kingnovel Chapter 493: The Japs Bitten by Crocodiles and Trampled by Elephants (100 Gifts Plus)
Chapter 493: The Japs Bitten by Crocodiles and Trampled by Elephants (100 Gifts Plus)
"Baka." An angry curse came from the corner of the shack.
A relatively respectable figure stood up. He was the highest-ranking officer among the remaining soldiers, Infantry Second Lieutenant Masao Ono.
Although he was also pale and thin, his military uniform was slightly intact, and there was still a hint of morbid fanaticism in his eyes.
"Mere hunger and disease could have broken the will of our brother country's warriors?! Yamada-kun was a coward, and he died like a coward. Gentlemen! Think of our past glory, and think of His Majesty the Heavenly Locust's hopes.
The headquarters will never abandon us. Reinforcements... reinforcements will definitely come. We must persevere and fight to the last man like true warriors."
He waved a Type 99 rifle with only half the butt remaining, trying to boost morale, but the Japanese soldiers around him were already numb.
The only response he got was a louder, intermittent rumbling sound from his intestines, and a painful groan that Xiaolin couldn't help but let out:
"Second Lieutenant... I... I have to poop again..." Before he could finish his words, a Japanese soldier, holding his stomach, crawled out of the shack and disappeared into the dense bushes. Then there was a heart-wrenching sound of excretion and a foul stench.
Dysentery, for these devils, is a more terrifying enemy than the bullets and artillery shells of the Anmin Army.
Dirty drinking water, rotten food, and ubiquitous parasites made jungle dysentery like a maggot in the tarsal bones, entangling every Japanese soldier.
They took turns spurting loose stools tinged with blood and mucus, defecating until their legs became weak, their anuses prolapsed, and the last bit of water and electrolytes in their bodies were lost.
A foul stench filled the air around the shack, and every time these devils had diarrhea, some of their lives were taken away.
There were more than 70 Japanese soldiers, nearly a squadron, but now there are only a dozen of them left, which shows how severe dysentery is.
Xiaolin crawled back exhausted, his face as pale as paper.
His loincloth was already a mess, but he didn't even have the energy to clean it up. He just collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath like a fish out of water.
"Second Lieutenant...fish?" Corporal Okazaki licked his cracked and bleeding lips, his eyes filled with only the instinctive desire for food. "If we don't go now...it will be dark...crocodiles..."
When the word "crocodile" was mentioned, all the Japanese soldiers in the shack subconsciously shrank their necks, with fear flashing in their eyes.
The giant saltwater crocodile that lurks in the nearby muddy river has become their lingering nightmare. It is like a patient and efficient jungle scavenger, specializing in harvesting weak and isolated prey.
A few days ago, the starving Private Sato ignored all warnings and went down to the river to fish. As soon as he stepped into the waist-deep water, the huge fish lurking in the mud on the shore suddenly jumped out like a black lightning.
The huge mouth opened, revealing terrifying white fangs, and bit Sato's thigh. Under everyone's horrified gaze, Sato only had time to let out a short, shrill scream that was not like a human voice before he was dragged into the turbid water by the crocodile's terrifying power.
The water surface rolled violently and blood spread quickly. After a few seconds, everything returned to calm, leaving only a few bubbles and floating fragments of military caps.
This horrific scene became an indelible image of horror in the minds of all survivors.
"I'll go." A relatively young recruit with a childish face suddenly stood up, with an almost crazy determination flashing in his eyes.
Rather than slowly starving to death, dying of diarrhea, or dying of illness here, it’s better to give it a try.
"I'm a good swimmer. I'll go downstream where the water is slower."
Lieutenant Ono looked at Watanabe's ribs protruding from hunger and his shaky body, opened his mouth, and wanted to say something cliché about how a warrior from a foreign country could not take such a risk, but in the end, the desire for food overwhelmed everything.
He nodded stiffly: "Watanabe-kun, be careful and remember to bring back food."
Watanabe, who had already discarded his rifle while fleeing, grabbed a sharpened wooden stick, took a deep breath, and staggered towards the river.
Everyone left in the shack held their breath and listened nervously to the noise outside.
Time passed by minute by minute. Apart from the chirping of insects and birds, there was no unusual sound.
"Could it be...successful?" Xiaolin weakly ignited a glimmer of hope.
at this time.
"Ah——!!! Help! Help... Gululu..." A shrill and distorted scream came from downstream.
This was followed by a huge splash of water and a dull, teeth-grinding sound of bones breaking.
Then, everything fell silent again, even faster than when Sato was attacked.
There was deathly silence in the shack.
Everyone understood that the damn crocodile had moved its hunting grounds and Watanabe had become its new snack.
"Baka! Bakayaloo!" Lieutenant Ono angrily pounded the mud with his fists, not knowing whether he was cursing the crocodile or venting his impotent rage.
“Ah ...
The eyes of the veteran soldier next to him, Sergeant Okazaki, were completely gloomy. He muttered to himself, his voice hoarse like a broken bellows:
"Fight? How? What are you going to use? Are you going to compete with the Anmin Army in drug use?"
These defeated Japanese soldiers only had a few rifles and a Type 14 Nambu pistol in their hands, and there was very little ammunition left. The only thing left in everyone was the white pills distributed before the battle - the assault ingots.
Now, hunger, disease, the ever-present threat of death, and the hollow and hypocritical slogans of "die with honor" uttered by military officers...
Despair was like the endless rainforest, completely engulfing this small remnant army.
