The bandits were suddenly hit hard, and they all froze on the mountainside and stopped in their tracks! Impossible, the bows and arrows of the officers and soldiers at such a distance cannot be lethal! What kind of weapon is this? But before they could react, the second row of soldiers opened fire again!
"Second row of fire!" After the gunpowder exploded, the choking smell of saltpeter filled the mountain top, like the smell of death. The bandits stood motionless on the mountainside, naturally becoming the best target. On the short mountain road, blood splattered everywhere! The soldiers in the second row fired a volley and killed twenty-six more bandits. In front of flintlock rifles, these tough bandits were as fragile as paper. The twenty-six bandits who were shot were like soulless sandbags, flopping down on the mountainside.
The bandits woke up from a dream, started screaming, and some tried to escape to the foot of the mountain. The leader of the bandits crossed the mountain and struck a deserter in the back with his sword. Blood flew everywhere, and the deserter screamed and fell to the ground. Guo Shankong shouted loudly: "The officer is slow to reload and can only hit once. If we rush forward, we will win!"
Encouraged by the big leader, the bandits gathered their courage and rushed to the top of the mountain. But the 150 meters up the mountain road is not that easy to walk.
"Third row! Shoot!" Amidst the deafening gunfire, thirty pieces of thick black fog emerged from the muzzle of the Mini rifle one after another, covering half of the mountain. The bullets were like the call of death, rushing toward the bandits who were struggling to climb the mountain more than a hundred meters away.
The armor-breaking ability of a flintlock rifle at a distance of more than 100 meters is very strong, even if it is wearing armor, it cannot withstand it, not to mention that most bandits are not wearing armor. These bullets penetrated into the bandits' bodies one by one, breaking their skin, spinning and drilling deeper, tearing their internal organs into a bloody mess.
"Fourth row fire!" Another large smoke came out from the top of the mountain, and the soldiers in the fourth row pressed the trigger. Jiang Chong, a soldier in the fourth row, aimed at a bandit who was rushing to the front. The bandit was wearing cotton armor and was obviously a bandit leader. Jiang Chong calmed down and pressed the trigger.
The bolt hit the powder pan and made a soft "click" sound, but it failed to ignite the ignition powder. Although the flintlock gun with a stainless steel bolt action has an ignition rate of 80%, it cannot be successfully ignited every time. Jiang Chong failed to fire the first shot smoothly. However, Jiang Chong had long been accustomed to this situation in training. He still aimed his gun at the bandit leader and pressed the trigger for the second time.
There was a loud "pop", the gun hit the ignition powder and spurted out flames. The fire was all around, and Jiang Chong was so stimulated by the bright light that he closed his eyes. When he opened his eyes again, he found that the leader had fallen on the mountain road. At this distance, Mianjia was unable to defend against flintlock bullets. This was the first time Jiang Chong shot an enemy. Jiang Chong patted the stone beside him and looked excitedly at his comrades around him to see if anyone noticed his sniper kill. However, the surrounding comrades were reloading, and no one looked at Jiang Chong. Jiang Chong was stunned, and quickly took out the cleaning rod to clean the barrel of the gun, preparing for the next shot.
After the fourth row finished fighting, twenty-five more bandits fell on the mountain road. In the first round of shooting, the flintlock rifle killed more than a hundred bandits. The flintlock rifle demonstrated lethality beyond its era. "Guoshankong" saw that the muskets on the top of the mountain had finished firing a round, and shouted with red eyes: "Their guns have finished firing! Charge up! If you charge up, you will win!"
One hundred and seventy steps away from the top of the mountain, the bandits who had suffered heavy losses screamed and rushed towards the top of the mountain with all their strength! These gangsters gathered in the mountains, but they didn't understand the reloading speed of the flintlock machine. Five or six seconds after the fourth row finished shooting, the first row had loaded its bullets again. One hundred meters away from the bandits' front line, the first row of soldiers began to take aim.
"First row, shoot!" In the stunned eyes of the bandits, there was another crackling sound of shooting from the top of the mountain, and overwhelming black smoke came out. Thirty-one rounds of bullets were fired at the bandits!
"Ah!" "Ah!!"
A few hundred meters of mountain road turned into a slaughterhouse. A bandit was hit in the head by a bullet. The high-speed rotating bullet broke open the skull and spurted out a pool of blood and brain matter. A bandit was hit in the stomach by a bullet. After the mini bullet entered his body, it stalled and spun sideways, smashing his kidneys and bladder, causing him to fall to the ground instantly. A bandit was hit in the leg bone by a mini bullet, and his thigh was immediately broken. He fell on the mountainside and screamed loudly. The scream severely impacted the morale of the bandits.
