Trench Bolts and Magic

Chapter 57 Interweaving
Meanwhile, Morin led his squad swiftly through the ruins and shadows of the buildings.

On the map, the soldier cards representing both sides are intertwined, making the intensity of the battle immediately apparent.

Neither the Britannian soldiers nor the Kingdom's soldiers had ever fought such complex urban warfare.

They lacked sufficient experience and did not think of taking complete control of the buildings they had emptied.

In their view, as long as they pushed forward along the street and eliminated all the visible enemies, victory would be theirs.

This simple and brutal tactic may be effective in regular field battles, but it exposes a fatal weakness in urban warfare.

They emptied one building and immediately moved on to the next, leaving no reserve troops to consolidate the occupied territory.

This gave Morin and his group an opportunity.

He led his squad like ghosts, moving through areas the enemy considered 'safe,' constantly infiltrating behind enemy lines.

Soon, Morin found a set of ideal targets on the map.

It was a Britannian infantry force of less than a hundred men, advancing down a street; it appeared to be the rearguard of an entire company.

"They're the ones!"

Morin glanced at the map and saw the distance between them and other units, deciding to target this isolated force.

He quickly led his squad to the side and front of the enemy's advance route, where they found a relatively intact cluster of buildings.

"Corporal Bowman!"

"exist!"

"Take two squads and ambush them on the second floor of buildings on both sides of the street. Once the enemy gets close, open fire for a few rounds. After that, don't linger. Leave the building immediately and move to the back of this house to wait for me to join you!"

Morin pointed to a gathering point on his paper map and quickly assigned tasks.

"I will lead the rest of the men to ambush in this row of buildings on the enemy's right flank, forming a long-side flanking firepower!"

This is a classic 'L' shaped ambush circle.

The troops on the shorter side are responsible for providing the main suppressive fire and drawing the enemy's attention.

Meanwhile, the troops on the longer side would deliver a fatal blow from the enemy's flank.

"Do you understand everything?"

"Understood!"

Corporal Bowman nodded heavily and, with his soldiers, quickly disappeared into the ruins.

In the chaotic city, various building ruins and barricades allowed Bowman and his companions to move about covertly.

Morin then led the remaining soldiers and quietly slipped into a dilapidated building on the enemy's side.

The Saxon soldiers, guns in hand, nervously made their way to the windows on the first and second floors.

They held their breath, and could clearly hear the sound of Brittany soldiers' boots rubbing against the gravel on the street outside, as well as the clamor of their conversations.

Everyone's hearts were in their throats.

They are waiting for a signal.

Just then, Corporal Bowman and his men opened fire from the front of the street.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

A series of gunshots rang out from the building where Corporal Bowman and his men were lying in ambush, and deadly bullets instantly took down several Brittany soldiers at the front.

The sudden attack threw the Britannian force into chaos.

"Enemy attack! Up ahead!" "Take cover! Find cover!"

Everyone's attention was immediately drawn to the firepower ahead.

They instinctively raised their guns and aimed ahead, while simultaneously moving closer to the walls on either side of the street in an attempt to find cover.

They were completely unaware that this instinctive act of seeking safety was leading them headlong into the embrace of death.

Just then, Morin raised his rifle.

He aimed at an officer in the enemy formation who was waving and shouting.

"boom!"

He used his first shot as a signal, and the bullet pierced the officer's chest with pinpoint accuracy.

Immediately afterwards, the other soldiers in the building also began firing wildly at the targets outside through the broken windows.

Deadly ambush firepower was formed in an instant.

The Britannian soldiers, who were trying to dodge to the sides of the street, were shot down one by one by bullets that suddenly appeared from their side before they could even pinpoint the enemy's location.

They were completely stunned.

Bullets seemed to be coming from all directions. They wanted to fight back, but found that they couldn't pinpoint the enemy's exact location.

The dark room and the bright street outside created a natural light difference, giving Morin and his group a huge advantage in that the enemy was in the light and they were in the dark.

The Brittany soldiers could only fire haphazardly at the dark windows, relying on the muzzle flashes of their guns, in a futile counterattack.

Soon, the Saxon soldiers in the room had completed three or four rounds of firing.

Morin did not covet the spoils of war. When he saw on the map that a portion of the enemy's main force had already been spurred back to reinforce them, he immediately issued the order to retreat.

"Alright, let's retreat!"

Whenever he and his soldiers were equipped with MP18s or other weapons with greater firepower, he would try to achieve greater results.

Unfortunately, infantry equipment at this time was extremely monotonous, consisting only of bolt-action rifles, and hand grenades were almost all used up.

However, this wasn't a big problem for Morin, since he wasn't actually looking to wipe out these enemies.

Moreover, for these easily frightened enemies in the town, the wounded are actually a greater hindrance to their attack than the corpses, and they are also more troublesome to deal with.

After all, you can ignore a corpse for now, but if you don't take care of the wounded, they'll become corpses soon too.
Fight and run, never linger in battle.

This is the essence of urban guerrilla warfare.

He led everyone and quickly retreated through the back door of the building, disappearing once again into the ruins.

The reinforcements that rushed back in high spirits found nothing.

They saw only corpses and wounded people scattered on the ground, but couldn't find a single attacker.

However, before they could even catch their breath, Morin approached them again.

After he met up with Corporal Bowman, they quietly circled around to the flank of the returning reinforcements, and then...
Repeat the old trick.

These Brittany soldiers were so focused on rushing to support their attacked allies that they marched in very close formation and had no time to be on guard.

Then they were wiped out again by Morin and his men from the flank.

The repeated attacks on their rear left the Britannian commander in charge of the offensive in the area completely bewildered.

He roared at the other officers around him, "What's going on?! How come there are enemies behind us?! Did we clear this street?! Did those Saxons just crawl out of the ground?!"

He couldn't understand how the enemy, whom he had clearly defeated, could reappear behind him like a ghost.
(End of this chapter)