And in another mountain range dozens of kilometers away from the rainforest, a remnant of the Japanese army, about thirty people, led by Lieutenant Yamamoto, hid in a naturally formed damp cave halfway up the mountain.
The situation here is not much better than in the tropical rainforest.
Their situation was even worse, not only facing dysentery and hunger, but also suffering from malaria.
"I'm so cold... I'm freezing... Fire... Warm me up by the fire..." A Japanese soldier, wrapped in a tattered blanket, huddled on the cold rock, his teeth chattering wildly, his face as pale as a ghost.
This is the chilling phase of a malaria attack.
"It's hot... I'm dying of heat... Water... I want to drink water..." Another Japanese soldier was lying next to him, his whole body was burning hot, his mind was blurred, his thin clothes were soaked with sweat, and his skin was abnormally flushed.
This is the high fever phase of malaria.
The entire cave was filled with the stench of sweat, excrement and the special smell emitted by the patients.
The groans, mumblings, and teeth chattering came one after another, like a symphony from hell.
The limited quinine had long been exhausted, and they could only rely on their bodies to endure, or... wait for death.
Lieutenant Yamamoto himself had a low fever, but he held on, patrolling back and forth in the cave with a rifle without a bayonet.
He looked at the miserable appearance of his soldiers and listened to their painful groans, and his stomach churned.
But he forced a fierce expression on his face and roared in a hoarse voice:
"Everyone, cheer up! Look at you all. Do you still look like His Majesty the Heavenly Locust's warriors?! You're crying out for help over a minor illness or pain?
Hold on, gentlemen! Death is the highest honor, but we must not die in this filthy cave. If we must die, we must die on the charge, serving His Majesty the Heavenly Locust with all our loyalty!
His roar echoed in the cave, but was met with dead silence and more painful groans.
A soldier with a high fever even mumbled in a daze: "Your Majesty Tianhuang... can you... can you give me a plum rice ball..."
Sergeant Yamamoto was so angry that he almost fainted.
Just as he was about to explode, a new soldier who was on guard outside the cave rushed in, tumbling and crawling, with a look of fear on his pale and skinny face.
"What? Are the Anmin Army's mountain search troops here again?"
"No...no. It's elephants. A huge herd of wild elephants. Coming this way."
Yamamoto's heart tightened.
Wild elephants, in this mountain jungle, a group of mad wild elephants are more terrifying than tigers. They can easily flatten this small cave.
"Prepare for battle and take cover." Yamamoto roared and quickly found a crevice in the rocks to hide.
Soon, the ground began to shake slightly, and heavy footsteps came from far away.
Through the gaps in the vines at the entrance of the cave, the Japanese soldiers saw in horror that a group of huge monsters were slowly walking through the clearing in the woods not far below the cave.
There were seven or eight huge elephants, and Yamamoto didn't know whether they were Pegu elephants or Siamese elephants.
He only saw the male elephant in the lead, with sharp tusks and a body as big as a moving mountain.
Fortunately, they seemed to have no interest in the cave where the Japanese were hiding and were just passing by.
The soldiers all breathed a sigh of relief.
But at this moment, a baby elephant that was left behind seemed to have discovered something. Curiously, he used his trunk to roll up an empty can that they had discarded outside the cave and started playing with it, making a jingling sound.
"Oh no." Yamamoto's heart skipped a beat.
Adult elephants are very protective of their cubs.
Sure enough, the mother elephant heard the sound, stopped alertly, flapped her huge ears, raised her long trunk high, and let out a low and warning roar.
It turned its huge body and approached the cave step by step, its huge eyes flashing with dangerous light.
The remaining Japanese soldiers in the cave were so frightened that they forgot even to moan. They huddled tightly behind the rocks, not daring to breathe, praying that the mother elephant was just passing by.
The mother elephant stopped near the cave entrance, sniffing carefully with her trunk and kicking the ground with her thick legs irritably.
"Snapped--!"
Suddenly, gunshots rang out. A Japanese soldier could not bear the pressure and accidentally fired.
The bullet flew out and hit the mother elephant. Feeling the pain, it immediately let out an even more angry roar and slammed its huge head towards the cave entrance.
"Boom!" There was a dull sound, and gravel fell down.
The entire cave was shaking. A sick Japanese soldier hiding closest to the cave entrance was hit on the head by a rock that fell from the cave. He became motionless without even a groan.
The mother elephant's cry called the herd.
They seemed to think that this "nest" contained something that threatened their cubs, so many elephants rushed over and relentlessly rammed and swept the cave entrance with their tusks and trunks.
"Aunt Amaterasu... We didn't die at the hands of the enemy... Are we going to be trampled to death by elephants?" Lieutenant Yamamoto closed his eyes in despair.
Screams continued to be heard in the chaotic cave.
The Japanese soldiers were either trampled to death by elephants or hit by falling rocks.
The remaining Japanese soldiers could only hold their heads tightly and pray that these angry elephants would leave quickly, or... the cave roof would collapse and kill them.
Finally, more than half an hour later, the elephants let out a low roar, turned around and slowly left, and the heavy footsteps gradually faded away.
The cave was in a mess, filled with dust and the smell of blood.
The surviving devils collapsed to the ground.
"Bushido...die with honor..." A Japanese soldier looked at his dead companion, then looked at his skinny, pus-covered arm, and suddenly laughed neurotically. The laughter became louder and louder, full of madness and sadness.
"Hahaha...hahaha...what are we doing here...? Feeding elephants? Or feeding crocodiles? Hahaha..."
No one came to stop the soldiers' hysteria, because Lieutenant Yamamoto had already been trampled into a pulp by the violent elephants and was buried in the mud.