"Bang Bang Bang ......"

After the dull sound of two rounds of gunfire, the two walk-behind tractors driving behind were shot one after another, and the tractors roared into the ditch on the side of the road and overturned, splashing a large splash of water.

The tractors in front of them fled, and "Dududu" drove away with black smoke.

Captain Bergkamp inserted his command knife into the scabbard with a cold face and ordered the Dutch soldiers to disperse in pursuit of the villagers, while he himself prepared to storm the village with a group of soldiers.

The Royal Netherlands Army, a war-hardened Nordic force, immediately realized that the sappers were digging the road in the right direction, and that it was not far from the populated village.

Immediately dispatched a lightly armed team to follow the direction of the enemy's attack through the jungle, attacking the village one step ahead of the other, and then hitting Sandaoliang Village by surprise.

Gunfire continued in the valley, and the screams of the fleeing villagers were endless.

Several stilted houses near the entrance of the village were burning, and the billowing smoke and blinding blood brought great disaster to this peaceful mountain village.

Witness it all

Wu Agui, the village chief, and the militia who retreated to the village were stunned, and the slaughter was all the relatives of these young and middle-aged militiamen, and the common hatred made them unite and muster up the courage to resist the invaders.

"Take it, aim at the enemy and hit me hard."

Wu Agui threw his shotgun to a militia boy, and at the same time threw over the small bag containing ammunition and lead, and then picked up the cavalry Mauser 1871 magazine in his hand and aimed it at the enemy, and fired a "bang".

Eighty or ninety meters away, a Dutch soldier fell with a gunshot, and the blood seeping from his chest quickly soaked on the red uniform, which didn't seem to be so dazzling.

Wu Agui skillfully unloaded his ammunition, aimed at the rushing enemy and fired another shot, knocking down a soldier again.

After the initial panic, he finally organized the militia to resist, and the guns of the fierce battle between the two sides continued to sound, and five or six Dutch soldiers were shot and fell one after another, and had to temporarily retreat and regroup to attack.

The village finally repelled an enemy attack and got a moment of respite.

About 130 or 40 Dutch soldiers emerged from the forest, quickly outflanked from the left and right sides, cut off the escape routes of the villagers, and fired without saying anything.

Many of those who had just left the village fled for their lives, and those who did not come back lay on the roads and in the fields, mostly corpses, blood staining the warm, moist land.

There are a total of 432 villagers in Sandaoliang Village, of which less than 60 escaped by tractor, and 70 or 80 were killed or injured all over the fields and roads, and the rest all retreated back to the village to hold on, with a total number of nearly 300 people, most of whom were young men and women.

There were less than 20 long guns in the village, most of them old breech-loading shotguns, and only five new rifles were equipped for the militia platoon, all of which were Mauser 1871 mounted rifles, which were the large-scale equipment of the Red River Valley.

In addition, there were a few revolvers, and the rest were all cold weapons such as spears and broadswords, and there were seventy or eighty of them, and all the hot and cold weapons combined could barely equip 100 people.

Shangri-La's farming villages are different from the nomadic villages and towns in Australia, with neither horses nor weapons, but only to defend against wild beasts in the jungle, rather than a gun or even more per person, and the folk customs tend to be conservative and simple.

"Brothers, you have all seen that the ghost guy is extremely cruel and will not leave a living mouth, everyone can only fight hard to resist and wait for the reinforcements of the large army to fight for a trace of life, the cowardly escapees can only be slaughtered like pigs and sheep, we must take up arms to repel the enemy's attack." Wu Agui's voice was hoarse as he agitated the militiamen, and he could clearly see the despair and helplessness on the faces of these young peasants.

"My two uncles and brothers are dead, they were all killed, the ghost guy who killed these days ......"

"Village Chief, can we wait for reinforcements?"

"What's the panic? I've hidden them all, and when the ghosts come up, I'll play with them, and people will die and birds will not die for thousands of years. Wu Aguiyuan stared at his eyes and shouted.

Although the words were rude, they did a great job of calming the panicked hearts and arousing the courage in the hearts of the men.

They hid in a lumber yard on one side of the village, which was used to build a log yard for stilted buildings, on which a simple thatched triangular pavilion was built to protect it from rainwater, and the wood was dried and brushed with tung oil several times before use.

