Volume 1 Tigers in Southeast Asia Chapter 101 Circular Moat
The Spanish defenders were awakened from their sleep and climbed up to the top of the city wall. The infantry picked up their rifles and the artillery picked up gunpowder. With the help of the moonlight, they could see the skirmish lines of the Chinese Empire's army in the distance. Just as the Spaniards were about to open fire, the Chinese Empire's army suddenly retreated like a tide.
Servetus called the messenger and said, "The Chinese pigs are deliberately trying to make us relax. Once we relax, they will launch a large-scale attack. Order all troops not to slack off and be fully prepared for battle."
While the Spanish defenders were preparing for battle, Lin Fei on the opposite side ordered that from now until tomorrow morning, a charge should be launched every hour. Each charge would be initiated by a company, and while this company was charging, the other companies would rest. In this way, Lin Fei's troops charged all night, and each time they reached the range of the Spanish artillery, they retreated.
Servetus's style of employing troops was meticulous and cautious. He would never allow his men to give up any attack of Lin Fei's troops, so the Spanish army spent a whole night on the top of the city.
The next day, February 8, at 8 o'clock in the morning, the old craftsman Qin Xiren sent someone back to report on the progress of tunnel excavation. To excavate a tunnel, a deep pit must be dug first. At this time, the deep pit had been dug and advanced more than 40 meters towards the city wall. During the excavation process, a small amount of explosives was used to blast the rocks. The sound during the blasting of the rocks was extremely small and did not attract the attention of the enemy.
Since Lin Fei launched the attack at the northeast gate of the city, the defensive energy of the Spaniards in the city was focused on the northeast gate of the city. They did not notice that someone was digging a tunnel on the south side of the city. In addition, the digging site was hidden by woods, so the Spaniards did not notice it.
Lin Fei nodded, praised the old craftsman Qin Xiren a few words, and then repeated the old trick and had someone take out the large banner with the execution of the Spaniards and show it to the Spaniards. Lin Fei also had someone make other large flags with words insulting the Spaniards written on them. This time he asked the sniper team to ride on horses, and two of them held the large flags and ran for the Spaniards to see.
The Spanish troops in the city had been exhausted after a night of work. When they saw the big flag, they didn't even have the energy to get angry. Lacheno didn't say much at this time, but just sneered at Servette.
Servetus was worried. The Chinese Empire's army was obviously using a strategy of exhausting the soldiers. If I ordered all my men to defend, they would definitely fall into the trap! So Servetus decisively ordered that when facing the charge of the Chinese Empire's army, only a part of the troops should be sent to defend, and the others should rest.
In a blink of an eye, it was 2 p.m. on February 8. Lin Fei received a report from the old craftsman Qin Xiren that the tunnel had been excavated to the underwater part. Lin Fei's heart began to hang in his arms. If the amount of explosives was not controlled accurately, the rock riverbed between the tunnel and the river would be blown up, allowing the water on the top of the tunnel to come down. The water would flood the entire tunnel, and all the previous efforts would be wasted.
Lin Fei was worried. At 10 o'clock in the evening, Li Tianqian came back from the old craftsman Qin Xiren and reported to Lin Fei: "Your Majesty, the tunnel has been dug underwater. There were two leaks during the excavation, but they were blocked with yellow mud. Now Mr. Qin is leading the engineering company to dig under the city wall."
"Now that the tunnel is longer, people inside the tunnel are prone to breathing problems during the tunnel excavation process. Mr. Qin took advantage of the dark night to dig a ventilation duct in an inconspicuous place to solve this problem."
Lin Fei frowned and said "OK". Li Tianqian noticed that Lin Fei was not happy, so he asked: "Your Majesty, I see that you are unhappy. I wonder why? We have passed the underwater tunnel and there is only less than 100 meters left to the city wall. Aren't we going to be successful?"
Lin Fei said: "That's true, but there is a problem. The remaining 100 meters are getting closer and closer to the city wall. The vibration of the explosives blasting the rocks is likely to be detected by the enemy. If the enemy finds out that we are digging a tunnel close to the city wall, all our efforts will be wasted."
Li Tianqian's heart tightened after hearing Lin Fei's words, and he asked, "Then what should we do?"
Lin Fei thought for a moment and said, "Order the troops to intensify the attack and keep the Spanish defenders' energy firmly on our position."
Li Tianqian said, "But Your Majesty, we have already used mortar bombardment, fake charge of all troops and fake charge of each unit. Now we may not be able to deceive the enemy with these tricks. Shouldn't we think of some new methods?"
Lin Fei said, "That's right! We really need a new method. Immediately pass down the order and notify all troops to dig tunnels from the current trenches to the enemy's walls. During the digging process, you must pay attention to protection and not be killed by the enemy's firepower."
