The sun shone in from the window lattice, and the old man lying on the bunk moved and groaned. Several people sitting or standing beside him all stood up with a cheer. [No pop-up novel website]
He was lying on his waist and suddenly raised his head, supporting the old man on his bed. The old man's eyes were dazed, as if he didn't know where he was for a moment.
"This is where……"
"In the inn." The wife said quickly, "The Luo family let us go."
"Oh," the old man closed his eyes and seemed to be relieved, "This is... other people's territory... They insist on asking for horses... Just give them to them... If there is a quarrel, we outsiders will definitely suffer... "
"Dad, don't worry. Mr. Luo didn't ask for horses, so he sent us to the inn again."
"Oh," the old man breathed a sigh of relief, and suddenly opened his eyes again, showing an anxious look, "He didn't ask you to go..."
"No -" the wife's eyes were blurred with tears as she spoke, "Master Luo didn't say anything, so he just sent us back."
After saying this, the old man seemed relieved and fell asleep again.
A middle-aged man in his forties next to him said: "The old man still seems to be in poor health. Do you want to set off immediately?"
"How can he get on the road with his body like this? He has to die on the road." said the middle-aged woman in the room - she looked quite decent, but her face was haggard. Like the young woman, she also wore a short kù jacket, and she was a prostitute.
"I'm afraid I'll have long nights and dreams if I don't leave." The only young man inside said, "What if the Luo family has bad intentions? What if Mr. Luo has evil thoughts about his senior sister?"
"The Luo family is the local tyrant here. Why don't they want to do something? The crooked idea of moving your senior sister has just come into being - if you catch him in his house, you won't be at his mercy. There is no need to release us to do harm. "The middle-aged man said.
"Who knows what bad habits he has. None of these rich people are good." There was a scar on the young man's face. He must have been punched, kicked and beaten by many local heroes. He said angrily, "Look at him. The little bitch under him knows that this master is not a good person."
The middle-aged woman looked out the window nervously: "Good guys and bad guys, don't do our business. Let the old man recuperate for a few days and set off as soon as he can hit the road. It's just that we don't have any money, and we have to hire horses with us. We need a bigger boat to get there. We have to do some performing arts these days."
This time I contracted the epidemic in Sanliang City, and the whole group fell ill in turn. I couldn't do business, so I stayed in the hotel and asked the doctor to come to see me. I spent all the little savings I had accumulated in the weekdays - if not for this, I wouldn't have fallen into this trap in the first place. Get into the loan shark trap of the money shop.
"This Sanliang City is a good business. There are many people watching it, and the money is quite a lot. But now that something like this has happened, I feel uneasy doing business." The middle-aged man sighed.
The young man opened his mouth and said: "I don't think senior sister can go out to sell things anymore! There is no guarantee that something will happen again."
Everyone in the room was silent. The young man's words are reasonable, but the living star of their group's horse racing and selling out solutions is this young woman - Xia'er, whose stage name is Sai Qingxia. She is a proficient martial artist passed down from her family. Not only is she an expert in equestrian skills, but she is also good at shooting, shooting, bowing, dancing with swords, and even walking on a rope while holding a bowl in front of her. Although other people also have their own real skills, if there are women, especially a pretty good-looking girl who sells tricks, the money earned from playing in one scene will be 50% to 60% more.
If Sai Qingxia doesn't show up now, I don't know how long it will take to collect the travel expenses and leave. What's more, it's hard to say that the old man's condition has improved. How can he stay in a hotel and take medicine for free?
Qingxia raised her head and said: "I still want to go to the show! Now we know more or less what is going on in this town - the Luo family is a tiger. Since the tiger didn't eat us, it let us out of its mouth. The rest of the hungry people The wolves and hyenas may not come to provoke us.”
"Senior sister!" the young man said anxiously, "..."
"Xiao Suozi, you don't need to persuade me." Qingxia made up her mind, "I am the leader of this team. I will not sell the solution. The money will come slowly, and we will not be able to escape."
