Volume 1 Tigers in Southeast Asia Chapter 81: Corpses in the Forest
Lin Fei smiled and asked, "You think it doesn't look like a cannon? What's wrong with it?"
Zhao Menggang said: "I have been to the Spanish military camp and saw artillery there. Artillery should be mounted on a vehicle, with a long barrel and a large size. This artillery is too small."
Lin Fei smiled and said, "Don't think it can't kill people just because it's small. This kind of artillery is called a 'mortar', and it's different from the howitzers you've seen."
Zhao Meng just said "Oh", Lin Fei smiled and said: "The biggest advantage of this kind of gun is that it is lightweight. The barrel and bracket and other parts can be disassembled, and people can carry it on their backs. The big guys of the Spanish are too heavy. I won't say more for now. Go and take a look at that mortar. I will teach you how to operate it in the next few days."
Zhao Meng had just walked up to the mortar and squatted down to look at it carefully. Lin Fei walked up to Ling Xue and asked, "Based on our current production capacity, how long does it take to produce a batch of mortars?"
The mortar is made up of many parts. During manufacturing, the parts are made first and then assembled into a cannon. When manufacturing the parts, it is impossible to make them one by one. A lot of them are made at a time. These are called "a batch". One batch of parts can make five mortars.
Ling Xue said: "About ten days."
Lin Fei asked again: "Where are the shells?"
Ling Xue said: "We can produce 30 shells in one batch, and we can produce one batch every two days."
Lin Fei thought that with the current level of technology, this speed was already good. When he went out to fight, he would be able to be equipped with five mortars and hundreds of shells, which would be more than enough to deal with the Spaniards.
Lin Fei nodded and said, "After we manufacture five mortars, we don't need to manufacture the barrels yet. We should concentrate our equipment on manufacturing shells and find a way to increase the production speed of shells."
Ling Xue agreed, and Lin Fei walked up to Zhao Menggang and said with a smile: "Let's go back to the artillery company's station."
Zhao Menggang was stunned for a moment and asked, "Didn't you say you would teach me how to use this type of mortar?"
Lin Fei laughed and said, "How can I teach you here? Do you want to blow up the factory building?" Lin Fei did not explain much. He ordered Ling Xue to organize people to send the mortar to the artillery , and brought Zhao Menggang to the artillery company.
Although the artillery company is called a "company", it only has 50 people. Compared with the infantry, the artillery is a "high-tech branch" and must have fewer people. Lin Fei gathered everyone together and asked Zhao Menggang to divide the 50 people into five groups and five squads, with each squad operating a cannon. He also took out the ballistic table for them and taught them how to use the mortar.
Lin Fei said in a clear voice: "Before using a cannon, just like a rifle, you need to measure the distance first. I have already taught you how to measure the distance, so I won't go into details. After measuring the distance to the target, determine the angle of the barrel according to the ballistic table, then release the safety on the projectile and put it into the barrel."
Lin Fei explained it to everyone, and then asked Zhao Menggang to lead everyone in training, while he went to inspect other places, such as the infantry barracks, logistics department, staff department, etc. Ten days later, at 7 am on January 9, Lin Fei led the troops on a troop transport ship to Bazahai City on Mindanao Island.
At 3 pm, Lin Fei led his troops into Bazahai City. Chen Jingui had arrived in the city in advance and found a place for the troops to be stationed. Lin Fei let the troops rest and then went to check the material reserves and transportation preparations of the General Logistics Department. He found that all kinds of materials had been prepared. Chen Jingui recruited a lot of local people as laborers and borrowed a lot of carts. The transportation problem was also solved, and he felt relieved.
Lin Fei praised Chen Jingui, and Chen Jingui smiled and said, "I have found something better to give you."
Lin Fei was startled and asked, "What is it?"
Chen Jingui smiled and said, "You will know if you follow me." Then he took Lin Fei to the Sultan's palace. From a distance, Lin Fei could hear the neighing of horses and could not help asking, "Did you get a horse?"
Chen Jingui smiled and said, "Of course, I found that the Sultan had more than 40 war horses, so I used both soft and hard tactics to get them. I knew you must be in great need of them."
Of course Lin Fei needed horses very much. With horses, the mobility of the troops could be greatly improved. However, the Philippines did not produce horses, so Lin Fei had not been able to find any horses. Now Chen Jingui had got some horses. Although there were only more than 40 horses, one horse was enough for each member of the sniper team, and reconnaissance work would be much simpler in the future.
Lin Fei assigned horses to the sniper team and asked everyone to practice riding. Since they were not cavalrymen, they did not need the skills to fight on horseback. They just needed to know how to ride and run, so they learned quickly.
The next day, Lin Fei began to lead his troops towards Butuan City. Bazahai City is more than 100 kilometers away from Butuan City, and there are difficult mountain roads in between. With the help of Bazahai Sultan, the troops marched for three days and arrived at the wilderness more than 20 kilometers away from Butuan City on the afternoon of January 12.