The bandits realized something was wrong. The firepower from the top of the mountain not only shot far but also reloaded quickly. Some bandits gradually lost the courage to rush upward and began to retreat, leaving other companions around them to the front to withstand the firepower from the top of the mountain.
"Second row! Shoot!" "Third row! Shoot!"
Every time a platoon started shooting, a group of bandits fell on the mountain road. The Mini rifle is like a lawn mower, frantically harvesting the lives of bandits on the mountain road. No matter how tough the bandit is, no matter how good your martial arts skills are, it is only a matter of one shot when faced with a flintlock rifle. The bandits in the Salt Mountain were the first targets of the flintlock rifles. By the time the bandits discovered the power of this rifle, it was already too late. The bandits lost the courage to continue fighting, and turned around and fled to the foot of the mountain one by one. Even the bandit leader Guo Shankong, who was extremely brave and brave, understood that continuing to charge would definitely lead to death, so he grabbed a big knife and ran wildly across the road.
"Fourth row! Shoot!" "First row! Shoot!"
Bullets hit the back, the back of the head, and the thigh. The bandits screamed and fell on the mountainside. With their backs to the top of the mountain and the firepower pouring down, the bandits abandoned dozens and dozens of corpses on the mountain road. The bandits have no fighting spirit, and all the weapons in their hands have been discarded. Even those wearing armor have thrown away their helmets, just to run faster.
They wanted to escape to the 150 meters where the massacre began, out of what they thought was musket range. But they didn't know that the Mini rifle had a 90% hit rate at a distance of 200 meters, and even a 60% hit rate when hitting a target 250 meters away. The reason why Li Zhi just let them go 150 meters before opening fire was to give them no way to escape.
"Second row! Shoot!" "Third row! Shoot!"
The bandits fled 200 meters away, but the massacre continued. The mountain road is full of corpses, and the bandits who panic will even trip over the corpses on the ground. Guo Shankong looked at the bandits falling around him, feeling inexplicably horrified. Ever since he raised the banner and raised the team at Caiyun Peak, when had he suffered such a big setback? Even the last time he fought all the way outside the county gate and defeated the county magistrate's archers, he only lost three good ones. In this county, Guo Shankong has become an overlord-like figure. He doesn't even need to take action to rob villages. He just sends someone to the other side and just pays the money and delivers the goods.
However, today, in just one cup of tea, he had left nearly two hundred brothers on this hillside. I have always been the only one who robbed other people's money, ravaged other people's wives and daughters, and killed others. When had I ever been so embarrassed? Now, I was in such a mess that I didn't even know if I could save my life. I was already one hundred thirty or forty steps away from the top of the mountain, but the flintlock guns on the top of the mountain were still killing my brothers one after another!
Where are the officers and soldiers here? These are magic soldiers. Where do these officers and soldiers come from? Could it be that I, who had conquered Yanshan County for five or six years, was going to die here today? Guo Shankong couldn't help but look back and saw Yang Peng directing the battle on the top of the mountain. The military attache who defeated him was actually so young. There was a "pop", and someone didn't know who aimed at Guoshankong and shot him. The shot was accurate, and "Guo Shankong" was hit in the back of the head. The bullet from the flintlock shot into Guo Shankong's head, causing him to lose his life immediately. He fell forward, screaming and falling into a pool of blood.
The other bandits were extremely shocked when they saw this scene, but no one dared to stop and help Shan Kong up. Yang Peng's soldiers cheered when they saw the bandit leader knocked down. Yang Peng seemed to see the coming victory and whistled proudly. The big leader was beaten to death, and the bandits who were still alive were even more panic-stricken.
The more than 40 bandits who were still running for their lives had been shot crazy by rifles on the top of the mountain. The rifle chased them two hundred and fifty meters away, and its range seemed to be infinite. They wanted to kneel down and beg for mercy, but the person who just knelt down had already been beaten to death. Even the kneeling bandit's rifle on the top of the mountain did not miss it and still shot him indiscriminately. They finally gave up running down the mountain, and instead burrowed into the forest on the cliff where it was almost impossible to walk, crawling on the steep cliff with their hands and feet.
