Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 524: A Plan for Night Attack
The counterattack tactics discussed by the Spanish governor and the bishop were simple, the militia's human wave attrition tactics, delaying the enemy for a day until the typhoon arrives, when the enemy's ammunition will be greatly consumed and they will have to wait for the follow-up supplies to arrive, which will delay the enemy for a while. It would be best if the typhoon was more severe and destroyed the enemy's fleet, so that the fleet in the port could attack and cut off the enemy's logistics.

The reason why they focused on the logistics line was very simple. It was too far from the mainland to Borneo. It took more than 20 days to go there. If they were unlucky and encountered a typhoon on the way, the transport fleet would be destroyed. It would be very difficult to replenish the transport ships. It might take a year or two. The long expedition, the long siege, and the foreign land, these factors together greatly increased the possibility of military failure.

People are like this. They will never give up until they are at their wit's end. The fact that the Spanish were one of the people who started the Age of Exploration shows that they were very resilient and adventurous in that era. After all, it was normal to drift on the sea for several months in that era. Before the discovery of quinine, the mortality rate was over 50%.

This is the current situation. If we don't attack, we will be waiting for death. If we attack, we can still fight. We can delay one day at a time.

All I can say is that there was nothing wrong with the strategy of waiting for changes at the beginning, but the opponent was too abnormal.

Another point is that the integrity of the ally, the Dutch East India Company, was overestimated. Up to now, it can be said that this ally, which is so close at hand, has not made any move.

Are the Dutch really silent? Actually, they are. They have people keeping an eye on the direction of Manila and sending messages back regularly.

In fact, at the beginning, the Dutch proposed a plan to take the initiative to attack Guangzhou, intending to use the main forces of the two fleets to attack Guangzhou and destroy the Zhou Empire's South China Sea Fleet.

But the Spaniards refused after careful consideration, and the reason was very simple: the existence of the Humen Fort.

The Spanish even suspected that the Dutch had deliberately proposed this, waiting for the Dutch to refuse, so that they would not send troops to rescue. Of course, this is just speculation. After all, no one knows that the Zhou Empire attacked Manila first, not Java.

The missionaries and nuns held the box and placed it on the table. The people queuing in the square came forward one by one in silence and reached into the box to draw lots.

That’s right, counterattack requires militia, and there can be no assignments, otherwise there will be all kinds of chaos. Drawing lots is the only way that seems fair, and if you win, it is God’s will.

The lottery operation lasted for a day, and each person who was drawn went to report to the suicide squad with a solemn expression. The ratio of this lottery was two to one, that is, one was drawn from two people.

The scale of this counterattack is not small, requiring at least 5,000 people. After the previous battles, the supply of troops in the city has become a bit tight.

Although the wound on his buttocks had not healed yet, Jose was forced to participate in the lottery, and unfortunately drew the death lottery.

As night fell and approached midnight, the bishop personally came out to perform a blessing ceremony for the death squad. Everyone lined up outside the three city gates, silently waiting to attack.

Yes, the Spanish chose to attack at night. If they attacked during the day, they were afraid that the hot air balloons would fly over and everyone would have to flee.

At midnight, the heavy city gates were opened, and the death squad rushed out quickly. The officers had repeatedly told them to hurry.

Jose followed the crowd out of the fortress, holding a rifle with a bayonet. He belonged to the combat team, and behind him was the ditch-filling team with shovels. They were going to wait for them to drive away the enemy and then fill the trench.

Don't talk about the possibility of further digging later. At this point, it's time to delay as much as possible. Both sides understand the tactics.

When the sharp whistle sounded, Jose and the team had already reached less than 200 meters away from the trench. Everyone lined up in a horizontal line and started to walk quickly. When they heard the whistle, the officer growled, "Jog!"

Bang, bang, bang, sporadic gunshots rang out, and someone in front was shot and fell. Jose tripped over the body, climbed up using his hands and feet, and continued to catch up with the team.

The gunshots became more and more frequent. Jose kept seeing fallen militiamen. His mind was blank and he just ran faster and faster based on instinct.

"Hurry up, boys, the infidels have been scared away." The officers in charge shouted excitedly. The night attack was very successful. When the enemy was caught off guard, the suicide squad successfully rushed to the first trench.

