Courtyard House: A Veteran Returns Home and Becomes a Father

The oppressive feeling of the steel behemoth is the most primal fear of infantrymen.

As a dozen M4 Sherman tanks roared deafeningly, crushing scorched earth and corpses as they slowly approached the Flying Tiger Mountain position, the entire land trembled beneath their heavy tracks.

That's not a simple matter of pushing things forward.

Each tank is a mobile steel fortress, a steel demon spewing death.

"boom!"

A Sherman tank came to a stop, its turret slowly rotating, and its 75mm main gun suddenly spewed out a burst of flame.

The shell hit a hidden machine gun position precisely.

The violent explosion instantly tore the fortifications made of sandbags and rocks to shreds, and the two soldiers inside, along with the brand-new heavy machine gun, were reduced to a cloud of blood mist and twisted steel.

"You son of a bitch! My machine gun!" Battalion Commander Zhang Shan lay prone in the trench, watching this scene unfold before his eyes. His eyes instantly turned bloodshot, and his heart ached so much that it bled.

That was a treasure they had seized from the enemy, and before they could even enjoy it, it was gone.

The pressure from the tanks instantly brought the morale, which had just soared due to victory, to rock bottom.

The rifles and grenades in the soldiers' hands seemed so pale and powerless before these steel behemoths. Bullets struck the tanks' thick armor, producing only a string of feeble sparks, leaving not even a white mark.

"Commander! We can't hold them off! Our weapons are useless against tanks!"

"Requesting artillery support! Requesting artillery support!"

The anxious and desperate roars of the company and platoon leaders came through the walkie-talkie.

"What's the panic!" Su Mo's voice was cold and steady, like a block of ancient ice, instantly suppressing all the chaos. "Artillery platoon, aim at the infantry following the tanks and fire! Separate them from the tanks!"

"Everyone else, obey my orders!"

Su Mo's voice suddenly rose, carrying an undeniable determination.

"If we don't have anti-tank weapons, we'll fill the gaps with human lives!"

"I don't care what methods you use, whether it's explosives or cluster grenades, even if it means dying together with explosives, you have to leave these iron turtles for me!"

"Form a suicide squad! Anyone willing to go?"

Su Mo's roar was transmitted throughout the entire Flying Tiger Mountain position via walkie-talkie.

After a brief silence, a rough roar exploded out.

"Yes! I, Li Dapao, will be the first to step up!"

Li Dapao ripped off the bandages wrapped around his body, revealing a still-bleeding wound. He dragged two bundles of yellow explosives tied together from the ammunition box and tightly bound them to his body with strips of cloth.

Count me in!

"And me! I'll be a hero again in eighteen years!"

One soldier after another stepped forward, their faces showing no fear, only an almost frenzied resolve. Silently, they took out explosive packs and cluster grenades from their ammunition boxes, their eyes fixed on the steel behemoths that were steadily approaching down the mountain.

Su Mo took a deep breath and growled into the walkie-talkie, "Li Dapao! You take the first assault team and attack from the left flank! Remember, don't touch their frontal armor, that's suicide! Blow up their tracks! Blow up their engines at the rear!"

"yes!"

Li Dapao, carrying a huge explosive charge, crouched low and was the first to rush out of the trench.

Behind him, a dozen soldiers, determined to die, charged into the steel torrent like tigers descending the mountain, using the craters and rocks as cover.

"Da da da da da!"

The coaxial machine gun on the tank spotted them immediately and spewed out dense streams of fire.

Bullets rained down, leaving deadly straight lines on the snow.

The young soldier at the forefront suddenly jolted, a burst of blood erupting from his chest. He staggered a few steps, glanced unwillingly at the tank in the distance, and collapsed into the snow, never to rise again.

"Damn it!" Li Dapao roared like a beast, his eyes bloodshot.

Without pausing, he used a shell crater as cover, rolled over, and dodged the strafing. He was now less than fifty meters away from the nearest Sherman tank.

"Cover me!" Li Dapao roared.

The machine gun positions on the flanks immediately opened fire, relentlessly suppressing the American infantry behind the tanks with a barrage of bullets, creating opportunities for them.

Another soldier rushed forward and successfully threw a bundle of cluster grenades onto the tank's tracks.

"boom!"

The violent explosion sent up a cloud of black smoke, but the Sherman tank only swayed slightly, its tracks undamaged. It turned its turret and fired a high-explosive shell.

The soldier was instantly torn to pieces by the blast wave.

Fuck your mother!

Seizing the opportunity, Li Dapao leaped out of the shell crater and, with all his might, hurled the enormous explosive charge, weighing over twenty kilograms, at the rear of the tank.

That's where the Sherman tank's engine is located, one of its weakest points.

The explosive charge traced a parabola through the air and landed precisely at the junction of the tank turret and the hull.

Before Li Dapao could even lie down, he was violently thrown away by the shockwave of the subsequent explosion.

"Boom—!"

A deafening roar.

The once invincible Sherman tank suddenly spewed a massive fireball, thick with black smoke, from its rear. The sturdy turret was completely ripped off, spinning and flying more than ten meters before crashing heavily to the ground.

The steel behemoth has finally fallen.

"Success! It's blown up!"

