CHAPTER 308: AFTER THE REVISION: CHAPTER 308 ARTILLERY COVER

Shire had no particular feeling about his achievements, after all, he had only killed three enemies.

With the enemy’s two charges plus the previous collapse of the 69th Infantry Regiment, the preliminary estimate of total casualties was over three thousand.

The mere three enemies Shire had killed were like grains of sand thrown into a lake, not even causing a ripple.

However, this was no small matter in Tijani’s eyes.

Tijani, worried about Shire’s safety, paid attention to Shire’s direction while commanding the troops.

He saw the targets Shire had killed and felt secretly amazed.

This was not because Shire’s marksmanship was particularly accurate—the distance was over two hundred meters and the enemy was completely exposed in front of the trenches, clustered together, making it easy to hit the target.

The key was that Shire had selected valuable targets for precise strikes: officers, heavy machine gunners, and signalmen.

Finding them among the crowd was difficult enough, let alone killing them.

Tijani murmured, "It seems Shire’s military talent is comprehensive, not just in invention."

Finally, after Shire had killed two more targets, the Ottoman Army was bombed back again by the French Army’s grenades.

At this point, the corpses lying within fifty meters of the trenches had piled up like a small hill, blocking the soldiers’ sight, forcing Tijani to order the soldiers to fill sandbags to raise the height of the trenches.

...

As noon arrived, the drizzle finally stopped, allowing a bit of sunlight to break through the clouds, and a colorful rainbow appeared on the horizon at some unspecified time.

At other times, Shire might have admired its beauty, but now, no matter how he looked at it, it seemed like the sky had been cut open, spilling out multicolored intestines.

Shire sat pale-faced on an ammunition box, his rifle within arm’s reach, leaning against the side wall of the trench that was indistinguishable between blood and mud.

Shire had tried several times to relax but failed, his muscles remaining tense; he could even feel them trembling slightly.

Adrian was on the other side assisting the medical soldiers in bandaging the wounded. He noticed Shire’s condition and hurriedly finished his work and ran over.

"Colonel!" He took out a piece of bread wrapped in moisture-proof paper from his backpack and handed it up: "You might need to eat something!"

Shire glanced at the bread and shook his head with difficulty, feeling no appetite at all. Just seeing food made his stomach churn.

"You must eat something," Adrian insisted, "The lack of appetite is an illusion; your body actually needs to replenish energy and water."

Shire paused, agreeing with Adrian’s reasoning. He hadn’t eaten anything since dawn and had been engaging in high-intensity combat; it was strange not to be hungry.

Thinking of this, Shire reluctantly took the bread from Adrian’s hand and forced himself to take a few bites.

Adrian handed over a canteen, Shire took it and drank a few sips, feeling somewhat better.

Tijani, as the regiment leader, had been busy running back and forth between the front and rear trenches, ordering soldiers to replenish firepower, strengthen the trenches, and add barbed wire.

After arranging all this, he finally ran to Shire’s side, sitting down heavily, gasping and exclaiming, "Your mortar has done wonders again, Colonel."

"What?" Shire asked, casually handing him the canteen.

Tijani took the canteen, tilted his head back and gulped down several mouthfuls, then put down the canteen and took a few deep breaths, wiping his mouth before replying, "It effectively suppresses enemy machine guns and is very safe. That’s one of the reasons our army has only suffered over five hundred casualties until now."

Shire responded with a "Hmm."

Before mortar, the best way to suppress machine guns was with machine guns.

But at this time, the French Army’s machine guns had to sweep the frontally charging enemies, unable to cater for the enemy machine guns secretly set up.

The mortar solved this problem well—once the enemy had machine guns in depth, the mortar would immediately fire a few shells at the position where the gunfire originated.

Tijani cautiously glanced to both sides, lowered his voice and said to Shire, "But I am not sure we can hold until nightfall."

Shire nodded slightly in understanding.

He had been considering this issue earlier, with the entire army suffering over five hundred casualties from two frontal assaults.

This number seemed optimistic; at this rate, just over five hundred more casualties would ensure holding until nightfall.

But the battlefield is not a simple arithmetic problem.

soldiers suffering 500 casualties to hold for one morning does not mean 2500 soldiers can suffer 500 casualties to hold for the same duration.

When a certain threshold is reached, the firepower of the 105th Infantry Regiment would no longer be sufficient to withstand enemy charges, the defense line would suddenly collapse and everyone would end up dead or captured.

However, no one knew what this threshold was—2000, 2300 soldiers? Or maybe the next second!

"They can’t send reinforcements, can they?" Shire asked.

"No!" Tijani nodded helplessly, "The Ottomans have blocked the landing beach with artillery. Transport ships cannot approach, as the enemy’s coastal artillery has been restocked with shells and is ready."

Battleships might withstand the coastal artillery bombardment, but transport ships carrying troops were different—just a few shells could ignite a fire or even detonate the ammunition.

While the two were frowning, a signalman hurriedly ran over to report, "General, Colonel, General Winter has sent a message. They plan to dispatch the fleet to forcibly enter Saros Bay to provide artillery support for our troops, including the ’Queen Elizabeth’. General Winter needs to know how to cooperate with us!"

Tijani and Shire’s eyes lit up; if the fleet could provide artillery support for the defense line, it would be much easier.

Tijani immediately pulled out a map from his pocket and spread it out, studying it for a while, before drawing a circle in the area east of the defense line, "This is the main force of the enemy attack, I think the artillery should bomb this area..."

"No!" Shire interrupted Tijani, pointing to the area west of the defense line, saying, "I think our artillery should bomb this area."

"The west?" Tijani raised his head in confusion, "The enemy there only has one infantry regiment and one civilian corps. They are even surrounded by us, with ammunition shortages already appearing..."

"That’s exactly why we need to bomb the west," Shire explained, "The civilian corps is low in morale. If we add artillery bombardment, they are very likely to have internal problems."

Tijani exclaimed in realization, deliberating for a moment, and increasingly felt that bombing the west was more reasonable.

It’s not just that the enemy in the west would collapse more easily, but more importantly, by targeting the west "A" corner, battle ships could stay farther from the shore, reducing the number of coastal artillery capable of hitting the battleships.

Thinking this, Tijani no longer hesitated, nodding in agreement, "You’re right, bomb the west!"