Rocks, earth, and rubble went up in clouds
into the air, and with them scores of the Chinese regular troops, under
whose very feet mines of the new explosive had been fired by Parker. And
the howling mobs in front were held up by barbed wire, while from the
despised trenches and breastworks a storm of lead swept the crowded masses
of the attackers away. At that close range every bullet from the machine
guns and rifles of the defenders drove through two or three assailants,
every bomb and grenade slew a group. Only in one spot by sheer weight of
numbers did they break through.
But like a thunderbolt fell the counter-attack. Stalwart Punjaubi
Mohammedans, led by Dermot, swept down upon them, and with bomb and bayonet
drove them out. The survivors turned and staggered up the hills again,
withering away under the steady fire of the sepoys, who adjusted their
sights with the utmost coolness as the range increased.
Again and again the assaults were repeated and repulsed, until the
undisciplined and demoralised Bhutanese refused to advance, and the Chinese
regulars attacked alone. But fresh mines exploded under them; the deadly
fire of the defenders' machine guns blasted them; and the Pekin general
looked anxious as his best troops melted away. He would not go far into
India if every small body of its soldiers took equally heavy toll of his
force.
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