World War: Battleship Arms Dealers

"Keep going! Don't stop!"

The tanks had advanced two hundred yards. The first German line of defense began to return fire.

The rattling of machine guns came from afar, like the loom of death. Bullets whistled through the air. A man in front of Kim Soon-sik was hit and fell to the ground, blood gushing from his back, spreading dark red in the mud. Another man tried to stop and pull him up, but his knee was shattered by bullets from the supervising squad.

"Charge! Once we get past that, we'll be safe!"

Safety? Kim Soon-sik gave a bitter smile. He knew there was a second trench behind the first, and a third behind the second. The battle had been going on for more than two months, with both sides locked in a protracted stalemate on this land, paying a bloody price for every inch of advance.

But he still had to run. If he didn't run, the machine gun behind him would kill him; if he ran, the machine gun in front of him might kill him too. Either way, he was going to die, but at least while he was running, he could still feel like he was struggling.

The tanks played a role.

German machine gun bullets struck the armor plating, sparking but failing to penetrate. The Mark I tanks advanced clumsily but resolutely, suppressing enemy fire with their mounted cannon and machine guns. One tank rolled over a section of barbed wire, its tracks catching the barbed wire and shredding it into scrap metal. Another directly crushed a half-collapsed machine gun bunker, sending concrete debris flying.

Following the steel barrier, the soldiers from Cao County actually made it to the front of the first German trench.

Distance: 50 yards.

Kim Soon-sik tripped and fell into a shell crater. At the bottom of the crater lay a rotting German corpse, its swollen face unrecognizable, filled with murky, muddy water. He felt nauseous, but then he heard Japanese coming from the edge of the crater:

"Grenade! Throw the grenade!"

Several wooden-handled grenades flew in arcs toward the trench. After the explosions, screams in German could be heard.

"Fix bayonets!"

A series of metallic scraping sounds filled the air. Jin Shunzhi frantically pulled his bayonet from the muzzle of his gun and locked it in place. He crawled out of the shell crater and saw that the first batch of Cao County soldiers had already jumped into the trench.

The melee began.

No, that wasn't even a battle. It was a massacre. The Germans had already suffered heavy casualties from the artillery bombardment and tank assaults, with most survivors wounded. The Caoxian soldiers who stormed in outnumbered them ten to one. Bayonets plunged into chests, rifle butts smashed skulls, entrenching tools cleaved collarbones... the trenches had become a meat grinder.

Kim Soon-sik jumped down as well.

A young German soldier, huddled in a corner, shot in the leg, was trying to reload his rifle. Upon seeing Kim Soon-sik, he raised his hands in terror and shouted something in German—presumably a plea for mercy.

Kim Soon-sik's hand, holding the bayonet, trembled. He saw that the soldier was at most eighteen years old, with light blond hair, blue eyes, and a face covered in mud and fear. This reminded him of Soon-tae.

"Kill him!" someone shouted in Japanese from behind.

It was Park Young-ho. Young-ho's eyes were bloodshot, and blood was dripping from his bayonet; he was no longer the same person he usually was.

Kim Soon-sik gritted his teeth and turned to leave. He couldn't bring himself to do it. The German soldier curled up even tighter, tears mingling with the dirt as they streamed down his face.

Chaos continued in the trenches. Some of the Caoxian soldiers were mopping up the remaining enemy, while others had begun looting—searching German corpses for pocket watches, wallets, and cigarettes. Some found canned food, pried it open with bayonets, and wolfed it down. Hunger overcame fear.

Kim Soon-sik leaned against a section of breastwork, panting. His section of the trench was roughly captured; the gunfire was waning. Looking up, he saw the lead tank had crossed the trench and continued its advance towards the second line of defense. Behind it, endless waves of attacking forces followed.

"Consolidate in place!" shouted a Japanese officer. "Await the second wave of orders!"

Park Young-ho leaned over and handed him half a piece of dark bread: "I found it in the German's bag. Eat it."