Now a few piles of wood have become shelters for the villagers, and they can fight off the ghost soldiers.

After regrouping, the Dutch soldiers attacked again, and a few moments later, the more than 10 corpses left behind were again defeated.

Although the villagers suffered more casualties, they finally repelled the attack of the ghosts and held the position of the timber yard, so there were bursts of cheers and morale.

Captain Bergkamp stood outside the bamboo fence that blocked the beast's attack, looking at the target in front of him with a gloomy face, feeling a little tricky.

The unit he led was a company-sized unit that belonged to the royal Haberdajssel Volunteer Battalion, a musket battalion composed entirely of mercenaries, hired at the expense of the Dutch province of Habertherl, and given the title of the battalion by the royal family.

Mercenaries are just fighting for money, and there is no doubt about the level of combat, but the most troublesome thing is that they are not firm in their will to attack fortifications.

The timber yard in front of you is equivalent to a small camp surrounded by logs, when the Dutch soldiers suppressed each other's muskets and rushed in, the two sides were close to each other, these villagers inspired great courage at the moment of life and death crisis, spears and knives are not inferior together, you stab me a shot, I will cut you, and the soldiers fought back.

"Mr. Captain, can you show me what the hell this is? Can it be used as money? ”

"Oh, okay, let me see."

Most of the mercenaries were vulgar soldiers, who could not read a single big word, nor could they recognize the Huitong golden tickets that had been turned out of the corpses of the villagers, and Captain Bergkamp took a few beautifully printed bills from their hands and examined them carefully.

The front of these banknotes features capital Arabic numerals 1, 2 or 5, in shillings, and in the background a cowboy grazing a flock of sheep on horseback.

On the reverse side of the banknote is the ancient oriental Chinese characters that Mr. Captain could not understand, which is actually the corresponding one shilling, two shillings, Wu shilling, and Huitong Bank's equal exchange of golden bills, etc.

"Uh...... There's good news, there's bad news, which one do you want to hear first? Captain Bergkamp asked, looking at the banknotes in his hand.

"Good news, of course." The soldier replied without hesitation.

"The good news is that this is indeed money, this one is worth one shilling, this one is two shillings, and this is a bill with a maximum amount of five shillings, and you can buy a lot of things." The captain said.

"Where's the bad news?"

"It's a piece of paper to us, think with your pig brain, who would sell things to the Dutch on this island?"

"Oh...... God testifies that I am not Dutch, I am from Austria-Hungary. The soldier let out a long sigh of relief and made a cross on his chest with his hand.

Captain Bergkamp looked at the jubilant idiot and suddenly became determined to attack again, and he must let the idiot take the lead.

If the attack fails, the plan to capture this timber yard will be completely abandoned, and the siege will be the main focus.

When the artillery in the rear comes up, a few rounds of shelling can be completely blown to pieces, and there is no need to sacrifice more human lives.

The task of the company is to be the first to occupy favorable terrain, to meet the large forces, and to buy more time for the sappers to open the way.

Captain Bergkamp had already sent a platoon of soldiers forward to search, and he had only more than 80 soldiers at his disposal, and he could not afford to expend it on this pointless battle.

He had made up his mind and immediately ordered his men to regroup, beat the war drums, blow the horns, and press up in a neat horizontal queue.

When the distance between the two sides reached 80 meters, the militia hiding behind the pile of wood exposed their upper bodies and opened fire, and the Dutch immediately returned fire.

The two sides "crackled" gunfire continuously, bullets whistled and flew in the air, choking blue-gray gunpowder smoke filled the air, people were shot and fell down one after another, and the strong smell of blood once again filled the battlefield.

At the cost of seven or eight casualties, when it was close to a distance of more than 40 meters, the attacking Dutch soldiers had generally fired two rounds of bullets, and began to charge with shiny bayonets, ready to take the timber yard with one blow.

More than 20 villagers with muskets were almost dead and wounded, and the village chief Wu Agui was hit in the chest by a bullet, and the whole person was hit backwards by the huge impact of the 11-mm bullet, and his chest was already red with blood.

"Ah...... Village Chief, you're injured. A villager ran over with a scream and scrambled to help him up.

"Ahem, ahem, ahem......"

Wu Agui coughed up a large ball of blood spit, knowing that he couldn't do it, he pushed the villagers away with great effort and said; "Leave me alone, pick up the gun, we can't give up resistance, that will be a dead end."

