After taking Wanjiazhai and resting for a few days, Ouyang Xuan held a military and political meeting to discuss urgent matters. The Thunderbolt Army is now like a rapidly growing giant beast. It has swallowed too many things. If it expands again without being completely digested, it can easily cause many problems. Therefore, although the strategic direction of development outside the mountains has been set, the top brass of the Perak Army unanimously believe that the current situation must be steady and steady. When to go down the mountain to develop, we need to wait until the conditions are mature and then plan it slowly.
The first urgent thing now is to move. Although Liuliba is good, it is located deep in the mountains and is really remote. Although Wanjiaping is still 40 miles away from the plain at the foot of the mountain, it is half closer than Liuliba, which is really convenient. This time the Pili Army headquarters was relocated, and its office was located in the original "Zhen Fu Shi Yamen" of Xiong Ben. The locations of the five companies of the Perak Army Field Battalion were subsequently moved over and moved directly to the bandits' barracks. Also moving here were trading companies and engineering companies, while other institutions such as garrison camps, industrial companies, mining companies and educational research institutes remained in Liuliba.
The second important thing is to mobilize the people of Hengyuan Town to move to the mountains. In Ouyang Xuan's memory, the Mongolian army will invade Sichuan in a large scale after autumn, and in October Liu Heima, a Mongolian army with ten thousand households, will raid Chengdu. Next, the Mongol Khan Mengge entered Sichuan, and all the states and counties in western Sichuan fell into the hands of the Mongols again. The people in Hengyuan Town were eager to move to the mountains because Dong Hu brought back disturbing news.
As soon as he opened the mountain road, Dong Hu sent the guards' spies outside the mountain. These spies lurked in Chongqing Mansion, Yongkang County and other places as businessmen, craftsmen, coolies, etc. In Yongkang Village, the spies of the Pili Army saw the escaped Xiong Ben swaggering in and out of the Yongkang County Yamen. After spending a lot of time and money, the spies learned from the personal staff of Yongkang County Magistrate Cheng Jinyong that Xiong Ben was not only on good terms with Cheng Jinyong, but also the nephew of the current Prime Minister Xie Fangshu. This uncle Xie Fang's nephew is now a guest of Yao Shi'an in Yunding City. It was this uncle Xie Fang who colluded with Yao Shi'an to kill Yu Jie, a famous minister of the Southern Song Dynasty. This nephew was the one who was involved. The spy also learned that Xiong Ben originally wanted to bribe the high-ranking officials in the court to recruit him as a governor, and he spent a lot of money. But now he has lost Wanjiazhai, lost control of the mountain, and lost most of his property and subordinates. Now Yunding City simply ignores him as a bereaved dog.
Fortunately, Cheng Jinyong had been fed by Xiong Ben over the years, so he promised to recommend him to his superiors to serve as supervisor in Hengyuan Town. Xiong Ben really looked down upon such low-level officials. It was just that the situation was stronger than the people. Although he was unwilling to accept it, he thought that he had to establish himself first before he could make a comeback, so he had to reluctantly agree. Now he is waiting for the appointment to take over Hengyuan Town. This news once again refreshed Ouyang Xuan's views on the corrupt court of the Southern Song Dynasty. He did not expect that this world has become a family of officials and bandits and is so blatant. How can the people survive? We must quickly move all the people in the town to the mountains before the bear rushes to Hengyuan Village to avoid being squeezed by the gangs. He arranged for Du Daquan and the Hengyuan youths in the Perak Army to be responsible for this matter. They would persuade their relatives and friends, and the effect would be twice the result with half the effort.
The third thing is business matters. The large quantities of iron ingots, farm tools, charcoal, coke and other industrial products stored in the mountains as well as animal skins, medicinal materials and other mountain products must be sold as soon as possible before the Mongols arrive, and all of them will be exchanged for daily necessities such as grain, salt and cloth. As for brimstone, fire salt, grenade weapons and other items, although there is still a certain amount of inventory, these are strategic materials and cannot be sold except as a last resort. In order to complete the purchase and sale of materials as soon as possible, Ouyang Xuan asked Zhu Tiaozi Trading Company to set up several more trading teams, and gathered the ponies and mules from various villages in the mountains for the trading teams to use, and went to nearby states and prefectures except Yongkang City. ,county. Now Yongkang County and the bandits are openly colluding, and there is no guarantee that the county magistrate Cheng Jinyong will be instigated by Xiong Ben to do something against the coming Perak Army trade team. As for the safety issues on the roads of each trading team, three companies from the field battalion are responsible for it.
