"What's going on with these guys?" O'Connor withdrew his gaze from the large group of officers and soldiers gathered outside his headquarters and turned to Harrington and the other two military advisers who served as staff officers, "Look, they're as excited as watching a striptease show at a bar." Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info"

Harrington looked up, glanced at the crowd outside Command, and shrugged. "It's normal, Mr. O'Connor, a mercenary with a great reputation, and many people want to see for themselves whether the rumors are true."

"And waiting to see us make a fool of ourselves - I know why, Desmond. What strikes me as strange is that these guys should have been lying in bed moaning because of the diarrhea, typhoid and heat stroke that was spreading in the army, shouldn't they? O'Connor frowned. He wondered what had caused a group of sick fellows to get up from their beds and stand under the scorching sun they had been longing to avoid.

"Oh." Harrington thought for a moment, "That's because they wanted so badly to see our troops suffer defeat that they turned that strong desire into action." ”

"They're going to be disappointed."

"Yes, Mr. O'Connor. But there are things you know, I know, and those poor guys don't know anything. Harrington shook his head slowly, and then asked, "Our troops are ready, are we going to attack now?" ”

O'Connor nodded. "It's now."

Along the entire chain of command, orders were conveyed downwards, and after a few minutes, the artillery began to fire, and the Spanish army immediately suffered the first heavy blow since the beginning of the war - as O'Connor had said, the use of mortars against the present battle was simply handy, the actual difference in height and the trenches were now meaningless, the shells fell at a near-vertical angle and then exploded among the Spanish soldiers. The defenders of San Juan Hill soon discovered that their casualties were rapidly mounting and that their defenses were crumbling.

As an effective and only response to such an attack, several Maxim machine guns began to fire, trying to force the enemy artillery to stop firing and withdraw from the battle, but the mortars and the mercenaries operating them were hidden in foxholes and protected by sandbags, and not a single bullet could threaten them. On the contrary, the exposed machine guns were instead flooded with raindrops of shells, and parts and bullets were scattered everywhere.

At the foot of the San Juan Hills, officers and soldiers of the Army and the Volunteers watched intently as the mercenaries inflicted heavy blows on the Spaniards. Although most people complained about this army, now they also had to admit that the weapons it used were indeed more suitable for the current battle, and could do things that field artillery and mountain artillery could not do. After a while, the officers began to whisper about why the army was not equipped with such advanced weapons.

"The Army and Marine Corps should immediately be equipped with new light mortars for mercenary use, and should no longer hesitate and care too much about its price." Roosevelt listened carefully for a moment, jotted it down in his little notebook, and then resumed his attention to the ongoing battle.

The first line of defense of the Spaniards had become incomplete, many parts of the trenches were flooded with mud, but the mercenaries were still firing at it, as if intending to destroy it completely with thousands of shells - "artillery destroyed, infantry occupied", which is what it meant. Clearly, O'Connor's defined tactics were implemented seriously and thoroughly...... However, to be more precise, this should be counted as Qin Lang's credit.

Roosevelt suddenly had more expectations for this battle, which had become boring due to the disparity in power—perhaps Qin Lang could bring him some other unexpected surprises. He parted from the crowd and walked to the front, wanting to get a more detailed account of what was to come.

At first, nothing happened that was worth investing most of his energy, but as soon as the artillery fire began to extend into the second trench of the Spaniards, the former Deputy Admiralty saw what he wanted to see.

About three companies of mercenaries emerged from the trenches and foxholes they had dug and advanced towards the Spanish lines. But they acted in a completely different way than the Union Army or any other army, not congregating but spreading out, keeping at least fifteen feet apart between the two men advancing side by side, and fifteen feet apart between the two men in front and behind. The men were spaced so widely, apparently to protect themselves from machine-gun fire.

Roosevelt turned his head and glanced at the Browning machine gun on the mercenary position. It's really funny, when Qin Lang equipped his army with a lot of machine guns, he had already thought about how to deal with it.

And it's not just a means.

