After releasing a lot of messy news such as "we will leave tomorrow to sweep", "we will leave this afternoon", and "the sweep will officially start in a month", the British army is ready to officially send troops.

The British army first adjusted the defense of those stations, and the troops that had been in the stations, including the "Irish Security Force", were transferred and replaced with new units, and these troops were the British recruits who had just been transferred. Then the British divided the tens of thousands of troops they had gathered into two routes, left and right, and slaughtered them towards Ireland's largest non-security area.

Although there has been too much interference from the base area, it is still difficult to hide such things as large-scale troops. In addition, in addition to relying on intelligence workers in the security and quasi-security areas, as well as the "Irish security forces" who stepped on two boats to provide information, some scouts of the Irish Independence Army, as well as county brigades, district squads, and village guerrilla groups close to the areas controlled by the British army, were also vigilant at this time, ready to deal with the sweep of the British army at any time.

On the edge of the base area, because the British army would often carry out rapid crusades here, (the British army used the high mobility of the cavalry units to regularly raid the villages in these areas, trying to gradually encroach on these areas.) So the villages here are more serious and meticulous in terms of early warning than other regions.

During the day, the men went down to work in the fields, and the women followed to help. It was the turn of the partisans on duty to keep an eye on the main road, while the half-grown children drove the sheep out to graze the sheep, and by the way, they kept an eye on the empty paths to carry out the guard duty. (It is not once or twice that the British cavalry, under the leadership of the traitor, entered the base area from the small road and did bad things.) ）

The children were also warned that the British team might have recently made a large-scale attack on the base to do bad things, and the children were also vigilant.

Early this morning, Alice's friends drove a few lambs to the small mound north of the village. There was a well-grown meadow, and the mound was a good place to keep an eye on the nearby roads.

There is a message tree erected on the mound, which can be seen from the direction of the village.

Of course, the message tree can't be put down casually, because once the people in the village see the news tree falling, everyone will immediately move to the swamp shelter, and of course no farm work can be done on this day. If it's just a false alarm, it's too uneconomical.

So there is a division of labor among the children. When only one or two people came, two older boys, Michael and Thomas, would come forward to interrogate them with short spears, while the other children guarded the message tree. If something happens, immediately bring down the message tree and alert the village.

Of course, if there are many people coming, and they are not their own people who have been agreed in advance, then do not hesitate to put down the message tree, and then take the sheep and move directly to the swamp shelter.

Climb the mound, let the sheep graze on the grass under the mound, and the children will talk on the mound, looking into the distance.

This time of the morning is the most dangerous and the time to be vigilant. Because there is dew on the ground during this time, people and horses walking on it will not raise dust, and it is not easy to be detected. When it was almost noon, the sun had dried the dew, and people and horses coming from the road would raise a high level of dust, which could be seen from afar.

A few children looked dutifully while chatting about the taste of French sweets brought by the old mayor last time. Michael said wistfully, "The old mayor told me that when we win, we can eat French sweets every day, and we can eat as much as we want......

As the children spoke, they looked forward to a sweet future, when the sharp-eyed Alice suddenly saw something moving rapidly in the distance.

"What do you see there?" Alice shouted.

The children were all tiptoeing to look that way, and there was something moving quickly in this direction.

"That's the enemy's cavalry, quick, get the message tree down."

The children quickly brought down the message tree, and then Michael and Thomas went down to hang the mines on the path, and the others drove the sheep and did not go back to the village, but went straight to the swamp shelter.

As soon as the news tree fell, everyone became alert. The villagers picked up their belongings—which had been packed these days—and headed for the swamp shelter. A few young men from the guerrilla group in the village took their guns and went over there. They had to use black guns to interfere with the enemy as much as possible and buy time for the villagers to move.

The villagers met with the children at the entrance to the swamp shelter. Except for Michael and Thomas, the other children and sheep were there. They tell everyone that Michael and Thomas have gone to hang the mines on the strings. A few people were left behind to wait here for a while. I heard the faint sound of a mine exploding over there.

Everyone waited anxiously for a while, only to see Michael and Thomas running over, their faces full of excitement.

"Dead boy, where did you go!" Old Michael went up and planned to fix the naughty egg.

"We saw two British cavalry horses with their legs blown off, and those two Britons fell off their horses, hahaha......" Michael still looked proud, not noticing that his father was about to get angry.