The fourth thing is to build a fort. Although Xiong Ben was defeated and retreated to Yongkang City, he did not give up. In the first two days, he sent people to sneak back from the trail behind Wanjiazhai, trying to encourage the prisoners in the labor camp and the villagers to resist the Perak Army. But what he didn't expect was that the prisoners didn't want to resist at all. Apart from being a little more tiring working in the mines, the living conditions were almost the same as when they were bandits, and they would be free after serving the labor reform period. If you are willing to stay in the mine, the income is not low. This kind of life is much better than the life of being a bandit, where the weak and the strong prey on the strong. As for the villagers, they are even more unwilling. The land tax was 30% when Xiong Ben was charging and now they only charge 10%. I heard that after the surrounding mines are mined, the Pili Army will waive the land tax. Rise up and resist? I'm afraid you would only do this if your head was caught in the door. Xiong Ben's private soldier who had sneaked back also observed carefully in the dark for a day. When he saw that what everyone said was true, he gritted his teeth and actually surrendered. He was really fed up with Xiong Ben's unstable temper and would never give up again. I wish to live a life of fear.
Although the surrender of Xiong Ben's soldiers was a good thing, it also exposed loopholes in Wanjiazhai's defense, which made the top brass of the Perak Army highly alert. Feeling shameless, Dong Hu led the guards to realize their shame and then became brave. In addition to strengthening the patrol and guard system, they also surveyed the surrounding terrain in detail with Cao Ergou, and proposed to Ouyang Xuan to build fortifications. They suggested that in addition to building a watchtower at the entrance to the hidden trail behind the mountain village, they also suggested building a fortress at the T-junction below Wanjiazhai to completely block the road in and out of the mountain. The more than ten acres of open land at the T-junction was enough to build a large fortress, and Ouyang Xuan agreed to this. However, he did not ask anyone to quarry the stone this time. Although the stone was built into a fortress and was very fast, it took too long and required a lot of labor. This time he planned to use cement to build the fortress. Limestone resources were abundant near Wanjiazhai, so he only needed to build a cement factory nearby.
The fifth thing is to send people to Chongqing Fucheng to report the victory and pick them up the mountain. If you want to go to Chongqing Fucheng, of course you have to send valuables to Pan Tongzhi. There were a lot of valuables given to Pan Tongzhi this time, and they were fully filled with four rattan boxes carried by two ponies. Most of them were gold, silver, silk and the like. These valuables were picked up from the road when Cao Ergou and his men chased Xiong Ben. Because the secret trail behind Wanjiazhai was rugged and difficult to navigate, Xiong Ben and his soldiers fled desperately when the pursuers were in a hurry. In their panic, they lost a lot of their belongings in their panic. Although Cao Ergou couldn't catch up with Xiong Ben after chasing for a long time, he also picked up a lot of property on the way back. Those who reported victory in Chongqing Mansion still had two important tasks on their way back: to pick up Li Shuang and Wang Da from Jiangqu Township on the mountain. These two people had always been on Ouyang Xuan's mind. Although Li Shuang was disabled and could not march and fight, he was upright and hated evil. Ouyang Xuan was going to ask Li Shuang to take charge of the government affairs in the mountains. He believed that Li Shuang could be a good official praised by the people. As for Old Man Wang being his savior, Ouyang Yang took him to Liuliba to live in his old age. Not only did everyone have no objections, but they praised him.
The sixth thing is to build roads. The main purpose is to widen the road from Wanjiazhai to Liuliba and other villages in the mountains. The current roads are narrow and dangerous and cannot meet the needs of industrial and mining development. It is extremely difficult to widen a road manually in mountainous areas, but gunpowder blasting can greatly speed up the progress. Moreover, the amount of the road widening project is not large. It only needs to be widened so that two mules and horses carrying supplies can pass in parallel. Can. In terms of road construction, Ouyang particularly emphasized that the roads in the three villages of Yanfeng should be widened first. In addition to strengthening the control of the three villages, he also wanted to speed up the development of the resources of the three villages and let the people live a good life. On the second day after Wanjiazhai was captured, Cao Ergou sent a platoon of soldiers from the third village of the Pili Army to quietly go to Yanfeng Village and attack and kill Zhongchui. Zhong Zhui was killed, and his followers fled in all directions. Later, when they heard that the Wanjiaping bandits were finished, they all came back and knelt down to ask for surrender, and all the three villages surrendered to the Perak Army. Since then, there have been no remnants of the Xiong Ben gang in Jiguan Mountain.