Yang Peng would not let these bandits escape. He gave an order, and the soldiers rushed down from the top of the mountain with their guns raised, walked to the mountainside and opened fire on the bandits who were struggling to crawl in the woods on the cliff. After a burst of gunfire, more than thirty bandits fell on the difficult-to-climb cliff. The last dozen or so bandits had climbed far away and were out of reach through the trees. Yang Peng asked the troops to climb into the cliff woods in squad units to pursue them. Ten minutes later, most of the last dozen bandits were beaten to death, and their heads were cut off and taken out by the soldiers.
Seeing that the last few bandits had been beheaded, the soldiers cheered loudly and clapped each other in celebration. However, after the excitement of victory passed, the soldiers calmed down. Looking at the bloody battlefield, some people vomited. The battlefield was littered with corpses. Some of the people whose limbs had been cut off were not fully dead. They were screaming and yelling next to the corpses. The screams made people feel like they were in Shura Hell. Broken limbs were everywhere, and the smell of blood was nauseating. There was blood everywhere, gathering on the mountain road and flowing down the mountain, like a stream.
This was not a battle, the flintlock rifles turned the battle into a massacre. Yang Peng's first large-scale battle in this era ended in massacre and he won a complete victory. Except for the corpse of "Guo Shan Kong", which Yang Peng had to transport out entirely, Yang Peng beheaded all the dead and seriously injured bandits, and handed the heads to the civilians to put on the cart. When handling corpses for the first time, many soldiers vomited when they were beheading them. More than twenty horses were seized and Yang Peng distributed them to three reconnaissance squads to speed up the scouts' response. After disposing of the corpses and trophies, Yang Peng tied up all the bandits who were still alive and used them as guides, and led his troops to kill Chaoyun Peak.
The bandits set up a village gate at the most dangerous point of Chaoyun Peak, intending to defend it from the danger. However, this time the entire army came out to attack Li Zhi, and there were only more than thirty old and weak bandits left in the village. Yang Peng lifted Guo Shankong's body under the village gate, and the remaining old and weak men knelt down and hurriedly opened the village gate. Yang Peng secretly thought that these old and weak people were clever. If these old and weak people did not open the door, Yang Peng was going to build a manhole in front of the cottage door and shoot these old and weak people with a rifle from a high place.
When the village gate was opened, Yang Peng asked the soldiers to go in, tie up the old and weak bandits, and start counting the population and materials in the village. After some torture and interrogation, Yang Peng figured out the situation in the cottage:
There were thirty-two old and weak bandits in the village. These people had done robbery and killed good people. Yang Peng tied them all up and prepared to take them back to the village for processing. There are also nine blacksmiths in the village who specialize in making weapons for bandits. These people had never killed anyone or done anything bad, but it was a sin to act as an aide to a tiger. Li Zhi asked the soldiers to beat these people thirty times and throw them in the wild.
There were more than 80 robbed women in the village who were used as playthings and slaves by the bandits. They were all rescued by Yang Peng. In this era of the Song Dynasty, women were very particular about their chastity. When these women sank into the den of thieves, they didn't realize it. But when they saw Yang Peng leading his officers and soldiers to kill him, they all felt that they would never see anyone again. Three of them bitten their tongues and committed suicide in shame and anger.
Yang Peng did not make things difficult for these women and only allowed them to follow the troops back to the city the next day. There are more than 8,200 taels of silver and 130 taels of gold in the cottage's treasury. There were three horses, five donkeys, and three mules in the stable. There were twenty-one pieces of silk and satin of various colors, forty-two pieces of cotton, one hundred and thirteen jars of spirits, and one hundred and sixty-six swords in the warehouse. Yang Peng was not polite about these trophies and took them all for himself.
Of course, the soldiers must be rewarded for the spoils of war. Yang Peng rewarded the soldiers who participated in the battle from five taels to ten taels of silver depending on their performance on the battlefield. The civilians who transported supplies were also rewarded with three taels of silver each. Fighting was easy and pleasant, and they could get so much silver reward. The soldiers and civilians were all happy. Finally, Yang Peng found five craftsmen in the village. Yang Peng sat in the cottage leader's house and asked the craftsmen to be escorted up.
As soon as they saw Yang Peng, these craftsmen kowtowed and begged loudly for mercy: "Sir, spare my life! Your Majesty, please be clear! Although we fell into the grass in the village, we have never done any bad things! The crossbows we made have never been used because we do not have bows and arrows. Never used it! Your Majesty, please tell me!" Yang Peng glanced at the five craftsmen and said slowly: "Where did you learn this technique?" The five craftsmen looked at each other, and finally the leader came out and replied: "We originally It was a blacksmith hired by Bianjing, and I learned the method from him."