The bread was as hard as a rock, but Kim Soon-sik still took a bite. The carbohydrates helped restore some strength to his weak legs.

"We... survived?" Yonghao asked, his voice filled with disbelief.

"For now," Kim Soon-sik said. He checked his rifle; there were still more than twenty bullets left, and the bayonet wasn't chipped. The amulet was still in his pocket.

At 8:00 AM, the second wave of the attack began.

This time it was even more difficult. The Germans had recovered from the initial onslaught, and the firepower of the second line of defense had significantly increased. Artillery fire began to cover the central area, and three British tanks were hit and crippled, burning in the open.

The casualties among the Cao County soldiers rose sharply.

As Kim Soon-sik rushed with the crowd across the 200-yard death zone between the two trenches, he witnessed a whole row of people on his left being mowed down by machine gun fire, falling in unison like wheat being harvested. On his right, someone stepped on a landmine, and limbs flew into his face, smearing his face with warm blood.

He practically rolled into the second trench.

The fighting was even fiercer here. The German resistance was tenacious, and the two sides fought for control of the crisscrossing trench system. Grenades exploded around corners, submachine guns fired at close range, and bayonets clashed with entrenching tools.

Kim Soon-sik and Park Young-ho, back to back, struggled forward in a trench. Turning a corner, they were met head-on by three German soldiers.

There was no time to think; instinct took over his body. Kim Soon-sik thrust his rifle forward, the bayonet plunging into the abdomen of the first German soldier. The man screamed, dropping his rifle. Young-ho smashed the butt of his rifle into the head of the second German soldier from the side, the sound of bones shattering clearly audible.

The third German soldier was more experienced; he took a half-step back, raised his gun, and aimed. Kim Soon-sik saw his finger twitching as he pulled the trigger—

"Bang!"

A shot rang out. But it wasn't Kim Soon-sik who fell; it was the German soldier. He had a bloody hole between his eyebrows and fell backward.

The one who fired the shot was Li Chengcan. The sharp-tongued scholar was now holding a rifle, smoke rising from the muzzle. His face was deathly pale, his hand was trembling, but his eyes were fierce.

"Thank you..." Kim Soon-sik began to speak.

"Stop talking nonsense," Li Chengcan interrupted, "This trench is cleared, move forward."

The three formed a makeshift team and continued their advance. They encountered two more small-scale resistance attempts, which they overcame both times by virtue of their numerical advantage. Kim Soon-sik's bayonet was stained with blood twice more, and each time he plunged it in, he forced himself not to look at the enemy's face.

He told himself, "I'm killing the enemy. Only by killing the enemy can I live."

But who is the enemy? Is it the Germans? Or the Japanese who kidnapped him here? Or the British who paid to have him killed?

His thoughts began to muddle. The adrenaline was waning, and fatigue and fear surged back. He leaned against the trench wall, panting, and then noticed a cut on his arm from a stray bullet, blood soaking his sleeve.

"Bandage it up." Park Young-ho tore off a piece of the leg wrap.

After a brief treatment, the three continued forward and finally reached the main road of the second trench. This area had already been occupied; dozens of Cao County soldiers were either sitting or lying down, most of them wounded. Several Japanese officers were counting heads and announcing the numbers in Japanese.

"Third squad, fifty were expected, nineteen are present."

"Fifth squad, expected to be fifty, actually present... eleven."

More than half of the men were killed or wounded. Of the fifty men in Kim Soon-sik's first squad who set out, less than twenty were still standing.

Lieutenant Sato walked over, his face expressionless. He scanned the survivors, his gaze lingering on Kim Soon-sik's face for a moment before moving away.

"Ten-minute break. Drink some water and check your equipment. The third wave of attacks is at 9:30."

"Sir," a soldier from Cao County asked in broken Japanese, "how long...are we going to fight?"

Sato looked at him coldly: "Fight until the British tell you to stop, or you're all dead."

The soldier fell silent and lowered his head to fiddle with his rifle.