小编❥(^_-)：xue88b ，53237774 小编❥(^_-)：xue88b ，53237774
声明：资源收集于网络，仅用于试学及购买课程之参考，切勿用于其他用途，请支持购买正版课程！如若侵权，请留言告知删除，谢谢！
-----以下忽略，为内容填充-----
WHILE THE MACHINE guns continued to strafe the area, the trucks’ wheels began to creep up ontothe stone bridge. Flying bullets kept Granddad and his troops pinned down. A few men stucktheir heads above the dike, only to pay for their recklessness with their lives. Granddad’s chestswelled with rage. All the trucks were now on the bridge, raising the machine-gun-fire trajectory.
‘Men,’ he shouted, ‘attack!’ He pulled off three quick shots, downing two Japanese soldiers,whose bodies fell across the cab, their dark blood staining the hood. With the echo of his shotsstill in the air, a cacophonous burst of fire erupted from behind the dikes lining the road. Seven oreight more Japanese soldiers were cut down; two of them fell off the truck, arms and legschurning desperately as they burrowed into the black water on either side of the bridge. The Fangbrothers’ cannon roared, spewing a torrent of flame from its muzzle. Steel pellets and balls toreinto the second truck in line, with its load of sacks, sending plumes of smoke skyward. White ricestreamed from countless holes.
Father crawled on his belly from the sorghum field back to the dike, anxious to talk toGranddad, who was urgently reloading his pistol. The lead Jap truck revved its engine to getacross the bridge, but the front wheels ran over the rake barrier; loud hissing sighs escaped fromthe punctured tyres. The truck rumbled grotesquely as it dragged the linked rakes along, and toFather it looked like an enormous twisting snake that had swallowed a hedgehog it was trying todislodge. The Japs on the lead truck jumped to the ground. ‘Old Liu,’ Granddad shouted, ‘soundthe bugle!’ The sound of Bugler Liu’s horn chilled the air. ‘Charge!’ Granddad commanded,leading the charge and firing without aiming, cutting down one Japanese soldier after another.
The troops on the west side of the road joined the attack, engaging the Japs in hand-to-handcombat. Granddad watched as Mute leaped up onto the bed of the lead truck. The two remainingJaps on the truck lunged with their bayonets. He warded off one with his knife, then neatlyseparated the soldier from his helmeted head, which sailed through the air, trailing a long howlbefore landing heavily on the ground, the thud driving the remnants of the scream out of itsmouth. Father, amazed by the sharpness of the knife, stared at the stunned expression on theJap’s face. The cheeks were still quivering, the nostrils still twitching, as though it were about tosneeze.
Mute dispatched the other Jap, and when the man’s headless torso fell against the truck’srailing, the skin on his neck shrank inward around pulsating gushes of blood. The Japs in the reartruck lowered the barrel of their machine gun and fired a hail of bullets, mowing downGranddad’s soldiers like so many saplings, which toppled onto the Jap corpses. Mute sat downhard on the cab, blood seeping from a cluster of chest holes.
Father and Granddad threw themselves to the ground and crawled back to the sorghum field.
When they cautiously peeked over the top of the dike, they saw the rear truck chugging inreverse. ‘Fang Six,’ Granddad shouted, ‘the cannon! Nail that son of a bitch!’ The Fang brothersturned their loaded cannon in the direction of the dike, but as Fang Six bent over to light the fusehe was hit in the belly. Green intestines slithered out of the hole. ‘Shit!’ he blurted as he grabbedhis belly with both hands and rolled into the sorghum field. The trucks would soon be off thebridge. ‘Fire that cannon!’ Granddad screamed. Fang Seven picked up the smouldering tinderand touched it to the fuse with a shaky hand. It wouldn’t light, it simply wouldn’t light!
Granddad rushed up, grabbed the tinder out of his hand, and blew on it. It flared up. He touched itto the fuse. It sizzled, smoked momentarily, then went out with a puff of white smoke. Thecannon sat silently, as though dozing. Father just knew it wouldn’t fire.
The Jap truck had already reached the bridgehead, and the second and third trucks had startedmoving backward to join it. In the river below, several Jap corpses floated eastward, seepingblood that attracted frenzied schools of white eels. After a moment of silence, the cannon belchedthunderously, and its iron body leaped high above the dike as a wide swath of fire immolated oneof the rice trucks.
The Japs aboard the first truck jumped down onto the dike and set up their machine gun. Theyopened fire. A bullet slammed into Fang Seven’s face, shattering his nose and splattering Fatherwith blood.
Two Japs in the cab of the blazing truck opened their doors and jumped out, straight into theriver. The middle truck, unable to move either way, growled strangely, its wheels spinning. Therice rain continued to fall.
The Jap machine gun abruptly stopped firing, leaving only carbines to pop off an occasionalshot. A dozen or so Japs ran at a crouch past the burning truck, heading north with their weapons.
Granddad ordered his men to fire, but few responded. The dike was dotted top and bottom withthe bodies of soldiers; wounded men were moaning and wailing in the sorghum field. Granddadfired, sending Japs flying off the bridge. Rifle fire from the western side of the road cut downmore of them. Their comrades turned tail and ran. A bullet whizzing over from the southern bankof the river struck Granddad below the right shoulder; as his arm jerked, the pistol fell from hishand to hang by its strap from his neck. He backed into the sorghum field. ‘Douguan,’ he criedout, ‘help me.’ Ripping the sleeve of his shirt, he told Father to take a strip of white cloth fromhis waistband to bind the wound. That was when Father said, ‘Dad, Mom’s asking for you.’
‘Good boy!’ Granddad said. ‘Come help Dad kill every last one of those sons of bitches!’ Hereached into his belt, removed the abandoned Browning pistol, and handed it to Father, just asBugler Liu came crawling up the dike dragging a wounded leg. ‘Shall I blow the bugle,Commander?’
‘Blow it!’ Granddad said.
Kneeling on his good leg, Bugler Liu raised the horn to his lips and sounded it to the heavens;scarlet notes emerged.
‘Charge!’
Granddad’s command was met by shouts from the west side of the road. Holding his pistol inhis left hand, he jumped to his feet; bullets whizzed past his cheeks. He hit the ground and rolledback into the sorghum field. A scream of agony rose from the west side of the road, and Fatherknew that another comrade had been hit.
Bugler Liu sounded his horn once more; the scarlet blast struck the sorghum tips and set themshaking.
Granddad grabbed Father’s hand. ‘Follow me, so