Another difference between the mercenaries and the Federal Army is that they do not move in unison, but take turns to strike forward...... More precisely, they were divided into two distinct groups, and when one group advanced forward, the other group stayed in place and took cover; Then, the previous group advances some distance...... Fifty or sixty yards, the two groups will be exchanged, with the first group covering the second group advancing.

Roosevelt had never seen such a form of warfare, but it was clearly of better tactical value than the traditional way of advancing, at least not causing all the soldiers to advance without cover, or all to fire without anyone advancing. Of course, it is worse to have the soldiers open fire as they advance, which will only make them scramble and forget what they are supposed to do.

He took out his notebook again and wrote down his feelings. But among the onlookers and soldiers, there were constant bursts of boos.

"What are they going to laugh at?" O'Connor asked.

As a retired officer, Harrington undoubtedly knows the psychology of officers and soldiers. "Maybe they felt that if we only put in three infantry companies and let them spread out so much, they would definitely be beaten back by the Spanish soldiers."

"I doubt there were any Spanish soldiers in the first trench."

Although O'Connor did not think that the artillery fire would wipe out all the Spaniards in the trench, he speculated that they might move on to the next trench and retreat from the artillery fire - but in fact, there were quite a few Spanish soldiers there, and these stubborn fellows refused to retreat and were lucky enough to avoid the deadly explosions and shrapnel, only to be overwhelmed by the artillery fire and dirt, and only to get up from the mercenaries when they almost rushed to the front of the trench.

Then they were greeted with considerable enthusiasm: submachine guns and carbines opened fire fiercely, forming a terror network; But even more terrifying was the Browning-designed shotgun, which was simply the best tool for clearing the trenches, and at such close range, no one could avoid the dense concentration of tiny lead pellets, and it only took a twelve-gauge shotgun to kill a Spanish soldier or blow their arms off.

In the face of these new, more modern weapons, a well-designed Mauser rifle is no better than a wooden stick, and the same is true for a bayonet. Moreover, the remaining Spanish soldiers soon discovered that even if the Americans ran out of ammunition for their weapons, they could quickly load them with new ammunition or pull one or two pistols out of their leg pockets and continue firing. This makes these people despair, the enemy is a trained professional killer who has no chance at all.

They can only choose between death, surrender, and retreat. Of course, no one wanted to die, and when they saw their comrades trying to escape being shot in the back by the Americans, the rest of them wisely chose to raise their hands and crawl out of the trench.

"It's as simple as I said." O'Connor said with a smile, looking again at the officers and soldiers outside the command. The boos had gone, and now, all of them were standing motionless, staring blankly ahead, though none of them seemed to be in focus.

He was even more proud. "They must not be willing to accept this reality."

"Be vigilant, Mr. O'Connor." Harrington reminded that "the first trench was the weakest of the defenses, and according to intelligence, the latter trenches were stronger and more sophisticated, and there were far more Spaniards guarding them, and the real test had not yet begun." ”

"I understand, Desmond." O'Connor looked quite relaxed, "However, even if Qin Lang brings the SWAT troops and all the secret weapons to the Philippines, I still have a gift to give to the Spaniards." ”

"Gifts? What do you mean? Harrington couldn't remember what new weapons he and O'Connor's regimental combat team were carrying, and if there were, it seemed to be a few new rifles from Novotny from the weapons development department of the Great Viper Corporation - but what were they?

"I'm sorry, Desmond, but I'd like to keep it a secret for now." O'Connor laughed out loud and stopped.

Roosevelt walked into the command.

O'Connor turned to him and asked, "What do you think of the battle just now, Major?" ”

"Your troops have been an eye-opener for me, Mr. O'Connor." Roosevelt replied, "So I would like to visit the training facilities of the Umbrella Company." ”

"No problem, Major." O'Connor agreed. The company's training facilities are not worth keeping secret, and of course, not everyone will be able to enter, only potential customers can - and Roosevelt happened to be one of the potential customers identified by Qin Lang, although no one knew why, and no one wanted to know.

Roosevelt smiled and continued, "I just saw a couple of soldiers with strange guns walking by......"

"That's my gift for the Spaniards." (To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to the www.qidian.com, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!) (To be continued.) )