Chapter 57 Attack
The westernmost immigrant village in Zhangjiacheng is called Wangxi Village, named after a small stream running through the middle of the village. Today, the villagers continue to reclaim the land as usual.

"Brother Dong, I heard that an agricultural machinery factory is going to be established in our town soon. In the future, we won't have to work so hard to reclaim wasteland and plant crops." A middle-aged man with his upper body naked said to another man beside him while digging the soil.

"Yes, I heard from Manager Bai of the farm that Wangxi Farm will only need 1000 employees in the future, and the rest will be arranged to work in the factory." said the man named Dong Ge.

All the land in Madagascar currently occupied is owned by the American-Chinese Company. All the arable land has been divided into individual farms instead of being allocated to immigrants for cultivation. There will be no further land redistribution in the future because this method of production is too inefficient.

Moreover, with the development of industry, various factories have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain. It is foreseeable that after all the preliminary preparations are completed, the speed of development will be faster and the demand for workers will be greater. However, the speed of increasing population through immigration will not keep up, and we can only try our best to liberate immigrants from the land.

Then the production of mechanized agricultural tools became a daily routine, which was also a preparation for the future production of cars, tanks, airplanes, etc. After all, many technologies are similar.

While the two were communicating and working, a group of indigenous soldiers were sneaking towards them not far away, but no one noticed. After all, in their eyes, the company had reclaimed so much land and had never encountered an attack. Moreover, the wild grass and jungle in this wilderness were relatively dense, and the visibility was very poor.

When they first started to invade the indigenous people's land, they were indeed very cautious, and the company's guards came to patrol from time to time. Later, they found that these indigenous people were very timid and did not dare to attack them at all, so they relaxed their vigilance.

This team of indigenous soldiers numbered about 100 people, each holding a rifle. When they were less than 100 meters away from the Chinese who were cultivating the land, they started shooting.

With a loud bang, a gunshot rang out, and the man who was talking to Wang Dong just now was shot and fell to the ground. Wang Dong was so scared that the hoe in his hand fell out of his hand, and his body collapsed to the ground.

"Bang, bang, bang" followed by another burst of dense gunfire. Half of the dozen people around him had fallen down. Wang Dong came to his senses and crawled towards the village, forgetting to pick up the rifle not far away to fight back.

However, some people were still relatively calm. Two of the survivors ran to where they had placed their weapons, picked up their guns, and fought back while retreating.

Wang Dong ran all the way to the village. He heard gunshots coming from far and near all around. He felt that they were not the only ones attacked, but he could not care less at this time and could only run for his life.

His feeling was correct. A month ago, the natives learned from Ed that the Meihua Company had nothing to do with the French. Sean also sent people to sell them some weapons and deliberately told them that the military strength of the Meihua Company was very weak so that they could attack with confidence.

After half a month of mobilization and several days of reconnaissance, after finding out the situation here, after the people in the villages and towns were dispersed today, a total of 10,000 indigenous soldiers launched this attack under the command of officer Laklumanana.

"Manager Bai, the natives attacked us and they are all dead." Wang Dong ran all the way back to the village and broke into the office of Bai Shan, the highest-ranking person in charge of Meihua Company here, and said breathlessly, his face full of panic and fear.

"What, the natives attacked me, how many people were there and what weapons did they have?" Baishan stood up and asked with shock on his face.

"Their people are everywhere in the mountains and there are gunshots everywhere. They are using guns." Wang Dong replied immediately.

In fact, only one-third of the more than 10,000 natives had guns, and most of them were relatively backward weapons eliminated by the French. Some of them were even matchlock guns. Although there were a few cannons, they were all antique brass cannons.
However, they still had hundreds of advanced rifles that Sean sold them, as well as two cannons. Now this surprise attack had seized hundreds of guns produced by the Thor Military Factory, and their firepower had been further strengthened.

After hearing what Wang Dong said, Bai Shan was not afraid at all, but for his own future, he could only force himself to calm down. "Come with me to Captain Chen to explain the situation." Bai Shan said to Wang Dong again.

There were more than 100 guards from the American-Chinese Company stationed here. He knew nothing about military affairs and could only follow the arrangements of the guard captain.

After listening to their report, the guard captain Chen Liming realized the situation was urgent, so he quickly gathered the team and rushed to the village entrance.
At this time, the village was in chaos. The villagers who escaped alive spread the news widely, causing panic. Some people had already packed up their things and prepared to escape.

"Manager Bai, go and appease the villagers." Chen Liming first said to Bai Shan, then turned to his men and ordered: "Deputy Captain, go open the armory, organize the militia, guard the village, and the scouts go out on horseback to find out the enemy's situation."

The three men followed their orders, and Chen Liming arranged for a man who could ride a horse to report the situation here to the company headquarters. He then began to arrange for armed soldiers and militiamen to occupy various hidden buildings for defense, and also placed all three cannons behind the bunker at the entrance of the village.

When he finished all this, the scout came back and reported: "Captain, there are at least several thousand natives outside, surrounding us from all directions, and most of them have guns. What should we do now?"

Chen Liming's heart sank. With 120 soldiers under his command and more than 200 armed militiamen, it was impossible for them to defend the village. After all, this was not a military fortress and there were no defensive fortifications.

"Manager Bai, there are a lot of enemies outside and their firepower is very strong. It is impossible for us to hold on. You should quickly organize the villagers to leave. I will cover you." Chen Liming called Bai Shan and said.

"Well, okay, Captain Chen, take care of yourself." Bai Shan hesitated and finally said.

By the time Baishan and the villagers escaped from the other side, the indigenous soldiers in front of the village had already surrounded them densely.

"The artillery is ready to fire, and everyone else waits for my order before firing," Chen Liming ordered.

At this time, the native army had entered the range of the artillery, but it was not yet within the effective range of the rifles, and it could not expose everyone's hiding place.

"Boom" three cannon shots were heard in succession, and the native soldiers charging in the front were blown down.

After the artillerymen finished reloading quickly according to their previous training, three more cannon shots were fired, which caused the native soldiers in the front to panic. Some even turned around and ran away, but they were soon killed by the soldiers behind them.

"Shoot!" Seeing the native soldiers rushing up, Chen Liming first fired a shot and then shouted orders.

After a burst of gunfire, the first few rows of native soldiers all fell down.

After a fierce exchange of fire, although the natives also fired a few shots, they were able to repel this wave of attack because of the cover in the village.

(End of this chapter)