"On the way to escape, we heard that our Shangguan was beheaded by the officials for treason. We were craftsmen, and our boss had been used as rebels. We did not dare to return to Bianjing. We fled all the way north and had no way to go, so we fell into despair. Chaoyunfeng made machine crossbows for these bandits. However, there was a shortage of all materials on the mountain, so we only made two machine crossbows."
Yang Peng looked at the five gunsmiths, thought for a while, and asked the leader: "What's your name?" "My name is Cao Yu!" "Hearing what these blacksmiths said, Yang Peng felt happy and secretly picked it up. Treasure. Yang Peng doesn’t know how to make a machine crossbow from scratch. But with these five craftsmen, Yang Peng can use some of the technologies he knows to improve the machine crossbow of this era. If his army has a large number of light machine crossbows with flintlocks Rifles, the firepower of that unit will be greatly improved.
However, these craftsmen are rebels, thieves, and losers. If they are not punished, they will look down on Yang Peng and not work carefully. Yang Peng thought for a while and said: "You five have repeatedly committed thieves. I will punish you as slaves. Later I will find someone to sign a deed of sale for you. From now on, you will be my slaves and make crossbows for me. One day There is no monthly payment for three meals a day. After you have cast the new crossbow I need, you will resume your status as craftsmen and receive monthly payment."
The five craftsmen looked at each other, their faces full of joy. They were already very happy that the official didn't kill them, but the official actually gave them a clear path, which made them very happy. They are not afraid of being slaves. Even if they fall into Yunfeng and become thieves, they will be treated as slaves by these bandits. Not only do they have no money, but they are always worried about the encirclement and suppression by officers and soldiers, and their lives are precarious. Now that I'm following Li Zhi, not only is my safety guaranteed, but I can also hope to regain my identity as a craftsman. Isn't this a great thing?
The five people hurriedly knelt on the ground and said loudly: "We originally wanted to be slaves and make crossbows for you!"
Yang Peng smiled and nodded. The next day, when Yang Peng's troops returned to Yanshan County with more than 30 old and weak bandits and more than a dozen carloads of bandits' heads, the entire county was in shock. The news that Mr. Yang had eliminated Guo Shankong spread quickly throughout the county, and for a while, the streets were empty, and all of them flocked to the city gate to watch the selection team return from killing the thieves. Yang Peng's troops had just taken a few steps into the city when they were surrounded by thousands of people.
Guo Shankong robbed people and killed good people in the past few years, and he owed a lot of blood debt. Now that he was wiped out, how could the people not cheer and encourage him? Yang Peng knew the people's psychology, so he hung Guo Shankong's body on a carriage to show the people. Guo Shankong's burly body now turned into a corpse, hanging on the carriage, which looked very eye-catching. The people spit on Guo Shankong's body one after another to express their anger towards Guo Shankong!
"Look! He killed someone without blinking an eye and died in vain!" "There are so many heads! They are all the heads of those evil bandits!" "There are so many alive and tied up! Now everyone is dead Be honest!" "Master Yang is so powerful. He actually managed to conquer the mountain with such a small number of troops!" "Master Yang is so brave. I never thought that our Song Dynasty still has such brave military attachés!"
However, the more than 80 women who followed the soldiers into the city made the people feel conflicted: they were happy that the women in the county had escaped from the clutches of the bandits, but they were also ashamed that these women had been humiliated and lost by the bandits. If they lose their chastity, their existence will be an unspeakable scandal in the county. But this is not an issue that Yang Peng considers.
News of Yang Peng's triumphal return soon spread throughout the city. Officials and gentry got the news and gathered at the gate of the county government office. After a while, the county magistrate also learned the news and ran outside in a panic with these officials and gentry. When they arrived at the city gate, they saw the vanguard selection group and officer Yang Peng surrounded by the common people.
Seeing Yang Peng returning in triumph on a tall horse, the county magistrate's beard twitched and he was speechless. More and more people came to watch. At this time, even the city wall was full of people. Everyone crowded there to look at the heads of bandits and the heroes who defeated them. However, when the people saw the county magistrate coming, they took the initiative to make way for the officials and gentry to walk to Yang Peng.
