Gao Fei had absolutely no experience in close-quarters combat. He knew how to fight indoors, how to fight in alleyways, how to fight from a fixed position—but as always, only on paper.
Actual combat?
In actual combat, Gao Fei had no footwork, no tactical movements, no terminology. He did not even have the ability to distinguish friend from foe.
So Gao Fei did not know how to fight. Naturally, he just fought wildly.
The sort of wild flailing where random punches beat an old master to death; the sort of wild fighting where whoever he saw was simply unlucky.
When Gao Fei heard Sholokhov shout, he raised his rifle toward Grasky’s side, but he did not see anyone. He only saw a hand grenade that had been thrown over land in front of Grasky.
If there was no one there, he turned. The moment he turned, he saw the “above” Sholokhov had mentioned, but Sholokhov had already raised his rifle and shot down the enemy charging along the outer edge of the trench.
Although the enemy held the advantage in height, Sholokhov… one could only say Sholokhov was steadier. Being steadier made him more accurate than an enemy firing while running, so a burst of rounds struck the charging man.
The enemy was already down. Gao Fei depressed his muzzle and saw two men rushing in along the trench. The one in front had already opened fire at Samir, but Gao Fei’s hands were a step faster. He fired first, rounds spitting out in succession, knocking the enemy in front flat to the ground. As he swept his muzzle across, he brought down the second enemy as well.
The recoil of the AK-74 really was light. When firing on full-auto, the rifle only seemed to tremble in his hands, easy to control, nothing like a machine gun that jumped all over the place the moment it went automatic.
Then Gao Fei suddenly felt the rifle stop trembling.
After he pulled the trigger again at the enemy lying on the ground and no bullet came out, Gao Fei finally realized his magazine was empty.
Two thunderous booms sounded behind him, and then Grasky’s machine gun fell silent.
Gao Fei whipped his head around. By instinct, he raised his empty rifle again.
Raise the rifle, aim—then remember the magazine was already empty. In alarm, Gao Fei lowered the rifle and reached for a magazine from the pouch on his chest rig.
An enemy rushed out from the corner of the trench that had been blown in during the day, but before he could fire, Grasky, kneeling on one knee, opened fire.
The machine gun roared again. One short burst, and the charging enemy dropped instantly. Then Grasky fired another long burst.
There were still enemies, but Grasky could not let anyone else in. He could only keep firing to pin them down. But after only a few rounds, the machine gun stopped firing again.
Out of ammunition.
The belt on Grasky’s machine gun had not been a full belt to begin with, because real combat was not a game. There was no system to zero out and reorganize the scattered remaining rounds into a neat full count. So when the defensive pressure was not especially heavy, Grasky would not remove and throw away the dozens of rounds he had left.
“Hey.”
Grasky only shouted once, and Sholokhov immediately shouted after him, “Hey!”
A brief exchange—Grasky needed Sholokhov to help him suppress the enemy, and Sholokhov signaled that he understood.
That was the tacit understanding between old comrades.
Grasky pulled over a belt of ammunition. He was reloading.
Gao Fei was reloading too.
Gao Fei reloaded very slowly.
First, flick the magazine catch to remove the empty magazine, then tear open the magazine pouch on his chest rig, pull out a full magazine, fumble to align it with the magazine well, and insert it.
Gao Fei had watched plenty of videos of fast AK-74 magazine changes. In his head, he had a complete set of quick-reload movements—fast, and stylish too.
But his brain knew them. His hands did not.
At a time like this, being a little slow did not matter. Slow was fine, but he had to be steady. He absolutely could not make a mistake. A mistake would waste even more time, and wasting time might cost him his life.
Sholokhov fired off a burst, then after ceasing fire, moved quickly toward the bend in the trench. He was not staying in place to fire defensively; he was going to fight the enemy face-to-face.
The farther the distance, the higher the demand on marksmanship. The closer the distance, the higher the demand on nerve.
An enemy appeared, opening fire the instant he emerged, exchanging shots with Sholokhov. The rifle in Sholokhov’s hands did not stop, but the enemy spun around and retreated again.
Sholokhov was out of ammunition too. Grasky had not finished reloading yet.
Sholokhov clenched his teeth and glanced back, only to see Gao Fei just then raising his newly reloaded rifle in his direction.
Before Sholokhov could open his mouth to signal Gao Fei to take over, another enemy flashed out from the corner.
This was a gap in firepower. There was no helping it.
Sholokhov’s expression froze. Right now, there was nothing he could do.
Gao Fei opened fire toward Sholokhov.
The trench was very narrow. Once Sholokhov stood in front of Gao Fei, he blocked most of the firing angle. So if Gao Fei wanted to shoot, he had to fire right past Sholokhov.
The bullets flew past Sholokhov’s ear.
Gao Fei fired, and the enemy fired too, but Gao Fei’s rounds struck the enemy in the chest. Then, as the muzzle climbed, the bullets hit the enemy in sequence from below upward—throat, then helmet.
