Chapter 2468 Idalil's Gunshots (Ⅱ)

Lieutenant Colonel Smith stepped forward and checked for himself, and he found dozens of figures standing in the bushes by the roadside, and he could feel the hostility emanating from them through the fog.

Lieutenant Colonel Smith quickly ordered the troops to stop advancing and enter a state of combat readiness. His adjutant called the four mages accompanying the army and jointly performed the "wind-making technique", creating a strong wind on the ground to disperse the morning fog in the forest.

Lieutenant Colonel Smith, a level 12 arcane knight, personally fired a signal arrow with the "Daylight" spell over the bushes where the suspicious person was hiding. grove.

With the help of magic lighting, Lieutenant Colonel Smith clearly saw that everyone in the forest was dressed as villagers, with the slogan "Give me freedom or give me death" embroidered on their hats, and they were holding muskets tightly in their hands, and they were ready for battle.

Through the binoculars, Lieutenant Colonel Smith immediately recognized that these armed villagers were Idalil militiamen. They called themselves "Heart of the Oak Tree".

After the army mage cast a spell to investigate, he reported to Lieutenant Colonel Smith that there were only about fifty militiamen in total, and there were no other ambushes nearby.

Lieutenant Colonel Smith relaxed his nervous nerves. Facing the group of ragged militiamen, he drew out his command knife with a sneer and ordered the cavalry regiment to open fire.

Suddenly, gunshots erupted in the valley shrouded in mist.

The Idalil militia immediately returned fire. The firefight lasted for five or six minutes, and the gunshots in the forest gradually became sparse. The militiamen realized that their own firepower was insufficient, and they dispersed and hid deep in the jungle-covered valley.

The adjutant proposed to lead a detachment into the forest to hunt down the fleeing rebels. Lieutenant Colonel Smith, who had rich experience in actual combat, smiled and shook his head, waving his hands to stop him from pursuing.

"Those unscrupulous people just now were just bait, and their purpose was to induce us to disperse our troops and go into the forest to hunt them down."

"Young man, you just graduated from the military academy and you don't know the troublemakers in the New World. They have no gentlemanly demeanor. They learned a sinister and despicable method of warfare from the barbaric Asa natives. They hide in the bushes and shoot coldly. We can't be fooled by his mastery."

The adjutant had only come to the colony from Feizhen to serve in the colony half a year ago, and he still lacked experience in fighting the locals. Lieutenant Colonel Smith gave him a few pointers and led the troops to move on, heading straight for the rebel base camp located in the hinterland of the Yew Valley—Iraq. Daryl town.

When the troops rushed to the town, it was already bright, but there was no one on the street that was illuminated red by the morning glow, and every house was closed, looking deserted.

Lieutenant Colonel Smith suspected that there was a trap, so he ordered the troops to temporarily station at the entrance of the town, and ordered the mage accompanying the army to cast spells to investigate and try to find out where the ambush was hiding.

The four army mages each controlled a "secret magic eye", and searched from the street to the end of the street, including the houses on both sides of the street, all were empty, and no living person was found.

This result was beyond Lieutenant Colonel Smith's expectations, and he ordered his adjutant to lead two hundred cavalry into the town of Idalil to conduct a more thorough search.

Feizhen's officers and soldiers broke into the dead town, went into every house and rummaged through boxes and cabinets, tossed and tossed for a long time, not to mention wanted criminals, not even a single local resident was found.

In the basement of the church in the town, the adjutant found the packing box of "blazing glue" and several scattered lead bullets. There were still marks from the ammunition box on the ground. It used to be a secret arsenal, but the ammunition had been transferred. up.

Lieutenant Colonel Smith listened to the adjutant's report, his face was calm, but his heart was deeply disturbed.

Obviously, his battle plan was leaked.

The rebels didn't know where they got the news, and they transferred their arms and hid before the army attacked.

"Did there be a traitor among us and leaked the march plan, or did the group of 'One Minute People' we met earlier warn their followers in time?"

Years of experience in fighting on the battlefield formed an intuition, which made Lieutenant Colonel Smith feel that the situation was not good, and quickly ordered a retreat.

Just at this time, gunshots broke out outside the town!

Numerous militiamen poured out of the woods and surrounded Lieutenant Colonel Smith's troops.

