The Ultimate War Of The Apocalypse
Chapter 282 - 276 Fire the Cannon

Chapter 282: Chapter 276 Fire the Cannon

Having switched to footwear that looked like canvas shoes but actually represented the pinnacle, the highest-end, the most substantive shoe-making craft of all Shenzhou, Gao Yuan regained his movement capacity.

In fact, running barefoot didn’t seem too bad, but Gao Yuan still preferred wearing shoes out of habit, after all, he didn’t want to become the "Barefoot Immortal," walking and running on rugged terrain full of stones.

Standing up, Gao Yuan began searching for targets worthy of destruction.

The enemy’s artillery positions were actually quite far back, the frontline was mostly occupied by mortars with very short ranges, Rocket Launchers, and a small number of tanks and armored vehicles, so aiming for something like an ammunition depot was basically impossible. After all, the enemy wasn’t completely foolish, who would place their ammunition depot within the easy reach of enemy fire?

Moving forward to continue looking for the enemy’s artillery positions, or turning back to disrupt the enemy’s scattered but actually quite crucial frontline firepower, Gao Yuan thought it over and decided it was best to first throw the enemy at the very front into disarray.

After all, the enemy’s movements were very abnormal, they were likely planning a surprise attack, so slipping behind them, it wasn’t as important to knock out the infantry support fire deployed at the frontline, what mattered was to create confusion among them.

Gao Yuan began to search for worthy targets while jogging slowly.

What a pity it was that there was a communication barrier and it was complete; Gao Yuan often heard some lower-ranked officers shouting, but he couldn’t understand what they were yelling about.

Was it about launching an attack immediately, or raising the alert for defense? Not understanding was troublesome.

But luckily, Gao Yuan had a walkie-talkie with him.

"I don’t understand what the enemy is saying. You guys listen and tell me what they want to do, oh, over."

After speaking, Gao Yuan pressed the transmission button on his walkie-talkie, and then he hid near a small squad of soldiers, no more than twenty meters away from him, allowing Panxin to hear the enemy’s shouts through the walkie-talkie.

"What are they saying, over."

Panxin replied anxiously, "Don’t panic, the enemy hasn’t attacked. Everyone, stay in your positions; that’s all the enemy said. It was just a conversation by a junior officer to calm his subordinates, nothing of much significance, over."

Gao Yuan was quite disappointed because ahead of him was a long trench, which housed nothing but some infantrymen.

This time Gao Yuan didn’t respond, as he was too close to the others; even speaking in a low voice could potentially expose him.

He simply got up and moved away from these regular soldiers and then Gao Yuan finally spotted the target he had been desperately searching for.

There were several mortars, and judging by the length of their barrels, they were 120 millimeter mortars with a range of over five kilometers. As for the shorter-range 60 millimeter and 81 millimeter mortars, they were naturally deployed even closer to the front.

Gao Yuan thought it over carefully; he observed the anxious artillery crew members beside the mortar and decided it was time to make his move from here.

This was a communication trench, which separated the continuous but relatively independent mortar positions.

There were no particular areas that required extra caution.

Gao Yuan jumped into one of the mortar positions from behind; crates of shells were ready with fuses attached, and two open crates sat next to the mortar.

It was becoming increasingly chaotic behind the lines, but these soldiers on the frontline were clueless about what was happening. They could only whisper among themselves, occasionally looking back into the darkness, but what could they see in the pitch-black night?

Gao Yuan jumped into the trench and stood next to the ammunition box to check it, while the people who were only an arm’s length away from him did not seem to realize that an additional living person had appeared beside them, simply because they did not regard this person as an enemy.

Gao Yuan took a mortar shell out from the ammunition box. The person beside him muttered something in an unintelligible language, a language that Gao Yuan of course could not understand, and there was no need for him to respond.

The only question was what kind of fuse did this 120mm mortar shell have? Was it an impact fuse or an electronic one? Did the fuse need inertial removal of the safety before it could be activated, or would it explode as soon as it was thrown?

The person next to Gao Yuan murmured at him again, yet Gao Yuan still had no clue what kind of fuse the mortar shell he was holding had.

If Panxin were here, he would certainly know, but unfortunately, Gao Yuan was not from the regular army.

Might as well give it a try, he’d know once he tried.

Without hesitation, Gao Yuan threw the mortar shell out over seven or eight meters toward another gun emplacement separated by a communication trench.

The shell landed with a thud, but it did not explode.

The person beside Gao Yuan was scared stiff, he bellowed angrily, and the people at the neighboring gun emplacement were even more terrified. The explosion of anger was compounded by sheer panic when the person who got hit on the head by the shell discovered that the culprit was a mortar shell.

Should he let the mortar shell touch the ground once before throwing it out again?

Upon contemplation, Gao Yuan decided not to dare such an action. If it exploded in his hand, it would be disastrous. It was best to be cautious and careful when dealing with unfamiliar weapons.

Gao Yuan landed a punch, the person attempting to grab his helmet emitted a dull sound of bone breaking, and then a flashlight was turned on. The remaining five soldiers looked on, stunned, at Gao Yuan, who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, none of them knowing what to do next.

People at the neighboring gun emplacement were still shouting hysterically. Gao Yuan wanted to tell them to turn off the light, but he did not speak the language, so he simply said in English, "Sorry about this."

What weapon to use? No need for a gun, thought Gao Yuan as he drew a gleaming knife from his waist. As the little moustached officer across from him was about to shout, Gao Yuan thrust the knife forward.

The task was effortless, but after dealing with five men, Gao Yuan felt that perhaps an axe might have been more to his liking.

After wiping the knife clean on an enemy’s body and sheathing it back, Gao Yuan took out his axe, turned on the flashlight, and strolled casually to the next gun emplacement. As several men vented their anger and shouted at Gao Yuan, he suddenly made his move.

One after another, dulled thuds rang out. After six of them, Gao Yuan whispered in a very low voice, "Sorry, I can’t understand you."

The gun emplacements were connected, a total of six in all. This was likely one of a battalion’s mortar positions. Gao Yuan turned off the flashlight, holding the bloodied axe, and moved on to the third emplacement.

There was nothing to be said. He walked through all six emplacements, taking out all the mortar men. Just as Gao Yuan was about to throw a hand grenade into the ammunition box, he suddenly felt that this might be wasteful.

Gao Yuan did not know how to use a mortar, but this lack of knowledge did not extend to aiming. Moving the muzzle slightly to reduce the range by at least half or even closer was not a problem at all.

After thinking for a moment, Gao Yuan said into the radio, "I’m going to bombard the enemy with the mortar, don’t worry, and don’t rush to attack, over."

After that message, Gao Yuan adjusted the position of the entire mortar, picked up a shell, and loaded it into the muzzle. Moments later, the muted report of the mortar echoed, and after burning for a moment, he watched the explosion of light flash not far ahead. Gao Yuan nodded in satisfaction and said, "I’m firing now, over."