Fox of France

After releasing a lot of messy news such as "departure to sweep tomorrow", "departure this afternoon", "the sweep will officially start in a month", the British army is ready to officially send troops.

The British army first adjusted the defense of those military depots. The troops originally in the depots, including the "Irish Security Forces", were transferred away and replaced with new troops, and these troops were the newly transferred British recruits. . Then the British divided the tens of thousands of troops gathered into two groups, the left and the right, and killed them towards Ireland's largest non-law and order area.

Although the base area has been disturbed by too much news, it is still difficult to hide things like a large-scale troop dispatch from others. In addition, in addition to relying on intelligence workers in security areas and quasi-security areas, as well as the "Irish Security Force" who stepped on two boats to provide information, some scouts from the Irish Independence Army and counties near the British-controlled area The brigade, the district squad, and the village guerrilla group also raised their vigilance at this time, ready to deal with the sweep of the British army at any time.

In the fringes of the base area, because the British army often conducts rapid crusades here, (the British army uses the high maneuverability of the cavalry to frequently harass the villages in these areas, trying to gradually encroach on these areas .) Therefore, the villages here are more serious and meticulous in early warning than other areas.

During the day, the men went to work in the fields, and the women followed suit. It was the turn of the guerrillas on duty to keep an eye on the main road, while the half-grown children drove the flock out to herd the sheep, and kept an eye on the empty paths by the way to perform security tasks. (It is not once or twice that the British cavalry, under the leadership of Ai Jian, entered the base area from the small road to do bad things.)

These children have also been warned about the possibility of the British army entering the base area on a large scale to do bad things recently, and the children have also raised their vigilance.

Early this morning, Alice and her friends drove a few lambs to the small mound in the north of the village. There was a nice lawn there, and the mound was a good place to keep an eye on the nearby roads.

There is a message tree erected on the mound, which can be seen from the direction of the village.

Of course, the message tree cannot be brought down casually, because once the people in the village see the message tree fell, everyone will immediately move to the swamp refuge, and of course they will not be able to do any farm work on this day. If it was just a false alarm, it would be too uneconomical.

So children have a division of labor. When only one or two came, the two older boys, Michael and Thomas, would step up and question them with spears, while the other boys guarded the message tree. Once something happens, immediately bring down the message tree and send an alarm to the village.

Of course, if there were too many people coming, and they were not the ones who had agreed in advance, then they would put down the message tree without hesitation, then take the sheep and transfer directly to the swamp refuge.

After climbing up the mound, let the sheep graze on the grass under the mound, and the children are all talking on the mound while looking into the distance.

The time in the early morning is the most dangerous time and the time when vigilance is most needed. Because there is dew on the ground during this period, people and horses will not raise dust when walking on it, and it is not easy to be found. When it was almost noon, the sun dried the dew, and when people and horses came from the road, they would raise high dust, which could be seen from a long distance.

While looking around dutifully, the children chatted about the taste of the French candy brought by the old district head last time. Michael said with great anticipation: "The old district chief told me that when we win, we can eat French candy every day, as much as we want..."

While the children were talking, they were looking forward to a sweet future. At this moment, the sharp-eyed Alice suddenly saw something moving fast in the distance.

"What do you see there?" cried Alice.

The children stood on tiptoes and looked over there, and there was indeed something moving towards this side quickly.

"That's the enemy's cavalry, quickly, quickly put down the message tree."

A few children hurriedly brought down the message tree, and then Michael and Thomas went down to hang strings on the mines on the path, and the others drove the sheep without going back to the village, and went directly to the swamp shelter. went.

As soon as the message tree fell, everyone became alert. Villagers picked up their belongings—which, these days, were already packed—and headed to the swamp shelter. A few boys from the guerrilla group in the village went there with guns. They want to use black guns to interfere with the enemy as much as possible and give the villagers time to transfer.

The villagers meet up with the children at the entrance to the swamp shelter. Except for Michael and Thomas, the other children and sheep are there. They told everyone that Michael and Thomas had gone to hang the mines. Everyone left a few people here and waited for a while. I heard the faint sound of landmine explosions coming from over there.

Everyone waited anxiously for a while before seeing Michael and Thomas running over, their faces full of excitement.

