After hearing that Mo Lin seemed to have another method besides a direct assault, another platoon commander from the 3rd Company also spoke up to urge him. “Sir, a frontal attack will cost too many lives. Second Lieutenant Mo Lin’s idea may be worth trying!”
Time slipped by, second by second. Ahead, the screams of the survivors from the 1st and 2nd Companies, along with the intermittent bursts from that Vickers machine gun, lashed at everyone’s nerves like a whip.
Several seconds later, Captain Hauser seemed to make up his mind. He swung his hand down sharply.
“Fine! Mo Lin! Take your men and go in from the left flank! If your plan fails, no matter how well you’re fighting, you are to immediately fall back toward the main force! Is that understood?”
“Yes, sir!” A heavy stone finally dropped from Mo Lin’s heart.
Without the slightest hesitation, he immediately turned to face his own subordinates.
“Third Platoon, all of you! With me!”
He wasted no words. Breaking into a run, he followed the edge of the shrubbery toward the more complicated terrain on the left.
Platoon Sergeant Klaus was the first to react. He roared, “Keep up with the platoon commander! Move! All of you, move!”
The four corporals and squad leaders immediately urged on the soldiers under them as well. The eighty-man unit quickly broke away from the company’s main force, following Mo Lin’s figure as they plunged into the complex terrain on the left flank.
After entering the woods, Mo Lin immediately issued his first true combat order in this world.
“Whole platoon, attention! Advance dispersed by squad! Keep your spacing. Don’t bunch up!”
To the Saxon soldiers, such an order was naturally completely unfamiliar.
Fortunately, Mo Lin’s voice was clear and decisive. Together with Platoon Sergeant Klaus and the other four corporals, who quickly grasped his meaning and repeated the order again and again, the soldiers, though somewhat flustered, still followed it.
“First Section, stop at that slope fifty meters ahead! If enemies approach the main force from any other direction, open fire and cover us!”
Mo Lin pointed to a spot and shouted to one of the corporals.
“Yes, sir!”
That corporal quickly led the two squads of First Section forward at a run, reaching the slope and setting up their rifles behind the cover of trees and earth.
“The rest, follow me! We’ll go through the riverbed!”
Mo Lin took the lead himself, sliding down into the dry riverbed more than a meter deep.
The other soldiers followed closely behind him, moving swiftly under the cover of the sunken riverbed terrain.
The roar of the Vickers machine gun was still raging on the right, but its attention was completely drawn by the frontal battlefield. It had not noticed at all that this small force was quietly closing in from its blind spot.
After running nearly a hundred and fifty meters through the riverbed, Mo Lin swept a glance over the mini-map. Seeing that they were almost at the village’s flank, he suddenly heard gunfire ring out from the slope where First Section was positioned behind them.
He made a hand signal, and the entire unit stopped, crouching low in the riverbed.
Sergeant Klaus, who was beside him, did not even need him to give an order. He crawled to the edge of the opposite bank and carefully peeked out.
“Second Lieutenant, a small number of enemies from the village are approaching us. First Section is firing at them and has already pinned them down.”
“Good!”
Mo Lin nodded, then looked solemnly at his platoon sergeant.
“Sergeant Klaus, you and Second Section will establish a strongpoint here. If we’re driven back, cover our retreat into the riverbed.”
“Second Lieutenant, you should stay here! The attack is too dangerous!” Sergeant Klaus hesitated, clearly unwilling to see Mo Lin risk himself.
“Enough nonsense. That’s an order!”
Sergeant Klaus stopped arguing. He immediately took another corporal and two squads of soldiers and quietly climbed up the gentle slope beside the riverbed.
Mo Lin, meanwhile, led the remaining two sections, more than forty soldiers, onward, keeping low as they advanced along the riverbed.
Perhaps First Section’s covering fire had taken effect. Their subsequent advance suffered no further interference, and Mo Lin soon led everyone to the point where the riverbed met the village.
