Volume 1 Tigers in Southeast Asia Chapter 84: Mortar Bombardment
Spencer led 150 soldiers, led by the thin policeman, towards the place where Lin Fei detained the police. The place where Lin Fei detained the police was not close, and they had walked for more than half an hour but still hadn't reached it.
Spencer was getting impatient. He looked at his watch and complained, "It's already past four in the afternoon. There's no way I can make it to the dance tonight!"
The skinny policeman didn't dare to say anything, so he just smiled and said, "It should be here soon."
Spencer was still complaining: "This is so troublesome. I have to personally take care of a bunch of bandits!"
At this moment, Spencer suddenly heard a "bang" coming from the woods on both sides. Spencer's first reaction was - it was a gunshot!
Then, there were only the sounds of "bang, bang, bang" coming from the woods on both sides. More than thirty Spanish soldiers were killed in the blink of an eye. Spencer hurriedly took out his pistol from his waist. He felt that there were many people in the woods and his men were no match for them. He hurriedly shouted, "Retreat, retreat quickly."
After Spencer finished speaking, he turned and ran. The subordinates behind him also turned and ran towards Butuan City. However, they had already walked into the encirclement of Lin Fei's troops, and it was too late to escape.
Lin Fei arranged two elite battalions on both sides of the woods, with more than 800 people. Wouldn't it be a piece of cake to deal with more than 100 Spanish soldiers? Lin Fei saw that more than half of the Spaniards were knocked down in a blink of an eye, and the rest threw down their rifles and fled in embarrassment, so he ordered the bugler: "Blow the charge!"
The bugler picked up the trumpet and blew the passionate charge. The soldiers in the woods roared and rushed out. Lin Fei had instructed them in advance to capture them alive, so the soldiers did not shoot. Instead, they swung their rifle butts and knocked the Spanish soldiers to the ground. In a short time, they captured more than 30 Spanish soldiers, Spencer, and the skinny policeman.
Lin Fei could tell from his uniform that Spencer was a captain. He walked up to him and ordered him sternly, "Tell me your position, the unit number, and your name."
Before Spencer could speak, Lin Fei pulled out his pistol and shot a Spanish soldier, then ordered, "Hurry up and speak!"
Seeing Lin Fei killing people without blinking an eye, Spencer was so frightened that his whole body trembled, and he hurriedly said: "My name is Spencer, I am the captain of the first company of the Butuan City garrison, and my rank is captain."
Lin Fei was startled and asked, "Why did you only send one company?"
Spencer said, "Our commander Jackson heard that you had no guns and thought you were just a bunch of bandits, so he didn't send too many troops."
Lin Fei secretly regretted it in his heart. He had originally thought of not showing the gun to let them down their guard, but he didn't expect that they would only send one company of more than a hundred people because of this.
At this time, an officer from the General Staff came over. His name was He Kaisheng, an old businessman from Samar Island. He had served as a staff member in the Qing army in his early years. He was familiar with military tactics such as marching, deploying troops, setting up camps, and building strongholds. So Lin Fei made him his staff officer.
He Kaisheng said: "Captain, your plan to surround the enemy and attack the reinforcements only defeated one company, and the enemy still has more than a thousand people. What should we do now?"
Lin Fei didn't know what to do at this time, but he quickly came up with a plan and said, "Let's continue to use the tactic of surrounding a point and attacking reinforcements. The point we are surrounding is still there, so there is no need to worry about reinforcements not coming."
He Kaisheng was surprised and advised earnestly: "Captain, please think twice. If we destroy this group of Spanish troops, the troops behind them will definitely be alert and will not honestly walk into our ambush circle."
Lin Fei smiled nonchalantly and said, "Don't worry, Mr. He. I have a plan." After saying that, Lin Fei pointed at the thin policeman and hooked his finger, meaning to ask him to come over. The thin policeman didn't understand, and Lin Fei's subordinates pushed him in front of Lin Fei like a beast. Lin Fei sneered and asked, "Where is your ransom? Did you bring it?"
The skinny policeman shook his head repeatedly. Lin Fei pointed at Spencer and others and said, "I asked you to pay the ransom but you refused. You even sent troops to attack me. It's really hateful. Now the ransom has increased. Each person needs 800,000 pesos. A total of 43 people have been captured. The total price is... Forget it, I won't count it either. Ask Jackson to prepare 50 million pesos. If it's one cent less, I will kill them all."
The thin policeman agreed repeatedly and asked tentatively: "How about I go back and report it now?"
Lin Fei looked at the sky and said, "It's getting dark. There might be ferocious beasts like wolves here. It's okay if they eat you, but my ransom will be gone. How about this - Zhang Chuang!"
