Volume 1 Tigers in Southeast Asia Chapter 85: The Trickster
The shells fell one after another, and the Spanish formation was in chaos in the blink of an eye. Officers at all levels were shouting loudly, trying to gather their men, but at this moment, gunshots were suddenly heard from the roadside. The gunshots were so dense that the Spaniards fell down like straw in the wind.
Jackson looked in the direction of the sound and discovered that about 400 meters east of the road there was a long dirt slope three or four meters above the ground. The slope was covered with weeds, and in the weeds there were vaguely visible numbers of people. These were the people who had fired the shots.
Jackson slapped his head in annoyance, thinking that he had thought the enemy would ambush us in the woods, but he didn't expect them to ambush us between the woods and the entrance to the city!
Jackson hurriedly shouted loudly: "Fight back, fight back quickly, firepower company, use Maxim, kill them!" But Jackson's Maxim heavy machine gun had been taken away by the frightened horse and had long disappeared.
At this time, the Spaniards began to disintegrate. They were not a well-trained army and lacked the will to fight and the ability to respond on the battlefield. They were good at fighting the Moros who only knew how to use bows and machetes, and bullying the honest Chinese, but they were no match for the powerful enemy.
Many Spaniards threw down their rifles, some ran to the wilderness to the west, some ran to the jungle to the south, and some turned back to run into the city. The bullets on the slope seemed to have eyes and knocked them to the ground. The remaining Spaniards were so scared that they lay on the ground and began to fight back in panic. All the Spaniards were wondering in their hearts, who ambushed us? Why was it so powerful?
The ambushing troops were Lin Fei's subordinates, and the initial explosion was caused by Zhao Menggang's mortar. When Lin Fei was scouting near the entrance to the city yesterday, he found that this place was flat and not a good place for an ambush, so Jackson would definitely not be on guard.
Lin Fei was well aware of the principle of treacherous tactics in war, so he decided to attack unexpectedly and ambush in this open area. The long dirt slope on the east side of the road could be used for ambush, and his men were wearing camouflage uniforms, so they would not be easily discovered even at a distance of 400 meters. Lin Fei then ordered his troops to ambush behind the dirt slope in the dark.
The reason why the ambush was successful was also greatly helped by the cholera epidemic in the city. Butuan City was the most prosperous city nearby, and there were many people coming and going. They were very likely to discover Lin Fei's ambush. However, there was a plague in the city and few people dared to come, so no one discovered Lin Fei's ambush.
Lin Fei knew in advance that the Spaniards had Maxim heavy machine guns, and that the range of the Maxim heavy machine gun was up to one thousand meters. His troops set up an ambush four hundred meters away from the roadside, which was exactly the best distance for the Maxim heavy machine gun to exert its power. So he ordered Zhao Menggang to attack the Maxim heavy machine gun troops with mortars, using the huge explosion to scare the horses pulling the carts.
This trick really worked. The horses, which had never heard the sound of an explosion before, were frightened and fled in all directions. Not only did they take away the Spanish heavy machine guns, but they also broke up the Spanish formation, causing chaos among the Spanish.
At this time, the Spanish troops were either killed or fled, and the troop organization was in chaos. The soldiers of the second company ran into the third company, and the officers of the third company ran into the second company. Few officers could find their soldiers. Although some of them were firing guns to resist, they were scattered and ineffective.
Lin Fei was watching the situation of the Spanish troops from a high slope in the distance and found that many of them were fleeing in panic and those who were resisting had no organization. He instantly realized that the Spanish troops had lost effective command. Now was a good time to annihilate them in one fell swoop!
Lin Fei waved his hand and called over the Second Battalion Commander Niu Dahu, and ordered loudly: "Second Battalion Commander, lead your troops to the south and encircle and annihilate them."
Niu Dahu said loudly, "Understood!" Then he shouted to everyone, "Second Battalion, follow me!"
Niu Dahu led the second battalion to detour to the south, while the first battalion remained where it was and exchanged fire with the resisting Spanish troops. The Spanish troops were located in a wilderness and there was no place to hide, so the Spaniards were killed one after another.
Twenty minutes later, the Second Battalion led by Niu Dahu detoured to the south of the Spanish troops and immediately launched a charge. They acted according to the "four-three system" group organized by Lin Fei. Every two groups covered each other, and each group had someone in command. They were not worried that the organization would be disrupted, so they dared to fight and charge hard.
The Spanish troops had never seen such a scene before, so they raised their hands and knelt down to surrender. At this moment, Lin Fei suddenly saw a group of people on horseback running to the west. Lin Fei's mind raced, thinking that these people actually had horses, so they must be the leader, so he turned around and said to Zhang Chuang: "Sniper team, follow me and capture their leader."
After Lin Fei finished speaking, he jumped on his horse, kicked his legs against the horse's belly, and chased towards the west. Zhang Chuang and others followed closely behind. The horses that Lin Fei and others rode were Sultan Bazahai's BMWs, and they ran very fast. They caught up with the group of people on horseback in a few minutes.