The enemy’s first bullet merely skimmed over Gao Fei’s head, and the rest all went into the sky.
Gao Fei had filled Sholokhov’s gap in firepower. He had killed the enemy.
Grasky finally finished reloading. With a sharp snap, he slammed the receiver cover shut and roared, “Ready!”
Gao Fei turned back again, letting go of the direction guarded by Grasky and Sholokhov. His muzzle quickly swung half a circle toward the front. He saw no enemy. Then the muzzle pointed toward Samir’s direction. Still no enemy.
Samir had already stood up, but he immediately crouched again, dropping to one knee and aiming his rifle at the bend in the trench.
Two directions, two corners—both sealed off.
Sholokhov changed magazines far faster than Gao Fei.
Gao Fei had taken five seconds to change a magazine, but Sholokhov took less than one.
With a crisp, efficient magazine change, Sholokhov slung the rifle against his body, took a few quick steps, and suddenly leapt. Bracing both hands on the ground, he dove forward like a fish, then rolled over, swung his legs around after him, and cleanly exited the trench.
Once out of the trench, Sholokhov shouldered his rifle again and abruptly stood. First, he raised his rifle and searched in Grasky’s direction. A moment later, he turned back toward Samir’s direction. Then he turned again, looked to both sides, and suddenly crouched back down.
Whenever the brightness dimmed, new flares would be fired up. The sky was very bright.
Sholokhov crouched by the edge of the trench. He made a hand signal to Grasky, then waved one hand at Gao Fei, making a follow-me gesture.
Sholokhov was up above, Gao Fei inside the trench. The two of them ran together toward the direction Grasky had been defending.
Grasky kept his rifle aimed at the bend in the trench, but when Gao Fei passed beside him, he suddenly lowered the machine gun, picked up grenades, pulled the pin on one and threw it, then kept going and threw three grenades in succession.
When the third grenade exploded, Sholokhov suddenly burst forward, firing down into the trench from above. When Gao Fei charged recklessly past the bend in the trench, all he saw were two enemies lying in the trench.
One was still moving, still struggling to raise his rifle. The other was only gasping for breath, his rifle pressed against his chest, finger still resting on the trigger, but he had not fired.
Sholokhov jumped into the trench. He aimed his rifle at the enemy’s forehead and pulled the trigger. After a gunshot, the enemy whose finger still rested on the trigger stopped breathing.
As he turned back, he casually fired another shot into the back of the head of the other enemy, the one barely moving.
Sholokhov hurried back again. This time, he picked up the radio and asked Gao Fei urgently, “How many?”
Three in front, two dead on Samir’s side, three dead on Grasky’s side. Eight in total.
After running through it in his mind, Gao Fei said in a low voice, “Eight.”
“Certain?”
“Certain.”
Sholokhov immediately picked up the radio and said in English, “First Squad, Second Team position was hit by a surprise attack. We have wiped out the enemy. Over.”
Generally speaking, orders or enemy reports were conveyed in Russian. Gao Fei did not know why Sholokhov was speaking English.
“Received.”
A reply came from the radio.
Sholokhov said again, “Why did First Team fail to detect the enemy approaching? Why didn’t the drone detect the enemy approaching either? Give me an explanation.”
After a moment, someone on the radio said quietly, “Situation unclear. Listen, now isn’t the time for this. Over.”
Sholokhov put down the radio. He said viciously to Grasky, “Are you wounded?”
“No. Minor problem.”
“You?”
Gao Fei looked down at himself, then reached up and touched his head. After feeling his helmet, he shook his head and said, “No.”
“Samir!”
“I’m fine!”
Letting out a light breath, Sholokhov shouted, “Stay alert. Sort out your weapons and gear.”
A combat team had eight men. That was the Russian configuration, and it seemed to be the Ukrainian configuration as well. So after finding eight bodies and seeing no other enemies, they could temporarily consider the fight over.
But they could not lower their guard, because a larger enemy force might be following behind. So now was not yet the time to clear the battlefield.
After giving the order, Sholokhov said to Gao Fei, “Those sons of bitches next door let the enemy through. How did you spot them?”
Gao Fei immediately pointed at Samir and said without the slightest hesitation, “He spotted them. I had no idea the enemy was coming. I didn’t hear anything at all.”
Sholokhov looked toward Samir. With a proud expression, Samir said, “I heard sounds. I heard three faint but very close sounds. I figured friendly troops couldn’t be creeping over like that, so I threw grenades first and shouted afterward. I couldn’t see them, but I knew the enemy was already very close, so I threw two grenades toward their approximate position…”
Samir would not give up the chance to claim credit for himself. He explained in great detail.
“Enough!”
Sholokhov waved his hand, cutting Samir off, but then immediately said, “Good job. If not for you, we would all have been dead tonight. Nice work, man!”