"Forget it, just come back, let's hurry in." A few men grabbed the elder Michael, and then everyone went to the shelter together. As he went, he took the planks from above and pulled down the stakes.

There were a few more gunshots outside, and it was the guerrilla fighters who were shooting cold at the British. They have another way to get in and out of the shelter, so there's no need for everyone to worry about them. Then smoke rose from the direction of the village, and you didn't have to ask to know that it must have been set on fire by the British.

"If they have the courage to chase them into the swamp, see if we don't kill them!" A villager said hatefully. Although their thatched house is not valuable, it is also the work they have worked hard to build.

Shortly after the villagers entered the shelter, a group of British soldiers and a group of black-skinned dogs also arrived at the edge of the swamp.

This time, the British army also came prepared, and in order to deal with the swamp, they specially prepared a new equipment, swamp shoes.

The so-called "swamp shoes" are actually just a large wooden board that can be tied to the original boot. The design of this thing is simple, and the principle is also very simple: increase the force area and reduce the pressure. Wearing such a pair of shoes, the pressure of the human body on the ground can be reduced by more than half, so it is naturally more difficult to sink. Of course, this is still not safe, in case of encountering a particularly thin and deep quagmire, how to die, or how to die.

Since it is still dangerous to enter the swamp in this way, of course, this kind of thing must be led by the people of the "security forces".

The black-skinned dogs of the security forces first put on these shoes, and then each took a long wooden stick in his hand and walked ahead to explore the way.

To say that this simple design did work well, they walked on the mud of the swamp, obviously did not sink down, and walked much brisker than normal.

"Not bad." Edward Stafford nodded, the British officer who was supervising in the back, and said, "We'll be here to watch, supervise them in, and catch all those traitors!" ”

In any case, it is still dangerous to enter the swamp. This is true even with swamp shoes. So if the British army can not go in, it is better not to go in. And, as far as they knew, there were only a hundred people in the village, including women and children. There are only a few dozen real adult men. It's all ordinary people. Edward felt that although the guys in the "security forces" were a little rotten, they should still be enough to deal with these people.

By this time, the guerrillas had already entered the swamp through another passage, and they soon spotted the black-skinned dogs wearing "swamp shoes" and staggering through the swamp like a flock of ducks.

"Hey, these black-skinned dogs have this too? Thompson, you hurry up and report the situation to the old village chief, and Wade and I will stop them here first. Higgins, the group leader, lowered his voice and said to one of the team members.

The member nodded and turned away.

"Wade, we have two soldiers in two directions, you go to the left, I go to the right, we ...... from the left and right"

"We surrounded them from the left and right." Wade nodded, "I understand. ”

"Hell! We shot at them from the left and right. Remember, take a shot, change places. After firing ten shots, we will meet at position 1 and then take the enemy to position 2. Do you understand? ”

"Got it!"

At this time, the "security forces" of more than 200 people had already gone down the swamp, and the squad leader Hyde was forced by the captain O'Kelly to explore the way in front. The sight in the swamp is not good. Aquatic plants of high and low heights are everywhere, cattails and reeds are everywhere. Occasionally, there was a noise in the reeds, and a wild duck or two would fly out.

Hyde was walking tremblingly in the swamp when suddenly, from his left, a gunshot rang out, and a black-skinned dog beside him screamed and fell headlong into the mud.

The other black-skinned dogs suddenly became a mess, and they looked to the left, and there was a dense patch of reeds on the left, and a pale blue smoke seemed to be rising from there. At the same time, frightened by the sound of gunfire, a large flock of wild ducks flew out of the reeds.

"Traitor, traitor on the left, reed on the left! Shoot, shoot that way! Hyde shouted as he pointed to the reed.

So the black-skinned dogs hurried to the left and crackled and beat the reeds. The reed poles and reed leaves flew everywhere. As for whether anyone was hit, no one noticed. In fact, when everyone opened fire, they didn't even see if there was anyone there.

When the round of guns was over, Captain O'Kelly took a closer look and found that two more seemed to have fallen on his side.

"I didn't see the uncle of the Independent Army shooting just now, are you pretending to be dead?" Thinking so, O'Kelly was about to go up and kick the two guys who were pretending to be dead, but then another gunshot rang out from behind them.

"Captain, captain, the traitors are over there, behind us!" Hyde shouted again.

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