Courtyard House: From Deputy Division Commander to Civilian, Progressing All the Way

Just as Shen Jian analyzed, Li Yunlong's three main divisions launched a dragnet-like search in the outskirts. Although they killed some small groups of bandits on the periphery, they were unable to inflict serious damage on the enemy. Those cunning bandits used familiar secret passages and caves to play hide-and-seek with the People's Liberation Army.

Meanwhile, in a deep mountain forest hundreds of kilometers away from the main force.

Two thousand five hundred soldiers of the Special Task Force Independent Regiment, like a group of ghosts blending into the night, were silently moving through the muddy mountain roads.

They weren't wearing military uniforms, but rather the tattered clothes of local hunters and mountain dwellers. Each person's face was covered in black and green camouflage paint, revealing only pairs of bloodthirsty eyes like those of wild wolves.

Lin Yang was walking at the very front of the group.

He held a well-maintained PPSh submachine gun in his hand, and two sharp triangular bayonets were tucked into his waistband. Ten consecutive days of forced marches and sleeping in the open had made his face a little thinner, but his eyes looked even sharper and more piercing.

"Commander!"

Like a nimble monkey, Monk Wei slid down from a towering tree in front of him, approached Lin Yang, and reported in a low voice.

"Five kilometers ahead is 'Tiger Head Mountain'! I just went up there for a look. The mountain is so steep it's like it was cut by a knife. There's only one winding mountain road leading up. There are three pillboxes and bunkers halfway up the mountain, with heavy machine guns mounted on them. There's a huge natural cave at the top of the mountain, and there's an iron fence at the entrance."

Wei Heshang swallowed hard, his eyes gleaming with excitement: "Political Commissar Shen's intelligence was correct; this is definitely the lair of a big fish! I even saw two men in Kuomintang officer uniforms patrolling the mountainside!"

Lin Yang crouched down behind a large tree, took out a tactical map wrapped in oil paper, and glanced at it in the dim moonlight.

Tiger Head Mountain!

This is a key stronghold that Shen Jian finally located after deciphering enemy radio codes and interrogating more than a dozen prisoners over the past month.

Although this is not the headquarters of "Ghost Fox" Bai Chong, it is the largest armory and transit station of the enemy in southeastern Guizhou! Guarding this place is a remnant main force regiment of the Kuomintang Provisional Seventh Army, plus more than a thousand men of "Drilling Dragon", the most vicious bandit leader in the area.

"More than two thousand people guarding a natural fortress." Lin Yang put away the map and sneered.

"Commander, how should we attack? If we launch a direct assault, that path is too narrow. If the enemy's heavy machine guns sweep through, many of our brothers will die." The battalion commander leaned over and asked with a grave expression.

Lin Yang looked up at the dark night sky; the rain was pouring down even harder.

"A direct assault? That's something only a brute would do."

Lin Yang turned his gaze to the back of Tiger Head Mountain. It was a sheer cliff that was almost vertical at ninety degrees, hundreds of meters high, completely bare without a single weed, and extremely slippery after being washed by the rain.

"Since the enemy has concentrated all their forces on the narrow path in front, the cliff is a blind spot in their defenses. They believe that even a monkey couldn't climb that cliff!"

Lin Yang took a deep breath, slung the PPSh submachine gun behind his back, and drew the triangular bayonet from his waist.

"Battalion Commander, you will lead the main force to lie in ambush in the dense forest below the main path. Without my order, no one is allowed to fire, and no one is to reveal their position!"

"Monk!"

Lin Yang turned to look at Wei Heshang, his eyes revealing a kind of madness that was willing to risk everything to survive.

"Choose fifty of the most agile and best-climbing brothers! Bring grappling hooks and ropes! Follow me up the cliff behind the mountain!"

"As long as we scale the cave and blow up their armory from inside, their frontline defenses will crumble without a fight! Then, Battalion Commander, when you hear the explosion at the summit, immediately lead your men up! Encircle and annihilate these bastards!"

"Yes, sir!" the battalion commander and Wei Heshang roared in unison.

The night was as dark as ink, and the rain poured down.

Lin Yang led fifty assault team members, like fifty geckos, silently attaching themselves to the cliff face on the back of Tiger Head Mountain.

Rainwater cascaded wildly down the sheer cliff face, its chilling cold penetrating to the bone. Fingers clung to the slippery crevices of the rock; a single misstep would send one tumbling into the abyss, shattering to pieces.

Lin Yang took the lead, his movements incredibly precise and powerful. Each throw of the grappling hook perfectly gripped the tiny protrusion above. He was like a tireless machine, leading the assault team, dancing on the edge of death.

It took two whole hours to climb.

When Lin Yang's large hands, covered in blood and mud, finally gripped the edge of the cave at the top of the mountain, his physical strength had almost reached its limit.

He silently climbed to the top of the mountain and lay prone in the bushes like a black panther.

Behind him, Wei Heshang and the remaining forty-eight assault team members (two of whom had fallen off the cliff during the climb without even a scream) also climbed up one after another. In each of their eyes burned the fury of revenge.

Behind the cave, only two bandits wearing straw raincoats were dozing off. They never dreamed that someone would climb up the hellish cliff.

Lin Yang made a hand gesture.

Wei Heshang and another soldier darted out like ghosts.

"Snap!"

Two chilling sounds of bones snapping echoed through the rainy night. The two sentries didn't even have time to groan before their necks snapped, and they collapsed limply to the ground.

Lin Yang waved his hand, and fifty assault team members picked up their submachine guns and, like a black tide, silently surged into the huge cavern.

Inside the cave, the lights were on.

Crates of ammunition, American submachine guns, and even several mortars were piled up like mountains. Hundreds of bandits and Kuomintang remnants were drinking and eating meat around the bonfire, making a loud commotion.

They were completely unaware that death was already standing behind them.

Lin Yang coldly stared at the group of scum, took two wooden-handled grenades from his waist, lit the fuses, held them in his hand for two seconds, and then threw them violently into the pile of ammunition in the center of the cave.

"Let's do it!"

With a roar, Lin Yang unleashed a furious barrage of fire from his PPSh submachine gun!

"Da da da da da!"

Fifty submachine guns opened fire simultaneously, and the dense hail of bullets swept away a large number of enemies near the campfire like wheat being harvested.

Before the surviving enemies could react...

"Boom! Rumble—!"

The grenade thrown into the ammunition pile exploded, directly triggering a chain reaction of explosions!

A massive fireball rose into the air inside the cave, and the terrifying shockwave, carrying with it debris and shrapnel, turned the entire cave into a bloody hell.

Screams, explosions, and gunshots intertwined to create a symphony of death.

"Enemy attack! Enemy attack from the back mountain!"

The enemy commander, who was guarding the mountainside on the front, was terrified when he heard the commotion and was about to turn his guns around to reinforce the enemy.

The battalion commander down the mountain had already heard the explosion.

"Comrades! The commander has succeeded! Charge! Leave no one alive! Kill!"