1890 King of Southeast Asia

"I admit that I overestimated these monkeys. I shouldn't have expected these barbarians." Locke looked at the group of infantrymen who had "gone through so much trouble" to rush to him.

"Add a company of troops to defend the front and order everyone not to attack without orders."

"Our mission is just to defend here."

Locke felt a little strange and didn't think much about it. Instead, he gave orders based on his intuition.

His caution made Zhang Shun dumbfounded. Before, at this distance, the British army had already taken action and prepared to counterattack.

If they rushed forward, because the follow-up troops were too far away, they would not be able to catch up in time even if they rushed up, which was meaningless.

And stopping at this time, the enemy was outnumbered, and it was definitely not the best choice to compete with the enemy in shooting accuracy.

"Right now." Zhang Erbiao looked at the situation, picked up the phone and started shaking.

"Hello, commander, the third company has gone up. Yes, it's at the designated location. I request the main force to make a feint attack."

Zhang Erbiao had thought about it a long time ago. The British were not so easily fooled.

After all, the cannons had not been fired, and the machine guns had not made any movement, which obviously had a problem. If the British were to act very aggressively at this time, wouldn't that mean the commander had a problem?

So Zhang Erbiao had formulated a response plan early in the morning.

Boom boom boom...

There was a sudden sound of artillery fire from the direction of the artillery position, but it seemed chaotic. The artillery fire was not very concentrated, but scattered at several points.

However, this was not an abnormal situation in the eyes of the British. The tactics at this time were full-scale attack and full-scale bombardment, and the theory of focused bombardment was not mature enough.

"Brothers, kill the British devils! Kill!"

"Machine guns move to the left..."

"Fire suppression, fire suppression, where are the machine guns? What are they doing?"

"Report, I came out too hastily, and I didn't bring the spare magazines..."

Before the artillery fire stopped, many people rushed out of the positions of the Plateau Border Guards and rushed towards the British positions.

There weren't many people, only about 2,000 or 3,000 in total, but they were scattered and far away. They looked like a huge group, but they actually had little combat power.

(It wasn't the three-three system. The three-three system required strong fighting will, organization, and subjective initiative, which was not something that the army of the new army could have.)

At least from the direction of the British position, the Plateau Frontier Guards had launched a full-line attack, and there were people everywhere.

This scared the British. Before Chloe could react, the British officers below spontaneously organized the frightened Indians to counterattack.

"Quick! You idiots, pick up your guns and shoot at the enemy, quick!"

"The enemies at eleven o'clock, one o'clock, and ten o'clock are rushing up, quick! What are you doing dawdling?!"

Because they had to avoid the bombardment, the British and Indians scattered and hid everywhere. For a moment, the position was in a state of panic.

"The situation is not good. Order the 20th Battalion to organize a supervisory team behind the defense line. Never allow the fleeing soldiers to disrupt our formation." Chloe looked at the situation and had to give the order.

The Indians really did not live up to the colonial rule of the British Empire. They performed very well and vividly demonstrated the quality of the colonial vassal army.

So much so that Chloe mistakenly believed that the defense line was about to collapse. Although the outer positions were originally used to delay time, this was too fast.

In particular, he also placed the main force Northamptonshire Regiment on the periphery. If the front line could not be stabilized, the Northamptonshire Regiment might face being surrounded.

This was absolutely unacceptable. Even if a large number of Gurkha people had been stuffed into this regiment, Chloe could not afford the guilt of a veteran local regiment being wiped out.

"Let the Northamptonshire Regiment prepare to support friendly forces. God bless, it must be stabilized. At least, there must be an orderly retreat." Chloe prayed softly.

…

"Sir, the Brigadier General's order is for us to gather our troops and support our friendly forces." The staff officer handed the order to Locke in confusion.

This order was very unclear. There was only a "task" for a volunteer friendly force, but it did not specify who the friendly forces were, let alone how many people to support and to what extent.

This gave their regiment great power, and to a certain extent they could even freely mobilize the army.

This was very rare in military orders.

"Does our Brigadier General want me to be a firefighter, or do you want us to withdraw from the front line like a coward?" Locke said it without any hesitation after seeing the order.

"Sir, that's your superior." The chief of staff stopped Locke.

"Don't worry, I'm not so old that I can't move. I still have the courage to continue fighting." Locke joked.

"Hey..." The staff officer smiled awkwardly and stepped aside.

"Look, the battle line has been stabilized. I don't believe that there will be. Can the Chinese transport tens of thousands of shells in a short time?"

"If there are not enough shells, how can they conquer our camp?"

