Chapter 75

Zhang Heng lay on the snow-covered ground for half an hour . He was holding his M28 and had its stock resting on his shoulder . The weather today was so cold that his fingers were frozen . Though he managed to stay calm, throughout most of the bad days here, he started to doubt if he could complete today’s training .

This was this 79th day in this world . The mission’s dateline had passed, but the extra 24 hours he had each day graciously extended his mission to a total of 140 days . The good news was that the war was about to end soon .

Basically, the winter war between the Soviet Union and Finland had two different phases . The first phase began on the 30th of November, 1939 . The Soviets were divided into four teams and attacked Finland from all four directions . Undeniably, the attack ended badly for the Soviet Union, for after a long and hard battle, they only managed to conquer the northern tip of Finland . As for the other three directions, they suffered high losses . In the end, they were forced to retreat, returning to their homeland to conscript new soldiers .

It was during that time that Finland had managed to devastate the great Soviet Union . This was notably evident at the battle at Karelian Isthmus, where the Soviets failed to break through the Mannerheim Line that Finland had maintained for a couple of decades . No matter how hard they tried, the Soviets were unable to figure out the foxy defense of Finnish . After paying the terrible price of thousands of lives, they only managed to penetrate 20km into their defensive line .

That January, things started to get a lot worse . The Red Army came up with the Northwestern Front, a Soviet military formation at Karelian Isthmus, assigning a Marshall called Semyon Timoshenko as the commander . In total, there were field armies made up of the 21st infantry division and six tank brigades . The entire force was ordered to focus their fire on the Mannerheim Line . During that time, Finland’s military was sorely lacking, having shortages of personnel, heavy weapons, and ammunition . Soon, these problems were exposed .

Recently, the frontline sent a large number of emergency reports to the guerilla base camp . For now, they had nothing to do with Zhang Heng . He had been through around 20 battles throughout his time here . Every single day, he had to put his life on the line .

The battles gradually got harder as compared to his first mission . There were a few times he almost got himself killed even though trying his best to be extra cautious of his surroundings . The closest call he had was when a grenade landed right in front of him! One wouldn’t doubt the luck a Rabbit Foot could grant, as, in the end, the grenade did not explode, and Zhang Heng got to live to see another day .

Many surprises and unforeseen circumstances occurred on a battlefield . Being extra careful did not guarantee that you got to keep your life . The tremendous stress that he was put under recently had driven him to improve his snowboarding and shooting skills faster than he could have before this .

This was especially true for the latter . Within a month, Zhang Heng’s shooting skill had climbed, and he was now at LV 1 . If he kept going at this rate, he might just be able to scrape LV 2 next month . Right now, he had an 80% chance to land a critical shot at a target 200 meters away from him . And shooting distance was not his only improvement .

All the while, Simone had been trying to help Zhang Heng improve the quality of his snipership on the whole and a heightened warzone awareness that he had to have . Indeed, he was getting a lot better with each passing day, thanks to her dedication and perseverance .

At the moment, Simone was attempting to sharpen Zhang Heng’s observation skills . Earlier, she had deployed traps and managed to capture five weasels . After that, Simone made a mark on them before releasing them back to the wild . Zhang Heng was supposed to capture three out of five to complete the task .

Sporting white fur, they were extremely difficult to spot on the snow-covered ground . To make things worse, the rodents were usually cautious of their surroundings . After searching for a continuous half an hour, Zhang Heng finally found one and put a bullet in it! There were still four to go, with Zhang Heng having a hunch that they had probably escaped by now .

Ten minutes later, he spotted another weasel on a ridge . However, Zhang Heng was quite some distance away from his target, but he knew that if he waited any longer, he would surely lose the elusive animal . Immediately, he pulled the trigger! Unfortunately, the freezing cold had diminished his accuracy . Instead of hitting it, he simply scared it away .

Zhang Heng shook his head and put away his rifle in frustration, feeling like giving up . He then saw Simone sitting beside the fire, deep in thought . For the entire week, the guerillas were all on a sabbatical, having no war to fight . They had to wait until the Karelian Isthmus war ended before they resumed what they usually did . To be precise, Finland had to wait it out until other nations came to their rescue .

England and France had promised that they would send their forces to help Finland defends against the Soviets . As for Switzerland and Norway, they had made it clear that they wouldn’t be involved . Germany, too, mentioned that they had no intention to get involved in this war . Judging the current circumstances, they wouldn’t be able to hold on until help arrived .

At the same time, Finish foreign affairs had been engaging with the Soviets . Unfortunately, Soviet demands were often unreasonable and outrageous, often making small ransoms for an even lower request .

February soon arrived . The longer the war dragged, the worse the weather became . As Zhang Heng wasn’t involved in the war, and as an outsider, he had no concern about the outcome . To Simone, however, her country was about to be conquered . He could feel how down she must have gotten, knowing that a foreign force was about to colonize the homeland she knew all her life . Things would never be the same again .

Sadly, even if he became as good a sniper as Simone, there was no way Zhang Heng could change the results of the war .

The only thing that he could do right now was to cheer her up, perhaps offer a shoulder or two . It was the best he could offer .

SPLAT!

A snowball suddenly landed on Simone’s back . Immediately, she turned around to see what was going on . At the same time, the second snowball landed on her arm! Playfully, she rolled up her snowball in retaliation!

A perfectly round snowball landed perfectly on Zhang Heng’s chest . Such was the deadly accuracy of a masterful sniper . Zhang Heng then tossed two snowballs at Simone, who managed to dodge one with the other landing on her neck . She could not help but shiver as the snow fell under her clothes . This snowball fight had triggered the gods of rivalry within her!

Snowballs flew everywhere, with hints of laughter, bringing Simone a much-needed reprieve from the bitter horrors of human war . Everyone, no matter who won or lost, was a casualty .

……

It wasn’t before the night that the two of them returned to base camp . As Zhang Heng was about to boil some water to shower, he saw Maji when he walked towards his cottage .

“The two of you came back quite late today,” she teased .

“Is there something I can help you with?”

“Things are getting really bad at Karelian Isthmus . The Soviets managed to break through the first line of defense . Rumor is that the higher authorities are about to fulfill the demands of the Soviet Union! The war will be coming to an end soon . Ah Ji wants to talk to you about it . Are you available now?”