Li Tianqian's eyes lit up and he said, "Your Majesty, this plan is really brilliant. We told the enemy the tactics of digging tunnels, but hid the real location of the tunnels!"
After Li Tianqian finished speaking, he gave orders. All units immediately organized soldiers to dig trenches towards the enemy's city walls. They dug on the ground , unlike the engineering company led by Qin Xiren who dug underground, so the Spaniards on the city walls saw it at a glance.
The Spanish army officers hurriedly told the news to Servetus. Upon hearing the news, Servetus immediately ran to the top of the city wall. In the moonlight, he saw swaying figures everywhere in the distance, and the deep trenches on the ground were like poisonous snakes approaching the city wall.
Servetus knew very well that if the Chinese they could pile up explosives under the wall. Although the walls of Cotabato were reinforced with the most advanced reinforced concrete of the Spanish Empire, they could not withstand the huge amount of explosives.
Servetus called the messenger and said, "Order each unit to organize manpower to dig a circular moat 300 meters outside the city wall to block the Chinese Empire's army."
Servetus's order was very wise. There have been countless sieges from ancient times to the present, and many armies have used the tactic of digging tunnels and blowing up city walls. The most effective way to deal with this tactic is to dig a circular moat outside the city wall and then station people inside. If the enemy wants to dig a tunnel to the bottom of the city, they must pass through the circular moat and inevitably encounter the defenders.
The messenger agreed loudly and immediately ran to convey the order. The Spanish army then prepared to leave the city to dig trenches. However, the Spanish army did not pay as much attention to earthwork as Lin Fei's troops, so there were not many engineer shovels. The Spanish army could only requisition tools such as shovels and hoes from the homes of the people in the city.
The Spanish army borrowed shovels to dig trenches, which made Lacheno very dissatisfied. Lacheno found Servetus again and said angrily: "Our imperial army is a warrior who charges into battle, not a farmer who digs holes in the soil. Instead of letting them dig trenches outside the city, it is better to let them attack the army of the Huaxia Empire!"
Servetus was finally annoyed by what Lacheno said and said angrily, "General Lacheno, you have been talking about taking the initiative. Well, I will give you a troop and you will command it yourself. You will attack the army of the Huaxia Empire. How about that?"
Lacheno agreed without hesitation, and Servetus immediately said, "I will give you a battalion of troops, what do you think?"
The Spanish army in Cotabato had a battalion of 500 men. Lacheno readily agreed and said, " I have observed the enemy situation these days and found that the enemy's right wing is weak. I will lead this battalion of soldiers to attack them."
After Lacheno finished speaking, he led his troops to attack the right wing of Lin Fei's troops. As soon as Lacheno's troops came out, they were discovered by Lin Fei's subordinates. The scouts immediately reported to Lin Fei. Lin Fei asked, "How many enemy troops are there?"
The subordinate replied: "It's too dark to see clearly, but there should be about a few hundred people."
Lin Fei nodded slightly and said, "This should just be a troop launching a test attack. It is not the main force of the Spanish at all. Just order the front-line troops to beat them back."
The subordinates passed the order down, and gunshots were soon heard from the right wing. Lin Fei's troops were hiding in the trenches, and the Spanish army was on the open ground, so the Spanish army could not gain any advantage when the fight broke out. Soon the Spanish army left a field of dead bodies and fled.
Lacheno returned to the city in disgrace. Servetus refused to miss the opportunity to ridicule Lacheno and said with a smile: "Am I right? We can't go out of the city to attack them, right?"
Racheno was extremely angry when he heard Servetus's ridicule, but he had no choice. Who made him lose the battle? So he returned to the governor's palace in disgrace.
Without the interference of Racheneau, Servetus focused more on mobilizing his subordinates to build the moat. The governor in the city was originally close to Racheneau, but when he saw that Racheneau had been defeated and Servetus' idea was proven correct, he fully supported Servetus and mobilized a number of Spaniards in the city to help dig the moat.
The city of Cotabato was in an uproar, and Lin Fei was very happy because no one would pay attention to Qin Xiren and his engineering company. At 6 o'clock the next morning, Qin Xiren sent someone back to report: "The tunnel has been dug to a position five meters away from the city wall, and now a horizontal deep pit is being excavated to bury explosives."
Lin Fei thought that the tunnel was more than 200 meters long and had no machinery and relied entirely on manpower for transportation. It would take a lot of time to transport 150 kilograms of explosives, so the time of transporting the explosives on the ground should be reduced as much as possible. Lin Fei then called over all the war horses of the sniper team and used them as pack horses temporarily to transport the 150 kilograms of trinitrotoluene explosives that had just been transported to the tunnel excavation site at the edge of the woods.
Qin Xiren then took his men to place the explosives on the door panel, pushed them to the explosives storage location, and piled up the explosives bag by bag.
