The bandit leader who led the group could not stop the defeated troops, but he refused to retreat. He still led a few close followers to fight to the death with the militiamen. It's not that he doesn't want to escape, but it's because Xiong Ben, the leader of the bandits, claims to be "rigorous in running the army" and is extremely strict with his subordinates. Except for his own troops, it was common for bandits to be beaten, scolded and punished. If he returned after being defeated, the bandit leader would definitely lose his life. But this time his stubborn resistance only lasted a short time, and a few spears stabbed him to the core. When the other bandits saw this, they threw down their weapons and knelt down to beg for mercy. Cao Ergou asked people to tie them back to the stronghold, while he led his people to continue chasing the escaped bandits. This made the escaped bandits run faster and the distance between the two sides gradually widened. .
The running bandits secretly rejoiced that they were about to escape, but the two people running at the front were shot by flying arrows. Then there were killings in the bushes beside the mountain road. Huang Dagen led the ambush soldiers from Liuliba to kill them. Come out and cut off the way. Except for a few bandits who broke through the blockade, the rest saw the blockade in front of them and the pursuers behind them. They couldn't beat them. They tried to escape because there were steep cliffs on both sides, so they threw down their weapons and knelt on the ground and surrendered.
Over the years, in order to prevent the Wanjiaping Mountain bandits from causing nuisance and causing less disturbance, the Liuliba villagers had their belongings confiscated and were forced to buy salt and other daily necessities at extremely high prices. The wealth accumulated by the villagers after a year of hard work was robbed by bandits in various ways. What is even more disgusting is that the bandits not only robbed things but also robbed people. Women were robbed for adultery, and mature men were robbed to be slaves. Those who are useless are killed. Therefore, there was a heated debate among the people in Liuli Village regarding the treatment of the prisoners.
While the indignant villagers were spitting and throwing stones at the bandits tied outside the house, Ouyang Xuan inside the house was discussing with everyone how to deal with the prisoners. There were fifty-one bandits in total this time. Except for four who escaped, nine, including the bandit leader, were killed, eleven were slightly injured and six were seriously injured. The remaining thirty-one were unscathed because they surrendered in time. . There were no deaths on the militia side, only seven people were injured by arrows, one of whom was seriously injured. Due to different opinions on the disposal of prisoners, disputes broke out among the participants. One party's opinion is to kill all the captured people. The reason is that these bandits usually do a lot of evil and are a disaster if they are left alive. It is better to kill them all. Most of the people who support this opinion are the village elders, and Cao Ergou also has the same opinion; One party's opinion is to ask the Wanjiaping bandits to redeem people with property. The property will be used to compensate for the injured, and the rest will be used by the village for public use. The supporters are most of the fire chiefs and Lu Dezhi. Another opinion is to kill the strong and let go of the injured and disabled. This method was proposed by Yang Xiucai. Although Yang Xiucai's idea seems sinister and cruel, it is actually the norm during wartime. The purpose is to weaken the bandits' strength. Everyone expressed their opinions, and although the scene was not intense, there were endless quarrels. When they were arguing, they all looked at Ouyang Xuan and let him make the decision.
Ouyang Xuan knew that no matter how he dealt with the prisoners, some people would be dissatisfied. However, if the prisoner treatment does not start well, it will be difficult to deal with it in the future. Therefore, he used a commanding tone to suppress the opinions of all parties and put forward his own opinions. His solution was to kill the bandits who were found to have blood debts and repay the blood debts with blood; to release the bandits who were seriously injured or slightly injured and disabled and unable to work, so that the tragic situation of the injured bandits would scare the Wanjiaping bandits; the remaining bandits were More than 30 mountain bandits had their faces branded and were sent to (prison) education and reform camps and sent to iron mines, coal mines, lime mines... that were in urgent need of labor. As for the bandits' escape, Ouyang is not worried. Liuliba is surrounded by mountains, and the only exit is guarded 24 hours a day. As for escaping over mountains and ridges? Think about the conditions on the new roads opened by Dong Hu and others! Even if you know the way, it is extremely difficult to escape without equipment or supplies. In terms of daily management, his method is not only to strengthen the security, but also to make iron anklets for these reform-through-labor prisoners, so that they must be locked up outside of work.
