Chapter 674 - Desperate Situation
Wang Wu lay behind cover on the earthen berm. This camp had originally been built to platoon-level independent specifications drawn from the Military Engineering Standards Manual compiled by the General Staff. Now he had only a squad of men to defend it. Actually, after subtracting the corporal sent for help and Liu Bing whom he had left in the tent to care for the sick, there were only ten defenders.
Ten men couldn't hold off the hundreds of thugs massing outside. Wang Wu looked at the sparse handful of people on the berm. If the enemy attacked from multiple directions, each side would have only two or three defenders. They could hold out an hour or two at most. Their only hope was the messenger. If Danzhou sent even a single company, they would be saved.
"We must hold this position. The longer we hold, the better our chances of survival." Wang Wu pulled a cigarette from his trouser pocket, lit it, and took a long drag. "The more noise we make fighting here, the sooner work-team headquarters will notice something's wrong and send reinforcements. We have rifles—what do the bandits outside have?"
The sergeant nodded, then turned to encourage the others. "I fought in the Lingao bandit suppression. Bandits are just a bunch of lazy good-for-nothings. They're great at bullying common folk, but once you stand firm, they go soft! Everyone just hold on for one day!"
The sergeant and Wang Wu climbed the watchtower together. Beyond the open ground surrounding the camp, in the trees and brush, shadows flickered—blades and spears in motion. Cries and chaos drifted from the village.
"There aren't that many enemies." The sergeant studied the tree line. "If we concentrate everyone, we could break out..."
But that would mean abandoning all the sick. And the road out contained a stretch of rugged mountain path—if bandits set an ambush there, they would be in for brutal fighting.
Wang Wu shook his head. "We can't abandon the sick—they'll all die. And... we might not be able to break out anyway."
A reckless breakout would get three or four people out at most. If they were wiped out, neither the work team nor the sergeant could explain it to "the organization."
"We can only hold to the death."
They climbed down from the watchtower. Just then, Liu Bing came crying to find Wang Wu. Including the medic, three patients had died. The others weren't faring well either.
"I gave them anti-diarrheal medicine and painkillers." Liu Bing's eyes brimmed with tears. "But it's not working."
Wang Wu said, "They've been poisoned. Without knowing what poison, medicine is useless..." Just then, the marksman in the watchtower called down loudly: the bandits were forming up.
"Everyone to your positions!" The sergeant shouted. "Don't rush! Let the enemy get close before firing!"
Liu Bing wanted to go up on the berm, but Wang Wu refused. "You stay and take care of the sick."
Each side of the camp now had two defenders; two more occupied the watchtower. Ten people total, with no reserves whatsoever. Everyone knew the stark reality: either they used their own strength to repel the enemy, or they all died here.
Wang Wu and a soldier with mild symptoms held the western section. Hearing the occasional groans of pain from nearby, Wang Wu loaded five or six rifles and placed them within reach. Following methods he had seen in military training films, he positioned a rifle at several different firing positions along this section.
On the camp's eastern side, the bandits began their cautious approach. The sergeant climbed the watchtower. Seeing only the eastern enemy advancing while the others held back, he immediately recognized this as a probing attack.
"Attention! Enemy approaching from the east! Twenty archers! Thirty rabble! No firearms."
This group of bandits advanced over a hundred paces, almost reaching two hundred paces from the berm. Then a rifle cracked from the berm.
The shriek of bullets cutting through air made everyone duck instinctively. A bandit cried out and fell.
Then, as if many were shooting, wisps of white smoke kept rising from the berm. The bandits couldn't stand the pressure—they immediately turned and fled in disorder.
Wang Wu held his position at the western berm. He resisted the urge to watch the east—the enemies there were also slowly advancing, and he feared that if his attention wavered, bandits might rush over in the confusion.
Sure enough, the sergeant's voice soon rang out again. "Western enemy charging! Ten archers, fifty rabble, some firearms..."
In an instant, Wang Wu saw dozens of ragged, peasant-looking men burst from the trees and brush, waving assorted weapons and letting out savage war cries. He immediately raised his rifle and fired into the crowd.
Before the recoil sensation faded from his shoulder, he dropped the rifle and ran along the trench to the next position, picked up the rifle there, and fired again. Then the next position. He returned at the same rhythm, firing six shots from three positions in moments.
The soldier helping him load worked frantically. Wang Wu caught a foul stench emanating from him.
