No Man's Land

~ There's not much resources available to me regarding the battle strategies used in the Philippine Revolution (aside from guerilla warfare), I dont have much information about how the filipinos battled the Spaniards in the open field, on what their strategies are because I lack physical non-fiction books as resources so I'm just going to assume a different strategy popular in the late 1800s and the early1900s, trench warfare. Btw. if any of you knows how The Ph Revolution was fought, pls comment as it will help me a lot 💕 anyways, read well!!!

Ps. This is historical fiction so there are a lot of things that may not be that accurate, and Emilio Aguinaldo isn't really a bad person, I'm just using him as some sort of an ambitious person to spice up the story ~

Battle Of Malacañang

Hector looked up over the trenches, seeing the landscape of destruction that this no man's land is currently in, Craters made by the krupp guns litter the land with wreckages of various buildings, wagons and barbed wires fill it to the brim. Bodies from past charges lay a few meters away from him. Rotting, decomposing, being the feast of various flies and carrions and other birds of prey, mangled and burnt beyond recognition, coupled with the screams of the men behind him, most are screams of agony, others screams of anger towards the enemy. Mixed in with the laments of regret are the whispers of men, with talks of their families and their home, and the bright future that lays in front of them when their leader, Aguinaldo succeeds in conquering the capital.

While looking, some kind of movement slipped past his peripheral, Hector immediately looked towards it's direction and tried to identify if what he saw is correct.

He could see it's movements, he doesn't know if it's just a single entity or more that is moving behind that broken dilapidated house, that person or thing is trying to hide behind cover, looking at him as if it knows where he is. Hector readied his Remington and pointed it towards the direction of the movement, he took a deep breath and shot at the shadow's direction.

*Boom!* The shadow was hit! someone shouted from the back, Hector affirmed by saying; "Bullseye!" as he ducked for cover not even looking to be sure if his shot missed or not. He immediately yelled; "Men! Prepare your weapons and man your positions! The Spaniards are coming!

"Aye!"

He turned his rifle towards the general direction of the movements, as it is now past the dilapidated building, they are in range, He pointed his remington once again and took a deep breath.

*Boom!* a bullet streaked through the land as it hit the Spaniard in the head. Brain matters spread across the dirt as his head was turned to mush.

The Spaniard fell down a random crater that is filled with corpses of both sides. As it's body rolled down, the mud was stained with blood and filled with another corpse waiting to be mangled by the carrions of death.

Alarms and noises rang around the trenches as the place around him lit up with the help of krupp fire, a terrifying sight welcomed Hector as thousands of Spaniards lit the no man's land, charging gradually under the orders of their governor-general, no shots were fired in his position nor were there any signs or warnings of their arrival as they just came there without warning and without ado, it was a brilliant stroke of genius in the part of their leader, maybe he's a great general like Aguinaldo. Hector immediately erased that off his mind as Aguinaldo is their only savior, their eternal leader. He heard the sounds of nordenfelt guns as they were prepared and pointed towards the Spaniards. At this time, it was a moment of tension as both sides prepare their last rites, an infantry bayonet charge and a cavalry charge from the Spaniards coupled with a mixture of nordenfelt and krupp guns as their support, while the filipinos readied their rifles and their own nordenfelts and lantakas, ready to bear the brunt of the Spanish, both sides look at each other, as if to dare the other to start. Each trying to think about what their strategies might be. Only the sounds of preparations could be heard. He has never experienced this kind of battle before as Aguinaldo often commits warfare through ambushes and guerilla warfare, so this is the first time that Hector and the whole magdalo faction engages the enemies for a fight in a battle that is neither an ambush nor a guerilla tactic.

Both sides looked at each other seriously, this is one of the most peaceful and serene moment that such battle can afford but it certainly isn't the time for it, due to his lack of training and discipline, Hector immediately fired his gun, and most filipinos followed his lead as all are jumpy and a bit nervous, this led to ill preparation on their side and the Spaniards took this as an advantage and began their own charge as to take advantage of the chaos that is ensuing in the Magdalo's side.

Aguinaldo's POV

Aguinaldo immediately tried to pacify the situation of his panicking soldiers as he gave out orders and dropped down the trenches as some of his men are still in chaos, they charged to the enemies despite the clear defensive advantage of staying in the trenches.

Aguinaldo dished out some orders;

"Julio, take out some men with you and man the nordenfelt guns to prevent the Spanish charge!, guard that position with all your life! Do not let it run into the enemies' hands!"

"Procopio! gather some men and follow me! Gregorio! prevent the others from charging haphazardly and make them stay in the trenches! Do not throw our defensive advantage!"

Emilio then went to Procopio's location and asked;

"Procopio, are these all the men?"

"Yes Leader!" saluted Procopio

"Alright, on me! follow my orders and don't stray from it! Prepare for a counterattack!"

To be continued...