1890 King of Southeast Asia

"What are these Italians waiting for? Why don't they attack yet?" Alfred huddled in a hidden command post on the hillside, using a telescope to observe the foot of a mountain about three kilometers in front of him.

There were more than a dozen Italian individual strongholds at the foot of the mountain. They stood openly beside the breastwork, alerting the direction of Tyrol.

It had been six days since Hayden's plan was implemented, and the Italians appeared in Alfred's sight on the afternoon of the second day.

Unexpectedly, that afternoon, after the Italians, who had been on the road for a day, discovered the Austro-Hungarian defenders, they launched an attack without hesitation.

…………

Neither Alfred nor Hayden, nor any other officers or soldiers of the Tyrol Shooter Regiment had expected this situation.

However, the Austro-Hungarian defenders were mentally prepared for defensive operations after all, and when they first came into contact, the soldiers were the most cautious and immediately organized shooting.

The Italians dispatched about 500 people, probably two companies. Perhaps knowing that the local garrison of the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not have heavy weapons such as cannons, the Italians arrogantly assembled less than three kilometers away from the Tyrolean Shooter Regiment.

That is, a flat area at the foot of the opposite mountain.

Alfred's Shooter Regiment was equipped with 12 Schwarzloser M07/12 heavy machine guns produced by the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

This heavy machine gun was developed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire after it introduced the Maxim heavy machine gun. It is not a simple imitation and improvement. Except for a sleeve, the overall mechanical structure is not the same.

The gun body weighs 20 kilograms, the tripod also weighs 20 kilograms, and the total weight of 40 kilograms is much lower than that of contemporary heavy machine guns, and the mobility is better.

However, its performance has also been reduced, and it is not as applicable as the Maxim heavy machine gun. It can basically only do the work designed at the time of design.

In other words, the Maxim and its various imitations and improvements can be used for air defense in addition to anti-infantry, but the air defense performance of this thing is not good.

It fires 8*50mm rifle bullets, with a theoretical rate of fire of 400 rounds per minute, a muzzle velocity of 610 meters per second, and an effective range of 1000 meters.

And although it is equipped with the same tripod as MG08, its performance in cross-fire shooting is not very good.

Therefore, Alfred had no way to deal with these Italian soldiers visible to the naked eye, and could only watch them assemble more than two kilometers away from the Tyrolean Shooter Regiment.

These Italian soldiers were not ordinary soldiers, but the Alpine Mountain Corps that Italy was proud of. They would serve as the vanguard and win honor for the entire army...

Then, they hit the iron plate!

The Italians used seven mountain cannons to bombard the two hills where Alfred was stationed for half an hour.

Although many shells were thrown, they really did not cause many casualties to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, even though their artillery fire covered the positions on the top of the mountain.

Alfred and his men were not at the top of the mountain at all. The soldiers in the front were all on the hillside, and the reserve troops were all on the back of the mountain. The Italians were just wasting shells.

But the Italians didn't know this. They only saw that the Austro-Hungarian positions were buried by artillery fire, and then the 500 soldiers of the Alpine Corps launched the first round of attack.

Because of misjudgment, the artillery bombardment failed to cause damage to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, nor did it damage the morale of the Austro-Hungarian soldiers.

When the soldiers of the Alpine Corps rushed to only 400 meters away from Alfred, Hayden ordered them to show their heads and fight back against the Italians.

Before that, considering that most of the recruits in the Tyrolean Archers were new and undertrained, Hayden ordered that they were not allowed to stick their heads out of the trenches without orders.

The armies of various countries in this era did not have so many human rights. If they did not do it, Hayden would whip them with a whip, so the soldiers were obedient.

The Tyrolean Archers were local garrisons, so of course they could not expect their soldiers to be so elite. They were just some second-line troops.

From 400 meters to 200 meters, more than 500 Italians who were still charging in groups, suffered only dozens of casualties under the attack of the Tyrolean Archers.

Seeing the Italians getting closer and closer, the morale of the Tyrolean Archers was also affected.

"Shoot in platoons, take turns, and don't fire without orders!" Hayden rushed up to save the situation in time.

When Hayden served, it was still the era when smokeless gunpowder replaced black powder rifles. The infantry shooting tactics were mainly platoons, with at most a few hunters.

Originally thought that he was behind and did not intervene in the battle of the front-line soldiers, but found that the tactical level and shooting ability of the front-line soldiers were not as good as they were at that time.

"First platoon, aim, fire!"

"Second platoon, aim, fire!"

...

Hayden was so brave on the front line, directly commanding a company of 200 people to fire in stages.

To be honest, this cannot fully exert the firepower of the bolt-action rifle, but it gave the Italians a blow.

The firing rate of the bolt-action rifle is not fast, but it can fire more than 20 rounds per minute. Firing in turns does not speed up the firing rate and may even slow it down.