Lin Fei asked his men to set up camp, and then took Zhang Chuang with him to scout Butuan City. Lin Fei also brought a Chinese businessman who often went in and out of Butuan City. The Chinese businessman was named Xu Wenwu, who was in his forties and looked ordinary and not eye-catching at all.
The three men mounted their fast horses and galloped towards Wuduan City. After walking for just over ten minutes, Lin Fei suddenly heard Xu Wenwu scream. He looked back and saw that Xu Wenwu had fallen off the horse and was lying on the ground motionless. The horse realized that there was no one on it, so it slowed down and paced leisurely.
Lin Fei's heart trembled suddenly. He knew that it was very dangerous for a person to fall off a horse running at high speed. Many people were killed in this way. He hurriedly reined in the horse, stepped off the horse, walked a few steps to Xu Wenwu, and asked, "Old Xu, are you okay?"
Xu Wenwu was about to stand up, groaning. Lin Fei hurriedly stopped him and said, "Don't stand up yet. If you stand up suddenly, the injury might get worse. Tell me where it hurts."
Xu Wenwu shook his head and said, "No... It's okay, I'm not hurt. I understand." After that, he slowly stood up. Lin Fei was relieved to see that he was okay. He asked, "Didn't you say you could ride a horse before we set out? How did you suddenly fall down?"
At this time, Zhang Chuang also came up with his horse and said, "Yes, what's wrong with you, Old Xu?"
Xu Wenwu looked at Zhang Chuang, then at Lin Fei, with fear in his eyes. He pointed at the woods on one side and said with a trembling voice, "There is..."
Lin Fei was startled and wondered what was in the woods? What could have scared him so much? He followed his hand and looked towards the woods, but he only saw lush green trees and nothing else. He couldn't help but ask, "Isn't it just a forest? What's there to be afraid of?"
Xu Wenwu shook his head and said, "No, it's not the forest. There are dead bodies in the forest. Lots of dead bodies."
After Xu Wenwu said this, his face turned pale. Lin Fei was shocked and thought that there were not many people in this area, so how could there be so many dead bodies in the woods?
Lin Fei asked Xu Wenwu: "Old Xu, could this be the local funeral custom?"
Xu Wenwu shook his head and said, "The people in Butuan are mainly Filipinos, Spanish and Chinese. None of them want to see their relatives and friends die in the wilderness."
Lin Fei frowned, took off the rifle on his back, and said, "Let's go over and take a look ."
Xu Wenwu hurriedly shook his head and said, "There are so many dead people. It's too scary. I won't go."
Lin Fei then said, "Okay, you stay here and watch over the horses while Zhang Chuang and I go over there."
After Lin Fei finished speaking, he called Zhang Chuang, and the two of them walked towards the woods with guns in hand. Xu Wenwu led the two horses and walked far behind, far away from the woods where the dead body was.
When Lin Fei and Zhang Chuang walked to a place more than 100 meters away from the woods, they smelled a strong stench of corpses. Both of them had been in battles for a long time and were used to the smell, so they didn't care. When they walked to a place more than 30 meters away from the woods, they heard a "buzzing" sound coming from the woods, like thunder.
Lin Fei thought to himself that the sound of the flies attracted was so loud, how many corpses must there be in the woods? Where did so many dead bodies come from?
As Lin Fei was thinking, he came to the edge of the woods, only to find that behind the woods was a large open space. The open space was filled with countless corpses. One head was pressing on another's hand, and that other's hand was pressing on another's foot. There were countless flies lying on the corpses. When Lin Fei and Zhang Chuang went over, they scared the flies and they flew up with a "boom" and gathered into a black cloud above the corpses.
Zhang Chuang couldn't bear looking at all those corpses and started to dry heave. Lin Fei swallowed a few times to suppress the urge to vomit, then squatted down and looked carefully at the top layer of corpses. He found that all the corpses had already rotted, and it was difficult to tell the cause of death from the surface. However, judging from the clothes on the corpse, this corpse was a Chinese.
Lin Fei thought to himself, could it be that the people in Butuan City were slaughtering the Chinese? Then he thought again, that was not right, because he saw more than a dozen blond and blue-eyed guys in the pile of corpses, and many of them were Filipinos.
At this time, Zhang Chuang had finished retching. He walked up to Lin Fei and asked, "How did these people die?"
Lin Fei shook his head slightly and said, "I don't know."
Zhang Chuang asked: "What should we do then?"
Lin Fei said: "These corpses have little impact on us, let's ignore them and continue to scout Butuan City."
Zhang Chuang nodded. Just as they were about to come out of the woods, they suddenly heard mournful cries coming from the direction of Butuan City. The cries were obviously made by many people, and they were extremely miserable and frightening. Lin Fei pointed in the direction of the cries and said, "Let's go and take a look."
The two men walked out of the woods and ambushed in the grass by the roadside. They saw several groups of people vaguely walking towards them on the wasteland in the distance. The crying sound came from them. Lin Fei took out a telescope and looked, and couldn't help feeling strange.
