Chapter 219: ,swamp

After releasing a lot of messy news such as "departure tomorrow," "departure this afternoon," "formally start the raid in a month," the British army is ready to formally send troops.
The British army first adjusted the defense of those military stations. The troops in the military stations, including the "Irish Security Forces", were transferred away and replaced by new troops. These troops were the newly transferred British recruits. . Then the British divided the concentrated tens of thousands of troops into left and right, and killed them towards Ireland's largest non-security area.
Although the base area has been disturbed by too much news, things like the large-scale troop dispatch are still difficult to hide from others. In addition to relying on intelligence workers in the security and quasi-security areas, and the "Irish Security Forces" on two boats to provide information, some of the scouts of the Irish Independence Army also have counties close to the British control area. The brigade, district squad, and village guerrilla groups also increased their vigilance at this time, ready to respond to the British sweep.
In the marginal area of ​​the base area, because the British army will frequently carry out rapid crusades here, (the British army uses the high mobility of the cavalry units to regularly harass the villages in these areas, trying to gradually encroach on these areas. .) Therefore, the villages here are more serious and meticulous in warning than other areas.
During the day, the men went down to work, and the women followed suit to help. It was the turn of the guerrilla team members on duty to stare at the road, while the half-old children drove the flock out to herd the sheep, staring at the empty paths by the way and performing guard tasks. (It is not once or twice that the British cavalry, led by a traitor, touched the base area from a small road and did bad things.)
These children have also been warned about the possibility that the British army may enter the base on a large scale and do bad things recently, and the children have also increased their vigilance.
Early this morning, Alice's friends drove a few lambs to the small mound to the north of the village. There is a good-growing grassland there, and the surrounding roads can also be monitored on the mound.
A message tree is erected on the mound, and you can see it from the direction of the village.
Of course, the message tree cannot be put down casually, because once people in the village see that the message tree has fallen, everyone will immediately move to the swamp refuge. Of course, they can't do any farm work that day. If it was just a false alarm, it would be uneconomical.
So the children have a division of labor. When only one or two people came over, two older boys, Michael and Thomas, armed with short spears, came forward to interrogate, while the other children guarded the message tree. Once something happens, immediately bring down the message tree and send an alarm to the village.
Of course, if there are more people coming, and you are not the one you said in advance, then you don't hesitate to put down the message tree, then bring your flock, and move directly to the swamp refuge.
Climb to the mound and let the sheep graze on the grass under the mound. The children were all talking on the mound while looking into the distance.
This period of early morning is the most dangerous line, and the time that requires the most vigilance. Because there is dew on the ground during this period, people and horses walking on it will not raise dust, and it is not easy to be found. When it was almost noon, the sun had dried the dew, and people and horses coming from the road would lift up high dust, which could be seen from a long distance.
The children looked around dutifully and chatted about the taste of French candies brought by the old district chief last time. Michael said with full expectation: "The old district chief told me that when we win, we can eat French candies every day. We can eat as much as we want..."
Several children said, looking forward to a sweet future, when the sharp-eyed Alice suddenly saw that something was moving fast in the distance.
"What do you think is there?" Alice shouted.
The children all stood on tiptoes and looked over there. There was indeed something moving quickly over here.
"That's the enemy's cavalry, hurry, hurry up and put down the message tree."
The children hurriedly put down the message tree, and then Michael and Thomas went down to string the mines on the path. The others drove the sheep and did not return to the village, and went straight to the swamp refuge. went.
As soon as the message tree fell, everyone became alert. The villagers picked up the things at home-these things have been packaged these days-and went to the swamp refuge. Several young men from the guerrilla group in the village went over there with guns. They must use black guns to interfere with the enemy as much as possible, and give the villagers time to transfer.
The villagers reunited with the children at the entrance to the swamp refuge. Except for Michael and Thomas, the other children and sheep are there. They told everyone that Michael and Thomas went to hang the strings for the mine. Everyone left a few people here and waited for a while. I heard the sound of a landmine exploding faintly.
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 to fix the naughty egg.
