Chapter 59 Defense and Offense

After two days and one night of emergency construction, Meiquan Village built a 10-meter-high bunker every 3 meters around it. The time was too short, so they could only build it as low and thick as possible. The open space in the middle was a trench dug, and a half-meter-high bunker was built in front.

The guards and militiamen have never seen blood, so they need to be given a sense of security as much as possible to help them get through the early trials. It is also Xiao Cheng's first time fighting a war, so he doesn't dare to advance rashly. Fortunately, he has several veterans serving as his advisers.

At noon today, the scouts returned with the employees of Xishan Farm, including some who had escaped from Wangxi Farm. They also learned that all the guards of Wangxi Farm had been killed in the battle.

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According to information obtained by scouts, the indigenous soldiers rested in Wangxi Village for a night and attacked Xishan Farm the next day. However, when they arrived, the place was deserted and the houses were burned down. At their speed, they would reach Meiquan Village tonight and launch the attack tomorrow morning.

Xiao Cheng let most people sleep directly in the trenches and bunkers, and also arranged for people to stand guard with gongs and drums 100 meters outside the village to prevent enemy sneak attacks. Fortunately, the night was peaceful.

The next morning, Xiao Cheng came to a bunker, took out a telescope and looked into the distance. A large group of native soldiers were rushing towards this side quickly. In the front were meat shields holding spears, in the middle were soldiers holding rifles, about 3000 people, and the natives at the back were pushing more than 20 cannons.

After reading it, Xiao Cheng immediately felt relieved. He had stronger firepower on his side. He only needed to fight a few battles and adapt for a few days, and he would be able to wipe them out and avenge the deaths of those in Wangxi Village.

"Pass the order down and prepare for battle!" Xiao Cheng put away the telescope and ordered the messenger behind him.

"Yes, sir!" the messenger replied, then picked up the trumpet on his back and blew it, warning people that the enemy was coming and to prepare for battle.

Behind the native army, Laklumanana saw the fortifications ahead and knew that he could not attack by force, so he immediately stopped his army from advancing.

"Push the cannons forward and blow up those fortresses first." Laklumanana said to an officer beside him.

When Xiao Cheng saw that the enemy stopped advancing, he immediately picked up the telescope and began to observe the enemy's movements. Just then a shell flew towards him, but because it was out of range, the shell landed more than 100 meters away from him.

He remained fearless and not panicked at all. Even if the distance was enough, a few shells would not be enough to destroy the relatively solid fortress.

"The natives actually have so many advanced cannons, including three made by us. We need to add these to future training subjects. If we have to, we must destroy our weapons as much as possible." Xiao Cheng muttered to himself as he observed.

"Messenger, notify the artillery to get ready. When the enemy's artillery comes into range, we will fire at them. We have more firepower, so let's destroy their artillery first." Xiao Cheng ordered.

The battle started as expected. The artillery of both sides was equally poor. It cannot be said that they missed every hit, but it can be said that they were completely inaccurate and relied entirely on luck.

Therefore, the artillery of the Meihua Company's escort team relied on the advantage of more artillery and hit one of the enemy's cannons.

The enemy's artillery did not hit the fortress, but several shells fell into the trench and hit a few unlucky people, resulting in one death and three injuries.

However, starting from the second round, both sides adjusted the angle of their artillery according to the landing point of the first round of shells, and both sides gained a little accuracy.

After several rounds of bombardment, both sides suffered minor casualties, but it was obvious that the natives' artillery was insufficiently powered, and they had lost several cannons.

Seeing this, Laklumanana knew that he could not continue like this, so he ordered his troops to attack quickly while they still had artillery cover.

The native soldiers with spears began to charge, followed closely by the musketeers.

After they rushed into the firing range of the muskets under the risk of artillery shells, the guards and militia began to fight back.

The soldiers of the escort team were fine, some of them were firing into the air, but some militiamen's hands were shaking while holding their guns, and the enemy was about to attack, but they hadn't fired a single shot.

But now no one is paying attention. Everyone is nervous, staring straight ahead, mechanically following the movements taught in training, aiming, firing, and after shooting, reloading and continuing. But many people forget to aim, and it's good enough if they can hit one out of five bullets.

The endless enemies ahead made them extremely nervous. After all, they had never experienced this before. It was a fight for life and death from the very beginning. The death of every teammate around them brought them endless fear.

As the enemies rushing up from three sides got closer and closer, the soldiers became very nervous, but their accuracy also improved a lot.

There were only a few hundred cannon fodders holding straw in front of the natives left, and the enemy's bullets also shot over. In an instant, someone was shot and started shouting.

At this time, the artillery also adjusted the angle of the artillery and fired at the enemy's charging troops. The shells fired from dozens of cannons exploded in the crowd.

The enemy suffered heavy losses, especially the musketeers hiding in the rear.

Xiao Cheng was observing the battle situation with a telescope inside the fortress and discovered that the bullets fired by his own soldiers had flown to unknown places.

"Messenger, go down and order the captains of each squad to urge the team members to aim before firing. If this continues, the enemy will rush onto the position."

Xiao Cheng suppressed his anger and said that everyone was a sharpshooter during training, but they were blind when it came to actual combat. Although it was understandable that it was the first time to go to the battlefield, one could not joke with everyone's lives and one's own future.

After this battle, we must train hard.

"Zhao Xiaoming, what are you doing? Did you aim? You just fired all the bullets in one go."

"Xiao Liuzi, you've pointed your gun up to the sky, trying to shoot birds."

"Wang Yun, why are your hands shaking? All the bullets have fallen to the ground. Pick them up for me."

"You all should learn from Zhang Tianzhou and shoot steadily. This is what we usually teach you. Stay calm and follow the steps in your usual training. Don't be in a hurry. Reload! Aim! Shoot! That's right."

Following the reminders from the captains of each team, many people calmed down. The effect was not very good, but at least they could fire ahead normally. After the dense rain of bullets, there were always a few that hit the enemy.

Since the escort team had cover, there were not many casualties. However, the natives felt the enemy's fierce firepower and could hardly bear it.

Seeing that the cannon fodder in the front had been almost completely wiped out and they were still hundreds of meters away from the enemy's position, bursts of artillery fire came from all around them, causing tinnitus in their ears.

They didn't feel much about the death of cannon fodder, but the number of teammates with guns around them was constantly decreasing, which made the usually fierce natives a little unbearable. Some native soldiers began to stop and wanted to retreat.

Seeing this in the rear, Laclomanana knew that they could not move forward any further, otherwise the musketeers would suffer heavy losses and would not be able to continue fighting. He would also not be able to explain himself if he returned, so he had to order the troops to retreat.

Soon the native soldiers retreated like a tide. Seeing this, Xiao Cheng couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. He finally withstood the first and most fiercest wave of attacks.

He could finally put his uneasy heart at ease, and the soldiers under him also completed the first round of trials and were not far from becoming a qualified soldier.

Xiao Cheng did not order a pursuit. Firstly, he could not take the risk yet, and secondly, the soldiers needed this time to adjust themselves and get into a military state.

(End of this chapter)