Chapter 57 Interpenetration

Meanwhile, Morrin and his squad moved swiftly through the ruins and shadows of the buildings.

On the map, the unit markers representing both friendly and enemy forces interlocked like dog's teeth, making the fierce intensity of the battle clear at a glance.

Neither the Brittanian soldiers nor the Kingdom’s soldiers had ever fought such complex urban warfare.

They lacked sufficient experience and had never thought to thoroughly secure the buildings they had cleared.

In their view, as long as they pushed straight down the street and eliminated every visible enemy, victory would be theirs.

This simple and brutal tactic might be effective in regular field battles, but in urban warfare, it exposed fatal flaws.

They would clear a building and immediately rush to the next, leaving no reserve troops whatsoever to consolidate the captured territory.

This gave Morrin and his men an opening.

Like ghosts, he and his squad waded through the areas the enemy naively considered "safe," continuously infiltrating the enemy’s rear.

Before long, Morrin spotted an ideal target on the map.

It was a detachment of fewer than a hundred Brittanian infantrymen advancing along a street, appearing to be the rear guard of an entire company.

"That's them!"

Morrin glanced at the distance between them and the other units on the map, deciding to strike this isolated force.

He quickly led his squad to a position slightly ahead and to the flank of the enemy's advance route, finding a cluster of relatively intact buildings.

"Corporal Bowman!"

"Sir!"

"Take two squads and set up an ambush on the second floors of the buildings on both sides of the street. Open fire for a few rounds once the enemy gets close. Do not linger; immediately leave the buildings and pull back behind this house to wait for me and rendezvous!"

Pointing to a rally point on his paper map, Morrin quickly issued his orders.

"I will take the rest of the men and ambush them in this row of buildings on the enemy's right, forming a long-side flanking fire!"

This was a classic L-shaped ambush.

The short-side force was responsible for providing primary suppression fire to pin down the enemy.

The long-side force, meanwhile, would deliver a fatal blow from the enemy's flank.

"Is everyone clear?"

"Clear!"

Corporal Bowman nodded heavily and, leading his soldiers, quickly vanished into the ruins.

Amidst the chaotic, porridge-like city, various building ruins and barricades allowed Bowman and his men to move about stealthily.

Morrin, leading the remaining soldiers, slipped quietly into a dilapidated small building on the enemy's flank.

The Saxon soldiers clutched their rifles, nervously creeping up to the windows of the first and second floors.

Holding their breath, they could clearly hear the friction of Brittanian military boots grinding against gravel on the street outside, as well as the noisy murmurs of their conversations.

Everyone’s heart was in their throat.

They were waiting for a signal.

Just then, further down the street, Corporal Bowman and his men opened fire first.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

A continuous volley of gunfire erupted from the building where Corporal Bowman’s men were lying in wait, and lethal bullets instantly claimed the lives of the leading Brittanian soldiers.

The sudden attack instantly plunged this Brittanian force into chaos.

"Ambush! Up ahead!"

"Take cover! Find cover, fast!"

Everyone's attention was immediately drawn to the fire ahead.

Instinctively, they raised their rifles to aim forward while pressing their bodies close to the walls on both sides of the street, desperately seeking shelter.

They had no idea that this instinctive action, meant to secure safety, was leading them straight into the embrace of death.

At that moment, Morrin raised his rifle.

He aimed at an officer in the enemy formation who was waving his arms and shouting.

"Bang!"

Using his own first shot as a signal, the bullet accurately pierced the officer's chest.

Immediately afterward, the other soldiers in the building began firing wildly out of the shattered windows at the targets outside.

A lethal ambush crossfire formed in an instant.

The Brittanian soldiers, scrambling for cover along the sides of the street, were struck down one by one by bullets suddenly materializing from their flanks before they could even pinpoint the exact location of the enemy ahead.

They were utterly dazed.

Bullets seemed to come from all directions. They wanted to counterattack, only to find themselves completely unable to determine the precise positions of the enemy.

The dark rooms and the bright street outside created a natural contrast in lighting, giving Morrin and his men a massive tactical advantage—the enemy was exposed in the light while they remained hidden in the dark.

The Brittanian soldiers could only fire blindly into those dark, gaping windows based on the muzzle flashes, launching a futile counterattack.

Soon, the Saxon soldiers inside the building completed three or four rounds of shooting.

Morrin did not linger for greed of further victory. Seeing on the map that a portion of the enemy's main force ahead had broken off and was rushing back to reinforce, he immediately issued the order to retreat.

"Alright, fall back!"

Had he and his men been equipped with MP18s or other weapons with greater firepower density, he would have tried to secure a greater victory.

Unfortunately, infantry equipment during this period remained extremely monotonous, consisting solely of bolt-action rifles, and their grenades were nearly exhausted.

Still, this posed no major problem for Morrin, as his goal was never to annihilate these troops.

Moreover, to these frightened, bird-like enemies trapped in the town, the wounded were actually a greater burden on their advance than corpses, and far more troublesome to handle.

After all, you can temporarily ignore a dead body, but if you ignore the wounded, they will soon become corpses...

Strike and run; never get entangled.

This was the essence of urban guerrilla warfare.

Leading all his men, he quickly retreated through the back door of the building, vanishing into the ruins once more.

The aggressive reinforcement detachment returned only to find themselves striking empty air.

They saw nothing but corpses and wounded soldiers all over the ground, yet not a single shadow of the attackers.

However, before they could even catch their breath, Morrin actively sought them out again.

After reuniting with Corporal Bowman, he silently flanked this returning reinforcement force and then...

Repeated the old trick.

These Brittanian soldiers, solely focused on rushing to aid their ambushed comrades, marched in a very dense formation without sparing any attention to secure their surroundings.

And then, Morrin and his men struck them down from the flank in a massive wave once more.

Being repeatedly attacked from the rear completely scrambled the wits of the Brittanian commander in charge of this sector.

He roared at the other officers around him, "What is going on?! Why is there an enemy in our rear?! Didn't we already clear this street?! Did those Saxons crawl out of the ground?!"

He could not fathom how an enemy he had clearly repelled could reappear in his rear like ghosts.