Jia Lian was also awakened by the gunshots and rushed out of the house. Churchill, who lived next door, also rushed out in his pajamas. After the two looked at each other, Jia Lian said very calmly: "It's a night attack, no big deal, I believe the boys can handle it. My Lord, you should go back to sleep."

It is not known whether Churchill was pretending to be calm when he saw him like this, but he certainly was not as calm as he looked, otherwise he would not have come out in pajamas and wearing wooden clogs.

"Sir, you'd better go and take a look! Besides, I can't sleep with all this noise." Churchill seemed more tactful. It wasn't that he was particularly brave. He would dress neatly, call his followers, and be ready to run away at any time. He had no intention of sacrificing his life for the Zhou Empire.

Jia Lian knew that he didn't believe it, but what Jia Lian said was indeed true. The new army had practiced how to deal with night attacks many times in their past training.

"Well, I'll go and take a look. Please rest assured, Your Lordship. Your safety will not be threatened no matter what." Jia Lian turned back calmly. Zhuzi had already prepared the clothes. After Jia Lian dressed up slowly, he went out. At this time, the sound of gunfire in the distance became more and more frequent, indicating that the defending new army soldiers had entered combat status.

Adjutant Fan Ping also appeared. Just as he was about to speak, there was a deafening explosion, boom, boom, boom.

Fan Ping shrank his neck slightly, and then said calmly: "Don't worry, sir, the General Staff has already made a plan."

Boom boom boom!
The explosions became more frequent.

"Sir, according to the plan, this is our army's initiative to abandon the position and use explosives to meet the enemy attacking the trench."

When Jia Lian walked to the open space outside the door, Churchill had already dressed and was standing there watching the continuous flames in the distance, followed by continuous explosions.

"Is it the grenadiers throwing bombs?" Churchill asked curiously. Britain also had grenadiers, but ordinary grenades would not make such a noise. The command center was five kilometers away from the front line. Such a loud noise could not be a grenade. Unless the Zhou Empire developed a new type of explosive that made a bigger noise.

Churchill was not making a blind guess, he had a basis for his guess. He had been here for two days. Yesterday, Jia Lian generously gave him the opportunity to watch a rifle up close. Churchill then realized that there was no so-called flintlock mechanism on the Zhou Empire's rifles. This showed that the Zhou Empire must have developed a more advanced firing device. Churchill wanted to shamelessly ask for a rifle to take a look, but unfortunately he didn't have the courage, because he was worried that once he opened his mouth, misunderstandings would arise and damage the current good relations between the two countries.

The only option is probably to think of a way to go through the civilian route and smuggle a rifle to see.

There is another thing that Churchill had noticed long ago. The rifles carried by the guards around Jia Lian were slightly shorter and had different firing mechanisms. That's right, Jia Lian's guards were equipped with needle-percussion rifles. The first batch of results from the R&D Department was handed over to Jia Lian for trial use. There are currently only a small number of them, only 200.

Don't underestimate these 200 needle-percussion rifles. The density of firepower they produce is simply incomparable to that of muzzle-loading rifles, not to mention that they can also be fired in a prone position, greatly improving the survival rate during a shootout.

No matter how fast a muzzle-loader is, to load it you need to first pour gunpowder into the muzzle, then insert the Minié bullet, compact it with a cleaning rod, install the primer, and then shoot.

The needle-percussion gun is directly loaded, locked, and fired. The firing rate is more than doubled.

In order to reassure Churchill, Jia Lian stood in the open space, lit a cigarette, and looked at the flames rising in the distance and the continuous explosions.

The dense explosions finally stopped, followed by another slightly smaller explosion, this time a real grenade exploding.

"Please listen, Your Majesty. This is the clarion call of our army's counterattack." Jia Lian explained with a smile. Churchill actually heard it too. It was indeed the sound of a grenade.

Black powder is not powerful enough, has a large charge, and makes a lot of noise, so it cannot be thrown far due to its weight.

Jose watched with his own eyes the people in front of him rushing down the trench. When he was about ten meters away from the trench, there was a sudden flash of fire in front of him, and a violent explosion sounded. The ground was shaking slightly. Jose subconsciously stopped. A gust of wind brought raindrops, which fell on his face and head, mixed with a strong smell of blood.

