I am very dissatisfied with Mr. Butler's categorical denial, and I am not ready to reason with him, so let's have a showdown.

"Huh. Mr. Butler. Why don't you do it like this? If you don't want to say it, I can't help it. Now we can't take out these mortars. And these cannons pose a great threat to us, and if we can't hold them until the end, I will find a way to break through. And I will not care about you or anyone in the family you serve. We can't beat the guerrillas, but we guys are really sure that we want to run, and you know better than me whether they're targeting the Balcas family or us, and the guerrillas will only see us go. Then I will finally have a chance to meet Pablo, and I will tell him that it was because some old fellow would not tell me the secret of the secret passage. I looked at Mr. Butler, who was already grim-faced, and said, "Why don't we go and contact Mr. Balcas now, and see what he has to say?" With that, I got up and walked to the room where the satellite phone was placed.

"Okay, okay!" Mr. Butler took a few quick steps to stop me, "I confess, I admit that I lied just now. But that secret passage is very important, it is used to escape. If you use it for other things, then the secret passage loses its concealment and becomes useless. If this place really can't be defended, then it doesn't matter if I die, but what about Miss? ”

"Then do you think you'll be able to escape the Ascension by keeping this secret? The old nest has been served by people, what status will it have? And as I said, it's not so easy for the guerrillas to break through here, and if we get rid of their artillery, then they can only attack us within visual range, and they will pay a lot of casualties. Three days! If Pablo can't go back in three days, then I'll still say the same thing, let's go our separate ways, and at most take Pablo's sister with us. ”

The butler hesitated for a moment when I said this. Seeing that he still didn't speak, I took another step and said, "I don't have time to waste with you here, if you can't make a decision, let someone who can make a decision do it." ”

"Good! All right! I'm telling you. "The butler saw that I was very resolute and finally compromised.

"Then take me immediately!" I looked at the oil bottle, "Go tell Walker at once, and I'll say I've found a way to sneak up on the guerrillas and take out the mortars, and get Fabry, Paro, and the eight people who came back alive last night to come here." ”

This secret passage was not behind a bookshelf or behind a secret compartment in a room, as I had imagined, but in fact it was much more rudimentary than I had imagined, like a drain.

The housekeeper led me to the back of the house to a staircase usually used by the family servants. On the ground below the staircase was a dusty, dilapidated cupboard. At first I thought this cabinet was the entrance, but the butler motioned for me to move it with him.

This cupboard was so heavy that I couldn't do it with the butler's strength, so I had to push it open. After a loud grinding sound, the cabinet was moved to the side. The housekeeper squatted down, touched a floor tile on the ground, and then took out a dagger on his body to pry up a piece of the floor tile. I thought that a secret door would open as soon as he pulled it, but when he pulled it, the whole tile was lifted, and then he moved it aside, and then moved the adjacent floor tile away.

"It's down here." He pointed to the entrance to a black hole, or rather the entrance to the hole, and said to me.

"This is the entrance?" I asked.

"Yes. Here it is. From here, there is a staircase that leads to the woods to the north. The butler replied.

"Please bring the people I was looking for." I said to the steward.

Mr. Butler nodded and turned to leave. I crouched down and looked at this entrance, which reminded me of the gutters of the country. It looked damp inside and smelled musty.

After a while, the butler came over with someone. I stood up and looked at them and said, "Are all the weapons and ammunition ready?" ”

"It's all set." The oil bottle nodded.

"Good!" I looked at the butler, "Mr. Butler, when we leave, please arrange for someone to plant explosives at the exit of this passage." When we return, it is estimated that most of this secret passage will also be exposed. Then blow him up, so as not to be used by the guerrillas. If we can't come back, then you're going to blow up this place even more. ”

The butler nodded and said, "I hope you can achieve your goal successfully." With that, he handed me a flashlight.

I led the people into the secret passage, and we first passed a steep downhill staircase, which was slippery and presumably had a lot of moss-like plants. After passing through the stairs, in front of us is a passage with a black hole that is not high. It's not high because we all have to bend over a little bit to walk in it.

I turned on the flashlight and led people along the secret passage all the way forward, this kind of secret passage, not to mention that it is far from the secret passage I imagined, but it is much worse than the tunnel in the tunnel war.

We walked for about ten minutes and felt the end of the secret passage. I looked closer, and there was a wooden door. The wood had begun to rot, and I opened the latch on the wooden door, pushed it open, and behind it was a diagonal upward passage. We continued up the passage and there was a top cover at the end. I tried to push the lid open, but it didn't open, and it turned out that something like a latch was locked.