"We saw that two British cavalry horses were blown off their legs, and those two British guys fell off the horses, hahaha..." Michael was still smug, completely unaware that his father was about to get angry. Up.
"Forget it, just come back, let's go in as soon as possible." A few people grabbed the old Michael, and then everyone went to the shelter together. As he walked, he took away the wooden planks above and pulled down the wooden stakes.
A few more shots were heard outside, and it was a guerrilla fighter who was shooting cold shots at the British. They have another way to get in and out of the shelter, so there is no need for everyone to worry about them. Then there was a thick smoke in the direction of the village. You don't need to ask to know that it must be the British who set the fire.
"If they have the courage to chase into the swamp, see if we don't kill them!" a villager said bitterly. Although their thatched houses are not worth money, they were also built by themselves.
Soon after the villagers entered the refuge, a group of British soldiers and a group of black-skinned dogs also came to the edge of the swamp.
This time, the British army also came prepared, 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 boots. 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 human body's pressure on the ground can be reduced by more than half, so it is naturally less likely to sink. Of course, this is still not insurance. If you encounter a particularly rare and deep quagmire, how you should die, or how you will die.
Since it is still dangerous to enter the swamp in this way, this kind of thing must of course be led by 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 their hands and walked ahead to explore the way.
To say that this simple design did have a good effect. They walked on the mud of the swamp, obviously not sinking, and they walked a lot lighter than normal.
"Not bad." Edward Stafford, a British officer who was supervising behind, nodded and said, "We are here to guard, supervise them to go in, and catch all the rebels!"
In any case, entering the swamp is still dangerous. Even with swamp shoes. Therefore, if the British can not enter, it is better not to enter. Moreover, as far as they know, there are only a hundred people in the village, including women and children. There are only a few dozen real adult men. They are all ordinary people. Edward felt that although the "security forces" guys were a bit rotten, they should still be enough to deal with these people.
At this time, the guerrilla group had also entered the swamp from another passage. They soon discovered the black-skinned dogs wearing "swamp shoes" and waddling in the swamp like a group of ducks.
"Hey, these black dogs have this thing too? Thompson, please report the situation to the old village chief. Wade and I will stop them here first." Team Leader Higgins lowered his voice and said to a team member.
The team member nodded and turned around and left.
"Wade, the two of us are divided into two directions, you go to the left, I go to the right, we are from the left and right directions..."
"We surrounded them from the left and right." Wade nodded, "I understand."
"Damn! We fired at them from the left and right. Remember, one shot, change another place. After ten shots, we will meet at position one, and then take the enemy to position two. Understand? "
"understood!"
At this time, the "security force" of more than two hundred people had already descended into the swamp, and the team leader Hyde was forced by the team leader O'Kelly to explore the way ahead. The sight in the swamp is not good. There are high and low water plants everywhere, cattails and reeds everywhere. Occasionally there is a noise in the reeds, and one or two wild ducks fly out.
Hyde was walking tremblingly in this swamp. Suddenly, a gunshot sounded from his left, and at the same time a black dog beside him screamed, and one head fell into the mud.
The other black-skinned dogs suddenly became a mess~EbookFREE.me~ They looked to the left. There was a dense reed on the left, and a light blue smoke seemed to be rising from there. At the same time, a large group of wild ducks flew out of Reed because of the shock of gunshots.
"Rebel, the rebel is on the left, and the reed on the left is from inside! Shoot, shoot towards that side!" Hyde pointed to the reed and shouted.
So the black dogs hurriedly turned to the left and crackled around the reed bushes. It hit the reed pole and the reed leaves were flying everywhere. As for whether anyone was hit, no one noticed. In fact, when everyone fired, they didn't even see if anyone was there.
After this round of gun shooting was over, Captain O'Kelly took a closer look and found that he seemed to have fallen down two more.
"I didn't see the uncle of the Independence Army shooting. Is it just pretending to be dead?" O'Kelly thought this way, and planned to kick the two guys who pretended to be dead. There was another gunshot.
"Captain, captain, the traitor is over there, behind us!" Hyde shouted again.