Jiang Suo muttered a few times and wanted to express his objection, but everyone else in the room raised their eyebrows. They came out to perform in the arena just to beg for food. It was rare that this place had good business. If the main pillars did not show up, they and a few people would be alone. How can a little kid hold up the scene?
The next day, a group of people continued to race horses and sell food on the threshing floor. Although there have been several natural disasters in Guangdong since the Wanli Year, and the big and small Saouan banditry has come and gone, it is generally much better than the northern Central Plains. The people's lives are still good. There are few entertainment activities in the countryside. There are big girls selling horses and selling their solutions. Town residents and villagers from nearby villages also come to take a look at the excitement when they have free time. Business was very good on the first day. And no one came to bother me.
With such a number on the market, everyone gave their best performance. In order to make more money, Qingxia decided to show off her archery career, which is usually not performed. This is a skill that has been passed down from generation to generation in her family. Although Qingxia is a woman and cannot shoot a very strong bow, she can shoot an ordinary walking bow with perfect accuracy, especially since she has the ability to shoot money instantly. An ancestral skill of the family.
As soon as this skill was revealed, it immediately caused a great sensation. More and more people from all over the country came to watch. Several local brave instructors in the town secretly praised him after seeing it: they said this was real Kung Fu, not a gimmick.
A lot of money was spent, but the old man's illness became more and more serious. I have consulted several doctors in the town and taken a lot of miscellaneous medicines, but still no symptoms. Everyone gradually became anxious - they had been here for almost three months. The sales of horse racing and solution sales were almost done for a month, and now I just rely on a few unique skills to temporarily hold the place. It will be difficult to make ends meet if this continues.
While he was feeling helpless, a terrible news spread in the town: the thief was coming.
Chen Haiyang, who was stationed in Humen for rest and recuperation, had received a report that the officers and soldiers had set up a strong defense in Wuyong. They not only overhauled the fort but also assembled heavy troops. Therefore, his instructions to the detachment leader were not to enter the provincial river range for the time being - that is to say, not to pass through Wuyong. gush. He planned to have another one-shot battle after the enemy's forces were almost assembled, completely destroying Guangzhou's determination to resist.
Before that, he ordered the patrol detachment to attack in all directions to further weaken the morale of Guangzhou's civilians, officials and gentry.
Cruise detachments are sorted alphabetically. Each detachment operates independently, although detachment leaders are authorized to conduct independent operations, including military offensives. However, Chen Haiyang still strictly prohibited any detachment from carrying out extermination of villages and mass killings without permission. Paying equal attention to kindness and power is his guiding principle. In order to ensure that the detachment does not suffer defeats that will affect its image, each detachment is required to use peaceful means to achieve its goals as much as possible, rather than pure military operations.
Desi volunteered to lead a detachment deep into the Pearl River coast. Although Chen Haiyang expressed concern about his safety, Mr. Wen bravely said: This danger is nothing.
"If you're afraid of death, don't make a revolution. In our career, we can't just sit in the office and read documents and give instructions. We have to fight the old forces with real swords and guns!" Mr. Wen said to Chen Haiyang with great enthusiasm at the temporary dock in Humen. Others said. After saying that, he strode towards his boat.
The D detachment he led pulled up the sail and slowly sailed upstream driven by the sail and oars.
Detachment D consists of ten sampans and five long dragons. More than two hundred sailors and sailors, as well as a dozen civilian personnel. I brought a men's artillery piece and some engineering equipment. The long dragon is relatively large and can store supplies and carry artillery. Of course, it can also provide people with comfortable sleep. Wen Desi's "flagship" was located on a long dragon. The small cabin was carefully decorated and the safety index and comfort level were quite high.
The task force formed a total of six detachments, and they went to towns and villages in Dongguan, Xin'an, Shunde, Xiangshan, Nanhai, and Panyu counties, posting notices everywhere to extort "reasonable burdens." For a time, the whole city of Guangzhou was shocked.
