41: Final All-Out Attack

The sound of artillery first rang out from the east.

It wasn't just one shot, but a volley. The sky wasn't fully bright yet, remaining a bluish-gray, and the muzzle flashes were particularly blinding. One cluster, two, three or four, merging into a sheet of light.

The sound arrived half a second later.

Boom—

Rumble—

BOOM!!!

It wasn't just an impact point; the wall was shaking. The entire west wall, from south to north, felt as if it were being hammered from one end to the other by a giant sledgehammer. Brick dust fell in rustling showers, and plaster fell from the ceiling, pitter-pattering against the steel helmets.

"Artillery strike! Get against the wall!"

Shangguan Zhibiao's roar was half-swallowed by the artillery fire.

The defenders shrank toward the base of the wall, curling up and holding their heads. Chen Xi was at the second-floor window and didn't hide. He stared outside.

The artillery fire began to extend.

Pushing outward from the wall, it blasted the open ground in front of the warehouse. Soil, broken bricks, and barbed wire were all tossed into the air. Then the shells pulled back, continuing to batter the wall.

The middle section of the west wall, which had been loosened by previous blasts, now started to sway.

"They want to blast a breach," Xie Jinyuan's voice sounded behind Chen Xi.

Chen Xi didn't turn around. "I can see that."

"How wide?"

"At least ten meters."

Xie Jinyuan was silent for two seconds. "We can't hold it."

"We have to."

The shelling stopped.

It stopped suddenly. A buzzing echo remained in their ears, yet the world went silent. It was a terrifying silence.

Then the sound came.

It wasn't artillery; it was howling. It was Japanese—the words were indecipherable, but the tone was clear. It was the kind of howl wild beasts make before a charge.

Figures rose from the flattened ruins. One group, two groups, they were densely packed. Steel helmets, bayonets, and khaki uniforms.

The Dare-to-Die Squad.

Each man had explosive packs strapped to them, some held in their arms, others on their backs. They crouched low and began to run. Not in a straight line, but in a skirmish line, charging toward the west wall.

Machine guns rang out.

The defenders' only Czech-style Machine Gun chattered away from the second-floor window. Bullets swept across, knocking down the first few. Bodies pitched forward, and explosive packs fell to the ground without detonating.

But there were too many of them.

One fell, two replaced him. A row fell, and there were more behind them.

The distance closed to fifty meters.

Chen Xi drew his slingshot.

The rubber band tightened. The system's red aiming circle locked onto a Dare-to-Die member charging at the front. The man had a scar on his face and roared with his mouth open, showing yellowed, blackened teeth.

He released.

The stone vanished.

The scarred man's head snapped back. His helmet didn't fly off, but he fell straight back. The explosive pack in his arms rolled away and was stepped on by the person behind him.

The second shot.

The third shot.

Chen Xi's fingers were lightning fast, drawing and releasing, drawing and releasing. With every stone sent out, a Dare-to-Die member fell. Some were headshots, others went through the chest.

But he couldn't kill them all.

Thirty meters.

The defenders began throwing grenades. They swung their arms wide to hurl them. The black iron lumps somersaulted through the air, landed, and exploded.

Boom! Boom!

Soil mixed with flesh and blood flew into the air. A swath of the Dare-to-Die Squad fell. But they didn't stop. Those still alive charged forward over their comrades' corpses, their eyes bloodshot like mad dogs.

Twenty meters.

Chen Xi saw a particularly frail Japanese soldier, small in stature, with an explosive pack that was almost larger than he was. The boy ran unsteadily, his left leg seemingly injured.

The slingshot's red circle locked onto his chest.

Chen Xi's finger paused for a moment.

Just for a moment.

The frail soldier rushed to the base of the wall, crouched down, and stuffed the explosive pack into a hole blasted by a shell. He pulled out a match and struck it. The wind was strong; the first one went out. The second one lit.

The flame licked the fuse, which began to hiss with smoke.

The frail soldier turned to run.

Chen Xi's stone arrived.

It hit the back of his head. He pitched forward, his face slamming into the broken bricks. The fuse was still burning.

Three seconds.

Two seconds.