Jose completely lost consciousness. The person in front of him fell backwards, and Jose instinctively stepped back. He tripped and fell to the ground. The pain from the wound made Jose regain consciousness a little.

The explosion came from inside the trench. The continuous explosions were like a button that stopped time, making everyone pause at that moment.

Buzz, buzz, buzz, no sound could be heard in his ears, only the constant tinnitus. He Xi only felt that his ears seemed a little damp and a warm current was flowing in his ears.

The dirt splashed like raindrops, hitting my face, mixed with stones and fell on my forehead. Fortunately, the hit was not big, but it really hurt.

Jose closed his eyes. Now he was only able to sense. He wiped the dust off his face with his hand and tried to open his eyes to look ahead. On both sides of the trench, there were piles of corpses lying.

Hexi had a strong premonition that if he didn't run, he would be dead. But he had no strength at all. No matter how hard he tried to get up, his legs were weak. He tried to hold his hands up, but found that he had no strength.

Before the sound of the explosion had died down, intensive gunfire rang out again.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. The bullet flew past his head, plowing a streak in his hair. A burning smell told him that the bullet had grazed his scalp.

Jose was completely awake, but he didn't have the courage to continue fighting, nor did he have the courage to stand up and run. When the enemy with a bayonet appeared in his sight, Jose finally chose to kneel down and raise his hands. At this moment, Jose was freed. At this moment, he didn't think about whether he could go to heaven after death, but about the nun who bandaged him that day, Sister Elaine.

After the outer fortress was captured, Jose never saw Sister Elaine again. People said that she was either dead or captured by the pagans. A woman, even a clergyman, would probably not have a good ending in the hands of the brutal pagan soldiers. Maybe there is no chance to see Sister Elaine alive, and we can only meet in heaven. Speaking of which, Sister Elaine's hands are really gentle, and her palms are hot.

The death that he was waiting for did not come. The enemy soldiers who rushed up saw Jose kneeling on the ground and simply ignored him and rushed forward. Wasn't they going to kill him?
With doubts, He Xi looked around and saw that many people chose the same way, kneeling on the ground with their hands raised. Looking back, he could see the militia kneeling on the ground.

Haha! Hexi felt unexpectedly bitter inside, and the sense of shame faded a little, because it turned out that he was not the only one who felt the same.

Jose raised his head and looked at the sky. There was a bright crescent moon. It was really white, whiter than Aunt Mina's ass. Don't ask Jose how he knew it. He would never admit to having peeked even if you kill him.

I don't know when the gunfire stopped. Jose was in a daze and didn't know how he left the battlefield. He was numbly taken to an open space.

A bonfire was lit here in advance and everyone sat down by the bonfire.

"Is anyone injured? Are there any wounded?" When the familiar voice sounded in his ears, Jose suddenly looked up, stood up and looked for the voice.

"Sit down!" A soldier with a bayonet not far away roared, looked at Jose viciously, and pointed the bayonet at him, as if he would stab him at the next moment.

Jose didn't understand, but he knew it was not a good thing, so he quickly pointed at the wound on his forehead and made a series of gestures.

The new army soldier saw the wound on his forehead and waved his rifle: "Go!" He still didn't understand, but he understood from his body language and facial expressions.

The new army soldiers actually didn't understand why they should treat these Western devils well, but the Marshal's military order was as firm as a mountain, and there would be a bonus for capturing prisoners. This was irresistible.

As for why Jia Lian took measures to treat the captives well, it was of course to leave some room for maneuver. One reason was to collect ransom, and the other was to get free labor.

In fact, the natives have no education and no skills. In contrast, the Spanish immigrants are more likely to have education or skills. At worst, these people can work as construction workers.

It's so easy to kill a person, and get an extra free labor force, that's what profit is.

If the soldiers get carried away and kill the nobles and officers, wouldn't that be a loss for the ransom?
At four o'clock in the morning, Jia Lian finally waited for the chief of staff to come and report.

"Sir, the enemy launched a night attack, but it has been repelled by our army. Our defense line remains unshakable. We are still counting the results of the battle. It is estimated that more than a thousand people were killed or wounded, and more than three thousand were captured."

Jia Lian was very surprised to hear the number of more than 3,000. Before he could ask, Churchill, who was standing next to him, found out through the translator and exclaimed, "So many? How did you do that?"

(End of this chapter)