Volume 1 Tigers in Southeast Asia Chapter 99: Underwater Tunnel
Upon hearing this, Li Tianqian hurriedly asked, "You said I'm missing a strategy? What is this strategy I'm missing?"
Lin Fei laughed and said, "You didn't seem to mention blowing up the city wall."
Li Tianqian frowned and said, "I have thought of this a long time ago, but I think it is even more impossible than ants attacking the city, so I didn't say it."
Lin Fei asked with a smile: "How come this is even more impossible than the ant attack on the city?"
Li Tianqian said: "Cotabato has a total population of 400,000, of which 200,000 are Chinese. If we launch an attack on the Chinese after entering the city, our chances of winning are still high. However, we cannot blow up the city wall. I heard what the old craftsman Qin Xiren said that day, and I know how strong the city wall is."
"At first, I thought about using our mortars to blow up the city wall, but when I asked Zhao Menggang, I found out that the power of the shells was not enough to blow up the city wall. So I asked the miners in the engineering company for a way to blow up the city wall."
"The miners in the engineering company said that if you want to blow up the solid city wall, you must use a large amount of explosives at once, pile the explosives together, detonate them all at once, and blow up a specific point. This is the only way to blow up the thick city wall. Mortar shells cannot fall on one point."
"I heard about the method of using a large amount of explosives to blow up the city wall at once, so I thought of digging a tunnel to get close to the base of the wall, then piling up the explosives next to the wall and then detonating them. But I heard from Zhang Chuang that the Spaniards often patrol the top of the wall, and we will definitely be discovered by them if we dig a tunnel."
"The methods of using mortars and digging tunnels to place explosives are not feasible. I knew that the city wall could not be blown up, so I did not tell you this method. Could it be that Your Majesty has a method to blow up the city wall?"
Lin Fei smiled and said, "I did think of a way, but first we need to figure out the range of the enemy's artillery on the wall!"
Li Tianqian was startled and asked, "What does the range of artillery have to do with bombing the city wall?"
Lin Fei smiled mysteriously and said, "You will know this later. Go and call Zhao Menggang and Zhang Chuang for me now."
Li Tianqian agreed without asking any more questions, turned around and went out, bringing Zhao Menggang and Zhang Chuang in. Lin Fei looked at Zhao Menggang and asked, "Can you ride a horse?"
Zhao Menggang nodded and said, "I know a little, but I'm not very good at riding."
Lin Fei smiled and said, "There are cannons on the walls of Cotabato. Did you know about this?"
Zhao Menggang replied: "I saw your reconnaissance report and knew about this matter."
Lin Fei nodded and smiled: "Good to know, go and scout the range of the enemy's artillery."
Zhao Menggang was stunned for a moment and asked, "Reconnaissance range? How do you scout this?"
Lin Fei said, "There is an open area to the east of the city. The terrain is flat and the farthest end is about 5,000 meters away from the city wall. Bring two mortars and start firing at the city wall from a distance of 5,000 meters."
Zhao Menggang said hurriedly: "Our mortar shells have a maximum range of only four kilometers when fully loaded. We can't hit them if we start firing from five kilometers."
Zhang Chuang said at this time: "Your Majesty is not trying to blow up the city wall, but to lure the enemy on the top of the city to fire. Once the enemy fires, won't their range be exposed?"
Zhao Menggang suddenly realized what was going on, but then he asked, "Then why did your majesty ask me if I could ride a horse?"
Zhang Chuang said: "Isn't this easy? With horses, we can maneuver quickly and won't be easily hit by the enemy!"
Zhao Menggang nodded repeatedly and said, "So that's how it is. I understand. Your Majesty, is there anything else you want to order?"
Lin Fei shook his head and said, "No more, you guys can go now."
As soon as Zhao Meng and Zhang Chuang left, Lin Fei said to Li Tianqian, "Get old craftsman Qin Xiren here."
Not long after, Qin Xiren came in. Lin Fei said, "Mr. Qin, can you write Spanish?"
Qin Xiren said: "Yes, I have lived among the Spanish for more than ten years, so I know some of their writing."
Lin Fei said, "Well, you lead people to make a big flag, about 15 meters long and 5 meters wide. The flag should be white, and "Execute the Spaniards" should be written on it in Spanish. Do you understand?"
Qin Xiren agreed without asking any more questions and left. Li Tianqian on the side thought to himself, Your Majesty made such a big flag, which seemed to be intended to anger the Spaniards in the city and lure them into battle, but didn't Your Majesty say that he wanted to blow up the city wall? What exactly is Your Majesty going to do? Alas, Your Majesty's ingenious plan is really beyond our ability to guess.
Two hours later, Zhao Menggang and Zhang Chuang came back to report: "Your Majesty, we have reconnaissance, the Spanish artillery can't even reach a thousand meters!"
Lin Fei exclaimed: "What? You can't even hit it a thousand meters?"
Zhao Menggang laughed and said, "Not only can they not hit within a thousand meters, but their cannons are still outdated muzzle-loading cannons, and they fire iron sand."