I unlocked the lock and pushed it again, the top cover was very heavy, I motioned for the oil bottle to help me, and with the combined efforts of the two of us, we pushed the top cover open. I picked up my gun and slowly went out to take a look, this is in a dense forest, and the reason why the top cover is heavy is because there are a lot of fallen leaves and thin branches on it.

One by one, we walked out of the secret passages, and gradually formed a circle and guarded the surroundings. At this moment, the sound of gunfire from the south showed that we had not gone far, and the fighting there was already very fierce. I saw that there was nothing wrong around, so I motioned for the oil bottle to hide the exit, got up and led the team to the south.

We were soon back on the edge of the manor, but we were already on each other's right. Although there was no fighting in this area, the guerrillas still arranged sentry posts, of course, not because we could come out of the secret passages, but because to prevent us from touching somewhere, and more importantly, small reinforcements from other sources.

"Don't alarm them. Let's go around. I whispered, and walked cautiously around them. Because of the great interference of the gunshots, it was difficult for these people to concentrate, and it was impossible for them to hear our footsteps, and the trees in this area were high and dense, so the other party did not find anything.

We continued south, and soon we saw a fierce battle on the ramp leading to the big house. Walker they were in a good form from time to time, the defense at the entrance to the ramp had been broken, and there were now partisans who were trying to continue the attack. The partisans under the ramp constantly fired at the defenders above, occasionally firing rockets. And the defenders above did not show weakness, and rockets often flew towards the two defensive rings occupied by the guerrillas last night.

Although the guerrilla attack was fierce, the casualties were not small. It can be seen from the corpses that fell on the road, but they did not slow down the pace of the attack, and continued to attack, and as soon as the people above stood firm, they organized the next group of men to continue forward, and if they were repulsed, they immediately organized another attack. And the mortars, which I cared about, of course, were not idle, and the shells did not fall on the front line of the engagement, but extended down, and exploded on the ramps in the fortifications that were firing downward. This made it easy for me to find the location of the mortar. They were in the same tunnel that had been used as a foothold for the guerrillas when they attacked the first line of defense last night.

Once I've set a goal, it's much easier. I continued to lead the men forward, and after bypassing a few sentries again we came to the right side of the mortar position. I motioned for everyone to stop and said, "Drag the oil bottle, you and I will go over and have a look first, and see their arrangement." The others waited here first. ”

With that, I cautiously approached the target with the oil bottle and stopped in the woods at the edge of the manor. I pushed aside the branches and looked out, and around the mortars there were guards, and at the front, there were machine guns, three people. There were also three or four people guarding the side close to us, and I couldn't tell exactly how many people there were on the side away from us, but there would be no less. There are about twenty people in charge of operating the mortars, which means that they have about six guns.

I saw it and turned back with the oil bottle and found someone else. I started by dividing the people into three groups. Me and Tanker and I had a team of two people who defended two defensive circles together last night, Fabry with two other people in a team, and the rest of the men were led by Parro. I drew two squares on the ground to represent the positions of the mortars, and a few circles around the squares to represent the defensive forces.

"They arranged the mortars in two groups in the tunnels there. They are surrounded by these defenses. Together with the people who operated the mortars, the number of people who can be determined is about thirty people, which is not much more than us. So this time we acted in groups. I said and pointed to Fabry, "Your team is mainly responsible for taking out the men in this machine gun position at the beginning of the attack, and you will shoot whenever you see me start moving." After that, you stay where you are, don't move, take charge of the fire, support the others, and cover our withdrawal when we get it. ”

"Understood, sir!" Fabry agreed.

Then I pointed to Paro, "After you lead people to attack, you will join me to attack these guerrillas who are close to us, and after killing them, you will directly attack the mortars near us, note that although they are artillerymen, any soldier also has guns, don't take it lightly, and after passing over, you can directly assign people to attack with grenades." ”

"Yes, sir." Paro nodded.

"I took the three of them to attack another mortar. We have to act quickly, and they won't let us do anything here. After we succeeded, Palo, you covered our retreat, and when we converged, we fought together and retreated into the woods. Fabry will be under a lot of pressure then, and you must help us resist the people who have come to destroy us. When we meet up with you, you immediately lead the men and continue to run towards the depths of the woods, we should not run back immediately, we are too close to the guerrillas and can be easily intercepted, so we have to go back in a circle. Do you get it? ”

"Understood." Several people who dragged oil bottles immediately arrived. As for the others who don't understand me, there are people who have already understood to lead them to beat, and that's why I'm assigned.