However, each round has dozens of bullets flying in a certain direction, which means that each round of shooting will hit the target.

In the eyes of the Italians, the gunfire of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is very regular, one after another, and each round can take away at least one or two, and at most three or five Italian soldiers.

"The first and second rows fire alternately, and the third row gathers and prepares for the bayonet charge."

"After the three rows charge, the rest of the people will charge behind the three rows. Behind us is Tyrol. No one is allowed to retreat!"

Hayden looked at the Italians getting closer and closer and began to prepare for close-range bayonet combat.

Machine gun? It's not time yet.

"Boys, I'm glad to fight side by side with you."

"Our home is behind us. If the Italians go there, they will definitely destroy Tyrol. Now, it's time to play the glorious tradition of the Tyrol Shooter Regiment."

"Charge!"

The distance between the two sides was less than 100 meters, and the Italians had already started charging, but they were charging from bottom to top.

At this time, Hayden had organized a commando team. He knew that once they entered close-range combat, they had to disrupt the enemy's deployment in order to quickly defeat the enemy.

Otherwise, the Italians behind would catch up soon. He had seen that two kilometers away, a new batch of Italians had assembled and were rushing to the front line.

"For Tyrol!"

Hayden led the way, grabbed a rifle with a bayonet, climbed out of the trench, and rushed down.

Then...

"Retreat, Italian bastards retreat!"

"We won, these cowardly Italians!"

"The Alpine Mountain Corps is not that good, they were beaten back just like that..."

The Italians retreated.

It was very stupid to attack from the bottom up without gaining an advantage.

The artillery bombardment failed to attack the Austro-Hungarian soldiers on the mountainside, which meant that they did not consume their manpower. The Italian soldiers who attacked from the bottom up immediately went into battle after a long journey and were already very tired.

This round of attack from the bottom up had drained their physical strength. When the Austro-Hungarian soldiers who rushed out launched a counterattack, the Italians knew that they had no chance.

If they didn't leave now, when would they leave?

In the end, Hayden just rushed out to count the results of the battle.

The Italians left behind a total of 150 people, some of whom died directly in the battle, and many of whom were wounded. Hayden pulled the wounded back.

In the Austro-Hungarian direction, no one died, only three were injured, one of whom was seriously injured.

Two of the three wounded were injured by stones that rolled down during the bombardment, including the seriously injured soldier, whose thigh was broken by a stone weighing more than ten pounds (the rolling stone has a gravitational potential energy).

Only one was injured by a bullet, which hit his left earlobe. He no longer has an earlobe on his left ear.

However, the earlobe can only be considered a minor injury, and it will not affect any battle after disinfection and bandage.

After this battle, the Italians were quiet for four days, four whole days.

…

"What are these Italians waiting for?" Hayden was puzzled.

Their mission was to hold on for ten days, but in fact, in addition to them, there were three other shooter regiments, one deployed at another exit, and the other two were general reserves.

The reserve has not been used yet, and the mission has been more than half completed.

Don't the Italians know that the longer they delay, the more Austro-Hungarian troops will gather?

"Whatever they are waiting for, it's better if they don't come. I heard that a battalion of the 54th Division will arrive in Innsbruck tonight, and the 54th Division Artillery Regiment will follow them."

"With artillery, we can also launch an attack."

Alfred was very optimistic. In this battle, they dragged on for most of the time without doing much effort. He is now very confident that he can complete the task.

Moreover, the support has arrived one after another. As long as he delays for another four days, the task will be completed, and he will definitely get a lot of credit.

Apart from other things, it's not too much to be promoted to colonel? If he can counterattack, maybe he can become a general in the future? Then their family will be revived!

Woo woo woo~~~

"What's that sound?" Alfred's fantasy was interrupted by a strange sound.

"Artillery! It's the sound of heavy artillery!" Hayden was about to persuade Alfred to be more realistic, but was frightened by the humming sound. After speaking, he found a place to squat down.

"Anti-artillery! Anti-artillery! Everyone, disperse and anti-artillery!"

"Lieutenant Colonel, call the army behind the mountain and ask them to send people to the top of the mountain to deploy defenses. The Italians will definitely not bombard the top of the mountain. It is very safe there."

Hayden huddled in the corner and shouted to Alfred.

"Okay..."

Alfred laughed at Hayden in his heart and just touched the phone.

boo!

Boom~~

The heavy artillery shell exploded 200 meters away, and a huge shock wave came, shaking this semi-underground fortification.

"What?" Alfred fell to the ground, his head covered with dust.

boo!

Boom...

Another shell exploded, but the distance was farther, and the explosion sound was more dull.

"Large-caliber artillery, more than 200 mm, or even larger." Hayden stared blankly at the crater not far away...