Volume 1 Tigers in Southeast Asia Chapter 20 Wine Barrel Cannon
Denison said hastily, "General, I am too stupid to figure out how those houses can be used as a weapon to destroy the enemy."
Lacheno laughed and said, "Look at those houses. They are all higher than the wall. If our people go into the houses and climb up to the roofs, we can shoot into the walls and kill the people inside, just like a bullfighter's sword piercing the heart of a mad bull! It seems that the people inside the walls don't understand military affairs at all. They don't even know how to occupy the commanding heights."
At this time, a captain came to Lacheno and said loudly: "General, I am willing to lead the troops into those houses, occupy the roofs, and shoot inside the walls."
Lacheno laughed loudly, pointed at the captain and said to Dennison: "This is my Captain Larry. His troops are all sharpshooters. Everyone has eagle eyes and Robin Hood shooting skills." Then he turned to Captain Larry and said, "Let's do it."
Captain Larry led a dozen soldiers to rush into a house. With the previous experience of Major Raul being wiped out by Lin Fei's troops, they all knew that the enemy had guns, so they lowered their bodies and ran very fast. Soon they arrived outside a house. Captain Larry was worried that someone was ambushing in the house, so he waved his hand to call a soldier over and asked that soldier to open the door first.
The soldier came to the door, hid his body against the wall beside the door, reached out his hand and pushed the door hard. At that moment, a loud "bang" was heard from inside the house. Captain Larry felt a gust of air coming at him, and his body flew out like a fallen leaf in the wind. His eyes went dark, and he knew nothing.
It turned out that Lin Fei had deliberately left these rooms empty. There were nitroglycerin explosive bags in each room. The door was connected to a fire-pulling tube made of bamboo tubes which came from the island. The main part inside was made of matches which were seized from the Spanish guards.
When the Spaniards pushed the door, the door pushed the match head to rub against the phosphorus paper, producing a flame. The flame then ignited the thin hemp rope soaked in nitroglycerin, directly detonating the nitroglycerin explosive pack. This was how the explosion Captain Larry heard came from.
The surviving Spanish soldiers dragged back the bodies of Captain Larry and the ten Spanish soldiers. Lacheno frowned and asked, "What happened? Why did so many people die?"
An officer replied in a trembling voice: "Report to the general, the enemy hid explosives in the house! Captain Larry and his men were killed in the explosion."
Lacheno frowned and said, "Explosives? Where did they get the explosives? Are you sure they were killed by explosives?"
The officer pointed at the bodies and said , "General, look, there are no obvious external injuries on the bodies. There is blood flowing from their mouths and there are blue-purple patches under their skin. They were obviously killed directly by the shock wave generated by the explosion of the explosives."
Lacheno turned back to Dennison and said, "There's no explosives on the island, right? What's going on?"
Dennison thought for a long time before he finally said, "There are bullets on the island, and there is nitrocellulose in the bullets. Maybe they took the nitrocellulose out and made it into explosives."
Lacheno said angrily, "That's bullshit! The nitrocellulose in the bullet has been passivated, so the explosive power is not that strong! The thing that killed my men must be high explosives. Where did the enemy get the high explosives from?"
Denison said helplessly: "Could it be that they made it themselves?"
Lacheno snorted and said, "How can they make explosives themselves?"
Denison was speechless. Lacheno pointed at the concrete wall and said loudly, "Never mind. We have failed twice in today's attacks. The Spanish Empire has lost face. Now I order you to surround that wall and launch a full-scale attack. The first person to break through will be rewarded with 5,000 pesos! No, 10,000!"
As soon as Lacheno gave the order, the Spanish army began to mobilize, and each unit was ready to go. Lin Fei saw the mobilization of the Spanish army clearly from inside the wall. He said to Li Mingbai and Chen Jingui: "The Spaniards are going to launch a full-scale attack. Tell the brothers to prepare for battle."
Everyone looked solemn as they watched the Spanish army that was about to charge. At this time, all the natives took action. One hundred natives with guns raised their guns to the shooting holes, while the other natives held harpoons and sharpened wooden sticks, ready to stab out.
Suddenly, a sharp whistle sounded behind the Spanish army, and the Spanish army immediately rushed towards the concrete wall like a tide. Lin Fei shouted: "Fight!"
The soldiers and the natives opened fire together. There was a loud gunshot and many Spanish soldiers at the front were knocked down. Despite this, the firing rate of the Mauser M1893 rifle was too slow and it failed to completely stop the Spanish soldiers. A large number of people still rushed to the concrete wall and began to climb to the top of the wall by grabbing the bulges on the wall.
At this time, the natives holding harpoons and sharpened wooden sticks attacked again, using them to stab the Spanish soldiers. The Spanish soldiers suffered heavy casualties for a while and did not dare to approach the wall. They retreated to the back screaming and fired at the wall, but the bullets could not penetrate the concrete wall at all.