The magistrate came closer and saw that no one in Yang Peng's troops was injured, and his old face was even more surprised. His eyes seemed to see a group of magic soldiers and generals. The county magistrate glanced at Yang Peng and asked loudly: "Mr. Yang, have you arrested all the bandits who inserted themselves into the Yunfeng bandit den?" Yang Peng patted his Wusun BMW and said loudly: "Please, please Not a single one of your blessings has been missed!" "No one in your department was injured?" "No one was injured!"
The county magistrate took a breath of cold air and thought to himself, is this really a soldier from heaven descending to earth? Even the Yang family army that wiped out the Khitans back then couldn't defeat the many with less and remain unscathed. Yang Peng was so brave that the county magistrate was very embarrassed. He looked at the officials and gentry on the left and right, and saw that each of them looked ashamed. Yang Peng was unwilling to let the county magistrate go like this. He looked at the county magistrate wearing a seventh-grade official robe and smiled while riding on his horse. "Your Excellency, this was the case that day, how is it today?"
The county magistrate turned red with shame at Yang Peng's words. He closed his eyes in shame and refused to open them for a long time. After a long while, the old county magistrate suddenly let out a "chirp", opened his eyes, gritted his teeth, flicked the long sleeves of his official uniform, pushed the golden mountain, tilted his head towards Li Zhichang and said loudly: "Thank you, Mr. Yang, for ignoring the past grudges." Bravely travel into dangerous places, eliminate violence and bring peace to our small county, and destroy bandits!"
The status of civil servants in the Song Dynasty was very high, and military attachés often knelt down when meeting civil servants of similar rank. No one has ever seen a magistrate bow to the ground before a military attache. If they hadn't known that Mr. Yang had won such a big victory, the people would have thought they were wrong. However, since the county magistrate took the lead, a group of officials and gentry also hurriedly followed. The county magistrate, the chief registrar, and several county magistrates bowed to the ground one by one and shouted loudly: "Thank you, Mr. Yang, for bravely venturing into dangerous places regardless of previous grudges. Our small county will eradicate violence and make peace, and we will eradicate bandits!"
Not only the officials and gentry saluted Yang Peng, but also the famous scholars and students in the crowd, seeing their parents taking the lead in saluting, bowed to the ground one by one and bowed down to Yang Peng who was riding a horse. When the common people saw the gentry and gentlemen saluting like this, they knew that the scene was solemn and they didn't dare to speak. However, the East Gate, which was surrounded by thousands of people, fell silent.
In the center of thousands of people, Yang Peng rode on his horse and looked at the officials and gentry who were bowing to the ground. He bowed his hands and said lightly: "It's a small effort, so why bother?" The county magistrate who was prostrated on the ground heard this. Qingpiao said, her face became even redder, she took a step forward and almost fell to the ground. When they went to suppress the bandits, only Yang Peng and Liu Zhiliang had horses, but on the way back there were more than 30 donkeys and horses. The triumphal journey of the first company of the second battalion of the Selection Regiment was easy and happy.
When Yang Peng returned to Hope City and handed over the heads of the bandits and the old and weak bandits to Zhang Xiang, Zhang Xiang looked at Yang Peng with a different look: Yang Peng finished handling the work of eradicating the bandits and returned to Hope Village began to expand the production capacity of the soap workshop. It took Yang Peng a month to go to Yanshan to suppress bandits. It was already mid-December, and Hope Village was full of businesses waiting to be prospered: three-quarters of the rammed earth walls of New Hope Village had been repaired, and the work of wrapping bricks Also half done. Starting in mid-September, the second group of masons and carpenters began to repair villas in Hope Village. So far, 600 small villas have been repaired.
A soap factory building capable of accommodating the expansion of production capacity has also been built, south of New Hope Village. Yang Peng intends to move all the factories and workers in Cangzhou City to Hope Village. Of course, the newly built soap workshop will not recruit people in Cangzhou City. This time Yang Peng directly held a "job fair" in Hope Village to recruit people, and required all new employees to move into Hope Village and rent them in newly built small villas.
The small villa has four bedrooms and the monthly rent is two cents and seven cents. If the worker is a bachelor, it only costs seven cents to rent a house. Even for a couple with children, it only costs one cent and four cents to rent two houses, which is less than one-tenth of a worker's monthly salary, so the workers can afford it. The job fair went very smoothly. It only took Yang Peng half a day to recruit 80 new employees who were honest and willing to move into Hope Village.
If you want to know what happens next, let’s look at the breakdown in the next chapter.
