It is said that Dong Hu had a lot of trouble suppressing bandits in the ravine behind Yongkang City. Before setting off, the Pili Army detected that the bandits were hiding in Meihua Village in the ravine. These bandits were originally Xiong Ben's subordinates. After some internal strife and fighting, they introduced a new leader. They bribed the leader of Meihua Village with Xiong Ben's buried property and took root in Meihua Village. The ravine behind Yongkang City is only more than 20 miles long. There are seven small villages with about 300 people. Meihua Village is located in the deepest part of the ravine and is also the largest village with a population of nearly a hundred people.
Dong Hu and his party set out from Yongkang City, followed the Weijiang River on the edge of the city upstream, and arrived at Meihua Village in half a day. Dong Hu brought two companies with him on this trip. There were more combatants than the total number of people in the village, but it still took him three days and almost all the ammunition to force Meihua Village to surrender. The reason is not only that Meihua Village is located at the top of Fengqi Mountain, with high slopes and steep roads, making it difficult to defend and difficult to attack, but also because the two companies it leads are not good at attacking fortresses. The Sixth Company of the Field Battalion was established not long ago, and the Anti-Corruption Company mainly trains special operations such as assassinations and ambushes. Both companies have little experience in using the light Tiger Crouching Cannon to attack difficult positions. Two days before the attack on Meihua Village, the Pili Army's shelling only left shallow bullet marks on the wall of Meihua Village. It wasn't until the third day that they explored effective usage techniques and made full use of the curved trajectory of the Tiger Crouching Cannon to cause heavy damage to the people in the village, forcing Meihua Village to open its doors and surrender.
After the Pili Army took over Meihua Village, they searched left and right but could not find the leader of the bandit or the leader of the village. They also asked someone to repeatedly identify more than a dozen corpses on the ground, but still could not find the leader of the village and the leader of the bandit. After repeated questioning of the villagers, they learned that the bandit leader and the village leader had escaped through the secret door with several stubborn bandits. Before setting off, Ouyang Xuan gave Dong Hu two tasks. One was to see if food could be purchased in the mountains, and the other was to eliminate all evil. Judging from the current situation, the first task cannot be completed. On the way to Meihua Village, Dong Hu sent people to various villages to buy grain, but he did not buy a grain of grain. This is because this ravine has few people and little land, so it cannot produce much food. More importantly, it is too close to Yongkang City and has long been wiped out by the bandit soldiers sent by Xiong Ben. Lack of food and starvation lead to sallow complexion and thin skin. In fact, Meihua Village also suffered from food shortages due to the addition of more than 30 bandits. However, the leader of the village collected the property, but the villagers suffered a lot.
After the Meihua Village was captured, Dong Hu decided not to pursue the property of those who had colluded with the bandits except for confiscating their belongings. He also distributed the captured bandits' rations to the people of Meihua Village, which made the villagers very happy. Taking Meihua Village but losing the bandit leader, this obviously failed to complete the second task assigned by Ouyang Xuan. The bandit leader escaped before getting the grain grains. How to explain to Brother Xuan? In desperation, Xia Hu had to divide the soldiers into teams of ten, and under the leadership of the people of Meihua Village, they searched for the hiding place of the fugitives in the nearby mountains. It's just that it's not easy to find a few people hiding in the vast mountains.
The soldiers of the Perak Army searched for another five days but still found nothing. Searching in the mountains all day made the soldiers exhausted and made Dong Hu restless. On this day, when the search was over and he was returning to the village, a villager who was accompanying the search team asked to see him. This villager named Liu Deyong was quite prestigious in Meihua Village, but he was suppressed by the leader of the village everywhere. After the Perak Army took over Meihua Village, he volunteered to become the guide of a search team of the Perak Army. "Master Dong, Xiaomin believes that the search for Fengqi Temple should be focused."
The Fengqi Temple mentioned by Liu Yongde is on another hill five miles away from Meihua Village. There are two monks, an old one and a young one. Affected by the war and banditry, the temple's incense has become increasingly deserted. As the intelligence chief of the Perak Army, Dong Hu certainly knew that there was a high possibility that the fugitives were hiding in Fengqi Temple. For this reason, he sent the sixth company commander Tang Xiangwei to search several times, but nothing unusual was found. "Master Dong, the ice and snow in the mountains have not yet melted, and it is still difficult for wild animals to survive. The bandit leaders fled into the mountains for many days, and they must have run out of food. How can they survive without food? The nearby hiding place has been searched many times and there is no trace. I guess they must be hiding in the temple. You can send people to lurk around the temple, and they will definitely gain something."
Liu Yongde's words made Dong Hu thoughtful, and he immediately sent a squad of the anti-rape company to lurk around Fengqi Temple at night. Sure enough, in the middle of the night two days later, the fugitives who came out of their hiding place to get some air were caught by the lurking Perak Army soldiers, and they were all beaten to death despite stubborn resistance. As expected, these fugitives were hiding in a secret cave in Fengqi Temple. They only came out to stretch their muscles in the middle of the night, and the food was naturally provided by the two monks. This result made Dong Hu angry and helpless. What was annoying was that this old and young monk actually dared to harbor bandits. What was helpless was that even if it was not a threat from the escaped bandits, but out of the mentality of a good person, he could not do such a stupid thing. Therefore, these two monks were punished. After thinking about it again and again, Dong Hu ordered his people to confiscate the big bronze bell and other bronze instruments of Fengqi Temple. He often heard Ouyang Xuan talking about the lack of copper. These copper utensils were estimated to weigh several hundred kilograms and were shipped back to see if they could alleviate Brother Xuan's worries.
Before returning to Hengyuan Town, Dong Hu appointed Liu Yongde as the new head of Meihua Village and assisted the Pili Army in managing the remaining six villages in Fengqi Mountain. The people of Meihua Village and each village obeyed this. This kind of obedience is not a threat from the Perak Army, but because Ouyang Xuan is also the magistrate of Yongkang County. As his representative, Dong Hu naturally has the right to manage the civil affairs of this territory.
As soon as Dong Hu returned to Hengyuan Town, he received a new order-tuntian spring broadcasting, and he saw that the previously bustling construction scene of Hengyuan Fort had become much deserted. You must know that the construction of Hengyuan Fort is the top priority of the Perak Army at the moment. In addition to Ouyang Xuan, Li Shuang, Lu Dezhi, Yu Zhu and other senior Perak Army officials are all involved in it. Due to the vastness of the fort building project, in addition to the 500 workers from the construction company, a thousand migrant workers were also mobilized to assist in the construction. In addition to the guard company of the interior guard battalion and the first company of the field battalion responsible for protecting the construction projects, three companies of the garrison battalion were also deployed to take charge of auxiliary work.
The construction process of Hengyuan Fort was very fast, and the ring beams were poured and the foundation was laid in a short time. However, currently only the teams transporting construction materials continue to be busy. Only a few technical personnel are left on the construction site. The other personnel are said to have gone to open up wasteland and farm land. On the way to see Ouyang Xuan, Dong Hu saw Le Quan'an leading a group of soldiers to carry a large number of farm tools. He knew that Le Quan'an was the navy company commander under Huang Dagen, so he asked what was the use of carrying farm tools? He learned from Le Quan'an that this farm tool was used for land reclamation and farming in Wugen Mountain. It turned out that not only did he receive the order to garrison, but other senior leaders of the Perak Army also received orders from Ouyang Xuan. Now under the rule of the Perak Army, all efforts are being made to open up wasteland and prepare for farming.