Lacheno was furious when he saw that his attack was blocked, and immediately ordered: "The first person to break through the wall will be rewarded with 20,000 pesos!"
A big reward will always bring courage. The Spanish soldiers, stimulated by the huge sum of 20,000 pesos, still scrambled to climb to the top of the concrete wall. Seeing this, Lin Fei thought to himself: "It's time for our cannons to take action!"
Lin Fei quickly came to the top of the ammunition depot. Sun Yong had already prepared the iron barrel, propellant and explosive packs. The iron barrel was half buried in the sandbags set up to offset the recoil. At this time, Sun Yong said to Lin Fei: "Captain Lin, I have prepared these things according to your requirements! The amount of propellant and explosives is exactly the same!"
Lin Fei had done experiments before, and now these quantities can ensure that the explosive packs will fall on the Spaniards. Lin Fei nodded and said, "Brother Sun, go to the ammunition depot first. This 'barrel cannon' may be dangerous."
Sun Yong said loudly: "Captain of Gunnery, I followed you when we were on the Zhiyuan. Wherever you go, I will go! If you die, I will be the first to cut my own throat to accompany you!"
Lin Fei's heart was warmed and he said "good brother". He picked up the torch on the side and lit the fuse of the propellant. The fuse ignited the nitrocellulose, producing a large amount of gas. He pushed the explosive pack towards the Spanish soldiers. The fuse behind the explosive pack was ignited. The explosive pack flew more than 50 meters and landed among the Spanish soldiers.
When the explosive pack fell to the ground, the fuse had not yet burned out and was still making a "hissing" sound. A Spanish soldier was looking down curiously. At this moment, the fuse burned out and the two kilograms of nitroglycerin explosives in the explosive pack exploded!
This time's explosive pack was completely different from the ones in the house. Lin Fei added disassembled bullet heads and bullet shells into the explosive pack. These things acted as lethal fragments under the push of explosives. Although the lethality could not be compared with the prefabricated lethal fragments in the lethal grenades of Lin Fei's era, it was enough to kill these Spaniards!
After an explosion, a group of Spaniards fell down, everyone's body was covered with blood holes, two of them had their legs broken, lying on the ground holding their broken legs and screaming heartbreakingly!
When the "wine barrel cannon" hit the target, the soldiers and natives inside the concrete wall cheered. Lin Fei was also excited. He fired another wine barrel cannon, and more Spaniards fell down.
Lacheno, who was far away, didn't know about the barrel cannon. He saw his attacking troops being blown down by something, and he was immediately panicked. He thought to himself, isn't this a cannon? Why are these people using cannons? Who are they?
Lin Fei on the roof fired the barrel cannon again, but this "cannonball" made Lin Fei break out in a cold sweat! The explosive pack did not fly over the Spaniard's head as expected, but drew a curved arc and flew towards Li Ming's location!
Lin Fei felt his heart was about to jump out of his throat. He shouted to Li Mingbai, "Hurry up and throw the explosive pack out!" But the battlefield was extremely noisy and no one could hear Lin Fei's shout. At this critical moment of life and death, squad leader Niu Dalong rushed to the explosive pack, bent down to pick it up, and threw it out with his long arm. Then, a loud "bang" was heard from outside the wall. The concrete wall was blown into flying stones, and several natives behind were also blown away.
When Sun Yong saw the explosives falling on his side, he said in panic, "Captain Lin, I did everything you told me to do! How come the shells hit one of our own?"
Lin Fei shook his head and said, "After all, the explosive pack is not a shell. It is greatly affected by the air, so it is not surprising that it flies close! Don't be afraid, let's continue to fight!"
Sun Yong asked hurriedly: "What if you get hurt?"
Lin Fei said firmly: "Now we can only fight with our lives!"
At this moment, the Spaniards outside suddenly turned around and retreated to the starting point of the attack, leaving dead bodies all over the ground. The people behind the wall cheered, but Lin Fei was thinking: "I wonder what tricks the Spaniards are going to play?"
In the woods, Lacheno's face was gloomy and his brows were furrowed. The officers beside him also had sad faces. After a while, Lacheno said, "These people actually have cannons! They are really a terrible opponent!"
At this time, a staff officer said, "General, we also have cannons! If we transfer the cannons from the barracks now, they should be delivered in three days."
Lacheno sneered and said, "Whether they are Katipunan or not, everyone thinks they are Katipunan. I lead 2,000 Royal Army soldiers, but not only can I not destroy them, I have to go back to the barracks to get artillery! How can I face people in the future?"
The staff officer rolled his eyes and said, "General, we have artillery now! How could you forget it?"