Locke asked himself and answered himself as he looked at the "Harmonious Front".

"If there are not enough shells, they can only send a large number of troops at one time like Tsarist Russia, and the number of troops exceeds the total number of enemies we can kill."

"Use absolute force to run over our corpses. Although I don't know why, it is obvious that they did not use so many troops."

After a brief period of confusion, the Indians finally remembered their profession and began to fire in an organized volley.

The plateau frontier guards were just feinting to attract firepower, so they were happy to shoot harmoniously with the British.

"Sir, our friendly troops on the right wing seem to be unable to hold on. Do we need to send an army to support them?" The staff officer stepped forward and asked carefully.

Their right wing was a typical British-Indian corps, with the main officers being British and the non-commissioned officers being half British and half Indian (high caste).

"This bunch of trash, you transfer two companies to support them." Locke looked at the Indians with disgust.

"Yes! Sir!" The staff officer saluted and turned away.

…………

"Platoon leader, the fighting is so lively everywhere, and we just watch it?" The deputy platoon leader quietly touched Zhang Shun.

"What else can we do? Why is it like this? It shouldn't be..." Zhang Shun lay under a big rock and answered unhappily.

They were only more than 100 meters away from the British defense line, and it can be said that they arrived with a charge.

But they were here to attract the enemy, not to attack them.

Not to mention that they had less than a hundred people to attack, while the defenders fighting on the front line were more than three hundred.

The British also felt that this enemy was too close, and they were constantly suppressing them with volleys.

Zhang Shun entered this distance and suddenly found that he was in a situation where he could not advance or retreat, and there was no sign of the British coming out.

"At this time, if there was a burst of artillery fire, it would be great. In just one minute, we will definitely be able to tear a hole." Zhang Shun looked at the British position and gritted his teeth.

Woo woo woo...

As soon as he finished speaking, several shells flew over his head and hit the British position.

However, it was not the British position in front of Zhang Shun, but the left side, about three or four hundred meters away from the position where the Northamptonshire Regiment was stationed.

"Has the plan changed? What should we do now?" Zhang Shun looked at the explosion, confused.

The current situation and the plan he knew were completely two different development directions, and he was a little confused.

"During the exploratory attack just now, the enemy on the left wing was in a panic. If this is the new main target, it may be possible!" The deputy platoon leader looked at the explosion location.

Before, when he was feinting, he was stared at by the British and could not launch.

He couldn't just sit there without moving, so he observed everywhere and happened to see the performance of the Indians.

He was not sure about the specific situation, but the enemy in that direction was the most chaotic, and he could hear it clearly from the gunshots.

"If there was a phone, I could contact my superiors at any time. It's so cowardly to be trapped here like this!" Zhang Shun simply turned around, took out two flattened cigarettes from his belt, and handed one to the deputy platoon leader.

"The phone is too heavy, and you have to pull such a long roll of wire. It's better to use it in the rear." The deputy platoon leader took the cigarette and took out a kerosene lighter from his pocket.

British goods, seized in Sun City.

"Something's wrong, why did the gunfire stop?" Zhang Shun felt that the gunfire on the opposite side was much less frequent, and he quietly stuck his head out without lighting a cigarette.

"The enemy is coming, fight and retreat, fight and retreat!" Zhang Shun shouted excitedly, and put away the cigarette.

This thing, if the logistics are not transported, he will only have half a pack left.

The deputy platoon leader held a cigarette in his mouth, raised his gun, and shot a British who was rushing up.

"You retreat first, I'll cover you."

Zhang Shun didn't pretend, turned around and ran, using his milk to run for five seconds, and immediately found a small bulge and lay down behind it.

This bulge couldn't even cover his body when he climbed down.

After lying down, he also raised his gun and began to provide cover for others.

The Chinese soldiers fought and retreated like this, always keeping a distance of more than 100 meters from the British.

...

"War is not fought like this, rush up and destroy them immediately!" Locke gritted his teeth and shouted.

The friendly forces on the right wing were too useless, so he had to help relieve the pressure, otherwise he would have to retreat when the position was occupied.

"Sir, if we rush out, the defensive forces may be insufficient." A captain wanted to stop him.

"If we can't save our right wing, we don't need to defend it. At this moment, it's too late for the temporary organization to rescue."

Locke shook his head and looked at the retreating Chinese army.

He didn't know what the Chinese's purpose was, but he vaguely felt that this purpose had been achieved.

"Pursue, follow the attack, and break through the Chinese's defense."

"The remaining six companies, launch an attack together!"

[Author's digression]: On the plateau, the last two chapters are over.