The Mysterious Soldier of the Anti-Japanese War

Chapter 432: Wilderness Game: A Man and a Bear's Miraculous Combination Against Japan

Liu Zishan, flashlight in hand, turned and ran back to the mine. Lei Tao, gripping his Scorpion submachine gun, patrolled the edge of the mountain. Rotten leaves crunched beneath his boots. Suddenly, there was a rustling in the bushes to his left. He ducked, rifle pointed forward, his heartbeat slowing with his pace. If it was truly a Japanese sentry, it would give everyone away.

Pushing aside the thorny vines, Lei Tao's pupils narrowed. A 1.2-meter-long bear cub was clumsily digging at a beehive, its round butt raised high, its paws smeared with honey glistening in the moonlight. The cub's ears twitched, and it turned its head, half a honeycomb in its mouth, its round eyes fixed on him, a drop of golden honey dangling from the tip of its nose. It looked adorably innocent.

"Where's the snack, little one?" Lei Tao's tense nerves suddenly relaxed, and he suppressed his laughter. Seeing the cub tilting its head to sniff him, with no intention of attacking, he backed away while muttering, "You eat yours, I'll go mine." But his eyes couldn't help but sweep across the cub's round belly, and the aroma of bacon flashed through his mind. Suddenly, he slapped his head - the appearance of black bear cubs in the wilderness meant that the adult bears, Dad and Mom, were nearby! He had seen the fighting power of adult bears when he was a mercenary in Central Africa. He couldn't help swallowing his saliva and touched the Bagua top on his waist: "The space and supplies are enough for a group to eat for more than a month. There's no need to provoke this ancestor."

Just as he turned, he heard a muffled thud from behind. The bear cub reared up, its furry paws lashing out at Lei Tao with the wind. He dodged sideways, but his clothes were caught in its claws, and he was dragged to the ground. The bear's weight, over 200 pounds, pressed down, nearly crushing his chest. He placed his left hand against the bear's throat, groping in the rubble with his right until he found a branch as thick as his forearm and stabbed it hard into the cub's belly. "Get out of the way!" The cub cried out in pain, its front paws flailing, knocking his hat off.

The sound of Japanese boots grew closer, and Lei Tao's back was soaked with sweat. He suddenly felt for the honey compressed biscuits at his waist, tore open the package, and handed it to the cub's nose. The cub smelled the sweetness and immediately released its claws, hugging the biscuits and chewing them. Lei Tao took the opportunity to turn over and grabbed the bear's ears: "Do me a favor, I'll give you enough after you finish it!" He took out the chili powder from the Bagua Top space, sprinkled it evenly on his clothes and jacket, rolled it into a ball, and stuffed it into the cub's mouth, "Go and lure away the one wearing yellow skin!"

"Search! There must be someone!" the Japanese sergeant roared, his bayonet gleaming coldly in the moonlight. Lei Tao slapped the bear's rump, and the cub bolted out, its chili-smeared coat in its mouth. It hadn't gotten far when the chili powder choked it, causing it to sneeze repeatedly. "A-choo! A-choo!" Its furry body shook wildly, sending the orange-red powder scattering like smoke.

Startled by the shadow, the Japanese soldiers in the front row pulled their triggers. The bullets grazed the bear's hide, sending chili powder flying everywhere. "Eyes! My eyes!" the private screamed, covering his face as the chili powder seeped into his nasal cavity, leaving tears and snot all over his face. The sergeant brandished his sword, attempting to give orders, but the acrid smoke made him cough violently: "Don't panic! It's a bear... cough cough..." Before he could finish his words, the bear cub, using its momentum, knocked over three men, its claws slashing five bloody marks on his uniform.

The battlefield instantly descended into chaos. Lei Tao, unsheathing his dust mask from the Bagua spinning top, leaped into the shadows of the trees like a black panther, his Mitsubishi bayonet piercing the back of a Japanese soldier. The soldier's throat gurgled, and before he could fall, he was covered over his mouth and nose and slowly brought down. "Baga! An ambush..." Another Japanese soldier turned, and Lei Tao hurled a stone at his wrist. The moment his Type 38 rifle landed, the bayonet had already slit his carotid artery.

In the melee, the young bear used its paw to knock the sergeant flying, sending him careening into a tree and falling to the ground. As the sergeant raised his rifle, Lei Tao unleashed two grenades. "Boom! Boom!" A gust of air, laced with chili powder, whipped up a fishy gust of wind, sending the sergeant flying over the bear's paw. The young bear looked down at the tearful, coughing, yellow-skinned man and slapped him away.

At that moment, two Japanese soldiers surrounded Lei Tao from the side. Lei Tao ducked and kicked one of them, piercing his bayonet without piercing the handle. The other one lunged at Lei Tao with a Type 38 rifle with a bayonet. He pulled out his bayonet and leaned back to avoid it. As he jumped back, the bayonet had already pierced the other's wrist. He then kicked him in the abdomen, piercing his bayonet through the other's throat.

Lei Tao had just dispatched the second Japanese soldier when a sudden sound of metal scraping against metal came from behind him. He instinctively fell forward, his Type 38 rifle gnashing against his back as it pierced the dirt, sending up a splatter of gravel that lacerated his cheek. As he rolled over, he ran into a third Japanese soldier, grinning and stepping on his wrist. The crackling of bones shifting beneath his boots was heard.

Lei Tao gritted his teeth, bent his legs, and kicked hard, taking advantage of the moment the other man lost his balance to roll over to the corpse. The Japanese soldier roared and pulled out his rifle, but Lei Tao grabbed the butt of the rifle, and the two rolled and wrestled in the mud. Lei Tao felt for the grenade at the corpse's waist, bit the pull ring between his teeth, and pulled it hard, knocking the Japanese soldier's helmet against his head and stuffing it into his clothes. The Japanese soldier panicked, "Baga!" spitting in his face, and desperately trying to tear his clothes off. Lei Tao took the opportunity to kick him into Yansai Lake, and then dove into the nearby bomb crater.

"Boom!" A violent explosion sent a column of water soaring into the sky, sending broken wood and human remains mingling with the lake water and showering everywhere. Lei Tao's ears buzzed, and his nose was filled with the smell of gunpowder and blood.

Ten minutes later, the Japanese squad was completely wiped out. Lei Tao stuffed the found map into his space. The bear cub squatted beside the beehive, its paws covered in honey stains, looking at him. "Next." He threw a few compressed biscuits over. The bear cub grabbed them with a "woohoo" sound, turned around and ran into the dense forest. Lei Tao put away his smile and took out an incendiary mine - the shell was wrapped with asbestos, and the rubber pad at the bottom could absorb any object. He stuffed the mine into the Japanese backpack, opened the safety, and tied the pull ring to the stiff fingers of the corpse: "Whoever touches it will be unlucky."

Just as he set the trap, a dead branch on the right side snapped. Lei Tao rolled into the pit, three bullets grazed his scalp. He fumbled for two grenades, calculated the direction and threw them. After two explosions, the forest fell into a dead silence. He crawled on the ground, crawling to the explosion area, but found half a blood-stained Japanese army armband next to a corpse - this was not an ordinary patrol, but a scout team from the 5th Division searching for the 5th Regiment with tracking dogs.