.

"Damn, that feels so good."

Ma Qiang grinned, his chapped lips parted, and casually spat out a "pui" sound, spitting the mixture of dirt and blood from his mouth outside the trench.

In the distance, several hundred meters away, on the edge of the field.

Several yellow-green painted Japanese tank wrecks stood motionless, billowing black smoke.

Normally, once the Japanese infantry attack was repelled...

The position would soon be subjected to retaliatory heavy artillery bombardment by the Japanese, or to the indiscriminate bombing and strafing by Japanese planes.

The brothers could only lie prone in the trenches, resigning themselves to their fate.

But today, things are different.

Ma Qiang and his men were finally no longer stuck on the ground, watching the Japanese crows poop in the sky.

"Buzz—"

Several slender fighter jets with their noses painted a striking yellow, emitting an extremely pleasant engine roar, swept low over the position.

The soldiers of the Northwest Army on the ground instantly erupted in cheers.

Those men from Guanzhong who usually shed blood but not tears were now crawling out of the mud and water, waving and cheering desperately at the sky.

Some people even excitedly threw their helmets and tattered military caps into the air.

"Well done!"

"Damn it! We've got guys protecting us now!"

Ma Qiang wiped the mud off his face.

"Waiter, bring me a ladder."

He yelled at the person next to him.

Soon, a skinny young soldier carrying a wooden ladder ran over and placed it on the edge of the trench.

Ma Qiang drew his pistol from his waist, flicked the safety with his thumb, and released the pistol.

"One row, follow me."

With a wave of his hand, he led more than twenty capable men up the ladder and out of the trench.

Each of them carried a large-eyed rifle and a large sword, the symbol of the Northwest Army, on their backs. Crouching low, they carefully made their way towards the destroyed Japanese tanks, using the shell craters and corpses as cover.

The muddy ground was littered with corpses dressed in yellow-green military uniforms.

"Company commander, these bastards aren't real Japanese soldiers, they're traitors."

The waiter kicked over a corpse, saw the armband on it, and cursed in a low voice.

"Liu Heiqi's Peaceful Nation-Building Army is a bunch of traitors who sell out their ancestors."

A look of extreme disgust flashed in Ma Qiang's eyes. As he passed the corpse of a puppet soldier, he spat out a mouthful of saliva.

"Traitorous dog."

The brothers behind him followed suit, spitting at him with saliva and adding various extremely offensive Northwestern curses.

Despite the cursing, his hands were still busy.

The brothers skillfully bent down and quickly searched the bodies of these puppet soldiers.

The bullet belts, grenades, and even the few silver dollars and loose cash in his pockets were all taken clean.

"Be smart, everyone, don't just focus on picking up trash."

Ma Qiang lowered his voice and reminded him:

"Your grenades are still on the strings, held in your hands."

When we get to the iron turtle, I'll open the lid, and you guys pull the pin and throw it in.

Did you understand?

"Understood!" the brothers responded in unison.

Everyone was very nervous, and their palms were sweaty.

No one knew whether there were any wounded but not dead Japanese soldiers pretending to be dead inside those tanks.

The machine guns on the tank turrets could suddenly fire at any moment, turning them into sieves.

To encourage Liu Guitang, the leader of the puppet army, Itagaki Seishiro specially provided him with these four Type 94 light tanks.

The moment they showed themselves, before they could even unleash their power, they were picked off one by one by several 37mm anti-tank guns sold by Lin Feng, hidden on the position, like opening a can of food.

Ma Qiang led his men and quietly approached the foremost tank.

On the frontal armor of the tank, there was an extremely smooth, fist-sized hole, the edges of which were tinged with the charred black of molten metal.

That was the fatal kiss left by an armor-piercing bullet.

"Get ready."

Ma Qiang gave Xiao Er a wink, gripped his pistol tightly, and slowly approached the hatch on top of the turret.

Just then, a sudden change occurred.

"Clang!"

The hatch, which was originally tightly closed, was suddenly forced open from the inside.

A Japanese tank commander, his face covered in blood and contorted in a ferocious expression, leaned out halfway, holding a Nambu Type 14 pistol in his hand.

"Baka!"

The Japanese tank commander frantically pulled the trigger.

"Slap! Slap!"

Two crisp gunshots rang out.

The distance was too close. Ma Qiang's two brothers behind him couldn't dodge in time. One was shot in the shoulder and the other in the thigh. They groaned and fell into the muddy water.

"Dry."

Ma Qiang's eyes widened in fury, and he was about to raise his gun to retaliate.

"Click".

The Japanese soldier's Mauser pistol made an extremely awkward, soft sound.

Stuck.

On a muddy battlefield, the probability of such a broken gun malfunctioning is ridiculously high.

The Japanese tank commander froze for a moment, then frantically pulled the bolt to eject the bullet.

At that moment, the brother who had been shot in the shoulder had pulled the pin on the wooden-handled grenade he was holding and it fell to the ground.

The fuse was hissing and emitting white smoke, and it looked like it was about to explode.

At the critical moment.

Ma Qiang reacted swiftly, pouncing like a hungry tiger and grabbing the smoking grenade from the ground.

Instead of throwing it out, he stepped onto the tank tracks.

Using the momentum, Ma Qiang swung his arm and smashed the heavy wooden-handled grenade fiercely onto the head of the Japanese train conductor.

"when!"

With a muffled thud, the Japanese soldier was hit so hard he was dizzy and screamed in pain.

Ma Qiang gave him no chance to react, pressing his large hand firmly against the Japanese soldier's head.

They shoved the grenade, which was about to explode, back into the tank in an extremely rough manner.

Immediately afterwards, Ma Qiang casually pulled down the heavy steel hatch.

"Lie down."

Ma Qiang leaped off the chariot.

"boom--!!!"

A deep, muffled thud came from inside the tank.

The entire iron tortoise trembled violently, and thick black smoke and a pungent smell of blood spewed out from the gaps in the turret.

There was absolutely no sound from inside.

Ma Qiang climbed out of the mud, panting heavily, and wiped away a cold sweat with lingering fear.

"Quick, check on Dazhu and Shunzi."

He quickly ran over to check on the two brothers who had been shot.

Fortunately, none of the injuries were fatal.

Ma Qiang breathed a sigh of relief and immediately gave the order:

"Waiter, take two men and help them."

After successfully dealing with the remaining three tanks and ensuring that the Japanese soldiers inside couldn't possibly rise from the dead, Ma Qiang waved his hand:

"Take the spoils and let's retreat."