Xu Ting's passive avoidance of the battle left each detachment in an almost uninhabited area in the Pearl River Inland. Under the guidance of old pirate personnel who were familiar with waterways, each detachment went deep into various rivers. The old pirates knew the surrounding terrain very well. They knew where the villages and towns were prosperous, where they were well-fortified, where the villagers were brave and fierce and dared to fight, which was the "hard ground", and where they were lonely and lonely, which was the "soft ground".
The target of detachment d is Shunde. The detachment sailed along the river, issued notices to every village and town, and established a "reasonable burden" system everywhere. This kind of action took almost no effort. Due to the prestige of the Australians, most villages and towns did not dare to resist the detachment and could only accept the notices and "reasonable burdens." .
For those villages and towns that did not offer resistance, the detachment not only did not harass or extort, but also paid in cash for all materials and manpower collected. The reasonable amount of burden was also very reasonable and did not exceed the affordability of the village. Some are quite light.
Detachment D encountered resistance for the first time in Sanfan. After the request was rejected, Wen Desi ordered the attack on Sanshan Village. A 12-pound howitzer mounted on the long dragon quickly opened a gap more than ten meters wide in the bamboo fence built by the villagers. The villagers behind the bamboo fence gathered together and fired bows and arrows like raindrops at the gap, trying to stop it. The soldiers broke through, during which several guns fired one after another, but because the distance was still far away, no one was hit. The soldiers violently bombarded the breakthrough with mini rifles and 12-pound mountain grenades from a distance, and soon gathered around The village warriors who were preparing to fight behind the bamboo fence were defeated, leaving corpses on the ground. The soldiers then quickly built a channel over the ditch and entered the village using a lightweight bridge carried by the engineer on board the ship.
Sanshan Village was already in a state of chaos. People, old and young, were scrambling to escape. The ground was littered with discarded shoes, baggage and various objects. However, the trenches and bamboo fences that originally protected the village blocked their escape. Detachment D set up blockades at several entrances and exits, blocking all men, women, old and young in the village.
Subsequently, a village meeting was held at the threshing floor of the village, and the villagers were driven to the threshing floor to wait. It was dark and crowded. The sailors and soldiers around were holding rifles with bayonets or holding machetes, their swords shining brightly.
In the middle of the threshing floor, a new thing that the villagers had never seen was erected, a wide wooden frame with rope loops hanging on it.
The captured prisoners were kneeling beside them one by one. There are many prominent figures in the village, and those who can organize group training are all people with some wealth. Most of them have a reputation, or at least they are wealthy and wealthy.
According to Wen Desi's consistent thinking, resistance must be dealt with severely. However, entering the Pearl River this time is not to establish a long-term base. If the treatment is too strict, it will easily weaken the will of the local people to resist. The resistance against local forces was implemented in three aspects: "appropriate punishment, dividing the masses, and cracking down on the powerful."
In retaliation for the resistance against the Australians, all the regiment leaders, liantou, and teachers of the villagers who led the villagers to fight, except those who had been killed and whose whereabouts were unknown, were all hanged in front of the whole village and confiscated at the same time. its entire property. As for ordinary people: ordinary people and brave men - civil propagandists announced that everyone was used and forced by the rich and powerful, so after the weapons were confiscated this time, they would not ask any questions. In the future, they will attack Australian and Song personnel and refuse to accept reasonable burdens. "Harder revenge" will be carried out.
Even the current retaliation is severe. Death penalty can be avoided, but living penalty must still be suffered. After some haggling, all the villagers of Sanshan Village finally paid the equivalent of one thousand taels of gold, silver, cloth, rice and other property. Of course, the reasonable burden assessed on them is also calculated as three times.
After staying in Sanfan for one night, Detachment D continued to move along the river. Mazhou, Sanshan and Pingzhou were successively occupied. The villagers in these places knew the fate of Sanfan, and no one dared to resist the D detachment. A reasonable burden system is easily established. The boats were soon filled with tribute from the harvest. Then, the D detachment arrived at the bay. The terrain of Sand Bay was favorable to the defenders. It was surrounded by water and densely wooded. The local villagers also built embankments along the coast and buried many bamboo sticks.