Boom—

A ball of fire exploded at the base of the wall. Bricks shattered and flew, and dust billowed up. A hole appeared in the wall—not large, but enough for a person to crawl through.

"Plug it!" Shangguan Zhibiao roared from downstairs.

Two defenders lunged forward, stuffing sandbags into the hole. They had only filled half of it when a bayonet stabbed in from outside, piercing one defender's belly.

The defender grunted but didn't retreat; instead, he pushed forward. He clamped the bayonet with his stomach and grabbed the barrel with his hands, pulling outward.

The Japanese soldier outside was pulled into a stumble, his upper body leaning into the hole.

The defender next to him swung his rifle butt and smashed it down.

Once. Twice. The sound of a skull cracking was muffled.

But outside the hole, more bayonets stabbed in.

Chen Xi moved to another window.

This side offered a clearer view. The Dare-to-Die Squad had lost all regard for their lives. When those in front were shot and fell, those behind picked up the explosive packs and continued the charge. Over a dozen corpses were already piled at the base of the wall, all of them strapped with explosives.

Boom!

Another part of the wall base exploded.

This blast was severe. Half the wall bulged outward, and cracks spread like a spiderweb.

"The wall isn't going to hold!" someone shouted from downstairs, his voice cracking.

Chen Xi grit his teeth, his slingshot specifically targeting those carrying explosive packs. One shot, one kill. But some always slipped through.

The live stream chat had long since gone crazy.

"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit!"

"This is a fucking human wave tactic!"

"Master Xi can't kill them fast enough!"

"The wall! The wall is going to collapse!"

Bang!

A particularly loud explosion rang out. It wasn't at the base, but slightly to the left of the middle of the wall. Many explosive packs had been placed there, and the blast was fierce.

The entire section of the wall bulged outward and then split open.

Cracks extended from top to bottom with a series of snaps. Bricks fell away, and cement dust poured down like a waterfall.

The wall didn't fall.

But a gap appeared. It wasn't large, about half a person wide.

"A breach!" someone on the Japanese side roared in broken Chinese, "Charge in!"

People surged toward the breach.

The defenders also surged toward the breach.

The two groups collided at that narrow opening. Bayonet against bayonet, rifle butt against rifle butt. People squeezed against each other on both sides of the opening, like the entrance to a meat grinder.

Chen Xi's shot pierced a Japanese soldier's neck.

Blood sprayed out, splashing all over the face of the defender opposite him. The defender wiped his face and continued stabbing.

The breach was blocked by corpses.

But more Japanese Soldiers were piling on.

Rumble—

An even larger explosion occurred.

This time it wasn't an explosive pack. It was a shell. A tank shell.

Chen Xi turned his head and saw that the two Type 89 Tanks had somehow moved to three hundred meters away. Smoke was rising from their muzzles.

The shell hit above the breach.

Bricks and stones collapsed.

The narrow breach was instantly blasted into a three-meter-wide hole. Broken bricks, cement blocks, and snapped wooden beams rained down.

The defenders at the entrance were half-buried.

Those who survived crawled out from the rubble, their faces covered in blood.

The howling of the Japanese Soldiers boiled over.

Like water from a burst dam, they poured in through that three-meter-wide hole.

The cold glint of bayonets, khaki uniforms, and distorted faces merged into a single torrent.

Shangguan Zhibiao led the reserve unit to the front.

"Plug it! Plug it with your lives!"

But it could no longer be plugged.

There were too many people, and the breach was too large. The defenders were pushed back, one step, then two.

Chen Xi fired his last stone.

He reached for the sickle behind his waist.

Just as his fingers touched the wooden handle, a louder explosion came from below.

It wasn't just in one place.

It was in several. Along the west wall, they all exploded at once.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Explosive packs and shells were all directed at the same area. The west wall looked like it had been kicked repeatedly by a giant, riddled with holes.

The largest breach went from three meters wide to five, and then to eight.

The entire wall was completely open.

It looked like a giant mouth grinning from ear to ear.

Japanese Soldiers surged through that mouth, their bayonets flashing with the cold light of dawn.

The live stream chat went blank for a moment.

Then a single phrase exploded onto the screen:

"It's over."