1. Using four companies to intercept and arrest more than 10,000 refugees is a bit difficult. Fortunately, the refugees move slowly at night, and there is nowhere to run in the dark. Often a dozen soldiers with torches will stop and wait for admission.
Each company had many veterans who had participated in Operation Engine. They had special skills in commanding and sheltering the refugees. They only used bayonets to force them to surround the refugees. For a while, there were wailings one after another, and words such as "Australian Army Lord, spare your life" were heard endlessly. It took a full four hours to escort more than 10,000 refugees to the foot of the mountain east of Beishan, where they were temporarily guarded by three companies. It was all bright at this time.
Zhu Quanxing was overwhelmed. On the one hand, he had to arrange an attack and on the other hand, he had to deal with the refugee problem. Subsequent reserve teams and civilian cadres are on the move, preparing to take over the affairs of this stall.
I was very busy, and the orderly came to report: There was an old man among the refugees leaving the city who wanted to hand a letter to him.
"He had to submit it in person."
"Search for the letter and bring it." Zhu Quanxing was not interested in listening to the old man's mumblings. If he was talking about "pacifying the people", he didn't have the time to waste.
"He was sent by Lone Wolf!"
Zhu Quanxing was startled. He knew about Lone Wolf. The Foreign Intelligence Bureau had arranged a sitting room in Wuzhou and had sent information on the city wall not long ago.
Then he started to pay more attention to it.
"Okay, just bring him here." Zhu Quanxing, "Also, report to Chief Xu and ask him to come over quickly!"
Sun Sancai was a native of Shandong and a refugee taken in by Operation Engine. He was recruited into the army because he was tall and strong. Now Sun Sancai has become a corporal and a squad leader. However, he had very few achievements. Apart from participating in a few bandit campaigns, Sun Sancai had never really fought in a war. It wasn't until he started to conquer the mainland that Sun San truly entered the battlefield. He originally wanted to go to battle to kill the enemy and make great achievements, so that he could be promoted and make a fortune in the future, and be granted the title of wife and son.
Unexpectedly, from the time he landed in Wuzhou to Wuzhou, Sun Sancai had not fired a single shot, and he carried his gun all the way by boat. Half of his desire to make achievements was destroyed.
When they arrived in Zhaoqing, they heard that tens of thousands of Ming troops had been gathered in Wuzhou and that a battle was bound to take place. Sun Sancai was very excited and felt that his opportunity to make a contribution had arrived. Unexpectedly, when they arrived at the battlefield, the first combat mission of Sun Sancai's company was to intercept the refugees leaving the city.
The refugees are now surrounded by a cordon of iron wire and wooden sticks at the eastern foot of Beishan. The refugees are sitting on the ground while the health team patrols and performs simple bandages on some injured refugees. Sun Sancai's company was tasked again to perform security duties outside this temporarily constructed refugee camp.
Sun Sancai was in a bad mood. If he kept looking at this group of refugees, he would have no chance to fight in Wuzhou. At this rate, it will take him years and months to get promoted.
Complaints are complaints, the task must be carried out. This is "iron discipline". Sun Sancai did not dare to neglect and led his soldiers to patrol along the cordon. In particular, we must pay attention to whether there is anyone in the refugee group who is "doing evil" - many such things have happened in the past. Although they are "fellow degraded people" and even live in precarious situations, things like the law of the jungle and the strong often occur in refugee camps, such as robbery, Fights, rapes...all kinds of cases happened.
Suddenly, across the cordon, an old man suddenly squeezed in front of him, waving his arms and chirping a bird song that he couldn't understand, which made him feel even more depressed. He scolded: "Be honest!"
The old man was none other than Luo Yangming's old shopkeeper Li Wensheng. Although Li Wensheng was a shopkeeper, he could only speak Guangzhou Mandarin. As a Shandong native, Sun Sancai certainly couldn't understand it. In addition to the Newspeak commonly used in the military, he only knew the dialect of his hometown. If he didn't go to Wuzhou, he would go to Xisanfu. People can't understand it.
Because Newspeak is the common language in the army, and as a soldier he has little contact with the outside world, he naturally knows very little about Guangzhou Mandarin.
At this time, Li Wensheng became more and more agitated and tried to cross the cordon. In desperation, Sun Sancai raised the rifle in his hand and forced Li Wensheng back with his bayonet.
Li Wensheng remembered his boss's instructions and became worried. He ignored the advice of the people around him and pushed forward again. He waved his arms and shouted at Sun Sancai's dancing gestures, asking for the chief to be summoned.
However, Sun Sancai still didn't understand a word he said. When he saw that the old man was ignorant and disobedient to management, he had to use "coercive measures" according to the rules - stabbing him directly with a bayonet would not work, but the stock of the gun was ready, so he turned the gun around. Gave the old man a gun butt.
Li Wensheng was hit hard and fell to the ground with a thud. The surrounding refugees made a commotion and immediately moved away from him.
Unexpectedly, Li Wensheng had the spirit of "being entrusted by others and being loyal to others". After receiving the butt of the gun, he immediately got up and started yelling again.
