Chapter 31 : Bloody Battle at Liusi Bridge (2)

　　The attacking Japanese remained oblivious to the sniper at their rear. Certain their officers fell to Chinese defenders at the front, not one soldier turned to look back.

　　Dong San-shao lay hidden in the hollow, scanning for commanders through his scope. Combat had honed his skill—he saved his bullets for Japanese officers. Higher ranks meant higher value.

　　A second lieutenant soon filled his crosshairs. One trigger squeeze. Two seconds later, the officer dropped—a temple shot.

　　Next fell a captain. Then another lieutenant...

　　When reports reached Colonel Sasaki of the 1st Regiment, Botian Brigade, he learned every officer above lieutenant rank was dead. Command collapsed.

　　Sasaki scanned Chinese lines with binoculars. Futile—no lens could spot a ghost. Snarling, he radioed Major General Botian Zhongyi.

　　Botian froze. *Zuozhi Guixiu’s team must be annihilated.* If the Zhina sniper lived, *his men died honorably.*

　　"Search our rear!" he ordered Sasaki. "That Zhina devil’s hiding there!" A final warning: *"Move like shadows—he’s cunning as a fox."*

　　Colonel Sasaki ordered a full retreat after the call. He then field-promoted Sergeant Major Gao Fuzhi—a Taiwanese conscript using the Japanese name Inoue Saburō—to acting lieutenant. Inoue assembled twenty fellow Taiwanese conscripts for a sniper-hunting squad.

　　Cunningly, Inoue advised Sasaki: "Colonel, shed our uniforms. Peasant clothes might trick the Zhina sniper into sparing us."

　　Sasaki approved. Clad in coarse cotton tunics, Inoue (Gao Fuzhi) led his men downhill, slinking toward the rear like shadows.

　　On the Chinese side, Colonel Chen Ruqi of the 460th Regiment braced for annihilation—stunned by the sudden Japanese withdrawal. Battalion Commander Jiang Lifu surveyed his decimated troops: half lost under Botian’s artillery.

　　"Goddamn it!" Jiang cursed. "These Japs fight like rabid dogs!"

　　Chen Ruqi spat: "That unit's fucking Taiwanese mountain troops. See their charge speed? More vicious than regular Japs!"

　　Jiang Lifu cursed: "*Goddamn traitors!* Our own blood, now helping tigers devour people! Deserve death!"

　　Chen Ruqi scanned with binoculars. "Strange—civilians behind Japanese lines?" He stiffened. "Wait! Our man in their rear!" Passing the lenses to Jiang: "See?"

　　"Sir," Jiang frowned, "did we plant snipers there?"

　　"*I'm stretched thin here!*" Chen Ruqi shook his head. "*No men for ambushes!* Sending one sniper behind enemy lines—what fucking difference would that make?!"

　　"Allied support?" Jiang offered.

　　Chen refocused on Dong San-shao's position—clear from his vantage, hidden from Japanese below. Had Sasaki known one man caused this chaos, he'd have shelled the ridge, not wasted troops.

　　"Commander Jiang," Chen ordered. "Take First Company—extract him."

　　Jiang stared. "*Risk a whole company for one man?*"

　　"Think!" Chen Ruqi snapped. "Why’d the Japs suddenly withdraw? Because our sniper wiped out their commanders! Them sending a squad to hunt him proves his value. We can’t *sit idle while they kill him!* Him lurking in their rear? *That plants terror in their guts!* Got it?"

　　Jiang Lifu, persuaded by the regimental commander's analysis, shouted to the signalman: "Order First Company to assemble here immediately—on the double!"

　　Chen Ruqi added: "Command staff remains here. Send the company commander with the extraction team. You maintain command of this position."

　　As Jiang acknowledged, Captain Zhou Cheng reported at attention: "Battalion Commander! First Company: 120 assigned, 80 present. Forty martyred in service to the nation!"

　　Chen's heart clenched. Returning the salute, he commanded: "First Company: Skirt enemy lines via flanking route. Retrieve our sniper from Japanese rear positions!"

　　Through his scope, Dong San-shao tracked twenty-one figures in peasant clothes—Inoue Saburō (Gao Fuzhi) and his Taiwanese conscripts. His smirk vanished as he counted his rounds: Twenty bullets.

　　"Fuck!" he hissed. Even if every shot kills... one survives. Improvise or die.

　　His rifle followed Gao Fuzhi's squad. Behind Japanese lines, Colonel Sasaki peered through binoculars—artillery primed to obliterate Dong's position at the first shot.

　　Seconds crawled. Dong fired. Under two seconds—a conscript dropped, brained.

　　Chen Ruqi roared approval. Jiang Lifu stared: "500 meters! Headshot! Never seen such shooting!"

　　As Chen Ruqi and Jiang Lifu strategized, Dong San-shao fired his fourth shot. Another Taiwanese conscript collapsed—brains spraying from a head wound. Dong's firing position lay in Colonel Sasaki's absolute blind spot—through binoculars, Sasaki saw only interconnected hillocks forming a labyrinthine depression.

　　Yet Sasaki witnessed two of Inoue Saburō's men fall. Frantically sweeping his lenses across the terrain, he found no trace of the sniper. Teeth-grinding frustration seized him. Shelling randomly would waste precious shells; he needed the sniper's grid coordinates.

　　From his hollow, Dong San-shao fired a third shot. A conscript's skull erupted—bone fragments and gray-pink brains arcing through the air. Gao Fuzhi halted his squad, scanning desperately with binoculars. He couldn't approach the corpses—the Zhina sniper covered them like a wolf guarding bait.

　　"Fuck me! Got balls? Show yourselves!" Dong San-shao jeered silently as the Japanese froze.

　　Minutes crawled. Unbeknownst to Dong, Zhou Cheng's rescue company raced toward him. Gao Fuzhi's desperation mounted—he felt Sasaki's binoculars scorching his back. This stalemate crippled the Liusi Bridge assault. He barked: "Advance! Now!"

　　Dong San-shao fired almost lazily. The lead soldier's spine snapped as he crumpled. "Retrieve the body!" Gao screamed. When the second man bent to grab the corpse's ankles—his skull detonated. Brains, bone shards, and blood sprayed across Gao's face and uniform.

　　Two men dead in three seconds. Gao Fuzhi trembled violently—helpless rage strangling his throat as gore dripped from his cheek.

　　From the angle at which his compatriot's skull had been blown open, Gao Fuzhi deduced the Zhina sniper must be positioned at three o'clock. He urgently radioed Colonel Sasaki with the coordinates.

　　Sasaki swung his binoculars toward the three o'clock direction. Only undulating hillocks met his gaze—not a trace of any sniper. A dead zone. Regardless of whether Inoue Saburō's coordinates were precise, he barked: "Mortar team! Saturate that sector!"

　　Over a dozen 81mm mortar shells screamed toward Dong San-shao's position.