Chapter 1039

Chen Wei poked his head out and looked at the trench, which was deeper than he was tall. Just as his battle-crazed soldiers were about to jump down, he suddenly made a stop gesture.

Upon receiving the order, the soldiers immediately lay down in front of the first row of trenches, waiting for the next command.

“Company Commander, why did we stop?” a squad leader asked, coming closer.

Chen Wei looked at the crisscrossing trenches. He said, “These Dutch are acting too strangely. I’m worried it’s a trap. Look at this trench. If we jump down, we won’t be able to get back up at all. Even the Dutch need to use stools to stick their heads out of the trench.”

“That’s right. If we go down, we will definitely be captured alive. In Zeelandia, it is said that the Dutch tried to seize our Han-style rifles and Changping machine guns. They didn’t succeed last time, so they will definitely not give up this time.”

Chen Wei nodded. They were only launching a probing attack. Going down into the trenches with just the strength of this one company would be suicidal.

Thinking of this, he said, “You all continue to guard here. I’ll go back and ask for instructions.”

With that, Chen Wei crouched down and ran all the way to Liu Chen, telling him the situation in front and his thoughts.

Liu Chen had already been suspicious when he came ashore, which was why he sent Chen Wei to probe. In his opinion, it was abnormal for the Dutch to fight a positional battle with them in such a big way here, because among the European countries, no one understood the current Empire better than the Netherlands.

Especially Eric. He knew very well that with the current strength of the Chinese Empire, it could easily destroy all Dutch military forces in Southeast Asia.

According to a normal way of thinking, the Dutch should now be loading the wealth they had plundered in the colonies onto their ships and escaping.

But now, they were doing the opposite, so they must have something planned.

“Fools. Do they think we have to launch a frontal attack just because they have a position?” Liu Chen sneered. He said, “The First Regiment will launch a frontal feint attack. The Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Regiments will flank them. We’re going to make dumplings out of them.”

“Yes, sir!”

Upon receiving the order, the marines immediately took action. The soldiers of Chen Wei’s First Regiment immediately moved forward, and at the same time, used grenades and machine guns to sweep the trenches, putting on a show of a full-scale assault.

Meanwhile, the other soldiers of the marines went around the trenches, preparing to flank them.

The actions of the imperial soldiers were seen by Eric and Simon. Both of their hearts sank at the same time. It was then that they realized that the Chinese Empire’s army was not like those disorganized native armies.

In fact, the Chinese Empire’s generals were even more flexible on the battlefield than they were.

“This is bad. They are going to trap us here,” Eric said solemnly.

Simon said, “Even a fool knows what they are doing. There is no other option now. We must launch an attack.”

“No, we will suffer heavy casualties this way. You have seen their weapons that can fire continuously,” Eric argued. “Let’s retreat to Jakarta and then go to India. The Allied forces are waiting for us in Calcutta. They have cavalry and field cannons. At the very least, they can fight the Chinese Empire.”

Simon completely ignored Eric’s advice, because in his opinion, Eric had not produced the results he was satisfied with.

He said, “I am the administrator of Manila. I now order you to attack!”

While speaking, Simon roared at the officers.

Upon receiving Simon’s order, the officers came out of the temporary command post in the trenches. They returned to their units, and the Dutch officer leading the native army launched the first attack.

Each of these native soldiers was holding a stool. Stepping on the stools, they successfully climbed up the trenches and fired their Conqueror rifles at the imperial soldiers who were launching a frontal attack.

In an instant, gunshots rang out across the entire battlefield. The Dutch army’s bullets flew towards the imperial soldiers like raindrops.

Facing the attacking Dutch army, the imperial soldiers all lay on the ground and fired. The rear-loading feature of the Han-style rifles did not hinder their firing posture at all.

However, the Dutch soldiers were different. The Conqueror rifles they held had long barrels. After tearing open the paper cartridge, they had to stand up and use a ramrod to pack the powder into the barrel.

In this brief interval, the native soldiers trained by the Dutch became live targets for the machine guns.

“Dah dah dah…”

The machine gun’s fire swept towards the Dutch native soldiers who had climbed up the trenches. In the dense rain of bullets, the native soldiers fell one after another.

The first batch of native soldiers who had climbed up quickly all fell under the machine guns.

Simon and Eric saw this scene, and they became even more terrified of the machine guns, because they understood that they were now completely powerless against the machine guns.

Although the first wave of attack failed, Simon was still not reconciled. In his opinion, the lives of these natives were worthless, so he shouted, “What are you all standing there for? All the natives charge! I will give one hundred gold bars to anyone who can bring back a Han-style rifle!”

Under the promise of a great reward, the native soldiers, who were originally a little scared, charged up the trenches with shouts. But they discovered that this time, they were faced with even fiercer firepower.

It turned out that after discovering the possibility of the Dutch soldiers breaking out of the encirclement, Liu Chen immediately sent a reserve regiment to reinforce the First Regiment, which greatly increased the First Regiment’s firepower.

“Dah dah dah…”

The machine gun fire became even more intense, and the native soldiers soon suffered the same defeat as before.

The remaining three thousand native soldiers who had survived the bombardment were killed under the machine guns in the blink of an eye. Simon could no longer remain calm.

Fear began to spread in his heart. He shouted, “Now, everyone retreat!”

The Dutch soldiers, who were already terrified, followed Simon and fled towards Manila City.

In the Pasig River that surrounded Manila City, there were Dutch armed merchant ships waiting in advance. As long as they could get on the merchant ships, they could escape the enemy’s encirclement along the Pasig River and enter the sea.

The rout, once started, could not be stopped. The remaining soldiers in the trenches scrambled to escape towards Manila City.

Seeing this scene, Liu Chen immediately ordered a pursuit.

One side running, the other chasing. The imperial soldiers in dark green uniforms drove the Dutch soldiers in khaki-colored uniforms into the city like ducks.

During the pursuit, the imperial soldiers stopped from time to time to fire, and Dutch soldiers kept falling.

Eric frowned. He looked back at the skilled imperial soldiers and thought about how to counter the imperial soldiers’ firearms, which were so easy to load.

While he was thinking, the Pasig River appeared in front of them, but the imperial soldiers were also getting closer.

Looking at the obstacles that had been set up in front of the Pasig River in advance, Eric suddenly remembered something. He said, “Simon, we must obstruct their attack to successfully board the ships.”

With that, he immediately led a portion of the Dutch soldiers to hide behind the obstacles. At the same time, he ordered the soldiers to line up in three rows. The first row of soldiers was responsible for firing, and the second and third rows of soldiers were responsible for loading ammunition.

Whenever the soldiers in the first row fired, the soldiers in the second row would hand their firearms to them, and the soldiers in the third row would hand their firearms to the second row. The second row would then hand the empty guns to the third row to be reloaded.

“I must have been out of my mind. Why did I only think of the fire hedgehog shooting method now?” Eric murmured.