Sun Sancai became angry and immediately ordered: "Come, tie him up! Pull out a handful of grass and gag his mouth!"
"What's up?"
Sun Sancai turned around and saw that it was platoon leader Lin Gongyong. He quickly stood at attention and saluted: "Report to the platoon leader, there is an old man who disobeys orders and is causing trouble!"
Lin Gongyong was originally a descendant of the Lin family in Baitu Village. According to the genealogy, he was Lin Xianming's nephew and Lin Gonglao's younger brother. After Baitu Village was driven away, the entire Lin family was separated. Some moved to Sanya and some stayed in Lingao. As the Senate's ruling area became larger and larger, the Lin family branches in the two places were further divided. Because Lin Gongyong's father was a shipbuilder, he was moved to Kaohsiung, and the whole family worked in the local naval dockyard.
Because Baitu Village used to repair boats for people from all over the world, every villager in Baitu Village knew several dialects. After arriving in Kaohsiung, Lin Gongyong came into contact with people from all over the world, so he not only spoke Hokkien as his mother tongue, but also Lingao dialect, Qiongshan dialect and Cantonese vernacular. They were all very authentic and it was difficult for others to recognize his accent. It is precisely for this reason that the non-commissioned officer training corps was entered during the comprehensive conscription before the mainland strategy.
He could understand Li Wensheng's words, and when he heard him repeatedly calling for the chief, he felt strange in his heart - chief, this honorific title for the Senate, should be rarely known in the prefectures on the border between Guangdong and Guangxi. How could this old man know about it? ? Immediately, he comforted him with a few words in Guangzhou vernacular and asked him what happened.
Li Wensheng was extremely excited when he finally saw someone who could understand and speak Cantonese. He didn't care about the gleaming bayonets. He moved forward, grabbed Lin Gongyong's hands firmly, and kept mumbling: " I have important information for the Australian Prime Minister."
"What?"
"Please tell the chief that I have information that Lone Wolf gave me!"
Hearing the word "intelligence", Lin Gongyong did not dare to neglect, and immediately took him aside and interrogated him. Unexpectedly, the old man only said two sentences: "I have important information for the Australian chief minister" and "I was sent by the lone wolf" Other than that, I won’t want anything more.
Lin Gongyong was afraid that this was a Ming Dynasty spy who wanted to see the leader in order to assassinate him. They also asked the soldiers to search his whole body carefully, even opening his bun. No murder weapon was found. Apart from some sundries, only an ordinary letter from home was found.
He looked through these things over and over again, but he really couldn't see anything strange about them. In the end, he had no choice but to order the people to be locked up alone and send someone to report to the battalion headquarters.
Li Wensheng was placed in a tent and sat anxiously on a camp chair. There were large beads of sweat on his forehead. I feel like I am old and I have never been so nervous.
Standing outside the tent was a soldier carrying an Australian blunderbuss with a blunderbuss sword on his back. No doubt he would be shot to death if he tried to escape. The owner has always been in contact with Dachang Rice Store, and it is an open secret that the Australians are behind Dachang Rice Store. Wuzhou Trading is based on the rice trade, so it is impossible not to deal with Dachang. Naturally, some rumors about Dachang are also known.
Since the owner has dealings with Dachang, he may have some unclear relations with the Australians. But the boss doesn't, and Li Wensheng won't ask - that's the boss's private matter. However, Li Wensheng is not very clear about the details of the Australian. For the sake of his employer, it is better to be cautious and not reveal too much information about his employer. So Li Wensheng simply kept doing nothing, except what his boss told him, "I have important information to send to the Australian Prime Minister" and "I was sent by a lone wolf."
After waiting for a long time, a sedan arrived - Xu Xu heard the news that someone had brought a lone wolf, and immediately asked Zhu Quanxing to send him to the headquarters in the south of the city.
"Use a sedan chair and bring him up immediately!"
In order to facilitate command, Zhu Mingxia set up a former enemy command post in the south of Wuzhou City, and Changzhou Island was used as a logistics warehouse and troop training ground. Now Yang Zeng's 8th Battalion is being repaired on Changzhou Island. A preliminary count of the refugees taken in was carried out in various places. There were more than 18,000 people in total, most of them were the elderly, children and women. There were also some young adults who escaped in the chaos - these young adults were put under centralized supervision. , in case there are Ming army spies mixed in.
Zhu Mingxia is worried now: Xiong Wencan's skill of throwing away the blame is really amazing!
Wuzhou City has developed commerce and trade, and most of the people in the city are engaged in business and industry. They rely on the business opportunities brought by Wuzhou as a rice distribution center in northern and western Guangxi. Those big rice merchants are not important, and most ordinary people outside Wuzhou City have no business. His own fields and farms now have nowhere to go. Most of their soft goods have been plundered by the Ming army that expelled them. In addition, before the war, Xiong Wencan consciously collected food from the four villages and eight fields outside Wuzhou City, half selling and half robbing the land. Most of the food stored in the village can only be used to protect itself. It is even more difficult for old, weak, women and children to get food.
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Next update: Volume 7 - Guangzhou Governance Chapter 325
