Volume 1 Tigers in Southeast Asia Chapter 82: Targeting the Chinese
There were three teams in total, each with thirty people. They were lined up in neat rows and walked slowly. The distance was too far to see their faces clearly. Outside each team there was a guy holding a wooden stick, wearing a black tweed uniform, obviously a Spanish policeman.
What surprised Lin Fei was that the three teams were so orderly. Everyone followed closely behind the person in front of them, and no one strayed from the formation.
Zhang Chuang said at this time: "Captain, why are these people so neat? We are not even so neat when we march."
Lin Fei frowned and said nothing. After a while, the three teams came closer. Lin Fei raised the telescope again and was surprised to find that all three teams were Chinese.
Lin Fei was furious. When he looked at the Chinese people carefully, he felt like his lungs were about to explode. He saw that a team of thirty people were strung together by the same wire. The wire went in through the shoulders of the first person, then came out and pierced the shoulders of the person behind him. It pierced the shoulders of all thirty people, as if these Chinese people were fat meat waiting to be roasted! That's why these people lined up neatly, and no one strayed!
Zhang Chuang saw the anger on Lin Fei's face and asked in a low voice, "Captain, what's wrong with you?"
Lin Fei suppressed his anger and said, "Those who were escorted were all Chinese. The Spanish strung them together with wire."
Zhang Chuang's eyes blazed with anger when he heard this. He said, "The Spaniards are too much of a bully. Not only did they hold our compatriots hostage, they also strung them together with wire. We won't be satisfied until we kill them!"
Lin Fei raised his rifle, measured the distance with the sight, and said, "We are about 200 meters away from the Spanish police now. There are three of them. I will shoot the two on the left, and you shoot the one on the right. Do you understand?"
Zhang Chuang nodded, and Lin Fei said, "I'll count to one, two, three, and we'll shoot together."
Zhang Chuang nodded again, and Lin Fei said, "One, two, three!"
As soon as the word "three" came out, Lin Fei pulled the trigger. With a bang, a Spanish policeman fell down. Then he turned the gun and knocked another Spanish policeman to the ground. Zhang Chuang also fired a shot and knocked down the Spanish policeman. When the three Spanish policemen were dead, the three groups of Chinese screamed.
Lin Fei and Zhang Chuang hurriedly ran up to the Chinese and shouted, "Don't be afraid, we are here to save you."
When the Chinese heard Lin Fei's Chinese, they calmed down. The leading Chinese old man said, "Thank you, two heroes. Can you remove the wires from our bodies first? It hurts so much."
When the old Chinese man said this, all the Chinese people began to beg for mercy. Among them, there were several women who cried.
Zhang Chuang approached a Chinese man and stretched out his hand to pull out the wire. The Chinese man hurriedly stopped his hand and said, "Hero, no, it hurts too much!"
Zhang Chuang knew that the wire was very long and it would be extremely painful if it was pulled out of their bodies. He turned around and asked Lin Fei: "Captain, what should we do?"
Lin Fei said: "Try to break the wire so that the pain will be reduced a lot when you pull it out."
Zhang Chuang said helplessly: "I know I should break the wire, but how do I do it?"
The best way to cut the wire is to use pliers, but Lin Fei didn't have pliers , so he took out the Saladin Blade from his waist and said, "I wonder if it can cut the wire."
The Chinese elder in the lead said, "The wire is hanging, there is no place for the blade, so it will definitely not be cut!"
Lin Fei frowned, and suddenly saw three Spanish corpses. He said to Zhang Chuang, "Search them. Maybe you can find the pliers. After all, they put the wire on their compatriots."
Zhang Chuang went over to search and actually found three pairs of pliers on the three bodies. At this time Xu Wenwu also rushed over. He saw that these Chinese were actually strung together with wire. He was scared to death and screamed. Lin Fei persuaded him helplessly, which calmed his fear. He took him and Zhang Chuang to cut the wire that was pierced into the Chinese's bodies and then pulled it out.
After a lot of effort, the iron wire finally left the Chinese people's bodies. Lin Fei said to the old man in the lead: "Excuse me, sir, what is your name?"
The old man was very polite. He clasped his hands and said, "My surname is Gao, and my given name is Manlu. May I ask what your taboo name is?"
Lin Fei thought that Gao Manlu spoke very elegantly and seemed to be an educated man. He smiled and said, " Mr. don't have to be polite. My name is Lin Fei, and I am the emperor of the Huaxia Empire. His name is Zhang Chuang and his name is Xu Wenwu. They are both my subordinates."
Gao Manlu was stunned for a moment and asked, "Huaxia Empire? What is this? Where is it?"
Lin Fei smiled and said, "I will tell you where it is later. You just need to know that the Huaxia Empire is our Chinese country and it protects us Chinese."