Zhang Chuang heard Lin Fei's call and answered "Here" loudly. He walked in front of Lin Fei. Lin Fei pointed at the skinny policeman and said, "Ride on a fast horse and take this guy to the outskirts of Butuan City, and then come back."
Zhang Chuang agreed, tied the thin policeman's hands behind his back, threw him on the horse's butt, and rode towards Butuan City. After riding for more than 20 minutes, he arrived outside Butuan City, picked up the thin policeman and threw him down. The thin policeman was shaken dizzy and fell again, almost dying. It took him a long time to get up from the ground and stumbled into Butuan City.
When the skinny policeman saw Jackson, it was already dark. Jackson saw that only the skinny policeman came back in a mess, and asked hurriedly: "What happened? Where are Spencer and the others? Where are my elite troops?"
The thin policeman said with a sad face: "We were ambushed. They had guns. Many people died. Captain Spencer and more than 30 people were captured. Oh, and they also raised the ransom to 50 million!"
Jackson said viciously: "What 50 million ransom? Even the largest bank in Manila can't come up with that much money! These people are just looking for trouble and provocation. I think they must be the Moros on the island."
The thin policeman said, "But they all look Chinese."
Jackson shook his head and said, "It can't be the Chinese. The Chinese are the most honest and the most disciplined. They would never do such a thing."
The thin policeman didn't dare to say anything. Jackson sneered and said, "It's already dark today. It's not the time to send troops. Tomorrow morning, I will personally lead a large force to eliminate them all. Notify the firepower company to bring all eight Maxim heavy machine guns."
Jackson's adjutants agreed. Early the next morning, Jackson gathered his troops and called the officers of each unit to a meeting. At the meeting, Jackson said, "Our men were ambushed yesterday, so we must be more careful when we march today."
Jackson asked his adjutant to take out a map and hang it on the wall. He pointed at the map and said, "The distance from the city exit to the nearest woods is about two kilometers. The enemy cannot ambush us within this distance because there is no terrain cover. They can only ambush us when we reach the edge of the woods, so we must be extra careful after entering the woods."
"In order to prevent an ambush, after entering the woods, we move in company units, with a distance of 400 to 500 meters between each other. This way, no matter which company the enemy ambushes, the other companies can make a detour to outflank them. At that time, it will not be the enemy ambushing us, but we will be the ones encircling and annihilating the enemy!"
All the officers gave thumbs up and praised Jackson's brilliant plan. Jackson looked very proud and said, "I will gather the firepower companies together and put them under my unified command to avoid the firepower being dispersed by allocating them to different companies. Now, let's act."
After Jackson finished speaking, he led his troops out of the city and, led by the thin policeman, walked towards the place where Lin Fei was holding the prisoners. Jackson looked at the mighty team and felt proud. He thought to himself, we have nearly two thousand people and eight Maxim heavy machine guns. Wouldn't it be easy to deal with those Moros?
Jackson was thinking when he suddenly heard a loud "bang" coming from the east of the team. Jackson looked up at the direction where the sound came from and saw a cloud of black smoke rising into the sky. It seemed that something exploded. The entire Spanish army was stunned, not knowing what had happened.
At this moment, another explosion sounded to the east of the team. This time the explosion point was only more than 50 meters away from the team. The sound scared the horse pulling the Maxim heavy machine gun cart. The horse let out a panicked neigh and its hooves stepped on the ground restlessly. The groom grabbed the reins with all his strength and shouted "Stop" loudly.
Jackson ordered loudly: "Scout, go and see what happened..."
Before Jackson could finish his words, he felt a strange force pushing his back. He fell forward involuntarily and fell off the horse. The moment he landed on the ground, he heard a loud "bang" behind him. He turned around and saw a cloud of black smoke covering a Maxim heavy machine gun cart. The wind blew away the black smoke. The Maxim heavy machine gun that he regarded as a treasure had been blown into a pile of parts, and the horse pulling the cart also fell to the ground, with flesh and blood all over its body.
Jackson realized that the explosion was a cannonball! There are cannonballs attacking us! Jackson was about to order everyone to disperse, but the other seven horses that were pulling the carriage rushed out of the driver's pull like crazy and ran away recklessly. A driver was knocked down by the horse and stepped heavily on by the horse's hoof.
The horses pulling machine gun carts were running through the crowd. Many Spanish soldiers were unable to dodge and were hit by the horses or carts, breaking their bones. At this moment, there were series of shrieks from the sky. In the blink of an eye, groups of black clouds rose in the ranks of Spanish soldiers, and the loud "boom boom" sounds became continuous.
The Spanish soldiers were surprised to find that each of the exploding shells could shoot out countless knife-like fragments, which were enough to cut people into pieces. After almost every explosion, a circle of people would fall down, their bodies blown into sieves!
Jackson screamed heart-wrenchingly: "What's going on? Why do the Moros have artillery?"