The soldiers on the position erupted in a deafening cheer.

Victory was won with blood and flesh.

The destruction of the first tank greatly boosted the morale of the soldiers.

"Second group! Go!"

"For our fallen brothers! Charge!"

More suicide squad members, carrying explosives, charged toward the remaining tanks.

This was a most primitive and bloodiest battle.

Flesh and blood against a torrent of steel.

A soldier whose legs were severed by machine gun fire dragged his bloodied lower body toward the tank, screaming, until he detonated the explosives on his body.

A soldier, clutching a satchel charge, threw himself under the tank's tracks, using his own body to detonate the destructive flames.

……

The battle lasted less than twenty minutes.

When the last Sherman tank, trailing thick smoke, came to a standstill in front of the position, the entire Flying Tiger Mountain fell into a deathly silence once again.

A dozen tanks formed a steel graveyard.

Of the dozens of suicide squad members who charged out, less than a third returned.

They were all covered in blood, and it was impossible to tell whether it was from the enemy or their own. Many of them didn't even have a complete corpse to be found.

The price of victory was so heavy.

Su Mo stood in the command post, looking at the devastated battlefield, his fists clenched so tightly they turned white, his nails digging deep into his palms.

His heart was bleeding.

But he knew that now was not the time for sadness.

"Medic! Save lives! At all costs, get all the wounded back to safety!"

"Everyone, replenish your ammunition! Prepare for the next attack!"

The lulls in the fighting are brief and precious.

The wounded were carried off the battlefield one by one, and the makeshift wounded soldiers camp was instantly filled with soldiers groaning in pain.

Li Dapao was also carried back. He had been knocked unconscious by the shockwave of the explosion, and his body was covered with wounds from shrapnel, the worst of which was on his back, so deep that the bone was visible.

"Commander... I'm dying..." A young medic, watching Li Dapao's wound gushing blood, was on the verge of tears. "The bleeding won't stop, it just won't stop!"

"Use this!"

Su Mo rushed over, took out a small porcelain bottle from his pocket, unscrewed the cap, and poured the clear liquid inside directly into Li Dapao's mouth.

This is naturally the spiritual spring water in the space.

The miracle happened again.

After drinking a few sips of the spiritual spring water, Li Dapao's face, which had been deathly pale due to excessive blood loss, visibly regained a rosy hue. The bleeding from the gruesome wound on his back also slowed down noticeably.

"What... what kind of miracle drug is this?" The medic was dumbfounded.

"It's a 'heart stimulant' specially supplied by the division headquarters, used to stabilize the injuries," Su Mo lied without batting an eye. "Quick, bandage him up!"

He didn't linger long and took out several more jugs, all filled with diluted spiritual spring water.

"Distribute this 'glucose saline solution'! Give every seriously wounded person a sip! It can keep them alive!"

With the help of the spiritual spring water, many critically wounded soldiers who were on the verge of death miraculously stabilized their conditions. Although they could not be brought back to life, it undoubtedly gave them hope for survival.

Immediately afterwards, Su Mo ordered several boxes of "specially supplied grain" to be brought in.

It's a type of biscuit made by grinding spiritual grains from the space into powder, mixing them with high-energy nutrients, and pressing them together.

"Everyone who can still move, one piece each! Eat to replenish your energy!"

The soldiers, exhausted, accepted the biscuits. One bite, and a warm current instantly rose from their stomachs, spreading throughout their bodies; their previously depleted strength began to recover rapidly.

"Amazing! Are these cookies some kind of miracle cure?"

"I feel energetic again!"

"Following Commander Su, we won't starve or die! Those American devils are nothing!"

The miraculous effects of the spiritual spring and the high-energy food reignited the morale of the 335th Regiment. The soldiers' gazes towards Su Mo had shifted from admiration to fervent worship. In their hearts, this young acting regimental commander was an omnipotent god!

However, the enemy will not give them much time to breathe.

Down the mountain, in the temporary U.S. military command post.

Colonel Smith, commander of the 1st Cavalry Division, looked at the burning tank graveyard through his binoculars, his face turning ashen with rage. He slammed the binoculars to the ground and roared like a wild beast.

"Useless! A bunch of useless trash!"

"An infantry regiment, without any anti-tank weapons, actually annihilated one of my tank companies? This is a disgrace! A disgrace to the entire 1st Cavalry Division!"

He pointed in the direction of Flying Tiger Mountain and roared at the messenger beside him.

"I don't care what kind of witchcraft they're using! I don't care how many of them there are!"

"Pass on my order! All troops! A full-scale attack!"

"Artillerymen, plow that mountain again! Air force, drop all your bombs!"

"I'm going to wipe that mountain off the map completely before nightfall!"

"I want to tear every Chinese person on this mountain to pieces!"

"All-out attack! Begin now!"

The piercing alarm sounded again over the Flying Tiger Mountain position.

Su Mo put down the binoculars, his expression extremely solemn.

On the horizon below the mountain, the dark shadows of people stretched as far as the eye could see, like a swarm of ants.

More tanks and more artillery are being assembled.

The sky was once again obscured by a dense swarm of aircraft.

The enemy has gone completely mad.

A decisive, life-or-death battle is about to begin.