Judging from the attire of the militiamen, not only the locals of Idalil, but also armed rebels from surrounding villages and towns, the total number is no less than a thousand!

Seeing this scene, Lieutenant Colonel Smith suddenly realized that the so-called "Idalil's secret arsenal" was probably leaked intentionally by the rebels, setting a trap in advance to lure Feizhen's army to come and die!

Unfortunately, he woke up too late.

The militiamen lay in ambush behind the fence, in the bushes, and on the roofs, and shot and fired arrows at the Fizen cavalry from various hidden corners.

The Feizhen cavalry was caught off guard, and was swept down a large area as soon as they met face to face, screams and neighing resounded through the valley.

Lieutenant Colonel Smith yelled loudly, rode his horse and galloped, managed to stabilize his position, and organized his troops to fight back with their guns.

After all, Fiji's regular army is well-trained and equipped with more advanced weapons and equipment. With its superior firepower, it withstood the first wave of siege by the militia.

Just when they were about to fight back, someone in the forest blew a horn, and the surrounding militia seemed to have received an order, and quickly retreated into the depths of the dense forest, and disappeared in a blink of an eye.

Lieutenant Colonel Smith once again stopped his men from pursuing in the forest, hurriedly cleaned up the battlefield, took the sacrificed officers and soldiers and the wounded, and evacuated the Yew Valley by the same route.

Along the way, the officers and soldiers of Feizhen seemed to be in a nightmare. They were constantly attacked by the militia. In the bushes by the roadside, there were people firing sniper guns anytime and anywhere, making them miserable.

What depressed Lieutenant Colonel Smith the most was that the four mages under his command had apparently become the targets of the rebels' "care" and they were shot in black just as they left the town of Idalil. Two of them were shot in the back by criminals The bullet was murdered, and the other two saved their lives by virtue of magic, but they were also seriously injured and unable to cast spells.

Without the reconnaissance and early warning provided by the accompanying army mage, the spells of Lieutenant Colonel Smith and his adjutant were also exhausted in the battle. The troops were like living targets. To add insult to injury.

The escape journey of the cavalry regiment was difficult and bloody, and it was not until dusk that they joined another army that came to rescue them, and they finally evacuated the Yew Valley safely before their morale completely collapsed.

According to statistics afterwards, the casualties of the militiamen in this campaign were less than 100, while the cavalry regiment of Lieutenant Colonel Smith had 273 casualties, which was three times the loss of the militiamen.

This was the first time that Fiji's regular army was beaten up by the militia in the New World. Lieutenant Colonel Smith, who escaped from death, was still terrified when he reported to General Cornwallis afterwards.

The "gunshots of Idalil" seemed to have wings, and the news quickly spread across the east coast of the New World. From Jotunheim to Midgard, and then to Alfheim, countless people praised the bravery of the Idalil militia. Cheers were cheered against, and flames of hatred were kindled against the Fizen garrison.

...

Historical Materials: The Gunshots of Lexington ("Hamilton Biography" [US] Ron Chernow)

On April 18, 1775, 800 British soldiers set out from Boston to capture Samuel Adams and John Hancock, and tried to seize a large amount of munitions that the "patriots" had stored in Concord Town. While passing through Lexington, British soldiers encountered a group of armed militiamen known as the "Minute Men" in civilian clothes.

In the ensuing exchange of fire, British soldiers killed 8 militiamen, and then killed 2 militiamen in Xiehe Town. When the British army hurriedly withdrew back to Boston, they encountered cold gun attacks from local residents behind fences, walls, fences and other bunkers along the way. On this bloody road, the loss of the British army reached 273 people, while the casualties of the "Patriots" reached 95 people.

The "gunshots at Lexington" reached New York four days later, and popular sentiment for an uprising quickly overwhelmed the city. People gathered in pubs or in the streets to talk about the situation, and the Anglophiles were shocked.

Jubilant rebels poured into the streets, wrote the Anglophile Judge Thomas Jones, and the city was "drums beating, banners flying, and everywhere mobs of negroes, boys, sailors, and pickpockets, calling upon all mankind to All took up arms to defend 'the liberties and rights of the insulted and compromised America'".

Emboldened by the crowd, the "Sons of Liberty" flocked to the East River pier, seized the ships ordered by the British garrison in Boston, opened the arsenal of the city hall, and seized more than a thousand weapons including rifles, bayonets and ammunition.