The two-story farmhouse serving as the machine-gun position was now exposed ahead and to their side. According to the display on the map, it was less than a hundred meters away.
“Corporal Yona!”
Mo Lin raised his hand and summoned one of the two remaining corporals beside him. Hearing his voice, the man immediately came over with his rifle in hand.
“See that two-story farmhouse?”
“I see it, Second Lieutenant!”
“I’ll take Third Section and launch the assault. You take Fourth Section and watch the doors and windows of that farmhouse facing our direction. If there’s any movement, open fire and pin the enemy down. Don’t let them attack us! Can you do that?!”
“Leave it to me, Second Lieutenant!”
Mo Lin nodded, then directly led the final corporal and two squads of soldiers up out of the riverbed and sprinted toward the farmhouse.
The movement was quickly discovered by the enemy.
When Corporal Yona, who was watching the farmhouse, noticed a figure appear at one of the second-floor windows, he directly raised the Gew.98 rifle in his hands, aimed at the window, and pulled the trigger first.
“Second-floor window of the farmhouse! Fire at will! Open fire!”
“Bang!”
First came a crisp gunshot.
Immediately afterward, the twenty rifles around him opened fire at the same time.
The Gew.98 rifle was already renowned for its high accuracy, and in the Saxon soldiers’ daily training, there were strict requirements for marksmanship.
As a result, all twenty bullets actually shot into the second-floor window of the farmhouse, sending wood splinters flying everywhere. The figure inside the window also vanished.
They had pinned them down!
Corporal Yona’s heart leapt with joy, and he immediately shouted, “Seventh Squad, keep firing! Don’t give them a chance to breathe! Eighth Squad, watch the other doors and windows!”
He worked the bolt. A scorching shell casing popped out, and another round was pushed into the chamber.
On the other side, Sergeant Klaus, lying prone on the gentle slope of the riverbed, watched Mo Lin and the others move, still somewhat unable to understand why this newly appointed platoon commander wanted him to bring men and hold this position.
But before he could figure it out, he saw soldiers in the black uniforms of the “Kingdom Army” rush out from other buildings to the right of the two-story farmhouse, running toward Mo Lin and the others.
“All of you, aim at the enemies in the direction of the farmhouse! Fire!”
Gunfire crackled like bursting beans. The soldiers Mo Lin had stationed here immediately used their accurate and sustained rifle fire to knock the charging “Kingdom Army” soldiers head over heels.
In that instant, Sergeant Klaus finally understood Mo Lin’s intention.
Field of fire!
From this position on the riverbed slope, the two-story farmhouse and several surrounding buildings fell perfectly within their firing arc. If the enemy wanted to attack Mo Lin and the others, they would have to pass right in front of their gun muzzles!
So long as they held firm here, the enemies in the village would find it very difficult to threaten Mo Lin and the others’ assault.
On the other side, Mo Lin led the two squads of soldiers in an unobstructed rush all the way to the side of the farmhouse.
“Corporal Bauman, you and Fifth Squad watch the inside of the village! Sixth Squad, with me. Grenades ready!”
After giving the order to the last corporal, Mo Lin took the lead and rushed to the side of the farmhouse’s main door, then stood with his back against the wall.
The soldiers of Sixth Squad and the two orderlies who had been following him copied his movements, pressing themselves against both sides of the main door.
“Throw grenades in through the second-floor windows! And someone with guts, throw one into the window the machine gun’s firing from!”
Among Sixth Squad, the two “grenadiers” who carried fewer rifle rounds but had four spherical grenades each immediately followed Mo Lin’s order and threw grenades through the second-floor windows.
One particularly bold and capable soldier even poked his head out from the corner to confirm there were no enemies, then slipped beneath the machine-gun firing window, pulled the safety pin, and hurled a grenade accurately inside.
“Boom! Boom! Boom!”
Several explosions rang out on the second floor of the farmhouse. On Mo Lin’s mini-map, the red counter representing the enemy machine-gun position was marked with a red cross.
And the terrifying roar of the machine gun on the battlefield finally ceased.