Chapter 202: Impasse

“1, 2, 3, HEAVEEEE….” 7 robust men shouted in rhythm as they carefully carried the Type-53 HMG up the stairs. When they reached the top, the HMG was placed on the ground and rolled into the already prepared machine gun fort.

The machine gun fort was not tall and could perfectly fit two squatted men inside. One of them lifted the Type-53 HMG’s 250 bullets bandolier locked on the gun’s body and in no time, the sound of the heavy machine gun firing started up, the constant flow of empty bullet shells dropped on the floor, producing ‘clank’ sounds.

With this, everyone all heaved sighs of relief. They were all able to hear the ‘ding’ sounds from the spikes that struck the ammunition crates and the protective steel boards installed on the machine gun, but with the machine gun firing at the wall, the originally high rat mountain started to recede.

The Type-53 7.62mm HMG is an imitation of the Soviet Union’s Goryunov, produced in 1953 and universally equipped across the army, it was named as the human mower in the Korean War. At the same time, China created their own very own heavy machine gun, of course, it was reformed China. It was only until the 80s of the 20th century that the Type-53 was completely decommissioned and removed from the army’s orbat.

Rate of fire: 300 – 350 rounds/ minute, which meant that under the circumstance where the barrel does not overheat, it could possibly; fire at a rate of 300 – 350 rounds/ minute continuously for long periods of time.

As for Zhang Xiao Qiang’s M1919A6 HMG, it had a firing rate of 150 rounds/ minute, and the barrel would emit smoke after 5 minutes of firing. For it to sustain a consistent fire for half an hour, it could not exceed 75/rounds a minute, otherwise, the barrel had to be cooled.

Furthermore, changing the barrel required 3 minutes of time while changing the bolt required 2 minutes. These timings were done by the women under continuous practice and upgrade and were their best timings. Due to the shortcomings of the M1919A6 HMG, the machine gunner and assistant constantly quarreled.

In other words, this Type-53 7.22mm HMG’s firing rate was five times more efficient than the M1919A6 used by Zhang Xiao Qiang’s subordinates, which also meant that one Type-53 had to be able to provide support as much as four M1919A6.

Seeing the 3 7.62mm HMGs firing continuously, elation filled Zhang Xiao Qiang’s heart. It was his first time restoring something perfectly. He watched as the members carried crates after crates of 7.63x54mm bullets along with six black HMG barrels. In his mind, Zhang Xiao Qiang barely recalled the pile of components from five to six machine guns, then threw them to the back of his head. It appeared that all the Type-53 HMG inside the arsenal had been torn down by him….

As time dragged on, the longer the delay between each thorn shot out by the large porcupine-resembling creatures and the less concentrated they became. At long last, the torrential rain of thorns became droplets of thorns.

Without the threat of the long ranged attacks, all the members picked up their guns and returned to formation. The concentrated fires from the rifles and machine guns quickly demolished the rat mountain, reducing the immense pressure on everyone’s heads.

Zhang Xiao Qiang led a few men and cleaned the blood and corpses off the Type-92 Battalion Gun that was left in the center of the compound, then carefully cleaned the inner part of the tube and wiped some of the rigid components with gun oil. When the Type-92 battalion gun was cleaned up and looked as good as new, Zhang Xiao Qiang rubbed his hands together in glee as he looked at the neatly placed 70mm high explosive warheads.

After testing the Battalion gun’s highest angle, he inserted the warhead in, sealed the bolt, and….

“Bang…..” the battalion gun jerked backward, and a loud explosion occurred outside the wall.

Zhang Xiao Qiang did not bother about the members who were recovering from the shot, he raised his head and looked at Three who was inspecting the shot, to which he turned back and shook his head.

Zhang Xiao Qiang did not know how to operate the battalion gun, furthermore, it had no aiming device for them to take aim, which had been taken down by others a long time ago. Of course, even if they had it, Zhang Xiao Qiang and the rest still wouldn’t know how to use it.

Zhang Xiao Qiang’s original intent was to use the Type-92 Battalion gun to fry the porcupine creatures that were firing their thorns from a position 50m away, but when he climbed back up the watchtower to find them with his binoculars, he knew that he was oversimplifying the problem.

Although they have shifted the Type-92 Battalion gun to its maximum angle, the warhead landed and produced a large hole a 100m away from the strange creatures. Zhang Xiao Qiang did not know that the Type 92 Battalion Gun shortest range was 100m. With his ‘professional’ accuracy, to actually obtain a 150m shot was already considered a good shot.

It was 16:13, Zhang Xiao Qiang and a few of the survivors installed the Type-54 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine gun. It might have been due to the bad preservation of the gun, some parts were too rusted that Zhang Xiao Qiang was forced to throw. Looking at the long barrel in front of him, Zhang Xiao Qiang fell into a daze.

His original plan was to repair it and used its frame to replace the heavy machine gun on the watchtower to scatter all the rats and wait for them to be dispersed before using the Battalion Gun. But seeing how corroded the gun was, Zhang Xiao Qiang felt that he could not repair it well enough.

There were two Type-54 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine guns, to which the second one had a worse outer appearance. Just when Zhang Xiao Qiang lit his cigarette, he felt something strange occurring beneath his feet.

“Rumble…” The bottom of the wall behind the rat mountain suddenly caved in, as countless of rats spewed out like a blood red fountain.

The surging red-haired rats quickly scattered and ran in all directions, turning the monotonous black soil ground to red. Red rats continued to surge out from the underground tunnel. Seeing the countless of rats running over to them, Zhang Xiao Qiang sighed in his mind, thinking: “It’s over!”

“PA PA PA….” Shangguan Qiao Yun, who was always behind him, stood up and fired off with her rifle.

As fires were shot, her body started trembling, seeing the countless of rats running towards her, as a lady, Shangguan Qiao Yun felt even more fear than the men. Empty bullet shells dropped at her feet as she emptied her rifle. She then unholstered her M1911A1 and continued firing.

After emptying the bullets from her pistol, she threw the pistol to the ground and ran over to Zhang Xiao Qiang who was busy firing at the rats, opened her arms and hugged him from behind, and gently buried her face on his back.

To her, nothing was important anymore, she believed that her remaining days would be terminated by the rat tide. She took a sniff of the cigarette smell on his body and slowly leaned into him, her slender arms hugging his waist tightly.

Previously while firing her pistol, she had thought of saving the last bullet for herself. She wanted to raise her head to look at him one last time, the only man that ever walked into her heart, the man that she felt that she could never leave his side from, the man that let her experience the bitterness and sweetness of love, she wanted to look at him one more time before she died.

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