The early part of the defence was directed by Aguinaldo, but he fled when the Spanish forces closed up, leaving Estrella, an ex-sergeant of the Guardia Civil, in his place. Estrella fled later on when the Spaniards had entered the town. Unintimidated by this rude lesson, the rebels that same night fired into the town, and on the 27th they attacked a column which went out to make a reconnaissance towards Palimparan, and gave a mountain battery a chance, which they promptly took, of getting at a dense body of them with case. The artillery fired 22 rounds in this action, and the infantry used 63,000 cartridges. The Spanish loss was two killed and ten wounded, whilst the rebels lost at least 300. The church, convent, and stone homes round the Plaza of Perez Dasmariñas were loopholed and prepared for defence, and occupied by a garrison of two companies of infantry. Owing, however, to the difficulty of bringing up supplies, the division could not resume its advance till the 7th March. Then the division took the eastern road to Imus, whilst the half brigade under Arizon marched by a parallel road on the right flank, which converged upon the Imus road at Salitran, a village with a large stone estate-house belonging to the Recollets, strongly entrenched and held by the rebels. On arriving within range two guns of Cornell's brigade opened fire on the estate-house from an eminence, but after the fifth round the Spanish flag was shown from the house, it having been occupied by Arizon's force arriving from the east after a very slight resistance, for the rebels seemed to have no one in command. They had prepared for an attack from the east, but when they found the Spaniards arriving in great force upon their right flank, enfilading their strong entrenchments, they became demoralised and took to flight. The scouts now reported that a formidable entrenchment a mile and a quarter long, was occupied by the rebels about a mile north of the village. This entrenchment, called Anabo II., covered both the roads to Imus, and each flank rested on a deep ravine--the eastern end had a redoubt, and the western end a flanking epaulement. The ground in front was perfectly open, and there was difficulty in making a flanking attack, so General Zabala, with a half brigade, made a direct attack. The fighting line gradually advanced, taking such cover as the pilápiles of the rice-fields could give, until they arrived within 100 yards of the parapet, when Zabala, waving high his sword, gave the order for the assault, falling a moment after pierced through the breast by a shot from a lantaca. Two captains fell near him, but the lieutenants led their companies to the assault; the cazadores sprang across the ditch and clambered up the high parapet with the agility and fury of leopards, bayoneting those of the defenders who remained to fight it out, and sending volley after volley into those who had taken to flight.