The villager picked up the rifle with tears in his eyes, and skillfully unloaded it, at this time the Dutch soldier had already rushed in, he raised the gun and shot, and after the "snap" of the gun, the opposite soldier fell down again.

The gunshots of the Dutchman on the opposite side rang out, and the companion was immediately hit by several bullets and hit like a bloody gourd, and he turned over and fell to the ground and died, and the gun in his hand was taken by the others......

The two sides began to fight each other, spears and broadswords against the enemy's shining bayonets, and the fierce battle between them was endless.

After a few moments, the Dutch soldiers retreated again.

In this attack, they left nearly 20 corpses, causing great damage to the defending villagers, nearly 100 dead and wounded in the wood yard, the strong smell of blood made people smell sick, and there was a tragic scene of blurred flesh and blood everywhere.

There were only about 180 villagers left in the timber yard, and just as they were about to collapse, the attacking Dutch soldiers retreated decisively.

Most of the soldiers headed in the direction of Erdaoliang Village, leaving only two squads of troops to monitor the timber yard from afar.

The will of the villagers to hold on is extraordinarily strong, and they have lost more than 30 people in three strong attacks, and Captain Bergkamp is no longer willing to continue, so leave this hard nail to the artillery to solve!

He personally led more than 40 soldiers to the direction of Erdaoliang Village, and soon joined up with his platoon of advance soldiers, spread out on the favorable terrain of the narrow road over the ridge, checked the weapons and ammunition, and prepared to block the enemy reinforcements that Moresby had arrived.

The folded terrain ridge extending from the tall central mountain range is about 300~400 meters high, just like the five fingers of a person stretching out, the fingers are the uplifted mountain beam terrain, and the space between the fingers is the fertile valley land, separated one after another.

Although the mountain is not steep and steep, large livestock such as pigs and cattle will certainly not be able to pass, and it will be difficult for soldiers to climb over it, so the large army can only move along the road, and the road opened up along the mountain beam is the only way to enter and exit.

Having mastered this place, it controlled the passage of the enemy's reinforcements into the mountains.

Sitting on the slope of the lush vegetation, Captain Bergkamp looked at the direction of Sandaoliang Village, in the fields, the road was full of corpses, large pieces of dazzling black and red bloodstains, several stilted houses at the head of the village burned like large torches, billowing black smoke straight into the sky, a tragic scene.

His heart was indifferent, this was the scene of war, and the war of conquest in Aceh province had been going on for ten years, and it was a hundred times more tragic than this.

Dark clouds rolled in the sky, thunder roared, and a rainstorm was coming.

It's March, and it's the beginning of the dry and rainy seasons on Shangri-La Island, and it rains almost every day, sometimes for days and nights, and flash floods are rushing out of the mountains like wild horses.

"This damn weather, damn places, and damn immigrants......" was about to turn into a soup chicken, Captain Bergkamp cursed fiercely.

He looked at the Swiss gold watch in his hand, and it was already about 4:20 p.m.

If a heavy rainstorm falls, it will inevitably delay the reinforcements from Moresby, and it is difficult for him to easily complete the task of blocking the enemy and get a large amount of high-risk commissions.

According to the commander's prediction, if the engineer unit fights overnight, it will probably be able to break through the road from Lucky Bay to Sandaoliang Village at some point tomorrow morning.

The main task of the engineer company is to cut down large trees, clear shrubs, fill up rough ravines, and use explosives to open up roads when necessary.

The main task of the sappers was to clear the bushes and tamp the road surface to ensure the passage of the four-wheeled wagons, which took a lot of time.

The mercenary company led by himself did not need to hold out until that time, but only needed to hold out until seven o'clock in the evening, and the reinforcements behind would inevitably arrive.

That's when it happened

Captain Bergkamp heard a different noise than thunder, and he stood up and held his binoculars to observe.

From a distance, I saw a group of cavalry galloping towards him, numbering about a dozen horsemen, and stopped far away from a few hundred meters away, stretching out his hand to point at the mountain beam on this side.

Behind the cavalry, a torrent of steel was rushing down the mountain road, and the noise of the tractor fleet could already be heard, reinforcements from Moresby arrived, and a fierce battle was inevitable.