"Damn boy, where did you go!" Old Michael went up to fix this naughty bastard.

"We saw that two British cavalrymen's horses had their legs broken, and those two British guys fell off their horses, hahaha..." Michael was still full of complacency, not noticing that his father was about to get angry up.

"Forget it, just come back, let's go in quickly." Several people stopped Old Michael, and then everyone went to the shelter together. While walking, he also took away the upper planks and pulled down the wooden posts.

There were a few more gunshots outside, and it was the fighters of the guerrilla group who were firing cold shots at the British. They have another way in and out of the shelter, so there is no need to worry about them. Then thick smoke rose in the direction of the village, and it was obvious that the British must have set the fire without asking.

"If they have the courage to chase them into the swamp, let's see if we don't kill them!" A villager said bitterly. Although their thatched houses are worthless, they were built with hard work.

Not long after the villagers entered the refuge, a group of British soldiers and a group of black 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 kind of equipment: swamp shoes.

The so-called "swamp shoe" is really just a large wooden board that can be strapped to the original boot. The design of this thing is simple, and the principle is also very simple: increase the force bearing area and reduce the pressure. Wearing such a pair of shoes, the pressure on the human body against the ground can be reduced by more than half, which naturally makes it less likely to sink. Of course, this is still not safe. In case of encountering a particularly thin and deep quagmire, how to die, or how to die.

Since it is still dangerous to enter the swamp like this, of course people from the "security force" should take the lead in this kind of thing.

The black leather dogs of the security force first put on this kind of 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 without obviously sinking down, and they walked much more briskly than normal.

"That's right." Edward Stafford, a British officer who was supervising behind, nodded and said, "We will guard here, supervise them to go in, and catch those rebels!"

In any case, entering the swamp is still dangerous. Even with swamp shoes. So if the British army can't go in, it's better not to go in. Moreover, as far as they knew, there were only about a hundred people in the village, including women and children. There are only a few dozen real adult men. They are all ordinary people again. Edward felt that although the guys from the "Security Force" were a bit rotten, they should still be enough to deal with them.

At this time, the guerrilla team had also entered the swamp through another channel, and they soon found the black leather dogs wearing "swamp shoes" staggering in the swamp like a flock of ducks.

"Hey, these black leather dogs also have this thing? Thompson, hurry up and report the situation to the old village chief. Wade and I will stop them here first." Team leader Higgins said to a team member in a low voice.

The team member nodded and turned away.

"Wade, the two of us split into two groups, you go to the left, I go to the right, we go from the left and the right..."

"We surrounded them from both sides." Wade nodded, "I understand."

"Damn it! We shot at them from the left and right. Remember, one shot, another place. After ten shots, we'll meet at number one and bring the enemy to number two. Got it? "

"Understood!"

At this time, more than 200 "security forces" had already entered the swamp, and the team leader Hyde was forced by the team leader O'Kelly to explore the way ahead. Visibility in the swamp is not good. There are tall and low aquatic plants everywhere, cattails and reeds are everywhere. Occasionally, there will be a sound in the reeds, and one or two wild ducks will fly out.

Hyde was walking tremblingly in the swamp. Suddenly, a gunshot came from his left side, and at the same time, a black dog beside him screamed and fell headlong into the mud.

The other black-skinned dogs were also in a mess. They looked to the left, and there was a dense reed on the left. A light blue smoke seemed to be rising from there. At the same time, frightened by the gunshots, a large group of wild ducks flew out of the reed.

"The rebels, the rebels are on the left, and the reeds on the left are coming from inside! Shoot, shoot over there!" Hyde shouted, pointing at the reeds.

So the black-skinned dogs hurriedly turned to the left and started beating wildly towards the patch of reeds. The reed poles and reed leaves flew everywhere. As for whether anyone was hit, no one noticed. In fact, when everyone shot, they didn't even see if anyone was there.

After this round of shooting was over, Captain O'Kelly took a closer look and found that two more fell down on his side.

"I didn't see the man from the Independence Army shooting just now. Could it be that he was pretending to be dead?" O'Kelly thought so, and planned to go up and kick the two guys who were pretending to be dead. There was another shot.

"Captain, captain, the rebels are over there, behind us!" Hyde shouted again.