Detachment d anchored for the night in front of Sand Bay. Early the next morning, Wen Desi saw that a large number of rural warriors had gathered densely along the coast of Sand Bay. It could be said that they were like a forest of swords and guns, and all kinds of strange flags were flying on the river bank.
As soon as the detachment's ship moved, the village warriors from Shawan fired their cannons in unison, and more than a dozen cannons opened fire at once with an astonishing force. Smoke shrouded the entire river bank, but the shells fired were mostly iron nails, iron pieces, porcelain fragments and small stones. They fell into the river one after another after flying less than ten meters, with no killing effect at all.
The artillery and Mini rifles on the long dragon fired at the same time, instantly clearing the defensive positions on the river bank. Then, with the support of artillery fire, the sampans carried the marines and rowed towards the river bank. The country warriors on the bank shouted loudly, Hu Luan's Guns were fired, but they were soon dispersed by accurate fire from Mini rifles. When the local warriors felt that the thieves could shoot them from far away, but they could not hit the enemy even with cannons, this terrible reality immediately shook their morale. Then a mén cannon suddenly exploded, killing more than a dozen people. The accident of the artillery exploding caused the total collapse of Sandan Xiangyong. Although Liang Ke, the commander-in-chief of the local regiment who led Xiang Yong and his servants, tried to resist, he and his servants were quickly stabbed by the bayonets of the sailors. Later killed and captured were more than a dozen regiment chiefs, deputy regiment chiefs, liantou, and township teachers from various villages and towns. These key personnel stood at the front to boost morale, and most of them did not run away during the defeat.
Detachment D spent an hour and a half in the morning to defeat more than a thousand rural warriors jointly sent by six nearby villages and towns. After killing and capturing one-third of them, Shawan and nearby villages and towns subsequently sent people As a sign of surrender, he not only ransomed the captives at the price of one tael of silver per prisoner, but also paid thousands of taels of "compensation". Wen Desi ordered that according to the old practice of Sanfan, a group of captured local gentry leaders who served as regimental leaders and drill heads be executed, and their frivolous wealth was confiscated. Don't blame ordinary people, and the troops strictly abide by discipline during the battle. They don't loot, set fire, and don't mess around. The discipline is strict. This combination of leniency and severity and differentiated treatment greatly reduced the interest of the people in resisting the Fubo army. The wealthy gentry were so frightened that they no longer dared to think of armed resistance.
While Desi led the detachment to run rampant in the waterways in Shunde, detachment E led by Shi Zhiqi ran rampant on the main channel of the Pearl River, as if entering an uninhabited land. He successively burned many riverbanks, inspection offices and other government agencies along the coast. After successively capturing the two islands of Dajiao and Dafen that attempted to resist the Fubo army, Shi Zhiqi led his troops to capture a county south of Xiangshan. The fort under construction dispersed hundreds of local warriors guarding the fort, then demolished the fort, and then marched to the foot of Xiangshan City. Although Shi Zhiqi only had less than 200 men and a dozen boats, the Xiangshan County magistrate, who was shocked by his invincibility, had no choice but to give up armed resistance because of the strong opposition of the frightened gentry in the county. plan. Several gentry were sent to his camp to discuss terms, and finally Xiangshan County paid a city redemption fee of 5,000 taels in exchange for Shi Zhiqi's withdrawal from the city. This experience gave the elders a new understanding - local officials are often willing to find ways to compromise.
The operations of each detachment along the Pearl River went smoothly, and even if there were a few battle casualties, they were very minor. The detachment leaders adhered to the instructions: never fight far away from the river - as long as you are close to the river, you can get effective support from the artillery mounted on the dragon; instead of spending the night in the local village, they would rather camp or stay directly on the boat - the latter is to absorb the work team Lessons learned in Danzhou.
Shi Zhiqi returned to the Tiger Gate - unloading the spoils, prisoners and very few wounded he had acquired during the cruise. After reloading supplies and replacing some personnel, he led the detachment toward Dongguan County. This time, his target is Sanliang City.
