บท 36: Meat Grinder
February 1886
Babuyan Islands
I stationed my men towards several key points and suicide corners in the vicinity of our defensive stand, each and everyone of us positioned in various defensive positions that can help us defend this place and to prevent the enemies from flanking the rear of the revolutionaries that are attacking the Spanish Fortress.
Various sounds of gunshots and artillery fire permeate the battlefield but in our current position it is calm, it's like we're in a tornado and we're inside it, everything around us is either falling apart or being bombarded but we stood our ground silently, waiting for the time that our opponents will try to attack us.
All 1000 of us looked at each other in the eye and smiled, everyone knew that this peace and silence is just the calm before the storm, and this storm is going to be the hardest and the last storm that our regiment is going to face in this war, this is the last battle for the northern theatre, this battle will determine the future of the north, whether it will stay at the clutches of the oppressors or if it will be reigned over by a new owner.
I certainly hope that it's the latter because I still wanna see my wife and my son, I still wanna see my son soar though the skies and fulfill his hopes and dreams. For now I am a soldier but deep within me I am still a father, yearning for my family's embrace...
I looked at the places that the enemy might come from, I'm not sure whether they'll come or not but I'm not going to take my chances so I ordered some of my men to look for water caches and pour them in the chokepoints and suicide corners as to slow down the enemies when they come, I also ordered some of them to move some of the barbed wires and put them on those same places to maximize the effect of our plan. I also told them to quickly remove any possible covers that the enemies might use against us as to give us the full advantage and neutralize theirs.
A few minutes passed and everything went well, we now wait...
As we were waiting, some of my men heard some footsteps zeroing in on us, so I immediately readied my men and each and everyone of us pointed our guns towards the place where the sound is coming from.
Captain Henry's POV
I am currently leading my personal regiment to flank the enemies that are attacking the western front. General Roberto ordered me to personally clean this mess. I never let him down before and I'm not going to start doing so right now, with the 5th Regiment's help, we will pulverize the enemy in God's will!
The 5th Spanish Regiment of The Philippines has one of the best sharpshooters in the whole Spanish Army based in the Philippines and is one of the only regiments in the Philippines that doesn't have any Filipinos in their ranks, they number around 3000 men and is currently under the leadership of Captain Henry, the so called "Butcher" he quelled countless revolts from the mexican revolution up to here in the Philippines, one of the best captains to ever grace the battlefield with a whopping 80% win ratio, he's one of the best field captains of Roberto, and is also his most trusted.
As they walk through mud while smelling the stench of death and gunpowder, Henry told his men to stop and signaled one of them to look because they have reached the first suicide corner of the trench leading to the western front.
The soldier slowly walked over the corner and took a peek..
What he saw is probably the last thing he'll ever see in his miserable life as bullets rained down on every single piece of his head that showed in the corner, pieces of mush, bones and brain matter exploded all throughout the place as Henry and his men were shocked and traumatized with what happened, they never expected the power of the MG42s! Because everytime that they were used in the past, they were only placed as a turret or they were only used by a single soldier out of a hundred which is already terrifying by itself!
A thousand MG42 raining down bullets upon a single spot is the most terrifying thing that Henry has ever encountered! And the most problematic thing about this is that he has no choice other than to cross this death pit to pump a breathe of life to their defenses because the fortress is completely being overrun by the revolutionaries! With 10,000 - 15,000 revolutionary men on the western front directly attacking the walls and around 10,000 - 15,000 russian and filipino revolutionaries attacking both the central and eastern front. Their forces are being spread thin against the tri-pronged attack conducted by the enemy strategist!
Henry thought a lot about how to solve this dilemma and he only has one solution, bombard the positions of the enemies that are guarding this suicide corner!
This is the only solution yet, he can't even do it!
The artillery positions and the scouting positions were already compromised by those traitors when the enemies attacked! They don't have artillery guns anymore because most of their guns are either destroyed by the traitor's men or occupied by the enemy, Henry is livid by that fact! It is so near! Yet so far!
The only choice he has left is to bombard their positions with grenades while charging while some of his men cover them with their rifles, this will lessen the pressure of those of his men who are going to charge, he immediately commenced his plans and prepared for their charge.
Mauricio's POV
It's been an hour since that soldier peeked through the corner yet the enemies still didn't commence their attack, my men are gettinf impatient but I told them to hold their positions or consequences will come their way.
I looked at the suicide corner and all I see is the spillage of mush and brain matter from that dead soldier, it is gory but this is war, I can't really pity him cause we don't know each other.
I only want this to end.
As I was monologuing, various footsteps were heard towards the suicide corner's directions and my men and I immediately took our positions and readied for another round of fire, we waited as I ordered;
"Steady!"
Each and every men has their eyes focused on that spot, a spot that will turn into a slaughterhouse a few moments later...
As the seconds ticked by, the first Spaniard showed up and shot his M93 towards Mauricio's position, this took him and his men aback but as the bullet shot past through the air and reached Mauricio's head, a clank was heard and no blood was spilled, this took the Spaniard by surprise but regrets always comes at the end as his body is now riddled with bullets and scattered throughout the field. After him were countless Spaniards as they also charged through the corner, each and everyone of them burning with passion and a bit of delirium, those emotions were very evident in their eyes as they charged while shooting their shots while some were throwing grenades the revolutionarie's positions, this is clearly a desperate act but no grenade reached the revolutionary's positions and instead those explosives took the lives of the Spaniards instead! They were killed before they even got to throw their bombs!
Hundreds of Spaniards charged through yet thousands of bullets rained down upon them, they were dying like meat to a grinder! One by one they fall like the leaves of a dying tree, There were some smart Spaniards who stationed themselves up above the trenches to provide some cover but most of them were also killed by the people of Mauricio, specifically, those who prefer to use the lee enfield rifles than that of the MG42.
"This is not a battle! This is just a pure, unadulterated massacre!" Mauricio thought, he's been to countless wars yet this battle horrified him! They were killing hundreds of Spaniards yet they are still coming as if their lives aren't important!
Intestines, liver, brain matters and other body parts litter the battlefield as blood splattered throughout! Blood was surging and splattering as if it's the most abundant liquid in the world! Mauricio's men felt like the harbingers of death, some enjoyed the feeling while others were horrified and disgusted because of what's happening, those at the front were covered in blood that are not theirs and most of them felt nauseated by the sea of blood that flowed!
*Barf!*
Some of Mauricio's men puked and stopped shooting because of the stench of blood and the sight of gore! They fought in the liberation of the northern provinces but this is the most brutal battle they had ever fought, it is a different experience when they killed defenseless people just charging through their deaths, they were soldiers, not mass murderers!
A few minutes passed by, and the Spaniards finally stopped pushing through, piles and piles of corpses were in front of Mauricio's men which made them more nauseous, they steeled through their emotions and tried to remove those extra thoughts in their heads, they feel guilt yet they know that if they didn't do what they did today, perhaps double or triple the numbers of both them and their family might have replace those corpses right now. They were nauseous but in exchange for freedom, one must pay the necessary price.
The enemies have retreated, and the day is safe!
Maybe dinner is out of the question for the Bulwark Regiment tonight.
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