Chapter 71: The Bloody Battle of Jinguanqiao (Part 1)

　　Zhang Facai raced after Dong Yaoting through the chaos. To their astonishment, Battalion Commander Zhang Pengfei and his entire 1st Battalion rose from the dust and debris after the Japanese artillery barrage—bayonets fixed—charging from their trenches into close-quarters combat with the advancing enemy.　　The position had become a slaughterhouse. Zhang Pengfei’s men fought desperately against Japanese soldiers of Taiwanese origin—men who shared their ancestry but now fought under the Japanese flag. Through the smoke, blood sprayed as seven Japanese soldiers converged on each Chinese defender. Dong Sanshao watched in anguish as the Taiwanese-born Japanese troops cut down the 1st Battalion’s soldiers one after another. Yet not a single Chinese soldier surrendered.　　Dong Yaoting and Zhang Facai brought Dong Sanshao four Chiang Kai-shek rifles and thirty rounds of ammunition. Seizing one rifle, Dong Sanshao opened fire on the Japanese troops. He fired shot after shot without pause—every round found its target. When the thirty rounds were spent, Dong Sanshao raised his sniper rifle with tears in his eyes and fired until it, too, was empty. By the time the 1st Battalion had been completely wiped out, Dong S