In the development of artillery, there were muzzle-loading artillery first and then breech-loading artillery. Muzzle-loading artillery is one in which both propellant and shells are loaded from the muzzle. The Red Cannon is a representative example. By 1894, breech-loading artillery had far surpassed muzzle-loading artillery in performance, so what Zhao Meng said just now about the Spanish muzzle-loading artillery is outdated.
Lin Fei immediately ordered the entire army to set out to set up camp in an open area three kilometers east of Cotabato City. The current Palang Village is fifteen kilometers away from Cotabato City, which brought great inconvenience to the battle.
After Lin Fei gave an order, the two regiments of troops set out and arrived at the open area that Lin Fei mentioned one after another, and set up camp here. This was an endless open area, and the city wall could be seen from afar.
The next day, at 8 a.m. on February 5, Lin Fei said to Li Tianqian, "Don't you understand how I'm going to blow up the city wall? Come on, I'll tell you how I'm going to blow up the city wall."
Li Tianqian was both suspicious and surprised. He followed Lin Fei out. Lin Fei took Li Tianqian to Qin Xiren's engineering company. The engineering company had already made a big flag for executing the Spaniards. Lin Fei looked at the big flag and nodded with satisfaction. At this time, Qin Xiren, the old craftsman, said, "Your Majesty, do you want to use this thing to anger the Spaniards? Or should we make some more?"
Lin Fei shook his head and smiled: "No, I want to take you to do more important things, Mr. Qin, come with me."
Qin Xiren said with some fear: "But I can't ride a horse..."
Lin Fei smiled and said, "It's okay, I'll ride a horse with you." Then he took the old craftsman to the horse, left the engineering company, and ran to the south. Ten minutes later, a river appeared in front of them. The river was a hundred meters wide. Unfortunately, it was the dry season and there was not much water in the river, so the water surface was only about fifty meters wide.
Lin Fei urged his horse down into the river, Li Tianqian and several sniper team soldiers followed behind. When they reached the middle of the river, Lin Fei reined in the horse, and the horse stopped with a low neigh. Lin Fei jumped off the horse and fell into the water with a "splash". The water was very shallow, only up to Lin Fei's waist.
Everyone was shocked to see Lin Fei jump into the water. They stared at him blankly. Several soldiers from the sniper team also wanted to jump down, but Lin Fei waved his hand and said, "You don't have to come down."
After Lin Fei finished speaking, he extended his hand to Qin Xiren and said with a smile, "Old man, come down."
Qin Xiren was stunned, but did not ask any questions. He reached out and grabbed Lin Fei's hand, took his foot out of the stirrup, stepped down, and fell into the water with a "splash".
Lin Fei pointed his finger under the water and said, "Feel what's under the water."
Qin Xiren was full of surprise, but he still squatted down, put his hand under the water, and groped slowly. Lin Fei asked: "Did you find out what is under the water?"
Qin Xiren said: "Stone."
Lin Fei nodded and said, "The riverbed of this river is mainly made of stone."
Qin Xiren hesitated for a moment and asked, "What's wrong?"
Lin Fei smiled and said, "Remember this clearly."
Qin Xiren nodded, not quite understanding. Lin Feifei got on the horse, stretched out his hand to pull Qin Xiren on the horse, and continued to run to the other side with everyone. They soon crossed the river. There was a forest by the river. Lin Fei led everyone through the forest and headed west. After running for ten minutes, Lin Fei stopped the horse at the edge of the forest, pointed at the forest with his hand , and said, "Cotabato is just opposite the forest. We can see it after passing through this small forest."
Lin Fei turned around and said to a soldier, "You stay here and watch over the horses. Mr. Qin, Mr. Li, follow me."
After Lin Fei finished speaking, he led everyone into the woods. In no time, they arrived at the edge of the woods. Outside the woods was the river they had just seen. More than fifty meters away on the other side of the river was the city wall of Cotabato.
Lin Fei pointed at the city wall in the distance and said, "Mr. Qin, I need you to blow up the city wall."
Qin Xiren asked in surprise: "I blow up the wall? How do I do that?"
Lin Fei said: "It's about 200 meters from this position to the wall. I need you to lead the engineering company to dig a tunnel and then pile up a large amount of explosives under the wall."
Qin Xiren's face changed drastically, and he said, "The guys in our engineering company are all miners. They usually dig in the mountains, so they are naturally familiar with digging tunnels. But there is a river between us and the bottom of the city wall. Digging tunnels under the river is something we have never done before."
Lin Fei shook his head and said, "Don't worry. There is water in the riverbed only about fifty meters deep. The riverbed is made of rock and is very solid. We can dig a tunnel in the rock and water won't seep in."
At this time, Li Tianqian said, "Your Majesty, isn't this idea too risky? What if we are discovered while digging the tunnel?"
Lin Fei said: "We will start digging from the woods. The patrols on the city wall will definitely not see us. There is a river in between. They will definitely not think that we can dig a tunnel from under the river. Their vigilance will naturally decrease. In the next few days, we will create the illusion of attacking the city in other directions to make the Spanish unaware of our true intentions."