In order to mobilize the enthusiasm of reform-through-labor prisoners and prevent resistance and passive sabotage, he ordered Yang Xiucai to determine the number of years of reform-through-labor according to the laws of the Song Dynasty. After serving the period of reform-through-labor, he could return to civilian status. Those who perform well during the labor camp will be rewarded with increased food rations or even a shortened labor camp period. Regarding Ouyang Xuan's arrangements, no one had any big opinions. Only a few people who had been harmed by the bandits felt that Ouyang Xuan was too kind and did not do his best to eliminate evil. However, under Lu De's endless sermons citing scriptures, they could argue a few times. No more talking.
The bandits were victorious in this battle, but not much property was seized. Apart from the weapons brought by the bandits, there were only some messy personal belongings. The most important gain from this battle is not the free labor in the labor camps, but the increased confidence and cohesion of everyone in Liuliba. Now the villagers are all happy and proud. Yixue has suffered from being squeezed by bandits for many years, which has also made Ouyang Xuan's reputation grow day by day. But while everyone was happy, they also understood that after this failure, the bandits would not give up and their next revenge would be even crazier.
The victory of this battle and the threat of bandits increased the morale of everyone in Liuliba and promoted the operation of various affairs. Not only the prime-age laborers participated in the construction activities, but also women, old and young, joined in to perform logistical services such as cooking and washing. In addition to focusing on the construction of blacksmith shops and steel-making furnaces, wood workshops, pottery workshops and charcoal-burning kilns are also being built simultaneously. Pottery-burning kilns, iron mines, fire saltpeter, and sulfur mines are also expanding their production scale. As for coal mines and coke kilns, , Lime Kiln is also under intensive planning. Liuliba has now become a large construction site, and a large amount of coordination work has kept the heads of various professional teams and elders such as Lu Dezhi very busy.
All beginnings are hard! After each construction project was rolled out, the workload was extremely huge and many technical and management problems were exposed. This gave Ouyang Xuan the idea of establishing a professional engineering team. After discussing with the professional team leader and the village elders, another 50 people were transferred from the village to form an engineering team. Because the engineering team not only builds houses, but also constructs new industrial and mining facilities, it not only requires outstanding management and coordination capabilities, but also requires a high reputation. Ouyang Xuan proposed to make Lu Dezhi the captain, but Lu Dezhi knew that the engineering team was extremely important, so he refused to accept the offer because of his old age and frailty. An elder of the village suggested that Lu Dezhi's eldest son, Lu Wen'an, was in his prime, well-educated and well-respected in the village, so he would be able to live up to the expectations of the engineering team. This proposal received unanimous support from everyone.
Regarding the recent situation of the grain collection team, especially the battle to repel the bandits, Ouyang Xuan asked Yang Xiucai to write a letter, preparing for Huang Dagen and Dong Hu to sneak back to Chongqing Mansion through the newly opened secret road to report. And pick some more wormwood and bring it back. Ouyang Xuan understood that although he had made a good start, he had not yet established a firm foothold in the mountains. Although the Southern Song Dynasty regime was extremely corrupt and would eventually perish, it is still regarded as Zhengshuo by everyone. Although he and the dozens of people he led developed independently in the mountains where the government's power was out of reach, they were still nominally soldiers of the Southern Song Dynasty. Now, when Liuliba is still very weak, it still needs to rely on the nearly 300 years of prestige of the Song Dynasty to compete with various forces in the mountains, especially bandits. The people of Liuli Village will not object to this, because although the government is nominally under the jurisdiction, as long as there are no taxes, they will not have a bad feeling towards the government. Maintaining contacts and having a place in the Southern Song Dynasty bureaucracy would be of great help to the development of Ouyang Xuan and Liuliba and their future resistance to Mongolia.
Although the road leading to the outside world was only an extremely difficult and dangerous path, Ouyang Xuan felt that he had to inform Chongqing Mansion of the situation of more than ten days in the mountains as soon as possible and prepare for the next step of caravan construction. Another reason for the urgent need to leave the mountain was Yu Zhu's condition. After taking the Artemisia annua brought back by Dong Hu, his condition improved greatly. However, the amount collected by Dong Hu and others was too small and did not contain the wormwood in his body. The malaria parasites were cleared, but the malaria he suffered from was not completely cured. Due to his physical weakness, Yu Zhu could only lie in bed to recuperate.