Lin Fei saw that the guy riding a horse in the middle had the most gorgeous uniform, so he knew he was the leader. Lin Fei took out his rifle and shot at the people next to the leader. Zhang Chuang and others around him had followed Lin Fei for quite some time, and they could tell who was the leader and who was the follower from their clothes, so they also shot at the followers.
It is very difficult to hit the target when shooting on horseback at high speed, because the horse's back is bumpy and the muzzle of the gun moves up and down, making it difficult to aim. However, Lin Fei and his men used continuous shooting, so there was always a bullet that could hit the target.
Soon the leader was left alone. He would pull out his gun from time to time and shoot, but the bullets were inaccurate and always far away from Lin Fei and his companions. After a few shots, the leader ran out of bullets and simply threw the gun like a dart. Of course, the pistol could not hit Lin Fei and fell to the ground with a "click".
Seeing the leader throw away his gun, Lin Fei drew out the Saladin Blade and kicked the horse's belly hard with his legs. The warhorse felt the pain and jumped a long distance away at a much faster speed. Lin Fei then got closer and closer to the leader and soon rushed behind him.
Seeing the leader's back right in front of him, Lin Fei raised the Saladin Blade in his hand high and hit the leader hard on the back with the back of the knife. The leader screamed and fell off his horse, rolling on the ground wailing.
Lin Fei turned over and dismounted, stepped on his head and chest, glanced at his shoulder straps, and said with a smile: "You are a colonel, you made a fortune! Tell me, who are you?"
The leader glared at Lin Fei and yelled at the top of his voice: "You are the lowest Chinese pig!"
Lin Fei sneered and said disdainfully: "You still don't want to say it, it doesn't matter, I will definitely find out your identity." After saying that, Lin Fei said to Zhang Chuang: "Tie this guy up for me!"
Zhang Chuang and his men rushed forward, took out ropes and tied up the leader tightly, then tied the leader to the horse's tail and dragged him back to the team. At this time, the battle between the First Battalion and the Second Battalion had ended, and the First Battalion was cleaning the battlefield. They picked up the guns beside the corpses, took out the bullets from the corpses, and put them away one by one. The guns would be distributed to the grassroots government established by Lin Fei to facilitate Lin Fei's control of remote villages. Some of the bullets would be kept for his own use, and some would be sent back later.
At this time, Niu Dahu came over and said, "Captain, after preliminary statistics, we killed 345 Spaniards and captured 789. The others escaped far away and we were unable to catch them."
Lin Fei nodded and said, "Very good. Send these Spaniards to the open space and detain them first. Then send someone to transfer our Third Battalion and invite Gao Manlu and the other Chinese. Our next step is to enter the city."
Niu Dahu agreed and sent someone back. Lin Fei then asked, "Among the captured prisoners, are there any who look sick?"
Niu Dahu shook his head and said, "Not even one, they are all very energetic."
Lin Fei frowned and said, "The army lives in a group, so infectious diseases must spread very quickly. Isn't the plague in the city not completely over yet? How come no one in their army is infected?"
Niu Dahu didn't know how to answer. Lin Fei waved his hand and asked Niu Dahu to do his own thing first. Then he asked Zhang Chuang to bring the leader closer and asked two prisoners about the leader's identity. The two prisoners said tremblingly: "He is our commander, Jackson."
Lin Fei laughed and said to Jackson: "So you are Mad Dog Jackson."
Jackson snorted coldly, turned his head away, and ignored Lin Fei. Lin Fei smiled and asked, "Why is no one sick in your barracks?"
Jackson still didn't speak, Lin Fei waved his hand and said, "Teach him a lesson, don't beat him to death."
Zhang Chuang and his men came up and started beating and kicking Jackson. Jackson was holding on at first, but when he couldn't poop anymore, he cried out, "Stop hitting me. I'll tell you everything."
Lin Fei stopped Zhang Chuang and the others and said, "Tell me, what's going on?"
Jackson sighed and said, "We did find a few patients. The military doctor asked us to lock the patients in a separate small room. No one else can touch anything used by the patients, so we didn't have too many people get sick."
Lin Fei thought for a moment and said, "Your military doctors know to isolate the patients. It seems that you are not completely ignorant of cholera. Then why do you still say that cholera was caused by the Chinese poisoning?"
Jackson said, "There are two main reasons for this. One is that if we say that the Chinese are poisoning us, we can seize the opportunity to capture and kill them, and then seize their money. The Chinese are the most hardworking and frugal, so they have a lot of money. The other reason is that we need to kill the Chinese to win the hearts of the people. Although the doctors in the city know to separate the sick from the healthy, they don't know how to treat this disease. The people in the city are panicking. If we kill the Chinese, the hearts of others will be at ease."