"Sorry, couldn't hold it." The soldier said with a pained expression, handing him a Minié rifle with an unidentified yellow substance on the stock.
Wang Wu couldn't afford to be picky—he continued shouldering and firing.
The bandits soon retreated. Then they launched attacks on the other two sides, all repelled. The soldier in the watchtower fired as fast as possible, also creating the illusion of "heavy enemy fire."
When the first round of fighting ended, seventeen or eighteen bodies lay on the open ground, plus many wounded bandits dragging themselves back toward the tree line. Quite a satisfactory result.
Wang Wu thought: if the bandits kept attacking at this pace, holding out for a day wouldn't be a problem.
The bandit chiefs couldn't maintain their earlier confidence now.
"Didn't you say they were all poisoned? They don't look poisoned to me!" Hu Lanyan had lost men and was very displeased. Bandits who had gradually gathered now numbered over three hundred. But fighting like this—what result could there be except throwing away lives?
"Damn it, did Liu Dazhu tell the truth or not?" Gou Xunli couldn't think of any reason for Liu Dazhu to have lied. But from what had just happened, the enemy seemed numerous.
Xin Nari spoke up. "How about we just withdraw?" His nerve had been shattered by the Australians. Seeing them, he only wanted to run far away. Xin Nari had one advantage over the others—he clearly understood the vast gap between himself and the Australians.
"This is an easy target—we may never get another chance like this."
"We can't withdraw! If we do, how will we survive later? We have to slaughter the bald bandits' fighting spirit!"
"We should attack from all four sides at once—that way they can't defend everywhere."
As they argued, someone reported that they had captured a bald bandit on the mountain path.
"Excellent!" Gou Xunli's spirits lifted. "Quick, bring him over!"
Wang Wu was on watch—he had told the sick soldier loading ammunition to change his pants and rest for a moment. There would be more fighting soon. Just then, the sergeant came running with a soldier. "Team Leader! Someone's coming from the east!"
He left a soldier to temporarily replace him at his position. The two jogged to the eastern berm. Looking out from cover, they saw several bandits pushing forward a man bound hand and foot.
Their hearts sank—though the man was covered in blood, he wore a Fubogun uniform.
"We've caught your messenger! You have almost no one left!" A bandit hiding behind cover shouted. "Surrender quickly! No one's coming to save you!"
With the messenger captured, no one would notice anything wrong until the weekly report meeting two days later, when no one showed up.
"No surrender, or you end up like this!" The bandit shouted, raising a long spear.
On the spear's point was unmistakably Liu Dazhu's head—eyes half-open, mouth agape, frozen in an expression of unwillingness.
Wang Wu trembled as a chill rose from his feet. He felt his death drawing near. He answered hoarsely and loudly: "We will never surrender! You bunch of savages! Hicks!"
The bandits opposite roared curses and with one slash cut off the corporal's head. The rifle in the watchtower fired. The sword-wielding bandit lost half his skull. The others fled in terror, abandoning even Liu Dazhu's head. Three or four more rifle shots rang out, dropping two more bandits.
Half an hour later, with a thunderous shout, the bandits began another charge carrying equipment. They bore door panels taken from the village, hastily constructed ladders, and bundles of kindling—this was a serious assault.
The attack came from all four sides simultaneously, but the sergeant in the watchtower quickly identified the main thrusts as south and east.
"Concentrate fire on south and east!" The sergeant commanded loudly. "Watch your sights!"
The bandits quickly entered range. The chiefs behind them screamed and drove them on. Rifle fire intensified; crackling smoke immediately shrouded the berm. By now the soldiers weren't aiming anymore, just blindly firing as fast as they could load. Those loading worked with desperate speed.
The sergeant fired from the watchtower while observing the overall situation. Because so many charged this time, losing a few wasn't noticeable. The bandits' courage swelled. They quickly reached the trench and began throwing bundles of kindling and sandbags into it. Seizing this moment's pause, the sergeant bellowed: "Quick, reinforce the east!"
From the four defending the west and north, two immediately sprinted to the east. Including the watchtower, everyone fired continuously, rifle after rifle.
"Take cover!" The sergeant noticed many bandits suddenly looking up simultaneously.
A rain of arrows fell on the berm and into the camp, clattering to the ground with deadly patter. A soldier loading couldn't duck in time and was pierced by an arrow. He groaned once and died.
Wang Wu had no time to mourn this loss. The sergeant's whistle sounded again: "Quick, the west!"