When Gao Manlu heard this, his eyes became wet and tears fell. He said, "You can protect the Chinese? That's great. We Chinese are being bullied..."
Gao Manlu burst into tears while talking, and when he started crying, everyone behind him started crying too. Lin Fei knew that these Chinese people had been bullied a lot, so he should have let them cry. However, Lin Fei was eager to understand the situation, so he said loudly: "Don't cry for now, I have something to ask."
Gao Manlu stopped crying and said, "Your Majesty, please feel free to ask me anything you want to ask."
Lin Fei asked, "Who are you? Why did the Spaniards pierce your bodies with wire? Where are they taking you?"
Gao Manlu said: "We are all workers in the electroplating factory in the city..."
When Lin Fei heard the word "electroplating", he quickly waved his hand to stop the old man from speaking, and said in surprise: "What did you say? Workers in an electroplating factory? There is an electroplating factory in Butuan City?"
Gao Manlu didn't understand why Lin Fei was so excited when he heard the word "electroplating". He said in confusion: "What's wrong with the electroplating factory? There is an electroplating factory in Butuan City."
Lin Fei asked: "What does this electroplating factory plate? Where do they sell the plated items?"
Gao Manlu said: "It is mainly used to plate copper on steel. After the plating, the steel becomes golden and looks very good, just like gold. Rich people in Manila like to use this kind of thing. After the plating, these things are transported to the Visayas and then resold to Manila on Luzon Island."
Lin Fei was excited, thinking that the electroplating industry is an important part of modern industry. If I also have an electroplating industry, I can plate nickel and chromium on the gun barrel to make it more wear-resistant. Then it will be possible to manufacture a machine gun that can fire continuously.
At this time, Gao Manlu said softly: "I have finished telling you our identities, can you continue?"
Lin Fei said hurriedly: "Okay, okay, go on."
Gao Manlu continued, "We are all workers in the electroplating factory in the city. The women are our family members. A few days ago, there was a plague in the city and many people died."
Gao Manlu paused and sighed heavily. Lin Fei was startled and asked, "There's a plague? What kind of plague?"
Gao Manlu said: "I heard it's called 'cholera', it's very serious. If people get it, they will vomit and have diarrhea, and some will die within a day."
"Cholera" is a famous infectious disease in human history, which has caused tens of millions of deaths. When Lin Fei heard that there was a cholera epidemic in Butuan City, he wondered if our troops could still enter the city. He hurriedly asked, "What is the situation of cholera in the city now?"
Gao Manlu said: "It's much better. No one has died in the past few days."
Lin Fei let out a sigh of relief and then asked, "Why did the Spanish arrest you?"
Gao Manlu sighed and said, "The Spanish said the cholera outbreak was caused by the Chinese poisoning the water wells. They arrested and killed many people. We were the last batch."
Lin Fei gritted his teeth and said angrily: "The Spanish are really ridiculous. How could a cholera outbreak be caused by poisoning!"
Gao Manlu said helplessly: "If you want to accuse someone, you can always find a pretext! The Spanish want to appease the people, so they use us Chinese as a target! First they parade us in the city as a warning to the public, then they take us outside the city and shoot us, and then throw our bodies in the woods over there."
Lin Fei thought of the pile of corpses he had seen in the woods just now and said, "I saw those corpses. There were not only Chinese, but also Filipinos and Spaniards. Did the Spanish dump all the corpses in the woods?"
Gao Manlu nodded and said, "That's right."
Lin Fei thought for a moment and said, "Okay, I understand what's going on. You guys go to my camp and rest first. I still have to lead people to continue scouting Butuan City."
Gao Manlu said hurriedly, "Lin Yingxiong, there is one thing I must remind you of. The Spaniards in the city have a kind of gun that is very powerful. They can fire for a long time without stopping. You must be careful."
Lin Fei was shocked. He thought that the previous intelligence only said that the Spaniards in the city were equipped with Mauser M1893 rifles. This rifle had a very slow firing rate and definitely did not have the "bang bang bang" effect. Could it be that the Spaniards were equipped with other weapons? Lin Fei asked hurriedly, "Can you tell me more about that kind of gun?"
Gao Manlu showed fear on his face and said, "I saw that kind of gun three days ago. They gathered more than 500 Chinese people in the city center square and said they were poisoners. Then they pushed out that kind of gun."
"The gun was very large and was mounted on a small cart. The gun was almost thicker than a person's arm. The bullets were placed in a large box and connected to the gun with a belt. When the gun was fired, the muzzle spewed fire. More than 500 Chinese were killed in the blink of an eye."
Lin Fei immediately understood that the guns equipped by the Spaniards were Maxim heavy machine guns! The Maxim heavy machine guns of this era weighed 27 kilograms, so they had to be mounted on a cart for mobility. The gun body had thick water cooling pipes, so it looked thicker than a human arm.
